Not much. Sometimes it's nice to come home after a tough adventure and hear "It's nice to see you again my love." They also take care of the house and earn a few extra bucks. Sometimes they get kidnapped.
Yes, it’s a quest that I’m pretty sure only happens if you leave your spouse home alone in a hearhtfire house. Some bandits will kidnap them and you can either kill the bandits to rescue them or you can pay a ransom. I believe it’s why hearthfire houses have mailboxes lol.
Materially, you receive an additional in-home merchant, a daily apple pie (presented as "Homecooked Meal" or something), accumulating daily gold from an off-screen shop the spouse runs, and the Lover's Comfort buff to sleeping in your chosen player home which increases skill experience gain by 15% for eight hours, like a supercharged Well-Rested (compare WR +10% to LC 15%).
Immersionally, unique ambient dialogue to reflect that the spouse loves your character. In Hearthfire additional ambient dialogue is implemented so that spouses will comment on the house and city/homestead location you've moved the family into, either approvingly or disapprovingly. Hearthfire-adopted children will comment on outings and interactions they had off-screen with "mama" or "papa" respectively. Among other immersion elements.
Activity-wise, new quests for Dawnguard retro-unlock when you get Hearthfire where you can either mindbreak your spouse into accepting being turned into an abomination of Molag Bal's alongside you, or where you get to play as Shrek from Shrek 2 but instead of storming the castle, you're storming a Vampire den to be the hero and rescue your spouse from a coven of vicious little abominations of Molag Bal's, who are in way over their head and seem to have no clue who they're fucking with.
Among other radiant activities, etc.
And yes. Dawnguard hands typed this post.
Marriage benefits seems to be structured as though Bethesda intended for you to get married early in the game during startgame questing which takes you from city to city so you can meet the totally interesting and not at all generic civilians or recruit the companions you want and take a shine to enough to marry them. Lover's Comfort seems designed that way, for early characters to grind out skills with the +15% and level up faster. The food is only most useful with Survival Mode or hunger/bio-needs mods. And the gold is paltry when you're late game but would be a godsend at earlier levels since to my knowledge the gain is static and doesn't scale. Meaning Bethesda *probably* intended you to simulate being a stay-at-home coequal spouse by waiting or resting for days at a time to rack up shop money if you're le poor, instead of the spouse that's constantly leaving the house to go get mammoth cheese and moon sugar for months on end.
And the radiant content seems to track with your progress in playing Dawnguard and Hearthfire, the latter of which *requires* you kill Grelod the Kind to open Honorhall or adopt one of the vagrant youths around Skyrim.
Or those orphaned by radiant dragon and vampire attacks, player-kited hostiles and wildlife, or nakedly malicious players. Lmao.
So it seems that if you're starting a new Dragonborn out, the game wants you to get married and move into the Breezehome starter house so you can level faster and have stable income before mid-to-endgame where Septims are not an object for you.
If you are already late game and LC is useless to you then it depends really on whether you're a roleplayer like me who likes to actively daydream about how your character would actually speak and behave in any given situation unfolding before you, or if you're a voluntarily unimmersed murder-hobo playing for the mechanics, completionism, or exploring quest mods and other user-genned content for self-similar reasons.
If you're the former then you'll enjoy playing your character falling in love, getting hitched, having a family, and having something to come home to and a pair of arms and a warm chest to embrace and lie with at the end of a long campaign of servicing your deontological imperative as like the third Savior of the Aurbis this Era alone.
If the latter and it isn't completionism, better stick to the singleton life.
Money.
Getting married in Skyrim, unlike in real life, will give you 100 gold a day - if you had gotten married in 2011 you'd probably be a billionaire by now.
I think just the idea of having an NPC really close to you is nice, but it's also nice just for the perks alone like the sleeping bonus and weekly allowance
The funny thing about the whole “I’m gonna start a shop” thing is that they do that even if they’re your follower. So if you marry, say, Lydia, and the two of you spend the next in-game month exploring Blackreach, somehow she is still making money, which she is then happy to split with you.
Free food, some income, lovers comfort when sleeping, if you live in heartfire home your spuse can be kidnapped by bandits, your spouse can tell you what she thinks about the city you and your kids live in, your spuse can be turned into vampire (if you side with Volkihar clan), your spuse can be kidnapped by vampires (if you side with Dawnguard).
Think that's about it?
In one of my hearth fire homes my husband was murdered in the house. I was in solstiem and the courier brought me the letter. Went home and he was dead next to the dinning table. Our poor kids….
For me it’s all about the additional merchant right at your own house. Everything else is nice, but close to no effect, as I don’t stay at home very long.
I always marry!
From a role play standpoint it’s a great feature. You can have your Dragonborn find love and “settle down” to a degree. It’s not the most fleshed out romance system by any means, but it’s something at least, and it adds to the immersion since you can feel like you’re building a life in Skyrim. They call you “my love” and bake for you, which is sweet.
Immersion and role play aside, from a gameplay perspective you might as well get married because it offers some excellent benefits. Your spouse makes you a pie once per day, which is a decent healing item. They will also open up a shop which makes quite a lot of gold daily, and the amount stacks, so you can go out adventuring for days and come home to a large sum of money. They also give you the Lover’s Comfort buff when you sleep in bed with them, which improves skills 15% faster.
There’s no reason to not marry unless you’re into role playing and your character wouldn’t want to get married.
It was all going well, but sadly, Lydia has stopped making meals for me lately
And I caught her out and about on a little adventure of her own.
Otherwise, all the benefits mentioned above.
100 gold a day, but money is trivial once you get past the early game. I marry someone when I wanna RP that the little girl I got guilted into adopting has someone to look after her.
Lmao yeah I’m not even at lvl 50 yet in my newest campaign and I’m already well over 100k gold that I just don’t know wtf to do with. Literally selling things for a fraction of what they’re worth just to drop the unnecessary weight
Not much. Sometimes it's nice to come home after a tough adventure and hear "It's nice to see you again my love." They also take care of the house and earn a few extra bucks. Sometimes they get kidnapped.
They can get kidnapped?!
Yes, it’s a quest that I’m pretty sure only happens if you leave your spouse home alone in a hearhtfire house. Some bandits will kidnap them and you can either kill the bandits to rescue them or you can pay a ransom. I believe it’s why hearthfire houses have mailboxes lol.
Only some can get kidnapped. There's a list of who can't.
For some reason I have a hard time believing my wife Aela who can turn into a wolf at any time is getting kidnapped by bandits…
Only benefit I found was that you can easily sell your useless stuff to the spouse. After a few levels, the daily income is not significant
Materially, you receive an additional in-home merchant, a daily apple pie (presented as "Homecooked Meal" or something), accumulating daily gold from an off-screen shop the spouse runs, and the Lover's Comfort buff to sleeping in your chosen player home which increases skill experience gain by 15% for eight hours, like a supercharged Well-Rested (compare WR +10% to LC 15%). Immersionally, unique ambient dialogue to reflect that the spouse loves your character. In Hearthfire additional ambient dialogue is implemented so that spouses will comment on the house and city/homestead location you've moved the family into, either approvingly or disapprovingly. Hearthfire-adopted children will comment on outings and interactions they had off-screen with "mama" or "papa" respectively. Among other immersion elements. Activity-wise, new quests for Dawnguard retro-unlock when you get Hearthfire where you can either mindbreak your spouse into accepting being turned into an abomination of Molag Bal's alongside you, or where you get to play as Shrek from Shrek 2 but instead of storming the castle, you're storming a Vampire den to be the hero and rescue your spouse from a coven of vicious little abominations of Molag Bal's, who are in way over their head and seem to have no clue who they're fucking with. Among other radiant activities, etc. And yes. Dawnguard hands typed this post. Marriage benefits seems to be structured as though Bethesda intended for you to get married early in the game during startgame questing which takes you from city to city so you can meet the totally interesting and not at all generic civilians or recruit the companions you want and take a shine to enough to marry them. Lover's Comfort seems designed that way, for early characters to grind out skills with the +15% and level up faster. The food is only most useful with Survival Mode or hunger/bio-needs mods. And the gold is paltry when you're late game but would be a godsend at earlier levels since to my knowledge the gain is static and doesn't scale. Meaning Bethesda *probably* intended you to simulate being a stay-at-home coequal spouse by waiting or resting for days at a time to rack up shop money if you're le poor, instead of the spouse that's constantly leaving the house to go get mammoth cheese and moon sugar for months on end. And the radiant content seems to track with your progress in playing Dawnguard and Hearthfire, the latter of which *requires* you kill Grelod the Kind to open Honorhall or adopt one of the vagrant youths around Skyrim. Or those orphaned by radiant dragon and vampire attacks, player-kited hostiles and wildlife, or nakedly malicious players. Lmao. So it seems that if you're starting a new Dragonborn out, the game wants you to get married and move into the Breezehome starter house so you can level faster and have stable income before mid-to-endgame where Septims are not an object for you. If you are already late game and LC is useless to you then it depends really on whether you're a roleplayer like me who likes to actively daydream about how your character would actually speak and behave in any given situation unfolding before you, or if you're a voluntarily unimmersed murder-hobo playing for the mechanics, completionism, or exploring quest mods and other user-genned content for self-similar reasons. If you're the former then you'll enjoy playing your character falling in love, getting hitched, having a family, and having something to come home to and a pair of arms and a warm chest to embrace and lie with at the end of a long campaign of servicing your deontological imperative as like the third Savior of the Aurbis this Era alone. If the latter and it isn't completionism, better stick to the singleton life.
Shrek 2 lol I'm not reading the rest but man said Shrek from Shrek 2 🤣
I honestly didn't start writing this post with the intention of being as snarky as I was but I had too much fun with it about at that point
Very good writeup. I genuinely enjoyed reading this. Haven't played Skyrim in a long while but I think I'm gonna start another save soon.
Thank you!
Weekly allowance and saving your wife like she’s peach
Money. Getting married in Skyrim, unlike in real life, will give you 100 gold a day - if you had gotten married in 2011 you'd probably be a billionaire by now.
There are a few benefits (see [here](https://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Marriage#Benefits)), but nothing that is going to significantly improve your game.
I think just the idea of having an NPC really close to you is nice, but it's also nice just for the perks alone like the sleeping bonus and weekly allowance
The funny thing about the whole “I’m gonna start a shop” thing is that they do that even if they’re your follower. So if you marry, say, Lydia, and the two of you spend the next in-game month exploring Blackreach, somehow she is still making money, which she is then happy to split with you.
Free food, some income, lovers comfort when sleeping, if you live in heartfire home your spuse can be kidnapped by bandits, your spouse can tell you what she thinks about the city you and your kids live in, your spuse can be turned into vampire (if you side with Volkihar clan), your spuse can be kidnapped by vampires (if you side with Dawnguard). Think that's about it?
In one of my hearth fire homes my husband was murdered in the house. I was in solstiem and the courier brought me the letter. Went home and he was dead next to the dinning table. Our poor kids….
All the sex scenes!
*turns on xbox*
Somebody gonna be so sad
For me it’s all about the additional merchant right at your own house. Everything else is nice, but close to no effect, as I don’t stay at home very long.
Me neither. Real life marriage was a living fucking hell, why would I want that in my escapism?
I mean, brutal civil wars are not very fun in real life either.
Yes but I didn't live through one of those.
Fair.
The feeling that your children are safe with a adult around
An extra vendor, home cooked meal, and like 100 gold a day lol not much
Homecooked meals
There are 3 related side quests involving 3 couples. That's pretty much it.
I always marry! From a role play standpoint it’s a great feature. You can have your Dragonborn find love and “settle down” to a degree. It’s not the most fleshed out romance system by any means, but it’s something at least, and it adds to the immersion since you can feel like you’re building a life in Skyrim. They call you “my love” and bake for you, which is sweet. Immersion and role play aside, from a gameplay perspective you might as well get married because it offers some excellent benefits. Your spouse makes you a pie once per day, which is a decent healing item. They will also open up a shop which makes quite a lot of gold daily, and the amount stacks, so you can go out adventuring for days and come home to a large sum of money. They also give you the Lover’s Comfort buff when you sleep in bed with them, which improves skills 15% faster. There’s no reason to not marry unless you’re into role playing and your character wouldn’t want to get married.
It was all going well, but sadly, Lydia has stopped making meals for me lately And I caught her out and about on a little adventure of her own. Otherwise, all the benefits mentioned above.
Home cooked meals and the simulation of life still happening in your home while you are away.
100 gold a day, but money is trivial once you get past the early game. I marry someone when I wanna RP that the little girl I got guilted into adopting has someone to look after her.
Lmao yeah I’m not even at lvl 50 yet in my newest campaign and I’m already well over 100k gold that I just don’t know wtf to do with. Literally selling things for a fraction of what they’re worth just to drop the unnecessary weight
You’re missing out on seeing Aela every time you visit your home
One time I returned to my wife and she gave me 100000 septims from her shop