Thought about this today. Why wouldn't there be ghoul children?

Ghouls can't reproduce, but i'm guessing they can grow up.

Would ghoul children age?

Plus ain't Ghouls like been around over 200 years after the War?

If someone was a child when they were irradiated it's possible they'd retain a child-like figure despite their great age. I'm not sure if we've ever encountered someone like that though so maybe they can grow even if they're falling apart. Puberty + Ghoulification sounds like a horrendous combination.

We don't know anything about that lorewise as far as I know. But if they could age then they'd probably only look "ghoulish" once they got a bit older, since apparently it takes a while for the symptoms to start showing. Well.. that's what the ghouls in Underworld tell you about the transformation in Fallout 3. But Moira Brown becomes a ghoul instantly if you nuke Megaton so it's a bit inconsistent.

And wow, I totally didn't click on this forum. I was posting in the New Vegas forum lol :s

it is possible, but unlikely, they would have died since there immune systems don't do to well, and there are some ghouls that can reproduce, but only like 2% survive

If they are still alive, than yes. Ghouls may be old, but they still do age. Raul explains this well through his dialogue.

Youth in Asia wins a candy. He/She made me shiver upon just reading the topic title.

Hmm good comments. I thought about Raul. Still wonder if there is a reason for no ghoul children or that it would have just been too messed up to make.

Ghouls age very slowly...

yes,their ''aging gene''is extremely slowed down probably,so they can live for decades

advlts that have been irradiated enough to become ghouls only have a small chance to become a ghoul. Its a long painful process that again most advlts are not strong enough to live through. It would be even harder to imagine a child that can go through ghoulification. Not impossible but very very unlikely.

Maybe it takes time to turn into a ghoul. Possible when you hit the age of 20 or so.

Ghouls can't reproduce because the radiation that turned them into ghouls has also made them sterile.

I would tend to agree with that given that we have never seen ghouls with children so.... :shrug:




you seem to be talking as if becoming a ghoul is a disease or something and that symptoms dont appear till later..which is not what becoming a ghoul entails. Also Carol seems to suggest that she became a ghoul at a fairly young age, so i think there should be some ghoul children (but only a few because my guess is that most would die during the process or as a result of the radiation) but ghoul children wouldnt be born into their ghouldom because the amount of radiation it takes to make a person a ghoul should derive them of all fertility (plus my guess would be that if these children could be concieved they wouldn't look like ghouls but would most likely be mutated in some other way because, like I said ghouldom is not a heriditary "disease").

Actually, if I remember correctly, there is a ghoul in Fallout 1 that explains this anyway. So we're not really guessing here, it's just a given. Think it was Harold who explained it, otherwise it would have to be some ghoul in Necropolis.

Totally unrelated, but scribe Dr. Vree over in the BOS bunker in Fallout 1 explains the reasons for infertility in Super Mutants, but they became Mutants through being dipped in a vat of FEV, not because of background radiation.

I think ghouls do age and grow (the lady in fallout 3 who ran the hotel was i believe ghoulifed as a child if you listen to her story not sure if it is cannon but it is adressed maybe on accident that game.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Born_Ghouls
I want Van Buren so badly.

Well, in Fallout 3 Carol, the ghoul who ran the inn in the Underworld was young when she was exposed, but I don't think she said how old... She was with her father though, and it is implied she was a teenager I think. Underworld wasn't formed by ghouls, but rather by survivors of the bombings who gathered there and gradually ghoulified. Carol seems the only pre-war ghoul left there though.

Desmond in Point Lookout was also pre-war, but apparently an advlt. We don't know how long it took him to change though. Moira seems a freak case, ghoulifiying almost instantly after Megaton explodes when she was nearby.

On the other side, in New Vegas, an entire NCR town turns to ghouls after a radiation spill. That happened fast enough that, even knowing it happened, the soldiers stationed there couldn't escape fast enough to avoid becoming ghouls.

So it seems that it can take anywhere from maybe a few hours to weeks or months for a person to become a ghoul after becoming exposed to high radiation. What other factors that make some people turn into ghouls while most just drop dead are unknown...

Ghoulification seems a lot more common now-a-days then it was just before the bombs dropped. I suspect part of that is the low level doses of FEV that everyone living in the Wasteland has been exposed to. It probably causes mutation, rather then death...at least at a better chance then initially. You either soak up the rads, or you Ghoulify.