Serana is an ancient, pure-blood vampire and the daughter of Lord Harkon and Valerica. She is known as one of the "Daughters of Coldharbour,". Serana was originally locked away in the mid-late Second Era, in between the rule of the Reman and Septim Empires.

She is one of the few pure-blood Vampires known to exist, and gained her vampirism through a ritual in which members of her family pledged themselves to Molag Bal. Females like Serana and her mother, Valerica, who survive the horrific ordeal are dubbed "Daughters of Coldharbour'.

Serana Harkon is an immortal vampire, thousands of years old. Physically, Serana is 5 foot 4 in height, she has a pale porcelain skin tone with really soft skin, she has a skinny body build but she is petite with attractive curves of her own, she has long raven black hair that goes all the way down to under her chest, and she has chocolate brown eyes but due to being a vampire, her eyes turn blood red with hints of black, her veins showing under the skin below your eyes, when she is hungry and needs to feed on blood to survive as a vampire.

Her father, Lord Harkon, is the leader of the Volkihar Clan based in Castle Volkihar. He discovered an ancient prophecy called the Tyranny of the Sun which, if enacted, would allow vampires to roam the world freely without the fear of weakness from the sun, but to do so, he required three Elder Scrolls, Auriel's Bow, and Serana for a ritual sacrifice.

In response to this, her mother hid her away with one of the Elder Scrolls in a sealed sarcophagus within Dimhollow Crypt for thousands of years, in order to protect her from her father. She then fled to the Soul Cairn with the other Scroll.