My biggest disappointment as far as fractured factions go, was the Dark Brotherhood. In Oblivion, they were in every province with hidden sanctuaries all over Tamriel. They had structure. The five tenets guided the Brotherhood and the Black Hand was the ruling body of the Brotherhood. Two hundred years later, they are almost non existent! Not only are they almost non existent, but they (At some point) just abandon the structure that's kept sanctuaries together for hundreds of years. WTF happened? It just doesn't make sense. This is a group of assassins who killed anyone for the right amount of coin, and they were spread out everywhere. I mean, I don't think there was a drop in business. There's always someone praying to the Night Mother to have someone killed, right? The Dark Brotherhood was almost assuredly one hundred times bigger than most factions for hire and as I've said before, had a further reach than most too. So why did they suffer such a grim fate? According to the game, the sanctuary in Skyrim (Later Dawnstar sanctuary) is the last functioning Dark Brotherhood base in all of Tamriel! It's just really hard to grasp the concept that in ALL of Tamriel, that is the only Dark Brotherhood clan.


Does anyone else agree with this? Maybe you might have a hypothesis on how it fell into decline? Share.

The Night Mother became an idiot is what happened. She's the link between the Dark Brotherhood and Sithis, and yet she refused to speak to any member for too long. The DB could hardly continue to function the way it had, and with its other woes, it was only natural it'd start to fall apart. What's really surprising is the lack of a competing faction muscling them out.

Blam it on the old listener becoming sheo.

It makes for a more interesting story, IMO. Besides, I much prefer the Skyrim brotherhood to the Oblivion one.

It's unfortunate that there's nothing beyond Cicero's journals to really recall what happened there, but even so, most of it you can guess. It was likely a number of problems both internal and external. At the end of the Third Era, Matthieu Bellamont had succeeded in having a number of Speakers and even the Listener assassinated or he killed them himself. By the time he was found out, it was just a newly anointed Listener and the one Speaker in Cyrodil. Considering Cyrodil is where the Night Mother is, the fact it was so crippled had lasting effects on the Brotherhood, I'm sure. Then the Great War with the Thalmor happened, the Listener killed, and the Night Mother's tomb desecrated. The Black Hand decided to just abandon the other Sanctuaries in Elsweyr and High Rock and just fall back to their Cyrodil headquarters. The only one from the Black Hand left was a Speaker named Rasha, who said he was the Listener but he was lying so Cicero had one of the four remaining Brotherhood members kill him.

Why the Night Mother spent so long without speaking to anyone is curious, considering the Falkreath sanctuary was the only one left in Tamriel. But under Astrid's rule, they had abandoned the Old Ways, and the Night Mother likely felt they were unfit to hear her voice if they couldn't follow the Five Tenets. The Dragonborn, being both insanely powerful and new the scene, seemed like the best fit for a new Listener to her I guess.

You obviously know nothing of the NM's ways. She is wise in that she only chooses those whom destiny has foretold to be the listener. If she chose anyone else they would abuse the power and possibly even ignore her Contracts in favor of their own selfish gains.

But yea this is NOT the DB, just a tiny group of psychos under the thumb of a Nord B!tch who deserved their fate. OB had the real children of Sithis and the only remnants are Shadowmere and Lucien's Spirit...and how disappointed they must be

I cant read your fancy grey font and lengthy rant about days of old

I wouldnt necessarly throw the whole grp as pretenders. Festus, the vampire girl, and the goth emo dunmer I would say would Glady have fallen in line. The lizard, wolf, the [censored], and 3dog obviously just using the DB name for fame.

And wtf did 3dog survive and not [censored] festus? That crazy old bastard was the funniest damn npc in the game. I flew into a rage when I saw what happened to him and dont think I can replay the DB for awhile or whenever I get back to playing skyrim again.

But ya, I say call BS on the other sanctuarys going mia, abandoned, or overrun. The DB never had ties Withe the empire, hell they problemly would work for a thalmor if they gave a black sacrilege.

Bah, I think it's time the DB ditched the temperamental wrinkled old prune and adopted a new business model. Seriously, if Night Mother won't talk to anyone but the Dragonborn, the DB will still end up back at square one, sooner or later. The problem is, Astrid is an idiot, and doesn't represent the kind of leadership the DB needs.

Well each and every one of the "family" says " I used to serve the night mother but now Astrid is my only mistress" only proving that they never deserved to be let past the Black Door. Abandoning the tenants should have called for immediate retaliation from Sithis himself in the form of an army of the spirits of the greatest DB members from history ripping their hearts out

Sigh so very true. Funny as hell, when I first got the spell for the ghost, the first thing he said was that tbis place could benefit from an old fashion purification...right in front of Astrid. So naturally I saw what was coming next lol.

I meant those 3 BC they were the onea excited to have Cicero and see a return to the old ways. Bit you are right, they did get whays was coming to them.

It's not that the night Mother became an "idiot". Never speak in such ways about our Unholy Matron!

There was simply no one deserving/qualified for the job, thus she went quiet. For more details, see below.


This.

It's because no one was worthy that no new Listener was chosen. And when that S'wit Astrid chose to abandon the Five Tenets for good, well that just sealed that there would be no more Listener for quite some time.

No one knows the thoughts of Sithis. A new Listener is chosen based upon what He sees in their future, and their ability to run the Dark Brotherhood in the way that the Dread father desires. He then relays such information to the Night Mother, and she influences events to play out in a certain way so that said individual becomes the Listener.

In this way, the Dark Brotherhood gets the best possible candidate for the job.

Uh huh, which explains the about-face on the "worthiness" of a certain Listener back in Cyrodiil. It's high time for men and mer to free themselves from the shackles of religion and start thinking for themselves.

Because we all saw how well that turned out for the DB... lmao

And the Listener I played became the new Sheogorath, that was the Listener after that got whacked.

I thought both listeners in cyrodill were good at what they did. One even tracked down to a hideout nvm the peeson ledt the hideout shortly before we joined, bit overall was great at what he did. Granted he couldnt hold a candle to the coc but still for an average guy, he was a cut far above the rest. Sad to see what happened to him.

The only thing I regret about the DB questline is that there is no way to clip astrid's hubbie and make her a marriage candidate. She's incredibly hawt.

And she gets even more hawt at the end of the quest line... lmao

And her hubby makes for a decent Dead Thrall too...

Sure...wake up one day and ask if the store made any money and she bursts int flames and the Emperor's guards storm the place...traitor b!tch

That actually makes perfect sense, except for the Astrid part. She didn't want a Listener or the Night Mother to overthrow her rule. That's why she betrayed you. Anyway, everything you said about the decline of the Dark Brotherhood was very informative and I think it has satisfied my curiosity as far as what the hell happened with them.