I've run into two bugs in the course of an hour: firstly I entered the bannered mare, only to be attacked by Uthgerd the Unbroken. (Might I add that I have had no dialogue with her previously, and she was not my companion.) So I reloaded the game and left the bannered mare be, until I got to Riverwood, where EVERYONE was attacking me. No, I haven't killed any chickens. I've also tried to talk to guards in Whiterun to see if I had some kind of epic bounty, but they only give me open world lines of dialogue, nothing about a bounty. The guards in Riverwood won't give me a chance, so I don't know if this is a bounty bug or what. Any experience with this particular scenario?

Sounds to me like you may have become a vampire!

Without giving away too many spoilers, would there be any way of knowing? I don't recall receiving any 'You have contracted x disease' except for whitbane, which I have cured. There are no other diseases in my active effects magic tab, where other diseases have been displayed. Also, I'm plodding around in the sun quite happily. Sounds to me more like (yet another) bug, and one of serious proportions.

I'm having a similar problem, first Elrindir at the Drunken Huntsman attacked me, and now suddenly everyone in Dragonsreach attacks me on sight. I'm certain I'm not a vampire; wouldn't that attract attention from everyone else in Whiterun?

I had a similar problem with Elrindir. I reloaded a 30 minute previous savegame and went back and he didn't attack. I tried the fast travel trick mentioned and it didn't work either. The only thing I can comment is that I wiped out a bandit encampment that is behind Whiterun recessed under a cliff, as well as a small camp just north of there where bandits appeared to be harvesting mammoths for hide.

Earlier in my gaming, everone in Falkreath attacked me with this same character. I reloaded the game from a point just previously of slaying two redguards for hassling me and let them live. Not sure if there was a connection there either....but the guards in Falkreath didn't attack me that time.

You don't need a pop up saying you are a vampire. Most civies will tell you, you look sick. Sadly I caught on abit to late when I had vampirism. Theres a healing way, but spoilers. Also... when fighting vampires... check your active affects constantly.

In your active effects, if you truly were a stage 3 vampire, you would have a take 75% more damage to fire effect on you, which means people notice that you're a vampire and will attack you on site. You would also have some vampire spells for your character to use.

If you have no active effects like that, then you're not a vampire.

This person mentions talking to the guards in Whiterun. The OP clearly is NOT a vampire. I think it's just a rare glitch that occurs every once in a while where an NPC will just randomly attack you for no particular or logical reason. This actually happened to me once in Solitude, where I was randomly being attacked by Jaree-Ra, an essential NPC. To keep Jaree-Ra from killing me, I purposely assaulted a guard and went to jail for it, and then when I served my sentence, he stopped attacking. I've read that waiting for a day or so away from where NPCs are randomly attacking you works as well, though I'm not entirely certain whether or not if a 24 hour wait period is enough or if it requires at least two or three days, but I've read it works.

Also, you would know if you were a vampire because if you've become a vampire, the screen flashes red and the game notifies you about your current condition, and every time you go out into sunlight the screen will brighten along with an obnoxious sound, notifying that you are weaker in sunlight.

[edit] I just read that if you interfere with the execution that occurs when you first enter Solitude, Jaree-Ra will randomly attack you for no real reason. I did exactly that with one of my characters. But I'm pretty sure that Jaree-Ra isn't supposed to be attacking you for interrupting the execution, though.

You may not have killed any chickens but did you look at one funny, these crazy nords love them chickens.

Was there a bong involved?

bong no, maybe a skooma pipe ;p

I am also having this issue. In Dragonsreach and the guy in the hunters shop in Whiterun. I killed the shopkeeper. I guessed it was an isolated incident and when to Dragonsreach to disenchant some trash gear. Everyone, including the Jarl attacked on site. I am not a vampire, have not fought any yet. I also have none of the spells or any other effects associated with being a vampire. I had quick traveled back before entering a vampire den however (inventory was full). I will try going and clearing the dungeon and see if they still attack me when I return.

Edit: Sure enough, in the dungeon right now. Caught the vampire disease while fighting, so I am definitely not a vampire.

Edit 2: I cleared some dungeons and returned. I am no longer attacked in Dragonsreach. Wonder what causes this to happen...

Faleen, the master-at-arms in Markarth attacked me for no discernible reason. It *seems* to be the only incident I've had with NPCs attacking randomly. I punched her out a few times, but her health kept completely refilling, so I ran and stayed away for a few days. After that, she was fine.

I am getting some strange activity from other NPCs, though. Namely, I have some that randomly die in town (and I get an inheritance letter announcing it), some of which were, at one point, required for a quest. This leads me to wonder how many quest-giving NPCs have kicked the bucket without my knowing (this sometimes happens in walled cities, so it's not merely dragon-related). Hadvar would follow me every time I entered Whiterun, for about 24 hours real-time. He's since stopped, but it was aggravating. And lastly, Louis Letrush, the stable hand outside Whiterun, is replicating. First there were 3, then 5, and now there are 6. And I can't kill them/him. Believe me, I've tried.

Maybe it's a glitch with the bounty system?

I have not had any bounty yet so I don't think that is it. However I would not be so quick to dismiss that as a possibility either.

It's a bug. I had this happen in Falkreath. I had no bounty in my Journal but the guards were all acting as if I had a HUGE bounty. I couldn't even surrender to the guards (which you normally can do if you don't have a huge bounty).

Finally, I lured one of the hostile guards away from town and fought him until his health was around 1/4. Then, I switched to my fists and beat on him until he submitted. At that point, he suddenly became non-hostile and started walking back into town. I followed him back and none of the guards were hostile any more. It's weird but it worked.

I've had this happen too, I didn't have an active bounty at the time, but punching a guard and serving jail time fixed it.

this happened to me in riverwood while I was escorting esbern there, as soon as we entered the town EVERYBODY turned hostile (no bounty, no vmapirism, nothing)

The glitches are "corruption" in the save-games. The game is writing invalid and wrong data into the wrong slots. This results in the odd behaviours you keep seeing... and replicating people. (Should be butterflies replicating.) (Should be greetings changed, not aggro changed.) (Some things "correct" themselves when re-read correctly, or if the game resets the corrupt value, or the value finally fails to be "valid".)

Same issue when people keep saying "Careful with that fire", yet you are not holding your fire-spell, you are holding a bow or a sword... Something in the code is reading or writing the wrong values. Also breaking quests. (Had one quest that changed my equipped item from a SWORD into one of my HAMMERS... and failed to give me the item it should have given me. Was a book or a note/message. Had to reload to resolve the issue. Pure random failures.)

It's probably caused by excessive ash piles or dragon corpses (For those who haven't started a fresh game since v1.2/v1.3 came out.). The excessive amount of them is or has probably causing data corruption in the save games.