Anyone know when the Dark-Brotherhood was formed? I mean I'm sure lore would leave it a semi-mystery, but can I get an era? Were they around in the first era? The second(I'm pritty sure they were)? Obviously the third.

http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/brothers_darkness.shtml is a good place to start your search I think.

Ok, second paragraph clear that up...

It branched off from the Morag Tong I believe, but the answers they give in book form are better than mine.

Why did they split away anyway? Both are essentially the same; murderers for hire, who worship different dieties. And the fact that the Morag Tong is legally sanctioned.

The Morag Tong was outlawed because it killed the Remans.

And sonce both organizations were meant to function as part of high society, the DB became a legal Western Equivalent. No doubt the 'deity' hocus-pocus came about later.

So say the Timeline, say it well:

Some of the ex-members of the Morag Tong secretly form The Dark Brotherhood. The earliest record that contains the name of the Dark Brotherhood is in the journals of Blood Queen Arlimahera of Hegathe in 2E 412. "...with the help of the Night Mother and her Dark Brotherhood, the secret arsenal my family has employed since my grandfather's time." With this the scholars assume that the forming of the Brotherhood is as early as 2E 360.

If I remember correctly, in Morrowind's dialogues, the Morag Tong says the Dark Brotherhood broke off because they valued profit more then Mephala. By doing that, they turned their back on the sacred aspect of the Morag Tong's assassinations. But that's just the Morag Tong's point of view and they're biased on the question.

http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/chaos.shtml

Is that not reason enough for a split? Religious tensions tend to get out of hand very quickly, and a schism is usually the least messy way of resolving one.

They should have just left them as money grubbing assassins like they were in DF, instead of injecting them with "Sithis". But we have been over this before.

I agree. But then again, different branches could have different agendas and "cultures". Daggerfall and Morrowind (I think at least, I do not remember how the DB appeared to be in Morrowind and Tribunal) DB is by heritage ruled by greedy bastards, who make sure their chosen "disciples" (e.g. those who they favor and promote) are of the same mind. In Cyrodiil, a different group came to power, possibly over the years, or maybe right from the start, putting focus on religion and rituals. Both paths could just be different ways to maintain order and strict regulation over their followers.

And on a side-note, I think that the "Sithis" they worship, as well as their "Night Mother", are nothing but Meridia still imposing her influence on them. You don't get rid of Daedra Princes that easy, do you.

The split over controversy of the night mother. The first book that is linked at top says that brotherhood split during second era, but the first sign of the night mother is the last year of the first era. I think this is a more likely time for the split due to the fact that the night mother is never associated with the morag tong

Brothers of Darkness mentions:



The problem is however that there is a quagmire of contradicting writings surrounding the Darkbrotherhood.

Villfarelse makes a good point though. The Dark Brotherhood seems to be different by region, suggesting that there are different sects of people who roughly follow the same idea. This fracturing can can conveniently be explained by the ban on the Morag Tong. Each of the now seperated sects went their own ideological way.

The Cyrodiil branch doesn't even matter anymore, as if Oblivion's events are canon, it was wiped out through internal struggles.

Nah. It gets filled up again with people afterwards.

I'll say this: It would be interesting if some hidden surviving remnant of that vampiric supremacy group that wanted to usurp it previously took their opportunity to gain a power base.

A conspiracy of vampires? Sounds like a good background plot to be briefly mentioned in TES V. This of course brings up what will the Dark Brotherhood be like in TES V.

At one point, a group of vampires plotted to take over the Dark Brotherhood's Black Hand as they felt that vampires were superior to the living nonvampiric members of the Dark Brotherhood. Long story short, the majority to the point of it being noted as all of them were slaughtered as they slept in a single night.


http://www.imperial-library.info/cyrodiil_guilds/dark_brotherhood.shtml