The Dark Brotherhood
Overview
The Dark Brotherhood is a guild of assassins shrouded in shadow and mystery which has been active all over Tamriel. While their business is certainly not legal, their existence has typically been tolerated or ignored. Whenever an individual with legal authority takes an interest in their dealings, the Brotherhood relies upon a combination of bribery, blackmail, coercion and murder to keep their activities hidden. They have been bitter rivals of the Morag Tong since the Second Era. The Brotherhood is also known for their worship of the Dread Father, Sithis. Dark Sisters are accepted into the Brotherhood as equally as Dark Brothers.
Organisation
Like any organisation, the Dark Brotherhood has some rules that all members must abide by, though the demand to adhere to them can vary with leadership. These interrelated rules are the Five Tenets: members must never dishonour the Night Mother, betray the Dark Brotherhood, disobey or refuse to carry out an order from a superior, steal the possessions of a Dark Brother or Dark Sister, or kill a Dark Brother or Dark Sister. Breaking one of these tenets invokes the Wrath of Sithis, which, it is rumoured, is not just a turn of phrase.
In contrast to the Morag Tong's veneration of the Daedric Prince Mephala, the Brotherhood worship the Void - Sithis. However, they see their murders as more of a business, viewing their duty through the lens of economics rather than religion and honour. They are frequently viewed as being more pragmatic than the Morag Tong. These differences have caused bitter enmity between the two organisations.
The leader of the Dark Brotherhood is the mysterious, elusive Night Mother. Some stories suggest that the current Night Mother is the ghost of the first, who became the wife of Sithis and murdered their five chidlren in his honour. Others say that the title is merely an honorific given to the current leader. Some even consider her to be none other than Mephala. Regardless, the most well-known and infamous method of acquiring the services of the Brotherhood is by performing the Black Sacrament, a profane ritual that purportedly allows those who perform it to be heard directly by the Night Mother. The Ritual involves stabbing some actual body parts (including a heart, skull, bones and flesh) within a circle of candles using a dagger rubbed with the petals of a Nightshade plant while whispering the plea, "Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptised in blood and fear." Next in the command hierarchy is the mysterious Black Hand, which is composed of a Listener and four Speakers. The Listener, of course, listens to the Night Mother and relays her orders to the Speakers, who then dispatch a Brother to make specific arrangements and carry out the murder. Their identities are kept well-hidden, even within the organisation.
For much of the Brotherhood's history, they have had a special relationship with Argonians, who form a special sect within the Brotherhood known as the Shadowscales. The Brotherhood usually recruits by directly contacting murderers who show promise, but in the Argonian homeland of Balck Marsh, those born under the sign of the Shadow are taken at birth and presented to the Dark Brotherhood. A Shadowscale hatchling is trained in the arts of stealth and assassination and lives a service to the might kingdom of Argonia. Any Shadowscale to comes of age is accepted into the Dark Brotherhood as a full member. If a Shadowscale deserts the Dark Brotherhood, the penalty is death. This tradition died out in the Fourth Era, following the war on Argonian lands.
Lucien Lachance
Overview
Lucien Lachance is one of the four Speakers in the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion, i.e. the Fourth Era. He is the character to induct the player into the Dark Brotherhood after a murder committed by the player. The murder must be conducted on a non-hostile character, after which the notice "Your killing has been observed by forces unknown..." will show on your screen. After sleeping in a safe location, Lucien Lachance will approach your character.
Lucien Lachance is debatably the main character in the Dark Brotherhood's questline, considering the plot of a tragedy. The story line ends with his death, unfair and unjust, but the conflict is resolved. His memory is passed on into the future, 200 years into the timeline of Skyrim, where he becomes the Spectral Assassin, who can be summoned to help the player. The entire event was known as the Incident of Mathieu Bellamont.
Lucien's Story
Lucien Lachance, an Imperial assassin, was a Speaker for the Black Hand of the Dark Brotherhood in the late Third Era. He was killed in 3E 433 (i.e. the 433rd year of the 3rd Era).
In his youth, Lucien travelled to Skyrim and visited the city of Riften. He was once in possession of the Blade of Woe, which eventually became an artifact of the Brotherhood. He became the Speaker for the Cheydinhal Dark Brotherhood sanctuary in the region of Cyrodiil (seat of the Empire, homeland of the Imperials) when the previous Speaker was killed while fulfilling a contract. He took up residence in the abandoned Fort Farragut just outside the city and was responsible for recruiting new members to the sanctuary. He was also the one to order the Purification of the sanctuary in 3E 433 when the Black Hand discovered that the Brotherhood had been infiltrated by a traitor. He named the assassin who carried out the Purification the Silencer (i.e. the player), to replaced his previous Silencer, who had died carrying out a contract. He passed on his undead Daedra horse, Shadowmere, to the new Silencer.
His Silencer was subsequently manipulated by the true traitor, Mathieu Bellamont. The Silencer then systematically assassinated half the Black Hand, and, unknowingly, framed Lucien as the traitor. By the time Lachance had stopped his Silencer, Ungolim, the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, had already been slain. Lachance went into hiding while his Silencer attempted to clear his name, but the remaining members of the Black Hand tracked him down to an abandoned farmstead at Applewatch and murdered him. His Silencer took his place as Speaker, and was later named Listener by the Night Mother when Bellamont attempted to destroy her and failed. The Night Mother would later clear Lucien's name.
In death, Lucien went to the Void to join Sithis, the Dread Father of the Dark Brotherhood. In 4E 201 (i.e. in Skyrim), his spirit was bound to the new Listener of the Dark Brotherhood. He could be summoned as a spectral assassin, to aid the Listener in combat or offer advice.
I cannot think of another video game character that I had more emotional attachment to besides Lucien Lachance. His entire story is incredibly tragic but all the way till the end, he stayed loyal to his belief. The Dark Brotherhood is an evil organisation, yes, but it's members, especially Lucien, show a devotion to their "religion" that is seen only in the priests of the Nine. Despite all the wrongs done to him, dying in utter unfairness and stripped of all dignity, he continued to believe in the Night Mother and Sithis, coming to serve him in the after life.
The story of Lucien Lachance and Mathieu Bellamont happened before the player entered the Dark Brotherhood. In Mathieu's youth, his mother had been killed by Lucien, who had been assigned to complete the contract given to the Dark Brotherhood by Mathieu's own father. In his rage, Mathieu blamed his mother's death on Lucien and vowed to kill him. After reaching adulthood, Mathieu was recruited by Lucien into the Brotherhood, who took pride in him and groomed him into an assassin. Lucien had no idea the fate that awaited him.
His death came as a shock for players. While Archmage Traven of the Mages' Guild had also died, his death was more honourable. In the Mages' Guild questline, Traven sacrifices himself by binding his soul into the Black Soul Gem and ultimately led to your victory over the Necromancer Mannimarco. Lucien's death was nothing like that.
Your player, in his/her stupidity, could not tell that her dead-drop contracts were switched, even though while playing, I saw the change in handwriting. Unknowing, she betrayed the Speaker she had sworn her life to serving, leading to his death. In the Dark Brotherhood, every Speaker has a Silencer, who is his personal assistant and favourite assassin. With all that trust given to your player, you realise that you had betrayed your Speaker unknowingly and strive to undo your mistakes. However, before you could show up at Applewatch Farm with the evidence proving Lucien's innocence, your Speaker was already dead.
You reach Applewatch Farm, heart-pounding and shivering, riding on Shadowmere through the rain. You push open the door to a gruesome sight - a mutilated corpse hanging upside-down from the roof, the guts removed methodically, flesh torn, beheaded - clear signs of torture. You wish, in the depths of your heart that it wasn't true. And then the Altmer (High Elf), Arquen comes up to you to tell you not to worry, for the traitor has been gotten rid of. You realise with a plunging feeling that the corpse was that of your Speaker, who even in his last moments could not find peace. Arquen then tells you that she had feasted upon the flesh of the Speaker and for a moment, you wanted to turn around and stab her through the heart with your dagger.
Denial flooding you, you follow blindly through with the quest until you reach the Night Mother's crypt at Bravil. Nothing mattered anymore. Mathieu Bellamont, the bloody traitor, was next to you, but you were too late. Lucien was dead. When Mathieu pulled out his sword and you couldn't do anything but watch as he killed the other Black Hand members, except Arquen, you finally snap and murder him. You didn't feel any relief. Lucien was already dead, his body forever left to rot in Applewatch Farm.
The Night Mother comes to you, congratulating you on fulfilling your fate. She tells you it is all meant to be and you cannot help the traitorous scream in your head - "Was Lucien meant to die? He was so loyal to you and you just sent him to die?" She names you Listener and you want to spit on that title. Do you care for leading the Dark Brotherhood? Do you care for the Dark Brotherhood at all? Lucien was dead. Lucien was what defined the Dark Brotherhood and without him, it never felt the same again. You walk into the Cheydinal sanctuary months later, new recruits everywhere, Arquen greeting you as Listener, but you just wanted to be Lucien's Silencer again.
Going into Skyrim
And then a few days later, I pick up Skyrim and the moment I heard about the boy trying to summon the Night Mother, I rode to Windhelm faster than I have ever done anything. When the letter came to me, from a stranger in a black cloak with the words "We Know", there was a skip in my heart and I took the first carriage to Falkreath and into the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary. As you approach the Black Door, it whispers "What is the music of life?" and you reply "Silence, my Brother" and it was so reminiscent of Oblivion ("What is the colour of night?" "Sanguine, my Brother.").
Imagine my disappointment when I walk in to see Astrid and the nonsense she made of the new Dark Brotherhood. Apparently before the Empire in Cyrodiil fell to the Thalmor forces, the sanctuary in Cyrodiil was raided. The last remaining sanctuary was, ironically, Cheydinhal sanctuary and the only survivor, Cicero, was travelling to Skyrim with the Night Mother's body. I wanted to scowl at the mention of the Night Mother, but what I scowled at more was Astrid's denial of the "old ways". Becoming the last remaining leader of the Dark Brotherhood, she began tearing apart the old traditions of the Brotherhood, denying the existence of the Night Mother. Is this what was left of the organisation? Is this what was left of the beliefs that Lucien died protecting?
Lucien's death made me upset for weeks, but Astrid's death made me happy. In her dying moments, her words redeemed her at least, in my opinion:
"I just wanted things...to stay the way they were. Before Cicero, before the Night Mother. Before...you. I thought I could save us. I was wrong. But you're alive! So there's still a chance. A chance to start over, rebuild. That's why I did...this. Don't you see? I prayed to the Night Mother. I am the Black Sacrament. I'm saying that you were right. The Night Mother was right. The old ways...they guided the Dark Brotherhood for centuries. I was a fool to oppose them. And to prove my sincerity. I have prayed for a contract. You lead this Family now. I give you the Blade of Woe, so that you can see it through."
The bitch has the Blade of Woe! How Lucien's famous ebony dagger ended up in HER hands is outrageous. That blade was given to his Silencer, one of the only memories my character in Oblivion has of her Speaker. How dare that bitch take it?
My Fanfictions
It may be overreaction, but I simply adored Lucien Lachance. A lot of my fanfictions revolve around the relationship between my character and Lucien and it isn't pointless smut. My character often take the role of an orphan, who spent her entire life fending for herself following the death of her parents. One incident ended up with a dagger held in her end, through a man's heart. Lucien Lachance was what came next and with him, he brought a Family, one not related by blood, but one she held dear. When she was ordered to purify the sanctuary, she could not disobey and carried out the murders as her heart broke. On the one hand, she blamed Lucien, but on the other, she clung onto him desperately - him being the last of the Family she was given.
Sometimes, I extend the fanfiction, the main character being a Mer and thus her ability to live beyond a thousand years. Following the death of Lucien, she could no longer stand the Dark Brotherhood, everything reminding her of him. She leaves under the protection of Nocturnal (my character is usually the Gray Fox of the Thieves' Guild) and ends up serving the Imperial Legion instead.
After being posted to Skyrim to deal with the Stormcloak uprising in the Fourth Era (Skyrim timeline), she also becomes the Archmage of the College of Winterhold as well as the Guildmaster of the Thieves' Guild (due to Nocturnal's favour). While patrolling the Thieves' Guild territory of Riften one night, she is ambushed by an assassin, who she catches off-guard. He reveals himself to be the Listener of Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood and old memories are awoken. Unknown to her, the Listener is accompanied by a Spectral Assassin, invisible to all but his summoner. Lucien's spirit almost recognises her, but rejects the notion, believing that it was too much of a coincidence.
It turns out that the Listener was under command by the Night Mother to hold an alliance with the Thieves' Guild, in preparation for a disaster unknown to the Listener. My character agrees to the agreement on the terms that the Listener follows her to Cyrodiil, in search of an Elder Scroll in the Imperial Palace. The Listener rejects at first, but is tempted by an offer to obtain a Seer's Orb, that would give the Brotherhood the protection they need against future events. As the two travel around Cyrodiil, my character's past is slowly revealed as her hidden identity comes to the surface. For example, while searching around Cheydinhal, she lets slip her knowledge of a hidden place underneath a boarded up house - the location of Cheydinhal sanctuary.
The ending is fluffy, yes, but not after a lot of disaster. After discovering that she was the Listener who abandoned the Brotherhood centuries ago, the current Listener attempts to kill her while Lucien materialises to confront her. Lucien himself tries to kill her, thinking that she had betrayed him once more in betraying his teachings. However, she redeems herself by bringing them the Seer's Orb, but vows never to return to the Dark Brotherhood because even after 200 years, she cannot get over her Speaker's death.
Did I mention? This guy has a gorgeous voice. Seriously, there's two kinds of deep voices - the extremely...arousing one, like the one that Lucien has, and then there's the very boring deep voice that everyone else has. Honestly, that pitch...it's not fair Bethesda! You can't create a character so bloody perfect and then kill him off!
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