Thouls are a bizarre humanoid species from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Thouls are a crossbreed of magical origins, a mixture of traits of hobgoblins, trolls and ghouls. Despite their partially ghoulish origins, they are alive, not undead, and are capable of normal reproduction.
The origins of the Thoul are a topic of much discussion [1]. One common theory chalks their creation up to a mistake. Their first appearance in print was on an encounter table in the third volume of the original 1974 D&D boxed set, on a separate line from and immediately preceding ghouls. Statistics for and a description of thouls, however, were not included. TSR received several inquires as to what exactly a 'Thoul' was, and made up the creature on the spot.
The Thoul was never officially updated to 3rd edition by Wizards of the Coast. However, thouls were one of the monsters that appeared in Zeitgeist Games' d20 publication "Dave Arneson's Blackmoor," where it was updated to the d20 rules system and incorporated into the Blackmoor campaign setting.
A 4th edition update of the Thoul appeared in issue #418 of Dragon Magazine. Here, the article "Ye Olde Creature Catalogue" presents Thouls as an ancient breeding experiment by a hobgoblin empire to create a species of super-soldiers through mingling hobgoblin stock with trollish and ghoulish blood. The results were less than anticipated, but the species still clings to existence, despite the impaired fertility stemming from its partly undead ancestry.
Thouls are native to Mystara, one of the early settings for DnD.
References[]
- Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules (Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, 1981)
- Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1983)
- Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991)
- Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994)
- Dave Arneson's Blackmoor (2004)
- Dragon #418: Ye Olde Creature Catalogue (2012)
Origin of the Thoul?. Dragonsfoot Forums. Retrieved on February 22, 2004.
External links[]
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