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Elder Scrolls
Hearthfiresteward2

Valdimar the Housecarl can offer his services as a steward.

For the political position, see Steward.

A steward is an individual who offers their services in protecting and maintaining a homestead in The Elder Scrolls V: Hearthfire.

Choosing a steward[]

Once a homestead includes a basic small house, the option to appoint a steward becomes available.

Once a steward has been chosen, they cannot be dismissed unless they die; however, they can be moved to a different homestead by recruiting them as a follower, then following the same recruitment procedure at the new homestead. If a steward is moved to a new homestead, the Dragonborn will be unable to hire a different steward in the homestead where they originally held that position.

Several followers are available to serve as steward. They can only be appointed to three homesteads in Skyrim:

Stewards can also be recruited as followers again at any time, and this will not interrupt their stewarding duties. If a trainer or a quest-giver is hired as a steward, they do not lose these roles. If the steward chosen is a sellsword, the Dragonborn will still have to pay to recruit them as a follower.

Followers who can become Stewards[]

If a follower is in close proximity to the homestead and they qualify for stewardship, they will initiate dialogue and remark that such a fine homestead needs a steward and will offer their services. Alternatively, a new dialogue option will appear for the follower while on the property if the follower qualifies for stewardship. Followers who qualify are listed below:

Companions College Mages Other followers
Dawnguard Members DG Housecarls

Interactions[]

Once a steward has been chosen, they can perform several tasks that can be considered too trivial or time consuming for the master of a homestead.

Housing improvements[]

Stewards can arrange for several additions to be added to the homestead. These include:

Improvement Notes Cost Gold
Carriage A personal carriage that can travel to several major and minor settlements. 500
Bard A personal bard who will live in the homestead and perform upon request. 1,500
Horse Requires a stable to be built first, where it will stay. 1,000
Cow Requires an animal pen to be built first. 200
Chicken Requires an animal pen to be built first. A maximum of three can be bought. 25

Buying supplies[]

Stewards will arrange for building supplies to be delivered to the main chest located next to the Carpenter's Workbench. These include:

Improvement Quantity Cost Gold
Clay 20 bricks 20
Quarried Stone 20 stone 100
Sawn Logs 20 logs 200

Furnishing the homestead[]

Rather than buying materials and crafting all the furnishings in a homestead, the Dragonborn can request that the Steward of the homestead deal with the whole process for a flat rate. If this option is chosen, the furnishings will not appear instantly as they do when crafted, rather, each piece of furniture will appear over a period, depending on the number of times the property's cell is loaded.

Improvement Gold
Small House 1,000
Main Hall 3,500
Library 1,500
Trophy Room 1,500
Bedrooms 2,000
Greenhouse 1,500
Enchanter's Tower 2,500
Alchemy Laboratory 2,500
Armory 2,000
Storage Room 1,000
Kitchen 1,500

The cellar is the only part of the homestead that is required to be personally furnished, as the Steward considers it to be the Dragonborn's private room, thus is not obliged to have anything to do with its furnishment.

The decision to have the Steward attend to all the furnishing matters is one to be considered. Having the Steward do it is more expensive, but takes a lot less time which can then be devoted to adventuring. Conversely, buying all of the materials and crafting the furnishings costs only a fraction of what the Steward will charge; additionally, crafting the nails, hinges, locks and iron fittings raises the Smithing skill.

Dismiss by console[]

A steward can be dismissed using the console.

  • Dismiss the steward of Lakeview Manor in Falkreath Hold:
    prid {follower's id}
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
    EmptyRefAlias House1Steward
    SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHouseFalkreath bHaveSteward False
  • Dismiss the steward of Windstad Manor in Hjaalmarch:
    prid {follower's id}
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
    EmptyRefAlias House2Steward
    SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHouseHjaalmarch bHaveSteward False
  • Dismiss the steward of Heljarchen Hall in the Pale:
    prid {follower's id}
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
    EmptyRefAlias House3Steward
    SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHousePale bHaveSteward False

If these commands are put into a bat file, then the EmptyRefAlias will fail. However, the other two will work, allowing the Dragonborn to appoint a new steward at that holding. The previous steward will still have steward dialogue.

Appoint by console[]

A steward can be appointed using the console. Note that this only works for valid stewards.

  • Appoint the steward of Lakeview Manor in Falkreath Hold:
    prid {follower's id}
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
    ForceRefIntoAlias House1Steward
    SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHouseFalkreath bHaveSteward True
  • Appoint the steward of Windstad Manor in Hjaalmarch:
    prid {follower's id}
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
    ForceRefIntoAlias House2Steward
    SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHouseHjaalmarch bHaveSteward True
  • Appoint the steward of Heljarchen Hall in the Pale:
    prid {follower's id}
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
    ForceRefIntoAlias House3Steward
    SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHousePale bHaveSteward True

If these commands are put into a bat file, then the EmptyRefAlias will fail. However, the other two will work, allowing the Dragonborn to appoint a new steward at that holding. The previous steward will still have steward dialogue.

Trivia[]

Bugs[]

This section contains bugs related to Steward (Hearthfire). Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following:

  1. Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening.
  2. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on.
  3. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.
Click to show Bugs
  •  PC   360   PS3   Purchasing furnishings from a steward will sometimes trigger them to say "You cannot afford that," even though enough gold is on hand. This can also occur when remodeling a small home into an entryway before hiring a steward, at which time the furnishings for the entryway cannot be bought. There is no known fix for this bug yet.
  •  PC   360   Steward may not give option to hire a bard in Windstad Manor and Heljarchen Hall. A way to fix this is to kill the cow, then enter and exit the house so that the corpse disappears. This will bring back the option to buy the bard. (Buy the bard before buying the cow again.)
  •  PC   360   PS3   Purchasing furnishings from a steward will sometimes not work and the furnishings will not appear.
    • Analysis at Lakeview Manor: The rate that newly purchased furnishings appear seems to be linked to the number of times the Homestead is loaded, and not the elapsed time in the game. Newly purchased furnishings for the Bedroom add-on did not appear in the room while waiting (even after waiting for 20 days), but fast-traveling between Riften and Lakeview Manor 20 times eventually loaded all of the furnishings. Running a short trip also does the trick. Simply leave the area and enter another cell and back again. The two pine trees between the carriage driver and the small pond is a good place to do it, as it is exactly there the cells change and is much faster than fast-travelling. The same with Heljarchen and Windstad - a short run away from the house is enough.
  •  PC   360   PS3   PS4   Marcurio may never give the dialogue option to be hired as steward.
  •  PC   360   PS3   If hired as a steward, Marcurio may offer no dialogue options other than to become a follower again.
  •  360   If hired as a steward, Ogol at Lakeview Manor may cause the game to lock up when he is seen inside. One work around for this is to have him join as a companion, then wait outside. This bug seems to affect the adopted children also, causing the game to freeze if the children see the Dragonborn.
  •  360   PS3   If hired as a steward, Aela the Huntress will eventually follow the Dragonborn around the house and draw her weapon and interrupt them at any time. While she is following the Dragonborn around the property, the system treats her as a pursuing guard, preventing fast travel even though she will not attack. If she is a follower and a steward, after being dismissed as a follower, she may sometimes return to Jorrvaskr instead of the homestead where she is steward.
  •  360   PS3   "Paid" followers may be unable to become proper stewards: they either do not offer the steward dialogue or only offer to become a follower again.
  •  PC   360   PS3   PS4   Illia suffers a bug in which, when she is dismissed, no dialogue option is presented to recruit her as a follower again (See Illia bugs section). However, in Hearthfire, she does at least present normal steward dialogue.
  •  PC   If Illia is a follower, recruiting a steward for any homestead will make her act as if she is dismissed. She has then no option dialogue to recruit her again and console must be used to reset her relationship rank to 4
    •  PC (Fix)   Open the console, click Illia and type: player.setrealtionshiprank 4b22e 4,followed by: setrealtionshiprank 4b22e 4.
  • Changing the steward from one homestead to another may result in stone and clay bought from them spawning in the chest of the previous homestead.
  •  PS3   If hired as a steward, Vilkas or Ria may randomly wander back to Jorrvaskr, and may be killed on route. If they are killed, a courier will deliver a Letter of Inheritance, and a new steward may be hired.
  •  PS3   If hired as a steward, Vilkas may lose the dialog options to become a follower. The bug is intermittent, occurred on one out of six play throughs; Lakeview Manor.
  •  360   Vilkas may wander back to Jorrvaskr if hired as a follower. May be fixed by transforming into a werewolf or by recruiting him as a follower and bringing him to one's homestead, then dismissing him.
  • If Lydia is a steward of one of the homes and the Stormcloaks take over Whiterun, Lydia will disappear and the Dragonborn will be unable to hire a new steward for that home. If Lydia is asked to be a steward, then asked to be a follower again, the option to convert her back to a steward will be lost.
    • She may be found at another home if the Dragonborn owns multiple homes.
      • Fix: Asking her to follow, then dismissing her may her back to her correct steward location. One can also try talking to the new Jarl of Whiterun (Vignar Gray-Mane) after the Civil War is complete. The dialogue and actions for becoming a Thane may need to be executed again.
  •  PC   If Lydia is asked to be a steward, then asked to be a follower again, the option for her to become a steward again will be lost. To fix this, part ways with her or attack her until she leaves the Dragonborn's service, then she will return to the homestead she was steward of. Lydia will have the dialogue option to recruit her as a follower again.
  •  PC   360   PS3   If the Dragonborn assigns the same steward to more than one house, the house will be unable to be furnished. To avoid this, use a different steward for each house owned.
  •  PS3   Sven may vanish if he is appointed steward at any of the properties. The option to hire a new steward will not be available.
  •  360   Some stewards cannot follow the Dragonborn when asked. For example, when Uthgerd is asked to follow the Dragonborn, she will say "Ok," and then will resume her steward's work.
  •  360   PS3   Occasionally, no one will allow the Dragonborn to hire them as their steward.
  •  PC   Some followers, notably housecarls, when made into a steward will have none of the steward dialogue options available. It appears that the follower dialogues might block the steward ones.
    • Fix: The workaround is while in the house to select the "time to part ways" dialogue option to dismiss the follower dialogues.
  •  PC   When Sven is appointed steward, he may greet the Dragonborn saying "You lost?" when entering the homestead, seemingly not realizing the Dragonborn owns the place. He will also continue to suggest visiting the Sleeping Giant Inn to hear him play, even though he never goes there anymore.

Appearances[]

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