The Origins of the Moroii

The moroii is a type of vampire or ghost, mainly stemming from Romanian folklore. It refers to a vampire like creature who either returns from the dead, or is a spirit from other origins, such as a demon or other entity. A moroii is like a vampire in that essentially, it preys off of the living; sometimes in legend it drinks the blood of its human prey, at other times, only the energy, or life force. Sometimes the moroii is recorded in Romanian mythology as being synonymous with creatures such as the strigoi, the vārcolac –which could be either a werewolf or goblin, or the pricolici, which is more specifically a werewolf. The female moroii is called a moroaic?. The origins of the word moroii are unclear, so there is no real study of etymology as far as the term is concerned. However, some sources say that moroii’s origins come from the Old Slavonic word “mora” which meant nightmare, and is also a separate entity, often called “Mara,” and is featured in many legends throughout Europe.

In legend, the spelling is “Moroi” instead of Moroii, which is used mostly in modern fiction, while also in modern fiction, the plural term is Moroi. In fiction, there is a stronger distinction between the moroi and the strigoi, whereas in legend there is not always that much of a difference. In Dracula (2000), the Count calls his pet wolf by both strigoi, and moroi. Other pop culture references are in Richelle Mead’s book series Vampire Academy. In her series of novels, the Moroi are the protagonists, while the Strigoi are the antagonists.