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Once you become a werewolf in Skyrim, you will have the opportunity to hone your lupine skills through several quests. One quest that you can complete is Totems of Hircine, which rewards you with an additional werewolf power. Hircine is a Daedric Prince, who is known as 'The Huntsman of the Princes', and is the creator of Lycanthropy.
In this guide, you are going to take a look at how to complete the Totems of Hircine quest. This quest involves locating three different totems, which can be found in locations all around the map. First, let's take a look at the prerequisite quests that you will need to complete beforehand.
Prerequisite Quests To Complete
Prior to accepting this quest, you will need to complete the questline for the Companions. This is a warriors' guild located in Whiterun. Below, you can find the quests that you need to complete.
- Taking Up Arms
- Proving Honor
- The Silver Hand
- Blood's Honor
- Purity of Revenge
- Glory of the Dead
Once you complete The Silver Hand, you will have the opportunity to become a werewolf. Accepting this transformation is necessary to completing Totems of Hircine since the reward involves werewolf powers.
As you finish Glory of the Dead, you will become Harbringer of the Companions, which is required to start Totems of Hircine as well. If you have yet to make it this far, you can also begin Totems of Hircine by marrying Aela, who is a member of the Companions.
Accepting Totems Of Hircine
After completing the above quests and becoming a werewolf, you can accept Totems of Hircine.
This quest is given by Aela, who will tell you about three totems that can be retrieved. If Aela does not give you this quest, you may need to complete other side quests for members of the Companions first.
It's important to know that you should not cure your Lycanthropy while this quest is active. Doing so will cause a bug in this quest that won't allow you to complete it. To avoid this, simply do not cure your Lycanthropy while having the quest activated.
Retrieving The Totems
As mentioned above, there are three totems. To complete this quest for the first time, you will only need to find one totem. Afterward, you can repeat this quest two more times to get the other two totems.
The location of each totem is random from a list of possible places. When accepting this quest from Aela, she will mark one of these locations on your map, so you do not have to visit them all. Each location possible is either an animal den, warlock lair, or vampire lair. This means that to retrieve the totem, you may need to kill any enemies that you come across.
If a totem is present, it will either be on a dead body or within a chest. More often than not, the totem will be in a boss chest.
Traveling To The Underforge
Once you have a totem, Aela will want to confirm that it is real, asking you to take it to the Underforge. This is a ritual area located underneath the Skyforge in Whiterun. To get to the Underforge, simply head to the Skyforge and take a passage leading underneath.
At the Underforge, you will need to place a totem on the pedestal. Doing so will cause the quest to end and give you the ability to pray to the totem to get werewolf powers.
After retrieving one totem, you will need to complete side quests until Aela asks for your help again. The number of quests you will need to complete before receiving another totem retrieval quest will vary, ranging from none to ten. On average, it will take around four quests before you can get another totem.
Some players report that marrying Aela will cause a bug in this quest where Aela will give the Animal Extermination side-quest over and over again. This can be prevented by either not marrying Aela, or saving beforehand.
Totem Powers
By praying to the totems, you will be granted a new power, or Shout. Below, you can learn about the powers associated with each totem.
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Totem of the Hunt |
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Totem of Brotherhood |
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Totem of Fear |
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You will also receive a sum of gold ranging from 100 to 300, depending on your current level. At level 40 or higher, you will receive 300 gold per totem. With the Dawnguard DLC, you will be able to upgrade these powers through the Werewolf skill tree as well.