#moroii

According to Romanian legend, the Strigoii, or Strigoi depending on how many "i"s you prefer in a given word, were a breed of vampires that can only be described as double dead. Or at least in most cases. See there are commonly two types of vampires in Romanian mythology: the Strigoi, dead vampires, and the Moroi, the living vampires. The Strigoi is very similar to say, the Asian Jiang Shi, in that it has the qualities of both a zombie and a vampire.

But before we go into discussing more about the Strigoi's characteristics, it's important that I inform you of the many ways one of these creatures may come into being. First and foremost, when a Moroi was killed, that vampire would simply resurrect as a Strigoi. Sort of like an extra life in a video game. However, there were numerous ways that a human corpse might turn into one of these monsters as well...a cat could jump over the corpse, or any sort of animal could pass over it...or the body might not have been buried correctly, or if a shadow was cast on the corpse's open coffin...or if the person, in life, had died from suicide, or if they were unmarried and died with unrequited love. Not to mention that there were some people that were pretty guaranteed to become Strigoi's upon death anyway, like kids born with cauls, or seventh sons. If a vampire so much as stared at a woman's womb, it was pretty likely that her kids were going to become vampires too. Other sources say black magic could be used to resurrect a corpse as a Strigoi, or even turn a living human being into one.

Luckily enough, there are lots of methods on how to locate and eradicate a Strigoi while its still sleeping under the earth, as to subdue these creatures before they become a serious threat. Graves occupied by a Strigoi were fairly easy to locate, as blue flames would hover above them, as if some sort of invisible candle was hanging there. Other times vampire hunters would employ the help of a 7-year-old boy, dressing him in white and placing him atop a white steed. Letting the horse run free though the graveyard, it was said that it would stop when it came to the grave of a Strigoi. Not only that, but Strigoi's would always rest with one blood red (some sources say blue) eye open, staring at all those came past. Plus, there bodies never decayed, and because they couldn't breath under there, lots of them poked holes in their coffins...so picking them out from the rest of the corpses probably didn't prove too difficult.