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:
- Heljarchen Hall in the Pale
- Lakeview Manor in Falkreath Hold
- Windstad Manor in Hjaalmarch
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.
Commands
Improvements
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
You can ask your steward to purchase building materials for you:
Furnish a Room
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:
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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 notes section at the bottom of the page how to make them work faster.
Other
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
Skyrim
Notes
- 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
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.
Name | Gender | Race | Description | Max Level | Moral | Marry | Blades |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Agmaer | Male | Nord | A member of the Dawnguard found in Fort Dawnguard. (Bandit class) | 25 | 0 | No | Yes |
Beleval | Female | Bosmer | A member of the Dawnguard found in Fort Dawnguard. (Bandit class) | 25 | 0 | No | Yes |
Celann | Male | Breton | A member of the Dawnguard found in Fort Dawnguard. (Warrior (1H) class) | None | 3 | No | Yes |
Durak | Male | Orc | A member of the Dawnguard found in Fort Dawnguard. (Ranger class) | None | 3 | No | Yes |
Ingjard | Female | Nord | A member of the Dawnguard found in Fort Dawnguard. (Warrior (2H) class) | None | 3 | No | Yes |
Hearthfire Followers
These NPCs are added by the Hearthfire add-on. All Hearthfire followers are housecarls.
Name | Gender | Race | Description | Prerequisite Quest | Max Level | Moral | Marry | Blades |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gregor | Male | Nord | A warrior (1H) found in Dawnstar. | Become Thane of the Pale | 50 | 0 | Yes | Yes |
Rayya | Female | Redguard | A warrior (1H) found in Falkreath. | Become Thane of Falkreath | 50 | 0 | Yes | Yes |
Valdimar | Male | Nord | A sorcerer found in Morthal. | Become Thane of Hjaalmarch | 50 | 0 | Yes | Yes |
Dragonborn Followers
This NPC is added by the Dragonborn add-on.
Name | Gender | Race | Description | Prerequisite Quest | Level | Moral | Marry | Blades |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Talvas Fathryon | Male | Dunmer | A conjurer living in Tel Mithryn. | From the Ashes | 25 | 3 | No | Yes |
Notes
- 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.
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- 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.)
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- 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.
- Ficheiro:Pc22.pngIf 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.
- Dismiss the steward of Lakeview Manor in Falkreath Hold:
Bugs
- Personal stewards may vanish after being appointed.
- PC Only 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.
- PC Only 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.
- PC Only 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.
- PC Only 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.
- PC Only 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 dialog for home improvements with your steward. Not selecting hiring a bard first will cause the option to disappear again.[verification needed]
- 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.
- PC Only 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.