Here’s What a Ghoul Is in ‘Fallout’

IF YOU’RE COMPLETELY new to Fallout, you may be a bit confused.

It’s not just regular people out in the wasteland. Roaches are bigger than before, there’s a huge axolotyl-looking creature in a river, and Walton Goggins looks more like a skeleton than a man. What’s going on?

Welcome to Fallout. The show is based on a famed video game series about a world where the U.S. is engulfed in war that turns nuclear. But it’s not bleak like The Last of Us. Instead, the games are gory and bloody, and with a retrofuturistic aesthetic, it’s ultimately more whimsical than depressing. That said, a post-apocalyptic world is still going to be pretty gross. With the world steeped in radiation, creatures are bigger and more dangerous than before.

As for humans, that’s a different story. While various animals have managed to survive the blast and evolve over the centuries, humans have largely stayed the same. That’s partially due to the vaults, where people like Lucy (Ella Purnell) have stayed safe underground and unaffected by the outside world.

For the people left outside of the vaults, however, their lives are far different. There’s no safety, and they’ve had to live with all of the irradiated beasts left to roam the country. While in real life a nuclear blast would definitely kill you if you’re too close to ground zero, the Fallout franchise created a unique way for some people to survive.

What is a ghoul in Fallout?

Walton Goggins as a ghoul in Fallout.

For anyone who hasn’t played the games, a ghoul is not a zombie. Instead, it’s a post-human, someone who has taken on so much radiation–either over a period of time or from the initial nuclear bombs during the Great War–that they manage to survive, but just barely. While most people died in those blasts, the radiation impacted some differently, melting off their skin and giving them, well, a “ghoulish” appearance. By getting just the right amount of radiation, ghouls were “born.”

In the games, there are three versions of ghouls: regular ones, who walk and talk just like humans do, feral ghouls, and glowing feral ghouls. All ghouls can eventually become feral and potentially a glowing feral ghoul, or, due to radiation, the transformation can come right away.

How much of a “ghoul” one looks like depends on how they’ve received radiation. Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), who experienced much of the initial blast from the Great War, lost most of his facial features, but was likely far enough away to keep his mental faculties. On the other hand, Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton), the Brotherhood of Steel squire, [Spoiler for Episode 7 of the Fallout series!] becomes a ghoul likely due to chronic radiation (like drinking irradiated water and eating irradiated food without utilizing RadAway or Rad-X, the two radiation treatments in the universe). He could look like a regular person for while, although over time more radiation exposure could change some of his appearance.

Ghouls have a longer lifespan than humans. While most people turned into ghouls by accident, some scientists and opportunists took on the risk for the sake of potential immortality before and during the Great War. Ghouls have regeneration abilities, but they still require food and water.

In the video game franchise, ghouls who have yet to turn feral can live among other humans. There’s not exact consensus on what makes ghouls go feral in the games. Sometimes it’s a matter of isolation and time, but ghouls have also been known to turn feral even when living with others.

In the television show, Fallout added an extra layer of tension in creating a miracle drug that allows Cooper Howard and other ghouls to prolong their feralness–even though in the games it’s more a matter of luck, and there’s no concrete explanation for why or when ghouls turn. We don’t know exactly what drug Cooper is using, but it could possibly be shots of Rad-X increasing his resistance to radiation, thus prolonging his sanity. Whatever it is, it’ll likely continue to be a sore point as he and Lucy move into unknown territory (and stop by New Vegas) in Season 2, and start looking for more of Vault-Tec’s leaders.

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