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The Arabian ghoul is a desert-dwelling, shapeshifting demon that can transform itself into the guise of an animal, especially a hyæna. It robs graves and feeds on the flesh of the dead, or on young children. They also lure travellers into the desert wastes to slay and devour them.

The star Algol is also named after this creature from Arabian legend.

In the weird fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, a ghoul is a member of a nocturnal subterranean race. Once human, their adherance to an exclusive diet of dead human flesh has mutated them into horrific bestial humanoids. As frightening as they are to the human characters in Lovecraft's fiction, they are not truly monsters; they only prey on the already-dead, and in some stories they are able to carry on intelligent conversations with the living. Richard Upton Pickman, a noteworthy Boston painter who disappears under mysterious circumstances in the story, "Pickman's Model," later appears as a ghoul in the novella, "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath."

In the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, ghouls are monstrous undeadUndead is a collective name for all types of corporeal and non-corporeal entities who were once alive in the normal sense, died, and then continued to exist in the world of the living. Undead of different varieties are featured in the legends of most cult humans who reek of carrion. In addition to dead flesh, they capture and eat the unwary living. They can paralyze their prey with a touch; only elvesElves are mythical creatures of Germanic mythology that have survived in northern European folklore. Originally a race of minor gods of nature and fertility, they are often pictured as small, youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in forest are immune. The ghastThe ghast are a race of creatures from H. Lovecraft's Dreamlands. They are also a stronger breed of ghoul from the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. Dungeons & Dragons creatures. is similar, but worse: even elves can fall victim to their paralytic power.

In the role-playing game ShadowrunShadowrun is a cyberpunk- fantasy cross-genre role-playing game, set in the not too distant future, following a great cataclysm that has brought use of magic back to the world, just as it begins to embrace the marvels (and dangers) of technologies such as, ghouls are a mutation caused by a virus known as HMHVVShort for Human Meta Human Vamperic Virus, used in the game shadowrun. For additional infromation see shadowrun., specifically the Krieger strain. While not undeadUndead is a collective name for all types of corporeal and non-corporeal entities who were once alive in the normal sense, died, and then continued to exist in the world of the living. Undead of different varieties are featured in the legends of most cult, they do exhibit vampiricCount Orlok from Nosferatu A vampire is a mythical or folkloric creature said to subsist on human or animal blood often having magical powers and the ability to transform. Usually the vampire is the corpse of a dead person, reanimated or made undead by on behavior. Ghouls must consume about 1% of their body weight in raw human flesh each week and have a mild allergy to sunlight that inhibits them slightly, but does not harm them. They are physically blind, but their astral/physical dual-nature allows them to perceive the astral plane, and they are also endowed with enhanced senses of smell and hearing. Ghouls are especially sensitive to foreign substances within their bodies, making the use of cybernetic implants difficult for them. Their strength and body are greater than a normal human's, but their intelligence and charisma suffer. Finally, they also show total immunity to the VITAS plague. Some ghouls regress to a feral state after the change, while others retain their sanity. Those who remain sane will often have extreme plastic surgery performed in order to pass for human, and replace their blind eyes with new cybernetic eyes.

In the PC game Warcraft III, Ghoul are the standard fighting unit for the Undead and lumber gatherers.

In the anime and manga series Hellsing, ghouls are zombie-like creatures created when a vampire feeds on the blood of a non-virgin.