One of my characters is planning to marry Sylgja, his hometown sweetheart, after the war is over, and build an appropriate home for her. Unfortunately none of the three plots are near Darkwater Crossing.

Given the choice then, he'd probably want to build at a site most convenient to some mines, so that Sylgja can have the option to mine relatively nearby. In your experience, does any one of the three have advantages over the others in that regard?

One of the better mining sites is the ebony mine located near Windhelm, in Eastmarch hold, near the Orc Stronghold. That would make the house in Dawnstar the closest, though it's still quite a distance off. Come to think of it, none of the three homesites are located near a lot of mines, sadly.

Well, Lakeview has that iron ore vein just beside the horse carriage. Sylgja will even mine it actually, but the trade-off is that you can't build a west wing extension in order for this to happen.

EDIT: Sorry, I meant east wing (kitchen/library/armory)

Just for the record, I would marry Syljia and move her in asap. There is a bug where she will disappear from the game and only appear at night (only when you sleep in her house). I have had this happen on several characters. I believe it is related to the fact that the mini quest to clear the spiders seems to reset itself, but I haven't been able to confirm this. Marrying her and moving her to another place seems to keep her from disappearing.

Interesting, and I'll bet that is exactly the problem. I never encountered that problem with Sylgja on my character but then, I deliberately didn't do the "clear out the spiders" quest because I wanted Sylgja to remain in the house during the day.

I built my library in Lakeview and the iron ore vein is still there.. or is there another one which disappears? The one which is there just slightly beyond the workbenches if you exit the main door of the house. My steward spends a lot of time pretending to mine the rock which is now empty.

If you're on the PC, you can install a Sylgja follower mod, arm her with good weapons, and then leave her be - the spiders wouldn't be able to touch her. You could technically just console her a weapon and a few levels and she'll still be safe. The spiders don't attack if you don't enter the mine, in any case. Once you enter, they still don't attack unless you're detected, at which point all hell breaks loose. The only casualty I have in the mine is the rude guy who mines at the bottom. Sylgja and the orc, both who mine at the top floor, never get hurt because the spiders come toward me, and I kill them fast enough. The spiders at the bottom eventually got the guy down there because he hit them and drew aggro from them before I could get down there.

Thanks for the tips everyone! I like the idea that she'd actually have the animation at that one spot, so probably would go with Lakeview for the happily ever after part of the love story. Heorogar is probably not even going to visit Shor's Stone until later on, post civil war. After that they'll have a whirlwind courtship though!

BTW when my other, main character built the east wing armory on Lakeview, I was most worried it would lose the stone quarry which is right near the side of the house, but the quarry still accessible too..

The ore vein doesn't disappear. It's just that Sylgja won't mine it if an east wing has been constructed.

Is that unique to a wife? Because my steward mines there all the time.

Nope, it's not unique to spouses.

I just tested it and I think it is. My steward still mines the ore even though I have a library there, but my spouse gets that "no armoury" glitch and just stands out there looking lost.

Not supposed to have anything there. No library, no kitchen and no armory. That's the trade-off, as I mentioned before.

I know. I'm just saying that it's a problem unique to spouses, because my steward is still happily mining despite my having a library there, and it's just my wife who doesn't. I also read somewhere that if you built anything but an armory on the Lakeview east wing, your wife will bug out and just stand there when she would be making her rounds on the porch of the armory. So I thought maybe it was the "no armory" glitch which stopped her from mining, because whatever is causing her to stop mining is currently not, at least in my game, stopping my steward from mining there every day. Or maybe if you had an armory she'd do her porch rounds which replace her mining rounds.. in which case it's a problem unique to spouses, or at the very least not applicable to stewards.

Yeah, let's just leave the steward out of it. The behavior of the spouse and the steward are unrelated. Unlike the steward, the spouse's outdoor activities appear to be governed by the east wing. From my testing at Lakeview, this is what Ive observed:

East Wing (Library or Kitchen): Spouse will glitch and remain motionless outside (Lakeview specific glitch)
East Wing (Armory): Spouse will proceed to the deck over the armory and alternate between sitting and using the tanning rack
No East Wing: Spouse will roam and randomly interact with outside objects, including the iron ore vein.

So with the foregoing advice, for Sylgja to have both kitchen and home mining options, Heorogar's prospective family should best split their time between Lakeview and Heljarchen. THen the next question will be, which of those two would be the best mother-in-law/"gramma" site? I'm thinking Anneke (installed as steward) might like the latter.

Guess it depends how you wanna RP her. Arguably, Anneke should show no interest in being the steward of any home given that she's an adventurer at heart and wants to follow the player mostly for the sake of getting out of the house.

Depends? As steward does she lose her ability to become a follower? If she doesn't then running a household might be a bit more interesting then mining all day with her husband who thinks she's slightly off for her adventurous streak.

Indeed, I was specifically thinking of the adventure of having regular visits from nearby giant camps. ("Stay away from my grandkids- and that cow!")

Yeah, why not?


No.


It's still a lateral move. It's a move from one form of "not-adventuring" to another form of "not-adventuring." Hardly something I could see her bothering with unless under specific circumstances. In my case, I justified it as her wishing to be closer to her daughter after recently separating from her husband. Otherwise, she'd surely go off cave-clearing.

I have a fully built house and my Steward mines at Lakeside view on the iron ore. Got a kitchen and greenhouse with a alchemy lab tower.

That's the same setup I have at the Lake.

Never saw my steward mine them, but there are 2 corundum veins by Heljarchen Hall.

Interesting, what else will they interact with at Lakeview when you don't build the East Wing?

Just for RP's sake, even if she doesn't actually mine, I have now found 2 corundum, 1 iron, and an orichalcum vein in close proximity to Heljarchen Hall. I like it. To me it's the least glitchy house, and you can see any enemies easily. One nearby giant camp you get no trouble from (but it will respawn), and the one close to the house has never respawned for 2 characters once killed. The ore is a bonus, a steady, if small, supply. I check them periodically, and any ore goes to the cellar and into the ore bins.

Well the little wife happily mines the clay deposit over at Windstad Manor, the one right next to the wood pile. Does it have to be ore that is mined?