A:"He wanted to know about the vampires of eastern Skyrim. I told him about the most powerful tribe, the Volkihar, paranoid and cruel, whose very breath could freeze their victims' blood in the veins. I explained to him how they lived beneath the ice of remote and haunted lakes, never venturing into the world of men except to feed."

"But you should know that the Volkihar have an additional ability you didn't mention. They can reach through the ice of their lakes without breaking it. It was quite a nasty surprise, being grabbed from below without any warning." - Immortal Blood.


B:"When they defeat great enemies they take their tongues as trophies. These are woven into ropes and can hold speech like an enchantment."

"The further north you go into Skyrim, the more powerful and elemental the people become, and the less they require dwellings and shelters. Wind is fundamental to Skyrim and the Nords; those that live in the far wastes always carry a wind with them." - Children of the Sky


A: Should the Vampires of Skyrim be held up to this description or will it be a more simplified version of them? To me this would be a more challenging effort to find and fight the Vampires of Skyrim, with an added tinge of fear.


B: First, I'd like to know if this is to be a reward of the player for dispatching his/her foes? Would it increase your Voice powers? Maybe have the "rope" hold a different Voice power such as Open Lock or Detect Life or some other Voice you don't know how to speak. Or, is Beth making this "You have killed a Dragon and got a new Voice power." mechanic?

Secondly, "the more elemental the people become" line makes me wander if in the gameplay trailer, the floating wisp of colours was in fact a person.Would these people just be vagabonds wandering around or should they be more terrifying entities? Carrying the Wind with you can make a very interesting game mechanic. Relaying battle information back and forth between commanders and their peons. Would it be too much for Beth to put into the game?

If these questions have already been answered please be gentle in telling me, I just thought I would bring these items to the table.

Actually, I don't think a single one of these has been answered. We don't even know if vampirism is in yet.

However, these are excellent questions. I'm sure some of these won't make it in, of course. One could easily write lines such as "the more elemental the people become" to ignorance of the writer or infatuation with the Nordic people. Stretching the truth most likely happens as well.

Regardless, I would LOVE if the vampires were indeed done like they were described in Immortal Blood. That sounds like it could be extremely scary if implemented correctly.

I doubt the vampires will be Volkihar, it would be awesome but I think it would be difficult to accomplish.

I don't forsee us collecting peoples tongues, although it would be interesting to see some lords or nobles wearing tongue cloaks.
I also don't think we will see the Nords become "more elemental." I say that because I see it more difficult to implement and perhaps a fairly insignificant detail anyway. It would be odd to have one race change depending on where they hail from but not the others, could I choose to be one of the more "elemental" of the Nords? If not then I don't see it happening, and if so it would only be fair if all of the races could.

My thoughts exactly...

Maybe only NPC's or such. I doubt it will be in but it's still early in the year and I'm hoping this reaches a Dev's ears and makes him/her think or someway of doing it...or maybe a reference in a book about why they can't change anymore?

I find it a bit too extreme to see in game, but variety is good and this would bring variety.

I do hope we see the Volkihar though, I've been hoping since Skyrim was confirmed to be the next TES.

I sincerely doubt they'll include anything as cool and strange and interesting as enchanted ropes woven from the tongues of your enemies.

If they DO, I will be extremely happy.
But I don't see it happening. That'd be too unique and novel for the vulgar masses. God forbid we have something original and new; no way can we deviate from expectation. Nope, we'll just be stuck with horned helmets and similar cliche, I'm sure.

We need to get away from that. We need somethings that have been written down in the multiple books of Nirn, even the obscure and outlandish ones.

Great questions

First, I seriously don't think we need worry that such information has not already reached the ears of the Devs. I'm pretty sure that the very first thing they did after they decided to set the game in Skyrim was to go to the Imperial Library and pull off every single reference to Nords and Skyrim. At least I hope they remember to do that... :rolleyes:

Personally I think the whole Volkihar idea would be perfect for a DLC. Maybe a few hints and clues in the vanilla game, but then a fully worked out quest line, going up to the frozen wastes of the North to deal with the Volkihar. It would be an awesome DLC.

I doubt that that the tongue rope idea will make it into the game, sadly. I hope I'm wrong, but I think it will simply be explained away by being something that happened back in the mists of time, but no longer happens. What we might get is an extremely rare artefact, in a quest perhaps, that is some form of ancient enchanted tongue-rope. That would be cool.

Just my 2 cents....

Also, what about using the Voice to travel from long distances. Can't qoute the Children of the Sky at the moment, but using this instead of a static load screen. Maybe a cut scene of you being transformed into or surrounded by the Wind/Voice?