Dark Brotherhood

From the OblivioWiki – your guide to everything Oblivion

"Five Tenets" redirects here. If you are looking for the book, see The Five Tenets.

The Dark Brotherhood is a group of assassins who are willing to assassinate virtually anyone as long as they are paid enough for the service. They are a perverted offshoot of the "legal" assassins guild, the Morag Tong, who are based in the province of Morrowind; while the Morag Tong were a respected, if feared member of Morrowind society, the Dark Brotherhood are a secretive underground cult that worships Sithis, the avatar of death.

The "Five Tenets" of the Dark Brotherhood are:

1. Never dishonor the Night Mother. To do so is to invoke the wrath of Sithis.
2. Never betray the Dark Brotherhood or its secrets. To do so is to invoke the wrath of Sithis.
3. Never disobey or refuse to carry out an order from a Dark Brotherhood superior. To do so is to invoke the wrath of Sithis.
4. Never steal the possessions of Dark Brother or Sister. To do so is to invoke the wrath of Sithis.
5. Never kill a Dark Brother or Sister. To do so is to invoke the wrath of Sithis.

It is worth noting that, from time to time, Speakers of the Black Hand have been known to give legitimate orders that violate the Five Tenets.

Contents 1 Joining the Dark Brotherhood 2 Ranks and Guild Perks 3 Family Members 4 Quests 4.1 From Lucien Lachance #1 4.2 From Ocheeva 4.3 From Vicente Valtieri 4.4 From Ocheeva 4.5 From Lucien Lachance #2 4.6 Dead Drop Quests 4.7 Epilogue 4.8 Other Quests 5 Expulsion from the Brotherhood 5.1 Tips for defeating the Wrath of Sithis 6 Notes

[edit] Joining the Dark Brotherhood

The only way to join the Dark Brotherhood is by killing an innocent person. You should see the message "Your killings have been observed by forces unknown..." After you do this, simply rest in a "secure" location and Lucien Lachance, a messenger of the Brotherhood, will contact you and give you the quest A Knife in the Dark with further instructions. If you decide to kill Lachance, his hood and robes are great for sneaking. They are especially helpful for sneaking into a person's house and feeding on him without being caught, if you're a vampire. However, killing him will sever any future ties with the Brotherhood. Besides, you will get a set of your own sneaking armor and possibly a set of your own robes through doing the quests.

The Brotherhood is arguably the most evil faction in the game. You will be called on to leave a swath of dead bodies in your wake, often innocent ones. However, it is often one of the most profitable in rewards, especially at lower levels.

Also note that almost all the quests will depend on you performing the hit. All murders count for +1 infamy, and you will soon find yourself infamous for your deeds. One way to remove the effects that infamy has is to perform a pilgrimage, which is done by visiting one of the Wayshrines of each of the Nine Divines.

[edit] Ranks and Guild Perks

Murderer	Slayer	Eliminator	Assassin	Executioner	Silencer	Speaker	Listener

• Murderer – Receive a set of enchanted Armor, the Shrouded Armor and Shrouded Hood and a weightless dagger, the Blade of Woe.
• Slayer
• Eliminator – Receive a Guild Well Key for quick access to the Cheydinhal Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary.
• Assassin
• Executioner
• Silencer – Receive a horse named Shadowmere upon completing The Purification quest.
• Speaker – Receive a Black Hand Hood and Robe.
• Listener – 200 a week, a bodyguard from the Cheydinhal Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, an enchanted Blade of Woe, and whichever items you choose from the Night Mother's crypt.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Note: The player never actually becomes Executioner; Lucien Lachance promotes you straight from Assassin to Silencer before the quest The Purification. This may be so that while Vicente and Ocheeva live, they are always superior to you. Being Executioners, they cannot promote you any further, and Lucien sees no need to.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Family Members

• Lucien Lachance
• Ocheeva
• Vicente Valtieri
• M'raaj-Dar
• Gogron gro-Bolmog
• Antoinetta Marie
• Telaendril
• Teinaava
• Mathieu Bellamont
• Arquen
• J'Ghasta
• Shaleez
• Alval Uvani
• Havilstein Hoar-Blood
• Ungolim
• The Night Mother
• Sithis
• Banus Alor
• Belisarius
• Dandras Vules

[edit] Quests

Several of the Dark Brotherhood quests are unique in that they offer bonus rewards if the quest is completed in a certain way. These generally make the quest more difficult, but at the same time more rewarding. Some bonuses require a certain method of execution (death by stuffed animal head included), while others promote heightened secrecy (such as in the case of a certain skooma addict). Vicente Valtieri (starting with Accidents Happen) and Ocheeva offer quests with bonus rewards.

[edit] From Lucien Lachance #1

• A Knife in the Dark

[edit] From Ocheeva

• Welcome to the Family – Speak with and accept a contract from Vicente Valtieri.

[edit] From Vicente Valtieri

• A Watery Grave
• Blood of the Damned
• Accidents Happen
• No Rest for the Wicked
• Scheduled For Execution
• To Serve Sithis
• The Assassinated Man
• My Brother's Keeper – Speak with Vicente again, and then speak with Ocheeva for completion of this quest.
• Optional quest: Darkness Eternal

[edit] From Ocheeva

• The Lonely Wanderer
• Enter the Eliminator
• Bad Medicine
• The Night Mother's Child
• Whodunit?
• The Assassin's Gambit
• Permanent Retirement
• Of Secret and Shadow

[edit] From Lucien Lachance #2

• The Purification
• The Dead Drop

[edit] Dead Drop Quests

• Affairs of a Wizard
• Next of Kin
• Broken Vows
• Final Justice
• A Matter of Honor
• The Coldest Sleep
• A Kiss Before Dying
• Following a Lead
• Honor Thy Mother

[edit] Epilogue

• Whispers of Death

[edit] Other Quests

• The Renegade Shadowscale – From Teinaava

[edit] Expulsion from the Brotherhood

While beneath the rank of Silencer in the guild you will be bound by The Five Tenets. If you break any of these tenets you will immediately be removed from the guild. The only way to gain re-entrance into the guild is by defeating the Wrath of Sithis, an extremely powerful spirit that visits you when you first sleep after committing the offense you were expelled for.

• Note that it is only possible to break the fourth and fifth Tenets, as there is no way (through actions or dialogue) to break the first three.

Bug: There is reports of a bug stopping people with the Xbox 360 Classic edition of the game having trouble with the NPC's in the Dark Brotherhood. A player would break one of The Five Tenets which would lead to them being expelled from the Dark Brotherhood. After killing the Wrath of Sithis they would return to the Dark Brotherhood only to be attacked by all the NPC's when leaving the Dark Brotherhood they find the guards acting strangely, taking out there weapons but not attacking anything and not interacting with the player. Also the player cannot fast travel anymore and a message will appear on the screen stating "You cannot fast travel when enemies are nearby." Even if there is no one distance of them.

[edit] Tips for defeating the Wrath of Sithis

• Since this spirit is extremely powerful, it may be difficult to defeat if you are a sneaky character. The best course of action is to run. The spirit cannot move very fast, so simply out-run it. Make sure you have a silver, magic, or daedric weapon in order to damage it. Then you can come back to wherever you left the spirit and effectively sneak up on it and force the combat in your style. The spirit uses a Dagger of Discipline and attacks mostly in melee, so if you can attack at a distance consider finding a nice rooftop nearby before engaging the spirit.

• If the above tactic does not work, you may seek refuge in taking the difficulty slider down to 0, fighting the ghoul, then returning the difficulty slider to its default position. For the most part, the spirit should be an easy kill as long as your character has plenty of restore health potions.

• Make sure you sleep in a populated area. A good example is in the Arcane University in the dorms. With any luck, when you wake, all the mages around you should wake. Immediately run out of the building and let the mages attack the ghoul. Once he has wiped out all of the mages, then try and lure him into the city itself – the guards should get his health down a good bit before he wipes out the entire city's defenses. From this point, just use ranged attacks on him while maintaining maximum range between you and the ghoul, and try to dodge any of his powerful ice blasts he shoots at you. Note: Be careful to not let it kill quest characters.

• It cannot go in water, so if you sleep in an area near water such as a bedroll in Cheydinhal or the bed outside of Dzonot Cave, then you can just run into the water and heal while it basically just waits for you.

[edit] Notes

• You can kill the Dark Guardian, doing so is a great way of obtaining its weapon and this is the easiest way to do it. Attack the Dark Guardian and run out of the sanctuary (make sure it's following you). When you are outside the guards will kill the Dark Guardian. Once it is dead, take its weapon and shield if you wish. As it's a true member of the brotherhood and you will be kicked out unless you are doing the quest The Purification. The Dark Guardian carries a leveled weapon and a leveled shield.
• The hand on the door is most likely a referance to the blackhand, the group that killed Francis Ferdinand and ignited world war one. The symbols are almost identical, down to the color.
• The Dark Brotherhood made an appearance in The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal.