Strigoi (The Strain)

The Strigoi are a vampire race that features in The Strain.

History

Origin

At some point, an ancient tome was created that spoke in great length of the Strigoi with this book known as the Occido Lumen. It contained s list of lore on the origin and history of this race of vampires.

Eldest of their kind were the Ancients who were referred in legend as the seven plagues that were mortal only to the face of God. (Episode: Madness) Over the millennia, the Ancients managed to develop vast resources to support their operations in the future. Some among humanity believed that the vampires had lived secretly alongside mankind for thousands of years.

Over the centuries, there had been many humans that had become Strigoi hunters that had a commonality in their nature as they tended to be men who acted alone. Each appeared to be monomaniacal and often seemed to had been gripped by madness. This long line of hunters dated all the way back to the time of the ancient Sumerians. According to lore, an ancient Egyptian hunter from the town of Meir managed to bury the plague of one of the Ancients and ended the creatures terrible reign forever. Despite an army of thousands facing him, the hunter succeeded in trapping the Ancient within a stone sarcophagus lined with an allow of siliver and lead to serve as a tomb for the creature with the crimson worm within it trapped inside. Thus, whilst the creature was not killed, it was contained and the danger it posed was ended. One account held of a Phoenician hunter who set fire to a ship full of people due to the simple suspicion of a Strigoi being on board the vessel. (Episode: Madness)

The Strain

As a result of the outbreak in Manhattan, the ancient truce was broken by the Master with this being considered an act of war. This led to the greater Strigoi gathering forces to eliminate the Master's unclean strain.

The government exhausted its resources in attempting to contain the infections in Washington, Atlanta and Dallas. Despite their efforts, the Strigoi plague managed to spread to 20 more cities and in time spread to 50 more. Similar outbreaks were reported around the world including Germany, India, Africa and Japan with all these countries trying their own ways to contain the infection but failed. As a result, the entire war was engaged in a global war in combating the spread of the Strigoi across the global environment. (Episode: Madness)

In the aftermath, the Strigoi made their way to the surface in large numbers but did not conduct a mass feeding on the population. Instead, the Master controlled the Strigoi and used his resources and human networks to create collaborators. Thus, the Partnership was formed that spoke of the nuclear detonation as Illumination Day that offered shelter and protection for any human so long as they followed the strict rule of the Partnership. Humans were tasked with giving blood that was to be fed to the Strigoi with the creatures working alongside the Partnership soldiers. There were some scattered resistance groups against the Strigoi with the Master intending for the missing Dr. Goodweather to be captured whilst all nuclear weapons were to be confiscated.

Overview

Physiology

In appearance, Strigoi were a race of humanoids with pale white skin and inhuman features. Their blood in most iterations was described as being toxic to ordinary humans with exposure leading to catatonia, convulsions and eventually death. The core aspect of the creatures was a parasite that consisted of a stinger, spinal column and the brain. Central to the parasite were the white worms where a bundle of them were together as a central mass in the brain. These worms resembled the horsehair worm or a Dirofilaria immitis with them being just collagen with degenerate non-functional digestive systems. Infected showed similar characteristics as they developed neck rigidity, sensitivity to natural light and mental disorientation with these all being clinical features of a central nervous system infection. Tissue in this area was necrotic to the point that it was diseased and was barely able to maintain a heartbeat let alone coordinate with others or allow the creature to stalk prey. However, the worms operated as the core of their nervous system. This went even further as Strigoi were shown to react to pain experienced by another member of their kind. It was believed that the parasites had developed the means of communicating by way of some highly evolved signals creating a biological system similar to bird migrations. Feeler type Strigoi had brains that were double the size of common Strigoi.

Projectile weapons such as bullets could wound them if they struck the bone but flesh wounds healed quickly making them highly durable. Though able to heal from wounds, Strigoi were not able to regrow lost limbs such as arms or legs. Weapons that used silver in them was much more painful to them and was a substance that the Strigoi feared. Older more powerful Strigoi such as the Ancients were able to smell silver. Among the greatest weaknesses of the Strigoi was their vulnerability to sunlight that actually burnt their bodies and killed them with even the worms dying upon exposure to ultraviolet light. However, the sires of a strain were more resistant to sunlight though it did burn them allowing them to survive its exposure until they reached darkness. Strigoi were sometimes vulnerable to certain types of microwave transmissions that cut them off from their biological communication network.

Infection was achieved through parasitic capillary worms that infested the host bodies and operated as the vector transmission. The creatures were able to spread the infection through their stingers with a simple graze being enough to turn a host into a Strigoi. Even slain vampires were dangerous as the bodies were infested with the worms that sought to spread to new hosts. Upon latching onto the skin, they borrowed deep inside in order to lodge themselves into the body to reproduce. The more worms that grew the quicker the transformation began for the host into a Strigoi. It was believed that conditions that harmed the worms such as ultraviolet light led to the worms digging deeper into the flesh to protect themselves. Infection led to a slow transformation of the body with new organs being grown whilst redundant ones such as genitals atrophying. The transformation process was exhausting to the hosts which was why they slept when they had turned into a Strigoi. These creatures were able to generate new organs within a matter of hours.

Ancient Strigoi that were masters of their strain had the ability to generate a white fluid from their body. This had regenerative properties for humans and actually restored health if a few drops were ingested. The white restored health even from fatal illnesses though this renewed health was only temporary with it passing in time. Use of the white did not infect humans with the Strigoi strain as that could only be achieved through the infectious worms. Strigoi such as the Ancients were able to transfer their consciousness from one body to another. This was achieved through implanting a large sum of worms within their bodies into a new form which saw their minds transferred in the process. The process was used by an Ancient to transfer their mind to a new stronger body or leave a dying body. A central crimson worm served as the commanding intelligence for the Ancient and so long as it survived then the master Strigoi could continue to live after it sought a new host form.

Society

Even amongst the Strigoi, there was a form of caste system that was headed by the oldest vampires known as Ancients who were considered beings of honor, dignity and power. The seven share a common mind and were able to experience the events that occurred to one another. Despite the sharing minds, an Ancient was able to close their mind from the others unless pain or trauma disrupted their concentration whereupon their thoughts became open to their comrades. By the modern day, the great majority of the Ancients preferred to remain hidden from the world and maintained a shadow existence with humanity. This was disrupted by the seventh who was known as the Master among humans who intended to spread his infection around the world. As such, the Ancients tasked their enormous resources with eliminating his strain and even inducted human followers into their service. The Ancients themselves generally spent their time in a sleeping state and when they awakened they fed on any human that stood before them. A trait among the Ancients was their increased resistance to sunlight allowing them to survive in its exposure but their bodies could be badly damaged in the process forcing them to seek a new host to house their essence.

Newly infected beings became vampires within the span of days where they sought to follow and consume loved ones. At this stage, these Strigoi were feral and attacked in numbers to find prey to kill, feed and infect. These newly formed vampires would grow to maturity within the span of a month where they were much more dangerous. A trait of the new Strigoi was seeking out those loved ones that they knew in their former life and infected them. Generally, during daylight hours, the infected slept among one another in large rooms where they did so communally until night time or unless something disturbed their slumber. Some of the infected if they had value to their sire were afforded greater power by their Ancient. These individuals were allowed to retain much of their former selves including their personality allowing them to masquerade as humans. Their vulnerability to sunlight meant that typically during the day they nested and became active during night time conditions.

One group within their society were the Feelers who were also known as the Children of the Night. These were typically young blind children who were infected with the worms and placed within the 'loam' to be reborn. Their blind nature meant that their rebirth as vampires afforded them heightened senses making them particularly useful as they could use their extra-sensory perception to track targets. They were noted as being very special creatures that were remarkably agile and their senses made them valuable scouts. Mongrels were a special type of Strigoi that were baked on loam and anointed with a worm exchange over two full moons leading to them being stronger and faster with these being more animalistic that ran on all fours. Another type of Strigoi were half-breeds known as the Born who were birthed rather than turned. These were children whose mothers had been infected by the Strigoi worms leading to their partial transformation upon their birth. The Born shared some characteristics similar to humans such as a limited resistance to sunlight and lacked any worms meaning that they could not turn others but had the stingers in their mouths. Due to their resistance to sunlight, the Born were used by the Ancients as their agents in the world.

They were connected to one another through the one that had sired them who was able to see what their vampires had seen. Individual vampires were able to hear the whispers of their master sire in their mind regardless of distance from them. Such was the depth of their connection that the death of the Ancient that sired a group of vampires led to the instant demise of that strain of Strigoi as they were all connected to their master.

Members

• The Master :
• Quinlan :
• Vaun :
• Lar : a male that served the Ancients and operated as their speaker in their conversations to Quinlan.

Notes

• The Strigoi were antagonists that featured in The Strain novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
• Their name was based on the creatures fron Romanian mythology.

Appearances

• The Strain:

External Links

• The Strain Wiki Entry

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