Serana - The Harsh Reality mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Overview:

This is a "realism"* and Lore mod. It is a simple edit to Serana's appearance which is intended to portray a vampire that has been imprisoned for as long as she has. Please note that the term 'realism' refers to Serana's experiences within the context of the fictional world of The Elder Scrolls. It should not be presumed that this mod assumes that Serana is a real person, or that vampires or Tamriel actually exist.

Any creature that crawls out of a coffin after 2000 years is not going to look like a high school girl, no matter who or what it is. I made this mod because seeing her pop out of the coffin like that just completely, utterly breaks immersion for me every single time. Hopefully this mod can help others cope with this jarring event, and give them an opportunity to encounter a starving vampire in a more 'believable' way.

Serana 'might' regain her former beauty, but in my estimation, it should take several decades of feeding and pampering, and possibly a few skin grafts.

This 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 what her family did to her - truly - anyone might feel compelled to at least listen to her story, and consider helping the poor thing.

Details:

Visual - includes custom texture sets for Serana's skin, making her look much more withered and drawn. Her default outfit is also faded, darkly-mottled, and worm-eaten. Racemenu is not required, this is a very simple appearance edit that works in Vanilla.

Audio - contains Serana's True Voice - this is a conversion of Serana's voice in the Dawnguard quest dialog, making it sound deep and hollow, and somewhat demonic. I feel this helps to better portray the idea that she experienced many centuries of physical hunger and slow regression.

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.

Installation:

*Install with Mod Organizer 2 or Vortex
**Move to the bottom of your load order to prevent a common Bethesda texture bug