Ghouls and Wights¶
"Wights hate the living and given the chance, a wight will always take any given opportunity to inflict pain and death upon them." — Namakan rune-lore of the Animate form (S253)
Ghouls and wights are the corporeal Restless Dead that keep their hunger and their malice: the ghoul a thing of appetite, the wight a thing of hate. Both rise from intact corpses, both can be made as well as born, and both stand above the mindless skeleton and zombie in the order of the undead. Wights are "some of the most intelligent and capable corporeal undead (aside from liches)" (S253).
How they rise¶
The Sancturi-era doctrine makes them the commonest fate of the dead who have nowhere to go. Lesser ghouls are "the most common form seen. These animate for most people some months after their death assuming their corpse is still in decent condition and the nature of their death was not overly traumatic and they were not tremendously evil in life" (S318). Ghouls and wights "are seen most commonly when corpses are still intact, but the subject was evil or died a more traumatic death. Only the most evil and most wrongful deaths become wights. These forms tend to rise faster than lesser ghouls do, as their spirits are more restless" (S318). Why the dead fail to pass on at all is on Undead.
They can also be raised. A Namakan rune "animates ghouls and wights from corpses. They must be animated from a fairly intact corpse (not missing any major body parts). Also, the spirit must still be present (~10 years)" (S253); the Runebinder's grades are the Minor Ghoul, the Ghoul and the Wight (S251). The rules are under Mechanics (Namakan Animate Form).
Abyssal ghouls and wights¶
"Some theologians believe a third group exists which are very similar to, but distinct from Ghouls and Wights: Abyssal Wights and Abyssal Ghouls; that these are created when the dead have been tainted by the hollowing" (S318). The Hollows are Cosmology's page.
Gap
No source describes how an Abyssal ghoul or wight differs from the ordinary kind beyond its origin in the hollowing.
Ghouls¶
"Ghouls have simple minds with a tiny vocabulary (that of a small child) and can perform several tasks in a specific order. It is not capable of handling decision making. It is constantly driven by its insatiable hunger for flesh. When it is not doing anything else it will always be searching out more flesh to eat. Ghouls have limited attention spans and if not given direction constantly, will revert back to searching for something to eat, which is why most are kept on chains/leashes" (S253). A ghoul's claws paralyse, and feeding makes it stronger: every turn spent eating a corpse heals it and quickens its attacks (S253).
Ghasts¶
The ghast is a ghoul grown foul: all who come within arm's reach of it are poisoned by its stench unless they can stand it, and those who can are proof against it until they rest (S253).
Plague ghouls¶
When the necromancer Malathar woke, the woman Ravenna of the expedition that opened his tomb "has been converted into a Plague-Ghoul and guards the tomb with the 5 zombies," and only she and two zombies kept the watch by night (S047); a single plague ghoul stood among the rats and zombies that struck Banbridge (S058). The ghoul "Bone-eater" served among the wights of the Marshford campaign (S359). Ghouls are among the dead that "roam the marshes" of the Vale of Aren (S073).
Wights¶
"Wights are some of the most intelligent and capable corporeal undead (aside from liches). Although their minds are twisted with paranoia and hatred they still have many of the same reasoning abilities that they had in life. Wights hate the living and given the chance, a wight will always take any given opportunity to inflict pain and death upon them" (S253). That intelligence makes them captains. In the Marshford notes four wights each command "12 minions": Ashwalker, a knight with a necrotic greatsword, Ghostknife, Deadtooth, "toothless skele," Gravewraith, Duskhollow and Bonecrusher (S359); one wight "escaped with King Tugard" and gave him to the White Fire (S359). In the sewers of Redallion eight "dormant warrior skeletons (wights)" waited in alcoves for an undead commander to wake them (S328). A wight of the Sancturi campaign burned as it fought (S165).
The wight patrols of Delvarn¶
In Delvarn, the Lands of the Necromancer, "undead patrols roam the land. Normally led by a wight. The wights form a mesh network while within range of a basalt crypts. They despise the living but are bound not to attack unless one of the following conditions is met: they are attacking/harming undead or other living humanoids; they can freely attack demons and other magic-users; … the living are not allowed to be armed. Any living person holding or carrying a weapon larger than a knife will be attacked. They can be transported in carts, etc just fine. Smiths have to operate in undead free areas" (S153). The Necromancer's Deathmongers "select living candidates to become Wights or Liches" from panels of townsfolk each town must offer up; "a town that refuses will be destroyed" (S153). The Necromancer is Rodrizhal; his crypts and laws are on the Geography and Factions pages.
The wights of Danar¶
The Sancturi colonies on the island of Danar failed against them: "it was the enmity of the Wights and their armies of corporeal and incorporeal undead, as well as undead plagues, blights and roaming monsters that lead to the eventual abandonment of both provinces on the island in 652 SM (Pesh) and 674 SM (Southern Danar). One result of this campaign was the development of Namakan Runebinding" (S326); see Sancturi Campaigns.
Gap
The sources do not say who or what commands the wights of Danar, or whether they are the Restless Dead of the island or someone's making.
Corpserot wights¶
In the Demonblight of the bone demonlord Vileryth, the Corpserot Wight is "a corporeal undead capable of making ranged attacks by hurling balls of corpserot ichor," and the possessed Druagr-Ghast has a "paralytic touch" and "necrotic stench" (S050); the rest of that host is on Undead.
Earlier accounts¶
The Namakan rune-lore counts ghouls and wights among the "partially-sentient undead" who may resist a lure that mindless dead cannot (S253). The register names Revenant beside them, "animation fueled by hate and revenge" (S231), described on Undead.
In Play¶
A ghoul is a problem of hunger: it will eat before it fights and heal as it eats, and a leash on a ghoul means a master nearby (S253). A wight is a problem of intelligence: it remembers its skills, hates with purpose, and leads. Where wights patrol, go unarmed or go around, and never carry "a weapon larger than a knife" where the Necromancer's law runs (S153).