Obviously, this starts with the understanding that you are willing to kill 10 friendly NPCs in order to fully power up the ebony blade. That stated...

Who do you kill and what's your rationale?

I decided to kill all my orc followers (blame Tolkein for my distrust of orcs) - but that only accounted for 5: Borgakh, Ghorbash, Lob, Ogol, and Ugor.
Then I killed Ahtar, the executioner from Solitude, because his quest (to do him a favor and let him become a follower) never triggered, which meant there was no way to obtain his unique axe other than his death.
For #7, I killed Faendal - either he or Sven weren't going to get along with me anyway, and playing a Nord, I sided with Sven, so Faendal had no in-game purpose left and he didn't like me (but the game counted him as friendly).
I'm about to start the Dark Brotherhood quests, but the only friendly NPC I know I'll be able to kill is Narfi (I assume he counts as a friendly kill since I did his quest for him) - so I assume he'll be #8.

But now I'm stuck. I don't want to kill NPCs that provide services (merchants, buyers of wheat, ore, etc.), NPCs that are potential followers/spouses, or NPCs that have any in-game value. Ideally, I'd like to kill some really unsavory or uncool NPCs that just happen to regard me as friendly - like Faendal was a good example.

Who did you kill, and why, and who would you recommend for me to kill?

Thanks.

What are the stats of the sword @ level 81 when you first get it compared to a fully upgraded one? I tried to improve mine but it won't appear for some reason...

Also, it's to my understanding that most merchants have an apprentice that will take over the shop once they die.

How about those cannibals in Morthal?

Starting stats: dmg 24, wgt 10, value 2000
Maxed stats: dmg 29, wgt 12, val 1000

No idea why the weight goes up and the value goes down - maybe because it's evil? I dunno. Also the final sword will absorb 30 points of health per hit. For every 2 NPC's you kill it will absorb 4 points more (up to max of 30, as stated). May be worth noting that my character has a 100 in 2H and 1H weapons (I know the ebony blade is a weird one in terms of how the game recognizes it).

I don't think all the shop merchants have apprentices, and if they do, I don't know if they take over. Never thought about it. The only one I know for sure is in the White Phial in Windhelm - Quintus takes over for Nurelion. Beyond that, I'm not sure.


Interesting thought - I happen to fancy Eola (sick, I'm sure), and I know a couple of them actually work in Markarth - wait - did you mean Markarth, or are we talking about different things? - anyway - if you're referring to the Namira quest, I may look into the couple of folks down there that don't seem to have much else to do with the game...

Whoops. Markarth.

Doing favors like mining ore and handing it in or picking crops and giving them to farmers earns favor. Just go to Rorikstead for two more NPCs that barely figure into anything to kill after you collect their crops.

As for what I do, the one time I decided to max out the enchant, I just chose to kill NPCs that were inside most or all of the time or ones that were way out of the way. I like keeping the town the same for the most part.

I was worried that I may have a lower leveled version of the blade, but it seems that seems it's just naturally really weak. Mehrunes's razor does over 100 damage while my other artifacts deal around 120-140. I mastered 1 handed, and smith/alchemist/enchanter on master difficulty. This weapon is way too underpowered and it's a shame that we can't even improve it. It makes sense for the lore, but the blade is nothing special.

Also, BTW, possibly the most important change in the ebony blade once it has been "tempered with deceit," is that a victim no longer regards an attack as an assault - meaning, if you attack a friendly party, they do not turn hostile or trigger a bounty as you hack into them...

...failed to "multiquote" here - sorry, mods...

@ Gallarialchiban: I know this is ludicrous, but I want to keep all the NPCs that will pay for wheat, ore, leeks, etc. alive - it's just my aesthetic - even though, as you reasonably point out, they have nothing to do with anything - I know I'm probably being ridiculous...

...Nazeem (thats is if he is counted as "friendly")

the guy that works for belethor serves no purpose so i killed him... but isn't there a thieves guild quest to kill narfi???



MuzzaFuzza

Nimphaneth and Sanyon are two cannibals down there that appear nowhere else in the game - but they are considered "acquaintainces," not friends - do these count toward ebony blade kills?


Now that's a good call - you get the spirit of what I'm looking for exactly... he strikes me as a real [censored] - problem with him is he is never(?) isolated enough to get in a kill hit


Narfi: Dark Brotherhood, not Thieves' Guild - and yes, he's dead already... not so comfortable killing Belethor's assistant though

Sorry for all these questions, I just haven't tried upgrading the sword because it didn't seem worth it and I wasn't sure how many kills I needed for it to work. Even with "evil" characters I like to keep every NPC alive possible unless there's a quest that dictates otherwise for a "perfect" world. A save file that's dedicated to genicide is a different story, but there are too many essential NPCs and generic characters that don't even have a name for such a playthrough to have any real meaning.
Last question: What if you kill them? What if you hit a guard or someone who isn't "friendly" but isn't hostile?

AFAIK it simply doesn't count toward the requisite 10 friendly kills - seems like the idea is to have you kill people who like/trust you - on PC this can be checked with a console command if you're not sure (player.getrelationshiprank [NPC ID]) - and don't sweat the questions, that's what this is all about, eh? Also, love BenDover handle - classic, bro - makes me smile every time...

Also @ Aphaea: can't kill either Sanyon or Nimphaneth without making Eola and the other one hostile, so no good

Sorry, I meant the powered up sword. Does it inquire a bounty if you not just hit a friendly, but murder them? Also does it work on anyone that isn't hostile?

It's a shame there are so many essential npcs. It would be much easier to simply kill those who you've finished quests with to upgrade the blade.

Just tested it: you will still get a bounty if there are witnesses (e.g., attacked a Markarth merchant (the meat guy) in front of everyone and got the 1000 bounty on the spot - attacked Degain without a kill and also got the 40 bounty); but I had noted that if I killed a friendly NPC in private, they do not fight back - they just "take it" until they are dead...

Nah, I sort of understand where you're coming from. Just in case you feel like wandering around and getting some gold. I just offered those examples because it's easy to curry their favor. Similarly, you can just give a gold coin to a beggar and they thing you're awesome. Not sure if there's ten beggars total but you'd probably get like five between all the cities.

This sword is bugged. For some reason, it uses one hand skill level and perks, but you wield it with two hands.. It's a cool sword; It'd be really awesome if it actually worked right..

True, true, true....

There's some discussion as to whether it's a bug or it was intended. Its weight, damage, reach, sound effects, and stamina consumption are determined by One-Handed values, for instance. If you had 100 One-Handed and 100 Two-Handed and maxed out the enchant on it, you'd be looking at 79.5 damage per strike. I guess if you REALLY wanted to, you could just take the necessary perks in the One-Handed tree and proper enchants if you're into Two-Handed weapons, or if it's the other way around, just take it and go wail on Hadvar or Ralof for about three hours. That would get it to over 100 damage easily I imagine. Still, the drain health effect is broken because the Ebony Blade never needs to be recharged and you sap health constantly.

As a strictly one-handed fighter, (File 1-sword+shield, File 2-Two daggers, File 3-magic+sword) I enjoy this benefit to try out a two handed weapon once in a while.
Also, like Mehrunes's razor it doesn't need to be recharged. Dispite it's low dps, it's turning out to be an interesting weapon I might actually use after all.
Comparing damage dealt using legitiment enchanting and smithing, I thought I'd share my results for those interested in the blade's potential power.

No, I get it - the ebony blade is unique - looks 2H but handles 1H - but I'm sure it's caused a lot of confusion/stress - personally, I couldn't care less since I max out both my 1h and 2H skills - and once the quest is done, I don't use the blade again anyway (it goes into the collection)...

Either Sven or Faendal, I always use one of them for Boethia and Ebony blade (Master conjuration can just resurrect dead NPC to be killed again)

Bingo. I obtained it and immediately just stored it away in one of my houses. For such an evil and legendary sword, it's pretty weak. I find that goes for most of the so-called legendary weapons.

all the housecarls are meat for the grinder, all they do is sit in your house and eat your food anyway