The Origin of Vampires

Porphyric Hemophilia is a curious case among Tamrielic disease in that it is a contumelious creation, biased against an uncertain something often thought to be the disabstracted sum of nature that is the lifecycle of a mortal. Mundane life, as created by the dismissed sums of our ancestors, suffers from the maladies of hunger, thirst, and fatigue; wavering in strength in age, it eventually succumbs to death. Vampirism embodies an obversion, in that it raises only one living, if not dead, body and knows only one kind of hollow hunger; it gains strength in age and will last until forcibly ended.

To ascertain the meaning of its contumelious nature, it is necessary to start at the beginning of this particular circle of inquiry. Most vampiric legends are variations of each other or wholly manufactured, as they were established or invented by the vampire elders created during the open warfare between the Mages Guild and the Order of the Worm. Unfortunately, this conflict created a generation of intelligent undead with no inherited knowledge of their condition or history, as it was one acceptable method of warfare for the Worm Cult to engage isolated Mages Guild cells and forcibly murder half of them into vampirism with profane magic.
These vampiric thralls were then set upon, first by the rest of their cell mates and then other Mages Guild members, to the uproaring laughter of the Worm Cultists. Once the old Order of the Worm fell apart after Vanus Galerion's sacrifice, these vampires were left abandoned, ignored, and ignorant, as they had been little more than beasts for a particular brand of Wormite bloodsport and never proper servant-soldiers. As they grew in age they did not grow in knowledge, and many vampire clans and legends are as such based on ignorant accounts of beings who were too preoccupied with the acquisition of power rather than the acquisition of knowledge.

There are however three surviving legends, transcribed in the same ancient age, each in turn assuring their listeners that vampirism is wholly created by a variable Daedric foe. The most encountered legend, believed and permanently entomed in the Empire by western Nordo-Colovians, is the saga of a Nordic or Nedic woman, most commonly named Mola, Lamae, or Maril Baelfag or Balefire. An unremarkable and unfortunate soul, she was raped and killed by Molag Bal out of a spiteful and direct attempt to gain control of non-unancestral life, thereafter rose from the dead to devour and kill a tribe of Nedes who had given her shelter in innocence.

Certain Khajiit, Argonian, and Bosmer sages recall the legend of Fahjarr, a Pahmar-Raht huntress who grew tired of stalking worthless prey in the jungles of Pelletine. In search of a challenge, she ventured ever deeper into the jungle where the ground was wet rot and finally into the Great Darkness itself. When she returned, she had become an empty-eyed skin draped over a swarm of steel mosquitoes who alternatively jubilated or warned about the gifts to be found beyond the moons' lights, and ultimately burst and scattered across the sandy desert after drinking her family dry.

Bretons, eastern Altmer, and several Orc tribes recall an effaced Direnni sage, surrounded by adoring students and loyal servants, who was nearing the end of her life yet felt herself unsatisfied within her means of knowledge and wisdom. As her students would fill in the gaps of her knowledge long after she had passed, she felt it prudent to replace her name on their lips with their blood on hers by bartering with a Daedroth of wisdom (sources disagree on which one in particular; of the three, Sheogorath is the least likely) who granted her all the time in the world to study and experience.

Notably, all legends agree on the first vampire being female, the only non-temporal constant they share.

Finding no answer in legends alone, the quill of the circle of inquiry must move onward to the involvement of the Daedric Princes and their natures.
As for Lamae Balefire, Molag Bal alternatively makes use of his obscure Eastern title "Father of Vampires" to terrorize or entice unwary Dunmer and is otherwise quite clear that he holds no less disdain for them. The vampirirical hunger is not something he could tolerate, as it would mean that a vampire will never not give consideration to something which is not Molag Bal. Vampires then must be a useful toy to terrorize lessers with, yet nothing else.

As for Fahjarr, Namira is either unwilling or unable to confirm her involvement, as her cacophonical laughter was too unintelligible and only served to sway the witch covens who attempted to inquire towards other Daedric Princes. As for the expunged Direnni, Hermaeus Mora is little more likely to be involved than Sheogorath, as these Princes' fecund wisdoms require different trappings than the ones unliving mortal servants would bring. Clavicus Vile is as willing to make deal with vampires as with all limited beings, with vampirism a possible, not often requested, reward. While a good sign of the status of a vampire's soul, this further removes certainity from a possible conclusion.

Finding no answer in the nature of the Daedric Princes of legend, the quill of the circle of inquiry must slip and reapproach the problem counterways. Vampirism takes uncountable forms, all subtly or obviously different. It is no mistake to note that every vampire has its own strain of the vampiric plague, Porphyric Hemophilia. Sufficiently powerful individuals seem to be able to suppress the sickness' unpredictability. If they are politically capable enough, a vampire clan first forms this way.

There are several constants across all incarnations of Porphyric Hemophilia.

First, the vampiric body is dead. The most common incarnation is that of a diseased person dying and waking up three days later in a crypt or shallow grave, while the second most common is that of a diseased person waking up dead after three days of contamination. It should be noted that despite being dead, some vampires can emulate life by the confines of a Daedric Pact.

Second, the vampiric mind shifts instantly to incorporate instincts of a predatory beast, allowing its survival in spite of former cultural identity. The most common response to this is a feeling of variable dread until acceptance can be attained, sometimes elation, rarely madness or mindlessness. All as-proclaimed "feral" vampires fall under the latter category, with the mortal mind in catatonia and the body shed of anything except a desire for satiation, whereas for those sufficiently detached from their baser nature, the new instincts are merely suggestive irritants and the conscious mind is always in control.

Third, parts of a living body are needed to stave off a form of hunger, with the overwhelmingly common form a craving for blood. It is, however, a factual emulation; that is, the vampiric body does not experience actual hunger or thirst, cannot die of it, nor does the hunger increase past a certain point. At no point is a vampire unable to act or think due to its perceived starvation, with insanity occuring only due to an apprenticed state to a predispositional maladjustment.

Fourth, unfiltered Aetherial matter damages the vampiric body and mind, often in a combustive reaction. This is reduced in some vampiric incarnations that have recently filled themselves with parts of the living as their diet dictates, yet never actually abates. The tiny boltholes of the night sky are insufficient to cause more than subtle harm, whereas the glaring wound that is the sun will invariably damage vampiric tissue.

Fifth, all known causes for the spread and abolishment of Porphyric Hemophilia involve another carrier. While there are known mutabilities of vampirism, with several Daedric Princes capable and willing of transforming the disease, they merely interfer with it. It is notable that in the two incidents involving Daedric Princes promising a cure for vampirism, the resulting aid produced an individual which could not be reinfected with Porphyric Hemophilia, lending plausibility to the idea that the disease was merely silenced instead of removed.

It is then time to look at the Daedra who show the most aversion to vampires. Hircine consigns vampires to a more enjoyable prey role, comparatively tireless. If there is any other involvement in vampirism by this Daedric Prince, it is neither implied nor stated. Azura is in many ways the opposite of Molag Bal, while her reaction has the same conceptual origin. A vampire would always have their endless hunger as one of their masters, something neither the King of Rape nor the Mistress of Dawn and Dusk can accept. The Other Light is a more interesting Prince in this regard, as she is both a returned child of Magnus as well as associated with living energy, perhaps due to her fierce opposition to all undeath. Taken together with the obvious mockery of the mortal life cycle, this makes clear that the Daedric Princes find vampirism either a useful tool or, in one case, an aberration to be extinguished. Taken the origin of the latter Prince, it is clear that the mere presence of vampires is anathematic to the unset sum of Aetherius; that is, stasis in joy.

Taken in greater context, our oldest ancestors shed their lives by creating Mundus in a form not ostensibly intended. Lorkhan's original goal was never realized as the children of Magnus fled his trap, however we can conject from ancestral accounts what it was like before the Earth Bones set themselves. The mundane world was a shifting, timeless, hopeless, and violent place, created with unsharp edges to mock all Anu encompassed. Given this, vampires might have been the intended inhabitants of the Arenal trap and a mockery of our ancestors: undying predators that would live in an ever-shifting environment, consumed by their one base desire, eternally trapped in conflict, forever lesser than those that died to create them, killing and killing and killing to the endless laughter of a mad god.

And now Lorkhan is dead.