Deep in the age-old office of the Bethesda studios, within the lowest bowels of the headquarters in Rockville Maryland, was a congregation of developers. A large rectangular table was spread out before them and each were equipped with men and paper. Their task was already finished, and with a solemn silence, they awaited Todd Howard's response after they had passed down their ideas to the master. The theme of the new DLC was vampires. And with Skyrim's fame rising, they could flesh out a darker and more sinister side to Tamriel by adding a download based on the infamous blood-svckers.

Todd Howard stood at the helm in the far end of the grand table, with his blue eyes, tousled hair and trademark http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/a/a0/Todd_howard.jpg. His hands pressed together, fingers locked and his face hiding behind his hands. No one spoke, for this was a moment for Todd Howard to contemplate on what they had written. Few members began to sweat amidst the cold air conditioning, and other simply sunk in their seats, for no one knew what Todd was going to say.

He moved his hands, checking each and every paper, his grim azure eyes scanning the pages from top to bottom. And with a swift motion of his fingers, he tossed them aside with disdain. "Crap. Crap. Crap. Megacrap."

"Sir," one of them spoke. "What seems to be the problem."

Todd scoffed and looked at the other developers, adopting a mocking tone as he responded to the man with a venemous tone. "What seems to be the problem, he asks me. You know what the problem is? Volkihar reaching out of the ice! New ice-breaking mechanics? A freezing forst breath for vampires that acts like a subtle version of a shout to freeze victims? Under-the-ice vampiric lair where players can dwell? This is bogus!"

"But Sir, we want to adhere to our earlier concepts on what the vampires of Skyrim are. So many fans have been speculating on the Volkihar ever since Oblivion and when Skyrim was announced. We just want to appease the fans and create a wonderful gameplay that can tie in to lore."

"What else do the damn fans desire?" Howard inquired vehemently.

"Some want lunar transformations for werewolves, wild Lycanthropes, werebears, spears, crossbows."

"We already showed some of those in game-jam." Todd reminded him while sitting back in his chair.

"Well...I"

"Wait," Todd interrupted. "Why lunar transformations and wild werewolves? We already have werewolves in the Companions. Fans have been torturing me with whether or not damn werewolves would be in and now they want forced tranformations? And what about those werewolves in the cages?"


"Well, I feel we can add additional Lycanthropy for players who loved our earlier games and are not forced to play as a modified werewolf. Lore says...."

"No one cares about lore anymore. The kids want good gameplay with no drawbacks. They want it easy and less irritating. Werewolves can transform at will by some witch magic, add that for lore. And, erm, vampires do not burn in the sun because kids hated that so just make them weaker. But what more can we fix?"

"Add two different strains for vamp--" A woman said before being cut off by Todd.

"I have a solution! Why not add wild werewolves!"

One of the developers nearly face-palmed, but composed himself and swallowed hard to better acknowledge the leader's decree. "That would be great, sir. And we can add Sanies Lupinus as a disease!"

"No alternate ways of getting Lycanthropy. It would mean lunar transformations, perks in human form and many other things. It would not make sense at all. Just keep random werewolves."

"Yes, sir. And what about werebears?"

"No, werebears would not make sense in a province of Skyrim. They never were too great in numbers. Keep the werewolves."

"Anything else?"

"Add crossbows like the movie Van Helsing. By the way, has anyone here watched Underworld?"

"I have," Vsions, one of the influential developers said. "Good movie."

"Yes, great movie. Make Vampire Lords look like Marcus from the second movie. Eh, add a man named Harkon who wants to blot out the sun using Elder Scrolls(I think they need to be added more than they already are). And add a female vampire companion for the player that looks identical like the protagonist of the films. Name the NPC Selene with a wonderful character development and make it so that players cannot marry her."

"But Todd, we already have some interesting lore on vampires of Skyrim that we can expand upon. And besides, fans would catch up on the similarities as well. Might I suggest changing the NPC's name and making her a bride for the player?"

"No vampire marriage with that NPC. Just make it so that she doesn't like chapels to justify this removal. Name the female NPC Serene."

"Well, if she doesn't like chapels, maybe a dark wedding based off a Molag Bal ritual? And the name still sounds the same."

Todd Howard glanced over at Pete Hines with a fiery look on his face, he turned back to the others in his presence and slammed his fist on the table out of anger. "Name her Serana. There will be no marriage and that is final. I don't care if fans will note the similarities between our franchise and the others. Kids adore flying vampire lords and overpowered crimson balls of drain life. I say add mist forms and make them turn into a swarm bats! Oh and add blood bottles and new feeding animations to faciliate feedings for players."

One of the developers nodded and began to write on a fresh sheet of paper. "The blood potions and the new feeding animations is a great idea, Mr. Todd. Now players won't have to worry about reaching stage 4 vampirism and can feed on bandits and NPC's before reaching towns or cities."

"You know, why don't you just remove the stage 4 attacks from the NPC's?"

"It would render the blood bottles and the feeding mechanics useless."

"Whatever, just add it. We have too many people whining about becoming a vampire. We have to make it super easy for them otherwise our forums will be flooded by virtual tears."

"Whatever you say, http://i.qkme.me/36j8ou.jpg."

The group began to share ideas back and forth, with Todd overpowering their ideas and twisting them to favor the fans of lesser ages. In the end, it came down to new features.

"I think it would be wise to also restrict vampiric players from changing their face. After all, in a vampire-centric DLC based on vampires, it would make perfect sense to not allow vampire players to have their faces changed."

"And vampire lords, what can we do about them? How do they tie in the lore?"

"Daedric Pact!"

"You mean how werewolves already made a pact with the Witches of Glenmoril? Or how Cyrodiilic vampires made a pact with Clavicus Vile? Or how the Thieves Guild's Nightingale's made a pact with Nocturnal?"

"No. Have them make a pact with Molag Bal! We never had anyone make a pact with him before." Todd Howard rejoiced with glee with his ground-breaking, innovative idea. And in the end, he shared his absolute mindset and his ideas on what the changes in the gameplay should be. Todd Howard's word was absolute.

"So, my great ideas are in the game. What do you guys? Repeat them for me."

"We have wild werewolves, but no alternate werewolf disease. We have a complete overhaul on vampires, giving them glowing eyes that makes their condition obvious and also no more Stage 4 vampire attacks which makes sense that ingame characters would not attack them. We have Vampire Lords based off Underworld, Man-Bat powers and more Underworld influences such as Serana's coffin in the Awakening quest and name and father issues. We also have new 'upgradeable' fortresses for players based on quest progression which still retains the messy enviorment. There is also the addition of a vampire frenzy where vampire NPC's raid town and villagers and kills the NPC's without warning. There is a face sculptor who can change the appearance of the player, but not vampiric players in this vampire-based expansion."

"Good! Amazing ideas. See guys, was that so hard? The game is to be for casual players. No one Rps anymore. No one likes irritating gameplay. Lycanthropy and Vampirism should be amazing hulking power-ups with little to no drawbacks at all! On a side note, I think werewolves should keep their armor on after they transform and wield weapons too! Because that would make perfect sense according to the fans. Maybe next DLC with can patch that in."