Moroi

Region: Central & Southeastern Europe
Location:Romania (especially rural southern regions)

Moroi are often paired with strigoi in Romanian belief, but they are distinct. Where the strigoi are undead revenants, **moroi are living beings** — people afflicted by a spiritual condition that drains vitality from others, often unknowingly. A moroi may be a child born with unusual features, a person touched by a curse, or someone who becomes parasitic through misfortune or trauma. In some regions, moroi are said to leave their bodies at night, wandering as ghostlike doubles that feed on the energy of livestock, neighbors, or relatives.
  Descriptions vary: some moroi remain physically normal, while others become frail, hollow-eyed, or marked by strange birth signs. Their draining presence manifests in community misfortunes — milk curdling, animals growing weak, children becoming sickly, crops failing. Because the condition can affect infants, families were especially vigilant, placing amulets, garlic, or iron tools near cradles. The boundary between moroi and witch is fluid; some living witches were described as gaining power from the moroi condition, while others were believed to cure it.
  The moroi embodies fears of invisible forces — illness, envy, or untended spiritual obligations — within close-knit rural life. Unlike the strigoi, which strikes from the grave, the moroi represents danger from within the community. Its legend is tied to explanations for wasting sicknesses long before medical science, and it functions as a reminder of the fragile balance of health, family bonds, and superstition in traditional Romanian villages.

World
Koina
Owner
kaixabu
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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