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About this mod
This is a realism† mod, consisting of edits to Serana's appearance and voice which offer a custom interpretation of a vampire that has been imprisoned in a tomb for thousands of years.
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Serana - The Harsh Reality
I feel that any creature that crawls out of a coffin after 2000 years is not going to look like someone in their late teens, no matter who it is, or how magical their backstory might be. I made this mod because seeing her pop out of the coffin the way she does was jarring, and broke immersion for me every single time. Making this mod helped with that, and maybe it can provide you with an opportunity to encounter an ancient, starving vampire in a way that is (imo) a little more believable.This mod is based on the idea that over the centuries, Serana's skin grew withered and drawn, and her clothing faded, becoming darkly-mottled and worm-eaten. Her voice turned into something that is now deep and hollow, and somewhat demonic, which is meant to better portray the idea that she is insatiably parched after many centuries of physical hunger and slow regression.
Serana could regain her former beauty, but in my estimation, that should take years of feeding and pampering, and possibly a few skin grafts. This terrible condition should not make her any less likeable, in fact I think the Dragonborn now actually has a good reason to disobey the rules of the Dawnguard; after seeing how pitiful she really is, and learning what her family did to her, anyone might feel compelled to at least listen to her story, and consider helping the poor thing.
Note: there may be small utterances like 'huh?' which occur in Serana's original vocal tone - these voice tracks come from a different sound archive that I haven't been able to access, so you may hear occasional words in her vanilla voice.
How to use:
If you're going to use Serana's True Visage, toggle off any other Serana appearance mods you may have, as they will likely conflict with this one. Ensure that this mod is at the very bottom of your load order, or as close to the bottom as possible, as there are many mods that affect this npc in various ways.
Ending the suffering:
If at some point you think she has had enough time consuming the blood of innocents, and should have regenerated her former appearance, simply put your characters to bed and close the game. Toggle this mod off in your mod manager, and activate whatever Serana enhancement mods you wish; when you resume your game, you'll awaken to the beautiful Serana you expect her to be.
† The term 'realism' refers to Serana's existence within the context of the fictional world of The Elder Scrolls. This mod does not presume or suggest that Serana is a real person, or that vampires or Tamriel actually exist.
Change Log:
Version 1.0 - original uploads for SE and LE, with voice as an optional file (2022)
Version 1.1, 1,2 patches and fixes
Version 1.3 - Resources for Option 2 rebuilt to fix a vertex count issue that was causing a crash and npc replacement. Fully customized versions of Serana re-released (with and without voice). Abandoned the texture-only version.
Version 1.4 - Removed from Nexus and posted exclusively on ModDB (2023).
Version 1.5 - Re-uploaded to Nexus with updates to Serana's face preset (2025).
PCGamer: Skyrim realism mod fixes your vampire girlfriend, giving her a voice and look more suited to someone who just got out of a coffin after 2,000 years