Hey people. I'm looking for some fiction or some video games that are heavy on the medieval cloak and dagger theme. To better explain what exactly I'm looking for, here a few examples or words: the Inn of Ill Omens from Oblivion, the portion of the Dark Brotherhood quest line in Oblivion where the targets and payment were deposited along drop points, the tavern scene in Fellowship of the Ring, the brothel & brothel owner of Game of Thrones... and my mind went blank.

Basically, anything where the medieval environment is macabre, the taverns are dark, everyone keeps to themselves, don't ask, don't tell, the only thing on tap is the darkest, nastiest, meanest beer and you can only determine that it must have a bit of soil and old coffee grounds in it. Brothels are a bonus, assassinations are a must. Plot twists and intrigue. Betrayal and coin. Occasional horse and occasional chain mail/sword. Reliant on the night and the dagger. Perhaps some bow & arrow usage.

I don't like things like Assassin's Creed. I prefer some less over-the-top things. No sleeve-swords that pop out under my palms while I'm wearing a hoodie from Wal-Mart. Skyrim didn't cater to my preference either. It was completely dead in this respect. Oblivion had a very nice piece of it, but it wasn't enough. I'm new to fantasy novels, and most of the new ones look really stupid on the cover so I have no idea what to look into. There was a slight bit of the element in a Diablo novel I read once, but it was just a weak novel all around.

A mature/advlt setting is preferable. Help me out!

For video games, I recommend Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age. Granted, they're more steampunk than straight-up Medieval, but they're about as noirish as it can get. And they're the stealth games that all others in the genre strive to be.

May not be exactly what you're looking for, but I think that you'd like The Witcher.

Well as others have said The Witcher, and I'd agree on thief, great games if you like stealth that is.
And I don't know Daggerfall has it's darker and/or mature parts, but judging from your username you've already played it.

I have both Witcher games Enhanced Edition. I'm not much of a fan of part 2 but I'm in the middle of a 2nd play through on part 1. And yeah, I still play Daggerfall lol.

I'll try Thief out, but I've never played a steampunk game that I could tolerate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Wind and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wise_Man%27s_Fear are more about magic rather than assassination, but they are still dark novels with mature themes and you would probably enjoy them. A lot.

I'm glad this was the first post.
But you beat me to it.

Hmmm.... this is a very difficult requisitetetetetetete....

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and The Scar certainly fit the mature, macabre, dark and brooding requirements, but are not Medieval. Steampunk in a semi-Victorian setting.

Nightwatch by Terry Pratchett might serve, although I would call it more renaissance than medieval.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss definitely has the tavern and the brooding, but much of it is a flashback about a boy in school. Not much assassination in the first two books, but it seems to be heading in that direction.

You could try T.H. White's The Once and Future King, since it was a big inspiration for A Game of Thrones and does contain some intrigue, but it has a lot of unrelated silliness in it.

Well, I threw some spaghetti against the wall, let me know what sticks.

Dang can't really think of one the only one I can think of is Constantinople: 1453 a place called armageddon at least I think that is what it is called.

Edit: Or you could try the twilight reign series.

For fiction I recommend Inversions by my favourite author, Iain M Banks. Although Banks is a Sci-fi writer this story is almost entirely grounded in a medieval setting

"Besides extra moons in the sky and stories of devastating meteor showers that toppled a former Empire, this novel's squalid, pre-industrial world seems to have no sci-fi elements. The two entwined stories feature a woman who becomes personal physician to one kingdom's absolute monarch, and the male bodyguard of a rival and more "progressive" country's Cromwell-like Protector. Both protagonists are mysterious outsiders from farther away than the King or Protector can ever imagine" "There are also generous helpings of blood, violence, poisoning, ingenious deceits and high excitement, spiced with political philosophy."

There is one page of the book that features an event that may seem miraculous to anybody who is not familiar with Bank's Culture novels, which are proper sci-fi. I made the connection pretty quickly but it might be unsatisfactorily explained for a reader who has never read a Culture novel.

That sounds pretty badass.

I also heard this game was excellent.

These sound pretty nice as well.

Nehrim the German total conversion mod for Oblivion is darker than the game itself. The NPCs are definitely less chatty for one.

I actually downloaded this a month before Skyrim came out (I was never a real fan of Oblivion so I'm a bit behind the times here) and the starting dungeon scared the piss out of me. However, upon zoning to the outside world, my pc crashed. Considering the last save file, I haven't touched it since.

I don't know many games like this, but the Night Angel trilogy matches your description pretty well. They are really mature, though.

That looks pretty interesting. Thanks for the input. I'm about to have to bust out some debit.

You welcome, and these involve a lot of "advlt themes", and tend to go into a little too much detail. Just a warning.

The book Pillars of the Earth sounds right up your street

I absolutely recommend these. They were a great read. Definitely worth it. About about the magic: While it might be there, it's not similar to other magic things. It's actually interesting!

You could try Joe Abercrombie's books: the "The First Law" trilogy, "Best Served Cold" and "Heroes". Lots of backstabbing there.

The first Witcher game is essentially a detective story.

Whoops. missed that other post by OP.

All of these look very promising as well. Thanks!

No problem:D They're probably my favourite books, alongside ASoIaF.

This.