I have just finished getting Azura's Star but who should I bring it back to? Nelacar or Aranea? I know this sounds silly but I do not want to make the wrong choice. I play trying to avoid the civil war in this game for now, I know I will have to make a choice but at the moment I enjoy traveling Skyrim and enjoy the skirimishes. So what will happen in regards to Nelacar or Aranea? Thanks!

I'd say go for the Black Star as there are more human opponents than beasts in the game. I made the mistake of going Azura Star and it was difficult to get a grand soul when fighting beasts. But if you want Aranea as a companion then go for the Azura Star.

There are way more black soul gems in this game vs Oblivion. I have 30+ in a chest. If you do the regular path you can use the priest as a follower.

It depends what's more important to you:

Black Star if you want the best enchantments for your weapons

Azura's Star if you want one of the best followers in the game plus being able to recharge you weapons anywhere.

What's so good about Aranea?

The Black Star can absorb white souls anyway(despite what your told). So until thats fixed the black star is superior period.

Black is far better since it can trap anything trappable, and humans are grand souls.

Only draw back you lose out on a companion, and she will attack you if you ever go back.

You don't lose out on anything as a necromancer! >:3

i got the black star, then i killed aranea and used dead thrall on her.
shes ok, but others are better.

black star is vastly superior as even level 1 bandits can be farmed for grand souls. screw the deadra!

Getting grand souls is easy no matter what. Getting souls in general is easy. I honestly consider this a non-issue. I have so many extra souls it is ridiculous.

So I just made an RP choice. I decided I didn't want something that encouraged people to kill other people running around, so I helped Azura.

She's a very powerful mage who likes ranged combat with spells, so she stays out your way much better than some of the other followers while providing devastating supporting fire. She's very good about getting away from enemies and healing when her health gets low. Outfit her with a decent set of light armor and she's just about unstoppable (just make sure you give her some sort of headgear so she'll equip the armor). She's got a decent carrying capacity for your loot, and doesn't whine and gripe when you load her down or ask her to do something; in fact, she keeps the idle pvssyr to a minimum most of the time.

Definitely one of the best followers in the game, and honestly, there are so many black soul gems around to loot or buy that I don't miss being able to use the star to capture NPC souls.

I found so many black gems already filled and also a lot of grand soul gems (already filled) that I use my Azura Star for any kind of souls, just to recharge my weapons... So don't choose the Black Star.

But is Aranea any better than the other mage companions, Marcurio etc? Stat-wise I mean?

Aranea is a great follower Ive been using her for ages now and shes powerful and as somebody else mentioned she doesnt seem to get in the way half as much as Lydia ever did. Plus she is not sarcastic when you try and give her stuff.

I have so many grand soul gems its silly I have over 400 in a chest. So I helped Aranea

I've run with both Aranea and J'Zargo and I haven't noticed any obvious difference, but I'm not certain how stats and leveling and such works with followers. I play on XBox so it's much to harder to play with the console to test such things. I remember reading something (here on the forums) about J'Zargo's maximum level cap being significantly higher than other followers or something, but I have no evidence of this.

@OP: Originally I planned to work with Nelacar, but I haven't had issues with a soul gem supply for recharging items (I rarely actually do any enchanting). Went with Aranea after I saw how much chaos mage followers can unleash. If I have a character poking around the mage college, I'll go with J'Zargo because I find him amusing. If not, Aranea. I find both significantly less annoying than most other followers.

Generally Nelacar is the evil-ish path.

Aranea is a better follower because in addition to her mage skills, she is hot when outfitted with Forsworn armor.

My necromancer will take the Black Star. My good guy took Azura's Star.

Maybe I'll have to use her as a follower then (I usu avoid them) - how can we improve Forsworn Armor to Legendary? Is it "Advanced Armor" perk or is it not possible?

The black star is best because all human/humanoid are grand souls and the black soul gem can trap white souls if none are in inventory

You can improve the Forsworn armor to Legendary, though I don't know what perk affects it. The character with her as a follower has 100 smithing and all the smithing perks on the light side to Dragon armor. However, I had Aranea running around in it before level 100 Smithing.

Azura's star: Can trap anything up to a grand soul. Doesn't break
The Black Star: Can only trap humanoid(black) souls. It can trap all souls DUE TO A BUG that will be FIXED. Is also unbreakable.

In other words, take the black star, there are more humanoids in the game then beasts worth trapping...

Is there any source on this? I tried looking around PC Hardware section and I don't find the planned changelogs

Well, it's a bug so until they say it won't be fixed, it will be fixed