Companions can be split up into two categories: permanent followers and quest partners. Permanent followers are companions that you choose to accompany you after accomplishing a task and can be given certain directives after you agree to let them follow you. Quest partners are companions who are assigned to you at the start or during a specific quest in Oblivion Remastered. For example, during the “Weynon Priory” main story quest, Brother Martin follows you until you deliver him to Jauffre.

While quest partners aren’t a permanent kind of companion, they technically can be if you simply never complete the quest that they’re a part of. Continuing with the example of the Weynon Priory quest, if you never deliver Martin to Jauffre, then Brother Martin will stay by your side as a companion until that quest is marked complete. The same goes for other quests where you’re assigned a quest partner. This is especially useful if you get a companion during a side quest, as those quests aren’t mandatory to complete, and you can basically keep that follower for the rest of the game with no consequences.

As for permanent followers, these are companions that you can recruit to stay by your side until you direct them to leave your party. There aren’t many permanent follower options in Oblivion Remastered, but here’s the list of the ones we’ve found so far:

Again, it’s important not to mix up permanent followers and quest partners. There are a plethora of quest partners available in Oblivion Remastered that will follow you around during specific quests. However, after that quest is complete, the follower leaves you. Permanent followers are specific companions you recruit yourself and have some dominion over. You’re unable to tell a quest partner to leave you alone, while you can speak to a permanent follower and tell them to go away.

You’re able to have as many companions as you can find, but you can only have one of each type in your party at a time. There’s no limit to the quest partners you can have, but you can’t have more than one Mage Apprentice or Knights of the Nine, for example.

Below, we’ll go over how to get all three types of permanent followers in Oblivion Remastered.