i was just in the planes of whiterun and i came across a Volkihar vampire standing of 2 dead vigilants of stendarr. when i engaged said vampire in combat it incredibly powerful. it almost killed me and im lvl 35 playing on apprentice. also im not in the beta. i just found this strange since ive never seen a volkihar vamp before. it wasnt a lord or anything but it was still weird

I came across a Volkihar Master Vampire at Bloodlet Throne? It was cool.

Sounds rather interesting never had this happened and have logged 200 hours.

Stop posting Dawnguard stuff you are spoiling it for people.

Not sure if sarcasm or...

Volkihar vampires are currently a class of enemies in the game without DG.

Wait what? I havn't encountered them before the DLC and i am lvl 81. Can't fool me.

Lies ! nothing but lies !

Volkihar are as the guy above me said, part of the vanilla game. Though they are at present only one of the higher tiers of vampires.

Like the bloodied vampire and such.

Volkihar Vampire and Volkihar Vampire Master are the two highest tiers of Vampires in Vanilla Skyrim.

No connection to the DLC, just very powerful normal vamps.

The Vigilant of Stendarr are always fighting random Daedra and undead, just another one of those random encounters.

I kind of like how you can find vampires with their thralls, and when they see you they say something along the lines of "Another fool has fell for out trap."

Too bad they stop fighting when you sheath your weapons for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

I had this happen to me today. Found a rather tough Volkihar at level 32 or so. A nice battle.

EDIT: I should clarify. This was at a in-game night, and the Vampire had resurrected a Bandit thug. Didn't see any Vigil around.

What I said before ApexGamer420's post previous post, random encounter, not beta.

• Fledgling Vampire (Level: 1)
  
• Vampire (Level: 6)
  
• Blooded Vampire (Level: 12)
  
• Vampire Mistwalker (Level: 20)
  
• Vampire Nightstalker (Level: 28)
  
• Ancient Vampire (Level: 38)
  
• Volkihar Vampire (Level: 48)
  
• Master Vampire (Level: 14-42)(Level 42 is encountered when the player is level 31-38)
  
• Volkihar Master Vampire (Level: 53)(Encountered when player is level 39+)
  
  
  Source: http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Vampire

its not dawnguard. this happend to me for the first time last week. its just a very rare random encounter...

Volkihar vampires are level 48 and the master variant 53. Has nothing to do with the beta what-so-ever (besides sharing a name).