Strigoi

**Author:** Darklady2831

Among the various peoples of Al-Jura, there exist dozens of different legends of unnatural monsters that wear the forms of men and live among them as a wolf in sheep's clothing. The legends and myths give these creatures many different names in many different languages: Vampire, Ghoul, and Wight to name a few, but the scholars of the civilized world have come to recognize that all of these myths refer to one type of creature: the Strigoi. Strigoi are ill-understood, for it is difficult to find something that looks like a man, walks like a man, and talks like a man. Those few scholars who have managed to capture or kill these creatures and study them have come up with wildly different theories for what they truly are. One theory posits that they are the spirits of the unjustly slain, taken the form of the living to wreak their vengeance upon their killer. Another says that they are demons who prowl the world searching for some unholy power. Yet another says that they are the results of horrible experiments wrought by ancient sorcerers who delved too deep into the magic of the mind and body. Whatever their origin, it is agreed upon that they have a specific set of traits and features.

All Strigoi carry the scent of death upon their breaths, and nothing is able to mask it. Their skin is pallid and sickly, and their eyes are bloodshot. Their canines are decidedly larger and sharper than those of the unafflicted, and short claws extend from their fingertips through ragged tears in the skin. In reality, the Strigoi are victims of a horrible curse and disease, the origin of which is lost to even the Vampires who carry it. The disease infests the body, destroying the immune system and supplanting it entirely. The process takes many days, during which the host presents with fever, rash, and nausea.

After no more than a week, the disease has taken root. The host seemingly gets better of their own accord, and their lives return to normal. Over the next few months, the host is tormented by dreams of bloodshed and rage, often waking up covered in sweat. It is during this time that the disease alters the host's physiology permanently. The canines are elongated and the finger bones sharpen and grow until they burst through the victim's fingertips and form crude claws. The host's circulatory system slows down as the disease begins replacing the host's bone marrow and blood. The host's digestive tract is re-purposed, the interior of the intestines are covered with sores and lesions, allowing the disease-ridden circulatory system access to the choicest morsels the host devours. The host's breathing slows and their lungs nearly double in density, allowing far more oxygen into the body with each shallow breath.

As the disease reaches the brain, it sparks an instinctual thirst for the flesh and blood of men and elves, driving its host to gorge itself on the bodies of its former kin. By the end of the second or third month, the victim can no longer be considered what they once were. They are now a Strigoi, their body a melding of disease and flesh. Their lifespan becomes almost indefinite, their pain thresholds increase dramatically as the pain centres of the brain are eaten away and replaced by additional sensory processing tissue. The parts of their brain responsible for inhibition and revulsion atrophy, while the parts of the brain responsible for deception and cunning are enhanced. Their muscle density doubles, and their body becomes capable of digesting food with very little waste. Many Strigoi are lost to the changes the condition wreaks upon their bodies, becoming feral monsters that prowl the darkness feeding on carrion until an unlucky travel happens past them. Those who manage to retain their sense of self are as varied as they are rare.