(Spoilers) Destroy the Dark Brotherhood.... or Join it?

[Malignanttoe]

So my current character is a Stormcloak soldier who uses heavy armor, crossbow, sword and shield. Roleplaying-wise, he's a true Nord who belives in Ulfric's war against the Empire.

That being said, I'm debating between destroying the DB or joining them.

The obvious choice would be to destroy them because of everything they stand for, but I suspect that Ulfric would allow them to continue existing to some degree if he knew they'd eventually murder the Emperor. He seems the type to believe that the ends justify the means.

Storywise, it looks like joining the DB would be more interesting than destroying them, albeit it less profitable.

Ultimately, I think this character could go either way on it depending on the context...

 

[Aquillus]

It's not like you'd be out of place considering one of the DB members is a nord werewolf. I'd say go for it. You'd be killing the emperor, and the 20,000 septims is always a nice bonus

 

[Malignanttoe]

True. My character is a werewolf as well. Storming the Emperor's ship in Beast Form could be fun...

 

[samgurl775]

Even with my "good" characters I always end up joining the Dark Brotherhood. I destroyed them once, but my game crashed about 15 minutes later (I hadn't saved). I took it as a sign that I should join them.

I'd say join them. The DB is easily one of the best guilds.

 

[Janus3003]

Up to you, really. My good character destroyed them.
I'd also argue that saying "They'll kill the Emperor eventually, so I should join them" is using player knowledge instead of character knowledge, but you could easily roleplay that there were rumors of it going around anyway (no different than me killing Grelod the Kind in the first place because I knew it would lead to me destroying the DB).

Try it both ways, I say.

 

[mokz]

Join it. You can make nice gold from it.

Spoiler

Although the final mission gives you 20k gold, in order to buy all the Dawnstar sanctuary stuffs costs you 20k gold . You can get some of the gold back from torturing those 4 prisoners you have, each will give you a location with a chest with gold so you get some of it back and after that you can get unlimited contracts from the Night Mother anyway which pay good for the little effort you need to complete them.

 

[Aquillus]

Join it. You can make nice gold from it.

Spoiler

Although the final mission gives you 20k gold, in order to buy all the Dawnstar sanctuary stuffs costs you 20k gold . You can get some of the gold back from torturing those 4 prisoners you have, each will give you a location with a chest with gold so you get some of it back and after that you can get unlimited contracts from the Night Mother anyway which pay good for the little effort you need to complete them.

Or you just don't rebuild the sanctuary... Problem solved.

 

[Malignanttoe]

Or you just don't rebuild the sanctuary... Problem solved.

lol. So true. XD

 

[MushroomGenius]

Hmm... from a RP'ing perspective, I would destroy it.

Why would Ulfric allow the DB to exist? Wouldn't he be a primary target for someone to perform the Black Sacrament on? Why take that chance?

 

[Malignanttoe]

Hmm... from a RP'ing perspective, I would destroy it.

Why would Ulfric allow the DB to exist? Wouldn't he be a primary target for someone to perform the Black Sacrament on? Why take that chance?

Yeah.
My only excuse is that, from a strictly RP aspect, he could use them as a tool against the Empire. Especially if he were to think someone was trying to offer a contract for the Emperor himself.
He seems to be willing to sacrifice people who are of no use to him in order to push the Legion out of Skyrim.

 

[MushroomGenius]

I suppose you could RP (or simply imagine) a secret alliance between Ulfric and Amaund Motierre.

 

[Punz]

Having done both, joining them is much more exciting. I was expecting a larger, more in depth quest if you decided to kill them, but no such thing. Plus, like you mentioned, you can kill the Emperor. Any Stormcloak would love to get that chance.

 

[Admiral Snackbar]

Having done both, joining them is much more exciting. I was expecting a larger, more in depth quest if you decided to kill them, but no such thing.

That's disappointing to hear.

 

[MushroomGenius]

That's disappointing to hear.

Agreed.

I had proposed a better solution:

I'm in agreement with you here also. However, I would have also liked to have seen a more flushed out "other side" to the DB questline. Not everyone who plays Skyrim wants to take the route of evil. Aside from that small quest to clean out the Sanctuary, the elimination of the DB was pretty weak.

I would have rather had an opposing questline that included an informant inside the DB that alerted you of their targets and it was up to the Dragonborn to defend them. The named DB members could have been used for higher valued targets (i.e. have Nazir attempt to kill Vittoria Vici, have Astrid attempt to assassinate the Emperor). Each target you save weakens the DB. Once all of the members are removed, you siege the Sanctuary and destroy everything there for good including a final boss battle Vs. Cicero and the Night Mother.

Currently, there is pretty much zero reason to shut the DB down.

 

[Hacksaw]

I destroyed them once, but always joined them after that. While joining the Dark Brotherhood is a long and involved quest line, destroying them is just one mission. That really disappointed me -- I wish they'd have made a long quest line for tracking down and eliminating the assassins, complete with politics and betrayal.

But yeah, join them. There's more stuff to do that way.

 

[Archlegion]

Join for sure.