Skyrim - A Whole New Experience

[Naareth]

((SPOILER ALERT ABOUT: THE DARK BROTHERHOOD !!!!!))

Please, if you wish to learn about Skyrim yourself, and not be SPOILERED then please exit this article.

 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is 2011's Open world, dragon slaying, potion abusing, backstabbing, sword swinging, pickpocketing, quest taking,

and all in all one of the best experiences I had entirely this year (and still am having), and in a very long time.

 

I begun by picking a race, a Nord was my choice, for I thought that the story of Skyrim with dragon slaying, and picikng a side in a big war will be suited most with the common citizen

who was thrown into a situation only a few dream to be in once in a lifetime.

After the beginning (a few good hours into the game) I've gained some experience in Alchemy, Smithing, Dragon slaying, etc, I continued my adventure in the beautiful fields of Skyrim, the woods, the

mountain tops, the intense and somber dungeons, towns filled with interesting characters that are not just the same person with a different skin and the same voice, and I thought to myself, wow this

is really fun.

 

But to my main point in all of this is: the reason why I think Skyrim is one of the most interesting games where you have beautiful story telling, great mechanics that play well, and a gorgeous environments,

that would make your ears cry : The Dark Brotherhood.

 

Yes, I do understand that the thought comes to your head as if :" what, so? it's an interesting group of sorts, that is just about murdering innocent, and not so innocent people. So what?"

well to that I say: NO, believe me, there is way more than appears to be in this small side story arc in the vast and expansive world of Skyrim, than most of the stories I have heard, read or

played through in many great video games, movies and books.

 

So, I found the way to get to the Dark Brotherhood, and so after some time, I was taken to a small shack, where I would find out what exactly the Dark Brotherhood is.

I begun doing the quests I recieved (actually contracts) murder this guy, murder that, and while you think I had not a single problem murdering all those people, I had, because when I play a video game

that is an open world type of game, I never play as a bad character, NEVER.

Why? I don't know, maybe I am just a good person, or maybe I like to imagine I'm this great and impressive warrior with an enchanted sword, and an awesme beard, and the title of Dovahkiin, Dragonborn.

 

The thing is, when I play Skyrim, I just can't imagine myself as this legendary warrior, magician , or thief that would commit these sort of murders and be so bad and just wrong.

So, although I did feel sorry for what I have done, I continued on the chain of missions I recieved from Nazir and Astrid (two main characters in the Dark Brotherhood storyline) until I got the big one:

Mureder The Emperor Titus Mede II.

 

Oh dear..

 

And so I listened to the guy who gave me the contract to begin with, went to Astrid and asked what should I do now?

She said that I need to do the contract, yadda yadda, and then I begun my long road to one of the most interesting quests, and stories I heard my entire life.

 

My first task in a line of waiting victims to be fallen onward to my dagger, and arrow was the emperor's cousin Vittoria Vici.

I had to move to Solitude, a town in the northen part of Skyrim. There I was to kill this woman who was about to be married, I thought to myself that it was wrong, even for a quest and you know,

dark brotherhood kind of stuff, but then, I saw a simple, humble man being executed by the imperial soldiers and I thought:"even if I have to kill an innocent woman, about to be married,I am doing it

for a good cause", or so I thought, but when I spoke to her she seemed alright, not evil, but an actual innocent person I am about to murder for some nobody who just wanted to kill the emperor for who

knows why?

Anyhow, I killed her, then ran away, as fast as my light armor wearing body can.

 

My next task was to kill Gaius Maro, the son of the chief of security for the emperor, I laid my eyes on him: imperial cocky bastard who cared only for himself, so I thought, killing him is actually

not that bad, I mean Imperial and Stormcloak are not black and white, good bad, completly murderers and saints, but I looked at this guy and said that this time I won't feel so bad.

I Lurked him for some time until finally Gaius arrived at Riften, home of the thiefs guild.

After waiting for him to get to a small room in the inn, I took out my dagger and killed him.That's it.

 

Next I had to take care of a crazed madman Cicero, but giving all the details would ruin the story, although reading this article kind of makes my last point dumb and not important.

Anyway after taking care of that problem, which I had no problem morally speaking, I headed straight towards Solitude again, to find Anton Virane who might know the whereabouts of the Gourmet,

the best cheff in Skyrim, or so they said. After intimidating the guy that if he will not share this kind of information I would kill him, he said that he would tell me what I want to know and that everything

is fine just to let him live, I said fine, but I saw the marker telling me that I have to kill the guy (not optional) although I didn't want to kill him in the first place.

Anyhow, I continued to Balagog gro-Nolob, the Orc Gourmet in a small inn. I took him out, hid his body in a big container and continued to the grand finale: the emperor.

 

I stepped onto Solitude yet again, headed towards Commander Maro (Gaius Maro's father) and told him that I was the Gourmet cheff (part of the quest) showed him a note, then entered the tower.

I then helped Gianna prepare the meal, couple of minutes later and a new cheff's hat on my head, we served the poisoned dish to the emperor. Then I ran outside as fast asd I could.

According to Astrid, I would get help from some 'friends' so no worries. But it didn't go well, three guards came out with swords drawn, and Commander Maro, staring at me from the top window of

the tower infront of me. Laughing and saying that one of my 'brothers' from the Brotherhood betrayed me, and now not only am I going to die, but my mates at the Dark Brotherhood safe house are now

being hunted like animals.

I got rid of the guards easily with the FUS RO DA! or however they pronounce the dragon shout or thu'um or whatever.

Ran down the tower's stairs, then to the safe house..

I saw at the safe house's entrance many guards, I fought them quickly in order to proceed and help my 'family' of assassins.

At the entrance I saw one of them, with arrows through his body, stuck to a tree, they took one down.

 

I rushed in, taking more, and more guards with swords and axes, then I saw another member of the Brotherhood, on the floor, lifeless.

In hopes of finding at least one survivor I ran and ran, then I saw one of the leaders of our brotherhood: fighting against many gaurds, and falling down, making no sound

but that of his body hitting the ground.

I took out all of the gaurds in the area, moved onto the next when I saw Nazir, he was still alive! but fighting one of Maro's henchmen: Arcturus or something, I rushed to his aid, and finished him off.

Nazir was alive, and together we ran, trying to find a way out, but no exit was appearant, all the doorways are blocked, but eventually I found a way out, through a coffin..

I was not outside yet, seeing Nazir and Babette, brought happines to me, they were like friends, although brutal assassins capable of murdering anyone.

We walked together until I saw it: Astrid on the ground burnt, almost dead telling me she wanted to return to the times where the Night Mother wasn't around,and I didn't arrive,before everything that had to do with me. It was sad when she said I have to kill her bacause of irrelevant reasons,

and so because the quest arrow pointed to her, saying

that I need to kill her, with great remorse, I did it.

 

After that I thought that we were over, over with the murdering, the killing of innocent just because someone wants somebody else dead, but no i was wrong yet again.

The Night Mother (our so called 'great' leader) spoken to me telling me that the contract was still on, wait what contract?

The one for the Emperor?!

Yes, the last one was a fake, in order to protect the real one from being killed.

I was ready for this final challenge, riding on my horse that I previously recieved from Astrid: a beautiful dark horse with red eyes,

yes I ubderstand how wierd it might sound, but after looking for the emperor ship

about to leave harbor, killing a dragon in the process, and sneaking my way to the locked chamber of the emperor I finally met him, face to face, emperor to assassin, a wierd sight indeed.

But, before I made my advancements towards him, he told me to stop, and wait, he said that he knew that his fate was coming and that there is no way to stop me,

but to just listen his last request, that

whoever sent me, I shall kill him too, for treason and betrayel.

After looking into the old emperor's eyes, I stabbed him in the chest, taking him off from this world, and into the next one.

Seeing the dead emperor did not make me happy, only sadness, and sorrow I felt for all my dead friends, the innocent people I killed, and the emperor,

which I don't know if he was even bad or just a request from a person who to me, is worthless and a sad excuse of a human being.

 

After all this, I went over to Whiteun, where this man was at, I walked to him saying that the emperor is dead, and he just smiled at me happy with my success,

which to me looked like shame and disgrace.

He told me where the reward I deserve lies, after which I closed the door, took out Astrid's special dagger, and with one swift blow, I got rid of him for good.

In the end Nazir was happy because the Dark Brotherhood would remain and not disappear and blaa blaa blaa....

 

What I want to tell you from this experience is that, Skyrim is full epic amounts of great stories and adventures, good or bad whichever you choose.

And although I hate playing bad, I enjoyed the story, this little side quest at the edge of the hugh center piece that is Skyrim, and it truly did touch my heart, to think about how the emperor accepted

his fate, and came to a conclusion with peace and understaing, to seeing my friends, gone and dying was horrible but also touching in a way that, a 6 hours of a generic FPS campaign

could never have achieved, what a side storyline inside a much bigger game had achieved in just couple of short hours. Attached to these characters that are evil, but have life in them,

an interesting story that each of the characters have.

That no one is good or bad, but a mixture of both, even myself. And at the end,when I went to the new Sanctuary, where Nazir, Babette and I, the Listener would begin anew, and seeing

people beeing tortured, evil continue and wheel continue spinning, I clapped the hardest I could and said:

"This was truly a unique, new and interesting way to experience the human mind and what our inner selves say about our true nature. Sorry I can't play the bad guy anymore and so,

I went to the start menu, clicked on load, and choosed from now the 200 or so saves I have on my PC, the one that was before all of this happened.

The one that I had before entering Aventus Aretino's home, before accepting his contract to kill an old mean lady in an orphanage in Riftern, before ever being kidnapped by Astrid to an

abandoned shack in the middle of a swamp, having to decide which one of the 3 other kidpnapped people to murder for Astrid, before getting into the mysterious, unique, fantastic story

that is The Dark Brotherhood.

Before killing Vittoria Vici, an innocent woman who just wanted to live happily with her new husband, before killing innocent bards and hunters, cooks and emperors,

before seeing the horrors that the brotherhood has brought on it's own, before all.

 

Traveling back, to where all those victims are still alive and well, to where the emperor still remains strong and all the innocent people live well,

and the Dark Brotherhood, they are all alive now, not knowing me or having a plan to assassinate the emperor, just living peacefully, with what plans they have for the future, and for me, a level 12 Nord warrior with a sword in one hand, a shield in the other, a clean conscience, and a story of a lifetime that I experienced in just a few

short hours, that never actually happened.

[bobfish09]

Nothing evil about the Dark Brotherhood, everyone you kill deserves it :)

 

Personally I think the DB story arc is by far the best in Skyrim with the Thieves' Guild following a close second. Nothing else comes close to them.

[Naareth]

Nothing evil about the Dark Brotherhood, everyone you kill deserves it :)

 

Personally I think the DB story arc is by far the best in Skyrim with the Thieves' Guild following a close second. Nothing else comes close to them.

 

I understand that maybe some of them were evil but I felt bad and not right with it although it was one of the most interesting experiences I had in a long time, and I hope people will understand just how amazing of a game this is.

 

Thanks for the comment.

[saintjimmyz]

I havent done the DB of the Thieves Guild questlines yet, but I have done the Companions. And I was disappointed. Bitterly. There was so much potential behind the whole "The circle are acutally werewolves" idea, and with the silver hand sticking their head in... and yet before I know it Kodlak has been purified, Im the harbringer and thats it. So much wasted potential... the Companion story arc could easily have been incredible, if it had double the content to it. Im presuming the other story arcs suffer from the same problem.