Hanba 旱魃 (hàn bá)

Hanba is the most powerful ghoul in Chinese legends. Hanba’s name literally means drought spirit or drought ghoul and she is both considered a god and a ghoul. Hanba is actually the daughter of the Yellow Emperor. When the Yellow Emperor was in battle, Hanba got sick over worry for her father’s safety. Her sickness was incurable until she was possessed by the spirit of Hou (犼) which cured her sickness but also caused her to give off waves of intense heat causing drought and plants to wilt when she can near. Her drought causing characteristic forced the Yellow Emperor to outcast her out of the tribe. Not long after that, the Yellow Emperor engaged in a fierce battle with Chiyou’s (蚩尤) army with the help of powerful allies such as dragons and the giant bird Bifang (毕方). Chiyou, however, had the help of a wind and rain god that no one in the Yellow Emperor’s army was able to defeat. Out of desperation, the Yellow Emperor summoned Hanba back, and with the extreme heat from her body and her drought causing powers, she diffused the storm cloud over the battlefield and defeated the wind and rain god. Unfortunately, after this battle, Hanba lost her opportunity to rise into heaven as a goddess, and she continues to wander the northern deserts of China.
 

Fun Fact - In early Chinese history, Hanba was described to have the appearance of young women dressed in a turquoise dress and was worshipped as a goddess to keep away droughts. But by the mid-Ming period, Hanba’s began losing her female identity and was described as an ugly ghoul and correlated with zombies, causing her to be known as a founding ancestor of zombies.