So apologies if this theory has already been postulated, but I believe that since "The Circle" and the "Companions" seem to be linked in some way from their
positioning on the posted achievements list. Taking that, and the name of the achievement immediately following theirs, "Glory of the Dead", my theory is this.
Perhaps the leadership of the Companions has been infiltrated by Vampires, and "The Circle" is the faction within the Companions that is made up entirely of said vampires.
Thus you make a choice at some point in the Companion's quest line too either join The Circle, I.E become a vampire, or stay human.
This likely pans out into two quest lines with you working with the remaining human members of the Companions too eradicate the Vampires, or, on the reverse side,
working with the Vampires of The Circle too conceal their presence or Vampire-up the rest of the Guild.
What do the rest of you think?

That's what i thought too at first, but i'm not sure.

First of all, what even gave you such an idea? And secondly, I think its just an upper circle of the Companions, the elite so to speak. Why the hell would vampires be involved? :confused:

EDIT: Glory Of The Dead probably just refers to Companions who fell in the line of duty. I can't draw any vampire meanings behind it.

I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with a secret society type thing within the Companions. Since a blood oath can mean: If you break this oath your penalty is death.

Or it could easily be a sworn oath of brotherhood. Kind of like the whole blood-brothers thing. That would make more sense to me.

i thought it would be a reference to the round table or the "knights of the nine"

Probably the fact that the name of the achievement for joining The Circle is called "Blood Oath"
Plus Vampires are the only thing the player character can change into that they've been repeatedly plugging in official statements, so I figure they
must figure in pretty heavily in some area of the game.

I think it'll have something to do with the Order of Arkay's http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Knights_of_the_Circle.

Are "Blood Oath"s automatically pooled together with vampires now? You can take a blood oath with anything, not just vampirism. I'm not convinced on the subject, so we'll just have to wait and see. xD

Well besides that, there's also the fact that the "Finisher Achievement" for the Companions is called "Glory of the Dead"
Those two pieces of info clinch it for me.

THIS.
Also, Vincent McCool said there ere shrines to Arkay in every city out of respect to the dead. So that makes sense for the Glory of the Dead as last quest in the companions. the Knights of the Circle were really anti-necromancy, so maybe that'll be part of the questline.

Well, I hadn't actually seen that stuff before in the Lore, so it's plausible as well. However I'm still sold on my own theory.

This makes a lot of sense too. We already know there are priests of Arkay in the game, and Draugr figure heavily into the Skyrim lore and main quest, so why not?

EDIT: Meant to quote the Arkay post.

That would make tons of sense considering Arkay is the god of life and death, and that fits their final achievement "glory of the dead."

well the circle is the Australian version of the view so I'm guessing u join a group of somewhat famous woman thorough out the lands to gossip and discuss local topics and the crazy stories of dragons being sighted.

Sounds like the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Cyrodiil_Vampyrum_Order from Cyrodiil may be coming back.

"Members of the order are experts of concealment and political manipulation, so much so that the clan's true name is unknown, having been lost to history. What they lack in numbers, the vampires make up for in influence and the manipulation of society. The clan consider themselves to be a civil fraternity."

Or it could be the Knights of Arkay as mentioned above. But remember, "Glory of the dead" can mean vampires too. Since, they are undead in a sense. *Wait's till Hellmouth come and rant off otherwise*.

So, we might have to wait and see. But I am inclined to believe it may be tied to vampirism, not because I like it alot, but because vampirism gameplay is similar, too similar, to Oblivion's. And if Bethesda keeps up to their own lore, we might have some little leeches running around.

Speculation is in no way spoilers...

I'm a Lore geek...

The Circle is 'The Knights of the Circle' which are basically the Knights of Arkay. They're the Military group of the worshippers of Arkay. I've got a feeling this is going to be a Pilgrims faction.

Also, Arkay is considered the giver of death to all life, so I'm going to go further and say the death thing is easily connectable to Arkay.

Meh. We get more "pilgrimage" things. ;(

I thought it had something to do with vamps at first too, but the positioning makes me think it's just some society (secret or otherwise) within the Companions. We already know they have the Shield-Brothers, so who knows how many more societies?

Me thinks that it has something to do with the greybeards, i dont know why but i think it is the circle of Th'um users

Well reading the lore this is a long shot but maybe it can be referring to the Redgaurd lore .. Link http://www.uesp.net/...Frandar_Hunding

The Book of Circles was writing by the sword singer by the name of Frandar Hunding you can read more about it in the link.. Also I have been reports that someone has seen a loading screen for a Redgaurd with a sword maybe some group of Redgaurds and other Races made a group based on the Book of Circles . This is a long shot but hey I can always hope lol
This post has been edited by Legacy EKB: Today, 10:08 PM

I think you might be making a bit of a stretch on this one. I think vampires should be a thing completely on their own. The companions, from what it sounds like to me are supposed to be "in a way" a fighter's guild. But who knows.

Wait, how did you get from a round shape to infiltrating vampires?

My theory:

The circle is the core of "The Companions."

Like an elite group.

I hope you're right. I've got quite a few characters I'd want to join that with.