The Elder Scrolls games are known for giving their players the freedom to explore the world as whoever they want. While many players go down the traditional heroic route, there’s nothing to stop them from becoming a monster if they see fit. Some players, however, take this more literally than others.
Players have been able to become vampires and werewolves in The Elder Scrolls games since Daggerfall, taking on a curse which grants them unique abilities as well as some significant disadvantages depending on the game. Both vampirism and lycanthropy have an interesting role to play in the lore, and have been realized in different ways across the entries in the series.
The werewolves of Tamriel were created by Hircine, a Daedric Prince known as the Lord of the Hunt. When a werewolf dies, their soul joins Hircine in his Hunting Ground. Werewolves aren’t the only lycanthropes Hircine created. Other forms of the disease have seen mortals transformed into werebears, wereboars, werelions, werevultures, werecrocodiles and even werebats. While werewolves tend to form packs distinct from civilized society, they have played a role in some major events in the history of Tamriel.
In the Second Era, an outbreak of lycanthropy hit High Rock, leading to the formation of the Order of the Silver Dawn to combat the problem in 2E 428. A suspected case of lycanthropy also helped create the famous feud between the Battle-Borns and Gray-Manes of Whiterun. In 2E 577, a member of the Battle-Born family was found on the Gray-Mane estate naked, covered in blood, and surrounded by dead livestock.
In Daggerfall, players were most likely to encounter werewolves while camping in the wilderness, though they were one of the game’s rarest enemies. For every successful attack the werewolf made against the player, they had a 0.6% chance of contracting lycanthropy, though vampirism made them immune to the disease.
The player would have a strange dream the next time they slept, and after 72 hours would undergo some big changes to their stats. Strength, speed, agility and endurance would all increased by 40 points, while climbing, running, swimming, stealth, critical strike, and hand-to-hand combat increased by 30 points. These boosts maxed out at 100, but applied regardless of whether the player was transformed or not. Players were able to transform once per day, but every fifteen days had to kill an innocent or their health would begin to deplete down to just 4 hit points.
Players could contract lycanthropy in Morrowind‘s Bloodmoon DLC as well. As in Daggerfall they had three days to cure the disease before becoming a werewolf. Werewolves in Bloodmoon had to kill an NPC every night or, as in Daggerfall, they would see their maximum health significantly reduced. If their bloodlust was sated their maximum health would double, while many of the same stats from Daggerfall would increase.
There were no werewolves in Oblivion, but Skyrim players could become werewolves by completing the Companions questline. In Dawnguard, this unlocked a new skill tree. All werewolves could transform once per day, gaining more transformations if they had the Ring of Hircine from completing the Daedric Prince’s quest in Falkreath. Unlike previous games, players were not forced to kill during each transformation to avoid their maximum health decreasing. This ultimately made the werewolf form more powerful in Skyrim, but took away the sense that the player had truly become a monster to gain their new abilities.
Vampires are also connected to a Daedric Prince, Molag Bal. In some myths, he spawned vampires from the corpse of a foe, while in others he impregnated a Nedic woman named Lamae Beolfag who gave birth to the first vampires. In the First Era, a group of vampires and werewolves united to form the Gray Host, seen in The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor. Werewolves who joined the Grey Host went to Molag Bal’s realm of Coldharbor after death.
Vampires appeared in Arena, but players could only contract vampirism for the first time in Daggerfall. As with werewolves, successful vampire attacks had a 0.6% chance of giving players the disease. After three days, the player would die, awaking in a random graveyard with all their faction reputations reset. Daggerfall‘s vampires needed to feed every day, or they would lose the ability to rest. They’d be kicked out of any groups they were in, including the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, and would take damage in sunlight and holy places.
However, they would also gain 20 points in every attribute but intelligence, and 30 points in the same abilities as werewolves. Vampires could also use the spells Calm Humanoid, Charm Humanoid, and Levitate. Vampires would also be contacted by vampire clans, and could choose from nine clans to join, each giving the player another spell or ability.
Morrowind players could contract vampirism from melee combat with vampire, with the disease taking full hold after three days. They would no longer regenerate health from resting, would take damage from sunlight, and would lose the ability to take quests from many NPCs. They would, however, see significant stat increases across the board, with specific boosts depending on their vampire clan as in Daggerfall.
Unlike lycanthropy, vampirism was featured in Oblivion. Players could contract the disease from melee combat with a vampire, from Vicente Valtieri in the Dark Brotherhood questline, or by sleeping outdoors. Oblivion‘s vampirism came with four stages. Each stage increased the players stats but also their vulnerability to fire and sunlight. Vampirism would increase by a stage for every day the player went without feeding.
Skyrim‘s vampirism system worked similarly, with four stages. Dawnguard added a new vampire skill tree and a Vampire Lord form for those who sided with the Volkihar Clan. Completing the Companions questline to become a werewolf would cure vampirism, but players could also undergo a ritual using a filled black soul gem to cure themselves. Dunmer vampires would not suffer the fire vulnerability penalty due to their natural resistance to fire cancelling it out.
Vampires and werewolves have added an extra element of dynamism to the world of The Elder Scrolls for years, especially in the games where lycanthropy can be contracted in the wild. Many fans will be hopeful to see both conditions return in The Elder Scrolls 6, and with Todd Howard suggesting that the towns of the next game may be significantly larger than in previous entries in the series, players could find stalking the dark city streets more immersive than ever before.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.
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