Don't know if anyone mentioned this before but what if these vampires are the "True Volkihar". The vampires we see in Skyrim right now seem to be almost exactly like the Cyrrodiil strain in that they hide in plain sight. It would make sense that they had been pushed back to the sea with so much pressure from them.

where else would they have came from? they alrady have their castle on an island set up and i doubt the order would just let anything into skyrim to run amuck (ittle known fact, The Order hates every other blood svcker because of their lack of subtlety, i bet the would sned armies to destory these new abominations)



there is no vampire in skyrim that can do that, they may be some somewhere but the only vampire that coudl logically be in skyrim right now is The Order or the last of the volkihar. but i'll play along and agree on this point (if only because bethesda might have written a story that makes sense, but i doubt that given most of beth's stories)


the 'so totally evil that even the most stupidly trusting of optimists would not like them' style does not belong in TES, although that is not a logical stance, it cannot be refuted or argued for, it is just my opinion on the matter of how blatntly evil they are seem (and no, just bcause you side with evil does not make the evil not evil)

My main issue is with the vampires in this DLC, they are reaalllly cliche with their stuff like transforming into a load of bats, in the Elder Scrolls lore vampires have nothing to do with bats and now their just going to add a load of retcon stuff that is totally not lore friendly.

My main issue is with the vampires in this DLC, they are reaalllly cliche with their stuff like transforming into a load of bats, in the Elder Scrolls lore vampires have nothing to do with bats and now their just going to add a load of retcon stuff that is totally not lore friendly.

My point wasn't so much that I think the Dawnguard NPCs will be lacking, but rather I think Dawnguard has probably caused a lot of other NPCs we've seen to be lacking.
My point was that Bethesda seems...undisciplined. If they get bored with an idea or concept, they just drop it. If a new idea comes along that they like, they devote all their time to it (and may drop it again in the future when it becomes boring). While this is, in a sense, perfectly fine, they should at least have the discipline to tie up loose ends in a believable way with a natural transition.

A lot of people are saying "it doesn't break lore!!" Yeah ok, let's get real here: with the godlike ability of the Daedra, it's pretty hard for ANYTHING to break lore. Any time something outlandish happens, Bethesda can say "Azura did it" as the excuse.
But more importantly, it lacks natural transition. We've NEVER heard jack about winged vampires or demonic looking, all powerful vampire lords. Some say "well they've been hiding!!" No see, that doesn't matter. If you're the WRITER, you at least provide some clue for the audience, for example maybe briefly mention this strain of vampire in a book written by a man thought to be crazy or the like.

But let's take a second and look at factions and groups that seem to lack natural transition:

-Volkihar are M.I.A.. Reported to be the Skyrim brand of vampires in Oblivion, they're now suddenly missing entirely without clues as to why or how.
-Werebears were famed for being a real problem in Skyrim. Again, they're suddenly missing entirely without explanation or clues as to why or how.
-This new vampire strain is suddenly here out of nowhere, hopefully they'll explain why or how.
-Redguards have gone from detesting magic in Oblivion with one NPC's entire personality type being that he was the token black guy for the mages guild, and he went out of his way to make it perfectly clear to us that redguard hate magic. Another Redguard necromancer found in the game had to flee Hammerfell because the people there wanted to kill him for practicing magic. Come Skyrim, Redguard utilize magic no problem. The argument again is "a lot of time has passed!!" yes, but Bethesda left behind zero literary tools to suggest such a change was coming. Hell, they pointed us in the OPPOSITE direction, saying they hated it. Now they use it and Nords hate magic....Very awkward transition.
-Shadowscales. They're presented to us in Oblivion like this interesting new concept of Argonian culture, then next game Bethesda says "NEVERMIND THEY ALL DIED LOL." Like wtf?
-The Vigil of Stendarr are just kinda....there. They do nothing. What's the point? Is this an idea that was never fully fleshed out?


Bethesda seems to get bored with ideas and isn't afraid to move on and try new ones. This is fine, but again, at least leave behind REALISTIC TRANSITION for us to follow. Things like the Shadowscales and the Redguard adopting magic, that's the sort of thing where it's best if Skyrim shows slight usage of magic by redguard (more specifically, it shows them as a culture trying it for the first time and admitting they'd like to experiment with it more) and where the statement on Shadowscales isn't "I'M THE LAST ONE LOL" but rather "my homeland is starting to walk away from the concept of Shadowscales, no longer forcing such children to become assassins." THEN in TES VI you can make Redguard full-on adopt magic or make Shadowscales extinct if you so choose. Things like the volkihar and werebears? Those just need to be here; that's a commitment you basically made when you wrote them into the lore without providing any clues for their absence in Oblivion.

Natural transitional flow and commitment is all we're asking for. It's quite a simple request. Right now though Bethesda is handling these factions and groups like a child who gets excited over the idea of building a treehouse, but then annoyed at how hard it is so they leave it as a tree....platform. Then they get excited about learning to ride a skateboard and whine for a really expensive brand of skateboard, but then they ride it and fall and scraqe their knee and never try again and the $200 skateboard collects dust in the closet. Then they decide they want a pet dog, but after it grows from a puppy to a full grown dog it's no longer cute and they neglect caring for it. Then they decide they wanna join the baseball team but but but.....

A LITTLE commitment to your own lore, please.

Hi there jack254! Hope all's well.

I somewhat disagree. I think the plan to get the hold of an Elder Scroll and blot out the sun seems interesting enough, as it doesn't sound cliché. What is cliché is the theme in itself - vampires vs hunters -, of which the pompous tone with which the speech is delivered is yet another signal, but let's give Beth a chance to show what it can do. Maybe they approached it differently, freshly. Let's not give up, not just yet. However, it is to be noted, the animations look ugly, with a distinct Oblivion off flavour, animatronic as hell, but, of course, one has to be cautious and wait for the final product. Lastly, get ready for some forum lapidating

Its going to be a very intresting battle between light and dark.

i hope i get picked 4 the beta

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...And ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...Not to your quote, but to the idea of Beth showing what it can do. I have long since stopped playing Skyrim cause it got soooooo darn BORING...Nothing in the game changes, the story line does not move nor is it Dynamic, no consequences either. I just came back to test out the old saying, "If you leave a place and come back, you will find nothing has changed..." my pappy used to say that...

Just wanted to see if the same old, same old was going on back at the gamesas forums. This is no way means I will be palying the game. I think I am done with Bethesda games for a while.

I know, hold a contest to see who can reach more than 1,000 hours of gameplay first.

I just had a crazy idea, after reading all these comments.

First off, stop judging before playing the DLC, good lord, enough of that already.

And second, my crazy lunatic idea.

The Dawnguard...

Who are they? Are they really a sect from the Order of the Virtuas Blood... or are they something more? Do they have a secret they are hiding?

The Dawnguard could end up having a dark secret, there leaders are Cyrodillic Vampires... This new breed of Vampire is threatining there exisistence, all of peoples exsistence.

You just told us to stop making LOGICAL assumptions based on evidence we've received, then turned around and made baseless speculations on the DLC's plot with no evidence to support your speculations.

You know, I don't understand why people act as if everything in the lore is set in stone. Everything written in lore is NOT 100% true, and there are always more unknowns than knowns. New things are being discovered constantly. And lore is being expanded constantly. Books written so many years ago are more than often not accurate anyways.

Didn't the video have a dragon crashing into a frozen lake? Perhaps that's how the explain the Dragon Born finding their "fortress". Going through some underground tunnels filled with Falmer seen in the trailer too before getting there.

well in this case books written many years ago are the Bulk of the Lore today (in Skyrim) adding on to it is fine, but when you start taking stuff away ala no Volikhars or Werebears, reputed to BE A PROBLEM, as well as being in Past games...well then thats just straight Retconnen. but no worries. it will be sixy.

The dragon in the trailer is like "where the [censored] are the Volkihar" and decides to look for them himself since Bethesda's not showing us.
Though maybe you're right. Maybe that's the tie-in. Maybe someone spots the dragon, then asks you, as Dragonborn, to go take care of it. The dragon dives in, you give chase, and before you know it you find the vampires, who....are the Volkihar?