Sidestory: The Zhayvin Files: Strigoi

                                    

                                          
Classification: aethervorous necromorphic aberrants.

Colloquial name: strigoi.

Origin: the first strigoi was Domna Economou, current de facto leader of the Strigoi Society (referring to the undead organisation; for the strigoi research group of the same name and comparisons between the two, see files). Strigoi undeaths happen when a human, mage or psychic follower of Orthodox Christianity dies while in a state of emotional turmoil or discontent. Suicide also seems likely to trigger the process, but there is obviously overlap, given the context. Romanians belonging to the aforementioned categories who are born with cauls are also more likely to become strigoi upon death, as a result of metaphysical weight pressing upon their metainformational self. Since such Romanians are also believed to be destined for execution, a situation during which few are at peace, it is perhaps unsurprising that they sometimes become strigoi.

Description: strigoi possess grey skin and hair, entirely black eyes and white, sharklike fangs. They display their death mark, which can range from a wound that persists despite regeneration to an invisible halo of aberrant energies. Strigoi also possess an obsession with counting small objects placed upon a building's threshold, something likely related to the way undeath exaggerates certain aspects of their personality as a whole, in a mindless attempt to make them inhumanly focused.

Behaviour: Strigoi are predisposed towards violence and sadism, and their response to what would normally eb traumatic for humans is dulled. A strigoi's instincts strengthen with age and the amount of lifeforce consumed, until they become something akin to a were's beast or a vampire's thirst. While strigoi do not hunger, in the human sense, for lifeforce, many find themselves attracted to the energy, and find it more appealing to them than many other diversion, even discounting the certainty of increased power.

Threat level: regional (newly-risen strigoi who have not fed on lifeforce yet), varies depending on the amount of life drained, with no upper limit. Strigoi rise with the strength to pulverise tens of billions of tons of granite, shrug off similar force and move and react at hypersonic speeds. They do not require rest or sustenance, nor do they feel pain from anything but theomantic artefacts, which are also the only means to nullify their regeneration. Like vampires, strigoi possess the ability to control weather within their area of perception and shapeshift, including into mist or animals traditionally considered sinister. They can also drain beings in their line of sight of lifeforce. This ability improves with age and repeated use, to the point perceiving a being with any sense, or even a depiction of recording of them, is enough to drain them of lifeforce. Strigoi can control the animals associated with them, verbal commands being necessary at first before telepathic ones become enough, as well as see through their senses. They possess similar control over corpses and ghosts, something that has caused friction between them and other undead, something their often predatory, in more ways than one, behaviour has exacerbated.

Neutralisation: theomantic force is to be applied for lasting damage. Mundane or non-holy power might be enough to keep fledgling strigoi pinned, as their spirits cannon achieve much without their bodies, but older ones are perfectly capable of manifesting somewhere else while ignoring most attacks. Be aware that, like in the case of most undead susceptible to faithcraft, they are not any more vulnerable than a human would be to mundane weapons. That is to say, cutting a strigoi's hand off with a holy sword will not make them burst into flames, but instead result in them, at worst, punching you with their offhand.