Just done 'The Forsworn Conspiracy' and am now in prison and thus doing the quest 'No one escapes Cidnah mine'.
Do I kill Madanch or should I help him escape?
It seems the right thing to do would be to kill him, but from what I understand the Forsworn are all over The Reach and the last thing I want is for them to attack me every 5 minutes.
As a wee note, I arrived in Markarth through the 'A Night To Remember' quest and this is the first time I have been to The Reach and Markarth.
What a fantastic city, by the way.

Let him live...they methods may be terrible and they may Horship Hircine and work for The Hargreven's but they....Forget kill them all. Just join the imperials and they took over the place.

I could be way wrong here...
I don't think you can side with them. They are and have always be hostile to me. So I say kill em all. They do make good black soul gem fillers.

Choosing to kill Madanach or side with him doesn't make much difference.

The forsworn will attack you even if you've sided with him and will still act much like the common bandits around.
But if you do side with him you'll get a nice enchanted light armour set, at the cost of slaughtering most of the guards in the city.
Well and if you don't exit the prison at night, you could also happen upon the Forsworn attacking Ghorza the blacksmith and other civilians.

But on the matter of morales, I side with Madanach almost always, for his people deserve the Reach and it'd also be nice to see a little less nord around.

Interesting. I think I would prefer to kill them to be honest, all they are, at the end of the day, is terrorists. And if they continue to attack even if you help him then even more reason.
Although I like the idea of the armour!!!!

I took the path of least resistance. I approached the King very stealthy-like (my Dunmer is an Assassin after all...), and shanked him in the back with a shiv. Then I just went through the tunnels, and got back my stuff from that Silver-blood asshat.

My Dunmer doesn't really give a toss about who's running Markarth, as long as the basic services remain open so that he can sell his loot, he's good with that.

The Listener does not trouble himself with such trivial things. As long as the Blood flows and there are Souls to give to send screaming into the Void, the Sithis is satisfied. If Sithis is appeased, then the Listener is pleased.

if you take their side you might not get to go back to markarth without getting attacked...i kill mardoch down in the mine...he's an idiot and i don't like him...its easy just to kill him and then when you exit the mine you get some reward...the reward he gives you is good but nothing you can't make yourself.

you can help them evade, but try not to attack the guards when you reach the prison exit, or else you might get stuck in the infamous markarth guards glitch that makes impossible to pay your bounties in markhart. If you help them exit the prison you will get the armor and if you leave the city right after you won't have any bounty on your head, dope

I helped him escape, and when I the melee erupted outside the mine I was very surprised. For moment I just stood there dumbfounded, but then I just walked away and whistled casually. Everything seemed to work out just fine.

What happens if Silver-Blood has been ousted in the Civil War?

It's weird that you can't fully side with them. You can be a Breton, and even ally with Hircine yourself in a way.. but yet, no dice.

Beth doesn't particularly like their players siding with darker factions unless it's the DB.

spoiler alert:

They're going to attack you whether you save him or not. They're on a mission and if you're not with them you're against them... or rather, if you're not ONE of them you're against them. I say help him escape, get your stuff back, put on the armor and run like hell through town and then change clothes and walk merrily away while they're fighting. Use the opportunity to murder Nepo, the guy is gonna try to kill you when you come back to town anyway.