Skyrim talk:Letter from Jarl (Jarl's Name) of (Jarl's City)

What determines which Jarl?

This note can presumably be sent by the current Jarl of either Dawnstar, Falkreath, or Morthal. (Who those are depends on the Civil War, of course.) I just wonder if it's random, or if there are factors which determine it. My first character had not joined either side in the war by the time I installed HF, and received the letter from Dawnstar. (She later joined the Stormcloaks, but this is irrelevant.) My second character joined the Legion fairly early on, and got his letter from Falkreath. He still hasn't been able to buy land in The Pale - likely because the Jarl of Dawnstar is an avid Stormcloak supporter. I'm guessing I'll have to wait on that until I do enough of the Civil War to retake The Pale for the Legion. Morthal and Falkreath both start out allied to the Legion, so I'm guessing they're more likely for Legion members. Does anyone know more precisely how this works? Or is it really just random? — TheRealLurlock (talk) 22:20, 23 February 2013 (GMT)

I've never received a letter from anyone but Siddgeir in Falkreath. I've created three different characters since installing Hearthfire and in each one I received a letter from Siddgeir, not long after turning in the Dragonstone. It was far too early in each character's file to join any factions or even make it to any cities other than Whiterun, so I have no idea what influences which Jarl sends the letter, especially since my experience has been to only get letters from a single Jarl. At this point I'm half expecting to get a letter from Siddgeir for each character I create.Lord Nordeck (talk) 02:26, 23 June 2013 (GMT)

I got it from the Jarl of Dawnstar, which is what prompted me to make the page as it wasn't documented on the wiki yet. Again, I hadn't ventured far into the game as I had made a new character to play the DLC. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 02:51, 23 June 2013 (GMT)

Just got a letter from the jarl of Morthal. — Unsigned comment by 95.147.106.168 (talk) at 02:51 on 29 July 2015‎

The leaflet I got with my Legendary Edition said if I had already done tasks for one of the jarls, that would be the jarl I'd receive the letter from; otherwise, it would be the one of Falkreath. I believe this refers to people who add Hearthfire on an existing save. On one character, I did Laid to Rest before level 9, and I didn't get a letter from Idgrod (or anyone else). --Ethruvisil (talk) 01:50, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

First, a point of clarification: there are three separate letters related to Build Your Own Home which a courier might bring you:

1. The intro letter on this article's page, which should only ever come from the Jarl of Falkreath.
2. This letter, from the Steward of Falkreath or Hjaalmarch.
3. This letter, directly from the Jarl for the Pale.

As to which jarl sends what, Ethruvisil is correct, but for clarity, here's the full sequence from the CK. The most common case is when you haven't made friends with any of the three jarls, in which case you get the first letter, and things proceed as described on the BYOH page. If you have made a friend out of one of the jarls by doing something for them, as Ethruvisil said, that should be the jarl to send you either the second or third letter, depending on their hold. The priority is Falkreath, Hjaalmarch, Pale, if the game has more than one friendly jarl to choose from.

I can't explain why you didn't get a letter at all, Ehtruvisil, but a couple of possibilities I can't prove come to mind: there might be some coding somewhere I didn't notice not to send the letter if you've already started constructing the house, or something else along those lines; there might just be a bug; or the courier just hasn't caught up to you yet—they're not always the most timely service in the world, especially if you're flitting around the map a lot. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 05:52, 12 April 2019 (UTC)