Cyrodiil is a dangerous place in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and disease can be just as much of a threat as bandits or Daedra. Most diseases are just minor afflictions that sap your stats or cause small debuffs, but the Porphyric Hemophilia is a condition that can ruin your day, literally, because it turns you into a vampire.
Disclaimer
This guide is valid for both Oblivion and Oblivion Remastered. Although the list of Oblivion Remastered changes is actually pretty impressive, it doesn't change the original quests.
If you don't rid yourself of Porphyric Hemophilia quickly enough, you'll be stuck looking for the cure for vampirism. Being a vampire in Oblivion sounds cool on paper (and it does come with some unique benefits), but vampirism is a prison you won't want to wind up in by accident.
How to cure vampirism
If you want to rid yourself of vampirism, then there's a quest that can cure you. The vampire cure is irreversible, though, so you can't become a vampire again after you complete it.
Vampire cure quest
To cure vampirism in Oblivion, you need to travel to the Arcane University in the Imperial City and accept the "Vampire Cure" quest from Raminus Polus. Once you've become a vampire, the "Cure Vampirism" dialogue option will appear when talking to healers and other relevant NPCs. They'll all point you to Raminus Polus, kicking off the quest.
Polus doesn't know much, it turns out, so he sends you to see Janus Hassildor of Skingrad. Hassildor's wife is sick (with vampirism, shocker) and there's a Cure Vampirism potion in it for you if you agree to help him heal her.
You have to visit a witch called Melisande at Drakelowe to procure the potion. Melisande asks you to collect five empty Grand Soul Gems to begin the potion brewing process. Filled soul gems don't count, so you'll need to hunt down the rarer empty ones.
Finding empty grand soul gems
You can buy Grand Soul Gems from the Mystic Emporium in the Imperial City Market District. Mages Guild halls in all major settlements have Soul Gems for sale as well. The Mages Guild hall in Chorrol has a bunch of them locked in display cases, so you can "borrow" as many as you need as long as you can pick the locks. The Skeleton Key comes in handy here if you've got it.
Also, some three empty Grand Soul Gems spawn in nearby dungeons after accepting Melisande's quest. You can find them in Crayfish Cave south of Cheydinhal, the Nornal ruins southwest of Cheydinhal, and the Squandered Mine south of Cheydinhal. If you'd really rather not deal with all that dungeon crawling, then you can also just use the Oblivion console command "player.additem 000382DF 5" to add five empty gems directly to your inventory.
The vampire cure potion
After you deliver the Soul Gems to Melisande, she asks you to gather a long list of other ingredients for the potion.
- Bloodgrass
- Garlic
- Nightshade
- Blood of an Argonian
- Ashes of a Powerful Vampire
The Bloodgrass, Garlic, and Nightshade are easy enough to find, but the Blood of an Argonian and Ashes of a Powerful Vampire are understandably tricky to come by.
You can use the Enchanted Dagger Melisande gives you to collect the Blood of an Argonian, but you have to find a willing donor first. There are Argonian challengers in the third round of the arena if you haven't done that questline yet, and Argonians sometimes show up in random bandit groups. Veyond Cave is filled with hostile Argonian bandits, too, and that's the best bet for most players. It's just a short walk north of Bravil.
As for the Ashes of a Powerful Vampire, you have to track down the vampire Hindaril in Redwater Slough. When you kill him, he'll drop Ashes of Hindaril instead of the usual Vampire Dust.
Once you deliver everything to Melisande, wait 24 hours and the potions will be ready. You'll get a normal Cure Vampirism potion that you can drink to cure yourself, and you'll also get a "Vampirism Cure Potion" that is specifically for Hassildor's wife. To complete the quest, just return the second potion to Hassildor for a reward.
How to become a vampire in Oblivion
Porphyric Hemophilia is a disease in Oblivion that turns you into a vampire if you aren't cured in time. Any time a vampire attacks you, they have a chance to infect you with Porphyric Hemophilia, beginning your eventual transformation.
You'll usually find vampires in caves hidden away from the general public but there are a few potential encounters with vampires during the opening hours of Oblivion after exiting the Imperial Prison Sewer. The disease progresses slowly at first, so it may take several hours for you to realize that you've been turned and need to seek out that vampire cure.
If you want to become a vampire in Oblivion, all you have to do is find an existing vampire and let them hit you a few times. All melee attacks from a vampire have a chance to inflict the Porphyric Hemophilia disease, so it's pretty easy to start your vampiric transformation if you want to go down that path. Porphyric Hemophilia transforms you into a vampire once you sleep after three in-game days.
Darkness Eternal
There are also a few quests that reward you with vampirism in Oblivion. Completing all of the Dark Brotherhood quests offered by Vicente Valtieri, for example, unlocks a new minor quest called Darkness Eternal that involves Valtieri turning you into a vampire.
Just speak to him after completing his final Dark Brotherhood quest "The Assassinated Man" and select the conversation topic "Dark Gift." Then, sleep in a bed so Valtieri can do his thing and infect you with Porphyric Hemophilia.
Mehrunes' Razor
The Mehrunes' Razor DLC quest included in Game of the Year Edition of Oblivion also has an easy way to become a vampire. At the end of the quest "Uncovering Mehrunes' Razor," consume the Beating Heart from Msirae Faythung. This will infect you with both Porphyric Hemophilia and Cannibal's Prion.
If you wait three in-game days for the vampiric transformation to complete, you can use the Cure Disease spell—or certain potions and foods—to rid yourself of cannibalistic tendencies while retaining your vampiric form. Don't try to cure yourself before becoming a vampire, though, since Porphyric Hemophilia can be removed like other diseases.
Vampirism benefits and drawbacks
Becoming a vampire drastically changes the game, and there are several pros and cons to vampirism in Oblivion.
Feeding and drinking blood
Once you become a vampire, you will gain a new active effect in your journal called "Vampirism." This effect measures the severity of your condition. It increases over time, but you can reduce it by feeding on NPCs and drinking their blood. No matter how often you feed, you cannot reduce the vampirism effect below 25.
Every 24 in-game hours spent without feeding will increase the vampirism meter by 25. The higher your vampire meter increases, the more intense the buffs and debuffs associated with the condition become. You won't be attacked on sight like in other Elder Scrolls games though, no matter how vamped-up you get. You can still go about your daily life as a vampire in Cyrodiil as long as you can put up with the other downsides.
Vampirism debuffs
The most debilitating effect of vampirism in Oblivion is sun damage. Being outside during the day will continually reduce your HP when your vampirism value is 50 or higher. So going just one day without feeding makes you vulnerable to sun damage. Damage increases as the sun's light gets harsher (peaking around midday), and fast travel and waiting are completely disabled when you're exposed to sunlight. All vampires also have a weakness to fire that worsens as your condition grows from 25 to 100.
Your character's appearance also changes as you go longer without feeding. Your character will visibly age, their eyes will become red, and their skin will look sickly. Some NPCs may even refuse to speak to you if your vampirism has progressed too far.
You need to feed regularly to counteract these debuffs. Feeding reduces your vampirism condition back to 25, but there are a bunch of buffs for players who are able to manage the weaknesses of carrying around a higher vamp score.
Vampirism buffs
As your vampirism condition progresses from 25 to 100, you'll get buffs to attributes, gain new abilities, and more. These are the attributes and skills that will improve as you avoid feeding.
- Attributes
- Strength
- Willpower
- Speed
- Skills
- Acrobatics
- Athletics
- Destruction
- Hand to Hand
- Illusion
- Mysticism
- Sneak
You will gain +5 points to each of these attributes and skills each day that you go without feeding, capped +20 after four consecutive days without drinking any blood. Your resistance to normal weapons also increases by 5% each day with a maximum resistance of 20%.
All vampires have a natural immunity to disease and paralysis. Plus, they get these abilities as their condition progresses.
Time Without Feeding | Ability | Effect |
|---|---|---|
0-24 Hours | Hunter's Sight | Night Eye for 30 seconds on self Detect Life within 100 feet for 30 seconds on self Costs 5 Magicka |
24-48 Hours | Vampire's Seduction | Charm 50 points for 20 seconds on touch Can be used once per day |
48-72 Hours | Reign of Terror | Silence within 20 feet for 60 seconds Demoralize enemies up to level six for 60 seconds on touch Can be used once per day |
72+ Hours | Embrace of Shadows | Night Eye for 90 seconds on self Invisibility for 180 seconds on self Can be used once per day |
Remember that feeding on NPCs will reduce your vampire meter down to the base level of 25 and remove most of these buffs. Being a vampire is a balancing act, so starve yourself of blood strategically.
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