Annoying problem in my game - I attacked some Imperial soldiers the other day and freed their Stormcloak prisoner, as I have done regularly since deciding to side with the Stormcloaks (this is after the Civil War is over now). The game registers it as a crime, because they didn't attack me first, but having killed them all I'm told that the last witness is dead and so the bounty is removed.

But ever since then, all the random civilians on the road are attacking me - mercernaries, Vigilants of Stendarr, even skooma dealers (who don't have any weapons!). There's no way for me to get rid of the crime, as I haven't committed one - no-one saw it, the guards aren't interested. (And I hardly think it's a crime in any case, we're at war!)

Is there any way to stop this? Is it a bug since the new patch?

Not only is it annoying, it's totally unrealistic, really immersion-breaking - so I kill some Imperial guards on one side of the country and nobody sees or hears about it, and now a skooma dealer on the other side of the country is trying to take down a warrior in dragonplate armour with his bare fists?! He must really like those Imperials! And have psychic powers!

It's very irritating. Any ideas?

Did you become a vampire?

Welcome to Skyrim.

But it's never happened before!

I'm pretty sure I made plenty of unprovoked attacks before, and as long as I got rid of the witnesses no-one minded. And if they did mind, there was a bounty, which I could get rid of.

I haven't run into any vampires for ages, so I don't think it's that.

Ah well. I guess it's fairly easy to RP, cause if they like the Imperials so much, then they deserve to die anyway. But it's irritating. I feel bad for all the drug dealers who are going to die.

Check Magic menu > Active Effects and look for Vampirism.

Running any mods?

Vampirism is the best thought. Do you have a Bounty?

The game may have very well glitched into this condition, and by that it probably would not happen again if you loaded a save from before it happened and played on. However, just to clear out any scripts that may be causing this, go to a cell that has no NPCs in it, alive anyway. Then wait for 73 hours. That should clear out any random scripts. See what happens.

Otherwise, load an earlier save if you don't have Vamprism.

Sounds like the game still registers it as a crime even though your a Stormy

I had a similar situation arise on my Stormcloak warrior character. I had just freed a captive from Imperials on the road, and although my bounty was cleared, a lone Vigilant of Stendarr ran out and attacked me a little while later. That was odd. But, that seemed to be the end of it. I mean, I do have the occasional mercenary who wants to fight after I engage in conversation with them, or the scruffy argonian skooma addict who ambushes me, but every single encounter is definitely not hostile.

Do peddlers and farmers on the road attack you too?

Definitely not vampirism, I checked now. But it only happens in the hold in which the original attack took place, so it doesn't matter too much I guess. Thanks for the tips!

Running a few mods, but only minor stuff like extra sounds, shiny wet rocks, stopping Lydia setting traps off all the time, etc. Nothing that I can see would affect this.

Try to commit a crime and then pay off the bounty. Maybe that'll clear it.