Aela the Huntress
Race	Nord - Werewolf
Gender	Female
Level	6 - 50
Class	Thief
Faction	The Companions The Circle
Rank	Expert
Services	Archery training Follower Spouse
Essential	Before The Companions quest line is completed
Ref ID	0001A697
Base ID	0001A696

Aela the Huntress is a lycanthropic female Nord in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. She is a member of The Companions and one of the five members of The Circle. Residing in Jorrvaskr with the other Companions, Aela facilitates the Dragonborn's becoming a lycanthrope, deep into the Dragonborn's involvement with them. She also becomes a candidate for marriage, as well as a follower.

Contents 1 Background 2 Quests 3 Interactions 3.1 Archery training 3.2 Lyncanthropy 3.2.1 Returning lycanthropy 3.3 After destroying the Silver Hand 3.4 Blades 4 Follower 4.1 Skills 4.2 Equipment 4.2.1 Weapons 4.2.2 Armor 4.2.3 Clothing 4.3 Dismissing 5 Trivia 6 Bugs 7 Appearances

Background

When asked, Aela explains her reasoning behind joining The Companions: "My mother was a companion. And her mother. And all the women in my family, back to Hrotti Blackblade. I stayed with my father in the woods until I was old enough for my Trial. We hunted everything there was to hunt... Good training. Ma didn't live long enough to see me join, but I fight to honor her and all my Shield-Sisters through time."

Quests

• The Silver Hand
• Retrieval
• Striking the Heart
• Totems of Hircine
• Animal Extermination
• Stealing Plans

Interactions

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

It is possible to encounter Aela before the Dragonborn has any knowledge of The Companions. She can be found fighting a Giant at Pelagia Farm on the outskirts of Whiterun, along with Skjor and Farkas. She approves or disapproves of the Dragonborn's actions depending on the amount of assistance given in defeating the Giant. (The player only needs to score one hit to get the "approving" reaction. It's probably easiest to use a bow, as the Companions often down the giant before the Dragonborn can come within melee range.) Regardless, she suggests visiting Jorrvaskr and speaking to Kodlak Whitemane about joining The Companions. Archery training After becoming a full member of The Companions, Aela offers the Dragonborn Archery training for a fee. She is considered an Expert trainer and can train the Dragonborn up to Level 75. Lyncanthropy In order to complete The Companions quest line, the Dragonborn must be initiated into The Circle by becoming a werewolf first. Aela willingly donates blood, which the Dragonborn must drink. After the initial transformation, the Dragonborn wakes beyond the outskirts of Whiterun to find Aela standing over him or her. She offers her congratulations and informs the Dragonborn of The Silver Hand, a fierce group of werewolf hunters. The Dragonborn and Aela raid a nearby group, located at Gallows Rock. The raid does not go as planned, however, as Skjor is slaughtered prior to the raid. Aela vows to kill whomever did it. From that point, she employs the Dragonborn in stifling the ongoing feud with The Silver Hand, which escalates dramatically. After The Silver Hand assassinates Kodlak Whitemane, the Dragonborn and Vilkas eradicate the Silver Hand. In an effort to cleanse Kodlak's spirit of the beast curse, Aela accompanies the Dragonborn, along with Vilkas, and Farkas, to Ysgramor's Tomb. There she assists the Dragonborn in redeeming Kodlak's spirit and witnesses the Dragonborn's promotion to Harbinger. Returning lycanthropy In The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard, Aela is able to give the Dragonborn lycanthropy again. Points expended toward the Werewolf skill tree cannot be undone or moved to other skill trees, including the Vampire Lord skill tree. She only does so once. After destroying the Silver Hand {C}After destroying the Silver Hand, she becomes a follower and a candidate for marriage if the Dragonborn wears an Amulet of Mara in her presence. She then offers the repeatable Animal Extermination missions, as well as the ability to collect the mythic Totems of Hircine. Blades After escorting Delphine and Esbern to Sky Haven Temple, Aela can be recruited into the Blades. Along with two others, she and the Dragonborn root out and fight Ancient Dragons. Becoming a Blade, Aela's default armor changes to Blades Armor and her residence shifts from Jorrvaskr to Sky Haven Temple. {C}|-

Spoilers end here

Follower

Aela's Stats
Level	8 → 50
Health	109 → 509
Magicka	50
Stamina	96 → 426
Default Armor Rating	57
Light Armor	31 → 100
Heavy Armor	15
Sneak	26 → 97
One-Handed	28 → 75
Two-Handed	25
Archery	29 → 100
Block	24 → 48
Alteration	15
Conjuration	15
Destruction	15
Restoration	15
Illusion	15
Enchanting	15
Speech	28 → 75
Lockpicking	15
Alchemy	15
Smithing	20
Pickpocket	15

As a follower, Aela does not turn against the Dragonborn for stealing or murdering the innocent. When trespassing, she informs the Dragonborn that they "should not be in here," but otherwise does not turn hostile.

Skills

Aela is a specialist and highly skilled in Archery. Her primary skills are Light Armor and Sneak. Her secondary skills are One-Handed and Speech.

She excels with bows and light armor, is very skilled with one-handed weapons, and is not good with a shield.

Equipment

Aela is equipped with the following items when the Dragonborn first obtains her as his follower:

• Skyforge Steel Dagger
• Hunting Bow (not shown in some cases)
• Whiterun Gate Key
• Belted Tunic (not shown in some cases)
• Aela's Shield (not shown in some cases)
• Torch
• Gold (800)

Weapons

Aela will accept and equip any melee weapon and shield that is better than her default equipment. She is most skilled with bows and one-handed weapons. Aela uses staves and may pick them up from corpses. In higher levels, she replaces her hunting bow with an Imperial bow.

Armor

Aela's default armor is Ancient Nord Armor. If married, a copy can be purchased from her shop. Aela equips any armor better than her default set. All followers decide which armor is best by the armor's base value. Like all followers, Aela does not equip upgraded version of her default armor, regardless of statistics or enchantments.

Even though her default armor is Heavy Armor, she is unskilled in Heavy Armor usage, and receives minimum protection from it. She is highly skilled in Light Armor, and benefits significantly from Light Armor.

Clothing

File:Tumblr lvfqjiIH7F1r2pfc4o1 500.jpg

Aela can be forced to wear clothes, although the process must be repeated every time the player changes location. The player must first force her armor into her shop inventory by giving her a better armor, then proceed to buying both sets of the Ancient Nord Armor, to finally replace the armor that was given to her at first by clothes.

Dismissing

When the Dragonborn dismisses Aela as a follower, she returns to Jorrvaskr by default. If she has been asked to move into the Dragonborn's home through marriage, she returns there instead. If she has been recruited for The Blades, she returns to Sky Haven Temple. When Aela has returned to her home, she unequips any weapon and armor she has received, keeping them in her inventory instead. Her inventory must be altered to re-equip the items.

Trivia

• Aela, Legate Rikke, and several other characters are voiced by Claudia Christian.
• She cannot be killed while the Totems of Hircine quest is active because of her quest significance. However, once the quest has been completed, she can be killed.
  • This can be exploited to make her invincible by not completing the quest and if levelled by the Wabbajack can make for an extremely effective and useful follower.
  • She can exploited for Archery training, like any other character that offers training. This can only be done at the end of the Companions' storyline when the Dragonborn becomes the Harbinger. Talk to her and pay for training. After the training that she can offer is maxed out, ask her to be a follower. Talk to her again and to trade some things with her. While trading is a good opportunity to take back all of the training gold from of her inventory. Once trading is done, she can be released as a follower, and she will leave.
• It is rumored among the Companions that she and Skjor are lovers: the Dragonborn can overhear Njada Stonearm ask her about this in ambient dialogue. She hastily and staunchly denies the relationship, however. If the Dragonborn is female, Njada sometimes implies if Dragonborn was involved with Skjor, she denies that also.
• Other ambient dialogue between her and Skjor reveals that the two go out at night to hunt in beast form. This is forbidden and is the source of their secrecy as well as the rumors.
• She and Skjor are the only members of The Circle who cannot be cured of Lycanthropy.
• She carries two pairs of armor, allowing the Dragonborn to buy one if married to her.

Bugs

Click to see the list of bugs encountered

Aela may disappear randomly. She won't return by waiting or fast traveling to another location. Activating the miscellaneous quest "Speak to a Leader of the Companions." will show a quest marker pointing to Aela. Solution: Type: "prid 0001A697" and then "moveto player" in the console. In the first Companions mission, the player is supposed to return a shield to her. The quest indicator may not point to the correct location. She is found in her room at the end on the left and behind the left door at Jorrvaskr Living Quarters. During the quest Glory of the Dead, Aela may get stuck on the set of stairs after the Dragonborn fights the wolf spirit of Kodlak. The player can either ask her to follow him/her once he is the leader of The Companions, or wear an Amulet of Mara and ask her to marry him/her. After turning in each totem for the Totems of Hircine quest, Aela will pray at the statues. After turning in the final totem, if the Dragonborn asks her to be his/her follower, she will make her way back to the Underforge and begin praying again. After placing the Totem on the altar, using the wait function for 24 hours will make Aela walk out of the Underforge. Waiting another few minutes should get her to go back to Jorrvaskr, ready for rehiring. Solution: Dismissing her also works, as she then should walk out of the underforge. Outside the Underforge, the player should immediately ask her to join him again and then, via "I need you to do something" command, and tell her to move somewhere. Drawing and sheathing a weapon, then exit iting the command mode should get Aela to start walking again to the underforge. Talking to her before she enters and asking her to follow the Dragonborn again should make her behave normally again. All followers, Aela included, occasionally switch back to their default bow. Even if removed from their inventory via console commands (PC: removeitem 0010e2dd 99 ), it will respawn. The "Can you prepare me some food?" conversation option can disappear. Aela continuously attempts dialogue with the Dragonborn. Solution: Recruit her, go outside, dismiss her, wait one hour, and then recruit her again. Solution:If the Dragonborn has a bounty in Windhelm paying it off may also fix it. Aela randomly started to run in place while a follower, parting ways does not solve this. She simply slides around and gets stuck in another spot. Solution: Use the Unrelenting Force shout on her. She then turns hostile, but becomes unstuck. Blocking while holding a bow may resolve this issue. As a follower, even when given gauntlets superior to her own in base value, Aela has been found to keep using her starter gauntlets instead. She may start sliding across the ground, flying and sinking. If the Dragonborn marries Aela, then constantly buys and sells things from her, they may accidentally acquire her shield. If the Dragonborn marries Aela, and asks her to be his follower, he may be able to sell things to her without her gold going down. If she is a follower and another Companions quest is taken, she waits back at Jorrvaskr and cannot rejoin the party until the quest is completed. If the quest is one that is impossible to complete (i.e. killing a dragon that is already dead), she may be permanently gone as a companion. When walking into a wedding with Aela, Vilkas may be waiting at the altar instead. After killing the Silver Hand forces at Gallows Rock and trying to finish the quest by talking to Aela, the only dialogue option will be the one asking for archery training, and that dialogue will just repeat, without the training window showing up, leaving the quest unable to be completed, the archery training impossible, and the Dragonborn unable to marry Aela. During the Mission " Glory of the Dead," if the player runs ahead of everyone and clear out the tomb, Aela has been known to disappear. A few days later the player will get a letter from a Courier with information regarding her unseen death. After completing the final "Totem of Hircine" quest, if the player attempts to talk to her as she exits the Underforge she will start talking but exit it while she talks. After a few days the player will get a letter from a Courier with information regarding her death.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (First appearance)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard {C} {C}

Start a Discussion Discussions about Aela the Huntress

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  Keeps started conversations...

  2 messages
  • 
    Owenthecool
    Well, I had that common glitch where Skjor would come back to life in Jorrvaskr. He KEPT starting conversations with me, to the point wher... 2013-05-01T03:42:30Z
  • 
    Owenthecool
    Fixed this, jsut needed to have her move in with me. 2013-05-01T19:12:00Z
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  Clothing

  2 messages
  • 
    LunarDracofire95
    Ok im confused on the getting her to wear clothing how do you do it? 2013-04-23T19:47:38Z
  • 
    AzuraKnight
    With out forcing her though PC console commands she won't equip normal clothes only armor that has higher protection than here default set (... 2013-04-24T09:02:42Z

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