this thread came about because I was thinking about the dark brotherhood in Oblivion and in skyrim.

I had played a good robin hood thief in oblivion. I had literally done every quest available. I had never murdered someone on purpose, but some random bandit or something got flagged as murder because i sneak killed him. at least, that is what I think, I never did kill an NPC that was not already hostile to me (and I never made people hostile through dialogue)

in oblivion, I decided that my "good thief" went a little haywire after main quest. I was rich and owned all the houses. there was no incentive to steal anymore. there were no interesting stories to follow. and being the big champion turned his values.

he never thought of thieves as "good" but just "not really evil" but now that he was savior of tamriel, it was like he could do no wrong.

he began to lust for adventure, and that led to the dark brotherhood.


so I have been thinking about other reasons to do evil quests.


here are a few.

1) daedra fanatic/scholar-- you don't worship any daedra, but you covet knowledge of them,experience of them, and most of all, their articfacts. you are basically a good person, but if any act can help you in this thirst for daedric lore.....you throw your morals aside.


2) academically evil-- might be good for mage. you have never been a bad person, but you are very unattached to people. you love books and knowledge. you have read about bandits, murderers, and dark brotherhood, etc... but these are not groups that easily give up their secrets. so you decide to "go native" anthropologically which is when you emulate the behavior of your subjects. you will join the TG and DB in order to study them and become known as the foremost scholar of secret societies of a darker nature.

3) you have a bad habit. you are the child of two priests of mara, but you have always been drawn to murder, six, and secrets. So publically, you are very "Good" person. but you have to indulge yourself. you have decided that altruistic quests are a good penance for the evil you do, so you will find yourself travelling across the world to save a life for a mere pittance. yet you also, at the turn of screw, will embark on dark deeds for fun and profit. you really really don't want to get caught, and will reload for any bounty you get.


4) you were a good person. until you became a vampire. then you sought out the dark brotherhood and the daedra...you fear no mortal anymore, nor are you bound by their rules

(in this one, you play totally good till MQ is done, etc. and then after becoming vampire, go evil.


thoughts?

I never liked the randomness/OCD of doing a bunch of quests when some were super goody goody and others were terribly evil. I wanted a narative framework for it.

I just don't do quests if my character wouldn't do it. That said, I do see a few of the Daedric quests (Molag Bal's, for example) as very likely to involve the Daedra mind-controlling my character. I mean, it happened to the guy that you were trying to aid in the beginning, and he was TRAINED to fight Daedra.

That's the only example of any of my characters doing a quest they normally wouldn't. It not only helps replay value not to do some quests, but also makes me more attached to my characters. Hell, I limit my characters to only one guild per character, and it's worked great.

those sound interesting. my way was to play good once. I don't kill things that are not trying to kill me, I don't steal from people unless they are obviously well off. I would not take a silver ring from a regular person but I do steal from the jarls etc.


I just started an evil playthrough. going to be your daedric hunter thing...already had that concept.

I do only the quests which are fitting for the character I'm playing at the moment.
My first Skyrim character was a true Nord, warrior who fought among the Stormcloaks and slayed Alduin.
Now I'm playing with my second character who's Altmer, Thalmor agent who's main purpose is to make everything which serves the plans of Aldmer Dominion. He is seeking his way among the Darkbrotherhood now because he needs it to be the organisation which will hide the Thalmor connection of several murders. This Thalmor agent will kill every priest of Talos (already cleared Temple of Talos in Windhelm) and will slaughter people around the country side of Skyrim and made it to seem like a work of Imperial Legion so the hate and anger among the Nords and Empire will grow.

I find that nearly every single "evil" quest can be seen either way. A lot of the times, it's all about how you perceive it.

I call shenanigans on "either way"


you are asked to kill those that trust you with ebony blade. how is that not evil?