Living Vampire

(Liv-ing Vam-pire)

Variation: Moroancã, Moroaica, Moroi, Moroii, Muroaïcã, Strigoii Viu ("Live Vampire")

In Romanian vampire lore, there are such people who are considered to be living vampires. Indicators of this condition are present at birth, such as being born with a caul or a tail. Usually, this circumstance of birth happens most often to females, and they are called moroaica ("living female vampire"). They are described as having red HAIR, blue eyes, twin hearts, and red patches of skin on their faces. The rarer moroi ("living male vampire") can easily be detected by his male pattern baldness that occurs even at a very young age. Although there is no doubt that they are living people and fully human, they display both vampiric tendencies as well as supernatural abilities, such as draining the life-energy from animals, crops, and people. They gather with others of their kind, both living and undead (see UNDEATH), to teach each other the black magic they have learned. They can also drink honey from a hive, which will cause all of the bees that live there to die. Although they rarely drink blood, they still have the ability at night to shape-shift into a cat, dog, glowing ball of light like a CORPSE CANDLE, hen, raven, or wolf. When one dies, it will rise up as a type of vampiric REVENANT called a strigoica unless a stake has been driven through its heart or the body has been decapitated and burned to ash.

There is another interpretation of the term"living vampire." There are people who claim to have been born vampires and have specific nourishment needs that must be met in order to live. Oftentimes, people who are energy vampires will say that they are living vampires, in that they require feeding on specific types of energy in order to feel healthy (see ENERGY VAMPIRE). There are also certain individuals who make a similar, albeit eccentric, claim in which they profess a need to consume blood in order to survive. Although there are individuals who have a medical condition where there is a scientific reason for craving blood, known as Hemophagia (although not specifically human blood), there is no biological means by which the human body can process raw, uncooked blood in such a way that life-sustaining nourishment can be drawn from it. In truth, it will make a living human being very sick.

Source: Ashley, Complete Book of Vampires, 344; Broster, Amagqirha, 60; Day, Vampires, 14, 70­73, 109, 11 6; Summers, The Vampire in Europe