Skyrim:Dark Brotherhood

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The Dark Brotherhood is a guild of professional assassins which historically possessed considerable influence and power but has recently fallen on considerably harder times. It is similar to Morrowind's Morag Tong, but despite a common misconception, it is a completely separate organization; also, the legality of this organization is much more limited than that of its older cousin. The leader of the Dark Brotherhood was the Night Mother, but now that role has fallen to Astrid. The Dark Brotherhood also has a contact in the Riften Thieves Guild.
In Skyrim, you can choose to either join the Dark Brotherhood and take on assassinations for hire, or destroy the Brotherhood's last remaining chapter.

Joining
thumb|right|Welcome to the Family
Joining the Dark Brotherhood requires you to first complete the quest Innocence Lost. You can start that quest by overhearing a rumor that Aventus Aretino is performing a ritual called the Black Sacrament, speaking to Aventus yourself, or by talking to the orphans of Honorhall Orphanage in Riften about Aventus Aretino.

After completing Innocence Lost, you will be able to join the Dark Brotherhood in the quest With Friends Like These....

Destroying the Dark Brotherhood
To destroy the Dark Brotherhood, kill Astrid instead of a hostage when you arrive in the shack during the quest With Friends Like These... You will then fail that quest, and the quest Destroy the Dark Brotherhood! will appear in its place. This will be your only opportunity to attack the Dark Brotherhood.

Advantages to Joining
thumb|right|The Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary
Free access to the Sanctuary, although it can also be accessed while destroying the Dark Brotherhood.
Inside the Sanctuary is a word wall for the Dragon Shout Marked for Death and an Unusual Gem.
Access to the Dawnstar Sanctuary, which has some useful items when upgraded, also becomes available near the end of the questline.
This includes Dark Brotherhood Initiates, who cannot be killed, and a space with attributes similar to a house.
Cicero will offer to follow you during adventures if spared during The Cure for Madness.
You receive your own set of shrouded armor, which boosts several of the skills most useful to an assassin. The only other source of this armor is named Dark Brotherhood members.
You may obtain shrouded robes, shoes, hood, and hand wraps, which yield no armor rating but have other enchantments useful to assassins.
Ancient Shrouded Armor is also attainable by completing optional questlines.
The Blade of Woe, a dagger with higher base damage than all other daggers except the dragonbone dagger , which has the same base damage.
Windshear, a unique scimitar with a powerful stagger effect.
The unique horse Shadowmere, which has the highest health and stamina of any horse available to you.
The Summon Spectral Assassin power.
All Dark Brotherhood members are friendly to blood-starved vampires (stage 4), and can be fed upon.
This is no longer a unique benefit if the Dawnguard add-on is installed.
Access to Babette, the Master Trainer for Alchemy, and Nazir, the Master Trainer for Light Armor.

Members
thumb|right|Astrid, leader of the Dark Brotherhood
 

Quests
Primary Quests
The primary Dark Brotherhood questline consists of fourteen quests.  Three achievements (50 points; 2 Bronze and 1 Silver) are unlocked by the guild's quests.
 (Optional)

 (18px 10 pts/Bronze)




 (18px 10 pts/Bronze)





 (18px 30 pts/Silver)

Contract Quests













Other Quests



Radiant Quests



Miscellaneous Quests
These are miscellaneous quests (each quest's objective is listed in the "Miscellaneous" section of your journal) and will only activate if certain conditions are met.
  (This quest activates if you successfully completed Breaching Security and received a bonus from Gabriella.)
  (This quest activates after purchasing the torture room for the Dawnstar Sanctuary.)

Radiant Conversations 
There is a radiant dialogue system for the Dark Brotherhood members. The conversation starts with a random line from one participant. This is followed with a random line in response, and a further random question by the first speaker. The final line is still randomly selected, but each member of the Brotherhood has a choice of three unique lines and two generic lines to finish with. Some members have more than three unique lines, but they can only use three depending on the second participant. Other members in the vicinity may chip in with random generic phrases depending on the stage of the conversation. 


  These options are only available between these two NPCs, however they can still use other options when talking to each other.

Notes
Joining the Brotherhood adds a few lines of NPC dialogue, like with other factions. Some guards will say "Psst, I know who you are.... Hail Sithis."''
Sometimes you may encounter a Dark Brotherhood assassin who carries a contract for your assassination as a random occurrence. This will only happen if you have not completed Innocence Lost, and can happen multiple times.
Contracts carried out by The Dark Brotherhood are illegal, unlike a Morag Tong writ. Therefore, it is vital that no one else sees you commit a murder while carrying out a mission in a city or settlement.
Many targets have dialogue options which will provoke them, causing them to initiate combat with you. It is therefore advisable to try provoking targets before killing them to avoid incurring a bounty, especially if you are not particularly skilled at stealth.
Most targets are located in such a spot that there will be a vantage point from which you can make a stealthy bow kill.
If you have the Misdirection perk and pickpocket Astrid before joining the Brotherhood and steal the Blade of Woe, then pick up her Blade during the quest Death Incarnate, you can have two of these unique weapons.
Battle for Solitude will lock at least one Dark Brotherhood quest, including Bound Until Death.  Astrid will simply say ''"You! You're responsible for the siege of Solitude! By Sithis, this undermines all our plans! Fool! Finish that mess, and only then will we speak!"''

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