KARU STRIGOI

 

"Welcome home, child. /Welcome home/. Here is where you belong.

You have long sensed that you were different from those who surrounded
you. And they have at last cast you out. And rightly so! You /are
/different. You /are /an outcast. You do not belong among the others.
But did you really think that you were the only one? No, you are not
alone. And never have been. We have been watching you for a long time,
and now the time has come for you to join us.

We know of your long trials, and of your suffering. You had a twin at
one time, didn't you? He died, and no one knows why except you. And us.
We know, because your pain is ours. You killed him. No, don't be
alarmed. We know you did not mean to. The insatiable Hunger that plagues
you plagues us as well. It was, of course, the Hunger that killed him.
And kills all the weak among our kind. You survived. And so you are
strong. That strength, I know, has been tempered in the trials you faced
and overcame all these long years of alienation.

That is what makes us /Strigoi/, you and I: unity through suffering, and
the strength to overcome it. Yes, you have heard the Name before! Heard
it whispered in fear or cursed with hatred. You shudder now with the
memory. Yet whether you accept it or not, we are family now, and our
name /is /Strigoi. And a proud name it is! Let no one say that the
House of Ravanna is not noble. Let no one say that it is not fearsome.
For among all the Sidhe, there are none more deadly, and none closer to
Death, none such as us. And what other God was ever stronger than Death?

Now you are one of us. Never again will the beloved scorn you and
belittle you. Never again will you feel alone and unloved. We will not
allow it! Those who make an enemy of one of us makes an enemy of the
Strigoi entire. And no slight will go unavenged. Those who have made you
suffer shall be forced to suffer a thousand fold in their turn.

But this privilege is not without a price. Your name will precede you in
all your endeavors. Remember that, always, and tend the Name. For if the
Name should come to be disrespected, it will cease to be your Name.
Pride, not Honor. Vengeance, not Justice. Loyalty, not Obedience. That
is our way. For since I was cast out, I have made this way, and kept it.
You are my child, yes, but I would sooner see you wither and rot than
have you bring disgrace upon my House."

- The Words of Ravanna, father to all Strigoi:
Spoken to his adopted children, saved from the slow death of exile, and
recited even today at all ceremonies of Strigoi reception.
 

"Despair has its own calms." (Bram Stoker, Dracula)