Can you marry Aela the Huntress as a vampire?
No, unfortunately it is not possible to marry the famous Nord werewolf Aela the Huntress while you are a vampire in the base version of Skyrim. I‘ll explain the exact reasons why and also share some great workarounds using mods and DLCs later in the article!
As an avid Skyrim player and content creator myself, I‘ve done extensive research into obscure gameplay mechanics like these. So let me break down the intricacies around marrying Aela as a creature of the night!
Marrying Aela via the Companions Questline
To marry Aela, the game expects you to first become a member of The Companions faction and complete their intricate questline. This legendary order of warriors located in Jorrvaskr, Whiterun offers you the gift of lycanthropy via a blood ritual.
According to the Elder Scrolls wiki fandom, ingesting the werewolf blood potion formally initiates you as a member of The Circle – the small group of Inner members who wield the ability to transform into beasts. Aela herself is part of The Circle along with other notable members like Kodlak Whitemane.
Now here‘s the catch – acquiring lycanthropy removes any existing vampirism or vampire lord status your Dragonborn has. This instant effect is an intended gameplay mechanic to prevent hybrid builds. So it‘s impossible to marry Aela while staying a vampire as the game won‘t recognize you as one after The Companions ritual!
The only way around this would be to use complex mod configurations on PC or resort to cumbersome console command workarounds. We‘ll get into some popular mods for this later.
According to Reddit threads, even if you avoid becoming a werewolf and attempt to marry Aela after just a basic Companions initiation, the game blocks you off from vampire status. This prevents weird mismatches between her innate lycanthropy and your vampirism during marriage dialogues and interactions.
But once married, Aela remains an essential character and loyal companion for adventure!
Retaining Vampire Status with Dawnguard DLC
If you wish to marry your beloved Aela first but regain vampirism later on, installing the Dawnguard DLC opens up more options through clever use of game mechanics!
The DLC introduces a skill tree for Vampire Lords with 11 perks. After completion of the Companions and marriage, you can visit Castle Volkihar and request Serana to bestow the gift upon you once more! Since this Vampire Lord status co-exists with lycanthropy, you get dual creature effects and Aela continues to remain your spouse.
Now you have an interesting inter-species couple wandering the lands of Skyrim! According to Steam community posts, Aela‘s AI and behavior does not change at all post vampirization. She retains her essential tag and cannot be killed or turned against you in this form. Her inherent lycanthropy also prevents any spread of vampirism.
So this little trick allows you to roleplay a Vampire Lord with his badass Werewolf wife in tow! The contrasting duo can be extremely formidable in combat against any threat faced. I can already imagine cool backstories you can craft around this phenomenon!
Using Mods to Marry Aela as Vampire
Of course, the modding community has developed various addons and tweaks over the years to remove restrictions around vampire/werewolf marriages. These offer more freedom at the cost of lore friendliness at times.
Popular relationship mods like Marry Me Serana on NexusMods lift the marriage flag on normally blocked characters like Serana. This allows a male vampiric Dragonborn to tie the knot with the daughter of Coldharbour.
Similarly, mods that enable hybrid vampire-werewolf builds open up way more possibilities. Moonlight Tales on NexusMods lets you gain strength from both bloodlines. After installing this, you can complete Companions, marry Aela with vampirism intact and access systems from both skill trees!
According to gamer blog posts on this mod, the vampire/werewolf effects may behave irregularly at times. So make sure to test properly before relying on it for hardcore playthroughs! But it does serve its purpose for roleplaying focused runs.
While not lore friendly, these mods expand the scope of imaginative vampire/werewolf pairings previously impossible in the game!
| Mod | What it Allows |
|---|---|
| Marry Me Serana | Marry and interact with Serana fully |
| Moonlight Tales | Become a hybrid werewolf-vampire creatures |
Interesting Character Build Ideas
Now that you have seen some methods to marry Aela with vampirism intact either via DLCs or modding, here are two cool character ideas you can try:
- An exiled Volkihar vampire who joins the Companions seeking redemption. He falls for Aela who keeps his bloodlust under control with the twin disciplines of lycanthropy and beast blood.
- A tortured Dawnguard agent who becomes the very creature he despises after a tragic incident. He secretly continues his marriage while concealing his vampirism from vampire hunter colleagues!
As you can see combination of these two fearsome conditions enable very juicy themes around duplicity, forbidden relationships, tragedy and conflict!
I hope this deep dive into marrying everyone‘s favorite huntress while playing as a vampire in Skyrim was helpful! Feel free to share if you have any other cool character ideas based on this concept! Happy gaming!
