urthdigger wrote:That would be all fine and dandy if it was represented outside of game mechanics. But, as it is, most vampire NPCs are like your standard vampires of earth lore, requiring the blood of mortals to stay alive or supplement their powers, actively avoiding the sun, sleeping in coffins, etc.
There is also certain expectations when somebody uses the term "vampire". While making differences to make something unique is all well and good, there's a certain point where you shouldn't really do that anymore. If I had a tool that I said was a sword, but it was a sphere rather than a pointed lump of metal, and actually used for gardening rather than hitting people with it, most people would tell me I'd have no business calling it a sword. And they'd be right.
To remove everything that makes a vampire a vampire, and still call it one, is not unique. It is merely misleading.
In other words, you prefer Earth Vampires and think Elder Scrolls Vampires are entirely wrong. That's kinda what it sounds like to me.
I'm afraid you're wrong about it being misleading. Bethesda Vampires are still Vampires in their own right, and so they are unique. They are not like Earth Vampires and that is what I like about them. They still have Vampire qualities that would allow somebody to recognize them as one, and so they are Vampires. Not all that makes them Vampires has been removed. They still have the physical appearance of one, and the rest has merely been altered to suit the Elder Scrolls. I don't see why you keep bringing up Earth Vampires and Elder Scrolls Vampires when they're two different things, as I've said before and will say again. Earth and Nirn are clearly different. Why should Vampires be the same, boring thing on both?
Most Vampire NPC's I've encountered are not like Earth Vampires. The ones added by Dawnguard might sleep in coffins, but that's it. Vampires in the Elder Scrolls do have a weakness to sunlight and so they have no choice but to avoid the sun (though I see Vampires running around in broad daylight anyway). They don't need mortal blood to stay alive. They drink it because their blood thirst drives them to feed. If they could resist it, they would have no need for blood. The only instance of "blood" being used to supplement Vampiric powers is with the Bloodstone Chalice in Dawnguard, and even then it isn't mortal blood. It's filled from the Bloodspring in Redwater Den, with Vampire blood added to it and the remains of ancient Vampires once you've found them.
All I'm saying is that Bethesda has created another world, and they have a right to do Vampires the way they want to. The rules can be rewritten when you're working on an entirely different world, with it's own lore and history. Sun damage or no sun damage, requirements for blood or not, weak or powerful, the Elder Scrolls Vampires are still Vampires in their own right. Bethesda created them a certain way and I'd prefer if they stayed that way. Hence why I'm against most Vampire mods in existence.
