Vampire Lord Appearance Musings

[Nintendude1236]

So, the vampire lord transformation seems to be a point of division for Skyrim fans it seems. Many view the transformation as..."unattractive" to say the least, and yet I haven't really seen much talk of how or why.

 

Personally, I think it's not to hard to grasp what Bethesda was trying for with vampire lords; a being of terrifying form and power, an unholy bipedal fusion of bat and human/khajit/elf/argonian, representing vampires at their darkest, most dangerous and frightening. A "creature of the night" (of a different variety). Bearing that in mind, I think the basic concept and design they concocted is good. Yet, I still agree with the sentiment that there is something not quite right about the final product. But what?

 

Hard to put my finger on it exactly, but after a bit of thought, I think I may have identified some areas of improvement and fault (or maybe not, hence the title). Here are my thoughts, keep in mind I am neither a modeller, artist or character designer:

 

Wings: This one is perhaps the most obvious. Having full fledged wings would have looked much more menacing and imposing, and would actually justify being able to levitate in spell mode.

 

Muscle: I personally cannot help but feel vampire lords look a bit sickly and skinny. While I don't think they need to be quite as large as in the "bodybuilder" mod for vampire lords, I think a bit more muscle mass may make them a bit more powerful.

 

Skin: Traditionally, vampires appear pale. However, for vampire lords, I wonder if perhaps a darker skin tone would look more natural, make them appear somewhat demonic.

 

Face: This may be the area of biggest issue, so lets take a more in depth look.

 

Mouth: What's a vampire without fangs? The vampire lord bears quite a set of fangs, yet I think they could afford to be more prominent. Perhaps if they were larger, or if they were less obscured by the lips, even if it meant making them appear a bit feral or skeletal when baring them. Think of the helm of the Drakul armour, by ZeroFrost.

 

Eyes: The black eyes aren't too bad, but I wonder how they would look if they glowed red like normal vampires traditionally do. Perhaps they could be less sunken, also.

 

Nose: Biggest problem on face. too large, odd shape. How to fix, not quite sure. But something needs to change there.

 

Ears and Cheeks: The ears could afford to be a bit narrower and shorter, maybe more upward pointing if that change makes them seem to plain elven. Can probably do without the curl at the tip. As for the cheeks, they seem very sunken leading to the ears. Perhaps a bit more raised would make them seem a bit more natural.

 

In essence, with the face I suppose I'm suggesting to move away from bat, and more towards molag bal, as we see in his statues and in ESO. What do you lot think? If someone were to take these suggestions and make a new model based off of them, would it look better? Am I missing the mark here? How do you think the vampire lord could look better?