Gallus was only a ghost for 25 years and stopped his service by helping you. Karliah states after Gallus is released that the Nightingales serve Nocturnal in life and death only to repay the debt they owe her for granting them luck and powers. Since you returned the Key and essentially restored her power, she releases you of your debt. While she says she expected it, if you actually paid attention, she says that you have repaid your debt to her by returning the Key, so no ghost service for Dragonborn.

Do the Azura's quests. She promises to you that "she will watch over you in your twilight". That's totally within her powers, considering that she's the goddess of dusk and dawn, of birth and death.

When the time comes and a lot of Daedra will line up to claim your soul (Hircine for sure, if you're a werewolf...) pray to her. I'm sure she will keep her word

I get where you are coming from because there are some games where I cant go evil but than there are others I can. Like when I play Mass Effect games I cant bring myself to choose Renegade and be a complete A-Hole about things. But in Star Wars I find it fun to turn to the dark side and kill everything, so there are times I can go evil or whatever but mostly if I dont feel its for fun than I cant do anything but good. I am also bad at Role-Playing because if I really want a certain item I always go for it even if I going a certain way like good char or bad char, I just dont care if its out of context for the char to get that item I want.

Does anyone find it strange that we care about the fact that a bunch of pixels murder, rob or extort another bunch of pixels? It's an interesting phenomena indeed.

That being said though...

I think Bethesda did a good job in that not one of the guilds are pure good or evil. All of them presents you with an interesting moral dilemma as you follow the quests.

Their is no place in any guild for an all white hero. You have to turn a blind eye here and there to progress in any of them which makes it interesting. What bothers me though is that the rewards for being a murdering bastard in this game is better than saving the world from total destruction. You get 20K gold and a very good set of armour for murdering an emperor but you get junk for saving the world from ending. Weird.

I would have loved it if the DB in Skyrim was rid of all this religious crap. Assassins should be cold blooded professionals not Daedra worshipping bloodthirsty creeps. And getting my orders from a many thousand year old corpse who likes hugs? Screw it, I'll start my own guild. No weirdos welcome.

Compared to the DB I honestly don't have much of a problem in being a Nightingale as a thief. Sure the guild members are little more than thugs when you start out but that is because the current leader is a backstabbing, thieving bully. Once he is removed the guild can be redeemed and at least most of them shuts up about religion on the job. Maybe thats because Nocturnal don't care much for worship which suits me just fine. So I have to guard her pad in the afterlife for a bit before moving on. Heck, it's a small price to pay considering that the alternatives are being a butt licking, howling hound or being tortured for eternity by Sithis. That's if I don't wake up in Oblivion as some other Daedric idiot's toy because I failed to read the fine print on the Atronauch forge.

Funny thing - one of those people still managed to attend my wedding.

If you refer to the distillery owner, he's not a saint... just ask him how he treats his assistant. He loaned him money knowing that he would never be able to repay in full so that he got his free services know in exchange of canceling the debt (which he hints it won't happen anytime soon).

Bran Shei actually tried to fence some stolen items without the approval of the guild so by plotting his demise, you actually help keeping crime under control. I only felt bad for the Pawned Prawn owner... the rest of the people are guilty of something so you're not actually committing injustices against 'good' guys.

Just because someone does a slightly bad thing it doesn't mean that any punishment will do. So Brand-Shei tried to fence something, should he be locked up for the rest of his life? The Honningbrew guy was a jerk, but ditto - I didn't know that being a jerk was a crime. And the people you rough up and threaten? So the inn owner is mean to you, is threatening to hurt her family a good reaction to that? So Haelga sleeps with guys, big deal. It's all stupid. Very few characters in this game are completely 100% innocent of anything, but that doesn't mean they deserve to have the crap beaten out of them or be thrown in jail forever. And I didn't join the thieves' guild to be a thug, I joined it to steal.

Sorry to all you milk-drinking Robin Hood wannabes, but this ain't your father's Thieves Guild. This is a criminal organization.

Think of Skyrim's Thieves Guild as The Sopranos.

Everyone complained about how gay the whole Robin Hood thing in Oblivion was and how it would be so much better if the Thieves Guild was an actual criminal organization and Beth took that into consideration and designed a great guild this time around and then people just go right back to complaining about how they wish they were Robin Hood again.

It's a never ending circle with some people. The circle of life, Simba.

*shrug* I never complained about the Oblivion version, personally.

I use the term "everyone" broadly and loosely. There was a very large and very vocal group against the Thieves Guild.

Thieves. They steal things that other people own and worked for. There's no "honor" in that, no matter how much popular fiction likes to romanticize the concept, it just doesn't exist. I enjoy the realism and logical treatment of a group of people that steal things for a living in this game. It actually makes you feel like a criminal.

Those Argonians owed a debt and were welshing. In addition they lied when they said they didnt have the money.

@House Stark -

For the OP and many others like myself it's not about the fact that the guild is a criminal organisation rather the Robin Hood's merry band. It's about the whole "all you gotta do is sell your soul" crap they've put in most of the guild quests.

I quit playing my thief/assassin, too, as much as I liked some of the gear (shrouded gauntlets!) I just wasn't enjoying being such a $#!?. Started off with noble(ish) intentions, but the questlines weren't for me, and didn't seem they'd reward my efforts.
Nothing against Bethesda or players who enjoyed those guilds.

I think that the only guild questline where you can keep a squeaky clean conscience is the Mage's College. The Companions are a close second, but... there is some furry baggage to carry around as a Companion.
-Loth