Vampires (the Strain)

Special emphasis is placed on Vampire – also referred to as Strigoi – biology as mirroring that of parasitic creatures as opposed to supernaturally immortal demons of pop culture. The life cycle and physical adaptations of a human-turned-vampire are covered in detail. They serve as the universal antagonists of the series.



 While the strigoi aversion to sunlight, silver and running water are an existential bane imposed upon them through their accursed origins, some of those effects (among others) nevertheless mimic processes observed in nature and are partly amenable to scientific explanation. However, the equivalent reactions found in nature are supernaturally exaggerated when applied to strigoi, in accordance with their otherworldly and accursed natures. The dramatic outcomes exhibited by the vampire would require extraordinary levels of energy under normal or natural circumstances.



Viral Agency
Both the book and televised series only allude to, but do not describe the viral agency, that is a disease or infection caused by a virus, behind any transformation of vampire hosts. While typical viruses are relatively simple in that they possess specific functionality, the strigoi virus exhibits unusual complexity for a retrovirus, which is a virus that can integrate its DNA and transform the host rather than merely hijack the cellular machinery to replicate innumerable copies of itself.

This multi-functional ability suggests it belongs to the class of giant viruses, that is, it contains a significantly larger genetic code base than typical viruses. Such capacity for functional complexity affords a broad scope for rewriting disparate regions of a host's genetic makeup, resulting in systemic transformation of the organism.

The retroviral transformation may be achieved by the infusion of "the white" from the vampire throughout the host body. This fluid would act as a methylating agent, which weakens the rigid adherence to genetic instructions involved in cell function, inducing pluripotence in cells, that is the ability to transform into special types of cells. These resulting stem cells enable the reprogramming of its underlying cellular machinery. Although the process of runaway or unregulated methylation often leads to formation of cancers, the intervention of overriding instructions can redirect the expression of genetic material for the creation of new organs. The stinger is a new organ created by the strigoi virus. It's a six food tentacle looking thing, that shoot out of the strigoi  mouth and is for feeding

In this manner, the strigoi virus would use its own genetic instructions to repurpose functions in the host towards vampiric ends. It is possible that the worms contain additional payloads of raw genetic material to augment the instuctions carried by a strigoi virus. Immortality can be practically derived from the indefinite regeneration of cellular structures through continual presence of "the white" and virus operating in vampires.

Becoming a Vampire
The vector for vampirism is a capillary worm, which, once introduced into the human host's bloodstream (either through a vampire's feeding or direct invasion by the worm through a wound or orifice), introduces an incurable and fast-acting virus. By manipulating the host's genes, the virus causes a human to undergo numerous, radical physical changes.

Physiology
"They are much romanticized. But the truth is more... how should I say?" "Perverse." "Disgusting." "No. Banal." -Nora Martinez, Abraham Setrakian, and Ephraim Goodweather
 * "I thought vampires drank virgin blood. They hypnotize... they turn into bats..."

The first and most distinct vampire adaptation is the development of a long, retractable proboscis beneath the host's tongue, capable of extending up to six feet from the mouth. This "stinger" is both the vampire's feeding and reproductive mechanism, shooting forth to latch onto human prey's throat or thigh, both draining the victim's blood for nutrition and infecting the human with capillary worms.

The vampire's jaw is set at a lower hinge than a human, the mouth gaping like a snake's when the stinger is deployed. As the structure of the stinger is modified tissue from the human lungs and throat, vampires are incapable of physical speech once the stinger is deployed; beforehand, grunts and rudimentary monosyllabic speech are still possible (words like mama, papa, love, help, cold etc.)

A vampire's physical appearance is governed mainly by the host body shedding those human traits that are obsolete to its new life cycle. Hair and fingernails are gradually lost, while the external nose and ears atrophy, leaving a fully matured vampire's skin as smooth and featureless as marble. The vampire's complexion is extremely pale between feedings, but appears a flushed red following a recent blood-meal. Eye coloration consists of a black pupil surrounded by a red sclera, with a white nictitating membrane sliding across for protection.

The middle fingers of both hands grow and strengthen, and a thick talon develops in place of the lost fingernail. As vampire reproduction is achieved through viral infection of hosts and not through any sexual mechanism, the human genitalia also atrophy, leaving a mature vampire with no discernible sex.

The digestive and circulatory systems of a vampire are simplified and fused, the vampire's interior organs most resembling a series of connected sacs. Nutrition from blood feeding is transported throughout this system via a thick, viscous white fluid that forms the vampire equivalent of blood. This white fluid has very potent healing properties if administered orally to humans, in doing such one must be careful as not to ingest worms or risk becoming infected. The capillary worms are present in this fluid, swimming throughout the circulatory system and often visible beneath the vampire's thin skin.

Like rodents, a vampire is unable to vomit, its suction-based digestive process functioning only one way. All bodily waste is excreted from a single rectal orifice in the form of a pungent ammonia-based spray; a vampire will excrete for the entire duration of a feeding, purging old food as it consumes new blood.

The vampire's body temperature runs extremely high, at 48.9 °C / 120 °F, and a human is able to feel their ambient heat from several feet away.

They do not sleep, at least not in the way that a human does or would understand. They will shut down for a brief time if they are sated. Too much blood digestion fatigues them, but never for long. They go underground during daylight hours solely to escape the sunlight.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Many of the physical changes from human to vampire occur gradually following the initial worm infection, and are accompanied by great pain. A newly "turned" human will lie in a state of suspended animation for an entire day, rising the next night as a nascent vampire. The stinger is present for the vampire's first foray to facilitate feeding, but other traits (hairlessness, talons on the mid-digit, lack of distinct internal organs) will develop within the first seven nights following infection.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The vampire's mental state will also be confused at first, and its movements will be clumsy and awkward. As it matures, however, the vampire will become supremely agile, able to leap great distances and climb sheer surfaces with the aid of its talons. Full maturity, physically and mentally, occurs within the first thirty nights.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">In spite of the vampire's morbid biology stripping legend of its romance, the most famously admired trait of the undead remains intact: immortality. Unless slain by violence or sunlight, a vampire's parasitic body structure will neither fade nor weaken with the passage of time, giving it an effectively endless "life"-span. Even in those cases where the host body is damaged beyond repair, a vampire of sufficient power can transfer its consciousness (via a torrential capillary worm transfer) from one human host to another.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">If a vampire feeds on a pregnant woman, the baby will be turned into a creature similar to a vampire, but with a collection of very different traits. These so-called "the born" are intelligent and have many of the traits of their mother's infector, although they lack the worms in their blood. They also need to drink human blood. The preferred blood among all strigoi is B positive (Nora's blood type), but of course any blood will do.

Senses
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The sensory apparatus of the vampire is highly adapted for its nocturnal life cycle. Sight becomes the vampire's least acute of senses; color vision gradually being replaced by-thermal imaging over the course of a week as the infected host undergoes biological metamorphosis. Once fully-turned, a vampire possesses the ability to read heat signatures as monochromatic halos.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Hearing is greatly enhanced, in spite of the loss of external ears, with a fully-turned vampire's acute sense of hearing able to detect the sound of blood pulsing through the bodies of potential prey. Additionally, a fully-turned vampire can smell the carbon dioxide emitted by a human's breath, thereby locating prey with minimal reliance on other senses.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The vampires' greatest sensory asset, however, is the "hive mind", which all vampires share with the "Ancient" that propagated them. Each vampire, through some undefined telepathic link, is able to send and receive thought and sensory information to and from its Ancient progenitor. In this manner, the Ancient vampires direct the actions of their individual spawn through mental communication, regardless of distance. Perhaps akin to its radiation shielding properties, the element lead has the effect of blocking this mental connection.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">In spite of their biological inability to speak, vampires can communicate with humans through telepathy, transmitting thoughts directly into a person's internal monologue. Those vampires seeking to pose as human can train themselves to move their lips in a pantomime of speech, but the actual communication is still via thought-transference.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">An Ancient vampire is also able to use this telepathic ability as a weapon; known as the "murmur," this mental shock-wave has the ability to completely overwhelm the minds of surrounding human beings, rendering them unconscious.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Vampires also experience an overwhelming compulsion to infect family members and those they cared about as humans (their "dear ones"). They possess a unique ability to locate such targets, this sense being likened to a pigeon's homing instinct.

Weaknesses
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Many of the traditional vampire "weaknesses" of common folklore remain effective, although their potency is explained in terms of specific effects on vampire biology.

<p style="font-weight:normal;"> Experimental:   Through the wonders of genetic engineering, it is possible to mate select micro-organism to produce off-spring with desirable characteristics: 1) Minimal deleterious effects to Humans 2) Fatal to Strigoi yet transmissible to the rest of its cohort population. In this case, a bio-weapon which is neurotoxic, that is, it was created to feed on cerebrospinal fluid, which prevents cells from communicating with each other, as well as other strigoi.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Although there appears to be no biological imperative behind it, vampires cannot cross running water. This is alluded to as having something to do with the origin of the Ancients, but no further explanation is given. This aversion to water can be overcome, however, if the vampire is assisted (or "invited") by a human.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Traditional religious protections against vampires, such as a crucifix or holy water, display no practical effect. Garlic, another common folk defense, has no noticeable use in repelling vampires.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Silver-backed mirrors, while they will not harm a vampire, will reveal its presence. While a vampire does indeed cast a reflection, it is blurred and distorted, akin to an image vibrating at an impossible speed. Modern chrome-backed mirrors, however, will not have this effect, and the vampire will appear normally in such a looking-glass.

The Sun
In 'The Strain' saga, the sun is a symbol of the Face of God and an anathema to vampires, shown as a highly energetic thermal excitation of the vampire molecular structure due to sun exposure (literally burst into flames). Sunlight radiates energy at a wide range of frequencies, including ultraviolet (UV) rays that damage genetic material, or DNA, to inhibit cellular reproduction necessary for the propagation of pathogens.

Sunlight is the vampire's ultimate destroyer, specifically ultraviolet light in the UVC range (Ultraviolet C rays, are the short wavelength variety, which has the ability to destroy the DNA machinery which allows organisms to heal and multiply. This includes micro-organisms such as bacteria & viruses). This is due to the germicidal properties of the wavelength, as it breaks down the virus-laden tissues of the vampire's body. A localized source of UVC light, such as a fluorescent lamp, can be used to repel a vampire, much as a burning torch can repel an animal. Complete exposure to either direct sunlight or a powerful UVC source will result in complete desiccation of the vampire's body, leaving behind nothing but ashes.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">While strong UV rays from the sun scarcely makes it through the atmosphere, it can be artificially generated by specialized lamps. Ultraviolet, in the higher frequency range such as Ultraviolet C rays (or UV-C for short) is especially favored as a means for combating vampires. Strong UV rays, which disrupts bonds at the molecular level, is naturally effective against microbes and would have comparable effects on vampire pathogens.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">As depicted in 'The Night Eternal', the wrath of the Face of God was also expressed in the destruction of the ancient cities of Sadum and Amurah (also known as Sodom and Gomorrah):


 * "God's face was revealed and His light burned [the cities] in a flash." (from 'The Night Eternal')

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Nuclear power, compared to other energy generation methods, comes closest to the output of the Sun. Nuclear fission, the means by which we derive nuclear power, is the process of breaking apart atoms to release large amounts of energy, which is sufficient for annihilating vampiric sites of origin, thereby eradicating their strains. This disintegration at an atomic level would thoroughly scour traces of the vampiric essence or matrix imprinted into the sites.

Silver
Silver, in the form of a metal weapon or even a fine chemical mist, can also wound or kill a vampire. Much like sunlight, this is due to the disinfecting properties of the element damaging the vampire's viral biology (It has been known to interfere with sulfur bonds in bacteria). While conventional weapons (lead bullets, steel blades) can cause physical damage, they will not repel a vampire. Silver causes vampires both debilitating pain and a certain amount of fear; binding a vampire in silver will completely incapacitate it. <p style="font-weight:normal;">Silver releases free molecules or ions of the element when in contact with water and organic fluids to become biologically active and interact with amino-based products. It is absorbed and metabolized by the humans, binding with metal-attracting proteins that transport zinc, and excreted through the liver and kidneys with little side-effect unless an allergy to silver exists. Silver acts as an absorbent for, that is it captures, sulfur as mentioned in the Season 1 episode "For Services Rendered":

"Silver is known to interfere with sulfur bonds in bacteria." - Nora Martinez

<p style="font-weight:normal;">While silver poses low toxicity and risk to humans, certain bacteria and possibly fungi may be genetically susceptible to silver interfering with their enzyme production. A similar biological reaction to silver may be supernaturally present in strigoi. Regardless of the debated status on the medical effectiveness of silver, the retention of silver in the body associated with chronic intake of colloidal silver would prove disagreeable to vampires.

Collodial Silver
<p style="font-weight:normal;"> Prophylactic against Strigoi Worm Infestation:  The following passage speculates on the usage of Colloidal silver in order to acquire immunity to the Strigoi Worm, the symbiote organism that can infect individuals that comes in contact a Strigoi vampire. The worms can tunnel directly into the skin, leaving the victim helpless to stop it. The question here is how effective would a dose of colloidal silver be against such an attack.

<p style="font-weight:normal;"> Tolerance and Optimum Dose :  Colloidal silver (silver suspended in liquid medium) has been marketed and used for many years as antiseptic agent and is apparently well tolerated. Continued and excessive use however leads to a condition known as 'blue man syndrome', where the user's skin will eventually turn grayish blue. Since colloidal silver absorption appears to be cumulative, research is necessary to determine the optimum dose required to repel the worms, hopefully without having to take on the complexion of a smurf.

Decapitation
<p style="font-weight:normal;"> Pretty self explanitory. Severing the spinal column through any method is another effective way to destroy a vampire. While the vampire's simplified internal organ structure makes it difficult to harm it with attacks to the body, decapitation will result in the vampire's death.

Undead Condition
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The vampire host body plausibly would not survive the virulent biological change due to rigor and trauma involved in the radical and rapid transformation. Essentially, the host dies to be reanimated as a strigoi. The notion of vampires having to create life by taking life (instead of procreating) or reading the host 's memories like a book is consistent with the vampires as automatons or philosophical zombies, which are hypothetical being containing no consciousness but othewise indistinguishable from sentient beings.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Although physiologically complete and functional, the entity that emerges from such a process of zombification would require external direction or motivation. Such forces actuating the body can be construed to arise on two orders: at the level of the worms and at the level of the Ancients.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">To puppeteer this undead state, neurochemicals would have to be released by the worms to regulate a variety of pathways in the host, from metabolic to motor, like an eminently more subtle and fine-tuned version of frog limbs being galvanized in a laboratory. Various behavioral overrides can be observed in the natural world with a diverse array of behavior-altering parasites.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The worms appear to be linked to the Ancients as a throng or army of minature transceivers (transmit/receive signals) channeling their wills. When either an Ancient or its infesting worms die, control over the hosts ceases and the vampires becomes inert bodies, effectively "dying" again.

The Hive Mind
<p style="font-weight:normal;">As automatons, vampires would be equipped with means for being remotely controlled by the Ancient, either through a specialized organ or through the worms themselves, directed by exchanges of a typically pheromonal or bioelectric nature.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The high levels of fidelity required for information governing the complex, real-time behavior in vampires rule out the slow rate of pheromonal transfer as a means of response (In other words, how do these creatures talk to each other). Accordingly, use of the electromagentic field is to be expected. With the case of electromagnetic communication, developing equipment to fix on the source of transmission is relatively simple, thereby tracking and intercepting a controlling Ancient.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">A point of criticism arising with the controlling of vampire hosts through conventional propagation of signals is that, when an Ancient is destroyed, all of its strain instantaneously disintegrates and not merely deactivated. This obliteration is not consistent with stoppage or breaks in electromagentic transmissions or even pheromonal emissions, unless the vampire hosts possess a self-destruct mechanism in their biological makeup. (It ought to be critically noted that the televised series has depicted dead strigoi exposed to daylight without evidence of disintegration, particularly when Justine Feraldo displayed the suspect remains during a live press conference.)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Lastly, entering the realm of metaphysics and stretching the limits of information theory (comprehension and transmission thereof) or philosophy of mind (capabilities) consideration of the angelic origins of strigoi suggests an alternative notion, where vampires are imbued with an overarching directive or sentience. Given that angels are pure mind or spirit, these intelligences constitute some information field shared among the Ancients and their strains (imagine something resembling the fictional "intrinsic field" in Alan Moore's 'Watchmen'.) Once the information source or matrix is destroyed at a site of origin, the essence of all vampires bound to that strain deconstructs, resulting in their physical disintegration.

Trivia

 * Fission is assumed to be artificially generated under current geological conditions. However, ancient naturally occurring fission incidents have been identified at a time when uranium deposits were more enriched, allowing reaction with increasing levels of oxygen in the atmosphere. Such "Face of God" manifested several times in spontaneous georeactors two billion years ago in central Africa, in what is known as "the Oklo phenomenon", which burned in a controlled fashion for hundreds of millennia. More details can be found in the Wikipedia article, "Natural nuclear fission reactor".
 * The notion of strigoi as automatons reminisces folklore about golems, which are simulacra or imitations of life. The term "golem" (meaning "unformed" or "imperfect" in Hebrew) was uniquely mentioned in Psalm 139:16 of the Bible, referring to Adam before he was infused with a soul.