Aoroi, Fay

(OW-roy)

In the British Isles the aoroi is a species of vampiric fay. They are created whenever a man dies in battle before his proper time or when a woman dies in childbirth. The babies who are born to dead mothers are immediately turned into this type of fay, as well as those babies who die before they can be named. Historically, these children were seen as bad omens and their bodies were usually taken outside of the town's limits and left to the elements as soon as the events of the birth were duly noted and recorded. Lore has it that these children cannot be intentionally slain or buried once deceased or else they will return to haunt the living as vengeful and angry aoroi. However, this vampiric fay can be captured and its magical properties tapped into and used in the casting of spells. The magic that it possesses will last until the day that its natural death would have occurred, had it lived.

Source: Collins, Magic in the Ancient Greek World, 70­72; Johnston, Restless Dead, 71; Meyer, Mythologie der Germanen, 94