“Bloodline” is where the Dawnguard add-on splits in two. You escort Serana home to Castle Volkihar, meet her father Harkon – and then have to choose between the vampire hunters and the vampires. It’s one of the most important choices in all of Skyrim’s add-ons, so read the consequences before you answer him.
Walkthrough
Getting out of Dimhollow Crypt
The quest starts the moment Serana is freed at the end of Awakening. The way out isn’t the way you came in:
- Two gargoyle statues by the exit burst to life – your first taste of a Dawnguard-only enemy.
- In the lever room, pull the right-hand lever to open the gate on the left. Two leveled draugr climb out of the walls.
- The next hall holds skeletons and a leveled draugr or Dragon Priest. On the far right is a word wall for Drain Vitality, and there are several malachite ore veins if you’re into smithing.
- Go through the last iron door and the chained gate to reach the outside.
Castle Volkihar
Serana’s home is Castle Volkihar, on an island off the coast west of Solitude in Haafingar. A watchman lets you in, the vampire Vingalmo welcomes Serana back, and Lord Harkon of the Volkihar Clan wants a word with the stranger who brought his daughter home. After a short history lesson about vampires and the Elder Scroll Serana carries, he turns into a Vampire Lord in front of you and offers you his blood.
The choice: accept or refuse
You can answer either way, whether you’re a mortal, a werewolf or already a vampire.
Accept – join the Volkihar Clan
Harkon bites you and you wake in the castle’s cathedral, a shrine to Molag Bal. You’re now a vampire with the Vampire Lord form: drain life with one hand, raise the dead with blood magic in the other, and turn into a swarm of bats. In the “ground” form you fight with claws instead. Feeding unlocks new powers, but sunlight will hurt more the longer you go without blood. Harkon sends you to Garan Marethi with the words “it is time”, which starts The Bloodstone Chalice.
Refuse – stay with the Dawnguard
Since you brought his daughter home, Harkon lets you leave alive – but you are thrown out of the castle. Report back to Isran at Fort Dawnguard, which leads into A New Order.
Consequences
- The side you choose locks the rest of the main questline into the Dawnguard version or the Volkihar Clan version.
- Finishing “Bloodline” ends the random night-time vampire attacks on the hold capitals.
- Afterwards you may run into roaming vampires (if you refused) or Dawnguard patrols (if you accepted) in the wild.
- If you lead Serana to Fort Dawnguard first, she refuses to go inside and waits outside.
Known bugs
On PC the castle gate sometimes refuses to open, and Harkon may fail to transform or offer the choice – reloading or re-entering the castle are the usual fixes.
