Who To Sacrifice to Boethiah In Skyrim (Boethiah's Calling) (2024)

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the "Boethiah's Calling" quest requires players to sacrifice a follower. The quest begins when Boethiah, the Daedric Prince of Conspiracy and Deceit, demands the player to bring a follower to the Shrine of Boethiah to be sacrificed. As a reward for the sacrifice, Boethiah will allow the Dragonborn the opportunity to become his champion. Players will simply have to choose who to sacrifice to Boethiah themselves.

To start "Boethiah's Calling," the Dragonborn must travel to Sacellum of Boethiah, a shrine located in the East of Windhelm in Skyrim. Players must be at least level 30 to unlock the quest, and they will likely have to deal with some enemy Boethiah Cultists in the area. The quest will begin inside the shrine when the book Boethiah's Proving is read. Once the Daedic Prince has given his request, players will need to select their chosen sacrifice.

Who To Sacrifice For The Boethiah's Calling Quest In Skyrim

All Possible Follower Options

If players want to sacrifice a follower to Boethiah based on justice or morality, Ralis Sedarys can be a good choice. Rails is the Dunmer at the head of the Kolbjorn Barrow excavation in Solstheim, who requests the Dragonborn's assistance and money to clear an ancient Nord Tomb. This follower secretly hopes to awaken Ahzidal, an ancient Dragon Priest.

Ralis Sedarys does not share his plans to wake the Dragon Priest in Skyrim with the player until the end of their adventure, which causes the death of several innocent NPCs. After this event, he can be hired as a follower in Retching Netch if the player does not choose to execute him after the Kolbjorn Barrow quest.

Easiest Boethiah Sacrifice Choices

One of the easiest followers to acquire is Lydia, who could be a good choice for sacrifice to Boethiah if players do not have other followers who are easily accessible. Players automatically gain Lydia in Skyrim as a follower after defeating the Dragon in Whiterun to become the Thane of Whiterun as part of the main quest.

Also, Lydia only scales with the Dragonborn until level 50, so she may not be useful to higher-level players. Still, Lydia is a fan-favorite companion, and players may be loath to sacrifice their first real follower. Aside from Lydia, there are even easier sacrifice choices in Skyrim.

Students of the College of Winterhold are by far the easiest to sacrifice in Boethiah’s Calling. There are three total students that you can recruit and later sacrifice. To unlock any of these three Winterhold students as followers, you must help them complete character-specific quests.

Thankfully, most of these quests are incredibly easy to complete. Of course, you need to enter Winterhold and join the college to make this strategy work. Whether you choose J’Zargo, Brelyna, or Onmund, any of these three will satisfy the quest conditions.

Best Followers To Sacrifice To Boethiah Who Don't Matter

Players may also decide which follower to sacrifice in Boethia's Calling, which leaves little impact, such as Cosnach or the Dark Brotherhood Initiate. Cosnach is the town drunk in Markarth's Silver-Blood Inn.

Players will have to defeat Cosnach in a brawl to get the option to hire him as a follower in Skyrim. Similarly unimpressive is the Dark Brotherhood Initiate, who remains unnamed and is generic in appearance and dialogue. Players will earn the option to hire this follower after completing the Dark Brotherhood questline in Skyrim.

Finally, Sven or Faendalmay be tempting options to sacrifice if they continue to visit the Dragonborn's wife. Depending on the player's choices during the quest A Lovely Letter, players will only be able to choose either Sven or Faendal as a follower.

At the same time, the other will resent the Dragonborn for his role in their relationship with Camilla, who players can marry. Sven or Faendal will continue to visit Camilla, even if she lives with the Dragonborn in his home. They reside in Riverwood, and one can be hired as a follower after "A Lovely Letter." Faendal is a pretty useful companion, but players should consider sacrificing Cosnach to Boethiah if they have the chance.

How To Complete Boethiah’s Calling Without Sacrificing A Follower In Skyrim

If you simply cannot bring yourself to sacrifice any follower, this is a method to complete Boethiah’s Calling without killing any followers. Like most Bethesda games, Skyrim is full of bugs players can exploit. Players can use a simple bug with this quest without using any mods to bypass the need to kill any followers. This is a fairly difficult method and requires near-perfect execution, so save before any attempts.

Once you start the quest and bring a follower onto the altar, you can kill all cultists in the area except for one. Lure the final cultist close to the altar, then kill both your follower and the cultist within a second of each other. Boethiah will first possess your follower but then swap over to the cultist. Your recently deceased follower will then reset, and you can continue and finish the quest without any disruption in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Franchise

The Elder Scrolls

Platform(s)

PC , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Nintendo Switch , Xbox 360 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

November 11, 2011

Developer(s)

Bethesda Game Studios

Publisher(s)

Bethesda Softworks

Genre(s)

RPG , Action , Adventure

Engine

Creation Engine

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol