Aranea Ienith

"We are children of the Twilight. Beings who are to be guided from the darkness into the light. And from the light into darkness."

- Aranea Ienith

Aranea Ienith is a priestess of Azura, who protects the Shrine of Azura outside of Winterhold.

Background
She descends from the Dunmer cult that worshipped Azura sometime before the eruption of Red Mountain. When the Dragonborn visits the Shrine, she sends them to search for the stolen Azura's Star. The Dragonborn cleanses the artifact upon his or her return by entering it and killing the souls within. Afterward, Aranea offers to become a Follower.

Characteristics
Aranea is an offensive battlemage - she usually summons a Flame Atronach unless the enemy is immune or resistant to fire, in which case she'll summon a Frost Atronach. She can heal herself and will cast Lightning Bolt and Ice Spike against single enemies and Ice Storm against groups of enemies. She usually opens every fight by casting Oakflesh to fortify herself.

Follower
Aranea can become a follower if the Dragonborn completes The Black Star Daedric Artifact Quest. She won't become a follower if the Dragonborn gives the Star to Nelacar.

Trivia

 * If the player chooses to give Azura's Star to Nelacar instead of her during the The Black Star quest, she will not be available as a follower and instead says the player has defiled Azura's Star and asks them to leave.

Bugs

 * Aranea may attack unprovoked and refuse to yield if the player has a bounty, making the quest The Black Star in-completable. Clearing the bounty and re-approaching her may fix this. Another fix is to use a calming spell or ability. One may also wait 3 in-game days before talking to her.
 * Sometimes, when given the Shrouded Robe and exiting the Blue Palace, her outfit disappears.
 * To put armor onto her, first the player needs to put the chest piece into her inventory. Then exit chat with her, then speak to her again then put the helmet in her inventory. Note: This does not apply for PC; the player may take all of her apparel, and then only give her the armor that she is to wear.
 * Equip everything you want her to use, go through a door, and immediately after the loading screen load the autosave that was just created. This time she will be wearing whatever you equipped (Xbox360).
 * Aranea seems to only wear armor with a helmet. She will swap out her robes for a helmet, but not a chest-piece. However, if given a helmet, she will also put on the chest-piece. Not applicable for PC.
 * If the player draws a weapon, Aranea will usually draw a bow and has a quiver of arrows visible even if she has neither in her inventory, but when the player actually goes into combat, she will use destruction spells or conjuration spells. Not applicable for PC.
 * If her one-handed weapon is taken from her inventory, she will draw an invisible weapon and will refuse to fight even when attacked.
 * On the PC, if a (one-handed or two-handed) weapon is given to her, she will prefer magic most of the time during combat; however, in rare instances she may use the weapon given to her.
 * When joining the Blades, she never uses lines like all other Blades such as: "Dragonborn, what do you need?" she will say lines like "Yes, Champion of Azura?". She may not even be met with other Blades when hunting dragons.

Behind the scenes

 * Unless otherwise stated, the information above was obtained from in-game play or from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Creation Kit.