Lore:Dawnguard

The   is a group of   hunters that originate from the province of  . They are based in Fort Dawnguard, in the region of  , towards the provincial border in the  . It is found in the   of the Velothi Mountains. 

History
Second Era
The Dawnguard traces its origins in the early to mid   .  Fort Dawnguard was once a stronghold owned by the Jarl of  . The Jarl's son was an adventurer, which proved to be his demise when he contracted  . When the Jarl of Riften realized what happened, he was unable to have his son killed, and so he used his money to build Fort Dawnguard as a prison to hold his son. The hired men that guarded the prison would become the early Dawnguard. The Dawnguard was eventually forced to kill the Jarl's son, which led to the group's banishment from the Rift.  However, the Dawnguard stuck to their cause of vampire hunting.  A silver and gold sword known as the   was bestowed on the first leader of the Dawnguard back in the Second Era, and is renowned for its ability to block attacks.  The group would start to use  s with   bolts, a practice later adopted by the   during the  .  The group would eventually dissolve and fall into obscurity. A rumor was that the group had all contracted vampirism and stalked the Rift until they were all defeated. 

Another story about the Dawnguard was they were far from a noble group of vampire hunters, while some stories claim they were out to save lives, this was far from the truth: They were a secretive organization that would go on midnight raids, pillaging and looting houses. Afterwards stashing their loot gained from the raids in caches guarded by their sigils, which could only be opened by a sunfire spell. Its unknown how creditable this account of the Dawnguard is, as this account of the group reportedly comes from a priest who claims to hear the Divine Arkay himself, and Arkay is stated to have told him this information directly. 

Fourth Era 
In  , the   had established a chapter in Skyrim, specifically in the region of  . One of their members,   had left the group to reform the Dawnguard. Keeper   had mocked Isran's desire to rebuild Fort Dawnguard, and that it was not worth the manpower to repair. Isran believed that the Vigilants were weak, and very unprepared for a real threat.  As a Vampire threat had begun to emerge out of Skyrim, the word about the Dawnguard and their stronghold would spread across the province. At one point, the Vigilants of Stendarr were wiped out by the  , and the remnants of the group sought help from the Dawnguard.  The Dawnguard's investigation of the vampiric threat, as well as, the   had led them to the discovery of  , a  .  What followed after was a conflict between the Dawnguard Vampire Hunters, and the Volkihar Clan, which would involve the prophecy known as the  . In the end, the prophecy was not fulfilled, and   was spared from danger. Its unknown if the Dawnguard would continue to operate in Skyrim, or if they were wiped out by the Volkihar Clan after the defeat of Lord Harkon.  

Gallery
 

See Also
For game-specific information, see the Skyrim article.
For game-specific information on Fort Dawnguard, see the Skyrim article

References