Aela the Huntress is a massive heartthrob for many in the Skyrim fandom.
She is the strongest woman in Whiterun and one of the most influential due to her privileged position in the Companions.
She’s also an extremely effective follower who won’t make a fuss if you kill an innocent bystander or two – something most Skyrim players have come to value over the years.
If you love Aela the Huntress, then you should spare no effort in making her the best she can be – and by that I mean getting some mods to supercharge this werewolf queen.
Most people first meet Aela the Huntress at the end of a giant hunt in the outskirts of Whiterun.
If you help bring down the giant, everyone will comment on your bravery and suggest you visit Jorrvask. If you don’t, they’ll tell you how much of a disgrace to Skyrim you are, too.
Aela will chastise you even if you never actually saw the giant, just because you got close enough to trigger the event. What gives?
To improve your budding relationship with the Huntress, creator Epic Crab made this simple mod adding a dialogue option to remind Aela that you’re not omnipresent.
Another excellent option for those hunting for mild, lore-friendly improvements is the Total Character Makeover by Scarla.
This add-on gives every named NPC in Skyrim a more attractive, or rather, less hideous look.
It’s still more or less the original Skyrim style, only without the things that made every character unattractive, even those who weren’t supposed to be.
Aela gets a minor facelift, and a little more definition in her facial features without the added makeup most other remodels use to showcase her femininity. Her skin details and warpaint are now high-definition, along with her skin textures.
She also gets improved teeth, eyes, hands, and feet.
If you’re looking for something more drastic, this high-poly Aela Replacer by Smaffs is a great place to start.
This mod removes all traces of the original battle-hardened Aela, and introduces a younger-looking version with extremely delicate features and large eyes like an anime character.
She still has the same hair color, but that’s about it. Even her warpaint is different and more delicate! It’s also green, which gives Aela a slight Druid vibe.
IAFT is the best option for expanding the follower element of Skyrim. It enables five followers at once, lets you tweak their abilities and equipment, and more.
It also allows Aela to turn into a werewolf with the player to go on a romantic moonlit rampage.
Once she’s back in human form, you can set different equipment loadouts for different situations.
You don’t really need full armor to walk around in your player home – and neither does Aela.
One of Aela’s main appeals as a follower in Skyrim is that she’s the only living character you’ll see wearing the otherwise Druagr-exclusive Ancient Nordic heavy armor.
Considering her choice of equipment, it might surprise you to learn that her Heavy Armor skill is terrible.
In contrast, she can wear Light Armor like a pro.
A great custom Light Armor option that matches her “Huntress” persona is Alecu’s Ranger Armor, a form-fitting leather outfit perfect for the outdoorsy Nord woman – available in several colors.
If you’re planning to beautify several followers and just started with Aela because her name came up first by alphabetical order, you will love Bijin Warmaidens.
This mod by Rxkx2 gives most warrior women of Skyrim a gorgeous makeover with better skin textures, renewed facial features, and shapely Amazon bodies.
Aela herself has the face of a Hollywood actress in a superhero movie.
Her makeup is delicate and showcases her features, which seem sculpted by the gods. The warpaint has also been toned down – but if you want more then there’s mods for that too.
Aela’s popularity means she gets special treatment sometimes.
Along with Lydia and Ria, Aela gets an alternate Bijin version with subtle changes like a different hairstyle, less faded warpaint, and bright yellow eyes that reveal her lycanthropy.
The slightly wilder hairstyle and fierce werewolf eyes do a lot to make the character more believable. This woman worships Hircine – she’s supposed to look ferocious!
Have fun raiding the Silver Hand with this fearsome beauty.
Another mod offering Aela a stern look that reflects her lycanthropy is Pandorable’s Shield-Sisters.
The “Shield-Sisters” here refers to Aela, Ria, and Njada.
Aela’s strong jawline and prominent cheekbones give her the facial structure of a warrior, but it’s her unique heterochromatic eyes that reveal the wolf within.
This mod finally gives Aela the somewhat regal and dominant look you’d expect of a high-ranking Companion with a central spot in their Hircine cult.
What makes Aela the Huntress stand out to me is her animalistic edge.
She’s a werewolf, after all, and her violent lifestyle has given her a fierce and dominant appeal.
Ella’s Barbarian Aela takes that to the extreme.
Instead of just making Aela more attractive, this mod covers her body in bruises, cuts, and scars that reflect the daily battle that is being a member of the Companions.
It also gives her the kind of body-wide warpaint you’d expect from aboriginal tribes – what Cyrodiilic scholars would call a barbarian.
This Aela is, at the same time, the most attractive and bad-ass version you’ll ever find.
It’s worth starting a new playthrough just to meet this freckled goddess of the hunt.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
