I'm in Riften now and trying to think whether I should join the TG or not. I have mods which would allow me to kill both Maven and Mercer Frey at this moment so should I proceed, I just want to know what will happen from an RP perspective.

If Maven would be killed in cold blood in public, what would happen to the Dragonborn? The Thieves Guild? The Dark Brotherhood?

And if Mercer's journal were to be found on his dead body - would that mean that the Dragonborn would not have to sacrifice their soul to Nocturnal?

I really don't want to have to go through that hole infused questline so I thought about taking matters into my own hands

doing so will break the questline, making it undo-able/unfinishable and can cause some hazardous glitches..

this applies to killing any character that is part of a questline..


this is why the "let me kill anyone" mods can be very dangerous for you to use..

I was wondering what would happen, story wise not game wise

Killing Jarl Laila Law-Giver's dear friend Maven would probably net you a lengthy prison sentence and probably an execution. Meanwhile, Hemming steps up to bat and moves to expand Black-Briar Mead and their control over all of Tamriel. That, or ruthless Sibbi takes control of the syndicate. And you've murdered the livelihood of all the mostly-impoverished meadery workers, so good job.

Dealing with these problems head-on is usually not the best option.


If you killed Mercer, the Guild would probably be in disarray for a while until a new Guild Master was in place. Since no one has any reason to suspect Mercer until Karliah reappears, there's no reason for anyone to peruse his journal (though if his business records held anything, that might lead somewhere) and there's no guarantee anyone would recognize the Skeleton Key. Since the Key hasn't been returned to Nocturnal, her curse is still in effect, and the Guild continues to decline.

Also, trying to display Mercer's journal to the Guild (assuming he even has one) after you've murdered him would probably make them suspect you forged it -- and would they really make the murderer of the previous Guild Master the new one if they knew he killed him...?

Likely nothing of consequence. As far as I'm aware, the only quests either is connected to outside of the guild is the one involving Frost. If you have no intention of going through the Thieves Guild or interest in seeing Maven become the Jarl in Riften, then there is nothing to stop you. I've killed many "essential" NPCs in my game, and have yet to regret it. Furthermore, you're on PC, and most of the problems it could introduce you could also fix with the console.

You would drive the economy of Riften down the hole, possibly shut down the meadery, the Thieves Guild would plunge into another internal struggle leading to probable bloodshed and the total destruction of it, you allow someone worse then Maven to take up the family business if they are still in business and really Law-giver would hunt down anyone for killing her best friend and most trusted advisor.

You'll essentially break the quest-line and from the story-telling view cause more chaos for the guild and Riften itself.

Thanks guys

Looks like I'll spare Mercer until the relevant part of the storyline but still don't know what to do with Maven. I was hoping Ingun would take over though.