Ghouls, wraiths and such have been defined as just monsters to fight from at least RQ2 onwards (I don't own original RQ). King of Sartar on the other hand gives us a Sartarite tribal king who used necromancy/ cannibalism to gain power, and who was cursed by Sartar to become the King of Ghouls. Fascinating stuff.
I've been thinking of the sorcerous ways in the western Glorantha, but this does apply to it all. I've started to think that a ghoul is like a lesser class of vampire. A dead person, keeping his body together by eatin the flesh of the recently dead. Like a vampire, I could see this as somebody who was sufficiently terrified of death to extend his "life" by any means necessary... or just becoming cursed by breaking the cannibalism taboo.
Is a ghoul chaotic? In the old paradigm, I think they were. They had a chaos wound where their soul should be, like a vampire.
What about a wraith? Again, I think a wraith is in the same rough category as a vampire and a ghoul. Is this an option for an immoral sorcerer to seek immortality? Can a wraith retain enough sanity and free will to continue as anything more than a monster haunting an area?
-Adept
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