I don't own the Fallout series

AN: Today's forecast says sunny with a chance of irradiated corpses charging at you from the shadows.

Feral Ghouls

We all know what a Ghoul is. Some poor bastard took a few too many doses of Vitamin Rads and instead of dying, he started looking like a corpse. Hell, maybe you are that poor bastard. Listen folks, just because somebody's a Ghoul doesn't make them any less human. They still got feelings, ideas, can hold a good conversation. The only thing missing is skin. And noses. And hair, mostly. We aren't going to be taking about everyday Ghouls. Instead, this is about the Ferals.

A Feral Ghoul is a Ghoul who's lost any sense of self-awareness. Like a Dog that has rabies, they'll attack anyone in sight, even if its their loved ones. Ferals are even more disfigured than regular Ghouls, their bodies are twisted, crooked and withered. Their skin is tumorous and covered in lesions, barely clinging to their bones. Their eyes are embedded deep into their heads and are often covered in cataracts. Some don't wear any clothes, while other are covered in strips of clothing, or even remnants of leather or metal armor.

Ferals inhabit dark and dank places; sewers, metros and the like. This is because their eyes are incredibly sensitive to bright light. When their homes are invaded, they'll crawl out of their hiding places to rush their enemies. Despite their withered joints and twisted bodies, Ghouls are incredibly fast on their feet. If you need to kill Ghouls, semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms are highly recommended. Unless your a crack-shot, bolt-action is just going to get you kill.

Ghoul Variants

Common Ferals

These Ferals range in age and strength, but overall don't have many differing traits.

Glowing Ones

These Ghouls are incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous. They're so irradiated that they've basically become a small nuclear reactor and their blood is green and they even glow in darkness. Glowing Ones have a unique ability in that they can emit great 'bursts' of radiation that heals other Ghouls. These bursts of radiation can even resurrect recently killed Ferals, jumpstarting their withered hearts like a defibrillator.

Fog/Swamp Ghouls

These Ferals are found in swampy mires of places like Point Lookout and the heavy Fog of The Island. For some reason, their environments have left them suffering from some form of Albinism

Wendigo

A sub-species of Feral found only in Appalachia. See 'Other Abominations' page for more details.

Marked Men

Found only in The Divide, these are the remnants of NCR troops and Legion soldiers that were trapped inside the cursed canyon during the Ashville Disaster. The radioactive fall out from several underground nuclear detonations resulted in them being Ghoulified. To make matters worse, their technically not Ferals. At least, not the common interpretation of being Feral. Their minds haven't deteriorated due to radiation (mostly), but rather due to pain. The Divide, you see, suffers from unusual weather patterns, even before the Disaster. The gale force wind storms weren't particularly dangerous before the Disaster, but after the detonations? When several tons of ash and sand and dirt got flung into the wind currents? Well, the Ghouls' burnt and rotted skin stood no chance against the hurricane-esque sandstorms. They were flayed alive, exposing their muscle and sinew to the open air and are constantly bombarded by the vicious storms. Imagine being tied up in razor-wire and dumped into the ocean, that's what the Marked Men go through every day. The radiation is the only thing keeping them alive.

The pain drove them mad, turning highly disciplined troops into roving war-bands of rabid animals. Unlike Ferals, however, their still cognitive enough to craft make-shift armor and weapons and are even able to operate complex energy weaponry. They live in bombed out buildings and crude stone-huts and eat anything they can get their hands on, even each other from time to time. As bad as the Wasteland is, as cruel and callous as it can be, The Divide is truly Hell on Earth.

Feral Ghouls Trivia

What exactly causes Ghouls to become Feral is unknown; some become Feral almost immediately, sometimes it takes centuries and some Ghouls don't become Feral at all. This unpredictable nature only makes tension between human and ghoul communities worse.

Some schisms of the Church of the Children of Atom see Ghouls as 'blessed with His (Atom's) divinity' and see Ferals as 'His wrathful warriors'.

A particular sect of the Children imprisoned a Glowing One in a light house. The idea was to use its 'divine light' to act as a beacon to other followers of Atom.

Non-Feral Glowing Ones are rare, but not unheard of.

While Ghouls (probably) don't 'need' to eat, Ferals will gorge themselves on whatever food is available, mostly corpses.

Ferals can survive being dismembered, mostly.

Despite their healing properties, Glowing Ones are often the 'runt of the litter' so to speak as far as Feral packs go. Maybe it's because their eyes are sensitive to light.

Some Ferals can fling irradiated globs of… themselves at people.

Despite being composed of soldiers from two opposing factions, Marked Men are mostly united. This is believed to be caused by their shared agony and resentment towards their former factions, a resentment that drives itself into a xenophobic hatred for any non-Marked Men.

It is fairly easy to tell Marked Legion from Marked NCR due to their uniforms and fighting styles. Legion Marked Men, being from Tribal stock, have a habit of gravitating towards 'symbols' making facsimiles of Legate Lanius' mask and sword.

NCR Marked Men don't have the same symbols, instead favoring guns and explosives. 'Death from afar' as it were.

We're in the final stretch here, boys and girls. Only a few chapters left before the Bestiary is complete. After that… Well, I've got a few more fics planned out, including a foray into the Hazbin Hotel fandom. -Bones