I'm trying to decide whether to go with Nelacar or Aranea in The Black Star quest. Nelacar gives you the Black Star which can contain both white and black souls, whereas Aranea gives you Azura's star that can only contain white souls, but she becomes available as a powerful follower.

I always pick Nelacar over Aranea. I like the idea that I can trap black souls (Human souls) and not limit to myself with having to trap just animal type souls. I could careless about having a follower since I'm essentially a loner in my journey.

Well i guess it depends on your playstyle. If your a person who enjoys having team mates, then take the azura star. But if you're like me and you go solo all the time (companions are like babysitting) then take the black star. Its basically the azura star, but better.

Also the follower isnt any stronger or weaker then any other followers, as far as i know a companion scales to your level the first time you meet them, then after that point they dont level up though i heard someone say if you wabbajack a companion they will scale up to your level again dont know if its true though.
So for me, its a no brainer to take the black star, the only reason i can see taking the azura star is for roleplaying purposes.

I always get the black star because I never get companions on any of my character. I aso like being able to get human souls and making powerful enchantments or recharging more energy for weps.

Are you making this decision on gameplay or roleplay? Rp-wise, it's a lot of trust to put in a shady mage whose first conversation you overhear is about a "miscalculation." On his word alone you're going to tee off a goddess and let him basically render you "mostly dead" and under his complete thralldom. So, yeah...

Gameplay wise, the Black Star is more useful. And Nelacar is cute, so I sometimes go with him anyway. Prioritays.

Question is do You like Azura or not?

I always side with Azura, even though I don't use followers. I don't like the idea of helping a man sympathetic to a wizard who would use his own students' lives to try and achieve immortality.

Depends on the character. In terms of powergaming it'd be take the Black Star every time. Aranea is not the only decent mage follower available but the Black Star is 1 of a kind and makes gathering Grand souls much easier. Still not every character wants to defy a Daedric Prince or break Arkay's Blessing.

The Black star is the most useful of the two given how many bandits we have in this game, but later on Soul gems start dropping like rain so its not really needed.

From an RP perspective you have to ask yourself if you really want to screw over Azura one of the very few Good Deadra out there, or to side with the shady mage exiled from the college who let a colleague of his kill multiple students in his desire for immortality.

because I was a fan of morrowind I just really cannot bring myself to screw over Azura, she hasn't done anything to really deserve it.

I always go with Azura for the same reasons others have said. The game has loads of soul gems, no problems recharging anything ever. I like that quest and the battle for the Star is a good one.

I go with Aranea, more to please Azura than anything else. When I chose to do a daedric quest, my intention is always to serve the daedric lord, the only slight exception being with Clavicus Vile.

Go with Azuras Star.

If you get the Black Star, you are defiling a good daedras artifact. Defiling artifacts is bad, every time.
And serving Azura is good.
Would you really want to cross Azura? For a obnoxious mage who's evil master killed his students for the experiment? A group who got kicked out of the college of winterhold.
It's not a smart thing to do, however you look at it.

And you can get black soul gems all over the place, you don't need the Black Star. The game is full of soul gems.

I would never have the Black Star.

I piss on azuras shrine and she does nothing...choosing the black star has no consequences and is clearly the better choice, plus you kill the evil mage anyway and nelacar attones for his past deeds

Black Star always. There are lots of other available followers. The ability to capture any soul is just too useful. What gives grand white souls in this game anyway, dragons? I have yet to capture any. In Oblivion, with the white-only Azura's Star I'd just conjure a Xivilai and whack him with . . . oh, what was the name of that quest-related weightless sword with soul trap?

Edit: Had to look it up. It was Umbra. Awesome sword, and no encumbrance as long as the quest remains unfinished (and I usually left it that way).

For Grand souls go Giant and mammoth hunting.

depends on what type of character you're playing or if you are being good or evil or even rping for that matter but imo it doesn't really matter, grand soul gems are easy to get >.> but if you're playing a mage getting the black soul gem would be good for enchanting purposes because all black souls are grand and white is usually only gotten by rpers playing good characters.

He's not sympathetic at all with what that guy was doing. In fact he's horrified and it's one reason he left the college and wants to put it behind him. But, he blames Azura for driving him mad.

How do you figure Azura is good? I think that's a stretch. She let Morrowind be destroyed, only warning her pets about it and not caring about anyone else.

But to me that comes across as Nelacar viewing the person Azura punished as a victim, especially when the way he says that the other people of the College would agree with the PC that he got what he deserved, and when I view someone as a victim, I sympathize with them.

Pissing off Azura seems like a bad idea RP wise.

I went with Aranea once because admittedly she is awesome, but then she drove an Ice Spike through me once, killing me. We went our seperate ways and I've gone with the Black Star ever since.

I always pick the black star. It captures both types of souls and you have to fight the same fight with either choice. Might as well take the one that can capture human souls too after that fight.

Black Star.

Severing the ties between a useful object and a manipulative and spiteful daedric being seems like a good idea.

Since the difference isn't so big to me (I buy/horde soul gems,) I go with whatever decision suits my RP style. My Khajiit assassin worships Azura since she figures heavily in the Khajiit creation myth, so she returns the gem to Aranea.

I just did this quest again with my evil Argonian, took the Black star and then soul-trapped Aranea in it.

I know im a big fan of morrowind and azura always has a place in my heart because of it. But after reading the Elder scrolls books, and see how Sul gets imprisoned by azura in her realm for 30 some odd years just because he was one of azura's chosen made me lose a lot of respect for azura.
Sure, sul was the cause of the Red Year, but its not like azura was keeping him for punishment, she was keeping him because he was her favourite play thing.
Its just as the high elf says about her, she disregards peoples lives just for petty revenge or something even worse. His friend gets driven mad to murder multiple students at the college, all because azura wanted revenge on him, doesnt matter about all the people's lives who were stomped along the way, as long as she got her revenge.
Also, i like the RP value of saying [censored] you to azura. And Im sure the Dragonborn is blessed by the gods enough that hes got a place for himself in the after life where he'd be unreachable by azura.