Ghuls (pronounced like "Ghouls") are tall, slim, cave-dwelling equines notable for their pallid, hairless skin, dual pairs of eyes, sharp teeth, back tentacles/tendrils, and clawed hooves. They are descended from ancient equines (possibly Hipparion) who fled down into the darkness long ago.

Males are extremely vicious hunters driven solely by instinct and an endless hunger. The more starved a male Ghul gets, the more vicious and desperate it gets, to the point where a particularly hungry Ghul pack may turn on one of its weaker members.

Ghuls are nimble and relentless, not caring about any harm done to themselves. However, this leads them to be careless, and due to their desperate nature, they often bump into each other and get into each others’ ways while attacking prey.

Female Ghuls rarely leave the nesting cavern that all Ghuls in a tribe call home. However, this doesn’t mean they aren’t as vicious as their male counterparts. They are even taller, with even longer claws meant to keep the males from trying to attack them or their young.

One odd feature of the females is that they are actually blind, yet are better fighters than the males. This is due to a combination of an extremely heightened sense of hearing and smell, as well as a magical extrasensory ability they seem to possess that allows them to sense all and any movement around them, even the slightest twitch of a muscle.

On their flank, the females bear a bioluminescent sigil that is unique to each of them. It would appear to be similar to the cutie mark of a pony, but the differences end there, as females are born with their marking, and its only purpose is found in a strange mating ritual the Ghouls have.

When a female Ghul goes into her first heat, she will hunt down the nearest eligible male Ghul and attack him, pinning him on his side. She will then carve a copy of her sigil into one of his flanks. After she has finished carving the struggling male, she lets him go running off into the cave systems. She follows after him, hunting him down. Then one of two things happen: the male dies alone in the caves, and the female feasts upon him before seeking out a different mate, or the female catches him and carves the other side, marking him as her mate for life.

Each colony is led by a Ghul Queen, a rare mutation that can occur in female Ghuls that is larger and more threatening than any of her subjects. The Queen is distinct from all due to her cloak of tentacles, alicorn like stature, extra set of eyes, and the bioluminescent markings across her body.

The Queen never leaves the colony’s nesting grounds, always present to watch over her subjects. This is mainly because the Queen is granted many enhanced magical extrasensory abilities, one of which is the ability to calm down vicious Ghuls to prevent them from going at each other’s throats over petty squabbles.

The Queen, like all female Ghuls, is physically blind. However, she greatly makes up for it with her magical sight. Not only can she sense her surroundings, but she can also see through the eyes of nearby Ghuls and read their memories, as well as communicate to them with psychic visions.

All Ghuls obey and respect their Queen, largely because of another magical aura she emits. In return, she loves and cares for each and every one of her Ghuls like they were her own children. She is able to heal illnesses in her Ghuls, making sure they are at perfect help for hunting. Interestingly enough, this same healing spell has the strange effect of turning any surface pony it is used on into a Ghul (hinting at the possibility that this "healing" may be an altered form of the Polymorph Spell), both mentally and physically. It’s a horrifying experience to say the least.

Finally, the Queen’s magic prevents another Queen from being born in her colony, since each one may only have one at a time. The moment the old Queen dies and her influence stops, the next newborn female in the colony will become a Queen and almost immediately reinstate the influence through her passive magical output.

When a Ghul in a colony dies, the custom is for the Queen to thank the fallen individual for their sacrifice with a gentle lick on the forehead. She then eats the brain, after which the rest of the colony strips the carcass of its flesh and takes the bones to a common gravesite.

This is an original species made by Tomsketchit. The original creations were known as "Ghouls", but the name change here is due to a pre-existing Ghoul species detailed elsewhere. everything here has been approved by the original creator. thank you.

Hi. I was thinking of creating a race of creatures that are essentially Equine versions of Tolkien's Uruks called Un'gul (After Ungulate meaning hoofed animal) Would that cause any confusion?

5693701 Actually, we have Uruks proper (covered in the Changeling Relatives post) already. Sorry... but still a good idea! after all, we have Ghuls and Ghouls, Orcs and Orks, and other things like that, so you can go ahead! send me a PM, and we'll smooth out the details!

5697731 Thanks. They've got quite a bit of a backstory to them (Linking to the previous generations) and I think we all agree that the Battle of Minas Tirith in My Little Pony would be awesome!

5697910 War of the Deer needs more battles!

5698148 I'll see what I can do.
I'm quite keen on making those Orders of Battle you find on Wikipedia if you need any.
And I love coming up with names.

5698167 you can look up various facts on the War of the Deer (scattered through various posts, i can't remember all of them, sorry) to get an idea of what happened

5698198 I will.

5698208 I know for a fact it has its own post, and anything having to do with Deer will help, but other facts are scattered around, like in the Orc-related posts in the Changeling Relatives post...

i'll be honest, you might be busy

5698218 No worries.