Is there anything we can do to help the hosts? There is. The old rites of the exorcist actually explains both the relationship of horror stories to these beings as well as illustrates a cure. The old mystery traditions were ritually staged horror stories for introducing both an experiential awareness of their sacred symbolism as well as building strength in the initiate through spiritual catharsis.
The power of sacred symbols over vroloks has nothing to do with the vroloks fear of holy symbols. They barely understand them let alone fear them, but if a holy symbol is seen as powerful, is emotionally powerful to a host, it can serve as an anchor for and induce rejection of the vorlok from the victims mind. This is why there are so few cures these days. So little is actually emotionally powerful or held as sacred.
The only way garlic would repel them is by inducing good health in the host. The host has to have a compromised psychic immune system.
But another side of this, the horror writer and the shaman used to be the same person. The shaman would behave in wild, threatening ways, spooky cries and things of that in nature as a way to induce the same response in a victim.
I imagine Stephen King with a bone through his nose. Indeed, very appropriate, and they got their inspiration from the same sources. Nightmares, often induced through illness or recall of near death encounters, like with a predator, or through ritual initiation in taboo territories. Often times caves and deeply shrouded forests were declared taboo for the simple reason that members of the tribe who entered them never survived to return.
A shamans training involved both elements of medicine for administering first aid. Survivalism beyond those elements the tribe found most comfortable, and a heavy reliance on their intuition. This is why “witches” are often described as eating weird and disgusting things. They could survive the taboo territories where others could not, and they brought the experience of this and the related intuitive insights back to the people which made them very well suited for confronting “evil” spirits. They understood the dark side of reality and thus had a more complete picture of reality as a whole, more intuitive knowledge to broaden their perceptual filters with.
I will not eat newts, frog eggs, spiders, salamanders. You don’t really have to, and well, the traditional role of exorcist has become taboo as well.
Do they hang around graveyards a lot? Only poorly managed graveyards. Those inducing a helpful degree of disturbance in visitors.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~