Musing on the ecological viablity of ghouls

[Von Calyptra]

So I've been thinking about ghouls, and I've been wondering how they function ecologically.

I looked up a few numbers, but they're hardly from accredited sources. I'm hoping you guys can help fill in the blanks here.

We have to make a lot of assumptions. Some are easy. We can reasonably assume that a ghoul can eat flesh in any state of putrefaction without ill effect. We can further assume that the remarkable digestive abilities possessed by ghouls would allow them to consume portions of a corpse that would be inedible to other animals.

Other questions are less obvious. Ghouls eat the dead, but do they eat them exclusively? Do their diets include roots, insects and the like, or do they subsist entirely on rotting meat? If unable to secure any tasty bipeds, would they turn their noses up at a cow? Or a potato?

If we assume that all they eat is people, then how many people do they need, how often?

According to my google search, people need somewhere between three and five lbs of food per day, so let's say a ghoul needs three. They would be unlikely to be eating fresh corpses regularly without exposing themselves to considerable risk, so we have to take decomposition into account along with other factors.

An average American in the 1960s weighed about 150 lbs. Average weight of a European during the Renaissance would be quite a bit less than that, but numbers are less forthcoming. 130 lbs? Average skeletal weight is about 20 lbs, and though I couldn't easily find information on how much weight a corpse loses through dessication (and I'm sure it depends on climate and other factors), the human body contains about 8 pints of blood, which would weigh close to 9 lbs (blood being denser than water). So a reasonable guess might be that a several weeks-old corpse might provide something like 90 lbs of food?

So based on suspect numbers, the internet, and guesswork, we can theorize that a single ghoul could survive off a single corpse for about a month.

But there's no such thing a single ghoul. So if we start guessing at the size of a ghoul family unit (perhaps a dozen thoroughly inbred individuals?) on up to the larger packs, what sort of human population density would be necessary to support them?

If we assume Warhammer to be roughly analogous to 15th Century Europe (ish), then we might be able to posit answers to these questions. The population densities and mortality rates of 15th century rural areas, towns, and cities could indicate, for example, just how many ghouls could reasonably be expected to survive in the catacombs under Nuln.

That is, before considering the other factor: a higher human population will support a higher ghoul population, but will also place the ghouls at a greater risk of discovery and organized extermination.

So... anybody know where to look for numbers on Renaissance population density and mortality rates?

 

[Bullhax]

Night's dark masters:

In the Old world, starvation is common and all too many men come tso close to death that they commit the ultimate sin and feed on the flesh of their fellow men. Btu whatever the reason, Morr has set his law firm and absolute: those who eat human flesh are irrevocably cursed with the taint of the Ghoul.
Their bodies become twisted and stooped, their flesh putrid and infected, their skin blotched and filthy. Hideous bloodshot eyes swell out of their sockets and shine with inhuman rage. Their lips peel black to reveal blood-stained teeth, which they file to cruel points to better tear apart their prey. Worse, their minds follow their bodies, growing ever more degraded, bestial and frenzield. The more flesh they eat the hungrier they become until their bodies and minds know nothing but an eternal gnawing need to find and devour the corpses of men. The early stage of the curse are slow, however, and few have the stomach to kill their neighbours or relatives when they begin to present the symptomes. Their loved ones and friends consider it merciful to drive the Ghoul away from society, but this only allows him to feed more freely. Crypts and graveyards become their castles and their feast tables. Teh only thing that can draw Ghouls away form such places is the call of their masters; their tainted souls are under the thrall of vampires and necromancers. They must come to any who call them, and indeed will often come unbidden, drawn to those who are lords of life and death as if to the lodestone.

All the vampires find uses for them, especially as warriors. Their slavering ranks cause more fear than a steady line of Skeletons, and their splintered claws drip a black ichor that seeps into wounds, causing the flesh to swell and fester. The Ghouls also require no magic to control and they fear no priest or holy ground. The strigoi seem to value the Ghouls most of all perhaps seeing something of themselves in their outcast status. There are many tales of the vast armies and giant cities of Ghouls controlled by the Strigoi lords. Such places are beyond preception. When lacking the flesh of the living or the dead, the Ghouls turn on one another, ripping each other apart in an orgy of violence. If the Strigoi kingdom ever rises again, these still-living monsters will be their champion.

There will be some spelling mistakes as I transcribed it rather fast.

Considering the amount of war in the Warhammer world and a dusin of other races that pose a huge threat compared to what 15th century Europe faced I would say the amount of dead would be somewhat higher than in the real world. If you factor in the lore from the NDM book, that tells us the ghouls will turn on themselves if food is scarce, I'd say that they would limit themselves naturally in times of peace and when war struck and the poor turn to cannibalism the Ghoul population would rise anew. Men have a horrible knack of wanting to bury their dead in cemetaries where they can mourn..

How large a population? Given that we do not know how much meat they actually need to sustain themselves, other than your well qualified guess, I couldn't say larger than we could muster in the 15th century I'd say.

 

[Von Calyptra]

Interesting. That's quite different from the background in the Liber Necris. It does neatly bypass any question of how ghouls perpetuate themselves, if they are made rather than born. It also means that Morr is a busy god indeed to be cursing all of these people.

So if I was a power hungry vampire plotting to conquer the cities of the Empire, I'd subvert farmers, chefs, and vendors, and have as many people as I could in, say, Talabheim, eating mystery meat without realizing it. And then all I'd have to do is wait. A few Mrs. Lovetts ala Sweeney Todd and a single well-placed chef catering to the nobility might be all I'd need.

To be honest, I prefer the Liber Necris origin, if for no other reason than it creeped me out when I read it.

 

[Kassill]

Interesting stuff. I always thought of them like Gollum, eating anything that is meat. Orcs, goblins, fish, rabbits etc etc, but preferring corpses.

 

[Duluoz]

I to had thought of them as Gollum-esque. It seems their nature and curse is closer to that of the Wendigo (at least the Supernatural Wendigo!)