Question by Tyler H.: What is the very best fictional race of humanoids. List their strengths, weaknesses, culture, ext…?
List their strengths, weaknesses, culture, how they look, special powers, ext… Please feel free to tell me your own made up races. I’ll give best answer in two days.
P.S. This is because of a discussion between myself and a few friends. One of them decided to bring up that it is a moot point because we did not read, watch, play, ext… many of the possibilities, thus we leave it up to Yahoo Answers.
Best answer:
Answer by The Booger Man
One of my favorites would have to be Lovecraftian ghouls – creatures loosely based the ghūl of ancient Arabian folklore – which H.P. Lovecraft introduced in his novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926) and used (to more horrific effect) in the short story “Pickman’s Model” (1927). They were expanded upon in the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game by Chaosium, and Brian McNaughton further explored them in a series of dark fantasy short stories (collectively published in 1997 as The Throne of Bones).
Lovecraftian ghouls are a nocturnal, subterranean race who devour the dead (though they’re always hungry and aren’t above attacking people an occasion). They live near human beings (secretly and unknown to the populace at large); inhabiting the tunnels they’ve dug which usually run beneath towns and cemeteries. They are loathsome, bestial humanoids with rubbery skin, vaguely canine features and hoof-like feet.
Here’s a very good image of one that I pulled off the cover of H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham: Unveiling the Haunted City (a gaming supplement for CoC):
Strengths: physical strength and durability; their unnatural physiology makes them less susceptible to puncture wounds (being stabbed or shot); natural weapons (sharp teeth and claws); keen senses; night vision; natural burrowing ability; very long-lived (around 250 – 300 years+); their tunnels somehow connect to the Dreamlands (another dimension that seems to be formed by – or that is connected to – human dreams).
Brian McNaughton also gave them a shape-changing ability which was very similar to that possessed by the ghūl of Arabian folklore: they can assume, for a short period of time, the form of any person whose brain they have devoured (I adopted this ability for them when I run my own CoC games).
Weaknesses: They are relatively few in number, especially when compared to humanity (hence the secrecy).
Cultural:
They tend to live in loose packs where the strong usually dominate the weak (though they are all mockers at heart and tend to possess a black sense of humour about most things). They communicate among themselves with what (to humans) sounds like a series of meepings, gibberings and barks. They tend to giggle and laugh at many things that most people would find disturbing or disgusting.
Ghouls have a long association with witches and sorcerers, who sometimes seek them out to garner information: ghouls often retain (unconsciously) the memories of those that they’ve devoured and these memories can be brought out by hypnosis.
It is said that if a person associates with ghouls and indulges in their behaviour, they may become a ghoul themselves…
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
