Welcome to all the lovely people arriving to this video following the release of the Fallout TV show. If you're looking for more Fallout content, then I'd suggest checking out our 'How PipBoys work' video or many of our other Fallout videos here ua-cam.com/video/QHZMlH7aY2Y/v-deo.htmlsi=ycVX7T7-xBqAOIdI
I have the theory that the ghoulification is caused by a drug primarily associated with the Pan Immunity Virion [PVP] that was rolled out as broad spectrum vaccine against biological/radiological weapons developed by China. The mutagenic properties of PVP was further researched leading to the Forced Evolution Virion [FEV] . This was hinted [? ] in the Fallout tv series when the Brotherhood squire with the broken foot got ghoulified after drinking a drug given by a "doctor".[btw SPOILERS]
@LoreTours as a fallout enthusiast - how did you like the new tv series? (I just got into the Games throught the series and had no clue of the lore before watching)
I always wanted to have "Ghoul" be a selectable player race when making a character. It probably wouldn't work story wise for any of the games except New Vegas, but from a gameplay perspective it could have some REALLY interesting contrasting pros and cons compared to a normal human playthrough. Some idea: Pros: - Radiation has no negative effects - Increased DT and limb durability - No drug addiction - Unique dialogue options and skill checks - Feral Ghouls and Super Mutants not automatically hostile (except raiders) Cons: - All drugs are 50% less effective and do not last as long, including stimpacks - Base -5 to speech and barter - Some factions and characters will lock you out of quests or refuse to sell you items (Brotherhood, Enclave, ect.) - Too much unchecked radiation can force the player to periodically enter VATS and attack a random target, including allies. You could have a lot of fun with unique themed perks too: Pre-War Knowledge - You're a pre-war Ghoul, you have forgotten more things than most know, and you just remembered some of it. Instantly gain a level and all its benefits. Glowed Up - Every level of radiation sickness increases your damage by 20%, but you emit a green glow that also gives you -10 stealth with each level of radiation sickness. Zombie Gourmand - Receive double the HP and AP when using the cannibal trait. Using the cannibal trait on other Ghouls and Super Mutants temporarily increases damage and DT. Undead Desperado - 15% increase to accuracy and 20% damage increase for Western style weapons (revolvers, lever action rifles/shotguns, ect.) when using VATS. +2 Speech for all Western wear items (cowboy hats, duster coats, ect) A Ghoul playthrough would be very different but VERY fun.
It feels like a missed opportunity not to include Ghouls and other types of character starting origins in Fallout 76 rather than just having everyone come from the same vault. Feel like the unique nature of that game would have provided the perfect setup for Goul, wastelander, maybe even Super Mutant player characters
You can get addicted to alcohol after drinking 1 beer, but if you live in the glowing sea, popping all the Radaway & Radx in the wasteland nothing happens? 🤷♂️ Pretty sure it was Fallout 3 you can get a Ghoul mask which when equipped Feral Ghouls won't attack you, but yes Ghoulification could have been a perk
I guess it's a lot like the Hulk in Marvel comics. In the Marvel Universe, gamma rays would kill a normal human, but certain humans like Bruce Banner have a mutation in their genome that triggers superhuman abilities when the cells are irradiated.
thats just from natural exposure/nukes. You can 100% find many ways people have made themselves into ghouls via other means just like Virgil did with FEV and controlling becoming a super mutant that retained his memories.
My ideal fallout game has the additon of starting as either a Human, Ghoul or Super Mutant. If you start as a Ghoul you'd probably get a different starting location or even able to choose a different background and get different dialogue from the people you meet.
Player character as a Ghoul could be an epic storyline. After all they can exist for centuries, meaning the background history could be very complex and intriguing. It could also add a cool dynamic where humans aren't immediately talkative or trusting of you, so trust would have to be earned. A cool concept could be the aim of setting up your own Ghoul hideaway like Underworld, having to scour the wastes for particular things the place needs. Maybe you could even control ferals in certain locations when confronted with hostile humans on your travels. The more I think about it, the more I'm liking the angle!
I always imagined ghoulification as the end result of an ongoing dose of lethal radiation being treated with hundreds of stimpaks until you became a corpse who couldn't die. Anyway, loved the vid.
That would be an awesome canon and still keep things somewhat realistic. Maybe these high amounts of radiation cause the effects of the stimpaks to "bake into" the person? Stimpaks could be embryonic stem cells that have been super-boosted by something similar to FEV, causing them to rapidly regenerate cells. Perhaps that effect becomes slightly permanent when baked into a person?
Thats a fun idea. Similar to an idea I had for any D&D type game with healing magic. Remember all those times a healing potion healed you for 8 hit-points when you only needed 7 to get back to full strenth. So where did that one extra hitpoint go? Was it just completely-wasted? I say no. I say its had a longer-term effect on their bodies. And that is why aging adventurers are still far stronger and more capable and age more-slowly than NPCs.
fantastic delivery & pacing ! only nitpick is missing information about not all people being able to become ghouls; most simply die of radiation- but regardless, love the editing & quirky questioning of the listener(s) !
@@LoreTours perhaps it slipped my mind when leaving my comment- if so i do apologize ! i'll have to give it another listen sometime ! & thank you kindly for the reply, truly appreciate it !
U can get the foul mask in fallout 3 and just rp from that point as if youd been turned (there’s a ton of gouls there and u could easily make that your secondary starting point) I can’t help but grab the mask every time I play bc it lets you walk with the fouls as if you are one
0:47 in reality people drinked "radioactive water" because they thought it maked them stronger, more fertile, helped them with their vitality etc... for example radithor.
I'm definitely sad how they changed the art style of the ghouls in FO4 & FO76 as i was a fan of it for previous games, each ghoul's appearance was unique and honestly very terrifying as you could see bits of skin falling of them and some would even have different skin color
They are probably more visually interesting but I find it hard to believe any off them could survive in the wasteland. They are actively decomposing so it’s hard to believe they could stick around for so long
@@creativename6126 Yeah, current Ghouls with permanent scarring instead of rotting flesh makes more sense to me. I like both looks, and I do want both to remain canon, but the old Ghouls are literally falling apart. No way they're living 200-300 years
I think Hancock would've been an interesting case to add here, as he says he somehow ghoulified himself through the use of chems. A strange case, to be sure! Really enjoyed your video though. ☺️ You have a lovely voice for narrating!
Really? I wish he had more human features than looking like the rest since he’s new in the ghoulification compared to others that got it from the pre war era
Gotta love Hancock. Knowingly ghoulified himself to try a new drug 🤣 don't think I'd do it personally. Skin and facial features falling off would be so messed up 🤮
The way I think of fallout radiation is it’s just a unique kind of radiation that doesn’t exist irl causing it to have its own unique affect like becoming a ghoul
Or maybe the government just released FEV to the general population... That would make radiation works crazy unpredictable. And if we stop to think about it... If the gov wanted to ensure that it would still have life on earth, then releasing the FEV its pretty much mandatory.
It is likely that ghouls do not need to eat at all. After all the ghoul child Billy we meet in Fallout 4 has been locked inside a fridge where he hid when the bombs started falling and he has been stuck inside that fridge for over 200 years. In all that time (aside from being ghoulified) he has not aged a day and survived all that time without any food or water (though he may have possibly drank at least some water did get inside the fridge during rains so perhaps he did drink at least a little over the two centuries he has been stuck in that fridge. We also do not know whether ghouls are actually immortal or just live a very long time - as there has simply been no case of a ghoul dying of old age. Their appearance would suggest the former as it would appear that their cells dying and regenerating are in near-perfect synchronization, essentially being replaced with identical new ones as soon as the old ones die. This would mean practical immortality, or at the very least a lifespan so impossibly long that it basically makes no difference. It is also highly implied that ghouls going feral is more of a mental problem than a physical one. Hopelessness and loss of will to live seem to accelerate this process significantly. This appears to be the reason why some ghouls have lived for over 200 years and appear to be in perfect condition (for a ghoul) while others become feral shortly after turning, it is all about their mental state. Two ghouls were actually trying to find a cure for ghoulification, but once they realized they could not - they immediately turned feral because they lost hope.
I always just assumed the wild, outlandish mutations, like ghoulification and enlarged creatures, were probably caused by a unique, occasional mix of radiation and trace amounts of FEV that might have somehow gotten into the atmosphere.
Well FEV is a virus and they will end up propagating into the environment like one, especially a virus that’s immune to radiation and gives its hosts similar immunity
With the release of the FO tv show, I wonder if Lucy might be becoming a ghoul as we see her able to move one of her digits replace with another quite some time after the original had seen a catastrophic injury. I think it would be really neat to see the very pretty main naive character of the story turn into a ghoul over time as the Wasteland does some similar mutating of her morals at the same time.
You might be surprised to find out that radiated drinks were indeed advertised as a health product. Around the turn of the century or earlier I believe.
I could have sworn pre-FO3, Ghouls were created by exposure to a very small level of FEV and dosed with high levels of radiation. Harold states as much in FO1. I know it isn't canon now, but, I like the original idea that it takes FEV and radiation, plus the genes to even survive the process.
Yes and no. The real truth is that for the first two games the devs couldn't even agree on what caused it- some said what you said, others that fev is deadly to any ghoul
I have a theory about ghouls... So, if everyone could become one, then the amount of dead on the aftermath of the Nuclear Holocaust would be very low. They would mostly have died by damage. However, things like open vaults that were designed to work that way suggest that somehow the higher lvs of government and personal were expecting something like that to happen. So the key here is: What if the FEV was released into the general population in very, very lower dosages and they just waited to see what would happen when the bombs fall out? People who got exposed much would survive ground 0 explosion and others would just have enough to survive the hardships of the land... Especially because every vault dweller we play as in the games seems to be highly affected by radiation, while everyone else aint... And if i would think like a scientist then, the release of FEV into the general population in various degrees would be a control group for observation and improvement of the virus, especially by having something to compare in the labs. Not only that, but having actual human beings alive in vaults make it so every change is possible to catalog and compare... And if we were to take it a step further, it would explain why in a certain point it would be so hard for even the institute to get a fresh body that haven't gone into decay by "radiation" even though there are plenty of vault dwellers around, but a baby would be in pristine conditions by have not being exposed to any kind of FEV... Also, if they knew that the war was going to break out and vault tec wanted to preserve the world biome, then surely they would have released the FEV to the whole planet in order to ensure something would have survived and then just watch what happens...
I wish you could encounter a "fresh" ghoul in the games, someone who is living somewhere isolated, unknowingly living in radiation. Confused about what is happening to them, panicking, still has their hair but about to turn. Meeting them would start a quest of somekind
I think it'd be great as a story about a ghoul or just a mechanic of becoming a ghoul at any point. But personally I'd love a full story about someone who becomes a ghoul. The ghoul from nuke break is a great character. You'd be weaker, suffer more limb damage but heal over time, heal from rads and be shunned and judged by almost everyone you meet.
Part of me wonders if we could ever seen born ghouls. It was a plot in the canceled van Buren game. That have all the good parts of ghouls but also can breed with humans.
Well the big issue with that is that ghouls can't just 'not breed with humans', they can't breed at all. The radiation sterilized them. There may be a workaround for that- perhaps ghoulification in the womb?- but while I think it would be absolutely awesome, I also think it would be VERY hard to pull off
@@finn_in_the_bin5263 Well I don't think a female ghoul can get pregnant however a male may not be. From what I heard about the van Buren it was about a scientists wanting to create army of born ghouls. We learn humans and born ghouls are compatible because if your male you can romance a female born ghoul
@@projectboy5409 I mean yeah I'm sure there's a way for it to be possible but I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the men are just as sterile as the women in one of the games
@@projectboy5409 I wonder if some sort of invitro was used? Like maybe it's not that the men don't have any swimmers but that they're just weaker/tend to die before they make it to the egg or something?
Underrated channels are about the only thing that makes UA-cam better than boring, homogenized, old TV cable. I feel conflicting emotions when a channel I have followed for years becomes broadly popular.
I have wondered if the ghoulification, especially of the survivors from the bombs dropping, had something to do with worldwide exposure to radiation prior to the apocalypse. They were constantly exposed to radiation of various levels through their consumer technology. We have now seen that animals in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have fairly quickly evolved to survive long-term radiation exposure. Not by becoming immune to the radiation itself but fighting off the cancer that such exposure normally produces. Radiation is a mutation catalyst, a pretty powerful one. So humans exposed to what we would consider very harmful levels of radiation, but still not high enough to trigger acute radiation sickness, may have been evolving to survive the effects of radiation exposure in the time leading up to the bombs dropping. So that when it happens, and they are exposed to higher levels, they are genetically primed to essentially become Deadpool-lite under the right conditions. Radiation exposure then becomes a kind of catalyst for things like regeneration. Or to soak up and hold onto radiation in their cells.
Nice work! I wish more lore videos would provide citations for the main points, either in the video itself, or in the comments. I'm sure a lot of research goes into scripting these videos, so it's kind of a shame not to make that info more widely known. Anyway, found this after seeing the show. I really enjoyed it, but one of my nitpicks was that it felt like maybe the writers took some liberties with the ghoul lore. I'm still not sure why they needed to invent ghoulification drugs and anti-feral drugs.
That's a good point on the citations. The Wikis are usually a good starting point to get an idea for the lore, then you have to dive deeper into the specific references mentioned on the wiki, exploring the game dialogue for yourself, going through reference books, logs etc. Been a while since I made this one but I feel a lot of the info came from dialogue and the computers of the doctor in Underworld.
around 9:20ish you mention Jason Bright implying that he and his group of followers were able to repair the rockets, but Jason himself reveals to you that without the human-scientist (forgetting his name) they never could have achieved it.
Fun fact: The fallout ghouls were actually based on a real world phenomenon that happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, after the bombs. Survivors were horrifically disfigured from the heat and radiation, labeled Hibakusha and ostracized from normal civilization. These survivors tell stories of seeing people walking around the burning city with their skin peeling off, missing nose, ears and eyes; and just shuffling around, moaning like zombies. The ones that were that bad didn't live long, from a few minutes to no longer than a week.
I watched a very interesting video the other day by one of the major players involved in the creation of nukes and civilian reactors and he flat out stated that radiation is not dangerous and was only made scary to keep people from stealing the plutonium.
Another thing I pointed out to a friend of mine is that in the fallout universe, they dropped the nukes wrong. They actually had a smaller blast radius and longer lasting radiation more in line with the Chernobyl event than with Hiroshima and Nagasaki which were basically clear of serious radiation in around a decade, both of which were detonated at high altitudes for a larger blast and burn radius.
@@danamania150 Hancock from Fallout 4 became a ghoul by taking a drug as well, so I don't see what lore is being broken here. Sounds to me like you need to brush up on the lore yourself. Or are you one of those 'Bethesda lore isn't canon' types?
Imagine finding a ghouls who rotted on the inside, and they need a power suit to walk around. They will still look like a smoothskin but sound like a ghoul.
Interesting concept, guessing they'd avoid most discrimination faced by Ghouls but still have most of the benefits of being a ghoul, if you consider them benefits that is...
My own head cannon is that ghouls go feral when undergoing extreme mental distress, which might damage higher brain functions a lot, there is research in the real world that suggests that conic stress can seriously strain the parts of our brain that controls emotions and cognitive function, and with an already half decayed body this could cause serious harm to ghouls, possibly destroying those parts of the brain making them stupid emotional monsters. It would also make the isolation from people true as well, as unless you have the mental fortitude to withstand isolation for decades or possibly centuries it will start driving you crazy, lead to stress, and by my logic make you go feral.
My personal thoughts on the whole radiation ideology I that we believe this is solely based on our own radiation technologies. But in reality there are numerous different types of radiation in the universe, possibly endless different types. What if the bombs made in fallout weren't like ours at all.
Ah here I am again. Watching fallout lore videos. Re-learning the same information I have already acquired through 1000s of hours playing the games. Yet I never learn. The cyclical nature of existence holds me firmly. Maybe the only escape for me would be true nuclear flame passing over the land I live, eradicating me from reality. Until then I will find myself here again in a slightly altered form. A different video, a different creator. Yet I will be back there is no escape. War never changes.
I really need to play the older Fallout games! I was introduced to the universe only recently with 76. And these creepy and memorable quests you speak of - I'm not disappointed, because yeah... not so much in that one. A couple of the sentient ghoul characters do have somewhat decent stories I guess (though I will guess that that lack of ability to be fully interesting is mostly to blame on these ones - and the post-war world itself, being still so much younger.) And large waves of ferals in places well known to spawn them can be a bit horrifying and challenging in the early game...
Not even modern Bethesda compares to the PS3 era games they made, I still haven't played the original three (there was a spin off after 2) either, but the franchise seems more interesting the further back you go.
So note that I haven't watched the show but it seems like thell go feral just givin enough time if they dont have what ever that chem is he takes. whats up with that?
I say a fallout that you can become a super mutant or ghoul through the game itself. You could go ghoul fairly easily but super mutant would be either chance you survive being captured by super mutants (unlikely) or either find or make your own FEV and dose yourself to become one
I was super excited to see you use footage from the original top down rpg. Fallout 2 is the best of any of the games. I wish they would put out an update
A Niche topic that not many people care about broken down into detail? YES LETS GO!!! And an angelic voice to walk me through a perfectly paced video. Wonderful all around.
I think I have a soft spot for Ghouls not only because of what they went through to turn into Ghouls, but also because of what they become when they go feral.
Those is interesting. This is basically how I understood the whole process, but I recently watched the Fallout series on Amazon. While I love the series, and for the most part, they are spot on with the lore, this is one sticking point for me. In that series, they imply that becoming a ghoul can be done via chemistry... possibly irradiated chemistry though. And, it seems that a specific drug (the name slips my mind at the moment) is what is required to prevent becoming feral, and lacking it means becoming feral is inevitable. That seems contrary to this synopsis and my understanding of ghouls. The series is very entertaining, though, and Coggins was really good as the ghoul.
Lately, new reincarnations of any given Intellectual Property seldom adhere to the lore. The writer/director is always too prideful, and too beholden to woke interests to write and direct unique and creative scripts. They are capable only of twisting the old stories to suit woke agendas, because evil cannot create but rather excels at perverting all that was once good.
@@SanchoPanza-m8m in general, this may be true (not sure about "evil" though), but Todd Howard was the executive producer, so I am less inclined to believe that is the reason.
Hey lore, great vid, but you kind of missed the mark. In the Fallout universe during the bombardment of the great war pre-war facilities containing several strains of the FEV virus. THIS COMBINED WITH GAMMA RADIATION is what actually causes all the mutations seen throughout the flora and fauna of the US wasteland.
Thanks! In most cases that's correct, but not with Ghouls oddly. Originally the devs went with the FEV explanation then retconned it to say just radiation causes Ghoulification. That's why Desmond and Eddie Winter were able to ghoulify themselves prior to the war and FEV exposure :)
he Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) is a genetically engineered mutagen in the Fallout video game franchise that can cause unpredictable mutations in people and other creatures. The FEV is responsible for the Super Mutant population, including ghouls, and other creatures in the Wasteland. The FEV can be transmitted through direct contact or injection, and can cause permanent changes to a host's DNA. When administered to a genetically viable individual, it can cause accelerated mutation and recursive growth.
Doesn't really have anything to do with Ghouls from what I could see, surprisingly. I thought at first it was due to FEV exposure but apparently the Devs abandoned that idea in favour of just Radiation causing ghoulification, haven't seen anything in lore since saying otherwise. Could be mistaken but I did pursue that idea whilst researching. At the end of the day, the lore is a bit of a mess and changes slightly with every game so who know 🙂
Harold is stated by devs and the character himself not to be a ghoul at all. Current canon is that FEV is deadly to ghouls, and Harold is just a very unique form of mutant (more like the super mutants than ghouls but in a totally different direction of mutation) that happens to look very ghoulish due to how his skin reaction to the virus and the wood of his botanical mutation element resembles the rough and gnarled skin of actual ghouls
I know each game has ghoulish perks. But what if before we could get it in the next gsme. We have a new mechanic to prevent us from going ghoul snd eventually going feral?
"Getting sick from radiation" Ummm... No... at least in Fallout 4! As long as you avoid the radiation storms you wouldn't get radiation sickness... generally after a nuke is dropped you just avoid that area for 1-5 years, it's been 200 in FO4
When I was younger playing Fallout 3, I felt so bad for the prejudice ghouls faced at Tenpenny Towers. I tried to help the ghouls out, but I didn’t realize they were just going to go kill all the Smoothskins 😢
Welcome to all the lovely people arriving to this video following the release of the Fallout TV show. If you're looking for more Fallout content, then I'd suggest checking out our 'How PipBoys work' video or many of our other Fallout videos here ua-cam.com/video/QHZMlH7aY2Y/v-deo.htmlsi=ycVX7T7-xBqAOIdI
I have the theory that the ghoulification is caused by a drug primarily associated with the Pan Immunity Virion [PVP] that was rolled out as broad spectrum vaccine against biological/radiological weapons developed by China. The mutagenic properties of PVP was further researched leading to the Forced Evolution Virion [FEV] . This was hinted [? ] in the Fallout tv series when the Brotherhood squire with the broken foot got ghoulified after drinking a drug given by a "doctor".[btw SPOILERS]
Hate to be that guy but you're saying 'nuclear' wrong and it's grating
I love the passive aggression in your comment.
@@SmackheadGaming nucular. it is pronounced nucular.
@LoreTours as a fallout enthusiast - how did you like the new tv series? (I just got into the Games throught the series and had no clue of the lore before watching)
I always wanted to have "Ghoul" be a selectable player race when making a character. It probably wouldn't work story wise for any of the games except New Vegas, but from a gameplay perspective it could have some REALLY interesting contrasting pros and cons compared to a normal human playthrough.
Some idea:
Pros:
- Radiation has no negative effects
- Increased DT and limb durability
- No drug addiction
- Unique dialogue options and skill checks
- Feral Ghouls and Super Mutants not automatically hostile (except raiders)
Cons:
- All drugs are 50% less effective and do not last as long, including stimpacks
- Base -5 to speech and barter
- Some factions and characters will lock you out of quests or refuse to sell you items (Brotherhood, Enclave, ect.)
- Too much unchecked radiation can force the player to periodically enter VATS and attack a random target, including allies.
You could have a lot of fun with unique themed perks too:
Pre-War Knowledge -
You're a pre-war Ghoul, you have forgotten more things than most know, and you just remembered some of it. Instantly gain a level and all its benefits.
Glowed Up -
Every level of radiation sickness increases your damage by 20%, but you emit a green glow that also gives you -10 stealth with each level of radiation sickness.
Zombie Gourmand -
Receive double the HP and AP when using the cannibal trait. Using the cannibal trait on other Ghouls and Super Mutants temporarily increases damage and DT.
Undead Desperado -
15% increase to accuracy and 20% damage increase for Western style weapons (revolvers, lever action rifles/shotguns, ect.) when using VATS.
+2 Speech for all Western wear items (cowboy hats, duster coats, ect)
A Ghoul playthrough would be very different but VERY fun.
It feels like a missed opportunity not to include Ghouls and other types of character starting origins in Fallout 76 rather than just having everyone come from the same vault. Feel like the unique nature of that game would have provided the perfect setup for Goul, wastelander, maybe even Super Mutant player characters
You can get addicted to alcohol after drinking 1 beer, but if you live in the glowing sea, popping all the Radaway & Radx in the wasteland nothing happens? 🤷♂️
Pretty sure it was Fallout 3 you can get a Ghoul mask which when equipped Feral Ghouls won't attack you, but yes Ghoulification could have been a perk
I love this idea 💡
Welp you predicted it.
@@dinobro3253 pretty cool that they've finally added the feature, hopefully it's added to a fututre non 76 game too
Couldn't imagine being stuck in a refrigerator for 210 years and not die
It remembers me Deadpool, that also happened to him
Yeah it’s a silly quest and probably shouldn’t be taken seriously
@@connorwilcox146he isn’t 💀 he’s saying it in a way like it would be horrible to be stuck in one, not that it couldn’t be true 😂
Maybe he was sleeping
@@yiosomethingsounds like not many had a meth binge- 36 hours under pseudosleep isn't um...
There is also a genetic factor, not everyone has the ghoulification gene so they pass
I guess it's a lot like the Hulk in Marvel comics.
In the Marvel Universe, gamma rays would kill a normal human, but certain humans like Bruce Banner have a mutation in their genome that triggers superhuman abilities when the cells are irradiated.
thats just from natural exposure/nukes. You can 100% find many ways people have made themselves into ghouls via other means just like Virgil did with FEV and controlling becoming a super mutant that retained his memories.
My ideal fallout game has the additon of starting as either a Human, Ghoul or Super Mutant. If you start as a Ghoul you'd probably get a different starting location or even able to choose a different background and get different dialogue from the people you meet.
Player character as a Ghoul could be an epic storyline. After all they can exist for centuries, meaning the background history could be very complex and intriguing. It could also add a cool dynamic where humans aren't immediately talkative or trusting of you, so trust would have to be earned. A cool concept could be the aim of setting up your own Ghoul hideaway like Underworld, having to scour the wastes for particular things the place needs. Maybe you could even control ferals in certain locations when confronted with hostile humans on your travels. The more I think about it, the more I'm liking the angle!
@@victorymansions no one could ever pay bethesda enough to work that hard
100% agree and each mode could be a subtle difficulty increase
I made a Super Mutant friend in Fallout 3 back in the day lol
The closest I’ve gotten is the human/synth//ghoul mod in 4. It’s pretty cool to see my character as different races though!
Always wished we had a way to become a ghoul or super mutant, each would have it pros and cons.
That would have been fun. SPECIAL skills of 1 for Intelligence and Charisma but 10 for strength for Supermutant characters
@@LoreTours about a 8 or 9 in Endurance
Iirc you could become a super mutant in one of the first two fallout games?
@@TheRealLumpySpirit sorta, but it ended the game.
Or choose race/species like in Elder Scrolls
What I love about the series that recently dropped, is that one of the main characters is a ghoul.
There's a chem that can prevent ghouls from becoming feral. This will be explained in the next major fallout release
Please elaborate?! Where did you find this info
You were right lmao.
😂 ur right
Your the messiah dude
are you from Bethesda?
I always imagined ghoulification as the end result of an ongoing dose of lethal radiation being treated with hundreds of stimpaks until you became a corpse who couldn't die. Anyway, loved the vid.
That would be an awesome canon and still keep things somewhat realistic. Maybe these high amounts of radiation cause the effects of the stimpaks to "bake into" the person? Stimpaks could be embryonic stem cells that have been super-boosted by something similar to FEV, causing them to rapidly regenerate cells. Perhaps that effect becomes slightly permanent when baked into a person?
I like this theory
Thats a fun idea. Similar to an idea I had for any D&D type game with healing magic. Remember all those times a healing potion healed you for 8 hit-points when you only needed 7 to get back to full strenth. So where did that one extra hitpoint go? Was it just completely-wasted? I say no. I say its had a longer-term effect on their bodies. And that is why aging adventurers are still far stronger and more capable and age more-slowly than NPCs.
fantastic delivery & pacing !
only nitpick is missing information about not all people being able to become ghouls; most simply die of radiation-
but regardless, love the editing & quirky questioning of the listener(s) !
Thanks dude, means a lot.
Ah thought I mentioned that at the beginning, must have forgot to add it into the final script! Thanks for the feedback :)
@@LoreTours perhaps it slipped my mind when leaving my comment-
if so i do apologize !
i'll have to give it another listen sometime !
& thank you kindly for the reply, truly appreciate it !
great show goggins as the ghoul is perfect casting.
I feel like I just sat it one of the best lectures in college about ghouls. Hell of a video mate
Ahahaha thanks mate 😊
I honestly have always wanted a choice in the vanilla game to start as a ghoul or become one.
Wow undead rogue looks just like it.
U can get the foul mask in fallout 3 and just rp from that point as if youd been turned (there’s a ton of gouls there and u could easily make that your secondary starting point) I can’t help but grab the mask every time I play bc it lets you walk with the fouls as if you are one
@@skyetyga2585 but there isn't a mechanic behind it really you still get treated like a vault dweller/wastelander.
This is the type of video I'd watch in the middle of the night for this specific question so thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Wonderful video! Well edited, well paced and well done all around. Hope to see more 🥺
Thank you! 😊
Picture any female ghouls voice and how it sounds now imagine that voice saying mmmmmhh Homer!
Eh it's deeper than Marge
HAHAHAHA. Mmmmmm, Homie, come to bed. I love it when you nuzzle my neck before we snuggle. XD
0:47 in reality people drinked "radioactive water" because they thought it maked them stronger, more fertile, helped them with their vitality etc... for example radithor.
I'm definitely sad how they changed the art style of the ghouls in FO4 & FO76 as i was a fan of it for previous games, each ghoul's appearance was unique and honestly very terrifying as you could see bits of skin falling of them and some would even have different skin color
They are probably more visually interesting but I find it hard to believe any off them could survive in the wasteland. They are actively decomposing so it’s hard to believe they could stick around for so long
@@creativename6126 personaly like the new ones as they look completely plausible
@@creativename6126 Yeah, current Ghouls with permanent scarring instead of rotting flesh makes more sense to me.
I like both looks, and I do want both to remain canon, but the old Ghouls are literally falling apart. No way they're living 200-300 years
Who cares what makes sense when it makes the games more boring.
@@poppers7317 A game is more engaging when its universe is somewhat believable.
Straight away sub ,no annoying intro I appreciate it .
Thanks :)
I think Hancock would've been an interesting case to add here, as he says he somehow ghoulified himself through the use of chems. A strange case, to be sure!
Really enjoyed your video though. ☺️ You have a lovely voice for narrating!
Good point! Yes interesting how the side effects of a radiation drug managed to turn him into a Ghoul. Thanks :)
Really? I wish he had more human features than looking like the rest since he’s new in the ghoulification compared to others that got it from the pre war era
Gotta love Hancock. Knowingly ghoulified himself to try a new drug 🤣 don't think I'd do it personally. Skin and facial features falling off would be so messed up 🤮
There was also Eddie Winter who used experimental treatment to become a ghoul before the Great War before hiding out in his bunker
Funny how the TV show made this relevant again
You should have way more subs man, this is very entertaining and informational
Thanks! :)
The way I think of fallout radiation is it’s just a unique kind of radiation that doesn’t exist irl causing it to have its own unique affect like becoming a ghoul
That's the best way to think about it, it has its own rules in Fallout
Or maybe the government just released FEV to the general population... That would make radiation works crazy unpredictable. And if we stop to think about it... If the gov wanted to ensure that it would still have life on earth, then releasing the FEV its pretty much mandatory.
It is likely that ghouls do not need to eat at all. After all the ghoul child Billy we meet in Fallout 4 has been locked inside a fridge where he hid when the bombs started falling and he has been stuck inside that fridge for over 200 years. In all that time (aside from being ghoulified) he has not aged a day and survived all that time without any food or water (though he may have possibly drank at least some water did get inside the fridge during rains so perhaps he did drink at least a little over the two centuries he has been stuck in that fridge.
We also do not know whether ghouls are actually immortal or just live a very long time - as there has simply been no case of a ghoul dying of old age. Their appearance would suggest the former as it would appear that their cells dying and regenerating are in near-perfect synchronization, essentially being replaced with identical new ones as soon as the old ones die. This would mean practical immortality, or at the very least a lifespan so impossibly long that it basically makes no difference.
It is also highly implied that ghouls going feral is more of a mental problem than a physical one. Hopelessness and loss of will to live seem to accelerate this process significantly. This appears to be the reason why some ghouls have lived for over 200 years and appear to be in perfect condition (for a ghoul) while others become feral shortly after turning, it is all about their mental state. Two ghouls were actually trying to find a cure for ghoulification, but once they realized they could not - they immediately turned feral because they lost hope.
I always just assumed the wild, outlandish mutations, like ghoulification and enlarged creatures, were probably caused by a unique, occasional mix of radiation and trace amounts of FEV that might have somehow gotten into the atmosphere.
Well FEV is a virus and they will end up propagating into the environment like one, especially a virus that’s immune to radiation and gives its hosts similar immunity
Vault 34 kills the ghoul part.
With the release of the FO tv show, I wonder if Lucy might be becoming a ghoul as we see her able to move one of her digits replace with another quite some time after the original had seen a catastrophic injury. I think it would be really neat to see the very pretty main naive character of the story turn into a ghoul over time as the Wasteland does some similar mutating of her morals at the same time.
That would be so cool and would make her parallel with cooper even more interesting
Would be interesting but I doubt it because her finger was surgically attached by Snip Snip, not by simply jamming a finger back on her hand.
You might be surprised to find out that radiated drinks were indeed advertised as a health product. Around the turn of the century or earlier I believe.
It was great until your jaw literally fell off. It happened due to people taking such products for "health".
I could have sworn pre-FO3, Ghouls were created by exposure to a very small level of FEV and dosed with high levels of radiation. Harold states as much in FO1. I know it isn't canon now, but, I like the original idea that it takes FEV and radiation, plus the genes to even survive the process.
Yes and no. The real truth is that for the first two games the devs couldn't even agree on what caused it- some said what you said, others that fev is deadly to any ghoul
The non freal goul in camp search light is my favorite
Hey, I loved the jazzle dazzle music
Can they produce children or did it also fall off
In New Vegas you can have sex with a ghoul so I guess they do have it
No they're sterile, but they still have working privates
In fallout shelter it's proven because if you put a human dweller and a ghoul in a living quarter they have baby
what is they reproduce like fish
I have a theory about ghouls... So, if everyone could become one, then the amount of dead on the aftermath of the Nuclear Holocaust would be very low. They would mostly have died by damage. However, things like open vaults that were designed to work that way suggest that somehow the higher lvs of government and personal were expecting something like that to happen.
So the key here is: What if the FEV was released into the general population in very, very lower dosages and they just waited to see what would happen when the bombs fall out? People who got exposed much would survive ground 0 explosion and others would just have enough to survive the hardships of the land... Especially because every vault dweller we play as in the games seems to be highly affected by radiation, while everyone else aint...
And if i would think like a scientist then, the release of FEV into the general population in various degrees would be a control group for observation and improvement of the virus, especially by having something to compare in the labs. Not only that, but having actual human beings alive in vaults make it so every change is possible to catalog and compare... And if we were to take it a step further, it would explain why in a certain point it would be so hard for even the institute to get a fresh body that haven't gone into decay by "radiation" even though there are plenty of vault dwellers around, but a baby would be in pristine conditions by have not being exposed to any kind of FEV...
Also, if they knew that the war was going to break out and vault tec wanted to preserve the world biome, then surely they would have released the FEV to the whole planet in order to ensure something would have survived and then just watch what happens...
So Deadpool is kind of a ghoul?
You're a ghoul
So Deadpool is a ghoul ?
Correct
Amazing work...
Keep it up you'll have millions of subscribers in no time...
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!😀
Amazing Documentary please do more Fallout videos like this!
Thanks! Fallout is pretty fun to cover, so much lore.
I wish you could encounter a "fresh" ghoul in the games, someone who is living somewhere isolated, unknowingly living in radiation. Confused about what is happening to them, panicking, still has their hair but about to turn. Meeting them would start a quest of somekind
Imagine playing a fallout game where your character became a ghoul.
It could add an interesting aspect.. a weak feeble ghoul that is looked down on by all.. and you must traver5the waste land with a new perspective
I think it'd be great as a story about a ghoul or just a mechanic of becoming a ghoul at any point. But personally I'd love a full story about someone who becomes a ghoul. The ghoul from nuke break is a great character. You'd be weaker, suffer more limb damage but heal over time, heal from rads and be shunned and judged by almost everyone you meet.
There technically are more than one of those- they're called 'super fucking cool ghoulification mods' XD
The music is a bit to loud
A bit...
Too
@@GameGardener thanks, never understood when to use to or too
Part of me wonders if we could ever seen born ghouls. It was a plot in the canceled van Buren game. That have all the good parts of ghouls but also can breed with humans.
Well the big issue with that is that ghouls can't just 'not breed with humans', they can't breed at all. The radiation sterilized them. There may be a workaround for that- perhaps ghoulification in the womb?- but while I think it would be absolutely awesome, I also think it would be VERY hard to pull off
@@finn_in_the_bin5263 Well I don't think a female ghoul can get pregnant however a male may not be. From what I heard about the van Buren it was about a scientists wanting to create army of born ghouls. We learn humans and born ghouls are compatible because if your male you can romance a female born ghoul
@@projectboy5409 I mean yeah I'm sure there's a way for it to be possible but I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the men are just as sterile as the women in one of the games
@@finn_in_the_bin5263 in the wiki page it kinda talks about how at that point the had only made 3 because of the low success rate of well making them.
@@projectboy5409 I wonder if some sort of invitro was used? Like maybe it's not that the men don't have any swimmers but that they're just weaker/tend to die before they make it to the egg or something?
Love this video! Can't believe how underrated this channel is
Glad you enjoyed it!
Underrated channels are about the only thing that makes UA-cam better than boring, homogenized, old TV cable. I feel conflicting emotions when a channel I have followed for years becomes broadly popular.
I have wondered if the ghoulification, especially of the survivors from the bombs dropping, had something to do with worldwide exposure to radiation prior to the apocalypse.
They were constantly exposed to radiation of various levels through their consumer technology.
We have now seen that animals in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have fairly quickly evolved to survive long-term radiation exposure. Not by becoming immune to the radiation itself but fighting off the cancer that such exposure normally produces.
Radiation is a mutation catalyst, a pretty powerful one. So humans exposed to what we would consider very harmful levels of radiation, but still not high enough to trigger acute radiation sickness, may have been evolving to survive the effects of radiation exposure in the time leading up to the bombs dropping.
So that when it happens, and they are exposed to higher levels, they are genetically primed to essentially become Deadpool-lite under the right conditions.
Radiation exposure then becomes a kind of catalyst for things like regeneration. Or to soak up and hold onto radiation in their cells.
Been playing since the day FO3 came out on PS3, glad to see more people getting into the series!
“I’d give you some cherry tomatoes but you got a hole in your neck”
- some ghoul badass
I love the background music
In the next fallout game you should get to play as a ghoul from ground zero somewhere
Nice work! I wish more lore videos would provide citations for the main points, either in the video itself, or in the comments. I'm sure a lot of research goes into scripting these videos, so it's kind of a shame not to make that info more widely known.
Anyway, found this after seeing the show. I really enjoyed it, but one of my nitpicks was that it felt like maybe the writers took some liberties with the ghoul lore. I'm still not sure why they needed to invent ghoulification drugs and anti-feral drugs.
That's a good point on the citations. The Wikis are usually a good starting point to get an idea for the lore, then you have to dive deeper into the specific references mentioned on the wiki, exploring the game dialogue for yourself, going through reference books, logs etc.
Been a while since I made this one but I feel a lot of the info came from dialogue and the computers of the doctor in Underworld.
I have to say that fall out as one of the most expensive and most interesting post-apocalyptic societies I've ever seen
I wonder if any of them try to fashion cosmetic items to compensate for missing noses or exposed muscles, like prosthetics
Prejudice against ghouls tracks perfectly with humanity. Ostracizing the people who got it the worst in the whole mess.
Ghoul mercs would legit be tough to deal with.
around 9:20ish you mention Jason Bright implying that he and his group of followers were able to repair the rockets, but Jason himself reveals to you that without the human-scientist (forgetting his name) they never could have achieved it.
Fun fact: The fallout ghouls were actually based on a real world phenomenon that happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, after the bombs.
Survivors were horrifically disfigured from the heat and radiation, labeled
Hibakusha and ostracized from normal civilization. These survivors tell stories of seeing people walking around the burning city with their skin peeling off, missing nose, ears and eyes; and just shuffling around, moaning like zombies.
The ones that were that bad didn't live long, from a few minutes to no longer than a week.
I watched a very interesting video the other day by one of the major players involved in the creation of nukes and civilian reactors and he flat out stated that radiation is not dangerous and was only made scary to keep people from stealing the plutonium.
Another thing I pointed out to a friend of mine is that in the fallout universe, they dropped the nukes wrong. They actually had a smaller blast radius and longer lasting radiation more in line with the Chernobyl event than with Hiroshima and Nagasaki which were basically clear of serious radiation in around a decade, both of which were detonated at high altitudes for a larger blast and burn radius.
There is something peaceful about listening to someone explain Fallout over hotel lobby piano music!
According to the TV show, all you need is an injection
Lore breaking shit show
@@danamania150 Hancock from Fallout 4 became a ghoul by taking a drug as well, so I don't see what lore is being broken here. Sounds to me like you need to brush up on the lore yourself. Or are you one of those 'Bethesda lore isn't canon' types?
Imagine finding a ghouls who rotted on the inside, and they need a power suit to walk around. They will still look like a smoothskin but sound like a ghoul.
Interesting concept, guessing they'd avoid most discrimination faced by Ghouls but still have most of the benefits of being a ghoul, if you consider them benefits that is...
My own head cannon is that ghouls go feral when undergoing extreme mental distress, which might damage higher brain functions a lot, there is research in the real world that suggests that conic stress can seriously strain the parts of our brain that controls emotions and cognitive function, and with an already half decayed body this could cause serious harm to ghouls, possibly destroying those parts of the brain making them stupid emotional monsters. It would also make the isolation from people true as well, as unless you have the mental fortitude to withstand isolation for decades or possibly centuries it will start driving you crazy, lead to stress, and by my logic make you go feral.
Great vid!
I wanna see a ghoul clut in fallout as they’re basically immortal
"Ghoul clut"?
This is wonderful. Thank you for romanticizing being a ghoul. The music fits perfectly.
Kid in the fridge was probably just meant to be a funny joke and the devs didn't realise it would be lore breaking
Very true, seems like the lore changes every game just to suit off handed jokes or new mechanics
I think being a synth is better as you look human and could pass yourself off as normal. Where a ghoul can not.
True, would you have free will though...
@@LoreTours Free will would be in question I guess. But there are exceptions to everything from Curi to that synth detective and others.
My personal thoughts on the whole radiation ideology I that we believe this is solely based on our own radiation technologies.
But in reality there are numerous different types of radiation in the universe, possibly endless different types.
What if the bombs made in fallout weren't like ours at all.
Ah here I am again. Watching fallout lore videos. Re-learning the same information I have already acquired through 1000s of hours playing the games. Yet I never learn. The cyclical nature of existence holds me firmly. Maybe the only escape for me would be true nuclear flame passing over the land I live, eradicating me from reality. Until then I will find myself here again in a slightly altered form. A different video, a different creator. Yet I will be back there is no escape. War never changes.
I want to be like Harvey dent and be half ghoul, half human.
Shoutout to Billy Peabody
Lore. Lore! LORE! And even more more lore. Can’t get enough of videos that have lore in the title, can we, folks?
I really need to play the older Fallout games! I was introduced to the universe only recently with 76. And these creepy and memorable quests you speak of - I'm not disappointed, because yeah... not so much in that one. A couple of the sentient ghoul characters do have somewhat decent stories I guess (though I will guess that that lack of ability to be fully interesting is mostly to blame on these ones - and the post-war world itself, being still so much younger.) And large waves of ferals in places well known to spawn them can be a bit horrifying and challenging in the early game...
Not even modern Bethesda compares to the PS3 era games they made, I still haven't played the original three (there was a spin off after 2) either, but the franchise seems more interesting the further back you go.
So note that I haven't watched the show but it seems like thell go feral just givin enough time if they dont have what ever that chem is he takes. whats up with that?
Guess they thought it jazzed the world up a bit by making the stakes higher and giving people more reason to distrust ghouls
what a lovely musical score in the backgroud - who is it ?
I love seeing new fallout lore content! I love this video! It was great! >_
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it 😀
I absolutely think people would drink radiated cola
Didn't know much about fallout until I heard the series came out, sounds cool as hell being a Ghoul!
Due to the randomness of being feral; maybe becoming feral can be done through a folded prion; similar to wasting disease in reindeer
Im here because in the original game, Harold apparently is ghoulified from the FEV, which always struck me as a deep inconsistency.
I say a fallout that you can become a super mutant or ghoul through the game itself. You could go ghoul fairly easily but super mutant would be either chance you survive being captured by super mutants (unlikely) or either find or make your own FEV and dose yourself to become one
ghouls arent actually rotten, fun fact. their appearance is due to burns and constant regeneration, leading to a mangled appearance.
So, cancer?
@@hellacoorinna9995 magic cancer
I was super excited to see you use footage from the original top down rpg. Fallout 2 is the best of any of the games. I wish they would put out an update
A Niche topic that not many people care about broken down into detail?
YES LETS GO!!! And an angelic voice to walk me through a perfectly paced video. Wonderful all around.
Thanks!
I think I have a soft spot for Ghouls not only because of what they went through to turn into Ghouls, but also because of what they become when they go feral.
They said in the past the feral ghoul is when the brain completely rotted away to dust .
whos here after watching fallout tv show📺
Aye aye
Yeh, trying to figure out how cooper survived the bombs and became a ghoul
I'm here after playing the Games
✋🏻ME
What tv show?
Those is interesting. This is basically how I understood the whole process, but I recently watched the Fallout series on Amazon. While I love the series, and for the most part, they are spot on with the lore, this is one sticking point for me. In that series, they imply that becoming a ghoul can be done via chemistry... possibly irradiated chemistry though. And, it seems that a specific drug (the name slips my mind at the moment) is what is required to prevent becoming feral, and lacking it means becoming feral is inevitable. That seems contrary to this synopsis and my understanding of ghouls.
The series is very entertaining, though, and Coggins was really good as the ghoul.
Lately, new reincarnations of any given Intellectual Property seldom adhere to the lore. The writer/director is always too prideful, and too beholden to woke interests to write and direct unique and creative scripts. They are capable only of twisting the old stories to suit woke agendas, because evil cannot create but rather excels at perverting all that was once good.
@@SanchoPanza-m8m in general, this may be true (not sure about "evil" though), but Todd Howard was the executive producer, so I am less inclined to believe that is the reason.
Its not just radiation. Its the FEV thats in the atmosphere.
Nah one of the devs for the first two games said ghouls are radiation caused.
that is your fanon
music on point, ty!
Such a wholesome video 💕
Have a nice day
You too Mouaz
Hey lore, great vid, but you kind of missed the mark. In the Fallout universe during the bombardment of the great war pre-war facilities containing several strains of the FEV virus. THIS COMBINED WITH GAMMA RADIATION is what actually causes all the mutations seen throughout the flora and fauna of the US wasteland.
Thanks! In most cases that's correct, but not with Ghouls oddly. Originally the devs went with the FEV explanation then retconned it to say just radiation causes Ghoulification. That's why Desmond and Eddie Winter were able to ghoulify themselves prior to the war and FEV exposure :)
he Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) is a genetically engineered mutagen in the Fallout video game franchise that can cause unpredictable mutations in people and other creatures. The FEV is responsible for the Super Mutant population, including ghouls, and other creatures in the Wasteland. The FEV can be transmitted through direct contact or injection, and can cause permanent changes to a host's DNA. When administered to a genetically viable individual, it can cause accelerated mutation and recursive growth.
Missed the chance to say that being a ghoul is actually pretty cool.
Nice video, thanks!
You didn't mention FEV once.
Harold was knocked out in Mariposa and after he woke up outside he slowly turned into a Ghoul.
Doesn't really have anything to do with Ghouls from what I could see, surprisingly. I thought at first it was due to FEV exposure but apparently the Devs abandoned that idea in favour of just Radiation causing ghoulification, haven't seen anything in lore since saying otherwise. Could be mistaken but I did pursue that idea whilst researching.
At the end of the day, the lore is a bit of a mess and changes slightly with every game so who know 🙂
Harold is stated by devs and the character himself not to be a ghoul at all. Current canon is that FEV is deadly to ghouls, and Harold is just a very unique form of mutant (more like the super mutants than ghouls but in a totally different direction of mutation) that happens to look very ghoulish due to how his skin reaction to the virus and the wood of his botanical mutation element resembles the rough and gnarled skin of actual ghouls
I know each game has ghoulish perks. But what if before we could get it in the next gsme. We have a new mechanic to prevent us from going ghoul snd eventually going feral?
Nice jazz music can you tell me what it is?
Damn it, so the show really did retcon feral with this vial of subtance thing that keeps them sentient?
"Getting sick from radiation"
Ummm... No... at least in Fallout 4! As long as you avoid the radiation storms you wouldn't get radiation sickness... generally after a nuke is dropped you just avoid that area for 1-5 years, it's been 200 in FO4
I forgot about Carol. She scared the shit out of me as a kid.
The way you explain the fallout world is exactly how i explain it because 100% true it's the 2070s but its a word stuck in 1957
When I was younger playing Fallout 3, I felt so bad for the prejudice ghouls faced at Tenpenny Towers. I tried to help the ghouls out, but I didn’t realize they were just going to go kill all the Smoothskins 😢