Volkihar Clan - Skyrim's Vampires

OblivionDuruza · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:01 pm

I was reading up on lore and I cam across the mention of the Volkihar Clan on the races page.

Further digging led me here to the book Immortal Blood, which mentions them:

Immortal Blood wrote:

The next day, he did return with more questions, these ones very specific. He wanted to know about the vampires of eastern Skyrim. I told him about the most powerful tribe, the Volkihar, paranoid and cruel, whose very breath could freeze their victims' blood in the veins. I explained to him how they lived beneath the ice of remote and haunted lakes, never venturing into the world of men except to feed.

I could find no further information though, and the UESP Wiki has no article on them. Is this the only information that is out there on the clan? And further, will they be making an appearance in Skyrim?

Chaos the N'wah · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:19 pm

Actually if you keep reading you'll see this:

Immortal Blood wrote:

"Your advice helped me very much," he said. "But you should know that the Volkihar have an additional ability you didn't mention. They can reach through the ice of their lakes without breaking it. It was quite a nasty surprise, being grabbed from below without any warning."

Not sure what Beth is going to do with vampires, whether there's clans or not, will there be quests this time outside of the cure, how will vampirism fundamentally work this time around, etc.

OblivionDuruza · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:21 pm

Is this book the only place vampires from Skyrim are mentioned?

Chaos the N'wah · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:14 pm

From Skyrim? I don't think so, but there might be a book that talks of a Nord vampire which could give us some insight.
The name escapes though, I believe it was a story set in Morrowind where a beggar/thief get chased along an alley into a den of vampires so an ancient vampire can feed.
I'll post again if anything comes to me

Knight · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:03 pm

I couldn't find that book you were talking about..

There is a book about vampires chasing a thief, though, and it's called Trap.

Chaos the N'wah · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:13 pm

That is indeed the book I was referring to (takes place in Morrowind), but I most have confused it with another, I could have sworn I remember a snipit of a nordic vampire that seemingly slips through ice, I'm probably mistaken

Knight · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:34 pm

Ah, I see

From what I understand, Volkihar vampires are way more brutal, feral and uncivilized than the clans we've seen in Oblivion and Morrowind. I bet that they will be included in Skyrim. I can imagine walking on ice, and suddenly see a vampire leaping onto me.

Speaking of which, how the hell do they live in lakes? Do gills come as a bonus for becoming a vampire?

Argonanza · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:36 pm

Frozen lakes. Like, frozen all the way to the bottom-lakes? Do Vampires even breathe, being dead and all?

Knight · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:44 pm

Lakes never freeze all the way to the bottom, right?

Well, if they do live in water, they will be the new slaughterfishes. Finally some change from those dull fishes. It's much cooler to get bitten by a vampire while taking your annual bath in the lake.

legoless · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:38 pm

The clan will eventually get its own lore page similar to the Daggerfall and Morrowind bloodlines. I wonder if Bethesda will pick up on the frozen lake idea for Skyrim. Seems like a kinda stupid feature for a game. Would it let you to access secret areas below icy surfaces or what?

Chaos the N'wah · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:49 pm

Likely there will always be ways to get under the ice naturally, being a vampire would just make the trip shorter, not to mention it would be cool to attack npcs from underneath the ice

Ysmir · **Posted:** Sat Aug 27, 2011 7:54 am

The Vampire Priest only told of the "Strongest" clan let's not rule out other clans and more importantly let's not rule out Bethesda putting in generic vampires xD

OblivionDuruza · **Posted:** Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:01 am

I think this is the wrong thread, this thread's not about Skyrim the game, it's about the Lore, as research for the game yes, but in actuality, about the Lore. :wink:

Trelares · **Posted:** Sat Aug 27, 2011 2:49 pm

Knight wrote:

Lakes never freeze all the way to the bottom, right?

Depends on the depth of the lake^^ and the temperature ;-)

.

On Earth almost all lakes don't freeze to the bottom,but to give an example: the "Neusiedler See" has no spot which is deeper than 2m so he could freeze to the ground when the weather stays around -20 C for long enough.

Allmost all lakes/water on other planets in our solar system are frozen to the ground, but if the lake is deep enough the pressure from the ice above could make him liquid again

I hope this answers your questions ^^

Midgetalien · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:13 pm

OblivionDuruza wrote:

I think this is the wrong thread, this thread's not about Skyrim the game, it's about the Lore, as research for the game yes, but in actuality, about the Lore. :wink:

Quote:

...the most powerful tribe....

- Immortal blood

I think that Ysmir was pointing out that it mentions the possiblity of other tribes/clans - not that Bethesda were going to include more than one in Skyrim.

So as far as we know there are more than one tribe/clan of vampires on Skyrim.

OblivionDuruza · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:19 pm

Well I created the thread with the clan itself in mind, looking for any more clues about it in Lore. There is a Vampire thread in Skyrim (actually there are a couple), looking at Vampires in-game, and speculating on what might make it in. I'm happy for others to shift the discussion here a little, but remember, this is the lore forum. :mrgreen:

Midgetalien · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:31 pm

so we know that they are the strongest of the clans on Skyrim. There are more than one clan and they posses abilities the likes we have not seen before. It will be intresting to see how they do turn out in skyrim - if at all.

Immortal blood does provide us with their location though:

Quote:

He wanted to know about the vampires of eastern Skyrim.

Do they hold territories? Are they at war with other tribes? Is there an alliance? It would seem strange that he wanted to know about eastern Skyrim and immortal blood mkes out that of the tribes in eastern Skyrim the Volkihar are the strongest. Whats special about eastern Skyrim? Is it populated? Barren? full of mountains where they can hide? I am going out on a limb here and suggesting that perhaps western Skyrim doesnt see its far share of vampires.

OblivionDuruza · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:43 pm

Interesting thoughts there. We know that eastern Skyrim is more of the Winter Hold region, and that the Legion stationed in the far east of the province at Windhelm protects the Dunmeth Pass. The time the book is set might be a factor, as for some time, Winter Hold was the capital, so perhaps the prosperity of the east correlates to some extent with the influence of the Volkihar Clan? Depending on how far east is meant, the Clan might even be linked to the Whiterun witches' coven. It might simply be attributed to the fact that the east is more populated, and therefore the Vampire Hunter from the story had more business in the area. Looking at a map of Skyrim, most of the major settlements are along the coast or in the east, so this may be a factor. Another factor is climate and geography. Looking at maps of Skyrim we can also see that the west is not as cold as the north, north-east, so this could be another reason the Clan is found in the east, considering that a large part of the 'myth' involves their relationship to the ice and their ability to pass through it.

Midgetalien · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:47 pm

I agree - the east has a larger population of "food" and is colder which fits with their abilities.

But the main thing here is the book tells us he asked specfically about eastern Skyrim adn the Volkihar clan was the strongest fo the tribes there - could the Volkihar clan then perhaps be larger? Or control more cities/territories/feeding grounds? or are they stronger in the sense of they are just naturally physically and magically strong rather than strong in terms of clan size/access to food sources/political corruption etc.

OblivionDuruza · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:57 pm

"Most powerful tribe" has the connotation of power and influence, rather than physical power. It may be that they are like Cyrodiil's vampires and have been so powerful they have forced their rivals 'out of business' assimilating them as they went. Hard to tell with so little information, but there's nothing to rule out anything just yet.

Midgetalien · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:04 pm

But the fact taht they hide away under ice tells me that they cant hide in society like Cyrodils vamps and therefore are more recgonisable like those from morrowind.

Midgetalien · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:17 pm

ok sorry for the double post but I thought I might poisnt something out:

Quote:

"The Volkihar are paranoid and cruel, whose very breath could freeze their victims' blood in the veins. They lived beneath the ice of remote and haunted lakes, never venturing into the world of men except to feed. They also have the ability to reach through the ice of their lakes without breaking it."

The bold bits are important - It would seem that the Volkihar would have no or little infulence in the world of the Nords - and so perhaps rather than political and influencial power they are strong in terms of their magical and physical attributes as well as size?

The fact they are paranoid suggests that alliances with other tribes would be non-existent or very limited.

OblivionDuruza · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:20 pm

Power and influence not in terms of actual politics, but as far as their influence upon other vampires and in folklore. Unlike Cyrodiil's vampires, the Volkihar are clearly monsters, inspiring fear in village tales and even in vampires not affiliated with them (be they other clans or not). That's my theory.

Midgetalien · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:25 pm

OblivionDuruza wrote:

Power and influence not in terms of actual politics, but as far as their influence upon other vampires and in folklore. Unlike Cyrodiil's vampires, the Volkihar are clearly monsters, inspiring fear in village tales and even in vampires not affiliated with them (be they other clans or not). That's my theory.

ooohhh I like this theory - but that sort of influence doesnt warrent them being called the "strongest clan" - for he was talking in terms of vampires not in terms of mortal influence

OblivionDuruza · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 3:28 pm

Strongest following? Sort of along the lines of, you're either with us, or you've got no hope in the world. Part of this is probably due to their power physically/magically, part of it is also probably spreading fear, intentionally or inadvertently.

Volkihar Clan - Skyrim's Vampires
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