Nelapsi

(NELL-ep-see)

Variations: OPER

A vampiric REVENANT from Slovakia, the nelapsi is known to be able to destroy an entire village in a single night. With two hearts and two souls, the nelapsi is very fast, very strong. It can kill a person with a single blow and is also a plague carrier.

To prevent a person from becoming this type of vampire, place money, a religious icon, or personal items in the COFFIN with the body at the time of burial. There is also a very complex ritual that can be performed, which involves running a stake through its heart, carrying the body head-first to its grave, and tossing a few handfuls of poppy seeds in the grave with it, just in case the ceremony did not work. Should the person rise from the dead as a nelapsi, it must be staked through its twin hearts with a stake made of HAWTHORN, iron, or oak.

Source: Belanger, Sacred Hunger, 127; Bryant, Handbook of Death, 99; Perkowski, The Darkling, 102­3