Why does this even need to be asked? I always reserve making one specific character for the DB simply because I need to make a character that I play as emotionless to not feel guilty when playing them.

See this is where you're wrong. You're looking at it all wrong; this is a universe full of magical creatures, all of these magical creatures make the game great. So why isn't there room for a faction based on pure-evil with no motive for killing whatsoever? That's like saying there isn't room for dragons, it's a fictional universe and the Dark Brotherhood is a great and necessary part of it.

Good. We killed Grelock.

Why isn't there a neutral option? :mellow:

I've never had as much trouble with the DB until this game. I can't bring myself to do some contracts because I refuse to kill the Khajiit / Argonian targets.

I'm just glad we have the option to destroy the Dark Brotherhood.

I am deeply disappointed by the DB quests in skyrim, i could talk more but its not worth my time.

This makes no sense.

How is saying "murdering people for fun is evil" in any way like saying "there isn't room for dragons"?

Pssst...I know who you are...Hail Sithis.


Seriously tho, a bunch of fanatic cultists going around murdering people in our world wouldn't be cool, mainly because gods aren't real here. They'd just be a bunch of freaks.

Now if Sithis was real here...It would be a whole different story.


@Skripture
I would, if divinities existed in our world.

I'm pretty sure anyone who murders people for an omnicidal god of death and destruction is lobotomy-worthy insane whether he exists or not.

I actually felt good about killing some of the people during the Dark Brotherhood quests, but the Dark Brotherhood is definitely evil. Most of the members kill simply because they enjoy it and the ones that don't are doing it for money.

I think it's difficult to write Sithis off as being outright evil. He's either the most powerful entity in TES lore or tied with Auniel for the distinction depending on which creation variant you believe. It's entirely possible he knows something about the master plan that other mortals and even the daedra/aedra would not. Given that the Brotherhood is supposed to assassinate people only at the behest of the Night Mother (who receives her orders from Sithis), they might merely be agents of necessary change. I think the concept of murder loses a lot of its heinousness in a setting where you know existence continues after death, and nobody really knows what Sithis does with his victims' souls (or even if he actually ends up in possession of them or not). He's not really a death god; it's just that the cycle of life/death/rebirth is pretty much the epitome of chaos and change and that is what Sithis represents, so it's natural he'd be associated with the death part of it. People fear what they don't understand, etc. He doesn't seem to encourage the whole "SCREAM WITH SITHIS IN THE VOID RAAAAH BE AFRAID!" mentality amongst his followers, it's just the more flamboyant of them who get off on the practice.

That said, Bethesda does take pains to make the Brotherhood as stereotypically evil as possible; to the point of it being a little silly even to somebody like myself who tends more towards evil or self-motivated characters. It's unfortunate, because I do find the whole dynamic behind Sithis interesting.

Ironically tho, they always make your fellow DB family members the most likeable NPCs in their games.
They always welcome you with open arms and actually treat you like you're family,helping whenever they can. The other factions just kind of slap you around till you become their master.

I was soo upset when we had to do the clenasing thing on the Cheydinhal sanctuary in Oblivion.

In Oblivion, the DB was actually sort of a really sick demented good guy if you really want to play it that way. I kind of did. My character in oblivion was contacted by the dark brotherhood after exacting revenge on someone (bad but not evil), brought used the Dark Brotherhood as an underhanded way to rid the world of some rather evil characters. The same can arguably be said about the contracts you get from Nazir (bandit, pirate, murderer), but the MQ of the DB is just downright evil in Skyrim.

EDIT: I think some people are bringing the conversation in this thread a little too close to that line between fictional gaming and reality, one which gamers are particularly prone to crossing. Kinda scary....

Correct in Tamriel, correct in the real world.

Why?

Because I can't give a serious answer to a jocular question.

Yes, family. Crazy, murderous family. Hmm, maybe Charles Manson was Dark Brotherhood leader?

I've noticed many of the assassination's in skyrim were for the better then the bad. Sure some were way overboard and unnecessary.

Lol

I will quote back the same spoiler from Oblivion:



OK, so in this "family", the "mother"

You're right.

Our character in Oblivion did turn out to be a complete psychopath after all, becoming Madgod and all that.
Well at least those weak family members will be happy serving Sithis in the Void? lol.

Lucien in Skyrim makes it seem like the Void is not such a bad place after all, haha.

Seeing as the Dark Brotherhood are a cult who serve the corpse of a woman who when she was alive murdered all of her children in the name of Sithis I'm gonna go with bad. An assassin is damn fun to play, though.

Hail Sithis! Yes to both!

You have to be more insane then Cicero if you think the Dark Brotherhood are good, murder is never good, no matter how you look at it.

The only problem I have with Dark Brotherhood is that they're advertised as "professional assassins" when in reality they're just a bunch of murderers not very much different from a group of Bandits. Both kill random people for gold. Well, DB sometimes kill random people just for the sake of killing them, so they're actually below Bandits.

And that's too bad, because properly done assassination quests would be very fun; get in/near the target, kill it, leave the mark of the Dark Brotherhood and leave. Unnoticed. Without killing anyone but the target. That's what being a professional assassin should be like. Not just run into the room tossing fireballs because LOL, WHATEVER

Really, DB should be like Thieves' Guild except with an NPC to kill instead of a valuable gem at the end.

As they are in the game right now, they're a juvenile "evil" faction for frustrated teenagers. Hurrr, hail god of murder durrr

Is this even debatable? They're cult of hit man, not a marry band of Elvis impersonators that hand out candy and bibles to orphans they personal rescued from house fires.