#dew ghost

(brief mentions of abuse/violence and cannibalism)

Pre-2000s Summonings

Although ghouls have been around since the dawn of time, frequent summonings only became popular in the early 2000s, mainly because of the Ministry

Prior to this, summonings were often done by people unqualified or unable to handle a ghoul such as teenagers trying to be edgy and then getting mauled by a 8ft feral hellbeast

It's not hard to find information on how to summon a ghoul but it's one of those things people really don't bother trying just in case it works

Prior to the Ministry's summonings, ghouls were summoned and/or caught by circuses and 'freak shows' and showed off for entertainment

They were also used to scare people towards Christianity, often being shown as an example of what will happen to you if you do not listen to God

Early Ministry Summonings

At first, the Ministry saw ghouls as more of a tool or property rather than autonomous individuals

Both Primos and Secondos ghouls are branded to show who they 'belong' to. Terzo refused for this to happen to his ghouls and it has never happened to a new summon since

Ghouls were trained similar to how animals used to be trained in the past

Any unwanted behaviour was simply beaten out of them, either through being whipped or electrocuted with cattle prods

Terzo also put a stop to this once he was annointed

Ghouls summoned during Primo's and Secondo's reign tend to be more aggressive, stressed, and reactive

While many of them do not see fault in how they were raised and trained it is generally agreed that how they were trained was abusive and cruel and is generally frowned upon in modern times

The ghouls summoned during Primo's and Secondo's reign are believed to be the last 'true' ghouls. Their features, personalities, and elements had not yet been tampered with by humans.

Ghouls summoned before 2010 typically tend to be larger and less domesticated than their post 2010 counterparts

Post 2010 Summonings

Terzo was a big believer in treating ghouls like people

He did a lot of work both in person and online on changing people's perspectives on working with ghouls

Terzo encouraged people to stop seeing ghouls as property or exotic pets and more like friends or work colleagues and treating them with the respect and kindness they deserve

He was a massive advocate for not beating behaviours out of ghouls and instead using positive reinforcements for good behaviour where possible

While the idea was deemed to radical at the time, Terzo was a supporter of relationships between ghouls and humans

This was not a popular opinion at the time as the idea of treating ghouls like people was already pushing it

By the end of 2015, opinions on the treatment of ghouls really began to change for the better

While summonings had slowed, a lot of people were influenced by Terzo and began to treat the ghouls they worked with with a lot more dignity and respect

Copia was heavily inspired by Terzo and carried on his legacy of caring for ghouls

Copia was a giant advocate for relationships between ghouls and humans and his support for it really helped popularise it

Obviously it came with its pitfalls e.g. people summoning ghouls purely with the intention of being in a relationship with them and the partial fetishization of ghouls, but at the end of the day Copia met his and Terzos goal of destigmatizing human and ghoul relationships

Copia was very big on the destigmatization of multi ghouls and transelement ghouls, something that even Terzo was not keen on

Prior to Copia's summonings, multi ghouls were often seen as defective or unwanted and were often sent straight back to the Pits without a second thought

Copia did also believe this for most of his life, that was until he watched Swiss literally drag and claw himself out the summoning circle, shaking with fear that he was going to be sent back once he'd made it out

Copia actually discovered that multi ghouls are slightly more 'useful' than single element ghouls

While there were many things Swiss seemed to be better at than single element ghouls, being able to play multiple instruments extremely well with very little practice certainly helped with the band

Copia is believed to be the first person to help a ghoul undergo an elemental transition

He noticed Dew seemed particularly unsettled and often lashed out for no apparent reason

Terzo believed he was just misbehaved or unable to feel comfortable Topside

After a very long talk with Dew, Copia learnt that Dew had never had a strong connection to his element. He'd never been able to control it properly and something about his water element just felt wrong to the pit of his stomach

After consulting a few older ghouls and his older brothers, there was a unanimous agreement that Dew had a lot of traits similar to fire ghouls and that an elemental transition might do him good

It was almost impossible to find the right incantation for the transition and Copia did have to wing it slightly but whatever he did worked

While it wasn't perfect, Dew's transition was successful

He still has small traits of his water element left over such as his gills that have never healed over or his tail tip which is still very reminiscent of his water element, but the transition has really helped him feel more comfortable in himself and in his body

While it wasn't Copia's idea to promote elemental transitions per se, he did want people to be aware that that was something that could be done if absolutely necessary

Selective Breeding

After Secondo's ghouls had been summoned, the ministry started toying with the idea of selectively breeding ghouls for more desirable characteristics

Their first change was their size; ghouls summoned after c.2012 tend to be shorter and somewhat slimmer/less buff than ghouls summoned before this

Their smaller size and stature means that they typically have a smaller appetite, which makes them a lot easier to provide food for

Their appetite now is similar to humans, unlike their pre 2010 counterparts who ate up to triple the amount of food a regular human would eat

Their smaller stature also makes them easier to house

Ghouls summoned before the 2010s generally complained about the size of their dorm rooms. While they were the perfect size for any human, being at least 7ft or taller and fairly wide, a room 10x10m in size was simply not big enough for the ghouls

Ghouls summoned after 2010 are more similar in size to humans, in some cases slightly shorter or taller

Contrary to popular belief, Dew was not bred to be that short, he's that short naturally which somehow feels worse to him

As well as being bred to be smaller in stature, post 2010 ghouls tend to have a shorter feral period

This was done to ensure they're able to stay in work for longer throughout the year although it's debated if this tampers with their natural hormonal cycles too much to be considered ethical

While hunting season typically lasts between 4-6 weeks for the older summons, ghouls summoned after 2010 typically get their hunting season over and done with in about 3-4 weeks

While they are permitted the whole season off, many of the ghouls prefer to return to work as soon as they're no longer feral

Due to their smaller size, the ghouls tend to be less skilled hunters than the older ghouls

While their kill rate is typically lower than pre ghouls summoned before 2010, they're still able to kill prey often enough to keep themselves fed during hunting season

As well as having a shorter hunting season, ghouls summoned after 2010 tend to be slightly less aggressive towards humans than their pre-2010 counterparts

While they are still a danger to humans while feral, your chances of being killed are slightly lower. You're still extremely likely to lose a limb if you get too close to a feral ghoul

Mixed Species Kits and Babies

By the end of 2015, the first known mixed species children had been born

The variation between each kit and baby was vast depending on how much human and ghoul dna they inherited

Babies born with a high amount of human dna typically presented almost completely human but often had some ghoul characteristics such as slightly longer canines, talon-like nails, or the slight growth of horns that never really broke the skin

Kits born with a high amount of ghoul dna typically presented almost completely like a ghoul but often had human characteristics such as plantigrade feet instead of digitigrade paws or hooves, more typical eye and sclera colours, or the inability to chirp or otherwise vocalise in a way a ghoul could due to the difference in their vocal chords

Depending on their anatomy, some mixed babies may or may not be born with tails

Oftentimes, human presenting babies would have their tail docked to prevent injury as they often did not have a spine in their tail which would enable them to use it correctly

While it's debated if tail docking is necessary, many parents will go ahead with it for both medical and aesthetic reasons

As well as having mild ghoul-like characteristics, human presenting babies may also have slightly unnatural skin tones

While they may have human-like skin colours, there may be heavy undertones of grey, green, blue, red, or whatever colour their ghoul parent is

Depending on the strength of their ghoul dna, some mixed kits/babies may control over their elemental powers

In some cases their powers are just naturally weaker than a ghoul, in other cases, they just don't have as much control over it as a ghoul

Some parents will send their human presenting kids to human schools whereas parents with ghoul presenting kids will oftentimes send them to ghoul schools

Many Satanic schools are mixed species so most mixed children will attend those as a Satanic school is most Satanic parents' first choice anyway

Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Ghouls are, by default, sexless until they hit puberty at around the of (what humans would consider) 12

However this can vary for mixed babies/kits depending on how strong their ghoul traits are

In the Pits there's not really a focus or even understanding of gender

There's no such thing as a 'man' or 'woman' and behaviours and interests are not gendered

In the Pits, ghouls are separated by the desire to hunt or the desire to nurture

Either role can be filled by both 'male' and 'female' ghouls. Oftentimes, a certain element will generally prefer one roll over the other. For example, quintessence ghouls tend to prefer more nurturing roles whereas earth ghouls tend to prefer roles that require hunting and fighting

To ghouls, sex and gender are things they really do not think of or even comprehend in the way humans do. This does make things a little confusing for them if they come to live Topside

In the Pits, sex and gender can be very ambiguous and ghouls are known to fluctuate on the spectrum of sex and gender. It is rare to find a ghoul that presents in a way humans would describe as cishet

Sexuality is also not really a thing in the Pits. It's very much a case of you like who you like and that's it. To ghouls, at the end of the day, a mate is a mate.

Names

All ghouls living Topside have 3 names: their ghoulish name, their Latin name, and their chosen/given name

Ghoulish names are incredibly hard to pronounce for anyone who is not a ghoul which is why they are rarely used Topside. If they hear that name Topside, they know they're in serious trouble with another ghoul

Latin names are used in prayers, incantations, or any other occasion where Latin was being spoken. This is more of a formal name and is unlikely to be used casually

Chosen/given names are exactly what they say they are. When Summoned, the ghoul given a name by whoever they'd been summoned by. This has led to many incidents where they have been summoned by an angsty teenager in 2008 and legally been named something along the lines of Raven Crimson D'arkness Lupis

In more recent times, ghouls have generally been allowed to pick their own to avoid this.

While ghouls will often pick a name related to their element, some do pick the most human names they can think of in an attempt to fit in

Because of the need to use names in incantations and prayers, once a name is chosen it must be kept, so new summons are given 6 months to pick a name and be absolutely certain about it

Misc.

(just some random ones I can't write loads about)

Ghouls have very different and distinctive accents depending where they're from in the Pits. A water ghoul from the north east of the ocean will sound completely different to a water ghoul from the south of the river. However, their ghoulish accents seem to go unnoticed by humans.

Similarly, depending on what Topside language they learnt first or how they learnt it, all ghouls have a different accent. Some ghouls will have a thick Southern accent because they learnt their first Topside language from a Southerner, whereas other ghouls will have a Swedish accent, especially if they were Summoned by the Ministry. Aether has a strong Northern accent because he was Summoned in the North of England and lived there for years before moving to the Ministry.

Fire ghouls are fairly bad at finding other fire ghouls to mate with as there's a lot of infighting between packs of fire ghouls. It's believed to be one of the reasons why so many multi ghouls are part fire ghoul.

Depending on their mix, multi ghouls can have weaker immune and all around worse health than a single element ghoul. For example, multi ghouls that are a mix of fire and water often find it hard to maintain their body temperature, oftentimes being too cold or too hot randomly throughout the day.

Similar, many ghouls have a medical condition related to their element. Fire ghouls are prone to extremely dry, cracked skin. Water ghouls are also prone to extremely dry skin if they don't stay damp in some way. Quintessence ghouls tend to have poor eyesight which usually starts out as almost complete blindness and gets better as they get older, only to get worse again once they become elderly. Earth ghouls often have problems with their joints, particularly their wrists and knees. Air ghouls often have some degree of hearing loss as well as spells of dizziness due to the difference in air pressure between the Pits and Topside.

Some ghouls can be born without an element. Currently the only example of this in the Ministry is Phil, but there are a handful of ghouls without an element around the world.

When absolutely necessary, ghouls will cannibalise each other, but it is only in the worst case scenario. They are no more likely to eat each other than a human is to eat another human.

Many ghouls living Topside are prone to iron deficiencies due to the low amount of minerals in human food compared to what they're used to in the Pits. While some ghouls choose to supplement their diet with iron rich foods and tablets, many just keep bags of cow, pig, or (when they can get it) human blood refrigerated in their rooms and drink when they need it.

As a species, ghouls are very protective of babies, whether that be a baby ghoul, human, animal, or plant. Many ghouls will also refuse to eat anything that was not an adult before it was killed. In the Pits, only adult hellbeasts are hunted to eat. Ghouls know that baby beasts are their future meals and must wait until they have had their own babies until they hunt them.

As the hellbeasts in the Pits are usually a lot bigger than any animal they'll encounter Topside, ghouls rarely afraid of any animals. They may be a little cautious around animals they remind them of hellbeasts but they're usually about a 5th of the size of what they're used to seeing in the Pits.

However Rain is terrified of isopods as they remind him of the giant isopod-like hellbeasts he used to have to fight every year for territory in his lake