Sorry if this has been asked before but I haven't found it.

After Skyrim i felt a little nostalgic and replayed Morrowind again when it occured to me that I don't know who are the ash vampires. Somehow i always believed that they were Dagoth Ur's brothers, because everyone in Morrowind sais it so. Even when they say they were his "generals", they add "his closest kin" to it, and really, what is a persons closest kin if not his siblings? Dagoth Endus introduces himself as the brother of Dagoth ur too.

Now you can say that calling them "brothers" is meant only in some symbolic way instead of biological (which seems to be a popular idea on this forum) but seriously, tI don't see any proof to this in Morrowind.

However, in the book "the Real Barenziah" they say that it is rare for an elven woman to have more than 2 children, and it is unheard of that they would have more than 3, which seems to pretty much contradict this claim.

Your thoughts?

I think they were just chosen lieutenant of Dagoth Ur who were blessed with a greater form of Corprus without the insanity and deforming side-effects.

I've always seen it as not so much a "greater form" as a more advanced case of it, in which they've progressed far enough to overcome the insanity and deformity, instead willing those traits into mystic mental clarity and super-human physicality.

But yeah, I'm not aware of anything that suggests they were more than his chosen lieutenants or disciples. It would be an awful lot of brothers, if "brother" is meant literally.

The first time I saw one, I had levitated over the ghostfence in a quest-unrelated matter of exploration, and I went into one of the Dwemer ruins. I was just running around inside whacking baddies, when I turned around, and one of the ash vampires with their huge heads was right in my face. It scarred the living crap out of me.

I had so many good times like that in Morrowind. Loved it. My first encounter with an Ash Vampire, I actually spoke to it and was SO surprised and thrilled. I can't remember which one it was or what he said...
I do remember liking those guys so much that after I wiped them out on my Nerevarine character, I saved all their souls in grand gems and kept them enshrined in a place of honor in my house.
I miss having named soul gems...

You could have named soul gems?!? I don't remember that at all. Geez I need to play that again. Also I never talked to enemy NPC's? How did that work? Did you have to sneak up on them and initiate conversation? Or was it that trick where you used Pacify and talked? I remember doing that once to trade with a merchant who was hostile.

Either way worked, but I think the only hostile creatures that had dialogue were the Sixth House ones. Most of the unique/named Ash Ghouls and Ascended Sleepers lack dialogue except for some in Kogoruhn I think.

Yeah, the soul gem would tell you what enemy was trapped in it. It was like "Petty Soul Gem (Kwama)" or "Azura's Star (Almalexia)" or something.
As for enemy NPC's, sneaking up on him and then clicking to activate conversation was how I spoke to that Ash Vampire, and you could initiate dialogue with most NPCs that was as long as you could click fast enough that they wouldn't immediately turn hostile. Most had nothing to say, but all the ash vampires and a few random others did.
The Ash Vampires were unique though, they often wouldn't initiate hostilities with you even if they detected your presence, instead waiting until you either attacked them first or spoke to them. One even offered you a drink!
Pacify worked too. The trick was just bypassing the aggressive response that starts a fight.

Oh yeah. I remember that now. I used to enchant weapons named after things I'd killed. I did the same thing in Oblivion but it was harder. It basically involved me only carrying one black soul gem around, killing Umaril or something then making an enchanted sword named "Umaril".

Damn. I outta try talking to them next time I can work up the patience to download all those mods again.

Those Corprus beasts were cool though. Some of them had hollowed out eyes, and then there were those hunched, Cthulhu-looking things. Remember the 6'th House chimes? First time I saw one, I fiddled around with it for awhile, thinking that if I played the right combination a secret door would open or something. Also they stacked chairs, and in one dungeon there was this big Dagoth Ur symbol made entirely out of single Drakes.

Forgot to mention, all the Ash beasts have two greetings: one for if you haven't talked to them before, and one for if you have. There's also a bunch of unused dialogue in the game files meant for Ash Guards and Ash Skirmishers (which were intended to be higher level variants of Ash Slaves at Kogoruhn), Ash Wights (variant of Ash Zombies), and Ash Deathguards and Ash Poets (variants of Ash Ghouls). There might've been a couple more planned variants that I didn't see.

Each of the Ash beasts (excluding Ash Vampires, which are unique) are at different stages of Corprus disease. It goes like this: Sleeper -> Dreamer -> Ash Slave -> Ash Zombie -> Ash Ghoul -> Ascended Sleeper. Or, if they weren't favored by Dagoth Ur, then they went the Corprus Stalker -> Lame Corprus route.

I used to have a theory written up about the symbolical significance of that transformative process, and how it related to the "mad" sixth house poetry that can be found, and the overall mythical/metaphysical course of Dagoth's plan and nature.
Can't find it now, and I'm dumber than I used to be so I won't try recreating it.

Stuff like that was what made Morrowind great.

My view of them has always been that they intentionally inflicted themselves with corprus through cutting off pieces of their flesh, letting it rot and eating it in combination with rituals 'n' so forth. I THINK it's mentioned somewhere aswell that they have these sort of rituals.

Their wounds will regrow, making them stronger (ex. the tentacles on Ascended Sleepers).

So as I've seen them, they're the strongest of his "believers" who have been blessed with some of his power through these rituals.

It feels like I can remember poetry being in there, but I can't remember any examples. All great stuff; original too. Crazy Assyrian Elf in a loincloth is just about the last thing most people would think of when they hear the word vampire.

Aha! I remember now. The Ash Ghouls reminded me of these creatures from a story:

That's a lot like my idea. Specifically the subsuming of the rampantly growing, uncontrolled flesh.

@Chaplain, what's the story?

"The Thing in the Moonlight" By H.P. Lovecraft.

My favorite short story, and arguably, one of the shortest. In the publication I read, it was only like 2 and a half pages.

There was? I won't ask you which dungeon that was. I don't really want to bother you with looking up for that dungeon's name. It still amazes me how much attention to detail the devs payed in MW. No one will ever know all the secrets of this game.


I remember that one. He was fun. I used a calm scroll on him or something. It's been too long since I last went to that vampire's citadel.

This Ascended Sleeper of Kogoruhn (who first scared the [censored] out of me, then owned me) talks to you if you cast a calm spell on him. He'll say something like "Are you sure you are a star-blessed hero?"

I verify that, but I don't remember which one. It was one of the Dunmer strongholds.

It was Kogoruhn i think.

My impression, based on the dialogue with the Heartwrights themselves, was that they were actually members of Old House Dagoth back from before the War of the First Council, and that they had somehow transformed along with their liege Dagoth Ur, or were saved, or were projected from the Dreamsleeve using the Heart as an anchor, or somesuch. They, unlike the lesser members of the cult, adhere to the old Dagoth code of honor, and I seem to recall the fellow offering you the vintage Dagoth brandy implying that he was around when it was first pressed. I think they're closer kin to Dagoth Ur both by virtue of their advanced control over the divine disease, having been remade of his flesh, but also by their connection to Great House Dagoth.

so House Dagoth nobles. Or generals. Brothers in arms. Blood-relation isn't too exciting beyond one frisky elfin papa.

That bit about Sixth House members http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61_jG2aa7GY scared me away from completing the main quest. Too many red candles! And all I wanted to know was why she gave young Sarethi an ash statue.

I think it was one of the Dunmer fortresses, those buildings that had the Propylon chambers. It was just this elaborate symbol on the ground made with Drakes, and if you're the OCD wretch I am, you'd pick up every last one of them until your mouse hand seized up.

Since this wasn't mentioned, The Ash Vampires were also called Heart Wights and in fact automatically died when you removed the Heart's enchantments, so they were somehow connected to the Heart. My guess is that they were bonded in the same (but lesser) way that Dagoth Ur was, probably through advanced mastery of Corprus.

So they were liches in a sense?

I googled Kogoruhn a while ago and it seems that was the fortress I was looking for. Shame on me I didn't notice those Drakes before. I just opened the CS I saw it. Pretty awesome. I'll get to Kogoruhn soon enough and I'll pick 'em up too.

You guys brought up some new info about Dagoth Ur's kin and now that I've read your latests posts I'm like "MOTHER OF GAWD". So those vampire actually ate their own flesh and grew it back. Morrowind just got weired for me. How did the Corprus disease came to be anyway? I dont recall any explanation.

I guess you could draw that comparison, but yes, they were bound to the Heart, much like Dagoth Ur. If you killed one, it would respawn some weeks later, and when the enchantments binding the Heart were destroyed the Heartwrights, too, vanished.