The reason why Dawnguard changes the eyes of ALL vampires to glow yellow like that is because the vampires' eyes aren't actually glowing yellow. Dawnguard establishes that glow as the way a Dragonborn (and presumably also a dragon) can recognise vampirism, whatever bloodline it comes from. That's why NPCs don't comment on the glowing eyes - they don't see them. So yes, Martin Septim is an absolute bro because he gives zero shits if the Champion of Cyrodil is an undead bloodsucker.
That’s not real lore, that’s just a theory and likely not intended by Bethesda because it’s quite a stretch. In reality, the dissonance is just because pre-Dawnguard vampires were written with the pre-Dawnguard designs in mind, and Bethesda is often a bit sloppy.
@@Mr-tu4cj To be fair every "lore" that is not shown in game is "not real lore" since there is no actual source for it. Most of the written lore changes from game to game, so it's not really fool's proof. That's an aspect that is most likely unintended but that I really love because it kinda mirrors real life's word of mouth, and I think it works really really well for TES worldbuilding, that way every theory might be true.
I like this and it makes sense as to why nobody seems to notice or care there are a few people with blazing fireballs for eyes or why it was never there in oblivion.
I found that she was a vampire before the dawnguard dlc by using the detect life spell to level up alteration and noticed that she's the only one in the blue palace the spell didn't make glow.
There’s plenty that gives away Sybille’s nature, but I love seeing players who discovered this both before and after her eyes were changed by the DLC. I’m sure those who knew before it was released have very fond memories of making this discovery without it being visually apparent at first
Like Hert and Hern, Sybil is one of the more interesting vampire characters in TES for how successfully she’s integrated herself into mortal life. Not only does she interact with them, but she occupies a key position in the court of the (de facto) High Queen in the capital of the province. And we certainly see she has a ruthless, terror filled reputation… but she also doesn’t seem to be a monster. Unlike other vampires who feast on whoever they can, Sybil seems to keep herself to a strict diet of prisoners, and while we can debate the moral ramifications of whether tax evasion should earn you death by vampire, it is an interesting moral principle she commits to nevertheless. Moreover, she isn’t anywhere near as detached as you’d expect, as she does sound genuinely upset over Torygg’s death given she knew him since he was a boy. It could be a clever ruse but why bother? She’s clearly powerful enough to not need a facade if she wanted to, so I’m inclined to think her grief is genuine. On the other hand, she does use her power over Elisif to direct attention away from Potema’s resurrection. Is that her trying to serve her true Queen or did she simply make a mistake in underestimating what the villager was reporting? Since she reeks so strongly of cut content, I expect we’ll never know but she is a fascinating character because of what her story could be if she was given the opportunity to flesh it out properly.
Agreed, although even the 'tax evasion earning death by vampire' part if very much unconfirmed. There is no evidence of her killing just any criminal in jail, so for all we know she only feeds from the worst ones (which given how many bandits and bad guys there are in Skyrim plus the civil war going on should be easy to get her hands on) or she only drinks a little from minor criminals if there's not more serious baddies around, and does drink serious criminals dry. In which case, she's all good in my book. I mean, I'm not any better and I even soul trap bandits to make cool enchanted items, lol. XD
@@KopperNeomansure, but given the attitude of the head writer it might just be cut because it would require some effort for the player to engage with and he believes they wouldn't bother.
I mean, the IRS are probably vampires with how much they drain people’s paychecks and wallets, so what’s to say that tax evasion doesn’t lead to that in real life?
After Sybille gives you the vampire cave quest and you come back she’s like “filthy creatures aren’t they?” And I’m always like, GIRL YOURE ONE TO TALK
There's a really interesting internal racism amongst vampires in Tamriel. In Oblivion, you get a quest from Janus Hassildor, the count of Skingrad, to massacre a clan of feral vampires. By this point, you already know he's a vampire. He explains that he despises the ones who have given in to their hunger. Sybille has a similar attitude. Civilized vampires hate the feral ones.
There's a really interesting internal racism amongst vampires in Tamriel. In Oblivion, you get a quest from Janus Hassildor, the count of Skingrad, to massacre a clan of feral vampires. By this point, you already know he's a vampire. He explains that he despises the ones who have given in to their hunger. Sybille has a similar attitude. Civilized vampires hate the feral ones.
The original plan for the Wolf Queen quest involved Sybille telling the player that Potema had been resurrected and asking them to deal with it but the way it worked with her and Falk lead to a... very intertwined potential quest order that would break the game if you didn't do it the way the engine wanted you to. I'm pretty sure Sybille sleeping after the quest is a bug because she'll wake up and sell you things if you talk to her.
Where’s the proof of this? Is it in the game files that were datamined or do you have insider knowledge, and if so, where’s the proof of that? Sorry if your name is known by most fans or something. I don’t know it, so I’m just asking. I’m trying to gauge the validity of this info. No offense intended.
I personally think Sybil was a highly arrogant and independent mage who became a similarly arrogant and territorial vampire. Her fondness for the previous rulers and relatively cavalier feeding habits lead me to believe she views Solitude as her domain. She can tolerate itinerant vampires because they don’t threaten this status quo. Court intrigue and mean-girl behavior likely satisfy any urges that might otherwise be channeled into collecting thralls and forming her own vampiric clan.
I love this theory! I think you're right. Reminds me of Lief Helgerson. (Found in The Iron Druid Chronicles, by Kevin Hearne - I highly recommend the books!)
I’m so glad you moved on to Skyrim from rdr2 I really didn’t want this channel to slowly die off with no new rdr Content but Skyrim seems to be thriving
Also, I would like to say that I've been replaying Skyrim and thanks to your videos, I recognized that this lady might be a vampire. I wondered if you'd do a video like this one so you have no idea how much I'm enjoying this. Thank you!
Fun fact: the Dawnguard DLC actually broke her unique face design and gave her a “default face.” That’s why even aside from the glowing eyes and vampire features her face looks completely different when playing with Dawnguard/on SE.
As much as I liked them, I personally think the Potema quests were a bit of a waste in Skyrim. Honestly with her backstory, and her connection to the Septim line, she could've been a great main antagonist for a game, or at least a DLC. More interesting than Alduin at least.
19:00 it's a common theme with vampires in writing for older ones to kill off young or sloppy vampires that essentially raise people's fears. It's better when no one thinks vampires are around.
i really do like the idea that she is a morally grey protector of solitude, it seems in line with her characterization as someone who does things like feeding in a slightly more ethical way
It's not really ethical because unless they was meant for the chopping block she's still stealing someone's life. In a very brutal way I must add. At least skyrim has the buffest dude in town chop off heads.
Sybille is one of my favorite npcs for all the reasons discussed here. There's so much mystery about her motives, she could be doing just about anything directly under the nose of the court. I love that for her
I wouldn't say under the nose, but mabye most of them think she is doing magic research by torturing prisoners. During it some of the worst criminals die from it so the court looks the other way.
Her having the DB clear out vampire dens is pretty smart: She got a good thing going in Solitude and doesn't need a bunch of punks moving into the neighbourhood drawing the attention of the authorities, the Dawn Guard and other hunters. Also she can blame all bloodless corpses that might wash up on those guys even they were her midnight snacks... It's like the mob taking care of the gang problem because those petty criminals are interfering with the organised crime.
In Oblivion there was a Vampire count (Janus Hassildor) and he says something along the lines of: A Powerful vampire who sets themselves up in a position of power in human society attracts the dregs of vampire society to him and they periodically have to be cleared out. I think that's one read on the cleanse the vampire lair quest. My second, wilder theory about the Potema stuff is that the death of Torygg has effectively severed Stentor's connection and motivation to humanity. She's maintained her humanity for however long it is since she was infected and slowly seen everyone she knew from her human life slowly age and die around her and was primarily motivated by her loyalty to the old High king Istlod's legacy and having raised Torygg from birth, then about a week before the in game events of Skyrim Torygg is murdered. I think what we're seeing is Stentor rejecting the remnants of her humanity and embracing a fully vampyric nature in real time.
Way back before the release of Dawnguard. One of the very first mods I ever downloaded was so I could marry Sybille and on another play through Alva. Long before Serana, Sybille along with Alva were the original Hot Vampires.
It was always my impression that Sybille was secretively on Potema's side. You mentioned that she seemed sympathetic towards Torygg and the Empire, even protective of them. If you ask the Solitude priest about Potema, he mentions that "it's ironic that if she'd be brought back, she would be the only Septim alive and the heir to the imperial throne". My theory is that Sybille may have known Potema personally (I mean who knows how old she really is) and saw her as the ultimate solution to end the Civil War and restore the Empire to its former glory at the same time. A brutally pragmatic witch-queen who she respected for her power.
Yeah, I didn't know about the "vampire generals" line before, so that solidified any doubt I had and completed the theory for me. She is a holdout that survived the purge against Potema's forces and re-integrated herself into Solitude for Potema's return. Now that you stopped Potema permanently while Stentor couldn't do anything about it lest she break her cover, she is silently seething over the wasted 500 years plan that would have returned the Septim Dynasty. She now has to think of what to do next going forward after she sleeps on it. Once she wakes up from her small (in relative vampire time) nap after you die of old age, taking revenge is gonna be pointless, so she'll just go on her way.
@@tbush6657 totally agree with this, it would be interesting to note who the mages are that are trying to resurrect Potema. If Sybille is part of this plan, she must be connected with them.
@@LennonStephens They seemed under the impression that they would enslave Potema to their will, so either Sybille deceived the gullible mages into resurrecting her or she just waited until some stupid mages came around with the bright idea of poking the sleeping bear and made sure they wouldn't be interfered with (within reason of not breaking cover)
I like to think she initially set herself up in Solitude to gain a hold on the influence of the royal court for her own power and security, but over time through the day to day became invested in the politics of Skyrim and the Empire she inadvertently ended up spending so much time on, and grew sentimentally attached to the royal family of Skyrim, raising being something of a pseudo aunt to Torygg, and perhaps his father. I really with the Potemma quest expanded on Sybille's involvement. Perhaps she did initially intend to serve Potemma, but over the course of her time in Solitude has grown something of a conscience, and you'd be able to either talk her out of it, anger her enough to keep pursuing it, or encourage her to pursue it, also hoping to ingratiate yourself with the Wolf-Queen.
I share your opinion, I think she is genuinelly loyal to Solitude and the royal family ruling there. Her position in the court provides huge advantages to survive and flourish like a civilized vampire in the harsh lands of Skyrim, and over the years she perfectly could learn to live more attached to the place and the people around. I always wandered what she thought about Lord Harkon and his powerful vampire clan, specially considering how close of Solitude is Castle Volkihar. Maybe she was expelled from there and seek shelter masquerading herself behind Solitude walls. That would explain many things about her demeanour and allegiances.
there's a mod i use called Dark Destiny that ties into Sybilles little quest she sends you on. The idea is that she sends you to that cave to die, but the Master Vampire there ends up being the same one that turned MOVARTH PIQUINE in Morthal into a vamp some 200 years earlier. And it pairs well with another called Unmasking Sybille, where you can expose her to the court or keep her secret.
I wonder what might happen if you had the choice of giving Potema's skull to Stirr or giving it to Stentor. Possible idea for a mod like Wormstooth. Plus if you are a Vokihar Vampire and go to her and she asks we should have a drink together sometime, one of your responses is do you take your blood straight up or on ice. She says: no how could you possibly know that? There are several dialog changes with her when you yourself are a vampire.
I gotta say I love these investigative lore videos , not just for viewing pleasure but nothing gets me through chores and life itself like your vids so playing on the loud speaker .
I do remember staring at her for quite awhile when I first met her. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but vampires used to be a LOT less obvious. I remember hearing dialogue about her but completely ignoring it. I think I must have been turning the quest in about vampires when I was realized she was different. THEN I listened to the other NPC’s dialogue about her and concluded, that she was indeed, a vegan. Edit: did not realize Mr. Fizhy addresses this in his video. Always thorough.
Sybille might genuinely have been unaware. It was established in Oblivion that Necromantic magic can mess with wards, rituals and scrying, provided there is enough death and magic. Wolfskull would likely be a blindspot for any mage regardless of power.
As far as I know, there’s no real reason to suspect this other than it’s a possibility… but I think her experiments are on the volunteers from the dungeon and she isn’t simply feeding on them. (That’s the slightly more obvious part of my hunch) What is she trying to figure out through her experiments, though? Simple: A way for vampires to not need to feed/suffer from the hunger so much. Or, perhaps, how much blood you can drain while the victim survives and how often. Iirc, what we know from real life blood donation rules is you can basically donate 1 pint or roughly 1/8th of your blood every 8-16 weeks. (depending on the type of donation) Or basically in Skyrim/vampire terms, 1/8th every ~60 days. (I’m pretty sure we can actually survive losing closer to 1/4th but like, we’ll be unconscious and it’s way more risky. Victims who only lose ~1/8th would basically feel lightheaded for a few hours assuming they eat and drink a bit) She wants vampires to be more civilized, and arguably less feared as a result… so it seems like she could and likely would do this kind of experiment on her “volunteers” while also being able to feed. Only thing is, idk how much a vampire needs to maintain normal function, properly stave off the hunger (which is constant, right? But clearly can be significantly reduced based on how much blood one consumed and how recently), etc. So the biggest potential problem with my hunch here is: how many “volunteers” does she have at any given time? She’d likely need several to keep them all (or most) alive for the duration of the experiments. Although, she may be more likely to drain too much and back off with each attempt, until finding the correct amount, rather than starting at draining like a tablespoon and ramping up until she goes too far… so maybe she wouldn’t have all that many at once, towards the start of her experiments. Only as she started approaching those much smaller amounts, and needed to supplement herself with more volunteers as a result. (For example, if she needs 4 pints to stave off the hunger properly, she’d basically need 4 volunteers at a time. But she may start by draining a victim half-dry, noticing they died, and then trying 25% with 2 volunteers at once. Which again, I think we could survive but it’s too risky. So then she’d basically half that again, and double the volunteers again, and get the right amount. But then she’d need to see how often she could do that. And she may need other “volunteers” to drain while waiting, since she may need to feed more than once every ~60 days?)
It appears that TES vampires are quite territorial. Remember Janus Hassildor sending the MC to clear out vampire hideout in the bloodcrust cave. He mentions that those vampires are tresspassing on his turf.
I like to think the vampirism appearance update from Dawnguard is just another ability of the dragonborn, and that normal men, mer, and beaatfolk can't tell
That'd make sense. Perhaps only those whose souls have been touched by the gods can immediately tell. This would also explain why Falion knows that the player is a vampire if you ask him about them.
Been loving these videos, the mix of gameplay and lore is really well done. It's great to get this nostalgic feel from quests that I've done and get more details that I missed on my many playthroughs
I like to believe she once served the wolf queen as a commander or advisor but once the wolf queen was killed she chose to remain in the palace or fled to another provence until enough time had passed for her to return and she no longer follows the orders of the wolf queen and that her going to sleep is truly a bug
Perhaps the Eye of Magnus is interfering in Sybille's scrying. Even after the Psijic Order had removed it there could still be residual magic causing minor havoc. eta: and then I finished the video
Before Dawnguard, the eyes were not so glaringly noticeable, nor was there such a strong emphasis on everything vampire. So the first playthroughs I never even noticed she was a vampire up until I was leveling my alteration between quest locations. Constantly casting "Detect Life" until I noticed she was not effected.
My personal head-canon is that only the Dragonborn and vampires are able to see the glowing eyes of the vampires from the Dawnguard DLC. I'm not sure why it applies to the Dragonborn, but maybe it's due to the whole magic soul thing. The upshot is that, if everyone else sees what you see, it makes no sense that Sybille Stentor and other civilized vampires can hide in plain sight. It also explains why civilized vampires like Sybille and even Janus Hassildor in Oblivion hate feral vampires so much. Those creatures break the masquerade and threaten everyone.
I play the game with Bruma and Legacy in and there is a really nice book about the vampires of Cyrodiil . I usually don´t read the books but i have put my character in camp and read it all .
Great content. Even before the Dawnguard DLC, Sybile was identified as non living by using the spell, detect life...I may have misquoted the spell, it's been a few years.
I thouroughly enjoyed this video, it's the first of yours I've come across but the production quality is amazing. You certainly have the voice for this kind of content & you enthusiasm shines through like the icing on a cake. Not to make my comment about myself but you reminded me why I started my own channel, to cover topics I'm passionate about and find interesting. I hope that one day I can reach a level of quality that you convey in your videos through means of thorough research & also good use of editing. I will definitely be watching more of your content, it's inspiring, please keep it up!
I never got the dawnguard or Dragonborn dlc until a few years ago but I’ve been playing since 2011. I realized Sabine was a wizard on like my 3rd playthrough when I was 13 in like 2012 thanks to me actually being so bored of slaying monsters I decided to actually *shock horror* engage in dialogue with people. I was, shocked to realize this snooty court wizard was a vampire! Then again, that’s back when vampires were harder to spot before the DLC hahah, I felt like a detective. Of course, at 25 now I see how simple it was to figure out but to a 12-13 year old it really was cool. It opened up my mind to what storytelling *could* be. Like, here’s a vampire in the game world. A “monster” but, no quest to slay her. No reason to kill her. She doesn’t even harm innocent people, she only feeds on convicted criminals. Made me question the concept of what makes a monster, a monster.
Sybille has always been a wonder. I think she has a disdain for vampires that hide in caves and skulk about in the shadows. She helped the fellow not because she cared, but he was open about his vampirism and came for help from her. If she is cahoots with Potema then it would stand to reason her usefulness has expired and off she goes to the long sleep, making it easier to kill he, take her permanently out of the picture and allow the next one in line o become court wizard. She is an enigma to be certain .Powerful? Yes, Caring about her city? yes. Her own agenda unrevealed? Certainly. She is great story in itself. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and perhaps the thoughts of Bethesda, although buried deep in intrigue
The thing I find suspicious that her sleeping permanently is a bug, is that there is no real connection from the quest to her. I know the game has some issues, but there is such a small chance in my opinion, that her sleeping forever after potema is defeated is accidental.
Saw the wolf queen book and expexted some kind of furry mononoke queen and instead got an old pile of bones My disappointment is unmeasurable and my day is ruined
As a vampire who has lived at Proudspire Manor since early 2012, I'm highly offended by the torrid, unflattering description of this, "Vampire of Skyrim". I have operated a thriving business in the city called Solitude Smiles which just so happens to be the only traveling dentistry in Skyrim. Thousands have been served. Remember our motto: We'll do your dentalwork for "less than those other guys". 🗡️
Theory: she is one of the few surviving members of House Ravenwatch. In eso it is established they are (or were) a house of vampires that hunt and dispatch evil vampire covens.
Well not competition per se she likely doesn't see them as any kind of direct threat. She just doesn't need the people of Solitude getting into a tizzy about vampires.
@@shadenox8164 Nobody's appalled by feral vampires more than civilised ones. Clan Volkihar do as much vampire hunting in their radiant quests as the Dawnguard do.
If vampire hunters ended up coming to the area to hunt for vamps that were causing trouble it could have put her in danger so it’s in her best interest to prevent other vampires from living in the area
They are not really competition she just does not want the vampire menace to get out of hand and start vampire hunters acting up. One of the vampires in Volkihar also gave a similar quest to kill a master vampire in the borders of Falkreath that's causing a stir.
I don't believe her permanent sleep after the quest completion is a bug, to me it's either as put in the video where she gave up, or something more was planned for her exile maybe even execution. I always thought it was strange that solitude has an executioner and a public execution platform when it only ever gets used the first time you visit.
Dawnguard broke so much cool small subtle plots, tbh. Like, vampires are supposed to be this hidden menace, "the lions among sheep", flawlessly blending in with mortals. Dawnguard pretty much puts a neon sign "LOOK, A VAMPIRE!!!" right on their faces.
Hey man loving your Skyrim content. I don’t remember this part of the game super well, but perhaps you could cover Falkreath and all of its stuff with werewolves that seem to be all over the place there? I only went through that quest maybe once or twice so I don’t remember if there’s much mystery but it seems like a good idea.
I think Sybille is neither of the popular ideas of being either just a court wizard with vampirism or Potema's old general actively in favor of her former ally returning. I think at some point she probably did work with Potema given her place in the exact same court, a clear interest in her being bound getting swept under the rug, and her being scripted to just go to sleep in such an unusual way only if Potema is dead. Scripted events like that don't happen as bugs and have to be deliberately done by someone, as an experienced modder would tell you. This strongly implies she not only had a direct link to Potema in some way but was drawing power from her somehow. If she was and knew destroying Potema permanently would weaken herself, that's a fair enough reason to consider Potema being bound as favorable to what actually happens for Sybille. She also displays clear intentions in wanting at least a stable and peaceful place in Haafingar, and seems to legitimately care about the people there as a total, which Potema... definitely didn't, and is suggested even to have ritually sacrificed some of them. Between everything Sybille does and the exact things she says, and her peculiar and unique connection to Potema in some way we can't fully be sure of, my best guess is that Sybille is over 5 centuries old and originally helped Potema in a way that wasn't widely known but also didn't like the direction it went and would have preferred a ruler who actually tried to help the people. Somewhere along the line, she somehow got linked to Potema in whatever weird way it was, and became weak enough without her to just sleep, something which doesn't have an exact comparison with any other character. She appears to be a formerly misguided person (she said herself she used to be less wise) and thought Potema right initially before it went in a bad direction. She then presumably took action to hide her involvement and stayed in Solitude as the court wizard, with a loosely-kept secrecy around her vampiric nature some common people wouldn't know but she remained in a powerful position to keep influencing the region in favor of regular people as she's shown to do. In short, Sybille makes complete sense if she was Potema's ally at first, regretted it and then carefully did things from there to help Solitude's people in unusual ways such as keeping Vulpin from causing problems in the city. A woman she in her "younger" years did questionable things before getting better and becoming a beneficial advisor to jarls, kings, and queens. She also probably let her status as court wizard be the public answer to her being around so long, because some wizards do just live very long lives and the locals would generally dismiss that as "typical wizard stuff." Side note: Sybille's distinct eyes are intentional; made clear by the fact that most vampires have bat-like faces and certain notable ones got a less overt appearance. Look at the three first Volkihar clan members or Alva in Morthal, and it becomes clear that BGS cared enough to specifically select which vampires got the more monstrous appearance and which remained more normal, although still identifiable.
It's a bit of a reach, but it would be interesting if the original quest had her defending Potema's spirit and you had to kill her; but in the cutting room floor they scrapped that and her going into a permanent sleep was a leftover bug as a result. Would add to the logic behind why the new court wizard makes the point that he knows you had a hand in her death (if the original story had her getting killed in the quest as a traitor to Solitude, then that would be known to the court). Only odd thing I find about her allegience to Potema is her seeming love or care for Torygg and his family. Definitely seemed like she genuinely cared for the High King before he was killed, which is a bit at odds with her intention to bring back someone who would likely massacre all of Solitude.
I really hated the fact that every vampire in Skyrim has had brightly glowing eyes. So, if the player doesn't yet suspect that the NPC is a vampire, let's paint it on their faces so clearly, so there is no mistake.
To be fair, I think she & Alva from Morthal are the only vampire NPCs living in secret among mortals in the whole game, unless there's another one i'm not aware of
This is only true if you have the Dawnguard DLC. If you don't, they're indistinguishable from from regular people. The book Immortal Blood goes into further detail as to why.
I waited until after I killed the Wolf Queen and Sybil powers down and becomes bed ridden to use the console command to kill her. Order restored. The new court mage acknowledges as much if you talk to him afterward.
The reason why Dawnguard changes the eyes of ALL vampires to glow yellow like that is because the vampires' eyes aren't actually glowing yellow. Dawnguard establishes that glow as the way a Dragonborn (and presumably also a dragon) can recognise vampirism, whatever bloodline it comes from. That's why NPCs don't comment on the glowing eyes - they don't see them.
So yes, Martin Septim is an absolute bro because he gives zero shits if the Champion of Cyrodil is an undead bloodsucker.
That’s not real lore, that’s just a theory and likely not intended by Bethesda because it’s quite a stretch. In reality, the dissonance is just because pre-Dawnguard vampires were written with the pre-Dawnguard designs in mind, and Bethesda is often a bit sloppy.
@@Mr-tu4cj To be fair every "lore" that is not shown in game is "not real lore" since there is no actual source for it. Most of the written lore changes from game to game, so it's not really fool's proof. That's an aspect that is most likely unintended but that I really love because it kinda mirrors real life's word of mouth, and I think it works really really well for TES worldbuilding, that way every theory might be true.
I like this and it makes sense as to why nobody seems to notice or care there are a few people with blazing fireballs for eyes or why it was never there in oblivion.
Rumour has it if find yourself in a dungeon the court wizard visits to give you a little kiss on the neck... isn't that hospitable
It's only weird if you get an awkward boner from it. 😢
Just a lil *smooch*
Oh, no! I committed murder! I guess I'll go to the dungeon 🤷♂️
Wait fr?
He's such a sweetie making sure his guests are welcomed
I found that she was a vampire before the dawnguard dlc by using the detect life spell to level up alteration and noticed that she's the only one in the blue palace the spell didn't make glow.
It's not exactly subtle given the eyes lol
@@JoshuaTree-dq8cj the eyes weren't present till the dlc
Thats one of the many beauties of Skyrim for us 👌
I found out by listening to the rumors. They talk about how she sees to prisoners and no one has seen her eat
There’s plenty that gives away Sybille’s nature, but I love seeing players who discovered this both before and after her eyes were changed by the DLC. I’m sure those who knew before it was released have very fond memories of making this discovery without it being visually apparent at first
Like Hert and Hern, Sybil is one of the more interesting vampire characters in TES for how successfully she’s integrated herself into mortal life. Not only does she interact with them, but she occupies a key position in the court of the (de facto) High Queen in the capital of the province. And we certainly see she has a ruthless, terror filled reputation… but she also doesn’t seem to be a monster. Unlike other vampires who feast on whoever they can, Sybil seems to keep herself to a strict diet of prisoners, and while we can debate the moral ramifications of whether tax evasion should earn you death by vampire, it is an interesting moral principle she commits to nevertheless. Moreover, she isn’t anywhere near as detached as you’d expect, as she does sound genuinely upset over Torygg’s death given she knew him since he was a boy. It could be a clever ruse but why bother? She’s clearly powerful enough to not need a facade if she wanted to, so I’m inclined to think her grief is genuine.
On the other hand, she does use her power over Elisif to direct attention away from Potema’s resurrection. Is that her trying to serve her true Queen or did she simply make a mistake in underestimating what the villager was reporting? Since she reeks so strongly of cut content, I expect we’ll never know but she is a fascinating character because of what her story could be if she was given the opportunity to flesh it out properly.
Agreed, although even the 'tax evasion earning death by vampire' part if very much unconfirmed. There is no evidence of her killing just any criminal in jail, so for all we know she only feeds from the worst ones (which given how many bandits and bad guys there are in Skyrim plus the civil war going on should be easy to get her hands on) or she only drinks a little from minor criminals if there's not more serious baddies around, and does drink serious criminals dry.
In which case, she's all good in my book. I mean, I'm not any better and I even soul trap bandits to make cool enchanted items, lol. XD
I agee there probably was more about her and Potema but it was cut. Makes no sense why Beth cut it but they often did things that made little sense.
@@ANGRYWOLVERINE2060-ft2nc Sometimes things are cut for development time or even to make the entire game fit on a single DVD.
@@KopperNeomansure, but given the attitude of the head writer it might just be cut because it would require some effort for the player to engage with and he believes they wouldn't bother.
I mean, the IRS are probably vampires with how much they drain people’s paychecks and wallets, so what’s to say that tax evasion doesn’t lead to that in real life?
After Sybille gives you the vampire cave quest and you come back she’s like “filthy creatures aren’t they?” And I’m always like, GIRL YOURE ONE TO TALK
Civilised vampires tend to be disgusted by feral ones.
She's a vampire that adapted well blending with the human population there's a particular group of vampires in Cyrodiil who are in high society.
Vampires, especially purer-blooded ones, will look down on lesser-blooded ones. To have power and live that long, it’s obvious Sybill is one.
There's a really interesting internal racism amongst vampires in Tamriel. In Oblivion, you get a quest from Janus Hassildor, the count of Skingrad, to massacre a clan of feral vampires. By this point, you already know he's a vampire. He explains that he despises the ones who have given in to their hunger.
Sybille has a similar attitude.
Civilized vampires hate the feral ones.
There's a really interesting internal racism amongst vampires in Tamriel. In Oblivion, you get a quest from Janus Hassildor, the count of Skingrad, to massacre a clan of feral vampires. By this point, you already know he's a vampire. He explains that he despises the ones who have given in to their hunger.
Sybille has a similar attitude.
Civilized vampires hate the feral ones.
The original plan for the Wolf Queen quest involved Sybille telling the player that Potema had been resurrected and asking them to deal with it but the way it worked with her and Falk lead to a... very intertwined potential quest order that would break the game if you didn't do it the way the engine wanted you to.
I'm pretty sure Sybille sleeping after the quest is a bug because she'll wake up and sell you things if you talk to her.
Where’s the proof of this? Is it in the game files that were datamined or do you have insider knowledge, and if so, where’s the proof of that? Sorry if your name is known by most fans or something. I don’t know it, so I’m just asking. I’m trying to gauge the validity of this info. No offense intended.
@@Paradox-es3blthey are quoting the wiki.
@@Paradox-es3bl you need to stop using reddit immediately. its rotting your ability to communicate like a normal person.
@@fraternitas5117 you need to stop using twitter immediately. it's destroying your ability to not be insufferable.
"Whose chief loyalty is to his bottom line" is a damn raw line
I personally think Sybil was a highly arrogant and independent mage who became a similarly arrogant and territorial vampire. Her fondness for the previous rulers and relatively cavalier feeding habits lead me to believe she views Solitude as her domain. She can tolerate itinerant vampires because they don’t threaten this status quo. Court intrigue and mean-girl behavior likely satisfy any urges that might otherwise be channeled into collecting thralls and forming her own vampiric clan.
I can fix her
It shows she has a consciousness at least. She’s certainly quite a character, wish we knew more about her story
I love this theory! I think you're right. Reminds me of Lief Helgerson. (Found in The Iron Druid Chronicles, by Kevin Hearne - I highly recommend the books!)
I’m so glad you moved on to Skyrim from rdr2 I really didn’t want this channel to slowly die off with no new rdr Content but Skyrim seems to be thriving
*Grabs a sweet roll and ale*
It's a fine day with Fizhy around.
Also, I would like to say that I've been replaying Skyrim and thanks to your videos, I recognized that this lady might be a vampire.
I wondered if you'd do a video like this one so you have no idea how much I'm enjoying this. Thank you!
13:06
Bryling be eavesdropping on everyone’s conversations like 👀👀👀
Fun fact: the Dawnguard DLC actually broke her unique face design and gave her a “default face.” That’s why even aside from the glowing eyes and vampire features her face looks completely different when playing with Dawnguard/on SE.
As much as I liked them, I personally think the Potema quests were a bit of a waste in Skyrim.
Honestly with her backstory, and her connection to the Septim line, she could've been a great main antagonist for a game, or at least a DLC. More interesting than Alduin at least.
19:00 it's a common theme with vampires in writing for older ones to kill off young or sloppy vampires that essentially raise people's fears. It's better when no one thinks vampires are around.
Keep the Skyrim / elder scrolls content coming, it’s great !
i really do like the idea that she is a morally grey protector of solitude, it seems in line with her characterization as someone who does things like feeding in a slightly more ethical way
It's not really ethical because unless they was meant for the chopping block she's still stealing someone's life. In a very brutal way I must add. At least skyrim has the buffest dude in town chop off heads.
@@ChadOfAllChads You don't have to kill someone to feed from them. Drawing blood isn't really morally bad.
@@sourxpill It is when you're doing so against someone's will and basically giving them a super std
Sybille is one of my favorite npcs for all the reasons discussed here. There's so much mystery about her motives, she could be doing just about anything directly under the nose of the court. I love that for her
I wouldn't say under the nose, but mabye most of them think she is doing magic research by torturing prisoners. During it some of the worst criminals die from it so the court looks the other way.
Her having the DB clear out vampire dens is pretty smart: She got a good thing going in Solitude and doesn't need a bunch of punks moving into the neighbourhood drawing the attention of the authorities, the Dawn Guard and other hunters. Also she can blame all bloodless corpses that might wash up on those guys even they were her midnight snacks...
It's like the mob taking care of the gang problem because those petty criminals are interfering with the organised crime.
In Oblivion there was a Vampire count (Janus Hassildor) and he says something along the lines of: A Powerful vampire who sets themselves up in a position of power in human society attracts the dregs of vampire society to him and they periodically have to be cleared out. I think that's one read on the cleanse the vampire lair quest.
My second, wilder theory about the Potema stuff is that the death of Torygg has effectively severed Stentor's connection and motivation to humanity. She's maintained her humanity for however long it is since she was infected and slowly seen everyone she knew from her human life slowly age and die around her and was primarily motivated by her loyalty to the old High king Istlod's legacy and having raised Torygg from birth, then about a week before the in game events of Skyrim Torygg is murdered. I think what we're seeing is Stentor rejecting the remnants of her humanity and embracing a fully vampyric nature in real time.
Way back before the release of Dawnguard. One of the very first mods I ever downloaded was so I could marry Sybille and on another play through Alva. Long before Serana, Sybille along with Alva were the original Hot Vampires.
It was always my impression that Sybille was secretively on Potema's side. You mentioned that she seemed sympathetic towards Torygg and the Empire, even protective of them. If you ask the Solitude priest about Potema, he mentions that "it's ironic that if she'd be brought back, she would be the only Septim alive and the heir to the imperial throne". My theory is that Sybille may have known Potema personally (I mean who knows how old she really is) and saw her as the ultimate solution to end the Civil War and restore the Empire to its former glory at the same time. A brutally pragmatic witch-queen who she respected for her power.
Yeah, I didn't know about the "vampire generals" line before, so that solidified any doubt I had and completed the theory for me.
She is a holdout that survived the purge against Potema's forces and re-integrated herself into Solitude for Potema's return. Now that you stopped Potema permanently while Stentor couldn't do anything about it lest she break her cover, she is silently seething over the wasted 500 years plan that would have returned the Septim Dynasty. She now has to think of what to do next going forward after she sleeps on it. Once she wakes up from her small (in relative vampire time) nap after you die of old age, taking revenge is gonna be pointless, so she'll just go on her way.
Brilliant, thanks for sharing
@@tbush6657 totally agree with this, it would be interesting to note who the mages are that are trying to resurrect Potema. If Sybille is part of this plan, she must be connected with them.
@@LennonStephens They seemed under the impression that they would enslave Potema to their will, so either Sybille deceived the gullible mages into resurrecting her or she just waited until some stupid mages came around with the bright idea of poking the sleeping bear and made sure they wouldn't be interfered with (within reason of not breaking cover)
I like to think she initially set herself up in Solitude to gain a hold on the influence of the royal court for her own power and security, but over time through the day to day became invested in the politics of Skyrim and the Empire she inadvertently ended up spending so much time on, and grew sentimentally attached to the royal family of Skyrim, raising being something of a pseudo aunt to Torygg, and perhaps his father. I really with the Potemma quest expanded on Sybille's involvement. Perhaps she did initially intend to serve Potemma, but over the course of her time in Solitude has grown something of a conscience, and you'd be able to either talk her out of it, anger her enough to keep pursuing it, or encourage her to pursue it, also hoping to ingratiate yourself with the Wolf-Queen.
Honestly I was thinking the same thing. She showed legitimate affection towards both the previous high kings.
I share your opinion, I think she is genuinelly loyal to Solitude and the royal family ruling there. Her position in the court provides huge advantages to survive and flourish like a civilized vampire in the harsh lands of Skyrim, and over the years she perfectly could learn to live more attached to the place and the people around.
I always wandered what she thought about Lord Harkon and his powerful vampire clan, specially considering how close of Solitude is Castle Volkihar. Maybe she was expelled from there and seek shelter masquerading herself behind Solitude walls. That would explain many things about her demeanour and allegiances.
It's great seeing a 12 year old game still get the great attention it deserves.
there's a mod i use called Dark Destiny that ties into Sybilles little quest she sends you on. The idea is that she sends you to that cave to die, but the Master Vampire there ends up being the same one that turned MOVARTH PIQUINE in Morthal into a vamp some 200 years earlier. And it pairs well with another called Unmasking Sybille, where you can expose her to the court or keep her secret.
Can't wait for the inevitable Morthal episode
Morthal is probably my favorite hold
Got some good news today at work, and there's a new Fizhy video when I got home! What a great day!
Excellent!
I wonder what might happen if you had the choice of giving Potema's skull to Stirr or giving it to Stentor. Possible idea for a mod like Wormstooth. Plus if you are a Vokihar Vampire and go to her and she asks we should have a drink together sometime, one of your responses is do you take your blood straight up or on ice. She says: no how could you possibly know that? There are several dialog changes with her when you yourself are a vampire.
YAAAAY! I have my cold beer, a homemade breaded halibut burger, and now, you have my heart again Fizhy! ❤
YES. These videos are literally my favorite thing on RUclips right now so THANK YOU FIZHY 🐟
I gotta say I love these investigative lore videos , not just for viewing pleasure but nothing gets me through chores and life itself like your vids so playing on the loud speaker .
I do remember staring at her for quite awhile when I first met her. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but vampires used to be a LOT less obvious. I remember hearing dialogue about her but completely ignoring it. I think I must have been turning the quest in about vampires when I was realized she was different. THEN I listened to the other NPC’s dialogue about her and concluded, that she was indeed, a vegan.
Edit: did not realize Mr. Fizhy addresses this in his video. Always thorough.
Sybille might genuinely have been unaware. It was established in Oblivion that Necromantic magic can mess with wards, rituals and scrying, provided there is enough death and magic. Wolfskull would likely be a blindspot for any mage regardless of power.
This man just releases banger after banger 🔥
Do Talsgar the Wanderer, next!! Def more to him than just a nomadic “bard” on the roads of Skyrim..
You should make a video about M'iaq the Liar he's an interesting case and weird encounter
It would have been interesting if they had done more with a Sybille-Potema storyline.
As far as I know, there’s no real reason to suspect this other than it’s a possibility… but I think her experiments are on the volunteers from the dungeon and she isn’t simply feeding on them. (That’s the slightly more obvious part of my hunch)
What is she trying to figure out through her experiments, though? Simple: A way for vampires to not need to feed/suffer from the hunger so much. Or, perhaps, how much blood you can drain while the victim survives and how often.
Iirc, what we know from real life blood donation rules is you can basically donate 1 pint or roughly 1/8th of your blood every 8-16 weeks. (depending on the type of donation) Or basically in Skyrim/vampire terms, 1/8th every ~60 days. (I’m pretty sure we can actually survive losing closer to 1/4th but like, we’ll be unconscious and it’s way more risky. Victims who only lose ~1/8th would basically feel lightheaded for a few hours assuming they eat and drink a bit)
She wants vampires to be more civilized, and arguably less feared as a result… so it seems like she could and likely would do this kind of experiment on her “volunteers” while also being able to feed. Only thing is, idk how much a vampire needs to maintain normal function, properly stave off the hunger (which is constant, right? But clearly can be significantly reduced based on how much blood one consumed and how recently), etc.
So the biggest potential problem with my hunch here is: how many “volunteers” does she have at any given time? She’d likely need several to keep them all (or most) alive for the duration of the experiments. Although, she may be more likely to drain too much and back off with each attempt, until finding the correct amount, rather than starting at draining like a tablespoon and ramping up until she goes too far… so maybe she wouldn’t have all that many at once, towards the start of her experiments. Only as she started approaching those much smaller amounts, and needed to supplement herself with more volunteers as a result.
(For example, if she needs 4 pints to stave off the hunger properly, she’d basically need 4 volunteers at a time. But she may start by draining a victim half-dry, noticing they died, and then trying 25% with 2 volunteers at once. Which again, I think we could survive but it’s too risky. So then she’d basically half that again, and double the volunteers again, and get the right amount. But then she’d need to see how often she could do that. And she may need other “volunteers” to drain while waiting, since she may need to feed more than once every ~60 days?)
It appears that TES vampires are quite territorial. Remember Janus Hassildor sending the MC to clear out vampire hideout in the bloodcrust cave. He mentions that those vampires are tresspassing on his turf.
Now we just need to know if any of Nazeems advice had been listened to for all his boasting about the Cloud District.
I would like to see a video on Blackreach and what happened to the Dwemer and the Falmer, love your recent Skyrim content
I can not get enough of playing this game.
These Skyrim videos are my favourite thing to watch in the evening.
These videos are what's been keeping me going these days ngl
I like to think the vampirism appearance update from Dawnguard is just another ability of the dragonborn, and that normal men, mer, and beaatfolk can't tell
That'd make sense. Perhaps only those whose souls have been touched by the gods can immediately tell. This would also explain why Falion knows that the player is a vampire if you ask him about them.
Stentor will get out of bed to attend Viarmo's reading of KIng Olaf's Verse.
Been loving these videos, the mix of gameplay and lore is really well done. It's great to get this nostalgic feel from quests that I've done and get more details that I missed on my many playthroughs
I like to believe she once served the wolf queen as a commander or advisor but once the wolf queen was killed she chose to remain in the palace or fled to another provence until enough time had passed for her to return and she no longer follows the orders of the wolf queen and that her going to sleep is truly a bug
Love the Skyrim stuff! I always watch before bed. It’s a great way to wind down and you have a relaxing voice.
You got me playing RDR2 again so big ups man
Oh aye, I'm due a replay soon I reckon
@@Fizhy do you do high or low honor usually?
@@BigBearNLittleBearlow honor for the shooty guns and murder
Same here dusted off my Xbox one just I can play it again 😅
I read that as “r2d2” and was very confused
Perhaps the Eye of Magnus is interfering in Sybille's scrying. Even after the Psijic Order had removed it there could still be residual magic causing minor havoc.
eta: and then I finished the video
Before Dawnguard, the eyes were not so glaringly noticeable, nor was there such a strong emphasis on everything vampire.
So the first playthroughs I never even noticed she was a vampire up until I was leveling my alteration between quest locations.
Constantly casting "Detect Life" until I noticed she was not effected.
My personal head-canon is that only the Dragonborn and vampires are able to see the glowing eyes of the vampires from the Dawnguard DLC. I'm not sure why it applies to the Dragonborn, but maybe it's due to the whole magic soul thing.
The upshot is that, if everyone else sees what you see, it makes no sense that Sybille Stentor and other civilized vampires can hide in plain sight.
It also explains why civilized vampires like Sybille and even Janus Hassildor in Oblivion hate feral vampires so much. Those creatures break the masquerade and threaten everyone.
Almost missed this episode! Can’t get enough of these❤
I honestly always liked Stentor... and Potema. It's a shame I couldn't team up with Potema to restore order in Skyrim.
You should look into the lore behind the sleeping tree. It's pretty interesting.
I play the game with Bruma and Legacy in and there is a really nice book about the vampires of Cyrodiil . I usually don´t read the books but i have put my character in camp and read it all .
Great content. Even before the Dawnguard DLC, Sybile was identified as non living by using the spell, detect life...I may have misquoted the spell, it's been a few years.
Breakfast with Fizhy ❤ Another great rambling about Skyrim, still want more 😊
I thouroughly enjoyed this video, it's the first of yours I've come across but the production quality is amazing. You certainly have the voice for this kind of content & you enthusiasm shines through like the icing on a cake.
Not to make my comment about myself but you reminded me why I started my own channel, to cover topics I'm passionate about and find interesting. I hope that one day I can reach a level of quality that you convey in your videos through means of thorough research & also good use of editing.
I will definitely be watching more of your content, it's inspiring, please keep it up!
I always liked what Camelworks said about her, "She has a powerful honest charm about her" even if your doing evil people appreciate honesty lol.
I'll be honest, I love her character and think she could have been involved in an unique quest. Could be make a great mod!
I never got the dawnguard or Dragonborn dlc until a few years ago but I’ve been playing since 2011. I realized Sabine was a wizard on like my 3rd playthrough when I was 13 in like 2012 thanks to me actually being so bored of slaying monsters I decided to actually *shock horror* engage in dialogue with people. I was, shocked to realize this snooty court wizard was a vampire! Then again, that’s back when vampires were harder to spot before the DLC hahah, I felt like a detective. Of course, at 25 now I see how simple it was to figure out but to a 12-13 year old it really was cool. It opened up my mind to what storytelling *could* be. Like, here’s a vampire in the game world. A “monster” but, no quest to slay her. No reason to kill her. She doesn’t even harm innocent people, she only feeds on convicted criminals. Made me question the concept of what makes a monster, a monster.
Sybille has always been a wonder. I think she has a disdain for vampires that hide in caves and skulk about in the shadows. She helped the fellow not because she cared, but he was open about his vampirism and came for help from her. If she is cahoots with Potema then it would stand to reason her usefulness has expired and off she goes to the long sleep, making it easier to kill he, take her permanently out of the picture and allow the next one in line o become court wizard. She is an enigma to be certain .Powerful? Yes, Caring about her city? yes. Her own agenda unrevealed? Certainly. She is great story in itself.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and perhaps the thoughts of Bethesda, although buried deep in intrigue
Shoot at the sun with Blood Arrows using Auriels Bow, you will get a new dialogue from her.
The "skyrim is ours" thing ?
I believe they set that dialogue for every vampires, even the "good" one like her.
The thing I find suspicious that her sleeping permanently is a bug, is that there is no real connection from the quest to her. I know the game has some issues, but there is such a small chance in my opinion, that her sleeping forever after potema is defeated is accidental.
She also will get up if you talk to her. Which if it was intentional and she's supposed to be in perma sleep seems odd.
Checking what the Unofficial Skyrim Patch does to the behaviour is a good way of finding out.
Saw the wolf queen book and expexted some kind of furry mononoke queen and instead got an old pile of bones
My disappointment is unmeasurable and my day is ruined
As a vampire who has lived at Proudspire Manor since early 2012, I'm highly offended by the torrid, unflattering description of this, "Vampire of Skyrim". I have operated a thriving business in the city called Solitude Smiles which just so happens to be the only traveling dentistry in Skyrim. Thousands have been served. Remember our motto: We'll do your dentalwork for "less than those other guys". 🗡️
Theory: she is one of the few surviving members of House Ravenwatch. In eso it is established they are (or were) a house of vampires that hunt and dispatch evil vampire covens.
Getting rid of competition was why she sent you to wipe out the lair.
Is your name sherlock ? if not it should be 😂
Well not competition per se she likely doesn't see them as any kind of direct threat. She just doesn't need the people of Solitude getting into a tizzy about vampires.
@@shadenox8164 Nobody's appalled by feral vampires more than civilised ones. Clan Volkihar do as much vampire hunting in their radiant quests as the Dawnguard do.
If vampire hunters ended up coming to the area to hunt for vamps that were causing trouble it could have put her in danger so it’s in her best interest to prevent other vampires from living in the area
They are not really competition she just does not want the vampire menace to get out of hand and start vampire hunters acting up. One of the vampires in Volkihar also gave a similar quest to kill a master vampire in the borders of Falkreath that's causing a stir.
I don't believe her permanent sleep after the quest completion is a bug, to me it's either as put in the video where she gave up, or something more was planned for her exile maybe even execution. I always thought it was strange that solitude has an executioner and a public execution platform when it only ever gets used the first time you visit.
Dawnguard broke so much cool small subtle plots, tbh. Like, vampires are supposed to be this hidden menace, "the lions among sheep", flawlessly blending in with mortals. Dawnguard pretty much puts a neon sign "LOOK, A VAMPIRE!!!" right on their faces.
This is a 10/10 video. Thanks
lovely video but that background humming from 17m-24m just about sent me through the centre of my desk
I hope a vampire video means we’ll get a werewolf video of some sort soon 👀 keep up the great work man I love your content
I’ve been thinking about this while playing so this is perfect
I always thought Sybille was rude but loved her f-off attitude. HOW did I never know she was a vampire?!? 😮😮🤦 I think she's a good vamp!
One theory I heard about Stentor is that she might be Lamae Bal the very first Vampire of Tamriel
I was just looking to see if you made a video about this, how convenient.
Your friendly neighborhood vampire. Quite cultivated and reserved.
the b-roll is mighty delicious in this one
Love your content man!!!! U are my go to go guy for this lore stuff, keep it up!
I look forward to you coming around to rorikstead
I think Sabiel is just loyal to Solitude. I like how she's still just as cunning as other Vampires but solely for benefiting Solitude.
Absolute banger of a video as always my friend
fizhy strikes again with another great video
So, another vampire sends you out to Redwater to do some business. Yeah, she's working on doing what Harken wanted all a long.
i REALLY hope they expand on vampires in 6!
Between Sybille and Wuunferth in Windhelm "scrying to find the Butcher", I'm starting to think scrying just sucks.
I wish he would do a stormcloak versus imperial video
Hey man loving your Skyrim content. I don’t remember this part of the game super well, but perhaps you could cover Falkreath and all of its stuff with werewolves that seem to be all over the place there? I only went through that quest maybe once or twice so I don’t remember if there’s much mystery but it seems like a good idea.
I figured out she was a vampire the second I met her. This was pre-Dawnguard. The way she dressed and her schedule made it really obvious.
I think Sybille is neither of the popular ideas of being either just a court wizard with vampirism or Potema's old general actively in favor of her former ally returning. I think at some point she probably did work with Potema given her place in the exact same court, a clear interest in her being bound getting swept under the rug, and her being scripted to just go to sleep in such an unusual way only if Potema is dead.
Scripted events like that don't happen as bugs and have to be deliberately done by someone, as an experienced modder would tell you. This strongly implies she not only had a direct link to Potema in some way but was drawing power from her somehow. If she was and knew destroying Potema permanently would weaken herself, that's a fair enough reason to consider Potema being bound as favorable to what actually happens for Sybille.
She also displays clear intentions in wanting at least a stable and peaceful place in Haafingar, and seems to legitimately care about the people there as a total, which Potema... definitely didn't, and is suggested even to have ritually sacrificed some of them.
Between everything Sybille does and the exact things she says, and her peculiar and unique connection to Potema in some way we can't fully be sure of, my best guess is that Sybille is over 5 centuries old and originally helped Potema in a way that wasn't widely known but also didn't like the direction it went and would have preferred a ruler who actually tried to help the people. Somewhere along the line, she somehow got linked to Potema in whatever weird way it was, and became weak enough without her to just sleep, something which doesn't have an exact comparison with any other character.
She appears to be a formerly misguided person (she said herself she used to be less wise) and thought Potema right initially before it went in a bad direction. She then presumably took action to hide her involvement and stayed in Solitude as the court wizard, with a loosely-kept secrecy around her vampiric nature some common people wouldn't know but she remained in a powerful position to keep influencing the region in favor of regular people as she's shown to do.
In short, Sybille makes complete sense if she was Potema's ally at first, regretted it and then carefully did things from there to help Solitude's people in unusual ways such as keeping Vulpin from causing problems in the city. A woman she in her "younger" years did questionable things before getting better and becoming a beneficial advisor to jarls, kings, and queens. She also probably let her status as court wizard be the public answer to her being around so long, because some wizards do just live very long lives and the locals would generally dismiss that as "typical wizard stuff."
Side note: Sybille's distinct eyes are intentional; made clear by the fact that most vampires have bat-like faces and certain notable ones got a less overt appearance. Look at the three first Volkihar clan members or Alva in Morthal, and it becomes clear that BGS cared enough to specifically select which vampires got the more monstrous appearance and which remained more normal, although still identifiable.
She also has dialogue when you use auriel bow on the sun
It's a bit of a reach, but it would be interesting if the original quest had her defending Potema's spirit and you had to kill her; but in the cutting room floor they scrapped that and her going into a permanent sleep was a leftover bug as a result. Would add to the logic behind why the new court wizard makes the point that he knows you had a hand in her death (if the original story had her getting killed in the quest as a traitor to Solitude, then that would be known to the court). Only odd thing I find about her allegience to Potema is her seeming love or care for Torygg and his family. Definitely seemed like she genuinely cared for the High King before he was killed, which is a bit at odds with her intention to bring back someone who would likely massacre all of Solitude.
Maybe Maloran is a secret Thalmor member and HE was trying to bring Potema forth...
Not a slog. Very interesting 31:35
I really hated the fact that every vampire in Skyrim has had brightly glowing eyes. So, if the player doesn't yet suspect that the NPC is a vampire, let's paint it on their faces so clearly, so there is no mistake.
To be fair, I think she & Alva from Morthal are the only vampire NPCs living in secret among mortals in the whole game, unless there's another one i'm not aware of
This is only true if you have the Dawnguard DLC. If you don't, they're indistinguishable from from regular people. The book Immortal Blood goes into further detail as to why.
24:47
Hello Fizhy, I am afraid to inform you, that you are no longer allowed in or near the Blue Palace, for any business of any kind.
A theory I held was she was drawing power from the wolf queen and with us killing her spirit that connection was severed
I waited until after I killed the Wolf Queen and Sybil powers down and becomes bed ridden to use the console command to kill her. Order restored. The new court mage acknowledges as much if you talk to him afterward.