Moroi
A moroi (sometimes moroii in modern fiction; pl. moroi) is a type of vampire or ghost in Romanian folklore. A female moroi is called a moroaică (pl. moroaice). In some versions, a moroi is a phantom of a dead person which leaves the grave to draw energy from the living.
Moroi are often associated with other figures in Romanian folklore, such as strigoi (another type of vampire), vârcolac (werewolf), or pricolici (werewolf). As with most concepts in folklore, the exact characteristics ascribed to moroi are variable from source to source. Wlislocki reported a belief that the child of a woman impregnated by a nosferat (a sort of incubus-vampire) would be extremely ugly and covered with thick hair, very quickly becoming a moroi.[1]
They are also sometimes referred to in modern myth as the live-born offspring of two strigoi. It may signify an infant who died before being baptized. The origins of the term "moroi" are unclear, but it is thought by the Romanian Academy[2][3] to have possibly originated from the Old Slavonic word mora ("nightmare") (compare the Russian kikimora).
Moroi can also be forms of demons which possess a living body, usually the body of a bear. Moroi can be put under the control of a strigoi.
Fantasy fiction
The concept of "moroi" and "strigoi" have been fictionalized in novels, somewhat less often than traditional vampires.
- Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. In the Academy series the Moroi are known as mortal vampires with a normal lifespan and death. They tend to have magical powers, avoid too much sunlight, and drink the blood of humans and human hybrids.
- In the novel A Matter of Taste in the book series The Dracula Sequence by Fred Saberhagen the character Constantia calls Dracula (who is very much the same Dracula of Stoker's story with all of his powers) a Moroi.
- In The Last Apprentice series written by Joseph Delaney. In the 10th book in the series, the protagonist's master is placed under the control of a "Strigoi" and "Strigoica".
- Vampire: The Requiem role playing game features them as a vampire bloodline that is the amalgam of the basic Gangrel and Nosferatu vampire clans in the Ordo Dracul covenant supplement sourcebook.
- The supernatural inhabitant of the keep in the 1981 F. Paul Wilson novel The Keep implies that he is a moroi.
- In the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game supplement Blood of the Night, the term Moroi applies to the baseline Vampire template found in the Bestiary in order to distinguish it from the older and more primal Nosferatu Vampire introduced in Blood of the Night.
See also
References
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- ↑ Noul dicţionar explicativ al limbii Române, Bucharest: Litera Internaţional, 2002. ISBN 973-8358-04-3
- ↑ *moroi in Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii Române, Academia Românǎ, 1998
