Moroaica/Moroi/Moroii

The Moroaica are Romanian creatures referred to as Living Vampires. They’re hard to detect and hard to stop. It was thought that children could sometimes be born as this creature and identified because they would have a caul or a tail. It was believed more common for females to be born this way than males. Some become this creature after death if they lived a life of regrets, or were born on a Sunday. They have red hair, blue eyes, and red patches of skin on their faces. Males are thought to become bald at a very young age. They are described as fully human but can still drain the life energy from people, crops, and animals. They also sometimes drink honey from beehives which kills all the bees. They have two conjoined hearts and can shapeshift into chickens, ravens, wolves, cats, dogs, horses, sheep, or glowing balls of light. Sometimes they blend in with humans and don’t need to rest in their graves. They’re always searching for vulnerable prey and may use magic to lure children out of their houses to attack them. Sometimes they put a sleeping spell over an entire house, then enter the chimney in the form of fog, and attack the children inside. They gather together to teach others black magic and may rise from the dead as Strigoica unless they are burned to ash, decapitated, or a stake is driven into their hearts.

Citations:

Maberry, Jonathan. Vampire Universe: The Dark World of Supernatural Beings That Haunt Us, Hunt Us, and Hunger for Us. United States, Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2006.

Bane, Theresa. Encyclopedia of Giants and Humanoids in Myth, Legend and Folklore. United States, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2016.

Bane, Theresa. Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology. United States, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2017.