Excerpts from notes on Striga Physiology by Countess Elizaveta daughter of Hector the Necromancer, unpublished, accumulated over centuries.

  The striga observably falls into different classifications in its physiology. These differences do not appear to be a matter of legacy, or even environment, such as cause different classifications between living animals. Instead, it seems that the form of a striga’s basic physiology is wholly dependent on the composition of their previous, living, humors.

  You are who you died as; it appears.

  I have classified these four physiological structures around what I believe to be the primary humor triggering the initial undead evolution. Before discussing its different strains in detail, I shall describe those traits which appear common to all striga regardless of origin.

  The striga is unageing. It is unaffected by nearly all poisons or illnesses. However, they can be debilitated by, and act as carriers of, blood born afflictions. So long as the striga’s body has blood to fuel the process, it will always return to a physical state resembling that which it died in. The striga never experiences fatigue, although they may begin to starve if they do not continually feed on more of the blood which animates them.

  The striga does not require air, except to speak. Crushing, laceration, and other injuries only pose a risk to the striga if it severs or utterly destroys the head or heart. They are immune to extremes of both heat and cold, however fire itself poses a major danger. Burns are the longest and most draining harms to heal- often taking many nights.

  A stake fashioned of living wood plunged into the heart disrupts a striga’s vital functions, placing them into a death-like state. Very young spawn may be destroyed due to the disruption caused by such a wooden stake, but a powerful striga is certain to recover if the stake is ever removed.

  Addendum: Experiments have proven that the stake must be composed of living wood to have an effect. Rotting wood is ineffective, and once a stake rots the striga can eventually recover.

  Addendum Secundus: My little darling has largely confirmed to me what I already suspected, through observations gathered in her work as a slayer. The ability for a stake to destroy a striga outright is not so much a matter of age, as it is difference between spawn and a ‘true’ vampyre- explored further later in this documentation.

  Sunlight is inevitably fatal to a striga.

  Addendum: It causes intense burning pain and weakness until Helios has crossed at least half his face above the horizon, then the striga’s flesh ignites. Sunlight burns linger even longer than those caused by fire, and may be the only thing capable of causing a striga truly permanent injury. I myself still bear the scars from my personal experiments.

  Addendum Secundus: Limbs lost to sunlight exposure showed no sign of recovery, even after centuries.

  Pure water has been shown to have similar effects to sunlight. The flesh does not ignite, but is eaten away as if exposed to a potent acid. Stagnant or fouled water poses no threat, but natural water inhabited by a nymph, or holy water consecrated by a priest, causes wounds that linger like sunlight burns. Rain or snowfall that has not yet touched the ground causes pain and weakness in a striga, but will not kill without extreme and persistent exposure.

  Many striga show an aversion to holy ground and religious icons, however that trait is not universal, and may be a result of the subject’s own psychology.

  All striga show a strong aversion to entering a home unless they have previously been granted entrance by an inhabitant.

  Addendum: The barrier to entering a home uninvited is mental, and not physical, as a striga may be involuntarily carried across such a threshold, though they will instinctually resist. Certain forms of ritual defilement appear to render a residence unclean, and only these homes can be entered without invitation. More research is clearly needed.

  All vampyres possess tremendous physical strength, although many young striga have difficulty tapping into their full reserves of physical power, also for psychological reasons. Living creatures are capable of astounding feats of strength when in desperation, however the effort typically results in serious injury- the tearing of muscles and ligaments, and such. It is for this reason the hominine mind self-limits its own body’s strength. A striga becomes immune to fatigue and injury, but the mind still limits itself unless those inborn instincts are deliberately suppressed through training and experience.

  Those are the features of striga in general, now I shall commence to describe the four derivative races of this main strain.

  The first class I shall describe is the choleric striga. The warm-dry humors drive this striga towards aggression and dominance.

  This class of striga can begin to display signs of physical alteration- fangs, claws, and even scales. These changes are neither inherent to this class, nor permanent. In their day-sleep, or when immobilized by a wooden stake, the striga’s body returns to its natural form. Because of its inherent aggression, this type of striga is often the quickest to push its physical limitations. Choleric striga are the only class I have personally witnessed performing what I consider truly super-human feats of strength.

  The mental powers of this striga class are brutal and obvious. The choleric striga is incapable of observing or altering the minds of others, only outright replacing the subject’s will with their own. Their hypnotism is a proverbial club, compared to a scalpel. They can effectively command large groups of men or animals, and their control is hard, yet brittle. Without the direct presence of their master to give orders, his thralls become listless hollow shells without direction.

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  The second classification is the sanguine striga. The warm and wet humors drive this striga to debauchery and hedonism.

  This class often appears flush and even bloated, which contrasts to the pale and gaunt appearance of other striga. Because of this, these undead often have the easiest time passing as living. However, their tendencies towards pleasure seeking also lead them into sloth, and they are rarely more physically powerful than the average human due to sheer inaction. The exceptions being those who find their pleasure in physical exertion, who can become as terrifying as the most dangerous choleric striga.

  A sanguine striga’s powers of hypnotism are among the most developed. They are capable of instilling feelings of love, devotion, even obsession in their thralls. Their command is not so iron-clad as choleric striga, but this is both weakness and advantage. The thrall to a sanguine striga still possesses their own mind and will voluntarily act in the perceived best interest of their master, even alone, and absent specific orders. These striga also specialize in hiding orders in their thrall’s minds through post-hypnotic suggestion, which even the thrall becomes unaware of until the appropriate time.

  The third classification is the melancholic striga. The cold and wet humors drive this striga to brooding and paranoia.

  Physically this class becomes even more sallow and skeletal than a typical striga, while their skin becomes oily and slick. They also show a preternatural flexibility.

  Addendum: Personal experiments suggest that other striga can also become capable of extraordinary contortions with practice- following the same principles of overcoming the psychological self-limitation on the body. However, only melancholic striga seem to develop this extreme dexterism naturally.

  Their hypnotism is unique in that it can control others only indirectly. They cast illusions into the minds of others, and misdirect the subject into doing the striga’s will. A truly dangerous ability in the hands of a master manipulator, as it leaves all the subject’s actions earnestly their own.

  The final classification is that which I have had the most intimate opportunity to study, the phlegmatic striga. Cold and dry humors drive these striga to calculate and rationalize.

  Physically this class appears pale and cold, but otherwise resembles a normal hominine. Personal experimentation has proven we are able to replicate the abilities of other striga. We also seem to have better conscious control of our own bodies and humors than other striga, who tend to operate only by instinct. I further observed other phlegmatic striga, without my devotion to experimenting with humor manipulation, naturally develop the ability to hollow their bones and fly on the night wind without deliberate previous training.

  This body control allows phlegmatic striga to utilize their own blood in spells, even within their bodies without bloodletting. Through further training, this can make phlegmatic striga’s blood magic many times more efficient than that used by humans or elves.

  The naturally occurring mental powers of a phlegmatic striga allows us to enter the subject’s mind, to hear their thoughts and witness their memories, but not to alter anything.

  Addendum: The phlegmatic striga still possess the intelligence to study the same techniques of hypnotism mortal sorcerers use, however. And I have further refined my own hypnotic abilities thusly.

  All classes of striga are reasoning creatures, and thus possess the same ability to work natural magic as any living man or woman. However, the phlegmatic striga’s body control makes them even more potent than mortal magicians when they use blood to fuel their spells.

  The striga’s physical resilience also allows them more leeway when casting dangerous spells on themselves. It is well known that transforming into an animal is among the riskiest propositions a mortal wizard could undertake, the slightest miscalculation results in horrible maiming or messy death during the alteration. Thus, skin-walking has always been one of the rarest occult skills, and never a ritual undertaken lightly.

  For a striga, transforming into an animal is difficult and painful, but not genuinely dangerous. This makes striga shapeshifters much more common than their mortal counterparts, but animal forms such as a bat or a wolf are not inherent to any class of striga.

  Addendum: I have been told stories of striga whose humoristic control and spellcraft were so advanced they could dissipate their whole body into a vaporous mist. However, I have never witnessed such a thing in person, and my personal experiment have yet to produce results.

  Finally, I have some observations on the philosophies of striga.

  The most troubling realization I have made since my transformation, is that I believe a striga is simply incapable of genuine innovation. In the twenty-nine years I lived, I developed nine unique measurement apparati to assist my father’s research. In the centuries since, I developed three- and only by combining my previous work with the developments later made by others.

  During all this time, I have never ceased to learn or study, my base of knowledge has multiplied many times over, but now I find I can only grow by watching and imitating the progress made by others.

  Regardless of physical class, all striga fall into one of two groups, elders and spawn. An elder may be either a naturally occurring striga, or a former spawn whose creator was destroyed. They pursue agendas which resemble those they followed in life.

  I have never seen a striga who found a novel cause or purpose after death. If a former spawn was forced into a strict routine by their master, they may attempt to follow it even after their master’s destruction, but these feeble creatures rarely survive independence long.

  Spawn are striga created by a coven master for its own purpose. Any living human drunk dry by a striga becomes its spawn. A wise striga avoids over burdening its hunting ground with too many spawn, either by leaving victims alive, or by smothering them before feeding.

  Striga spawn are utterly devoted to the one who turned them. This devotion creates unnaturally twisted relationships, particularly as many elders delight in the abuse of such power.

  I loved my father when I lived, and I love him still, but my feelings became an overwhelming obsession to me the whole time after my transformation until his destruction. The moment of his death, the devotion passed- and for a time I grieved its loss, though now I can see clearly the dangers of it that simply did not exist to me then. If I could have given my life for his, I would have done so without hesitation.

  Addendum: Some spawn appear to have absolutely no will of their own apart from their master, and pass instantly into a state of true death after the destruction of their creator. I suspect this phenomenon is related to the observed inability of certain spawn to restore themselves after being pierced through the heart by a stake. More research on the subject is clearly required.

  I have observed that many striga claim nothing but disdain for mortals, while they, in fact, keep a kind of obsession with them. A pathological obsession with their food source actually seems endemic to the striga.

  Addendum: This obsession takes different forms based on classification, and I have observed that striga often seek out the companionship of those with humors contrasting their own.

  Choleric striga form gangs of weak-willed peons, or packs of beta wolves following their pack-leader. Sanguine striga delight in corrupting the innocent and those who seem outwardly uninterested in pleasures of the flesh. Melancholic striga work through those who bullishly take their illusions and insinuations at face value. And the phlegmatic striga find the presence of those vibrantly alive utterly intoxicating.

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