This time around, we're going to be covering Dawnguard, the first expansion for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Including a bunch of additional areas in the continent of Skyrim, the expansion mostly revolves around two main storylines -- a group of ancient vampire coven called Clan Volkihar and their attempt to blot out the sun by fulfilling an ancient prophecy; as well as the Dragonborn's journey to prevent said prophecy throwing him into discovering a whole lot of backstory and ancient temples where the Falmer once lived.
In addition to new areas, quests, items and the like, Dawnguard also added its share of monsters, which, of course, is the main focus of these articles!
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Vampire Lord
Dawnguard added a bunch of new vampire variations (the Nightlord and Nightmaster Vampires), but the biggest appeal and selling point of the expansion pack is the Vampire Lord. Whereas previous depictions of vampires in Skyrim and previous Elder Scrolls games have basically been glorified regular enemies with some extra properties and powers, Dawnguard allows you to transform to an awesomely horrific, well, monster-vampire! You're less posh, wine-drinking Count Dracula and more Underworld-style vampires at this point.
Relatively quickly through the Dawnguard story's main storyline, you have the option to join one of two factions -- the vampire hunting faction called the Dawnguard, or the psychopathic bunch of vampires that reside in Castle Volkihar. Joining the vampires allows you to transform into a Vampire Lord by casting a spell (similar to how the werewolf system works), with the revelation that all the other vampires you've been fighting in Skyrim all these while are "lesser broods".And, boy, the Vampire Lord is pretty badass! The model is pretty grotesque, which is kind of unfortunate but pretty appropriate for a demonic form. The desiccated wings, the hunched neck, the corpse-like face and the weird angles that the hands are... it's pretty badass! Throw in the fact that in addition to extra stats and general vampire powers, transforming into a Vampire Lord gives you a bunch of awesome additional powers. Health-draining spells, slowing down time, pulling enemies from a distance with 'vampiric grip', summoning gargoyles, paralyzing enemies, raising corpses... but two particularly badass abilities are "Night Cloak", which surrounds you in a swarm of bats that damage anything around you, and "Mist Form", which just turns you into ethereal mist for a brief period of time. You don't actually get all of these abilities immediately and have to level them up as you feed on people as a vampire lord, but it's pretty darn badass! Dawnguard also adds a similar skill tree for werewolves, but it's a lot less awesome IMO.
Now, my biggest gripe with Dawnguard, though? NO ONE ever turns into a Vampire Lord other than you, or Lord Harkon, the final boss of the DLC. Not Serana (your best friend and daughter of the main villain), not members of the Clan Volkihar should you side with the Dawnguard, and not the random high-level vampires dotting around the land of Skyrim. It's easily one of the biggest misses, I think -- it would be so easy to replace some of the stronger vampire bosses with the Vampire Lord enemy (since they clearly coded it in, what with Lord Harkon being a fightable enemy and all that). It's a huge, huge misstep, honestly.Overall, definitely a pretty grotesque model and a whole ton of cool powers. I like it!
Gargoyle
One of the abilities granted by becoming a Vampire Lord is the ability to summon Gargoyles. Gargoyles themselves are also found in some Dawnguard-specific dungeons, and like most fantasy Gargoyle monsters, they hide around statues that look like themselves. Interestingly, though, unlike Draugr, they are actually statues and immune to harm until they burst out of the rocks covering their skin.
Gargoyles are... they kind of look somewhat bland, I think, being just snarling demon-men with bat wings, a beast-like maw and goat horns. They really could've done more, although I don't dislike the pretty monstrous look that they ended up with. Gargoyles come in three variants (Gargoyle, Gargoyle Brute and Gargoyle Sentinel), they absorb health while attacking, and they will sometimes attack random cities alongside a group of random vampires -- which really doesn't lend any excuse as to why the Vampire Lord doesn't show up more often.
Death Hound
Another creature associated with the Volkihar clan of ancient vampires are the Death Hounds, which are... vampire dogs, I think? They look so much more monstrous than just a dog with vampirism, though, with glowing red eyes and that insane maw full of teeth. There are two that the Volkihar vampires keep as pets, which is adorable. They basically are just reskinned versions of wolves, albeit with a different set of loot and the addition of frost damage to their standard attacks, but damn, they do look pretty badass as hellhounds! Death Hounds are also the only enemy in this list who I remember encountering a lot outside of Dawnguard's main questline, which I do appreciate a lot!
Husky:
Equally adorable are the huskies wearing Dawnguard armour that hang around with Dawnguard. Like the Death Hound, the Huskies are basically just reskinned wolves, but they are fucking adorable. I love them. They are a whole lot more rare than the Death Hounds, though, only really showing up alongside Dawnguard members, and there are a lot less hostile Dawnguard members compared to hostile vampires. They're still adorable.
Armored Troll
Apparently armoured beasts are a thing that the Dawnguard uses, and huskies aren't the only things they strap armour on! See, some of the advantages of joining the Dawnguard, other than for role-playing purposes, is the ability to use huskies, crossbows... and to hire armored trolls. Which are basically just trolls with armour pieces and huge blades wrapped around their bodies. They're basically near-identical to normal trolls with slightly higher health. Armored Troll and Armored Frost Troll variants are available depending on your level. I do find the idea of the Dawnguard domesticating trolls as basically attack hounds against vampires to be pretty hilarious. They're ultimately kind of useless in battle, and I kind of wish that there are ways to see these Armored Trolls beyond having to use them as followers, but I am glad that they decided to include this. It's hilarious.
Chaurus Hunter
Here we go! I've previously noted how the Chaurus monsters we've seen in vanilla Skyrim were apparently not an entire representation of the species as a whole, and that the giant centipede-beasts we've seen are apparently just the larval forms of the species. Their true adult form are added in Dawnguard not just into the huge, long underground Falmer dungeons that a significant part of Dawnguard's storyline takes place in, but also to other Falmer/Chaurus locales, which is awesome!
The Chaurus Hunter (or weaker variants, the Chaurus Hunter Fledglings) will burst out from their cocoons, similar to many real-life insects that undergo metamorphosis. This Chaurus Hunter is like a bizarre combination of multiple real-life insects. A creepy dipteran head, giant multi-segmented claws... the Chaurus Hunters basically battle you similarly to regular Chaurus, except for the fact that they zip around a bit faster due to the fact that they fly around. It's still pretty damn cool, though, and the first time I saw one of these it was definitely pretty horrifying to see a giant horse-sized mantis-fly monster burst out of nowhere.
Shellbug
Not exactly a monster, but the Shellbugs are 'harvestable' animals that only appear in a couple of places added by the Dawnguard expansion -- Forgotten Vale Cave and Sharpslope Cave. They basically function similarly to mines, and you mine them for Shellbug Chitin, used to create the Shellbug Helmet -- a relatively useless item -- but I do like the fact that this utterly bizarre creature exists in the world of Skyrim. It's some sort of bizarre pillbug beetle hybrid with no apparent legs and seemingly just sits there rooted in one spot with its multi-eyed face poking out... a bizarre addition and a fun little Easter Egg for you to encounter.
Feral Falmer, Vampire Falmers & Frozen Chaurus
I'm just going to lump these all together here. Basically, as you travel and get involved in the whole Prophecy of the Sun storyline (whether you side with the Dawnguard or the Volkihar vampires, your objective is still to obtain the plot device) you end up travelling into the Forgotten Vale, a very, very long area where you eventually meet with one of the last living, non-corrupted Falmer, and the only one of the very few who were not transformed into the feral, animalistic troglodytes that the rest of the race were transformed into.
And the Feral Falmer (leftmost) inhabiting a sub-area of Forgotten Vale, the Darkfall Grotto, are basically naked Falmer with an extra 'covered by blood' texture. And... and while the regular Falmer are still pretty 'feral', it does illustrate how much more beastly these are when they don't even have any semblance of primitive civilization that the regular Falmer have.
The Frozen Vampire Falmers are, well, vampiric Falmer who are encased in ice, alongside a bunch of Frozen Chaurus-es. They dot the huge, huge hall of the Inner Sanctum where, like a Zelda boss fight, you walk through these ominous frozen monsters as you walk up to the other surviving Falmer, Arch-Curate Vyrthur. Without going into the specifics of Dawnguard's plot (it'll get too long) he will reveal himself to be a very powerful vampire sorcerer, and bring these Frozen Vampire Falmers and Frozen Chaurus-es to life, which is pretty damn epic for a boss fight. I've noted how vanilla Skyrim's biggest weakness is the lack of actually memorable boss fights (Alduin's ultimately another dragon, after all), but Dawnguard's penultimate boss, Vyrthur, is definitely memorable for the setup and the long reach to meet him and battle his 'adds'. Not bad for what's basically a bunch of reskins!
Ancient Frost Atronach
Speaking of reskins, Vyrthur is accompanied by this bloke, the Ancient Frost Atronach... who uses a relatively unique body with a more rounded-off head, a paler tone and more prominent eye-holes! It basically functions like a souped-up Frost Atronach, but I did remember seeing this thing for the first time and realizing that, huh, it doesn't just look like a regular Frost Atronach. Not much to say here, but it's cool.
Frost Giant
Making a return from Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, the Frost Giants are... they're definitely interesting! The Frost Giants are found only in the Forgotten Vale, and act like sort of hidden mini-bosses, being found in only five locations, with only five of them existing. While they are the size of (and use the animations of) Giants, they look more like gigantic trolls, what with the horns and the elongated heads. They also have five eyes, in contrast to a troll's three. Ultimately, though, these are definitely pretty interesting variations of normal monsters, and I do kind of wish that they actually did show up a bit more in the rest of the world, because I completely forgot about these guys.
Vale Sabre Cat & Vale Deer
Not much to say here, but the Forgotten Vale apparently have unique variations of the Sabre Cat and the Deer, with pretty cool neon tattoos. While most of the additional enemy variations that Dawnguard adds tend to just be souped-up recolours, these two are pretty dang neat.
Boneman
So one of the locations you go through is the Soul Cairn, which is basically a nightmarish, hellish purple landscape where all of the souls that are soul-trapped in Black Soul Gems are sent off to languish for all eternity. The Soul Cairn itself is a pretty damn cool, nightmarish location, with all the purple and all the souls languishing around, confused at being trapped in this bizarre realm.
The main enemies in the Soul Cairn are basically reskinned skeletons that make use of names from an older Elder Scrolls spinoff game, Battlespire, but I do like what they did with the skeletons! Bleaching them blackish-purple, glowing eyes, a faint aura of mist around them... I did say that the Shades from the vanilla game should've appeared more, didn't I? It's a shame that the Bonemen only appear in the Soul Cairn or as summoned minions by you.
Mistman
Unlike their name suggests, Mistmen are not able to turn into mist. They're basically just reskinned undead mages who use spells. And punch you if they somehow run out of mana. I do love the fact that they just float around without any lower body, though.
Wrathman
Wrathmen are the strongest of the Soul Cairn undead, and are basically equivalent of Draugr, with armour and wielding higher-leveled weaponry. I do like the contrast of the pretty bulky nordic armour and the skinny-ass bone limbs. Again, not much to say here, but they do make for cool-looking glowing-eyed undead.
Keeper
Dawnguard has a lot of one-off unique boss fights, huh? The Keepers here are part of a very intricate Easter Egg quest that takes place in the pretty large area of the Soul Cairn, and end up being pretty memorable boss fights! Sometime during the storyline, you end up having to destroy a barrier preventing you from meeting up with an ally, and you have to destroy the three boneyard Keepers, who live in their own ruined castles. It's not apparent from these screenshots, but the Keepers are massive, towering creatures easily double the height of an average person, and I really do love how they are just humanoids in armour with a gigantic cloud of black mist covering where their head should be, with nothing but glowing pinpoint-eyes to mark where their heads are. It's that simple detail that ends up making what's essentially another Draugr/Skeleton retexture feel so unique.
Durnehviir
Speaking of unique monsters, after killing the Keepers, you enter this huge arena where you can rescue your friend Serana's mother, Valerica... but not before you fight against this giant, rotting undead dragon! Vanilla Skyrim did have a brief boss fight against a Skeletal Dragon, but Durnehviir here is a fully-fledged undead, rotting dragon. His wings are rotten, and closer examination of his model really shows just how his flesh is truly corpse-like, with strings of cobweb-like flesh above bone.
Unlike most dragons you meet, though, Durnehviir isn't actually evil, he's just tricked by the Ideal Masters, the eldritch abominations that govern the Soul Cairn, into guarding Valerica until she 'dies'... except, y'know, Valerica is an immortal vampire, trapping Durnehviir inside the Soul Cairn for several hundred years, so much that the Soul Cairn's energies warped his body. After you defeat Durnehviir, he reveals that he is unable to be truly killed, but by falling in battle against you, he's been freed of his deal with the Ideal Masters. Tragically, he is unable to live outside of the Soul Cairn... but does lend you his name to be used as a dragon shout.
And when you do use his shout outside of the Soul Cairn, Durnehviir is so delighted to fly the skies of the real world once more, and is just so happy that he teaches you the words for another undead-manipulating shout. Oh, and Durnehviir is one of the few dragons to not just use one of the 'beam' shouts like Unrelenting Force, Fire Breath and Frost Breath, but uses Drain Vitality and a unique shout to him that summons Wrathmen, Mistmen and Bonemen. Pretty neat stuff! I always loved the tragic story behind Durnehviir's fate.
Reaper
The Reaper is yet another unique hidden boss in Dawnguard, and unlocking his fight is... it's pretty damn extensive. You have to collect a bunch of unique fragments in the Soul Cairn, at which point you'll have to bring them to a unique area. The reaper himself is a giant, ghostly thing with an executioner's hood, and a unique ability where he vomits poison on you. The area you fight him in is also pretty memorable, literally a small coliseum with mountains of bones around it. There's really no backstory to Mr. Reaper here, and he's just a bizarre giant undead oddity in the already pretty unsettling Soul Cairn. Pretty interesting boss fight, though!
Revered Dragon
While they ultimately function similarly to most regular dragons, using the same AI and animations, Dawnguard adds two brand-new dragon variants that are more powerful than the Ancient Dragon. Popping up at beyond level 59, Revered Dragons always looked pretty unique to me, with a tapering, broad neck and tail that look far more flat compared to other dragons, sort of like bearded dragons or something.
Two unique revered dragons in the Forgotten Vale, called Naslaarum and Voslaarum, serve as a dual boss fight around halfway through the area, bursting out of a giant frozen lake and fighting you with some unique mechanics that no other dragon in the game ever use -- bursting in and out of the frozen lake, causing you to have to watch out of attacks from above and below. Easily one of the most memorable fights in Skyrim for me, and for some reason these two are quite literally just random dragons in a lake.
Legendary Dragon
The pinncale of dragons, the Legendary Dragon are the mightiest of all the possible dragons that may spawn... and they honestly still really look like most other dragons, other than the unique texturing of their wings, and the curved horns on their head. A closer inspection of their faces would reveal that they actually have compound eyes, which is such an interesting feature on a reptilian-based creature like a dragon! Again, though, it's just such a shame that all the dragons ultimately behave similarly and you fight most of them from a distance. I dunno. They really could've done more with dragons, I think, although the Revered and Legendary variants at least looked pretty different.
Anyway, that's about it for Dawnguard. There are a bunch of additional enemies that are repaints of existing models without any real visual variation, so I'll be skipping those. Next up we're riding to Solstheim for the final Skyrim DLC, Dragonborn!
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