The Dark Brotherhood is Tamriel’s most infamous guild of assassins, a secretive cult bound by murder, ritual, and devotion to the Night Mother. Their exact origins are shrouded in myth, but most trace their foundation to a splintering of the Morag Tong, the sanctioned assassin’s guild of Morrowind.
In the Second Era, the Morag Tong operated across Tamriel but faced persecution for its Daedric worship. Some members, embracing Sithis — the primordial void — and the Night Mother, broke away. These renegades abandoned lawful murder-for-contract and embraced clandestine assassination, founding the Dark Brotherhood.
Where the Morag Tong claimed legitimacy, the Dark Brotherhood claimed fear. They spread from Morrowind into Cyrodiil and beyond, growing into a shadow network with sanctuaries across every province.
The cult’s theology centers on Sithis, the Void, personification of change and death. To Sithis, all life is meaningless, and murder is the purest offering.
The Night Mother is his bride, prophet, and voice. Legends differ: some claim she was once a mortal woman who murdered her children as offering to Sithis; others claim she is a spirit of the Void itself. What matters to the Brotherhood is her whispers.
Through the Black Sacrament — a ritual involving effigies, body parts, and incantations — mortals call upon the Night Mother. If she accepts, the Brotherhood sends an assassin to fulfill the contract. This ritual makes them feared across Tamriel: anyone, anywhere, can be marked for death if the Night Mother wills it.
The Brotherhood is less rigid than legions or guilds but follows distinct hierarchy:
Listener: The supreme leader, who alone hears the Night Mother’s voice.
Speakers: High-ranking assassins who interpret Sithis’s will and direct operations.
Silencers: Enforcers who eliminate traitors or failures within the order.
Assassins: Rank-and-file killers, bound by the Five Tenets.
Initiates: Recruits tested through murder and loyalty.
Sanctuaries across Tamriel serve as homes, training halls, and shrines. Each operates semi-independently but ultimately answers to the Listener.
The Brotherhood’s code of conduct is the Five Tenets, commandments that bind every assassin:
Never dishonor the Night Mother.
Never betray the Brotherhood’s secrets.
Never disobey or refuse a contract.
Never steal possessions of a Brother or Sister.
Never kill a Brother or Sister.
Violation of these Tenets results in the Wrath of Sithis: execution by fellow assassins or spiritual damnation. Though sanctuaries vary in discipline, the Tenets define Brotherhood identity.
Second Era:
The Brotherhood first appeared in Cyrodiil, quickly spreading to Hammerfell, Skyrim, and beyond. They thrived in chaos of the Interregnum, killing kings and generals for coin, feared as shadows that no guard could stop.
Third Era:
By 3E 433, the Brotherhood had sanctuaries across the Empire, including a notorious one in Cheydinhal. They assassinated nobles, priests, and generals, undermining Imperial stability. Some Emperors tolerated them as unavoidable evil; others hunted them. Their infamy peaked during this era, when their contracts reached even into the Imperial Palace.
Fourth Era:
The Oblivion Crisis and subsequent chaos devastated the Brotherhood. Sanctuaries were destroyed, their numbers dwindled. By 4E 201, the once-feared order was reduced to scattered remnants, most notably in Skyrim under the leadership of Astrid. Even so, their reputation endures — and whispers of the Night Mother persist.
The Brotherhood blends cult and guild.
The Black Sacrament: Ritual that summons the Brotherhood. Victims are chosen not by coin alone but by the Night Mother’s sanction.
The Tenets: Sacred laws ensuring unity.
Funerary Rites: Slain assassins are buried beneath sanctuaries, honored as martyrs of Sithis.
Blood Bonds: Members consider each other family, calling one another Brothers and Sisters.
Worship: Shrines to Sithis and the Night Mother dominate sanctuaries. Killings are often consecrated with whispered prayers.
To outsiders, these rituals are monstrous; to members, they are sacred communion with Void.
The Brotherhood’s assassins employ both stealth and theatrics.
Stealth and Poison: Silent kills with daggers, arrows, or toxins.
Symbolic Kills: Some contracts demand ritual murder, sending messages of terror.
Infiltration: Assassins embed themselves in cities, guilds, and courts.
Signature Weapons: Many carry enchanted daggers, black robes, or poisons laced with Nightshade.
Fear is their greatest weapon. Often the threat of Brotherhood contract breaks morale more than the killing itself.
Relations with Other Factions:
Morag Tong: Ancient rivals. The Tong sees the Brotherhood as heretical offshoots who abandoned legality.
Empire: Outlaws the Brotherhood, yet many nobles secretly employ them.
Thalmor: Hunt the Brotherhood as destabilizers, though some whisper of Thalmor contracts.
Common Folk: Live in fear of them, whispering prayers that the Night Mother never hears their name.
Perceptions:
The Brotherhood is both myth and fact. To rulers, they are political tools and existential threat. To peasants, they are demons. To themselves, they are family and prophets of death.
The Dark Brotherhood is contradiction embodied: a family bound by murder, a guild with sacred Tenets, a cult worshipping nothingness. It is parasite and institution, feared across provinces yet always surviving persecution.
By 4E 201, they are shadows of former glory, yet their persistence proves their resilience. Whether as scattered assassins or reborn under the Night Mother’s whispers, the Brotherhood endures.
Their legacy is fear: that in every city, in every dark alley, in every whispered prayer, the Void listens. And if the Night Mother answers, death follows.