Aela the Huntress (Skyrim)

Aela the Huntress is a lycanthrope, in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

She is one of the leaders of The Companions as well as a member of The Circle. She is shown wearing Ancient Nord Armor, Iron Dagger, Hunting Bow and her Shield (Aela's Shield) which is a named Steel Shield. Her behaviour marks her as a strong and independent character.

The Dragonborn initially finds her fighting a Giant in a farm on the outskirts of Whiterun, and then at Jorrvaskr in Whiterun.

Interactions
After meeting her fighting a Giant she approves or disapproves of the players actions depending on if the player helped her or not. Regardless she tells the player to visit Jorrvaskr in Whiterun and speak with Kodlak Whitemane about joining The Companions.

Aela also tells the player about the feud between Clan Battle-Born and Clan Grey-Mane in Whiterun and suggests to ask other persons about that topic.

Following the questline of The Companions Aela donates some of her blood for the player, so the player will be able to become a Werewolf.

After joining The Circle of The Companions Aela is giving the player some quests against The Silver Hand.

After completing the quest Glory of the Dead, she becomes a Follower and you are able to marry her. Aela is a competent archer, with secondary skills in one-handed. She has a higher Light Armor skill than Heavy Armor skill. She provides Archery training for a fee and can train the player up to Level 75. She only offers after the Dragonborn joins The Companions.

If Aela is used as a Follower, the player isn't able to receive the radiant quest from her. This can be avoided by telling her to part ways, talking to her again to receive the quest, and asking her to follow you again. The reward can be accepted from Aela while she is a Follower.

Aela can become a member of The Blades.

At night, you can usually see Aela hanging out around the back porch of Joorvaskr.

Quests

 * The Silver Hand
 * Retrieval
 * Striking the Heart
 * Totems of Hircine
 * Animal Extermination (radiant)
 * The Bonds of Matrimony

Marriage
The player can ask Aela to marry them only after they have completed the quest chain ending at the Ysgramor's Tomb. Directly after, Aela and other Companions will notice the player is wearing the Amulet of Mara, and will ask if the Dragonborn is available. Aela considers her room in the basement of Jorrvaskr as her default home. If left living there, she will continue to walk around in Jorrvaskr as usual.

She still opens up a store if the player moves with her to Breezehome (even though its in the same city).

First Companion Mission

 * The Aela NPC character encounters a few bugs in the game. One such bug occurs in the first Companion mission where you're supposed to return a shield to her, but she is missing from the Companion's Faction House in Whiterun. The quest indicator shows she is supposed to be outside Whiterun, however, she is not there. Go to the barracks under the long house, she is in her room at the end on the left and behind the left door. Another bug occurs when you accept a quest from her, but the quest had already been completed before accepting it.

Aela is keeping you from fast traveling

 * There is another bug in which she follows you around whiterun just to start a conversation (she is talking to you). You can't fast travel because it always says that "guards are pursuing you" even though the guards are not chasing you.
 * Solution (PC/PS3/XBOX): The easy way to fix this is to run far away, until you are out of her radius.
 * Solution (PC): You can try to avoid her chasing you by turning off the AI detection of your character. Simply open the console and type "tdetect" to disable detection. Then change the location (Aela shouldn't follow you there) and enable AI detection again by typing again "tdetect" in the console.

Aela is stuck as a Werewolf at the Glory of the Dead quest

 * Another bug is caused by completing Glory of the Dead. Sometimes Aela will get stuck on the set of stairs after you fight the were-wolf spirit of Kodlak. If you kill Aela in the underforge during your conversion Aela will remain a werewolf forever, and you will not be able to finish the companions guild Quests due to her broken animations.
 * Solution (PC): I don't know if it solves the problem since I never had that bug but this might help: Open console, click on her. Then type "disable" (she'll disappear) then type "enable". Then type "placeatme 0001a696". This will place (probably) two Aelas next to you, one in beastform and a normal one.

Aela is stuck in the underforge (Totem Quest)

 * After turning in each totem for the totem quest, Aela will pray at the statues. After turning in the final totem if you ask her to be your follower she will make her way back to the underforge and begin praying again.
 * Solution (PC/PS3/XBOX): This is remedied by canceling her as a follower, where she will return to the Companions House, but you can no longer have her as a follower. This bug can be resolved by first Canceling her as a follower, after she has walked out of the underforge, ask her to follow you as a follower. Before she enters the underforge, ask her to wait. She should ignore your command and continue walking towards underforge. Now talk to her again and enter the "I need you to do something" command option. Ask her to go to a random spot. She will obey and wait there. Sheath and unsheath your weapon. Now exit the command mode, and she will start walking towards underforge. Catch her before she enters, and the first option should be "follow me". Select that option and she will now follow you and behave as a normal. Try it a couple times if it didn't work the first time. The key is to reset the glitch during the "I need you to do something" command. Try sheathing and unsheathing weapon during the command mode until she reacts by sheathing and unsheathing her weapon. Once she reacts to your action, if she does not follow you, ask her to follow you then go into another area a couple times might fix it. You might need to hit her a couple times while she is your follower to get her to abandon you. If your killing blow is the strike that will make her to abandon you at the same time, she will abandon you then fully regain her health, talk to her immediately and ask her to be your follower, then immediately enters the command mode, repeat the process if it doesn't work. (If done correctly, you can trigger this bug three times with each totem quest, then reset the glitch three times so that all the totem quest is complete and she functions normally)

Aela attacking you

 * At some point later in the game, if you turn into a werewolf and accidentially attack her, she will attack you regardless if she is your follower / your wife, or not. (This applies for accidentially hitting her in human form too)
 * Solution (PC): Reload a savegame before you hit her, open the console and click on her and type "sifh 1" This should make her ignore your attacks (as a werewolf it's kind of hard to aim, so she will engage you if you hit her too often (about 3-5 times).

Aela's Armor

 * Aela has two sets of the Ancient Nord Armor her armor in her inventory which reduces her carrying capacity. You can buy a set of armor from her shop (Except for the Helmet; This will not leave Aela naked without her armor). It is known that for some players this armor set respawns in her shop sometime after buying it.
 * Equippi​ng armor: Aela equips ANY armor thats better than her unmodded ancient nord armor. She also accepts any headwear (circlets, hoods, hats, etc.) with or without magic abilities.
 * Equipping clothes: Depending on if you can take Aela's armor (getting her stripped) without using the console you can get her to equip clothes.
 * If you can; Take her armor from her, you can simply get her to wear clothes, but you have to reequip them everytime you change the location. (The game will detect that she doesn't have any armor and will not reequip the clothes) If you want her default armor to respawn, take all items from her, open the console, click on Aela, then type "removeallitems". After that, simply trade any item with her, her armor will respawn.
 * If you can't; Aela simply can't wear casual clothes.

Aela is not accepting (equipping) any bows

 * In combat, she will always switch to an unmodded Hunting Bow, no matter what kind of bow you're giving to her. Taking the bow again and giving her back will cause her to equip the new one, but she'll switch again once a fight encounters.
 * Solution (PC): Make sure you take all of her items from her, then open the console click on Aela and then type "removeallitems" this will leave her without that cursed bow. Just give her back all her items (just in case, give her your bow first) Her default armor will respawn as soon as you change her inventory, just the Hunting Bow is gone. This only works until you remove the bow (the one you gave her) from her again, then her default bow respawns as well and you have to go through the solution again.

Aela is not preparing food anymore

 * At a random time the "Can you prepare me some food?" conversation option can disappear. There is no known fix yet.

Animal Extermination quest bug

 * Aela gives quest about 'Clear out Greenspring hollow'. But if you clear 'Greenspring hollow' before accepting quest, You can't proceed next step.
 * Solution (PC): Open console and type "Setstage CR02 20"

Aela has disappeared (and can't be found anywhere)
Aela Marriage Bug
 * Aela tends to disappear randomly when you are out in the wilds. She won't return to you by waiting or fast traveling to another location.
 * Solution (PC/PS3/XBOX): The game might have put Aela out hunting, she can either be found near Darkwater Crossing, Jorrvaskr or in Breezehome.
 * Solution (PC): Open up the console and type "placeatme 0001a696". This should place Aela next to you and you can reengage her follower mode.
 * If you have acqired Lydia as a follower and manage to get her killed, Lydia will spawn in the Temple of Mara during the wedding ceremony. This causes everyone to become angry at you and will prevent the marraige from continuing.

Trivia

 * Aela and Legate Rikke are voiced by Claudia Christian.
 * Aela is one of the female NPC's of Skyrim, that you can marry using the Amulet of Mara
 * Aela may share a similarity with the Character Ayla from the Jean M. Auel Novel Clan of the Cave Bear.
 * Aela owns a personalized shield called "Aela's Shield".