#and yes I’m implying that Reed was given experimental vaccines while in the army lmao

[bokatan]

What are some of your fav ghoul headcannon? Or bits of "noncannon" lore?

aaaa thank you @alder-berry! I’m going to yell about ghouls now.

FEV Involvement

So for starters: low level FEV exposure is needed in order for humans to be able to ghoulify(along with some unknown genetic components), otherwise they’d just flat out die from radiation poisoning.

There’s so many prewar ghouls with military/corporate ties due to a modified strain of FEV being trialed as a vaccine for the new plague before project's focus was completely shifted over into weaponizing it.

The majority of wastelanders have had some form of low level FEV exposure. This plays into wastelanders generally having a higher level of radiation resistance compared to vault dwellers - they’re just more likely to have the genetic components involved in radiation resistance, and the prior exposure to FEV means they have the potential to adapt to various conditions and even develop minor mutations in response to extreme conditions.

Ghoulification

There’s no standard timeline for ghoulification and it’s highly dependent on the individual + the amount of radiation they’ve been exposed to, how long they were exposed for, and other factors like genetics. Some people ghoulify extremely quickly while others never get to a point where they’d be considered a ‘full’ ghoul.

The way that ghoulification presents is also highly variable and dependent on individual + radiation, exposure time, and other factors such as genetics. Some people can gain the radiation & disease resistance, healing from radiation, extended lifespan, potential mutations, etc without getting much of a typical ghoul-like appearance, while there’s others that are pretty much fully human but have scarring that makes them physically appear to be fully ghoulified.

Due to how much variation goes into it, there’s not really any one factor that indicates if someone’s ghoulifying. It’s not unheard of for people to survive radiation poisoning without ghoulifying because of wastelanders having increased radiation resistance, so recovering from radiation poisoning doesn’t automatically mean they’re going to become a ghoul.

The damage and scars that typically present when ghoulification starts are commonly mistaken for chemical or radiation burns, especially if the individual is ghoulifying at a slow rate.

People with very high radiation resistance that become ghouls are much more likely to get additional mutations.

It’s common for people that are in the earlier stages of ghoulifying to bleed and bruise for no clear reason. Radiation causes mass cell death and hemorrhage + would cause clotting issues due to low cell volume, and that’s something that would likely persist until the majority of a person’s cells are mutated.

Ferals

I’m going to link to another post rather than copy and paste everything since it’s a long post, but here’s my theory on how and why ghouls become feral.

Miscellaneous

Ghouls typically don’t have as much tactile sensation due to all of the nerve damage and scarring from their skin sloughing off. They also tend to have poor circulation and lower body temperatures(hence the disease resistance - yes, I’m implying that ghouls are immune to rabies and other diseases in the same manner that opossums are).

It’s very common for ghouls to have bone + dental issues due to a combination of damage from frequent vomiting from radiation poisoning, and from the way that radiaton pretty much leeches calcium and other minerals from bones and other tissues.

Ghouls can smell radiation. (Not a headcanon that I came up with, but one that I’m 100% running with- I interpreted it more as an extra 'sense' rather than a legitimate smell, but that's just me)

Ghouls age at an extremely slow rate like lobsters rather than just being frozen at the age they were when they ghoulified.

#thank you!!💖 #I should make a headcanons tag one of these days #yes that one about bleeding is 100% so I can draw Reed covered in blood regularly #and yes I’m implying that Reed was given experimental vaccines while in the army lmao #sometimes you just gotta let your guy have random nosebleeds and cough up blood with no warning. as a fun little treat #and he’s up to date on all of his shots. here’s his vaccine certificate. he’s allowed to go to the dog park now #fallout #fallout ghouls #ghoul meta #fallout meta #(pspsps hi y’all should check out the two meta tags above - I use those for similar posts)