Serana's Mother Gets a Life Beyond Dawnguard in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
Serana has enough family history to safely fill a library, and her mother, Valerica, is hardly a minor footnote. She plays an important part in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition's Dawnguard story, but she’s not normally someone you can take along on your adventures. Now, thanks to modder Anbeegod's Follower Dialogue Expansion - Valerica, she has that opportunity. Once Harkon has been defeated, you can speak to her in the Soul Cairn or Castle Volkihar laboratory and recruit her as a full follower.
Valerica comes with 312 new lines of dialog, covering much more than the vampire business she's already been through. The mod also gives her awareness of every guild questline, Skyrim's main quest and the DLC’s main quest, along with reactions shaped by location and accompanying weather. There are also story-driven exchanges, an interaction with Serana, and more lore to discover about Clan Volkihar's dark history. For a character whose family is already tangled up in so much of Dawnguard, it's a nice touch to let that past follow her into the wider game.
The creator is also very upfront about the voices used: all 312 lines are AI-voiced. Not a bad thing per se, but it might be an important part of deciding whether this particular take on Valerica is right for you, especially since the dialogue is the main attraction. Anbeegod also describes a 414-line version 2.0 with a friendship or romance arc on Patreon, but the 312-line Nexus release is what we’re focusing on here.
We’d certainly recommend this to any Dawnguard fans out there who got attached to Serana's story and enjoy followers who have something relevant to say about the quests they're traveling through together. At the same time, if AI-generated voice work isn't your cup of tea, you'd probably want to know that going in (you’re welcome). Otherwise, for the majority of you devilish ghouls out there, there's a very appealing idea here: letting one of Skyrim's most complicated vampire families have a little bit more to talk about after Harkon is Fus Roh Gone!
