Ghouls

Born as the siblings to the Vampires, Ghouls were Children of Death born from the Kin known as Amine who devoured the flesh of the Elder God Cxaxudrrah and was thusly transformed into a new being. Ghouls became creatures that were no longer Kin, yet they are still listed as such by many. Ghouls much like their other siblings carry with them a spark of the Elder God life essence within them, their spark gives them a closer propensity for Madness within them, though this is mostly shown when they enter into their predatory state.

Ghouls take on a human like appearance, as a large number of Kin are human like in nature with the added external Peritoneum which gives them flight or swim organs, some even forming wings. This is the same for Ghouls, but because they have a fully controllable and collapsible Peritoneum and predatory organ, known as their Amine Peritoneum, Ghouls appear as almost completely human. It has been shown that certain Ghouls can manage to grow multiple Amine Peritoneum and replicate the predatory organ to cover their body as a sort of armor.

## Bodies

Ghouls have mostly Humanoid bodies, appearing just as any other human might appear with minor differences. These begin with the teeth, unlike humans Ghoul teeth have an inner to outer curve to them meaning that despite the thickness there is a divot from near the base to the front which allows for the more rapid consumption of flesh which are usually seen in predators. Often they have more sets of canines than a human would have as premolars are replaced by a premolar canine fusion and have thick curvatures to them. Lastly the molars interlock more with the tops of the crowns being overly thick and nearly pointed. These teeth are perfect for tearing into and tearing out flesh from living creatures as Ghouls need to devour the flesh of other beings to survive, their pallets ranging from Humans to Demons, though it is shown that some Ghouls do have a specific taste.

Next can be found in their ears as the ears of Ghouls have an overly thick Meatus which has double the cells tightly woven together allowing them to take in much more sound than most are physically able to. The Hammer, Anvil, and Stirrup are much thicker in size and larger in nature, allowing their vibrations to be much more pronounced and have much stronger reactions than one would normally have. Lastly the Cochlea contain nearly double the membranes each of them compressed nearly three times that of a human, allowing them their hearing to reach a nearly ultrasonic frequencies like a bat would.

Another difference that can be found is within the eyes of a Ghoul, as their eyes remain human like until the moment that their Amine Peritoneum flood their bodies with the cells which help them grow their predator organs. At this time their sclera actually become an extremely dark red to pitch black color limiting their range of color to an extreme amount allowing them to see the basic of the ultraviolet spectrum and pushing lower to the x-ray spectrum which allows them to actually be able to pick up on things such as thermals which helps them to hunt, this of course means that their eyes are nearly florescent and reflect light back almost completely. The lens will nearly double in size allowing them a nearly perfect one hundred eighty field of vision extending from their direct field of vision. Meanwhile the pupil nearly completely contracts while the iris physically shrinks and loses almost all color to them. Thanks to that the iris is a blood red color giving them a trait close to albinism.

Ghouls have triple joints which allow for their bodies to move in inhuman and a nearly insect like manner which the ability to move their forms in an almost three hundred and sixty degree field of motion. This is shown to be one of the Ghouls defining features along with the biokinetic ability that they display clearly and effectively when hunting or in combat. They have been shown to be able to freely will the muscle and bone within their body. This is commonly seen when a Ghoul manipulates their Ulna, often using it to grow a blade from their arms usually a sort of pushpin or sickle blade. While people often think this makes them weaker, a thick membrane will grow and seal the flesh and muscles together meaning that the physical change will not weaken them. Next an enhanced enamel layer will grow over the jutted bone and muscle creating the weapon that they commonly use. Though some Ghouls do not go this far and chose instead to only manipulate per say their nails.

A Ghoul while appearing human are much more durable than human beings could ever hope to be, their skin almost steel like in nature. This seems to be common considering that they are some kind of Kin which means that they evolved to have a powerful outer lay of skin which remains extremely flexible thanks to the way their skin cells are both made and structured with their structure being the extremely tight weaved diamond pattern. Because of this weave pattern, the skin and muscle membranes are extremely flexible, meaning that it has a low rubber quality to it. The final thing of note is that below a Ghoul's muscle layer is a layer of Graphene double laced below the muscle creating a second internal layer of armor. This has extreme flexibility which goes along with their muscle structure and seems to grow out when the predatory organ is formed. Something of note is that whenever a bone exits the body to form the biokentic weapons, the Graphene flexes around them to give extra protection to the body thanks to the fact they do not have as much muscle, fat, and skin protecting the body.

## Undeath

Ghouls while in a matter are beings of Undeath, a Ghoul is one of the few creatures who are actually alive, which is a trait only shared with one of the other Children of Death, the Chiroptera. As such Ghouls are actually weaker than their counterparts as they are unable to store the life essence of their victims within their body to burn off in excess as one would see in a Vampire. Ghouls do however have a way to cheat death much in the way that all beings of Undeath do. That is whenever a Ghoul is on the verge of dying, they can transplant their Amine Peritoneum into another being and with this transplant a portion of their soul into another person. In this way anyone who is able to survive the procedure can allow a Ghouls soul to live on indefinitely.

## Amine Biology

Located along the spine of every Ghoul is a massive Peritoneum which contains within it the massively regenerative cells and organs known as the Predators Organ. Upon a Ghoul activating the reflex which activates the Predators Organ their bodies are flooded with a type of of extremely potent stem cells which are filled with the common red blood found in their Predators Organ, as this occurs they will grow a specialized organs and muscles which are quickly coated purely by their armored skin. These usually appear as large limbs or insect limbs which always protrude from the same part of the body. That is not to say all Ghouls grow their Predator Organ from the same spot, each Ghoul grows it from a different spot but they will always come from the same place each time they decide to grow it.

The Predators Organ should never be the main focus when fighting against the Ghoul because of their nature as being a rapidly created and expanded peritoneum. As such cutting it down will simply cause light arterial bleeding which will likely not have much of an affect as the Ghoul would simply seal the peritoneum to heal and avoid further damage. There is however always a way to deal with their creation, as a Ghoul expands the organs it is potent to strike in the first moment and tear through the organ sack, damaging it and forcing them to close it to regenerate. More over, while this is a much riskier strategy managing to strike in the weak connection between muscle to organ sack at the base will stun it and if one is lucky they will be able to cut it out once more causing the Ghoul to seal it to avoid injury.

## Society

Ghouls do not live in traditional societies like some of their Children of Death counterparts, instead they work to fit themselves into whatever society they inhabit with a few outliers. These outliers are usually found when it comes to the fringe Ghouls whose hunger to devour has completely overtaken their normal rational and their Amine Biology has constantly flooded their bodies with the predatory stem cells meaning they have entered into a hyper regenerative rabid state.

Another example are the societies known as the Kingdoms, a set of Ghouls that have come together under worship of a single more advanced Ghoul. This occurs in rare instances when a Ghoul undergoes what is known as a secondary metamorphosis, in this state the Predatory Organ is created as a second outer layer which gives the Ghoul a usual massive and monster like form. These Ghouls are often held in extreme regard, seen to be the apex of the species. The Ghouls who do believe this flock around the 'Apex' and hold them in an almost god like status.

## History

Ghouls came into existence when Amine began to feed from the flesh of the Outer God with her close friend Methuselah came together. Upon feasting Amine became the first great Ghoul, known as the fully powered Apex Ghoul, though she could rarely control herself. She managed to flee the world where they had found the Outer God because of her own persecution. Eventually she found a Gate and managed to find herself on another world where in humans began to worship her. Soon she had a mate and children, those being the seeds of the Ghoul species who managed to find themselves spread out on multiple worlds.

It is because of their Vampiric nature that most were able to find homes on worlds where Vampires already settled, as most who were fine selling the blood to the Vampires could easily sell the organs and flesh to Ghouls. It is thanks to this in the vast array of planets Ghouls are not usually persecuted, except in the worlds which are closed off to inhuman life or have decided to try and purge or control it.

## Abilities

All Ghouls have the basic biokentic abilities to reshape their bones, muscles, and tissue to create the weapons they commonly have. Ghouls always appear to be unable to grow infinite masses of flesh or muscle, but they are able to use any bit of their body that they have available for combat. This means while a Ghoul would be unable to instantly grow multiple limbs, they would be able to reshape parts of their body with the amount of mass they had inside of them, taking up resources from any part of their being. They also show the ability to shift the type of flesh or mass on their being such as being able to turn flesh into bone or muscle into cartilage freely. It is because of this they appear to be so very deadly, they can turn even their hair into razors if they saw fit.