Upir

The Upir (also called Obir or Opir) are one of several vampiric beings native to Ukraine as well as being the only vampires seen in Hemlock Grove. They share resemblances with the Russian upyr, the Slavic upior, and the Byelorussian upor. Werewolves are their natural enemies.

Background
This species start out as seemingly regular humans, though they seem to have a greater tolerance to pain and the ability of mesmerisation. Using this power, however, puts a visible strain on their bodies, as they bleed each time they use it.

After death by suicide, they become full upir, biologically immortal creatures with greatly enhanced strength, accelerated healing capabilities, as well as unnatural jaw flexibility, iron-strong teeth, toxic enzymes, predatory senses, and a nearly insatiable, rabid appetite for blood and raw tissue. Upirs can become sick or have diseases only on the rarest of occasions, such as having a congenital heart defect, which is fatal to them. Once a human has transformed via suicide into the immortal upir, they spend months or even years adapting to and controlling their thirst for blood or raw tissue. The new Upir has almost no self-control over their hunger and is prone to dangerously aggressive behavior. Even as they age and learn to exercise some self-control they will revert to instinct during dangerous or violent situations.

Upir are prone to violent, barbaric, and sometimes murderous behavior whenever they do not have emotional control, a side effect of their more predatorial and aggressive nature. This can make them act brutal and even feral. They often act cruel or inhumane towards others. There are instances in which their emotions can overwhelm and debilitate them, such as cases of extreme sadness, but it lasts for a very short time. Poor feeding habits can cause extremely heightened, raw, intense, negative, and aggressive feelings, to the point of the upir becoming dangerously short tempered and even homicidal. They will instinctively react with violence and kill if pushed to their limits. They can continue living or be killed by extreme mutilation dismemberment of the heart, chest, or head. To make certain an upir does not heal from mortal injury, the heart or head is usually removed. They can also be killed by cremation.

Origin and Physiology
According to Folklore full Upirs are the spawn of witches and demons and a half-upir is 1/2 human, 1/4 witch, and 1/4 demon. It can be assumed that they have been around a long time. Perhaps since the beginning of time. Scientifically, the upir gene is identified as a heritable retroviral anomaly. This anomaly in the certain genomes is what turns people into upir, but it can only be genetically inherited. It appears that those that are not full upir but are a portion of it or have strong demonic gene in their bloodline will be prone to develop strange deformities, such as Olivia being born with a short tail like appendage on her back.

While not a birth defect or deformity, Roman and Nadia were both born with a thick membrane made of a portion of the amniotic sac, or a caul over their faces. In the Polish language, the idiom w czepku urodzony/a ('born in a bonnet'), and, in Italian, nato/a con la camicia/a ('born with a shirt'), they both mean a person who is always very lucky. The Russian phrase родился в рубашке ('born in a shirt') refers to caul birth and figuratively means "born lucky". It is often applied to someone who is oblivious to a pending disaster that is avoided only through luck as if the birth caul persists as supernatural armor throughout the persons life. Not all cultural beliefs about cauls are positive. In Romanian folklore, babies born with a caul are said to become vampires upon death.



Nadia's inhuman blue eyes are her abnormal appearance that signifies her demonic lineage.



When Roman transformed, he cut his arms and bled out; causing marks to form on his arms in the place of the wounds and his blood to move on its own up a wall and form a picture of dragon-like wings. Upirs still produce waste and can become pregnant, as upir are still living creatures like humans and werewolves and with similar traits to them. Roman as a full upir has shown the ability urinate and produce sweat as upir are still living creatures. Pryce stated that he could turn an upir into a human through stem cell research by exchanging their tissues and blood for that of a human's and remove the cells with upir genetics to that of humans. This was not demonstrated when Roman went through treatments that required his tissues being stripped from him and his blood drained from him, both being exchanged for that of humans.

Pryce said that enough of these would make him fully human. Since they are different in genotypes from human, their body, specifically at the nervous system, they are incapable of reacting to anaesthesia, rendering it useless in their system. Also, the treatments of purging the upir gene from the upir can cause puss to come from their ears as the body is primed to purge itself of anything it recognizes as the upir gene. The six treatments must be taken day after day to prime the bodies genetics to accept the human gene and reject the upir gene. If one is missed, especially the last one, then the upir will return to its original state. If the final treatment is missed, the smallest semblance of the upir gene will become infectious in the body, rebinding the gene to the body and causing mutations with unpredictable and possibly catastrophic results. By then, the upir gene will become impossible to eradicate.

Toxin
These creatures possess a highly degenerative venom in their mouths, which is powerful enough to kill someone of their own kind. The Upir Toxin, also described as Upir Neurotoxin, is shown in the form of excess sinus in the maxilla of the mouth and is created inside a venom gland. While it has little to no effect on humans, it only has negative effects on other upir, as not many humans bitten by an upir in the show have shown any signs of venom. The enzyme can be used for medicinal purposes, breaking down the immune system and weakening an upir's cellular defenses to allow for further treatments. It was used in Olivia's recovery after being killed by Roman, as she could not recover on her own. It was said to have almost killed her in the process. It also caused her to become more human, giving her tissue dystrophy, chemically enhanced emotions and empathy, which was hard to overcome, accelerated aging and decay and even human like vulnerability to cancers, which is a possible side effect of the accelerated aging. Olivia had severe muscular dystrophy after being drained of blood by Roman and being given the Neurotoxin in her treatments, all of which caused her to become so weak that she needed a cane to walk which she got over in months following. She took medication such as methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, carboplatin, and etoposide. This could all be immediately reversed if an afflicted Upir feeds off a Humanoid grown at the Godfrey Labs.

It should be noted that an upir's strength is the only physical ability that is not affected by the Neurotoxin, as she was shown to only be as fragile as a human, spraining herself after falling off a chair, though she still ripped out Marie Godfrey's throat and lifted Roman several feet above her head with one hand. Her immune system was shut down, physically making her weak and making her age at an accelerated rate and develop the side effects of aging such as cancer development due to a decaying bodily system. The Upir Feeding Tanks were designed to develop Humanoids, but the project only succeeded in creating plasma and tissue supplements to fully control an upir's hunger and sustain them. A fully developed Humanoid can completely repair and enhance an Upir's self-reparation capabilities to unnatural levels to help them rejuvenate and restore themselves from damage or abnormal conditions caused by Upir Neurotoxins.

In addition, the venom was able to kill a Jarmungandr, as they are sulfur-based life form and the Upir toxin has an extremely high concentration of nitrogen oxide. Exposure to it causes a robust reaction capable of incinerating the Jarmungandr exposed to it.

Customs
Many upirs do not live together, having normal relations of human families, as well as leaving their parents to explore their immortal lives. They also do not have any form of government for themselves and do not keep themselves in check in such a manner. Without order, upirs become scattered across the world blended into the human population. Alternatively, some upirs live in communities where other upirs are, sometimes forming a type of tribe. This tribe will often compile upirs with high-class jobs, such as historians, physicians, professors and scientists. The tribes also seem to pass news to others, as there were upir, who also knew about the Upir Virus, describing the events of the infected killing others as Upir-on-Upir violence. Some Upir are not as social as those in a tribe, and therefore, who do not or seldom socialize with others and also are not aware of any news about their kind.

The upir have myths from, most prominently found from Carpathian stories. These myths are actually depictions of the Jarmungandr, known as Omul Negru to the upir. Since these creatures are seemingly older than upir, they have fallen into upir myths and legends.

Known Upirs

 * Olivia Godfrey (Full)
 * Roman Godfrey (Full, Formerly Half)
 * Nadia Godfrey (Quarter)
 * Olivia's Father (Full)
 * Annie (Full)

Appearance
Upirs are indistinguishable from humans. They possess an enhanced bite and jaw strength. In one instance, or at least in a daydream Roman had, his lower jaw dislocated, causing cracking noises in his face and his mouth extended downward as far as his neck. This made his bite so big that it engulfed the entire throat of Miranda in said daydream. In reality, upir have inhuman jaw flexibility and strength, allowing an upir to stretch their mouths while about to bite, though this is usually seen when the upir is overwhelmed with bloodlust or hunger. Roman's mouth again stretched and grew when he killed a guard at a blood bank to protect Annie. This instance was after Roman was on a blood high and overwhelmed with animalistic aggression. Roman's canine teeth briefly transformed into fangs in the first season, and this was an Upir's only transformation until the second season changed this, making the vampiric teeth noncanon. A flashback of Olivia's awakening as a full upir in the first season showed her with fanged canine teeth as well. While they do not truly physically change and have a perfected figure due to being full upir, they experience changes in their bodies, such as dystrophy in their muscles or even cancer in unbelievably rare cases, as well as severe dystrophy, sometimes even to the point where they need a cane to walk and develop wrinkles and signs of aging, is mostly an effect of an Upir Neurotoxin and can render an upir almost mortal, giving an upir a human lifespan and human vulnerabilities to aging and cancers. Olivia developed these symptoms some time after Roman drained her of blood and being an untested Upir Neurotoxin enzyme. Upir can also be impregnated by humans to have half upir children. It is unknown if upir can impregnate each other and if so, what kind of offspring would be produced. Half upir can impregnate humans and have quarter upirs with the possibility of developing psionic powers, like Nadia's telekinetic death stare.

Powers & Abilities
Full upirs, possess abilities that half upirs do not. A full upir's healing and durability are strengthened by their diet and their ability to recover fr most injuries can be diminished or even completely taken away for months if they lose vast amounts of blood.

Full Upir

 * Enhanced Strength - Upirs are arguably the strongest beings in the series, or at least equal in strength to Vargulfs and reanimated beings. Upirs are able to overpower, beat, lift, launch, incapacitate, mutilate, and kill humans bare handed and with inhuman force and ease. Upirs can tear off body parts and mutilate them, as well as can bend and break bodies in lethal ways. However, such unnatural feats are only possible with greater physical effort. Upirs are strong enough to bludgeon someone to death with their bare hands, however this kind of trauma would not kill an Upir. Using maximum effort, Upirs can easily send humans flying 20 or more feet through the air, as well as overpower other beings with enhanced strength, (I.e. Johann Pryce; a human with constant hysterical strength). A full Upir is considerably stronger than a half Upir; This was made evident when Roman Godfrey, as a full Upir, casually grabbed Johann by the neck and forcibly pinned him against a wall, yet he had been similarly overpowered by Pryce when he was still only a half Upir. A full Upir can even lift up and rend a transformed werewolf or vargulf with little effort; such as when Roman did this to Peter's wolf body to pull him out of it. Upirs also need to exert some effort when lifting others off the ground and sending them flying into the air, however they can easily grapple and overpower humans in a second. Upirs can pin people down with no effort and great ease, and with enough effort rip apart flesh and send people flying at the speed of a moving car. It is possible that reanimated beings such as Shelley can be equal in strength to a full upir or even surpass them in strength. Olivia was briefly held in a choke hold by Norman when he tried to kill her, though she then got the upper hand when she broke out of her surprised state and broke his arm and tore out his heart. Some Upirs possess the strength to strike with equal force and damage as a hammer; allowing Upirs to bludgeon humans or other Upirs with their fists. Upirs can also tear and shred flesh in a similar way to digging through sand or dirt. The Upir Virus seemingly causes an upir to be able to overpower, shove, and shred through their own kind with little to no effort.
 * Heightened Senses - Upirs possess heightened predatory senses. When having a hunger attack, their vision will become more saturated and their sight will focus on living creatures. They can also hear the heartbeat of a human from a few feet away, and can clearly see the veins and blood vessels in their necks and skin. Their senses seem to be primed to their predatory nature; focusing on prey and food. When Roman was experiencing a hunger attack, his senses were focused on peoples' heartbeats, and Olivia was unable to sense a bird that flew into a window. This suggests that Upirs' senses can be controlled until they are overwhelmed with hunger, or that Upirs have no control over their heightened senses, and the enhancement to their senses is predatory, and primed by overwhelming hunger.Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 9.49.55 PM.png Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 9.50.13 PM.png
 * Regenerative Healing - Like all other abilities possessed by full Upirs, healing and all forms of physical recovery are greatly enhanced. Upirs are able to physically recover from trauma in a matter of hours, with little to no medical treatment. This allows Upirs to make a rapid and full recovery from almost any form of injury, with the exception of decapitation, severe mutilations to the heart, head or brain, and immolation. Marks caused by self-inflicted mortal wounds that transition a half Upir into a full Upir will appear when an Upir transforms, leaving them healed. The scars, if any, from the physical trauma that transitioned a full Upir seem to remain; as Olivia still has a scar on the small on her back where her tail like deformity had been, before she cut it off and bled to death. Roman awoke minutes after slicing his forearms down to the tendons and bleeding to death, with only scars were the wounds had been, however these scars seem to have disappeared or have faded. Desiccation and some chemicals can stunt their healing. Olivia's rehabilitation made it so that her tongue did not heal immediately, she also cut herself while shaving her legs and it did not heal immediately, though she stated that it would heal soon, probably in an hour or more. Being struck in the heart while it is being drained of blood and tissue pieces could kill an Upir; as Destiny was able to kill an Upir infected with the Upir Virus using a body cavity vacuum inside a mortuary. Liquidating or heavily mutilating an Upir, especially on the inside, can kill them, as well as vacuuming out or removing tissues and organs, such as the brain or heart, or grinding or shredding them. Permanent damage can be dealt to an Upir, though it may not be fatal. Roman was at the risk of being made permanently deaf when a syringe was near a tube connected to the inside of his hearing organs. If Upirs are attacked by someone or something of similar strength to their own, they will be more vulnerable to the trauma; as Roman suffered a seizure after sustaining a concussion when attacked by a creature stronger than himself. Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 9.50.27 PM.pngScreen Shot 2015-01-18 at 11.49.44 PM.png


 * Enhanced Durability - Upir skin is incredibly strong and tough; making Upirs highly resilient to physical trauma. Upirs can survive significant trauma such as falling on hard stone and being shot in the heart, however, this form of trauma can daze Upirs; as Olivia was half conscious and fatigued after being shot in the heart by Clementine Chasseur. Trauma such as smashing through glass, or smashing their head into a mirror at full force won't even break Upir skin. When Roman was struck with a metal pole at full force, the blow did nothing, as though it was hitting metal; this was while Roman was feeding on a homeless man named Gaber. Roman then able to choke the man that hit him, making cracking noises from his neck. Upirs can survive and recover from almost any injuries inflicted on them, however they can suffer permanent injuries. The only confirmed means of fatality are removal or destruction of the heart, decapitation, immolation, and the Upir neurotoxin. Screen Shot 2015-01-18 at 11.56.05 PM.png
 * Mesmerisation - All Upirs, half or full, have the ability to mesmerise others and gain full control over their minds, actions, and overall perception of reality. Upirs achieve this effect by looking into a person's eyes. It is shown that full Upirs are capable of using this ability on half Upirs; as Olivia used it on Roman to have him impregnate Letha Godfrey. Vargulfs are not susceptible to mesmerisation while transformed, however it remains unknown if this is the case for regular werewolves or when werewolves are in human form. Upirs can even mesmerise themselves, usually by gazing into a reflection of their eyes; such as when Roman made himself see Shelley in visions, like his Catabasis, which also seemed to be some form of self-inflicted mesmerisation to put the pieces of a metaphysical puzzle together and defeat his inner demons. However, this was only when he was a half Upir.
 * Immortality -  An Upir can potentially live forever; while they will mature into adulthood, at some point they will stop ageing and their lifespan will be endless. Upirs are effectively invulnerable to most conventional causes of fatality and are immune to all earthly diseases and illnesses. Despite this Upirs still possess certain weaknesses and limitations that are capable of killing them.

Half Upir

 * Superhuman Strength- Roman was shown to be strong enough to fend off a transformed vargulf with an axe handle, which she then threw away. He was easily overpowered by Johann Pryce when he was half upir, showing his limitations. Also, the elderly Magdalena, who was seemingly half upir at the time and then mesmerized by an Upir Nazi, was able to almost rip the throat out of Nicolae, his running away being the only thing that saved him from death.
 * Regenerative Healing - Half upirs appear to heal faster than humans. This is demonstrated by Roman, as he left several cuts on his body that were gone after a while. Although, half upir, while not requiring medicine, Roman did place bandages over the cut on his face. Also he felt no pain from cuts, probably due to having cocaine in his system at the time, and was perfectly healthy throughout his life despite having consumed several drugs and heavy smoking, and possibly was likely to be at risk of second hand smoking, as Olivia was also a heavy smoker.Hemlockgrove106-057.jpg
 * Mesmerization - All upirs have the ability to mesmerise people, though half upirs suffer nosebleeds and severe head pain.

Feeding
While upirs can consume regular food and drink, as well as drugs and alcohol, without any side effects, these creatures are reliant on human or synthetic tissue and blood of any living creature, to satisfy their urges, they will weaken and become rabid without enough. This rabid hunger is similar to substance addiction and contains withdrawal symptoms, with both symptoms of addiction and withdrawal becoming worse every day of the upir's life. They most often can get blood from raw meat or bone marrow or simply directly from the source as seen by both Olivia and Roman.

Upir seemingly need to adjust to their new diet of blood and raw tissue and, while adjusting, their bodies will seemingly reject the blood and cause the upir to vomit it out, and sometimes become slightly feverish and develop mood swings and all other drug withdrawal type symptoms, as blood to them is like a drug in their system. They prefer their food uncooked as cooked food is not satisfying to them. This also applies to any form of sustenance they may use, whether synthetic or organic, as when Roman is trying to consume from an Upir Feeding Tank, vomited the food back out and became sick and violent for hours after.

Olivia's first treatment caused her to almost fracture Pryce's skull, and he begged her not to kill him, which she obliged to. Their bodies mostly prefer to have blood from living sources and not preserved, as preserved, or synthetic food sources can cause the body to reject it, or it may not give as much nutrition as living sources do as no matter how much preserved flesh and blood Roman consumed he could not control his urges fully.

This is because an upir's hunger grows more insatiable and unstable with each day of its immortal life causing them to lose control and go into something similar to feeding frenzies and feed until they can control themselves again, usually after violently feeding on and killing live creatures, especially humans. This lack of self-control is the reason that some upir were caught and killed by humans in the past. Roman eventually killed humans when he fed on them as he did not before and also started feeding on other living creatures like animals, just as Olivia fed on horses owned by her late husband and covered it up by saying she had them killed in the grief of the loss of her husband to not arouse suspicion. Roman also could not control his desire to feed, as he also had daydreams or dreams of feeding. He also occasionally feeds off living creatures, such as a prized horse he owned, as well as drifters, degenerates, drug addicts, criminals, thugs and homeless people that he knew that people would not miss. This was the same with Olivia when her supplement was not available and most upir who choose to hunt and kill humans.

Eventually, he fed in a way that killed people, as his hunger was insatiable. His hunger caused him great emotional stress whenever he had an intense hunger attack or attacked someone. He cried and wept whenever he lost control, of his hunger as he wanted to do not harm. Upir have been notorious for their feeding and failing to control their hunger, as they lose control in a way that kills several people. Eventually, the deaths that occur can be traced to them, forcing them away for fear that they will be killed by humans, especially those who know of their existence and will hunt them down.

Olivia saved herself and Roman from such a fate, she married J R Godfrey to establish the scientific research to allow them to control their thirst, which eventuality resulted in the development of the Upir Feeding Tank The supplement of the feeding tank could cause associative euphoria, making Olivia think that she had explained herself fully to Roman and that Roman loved her deeply the first time she fed on it, unlike Roman, who completely rejected it the first time he tried it and it made him sickly for an hour as his metabolism was not used to the supplement. Also, Olivia almost fractured Pryce's skull do to a violent reaction to the supplement. Before the Feeding Tank was developed, Olivia fed at the Godfrey Mill by feeding on its transients and left several blood paintings in it, even one of a phoenix creature. She was afraid when Roman, Peter and others were at the Mill, as they were on her hunting grounds. The upir Feeding Tanks was designed to develop Humanoids, but the project only succeeded in creating plasma discard and tissue supplements to better control an upir's cravings and instinctual aggression. In a way, these were failed experiments that were being fed to Olivia. A fully developed humanoid can completely repair and enhance an upir's self-repairing capabilities to great levels to rejuvenate them from damage and abnormal conditions, like those caused by the upir neurotoxins used in Olivia's treatments.

Upirs like Annie, who have lived throughout the centuries past the Dark Ages and resist the urge to butcher, and kill humans for blood, have usually found jobs that keep them close to sources of blood, such as the doctors, nurses, lab technicians, morticians, and EMT's. Others have become historians, professors and scientists. According to Annie, half the morticians in America are upir. These upirs will work in the medical field, and therefore in the Emergency Room or even a medic in the military. Annie herself has worked as a military nurse in many wars throughout her time as a full upir. To Annie, this path was similar to animals living in the wild and fitting into their habitat. Commonly, upirs will usually pass off as being higher class citizens in their communities. These tribes often assist each other's struggles, especially with violent feeding, while also have friendly gatherings, sometimes with blood-based meals, one of these is Blood Pudding.

It is said that upirs that feed on other upirs can become horribly sick, though Roman was able to drain Olivia without any seen symptoms. Although, it is possible that this sickness is not immediate and takes some time to manifest itself. Alternatively, the Upir Virus causes the infected upir to become unable to feed on blood unless it is from another upir. In fact, the infected become rabid and mindlessly hunt for their own kind, seeing their own kind as outlined in a red aura. They will stalk their prey animalistically before butchering them to death. This virus causes an upir to lose their minds, reducing them to mindless animals that only know to hunt and kill their own kind.



Psychology
Upirs are predatory creatures and are far more brutal than their human appearance suggest. Although they can control themselves in a sophisticated and human manner, duress reduces them to a more feral state. This also applies their desire for blood. The longer they abstain from blood, the less in control of themselves they will be, leading to the high possibility of attacking and killing any human they are near.

Upirs are capable of human emotions, such as compassion, love, and self-control. However, often with age the older, they get, the less intense these emotions become. Upirs at any stage will struggle with humanity at some point in their lives, as Roman constantly did. Since they are living creatures, they have working brains with active nerves, allowing certain drugs that would be administered to reanimated upirs, can affect the brain and, therefore, change their emotions, but only when they are rehabilitating from dying or are recovering from a combination of blood loss, trauma and a coma. This only seems to work if the upir is under the effects of blood loss as Olivia was vulnerable to the side effects of her treatments during her recovery after her death at Roman's hands and Roman was drugged by Dr Galina and was dazed. An upirs hunger can cause them great emotional stress whenever they had a strong hunger attack, consisting of hazed senses and being overwhelmed by sensing a great quantity of blood and flesh. Roman saw a video of surgery that triggered a hunger attack. This hunger attack included hazy and blurred vision and senses. It also caused an upir to lose their temper easily, constantly become, impatient, jittery, agitated, angry, or even violent. Roman yelled at everyone at his workplace and threw an electronic tablet to the floor when the blueprints of Pryce's secret lab was not found when he wanted it. He took his anger out on anyone he saw calling them useless to him. Roman cried and had breakdowns whenever he lost control of his hunger as he wanted to do not harm anyone. If threatened, upirs usually become more prone to manic, instinctual aggression. Olivia was told by Norman that he was going to watch her die horribly from her cancer and even had a knife to weaken her long enough to be killed, making her hate him and go back on her good and loving personality to her more savage and cruel one, killing her daughters new body, Prycylla to cure herself and then ripping out Norman's heart to make him suffer.

Aging
Upirs are immortal, and do not physically age, remaining identical after reaching maturity in the discovery of their powers this may happen at differing ages, for instance, Roman reached full upir status at 18; in Olivia's case it happened when she was noticeably younger. Upir do not seem to age a day from the day they died and arose as the immortal creatures they become once they die, though their death must be at their own hand. But if they do age, they would stop aging when they reach their physical prime, as Olivia was a teen upon turning into a Full upir and now has the appearance of a woman in her 30's.

Weaknesses

 * Decapitation: Separating an upir's head from the rest of the body will result in its death and is one of the common ways to kill them. Severe damage to the brain may also be fatal.


 * Cremation: Cremation is the second best way to kill an upir that gets rid of any evidences that it existed.
 * Physical Trauma: While it is usually not fatal, trauma and damage to the body can actually cause some harm to an upir, though usually by causing pain or slight weakness, such as when Olivia was shot in the heart or when she cut herself, feeling pain. Also, an upir has the same weak points as a human being and can be affected by strikes and impacts. Enough force can even break through their enhanced resilience and cause greater harm, as Roman suffered a concussion and seizure when his head was bashed against a wall by another upir. This caused him to require more recovery time than normal. Being struck in the heart while it being drained of blood and tissue pieces could kill an upir as Destiny killed one infected with the Upir Virus with the use of a body cavity vacuum inside a mortuary, a device that is used to liquefying, grinding, and shredding tissues and organs, as well as vacuum them out of the body. Therefore, liquidating or heavily mutilating an upir, especially on the inside, can kill them. At the same time, vacuuming out or removing tissues and organs such as the brain or heart, or simply grinding or shredding them, can kill upir as well. Permanent damage can, in fact, be dealt to an upir, though it may not be fatal. Roman was at the risk of being made permanently deaf when a syringe was near a tube connected to the inside of his hearing organs. Even then, only heavy mutilation or removal of the head, brain or heart, will truly kill an upir. Roman also experienced the weaknesses of broken bones after being tackled out his window and falling on the ground with the impact breaking his body and leaving him vulnerable to Peter's vargulf. He seemed to think it was permanent as he asked Peter not leave him in such a state and to kill him instead.


 * Heart Piercing: A direct strike to the heart cannot kill an upir, however, it can weaken them long enough for them to be killed, so maybe an hour or less. Anticoagulants are seemingly capable of making the weakened period longer. The way to pierce their hearts is to aim under the sternum then twist upwards and towards the spine. Also, if the heart is destroyed, it can be fatal to an upir. Being struck in the heart while it being drained of blood and tissue pieces could kill an Upir as Destiny killed one infected with the Upir Virus with the use of a body cavity vacuum inside a mortuary, a device that is used to liquefying and shredding tissues and organs, as well as vacuum them out of the body.


 * Heart Removal: If their heart is extracted from their bodies or their chest is ripped out, an upir will die in a similar way that they die from decapitation.

He was once durable enough to take a direct strike to the back with a metal pole, and it is landing on him as if he were made of metal. His strength was also lessened as he needed a shovel in combat to win in a fight against cultists and to beat the cultist he fought to the floor before smashing the blade against the cultists head. The cultist was not even killed by this, even while Roman was seemingly fully exerting his strength. It is implied that he could have been able to fight his mother on equal grounds if he were not taking the treatments but this was not demonstrated. Being struck in the heart while it being drained of blood and tissue pieces could kill an upir as Destiny killed one infected with the Upir Virus with the use of a body cavity vacuum inside a mortuary, a device that is used to liquefying, grinding, and shredding tissues and organs, as well as vacuum them out of the body. Therefore, liquidating or heavily mutilitating an upir, especially to the heart, brain or head, can kill them. At the same time, vacuuming out or removing tissues and organs such as the brain or heart, or simply grinding or shredding them, can kill upir as well.
 * Suffocation: It is believed that, much as Olivia became comatose and seemingly died after her attack by Roman, suffocation, either of the lungs or the blood vessels or body parts or systems can cause the same effect. Pryce's and Olivia's plan to copy her mind unto another upir and leave her own body dead, as it was infected with the Upir Virus, involved seemingly killing, or at least making Olivia's real body seem dead, with a morphine overdose. It is implied that removing the lungs has a high possibility of killing an upir, though it may just cause them pain, as they are said to survive any damage other than severe damage, destruction or removal of the heart, brain, or head. Olivia was seemingly choking to death when Shelley was strangling her.
 * Normal Stamina: Upirs, while also have the same weak points as a human being, also cannot always sustain prolonged physical or mental effort, unless they are feeding or on a blood high. This can limits their physical strength, as those who do not feed as often or from the right source can lose their enhanced resilience while they can still recover from any injury without complication or medicinal help regardless. Both trauma and damage can have the same painful, weakening, disorienting, or stunning effect on an upir as it does on normal humans, though this usually is for those who do not feed regularly or the right amount. Permanent damage can, in fact, be dealt to an upir, though it may not be fatal. Roman was at the risk of being made permanently deaf when a syringe was near a tube connected to the inside of his hearing organs.
 * Hunger - Being deprived of blood and/or flesh not only causes an upir to weaken but also to lose their ability to control their hunger and sometimes attack humans to feed on them. Theirs grows with every day they live until they attack everything with blood and flesh uncontrollably. They soon will kill while feeding and lose their humanity to their hunger and lose all self-control. The upir Feeding Tank can successful curb an upir's appetite and stop their loss of control and a full grow humanoid from the lab and be fed on to help heal an upir if they develop unnatural conditions.
 * Blood-Loss: Without feeding on enough blood and flesh, upirs can be rendered almost mortal and be vulnerable to long term effects of damage that feeding cannot heal immediately and require, such as when Olivia had loss of speech, was in a coma for almost a year, and had severe muscular dystrophy after being drained of blood by Roman, which caused her to become so weak that she needed a cane to walk. This did not hinder her superhuman strength as she ripped open Marie Godfrey's neck, either with her bare hands or with her bite. Roman lost his enhanced strength and resilience due to his treatments, as seen when he fought a cultist with a knife and was slices in the arm and had to dodge attacks.
 * Upir Neurotoxin: An enzyme derived from an upir's own body can be used for medicinal purposes, breaking down the immune system and weakening an upir's cellular defences to allow for further treatments. It was used in Olivia's recovery after being killed by Roman, as she could not recover on her own. It also caused her to become more human, giving her tissue dystrophy, chemically enhanced emotions and empathy, which was hard to overcome, accelerated ageing and decay and even human-like vulnerability to cancers, which is a possible side effect of the accelerated ageing. Olivia had severe muscular dystrophy after being drained of blood by Roman and being given the Neurotoxin in her treatments, all of which caused her to become so weak that she needed a cane to walk which she got over in months. She took medication such as methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, carboplatin, and etoposide. This could all be immediately reversed if an afflicted upir feeds off a Humanoid grown at the Godfrey Labs. It should be noted that an upirs strength is the only physical ability that is not affected by the Neurotoxin, as she was shown to only be as fragile as a human, spraining herself after falling off a chair, though she still ripped out Marie Godfrey's throat and lifted Roman several feet above her head with one hand. Her immune system was shut down, physically making her weak and making her age at an accelerated rate and develop the side effects of ageing such as cancer development due to a decaying bodily system. The Upir Feeding Tanks was designed to develop Humanoids, but the project only succeeded in creating plasma and tissue supplements to fully control an upir's hunger and sustain them. A fully developed Humanoid can completely repair, and an enhance upir's self-reparation capabilities to unnatural levels to help them rejuvenate and restore themselves from damage or abnormal conditions caused by upir Neurotoxins.


 * Pryce's Sedative: Pryce used a sedative on Roman as a half upir that left him comatose for days. He then used it on a human male that he copied his consciousness onto. The sedative then was shown to be able to render full upir unconscious for an hour or more, as Pryce used it to copy Olivia's consciousness onto.
 * Hemophilia Serum: Developed by the Godfrey Institute, this enzyme inhibitor is meant to cause acute hemophilia, preventing clotting factors and inducing excessive bleeding. The effect of it on a living organism was said to be "Like an atom bomb going off in the bloodstream". It would weaken or potentially almost cripple an upir long enough for them to be killed. If an upir who is going through Pryce's cure treatments is subjected to the serum, it may kill them.
 * Anticoagulant: Drugs like Heparin, can be placed on the weapon that pierces their hearts and further its effectiveness at weakening them, as their blood will be unable to clot and therefore weakening their damage reparation abilities and physical recovery. With that, they are physically react to wounds like any human would, though they have minutes before succumbing to these weaknesses, allowing them to use their strength to fight back. Not even feeding can stop the symptoms of the anticoagulant. An injection of protamine sulfate, a clotting agent injected into the neck, can reverse the effects of the anticoagulant as fast as the anticoagulant takes to weaken the upir.
 * Rare Cases: Upirs can also become sick with diseases such as congenital heart disease, which can occur naturally, along with vulnerability to cancers and the Upir Virus. While they are the only species to be vulnerable to this infection, cancers happen to most upir whose immune system is broken down by upir Neurotoxin. It is possible that if such a disease is inside the upir before they become full upir, it might survive their suicide and possibly be able to still harm them.