So riddle me this Batman, why is it that in Skyrim you become weaker when you drink blood? This is a bit ridiculous in my opinion. I just recently turned into a vampire and after realizing that drinking blood makes you weaker (I understand it lessens your weakness to the sun too) I think I'll be turning back into a werewolf instead. Any thoughts? Is there something I'm missing with this? Shouldn't drinking blood as a vampire make you stronger?

If one thing is for sure, vampirism across all forms of entertainment is never the same. That just so happens to be the way it is in this game.


If you want to get technical it makes you stronger, at least during the day.

It's the Cyrodiilic vampires that get weaker by drinking blood. I find it more strange that that strain of vampirism got mixed with another. Is the blood running so low once they love a Skyrim vampire very much? I forgot what Skyrim's vampire strain is called. No, it is not the name of the diseases.

Well, the bottom line is that drinking blood is not very beneficial or necessary as a vampire in Skyrim. I have a problem with that.

I don't know how Volkihar react to the sun in their pure blood, but the ones we get in Skyrim have to be mix blooded. Makes a good amount of sense considering some Volkihar might want to manipulate politics in some way.

This is what all us vampire fans been saying. Backwards feeding was from the Cyrodillic strain. Why does the Volkihar have it?

I'm still going by the theory that there's some blood mixing going on.

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Huh?

Again, I'm hoping that someone has some information about something I'm missing. What are the benefits to feeding? It seems like a stage 4 vampire (which has the strongest abilities) is reached by not drinking blood. It should be the other way around.

I did always find this concept weird. You become stronger by not feeding o_0

Exactly. It completely defeats the idea of vampires. Why do vampires feed? It doesn't make any sense.

Probably.

Like I said, the Cyrodiilic vampires get weaker when feeding. This is because they have to feed to blend in. Why the Volkihar have that aspect in them is a mystery.

The vampires from Cyrodiil feed to blend in with society, which is why they have the backwards feeding(feeding makes you weaker). Why they decided implement this in skyrim I have no idea. I'm guessing its what Klawed Klaw said in regards to different vampire bloodlines being mixed.

So you are saying Papa Vok and Mama Cyro got a visit from the stork?

Yep. Not sure how that works since vampires are undead, but let's not try to figure that out.

[Disclaimer] Just putting this up front, this is how I understand things at this moment. It is subject to change

As I understand it, the Skyrim Vamps aren't Vokihar. They live in castle Volkihar, but as I remember it they never refer to each other using that term. It's always "Harkon's Blood" or "Harkon's Line" or "The Family" (assumed to mean Harkon's Family). How they got the castle is anyone's guess. Harkon's line is fairly pure, which in my mind separates these out from the other rabble vampires you'd find in caves and what not throughout Skyrim, though they could still be fairly closely related since their vampirism seems to function alike.

I understand that their feeding is pretty much the same as those others, judging on how Vampirism worked pre-Dawnguard...which is pretty much the same as it currently works, just with out the Vampire Lord form and some other nifty spells / equipment. It made sense that Cyrodiilic Vamps would feed backward so they could blend in. I'll go along with Flaw's idea of mixed bloodlines to explain why Skyrim's do the same...but the big difference between the two that I can see is that when you don't feed and let yourself climb the bloody ladder, Cyrodiilic Vamps actually take Sun Damage. Skyrim Vamps do not.

What the Skyrim Vamps gain is weakness to fire which increases per blooded level. I guess Cyrodiilic Vamps do too, but again they also take sun damage where Skyrim Vamps don't. Why, I couldn't tell ya, but you're blood also boils in the sun light which reduces your 3-stat regen (Health, Stamina, Magicka).

In my experience the gamble you take is that if you run across multiple mobs outside in the sun, it'll make combat all the more difficult since "the 3" don't regen as fast. This gamble (for me) seemed to be greater at lower levels. My regen at level 30 appeared to be none existent. Now that I've broken the level 50 mark it seems my regen in the sun is faster than it had been. Not much has changed in gear and I can't see any perks I took to boost it. Any-who, it can all be overcome by potions and enchants, but still it can be an issue. Also if you get caught outside fighting a fire breathing dragon (as opposed to frost and whatever else) your increased weakness to fire can make the encounter deadly. Ask me how I know .

Like I said before, all of this can be overcome by pots and enchants, but if you travel at night you'll not have to worry about the regen thing. Dungeon delving can also be hazardous if you encounter fire mages and fire based traps. Again, ask me how I know . I don't use fire resist pots or enchants. Makes for a more exciting encounter! lol

So the way I see it, it's a trade off. You get stronger and access to more powers, but you also incur some risk by doing so.

[edit] I forgot to mention, your race will also effect all of this. I'm Nord so the buff I get to frost + the Vamp buff to frost make frost-dragons a fun toy. I'd assume that if you were Dark Elf the fire damage would naturally be less deadly....so on and so forth.

Well, you could explain the vanilla Vampirism like this:
Based on real life diseases that are supposed to have influenced the development of the myth of vampirism, a sufferer of one of these porphyria diseases would drink blood to look more normal, and avoid getting stoned in the streets for being a 'freak'.