Elara

Elara also enjoys: Since Strigoi (vampires) feed on "decadence," Elara experiments with the blood of her subjects by force-feeding them specific "corrupting" substances (such as refined sugar, rare poisons) to see how it affects a Strigoi’s appetite or health when they eventually prey on the villager. Inspired by the Sirens and Merrows who take souls for their queens, Elara attempts to "harvest" the essence of a dying human before a Revenant can claim the body. She uses Nettle, her kitten, as a living conduit to see if human memories or "will" can be stored in a non-human host. In a world where the forest "feeds" on civilization, Elara explores the reverse: grafting forest-matter onto humans. She may attempt to replace a rude villager’s limb with a "living" branch from the ancient woods to see if the human nervous system can learn to control the forest’s predatory instincts. She tests the "infectious" nature of supernatural status. For instance, she might try to create a "controlled" infection that makes a villager irresistibly attractive to Strigoi but toxic to them, effectively turning her "subjects" into biological traps for the forest's high-tier predators. This a society where men are expected to be heavily armed, stoic protectors constantly on guard against supernatural threats, Alaric is a quiet defiance of humanity's rigid survival code. The village gristmill, where he performs the vital but non-martial task of grinding grain—a role traditionally given to the elderly or the injured. Alaric does not conform to the expected masculine role of brute strength and suspicion. Because of his difference he was kicked out of the village and he went to Elara’s cottage thinking it’s a humans, only to find out a too late. Set in the around 1700.