Okay started a new play-through siding with the imperials. I see a major problem in lore here though.

How do we justify killing the emperor when we have sided with the emperor?

just because you believe in a cause doesnt mean you think its leader is doing a good job...

True, but wouldn't killing the emperor make you a traitor?

When I actually got to the Assassination of the emperor, I quit the game and deleted that file, In my personal View Emperor Titus Mede II Was the best Out of all Tes characters, He was A total Badass, He he was very sympathetic, He was fearless. Frankly I couldn't kill him.

This, plus once you become a Dark Brotherhood member, you take a silent oath. Once the deal has been made, you kill your target, no questions asked.

When you join The Legion you also take A oath.
"Upon my honor I do swear undying loyalty to the Emperor Titus Mede II, and unwavering obedience to the officers of his great Empire. May those above judge me, and those below take me, if I fail in my duty.Long live the Emperor! Long live the Empire!"

not at all. not if you are loyal to the empire rather than to the emperor. hes a bit of a lame emperor IMO. so all youre doing is improving the leadership...

Nothing in here about not killing him. LOL.

As I stated above, It does make you A traitor, Your killing the Head of your state and A person you swore A oath to.

You Swore to Obey him And serve him, I wouldn't consider killing someone serving them.

well thats your opinion. i would think if one is true to a cause, and the cause has an inept leader, it is ones duty to ensure the cause survives and is strong by removing said leader.

anyway, op was asking for a justification, so thats what i gave him.

My husband's legion character is also DB. He plays it that he joined the legion without realizing what a wet Titus Mede II was and only gradually after being kicked in the head over and over by the Thalmor decides that the empire needs to die. Titus Mede II fearless? Hardly. He's the chap who handed over the whole works to the Aldmeri when the Redguard proved he didn't need to.

And yes, you do have to break your oath to the Legion. It makes for a tragic character, realizing that some things are more important than keeping that oath or even your own soul.

The other way to do it is to do the DB quests first.

Excellent way to feign loyalty to take out a high priority target

Titus Mede II actually ASKED you to kill him.

He just asked you to kill his killer.

Really? Does it REALLY need to spell out "Don't kill your leader"?


I hope you are in a position of leadership, then wonder why people disobey you... Your own teachings here are the root of many problems.

I believe the "Long live the Emperor" line implies that. At any rate I was doing those two questlines simultaneously, so at the end of it I won their war for them and then killed their leader after being betrayed and having my new family killed by the legion I had so faithfully served. Maro didn't even address me as Legate. The dog.

Serious answer:

Yes, if you kill Titus Mede II as an Imperial, you are an oathbreaker.

However, by that point, you're sort of caught between a rock and a hard place.

Especially since the Dark Brotherhood is an illegal organization.

You can serve the GREATER good of the Empire but in details, being a member of the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood is probably bad on the resume.

I couldn't. I didn't know where the DB questline would take me and when the two questlines overlapped like that my character walked away from the DB questline. It seemed like the right thing to do...even for a sneak thieving member of the Thieves Guild

Lol. Seems quite plausible.

You don't necessarily have to be adherent to the emperor, even if you believe in the imperial cause. You'll break an oath, but not necessarily one to the empire itself. You can believe the Stormcloaks have a point, and think the empire and the emperor has screwed up...but at the same time think the empire is worth saluaging. The one thing I hate about the civil war discussion is that it becomes an "either/or" argument and very polarizing. But in real life, people are balanced, aren't they? If you're extremely disappointed in your government, most people don't abandon it entirely. Only fringe batsh*t militias do that. They throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's like they need everything to be perfect, or else they abandon something. What most people do instead is recognize issues and try to fix them. While I don't think Rikke, Hadvar, or Alvor would approve of an assasination, they still recognize that the empire has problems. I think a lot of imperials are probably like them.

I'm kind of in the same boat as the OP. I've joined the Legion and finished the quest line but at some point I have to decide what I'm going to do about the DB as I don't want to just ignore it for the sake of not dealing with this particular quandary.

Either I'm all in and kill the Emperor or the first chance I get, I waste the DB.

Still haven't decided yet.

I'll start the Thieves Guild stuff first though.

I just thought to myself, I'm doing the empire a favour by ridding it of it's emperor. A true patriot was my imperial character, as he believes that he is much better suited for the job, being dragonborn and all.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/649875346789707696/0D20390F276E33CAC2AFD289F2B194C34416C289/

I think Bethesda has even left the story of Talos open ended for people who want to roleplay like this as well.

Read the Arcturian Heresy. Talos was a lauded soldier in the empire of his day, but assassinated the emperor himself. The "official story" though is that he was with the emperor, and was injured in the attack.

Just because you're forced to make an oath doesn't make you liable to respect it. Morally speaking, forced oaths are invalid.

Of course, good luck explaining that to a martial court. You know, there's a reason why all the countries developed the 'soldier' profession. Beyond their training, the reason why all the nations have armies is because they are composed of individuals who don't question motives.

Imagine a world where everyone uses his head. So many politicians, dictators, prophets and kings unemployed, many many wars avoided.

True enough.

The only people with the balls to do stuff like this are the ones who believe they have more power than the court, if it came down to it. I suspect that if the Talos story was true, then that was his case.

It's a matter of might makes right. Probably the ultimate law, whether people like it or not. Some characters would be fun to roleplay like this.

Almost all Conan stories are like this. There's one funny short story where he was arrested for some petty crime, and let the guards take him to the magistrate. He was merely amused and wanted to see what it was like. Until they sentenced him. Then he killed everyone in the courtroom and walked out.