It has been ages since I played Skyrim (1.8-something was the last version I played), but as is often the case, questions here have inspired me to pick it back up. Careful owner of a modded Skyrim that I am, I updated my tools, checked for updates to essential mods, cleaned updates and BOSSed my load order… and I saw that I have a dawnguard.esm.
I don't own Dawnguard, and never intended to. Steam doesn't show Dawnguard in the "view DLC" option. I don't remember anyone gifting it to me, let alone me installing it. Google doesn't enlighten me as to why I suddenly have it, either.
Where did dawnguard.esm come from? I mean, obviously Steam installed it for me, but why?
Best Answer
Based on this thread it looks like there was a short time where Dawnguard became a free DLC and downloaded to people that had Skyrim (likely due to a Steam admin error). It has since been corrected, but for people that downloaded it during that time, it should continue to be part of your game unless you uninstall and reinstall Skyrim.