The Blue Palace, also known as Castle Solitude, is the jarl’s seat in Solitude, Skyrim’s capital. It rises from the ashes of an older palace lost to fire, and its only door sits in the cloisters at the far end of the Avenues District. Come here to meet the court, chase a long list of quests, or poke around a wing everybody else is too scared to enter.
What you’ll find
- Throne room – up the twin curved staircases, where Jarl Elisif the Fair holds court with housecarl Bolgeir Bearclaw, court wizard Sybille Stentor, steward Falk Firebeard and the thanes Erikur and Bryling.
- Kitchens – a well-stocked larder run by the cook Odar, with a storage corridor full of wine barrels and a servants’ bedroom.
- Northeast corridor – the court wizard’s bedroom with an Arcane Enchanter, plus Falk’s room and the Jarl’s bedchamber.
- Pelagius Wing – sealed, dusty and cobweb-choked, the old haunt of Pelagius the Mad before he took the imperial throne. The staff swear strange things happen in there.
- Cellar and basement – beds and chests below the private stairs. If the Stormcloaks take Imperial holds in the civil war, the deposed jarls and their courts (for example Balgruuf the Greater after the Battle for Whiterun) end up living here.
- Maids Erdi and Una keep the place running.
Quests
- The Mind of Madness – Falk hands over the key to the Pelagius Wing, and things get very weird very fast.
- Thane of Haafingar, Elisif’s Tribute and Fit for a Jarl.
- The Man Who Cried Wolf, The Wolf Queen Awakened, Scoundrel’s Folly, Tending the Flames, The Dainty Sload, Kill the Vampire and No Stone Unturned.
Notable items
- Biography of the Wolf Queen (Speech skill book) and a Stone of Barenziah, both in the Jarl’s bedroom.
- Surfeit of Thieves (Lockpicking) at the bottom of the Pelagius Wing.
- The book Lost Legends in the northeast corridor, which kicks off Forbidden Legend.
- The Wabbajack, as the reward for The Mind of Madness.
Tips
Sybille sells spell tomes, and once you finish Elisif’s Tribute Falk will sell you Proudspire Manor and its upgrades. The food here counts as stolen until you complete The Man Who Cried Wolf or Kill the Vampire, so resist the cheese wheel for now. On your first visit the whole court is busy with a scripted chat about a spooky cave near Dragon Bridge – nobody will talk to you until it wraps up, even at midnight.
Good to know
If you side with the Stormcloaks, the exiled jarls in the basement will insult you to your face, yet still happily hand out quests and bounties. Politics.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim game files, summarised in our own words.