I finally completed the Dark Brotherhood quest line, definitely one of my favorites, but they left out a lot of details as to why that elder council member guy (forget his name already) wanted the Emperor dead and what their plans were after he was dead and gone.

My first thoughts when I started the quest was this operation was some how secretly funded by the Thalmor to weaken the Empire even further, I guess I was wrong...

Am I missing some information that I might have over looked during the quest or did Bethesda leave this open for future DLCs / Expansions?

In either case, I would like to hear what are some of your thoughts as to why the Empreror was killed?

Thanks!

Astrid comments that the guy hiring in the DB was using them to "advance his position" or something to that effect, basically saying the Emperor was being assassinated so he could take over (or someone he wants to take over who will favor him in the Council).

Though it's just as easy to chalk it up that Titus Mede II was seen as incompetent and hated by a lot of Nords for the White-Gold concordact, and so removing him was paving the way for someone they felt more pleasing.

Could be that the "friend", who sends you letters, is behind it. He or she mentions having interests in the arrival of the dragonborn. There certainly seems to be an agenda going on of which we do not know much about yet.

Read up some Roman history. It will explain why one would want to off the man responsible for keeping the known world intact.

Is that not Delphine?

Like Ulfric, Titus Mede II,, Tiber Septim and Reman, someone wants power. They want to rule, and will use violence to achieve that goal.

Kill off nobadys in games would be boring so they wrote a quest to kill off a somebody.... sometimes the simplest answer's the best one...

The Dark Brotherhood doesn't deal in the "whys". He's paying you money to eliminate a target, that's all they really care about. The fact that it bolsters the reputation of the Brotherhood is a bonus.

I'd imagine he wants to rise up through the ranks a bit. Seems simple enough.

No, I do not believe so and it would surprise me if the Blades were behind it. Their interest lies in a cooperation with you, the dragonborn, but they have no interest in power over the Empire for themselves. They rather stay hidden and their values, like justice, stand in a contrast to such an interest. They would probably try to kill the Emporer themselves than to hire the DB if it was the case. Seems to me that who ever hired the DB must own a good amount of gold. I doubt the DB will have given this job a low price tag.

I wonder how Bethesda is going to deal with the choice the player has here. The player has the choice to kill off the DB, but you don't kill Cicero or Astrid, so it's possible that Bethesda could say that Astrid and Cicero reformed the DB somewhere else and still killed off the Emperor..

You mean Babette. Astrid is the very first npc you kill when destroying the brotherhood. Plus, you are able to kill Cicero at a certain moment in the DB quest line, so that one's out for the count too.

Somebody wants to be emperor before the empire collapses. You know the old "by right of assassination." The Romans did it all the time. Six different emperors in one year one time. A lot of the time the Praetorian Guard was in on it. I read nothing more into it than that. Mede II was old and weak, and someone wanted power.

I don't think the Blades had anything to do with it. The DB just got the contract.

That's a rather grandiose description of what Mede (hasn't) done.

What I meant was, the most likely reason for Mede's assassination is that someone just wants to see himself in the purple. Mede II makes a good scapegoat so nobody will miss him, then replace him with another dynasty. Sounds logical to me, considering how Skyrim's Empire is an obvious copy of late Western Roman Empire.

Yeah, that's what I meant, sorry.
You don't have to kill Cicero in the DB questline; you can choose to let him live and he comes back as a follower after Astrid is gone. Neither him nor the Night Mother were in the sanctuary near Falkreath, so it's possible that he and Babette will reform the DB. I choose to go this route because the current DB under Astrid's leadership has fallen away from the 5 tenants under which they were founded. Cicero still believes strongly in those tenants, so hopefully he and Babette will reform the DB following the tenants once again.

As for lore reason why, that one guy who hired us wanted to advance his spot in the Empire but that doesn't work. I killed him.

As for why Beth prolly did it.. Beth wanted people, like myself, feel bad for doing it.. I didn't knew who the Emperor actually was and once I did, I actually cried..

I like how they don't just go out and say who wants him assassinated and why. It adds a nice layer of mystery.

Personally, I think the council is trying to get someone to become Emperor since it seems they are dissatisfied with how Mede was running things. I don't think it is the guy who hired you, though. They probably drew straws for who has to do the black sacrament and meet with the assassin.

Now I want to kill the whole council.

I can imagine the Dovahkiin bursting into the council chambers while riding Odahviig shouting "Council's in session! Whoever wants to get flame-breathed say 'aye'!"

And then the council goes "AAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!"

The courier delivering the letters will say it's from a 'he'.


Given the political volatility, it could easily be any number of ambitious people, but I doubt the Thalmor have anything to do with it since they are pretty much getting what they want from the present Emperor (unless there's more than we know about going on).

It'd be interesting if you killed the emperor and the guy who hired you together, it just moves up your own position.

Also, I think this whole questline was written to mimic one of Tiber Septim's possible reasons to rise in power. There are two stories of him. A man who was with the emperor of his day, a trusted soldier at his side, and both got attacked in an assassination attempt. The emperor died and Tiber Septim, his greatest general, took over. Tiber got his throat cut in the attack and for the rest of his reign, he couldn't use the Thu'um.

The second story is that Tiber Septim was a lauded soldier, but was secretly part of the assassaination attempt himself.

Anyhow.. either way, to me it seems like the dragonborn will play a part in the future too. Why would write all of this new lore on Talos, if not to reflect some events in the game itself. If it all ends with some random NPC in power, then that's [censored] stupid.

I figure it's just that someone else wants power. ...and for those of you who are asking "why": you're fired. Go back to DB school - if there's a contract you do it - don't ask questions. Oh...and: Hail SIthis!

This could be true since Motierre isn't essential so for the people who kill him Bethesda wouldn't have to resurrect an NPC making it unbelievabler.

I did it, when playing as an Imperial, cause I thought it would be doing the empire a favour. After meeting him in person, I sort of regreted it.

I don't. I mean, I guess personality wise he's not bad, but the guy doesn't belong on the throne in the first place.

I'm not sure where you stand with the idea of dragonborn rulers though (which Mede is not), since you're a Thalmor sympathizer, so your mileage might vary.

Who was he? Someone really good?