Across central and eastern Europe, the nosferat (“plague carrier”) is perhaps the best-known species of all the vampires, considered by many to be the quintessential traditional vampire. There are several ways a person can become a nosferat, such as being born the seventh son of a seventh son, being born with a caul, the mother not eating any SALT during her pregnancy or having the misfortune of looking upon a vampire while pregnant, being born an illegitimate stillborn child to parents who are also of illegitimate birth, or having died the victim of a nosferat attack. The nosferat who was created because it died an illegitimate child has a deep hatred for married people, as its own parents were never married.

Nosferatu, as they are collectively called, can be either male or female, and are seen as an object of sexual desire to their victims. Shortly after nightfall, these REVENANTS rise from their graves and seek out their prey. A successful nosferat establishes itself as the sexual partner of at least one individual whom it returns to in order to feed. Over an extended period of time, the constant blood and life energy drain becomes too much and the victim dies (see ENERGY VAMPIRE). Nosferat has a veracious sex drive and there are numerous stories of it hosting orgies and having sex with a person until its victim literally dies of exhaustion (see INCUBUS and SUCCUBUS).

Usually, nosferatu cause infertility in their prey, but on occasion a male of the species can impregnate a human female. The child, called a moroi, will be born with a full head of HAIR and for all its life will continue to have a full head of wild, unkempt HAIR. Eventually, it will develop magical abilities and realize its full potential by becoming a witch.

Source: Cramer, Devil Within, 106; Jones, On the Nightmare, 117; Leatherdale, Dracula, 20; Riccardo, Liquid Dreams, 47