Great work, really shows us who Nora is at heart

That sex scene was really creative

Aria: Hmm... lets see here. Nora likes sex, Aria likes sex. Nora likes dominating, Aria likes being Dominated. Nora likes killing people, Aria likes killing people. I sense a lot in common between Daedra and Vampires. Must be the fact we were both created by Molag Bal, yes?

Tiny little complain is the damn shadows, could you turn them up? Get a mod to fix? They sort of take out of the mood of a awesome sex scene in dust haha

wow fantastic story and the pictures out of this world thank you ?

5 minutes ago, Agent Tex said:

Great work, really shows us who Nora is at heart

 

That sex scene was really creative

 

Aria: Hmm... lets see here. Nora likes sex, Aria likes sex. Nora likes dominating, Aria likes being Dominated. Nora likes killing people, Aria likes killing people. I sense a lot in common between Daedra and Vampires. Must be the fact we were both created by Molag Bal, yes?

 

Tiny little complain is the damn shadows, could you turn them up? Get a mod to fix? They sort of take out of the mood of a awesome sex scene in dust haha

Thank you Tex!

I know the shadows suck and they are especially visible in this entry. I've improved on them since then (screenshots of this entry are from end 2017). But I agree they kind of ruin the sex scene.

4 minutes ago, wilson99 said:

wow fantastic story and the pictures out of this world thank you ?

Thank you very much!

O my gods! The whole part in the cave is simply amazing! Great job! ^_^ 
Although the part with tearing out the spine is spectacular, did not immediately understand who was killed by this method ^_^
Anyway, thats an amazing job! Especially like this one -
 

Wow great work ?

Sex scene was just awesome ?

4 hours ago, Crw said:

O my gods! The whole part in the cave is simply amazing! Great job! ^_^ 
Although the part with tearing out the spine is spectacular, did not immediately understand who was killed by this method ^_^
Anyway, thats an amazing job! Especially like this one -
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Thank you very much!

Love the image as well, that's why it became the banner of this entry.

I noticed that the spine thing is a bit unclear. We're seeing the whole scene from Nora's perspective, so we don't notice immediately when Thomas kills someone, so we just see the "result". In the end it doesn't matter which of the ferals he kills, but I can see that it's confusing. 

2 hours ago, Resdayn said:

Wow great work ?

 

Sex scene was just awesome ?

 

Thank you!

Wonderful work as always and I have to say that the screenshots of Thomas and Nora walking through the woods at night were my favorite. They look so natural and alive (curious choice of words for the description of vampires, I know ?). The dialogue and glimpses of Thomas's backstory are also quite interesting.

I do not know if this was done on purpose or it was a coincidence, but I find very curious similarities between the feeding scenes of Nora and her friends and the feral vampires. The body hanging upside down, blood pools everywhere, captive mortals in cages - while the power of blood differs greatly between ferals and pure-bloods, their behavior is very much alike.  I wonder whether Nora realizes it, sitting on the throne and watching the execution. Her domain is larger, her subjects might be more numerous and her attire is more refined but at the core she and the Master of that vampire pack are the same. On the other hand, I might be reading way too much into it. ?

Will we find out more about the female vampire that's been creating ferals? If I understand correctly, she might cause more problems for Nora if she keeps infecting humans with vampirism. ?

9 hours ago, Jayomms said:

6 hours ago, Devianna said:

Wonderful work as always and I have to say that the screenshots of Thomas and Nora walking through the woods at night were my favorite. They look so natural and alive (curious choice of words for the description of vampires, I know ?). The dialogue and glimpses of Thomas's backstory are also quite interesting.

 

I do not know if this was done on purpose or it was a coincidence, but I find very curious similarities between the feeding scenes of Nora and her friends and the feral vampires. The body hanging upside down, blood pools everywhere, captive mortals in cages - while the power of blood differs greatly between ferals and pure-bloods, their behavior is very much alike.  I wonder whether Nora realizes it, sitting on the throne and watching the execution. Her domain is larger, her subjects might be more numerous and her attire is more refined but at the core she and the Master of that vampire pack are the same. On the other hand, I might be reading way too much into it. ?

 

Will we find out more about the female vampire that's been creating ferals? If I understand correctly, she might cause more problems for Nora if she keeps infecting humans with vampirism. ?

 

Thank you Devianna.

Nora and Thomas are not pure blood btw. In my world only those that are directly turned by Molag Bal, such as Harkon or Serana (or the Queen) are pure blood. All other non feral vampires, which is the huge majority are descendend (often times over many generations) from one of the pure blood vampires. So in all of my "real" vampires is some of Molag Bal's blood left that initially created the pure blood vampires, even though the blood and the powers get weaker with every generation of vampires and the more distant you are related to Bal.

Now ferals (and humans) don't have Bal's blood in them which makes them an inferior in the eyes of my vampires. (Btw. the only reasonable way to "justify" the behavior (and felt superiority) of my vampires is either via racism or religion... which tells a lot. I use a combination of both.)

Unlike the "real" vampires who have to be created by another vampire ferals can be infected via the Sanguinare Vampiris disease and are a lot weaker. At some point I came up with some kind of myth my vampires believe in that involves the Deadra Peryite that's responsible for diseases, and he somehow wanted to create his own vampire version because he was jeaouls of Bal and his creation... sth. like this.
I don't really know how all of this is explained in the actual game, because the three different vampires versions actually exist ingame, but I don't know how they are connected or whether Bethesda just added random stuff because they thought it would be cool or whatever...

But in the end you're right, ferals don't behave that much different then "proper" vampires. Besides all the religious and race reasons mentioned above the "real" vampires see them as unwanted competion about blood and dislike the attention they draw from the human population via open attacks of mortals.

I should really add more lore about my vampire version to the blog overview page.

When did I write something about a female vampire that's creating ferals? It's been a while since I wrote that entry, but I can't remember ever talking about a vampire like this.

4 hours ago, Alter Native said:

don't really know how all of this is explained in the actual game, because the three different vampires versions actually exist ingame, but I don't know how they are connected or whether Bethesda just added random stuff because they thought it would be cool or whatever...

 

Well in skyrim actually I think all vampirism variant came from Harkon himself.

Feral, Volkihar and Harkon seems to have common abilities, just have major difference in power.

Even Vrynthul and his falmers seems to share the same blood.

Althought you need count how lazy is Bethesda in this case. ?

4 hours ago, Alter Native said:

 

When did I write something about a female vampire that's creating ferals? It's been a while since I wrote that entry, but I can't remember ever talking about a vampire like this.

That's a fascinating take on the vampire lore (especially the possible Peryite vampire myth) and I really like the version you use in your stories.  By the 'female vampire' I meant the explanation that Eva's husband gives to Nora. He says that a strange woman came to them one evening, they gave her a place to stay and when they woke up the woman was gone and they both bore bite marks.  Maybe it was written simply to give the background to how those two got turned, which is completely fine ☺️. But when I saw it, I immediately  thought " ooh, possible competitor for Nora".

Either way, really enjoyable episode. You did a masterful job. ?

Oh man this was great!

So nice to get out of that stuffy castle! 

I love the way Nora can be merciful one second, then a total cunt the next!!

And the sex scene!!! Finishing in gore and vampire dust!!

Visual Poetry!! ?

3 hours ago, Resdayn said:

Well in skyrim actually I think all vampirism variant came from Harkon himself.

Feral, Volkihar and Harkon seems to have common abilities, just have major difference in power.

Even Vrynthul and his falmers seems to share the same blood.

Althought you need count how lazy is Bethesda in this case. ?

To me this looks mostly like Bethesda is lazy. Besides there shouldn't be regional differences between the different vampires races as they should have mixed quite a lot over the centuries (imo).

3 hours ago, Devianna said:

That's a fascinating take on the vampire lore (especially the possible Peryite vampire myth) and I really like the version you use in your stories.  By the 'female vampire' I meant the explanation that Eva's husband gives to Nora. He says that a strange woman came to them one evening, they gave her a place to stay and when they woke up the woman was gone and they both bore bite marks.  Maybe it was written simply to give the background to how those two got turned, which is completely fine ☺️. But when I saw it, I immediately  thought " ooh, possible competitor for Nora".

 

Either way, really enjoyable episode. You did a masterful job. ?

Ok, now I understand you better.

That was mostly intended to be backstory to the ferals and to make the whole scene a bit more morally greyish. Because on one hand the feral's are doing terrible things to people, but on the other hand they are victims themselves, at least in the case of Eva and her husband. It's especially tragic when they welcomed a stranger in their home, who they meant to help.

The idea is based on the TES lore, that ferals can infect humans by feeding on them so the women wasn't even trying to turn them. 

But to spoil a bit, we won't see Nora hunting down that strange vampire. Besides she wouldn't be an even match for Nora, as Nora is most likely way older and more powerful to begin with due to her "true" vampiric origin.  

1 hour ago, WANOBI12 said:

Oh man this was great!

So nice to get out of that stuffy castle! 

I love the way Nora can be merciful one second, then a total cunt the next!!

And the sex scene!!! Finishing in gore and vampire dust!!

Visual Poetry!! ?

Thank you very much! The vampire dust stuff is something you only come up with when doing a story. When you do random pinup shots in GomaPero land this is never something you'll think of  

17 minutes ago, Alter Native said:

To me this looks mostly like Bethesda is lazy. Besides there shouldn't be regional differences between the different vampires races as they should have mixed quite a lot over the centuries (imo).

 

Well lore-wise they not work like that, vampire blood not mix with other strains, if it stronger replace it, if equal or weaker then not. ?

They are not really a race or anything, just a daedric disease. ?

way too dam cool <3 

19 hours ago, Resdayn said:

Well lore-wise they not work like that, vampire blood not mix with other strains, if it stronger replace it, if equal or weaker then not. ?

 

They are not really a race or anything, just a daedric disease. ?

Yes but vampires are likely to move throughout Tamriel, so you find vampires of Harkons' blood in southern Cyrodiil that turn other vampires in the area. The same way you have other strains in Skyrim. That's why I don't think there'd be large regional differences. 

16 hours ago, goldust said:

way too dam cool ❤️

Thank you goldust

16 minutes ago, Alter Native said:

Yes but vampires are likely to move throughout Tamriel, so you find vampires of Harkons' blood in southern Cyrodiil that turn other vampires in the area. The same way you have other strains in Skyrim. That's why I don't think there'd be large regional differences. 

 

Considering other clans kills are unknown bloods lore-wise spreading it not wise idea.

Cyrodiil vampires are use vampire hunters to purge the other bloodlines and keep their one dominant in the region.

Morrowind had a whole quest revolving killing vampire bloodlines.

Morrowind and Cyrodiilic strain is the same disease with clan differences, Skyrim one is different its Harkon's one, Daggerfall have Lamae's descendants. ?

Vampires are terroritial animals in TES.

Anyway your setting has different rules, so does TEs and other fantasies.

Vampires on high fantasies are just minor annoyances, while seriusly deadly in low fantasy.

As usual a visual treat, with contrasting blue and reds, dirts and pale skin, and with Thomas offering a great counterpart to Nora on most of his screens (and in behavior as well). Also liked the lore aspect about the ferals, and the evil/good behavioral ambiguity of Nora, which definitely puts her morality as functioning differently from the human's regular ones. However, regarding combat, you showed quite some of times the results without showing the strikes themselves. Though sometimes it helps reducing the creation time, making it too systematic greatly reduces the "punch" and impact of the fights IMO. Still, excellent entry overall.

Malicia : « The Thomas guy looks very cute, but I don't want my bones taken out... so he can stay with Nora, uh.  »

On 4/10/2019 at 5:32 PM, Agent Tex said:

Aria: Hmm... lets see here. Nora likes sex, Aria likes sex. Nora likes dominating, Aria likes being Dominated. Nora likes killing people, Aria likes killing people. I sense a lot in common between Daedra and Vampires. Must be the fact we were both created by Molag Bal, yes?

Malicia : « No, it's 'cause you both had a difficult childhood, you see ? »

On 4/11/2019 at 11:14 AM, Alter Native said:

Nora and Thomas are not pure blood btw. In my world only those that are directly turned by Molag Bal, such as Harkon or Serana (or the Queen) are pure blood. All other non feral vampires, which is the huge majority are descendend (often times over many generations) from one of the pure blood vampires. So in all of my "real" vampires is some of Molag Bal's blood left that initially created the pure blood vampires, even though the blood and the powers get weaker with every generation of vampires and the more distant you are related to Bal.

 

Now ferals (and humans) don't have Bal's blood in them which makes them an inferior in the eyes of my vampires. (Btw. the only reasonable way to "justify" the behavior (and felt superiority) of my vampires is either via racism or religion... which tells a lot. I use a combination of both.)

Unlike the "real" vampires who have to be created by another vampire ferals can be infected via the Sanguinare Vampiris disease and are a lot weaker.

Interesting. Nora's words to my Serana could've been interpreted as she considering herself as a pure blood vampire ; but it was in fact not the case. She's a regular vampire, which would be above ferals, and somewhere under the quite rare pure blood vampires, who are in fact the Colharbour strain.

On 4/11/2019 at 3:22 PM, Resdayn said:

Well in skyrim actually I think all vampirism variant came from Harkon himself.

That would be your take on it. Another one would be that all the different variants are evolved strains from Lamae's descendants, which would explain Harkon's disdain towards them (his strains' power descending from himself rather than Lamae). The fact the Volkihar strain is minority in Skyrim would also tend to suggest that, as Lamae's Strain is likely spreading since the first era, while the most conservative hypothesis make Harkon being turned towards the end of the second era.

10 minutes ago, Tirloque said:

That would be your take on it. Another one would be that all the different variants are evolved strains from Lamae's descendants, which would explain Harkon's disdain towards them (his strains' power descending from himself rather than Lamae). The fact the Volkihar strain is minoritary in Skyrim would also tend to suggest that.

 

Alter is right, whats the point speculating about a mess of unclear things ?‍♀️

I think I stop giving really a fuck about lore, time to do that.

18 minutes ago, Resdayn said:

Alter is right, whats the point speculating about a mess of unclear things ?‍♀️

 

I think I stop giving really a fuck about lore, time to do that.

What is clear is that the Nedes where humans of the first era (so Lamae's strain is from first Era) ; and that the Volkihars' origin is sometimes during the second era.

But yeah, that makes nearly 900 years of uncertainty regarding the Volkihars' origins.

5 hours ago, Tirloque said:

As usual a visual treat, with contrasting blue and reds, dirts and pale skin, and with Thomas offering a great counterpart to Nora on most of his screens (and in behavior as well). Also liked the lore aspect about the ferals, and the evil/good behavioral ambiguity of Nora, which definitely puts her morality as functioning differently from the human's regular ones. However, regarding combat, you showed quite some of times the results without showing the strikes themselves. Though sometimes it helps reducing the creation time, making it too systematic greatly reduces the "punch" and impact of the fights IMO. Still, excellent entry overall.

Thanks Tirloque! There was never supposed to be a fight or a real action scene. Nora and Thomas are so superior to the ferals that Thomas doesn't even bring a weapon and Nora's sword is an executioner's sword not actually meant for fighting. Maybe a really young "proper" vampire had some troubles against 2-3 feral vampires. 

But I can see why people expected combat after the build up.

Considering the missing "frames" or images this is probably a case of me not being able to properly show how I wanted to have the scene played out. The spine Thomas thing was intended to happen of screen and we just see what Nora sees when she turns around, because all the action already happend. If it was a movie this would be something like J-cut, where the next scene (and it sound) starts to play before the image catches up. So we "hear" the scream of the dying vampire because the action happens very quickly, but we only see the final result. I can see how this is hard to convey when you only have screenshots... so I understand the confusion and the feeling of missing frames. 

Motion blur is probably the solution for situations like this.

Thanks for the comment with the color palette. I typically put a lot of work in getting the correct color palette of the scene and the atmosphere and I really like how this one turned out with the red and the blue. Btw. If you look closely you see the color palette shifting mid scene. In the beginning there's a lot more blue green in it.

Quote

Malicia : « The Thomas guy looks very cute, but I don't want my bones taken out... so he can stay with Nora, uh.  »

Glad he qualifies as "cute" for you. I'm not sure if he ever was called like that before. 

Quote

Interesting. Nora's words to my Serana could've been interpreted as she considering herself as a pure blood vampire ; but it was in fact not the case. She's a regular vampire, which would be above ferals, and somewhere under the quite rare pure blood vampires, who are in fact the Colharbour strain.

It's really important to call Nora by her title because she has worked really hard to get it after 400 years. Serana is a bit of a problem in my world. Technically she's really really powerful, so powerful that she's on par with Harkon, the Queen and other pure blood vampires in my world. She also had the blood and the power in my world to run one of the provinces of Tamriel.

But since I didn't want to completely change Serana and stay closer to the Bethesda version of her she's just Harkon's (biological non vampire) daughter that also happens to be pure blood without any additional ranks etc. That means that Nora formally has a higher rank than Serana even though Serana is way more powerful then Nora (that's what Nora meant when she was talking about "one sided" meetings with pure blood vampires.  ) 

I've mapped out some ideas for a more badass version of Serana where she is more then the shy daughter of Harkon that needs the help of the dragonborn. In that case she'd be leading Skyrim together with Harkon and be a lot darker and stronger that acts to enforce Harkons (and her) will on Skyrim but I think I should not mess too much with the image of Serana, because a lot of people project their ideal vampire on her.

But of course Nora respects her a lot as she could literally tear Nora apart in seconds if she wanted to, following the rules of my world. 

Great start to the new chapter! There were some fantastic shots in the cave; amazing scenery and lighting. I imagine this isn't the last of the feral vampires we'll see. I really like the culture you have between the noble vampires and the feral ones. I would love to see more of it expanded on as the chapter goes on!

3 hours ago, Alter Native said:

Thanks Tirloque! There was never supposed to be a fight or a real action scene. Nora and Thomas are so superior to the ferals that Thomas doesn't even bring a weapon and Nora's sword is an executioner's sword not actually meant for fighting. Maybe a really young "proper" vampire had some troubles against 2-3 feral vampires. 

But I can see why people expected combat after the build up.

 

Considering the missing "frames" or images this is probably a case of me not being able to properly show how I wanted to have the scene played out. The spine Thomas thing was intended to happen of screen and we just see what Nora sees when she turns around, because all the action already happend. If it was a movie this would be something like J-cut, where the next scene (and it sound) starts to play before the image catches up. So we "hear" the scream of the dying vampire because the action happens very quickly, but we only see the final result. I can see how this is hard to convey when you only have screenshots... so I understand the confusion and the feeling of missing frames. 

Motion blur is probably the solution for situations like this.

It helps for the moving part, classically the attacker. Not so much for the defending one, as otherwise the whole thing would be blurred and I don't think it would render very well. But, evne though I've never though of using it for anything but emphasizing movement and speed, getting creative with workarounds is a quality for a 3D storyteller.

I understand for the spine gouge-out, and for the "not really a fight" scene, but I wanted to underline even in very unbalanced fights actually showing things adds value to the telling. ?

3 hours ago, Alter Native said:

Thanks for the comment with the color palette. I typically put a lot of work in getting the correct color palette of the scene and the atmosphere and I really like how this one turned out with the red and the blue. Btw. If you look closely you see the color palette shifting mid scene. In the beginning there's a lot more blue green in it.

And that also adds value to it. Would you conclude your works, it'll still be a treat re-reading it.

3 hours ago, Alter Native said:

It's really important to call Nora by her title because she has worked really hard to get it after 400 years. Serana is a bit of a problem in my world. Technically she's really really powerful, so powerful that she's on par with Harkon, the Queen and other pure blood vampires in my world. She also had the blood and the power in my world to run one of the provinces of Tamriel.

But since I didn't want to completely change Serana and stay closer to the Bethesda version of her she's just Harkon's (biological non vampire) daughter that also happens to be pure blood without any additional ranks etc. That means that Nora formally has a higher rank than Serana even though Serana is way more powerful then Nora (that's what Nora meant when she was talking about "one sided" meetings with pure blood vampires.  ) 

I've mapped out some ideas for a more badass version of Serana where she is more then the shy daughter of Harkon that needs the help of the dragonborn. In that case she'd be leading Skyrim together with Harkon and be a lot darker and stronger that acts to enforce Harkons (and her) will on Skyrim but I think I should not mess too much with the image of Serana, because a lot of people project their ideal vampire on her.

But of course Nora respects her a lot as she could literally tear Nora apart in seconds if she wanted to, following the rules of my world.

Everyone has his own interpretation of Serana I think. Yours already significantly deviates from the vanilla one, as she is taking parts into your vampires meetings and orgies... While her excessively repeated avoidance of too personal conversations with the dragonborn in my opinion implies she is shy in that matter. And possibly more than that, as it is possible her rape by Molag Bal was her first sexual encounter, affecting the way she'll behave in that area.

So your Serana is already modified by your universe's laws. I think that in a world where she hasn't met the dragonborn, and where her family behaved differently, your interpretation of a "father's daughter", somewhat self effacing, living in the shadow of her dominant father is a seducing one. It is what she'd have become if she didn't opposed him. And that'd probably lessen her powers compared to what they could be.

Regardless, Nora would still have the edge socially as she's excellent at navigating in courts meetings/manipulating people (including sexually), and higher ranked in effective nobility.

3 hours ago, Alter Native said:

Glad he qualifies as "cute" for you. I'm not sure if he ever was called like that before.

Malicia : « That's 'cause you're a guy. The vampire gals saw it right from the start. 

                If he promises not to gouge out my bones you can tell him, yes.  »

Nora oh Nora you Sexy Beauty of a vampire! Awesome work as always Alter Native!

Good work, I mean, veeeeeeeeery gooooooood work .