I'm just wondering how joining the dark brotherhood, or the thieves guild will change my character.

Should I skip these quests to keep my character good? Or does it really matter at all? Does it have any effect on the ending at all?

It seems like with the additional quests, I can become a warewolf, a thief, or an assasin for the DB. Yet if I don't do them I'll be missing a HUGE portion of the game.

Why are there no nobel groups to join?

Anyways, how does performing all of these horrible acts effect my character?

You could start a second character to do "evil" quests.
There is no real downside for a character, the gaurds may make comments, your character may get a large bounty, but the normal everday people in Skyrim do not notice things like guild affiliations and evil acts that have been committed by a character.
The evil quests are actually the best for storylines and depth of immersion, but they are not for a noble/heroic character.

Everyone's Main Quest has the same ending. Joining the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild or Companions doesn't change that, as each guild has its own independent questline. From a roleplaying standpoint, the world presented in Skyrim is not one of easy moral choices and so you might want to take your character's worldview into account when deciding which guild(s) to join. If you want to maintain your character's integrity and still experience the content offered in all of the guilds, it might be fun to make a few alternate characters.

The most noble guild in Skyrim is probably the College of Winterhold, which is dedicated to learning and magic. Unfortunately its main questline is probably the weakest of Skyrim's guilds. The Companions also have room for noble characters, especially those who have to deal with self-doubt and over-aggression. Becoming a werewolf isn't necessarily an 'act of evil', as the Daedric Princes are complex entities who exist apart from conventional moral code. In general, I would warn noble characters to tread carefully around Daedric Princes though, many of them request very cruel things.

companions are fairly good, thieves are ass holes, dark bros are evil, none of them effect each other, you can slay alduin and win teh peoples love while also being an evil psyco [censored]

They're all shady, and Skyrim's a harsh, unforgiving place.
Goody-two-shoes are screwed on this one.

How about...don't do any quests?

Not really, They seem not to care for there "Clients", only there gold.

...so? lol, the radiant quests revolve around saving villagers, killing hostle wildlife, and...well fist fighting random smoes in thier homes, not evil by any means

Im not saying there Evil, Im saying there grey, They care for the well-being of the person there rescuing only because if they die, there pay goes down the drain.

what would the good version of them do though? the fighters guild in ob was practically the same...minus the curse thing of course. Also i've never done anything bad/evil in thier quest. Or wait maybe that is grey, i'm not real good with my alignments, But i still stand by my recommendation for good guy approved questing lol

Beating people up and making them do something, and you dont know the truth...

The DB line is the only one that may have an impact on TES 6 and it does have a player choice in it, tho neither is morally good just a decision to influence the future of a decidedly evil guild. So I would suggest you not miss out on the DB line, tho it is in no ways a morally good guild so maybe a second character is the way to go.

Seems your character needs a good dosage of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_nihilismou could also roleplay an infiltrator that does things for the greater good. Like completing the Thieves guild to take it over and dispand it. Infiltrating the dark brotherhood and change it to only assassinate evil people. This way you can do some pretty bad stuff - for the greater good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUpbOliTHJY

The best quests for good characters are the town ones where you help out the people. Like save Morthal or Dawnstar or Solitude from some evil, or help out individual npcs with their problems.

Of the guilds, the College of Winterhold is really the only one which is morally neutral and so acceptable for good characters. DB is out of course, the Thieves are very thuggish, and the Companions requires you to become a werewolf.

But you can still do most of the daedric quests. Something like the Mephala one you can wind up when you've removed the evil influence on the child, Peryite's is killing some of his evil dangerous followers who have gone rogue, and so on.

It's all in your mind, honestly. If you just want to play the game then do all the quests. If you want to role play and want to absolutely remain a good character then your only choice is destroy the dark brotherhood and not join the thieves guild at all.

@Jeven the Daedric quests are hardly good. You end up being asked to kill someone most of the times. And quests like Peryite's is so lame. He never mentions how Orchendor betrayed him, it's just a petty excuse of a quest imo.

> Not really, They seem not to care for there "Clients", only there gold.

They work for gold because it's how they pay the bills. It's not like they receive public funds to stay in business.

The questgivers' comments also suggest that they DO feel concern for their clients, at least those of the innocent variety (the rescue mission, etc).

I meant many of them are suitable for both good and evil characters because they are rather grey.

Like, take the Mephala one. Your goal can be to remove the evil sword from the castle and free the child of its malevolent influence, or take the sword for the your own murderous ends.
The Vaermina quest is similar, either destroy the evil artifact by helping the good priest or keep it for yourself.
Others like the quests for Meridia, Sanguine, and Sheogorath don't really have anything evil about them. Clavicus Vile and Hircine's quests are also ok.

The only truly evil ones are the Namira and Boethiah ones. But even the Namira quest you can put an end to by killing the cannibal woman when she asks you to do something particularly vile after clearing the dungeon she asks you to clear.

I steal when not being watched by others. Shame on me!

I didn't want to join the Companions at the beginning. Then lately I tried and don't regret it. When I became a werewolf I "waited" and it was all over. I put my armor on and never used my Beast Form power. In fact nothing really was changed. I cured myself after I retrieved the 3 totems for Aela. Apart that the stats are bugged and the hours in werewolf continue to increase.

Companions are like Fighters Guild in Morrowind and Oblivion. I like their quests. I have never joined the Thieves Guild nor the DB. But I was happy to help get rid of the DB. I'm neutral toward this Civil War. In fact I try to play good. Though it's not so easy.

They don't really affect your character, they are just questlines, its not like you have an infamy system like in oblivion. If you are roleplaying a good character, I would just avoid doing the dark brotherhood altogether, wait till you roll an evil character to do that. That said, the morality system is more ambigious in Skyrim than oblivion, the Fighters, blades and mages guild seemed like very noble organizations, but in Skyrim, they are more self centered, and thus less charitable, but not totally malicious.

Don't get why so many are saying it's "bad" to be a werewolf. Unlike Sindig, you aren't shifting and tearing apart little girls. You change when and only when you want too. If you don't want to, don't.

I broke my characters down like following. Due to heavy role-playing it was impossible for me to make it feasable for one character to come close to doing all the factions.


Anya Surilie. Female Breton. Pure Mage. College of Winterhold. Bards College.

Daral Berethi. Male Dunmer. Rogue, DW Daggers. Dark Brotherhood. Daedric Quests.

Dular. Male Orc. Warrior 2H Sword. Main Quest. Blades. Orc strongholds.

Onyx. Male Khajiit. Rogue 1H and Bow. Thieves Guild.

Raven. Female Breton. Forsworn DW Sword and Axe. Markarth. Imperial Legion.

Svenja. Female Nord. Warrior 1H and Shield. Main Quest. Companions. Stormcloaks.

I dont consider the DB to be evil, most the people you kill in those quests need to be killed, there annoying or evil themselves

Well, on one playthrough of Oblivion, I did all of the factions in descending order of good to evil, (Main quest, fighters, mages, arena, theives, brotherhood) and my rational is that he started out noble, but then went mad with power slowly over time. However, that wouldn't apply to skyrim, a lot of the factions are more ambigious, like, do the companions count as good or evil? Also, my playthrough of skyrim was much less organized than my oblivion playthroughs because I really didn't have an predesigned order in which I did things