Freestian Ghouls

Freestian Ghouls are the unusual but increasingly common crossbreeds of humans and Freestian Vampires that make up the bulk of the non-human population in The Freethinker Commonwealth. Resembling humanform vampires though incorporating more human traits and physiology than their reptilian forebearers, they nonetheless possess, to a wide and varying degree, greater strength and a higher life expectancy than normal human beings. Freestian ghouls are by far the largest non-human species by population in the Commonwealth and dominate interspecies politics and relationships within the country. They are noticably visible as residents of the harsh and uncompromising Freethinker Outback.

Ghouls are generally considered abhumans, due to their basic human physiology complemented by the addition of their vampiric heritage, as such due to the differing levels of DNA absorption by the human primary genetic makeup the actual appearence and capabilities of these hybrids varies significantly. Indeed, because of these varied advantages, ghouls tend to dominate in many vocations and have a particular prevailance in the armed forces, where their superior strength and endurance have significantly raised the baseline infantry capabilities of the Freethinker land forces, even matching with little physical equipment the abilities of augmented or power-armoured human soldiers. This is generally matched by their appearence too, and large ghoul males up to 230cm are not uncommon, especially in extended ghoul families.

Physiology

As mentioned, Ghouls maintain a similar appearance of a humanform Freestian vampire,though there is a distinctly greater variety of body types and shapes. As Ghoul physiology does not have to deal with the strain of shape transformation, more variation of muscle tone and body size can be seen in comparison to humanform vampires and incorporating more similarities from the human side of their ancestry. Ghouls tend to be slightly taller and naturally bulkier than humans, averaging around 201 centimetres in height for males and 185 centimetres for females, but there is as noted significant differences and variation across the population dependent upon both genetics and environmental factors. The Herne rating, the system of ghoul classification expanded on below, is partially configured along size lines alongside other factors.

Reproduction generally follows human reproductive cycles, with a slightly elongated gestation period of around 47 to 48 weeks (around 10 1/2 months), with twins and other multiple births rarer than in equivelant human populations but not unheard of.

Herne Rating

The Herne Rating is the primary system of registering the differing levels of genetic differences within the Ghoul community, with strength, size and other attributes changin vastly with the variance of vampire genes in the genome structure. Originally based around ancestry and the proportion of vampiric ancestors in one's bloodline (hence the eighth-based rating system) which was originally thought to determine the general size and capabilities of ghouls, this scale has been expanded significantly in criteria

Origins

The biological adaptability of Freestian Vampire genetic information to various other sentient and non-sentient species remains something of a biological enigma, the capacity of the sentient Draconi to mate with various other species (thanks in part to the advantages of the humanform adaption) considered to be the remnant of a previous survival trait when the species still interbred with Wyverns before the two species began to split completely. The first human/vampire crossbreeds were recorded in 1710 in Navarre in the earliest verifiable records, although some accounts of 'deformed' or 'devil-cursed' children had been noted as far back as the 1690's. The formal integration of the vampires and the discovery of the humanform adaption and the quarrels and riots over this seem to have all played major factors in the delay of human/vampire relations, and even today some religiously inclined groups still see such unions as mere perverted beastiality.

Because of the long gestation times of female Freestian Vampires, most original ghouls from human/vampire couplings generally had a male vampire sire. It is not unheard of with rgeards to female vampire parentage, but the capcity of carrying a human child to term in what are essentially reptilian hard cased eggs generally requires a lot of external help. Nowadays most ghouls are born from ghoul/ghoul or ghoul/human unions, the former often producing stronger, higher Herne rating children than the original human/vampire offspring.

Ghouls in Freethinker Society

Ghouls have generally been treated far better than most minorities have at various time periods and there was never, despite some significant opposition and proposals, any effective widespread discrimination against ghouls officially, with the vampires also taking a firm and supportive line with their hybrid offspring. Although most overt racism has died away (and indeed replaced by martial respect given the importance of ghoulish soldiers to the survival of the Commonwealth) there are still lingering stereotypes that are all too often reinforced by both humans and ghouls themselves.

Negative stereotypes of ghouls consider them aggressive, quick to anger, bestial in terms of manner, bloodthirsty and crude. These arose in part of general prejudices and based upon both popular, established stereotypes of their vampire forebears and the somewhat unsettling nature of their birth to the more religious members of society. The success of ghouls in environments like the Outback where occupations generally require isolation and an aggressive, tough attitude to survive has also reinforced in part these stereotypes.