Simple rules, but rules still. They conduct business like any other faction. The tenents, night mother and Sithis are all things thay set them apart form common killers or other assassins.The Night Mother's goal, is to help fill the void (Sithis) with the souls of their targets. Sithi's goals ...well we don't know and may never as he is chaos incarnate...at least from what we've been told.

I admit, you do have to worry about an organization which has abandoned the tenant of "don't kill each other."

No, not hired thugs. An organization of professionals contract killers. Think of 'Murder Inc.' Also, while killing a member should be something being frowned upon, it may be useful to promote efficiency and periodic renovation of the ranks. When the old generation lower the guard, the new one is ready to take its place.

I can't disagree. So far, both exterminations have been justified.

They had to hand her the idiot ball in order to clear the way for the listener.

Who do they worship instead? The problem with the ES universe is if you don't properly revere the god of your profession you attract...badness.

Look at the Thieves Guild.

In case of Noctural, she has a thing against the guild going because Gallus was a sort of devoted knight to her. Same with the cursed cowl in Oblivion. It seems Nocturnal enjoys meddling in the affair of thieves but she's pissed when she finds a thief that's smarter than her. The Night Mother grasp on the guild is not that strong: she cannot perform any other activity than being a sort of 'answering machine' for those who try to contact the Brotherhood for a job. Astrid demonstrated that the Skyrim branch of the guild can prosper even if contracts are obtained via a more 'mundane' way.

The warrior guild has no god patron. Same for the mages. Some of them may revere Julianos but gods don't interfere in Mundus as daedra do. So, not all the guild have a connection to a Daedra.

I admit, the "Hail Sithis" and "he died because Sithis demansded it" dialogue makes your character sound like a nincompoop.

Let's just admit it. People in Skyrim are [censored]s.

actually the ay the guild propers is because of the ritual that the night mother hears and is passed onto the night mother. The members themselves even admit that the contracts are drying up and its been that way for awhile. The only ones thyeve been able to get is the ones that they HEAR about, think of all those contracts of people who were smart enough o keep silent and privant about the matter, and after enough people do it and not get any results then no more work forthe dark brotherhood....hence why all thier contracts had been dying up, they were going under anyways.

Plus all astrid ad to do was just change thier name, BUT what she was doing was basically being her own lil assassin family with its own " 1 rule" but keeping the dark brotherhood name for the publicity and the contracts..

Bingo

Just like the TG, the DB needs a patron diety in order to prosper. But unlike the TG, I always put the DB one notch higher. Simply because their patron was Sithis himself---father of all Aedra & Daedra. So while somewhat trivial, the Night Mothers role (as the CEO admin assistant/answering machine) always made the DB more special than the TG. Besides, the Mother provided all DB members with a direct conduit to Sithis. Unless you were a Nightingale, the average TG member only got to interact with the Nocturnal indirectly (from blessings at her shrine, orders from Brynjolf etc).

Interesting point on the Warriors Guild. I'd have agrued that Hircene would be the best Daedric Patron for that set based on the Companions questline. Or perhaps even Molag Bal.

You think of the Oblivion DB extermination, when you say "both". I think the cleansing of the brotherhood in Oblivion was so wrong! There was no justification what so ever. Every single person in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary was innocent! It still hurts me just thinking about it.

But I agree, I was so angry with Astrid, it was a pleasure to kill her burned up butt! LOL I hope she was suffering, that little self-righteous, self-important, megalomaniac! RAWR

Yes, Astrid is a moron. She is given the choice of taking sides between a civil servant and a God. Because Sithis isn't a Daedra, he's a God, capital G and all. What does Commander Maro have? A handful of bodyguards and a few carts full of inflammable liquid.

The scene with her lying on the floor like a semi-ambulatory piece of burnt bacon made me laugh too much to feel sorry for her. The saddest part of it is that her and her computer generated booty weren't available for marriage.

That said, I personally think the DB storyline is one of the best and the most fun of all the quests.

I don't think their invididual exterminations were justified, but the sancturary was compromised and the only way to make sure they cleansed the traitor. Unfortunately for them and the sanctuary, Matthew had already been promoted. I was sad to take the sanctuary out, it was quite hard to do emotionally, but I understand why the Black Hand ordered it.

I kinda wanted to hook up with her. I was on xbox live with buddie when I found out she lived through fire I was like oh yea she is mine now I'm gonna go get some. Buddy was like are you sure and started laughing, didn't know what he meant until I found her.

"Oh Astrid, I served you, and told you Cicero wasn't going to harm you...even went out of my way to KILL him, and THIS is how you repay me? A quick death??"

FILF? Hahaha, what? I think one of us is a little confused on what that acronym stands for.

I never did the DB storyline. The way she said that I "owed her a kill" made me want to smack her with a hammer. So I did.
She doesn't even care that she dies. Which was kinda unsettling.

If you don't have any ethical issues you should do it - it's really cool, actually.

The only mistake she did was abducting the archmage. Mages can get quite nasty. I thought with Festus Krex around Astrid would know a thing or 2 about mages, and how brutal they can get.



Cicero respected the old tradition while the other hand Astrid had no discipline. She wanted no rules to follow. She was leading her "family" in the wrong direction. Oh and her disrespect for the night mother is quite disturbing.

It wasn't so much she was leading them the wrong direction, DB was just doing okay, because they had no listener.

The problem is that she was a weak leader. Got all scared when the Penitus Oculatus sought revenge of killing Gaius Maro and framing him. She goes and makes these deals of turning you in with an exchange of leaving the dark brotherhood alone. WEAK leadership. Cicero was right about her all this time. This is why I refuse to kill him.

It isn't that she got scared of the Penitus Oculatus, it's that she's threatened by the Dragonborn being named Listener. That seriously undermines her authority because up until that point she was the one they looked for to get the jobs. With you being name Listener, you have a claim to leadership she can't really match. She sells you out to try and make it so the Imperials won't interfere with her business anymore and there really isn't anyone to threaten her position.