Striga

is a character in the Castlevania animated series. She is one of the four Queens of Styria and a member of the Council of Sisters, serving as the leader of the army of vampires.
She was voiced by Ivana Milicevic in the English version of the show.
==History==
Striga is the commander of the Styrian army and a member of the Council of Sisters which rules the country.
Her past is obscure. Striga mentioned once in conversation with Morana, how hard it was to get to their current position, and that she "can't shake the past", likely meaning something that troubles her until the present day.
==Appearance==
Striga is a female vampire with androgynous features. She has long black unkempt hair, dark gray lips, and light green eyes. Compared to the other members of Carmilla's Council, Striga is not only more stocky and muscular, but is also considerably taller than her peers. She wears a dark blue cloak which hides her black suit of armor, a red sash, a dress in a darker shade of white, and a leather belt. The left pauldron of her armor appears to be fashioned after a raven or crow's head. Striga also wears an ornament in her hair that is based on the original Carmilla's mask (which first appeared in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest).
==Personality==
Striga is the high general of Styria and its greatest warrior. She tends to be blunt, preferring honest and "honorable" tactics. Lenore notes that while most of the sisters play with their prey, Striga would rather kill it and move on. Striga is not afraid to share her honest advice with Carmilla.
Striga works closely with Morana, the two keep the kingdom of Styria running. They have long been lovers and work exceptionally well together - combining solid plans, supporting each other, and pushing each other to greater heights. Striga is pleased with her life but remembers the hard road that leads to being a queen of Styria. Morana helps Striga look past this and inspires her with the notion that she can soon lead the full military might of an empire. Striga is committed to making that dream and Carmilla's vision come true.
Also, due to her warrior mentality, Striga possesses a very strong sense of honor and a strict code of conduct, as seen during her conversation with Morana, where she expressed surprise that any warrior would willingly turn on their employers and benefactors if offered more coin, than their initial offer by Morana to side with them instead, and later stating that "there was no honor in it".
Striga has also shown to be a military tactic genius, as seen where after only a day of hearing about Carmilla's new plan to build their own empire for themselves by taking advantage of the chaos of Dracula's rampage, Striga had already figured out and thought of several highly effective military tactics, techniques and plans to properly police, defend and maintain the national border defenses of their new territories. She also managed to easily see the pitfalls to the plan thought up by Carmilla and accurately came to the conclusion that the sole thing that they were missing to make it work was that they severely lacked the numbers for their armies to create a suitable invasion and security forces to police their new lands. She was also able to see the other pitfall of utilizing Hector's abilities as a Devil Forgemaster, as due to his ability to transform human corpses into night creatures, they would need a gigantic amount of fresh dead bodies to rebuild and expand their armies and that acquiring such a gigantic number would possibly backfire to them and damage their food supply.
It was also shown that similar to Carmilla, Striga has little to no respect for humans and possesses no pity or empathy for them. This is seen during her first meeting with Hector, where she dehumanized him by referring to him as an "it" and had little to no hesitation in agreeing to Carmilla's orders to keep him imprisoned in subhuman conditions in their dungeons. Later, Striga showed little to no hesitation in agreeing with Carmilla's plot to create their "corridor nation" of an "eternal food" supply and had already come up with several plans to imprison and herd the human population into concentration camps, further emphasizing the fact that she cares very little for humanity and only sees them as food.
However, similar to Morana and Lenore, despite looking down on humans in general and seeing them as nothing more than livestock, Striga has admitted to acknowledging Humanity's willpower and strong desire to survive. This is especially seen when engaging humans in battle, where Striga has shown to expect honor and loyalty among human warriors, whether they are soldiers or even mercenaries. And during her fight against the human farmers during the survey of the land she wanted to conquer with Morana, Striga has shown to have developed a sense of respect and perhaps even admiration for the humans who choose to willingly fight against opponents they have no chance against, rather than live in regret at not fighting back at all against their potential oppressors.
==Powers and abilities==
*Vampire physiology: Similar to all vampires, Striga possess various superhuman abilities common to her race.
**Immortality: Like all vampires, Striga is immortal and has not physically aged for centuries, and is immune to all human diseases.
**Enhanced senses: Like all vampires, Striga possesses superhuman senses. As seen where she was able to easily eavesdrop on Lenore and Hector, as Lenore began her process of convincing him to join them in their conquest.
**Enhanced speed/strength: Like all vampires, Striga possesses superhuman speed, strength, endurance, durability, and reflexes that easily surpass a normal human. And due to her own naturally large build, Striga herself is likely physically superior to most vampires. This was proven when Striga dawned her day armor and enormous sword, cleaved the human attackers in half, and tossed them away.
===Other abilities===
Genius military strategist: In all matters military, Striga is an expert. She understands all military aspects of what is required to take and hold eight hundred miles of territory. Regarding the use of Hector as Styria's forgemaster, Striga routinely provides sound insight on the potential pitfalls of letting Hector develop military forces.
==Appearances==
	
==Quotes==
:– Striga: Soldiers, mercenaries, local forces — what's the difference?
:– Morana: The difference is that mercenaries can be rehired by the opposing side for more money!
:– Striga: But... there's no honor in that.
:— ("What the Night Brings")
:– Carmilla: Brilliant isn't it?
:– Striga: It's lunatic. Do you know what annoys me about it the most?
:– Carmilla: (takes a sip of her glass) What?
:– Striga: It's a really good idea
:– Carmilla (laughs)
:– Striga: The moment is perfect. Your experience and all our intelligence tell us it's chaos from here to Danube.
:— ("The Reparation of My Heart")
*"It's us against the world, Carmilla. Same as it always was." ("Bless Your Dead Little Hearts")
*"That must be eight hundred miles of territory as the crow flies." ("The Reparation of My Heart")
*"Morana is right. You're insane. How could we even police such long border?" (to Carmilla in "The Reparation of My Heart")
*"This is what she does, she pulls this stuff out of the air and expect the three of us to make it happen." (about Carmilla in "I Have a Scheme")
*"This how she does it. The horrible *** gets in our heads and inspires us to make her madness work." ("I Have a Scheme")
*"We can possibly push east as far Lake Balaton before I run out of soldiers, but that exposes our Western border." ("What the Night Brings")
*" It's war, Morana. There's always suffering." ("Walk Away")
:– Striga: They know what we are. And apparently they're not stupid. I need to get to my trunk.
:– Morana: You never open that. What's in it?
:– Striga: Day armor. Get in the trunk
:– Morana: No.
:– Striga: Arrows can't pierce and light can't get in. Get in the damn trunk, love.
:— ("Walk Away")
*"They weren't fighters. They were people. Villagers. Farmers and the like." ("Walk Away")
*"I just fought *** farmers. Saw the fear in their eyes. Not fear in their eyes. Not fear of dying. Fear of not having fought. Fear of not saving their people. And we're in the middle of a *** field." ("Walk Away")
*"Vampires always have plans, don't we? Maybe it's just in our nature to overreach, grasp at too much at once, try to drink everything. Maybe that's why in the end, we win all the battles but always lose the war." ("You Don't Deserve My Blood")
==Gallery==
===Screenshots===
3jmhtdn5ubn41.png|Striga smiling.
ESnzrrqWsAAIyFt.jpg|Striga and Morana.
Hruzmvw2p9l41.png
Striga and Lenore in S3E1.jpg|Striga and Lenore in "Bless Your Dead Little Hearts".
Morana and Striga.jpg|Striga and Morana in "I Have a Scheme".
Morana and Striga (2).jpg
Striga and Carmilla in S3E6.jpg|Striga and Carmilla on the castle gallery in "The Good Dream".
Striga criticizing carmilla.jpg|Striga criticizing Carmilla for beating Hector up.
Striga redrawing her plan in S3E8.jpg|Striga redrawing her plans in "What the Night Brings".
Morana and Striga in S4 trailer.png|Morana and Striga in the Season 4 trailer.
Striga's Day Helmet.png|Striga's day helmet in the Season 4 trailer.
Striga in her Day armor.png|Striga in her day armor.
Striga battling an army.png|Striga battling villagers.
Striga's day armor S4.jpg|Striga in her day armor in Season 4 (first look image).
Morana and Striga S4.jpg|Morana and Striga in Season 4 (first look image).
===Concept art===
Striga concept design1.png|Concept design by Katie Silva.
Striga concept design2.png|Concept design by Katie Silva.
Striga concept design3.png|Concept design by Katie Silva.
Striga Concept Art (Art Book).jpg|Striga's concept arts from the art book.
Striga concept design4.png|Final concept design by Katie Silva.
Striga model sheet.jpg|Model sheet for Season 3.
Striga Season 4 (Day Armor) Model Sheet.jpg|Day armor model sheet for Season 4.
Striga Illustration.jpg|Striga illustration.
Striga Casual Model.jpg|Striga casual (without cape) model.
Striga Day Armor Model.jpg|Striga day armor model.
Striga expression models.png|Expression models.
Striga's Day Armor Model Sheet.png
Striga's Sword Model Sheet.jpg|Striga's sword model sheet.
===Storyboards, animatics, and key art===
Castlevania S4E3- Striga Key Model.jpg|S4E3 layout and key art by Sam Deats (day armor visor design by Katie Silva).
Castlevania Season 4- Striga Day Armor Key Animation and Cleanup|Striga's day armor animation.
===Promotional art===
Council of sisters.jpg|Council of Sisters promo art by Lina Ngo and Jose Vega.
Council of sisters s4 promo art.jpg|Council of Sisters|The Council of Sisters, Hector and Isaac promotional art by Sam Deats, Suzanne Sharp (Carmilla and Hector), Katie Silva (Lenore and Morana), Mari Arakaki (Striga and Isaac), Sean Randolph, and Jose Vega.
==Trivia==
*Striga wears a ring on her hair based on the original Carmilla's mask (particularly, to its depiction in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest). Lenore and Morana wear one as well, although the former has it on her hand and the latter on her ear.@NXOnNeltflix - X, April 7, 2020.
*Striga's day armor and large sword in "Walk Away" are a reference to Guts's Berserker Armor and Dragon Slayer sword from the Berserk manga and anime series. During one of the scenes, Striga's pose also references a similar scene from Berserk (read more).
*Striga's name likely comes from the word strigoi, which is Romanian for "vampire".
*Another possible origin of her name is the Polish strzyga, an owl monster sharing many similarities with vampires.
*Striga's casual attire, manner of speech, accent and physical appearance hints at an Eastern European origin, most likely from Russia, especially due to her English voice actress, Ivana Milicevic.
==References==
==External links==
*Morana & Striga at the Villains Wiki
Category:Antagonists
Category:Female Characters
Category:Vampires
Category:Castlevania (Animated Series) Season 3 Characters
Category:Castlevania (Animated Series) Season 4 Characters
Category:Castlevania (Animated Series) Characters