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. 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.

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.

Overview

Physiology

In appearance, Strigoi were a race of humanoids with pale white skin and inhuman features.

Projectile weapons such as bullets could wound them if they struck the bone but flesh wounds healed quickly making them highly durable. 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.

Infection was achieved through parasitic capillary worms that infested the host bodies. 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.

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. 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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