The ghoul appears in pre-Islamic Arabian poetry as a desert demon that misleads travellers. In Islamic thought, it is classified as a type of jinn. The plural (ghilan) haunt graveyards, deserts, and ruins.
Variable. In natural form, gaunt and bestial with hollow eyes. Can take the shape of the last person it consumed, perfectly mimicking appearance and voice.
Perfect physical mimicry of the deceased. Superhuman strength. Knowledge of the dead's memories from consuming them. Can lure travellers into the desert by calling in familiar voices.
Weaknesses
- conditionOne strike kills it; two strikes revives it stronger
Wards
- mantraBismillah recited before entering a cemetery at night
Djinn
The class of supernatural beings created from smokeless fire in Islamic cosmology — a parallel civilization to humanity, capable of belief or unbelief, with their own prophets, society, and judgment before God.
Jann
The weakest class of djinn in Islamic tradition, associated with desert winds and taking the form of snakes or whirlwinds, dwelling in empty wilderness and posing little threat to those who know the proper invocations.
Shaitan
A class of corrupted djinn who follow Iblis and dedicate themselves to leading humans astray — distinct from Iblis himself, the Shayatin are a species of evil djinn who whisper doubts and temptations into the minds of the living.
Community Record
- [1]One Thousand and One Nights. The Arabian Nights (Burton, Richard F., trans.). 1885. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Burton Club.literary
- [2]Jinn, Angels and Supernatural Beings in Islam. El-Zein, Amira. 2009. Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn. Syracuse University Press.academic