Farkas

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"Skjor says I've got the strength of Ysgramor, and my brother has his smarts."

―Farkas

Farkas is a lycanthropic Nord resident of Whiterun, as well as a member of The Circle, the group made up of the most formidable and experienced warriors (and, unbeknownst to the rest of Whiterun, werewolves) in the Companions. He serves as the Dragonborn's shield-brother when searching for the fragment of Wuuthrad in Dustman's Cairn. Like the rest of the Companions, he lives in Jorrvaskr, in the Wind District of Whiterun. Farkas may also be encountered in the wilds, seemingly wandering aimlessly and fighting any aggressive enemy he encounters.

After the Companions quest-line is complete, the Dragonborn can go to Farkas for more work. Eventually, he will also give the quest Purity to them.

Personality

Farkas is very close to his twin brother, Vilkas, and is known for being the stronger of the two. In Kodlak's Journal, Kodlak states that Farkas is kindhearted and usually follows along with his brother's views in most situations. He also tends to be kinder in his dealings with others; he is the first of the Companions, apart from Kodlak, to be genuinely friendly and welcoming toward the Dragonborn when they join the order. Vilkas jokes about Farkas being the more dim-witted of the two, a fairly honest assessment. This is shown in his dialogue as a companion, as well; he tends to be very blunt and does not use many words. 

Follower

Farkas is available as a follower once the Companions quest-line has been completed. (At that point, it is possible to have any Companion as a follower.) Farkas can train up to level 90 in heavy armor although his heavy armor skill is at a low level.

In addition, if he is taken as a follower, he can still be used to train Heavy Armor, and will allow the Dragonborn to take the gold paid to do so out of his inventory afterwards. 

Though he starts with a greatsword he is actually more skilled with one handed weapons.

Interactions

Trouble in Skyrim

Like Aela the Huntress and Vilkas, Farkas has an unlimited amount of work to be done. Even after completion of the quest Purity, he still has more work for the Dragonborn to do.

Hired Muscle

Another radiant quest given to the Dragonborn by Farkas is the hired muscle quests. These require the Dragonborn to brawl with an NPC.

Proving Honor

During the quest Proving Honor, the Dragonborn and Farkas are in a ruin. The Dragonborn is trapped behind a gate and Farkas is surrounded by Silver Hand members. To kill them Farkas transforms into a werewolf. Afterwards, he opens the gate to free the Dragonborn.

Glory of the Dead

During the quest Glory of the Dead, Farkas accompanies the Dragonborn, along with Vilkas and Aela the Huntress, to Ysgramor's Tomb to cure Kodlak's lycanthropy so he can ascend to Sovngarde. While in the tomb, Farkas' fear of Frostbite spiders, from the encounter in Dustman's Cairn, gets the better of him, and he leaves them and Aela to finish the quest on their own.

Purity

Farkas wishes to rid himself of his curse. The Dragonborn has the option of helping him become normal again by throwing a Glenmoril Witch Head into the fire and then killing Farkas' beast spirit.

Dragon Seekers

After Farkas' curse is removed, the Dragonborn can speak to him again for more radiant quests. Eventually, he will have the quest Dragon Seekers for the Dragonborn, indicated by the speech option "Is there any work to be done?". Farkas will tell the Dragonborn of people coming to Whiterun with rumors of dragons, and how he would like to see one for himself. He will then give the Dragonborn the location of one of the Word Walls to travel to and kill the dragon located there. 

Stats at level 50
Health	590
Magicka	50
Stamina	345
Light Armor	20
Heavy Armor	15
Sneak	64
One-Handed	100
Two-Handed	25
Archery	15
Block	20
Alteration	15
Conjuration	15
Destruction	15
Restoration	15
Illusion	15
Enchanting	15
Speech	100
Lockpicking	15
Alchemy	15
Smithing	100
Pickpocket	10

Marriage

Farkas becomes a potential marriage candidate after the completion of the Companions questline, once the Dragonborn obtains an Amulet of Mara. He can also be married prior to the end of the questline if armor is dropped in front of him and he requests to keep it (this will not affect the Companions questline). 

Training exploit

After completing Glory of the Dead, Farkas can be asked to join as a follower. In his speech text there are dialogue options for both training and looking into his inventory. If both are present, Farkas can be paid for training in heavy armor and then his inventory can be opened and the money taken back.

Trivia

• "Farkas" means wolf in Hungarian. His brother's name, Vilkas, also means wolf in Lithuanian.
• His default steel armor outfit is randomized between the set with pauldrons, and the set without. His boots and gauntlets are also randomly chosen between the different varieties of steel armor.
• Because of the game's tendency to mix-and-match the gauntlets and boots between Nordic and Imperial styles, Farkas can be given a matched set if the game is saved before he is within spawning distance (when he is first encountered at the Pelagia Farm fighting a giant), and reloaded until the desired set is equipped.
• Farkas is afraid of Frostbite spiders after the events in Dustman's Cairn. This is revealed during the Glory of the Dead quest, meaning he will not continue to follow the Dragonborn for the rest of the quest.
• Farkas may be recruited into the Blades. If Farkas joins them, he might still travel back to Jorrvaskr.
• Farkas' voice actor, Michael "Popeye" Vogelsang, is the lead vocalist and guitarist for the band Your Favorite Train Wreck.
• During the quest Proving Honor, if the Dragonborn asks Farkas if the Companions are werewolves, after explaining it, he will say "It is a secret to everyone", a reference to the well-known line from the The Legend of Zelda games.
• Farkas' skill with heavy armor is unusually low, despite being a master trainer in its use.
• Farkas is the only Companion who is essential even as a follower, and after Glory of The Dead.
• Farkas can pass through Orc stongholds without any trouble. He has no reason to be there; he just walks in one entrance and out the other, usually Dushnikh Yal.
• Farkas has very mismatched skills. He is skilled in One-Handed although he starts with a two-handed weapon; he has a high Sneak skill despite being a non-sneaking character; and he has a higher skill in Light Armor than Heavy Armor, although he can train the Dragonborn in Heavy Armor.  Additionally, he possesses skills that are not available for training, such as Speech and Smithing. It is also peculiar that although he seems to merit the term "ice-brain" with which he is occasionally teased by other Companions, and although he is not eloquent and uses few words, his speech skill is at the master level of 100.
• Farkas still says "Skjor says that I have the strength of Ysgramor and my brother has his smarts" after Skjor is dead. He uses the present tense instead of the appropriate past tense.
• If Farkas gives the Dragonborn a Trouble in Skyrim quest against any rogue mages, he, like many other Nords, will mention his distrust in magic users, even going as far as saying the College of Winterhold "is bad enough". Oddly, when he's a follower, he has no issue with the Dragonborn using Restoration Spells (such as Healing Hands and Heal Other) on him.
• He may rarely ask the Dragonborn if he can keep any equipment they drop near him. Saying yes makes him available as a follower even if one has not yet joined the Companions.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to Farkas. Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following: Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening. 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. 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 see the list of bugs encountered

Dragon Seekers bugs  PC   360   PS3   The Dragonborn may experience this bug after the dragon is killed; nothing will happen and there won't be any new dialogue with him to complete the quest. He'll continue to follow the Dragonborn everywhere, he's immortal, and the quest never ends.  PC   This can be fixed by opening the console and typing setstage CR14 100. The quest should complete and the follower should be released.  360   It is possible to get away from him by finishig a conversation, then as he is sheathing his sword quickly pausing the game which makes the Dragonborn free to travel.  360   Waiting 31 days for the dragon to respawn then killing it again will help. Farkas' regular finishing dialogue for the quest starts once one talks to him and the quest completes.  PC   360   PS3   During the quest, there may be just a floating cursor at the area in which a dragon needs to be killed. However, there is no dragon to be seen, causing Farkas to follow the Dragonborn without normal dialogue options.  PC   Setting the quest stage to 20 using the console command "SetStage CR14 20" will cause normal dialogue options to be restored as if the dragon has been killed.  360   PS3   The only known solution is to revert to a save prior to taking the quest. A temporary fix so he does not interrupt dungeons is to use the Ice Form shout on Farkas before entering. This should make him only continue following after the dungeon is exited. Other bugs  PC   360   PS3   If the Dark Brotherhood contract: kill Anoriath, is finished before accepting the quest from Farkas about intimidating Anoriath, The Companions Guild will become unfinishable due to Anoriath being dead. He will also continue to follow the Dragonborn and attempt to talk even if they are having another dialogue.  PC   (Save in case of accident), go to console (` by default) and type "player.placeatme 13B97" without the quotes. This will place a living Anoriath on the Dragonborn and make Farkas leave them alone. If Farkas does not stop, target him whilst in console by clicking on him and type resetai.  PC   360   PS3   After the Dragonborn releases Kodlak's soul from Hircine, each time Jorrvaskr is entered, Farkas will start following them, initiating dialogue, and unsheathing his weapon. This disrupts talking to NPCs, smithing, and combat. Farkas has also been known to behave this way even prior to releasing Kodlak's soul.  PC   360   PS3  Clearing all bounties owed by the Dragonborn or by serving jail time may fix this. This is because Farkas and Vilkas are in the guard faction and so will keep disrupting the Dragonborn until all bounties are cleared.  PC   Using the console to kill him is possible by first removing his essential setting. Opening the console and typing setessential <base_ID> 0 turns it off. After this, typing kill with him selected should work.  PS3   During the quest to free Kodlak's soul he will say "For Kodlak!" and repeat it until the quest is finished, even when in combat. This may be fixed by reloading a save from after Farkas first begins to follow the Dragonborn.  PC   360   PS3   After finishing the Companions quest line, there may not be an option 'I'm looking for work' in the dialogue with Farkas or Vilkas, and there will only be the follower request line available.  PC   360   PS3   Taking a few radiant quests from Aela the Huntress should help. After that Farkas and Vilkas will give out quests again.  PC   360   PS3   If Farkas is a follower and the Dragonborn uses the spell Clairvoyance, the spell's light may only guide them to Farkas and not to the objective.  PC   360   PS3   If Farkas is left in Dustman's Carin for a long period of time, at least a month, upon returning to the area, he will continually engage in conversation with the Dragonborn. This will interrupt combat. He will also follow them everywhere, including prison. Finishing the quest in Dustman's Cairn will not fix this.  PC   360   PS3   Sometimes Farkas will show up about half-way between Nightgate Inn, and Anga's Mill. He still has the same dialogue options, but will comment that he is "tired of wandering around".  PC   360   PS3   If given the wolf armor, after some time it will turn into his default armor. This may happen since he was intended to wear this as his default armor.  PC   360   PS3   Farkas, as with a few of the Companions, may act as if Skjor is still alive, with dialog stating he is. This may or may not be related to the bug where Skjor actually comes back to life, due to essential characters returning after one month game time.  PC   360   PS3   If Farkas is tagged as essential, he may still pursue the Dragonborn around Whiterun, regardless of his injuries. For instance, if a Dremora Lord is summoned to kill him, he may be decapitated, resulting in a headless Farkas running around the city. If he is headless, dialogue boxes are open, but not usable.  PC   Dropping armor near Farkas will cause him to open the dialog box, asking if he can have the armor that was dropped. Even if he has permission to keep the armor, he won't pick it up; it'll stay there. Talking to him again will make him ask for the armor once more. This continues until he is told he can't keep the armor.  PC   360   PS3   Like his brother, he also can be very difficult to recruit into the Blades, as he may initiate dialogue with the Dragonborn anytime they try to speak to Delphine, or any other time dialog is finished.  PC   360   PS3   Farkas may set any or all armor in his possession as his starting armor, even if it isn't, making it impossible to take it away from him.  PC   This can be resolved by using the console commands removeitem <item ID> <count> after selecting Farkas by either clicking on him or using his ID.  PC   360   PS3   After marrying Farkas, his steel armor will be sold in the shop he opens. He may not wear it when he is not a follower.  PC   360   PS3   After purchasing his steel armor, he may refuse to carry anything heavy. After marrying Farkas and choosing to keep on living at Jorrvaskr, he may vanish during the night. A possible fix is to complete Purity, once he returns to Jorrvaskr, he will hurry to his room.  PS3   In Dustman's Cairn, if the Dragonborn accidentally hits Farkas while killing the draugr in the first room, he will continuously limp around, even at full health. Dialogue with him will be disabled and he will not help when the Dragonborn gets trapped behind the bars and the Silver Hand come in. He will not turn into a werewolf and the Silver Hand will never come. This can be fixed by loading from a point previous to him limping around at full health. If married to him, he may not sleep in any house beside Hjerim, where he will choose the housecarl's bed instead of the one in the master bedroom. Though he wears steel armor, Silver Hand members may say "He wears that armor, he dies". It is possible for Farkas to marry the Dragonborn if he is made a follower by dropping armor, before completing the Companions questline.  360   If B is pressed during the conversation after Farkas shows the Dragonborn his room after entering the Companions, the quest "Intimidate Faendal" may not appear on the journal, nor will Farkas or anyone else will give another Companions' quest. After being killed by anything he will still follow the Dragonborn, and he can still be talked to. This can be fixed by fast traveling somewhere.  360   Sometimes, if given an Orcish battleaxe, he will equip it like a one-handed axe after fast traveling.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim