With the Hearthfire add-on, certain followers can be hired to become a personal steward upon purchase and construction of any of three new houses:

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• Heljarchen Hall in the Pale
• Lakeview Manor in Falkreath Hold
• Windstad Manor in Hjaalmarch

• Permanent Followers. College of Winterhold Followers. Once enrolled as a member of the College of Winterhold, you may recruit your fellow students to join you in your. Companions Followers. Dark Brotherhood Followers. Dawnguard Followers. Dragonborn Followers.
• It's hard to narrow down a list with so many options available, so if any Dovahkiin out there don't see their favorite follower, give us a holler in the comments letting everyone know why your favorite adventure companion rules. Now lay down your tent and set up camp, because here is Every Skyrim Follower Ranked Worst To Best.

To hire a follower, simply ask them to come with you, then travel to the build site. They should approach you and volunteer for the job, or if not, you can ask them yourself once there. You will need to first build at least the Small House Layout before the option to hire them appears. Your steward will patrol the exterior of your property, as well as use various items in and around your house. Once a steward has been chosen for a particular homestead, the choice is permanent; you cannot replace that steward with someone else later.

• 1Commands
• 2Followers Who Can Become Stewards
  • 2.1Skyrim

Commands[edit]

Improvements[edit]

You can ask them to make improvements to the house, which will allow you several options:

• Hire a carriage driver for 500 gold
• Hire a bard for 1500 gold
• Purchase a horse for 1000 gold (if you have built the exterior Stable option)
• Purchase a cow for 200 gold (if you have built the exterior Animal Pen option)
  • Your cow will provide jugs of milk over time in the cupboard closest to the butter churn, in your kitchen if you have built it.
• Purchase up to three chickens for 25 gold (if you have built the exterior Animal Pen option)
  • Your chicken(s) will have a nest where you will be provided with chicken's eggs.
  • There is little advantage, other than completeness, to purchasing more than one chicken—you only get one nest even with three of them.

Building Materials[edit]

You can ask your steward to purchase building materials for you:

• Lumber: 20 for 200 gold
• Stone: 20 for 100 gold
• Clay: 20 for 20 gold

Furnish a Room[edit]

You can ask your steward to purchase furnishing options for the house. When you ask a steward to decorate part of your home for you, they will not do so immediately. They will gradually add furnishing options over time, which can be a very slow process. This is one way to avoid the chore of collecting all the required materials yourself, though you'll miss out on all the Smithing experience you'd gain from crafting thousands of nails and iron fittings. If you have them decorate a section of your home, they will eventually add all possible furnishing options to that section of the home; if you prefer not to have certain furnishing options added, you should build furnishing options for that section of the home yourself. The costs of each section of the home are as follows:

Note that the cost for each section will be the same, regardless of how much of the furnishings you have already built yourself.

If you don't have the patience to wait for your steward to furnish, see the notes section at the bottom of the page how to make them work faster.

Other[edit]

You can also ask your steward where to buy materials such as glass or straw. They will direct you to a nearby general goods store: Belethor's General Goods in Whiterun (from Heljarchen Hall), Gray Pine Goods in Falkreath (from Lakeview Manor), or Bits and Pieces in Solitude (from Windstad Manor).

Followers Who Can Become Stewards[edit]

Skyrim[edit]

Notes[edit]

• Mjoll the Lioness has the dialogue options to become a steward in the Creation Kit but the options do not actually appear in game.
• All followers who can become stewards can also join the Blades.

Dawnguard Followers[edit]

These NPCs are added by the Dawnguard add-on. If you become infected with vampirism, after having appointed one of the Dawnguard as your steward, you must cure yourself before they will speak with you again, thus making them useless as a steward until you are cured.

Hearthfire Followers[edit]

These NPCs are added by the Hearthfire add-on. All Hearthfire followers are housecarls.

Dragonborn Followers[edit]

This NPC is added by the Dragonborn add-on.

Notes[edit]

• The amount of time it takes for stewards to furnish your house depends on the number of times you leave the area. The fastest way to complete the process is to find the border of your property and cross it repeatedly until the furnishing is done (PC players can quickly find the border using the tb console command). There are several areas where this can be performed, including:

Lakeview Manor: Go South from your entrance door. After the carriage driver and just before the small pond next to Pinewatch are two large trees growing next to the rocks on your right. The border is between the trees.

Windstad Manor: Go straight east from your entrance door, up the hill. The border is between the two trees growing next to the rocks on your left. (There is a third tree on your right.)

Heljarchen Hall: Go straight south towards Loreius`s farm and pass your stable and carriage driver. Where the rocks on your right end are two blue mountain flowers. One of them is growing next to a dead branch. The border is between the two flowers.

• Stewards who are Blades will stay at the house that they are steward of, and not go back to Sky Haven Temple.
• There is no option for Stewards to furnish your cellar.
• If you want to dismiss a steward, you can do so using the console.
  • Dismiss the steward of Lakeview Manor in Falkreath Hold:
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
EmptyRefAlias House1Steward
SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHouseFalkreath bHaveSteward False
  • Dismiss the steward of Windstad Manor in Hjaalmarch:
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
EmptyRefAlias House2Steward
SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHouseHjaalmarch bHaveSteward False
  • Dismiss the steward of Heljarchen Hall in the Pale:
    SetConsoleScopeQuest BYOHHouseBuilding
EmptyRefAlias House3Steward
SetPapyrusQuestVar BYOHHousePale bHaveSteward False
  • If you put these commands into a bat file, then the EmptyRefAlias will fail, but the other 2 will work, allowing you to appoint a new steward at that holding, but your old steward will still have steward dialogue.

Bugs[edit]

• Personal stewards may vanish after being appointed.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.0.3 of the Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.
  • Entering and exiting the house a few times should restore them.
• Personal stewards may tell you that you don't have enough gold when you attempt to furnish rooms, even when you do. This is usually caused by furnishing a room before asking the steward to do it.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.0.3 of the Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.
• Personal stewards may not sleep at all and instead just stand next to the bed.
  • This bug is fixed by version 2.0.2 of the Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.
• Upon arrival at the house hirelings may offer to be a steward but may not have the normal steward dialogue and instead offer to go adventuring for free or a price depending on the mercenary. They will, however, wander off and do things on the property like any other steward. Waiting at least 24 hours after dismissing refreshes the dialogue that allows you to hire them again. At that point they will have normal steward options.
  • This bug is fixed by version 2.0.3 of the Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.
• On some occasions, particularly when hiring a bard is the only option left, the option of making upgrades for the home will be absent.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.1.2 of the Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.
  • Killing your cow and triggering a load screen (entering the house) may trigger the dialogue for home improvements with your steward. Not selecting hiring a bard first will cause the option to disappear again.
• After furnishing a room by using a steward, the furnishings may not actually appear.
• Whenever hirelings are subsequently 'hired' for adventuring, they will lose their steward dialogue upon being released from service.
  • This bug is fixed by version 2.0.3 of the Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.
• Followers may not give the option to become stewards if Dragonborn is enabled.

Stewards are companions that you can assign to protect your homestead if you have the Hearthfire DLC for Skyrim.

Most stewards can also serve as regular in-game companions, so you can also make them accompany you into battle too.

Once a steward is assigned to a homestead, though, the only thing you can do to get them out is either reassign them to another one or have them die. So yeah it’s a pretty tight contract.

You want to make sure you pick the right steward for your home, as they’ll serve as its main caretaker for as long as they live.

I’ve made this list comprising all the best stewards for you to select from, each with different benefits and drawbacks. Some of them are mighty warriors, while others are weaker but loyal servants. Choose whichever one of these lovely characters best fits with your character’s story.

15. Durak

Durak is a mighty warrior and one of the best followers in the game.

He can become a steward if you wish, and he also has one of the coolest backstories of any NPC follower in the game.

He joined the Dawnguard(where you will need to go if you want to recruit him) to avenge the deaths of his last two wives, who were apparently slain by vampires.

He has an inherent hate for vampires(as you can imagine). So if you wish a lore-friendly playthrough you might not want to recruit Durak if your character is going to follow the steps of the night and become a vampire.

In any case, you can recruit Durak and take advantage of his skills as an archer whenever you wish. He’s also good with light armor.

14. Njada Stonearm

Njada Stonearm may only be recruited to be a follower or steward after completing the entire questline of the Companions.

So it’s worth noting that getting her by your side isn’t as easy as other followers.

She can also become your wife if you wish, so there’s a lotta options here.

Some points about Njada: she isn’t too good at combat, but she does offer good skills with defending and lockpicking.

13. Adelaisa Vindicci

As you might guess considering her name, Adelaisa Vindicci is an imperial and a female follower that may be assigned as a steward once you get far enough to meet her.

You can find her with her Company near the outskirts of Windhelm.

Oddly enough, even though she belongs to the Imperial Army, she’s one of the weakest followers that you can get – which makes her a far better steward!

Adelaisa is proficient at alchemy, enchanting, and smithing, so she’s one of the best stewards if that kinda stuff is more what you’re looking for.

12. Onmund

Onmund is a mage and an archer that roams around the halls of the College of Winterhold.

He’s an important character and a marriage candidate which you can opt to marry if sparks fly.

He mainly attacks with magic(using primarily shock spells) but he may also opt to use his bow and arrows to deal extra damage to your opponents. So he can work as a great partner in battle as well as a partner at home.

11. Ingjard

Ingjard is one of the fanbase’s favorite followers because of her appearance. But keep in mind that she’s not open for marriage so she’ll just be crashing at your place and taking care of the joint.

She’s a mighty warrior that can take care of your homestead as a steward, or she can follow you around and help you kill anything that stands in your way.

She uses her two-handed weaponry ability to slay any foe fast, and she won’t go down easily thanks to her lovely heavy armor proclivity.

10. Golldir

Golldir is a typical tough guy who never got along with his father.

He roams around the tomb of his ancestors and you can actually help him dispose of a necromancer who got inside it. And should you choose to do it, he will become a follower and help you back with any assistance that you might need in combat.

You’ll find him outside Hillgrund’s Tomb which also has many treasures to pick up while you’re there.

Not to mention Golldir will happily become a steward to any homestead after he becomes your follower so it’s worth the trip. You could also recruit him to join the Blades.

9. Talvas Fahtryon

Talvas is a merchant that mainly deals in spells, but he’s also a potential follower and a steward that can be recruited quite easily.

The main drawback of Talvas is that he’s only a level 25 follower. But he can prove to be quite a useful steward if you give him the chance to take care of any of your homesteads.

8. Uthgerd The Unbroken

Uthgerd the Unbroken is a marriage candidate, a follower, and a steward that truly represents how fearsome a woman can be.

She can be recruited simply by beating her in a duel, as she will challenge you to one with 100 coins at stake when you meet.

She has good health and acts as a proficient warrior, as well as a natural wearer of heavy armor. Great defense, good health, and a strong physical damage dealer. All around Uthgerd is certainly worth looking into.

Be it to defend your homestead or to fight for your life, she’s a powerful follower that you’ll love to have by your side regardless of your level.

7. Mjoll The Lioness

Mjoll is a vigilante that travels Tamriel taking care of every foe that might be posing a threat to the common folk of the realm.

She’s a tough person and has a difficult personality, but her kind heart shows every so often.

You can choose to marry her or simply keep her as a steward in any of your homestead. I feel like she’s a personality that you’ll love to have around.

6. Brelyna Maryon

You can assist this strange wizard in an experiment to unlock her as a potential marriage candidate and follower.

She will mainly use her spells as a mechanism of defense and you’ll only see her resorting to her bow if she runs out of magicka during battle. This might make her a stronger follower than a steward, but she could always retire from battle and watch your house if you want someone else in your company.

If you’d love to have a female wizard around then speak to Brelyna at once!

5. Iona

Bring Iona to any of your homesteads if you wish her to take care of it permanently. Seems like she’s a pretty easy sell, right?

She somehow seems to have all the features that you’ll love to have in a steward, as she’s rather strong and can take care of herself (and your home) and she’s also very kind and friendly.

Iona is also very good at dealing with foes thanks to her strong one-handed weapons and clever sense of defense to keep her alive for longer.

The best thing about her is that she can also pose a great threat to foes with ranged damage.

As you might be able to see, most followers tend to have a bow lying around that they will use more often than not.

She’s almost as good with the bow as she is with traditional one-handed weapons so you know that she can cover your back in battle regardless of who you’re fighting.

4. Aela The Huntress

Aela is quite an intimidating character and she’s one of the few werewolves that you can have as a follower in Skyrim.

This attractive but deadly character can also turn you into a werewolf if you choose, or you can either marry her or keep her as a steward.

She can also train you in archery if you wish, as she’s quite a proficient bow and arrow user. This means Aela can basically train you up from a novice into a true archer, all while protecting your home!

Also she can help you sneak around thanks to her mastery of the skill. There’s no doubt that Aela is one of the best followers in the game, which also makes her a fantastic steward as well.

3. Lydia

Lydia knows what it’s like to take care of a homestead.

She’s a housecarl that can be chosen to join the blades, or as a marriage candidate, or even as a follower and steward.

She’s a skilled warrior that can take care of herself as well as keep you safe. This also means she can keep your home safe so you won’t be worried while you’re out & about.

2. Jordis The Sword-Maiden

Jordis is not only capable of taking care of your homestead; she’s also the one responsible for selling the Proudspire Manor should you choose to pick it up for the heft 25000 price tag.

She’s a skilled warrior and archer who wears heavy armor in battle. She’s also one of the best followers in the game, fantastic at watching over your house, and even a marriage candidate.

I think her defensive skills make Jordis one of the more protective stewards you can get in the game. Which makes her perfect to leave at home while you take on quests and face fierce challenges all over Skyrim.

1. Rayya

Skyrim Companions

Rayya is a female Redguard that has the looks to be the toughest follower and steward in the game.

She loves to patrol around your property and will make sure to keep it safe from any intruders or beasts when you’re gone.

You can also choose which weapons she will use if you give anything, but she also has some scimitars that she will dual wield if you opt to leave her to her own weaponry. This lady doesn’t pull any punches and she will defend your place like crazy.

Only trouble is she may disappear sometimes, but don’t panic! She’s not dead. Check back in Jarl’s Longhouse since that’s where you’ll often find her hanging out.

Best Followers Skyrim