My character wanted to marry Silda the Unseen. He completed the quest pertinent to that character, has purchased training in pickpocketing a few times from her, and has spared many a coin in the past. She "so-good-to-see-you-again"s him, but the marriage dialog had still never popped up.

To expedite things, I console commanded her to be interested in marriage (addtofaction 19809 1). When clicking on the marriage dialog and following through with marriage, I then discovered that Silda's lines were correctly voiced by the same voice actor and also matched her personality. I did not expect that at all; I figured Silda was not coded to be a potential partner given the supposed inability to marry without the help of a console command, and so I wouldn't hear the correct voice.

So here's my question: is marriage potential for certain NPCs dictated by completion of other unrelated quests, or achievement of a certain level, or something else? Why did I need to input the console command? I suspect it is possible there is another NPC in the game, who *is* available for marriage, that shares the same lines and the game just borrowed them from her, but I haven't come across this other character yet.

Don't know if this helps, but found a list containing potential spouses. Just scroll a bit down on the page. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Marriage

Thanks, and that brings up a good point: Silda is not on any such list i've seen thus far.

Well then she's not meant to be married.

If that is the case, where did the voice actor lines come from? These lists caution about being non-exhaustive, so that could explain her not being listed.

Don't know where it came from. A flaw in the game maybe?

You did not mention the amulet of mara, just thought I'd throw that out there.

And yes, the same voice actor is used for a number of characters, Mjoll being the most notable ugh.

Thanks, I will keep an eye out, but I'm well into the game now and still haven't found anyone with the same scratchy voice as Silda. This is very strange. So there is nothing else main-quest specific or level-specific for marriage, it's just based on completion of character relevant quests? And yes, I am using the Amulet of Mara.