Highlights
- The Dark Brotherhood in The Elder Scrolls franchise is known for its intriguing characters and quests that require cunning and stealth to carry out clever murders.
- Members like Nazir, Gogron gro-Bolmog, Babette, M'raaj-Dar, Cicero, Astrid, Vicente Valtieri, and Lucien Lachance add depth and memorable experiences to the Dark Brotherhood.
- Astrid's lust for power and betrayal ultimately leads to her demise, while characters like Cicero and Babette offer unique and creepy perspectives as assassins.
The Dark Brotherhood is a group of assassins that operate in The Elder Scrolls universe. Players would have faced these assassins in The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, but they could not join the faction until The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. The Dark Brotherhood holds some great intrigue in terms of characters and quests across Oblivion and Skyrim fans can't wait to see what happens in the next Elder Scrolls installment, and where the Dark Brotherhood will place within.
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Part of what made these quests so fun was the fact that players had to use cunning and stealth to pull off some clever murders. However, the other members of this faction make it a joy to roam around The Dark Brotherhood hideout in each game. In fact, some of these members just so happen to be some of the best NPCs in their respective Elder Scrolls games.
8 Nazir
Prevalent And Loyal To Skyrim's Sanctuary
Nazir is a Redguard assassin who works for the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim. He is likely to be one of the first members of this faction that the player will interact with because he is charged with giving the Dragonborn their first set of assassination targets for the guild. As a member of the guild, Nazir is knowledgeable and loyal. However, his character traits do not go far beyond this.
One of the things that makes Nazir such a good member of the Dark Brotherhood is his constant presence. He stays with the player through the entire set of quests and is one of the few members to survive the attack at the end of this story. As a result, Nazir will then be the member of the guild to hand the player new contracts.
7 Gogron gro-Bolmog
An Orc Who Loves Loud Assassinations
The orcs in The Elder Scrolls franchise are depicted as large, brutish warriors, and Gogron gro-Bolmog is no different. That is what makes his appearance in the Cheydinhal guild so surprising. By nature, this orc is friendly enough and welcoming to the player when they first join the Dark Brotherhood.
However, Gogron gro-Bolmog also serves another purpose in the game. During some dialogue with the player, he will reveal that he isn't one for stealth, and so completes his quests by swinging a hammer like any orc should. This dialogue may be funny, but it shows the players that they can undertake Dark Brotherhood quests in whatever fashion they choose.
6 Babette
A Vampire In A Child's Body
Babette can be viewed as one of the scariest assassins in Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood. Although she looks like a ten-year-old child, yet, she is three hundred years old, with her aging halted thanks to the fact she is a vampire, which also gives her a vast knowledge of the world's history.
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She is full of stories and goes to show just how ancient the guild is. What's more, Babette is extra useful to the player as she can train the player in Alchemy. Fortunately, Babette also survives at the end of the quest.
5 M'raaj-Dar
Khajiit Mage And Bitter Assassin
Players will first meet the Khajiit M'raaj-Dar when they enter the Cheydinhal guild. This Khajit is extremely rude to the player and shows his resentment at any chance he gets. He does have a few useful wares for sale in the guild, though.
M'raaj-Dar does go through some character development during the story, however. He will come up to the player to apologize for his rudeness and offer to train them in magic for a reduced cost. Sadly, his attempt to make amends comes too late, as the player has been ordered to kill every member of the guild to try to help the Black Hand discover a traitor.
4 Cicero
A Mad Jester, Loyal To The Night Mother
Whether players love or hate Cicero, everyone agrees that he is one of the most memorable characters in Skyrim. This eccentric jester giggles to himself a lot, and players will quickly learn that this assassin has fallen deep into madness. The journals found around Cicero's room reveal that he was once part of the Cheydinhal sanctuary, and is living in Skyrim to try and serve as the Night Mother's next Listener.
During the story, Cicero is accused of being a traitor after lashing out at the Skyrim Sanctuary and attempting to gut their members for disrespecting their sacred tenants. Players are tasked by Astrid to hunt Cicero down, but it is up to them if they let him live or not. Letting him live provides a fun, yet annoying companion, whereas killing him puts a stop to his crazed antics.
3 Astrid
Traitorous Leader
Astrid is one of the most prominent members of the Falkreath sanctuary that players will call home in Skyrim. She is the one who first recruits the player into the guild, and has a strong air of authority in the guild. Although she does lead this faction of the assassin group, her need to see herself as above the Five Tenants sees her get into trouble on more than one occasion. It is what puts her in the line of fire when a traitor is suspected, and she is one of the first members to be killed in the attack at the end of the story.
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Players will have a lot of interaction with Astrid during this questline, and she will eventually give them new contracts once they rank up high enough in the faction. With the Blade of Woe, it's no wonder that Astrid is so high up in the order, but her bitterness and lust for power gets the better of her.
2 Vicente Valtieri
A Kind Vampiric Leader
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is a game with many strange creatures and NPCs. However, it does come as a bit of a surprise when players first meet Vincete Valtieri in the Cheydinhal sanctuary. This vampire may be expected to work for such a murderous organization, but his calm and collected demeanor is far from that of any other vampire in the game.
Valtieri greets the player character with enthusiasm and is responsible for giving them their first run of contracts in the guild. Once these are complete, Vincete Valtieri will extend his favor further by offering to turn the player into a vampire. Unfortunately, Vincete must die when the sanctuary is cleansed, whether players choose to accept this gift or not.
1 Lucien Lachance
The One Who Starts It All
Anyone who remembers their first playthrough of Oblivion will remember that Lucien Lachance is the one who inducted them into the Dark Brotherhood in the first place. If a player has murdered an NPC in the game at any point, Lachance will find them in the night and offer them the chance to join his guild in return for the life of a man named Rufio. Lucien Lachance is an intimidating presence and a member of the Black Hand that serves directly under the Night Mother.
Lucien Lachance thinks highly of the players when they start killing for the guild, and later asks them to join The Black Hand. Sadly, Lachance is killed when he is helping the player investigate a traitor in the guild, as the very Brotherhood he is trying to help believes that he is in fact the murderer.
