The Rambling Teapot

It was mentioned in a reblog's tags of the previous post that Valerica and Serana sort of back up Harkon's story of how he received the pureblood gift, however, in replaying ... it kiiinda seems more like the opposite?? (This isn't to argue with that specific person btw, this is just part of how we got back into the rabbit hole, I loved those tags and thoughts for real)

Valerica mentions nothing about kingdoms and thousands of sacrifices. In fact, she doesn't mention Harkon receiving the gift from Molag Bal at all. She instead says this:

Meanwhile, this is what Harkon says, and this is what has been accepted as fact.

These ... contradict.

If the original Volkihar Clan received pureblood from sacrificial tribute of thousands of innocents over time, then all three of them received it (Harkon, Serana, and Valerica), and Molag Bal favored Harkon in a way similar to King Styriche, which I'd argue shouldn't be the case. Harkon's story positions himself as the person who facilitated the gift with his actions and also as a person who received it. "I did X; myself, Valerica, and Serana thus received Y."

If the original Volkihar Clan received pureblood from surviving the ritual on the Summoning Day, then only the two who were offered received it (Serana and Valerica) in a way similar to Lamae, and Harkon is full of shit. Valerica's story indicates herself and Serana as having participated in an annual sacrificial ritual, surviving, and receiving the gift. "Myself and Serana did X; myself and Serana thus received Y."

Now of course, both Valerica and Harkon have motivation to lie because they don't actually trust the player, and there could be elements of truth in both, but I find Valerica's account sounds much more believable. She's not interested in impressing the player, whereas Harkon has a hierarchy and a personal mythos to uphold in manipulating you more directly. Valerica only wants you to believe "we survived a ritual and got it", whereas Harkon wants you to believe "I killed infinity plus one innocents and Shigeru Miyamoto Molag Bal personally shook my hand and gave me a reward."

Historically, Molag Bal's "gifts" are provided as a result of insane shit like 1) straight up he just assaults you and you somehow survive, or 2) that one time King Styriche damned himself and his followers to Coldharbour.

Harkon's thousands of innocents could have been other women in whatever Molag Bal cult they were all a part of, but that's a strange way to describe an annual Balic tradition. He makes it sound like he was rounding random people up like Mannimarco. Still, there's a partial precedent for it with Styriche's route. And I say partial because Styriche damned himself and his followers, not randoms. No matter how he felt about them, he was still promising tribute to Molag Bal from his own coffer of power, so to speak. I can't find exactly what he received in return, but the general answer is "more power", so I'd assume he got a dosage of the pureblood for himself and his followers.

For the purposes of this headcanon, let's say Valerica's story is the more factual of the two scenarios. Harkon did cruel shit and was a tyrant in whatever settlement he ruled, but the offering on the summoning day was the gift's catalyst as Valerica says, not his thousands of innocents. For the sake of hearing Harkon out, let's also say that it was he who specifically arranged for his wife and daughter to be given as tribute a la The Styriche Method to earn himself power ... but again, in both his and Valerica's stories, he himself was not amongst those offered, yet he still gained. Why the hell would Harkon have also gotten pureblood, if Valerica and Serana were the only ones offered from his personal coffer?

Because Molag Bal didn't actually reward Harkon with anything. He rewarded Valerica and Serana, the former of whom shared it with her husband.

Consider also, more ideas involved in this convoluted interpretation (it's the meat pumpkin, remember to take it with that grain of salt). We don't think Molag Bal regards Harkon as a very top tier follower. He's definitely much higher on the ladder than your average John Wormcult and earned his place with ruthlessness, but even if we take Harkon's story as being the full truth, one thing stands out as unaligned with Molag Bal's vibe. Up there in his story, he says out loud with his whole vampussy that he regarded death as a "seemingly invincible enemy", something to be defeated. Now, he doesn't say outright that he feared death, but we as a fandom immediately picked that up enough from between his lines - so much so that the UESP just paraphrases his motivations as "fear of death". And what kind of Daddy's Favorite Balite expresses that weakness to their new pawn, let alone even privately feels fear of death? Molag Bal seems like he would moreso approve those who seek immortality from him because death is an inconvenient obstacle to their power. Endless ambition should be your motivation as his follower, not fear. Harkon's presumed fear of death would be a huge point against him, and as a result Molag Bal would see him as pretty useful, but not someone to favor with long term attention or boons.