Volkihar Castle is actually a terrible base and I'm tired of pretending it isn't

[DragonbornVet]

okay so I finally bit the bullet and did a full vampire playthrough on my current save, went all-in on the Harkon path, and I have to say - everyone who says Volkihar Castle is this amazing player home is smoking something. The layout is a nightmare. You've got your bedroom in one wing, the alchemy lab is somehow in the opposite direction, the enchanting table is tucked away in a corner that requires like three loading screens to reach, and don't even get me started on trying to find where you actually store your stuff.

Fort Dawnguard has actual purpose-built rooms with everything organized. Yeah it's less "evil lair" aesthetic, but at least I can fast travel there and immediately access my crafting stations without having to navigate through a maze of stone corridors. On my previous playthrough I just kept my stuff in the Volkihar bedroom and used a different base entirely because the castle was so annoying to actually live in.

Also the castle is genuinely creepy in a way that stops being cool after your first hour there. The Soul Cairn vibes are cool for atmosphere but terrible for actually wanting to spend time in your own home. Am I just weird for valuing functionality over "I'm a vampire lord in a spooky castle"?

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

Nah, you're not weird at all. Volkihar's layout is genuinely bad from a practical standpoint, and I think people romanticize it because of the aesthetic and the whole "you're ruling a vampire court" fantasy. But yeah, once you actually live there it's a slog.

Fort Dawnguard is objectively better designed as a player home - everything's clustered together, the fast travel works smoothly, and you're not burning through load screens just to go from your bed to the enchanting table. The Dawnguard questline gets less hype than the Harkon path, but that base is actually functional, which matters way more than people admit.

I think the creepy atmosphere thing is real too. Like, it's cool for the first few quests, but then you're supposed to actually live there and it just feels oppressive? The constant dim lighting and the Soul Cairn aesthetic works great for a couple of story beats but gets old fast when you're trying to organize your inventory at 2am. There's a reason people who go full vampire usually end up keeping a "real" home elsewhere anyway.

If you're still on that playthrough, have you considered just using the Volkihar bedroom for roleplay purposes and keeping your actual crafting stuff somewhere more practical? Not ideal, but at least you get the "evil lair" vibe without sacrificing your sanity navigating those corridors every single time you need to smith something.