Boethiah's Calling Guide - Scrolls Guided

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Xavier is a featured contributor for Scrolls Guided. His adventure into the Elder Scrolls series started as a filthy casual child playing Morrowind on the Original Xbox. He would dive back into Vvardenfell properly on PC years later and has refused to leave. While he thoroughly enjoys other Elder Scrolls games, Morrowind remains his favorite Elder Scrolls game and game period.

Requirements

Be at least level 30
A companion sacrifice

Recommendations

Having the Ebony Blade before taking on this quest
A powerful Calm spell
Fortify Lockpicking potions or magical apparel

Location

To kick off Boethiah’s Calling, head for the Sacellum of Boethiah in the mountains southeast of Windhelm.

The quest will eventually lead you to Knifepoint Ridge, northwest of Falkreath.

Notable Loot

Blade of Sacrifice
Ebony Mail
Vernaccus & Bourlor (Archery skill book)
57 corundum ore
21 iron ore

Starting Boethiah’s Calling

To begin Boethiah’s Calling, you must first be at least level 30. From that point on, Boethiah cultists may attack you in random encounters, and the book Boethiah’s Proving will spawn in the game world. You must read this book for Boethiah’s Calling to start.

You can find Boethiah’s Proving randomly, but there are a few locations where it is a set spawn. The easiest to find is in the Abandoned House in Markarth (The one that begins the House of Horrors quest).

Alternatively, you can travel straight to the Sacellum of Boethiah southeast of Windhelm to start Boethiah’s Calling. You’ll likely run into some frost trolls on the way up. There may or may not also be a dragon flying around.

Prove Yourself Worthy

Once there, speak with the Priestess of Boethiah. She will give you some backstory on the Daedric Prince, and you can tell her that you are worthy of earning Boethiah’s favor.

The Priestess will require you to show yourself capable before her cult welcomes you into their midst. She asks that you prove your tongue can wield a lie by convincing a follower to touch the Pillar of Sacrifice up above. Then, she wants you to kill this person using the Blade of Sacrifice that she gives you.

It’s time for someone who trusts you to get stabbed in the back. Or in the front. Yet another moment that I wish that Nazeem was a possible companion for the Dragonborn. He thoroughly enjoys the Cloud District, so I’m sure he’d enjoy going up into the literal clouds, as well. Marcurio in Riften is also a little on the pompous side, always complaining whenever I trade gear with him. He’s usually first on my chopping block.

Pick any non-essential humanoid companion you want, and lead them to the shrine atop the Sacellum. If you gave them any items, remove them, as they will only have their default gear when they die. Use the command follower function to order them to touch the shrine. Your follower immediately magnets to the shrine and gets reduced to 1 HP. Despite what the Priestess of Boethiah says, you do not have to use the Blade of Sacrifice to kill them. If you have the Ebony Blade, this is a free kill to power up its’ enchantment. Slay your former companion, and Boethiah will appear and use their body as a conduit.

Boethiah demands to know why you have slain this person who trusted you at her shrine. Boethiah actually prefers followers who aren’t mindless drones, so feel free to be reserved and defiant in your conversation with her.

The Daedric Prince will be intrigued by you and command all of her followers to listen up. She has a task that needs doing, but only the strongest amongst you can do it. So she wants one of you to prove yourself better than the others. It’s time for a battle royale.

If you’re on Master or Legendary difficulty, this can be pretty hard since there are a lot of cultists here. An easy way to come out on top is to stay near the Pillar of Sacrifice. While Boethiah is talking, she will walk down the steps towards the combat ring, and all her followers join her. When the fighting starts, you’ll be off everyone’s radar. Wait until one cultist remains, then finish that person off. Fight smarter, not harder.

Once you are the only one still alive, Boethiah will use the body of the last cultist killed to speak with you again. She will praise you and state that you have proven the strength of your will, skill with your tongue, and combat prowess. It’s time you carry out a task for your lord.

Boethiah’s previous champion has fallen out of her favor. He no longer acts in her interests and instead is a mere bandit leader now.

She wants you to travel to his hideout at Knifepoint Ridge and slaughter him and the rest of his bandits. She wants you to do it as quietly as possible to strip her former champion of the honor of defending himself. After committing this deed, she wants you to strip him of her Ebony Mail, as the armor is fit only for a true Champion of Boethiah. Can do.

I don’t think any Dragonborn, good or evil, have any problems wiping out some bandits. Let’s get to it.

Worthy But Also Impatient

You can entirely ignore the Priestess of Boethiah’s request and preemptively kill them all. After doing so, Boethiah will appear and be displeased that you murdered her followers. Regardless of your answers to her questions, the quest will proceed the same way. Sacrifice a follower and get the task of killing her former champion.

Knifepoint Ridge

Travel to Knifepoint Ridge northwest of Falkreath and get ready to deal with quite a few bandits. Despite Boethiah’s demands that you do this task silently, you can walk in guns blazing or axes raising. It will not make any difference in the quest’s outcome.

There will be ten bandits outside to kill. You must kill every bandit here to complete the quest. Despite not needing to do this silently, it’s a good idea to do so. All the bandits are pretty spread out, and some will be asleep. A strong bow and arrow are enough to do them all in efficiently and quickly.

The sentry at the front of Knifepoint Ridge always activates the rock trap even if they haven’t discovered you yet. Regardless, you’ll still be hidden and free to take them out. Usually, one bandit will be at the training dummies up ahead and another next to the forge.

You can kill either one first and then the other before they know what’s happening. Make sure to pick up the Archery skill book, Vernaccus and Bourlor on the nearby table next to the bow.

An additional sentry will be up in the guard tower and another near the alchemy lab. The rest are floating around the camp. The tenth bandit is always sitting by himself on a bench in front of the mine.

After taking care of everyone outside, do some minor looting. A couple of good poisons and some alchemy ingredients are in the alchemy lab, and there’s a novice-locked chest near the blacksmith’s forge. Loot all of the bandits before heading inside the mine.

Knifepoint Ridge Mine

As soon as you enter, you’ll see a lone sentry leaning on the wall up ahead. There’s an oil slick trap here that you can use if you want. Take him out, then make your way into the first chamber. Grab the pickaxe on the weapons rack next to the bandit, as you’ll need it.

Look inside the nearby wheel barrel to get three iron ores. There are five iron ore veins inside the mine. Two are in the room right here, and the final three are behind the nearby Master-locked gate. You should make off with 21 iron ores in total. Now let’s get back to bandit killing.

Head down deeper into the mine, and you’ll hear a nearby bandit working at another alchemy lab. Take out your bow, and you can quietly snipe him through openings between the crates. Pillage his workstation and the shelves for a bunch of great alchemy ingredients and some potions.

There’s a decent chunk of mushroom alchemy ingredients spread throughout the cave, so make sure to pick them up as well.

Face away from the alchemy lab, and you’ll see the main mining chamber. One bandit is mining in the left mining shaft, another on the right, and one more overlooking the area from the stairs. The Champion of Boethiah is sitting by himself in the cabin.

I like to head through the left mining shaft and take out that bandit first. It often alerts the bandit near the stairs, but if you rush back up to the previous chamber, you can snipe her from the opening between the wooden boards.

The bandit in the right mining shaft must have the Skyrim equivalent of headphones on because he’s always oblivious to what’s happening unless you make a ton of noise. Kill him, and all that remains is the Champion of Boethiah.

The Champion of Boethiah is decked out in full Ebony and wielding a strong, leveled sword. If you take him head-on, he can be a pretty tough fight.

If your Sneak skill is high enough, you can come up behind him in the cabin and do him in with one sneak attack. Loot everything off his corpse.

One Last Conversation For The Former Champion

If you have a powerful Calm spell, and I mean powerful, you can initiate a unique conversation with the Champion of Boethiah. It turns out that he hasn’t been Team Boethiah for some time now. He’s spent many years destroying things but now wants to create.

Specifically, he wants to be a blacksmith and craft armor to protect people’s lives. He even calls the Daedric Prince the B-word, and I don’t mean her name.

I wish this conversation were easier to start and led somewhere. It would’ve added a little more depth to an otherwise non-descript bandit leader in fancy armor. And if he wants to be a blacksmith instead of a bandit, then the company he keeps is pretty confusing.

After everyone inside the mine is dead, prepare for Mining Simulator 2022. There are 19 corundum ore veins here, and you’ll want to get them all. Your inventory should look like this before you leave:

Don’t forget to grab the random loot from the Master-locked chest underneath the wooden ramp.

After clearing out the mine, equip the Ebony Mail, and Boethiah will speak to you again. She will praise you for carrying out her will and declare you her new champion. She also allows you to keep the Ebony Mail and tells you to go forth in the world and does as you please.

And with that, your business with Boethiah is concluded, and Boethiah’s Calling is complete.

When you go outside after completing the quest, some bandits may respawn. But for some reason, they will be non-hostile. I never figured out why. Maybe it’s because I established pack dominance by slaying their leader.

Is The Ebony Mail Good?

In the immortal words of Trevor Phillips, “Oh, you better believe it, buddy.” The Ebony Mail has the fourth-highest base armor rating of any Heavy Armor in Skyrim. Out of the top four heavy armor, the Ebony Mail has the best armor rating to weight ratio in the game.

You might not think to wear Heavy Armor if you’re a stealth character, but the Ebony Mail has the Muffle Legendary Effect, the only non-boots armor piece to have it. Combined with Fortify Sneak potions, you’ll be as stealthy as a lad in Glass armor or the like.

It has a unique poison effect while you’re crouching or in combat. It will deal 5 points of poison damage per second. It might not seem like much, but it can stack up and affects multiple enemies at once.

But of course, the best part about the Ebony Mail is the aesthetics.

I mean, just look at it. It’s glorious.

While crouching, you become cloaked in darkness and move as shadows personified. If you ever wanted to roleplay as Noob Saibot in Skyrim, you’ll need this armor to do it.

FAQs

Question: Is there anything special about being Champion of Boethiah?

Answer: No. According to the game films, Bethesda intended for there to be a second quest for Boethiah where she demands that you assassinate the Jarl of Solitude. But obviously, that didn’t make it into the game. I guess they wanted to give Solitude a break. First, Ulfric Stormcloak murders the High King, and you murder his widow soon after. Cut that family some slack.

Question: Can you complete Boethiah’s Calling without sacrificing a companion?

Answer: You can, but it requires an exploit. Have your follower touch the Pillar of Sacrifice, then attack the cultists to turn them hostile. Kill all of them except one, then lead the survivor up close to your companion. Kill your follower, then immediately kill the last cultist. If done correctly, your follower will magically revive, and Boethiah will possess the body of the cultist instead.

Question: Is the Blade of Sacrifice any good?

Answer. On the surface, yes. But in the long run, no. It’s equivalent to an Ebony dagger but does not benefit from the Ebony Smithing perk. You also cannot enchant it.

Boethiah’s Calling Guide: Conclusion

That’s another Daedric Prince quest done and dusted, ladies and gentlemen. I’m not a fan of Boethiah, but man, does she have some cool stuff. The Ebony Mail is easily one of the best-looking armor in Skyrim. I’m sure there’s a mod out there somewhere that makes the darkness cloak effect always active, even while standing.

It’s a shame that Bethesda cut Boethiah’s second quest out of the game, as I have always wanted them to fully commit to a multi-part questline for one of these Daedric Princes. A Boethiah questline would probably be indistinguishable from the Dark Brotherhood, so maybe she’s not the best god to use, but still. Any day now, Bethesda.

But for now, I’ll take what I can get. Believe it or not, the Ebony Mail isn’t my favorite Daedric artifact in Skyrim. That honor belongs to another. Which one is it? I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to Scrolls Guided and find out.

Until next time!