Followers by playthrough alignment - Omni-guides/Tuxborn GitHub Wiki

Tuxborn players periodically ask which followers would be best for good or evil playthroughs.

For a lot of NPCs in Skyrim, it will be fairly self-evident about whether they can be considered "good" or "evil". But in some cases it could be open to interpretation, especially for custom followers. So this page attempts some recommendations on that front.

Here are some ways you can approach this question:

1. The Morality stat in Skyrim: All NPCs in vanilla Skyrim have a Morality stat that measures their willingness to commit crimes for you.
2. The D&D concept of alignment: Alignment in D&D tracks along two axes, Good > Neutral > Evil, and Lawful > Neutral > Chaotic. It's intended as an RP guide for player choices.
3. Your own personal sense of whether a character can believably match what kind of playthrough you want to run.

Note that Morality as a stat only tracks whether the character is willing to commit crimes for you, and may or may not line up with other indicators about whether they're good, morally gray, evil, etc. So you might try a mix of any or all of these approaches, keeping in mind that ultimately, this is a subjective question. So don't be afraid to go with your own instincts if that seems most enjoyable to you to play.

For purposes of this page, we'll offer Morality stats where known for given characters, and proposed alignments as well. Our proposed alignments here are subjective, based on a mix of Morality stat when known and the character's behavior in-game. Feel free to disagree with them and apply your own interpretations to your playthrough.

Truly good playthroughs would be ones where you're going out of your way to try to uphold law and order as much as you can. This would include not joining any unlawful guilds, avoiding stealing and maybe even lockpicking, not engaging in necromantic arts, etc. You may be playing a paladin of some kind, or just a warrior staunchly sticking to your honor.

Follower	Morality	Alignment	Notes
Any housecarl besides Lydia	0	Neutral Good	All other housecarls besides Lydia in our game are still the original Skyrim versions. Classing them as "Neutral Good" on the grounds that they're willing to commit crimes for you, and that their oaths to protect you and all you own with their lives takes precedence over everything else. But they're still more or less leaning in the Good direction, as part of upholding Skyrim societal expectations by sticking to their duties as your housecarls.
Any follower from the Companions besides Aela	3	Lawful Good	None of the Companions followers will commit crimes for you, as is suitable for a guild of warriors who are all about the honor.
Brelyna, J'zargo, or Onmund from the College of Winterhold	0	Neutral Good	The three apprentices from the College are all Morality 0, so they won't commit crimes for you. Mostly, their main interest is mastering their magic.
Celann, Durak, or Ingjard from the Dawnguard	3	Lawful Good	The Dawnguard in general has heavy ties to the Vigil of Stendarr, who are very much Lawful Good2. These specific followers have Morality 3 so will not commit crimes for you.

Follower	Morality	Alignment	Notes
Jesper the Guard	??	Lawful Good	This custom follower is a Whiterun guard, so by definition, he's all about the law and order. He's also a very cinnamon roll type of character, and therefore most likely not suited for any morally gray or evil playthrough.
Lydia	0	Lawful Good	All housecarls in Skyrim have Morality 0. But the modded version of Lydia we're running is explicitly designed for "good guy" playthroughs, as per the mod author. She has a moral objection system that will have her react very strongly to your joining the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, or the Volkihar vampires. And she'll also react very strongly and may even outright attack you, if she thinks you've become a Daedra worshipper. So we're classing her as Lawful Good. If you want her for a differently aligned playthrough, you should turn off her moral objection system in her MCM.

You can make a real good argument for the vast majority of Skyrim playthroughs landing in morally gray territory, even if they lean in the Chaotic Good direction. You are, after all, playing a hero trying to save the world--but at the same time, you're often doing some highly morally dubious things, even if you're more or less a good guy. Such as consorting with Daedric Princes, necromancy, breaking and entering, lycanthropy, vampirism, thievery, and even assassination³.

Follower	Morality	Alignment	Notes
Aela the Huntress	3	Chaotic Good	Giving Aela a different alignment from the rest of the Companions, on the grounds that of the ones in the inner circle, she's the only one not interested in giving up being a werewolf.
Agmaer or Beleval	0	Chaotic Good	These two Dawnguard followers in particular are willing to commit crimes for you, so we're putting them in Chaotic Good rather than Lawful.
Ralis Sedarys	3	Chaotic Neutral	Whether Ralis is actively evil or just shady AF is very open to interpretation, given how the Kolbjorn Barrow plot on Solstheim plays out. We're classing him as Chaotic Neutral here based on how he presents to the player at the beginning of the plot, as well as at the end if you take the plot path that allows him to live1. So Ralis could work in a morally gray playthrough or an evil one.

A majority of our available custom followers likewise fall into this area in terms of their individual moral compasses. So based on how they present themselves in dialogue to the player, here are proposed alignments for major custom followers:

Follower	Morality	Alignment	Notes
Auri	??	Chaotic Good	Auri is very much pro-thievery, but also disapproves of the Guild's tactics in extorting money from shopkeepers.
Gore	??	Chaotic Good	Gore does not appear to be against thievery, but he definitely has a moral code, demonstrated by his outright rage-quitting you if you join the Dark Brotherhood.
Lucien	??	Chaotic Good	Lucien is also a cinnamon roll, but we're putting him in Chaotic Good territory because he won't object to your joining the Thieves Guild or the Dark Brotherhood, and he'll sometimes joke about being your partner in crime. But based on his reactions to in-game events such as how you choose to play out The Blessings of Nature, he clearly leans in the Good direction, rather than Neutral or Evil.
Remiel	??	Chaotic Good	Remiel, like Auri, is very much pro-thievery. She also has dialogue to the player indicating her belief that you should do what you think is right, no matter what others think.
Xelzaz	??	Lawful Neutral	We're classing Xelzaz as Lawful Neutral on the grounds that while he is not actively pro-thievery, he doesn't object to your being in the Thieves Guild. He's also a practicing necromancer. On the other hand, he has very strong anti-Daedric-Prince morals, though, and will object to your serving Nocturnal. He'll also abandon you if you join the Volkihar vampires. So all in all he has a moral code and he sticks to it, even if his moral code doesn't really align with Skyrim society at large.

Skyrim leans mostly in the Chaotic Good direction, but certain paths of play are definitely more evil. These playthroughs might include joining the Dark Brotherhood or the Volkihar vampires, or Thieves Guild if you're specifically a thief for nothing but the profit and don't care who you're robbing.

There aren't too many followers that are suitable for a truly evil playthrough. Some options to consider though are:

Follower	Morality	Alignment	Notes
Cicero	0	Chaotic Evil	You could argue that Cicerco is Lawful Evil due to his faithful adherence to the Tenets of the Brotherhood and to the Night Mother. But since he's also stark raving bonkers, we're filing him under Chaotic Evil.
Dark Brotherhood Initiates	0	Lawful Evil	You are able to recruit a couple of generic Dark Brotherhood Initiates as followers once you finish the Brotherhood's plot. Since they are both very generic characters, and there is no evidence to the contrary, we're assuming they are faithfully following the Tenets. Accordingly, we're filing them under Lawful Evil. And despite their being generic characters, they also level with the player, so could be good followers at higher levels.
Eola	0	Chaotic Evil	Cannibal and worshipper of Namira.
Serana	3	Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil	Serana is a bit difficult to class. On the one hand, she is a vampire, a powerful practicing necromancer, and a member of a family that actively worships Molag Bal, and at no point does she show any indication that she finds any of these morally wrong. She is willing to overthrow her own father, but less because "he wants to destroy the world" and more "if we let him do this, it'll turn everybody in Skyrim against all vampires". And while you can talk her out of her vampirism, she's willing to consider it only as a matter of "because this destroyed my family", rather than one of "because this is morally wrong". On the other hand, she will not commit crimes for you. So while her moral code very much does not align with Skyrim society at large, she does actually have one.

There are too many followers available via Interesting NPCs to really go into detail on all their alignments on this page. However, this Reddit thread has some suggestions on that front.

1. Which you are presumably going to do, if you want to consider Ralis as a follower.
2. The Dawnguard arguably has a strong streak of Chaotic Good due to their willingness to bypass local authorities if it means they can take out a vampire before it can cut a swath through the population. Mostly, though, they're Lawful Good.
3. Also, killing chickens. And lollygagging. You're not lollygagging, right?