Vampirism (Skyrim)

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

Contracting Vampirism
Sanguinare Vampiris is the disease that eventually culminates in the player becoming a vampire (i.e. contracting vampirism). Sanguinare Vampiris can be contracted by contact with vampires. Players wanting to become a vampire can go into vampire nests and allow the vampires there to attack them until they contract Sanguinare Vampiris.

Once Sanguinare Vampiris has been contracted, if not cured within three in-game days it will progress to full Vampirism. Before it progresses, it may be cured by any of the common methods to cure disease: using potions, eating hawk feathers, using shrines, or talking to NPCs that can cure disease. Once Vampirism has been contracted, the only way to cure it is through a special quest, or by drinking werewolf blood in the Companions questline.

To contract Sanguinare Vampiris it is recommended to take off most of your armour. This will make the process of contracting the disease faster.

Immunity to Vampirism
When infected with Lycanthropy, or engaged in Beast Form as a result of Hircine's Ring, persons become fully immune to vampirism. Argonians, naturally resistant to disease, are less likely than men or mer to contract Vampirism. Bosmer also have a difficult time contracting Vampirism.

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
 * Shriekwind Bastion

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. In order to feed, stand (or crouch) next to a sleeping person and attempt to talk to them. An options box will pop up giving you the choice to either "feed" or "talk".

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. However, it is bugged and will not protect you from poison effects. Needs further testing, but I didn't get really damaged by spits of poison from frostbite spiders nor chaurus.)
 * Night Stalker's Footsteps - Vampires are 25% harder to detect while sneaking.
 * Champion of the Night - Illusion spells cast by a vampire are 25% more powerful.

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, with the exception of guilds you've been accepted into. This means that you will not have a bounty put on your head for murder, which can be useful for some Dark Brotherhood quests. Be wary though: you will still have a bounty put on you for assault on people not hostile towards you. 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, interacting with anything will remove invisibility as per usual).

Curing Vampirism

 * Ask any bartender about any rumors going around, and they will tell you that Falion in Morthal studies vampires. (Try not to be in stage 4, because it is near impossible to speak to him) 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 ten 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. CAUTION: If you are at stage four of Vampirism, he will attack you at the summoning circle.
 * It may happen that Falion will meet you at the summoning circle but will not offer to cure you. He will not offer the quest dialogue if he is standing too far from the stone circle. If this happens, simply sprint toward him, and he will step back after a couple of moments (as per any NPC/companion). After he has moved back a few times, he should be close enough to begin the dialogue and commence the ritual (tested on PS3, PC and Xbox 360). Another way to move him is to attack him until he submits. When he recovers from submission, if he ends up close enough to the ritual site, he will immediately offer to cure you of Vampirism, otherwise he will resume combat.
 * Falion's quest is repeatable, and can be used multiple times to clean yourself of vampirism.
 * Becoming a Werewolf cures Vampirism. (This only works if you contract Lycanthropy as a quest reward; i.e from the Companions' questline.)
 * (On PC) Another way of curing vampirism is via console commands; open the console and type: setstage 000eafd5 10

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. At the end of the book, Morvath is attacked by the priest mentoring him. As it turns out, the priest was a vampire and had gone 72 hours without feeding, at the time he attacked Movarth. Movarth Piquine is in Skyrim and may be found, through the Laid to Rest quest.
 * 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.)
 * 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 fix 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)
 * When NPC's that are not guards attack you at stage 4, guards will actually defend you. Citizens will rush you but are beat down by the guards 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."
 * Werepyre Bug: After completing all quests in the 'Companions' quest line leading up to the Underforge event where you become a Werewolf, if you're a vampire then you can wait until exactly 2 minutes (in-game) before you progress to the next stage of Vampirism and drink Aela's blood from the altar. If timed correctly, the player will keep all of the new/progressed effects from that stage of Vampirism (excluding existing, unchanged effects) whilst obtaining the Werewolf abilities as well. This also works 2 minutes before Senguine Vampiris progresses into full Vampirism, granting the 25% Sneak and Illusion Bonuses. Important Notes: Afterwards, Vampirism will be locked in its current stage, and you will be unable to feed to lower your Vampirism nor have it increase over time. You cannot be cured of Vampirism through the quest. Both negative and positive effects will be kept. Necromage-Vampire Psynergy no longer has an effect. {Tested and Revised - if anyone has different results, please edit.}
 * Sometimes when wearing masks or masked hoods, progressing into a stage 4 vampire will cause fangs to stick out of the mask. This seems to happen with Argonians and Khajiit.
 * Vampirism may cause the Thieves Guild Hood to glitch and become invisible with a large hole in the top of your character's hair. This can be somewhat circumvented by reverting to the original race by using a command player.setrace  (e.g. player.setrace highelf, revert back by player.setrace highelfracevampire). This however causes the player to be unable to feed while still progressing through the stages of vampirism. For the 360, you can also equip a cowl. The cowl will appear on your char and the Thieves Guild Hood will still be equipped, along with its bonus still intact.
 * Poison resistance does not prevent you from being poisoned and taking damage, despite being listed in active effects.
 * Disease resistance sometimes fails as well. It is possible to contract at least one disease (Break Bone Fever) as a vampire.
 * In some cases, becoming a vampire doesn't grant the Vampire's Sight ability. Other features of the template remain unaffected. This can be corrected manually using the console command player.addspell 000C4DE1.
 * Vampire sun burns appear to be PERMANENT and impossible to get rid of, at least under some circumstances (confirmed for a female Nord). Using the console commands to remove vampirism and get infected again did work, but only temporarily. The burns returned the next day (without suffering any sun exposure in the meantime) with the same intensity. The whole process also seems to have rendered the console command to get rid of the condition useless. No known solutions at this time. Relevant mod: http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1148#content (WARNING: this removes the appearance of "dirt" visuals from all characters, including NPCs).

Related Pages

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