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?

[Darkness Eternal]

So I am writing some new chapters in my vampire story and I came to a sort of an issue here. One of my characters is a Daughter of Coldharbour. I wanted to write about the nature of the ritual in detail but I am totally stuck here.

Serana mentioned it was degrading, but what exactly happened other than her being profaned by Molag? We know that it is vampiric tradition for the cult to surrender their females to Molag Bal to become pureblooded the same way the progenitor was.

But, what gets me is that Molag Bal likes to see his followers strong. And not just in the manner of being subjugated. I wonder. Did Serana ever to anything degrading herself?

The ritual is more or less like how Lamae was turned. This is from the lore book.

Tamriel was still young, and filled with danger and wondrous magick when Bal walked in the aspect of a man and took a virgin, Lamae Beolfag, from the Nedic Peoples. Savage and loveless, Bal profaned her body, and her screams became the Shrieking Winds, which still haunt certain winding fjords of Skyrim. Shedding a lone droplet of blood on her brow, Bal left Nirn, having sown his wrath.

So, Molag raped her. Okay.

Then there is this:

Violated and comatose, Lamae was found by nomads, and cared for. A fortnight hence, the nomad wyrd-woman enshrouded Lamae in pall for she had passed into death. In their way, the nomads built a bonfire to immolate the husk. That night, Lamae rose from her funeral pyre, and set upon the coven, still aflame. She ripped the throats of the women, ate the eyes of the children, and raped their men as cruelly as Bal had ravished her.

Lamae died from her injuries. Survived and emeged as a pureblooded vampire, and then went on a bloody rampage. But what Serana says makes me wonder. Is there more to the ritual than being a Daedric Lord's toy?

The first vampire came from Molag Bal. She was not a willing subject, but she was still the first. Molag Bal is a powerful Daedric Lord, and his will is made reality. For those willing to subjugate themselves, he will still bestow the gift, but they must be powerful in their own right before earning his trust.

Her dialogue on marriage is something for concern. She refuses to marry because she can't accept the gods blessing because of how she lived and what she had done. Her status as a worshiper of Molag Bal and one of the cult members may be one of the reasons, and of course, her need to feed and survive. But I do wonder if she also had to ravage a few men, devour the eyes of infants and rip out the throats of women to prove that she is also "powerful in her own right". So maybe she had to be dominated and then had to dominate. Hard. As mentioned before, perhaps a lot of emotional, physical and evensexual pain involved which explains her whole family being the way they are. But that's another story altogether.

What do you guys think?

This post has been edited by Darkness Eternal: Mar 6 2013, 03:04 AM

[Lady Saga]

What do you guys think?

I think you are definitely onto something, and your theories are the best I've ever read, for sure.

Like Miss Hollow seems to suggest, the whole Serana thing is open for interpretation, but I haven't really thought of any of this on my own. I'm not so good with lore and theorizing about it.