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.
By their nature and physical attributes, 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.
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 188 centimetres in height for males and 170 centimetres for females, but there is as noted significant differences and variation across the population dependent upon both genetics and environmental 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.
