Does it Matter Who Your Steward Is in Skyrim?
No, it does not matter who you pick as your personal steward in Skyrim. Whether you choose Lydia, Aela the Huntress, or any other follower to manage your custom Hearthfire homestead, you can expect the same functionality and capability from all stewards you appoint.
When it comes to steward duty performance and benefits, your choice is primarily an aesthetic one based on personal preference!
Now let‘s dive deeper into what stewards provide for your homes and why you might choose one follower over another as your caretaker based on their looks, voice, or other cosmetic factors.
What are a Steward‘s Duties in Hearthfire Homes?
Stewards play a key role in the excellent Hearthfire Skyrim DLC that allows you to build custom homesteads. As the manager taking care of your personal mansion, a steward enables essential upgrades and can rake in regular income.
Purchasing Property Upgrades
After appointing a follower as your steward, you can ask them to furnish and upgrade parts of your home such as:
- Bedrooms
- Kitchens
- Greenhouses
- Alchemy labs
- Furnishings like bookshelves, displays, stocked pantries
They can spend your gold to construct these various wings and additions to flesh out your property into a true mansion.
Generating Income
With certain buildings like mills and fisheries, stewards can generate regular daily income from selling goods produced on your lands. They collect and reinvest the gold automatically, allowing passive earnings to come in each day.
Move Stewards Between Homes
You can move an appointed steward to manage any of your different constructed homes in Skyrim. Simply ask them to follow you again, then ask them to serve as steward at the new property. It lets you transfer trusted caretakers easily.
So in short: as a home manager and business generator, all Skyrim stewards offer the same duties and functions regardless of who you pick.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Steward
While stewards behave identically regardless of their assigned identity, you still want someone whose company you enjoy!
Your homestead steward is someone you‘ll see and interact with frequently. So aesthetic factors like visual appearances and voice acting make reasonable criteria to select them on.
Appearance
Who you most enjoy seeing around your custom mansion each visit can guide your pick. For instance Lydia cut a handsome and familiar figure in her signature steel armor. But Rayya brings exotic Redguard flair in her decorated garb.
Personality and Voice
Likewise, the timbre of your steward welcoming you home or hearing them say the same lines informs how soon their chatter grows repetitive or not. Lydia‘s dutiful moxie or Aela‘s fierce huntress bravado might fit your fancy.
Backstory and Relation
Picking someone special with history between you brings roleplaying delight. Your stalwart companion Lydia from early adventures makes for a nostalgic ongoing friendship tending your estate together in this light.
In the table below, we compare different options that cover appeal factors to consider when selecting your aesthetic preference irrespective of technical steward capability:
| Steward Option | Appearance | Personality/Voice | Backstory Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lydia | Handsome and familiar housecarl | Dutiful and upbeat | Your first companion |
| Aela the Huntress | Fierce armor showing battle scars | Forceful tone conveying inner beast | Companion circle member |
| Rayya | Exotic and decorated Redguard garb | Unique accent from Hammerfell | Assigned as housecarl |
| Jordis | Stalwart heavy plate armor | Friendly and upbeat | Another assigned housecarl |
| Serana | Hooded vampire mystique | Worldweariness of ancient vampire | rescuer and romantic interest |
Expert Tips on Ideal Steward Traits
While technical steward functionality is identical across all assigned followers, veteran Skyrim players and experts suggest considering a few key traits in whoever you want overseeing your estate:
1. Can Defend Themselves
Your steward continues roaming the estate grounds when you are away. Some guides reasonably suggest picking someone who can capably fight and defend themselves from random attacks by bears, bandits, or vampires. Otherwise you risk losing them!
2. Won‘t Leave or Get Lost
Certain complex followers like Mjoll can unexpectedly leave or disappear from your homes for other marked quest locations on the map. Opting for a simpler companion like Lydia or Rayya avoids arriving home to find your steward lost somewhere across Skyrim‘s wilderness.
3. Fun Interactions From Relationship Level
Spouses and other followers with relationship questlines that you‘ve actively befriended offer extra dialogue and interactions expressing your bond around the estate. This immersive roleplaying flavor makes personal connections more enjoyable than strictly professional assignments.
So in summary: a strong, simple, and connected follower makes for the ideal aesthetic and reliable Skyrim steward!
Conclusion
I hope I‘ve conveyed clearly in this gamer‘s guide that the Skyrim steward you choose does not matter functionally – but that you have excellent aesthetic justification to pick whoever you think makes the best majordomo based on looks, voice-over, backstory, or budding friendship!
May you long enjoy whoever you trust to upgrade, furnish, and look after your exclusive Hearthfire estate as we eagerly await Elder Scrolls 6 together! Let me know if you have any other Skyrim home ownership questions.
