Fact From fiction Vol. 2: Vampire Academy
Back in the Twilight era, when Vampires were all the rage, there was another series trying to break its way into the mainstream: Vampire Academy. It was all the rage in the book community and it even got a movie in 2014 but that was a major flop. Not only did it anger the angsty teenagers in your local book club, it also made everyone who saw the movie think that this was just another silly YA novel about high school drama.
But Alas, I am not here to talk about book to movie mishaps. I am here to tell you the historical lore the series took inspiration from.
Weather you read the book or saw the movie you know that there are two types of vampires in the series: Strigoi & Moroi
The Strigoi in Vampire Academy are the strongest of the bunch. They are unbelievably fast & strong with enhanced senses. They drink blood & kill their victims. They are immortal but the sun can kill them. You can also kill them by silver stake to the heart, decapitation, or setting them on fire. They are extremely pale & extremely attractive and their bite is full of venom that sends endorphins running through the victims veins. Strigoi are made. A moroi can become a strigoi by killing his victim while he feeds. OR a human or Moroi can be forced to the dark side by a strigoi. Strigoi have the ability to turn anyone by drinking some of their blood & having them drink their blood in return.
Strigoi is a Romanian folklore, historically speaking. They are known as the one who knocks, or the one who calls. In Romanian folklore Strigoi have very distinct features & are easily recognized by their red hair, blue eyes, and two beating hearts. Whereas the Strigoi in VA are considered dead, the Strigoi in Romanian folklore are thought to be alive and considered a ‘vampiric witch’. Strigoi are thought to have been able to shape shift and to send its soul out of its body in order to drain crops and animals from their life force. Strigoi is a Romania word that originated from the latin root term ‘strix’ or ‘striga’ meaning owl, in turn meaning birds of prey.
Moroi are the good guys in Vampire Academy. They are nocturnal, they go to schools like St. Vladimirs for vampires where they learn to use their magical abilities & get a proper education. Though they are sensitive to sunlight they will not be killed by it. They do drink blood but they do not kill their feeder (a human who voluntarily lets moroi drink their blood) & they eat human food.
Moroi in history also come from Romanian lore. These Moroi are thought of as ghosts that rise from the grave to drain energy from the living. The word Morioi was thought to have originated from the old slavic word mora which translates to ‘nightmare’.
There is a third type, however. A Dhampire. A Dhampire is only half vampire though, and VA describes them as having all the strengths of vampires and non of the weaknesses. They live longer than humans, are more resistant to disease and illness, have superhuman strength, can walk out in sunlight, and a lot of them are trained to be professional bodyguards for the royalty left in the vampire world. However, Dhampirs mating with each other cannot have children. For whatever reason only Moroi mating with humans or other Dhampire can produce offspring.
Dhampires are a Balkan lore, specifically Bulgarian. They are usually create by a male vampire mating with a female human, the opposite being rare. They are natural born vampire hunters who are respected for their hunting abilities but ostracized by the community and have no political or social power. Bulgarian dhampires live shorter lives and are not fully developed in the womb. They have weak bones and do not inherent the abilities of the vampire parent. They have the ability to see vampires for what they are even if the creature is invisible or in another form. They also have the ability to kill vampires with any weapon of their choosing, unlike humans who have to use a silver stake or one made of ash (depending on the lore you are reading). Dhampires also need to have a proper burial for their short life or they can return to ‘unlife’ as a vampire.
Clearly the vampire academy Dhampire takes the W.
All in all Vampire academy is a great series that I recommend to all readers. It follows a dhampire girl, Rose Hathaway, who is in training to be her best friends guardian who is the last of her royal bloodline. Stakes are high, love is in the air (you to will fall in love with Dimitri Belikov, another dhampire who is preparing rose to take her place as Lisa’s guardian), & there is a lot more research to be done on the matter of this lore.
until next time!
XOXO
Tali