I had a question regarding vampire lore. Of course, it may not be the most popular of topics ever since media had destroyed it with their horrific love tales and teenage self-pleasuring material, but I was interested in some of the good lore our Elder Scrolls franchise provided for us.

Pureblooded vampires are vampires who are directly turned by Molag Bal himself, or at least directly affected by him, correct? They aren’t in a particular strain, per se, but they are their own special type. The recent “Vampire Lord” form is a new addition to lore, and the character has the ability to turn into a bat who can turn into a swarm of bats. They can also transform themselves into mist ala the Yekef clan from Valenwood.


What I want to know is, are the vampires of Cyrodiil able to have supernatural powers as this as well? They are closely related to the Dracula-type vampire, and some of their powers such as Embrace of Shadows and Vampire’s Seduction made a return in Skyrim, not to mention the vampire insignia on the character sheet is a bat, likewise for the biting animation icon. But those have nothing to do with their extra powers, right?


So I came across this quote from Jakben Earl of Imbel:


Quote

“I have become one of the children of the night, a son to mother wolf and brother to the bat. I am nosferatu, a vampyre.”

The relation between vampires and bats have been there before Dawnguard, and while Dawnguard establishes content inspired by modern day movies, I am a firm believer that the vampires in Oblivion were more based off Dracula, as he considers wolves his “children” and loves to feed on sleeping people, mostly women.

Not only that, but a vampiric individual mentioned in an ingame note is called “Aluc Ardius”. which put together is Alucardius which comes from the word Alucard=Dracula backwards. Not only that, we also have the Pale Lady in Castle Skingrad having the true name of “Mina”, which is a woman in Bram Stoker’s novel.

So my question is, could a pureblooded vampire related to the Order tribe of Cyrodiil have the ability to turn into a bat? Or mist? Not a truly large humanoid bat, but a large bat nonetheless? With their obvious relations to Dracula archetype, could they share those powers as well? Many things could have been cut from the game, and the lore representation of races and places differ from the games in a way.

Bethesda did take their influences from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwoP3EN0POU&feature=related which seems to offer the ability to enthrall people(though the power itself is vampire’s seduction and has been mentioned through ingame dialogue with similar effects as to how it is portrayed in Dawnguard).

So my question is, would it be too far-fetched for a vampire of Cyrodiil to turn into a bat if they had the proper ritual with Bal? We see Witches turning into raven’s in Bloodmoon, so a blood-svcking creature turning into a vampire would be possible, right?

After all, Cyrodiil fit’s the bill with the medieval-type setting with castles and European environment. Crooked buildings, a civilization suppressed by both the rulers and the cleric, strong superstition against magic... in such a world, I can picture vampires that turn into bats, fly through open windows at night into a boudoir to feed on the poor maiden asleep in her nightgown.

Any thought from the lore masters? Please, no vampire hating and flaming, I don’t want this topic to be derailed. I noticed the hate against vampires in the ES franchise, so I just ask that some of you show some respect .

Any human or vampire regardless of their vampiric status can become a pure blood or a vampire lord if their gifts are good enough for Molag Bal. Harkon gave Molag bal 1000 souls to become a VL. The only reason why the volkihar have more pure bloods or vampire lords, is because Harkon started to make his followers into pure bloods , or vampire lords. With the VL powers they can turn into mist and a cloud of bats but not a single bat.