- Vilja is aware of your other companions and will interact with them as individuals -

- Now YOU can go adventuring with HER -

• There is a quest-line connected to Vilja which will keep you busy for a number of hours; you will have to fight, convince, guess and maybe do some less honorable things in order to help her. However, don't expect a long, involved storyline with new landmasses! Instead, it's a relatively short, simple story that is mostly there to give you a background and a reason why Vilja will want to team up with you and be your side-kick. Those of you who have played my Morrowind companion mods (Laura, Constance, Witchgirl et al) will know what I mean.
• Vilja has her own life story, her own goals, her own wishes and needs. If you talk to her, you will learn more and more about her over time. Treat her well and your friendship will grow stronger and stronger.
• Vilja's level is set to 3 levels below yours. This means that if you start out with her when you are at level 1, it will take a while before she reaches higher levels (should happen when you are level 4).
• You will get a Vilja Summon Spell that will bring her to you, should she ever vanish. Note that she will be in wander-mode when arriving!
• There are two esp-files in the package. In one of them, Vilja is 'essential', i.e. she will not die. In the other one she is not essential and you will have to protect her quite a lot as Oblivion enemies tend to prefer to attack companions and horses rather than the player!
• Vilja has her own horse, and when you mount your horse, she will summon hers and go riding with you.
• She is very talkative, but you can tell her to shut up if you don't want to listen to her.
• You can't bribe her or play the speechcraft game with her. But you will find other ways to improve her disposition towards you. (Do you like strawberries? Well, hope you are not too fond of them, as Vilja will want them all).
• You can tell her to eat, drink, take a nap, go home, meet you in various cities. She will recognize your home as her home as well, once you have told her that this is where you will live.
• When she is in wander mode, she has her own daily routines, and unless you tell her to stop, she will continue small-talking to you.
• She can make some simple potions for you if you give her an ingredient. She can collect ingredients for you. She can later on heal you if you ask her to. When you are at home, she might surprise you with one of her pies. You can send her to do some shopping for you, but it's quite hazardous as she might not have the same idea as you on what is a bargain. If you run out of lockpicks, you can buy some from her, and she can help you with a hammer if necessary. Oh, she can light a torch, too.
• She can be ordered to fight aggressive, defensive or not at all. If she is not supposed to fight at all, she will only fight back if she is attacked and you - the player - draw your weapon. As long as you remain passive, she will just heal herself, silly girl!
• On top of that, she offers heaps of advice and suggestions on what to do - but her ideas might not always match yours.
• She is not a romance companion, but she does offer affection, loyalty and friendship.
• When left in wander-mode together with other npcs and companions (for instance CM Partners), she will small-talk with them as well, sometimes using standard topics, sometimes bringing up her own topics (note that some companions, in particular those with unique voices, don't have any conversations and therefore Vilja cannot chat with them)
• As I have voice-acted Vilja, myself (where else would I find a lunatic that would voice-record and lip-sync 1500 voice-entries?), she is speaking English with a strong Scandinavian accent (I'm from Sweden ) and she is probably making quite a few mistakes, especially when it comes to pronunciation. Please let me know of unacceptable mistakes that should be attended to in later versions (her English won't be flawless no matter what, as my English isn't flawless).
• 1.01 changes:
• No more "ghost-talking" -in the original non-essential version, Vilja would "ghost-talk" after her death until you left the cell with her corpse. Many thanks to Eamica for making me aware of this.
• added an extra dialog entry to the bookseller at First Edition in order to prevent an incompatibility issue with WACShop-mod. Many thanks to Chanur and Washington for helping me to track this down.
• I have also added some extra hit-points to her - she will now have the same health as the player.
• 1.02 changes:
• adjusted her AI-packages in order to keep her from kleptomania. Many thanks to Quiet Storm for pointing out the problem and to CDCooley for pointing out the solution to it.

- Exploring Cyrodiil side by side -

• Bonus questline. Shortly after you have completed the original quest for Vilja, a new one will start, which will keep you busy for some hours and add some new bonuses.
• Tired of companions that promise to stay out of trouble and then still charge as soon as you see an enemy? Well, Vilja shouldn't... If told to stay out of combat, she will indeed do so... until you are so badly injured that you desperately need her help to survive. The behaviour with all enemies attacking your companion is also gone - if she is set to defensive fighting or no fighting, it is more likely that you are their main target, which makes it much easier to level up. I.e. it is no longer a problem to have Vilja in tow from level 1 - you will still be able to level up your fighting and armor skills. And if you want to sneak your way through dungeons, she will do so, too... unless, of course, you have told her to attack anything hostile.
• Vilja is now much more aware of what is going on around her. She will comment frequently on many (currently like 40 %) of the original Oblivion quests you are doing together, and your actions might please or displease her. And don't be surprised if she also comments on other things in the game world. "Oh look! A butterfly! Isn't it beautiful?"
• Vilja is now aware of your other companions (after an introduction by you), with some of them she will interact on an individual basis and also comment on them in her dialog with you (similar to how my Morrowind companions interact with other companions). Currently, she has special interactions with Neeshka, Rhianna, Sonia, Viconia, Stoker Wolff, Saerileth, Vincente, Valeria and Arren, but she will also recognize other companions and CM Partners as fellow companions. If you want to relax at the computer for a while, just leave Vilja and your other companions in wander-mode, and I'm sure there will happen things you hadn't expected.
• Vilja will also know about other things. For instance, she will know if she is nude or if your character is nude, she will know if your character is ill, she will know if she is swimming (and put on a swimming suit), she will know what kind of dungeon you are in and what kind of enemies you are facing.
• Her daily schedule has been much expanded. If you leave her in wander-mode, you can watch her perform her schedule, and when she is making potions, she will literally be making potions, provided that you have given her some of the simple ingredients that she can use (she never claimed to be an excellent alchemist, so don't expect anything too fancy)
• apart from her regular inventory, she has a special pyjamas-bag (where you can choose what she should wear... well, or not wear, obviously... when she sleeps) and two extra storage bags for items you want her to carry without using.
• Vilja now has her own friends in Cyrodiil. Don't be surprised if she decides to go and have a chat with one of them! Those who know her will also have an extra "Vilja-topic" where they will comment on her (those who have played my Morrowind companions will recognize this).
• Option-book where you can set various features on the spot, like for instance: essential versus non-essential, will wear swimsuit - or not, can get encumbered versus never gets encumbered (yes, if you wish to, she can get encumbered, just like the player. But, it is your choice)
• Various details that might improve roleplay. For instance, she can now ride her horse also when you are walking.
• She will offer a few new services. Nothing fancy and no 'cheats', but she will for instance be able to make you a new outfit if you give her cloth. And you can tell her to work in your garden (just for immersion).
• Her dialog has been much expanded and better filtered - the mod now contain over 2800 voice files, more than 2300 of these belong to Vilja. You will find a much broader variety of comments from her, and some dialog is timed so it won't show up too often. (It does get boring after a while if she keeps on asking if she looks fat in this outfit)
• 2.1 changes:
• New scripting will take care of the well-known Oblivion issue with companions 'vanishing' from Oblivion planes and then showing up again in the same state and with the same equipment as when you first started the mod. With Vilja version 2.1, this should no longer happen. There are however two important exceptions: during The Cheydinhal gate quest and the final Great Gate at Bruma it is still possible for her to vanish. So during these visits to Oblivion areas, make sure that you send her out of the area before you complete your mission!
• If Vilja's quest isn't yet started (i.e. she has not yet become your companion), she will now be disabled during the Bloated Float quest. She will also keep quiet during all important stages of the Benirus Manor quest in Anvil.
• A fix has been added to prevent players from by accident converting Vilja to a traditional henchman if using the Companion Share and Recruit add-on for Fighters Guild and Mages Guild mercenaries. [Too bad it didn't work!]
• Vilja's horse Bruse has been changed so that he should ignore friendly hits (and not occasionally report them to the Mages or Fighters Guild).
• An additional copy of "Tamriel Flora Illustrated" has been added to prevent problems for those who might be buying and mislaying it before Vilja asks for it.
• Vilja's stats have been slightly adjusted and an additional water breathing/restore fatigue-ability has been added. This mostly to cater for players who are running realism mods that might make companions exhausted after running at lower levels.

- Vilja will comment frequently on the original Oblivion quests that you are doing together -

• Now YOU can go adventuring with HER. Yes, you can actually be her companion. She might suggest it, or you can suggest that she takes the lead. She might show you places you've never seen before! It's a very different and rewarding roleplay-experience to travel side by side instead of having a companion always five steps behind you.
• Vilja the spellcaster - as a reward for the new little quests included (which should start automatically a few days after you finished the previous one, which was added with version 2) Vilja will be able to learn how to use a few simple spells. No ranged destruction casting, of course, as you would probably be her first victim. But, she can among other things learn how to paralyze her enemies and how to protect herself better. Once she has learnt her first two spells, she will be able to learn more in a pace you decide and in whatever order you prefer. And, no need to worry, you can finetune in the dialog exactly which spells you want her to use and which ones she should keep deactivated.
• Vilja the pathfinder - as a bonus to the "Vilja leads the way"-feature described above, she can also lead you out of dungeons and show you the way to various places - guilds, shops, etc.
• Show her your favorite places - she will remember them and will be able to teleport or travel to them at any time.
• Combat instructions - you can now give her new fighting instructions during combat, either by talking to her directly or by casting her summon spell.
• Vampirism - previously, Vilja has been completely ignorant of whether or not your character is a vampire. Now, she will know if that is the case and randomly comment on it. (She's still afraid of other vampires, though).
• Inbuilt reset- and upgrading system. Vilja's start combat-spell can be used to reset Vilja if something unexpectedly should go wrong. It can also be used to upgrade her storyline if you for unknown reasons should want to uninstall/reinstall the mod.
• Further expanded interaction with other companions. Vilja is aware of your other companions (after an introduction by you), with some of them she will interact on an individual basis and also comment on them in her dialog with you. These are currently: Neeshka, Rhianna, Arren, Stoker Wolff, Saerileth, Viconia, Sonia, Valeria, Vincente, Ramy, CM Partner Valtierro and Eyja (works with both the Eyja mod and the original Eyja). But she will also recognize other companions and CM Partners as fellow companions. If you want to relax at the computer for a while, just leave Vilja and your other companions in wander-mode, and I'm sure there will happen things you hadn't expected. In version 3, she also have several unique subjects she might - or might not - want to discuss with them.
• There are also a number of new "roleplay-features" included. For instance, once her first questline is completed, you can invite her to an evening out or arrange a cozy supper at home. You can thank her if she has been of great help, you can tell her when you give her something precious. She will also occasionally ask for your opinion on more serious and in-depth matters, where you can pick choices according to your characters personality (or, of course, the choice you hope will please her).
• Dialog manual included. As Vilja's dialog is evolving over time and includes quite a few topics, we have included a "manual" in the zip-file. There is also a manual with important notes on gameplay included, please read it!! [These are combined in to one for version 4.]
• The most extensive work is not 'visible', though... The whole dialog system has been restructured and should hopefully lead to that she now is better at saying the right things at the right times. Of course a lot of new dialog has been added, both general chatter and quest chatter related to Thieves Guild and miscellaneous quests: Vilja's voice-set for female nords currently includes approx 3.900 mp3-files. The whole Oblivion voice-set for female nords and orcs consists of 2.434 mp3-files, so Vilja alone has almost twice as much to say to you as all other nord and orc females in Oblivion have altogether!
• As some of you might want to change Vilja's looks, we are providing a Customization pack which will help you to create your own, unique Vilja, or choose between a number of pre-made looks for her.
• 3.01 changes:
• fixed the bug which made her automatically heal the player before she was supposed to and even when told not to

- Vilja has her own horse, Bruse. In ver 3, she can ride also when you are walking -

Vilja should work very well together with other mods. We have avoided adding things to the exterior game world and made minimal changes to other locations. Vilja is "Sensual walks-ready", which means she will automatically adapt the walking style that has been assigned for her in that mod. But we do know of some conflicts and have corrections for most of them.

- Fit for fight -

original, unpatched Oblivion
the quest won't start and she's not in the Bloated Float
The conflict here is with the unpatched game. Unless you are using a GOTY or Steam version of the game, you need to install the latest official Oblivion patch (1.2.0416) and there are different versions depending on your language and whether you have Shivering Isles.

Cheydinhal Petshop
she's not finding any ingredients
Vilja won't find more than one ingredient per day and there's a day-counter to enforce that limit. This old mod affects a global that will prevent Vilja's day-counters from working (this is not unique for Vilja - the Petshop has the same effect on all mods with day-counters). We have no fix for this problem.

See You Sleep
she won't follow many any more, she just stands there then teleports to your side
The jail bedroll scripts will permanently ruin Vilja's AI-packages. But the problem scripts can be disabled in the latest version of See You Sleep and with the console command: set P1DsleepJail to 0. If you are already seeing the AI problem, you'll need to completely uninstall and reinstall the Vilja mod.

Companion Share and Recruit (CSR) - Faction Recruitment Add-on
after you asked her to join you she doesn't have the features she should
Vilja is a member of the Fighters and Mages Guild, so if you choose the wrong topic the faction recruitment add-on will override her own companion features and turn her into a common henchman! Fortunately, Amgepo's DRC mod corrects that problem for Vilja and all other companions. It's available at http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32473.

Persuasion Overhaul and other mods that add topics to all NPCs
some NPCs are switching between different voices
If mods add topics to all NPCs, Vilja and other NPCs from this mod might use the game-original voices (or voices provided by the other mod). It won't cause any real problem other than being annoying and immersion breaking. The Vilja mod can cause the same effect on companions from other mods in some cases, too.

FCOM, OOO, MMM, and other mods that add enemies with non-standard factions
enemies are attacking Vilja and practically ignoring you
Enemies from mods like these will attack Vilja far more often than they should. Some mods don't add enemies to the game's original enemy factions (and OOO actually removes all animals from those factions too) so our attempts to let enemies focus on the player instead of Vilja don't work. If you run OBSE, the enemies from OOO should behave better. You can also find an FCOM patch in the Optional Files section of the TESNexus downloads page to lessen the problem for MMM (and OOO if you don't use OBSE).

- Vilja is very talkative, but you can tell her to shut up if you don't want to listen to her -

- She might have comments on your other companions' story lines -

her lips move but she's not talking

Vilja is very talkative and will chat with you wherever you go. However, the lip-sync in Oblivion only works when you are facing the talking npc. This means that sometimes, her lip-movement will appear once you turn around and look at her, i.e. she will then appear to be talking but you won't be able to hear anything.

sometimes she doesn't use arrows

Vilja can fight both melee and ranged, but like every companion in Oblivion, she sometimes "forgets" to load her bow with arrows! The issue tends to be more apparent if you also have Shivering Isles installed. (If you are already using companions in Oblivion, you are probably familiar with this problem). We haven't found any way to 'fix' this, but she will start using arrows again after you have switched cells. She is also likely to start using arrows again if you use her summon spell to tell her first to switch to melee fighting and then back to ranged fighting. Vilja's fighting behaviour, especially when using a bow, will be a lot better if you let her use an unenchanted Oblivion vanilla weapon than if you give her enchanted weapons added by a mod.

she thinks you're nude (or that she's nude)

If you are wearing the Mythic Dawn robe, the Arena armor or the zero-value armor provided by the Alternate start by ship-mod, Vilja will consider you as 'nude'. This is because these items have 0 value. The 'cure' is to put on a ring, an amulet or shoes that have a value of at least 1 Gold. (The same applies for any clothing or armor you give her.)

she won't use the beds or chairs

Like any other companion, Vilja will only sleep in beds that have no owner assigned to them, and she might not sit in chairs that aren't marked as "persistent". If you tell her to take a nap and she refuses, it's not her fault - there simply isn't a suitable bed at the location. She will then revert to her daily schedule and do what she would normally have done at that hour of the day.

she walks into walls, tables, rocks, trees, etc.

Some modder-made houses are companion-friendly, others aren't. If there are no pathgrids, no persistent chairs and no beds without ownership, companions won't behave very well. Thank you Korana for explaining all the important things regarding this, and for always making your houses companion-friendly. A list of companion-friendly houses can be found here.

she doesn't seem to know what's happening related to some other mod

With very few exceptions, Vilja is completely unaware of the content added by other mods including the official downloadable content like Knights of the Nine. She'll also have only limited knowledge of the Shivering Isles. This is all because mods work like layers and one mod can't see the others.

she won't wear the magic ring, amulet, or clothes I gave her

At any moment she'll only agree to wear armor or normal clothing. It's very rare that she chooses to wear some of each. If what looks like clothing acts like protective armor, then it's armor. If an enchanted ring or amulet has a combat-oriented enchantment it might only get equipped when she's wearing armor. Rings in the game also come in left and right styles. While the player can wear them on either hand, NPCs are bound by the ring's hand designation. So if you want her to wear two, you'll need to find one of each type.

- Vilja has unique dialog and her own opinions that she gladly shares -