Moroi

A moroi (plural also moroi) is a type of vampire or ghost in Romania. A female moroi is called a moroaică (pl. moroaice). In some versions, a moroi is a phantom of a dead person which leaves the grave to draw energy from the living.

Moroi are often associated with other figures in Romania, such as strigoi (another type of vampire), vârcolac (werewolf), or pricolici (werewolf). As with most concepts in folklore, the exact characteristics ascribed to moroi are variable from source to source. Wlislocki reported a belief that the child of a woman impregnated by a nosferat (a sort of incubus-vampire) would be extremely ugly and covered with thick hair, very quickly becoming a moroi.

They are also sometimes referred to in modern myth as the live-born offspring of two strigoi. It may signify an infant who died before being baptized. The origins of the term "moroi" are unclear, but it is thought by the Romanian Academy to have possibly originated from the Old Slavonic word mora ("nightmare") (compare the Russian kikimora).

Moroi can also be forms of demons which possess a living body, usually the body of a bear. Moroi can be put under the control of a strigoi.