So, before I joined The Dark Brotherhood and played their questline, I was quite startled about how............evil the guys were.
Now, don't get me wrong, I think the DB's questline is one of the best in the game, but I was wondering if it was good or bad in a game if a joinable faction was inherently good or evil in an RPG ?
For my part, it's a little silly to pretend a cadre of assasins should be good, the business of killing is a seriously inmoral trade, and it's certainly going to be filled with rather unpleasent people, same for the Thieves Guild, which also incurr in some rather ugly activities, their very first quest pretty much tells you that to join the faction you HAVE to get your hands dirty.
However, I think it becomes a little difficult to role-play if you are forced to do things that fall outside the moral boundaries of the character you've created, in that sense, should the game offer viable options to avoid going out of character or should it stick to a particular moral "palette" ?
What do you guys think ? Should guilds lack morality or be distinguishably good or evil ?
To your question: Morality should exist within a guild, but the guild should not be beholden to it.
In my Perfect World™, each guild would begin with a tendency toward one polar extreme, which we will call (for convenience) good and evil. This morality will manifest itself differently in each guild, but will loosely follow the idea of selfish disregard for others vs benevolent acts of altruism.
For the Dark Brotherhood, this is difficult. Within the Morag Tong of Morrowind, there is great room for operating within or outside of the law. Executions were legally sanctioned and moral. This may be counter to your experiences in real life, but so are Silt Striders. Unfortunately the Dark Brotherhood are outside of the law, and follow a deity presumed to be wholly malicious, although they more directly follow the Night Mother. There is little room for morality because the Night Mother is indiscriminate in the selection of contracts. You perform the ritual, you pay, your target dies. There is no room for selective righteous elimination. From my understanding of lore, I believe there is room for the Night Mother to represent the darkest side of Sithis, with a more lawful or just arena of murder existing with Sithis if the Night Mother is bypassed. This is a stretch, since Sithis is associated with chaos. However, the player could still find themselves working for a just aspect of Sithis in an attempt to balance the pure malevolence of the Night Mother. Thus the good/evil choice.
The Mages Guild (or College) is the simplest demonstration of selfishness vs selflessness. You are either consumed with the pursuit of power for power's sake with no regard for the weak, or you pursue power as a means to resolve conflict within the world.
I believe the Companions beautifully represented an inner conflict in Skyrim, although I wish there were more options for the non-werewolf. Giving into Hircine and becoming a werewolf represents a choice in which you are not compelled to be evil per se, but doing so demonstrates a focused lack of regard for anything beyond physical strength, the pack, and the hunt. The counter here is already represented as the curing of the werewolf "curse" and a return to lawful public contracts.
The thieves guild has room to range from cutthroat ruffians, a TES version of gangs offering their "protection", to a cadre of fun loving bards and swashbucklers who "bend" the rules of morality and the law. The guild in Oblivion was certainly less malicious than in Skyrim, although I agree with a previous poster that this could be attributed to the guild falling on hard times, thus being forced to be a little more cruel in their dealings. Again, this is an excellent arena for inner conflict. Bring prosperity back to the guild, kick out your Dirges and your Mercer Freys, get up out of the sewers, and see a return to an organization which is just as influential, but less brutal.
So, each guild should start at one end of this morality scale. Through your direct actions, you should be able to push the guild's direction to either end according to your agenda. I will add that while the Mages and Fighters guilds are clearly lawful establishment with varying levels of morality, the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild, no matter where they reside on the moral spectrum, are unlawful and the player should have the means to combat or disable them. Again, in my Perfect World™ this would have real world effects that benefit and/or hinder the player. For example, thwarting the Thieves Guild should yield lower prices in all shops as global prosperity rises. Other effects could be discussed at length in their own thread. I will also add that eradication of a guild should always be temporary, with new "safe houses" cropping up after so many game days in radiant unoccupied houses or caves/forts.
Sorry to be so winded, but I'm at work and I really don't want to be doing what I should be.
-TT