I've been noodling an idea for a new character over the past few days. A Dunmer warrior type, with some stealth support. Spear, Marksman, Short Blades for weaponry. Medium and Light for armor (probably Light as a minor, Medium as a major - shooting for bonemold, or a chitin/bonemold mix-n-match). Armorer. Athletics. Acrobatics. Probably Speechcraft and... something else.

Anyway, the idea is basically to do House Redoran and the Morag Tong. I'm curious how that mix will play out, and how I can reconcile the two.

I've joined Redoran a few times in the past but never gotten too far. Duty, gravity, piety - got it. The 'warrior' house.

I've never touched the Tong, but obviously I know they're the 'assassins' guild' in MW. I also know that they're pretty much legal, and - as I understand it - there's a certain amount of honor associated with their guild.

I'm imagining a (eventually) pretty cool character doing both things. He's no sneak, so the Tong quests/writs would be done pretty straightforwardly, face-to-face - which seems to go well with Redoran's MO. And although assassination at first glance might not seem to fit the 'honor'-obsessed house, in Morrowind my impression is that those things work differently.

My one hesitation is Mephala... she's pretty creepy, right? Or is that just in OB and Skyrim?

Here's the thing - I never really liked the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion. They were a bunch of creepy cultists, not really fitting my image of assassins. The killings were done just for the thrill of killing - no real purpose. I always thought the Morag Tong was different, but then I read a lore book - Brothers of Darkness, or Fire and Darkness - that said the Tong were the bloodthirsty cultists, and the Dark Brotherhood were the businesslike assassins.... pretty much backwards.

What do you think? I've been scouring the uesp for lore related to the Tong and Redoran, how the two might go together. Does it make sense? Will the Tong be too culty, and at odds with Redoran's ideals?

The two actually go well together. The Morag Tong hate the Brotherhood, and do consider their killings honorable when done with an authorized Writ.

The "creepy" aspect of Mephala is not that strong in MW, where she is actually honored as one who helped the Dunmer learn the ways of survival and striking in secret.

Good to know, thanks!

I played Oblivion first, so it's easy for me to fall into the mindset of "Daedra=bad". I was shocked - shocked! - to learn that both Mephala and Boethia were considered "Good Daedra" by the Tribunal Temple, even to go so far as consider them Anticipations of Vivec and Almalexia. In later games, those two in particular had some of the nastiest questlines possible!