Say hello to my little (Dragon)friend!

It's been said, but yet to been done. I'd like to put emphasize on a really peculiar event that Howard recently spoke of: the befriending of a dragon.

 [Guess the movie reference in this post's title]

If you don't know yet, it just so happens that we will, presumably through the main quest, get a chance to get all social with a dragon, which we then eventually will be able to call to come and aid us in combat, with a dragon shout called "Animal Allegiance." It is the third and final word in the shout, which means that you'll have to find and master the two previous words before you'll be able to summon this fire-breathing son-of-a-bit.. Son-of-a-dragon.

How we meet it and how we persuade it to join our side, I have no idea of. I honestly didn't expect this. At this point I also feel like I should mention that you won't be able to ride him. Oh, and of course you can only summon him outside.

I really hope that we have to defeat him before he joins us, just to prove that we're more badass than him. It's actually just so I won't feel like a pansy for calling on him.

That aside, I've noticed something interesting about him - It might just be me that's colorblind, but I felt like I should throw my observation out there. Kinda like I throw soda cans after armadillo's. Only.
I'm weird, but Todd said that there were 6 main types of dragon, of which I think we've classified in another post, though it is not official, just observation.

If our list is right, then this fellow is one of the "unique" dragons, that differs from the other, typical (yet not quite so dull,) dragons. When I paused the video for the 132th time, I noticed that he was kind of a dark-blue / Purple color <--- So what kind of dragon is that supposed to be? A Jill? I don't think so, 'cause they are supposed to be black.

Who is this dragon? Why is he different? Why is he on our side? People, tell me - What the fuck is going on?

Dovahkiin and Company

I've worked really hard and made an insane amount (2) of posts on companions, but I feel like I need to make yet another one, due to a bunch of minor details being added to our already impressive (pathetic) overall knowledge.

So let us start at the basics and cover all that we know: You can recruit companions in Skyrim and that is pretty down-right awesome, matching the awesomeness of "Grease."
Unfortunately, you can only have one companion with you at a time, which is about as awesome as "Grease 2."

As far as I've gathered, you can bring almost anyone along - You can hire hirelings, you can bring your spouse and you take friends with you, which adds up to a pretty impressive amount. Yet we should remember that there is a certain risk to bringing our pals along, 'cause they are all but "essential," meaning that if they're dead, they're dead - As in permanent.


But let's not talk about work.
Let's talk about commanding your sure-to-be-mistreated followers! (Work again.)
There is a command wheel for them and you can tell them what approach to take to combat and to use their skills - For an example, you can get them to unlock doors for you, or even steal crap, but keep in mind that if your companions is someone like an honest priest, he won't go and do such a thing for you.

The infamous, unwanted companion:
"Adoring Fan."

Now how do we get companions?
Mostly you can just do as mentioned previously: Bring a spouse or friend, or hire someone. Then there are animal companions (so far just one,) for example a dog, which I suspect to be the infamous "Wilbur." Then you can get some through quests - In Falkreath there is a guy named Sven, who swears to follow you if you help him win the heart of his crush - Too bad that he basically requests his own doom, by offering this.

As always you can ask questions in the comment section, or our "Skyrim Coverage" facebook page.

The Fellowship of the Dragonborn (pun intended)

I once read something, by a very smart random guy on the internet: "As I lack the necessary social skills to make real life friends, companions in RPG's mean a lot to me."
In a way, I think that that is true for me as well and probably also for many others.

Oh, don't worry. This big slap I just gave everyone including myself has a point to it. I think it compensates more than enough for social retardation plaguing my mind <--- (Seriously, I don't really mind all of that, I'm just exaggerating.)

The point is that Skyrim will feature companions and many more than in Fallout 3,  if any of you landlubsters played that. Fallout featured few, but very engaging companions with unique background stories and personalities - Fawkes, I particularly liked! You know, 1: He had a minigun with an unlimited supply of ammo and 2: He was big, green, bad-ass and pretty much immortal.

The companions in Skyrim will however be heavier in quantity (meaning that there are more) but the quality has been taken down a peck or two. The companions you can find in Skyrim will have their own unique personalities, but their will not be deep, engaging background stories to spend hours listening to in a pathetic attempt to please the fictional character. As cute as these sessions were, I am fine with being rid of them.

Since they are your companions, they follow you around. We don't quite know how the command system is yet. Maybe like Fallouts? Still, we know that we won't be managing their levelling the least. They take care of the whole attribute / perk thing themselves, but different companions will have different perks and herefore fight differently.

A thing that I would like to see is something random and awesome. Say you have a low relationship with a "Chaotic Neutral" companion and you find a great big treasure - suddenly, greed overtakes him and he forces his hand on you (not attempted rape, just murder.) Naturally, you kill him for his insolence with a blade to the heart and a pool of pee on the corpse.

That would be great - that would make sure that they all aren't drooling followers of your leadership. Make it a trust thing.

Hoola Boola! Companions can also mean pets, BTW. We know that the first companion you receive is a pet named Wilbur, who'll help you fight. What the hell Wilbur is, I don't know and remains to be seen. I've already written an entire article on Wilbur, so I'll let that topic rest now.

This is a random Naruto picture - There is no specific reason for this to be here, whatsoever.

We have confirmed Marriage BTW - Maybe we'll even be able to woo our companions? Who knows?

Wilbur

I haven't posted about it yet, but we do know that companions will be available. Yae^^
Oh, I remember the day when this was merely a dream in a forum topic created by, well, me.

No, it is not this guy.

Still, we are not sure to what extent companions will be available and that is in fact not what this post will be about. This is about a very specific companion, actually the very first companion the player character will get and it is described as a pet.

More than Wilbur is a pet, we do not know. We have no idea what kind of creature he is or what he can do, except fighting alongside you.

I promise, I will be really opt on this Wilbur business and bring any news I have, forth as soon as possible, 'cause this is honestly pretty damn exciting. We also do not know where we find him, or whether he is given to us or not. Stay tuned for more Wilbur.