So you can control the juggernaut called sithis.

Because you hate (insert political party here) and want to kill them all, and want to get paid while you do it. And you hate mud crabs.

You know, I just could not bring myself to join the DB in TESIV. However (scratches chin), it is looking intriguing.....

I usually did the thief quests first, and reasoned that the progression to the DB was natural since you have a young, desperate escaped prisoner not terribly beholden to the society that imprisoned him.

My usual order was:
Thieves Guild - Desperate times call for desperate actions to make a little money

DB - After being in the thieves guild, the character's morality is at an all time low, and they get seduced by the comradery of the DB (contrasted with the mercenary self-interest of thieves).

Fighters Guild - The character is making an attempt to go legit after becoming disenchanted with the obsessive lunacy and darkness of the DB.

Mages' Guild - Discovers a talent for magic and becomes intrigued by the power and influence that mages hold.

In Skyrim becoming a master of all trades isn't really possible, so I'll have separate characters for each archetype.

One good motive would be an Argonian born in the sign of the shadow that was captured whilst making a journey to become a Shadowscale.

Argonians have a much more direct relationship with Sithis than the other races, so another plausable reason would be Argonian Shaman seeking the fabled "Voice of Sithis".

Infact there are several religious reasons why a person may seek to join the brotherhood, It is the defacto church of Sithis, the "god" of chaos, change and the void.
It was Sithis and Anu that created the Aedra which are comonly worshiped as gods, and therefore, the brotherhood would be an avenue to more primal god worship for those that become disafected with Aedra and Daedra worship.

Less esoteric reasons I suppose would include psycopaths, sociopaths and death-wishers.

HAHA i freaking laughed my ass off at that reference.


i always imagined my character in skyrim looking alot like aragorn when he is in the pub. all hooded and mysterious.

my incentive for joining DB is my character is just bored. literally. he likes fighting and mischief, and although he is neutral doesnt mind killing people for money. hes alot like i dunno han solo? a rogue womaniser who doesnt give a [censored] about anyone but himself. but he still has compassion and still feels.

i dont know lol that wasa pretty useless explanation but im tired sso forgive me for my laziness.

He wants to assassinate the powerful but corrupt men that are damaging society?

Few people joined the Dark Brotherhood for their own selfish motives. Mathieu Bellamont joined the Brotherhood so he can have a chance to kill all of them and avenge his mother. Greywyn Blenwyth joined for the sole purpose so that he could replaced the Black Hand with vampires and make everyone else into them. They both failed. Except Mathieu got closer to his goal because he actually did kill Lachance and some of the Black Hand members with his cunning. Greywyn and his people were killed while they slept, never having a chance to put their plot into motion.

I agree with: Daggerfallftw

Your dead mother's head told you to.

Disregard women, acquire currency.

This will be the reason for my first character. A bit na?vety, a bit hope, and the intention to use the abilities learned to good and protective use.

Some people need to die for the greatly good (this can somewhat apply in real life as well, but I won't go there.)

Chaotic Good character for example, which btw Robin Hood is Chaotic Good and the Empire could be considered Lawful Evil (or Lawful Neutral) since they have performed ill deeds in the past.

My character does not think of good or evil.
There's no right or wrong.
People just act in a way that is more convenient to them in various situations.

He personally only seeks power and knowledge.

He WILL do whatever he is being asked to do, as long as he feels that the reward is good enough for his troubles, either in form of pure gold, items, battle experience or whatever other personal gain he might have.

He will taste everything in order to learn it's effects for potions and poisons, he will get vampirism to anolyse it's powers and to see if it's a good trade off, he will seek knowledge relentlessly and pretty much not caring about the consequences.

If he helps somebody to find some family member or whatever, he's not doing it because he is good.
People might think this way, and he'll allow them to do so, again if this will be somehow benefitial for him, and normally is.

It's all about personal agenda, nothing else.

My 'character' will have the sole ambition in Skyrim of putting off the no doubt-hokey main quest for as long as possible. This will involve delving into all side quests and random dungeon-bashes until there is truly nothing else to do but become the....y'know, dragonborn or whatever. Dark Brotherhood is about two-thirds down the list, which means in play time I'll get round to it after about a year.

You're good at killing, and you want someone to pay you to do it, but also not be hounded by the Dark Brotherhood for being a freelancer.

Having a license to kill.

My character is very fond of skooma and blames her schizoid tendency on the drink. She hears voices. One voice that is especially disturbing is someone who calls herself "The Nigh Mother, agent of Sithis". Huh? Yep. And my slip of a Nord lass has visions of needing to go into the world and kill certain individuals who are of no benefit to Skyrim. This worries her a great deal. She seeks a cure. Perhaps there is only one cure: go out and actually kill an ordinary villager or two to see if the visions will stop. My lass also dreams of horses especially a black stallion called Shadowmere. Shadowmere and the Night Mother seem inextricably connected. This is a terrible affliction: "What is wrong with me? I still feel a need to kill folk in their sleep. I guess I had better keep on satisfying my urges. But who to kill? Victims should be those who don't deserve to live: devious people and crooked types. Certainly not people with kindness in their hearts. Is there a guild that does this sort of thing? Yes, the Dark Brotherhood. Maybe they cam advise me on my problem."

There is no way to be a good character in dark brotherhood. If you join them, that means you don't have any problem killing innocent people. And no, you can't choose to only kill evil people.

I didn't read most of the posts, but I think something along the lines of joining the guild as a means to an end would be a realistic motive. You might not want to be a killer for no reason, maybe you think the DB has more principaled methods/practices of assassination. Somewhat like the Assassin's Creed series. Ezio isn't evil, but he has no qualms killing people who he deems necessary to remove from the world. Maybe your character is a "the end justifies the means" kind of guy/girl, and you join for some kind of political goal or just a desire to better your own skills.

There are any number of non-evil but not really "good" reasons you could join the DB. If I remember right, the contracts in the Oblivion DB were generally on people who were deserving of death for some reason or another.

Simple role play option. Just do the Dark Brotherhood quests first and then turn from your evil ways as a mercenary and spend the rest of your (in-game) life doing good. Like a kind of anti-hero vigilante who has to redeem himself

Money, advanced unique weapons and a love of killing what more could you possibly ask for?

In order to join the Dark Brotherhood, you must be willing to kill. Perhaps your character was brought up in a society where killing in this fashion is considered justice instead of murder. Instead of seeing it as a group of bloodthirsty lunatics, your character sees it as a way to bring justice to those who wronged others and got away with it. If you think of it, yes, the primary motivation for the killings is money. Which means that someone was willing to put forth money in order to see the target dead. Justice and mercy, not murder and lunacy.

Moral nihilism (also known as ethical nihilism or amoralism) is the meta-ethical view that nothing is moral or immoral. For example, a moral nihilist would say that killing someone, for whatever reason, is neither inherently right nor inherently wrong. Wikipedia.

Let your character have this philosophical viewpoint and all your concerns about "good" and "wrong" are gone!