Vampirism (Skyrim)

Vampirism is a Disease featured in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Contracting Vampirism
Through combat with a Vampire, players can contract the vampiric disease Sanguinare Vampiris. The player will be notified when they have contracted the disease and will have 72 hours to cure themselves. The player can cure themselves at any altar or with a simple Cure Disease potion within the 72 hours. After 72 hours, the infected player will become a stage one vampire and must complete a miscellaneous quest to cure themselves.

Immunity to Vampirism
Vampirism bypasses all disease immunites except for Werewolves.

'''Note: You can not be "immune" to diseases, you can only be resistant (unless you're a werewolf). This works the same as if you have Resist 100% Fire Damage, you will still take damage. Even with 100% Resistance to Disease on multiple apparel items, you can still catch diseases, even if it totals 200% Resistance to Disease. At maximum you can only receive 85% Resistance to Disease, Magic, Fire, Frost, etc. '''

Note: Fire, frost, shock can all be completely resisted with two 50 percent resist enchantments.

Areas inhabited by vampires in Skyrim
A list of Vampires in Skyrim and their locations can be found under Vampires of Skyrim. Other locations include:
 * Broken Fang Cave
 * Pinemoon Cave
 * Mara's Eye Pond
 * Haemar's Shame
 * Morvath's Lair
 * Bloodlet Throne
 * Fellglow Keep

Stages of Vampirism and their Effects
After approximately 24 hours without feeding, a vampire will progress a stage. Feeding always brings the vampire back to stage one.

Effects across all stages

 * Weakness to Sunlight - Health, Magicka, and Stamina do not recover while in sunlight and the skin will appear to slowly burn as the player spends time in the sunlight.
 * Resist Disease - Your vampiric blood gives you 100% resistance to disease.
 * Resist Poison - Your vampiric blood gives you 100% resistance to poison. (This is always listed under Active Effects, but rarely actually works, as most players are poisoned at the same rate as before.)
 * Night Stalker's Footsteps - Vampires are 25% harder to detect while sneaking.
 * Champion of the Night - Illusion spells cast by your vampire are 25% more powerful. (They can affect 25% higher level entities; this contributer is unsure if they cost less magicka.)



Stage One
Powers:
 * Resist Frost - Your vampiric blood gives you 25% resistance to frost.
 * Weakness to Fire - Your vampiric blood causes you to be 25% weaker to fire.
 * Weakness to Sunlight - Health, Magicka, and Stamina do not recover while in sunlight and are reduced by 15 points.
 * Vampire's Servant - Reanimate a weak dead body to fight for you for 60 seconds (can only be used once a day).
 * Vampire Sight - Improve night vision for 60 seconds (can be used multiple times a day and be toggled on/off).
 * Vampiric Drain - Absorb 2 points of health per second from target (novice destruction spell, cost of 5 magicka per second).

Stage Two
Powers:
 * Resist Frost - Your vampiric blood gives you 50% resistance to frost.
 * Weakness to Fire - Your vampiric blood makes you 50% weaker to fire.
 * Weakness to Sunlight - Health, Magicka, and Stamina do not recover while in sunlight and are reduced by 30 points.
 * Vampire Seduction - Creatures and people up to level 10 are calmed (cease to fight) for 30 seconds.
 * Vampire's Servant - Reanimate a more powerful dead body to fight for you for 60 seconds (can only be used once a day).
 * Vampiric Drain - Absorb 3 points of health per second from target (novice destruction spell, costs 10 magicka per second).

Stage Three
Powers:
 * Resist Frost - Your vampiric blood gives you 75% resistance to frost.
 * Weakness to Fire - Your vampiric blood makes you 75% weaker to fire
 * Weakness to Sunlight - Health, Magicka, and Stamina do not recover while in sunlight and are reduced by 45 points.
 * Vampire's Servant - Reanimate a powerful dead body to fight for you for 60 seconds (can only be use once a day).
 * Vampiric Drain - Absorb 4 points of health per second from target. (Novice Destruction spell; costs 12 Magicka per second.)

Stage Four
At stage four the citizens of Skyrim will be hostile towards you and may attack you on sight. Powers:
 * Resist Frost - Your vampiric blood gives you 100% resistance to frost.
 * Weakness to Fire - Your vampiric blood makes you 100% weaker to fire.
 * Weakness to Sunlight - Health, Magicka, and Stamina do not recover while in sunlight and are reduced by 60 points.
 * Vampire's Servant - Reanimate a very powerful dead body to fight for you for 60 seconds (can only be used once per day).
 * Vampiric Drain - Absorb 5 points of Health per second from target. (Novice Destruction spell; costs 15 Magicka per second.)
 * Embrace of Shadows - The vampire becomes invisible, with improved night-vision for 180 seconds (can only be used once per day, opening doors to new instances will remove invisibility).

Curing Vampirism

 * Ask any bartender about any rumors going around, and he will tell you that Falion in Morthal studies vampires. Speak to him and he will tell you that, in order to perform the ritual, a black soul gem must be filled. (You cannot use The Black Star as a substitute, only a black soul gem can be used to perform the ritual.) To get the black soul gem, you need to speak to Falion again and he will offer to sell it to you or you can pickpocket it from him. (you can also obtain the black soul gem in other various, cheaper ways) To fill it, cast a Soul Trap spell on a target from any of the nine playable races( this includes hostile npcs like bandits and forsworn) and proceed to kill them, absorbing their soul. Now that your black soul gem is filled, return to Falion, who will tell you to meet him at dawn (around 6 A.M.) at the summoning circle. At the appointed place and time, you will be cured.
 * It may happen that Falion will meet you at the summoning circle but will not offer to cure you. If this happens, attacking him until he submits will help. When he recovers from submission, he will immediately offer to cure you of Vampirism . (He will not help you at all if you are a Stage 4 Vampire.)
 * Becoming a Werewolf cures Vampirism. (This only works if you contract Lycanthropy as a quest reward; i.e from the Companions' questline.)

Behind the Scenes

 * Vampirism benefits in past games have varied greatly (including stat increases, new spells or powers, or even new game play mechanics).
 * The book Immortal Blood from Oblivion which is also found in Skyrim tells a tale of a vampire hunter being mentored by a priest, it briefly describes vampire clans from Skyrim and other locations. Skyrim's vampires were said to reach through ice without breaking it, live underneath great frozen lakes, and be able to freeze flesh. Interestingly enough, the vampire hunter from the book Immortal Blood is named Movarth Piquine, who is attacked by a vampire at the conclusion of the book. Movarth Piquine is in Skyrim in a quest named "Laid to Rest." and is a vampire. It is very possible it is the same individual.
 * Vampirism can be cured via a console command "setstage 000eafd5 10", this fast forwards your progress to the end stage of PlayerVampireQuest (Falion's Cure quest).

Bugs

 * While a vampire, NPC's no longer make comments about your race. (Argonians will call you a "Landstrider" even if you are an Argonian etc.)
 * (PS3) Sometimes after feeding, switching back to first person view before moving away from the bed will cause your character to be stuck, unable to move in any way. Reloading from the last save, or using the Whirlwind Sprint shout fixes this. Another easier is to just simply feed a second time and switch back to first person and you will be free to move.
 * When playing as a vampire, your Ebony Shield will not appear on your character even though you have equipped it. After curing vampirism, the Ebony Shield will be visible again. Other shields not affected. (Help needed on this)
 * Happened to me as an Altmer vampire on Xbox 360, can anyone else confirm this?
 * Confirmed tested on every race and shield it is invisible for all races and only ebony is affected (pc)
 * When NPC's that are not guards attack you at stage 4, guards will actually defend you. This could possibly be due to defeating the empire and having the stormcloak guards in every city. Citizens will rush you but are beat down by the stormcloaks who still yell "Vampire! Burn it!", but never attack you. (PC) Note: As you complete quests, people have a higher respect for you, this is the cause of this so called "bug."

Related Pages

 * Lycanthropy - Werewolves in Skyrim
 * Race - Races in The Elder Scrolls Universe
 * Vampire - Vampires in The Elder Scrolls Universe