Dawnguard!

This is an excerpt from my new and better coverage site: vehq.net - The place where what you wanna know more about, is what we write about.

Oh. My. God.

I am literally gasping for air, as awe and joy rush through my head like fish in Darkwater River, whilst I sit; sit here and watch the trailer for the first pack of Skyrim DLC: Dawguard. Something that we’ll get more info on next week, at E3 and will be covered here on the site under ‘Coverage –> E3 2012′ at the top panel, but enough about that!

You wanna watch the trailer, and you know what? Here IT IS! (I’ve analysed it; read below for details)

I’ve taken the liberty to analyse a bit; indulge me, if you will. (excuse my crying – it’s just that it’s so awesome!)

Okay, first of all there’s this unknown fortress out in the cold, which I imagine is kind of common in Skyrim. Inside we find this weird guy, which we’ll now refer to as The Lord of the Fortress, until we’ll get some more info on him. Obviously he’s a big deal, as he narrates the entire thing and invites you to become “one of them.” He begins by mentioning that you found the fortress (fair enough,) and that you’ve returned his daughter, which is all very well.

The Lord and his... Daughter?

The Fortress

"The Lord"

Well, as said, he invites you to become “one of them,” which raises the question: what does he mean by that?
It’s shrouded in mystery still, but we do see a transformation, which looks like some sort of Über-Vampire, although it is hard to say, as we only see our hero from the back. It does seem like we’ll be able to float or fly, however.

We do see our someone “feast on the souls of the living,” which supports the Vampire theory. Evidently we’ll also be able to feast on the souls of the dead as well, as narrated by The Lord. We also get some shots from what seems to be a sort of “Underworld,” but we’ll get to that later.

The player tansformation

A Vampire Lord? It seems that it can use a "Force Choke" like ability. Might this be our transformation from the front?

I toy with the thought that the above pictures, might be of the same creature; ergo our transformation. It’s a little hard to tell, but they have the same wings and look a lot alike. Don’t you think?

Anyway, The Lord clearly has an agenda. He explains that he wants to get some Elder Scrolls and end the “tyranny of the sun,” showing of a darkening of it, seen from Whiterun, revealing that it’ll effect the entire land of Skyrim, not just new playable areas. Again, it seems to be vampires, since they can’t survive in sunlight. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Yes, yes it does.

The Lord does reveal one last thing, though: he is not part of Dawnguard, for which the DLC is named. He asks in the trailer: “Or are you with them? The Dawnguard!” We then see some shots of a Bastion full of warriors. So what are the Dawnguard? Seems to me as if they are guarding the dawn – making sure it’ll come – by stopping The Lord. Now, I think you may haven’t realized this, because you’ve been busy reading, but THAT MEANS… OPPOSING FACTIONS! We’ll probably be able to choose a side: Dawnguard or Vampire.

The Darkening of The Sun

Now we’ve had a look at the plot, lets look at the new areas.  It is unclear where exactly the Fortress and the Dawnguard Bastion is located, but it looks like Skyrim – a lot! However, we do gain entrance to what looks like an “Underworld” of sorts. It has a very shady atmosphere and looks fairly big. The big thing-a-ma-bob the Lord shows us, might be the entrance – so maybe it is only available if you’re playing Vampire.

Underworld Entrance?

The Underworld

The Dawnguard Bastion

New monsters? Apart from the Vampire Lord we will supposedly be able to turn into, the trailer shows two new monsters. I’m not gonna pretend that I know there official names, but to me it looks like a Yeti and a Gargoyle. What’s cool is that the “Gargoyle” breaks out of a wall – ready to get scared? Also, we’ll evidently be able to get a sort of Spectral/Underworld/Soul horse to ride, which is at least as cool as Shadowmere.

Gargoyle

Yeti

Awesome horse

Finally it seems like we’re gonna get Crossbows (along with new weapon materials,) presumably a Dawnguard weapon, as it is the classic weapon of choice for vampire hunters. The vampires look to have some new abilities, since one of them transforms into a lot of bats at some point during the trailer. Another interesting thing is the display of a dragon flying into a lake (stupid?) which I presume means one of two things: Dragons has a part in the plot or that they get new behaviors, perhaps making fighting them more spectacular.

Enjoy the final pictures below; you can click them for large versions. Feel free to leave a comment, telling us what YOU would like to see in Dawnguard, or if YOU may have spotted something we missed.

McBraas Out!

Vampire turning into bats + New material weapon

Diving Dragon

Crossbows

Elder Scroll

Dovahkiin