Ghouls, Alive, Dead or a little of both?

M

Muff

Water Chip? Been There, Done That
Ghouls, Alive, Dead or a little of both?

This is something that just crossed my mind, in the Fallout universe are Ghouls Alive, Dead or a little of both. They obviously have functioning brains (at least if they are not feral) but items like stimpacks etc would seem to have little or no effect on them.

In the games I can find little if any references to circulatory systems i.e. do they have a functioning one if so is it slower than human normal or faster etc.

I am assuming they must at least have a working cardio pulmonary system as they have functioning lungs, giving them the ability to talk and in some cases smoke. But wouldn’t that also imply that the internal organs are also functioning albeit poorly due to the necrosis that is obviously a major biological factor in Ghoul physiology.
I know it's supposed to be a genetic trait that when combined with massive amounts of radiation that turned some people into Ghouls and this process varies from instant to a few weeks or months in some cases. So I am also assuming that the process that turns people into ghouls may not effect all the tissues in the body at any one time as the process is gradual would it first effect the kidneys and liver then the digestive system followed by the Skin then Brain etc (I am not stating that is exactly what happens but just tossing a idea out there).

Your thoughts?
 
Ah sorry I should my question a little better,

I am talking in purely biological terms, are they more akin to a dead body with a brain that just keeps on going as the exterior appearance would suggest OR are they more akin to severely wounded humans that have found a away of copping with what is essentially a nearly dead body.
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They are alive. It's only the skin which is horribly burnt/+ radiation damage which makes them look like the typical "Zombie".
 
From a sheer biological point of view, an organism is living if it can reproduce, amongst other things.

Can ghouls reproduce ?
 
I thought they were just humans who had been given extended life by the radiation dose? Presumably their internal organs and immune system are in a healthy state still.
 
We could make an experiment, volunteers are needed :)

Jokes aside, Muff mentioned smoking. Even if I think Fallout ghouls are alive you can't help but think how the smoke would go directly out from the Harolds lungs if he were to do that.

Harold.gif


I mean, look at those holes on his chest!
 
Stanislao Moulinsky said:
McCabbe said:
From a sheer biological point of view, an organism is living if it can reproduce, amongst other things.

Can ghouls reproduce ?
Click to expand...

So sterile people are actually dead?
Click to expand...

We're not talking about specific individuals here but about a species. Hence why I stressed "from a biological point of view". Sterile people have a handicap, they are not "full" individuals from a scientific perspective.
 
I don't think ghouls qualify as a species as such, disregarding the newborn VB ghoul (cause VB isn't canon, technically).

And yeah they're clearly alive, not some sort of undead monsters.
 
I never liked the idea of reproducing Ghouls. I always thought them more mutated humans. Really it depends, I can understand mutated critters reproducing because the radioation has affected their genes and such.

But the Ghouls lack of hair, decomosing skin and such is just an affect of radiation right? It's not like they been genetically altered in a way so that their skin rots.

Get the difference? I just don't think that a born ghoul would look anything like a ghoul is all.
 
I tend to agree with the previous remarks. Without any tangible evidence of ghouls being able to reproduce (pregnancies, kids), we should assume that all ghouls were born humans and then suffered from radiations and became what they are. Which means that, genetically, they would still be humans.

Of course, they are living beings. They move, they feed, they act, etc. Physically, mechanically, physiologically, they are alive. The Fallout universe does not have any roots in magic. It does not seem either that it has any links with zombiesque settings. So, yes, they live!

However, where they belong (are they a species per se ? are they difformed humans ? are they a biological dead-end ?) remains debatable...
 
Well technically they're not genetically 100% human as their DNA has been altered by the radiation. Which would make them human mutants.
 
Did they ever decide if it was due to radiation only, or low level FEV and radiation?

The best way to think of them is something like Leprosy (Hanson), they get very extended life and some other advantages, but are sterile and are highly disfigured.
 
You see it's the lack of info that got me thinking, from the outside they look like a corpse who's brain hasn't decided to quit when the rest of the body did but they so show signs of a functioning respiratory system but the rest of the body seems to be horrifically decomposed.


On the Vault they are labelled as Post Necrotic human, to me necrosis say's death of the whole or part of the body, I am not sure if it was something I saw on the discovery channel but I am sure I heard some one refer to sever cases of frostbite as Thermally induced necrosis. When the toes of a arctic expedition member freeze off when they have but there boot through the arctic ice or when talking about the WW2 German winter campaign on the Russian front when the toes and fingers of solders froze of in the boot's and gloves due to sweat freezing in the boot's.

@drgong, That's a very good question! Again on the vault they have two or three theories from the fallout developers. One is radiation and a genetic abnormality in combination working together to turn people into ghouls over weeks or months. And another is FEV and radiation combined turn people into Ghouls, the last one seems to be a stretch as that would not account for the number of Ghouls in Camp Searchlight and Moyra Brown if you decided to blow up megaton in Fallout 3.

The theory I think is closer to the truth (for the given value in the Fallout universe anyhow) and also explain Camp Searchlight and Moyra , is The radiation and genetic abnormality theory but with the addition that the abnormality is some how linked to the ability to survive in a high radiation background (a ability that would prove very handy in Fallout) and the group from Searchlight and Moyra where carriers of the abnormal genetic code passed down from through there fammiles.
 
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