While this is not as big as the Empire's decline and the rise of the Thalmor or the prophecy of the Dragonborn, it is something that has come to my attention. Before the release of Skyrim, some of us wondered what type of vampire clan might be added. Most of us thought it would the Volkihar Clan. But now that the game is released, there is strong reason to believe the Cyrodiilic clan migrated to Skyrim.

Why?

1. All vampires of the provinces are noticeably horrendous. No matter how much they feed, they will always appear monstrous and obviously vampirism. The exception was the vampires of Cyrodiil who can blend in mortal society undetected if they were well-fed. Not to mention they prefer to feed on sleeping people and the vampire gameplay in Skyrim is similar to Oblivion, you feed on a sleeping person.

2. Stages of vampirism: The longer you go without feeding, the stronger you become and the more obvious your vampiric nature is. The powers are similar as well, Embrace of Shadows and Vampire's Seduction are powers returned from Oblivion. There are few new vampire powers, however.

3. In the book titled "Immortal Blood", we are told of a vampire hunter named Movarth Piquine who enters a chapel to inquire about the various types of vampires. The man in the chapel gives him advice, and so Movarth learns and goes on his hunting tasks in different provinces. When he asked about the vampires of Cyrodiil, the man in the chapel told him they were indistinguishable from living persons, more civilized than the vampires of the provinces and that they prefered to feed on sleeping people. Movarth returned to the chapel after a month, frustrated that his search proved fruitless. The man in the chapel eventually reveled his true nature, but for Movarth it was too late, the vampire had already attacked him. Where am I going with this? Well, he was attacked by a Cyrodiilic vampire right?

Also, it appears Porphyric Hemophilia was renamed to Sanguinare Vampiris. So did the Cyrodiilic vampires evolve in these two hundred years? Or is there a new explanation? For the people that do care.

...so guys, what are your thoughts on Vivec huh? What a guy!

Give people time. A lot of us haven't really run into vampires yet. I've seen them a few times, but they were all unnamed baddies. (also haven't caught the disease yet)

I've ran into a few vamps, and they do look largely like normal people. The only difference I noticed is that they can use absorb life, ala Morrowind, and they have a thing for robes.

lmao

Anyway, this is something where you kinda just hit the nail on the head, were unquestionably right, and left no room for debate. Sayaril (my character) definitely became a Cyrodiilic-style vampire... in Skyrim. I guess we could talk about the implications, but those also seem pretty clear. Vampires who can infiltrate society are just better than those who cannot. That's how they displaced the Volkihar. I wouldn't be surprised if they also took over some other provinces.

Sorry, I just had to make a Vivec joke. But I caught the disease and we have two returning powers.




Initially my thought as well. But did Bethesda just add random vampires or are they following their own previous lore? No other vampire can infiltrate society and the addition of the book Immortal Blood tells me Bethesda was well-aware.

Does Skyrim have the "Your face will never be the same" problem of Oblivion, or did they fix that?

The face definetly changes. It seemed to me that when you go through the fourth stage of vampirism, your face seems a bit more pale than in the first stage, but not too much difference is noticed. You don't have wrinkles like in Oblivion. You do, however, get the red eyes and the fangs whenever your character's mouth is open(I caught him with mouth open a few times after combat).

Right, but is it a "oh, he looks off" kind of change, or "wow, you got a completely new face" kind of change?

Eh, definetly darker character. New face with a "Oh, he looks off" thing. The eyes are even more red than before and remind me of the Sith from Star Wars.

Edit: They look exactly the same. Except the white part from the eyes are a bit more red as well.

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=112

http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/revenge-of-the-sith-465x325.jpg

They fixed it. The changes are contained to things that the game knows how to reverse. In Oblivion, your face slowly mutated into this ugly mess as the game went through the vamping and unvamping process. In Skyrim, it just turns you pale, and then returns you to your normal (recorded in game files) skin tone. Your eyes change, which is kinda lame (I liked my all-black eyes), but besides that, nothing weird happens.

I have to wonder why Skyrim has an "all-black eyes" option.

Bosmer had it in MW, and I'm guessing my Altmer might have had it to represent some possible inter-breeding between the Bosmer and the Altmer. I don't think any other races have it as an option.

They also have an all white option too. Maybe to add more depth in character creation. But the all black eyes reminds me of Oblivion's corpses when reanimated.

The all-white option is for blind people, though that's not reflected in-game if you choose to have two blind eyes.

IT was an option for my nord.

Ok.... that's just silly then.

4 - Bethesda got lazy and just reused the Vampirism from Oblivion.

Without even bothering to back it up with appropriate quests/lore.

Gameplay will always, and I mean always, differ from lore. How in the world would you implement the player becoming an ice vampire who jumps out of frozen lakes at people? Making vamps butt ugly would upset the people who spent forever creating a character. Feeding on sleeping people is also the easiest thing to implement (other than the drain health spell of Morrowind).

My explanation: the vampire dude from Immortal blood is the progenitor of the new Sanguinare Vampiris strain, which is distinct from Porphyric Hemophelia.

The Vampires you play as are indeed the Volkihar clan as some npc Vampires are called Volkihar Vampires or Volkihar Master Vampires and they do posses ice-based powers but they do not display the ability to phase through ice (but that could be because its too complex to put in the game mechanics.
movarth was turned by a cyrodiil tribe vampire so he should be one too, its possible but doubtful that he made the bloodline that is in Skyrim but then they should be pure cyrodiil Vampires with no differance to the previous game, another theory is that he bred with a volkihar Vampre to create a Hybrid of both, yes vampires can procreate as an orc in Oblivion was only half orc and half vampire, but it should be said that the mother was alive and vampires are generally considered to be undead, so maybe to two vamps cannot procreate by mating.

Can anyone confirm this? I've encountered several vampires in Skyrim (some even in the frigid north by Ysgramor's tomb) but I've yet to see any Volkihar vampires or any vampires with ice-based attacks.

if you bought the strategy guide with the game and look on the bestiary page, it shows you a list of vampire types such as fledgling vampire, blooded vampire, master vampire and the last ones and most powerful are called Volkihar Vampires and even Volkihar master vampires.

I've fought fledling vampire, vampire thralls and master vampires. I have yet to find a Volkihar vampire in the game, but I don't doubt you.

you may encounter them at higher levels.

but i am slightly disappointed in the vampires this time around as well, i have been a vampire for awhile and i have not encountered friendly vampires, they are all hostile so far, i found them in Mara's eye pond, Broken fang cave and Bloodlet throne. another thing that disappoints me is that everyone is hostile to you at stage four vampirism, now a few people being hostile is fine but not when its every single person is skyrim, not everyone is a bigot and even when people are hostile to you, only the guards should attack you as they respawn...townfolk don't (at least to my knowledge so far) so any quest givers may permanently end up dead just because you have to defend yourself, feeding is easy to do to take care of that problem but feeding itself is just the same as oblivion.
Maybe vampires might get a little improvement with a dlc but i wont hold my breath.