Mercenary

A mercenary; ©Bethesda Softworks

A mercenary is a soldier who takes temporary assignments fighting for wage. They include sellswords, sellsails, and some freeriders.

Types

Sellsword

A sellsword is a soldier who hires out their services to the highest bidder. Most sellswords are professionals with some experience in fighting. Sellswords are more common in Skyrim than in the rest of Tamriel, as most other Tamrielic cultures are feudal, and are more likely to raise feudal levies, though Hammerfell is also known to have many sellswords. Some fighters or exiles who run out of money become sellswords. Many sellswords keep their worldly possessions close at hand, such as expensive weaponry, armour, and silks.

Sellswords are often viewed negatively by others, with some nobles considering them unchivalrous and pitiless. Sellswords have a reputation for being willing to betray anyone for enough gold. Sellswords, pirates, and slavers inhabit the many of the outlying isles of Tamriel.

Free Companies

Mercenary Contract - by Yulia Startsev; ©Fantasy Flight Games

Many sellswords are organised into free companies. Some are acclaimed for their loyalty and discipline, while others are nothing but rabble joined together in search of loot. Some captains are alleged to instigate wars during peacetime, and some companies attempt to conquer disputed lands when not under contract. Those of the free companies name themselves as they choose, so some exiles from Tamrielic nations might claim the name of extinct Houses.

Known companies:

• Companions
• Fighters Guild (quasi-company)
• Frostedge Company
• Undaunted (quasi-company)

Freerider

A mercenary from Nibenay; ©Bethesda Softworks

The term "freerider" is a broad one, sometimes used to denote a mounted sellsword, but more often referring to other mounted fighters who are not part of a lord's retinue or feudal levy. Most do not collect wages, instead fighting for plunder or a hope to be taken into a lord or knight's service. Freeriders are mostly used as scouts, outriders, foragers, and light cavalry.

Some freeriders are similar to hedge knights, only lacking knighthood. Others are green, untrained recruits and farm boys who have nowhere else to go. While some refugees flee to a larger settlement when war sweeps over villages, others become freeriders for a better chance of being fed and thereby avoid becoming outlaws.

Sellsail

A sellsail is a hired sailor who engages in naval battles for pay, including seaborne mercenaries and pirates. Most fleets are based in outlying Tamrielic islands or in southern Elseweyr, and may work as pirates or smugglers when not employed.