Strigoic Creatures

Strigoic Creatures are undead creatures whose origins all lead back to Vlad III Drăculești, who was the first of their kind, within Dark Blaze. Originally seen as a gift by Oque Puinsim, it was quick to see that these abilities were a curse. Yet, Vlad was able to turn this curse once more to his advantage, it was not until a joint human force defeated him that his tyranny was thwarted.

Ever since the defeat of Vlad, the strigoic creatures have fractured Vlad's global empire into pieces and began extensively in-fighting and battling outside forces.

Human slaves and servants to the strigoic creatures are called druggans.

Background:
Darryl M. Finch-Ellis wanted various vampiric creatures within the novel and researched the different types of vampiric creatures from different mythologies. Finch-Ellis went with the name strigoi instead of vampire as that was the traditional Wallachian name for the undead creatures, using a double ii in line with the traditional Latin plural.

For the names of the factions, Finch-Ellis researched into the regions and the vampiric lore of those regions, examples of this can be seen with the Adze, Jiangshi and the Vetala.

Although he desired to base the strigoic creatures around the most infamous of them all, Dracula, he wanted to base the character deeper into the historical accurate figure of Vlad III Drăculești, who was the basis for Bram Stoker's Dracula. However, Finch-Ellis desired, and made, Vlad a background character.

Origins:
Not much is known on the origins of the strigoic creatures except that they all originated from Vlad Drăculești. It seems as though the further down the line the strigoium goes, the weaker the creatures become, as seen by the supreme-strigoii to the first-class strigoii, to the sired strigoii.

Vlad sired the brood mother strigoii, the first ghoul, the first grey-pygmy, the first vampyre and the estries. Through the brood mother strigoii, he kept their dead babies within incubation chambers within his large birthing chamber within Sighișoara. He used advanced science to bring the dead babies to life, they became the supreme-strigoii.

After Vlad's defeat, the supreme-strigoii used the same technique before the birthing chamber was destroyed, creating the first-class strigoii.

The sired strigoii are strigoii that had been bitten by other strigoii, they are seen as the lowest of the strigoii and are under the sway of those they have sired, dependent on them.

Grey-pygmies are the spawn of their supreme, their king, Mótsognir. They are the cause of those with dwarfism being infected with strigoium.

Ghouls are the result of a human being bitten by a strigoii, who are not virgins, however, their lack of virginity may only be a contributing factor as to why they transformed into mindless undead slaves instead of sired strigoii. Finch-Ellis has hinted that there may be more to a person's virginity that makes them transform into either a ghoul or strigoi upon being sired. Ghouls are wholly loyal to the strigoii whom had sired them, unless they are told by their master that they were being given away to another master, whereby they will treat that new master as if they were their sire.

Not much is known about the vampyrer and the estries, except that they are a cousin race to the strigoii, just like the ghouls and grey-pygmies are. What is known, is the leader of the vampyrer is named Mihai Umbrǎ.

Sub-Species:
Vlad III Drăculești is a singular species who goes by multiple names, mainly the God of Blood and the Antichrist.
 * Supreme-Strigoi / Great-Bat
 * First-Class Strigoi
 * Sired Strigoi
 * Grey-Pygmy
 * Vampyre
 * Estrie
 * Brood Mother Strigoi
 * Ghoul

Powers & Abilities:

 * Increased speed.
 * Increased strength.
 * Increased hearing.
 * Increased sense of smell.
 * Increased durability.
 * Can transform into great-bats (supreme-strigoii only).
 * Immortal.
 * Superiority over lesser strigoii (supreme-strigoii only).
 * Sexual persuasion over humans.

Weaknesses:

 * Holy water.
 * Fire.
 * Silver.
 * Cast-iron.
 * Palo Santo.
 * Mountain Ash.
 * Chloroform.
 * Direct prolonged sunlight.
 * Lack of blood.

Trivia:

 * All branches of the strigoic creatures can trace their lineage back to Vlad Drăculești.
 * Strigoi is the traditional Wallachian name for vampires.