Vampires: why does your character drink blood? Options

[Lady Saga]

I am having trouble with this one, and need some ideas. Why does your character drink blood? Why do they feed?

In Oblivion, becoming a Stage 4 vampire caused the majority of NPCs to be repulsed by our characters. They technically did not have to feed, but at least once the feeding was done, the NPCs stopped recognizing that our chars were vampires. This essentially gave our characters a reason to feed, at least.

But in Skyrim, this is no longer so (assuming Dawngurd is installed). The NPCs treat our characters with mild suspicion at best, but going from Stage 1 to Stage 4 does not actually cause any wanton sorts of behavior from the world.

So why does your character need to feed? What RP ideas have you all come up with?

[Destri Melarg]

I'll play.

None of my characters have treated vampirism as anything but a disease to cure, like rockjoint or ataxia. But something that Darkness Eternal said when we were debating the morality of vampirism has stuck in my mind, and I plan to use it whenever I decide to go with a character who succumbs to vampirism. What he said (much better than I’m about to) was that beyond stage four the lack of feeding begins to play upon the vampire’s mind. The idea of losing one’s mind must be incredibly terrifying for the vampire, because we are talking about falling into madness for all eternity!

Think about the razor’s edge that your vampire has to walk. She (i’m assuming) has to hold onto her humanity because, to paraphrase Kirk Lazarus:

“You never go full vampire!”

Going ‘full vampire’ means losing oneself to the monster. Yet holding onto that humanity is what keeps her from feeding because she knows that the act is morally wrong which, of course, brings her closer to the monster the longer she abstains. What she begins to understand is that the monster is her truth, and that truth can only be held at bay by feeding. At that point she is able to justify feeding because it protects those she comes into contact with from the feral vampire clawing to come out.