Sirin is a creature of Russian and Slavic legend with the body of a bird and the head and breast of a woman, whose singing is so beautiful that a listener may forget everything and follow it to his ruin. She is joy made dangerous: paradise in a voice, and a snare inside the paradise.
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Sirin descends from the sirens of Greek myth, reshaped by Byzantine and then Slavic imagination into a bird of paradise. Her name shares that Mediterranean root, but her character became distinctly Slavic: less a sea-hazard for sailors, more a heavenly bird whose song carries the bliss of paradise to the mortal world, at a cost.
Sirin sings songs of such joy that those who hear them are overcome. In the older tellings her voice can make a person forget the world entirely, wander after the sound, and be lost. She is often shown perched in a tree, sometimes near the golden apples of paradise. Her beauty and her danger are the same thing, which is what makes her a true folk-horror figure: the threat is not ugliness but a happiness you cannot survive wanting.
She is most often named in one breath with Alkonost, her counterpart: the bird of joy beside the bird of sorrow. Together they became a favorite subject of Russian folk art and lubok prints, two women-headed birds in a tree, one bright and one mournful. Sirin's song belongs to a whole family of Slavic tales about music that enchants, a warning wrapped in wonder.
In MORANA: The Open Grave, she is Sirin, Bird of Joy, a neutral Spirit whose line reads "Omen: gain 1 Slava and draw a card." Her folklore becomes a small, bright reward: a note of progress and a look at what is coming. Her flavour holds the warning: "Her song is bliss. It is also a trap." She is designed as the joyful twin to the game's Alkonost, so the two cards echo the pairing the folklore always drew.
See Sirin, Bird of Joy in the Grimoire.
Sirin is proof that horror does not need a monster. The most unsettling thing on the table can be a beautiful song, and a card that simply gives you something good while its flavour reminds you that good things in this world have hooks in them. She sets up the game's Alkonost, and together they carry one of the oldest ideas in the tradition: joy and sorrow are two birds in the same tree.
Sources: General references on Sirin (for example the Wikipedia entry "Sirin") and Russian folk-art traditions that pair Sirin with Alkonost, alongside the broader Slavic reception of the Greek siren. This page retells public-domain folklore in our own words for background; folk tales vary by region and teller. The card described is part of the planned First Turning set. This page describes MORANA only and does not reference any other product.