Like Dragons are.

We should call him lord chickenwing Just kidding folks

I really have to agree completely with Longknife's sentiments. From what I can see of this, I'm not much of a fan of this at all.

They should have put their attention into the underdeveloped and lore-correct Volkihar, who have just as much, if not more, of a chance of being "cool" than these demon-esque vampires.

So unoriginal. I'm sick of this dumbing down of the aesthetics(not the Lore) of the inhabitants of Tamriel. The Imperials are presented as blatant generic Romans. The Nords are somewhat generic Vikings. Beast races no longer have digigrade legs. Werewolves looked pretty generic. Skyrim looks like northern Europe with very little to make it different from it in terms of the landscape and now what I assume to be Volkihar look like vampires bassd on bats when in the lore they have nothing in common with bats. They are cursed creatures of a Daedric Prince. Molag Bal. Why do they look like they are based on bats? So unoriginal. Volkihar were described as vampires that resided below the Ice and pulled people through solid ice and killed them. I don't get 'bat' from that description. Whoever the concept artist for that was needs to gtfo the BGS art team or try to instill some creativity and originality into their work. That being said, the model looks good and is indeed well made even if it is generic and unoriginal.

I in all forms disagree with this statement. There is a lot of work put into these things to make them unique.

I disagree with you. But you are referring to Vsions http://www.gamesas.com/user/648687-vsions/

Vampires in general are unoriginal though everyone has their own unique spins on them

I'd only become a Vampire Lord if the transformations were temporary like Werewolves. If it's permanent for any reason though I'd have very vew characters that would become one.

It'd be nice if both it and the werewolves' beast form were permanent in the sense that you could do a quest that would let you be them as long as you wish, rather than having an arbitrary time limit added.

If it's a complete "You'll never look human again once you do this" I'll probably do it with one character and be done with it.

Am I the only seeing the humor in opening a thread by saying "Here are five other fictional vampires that look nearly identical to the vampire lord" & then arguing how unique, & original they are?

Not at all. I find it hilarious that people are claiming the appearance is original when you can see several things that it was derived from in the first post.

much like werewolves, theres only so many ways you can make a humanoid bat person. i suppose people would be happier if there was no aesthetic change and you just got boosted powers?

Okay, so long as I'm not the only one.
I just can't say I'm at all pleased with the way they decided vampires need to be giant slavering beasts, just like werewolves.
And as of yet, they only benefit I'm seeing they've added for baseline Sanguinire Vampiris is combat feeding. Which is good at least.

Dumbing down aesthetics? Have you played arena and daggerfall? Great games, both of them, but they're very generic in many ways. Khajiit and argonians were human. Human. They retconned that for morrowind and said that there are khajiit subraces and argonian tribes that look radically different. How is this dumbing down aesthetics? Vampires have always looked like mutated humans in TES lore. Now they look like demons and you think that's dumbed down? From looking basically human? I'm having trouble following this logic....

Edit: You can say that it's inspired by other vampire folklore and movies but to say that it's dumbed down from previous games is something I just cant get behind

For my main characters that I care about most I like the temporary transformations. A choice though of having temporary or doing something special to keep it permanent would be nice. I can think of a few characters that would stay that way full time.

its not all vampires, just those vampires. theres other kinds that turn into children, or mist.

False.

Vampires have been present in all five of the TES games, and they have never had bodily "mutations" like you claim. There is no precedent for these new, demonic vampire lords.

I would, at least.
The vampire's whole point has always been to me that they're not obviously monsters at first glance. Scary thing, that you can't easily spot, & avoid, being more frightening than scary thing with a big flashing neon sign saying "argh, I'm evil" above his head.

And when people make the argument that Skyrim's vampires weren't subtle, & able to hide. Okay yeah, so use that vampire. Terrifying clawed dead guy slides through the ice at me, I've wet myself. Giant, clumsily listing were-bat drifts towards me, I'm not quite as worried. When you have something really damn cool in your lore, just waiting to be used, why would you pass that up & just throw in a horribly derivative pile of crap, that looks like somebody pulled it directly from a bad action movie that came out a few years ago?


And yes, I'm aware.
And those are all interesting, & unique. So use those.
Instead of the big scary bat monster, from every [censored] piece of horror fiction of the last few years.

The design is pretty cool over all. Menacing at least.

I prefer the more seductive human looking vampires over the monstrous formed designs.

My thoughts? I was amazed and excited, I've been dying for an expansion upon vampire lore for years and now we're finally getting it. Cannot wait.

I love you bethesda.

their default form is just pale with glowy eyes. this special ability is far more interesting from a gameplay perspective imo. How exactly would it be fun or make sense to lay in wait under a single lake, hoping a random npc appears above? the mist thing is kinda neat, but the bat cloud is similar anyways. and wings aside, is more of a throwback to the original movie vampire appearance.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Nosferatu-movie-poster-11x17-large-style-c.jpg/220px-Nosferatu-movie-poster-11x17-large-style-c.jpg

I'm excited for the dlc and its dark content as a vampire lover, but to be honest I have always hated this beast form that vampire lords are supposed to look like. I hate to say it but it really does look like the underwold creatures wich I personally find a litlle lame. and dont tell me not to buy it because duh I will.

Well looks like the Vampire Lords are here to stay. So anyone who doesn't like them well...

If you're gonna buy it why bother [censored]ing about it?

Not really. Mods will prevent me from having to play as some unoriginal Van Helsing/Underwold amalgamation of lame. So I'll get to enjoy the new content without the setback of a new lore-breaking transformation.