First, Castle Volikhar is nowhere near Windhelm.

My mistake, thanks. Still, Solitude is the last place the Volikhar would want to infiltrate; it's full of Imperial paladins. Winterhold is also inadvisable due to pyromancers and Restoration mages. Dawnstar is an option, but haunted by Vaermina, who may be territorial with other Daedra. Vampires haunt Morthal, but it is provincial. That leaves Windhelm, with its conveniently underutilized Argonian population and casual murder of streetwalkers. The streets flow with blood, and the orphanage is packed!

And Argonians - with their high racial resistance to disease - are in fact the least likely race to contract Sanguinare Vampiris.

Thus making them good thralls for fighting lesser vampires, and candidates for eventually receiving Volikhar's true blood. Also good for feeding on without propagating. I don't argue Argonians are common vampires.

Alteration Absorb spells are similar to Destruction's Vampiric Drain.

more Argonians live in Riften than Windhelm?

Alternate Start mod: "I am an Argonian dockworker in Windhelm." (Only for Argonians.)

[[https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Windhelm_(Skyrim)][Windhelm]] has many more mentions of Argonians than [[https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Riften_(Skyrim)][Riften]].

Indeed: I alone have detected that islander Volikhar use Argonians as their infiltration vector, due to my keen appreciation of opportunistic reptilian psychology, particularly that of a Thief without racial offensive skills bonuses.

(Oh, and if you want to talk about betraying humanity for a crust of bread, Khajiit easily fit that too based on quests, as seen by the multiple occasions throughout the game where Khajiit NPCs turn out to be assassins working for the Thalmor).

Assassins are paid well in gold, not bread. However a hungry Argonian would probably trade a vampiric feeding for a few fish; he can just regenerate.

If, for example, you want to pick a race which would preferentially seek out the Ebony Blade and Mail it would be a Dunmer, not an Orc, since Dunmer worship Boethiah and Mephala while Orcs would hate Boethiah because of what happened to Malakath.

Mechanically, the Orc uses those artifacts. Both require murders, and he doesn't mind Requiem's excommunication. Ebony Mail's Muffle opens the Thief's Guild and Dark Brotherhood. Tertiary Sneak suits his warbow archery.

The nature of my project to identify Skyrim's mechanical racial archetypes eludes you; I describe it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimrequiem/comments/vc74uu/racial_implications_of_requiems_starting_skill/