Aela the Huntress (Skyrim)

Aela The Huntress is a lycanthrope 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 the Companions. she also becomes a candidate for marriage as well as a follower.

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."

Interactions
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. She approves or disapproves of the Dragonborn's actions depending on the amount of assistance given in defeating the Giant. 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. 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 player 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.

After destroying the Silver Hand
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.

Quests

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

Follower
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 in Archery. Her primary skills are Light Armor and Sneak. Her secondary skills are One-Handed and Speech. Her tertiary skill is Block.

She excels with bows and light armor, is very skilled with one-handed weapons, and is decent 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 dead NPCs. 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.

Strangely, 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
Aela can be forced to wear clothes, although the process must be repeated every time the player changes locations. 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 will return to Jorrvaskr by default. If she has been asked to move into the player's home through marriage, she will return there. Also, if recruited for The Blades, she will return 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 NPCs 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.
 * It is rumored among the Companions that Aela and Skjor are lovers: the player can overhear Njada Stonearm ask Aela about this in ambient dialogue. Aela hastily and staunchly denies the relationship, however. If the player is female, Nadja sometimes implies the player character was involved with Skjor. Aela denies that also.
 * Aela is the only member of The Circle who cannot be cured of Lycanthropy.

Bugs
Aela the Huntress
 * When Aela has Nettlebane she can be ordered to instantly kill/assasinate other humans.
 * 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: " " and then " " 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. There is no known fix to this yet.
 * Some have experienced a bug that involves Aela continuously attempting dialogue with the player. A possible fix is to recruit her, go outside, dismiss her, wait one hour, and then recruit her again.
 * 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. A confirmed fix is to use Unrelenting Force shout on her. (She then becomes hostile).
 * Blocking while holding a bow may resolve this issue.
 * As a follower, even when given gauntlets superior to hers in base value, Aela has been found to keep using her starter gauntlets instead.
 * She may start sliding across the ground, flying and sinking. The only way to fix this is to go to the last save (not autosave).
 * If the Dragonborn marries Aela, then constantly buys and sells things from her, he/she 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 the player's follower and he takes another Companions quest, causing her to wait back at Jorrvaskr, she cannot join him/her again until that 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 in to your wedding to marry Aela, Vilkas may be waiting at the altar to marry you instead.

Appearances
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Aela la Cacciatrice Aela die Jägerin