I have this dilema. I'm playing a morally good character, and i do want to destroy the dark brotherhood, however the only way to reach that is to assisinate Grelod the Kind. But's its wrong to murder someone. Yes i know she is evil, but that doesn't justify me killing someone in cold blood/defensless. I don't have a problem killing in self-defense, but this killing of Grelod is not the case, and i have been rping this character as someone who doesn't attack people unless attacked first.


What should i do? Give up on morality and just do it?

Man i wish Beth gave us an opition to somehow find a way to bring justice to Grelod, stop her from hurting the kids, without murdering her.

Why does Beth seem to want us players to become ruthless/not good, in order to fight evil?

Ever heard of the whole

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."?

My good character shouldn't have to stoop to the level of a "monster" to destroy an orginization full of "monsters".


My character is fully against what the dark brotherhood does, it doesn't matter that some of the victims of this orginization are evil people, that doesn't justify their methods.

One wrong never makes another wrong right, and that is something my skyrim character belives in. So killing Grelod will be OOC.

It could be argued that if the destruction of the Dark Brotherhood is "justice", then the termination of Grelod the Kind could be considered the exact same thing. If killing Grelod is murder, launching an assault on Brotherhood headquarters with intent to slaughter them might be little better. Or even no better.

Because of my soft spot for children and my rage toward those who victimize them, I destroy her without hesitation or regret.

If you don't want to kill Grelod, just leave the Dark Brotherhood alone. There is, I fear, no other choice you can make.

"Lawful Good doesn't mean Lawful Nice."

Keep this in mind. In RPGs, sometimes to do the most good, you need to be willing to commit some minor acts of evil. Yes, you can be all rainbows and puppies. But ultimately if you have the power to remove an evil, and you aren't willing to take the steps required to stop it because doing so requires you to do a evil act, you've basically allowed the badguys to win. Any more acts of evil that they perform afterwards are partially your own fault.

That doesn't mean that you can't try the nonviolent approach, but if there's no other way around it, you need to be willing to kill if you want to stop them.

Yes i know that by killing Grelod, i have the option to destroy/bring justice to the Dark Brotherhood. However my character doesn't know that. All he knows is that some creepy kid told him to kill Grelod because she is evil. He doesn't know that by doing so, the dark brotherhood will give him an offer to join the group, or that this will give him an opition to destroy the group.

So basically all he knows, is that he is now been given a job to murder someone because said someone is evil. Maybe if he had the foreknowledge that this murder will lead to the end of the dark brotherhood, he would do it, but he doesn't know that.

You would be killing someone, not out of self-defense, but in the defense of those who cannot defend themselves. I don't see how that's immoral. Do you not help merchants being assaulted by bandits simply because they haven't raised their swords against you?

I wouldn't call Avrentus "crazy" -- he's been through an awful lot for someone so young: his mother's illness and death, the indifference of Windhelm's authority, the complacency of Riften's citizens with regards to Grelod's methods, Grelod's methods themselves (she has a miniature dungeon, for heaven's sake)...

It's somewhat implied he desecrated his own mother's corpse to make the effigy -- he despises Grelod that much. It's his own way of getting back at a world that doesn't care for him.

[Of course, the above is a little dreary -- it's possible that Avrentus is too much a child still to grasp the full impact of his actions, the Sacrement.]

He bounces back pretty quickly after the quest (he was originally to move back to Honorhall, with Agrengor Once-Honored taking up residence in Avrentus' mother's old home, but it's half-there and he never does), so he seems pretty sane. 'Course, he might have to talk to a shrink later and might grow up to join the Brotherhood or become a freelance assassin, but for the time period you can experience in the game, that's neither the here nor there.

Pity the child.

In the words of the immortal Sam Jackson...

The Path of the Righteous Man is beset on all sides by the inequities, selfishness and tyranny of evil men...Blessed is he who Shepards the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brothers keeper, and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know that I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

That's my character's motto. I'm guild master, but I've already paid back more or less all the people I've stolen from. With interest. I've also destroyed the Dark Brotherhood.