WHAT a visually stunning composition, the colors! The pretty windows and the light shining through, mixing with the glow of the candles and then those shimmering helmets and armor. Beeeeeeeeeeautiful!

And a good narrator who presents Nora as a good storyteller.

What more could you want? 😁

I mean other than sequels.😇

Great chapter! 
Excellent staging!
It took you a long time to put everything in place.

Nora remembering her painful vampire ceremony.
Afterwards, I can’t see what it was. Since Nora is and was already a vampire, it wasn’t to turn her into a vampire.

What is the armour (hehe) that the highness guards are wearing?

Interesting... the scenery was most amazing. Such a beautiful area of your mod. 

What is it about the Queen's Blood that is Dangerous? I know you explained in previous chapter but I forget. 

Vor 7 Stunden sagte hana120:

Tolles Kapitel!
Hervorragende Inszenierung!
Es hat lange gedauert, bis Sie alles eingerichtet haben.

Nora erinnert sich an ihre schmerzhafte Vampirzeremonie.
Danach kann ich nicht erkennen, was es war. Da Nora bereits ein Vampir ist und war, ging es nicht darum, sie in einen Vampir zu verwandeln.

Even if it's a different universe here - there were already different levels of vampires in Skyrim.

Remember the scene with Harkon - when he offered to share his (pure) blood with the player. Even if you've already been infected with vampirism and become an "ordinary" vampire - he can raise the player to the "pure blood" level... for a female character, that means becoming a "Daughter of Coldharbour".

There may be something similar in Nora's universe - but here I'm experiencing a huge spiritual ritual. Finally, I'm experiencing these beautiful sacred buildings filled with people/creatures.

Although - that doesn't seem entirely consistent with Nora's backstory to me... wasn't the old vampire who made Nora a non-dead person - of old and powerful blood himself? Wasn't this whole story about Nora also about the secret of her "blood" lineage?

Hmm... If I'm not missing anything, I take it the blood was supposed to have adverse effects unless the bloodline was stronger such as having a "special" father.
I might have forgotten but wasn't Nora's father some primal bat-form cave dude? Always got the "ancient first ones" vibes from that.
So... maybe the mystery is getting more lore to it?

As for the "ahhg, AAGH!!" She wasn't even bothered like the other gilr was, so our dear old Nora is probably pretending? 😜

Anyway. Love the naked ladies doing unholy ceremony theme. An absolute classic.

7 hours ago, Miauzi said:

 

Even if it's a different universe here - there were already different levels of vampires in Skyrim.

Remember the scene with Harkon - when he offered to share his (pure) blood with the player. Even if you've already been infected with vampirism and become an "ordinary" vampire - he can raise the player to the "pure blood" level... for a female character, that means becoming a "Daughter of Coldharbour".

 

There may be something similar in Nora's universe - but here I'm experiencing a huge spiritual ritual. Finally, I'm experiencing these beautiful sacred buildings filled with people/creatures.

Although - that doesn't seem entirely consistent with Nora's backstory to me... wasn't the old vampire who made Nora a non-dead person - of old and powerful blood himself? Wasn't this whole story about Nora also about the secret of her "blood" lineage?

Nora’s story is a vampire story apart in the universe of Skyrim.
But otherwise, yes the story is beautiful.

Vor 21 Minuten sagte hana120:

Noras Geschichte ist eine Vampirgeschichte für sich im Universum von Skyrim.
Aber ansonsten ist die Geschichte ja wunderschön.

Please pay attention to various details... a vampire dies when exposed to sunlight.

This has nothing to do with the Skyrim we bought... but with an alternative Skyrim.

If you look at all of this from a game like "Morrowind" - then we would be in the original TES universe with Nora... and the (purchasable) vanilla Skyrim deviates from the TES lore in many ways - take a look at Harkon's Daughter, for example, or have you already met Sybille Stentor at the Prince's Court of Solitude?

Vor 1 Stunde sagte Myst42:

Hmm ... Wenn mir nichts entgangen ist, gehe ich davon aus, dass das Blut negative Auswirkungen haben sollte, es sei denn, die Blutlinie war stärker, etwa wenn man einen „besonderen“ Vater hatte.
Ich hätte es vielleicht vergessen, aber war Noras Vater nicht ein Höhlentyp in Urfledermausform? Da kommt mir immer die "alte Erste"-Stimmung in den Sinn.
Also... liegt das Geheimnis vielleicht darin, mehr Überlieferungen zu erfahren?

Was das „Ahhg, AAGH!!“ angeht Es störte sie nicht einmal so sehr wie das andere Mädchen, also tut unsere liebe alte Nora wahrscheinlich so? 😜

Ohnehin. Ich liebe die nackten Damen, die ein unheiliges Zeremonienthema machen. Ein absoluter Klassiker.

My wife is one of the people in our family who reads stories from various vampire universes - for many years now.

She thinks this ceremony is an "act of overwriting" - a high-ranking vampire uses his blood to fix the loyalty of a lower-ranking vampire to him... he can also use it to erase an existing (blood-based) loyalty to another clan and replace it with his own (so to speak "overwriting").

Nora's father was only ever seen in the "Vampire Lord" form - and probably came from a very powerful clan that has since been wiped out/disappeared.

Isn't Nora looking for information about this clan... what if her blood was equal to that of the queen?

27 minutes ago, Miauzi said:

 

Please pay attention to various details... a vampire dies when exposed to sunlight.

This has nothing to do with the Skyrim we bought... but with an alternative Skyrim.

If you look at all of this from a game like "Morrowind" - then we would be in the original TES universe with Nora... and the (purchasable) vanilla Skyrim deviates from the TES lore in many ways - take a look at Harkon's Daughter, for example, or have you already met Sybille Stentor at the Prince's Court of Solitude?

Yes.
The Blue Palace mage who sends us to kill vampires.
But the best example you have cited is Harkon who is utterly stupid and thoughtless with his prophecy.
He thinks that instead of it being in his favor, it will inevitably put him in danger.

I didn’t play too much at Morrowind but yes I suspect.
There’s also in TESO, if you play a vampire in the sun, you risk dying.
In Skyrim, I think it’s because of the gameplay.

Vor 2 Minuten sagte hana120:

Ja.
Der Magier des Blauen Palastes, der uns schickt, Vampire zu töten.
Aber das beste Beispiel, das Sie angeführt haben, ist Harkon, der mit seiner Prophezeiung völlig dumm und gedankenlos ist.
Er glaubt, dass es nicht zu seinen Gunsten ist, sondern dass es ihn unweigerlich in Gefahr bringen wird.

Ich habe nicht viel bei Morrowind gespielt, aber ja, das vermute ich.
Es gibt auch in TESO: Wenn man einen Vampir in der Sonne spielt, riskiert man zu sterben.
Bei Skyrim liegt es meiner Meinung nach am Gameplay.

In Skyrim, Bugdesta wanted to jump on the hype about the "glitter" vampires to increase his sales figures.

That's why Serana became a waifu - who complains about the sunlight ... but otherwise looks more like a romantic teenager than a several hundred year old vampire (similar to Nora)

Authors have tried to mitigate this massive discrepancy (Serana versus other vampires) through mods - I'm currently testing "Serana dead sexy" extensively.

The idea - that she has an extremely split personality - can close this gap. But ultimately that only works - because this extensive vampire society as the story author has presented to us for years - doesn't even exist in our vanilla game!

It's funny - in the "extended Serana dialogue" she even makes fun of a story... a romance between a mortal girl and a vampire youth - who "glitters" in the sunlight

If you take the traditions already present in the original "lore" about the creation of the first vampire (the "Blood Matron") - then it should be clear how the ritual surrounding the "Daughters of Coldharbour" takes place:

Molag Bal "climbs" into a human body - uses it as a flesh shell (similar to the singer Bal back then) and thus carries out all the rapes and tortures on the "initiates".

In the case of Serana and Valerica, this was none other than Harkon himself - who made himself available to Molag Bal as a flesh shell.

It should be understandable that after such an ordeal, only "gruel" remains in the brain of Serana, who flees into romantic fantasies because of her loneliness.

And unlike the singer Bal, Harkon does NOT suffer from having violated his own daughter... for him, his wife and daughter were just a means to an end BEFORE the prophecy.

Nora is completely different in this respect - she is completely committed to her animalistic urges - which are an inseparable part of vampirism.

(and we enjoy these blood and sex orgies)

---

I also played a vampire in TES-Online (the base was "Dragon Knight") - but you don't die in sunlight... at least until I quit about a year after starting the game.

Vampires were the strongest players - they were actually a separate class - because their bonuses made every other class ("Dragon Knight" or "Templar" etc.) into a super character.

Every "emperor" was a vampire back then - thanks to the possibility that was still available at the time to bring your character onto several PVP maps - I once took part in a final battle (for the fortresses in Cyrodil) in which FOUR emperors and their followers fought each other!

If vampires take "sun damage" in TES-Online today - then that definitely came after my time!

1 hour ago, Miauzi said:

 

In Skyrim, Bugdesta wanted to jump on the hype about the "glitter" vampires to increase his sales figures.

That's why Serana became a waifu - who complains about the sunlight ... but otherwise looks more like a romantic teenager than a several hundred year old vampire (similar to Nora)

Authors have tried to mitigate this massive discrepancy (Serana versus other vampires) through mods - I'm currently testing "Serana dead sexy" extensively.

The idea - that she has an extremely split personality - can close this gap. But ultimately that only works - because this extensive vampire society as the story author has presented to us for years - doesn't even exist in our vanilla game!

It's funny - in the "extended Serana dialogue" she even makes fun of a story... a romance between a mortal girl and a vampire youth - who "glitters" in the sunlight

If you take the traditions already present in the original "lore" about the creation of the first vampire (the "Blood Matron") - then it should be clear how the ritual surrounding the "Daughters of Coldharbour" takes place:

Molag Bal "climbs" into a human body - uses it as a flesh shell (similar to the singer Bal back then) and thus carries out all the rapes and tortures on the "initiates".

In the case of Serana and Valerica, this was none other than Harkon himself - who made himself available to Molag Bal as a flesh shell.

It should be understandable that after such an ordeal, only "gruel" remains in the brain of Serana, who flees into romantic fantasies because of her loneliness.

And unlike the singer Bal, Harkon does NOT suffer from having violated his own daughter... for him, his wife and daughter were just a means to an end BEFORE the prophecy.

Nora is completely different in this respect - she is completely committed to her animalistic urges - which are an inseparable part of vampirism.

(and we enjoy these blood and sex orgies)

 

 

---

 

I also played a vampire in TES-Online (the base was "Dragon Knight") - but you don't die in sunlight... at least until I quit about a year after starting the game.

Vampires were the strongest players - they were actually a separate class - because their bonuses made every other class ("Dragon Knight" or "Templar" etc.) into a super character.

Every "emperor" was a vampire back then - thanks to the possibility that was still available at the time to bring your character onto several PVP maps - I once took part in a final battle (for the fortresses in Cyrodil) in which FOUR emperors and their followers fought each other!

If vampires take "sun damage" in TES-Online today - then that definitely came after my time!

I wanted Serana Dead Sexy. But too many demands.
Too many mods that require too many mods that require too many mod themselves.
In the end, we end up with a bunch of boring mods and we reach 255/256 plugis.
And I rarely do Dawnguard.

23 hours ago, chooseChaos said:

WHAT a visually stunning composition, the colors! The pretty windows and the light shining through, mixing with the glow of the candles and then those shimmering helmets and armor. Beeeeeeeeeeautiful!

 

And a good narrator who presents Nora as a good storyteller.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The high priestess is obviously counting on the fact that if the method doesn't work at first, we don't change it, but increase the dose

What more could you want? 😁

 

I mean other than sequels.😇

Thank you very much!
This scene in particular was one of the main motivations for building this location in Karlov Manor.

20 hours ago, hana120 said:

Great chapter! 
Excellent staging!
It took you a long time to put everything in place.

Nora remembering her painful vampire ceremony.
Afterwards, I can’t see what it was. Since Nora is and was already a vampire, it wasn’t to turn her into a vampire.

Thank you.

This scene took place during her time as a vampire in the Imperial City and was a initiation ritual of the vampire church in the Imperial City. More context on this will come with the next entries.

14 hours ago, killer905 said:

What is the armour (hehe) that the highness guards are wearing?

It's one of H2135 FantasySeries armors, not sure which one, but it was released on their patreon.

13 hours ago, Jay-Omms said:

Interesting... the scenery was most amazing. Such a beautiful area of your mod. 

What is it about the Queen's Blood that is Dangerous? I know you explained in previous chapter but I forget. 

Thank you very much!

About the question, see below...

13 hours ago, Miauzi said:

 

Even if it's a different universe here - there were already different levels of vampires in Skyrim.

Remember the scene with Harkon - when he offered to share his (pure) blood with the player. Even if you've already been infected with vampirism and become an "ordinary" vampire - he can raise the player to the "pure blood" level... for a female character, that means becoming a "Daughter of Coldharbour".

 

There may be something similar in Nora's universe - but here I'm experiencing a huge spiritual ritual. Finally, I'm experiencing these beautiful sacred buildings filled with people/creatures.

Although - that doesn't seem entirely consistent with Nora's backstory to me... wasn't the old vampire who made Nora a non-dead person - of old and powerful blood himself? Wasn't this whole story about Nora also about the secret of her "blood" lineage?

close  , see below

6 hours ago, Myst42 said:

Hmm... If I'm not missing anything, I take it the blood was supposed to have adverse effects unless the bloodline was stronger such as having a "special" father.
I might have forgotten but wasn't Nora's father some primal bat-form cave dude? Always got the "ancient first ones" vibes from that.
So... maybe the mystery is getting more lore to it?

As for the "ahhg, AAGH!!" She wasn't even bothered like the other gilr was, so our dear old Nora is probably pretending? 😜

Anyway. Love the naked ladies doing unholy ceremony theme. An absolute classic.

Unholy ceremony... always good !

@Jay-Omms@Miauzi @Myst42

About the blood ritual that was speculated on here:

We have seen the same ritual at various entries in the story, see Chapter 8 Section 3 and Chapter 8 Section 4 in particular. First Nora performed it on Hannah and the second time Nora assisted in the ritual.

It's mostly a symbolic religious ritual similar to be baptized in the catholic church. 
When the blood is taken from one of those blood fountains (like in Karlov Manor or in Castle Volkihar) idea is that you drink the blood of Molag Bal which has an intoxicating effect on vampires causing hallucinations and potentially death.

In this section we saw Valeria make them drink her own blood which, since she is a pure blood vampire has a similar effect on lower vampires. However since Nora is daughter to another powerful vampire, the blood didn't have that much of a effect on her and she needed a higher dose. 
The 'purity' of a vampire's blood decreases with each generation, thus it had less of an effect on Nora.
Furthermore Nora and the other initiate both donated blood that was drunk by everyone else forming some sought of bond between all of them forming some sort of initiation ritual. 

2 hours ago, Alter Native said:

It's one of H2135 FantasySeries armors, not sure which one, but it was released on their patreon.

I see, thanks

16 hours ago, Alter Native said:

It's one of H2135 FantasySeries armors, not sure which one, but it was released on their patreon.

I find, it's H2135's Fantasy Series8 but your looks recollored?

1 hour ago, killer905 said:

I find, it's H2135's Fantasy Series8 but your looks recollored?

I used to be a patreon and the white version might be from there.

Wow, didn't expect the ceremony, nor it's dimension ! The size of the cathedral, the sheer number of the actors, and mystical and/or erotic aspect of the outfits made it quite the peculiar scene ! Unless you went for some additional tricks (pre-posed  non actors models ?), the assembly must've been a pain in the ass to shoot though. Regardless, the clothes and helmet's exchange was quite a captivating aspect of the ceremony, only topped by the effect of the ancient vampire's blood on the new acolytes. For a bedroom discussion, that was quite the entertainment ! A bit silent during the first part of the ceremony however, but I know the emphasis you wish to put on the visuals, and that impression vanished as soon as you reintroduced some movement to the scene.

Storywise, this reminds us that the exact lineage of Nora is unknow (and probably quite powerful it seems), and it was interesting to see both that there's another power than just the queen's in your vampire world, and how its structure is deviantly inspired from the christian church.

Anyway, awesome work ! 👍

« I've never heard of a church with people dressed that way, uh, but maybe I dunno about them. I'm pretty sure none has body parts on their altar, though.

                Anyway, I know the priests can give you wine to drink. My expert advice would be not to drink it, if you know you don't hold your liquor.  »

On 7/21/2024 at 12:00 AM, Miauzi said:

Even if it's a different universe here - there were already different levels of vampires in Skyrim.

Remember the scene with Harkon - when he offered to share his (pure) blood with the player. Even if you've already been infected with vampirism and become an "ordinary" vampire - he can raise the player to the "pure blood" level... for a female character, that means becoming a "Daughter of Coldharbour".

If I may, to me that interpretation seems incorrect.

What happens in Dawnguard is that Harkon has a different strain of Porphyric Haemophilia, which can overwrite less powerful versions of the virus. However, even if supposedly getting it from Harkon would make you get a significantly purer/stronger version of it, it's not comparable to the Daughters of Coldharbour's blood, which is inherited directly from Molag Bal (and by rather degrading methods what's more).

The whole plot relies on that detail btw. If Harkon could create Cold Harbour daughters at will, he wouldn't require Serana's or  Valerica's blood in the first place to strike down the sun. 

Vor einer Stunde sagte Tirloque:

Wenn ich darf, erscheint mir diese Interpretation falsch.

 

Was in Dawnguard passiert, ist, dass Harkon einen anderen Stamm der porphyrischen Hämophilie hat, der weniger starke Versionen des Virus überschreiben kann. Doch selbst wenn man angeblich eine wesentlich reinere/stärkere Version davon erhalten würde, wenn man es von Harkon erhält, ist es nicht mit dem Blut der Daughters of Coldharbour vergleichbar, das direkt von Molag Bal geerbt wird (und das noch dazu auf ziemlich erniedrigende Weise).

 

Die ganze Handlung hängt übrigens von diesem Detail ab. Wenn Harkon nach Belieben Cold Harbor-Töchter erschaffen könnte, würde er weder Seranas noch Valericas Blut benötigen, um die Sonne niederzuschlagen.

 

Ultimately, it is precisely this "script" that is provided by the vanilla game... and it now seems very questionable to me - at least as far as my interpretation is concerned.

A female vampire lord is not automatically a "daughter of Coldharbour"... because a very special ritual is required for this - in which MolagBal himself rapes the (presented) women - and by no means all of them survive this procedure. Serana and Valerica themselves talk about it.

(that's why "virgins" are included in the ritual as blood sacrifices - so that the actual protagonists survive... which will be the subject of my own blog story)

MolagBal needs an "anchor" for this act (i.e. his appearance in the world of Tamriel) and so the ritual leader offers himself as a flesh shell to the Daedric Lord... which means nothing other than that Serana was tortured and raped by her own father.

I interpret this as the source of Harkon's actual power as a Vampire Lord... but he can also make a male player into a Vampire Lord, but not raise him to his own level - because then the player would have to be able to "elevate" humans or "normal" vampires to a Vampire Lord.

Bugdesta himself has neglected to work out the difference between a female Vampire Lord (i.e. what the player can achieve) and a "Daughter of Coldharbour" (i.e. what Serana is) in the game and also to show it in terms of powers (spells used, etc.)!

The mod author of "Serana dead sexy" is trying to close this gap with his interpretation.

Yes - I agree with your thoughts - because your reference to the required "pure blood" has really not been given sufficient attention by me so far... thank you!

💖

On 7/31/2024 at 11:34 PM, Tirloque said:

Wow, didn't expect the ceremony, nor it's dimension ! The size of the cathedral, the sheer number of the actors, and mystical and/or erotic aspect of the outfits made it quite the peculiar scene ! Unless you went for some additional tricks (pre-posed  non actors models ?), the assembly must've been a pain in the ass to shoot though.

Thank you!

I used billbords as actors for the crowds, the only real actors are the NPCs close to Nora + guards + High Priest. 

On 7/31/2024 at 11:34 PM, Tirloque said:

 

Regardless, the clothes and helmet's exchange was quite a captivating aspect of the ceremony, only topped by the effect of the ancient vampire's blood on the new acolytes. For a bedroom discussion, that was quite the entertainment ! A bit silent during the first part of the ceremony however, but I know the emphasis you wish to put on the visuals, and that impression vanished as soon as you reintroduced some movement to the scene.

Thanks, I'm of the opinion that dialogue should serve the images and not the other way around. 

In a movie this sequence in particular would have been some kind of montage with music.

On 7/31/2024 at 11:34 PM, Tirloque said:

Storywise, this reminds us that the exact lineage of Nora is unknow (and probably quite powerful it seems), and it was interesting to see both that there's another power than just the queen's in your vampire world, and how its structure is deviantly inspired from the christian church.

Yes, you're correct, it's modelled a bit after medieval Europe where you had both, powerful kings but also a powerful church. (Besides that there are other kingdoms besides the one shown in my story, but so far I haven't explored them much)

.

On 7/31/2024 at 11:34 PM, Tirloque said:

« I've never heard of a church with people dressed that way, uh, but maybe I dunno about them. I'm pretty sure none has body parts on their altar, though.

                Anyway, I know the priests can give you wine to drink. My expert advice would be not to drink it, if you know you don't hold your liquor.  »

Usually the body parts are below the altar or behind some glass, really not that different after all.