#multi ghouls

When a kit is born, they are presented to a papa after about three weeks. There, they receive blessings, gifts, and their name is officially announced. The same is done with human babies of the congregation.

Kits love being as close as possible to their parents, so baby wearing is common

They’re adorable when they’re newborns. They’re adorable when they take on their humanoid appearance. They’re…interesting looking during the in between.

Growing kits will sometimes mimic the behaviors of their parents with one another (grooming, scruffing, scenting, etc..)

Like human babies, teething is a nightmare. Horn growth is an additional hell on its own.

All babies need enrichment, but kits more so. They’re not meant to be creatures of the world, so they need constant exposure to all it has to offer, as well as their elemental type(s).

Fire kits sometimes have issues regulating their temperature, and will occasionally ignite, causing mini fires if not handled properly

Earth kits loooooove napping. Unfortunately, they love napping in hidden areas (under tables, in cabinets, under lifted tree roots, etc..)

Tantrums are rough enough as it is. Add on the supernatural element, and it’s 10x worse.

For those that are carnivores or omnivores, their hunting instincts tend to kick in around 3 years old. It’s not uncommon to see a toddler kit attempting to stray from their parents because they heard small prey nearby.

Kit is more of a general term to describe young ghouls. Each element has additional names that are sometimes used. Air- whisps, puffs. Fire- puffs, flicks. Water- squirts, squeaks. Earth- buds, whelps. Quint: spots, clings. Multi: patches, blips.

To my friends who live in big cities: you know how kindergartens will take the kids on walks with those leash-harness things? Yeah imagine siblings of sin doing that with the kits.

They’re clumsy, especially earth kits who have antlers and/or hooves

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Water ghouls are the most common and easy ghoul to summon for service. This is due to both their relatively submissive behaviour and over-abundance in the pits of hell. Some among the Clergy consider them the most "basic" form of ghoul because of this, however this is not scientifically backed and is generally regarded as a harmful stereotype.

While water ghouls are common and easy to summon, this fact exposes an interesting side effect. Hybrid water ghouls are far less common than any other combination; a phenomenon hypothesized by academics to stem from their geographical isolation from other elements resulting in a lack of inter-breeding. However, current knowledge of ghoul behaviour is garnered purely from topside sources and thus this cannot be confirmed.

Due to their abundance, water ghouls are a popular candidate for element transmutation rituals, being seen as largely replaceable. Of the 2 rituals that have been successfully performed within the Ghost project, both subjects were originally water ghouls.

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Quintessence ghouls are one of the rarest elemental alignments to be summoned, at least in their pure, non-hybridized form. Pure quintessence ghouls are the least common element in the pits, making up about 8% of the population. Additionally, while they are generally docile and empathetic towards humans, quintessence ghouls hold a large amount of unique power. Prolonged exposure to their raw quintessence can cause adverse effects to humans, which means that the summoning process can be both unstable and potentially dangerous if not done with proper efficiency.

Of the 4 quintessence-aligned ghouls that have worked on the Ghost project, only 2 have been pure quintessence. Of the other 2, 1 was technically a quint-air hybrid (though with a small enough air portion to completely pass as quintessence), and the other was created through elemental transmutation. The latter, however, was not able to perform long under the quintessence role due to instability of their new element- this event resulting in a ban on quintessence transmutation until appropriate advancements in ritual magic have been made.

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Air ghouls are not incredibly uncommon in the pits, taking up an equal percentage of the population as fire and earth ghouls. Due to this, there is unfortunately not much notable information regarding their commonality in summoning. However, one interesting phenomenon regarding this element is how common multi-elemental instances are. Air hybridization is known to be the most common elemental mix, for reasons unknown. It is especially puzzling when the social behaviour of air ghouls are considered. They can be quite territorial creatures outside of their pack, typically thriving when restricted to isolated locations with a topological advantage, and away from other ghouls.

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Fire ghouls, similar to quintessence ghouls, are a rarer find. However, this is conversely almost purely due to their difficulty to summon rather than any lack of populace. In the pits, fire ghouls are about as common as air or earth ghouls, however they are infamous for their testy and aggressive nature. Summoning reports state that almost half of all fire summoning attempts result in failure, and 15% end in some form of injury to the summoner.

Despite the difficulty found when summoning a fire ghoul, they are remarkably one of the easiest elements to transmute into. The body of a ghoul easily adapts to the fire phenotype, as fire ghouls contain few variable or dramatic elemental features, and dimorphic features from the subject's original element are easily cauterized away as the fire element is accepted. The Ghost Project hailed the Clergy's biggest transmutation success story, with Dewdrop (a water ghoul) successfully transitioning into a high-performing fire ghoul.

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Earth ghouls are another standard population element, with an equal population to air and fire. Despite their dominance-seeking behaviours among fellow earth ghouls, they are typically no more difficult to summon than the average air ghoul. One intriguing pattern among earth ghouls is their remarkable stability in maintaining roles in the workplace for long period of times. However, if an earth ghoul is not able to "take root" so to speak, they are incredibly susceptible to rejection of the role (even more so than water ghouls). This explains cases in which one earth ghoul is able to inhabit a role for a long period of time, but when replaced, 2-3 earth ghouls will cycle through the role before it is filled for another long-term rotation.

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╰┈➤ Many would assume that Multi-elemental ghouls would be the most difficult type of ghoul to summon, due to their rarity in earlier eras- presuming perhaps that the techniques of earlier summoners were less advanced than those currently used. However, it is in fact the opposite.

Around 30% of ghouls in the pit are multi-elemental in some capacity, due to inter-element breeding. This makes them one of the more common pulls from a standard summon. The fault of their previous rarity in fact lies with the social beliefs of the Clergy. Before Era IV, it was believed that ghouls of a pure elemental alignment would be more focused and effective in their respective instrumental talent. As such, summoners were heavily discouraged from summoning multi-ghouls for serious projects, and any that were summoned for the Ghost Project were either sent back or instead enlisted for standard duties in the Ministry.

Opinion on multi-ghouls slowly began to shift by Era III, as academics questioned these traditional ideas due to the lack of tangible evidence of multi-ghouls' shortcomings. This shift coincided with Papa Emeritus III's purposeful summoning of Swiss to be a backup vocalist and instrumentalist. His performance validated hypotheses that multi-ghouls could in fact be incredibly talented at their craft, and they have since become renowned for their performance in multi-faceted, supportive, and performance-based roles. However, multi-ghouls are still largely omitted from single-instrument roles.

Okay so I have multiple designs for her, which are basically different colour variants! I think of this ghoulette as being a True Multi (an equal balance of all five elements) like Swiss is! And I also think that her different names are different people all sharing one body! And when each person is in control of the body, their colour appears!

Art under the cut! I'll possibly do character sheets in the future.

I just think they’re so protective and loving with each other and I could scream about how cute they are.

They were the first Multis either ever met and they were both so happy to finally have another Multi in their lives.

Swiss was quite literally bouncing off the walls when she came though the portal.

Trans!Sunny is always so real to me and I hc that she was summoned before she figured it all out.

Swiss was the first Ghoul she came out to and he held the secret for her until she was ready to tell the pack and was with her every step of the way.

He loved having a brother but he ended up loving his sister even more.

He’s so protective of her and also always goes to the infirmary when she gets her oestrogen shot so he can hold her hand because the needle does scare her.

Sunshine is also very protective of him. The scummier Siblings love to see Swiss as an easy lay but Sunshine sees them as easy targets. Some of them don’t even know where she comes from but she’ll always be there to defend her brother, her horns and eyes glowing like a volcano ready to erupt.

I added this to my pinned today bc @the-moon-in-the-gutter had this vision and we've expanded on it.

The final installment of my Swiss series.

(Read Part 1,Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6 here or on AO3 HERE)

Dew's breath hitches as he considers this news.

His water is still here? He knows Rain says it all the time, in the moments they are curled around each other, intimate, private moments where only a water ghoul could smell it, taste it even.

But he couldn’t believe it.

Not until now. Not until he came.

(All my headcanons, by no means canonical)

Water Ghouls

Animal features: All species of fish, whales, sharks, aquatic/semi-aquatic mammals, aquatic/semi-aquatic reptiles, aquatic/semi-aquatic invertebrates

Personality traits: Strong emotional responses, playful, determined

Hunting style: Stealth, use of siren songs to lure in prey

Diet: Mostly Omnivorous

Reproduction: 4-6 kits at a time

Communication: Purring, trilling, growling, hissing, chirping, siren song

Earth Ghouls

Animal features: All bovines, canines, land dwelling mammals, non-winged insects

Personality traits: Level headed, ambitious, stubborn

Hunting style: (When applicable) preferably solo, pack hunting with persistence techniques

Diet: Mostly herbivorous

Reproduction: 3 kits at a time

Communication: Purring, trilling, growling, hissing, barking, howling, bleating

Air Ghouls

Animal features: All birds, winged insects

Personality traits: Social, leaders, resourceful

Hunting style: Ambush, scavengers, use of siren song to lure in prey

Diet: Mostly omnivorous

Reproduction: 3-5 kits at a time

Communication: Purring, trilling, growling, chirping, bird songs, voice mimicry, siren song

Fire Ghouls

Animal features: Large felines, birds of prey, reptiles, creatures of fantasy (dragon, phoenix, etc..)

Personality traits: Dominant, energetic, strong emotional responses

Hunting style: Pack hunting, scavengers

Diet: Mostly carnivorous

Reproduction: 3-5 kits at a time

Communication: Purring, trilling, growling, chuffing, clicking

Quintessence Ghouls

Animal features: All felines, canines, reptiles, bats, bovines, arachnids, creatures of fantasy (dragon, pegasus, minotaur, etc..)

Personality traits: Protective, creative, leaders

Hunting style: Solo or pack hunting with persistence techniques, toy with prey

Diet: Mostly omnivorous

Reproduction: 2-3 kits at a time

Communication: Purring, trilling, growling, chuffing, howling, chirping, whistling, voice mimicry

Multi Ghouls

Animal features: Dependent on mix of elements, usually more than one animal

Personality traits: Social, creative, quick learners

Hunting style: Dependent on mix of elements, usually solo

Diet: Mostly carnivorous

Reproduction: Dependent on mix of elements, usually 2 kits at a time

Communication: Purring, trilling, growling, dependent on mix of elements

Special Ghouls

Animal features: N/A

Personality traits: Introverted, quiet, observant

Hunting style: N/A

Diet: Feed off energy

Reproduction: N/A