I'm curious as to every ghoul's eventual fate, is going feral an inevitability or does it only happen to certain ghouls, seeing as Raul, Carol and Beatrix are still going strong 200 years+ after ghoulification yet ncr troops at searchlight are feral after changing a maximum of around a year ago?

Going farel is purely a physiological thing. Some people just can't handle becoming a ghoul and have a mental break down.

I don't think so, the Ghouls that we see look nothing like Ghouls we see. Ghouls have open sores and decaying skin, where-as Feral Ghouls just look vainy and blotchey.

http://www.tannerhiggin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Charon.jpg

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb57886/fallout/images/0/01/Feral_ghoul.png

I don't think Bethesda put much thought into how they look. Still that being said Feral Ghouls look worse off then none-farel ghouls. They are skinny and more messed up.

I can't remember who said it, but in Fallout 3 I got the impression that it's a mental thing. People can't handle that they became ghouls and just lose it and go farel.

Glowing Ghouls become glowing ghouls because they absorbed alot of radiation and are attracted to it. Not all Glowing ghouls are farel, look at Jason Bright.

Still farel Ghouls were in the orginals as well, but they weren't called farel, they were simply ghoul crazies. In Necropolis you can get attacked randomly by ghouls.

Which would imply to me that there wasn't some clear physical gulf between the status as we see in-game; merely a state of mind (which I agree with).

So would it would be down to the amount of radiation they take in, or how badly it affects that individual? It is strange how both types of ghouls don't shoot or attack each other, probably because they look similar.

I guess the reason why farel Ghouls don't attack none-farel ghouls is because on some level they know they are the same.

Interesting to note, in the Originals and in Fallout 3, "Zombie" gets thrown around as a derogatory term. Though they aren't Zombies because they didn't die and reanimate, they are pretty much a walking corpse in the eyes of many.

Zombies don't attack their own.

Humm you sure?? I do like the idea that it is mental. But i thought the ghoul doc back in FO3 said he was working on it because the all go feral in the end??

(the one where you pick up Rileys ranger guest line)

This is a tricky subject and I dont think there is an offical explenation. I Accept this
A human that takes in high radiation dies
A human that takes in medium radiation at a time turns feral
A human that takes small douses slowly turns into a ghoul

at least this is what I accept

Oh and either way you need a touch airborn FEV to turn

Doctor Barrows to me seemed to just be trying to reverse the process of being a ghoul.

Doctor Julius at Tenpenny seems to think all Ghouls become feral at some point. But then again how the hell would he know?

I think it's purely physiological. After all there are many ghouls over 200 years old and are fine. Some people that have just become ghouls go nuts. Becoming a ghoul must be a very traumatic physiologically.

Also am I the only one pissed we couldn't get Doc Barrows and Doc Julius working together?


FEV has nothing to do with it.

Then what keeps people from just dying? I read fev had something to do with
From the fallout bible

Just found something out which may resolve this. Can I post links here? Sorry, I'm relitively new.

Dying from what? Ghouls live longer than humans, we don't know why. Dying from starvation because they became feral? Who says they don't eat and drink? They lost their minds, their basic instincts have taken over, hence "feral."

The Fallout Bible isn't canon. From Harold in Fallout we learned that FEV and Radiation created him. We thought he was a ghoul, because he itentifies himself as a ghoul. In Fallout 2 he lives with ghouls in a city of ghouls of which he runs. So we though he was a ghoul and therefore his story about going into Mariposa in Fallout is what makes a ghoul.

But that is no longer the case. Harold is now a special FEV mutant and Fallout New Vegas backs up that radiation alone makes a ghoul.

Yes West Tek let out some FEV when it was nuked, but that was 200 years ago. People born centuries later are still becoming ghouls. FEV that was let out wouldn't still be around, and I doubt it was enough to cover the United States and it wasn't enough to mutate eveyone.

It is simply radiation that creates a ghoul.

I don't think new people can post links until they get to the second rank which is ten posts I think. You can still try incase I am wrong.

Yeah, it doesn't allow me to post links, so I guess I'll have to keep spamming this thread till I get to 10. jk It explains on wikia that they suffered less mental degradation which is why they act intelligent. Doesn't mention a transformation though.

"Mental degradation," so in short those that went farel couldn't handle it and had mental break down.