Skyrim:Vampirism

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A male Nord: normal, non-Dawnguard vampire, and Dawnguard vampire.

This article is about the disease Vampirism, in particular the effects it has on the player. For NPCs who are vampires, see Vampire.

Vampirism in Skyrim is a disease that transforms players infected with Sanguinare Vampiris into vampires: feared, blood-drinking creatures of the night. If the Dawnguard plug-in is installed, and you have been granted vampirism from Serana or Lord Harkon, you will be able to transform into a powerful Vampire Lord with a lesser power.

Sanguinare Vampiris is contracted from encounters with vampires: whenever a vampire casts Vampiric Drain on you, there is a 10% chance for you to be infected with the disease. Initially, this is a normal disease that reduces your total health by 25 points and can be easily cured with a potion of Cure Disease, a Vigilant of Stendarr, or by visiting a shrine. At sunrise of the first day after contracting Sanguinare Vampiris, a message will appear saying "You feel strangely weakened by the sunrise". At sunset of that day, "You feel a strange thirst come over you". If the disease is not cured within three days, it will progress to full vampirism, and the effects can no longer be reversed with a normal cure (see below).

If Dawnguard is installed, you can also gain vampirism by letting Lord Harkon infect you during the Bloodline quest. Alternatively, you can activate the Bloodspring in Redwater Den or let Serana infect you, either at the end of the Chasing Echoes quest or after the core Dawnguard questline is complete.

Vampirism takes a toll on its victims' appearances; when a human or elf becomes a vampire, their eyes become black with reddish irises, their skin pales, they grow fangs, and their faces become gaunt. Argonians and Khajiit eyes will have slitted pupils upon transformation. Argonians will have two sets of fangs, and Khajiit will have fangs like a sabre cat. Argonians and Khajiit will have paler scales and fur. With Dawnguard installed, vampire eyes will glow yellow-orange. Some vampire faces also appear more "bat-like" or monstrous, with a slit running through their lip and a bat-like nose. Argonian and Khajiit vampires look the same with or without Dawnguard.

Vampires are hated and feared by the general population and stage four vampires will be attacked on sight. The four major joinable factions will not be hostile toward stage four vampires so long as you join before you reach stage four and are not caught feeding on any of their members. With Dawnguard installed, NPCs will only attack you if you are in Vampire Lord form.

Stages of Vampirism

Full vampirism is made up of four distinct stages, starting at stage one and progressing to stage four. You advance one stage for every 24 hours you go without feeding on a sleeping NPC. Feeding always returns you to stage one.

As a vampire, you will experience both beneficial and detrimental changes depending on your current stage. The longer you go without blood, the more extreme these changes will become. In addition, as you progress through the stages you gain several unique powers and spells, some of which will grow more powerful with each stage. Returning to stage one will remove the higher level powers and reset the remaining ones to their original strength.

	Stage One	Stage Two	Stage Three	Stage Four
Resistances	• Resist Disease 100% • Resist Poison 100% • Resist Frost 25% (DG: 20%) • Weakness to Fire 25% (DG: 20%)	• Resist Disease 100% • Resist Poison 100% • Resist Frost 50% (DG: 30%) • Weakness to Fire 50% (DG: 30%)	• Resist Disease 100% • Resist Poison 100% • Resist Frost 75% (DG: 40%) • Weakness to Fire 75% (DG: 40%)	• Resist Disease 100% • Resist Poison 100% • Resist Frost 100% (DG: 50%) • Weakness to Fire 100% (DG: 50%)
Active Effects	• Champion of the Night • Nightstalker's Footsteps • Weakness to Sunlight    (-15 to all attributes)	• Champion of the Night • Nightstalker's Footsteps • Weakness to Sunlight    (-30 to all attributes)	• Champion of the Night • Nightstalker's Footsteps • Weakness to Sunlight    (-45 to all attributes)	• Champion of the Night • Nightstalker's Footsteps • Weakness to Sunlight    (-60 to all attributes)
Abilities	• Vampiric Drain • Vampire's Servant • Vampire's Sight	• Vampiric Drain • Vampire's Servant • Vampire's Sight • Vampire's Seduction	• Vampiric Drain • Vampire's Servant • Vampire's Sight • Vampire's Seduction	• Vampiric Drain • Vampire's Servant • Vampire's Sight • Vampire's Seduction • Embrace of Shadows

Active Effects and Abilities

Champion of the Night
A permanent active effect you gain from stage one onwards that increases the potency of your Illusion spells by 25%.

Nightstalker's Footsteps
A permanent active effect you gain from stage one onwards that makes you 25% harder to detect while sneaking.

Weakness to Sunlight
While outside during the day, health, magicka, and stamina are reduced, and the regeneration for each of these stats is reduced by 100%. This effect increases with each stage of vampirism, as indicated in the table above. Day begins at 5am and ends at 7pm regardless of weather or the visibility of the sun.

Vampiric Drain
Vampiric Drain is a unique Novice Destruction spell that continuously absorbs a small amount of health from a single target and adds it to your own. While Vampiric Drain can be dual-cast with the corresponding Destruction skill perk, its cost is not reduced by any Destruction proficiency perks and using it does not train your Destruction skill. However, equipment and apparel reducing Destruction skill costs will still have effect, making it possible to cast Vampiric Drain for free. Unfortunately, this spell is not as powerful as the version cast by vampire NPCs (which can reach up to over 20 HP per second), but it can be useful to damage an enemy while healing yourself, especially at lower levels, avoiding the inconvenience of having to switch to individual spells.

If Dawnguard is installed, Vampiric Drain can drain health, magicka, and stamina from the target if a Volkihar optional quest is completed and the Bloodstone Chalice is used.

• Stage 1: Drains 2 health per second. Costs 6 magicka per second.
• Stage 2: Drains 3 health per second. Costs 10 magicka per second.
• Stage 3: Drains 4 health per second. Costs 13 magicka per second.
• Stage 4: Drains 5 health per second. Costs 17 magicka per second.

Vampire's Servant
This power allows you to reanimate a dead body to fight for you for one minute, once per day. It increases in power with every stage of vampirism. Note that servants raised with this power may not always disintegrate to ash as with the standard Conjuration spells (they retain normal form when the timer runs out, but if they are killed in combat, or if you fast travel/change instance, they will disintegrate).

• Stage 1: Reanimate a weak dead body for 60 seconds.
• Stage 2: Reanimate an average dead body for 60 seconds.
• Stage 3: Reanimate a strong dead body for 60 seconds.
• Stage 4: Reanimate a very strong dead body for 60 seconds.

Vampire's Seduction
This power is similar to the Calm spell and can be used once a day. Once the Dawnguard plug-in is installed, Vampire's Seduction will allow you to feed on NPCs at any time, regardless of whether they are sleeping. If you do not possess this power during the quest Prophet (Vampire)^DG, you will temporarily receive it in order to enthrall Dexion Evicus, only to have it disappear after use.

Vampire's Sight
Vampire's Sight is a lesser power giving you Night Eye for 60 seconds.

Embrace of Shadows
Embrace of Shadows is a power similar to the Invisibility spell that can be used once per day. While this power is active, you will be invisible and have Night Eye for 180 seconds. Interacting with the environment or attacking will make you visible again.

Feeding

Feeding on Sigrid

In order to remain at, or return to, the first stage of vampirism, you must feed on a sleeping NPC. To do this press "Use" while crouching or standing over them and select "Feed". Feeding should be done with caution, as witnesses will immediately become hostile. You can feed on almost any NPC that sleeps in a bed, including all races and even ghosts and other vampires, but not children. It's a good idea to make any followers you have wait outside the room while you feed, in case the sleeping NPC you are feeding on awakens and attacks because they have detected your follower. The most effective and safe way to feed is to use an Invisibility effect from either a potion, spell, or the Embrace of Shadows ability, since feeding is one of the few actions that does not cancel the effect. Followers can be fed on with total impunity, so long as there are no other witnesses. The Vampire Cattle ^(DG) are free to use for feeding.

Curing Vampirism

If you contract Sanguinare Vampiris during battle with a vampire, you won’t become a vampire yourself for three days. Until then, you can rid yourself of the disease with a Cure Disease potion or any blessing.

After the first three days of infection, or if you obtained your vampirism from Lord Harkon or Serana, the task of finding a cure becomes more complex. While visiting any inn, talk to the innkeeper and he or she will send you to Morthal to speak to a man named Falion. This will start the quest Rising at Dawn. However, if you are in one of the later stages of vampirism, the innkeepers may attack you on sight, so you may need to feed in order to lessen the effects of your vampirism, making NPCs friendly again.

You can also cure your vampirism by becoming a werewolf through the Companions faction. However, once you contract lycanthropy, you gain a 100% resistance to disease and cannot be re-infected with Sanguinare Vampiris by normal means while a werewolf.

With Dawnguard installed, if you were previously a werewolf at some point prior to becoming a vampire, then you can ask Aela to restore your lycanthropy once, which will cure your vampirism (by making you into a werewolf).

Related Quests

World Interactions

• Dawnguard vs Player Vampire ^DG

Comparison Gallery

Male Female Altmer Argonian Bosmer Breton Dunmer

Male Female Imperial Khajiit Nord Orc Redguard

Notes

• Night begins at 7pm and ends at 5am. During this time, you will not experience the health, magicka, and stamina penalties.
• You can obtain Auriel's Bow through the Dawnguard questline to blot out the sun and counter its effects.
• Vampirism and lycanthropy cannot co-exist in Skyrim; one cannot be both a werewolf and a vampire at the same time. After becoming a werewolf, a vampire is cured of Sanguinare Vampiris. Because lycanthropy provides total disease immunity, this prevents you from becoming infected with Sanguinare Vampiris while the Beast Blood ability is present. Note that you can, however, cure lycanthropy (just as you can cure vampirism), so you will be able to become a vampire again should you choose to forgo your Beast Blood.
• The Become Ethereal shout allows you to regenerate health at 25% if you were granted the Eternal Spirit power by meditating on the word of power "Feim".
• Becoming a vampire will flag you as undead, so the effects of the Restoration perk Necromage will affect you too. Shouts, spells, and equipment will all receive boosts to their magnitudes (25% to power and 50% to duration). Taking the Necromage perk before taking both Atronach Perk and Atronach Stone can give you a permanent 100% Spell Absorption, thus making you immune to all spells affected by Spell Absorption. Curing vampirism after the obtention of the Necromage perk does not remove these bonuses, nor does it remove bonuses to enchantments, as long as they are not unequipped afterwards.
  • The following perks will also receive a 25% bonus to their power: Steady Hand, Power Shot, Quick Shot, Fists of Steel, Quick Reflexes, Dual Flurry, Wind Walker, Muffled Movement, Extra Pockets, Recovery, Avoid Death, Magic Resistance, Atronach.
• Necromage also increases Health, magika and stamina reduction penalties by 25%, thus increasing stage 4 vampire stat reductions to 75. This effect will first take place only after reverting from Vampire Lord form.
• With the vampiric power Champion of the Night, you can effectively raise the cap for Illusion spells to over level 70, provided you have all relevant perks and the spell is dual-cast. This can make almost every opponent susceptible to Calm, Fear, and Fury spells. Note that Master level Illusion spells do not gain the power increase of dual-casting, and therefore will not affect higher level enemies.
• Though vampirism gives 100% resistance to poison, the actual poison resistance is capped at 85% and will not protect you from the poison gas in Calcelmo's Laboratory (the poison damage is scripted and cannot be resisted).
• Drinking the blood of an NPC that you know to be a werewolf will not infect you with lycanthropy and does not provide you with any special benefits.
• If you are a vampire and have Hearthfire installed, you can add a coffin to use for sleeping in the cellar of Heljarchen Hall, Lakeview Manor, and Windstad Manor.

Bugs

• At stage 3 of vampirism, the stunted regeneration effect while in sunlight has a magnitude of 75%, even though all other stages have a magnitude of 100%
  • This bug is fixed by the Official Skyrim Patch.
  • This was "un-fixed" by Dawnguard; with the plug-in installed, your health, magicka, and stamina regeneration are damaged only 75% at stage three vampirism.
• When playing as a female vampire, quitting the game and reloading the vampire save can result in a burnt or dirty face effect that does not go away on its own. The visual bug can be corrected either by curing vampirism or creating a new save where you are infected with the vampire disease but have not yet become a vampire.
  • The mechanics of this fix are explained here. If this bug has already been triggered and there is no previous "clean face save", a new one can be created after curing vampirism by doing Falion's quest and then re-contracting the vampire disease. Then, before becoming a full vampire, save the game as a fresh file and do not overwrite it. To avoid this glitch in the future, the clean face save must be loaded prior to the primary save file.
    • The above fix no longer works as of Version 1.6 of the Official Skyrim Patch ^{[verification needed]}
  • Transforming into a Vampire Lord from the Dawnguard plug-in will fix the color alteration.
• Players with vampirism can still contract diseases from traps despite having 100% disease resistance.
• Attempting to feed on an NPC sleeping in a bed with something next to it (such as a table or chest) can cause the feeding sequence to not animate correctly. The screen will still glow red and you will revert to Stage 1 vampirism, but your character will be stuck in place, unable to move. ^?
• Imperial and Breton males suffer from a glitch that affect the color of their skin. Right after becoming a stage one vampire, males of these races will have their body turn a shade similar to that of the palest Redguard's skin tone. Their heads and hands will also become darker, around the color of a middle Redguard tone. ^?
• Both Ebony and Blades shields become invisible when equipped as a vampire. ^?
• Nords will not get the glowing yellow eyes that all other races get when becoming a vampire after Dawnguard is installed; they instead get a glowing version of their old vampire eyes. ^?
• Khajiit will not get the glowing yellow eyes that the other races get when becoming a vampire after Dawnguard has been installed. Their appearance remains that of a regular Khajiit vampire: pinkish eyes, light fur, and saber cat-like fangs. ^?
• As a vampire, you may be unable to feed off NPCs affected by the Vampire's Seduction power in Dawnguard; clicking "Feed" has no effect. ^?
• While a vampire, sometimes wearing the Thieves Guild hood or Guild Master's hood makes the top of your head bald and the hood doesn't show. This enables vampires to equip those hoods together with other headgear. A vampire can thus wear up to three pieces of headgear simultaneously: the Thieves Guild or Guild Master's hood; any circlet or dragon priest mask; and a Penitus Oculatus helmet, Falmer helmet, or the Jagged Crown. Note that version 1.2 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch will prevent you from wearing circlets or dragon priest masks with other headgear. ^?
• Sometimes, you will be made a vampire and have all the effects, but the game will not recognize it and you will be unable to feed or cure vampirism. ^?
  • To fix this, enter player.setrace [playerrace]racevampire (e.g., player.setrace highelfracevampire).

See Also

For more information about vampirism in the Elder Scrolls universe, see the lore article.