If this needs to be labeled a spoiler or moved, I apologize for putting it here.

Can someone give me a fairly detailed breakdown of how many weapon racks, display cases, mannequins and bookshelves there are in Castle Volkihar that are available to the player? Also, without providing any spoilers, are we able to acquire the entire castle for ourselves or are we confined to one room?

This is going to be fun...

Weapon Racks = 2-4 (something like that)
Display Cases = Several, mainly in Harkons Room, but they are all expert locked. No specialized Display Cases for daggers, swords, etc
Display Racks = A few in the armory. May be some in Harkons Room
Mannequins = 0, Zilch, Goose Egg! Nothing even remotly close to one...
Bookshelves = Several. Mostly the type in the Collage of Winterhold (Large wardrobe-type thing). Nothing that lines up and displays your books

Technically, you *do* get the castle, but you get the lords room (the one with the throne by the fire). Nothing specialabout it, really. The nice room is in the tower, near the end of the hall, to the right of the collapsed entrance to the courtyard.
Its the monks room. I don't know for sure, but you may be able to kill him to get his room later. Upside is;
*Spoiler contains details about a radiant quest, but you may be interested in the potential/unofficial reward*

All in all, Beth really crashed and burned when it came to the vampire and dawnguard forts. They both really svck. Here's for a Skyrim version of "Fighters Stronghold"

It's not enough to have a Castle or a Fort for our own, huh? It's paramount we get to decorate it with our swag.

That's very depressing.

Todd mentioned that we could, and I quote, "trick out" our new homes. I guess not so much. No mannequins in Castle Volkihar? Really? None? What the crap? That's ridiculous.

I would pay $50 to get a castle that has an ENTIRE ROOM of weapon racks and mannequins. A huge room. Where I could put 100+ swords. I want an enormous library, capable of holding every book in the game. If I ever bought the PC version (I'd have to update my PC), I would primarily do so in order to get the house mods.

Here's to hoping for something better in the next DLC. Oh, well.

Side note...

I wonder (if anyone knows please tell me) exactly how many weapon racks, mannequins, etc. Castle Dawnguard has. If it was sufficient enough I would completely change the direction I'm going to take my character (becoming a Vampire Lord) and become a member of the Dawnguard.

Based off the ones they give us, I might as well have gone into the wild, picked and cleared a random fort/dwemer ruin/whatever and *said* I lived there. There really isnt anything special about the two forts. Player rooms are terrible (accept maybe the monks room, if obtainable as your own). On a personal note, I don't care about decorating the place with my crap, I was just listing off what the OP requested. I only have a problem with the sub-par player rooms.

Look at it this way, it's better looking than Proudspire Manor. And doesn't come with a hefty price tag.

My suggestion to you would be to continue with the vampire plotline, then follow the "Spoilered" idea. Unless you really want crossbows...
The fort has one mannequin, a few racks, IDK about cases, etc. Neither really got any love.
But doing the Dawnguard plot gets you quite a few upgrades for the fort.
Still...nothing to write home about

Not anywhere near better than my Markarth home or Windhelm manor. They both make me feel upperclass/ noble. They player basically gets a broom closet in the two new forts...
Unless the ability to upgrade them is well hidden (requires 100000 radiant quests to unlock), I'll be staying in the city of stone.
Crossed fingures for a "Fighters Stronghold DLC"

Vlindel Hall is really nice...My home of choice, personally.

lol what if they just hid the player homes really well?

So where is the part about us being able to, as Todd said, "trick out" our homes? Can we upgrade anything?

I thought we would have a whole armory full of mannequins in Castle Volkihar because ive only ever seen a "castle" with 1500 knights in the hallways.
I do know that you can upgrade some parts of Castle Volkihar, for example fixing the path to the courtyard, possibly more with quests. Im sure you must
get the same idea with the dawnguard. I hope with a DLC we can place mannequins and decor wherever we want them. I thought for sure that I would have
ample mannequins for each main armor type.

Sad Dawnguard Player...... Is Sad, but then happy again because dawnguard is still freaking epic!

They crashed and burned on the "block out the sun" ending too....I wont go into details for spoiler's sake.
You may be interested in this thread if you want a REAL stronghold: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1379622-we-should-get-strongholds-thread-2/page__st__30

Anyone know if the exit to the balcony near the Soul Cairn exit gets opened up like the one to the courtyard through radiant quests in Volkihar castle? I know you can fast travel but it'd be nice.

So again, what about Castle Dawnguard? Does anyone have a list of what it features?

I hope they make a patch that adds in the feature to make the east or north towers in the courtyard into a customizable house.

Vampire coffin svck. We don't get any deluxe coffins anymore?

We went from http://legoless.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/lair05.png to something wooden and plain old...plain.

What are the upgrades that we can make to the castles and I still haven't really seen an answer about Castle Dawnguard.

Has anyone finished both the main vampire quest and side quests and then seen if you cant upgrade or alter it? I have upgraded it slighty but no-where near to the extent of what would be considered upgrading, Garan Marethi asked if i wanted the courtyard rubble clearing and that was it

Here's hoping that "something clears up" and we get some form of mods on the console. If so, the first one I'll download is Deus Mons. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11803

Hell, it'd be cool if Bethesda released Deus Mons as a 5$ DLC (I believe Bethesda owns the rights to the mods, or something like that?)

The Dawnguard have a smelter with their crafting setup, too. Plus epic dwemer crossbows w/ exploding ice bolts, armored trolls, and huskies .

That's exactly the kind of home I'm wanting. I'd pay $50 just for that to be a DLC home.

I think it may be possible to improve the respective factions' castles if you keep asking everyone "How can I help?" I've completed the main vampire questline & am now working on the sidequests. Only problem is I'm having trouble finding the Ring of the Beast so that I can move the story along... which is kind of why I'm posting right now. Has anyone found this ring in Halldir's Cairn? The quest marker is sitting dead in the middle of a trap door, I've scoured the dungeon twice & cannot find it. So... new forum member is asking for a little help here.... : )

where is the mannequin in Fort DG? I looked for it as soon as I arrived. I read somewhere that it's displaying the DG armor. I found all of the other pieces scattered about, but could not find the mannequin.

Yes, it's completely free from any charges and prices except your very soul but only wimps cares about their soul, and who wants to be a wimp? I dare you, be a wimp and I swear to Molag Bal I will turn you inside out starting from your anus with my sixy bomb Vampire Lord Praying Mantis Wings.