Daggerfall:Vampirism

Vampirism in Daggerfall is a condition that can affect you after dying from the disease of the same name. You will gain numerous advantages by becoming a vampire, but will have to feed every day in order to survive.
 

Acquisition
In order to become a vampire, you must first acquire the associated disease from a vampire or vampire ancient. The chance of catching the disease is very low (1.22% chance per hit), and it's possible to acquire a normal disease instead of vampirism, so getting the disease may take some time and patience. Level 1 characters cannot become vampires. Once you have the disease, you will experience a cutscene depicting an ominous dream the next time you sleep. In the dream it states "Your sleep is troubled by nightmares of a beautiful woman whom you murder in a dark place." The disease can still be cured by any temple at this stage. If it is not, then after three days, you will receive a notification, saying "Death is not always eternal. For some it is merely a time of waiting. Now is your time of waiting. Be patient and all will be revealed..."

After receiving the notification, you will awaken in a tomb. Your character portrait will change and depict you standing in a graveyard. You will have all of the spells and benefits associated with the bloodline of the region in which you died. After you awaken as an undead, you will be able to undergo the Rite of Acceptance.

Advantages
When you become a vampire, you will gain:

+20 to every attribute except Intelligence
+30 to Climbing, Critical Strike, Hand-to-Hand, Jumping, Running, and Stealth
Levitation, Calm Humanoid, and Charm Mortal spells
Immunities to paralysis and disease.

These advantages only last as long as you remain a vampire; if you are cured you will lose them forever.

Disadvantages
After becoming a vampire, you will take continuous damage from holy places and sunlight, and you will have to feed on blood. Killing any living creature will count as feeding. If you fail to feed every day, you will be unable to rest and so unable to regenerate resources. This is generally a minor inconvenience—any character can expect to be in near-constant combat, and most creatures encountered are "living".

Bloodlines
thumb|right|673px|Map of vampire bloodlines

There are nine bloodlines of the Iliac Bay, each with their own unique benefits but all sharing the same quests. These nine bloodlines each have benefits specific to them and an area of dominion. You will automatically join the bloodline of the area you were infected in, and gain the bloodline's benefits.

The following table provides a summary of each bloodline and the associated benefits:


 
† This boost works differently from the normal vampire attribute bonuses and can result in Intelligence loss if vampirism is cured. See "Curing Vampirism" below 

Quests
As a vampire you have access to a new set of quests in service of your bloodline. However, unlike in most factions, you can not ask for quests at will but instead must wait for your help to be requested by letter. There is no reputation requirement for any vampire quest, they are all available from the start.

The following quests may be sent to vampires:



Reputations
Since you have technically "died" in the process of becoming a vampire, your legal reputation in all regions is reset. You are now a new, previously unknown individual in the eyes of the law.

In addition, all guild memberships are revoked. For most guilds, you can simply rejoin and receive a promotion to your previous rank 28 days later. However, guilds which operate by invitation, such as the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, are a different trouble. Since you can only join those guilds once, then acquiring vampirism after admission into those ranks prevents you from rejoining those guilds at all, under any circumstance. However, if you have not joined such guilds, they do retain the option to join even in your undead state, and you simply need to trigger the conditions from which an invitation is extended.

Curing Vampirism
In order to cure yourself of vampirism you must either complete Cure for Vampirism, a quest started by a random letter from a vampire hunter, or begin A Special Mixture, a quest you can get from witch covens, and drink the potion.

Being cured will not "reset" the character as acquiring vampirism does, but merely remove both the benefits and penalties of being a vampire from you. Since guild membership is not affected, any "lost" chances at Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood remain "lost"; i.e. you may only belong to either of those guilds once and only once, and acquiring vampirism irrevocably ejects the character from those guilds if the character was a member of those guilds. If you never joined an invitation-only guild, you are still eligible to join, and merely must trigger the invitational events. Likewise, if you were admitted to those guilds after becoming a vampire and were later cured, your guild memberships would not be affected.

Note that an Anthotis vampire will have their Intelligence reduced by 20 points when cured, regardless of how many points they actually gained from joining the bloodline (the bonus will not boost Intelligence past 100). This will result in a character that had more than 80 Intelligence before becoming a vampire having their Intelligence reduced to 80 when cured. The rest of the attribute bonuses from vampirism do not exhibit this behavior.

Gallery
 

See Also
For more information about vampirism, see the lore article.
For a similar condition in Daggerfall, see Lycanthropy.
For other diseases in Daggerfall, see Diseases.
For character creation, see the article.