Karliah

Karliah is a Dunmer thief and Nightingale, once a member of the Thieves Guild alongside her partner Gallus and Mercer Frey. When Gallus was murdered, Mercer framed her for it, and she spent twenty-five years in exile planning to set things right.

In the questline

You meet her the hard way: in Snow Veil Sanctum, during “Speaking With Silence”, she hits you with a poisoned arrow. The poison, it turns out, is what keeps you alive when Mercer stabs you. Karliah nurses you back to health and sends you to Winterhold to decode Gallus’ journal. From there she joins you as a temporary follower in several of the guild’s quests, as the two of you work to expose Mercer and restore the Nightingales.

Good to know

• She learned thieving from her mother and owes much of her skill to Gallus, who was also her lover.
• She is the only Dunmer in the game with violet eyes.