In White Wolf Game Studio's role-playing games and books set in the World of Darkness, a ghoul is a living being (human or animal) that has become a slave to a vampire and addicted to vampiric blood (vitae). White Wolf, Inc. ... A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game where players assume the roles of fictional characters via role-playing. ... The World of Darkness is the name given to two distinct fictional universes developed by White Wolf Game Studio. ... Count Orlok from Nosferatu Vampires are mythical or folkloric creatures said to subsist on human and/or animal blood (hematophagy), often having unnatural powers, heightened bodily functions and the ability to transform. ... Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are present in the blood and help carry oxygen to the rest of the cells in the body Blood is a circulating tissue composed of fluid plasma and cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets). ... In White Wolf Game Studios role-playing games about vampires, vitae is a synonym of blood, especially as the symbol of life (cf Latin vita, life, whence English vital). Vitae is the blood of living creatures from which vampires feed, and also the blood that circulates within the undead...

Any kind of animal, including a human, can be turned into a ghoul by a process similar to that of the blood bond among vampires; that is, by drinking several times from the vitae of a vampire. After three doses, the ghoul becomes addicted and needs to be resupplied with its master's blood. In White Wolf Game Studios Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games, a blood bond is a supernatural link of fidelity and dependency of one vampire (the serf) on another one (the regent), created and maintained by the repeated consumption of blood. ...

Like a vampire, the ghoul craves for blood, heals abnormally faster, can develop some supernatural Disciplines, and ages very slowly if anything; but unlike a vampire, the ghoul is fully awake during the day and can walk under the Sun. A ghoul can also enter a frenzy, though not so easily as a vampire. In White Wolf Game Studios role-playing games set in the World of Darkness, a frenzy is a temporary state of rage and lack of self-control that a vampire character enters as a response to certain stimuli. ...

Human ghouls have been useful to vampires for a long time, working as servants, seneschals, and generally protecting their masters. Whole families of ghouls and revenants were at the service of Tzimisce landlords in Eastern Europe during the Dark Ages. The Cainite Heresy was ruled by vampires but administratively run mostly by ghouls. A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. ... The Tzimisce (pronounced Zhi-mee-see) are a fictional clan of vampires in White Wolf Game Studios books and role-playing games Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Dark Ages. ... The Cainite Heresy is a fictional heretical cult, practised by some vampires and their human subjects in the setting of Vampire: The Dark Ages, a role-playing game by White Wolf Game Studio. ...

Animal ghouls can also be extremely useful, especially for vampires with the Discipline of Animalism. The Tzimisce lords tended to employ horse ghouls for riding. From fused combinations of animal ghouls, modified and distorted by the Discipline of Vicissitude, the Tzimisce also created vozhd, huge living war machines.