His nose would been great new toy for Nora.

So Nora seems to take Eric's traits as a baron, interesting.

Nice work Alter Native! i must admit i quite like this side of nora to be honest

That's cool. I love the battle scenes a lot,  eapecially the effect of blood from the mouth it is kinda impressive.
I was surprised to see this side of Nora.
As always with depth and refinement of details. Excellent entry. ^_^

Hm... was wondering if he was someone special, what with him standing out from the crowd with his pretty-boy hair ?

It is really interesting to see how Nora seems to go through a moral change. So helpful I have not seen her yet. Maybe that's related to Amelie? Nora. makes here the impression that mortals have even more benefits than just to be in the victim role. True to the motto - I help you, but fear me at the same time, then we will get along well. And as already said on another place - wonderful and  very coherent pictures again.

16 hours ago, Resdayn said:

His nose would been great new toy for Nora.

 

So Nora seems to take Eric's traits as a baron, interesting.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Whats this heresy?

 

I guess we have to find out what happens. But the motives she follows in this entry are still the same as before, self interest and egoism, but this time she is helpful to others as well.

16 hours ago, xGHoSTx said:

Nice work Alter Native! i must admit i quite like this side of nora to be honest

Thank you  . 

9 hours ago, Crw said:

That's cool. I love the battle scenes a lot,  eapecially the effect of blood from the mouth it is kinda impressive.
I was surprised to see this side of Nora.
As always with depth and refinement of details. Excellent entry. ^_^

Thanks, the blood effect is originally from the blood fountain in Volhakir. I was trying to be a bit more creative with blood magic than just red sparkles as seen in the vanilla game.

3 hours ago, Rattlesnark said:

Hm... was wondering if he was someone special, what with him standing out from the crowd with his pretty-boy hair ?

Yeah. Things like this give it a bit away. I typically use follower mods or NPC replacer from the nexus for the more important characters instead of random NPCs  

2 hours ago, zilvradrow said:

It is really interesting to see how Nora seems to go through a moral change. So helpful I have not seen her yet. Maybe that's related to Amelie? Nora. makes here the impression that mortals have even more benefits than just to be in the victim role. True to the motto - I help you, but fear me at the same time, then we will get along well. And as already said on another place - wonderful and  very coherent pictures again.

She is not really undergoing a moral change. She is not helping these people because of a wish to help, but because of her own selfish interests. As you already pointed out in this case it just happens to align well with the wishes of the villagers. Getting along with each other is in their both interest. 

Actually if I wanted Nora to change her perspective this would have been the right moment to do so, because now, for the first time she feels responsibility and thankfulness. 

? This is good that Nora is fortifying her foundations with the castle and the people.  Besides people cooperate better when their treated well.

1 hour ago, Alter Native said:

Sie unterzieht sich nicht wirklich einer moralischen Veränderung. Sie hilft diesen Menschen nicht wegen des Wunsches zu helfen, sondern wegen ihrer eigenen egoistischen Interessen. Wie Sie bereits in diesem Fall festgestellt haben, passt es einfach zu den Wünschen der Dorfbewohner. Miteinander ist in ihrem beider Interesse. 

Eigentlich, wenn ich wollte, dass Nora ihre Perspektive ändert, wäre das der richtige Moment gewesen, denn jetzt fühlt sie zum ersten Mal Verantwortung und Dankbarkeit. 

I think that you did that well. To show another side of her without changing her priorities and path. I am looking forward to the next part

I liked this episode. Basically Nora went to deceive people, but then she ended up helping them (both for Fina and the villagers). She's going through conflicting feelings, and those do make a character even more interesting. That put aside, the fight in the castle was a moment of pure badassery (I agree with Crw for the blood effects), including when she makes the last bandit remove his armor. However, first couple of screens were extremely dark (I had to activate the photo mode of my monitor, which I usually only have to do when editing pictures). But overall, great episode. ?

4 hours ago, Alter Native said:

She is not really undergoing a moral change. She is not helping these people because of a wish to help, but because of her own selfish interests. As you already pointed out in this case it just happens to align well with the wishes of the villagers. Getting along with each other is in their both interest. 

Actually if I wanted Nora to change her perspective this would have been the right moment to do so, because now, for the first time she feels responsibility and thankfulness.

I think her ego might be game here. She's not one to help another selflessly, but however she wants to be respected, she wants her things in order, and so... having subjects under her power might get her to be good to them, as long as that make them loyal and obedient to her. Same as with Amelie previously, only to a lesser extent.

I must say I am a bit surprised though that the vampires do not conceal their nature to their subjects. It rules out ambiguity for sure, but that an unusual level of trust for them.

4 hours ago, Jayomms said:

? This is good that Nora is fortifying her foundations with the castle and the people.  Besides people cooperate better when their treated well.

Thanks . Next episode she will tear some of these foundations down again...

1 hour ago, Tirloque said:

I liked this episode. Basically Nora went to deceive people, but then she ended up helping them (both for Fina and the villagers). She's going through conflicting feelings, and those do make a character even more interesting. That put aside, the fight in the castle was a moment of pure badassery (I agree with Crw for the blood effects), including when she makes the last bandit remove his armor. However, first couple of screens were extremely dark (I had to activate the photo mode of my monitor, which I usually only have to do when editing pictures). But overall, great episode. ?

 

I think her ego might be game here. She's not one to help another selflessly, but however she wants to be respected, she wants her things in order, and so... having subjects under her power might get her to be good to them, as long as that make them loyal and obedient to her. Same as with Amelie previously, only to a lesser extent.

 

I must say I am a bit surprised though that the vampires do not conceal their nature to their subjects. It rules out ambiguity for sure, but that an unusual level of trust for them.

For the most part, helping others does not conflict with her world view at all, as long as it aligns with her own goals. As Sherlock Tirloque already pointed out, she did the same when she saved Amelie in Chapter 2. So there are not even that many conflicting feelings. Only with the Fina part she actually were in an inner conflict as she doesn't want to have a pregnant women in her service, but actually felt sorry about her (Chapter 1 and 2 were one of the reasons for this).

I was aware of the dark screens in the beginning while posting this entry yesterday. I didn't have "the technology" back then to fix it and was to lazy this week to do so and reshoot the whole scene. Now I would use one of the gems of SSAssist Tool to increase the light of the whole scene. 

I thought a lot about being open about vampirism. 

I personally think this is the only option they have, because people would know anyway so it's better to be open about it.  

When you think things through, this is were the typical Yarl in Skyrim lives in:

and this is where my vampires live in.

I don't think you can believably hide over many generations what's actually going on. You can't sell this as "a rich merchants residence" or whatever. Besides everyone in Skyrim knows about vampires, even in the base game. Vampires are hiding in caves attacking people on the street etc. There are humans working in these vampire castles (even in the Dawnguard DLC). So I think it's unreasonable to hide all of this over many generations. People know. 

In that case, in my and Nora's opinion it's better to be be open about that and present yourself as "a good vampire/ruler" that takes care of people and even takes care of things the Yarl is technically responsible for so the people have no reason to dislike you and be too suspicious, about "disappearing" hunters or travelers. 

1 hour ago, Alter Native said:

I don't think you can believably hide over many generations what's actually going on. You can't sell this as "a rich merchants residence" or whatever. Besides everyone in Skyrim knows about vampires, even in the base game. Vampires are hiding in caves attacking people on the street etc. There are humans working in these vampire castles (even in the Dawnguard DLC). So I think it's unreasonable to hide all of this over many generations. People know. 

Oh, interesting you noticed. I somehow never thought about it, although now it seems to me logical.

If I remember right - Janus Gassildor - an imperial nobleman, Count of Skingrad. Vampire.

1 hour ago, Crw said:

Oh, interesting you noticed. I somehow never thought about it, although now it seems to me logical.

If I remember right - Janus Gassildor - an imperial nobleman, Count of Skingrad. Vampire.

His secret was pretty much not known until the Great War XD.

He kept much well then these guys it seems ?

4 hours ago, Alter Native said:

Thanks . Next episode she will tear some of these foundations down again...

 

For the most part, helping others does not conflict with her world view at all, as long as it aligns with her own goals. As Sherlock Tirloque already pointed out, she did the same when she saved Amelie in Chapter 2. So there are not even that many conflicting feelings. Only with the Fina part she actually were in an inner conflict as she doesn't want to have a pregnant women in her service, but actually felt sorry about her (Chapter 1 and 2 were one of the reasons for this).

Sherlock Tirloque, The Librarian, TRILOG... I have been known by many names over the centuries... 

4 hours ago, Alter Native said:

I was aware of the dark screens in the beginning while posting this entry yesterday. I didn't have "the technology" back then to fix it and was to lazy this week to do so and reshoot the whole scene. Now I would use one of the gems of SSAssist Tool to increase the light of the whole scene.

Btw, I absolutely love your header image. If your blog's feature image in my library didn't illustrate better the care you put into lightning and scenery, I'd be tempted to replace it.  ^^

4 hours ago, Alter Native said:

I thought a lot about being open about vampirism. 

I personally think this is the only option they have, because people would know anyway so it's better to be open about it.  

When you think things through, this is were the typical Yarl in Skyrim lives in:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

and this is where my vampires live in.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 
 

 

 

I don't think you can believably hide over many generations what's actually going on. You can't sell this as "a rich merchants residence" or whatever. Besides everyone in Skyrim knows about vampires, even in the base game. Vampires are hiding in caves attacking people on the street etc. There are humans working in these vampire castles (even in the Dawnguard DLC). So I think it's unreasonable to hide all of this over many generations. People know. 

In that case, in my and Nora's opinion it's better to be be open about that and present yourself as "a good vampire/ruler" that takes care of people and even takes care of things the Yarl is technically responsible for so the people have no reason to dislike you and be too suspicious, about "disappearing" hunters or travelers.

About the residence, it depends of the city's size and location. The yarls of Solitude, Whiterune and Windhelm also live in castles.

There actually are humans servants (the watchman of castle Volkihar for example), but the way I saw it they were precisely there to block the way to intruders during daytime. And as such, to prevent any harm being done to a sleeping master... and possibly conceal their true nature.

In the end it's a bet I think. Hiding would be possible provided you have enough human servants to run the castle during daytime, allowing the masters to address remaining business during the evening. People would still have their suspicions though, with time. Revealing it would clear up the whole thing, but then open yourself to fanatics/religious zealots, not to mention the dawnguard.

I think the vampires of your world may be more inclined to reveal it as they just can't bear daytime business. The ones of current elders scrolls lore can overcome that limitation provided they are well fed, so in fact would have much greater chances of being able to conceal their nature entirely, and though no benefit in openly revealing their nature.

1 hour ago, Resdayn said:

2 hours ago, Crw said:

Oh, interesting you noticed. I somehow never thought about it, although now it seems to me logical.

If I remember right - Janus Gassildor - an imperial nobleman, Count of Skingrad. Vampire.

His secret was pretty much not known until the Great War XD.

 

He kept much well then these guys it seems ?

Yeah, he reveals it to the player but wasn't exactly very inclined to being social. And avoids meeting the player before checking he can trust him/her, if I do remember right.

25 minutes ago, Tirloque said:

 

Yeah, he reveals it to the player but wasn't exactly very inclined to being social. And avoids meeting the player before checking he can trust him/her, if I do remember right.

 

He only reveals when you have very important bussiness, like the Necromancer cult influrates to him and you being agent for the guild wich already knows his secret or oblivion gates behalf of the blades/Martin.

And when you are vampire looking for the cure, otherwise he pretty much secretive, folks thinks he is mage and he is descendant from the og Hassildor wich is of course himself.

Without those you can1t arrange meeting with him or sneaking, but thats gets you to the hentai dungeons.

28 minutes ago, Tirloque said:

About the residence, it depends of the city's size and location. The yarls of Solitude, Whiterune and Windhelm also live in castles.

There actually are humans servants (the watchman of castle Volkihar for example), but the way I saw it they were precisely there to block the way to intruders during daytime. And as such, to prevent any harm being done to a sleeping master... and possibly conceal their true nature.

 

In the end it's a bet I think. Hiding would be possible provided you have enough human servants to run the castle during daytime, allowing the masters to address remaining business during the evening. People would still have their suspicions though, with time. Revealing it would clear up the whole thing, but then open yourself to fanatics/religious zealots, not to mention the dawnguard.

 

I think the vampires of your world may be more inclined to reveal it as they just can't bear daytime business. The ones of current elders scrolls lore can overcome that limitation provided they are well fed, so in fact would have much greater chances of being able to conceal their nature entirely, and though no benefit in openly revealing their nature. 

 

Pretty much, this is just skyrim being mostly been small holds, old holds have big castles and wealth, expect windhelm cause Ulfric and Winterhold cause reasons.

Cyrodiil has even more higher regards in castless and much more defensive fortresses, even a random knight order could built a big ass castle(Battlethorn).

Volkihar is bad example it run by idiots like Harkon and they rely on humans to keep the visitors away, like when when you got here watchman just say go away.

Pretty sure that depends on strain how much vampire resist sunlight, not all of them can bear it.

Now you mention, Nora should be careful her identity, having an entire band of dawnguard mixed with vigilants would been bad, she got pretty bad last time due that.

12 hours ago, Tirloque said:

 

Btw, I absolutely love your header image. If your blog's feature image in my library didn't illustrate better the care you put into lightning and scenery, I'd be tempted to replace it.  ^^

 

About the residence, it depends of the city's size and location. The yarls of Solitude, Whiterune and Windhelm also live in castles.

There actually are humans servants (the watchman of castle Volkihar for example), but the way I saw it they were precisely there to block the way to intruders during daytime. And as such, to prevent any harm being done to a sleeping master... and possibly conceal their true nature.

 

In the end it's a bet I think. Hiding would be possible provided you have enough human servants to run the castle during daytime, allowing the masters to address remaining business during the evening. People would still have their suspicions though, with time. Revealing it would clear up the whole thing, but then open yourself to fanatics/religious zealots, not to mention the dawnguard.

Thanks for the header compliment. That reminds me that I wanted to add a template to the club on the boundaries and ratios of the header image so it shows nicely for the header and different preview windows. 

It's not just about hiding your nature from the "normal" people. The Yarl of whatever hold probably wants to know who owns that big castle in his/her realm. 

Sooner or later one of the human servants will talk about their work, they have family. At some point they are old and retire, move to a different place... At some point people will learn the truth. 

Even if the system works for one place over a longer period of time I have my vampire world scattered with courts and castles.  You are right though, vampires in my world including Nora are trying to keep a low profile. What was shown here in this entry was an exception. Maybe, if the existence of vampires in Tamriel wasn't such a well known fact there would be different options.

The castles in my world are typically not protected by human servants during daytime, but instead by the gargoyle statues everywhere. In Hammerfell they use highly poisonous snakes (There is an entry in chapter 8 where you'll learn about this and it's one of my favorites).

Organized threats like the Dawnguard are taken care of due to there influence on the human governments or via direct action (Shown in Chapter 4). Random small groups of vampire hunters or thelike are taken care of by the defense mechanisms mentioned before. 

12 hours ago, Resdayn said:

 

Pretty much, this is just skyrim being mostly been small holds, old holds have big castles and wealth, expect windhelm cause Ulfric and Winterhold cause reasons.

 

Cyrodiil has even more higher regards in castless and much more defensive fortresses, even a random knight order could built a big ass castle(Battlethorn).

 

Volkihar is bad example it run by idiots like Harkon and they rely on humans to keep the visitors away, like when when you got here watchman just say go away.

 

Pretty sure that depends on strain how much vampire resist sunlight, not all of them can bear it.

 

Now you mention, Nora should be careful her identity, having an entire band of dawnguard mixed with vigilants would been bad, she got pretty bad last time due that.

See mostly what I wrote to Tirloque, even in Cyrodiil the imperial army or the human counts would want to know why there are castles and manors all over the country and who owns them. Hassildor is a bit of an exception, because he is both the ruler of the human Skingrad as well as the vampire one. But even humans in his close environment probably know about his nature. 

It might be a bit easier in Cyrodiil to hide your vampire realms, but personally think it's still unrealistic to do so over long periods of time.

5 hours ago, Alter Native said:

The castles in my world are typically not protected by human servants during daytime, but instead by the gargoyle statues everywhere. In Hammerfell they use highly poisonous snakes (There is an entry in chapter 8 where you'll learn about this and it's one of my favorites).

Organized threats like the Dawnguard are taken care of due to there influence on the human governments or via direct action (Shown in Chapter 4). Random small groups of vampire hunters or thelike are taken care of by the defense mechanisms mentioned before.

You have a point there. There also are non-humans guardians in TES lore.

And about section 8, i guess we're all teased now. ?

5 hours ago, Alter Native said:

It might be a bit easier in Cyrodiil to hide your vampire realms, but personally think it's still unrealistic to do so over long periods of time.

It depends on the clans and nature of the vampires in fact. Cyrodiil do have clans famed for their members being virtually indistinguishable from regular humans. Of course, if you're a Quarra or a Volkihar, you'll probably are impaired from the start in that domain... But you have special clans powers to make up for it, which Cyrodiils strains do not.

5 hours ago, Alter Native said:

Thanks for the header compliment. That reminds me that I wanted to add a template to the club on the boundaries and ratios of the header image so it shows nicely for the header and different preview windows.

The question was asked on the image management topic, and I planned to make a small paragraph covering it. But feel free to do it anyway. If you do it as a simple post though, I'll could integrate your template/advices to the topic first post. But you could post it in an entirely different place another place without problem. It's up to you.

5 hours ago, Alter Native said:

See mostly what I wrote to Tirloque, even in Cyrodiil the imperial army or the human counts would want to know why there are castles and manors all over the country and who owns them. Hassildor is a bit of an exception, because he is both the ruler of the human Skingrad as well as the vampire one. But even humans in his close environment probably know about his nature. 

It might be a bit easier in Cyrodiil to hide your vampire realms, but personally think it's still unrealistic to do so over long periods of time.

Cyrodiil is special case, they have one very strong vampire clan wich is hardest to detect, since they are barely vampiric and pretty much part of the Cyrodiil nobility and they are not open club.

They got rid those suspicious vampire castles.

Empire should know, no one does build weird places without telling the Count, otherwise they get Hackdirt treatment.

8 hours ago, Tirloque said:

It depends on the clans and nature of the vampires in fact. Cyrodiil do have clans famed for their members being virtually indistinguishable from regular humans. Of course, if you're a Quarra or a Volkihar, you'll probably are impaired from the start in that domain... But you have special clans powers to make up for it, which Cyrodiils strains do not.

7 hours ago, Resdayn said:

Cyrodiil is special case, they have one very strong vampire clan wich is hardest to detect, since they are barely vampiric and pretty much part of the Cyrodiil nobility and they are not open club.

I never liked this kind of "we are super powerful vampires, but there is almost no drawback to it" idea. This is not just present in parts of the TES lore, but also in common fiction or TV-Series. When you're a vampire there should be some kind of drawback to it, even if it is something as simple as not being able to daywalk.

7 minutes ago, Alter Native said:

 

I never liked this kind of "we are super powerful vampires, but there is almost no drawback to it" idea. This is not just present in parts of the TES lore, but also in common fiction or TV-Series. When you're a vampire there should be some kind of drawback to it, even if it is something as simple as not being able to daywalk.

Never said they never had drawback, they rely on vampire hunters and noble influence as their power, not vampirism.

Seridur is only implied member we meet. who lead a vampire hunter order and he was weak as fuck, barely a vampire just a fanged elf.

Even Quarra got exterminated by bored Telvanni mages along all vampires of Morrowind.

Lamae would be vaporised by fart of Pelinal ?

31 minutes ago, Alter Native said:

I never liked this kind of "we are super powerful vampires, but there is almost no drawback to it" idea. This is not just present in parts of the TES lore, but also in common fiction or TV-Series. When you're a vampire there should be some kind of drawback to it, even if it is something as simple as not being able to daywalk.

They are powerful, but less than you think. Cyrodiil strains only get greater perception, greater stealth ability, and augmented illusion skills... But, immortality put aside, that's all there's to powerboosts. And in exchange, their magicka gets health and vigor get staled/severely impaired during day, making them potentially vulnerable to way lesser beings.

To get a comparison, Lamae Bal got instantly strong enough to murder a whole tribe and rape their men. And she's now thousand of years old. So you've got one extreme to another.

I get what you see by no drawbacks though, they made vampirism both curable and not lethally affected by sunlight for gameplay reasons. If we look at classic vampire folklore who're supposed to die instantly upon a brief exposition to sunlight, that's indeed a lesser drawback. But then, I must admit I was surprised you did also lessen it in someway, as Nora survived twice to direct solar exposure (though being severely burnt the second time). So... everyone's got his/her own compromise it seems.

Ooh, great work, Alter! I have to say, I like how Nora is adapting to her new role. I did not expect her to treat the villagers that way, or even refer to them as "her people", but I also wasn't surprised. It actually really fits her character.

And damn that... blood barf? shot. I think you know which one I mean. I literally recoiled when I saw it! Yikes!

Excellent work, all around!  

10 hours ago, Resdayn said:

Never said they never had drawback, they rely on vampire hunters and noble influence as their power, not vampirism.

Even Quarra got exterminated by bored Telvanni mages along all vampires of Morrowind.

9 hours ago, Tirloque said:

They are powerful, but less than you think. Cyrodiil strains only get greater perception, greater stealth ability, and augmented illusion skills... But, immortality put aside, that's all there's to powerboosts. And in exchange, their magicka gets health and vigor get staled/severely impaired during day, making them potentially vulnerable to way lesser beings.

I get what you see by no drawbacks though, they made vampirism both curable and not lethally affected by sunlight for gameplay reasons. If we look at classic vampire folklore who're supposed to die instantly upon a brief exposition to sunlight, that's indeed a lesser drawback. But then, I must admit I was surprised you did also lessen it in someway, as Nora survived twice to direct solar exposure (though being severely burnt the second time). So... everyone's got his/her own compromise it seems.

@Resdayn and Tirloque, you guys won, I don't know TES lore^^. I concede. But in the I still think Nora's behavior is reasonable. She's also only open about it to the people close to her castle, but she'll keep a low profile otherwise.

Actually she got burned 3 times during my story in chapter 1,3 and now in 5. The idea is that she dies within less than a minute if exposed to direct sunlight. Dawn and dusk light is a bit less dangerous, but of course she dies from this as well fairly quickly. All the times we saw her exposed to sunlight was during dusk or dawn. But in the end it's not one of those sparkly skin twilight compromises. 

7 hours ago, Collygon said:

Ooh, great work, Alter! I have to say, I like how Nora is adapting to her new role. I did not expect her to treat the villagers that way, or even refer to them as "her people", but I also wasn't surprised. It actually really fits her character.

 

And damn that... blood barf? shot. I think you know which one I mean. I literally recoiled when I saw it! Yikes!

 

Excellent work, all around!  

Thank you.

All the time I tried hard to make her a black-red character, but it never really worked out, at least the red part. Now with responsibility and power, she's becoming more of a black-white character  .

38 minutes ago, Alter Native said:

 

 

@Resdayn and Tirloque, you guys won, I don't know TES lore^^. I concede. But in the I still think Nora's behavior is reasonable. She's also only open about it to the people close to her castle, but she'll keep a low profile otherwise.

 

Actually she got burned 3 times during my story in chapter 1,3 and now in 5. The idea is that she dies within less than a minute if exposed to direct sunlight. Dawn and dusk light is a bit less dangerous, but of course she dies from this as well fairly quickly. All the times we saw her exposed to sunlight was during dusk or dawn. But in the end it's not one of those sparkly skin twilight compromises. 

 

Well if Nora decides she can open up and live on Eric legacy, then do it.

Tes vampires aside of the Order has no luxury for this.

Just got around to finishing it, I started it when it first came out but as you know current issues going on.

anyway I really like where your taking Nora. Prehaps their is some good left in her.

Aria: Hmm, so first it was Nora then Shae now Mileena. Wow with all these Vampire Babes around I'm getting jealous. Thankfully I still have a following of sorts