This is probably just due to dev oversight/coincidence


I've been sent to a silver hand base as a part of a random quest with my Argonian mage. I was rather surprised to face them as I have not done a single companion quest.

Then I realised something: The Silver Hand are, objectively, evil. They are nothing more than bandits with a vendetta against werewolves, possibly due to beliefs. The way they butcher them very much seems kind of cultish. This finally explains why you cannot side with them, in my eyes. They're insane bandit cultists, not organised werewolf hunters.

For a while I wondered why they were unjoinable, well now it makes some sense: They're not interested, just like all the bandits out there. The true good faction I suppose would have to be the Vigilants, as these guys obviously are not.

The Vigilants defile the very meaning of Stendarr's purview: mercy. They even explicitly state so. And they don't see anything wrong with that at all.

The Vigilants are not good people.

Well, to be fair Stendarr isn't a god of mercy as we know it - more one of justice, meaning merciful to those he feels aren't evil (which is of course, subjective and allows him/his followers to be hypocrites) then again, he did make that 1000kg hammer as a weapon of mercy (the idea being that no one can use it). The religion of Tamriel does seem to be "Goodness to all, except those we dislike"

So in a way there is no good faction in Skyrim - only grey and evil ones, which I suppose is interesting.

Well, when you kill a vampire, you could be putting him out of their misery.

I also got the impression that the silver hand has a number of vampires in their ranks. I hadn't found anything that verifies this, but a number of them do have vampire dust as a lootable item once dead, which is not available on pickpocket.

The real problem with the Silver Hand is that the werewolves aren't werewolves in Skyrim.

They're mostly just players who do the Companions questline and find out they have to become one to progress, and at first think 'crap I hope the downsides aren't too steep,' but then realise 'oh, I get 100% immunity to disease,' and never actually use the wolf form, which is also untraditional in that the full moon has nothing to do with anything and you can just transform at anytime.

So, yeah, the Silver Hand are pro-disease. And that's bad, m'kay. >:[

No they are not inherently good people, but Stendarrs is the god of Merciful Forebearance and Righteous Might. Forebearance = restraint and tolarance. Apparently they see their "hunt of evil" as righteous. Seems similar to a Paladin-faction: "We will protect everyone except those who are evil" etc.

That's one of the things I love about this game. Just like in real life, most of the time the people who loudly state "We're the Good Guys", aren't.

Might be. They do seem very concerned with catching vampirism since most of them carry Cure Disease potions, and you apparently can't catch Lycanthropism by contact in Skyrim. Maybe they've been infiltrated by vampires?

They definitely are Doing It Wrong in terms of following Stendarr's precepts. I like that they will cure you of disease though and vampires in this game are all pretty evil, but daedric worshippers are not. I haven't had to fight them personally though as I haven't seen any confronting good daedric worshippers or good werewolves.

If they do turn up in DLC, I hope we have a chance to reform their ways. Otherwise I guess I'll turn to mods for the KOTN-type faction I seek.

I got the impression that other werewolves such as the one in Hircine's quest or the ones you find captive in silver hand bases are more traditional werewolves, complete with unwilling transformation (seems to last forever for the captives) and bloodlust.

Also "players"? The world of Skyrim does not acknowledge you as some kind of special person controlled by a higher being... oh... wait... it does actually... the only way TES lore makes sense is if the player is a player in a game, but generally that's just a silly theory. And besides there can't be more than one player at a time, so I have no idea what you're referring to

I believed they had the dust because they were vampire hunters as well. I got the vibe that they weren't just werewolf hunters but "darkness in its own entirety" hunters.

Silver Hand are evil. Vigilants of Stendarr are hypocrites. True good guys are werewolves.

Like Falmer said, some of them drop Vampire Dust, which isn't in their inventory before they die. So it must come from the Silver Hand members themselves. Dunno if that's intentional, but it's an interesting detail if it is.

The Good Guys who go beating up housewifes and priests for money? Those Good Guys?

In a world with Molag Bal and the Dark Brotherhood running around, yep, they're practically saints

I'm so tied up with the Daedra that it's a wonder that the Vigilants don't smell the stink of it on me and attack on sight or refuse to talk to me.
As far as the Silver Hand, I was kind of disappointed by the silver weapons' usefulness if nothing else.

The civil werewolves that i've met are actually friendly, no spoilers, and I haven't come across any Werewolves that use their abilities for evil. Vampires on the other hand, nearly always do. Only one i've met so far whoes nice, and she's an assassin.

Personally, I agree with putting down the mindless werewolves, for they will kill they own blood-brothers given the chance. Vampires should be killed on sight. If the Silver Hand only targeted the werewolves who were feral, then it'd be fine. I've got no quarrel with the Vigilants of Stendarr, since they haven't spoken to me yet.

Hmm... I see your point.

Interesting, I've not noticed that. I only recall seeing it in their inventorys and placed on shelves and tables. IF they were intentionally meant to just "spawn" vampire dust on death then that is a very intriguing detail.

There are some feral werewolves: I let one out as a non-werewolf and it attacked me, had to retaliate with a silver sword as it had a surprising amount of health compared to most things I had fought with my mage

Then again, being in Silver Hand lairs they may just be tortured into being psychotic.

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with the Silver Hand if they didn't attack my innocent non-werewolf argonian mage. Maybe they think he's a werecroc?

I honestly have a deep hatred of the vigilants. I follow the Daedric Princes. Doesn't matter which one. So it disgusts me when I see them deliberately searching and subjugating Daedra worshippers. Even peaceful worshippers are branded monsters and killed on sight.

By the eight, do I hate those Vigils. Let's just say when I see them, things don't turn out to well. Then again, I never was much to like Stendar that much. I've always been more of a Daedric Prince type of guy. But I do like some of the Nine Eight, like Akatosh, Talos, Zeinthar, Arkay. And I do have to agree, The Sliver hand are straight up monsters. Killing those Blessed Cursed with Hicrine's uhh...Curse, not matter if they control it or not. And besides. The Sliver Hands doesn't even have any cool bases like the Vigils! Where's your Beacon of Stendar, eh Sliver Hand?

Where have you seen this in-game? I've never seem them attack anything that wasn't already hostile. Though I've heard they might attack you if you wear a Necromancer uniform.

i CAN SEE WHY THEY'D ATTACK THOUGH, SINCE DAEDRA TEND TO MEDDLE IN MORTAL AFFAIRS IN NOT SO NICE WAYS. PERHAPS ITS THE FACT PEOPLE WORSHIP THEM AS GODS, WHEN THEY REALLY AREN'T?