HELLO ! i’m finished school but im still doing exams & stuff like that, & the post-school, what-do-i-do-now depression has set in, making me feel less than motivated to be on more than one blog at a time. so in saying that, this muse will temporarily be on my multi. i know this is a fairly new blog, but i’ve got to do what i’ve got to do and this is one of those things. i will be back, but i’ll be writing this muse here for now. thank you for your kindness & understanding.
SOMETIMES THE PREY NIPS AT US: IT IS BUT A SMALL THING. ind. multimuse, featuring characters both original & canon, from a variety of mediums, such as: c.lavicus vile, h.ircine, m.olag bal, o.dahviing, & s.anguine from the e.lder scrolls series; b.rick & b.utch jojo from the p.owerpuff girls, c.asey jones of tmnt, & more. written by hansel.
hewwo i’m here ! i’m still working out my characterisation, and i’m just taking a mini break bc i’m at school. i want cicero to be super well developed, and i have several meta posts i’m working on, so for now i’m doing little things on my multi.
Drunken Cicero??? Like what if when this icky man was drunk he was more like a jester??? A lot less morbid?
“Awwwf,,,, dear lishener,,, can I play yew a tune?” *proceeds to horribly play on the flute*
Like, Cicero never drinks bc he really??? Doesn’t think about it but when he’s with the listener…. and if the listener drinks…
He’s also a sweet boy when drunk!!!
Like, he’ll be stumbling thru the roads of skyrim with the the listener and just….. pick up a bunch of wild flowers? But like he’ll get the whole bush, roots and all and try to hand it to them??
“Lishener…. Lishener I LoVe YoU. Havsh….. Hash some flowersh…!”
dRuNk CiCeRo??????
Drunken Cicero
Cicero crooning over the night mother whilst DRUNKEN
i just met a boy who made self deprecating jokes about his violent trauma and also said he liked girls with short hair n that we're married now and god im in love
BELOW IS AN IN-DEPTH POST COMPILED OF ARTICLES from various sources, on the history of the dark brotherhood. it is by no means a summary, & it is perfectly able to be read online elsewhere, but i wish to keep my own recapping of events here as well. i have also opted to omit details for certain subjects that i think would make interesting posts later. this post covers the theorised origins of the brotherhood, right down to the events of skyrim. please like this if you read it !
THE DARK BROTHERHOOD, AN OVERVIEW.
THE DARK BROTHERHOOD IS AN ASSASSIN’S GUILD, known for their following of religious beliefs not seen regularly in the overall pantheon of tamriel, the head deities being sithis & the night mother ( they will be covered in another post ). to commit murder, contracted or otherwise, is certainly not legal, but their presence is more or less tolerated — more out of fear, rather than honourable respect. because of this, whenever a figure of authority begins investigating them, or otherwise takes interest in the brotherhood’s dealings, the assassins’ guild oftentimes turns to blackmail, bribery, coercion, & more murder to cover their tracks. whilst the organisation is referred to as the dark brotherhood, it is not a gender-prejudiced sect, & many women have taken roles in the brotherhood, even down to one of their deities, the night mother.
the dark brotherhood is, & has always been led by the night mother, who in most stories, is bride of the lord of death sithis, & whom murdered five children in his honour. to contact the brotherhood, one must stab actual body parts, including a heart, skull, bones, & flesh, within a circle of candles using a dagger rubbed with nightshade petals, whilst reciting this chant: sweet mother, sweet mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptised in blood & fear. following the night mother, the next in the hierarchial line is the black hand, composed of the listener, & four speakers. the listener listens to the night mother, & relays the message to the speakers, who then select an assassin to carry out the task. the identities of those high up in the syndicate are kept very well-hidden, even within the organisation.
the brotherhood follows a series of five tenets, which for a time during the fourth era they abandoned, until the fall of the falkreath sanctuary. the tenets are as so: i. never dishonour the night mother. to do so is to invoke the wrath of sithis. ii. never betray the dark brotherhood or its secrets. to do so is to invoke the wrath of sithis. iii. never disobey or refuse to carry out an order from a dark brotherhood superior. to do so is to invoke the wrath of sithis. iv. never steal the possessions of a dark brother or sister. to do so is to invoke the wrath of sithis. v. never kill a dark brother or dark sister. to do so is to invoke the wrath of sithis.
ORIGINS OF THE DARK BROTHERHOOD: THE MORAG TONG, & THE THIEVES GUILD.
WHILST IT IS WIDELY DISCUSSED & debated by scholars across tamriel, it can be said that the origins of the dark brotherhood’s existence can be connected with the morrowind ( homeland of the dark elves, or, dunmer ) organisation, the morag tong. the morag tong are another series of assassins who follow the word of the daedric prince of lies, deception, & murder, mephala. it is widely agreed upon that in the year 1E 2920 the morag tong assassinated emperor reman the third. this was most likely due to his successor, versidue-shaie. in 2E 324, they assinated versidue-shaie, which resulted in them being outlawed across the continent of tamriel. one proposed theory is that the brotherhood split away from the morag tong due to religious grievances. the morag tong had appealed to the tribunal in morrowind, to ensure their existence. mephala was seen by the tong & the rest of the dunmer populace as the precursor to the tribune vivec. the agreement is that they would relinquish worship of mephala in exchange for vivec, which allegedly, the future-dark brotherhood objected. another theory stands to state that following the assassination of versidue-shaie & the persecution of the morag tong, the dread lord sithis spoke to one member & ordered a formation of a new guild, whom would ‘marry business with death’ to ‘better satisfy the void’s hunger for souls’.
another interpretation on the formation of the dark brotherhood comes from a supposed interview between the author enric milnes ( who was assassinated after publishing his account ), & the night mother herself, which says that the brotherhood was an offshoot of the thieves guild, & not the morag tong. the work alleges that some time in the second era, a few members of the thieves guild had taken to strangling the owners of a house when performing a burglary. they, & a woman who in milnes’ eyes, was the night mother, proposed to the thieves guild that they should allow murder within their ranks, but were turned away as the leadership disagreed on moral grounds, due to it being bad for their business ( which is a core belief that the present day thieves guild maintains ). the question of the morag tong connection came after this, after a few members defected to join the fledgling syndicate.
the actual date of the formation of the dark brotherhood is rough, but in 2E 358, a note was found underneath the floorboards of a nordic village, jallenheim in skyrim, which depicted a war between two shadowy factions, providing scholars with a piece of evidence for speculation between the brotherhood & the morag tong. the note was also addressed to a ‘brother’. in 2E 412, arlimahera of hegathe, the blood queen, wrote in her journal that her family had been hiring the services of the dark brotherhood since her grandfather’s time, putting the date of formation around 2E 358, or 2E 360 at the very latest.
TIMELINE OVERVIEW: THE INBETWEEN.
IN THE CENTURIES FOLLOWING THE SECOND ERA, & the second empire, the dark brotherhood continued to gain notoriety, showing in different ways how powerful they were. they killed many nobles, including the emperor tiber septim’s heir, pelagius i, whilst he was praying in the temple of the one.
in 3E 325, the brotherhood faced a power struggle, with many suspecting it involved the daedric prince of change & destruction, mehrunes dagon’s artefact, mehrunes’ razor — an immensely sought out artefact due to its ability to grant a chance of instantly killing a target in one strike. the brotherhood held a strong presence in the iliac bay for a time.
in 3E 421, brotherhood member greywyn blenwyth began a crusade to eradicate the brotherhood of any members who were not vampires, claiming to have been ordered by sithis to do so. he formed his own organisation, the crimson scars, but they were subsequently wiped out by the brotherhood.
in 3E 427, the brotherhood tried to regain foothold in vvardenfell, after it had been taken over by the morag tong, & they had been driven out. the night mother, severa magia, resided on the island & like other brotherhood members, were assassinated. king hlaalu helseth of morrowind hired the dark brotherhood to eliminate the nerevarine ( believed to be a reincarnation of the chimeri warlord indoril nerevar ), who he feared would challenge his rule. the nerevarine killed the brotherhood’s local leader. the brotherhood also tried to assassinate queen barenziah, the first queen of morrowind, but were intercepted by the nerevarine.
THE PURIFICATION, & FALL & REBIRTH OF THE BROTHERHOOD.
IN 3E 433, the cyrodiilic sect of the dark brotherhood was betrayed by their own member & speaker, mathieu bellamont. he was a trusted speaker, who was conspiring to destroy the brotherhood as revenge for the assassination of his mother. a new member of the brotherhood who was quickly rising through the ranks ( the protagonist of oblivion ), became a silencer of the black hand, conducting what is known as a purification of the cheydinhal sanctuary. the remaining speakers, including bellamont & the newcomer, sought guidance from the night mother at her crypt underneath the lucky old lady statue in bravil. bellamont revealed himself, & after killing two of the four speakers, he was slain by the newcomer, who was then made the night mother’s new listener. the brotherhood tried to recover, but the loss of half of its black hand, & the purification of the cheydinhal sanctuary, left it weakened at the closing of the third era.
the brotherhood didn’t do well during the next two hundred years. factors such as riots in bravil, bruma, & chedyinhal, as well as the great war, became significant problems, & several sanctuaries of the brotherhood across the continent had been destroyed, or evacuated, & most of the time it was both. both major political parties during the great war cracked down on the brotherhood’s presence, eliminating it from hammerfell, & the lack of contact in the regions where they were eliminated led to their reputation & influence declining. the shadowscale training facility in black marsh ( another post ) was abandoned as well, leaving the shadowscales to also die out.
internal turmoil pulled at the very heart of the brotherhood, with division amongst the black hand on how to progress growing stronger. some wanted expansion of the brotherhood, whilst others wanted to pull in, & consolidate for a time. in 4E 186, the bruma sanctuary in cyrodiil was completely lost, with no survivors, disorganising & demoralising the brotherhood even more. over time, the sanctuaries each began to fall, & by the following year, only four sanctuaries remained in all of tamriel, the headquarters in cheydinhal, cyrodiil ( the imperial capital of tamriel ), the corinthe sanctuary in the khajiit homeland of elsweyr, the falkreath sanctuary in skyrim, & the wayrest sanctuary in high rock.
in 4E 188, wayrest was attacked, & the sanctuary was raided & destroyed. the black hand shut down the corinthe sanctuary, & moved any surviving members to reinforce their headquarters. however, political & social chaos erupted in cyrodiil, & a mass-scale gang war commenced without imperial intervention. this led to the deaths of a few brotherhood members, including the listener. the night mother’s crypt had also been destroyed, & the sole survivor escaped to cheydinhal with her stone coffin.
with an absence of listener, & the night mother having not chosen a new one, the dark brotherhood was forced to rely on word-of-mouth to find new contracts. this could often take months, waiting for the rumours of someone performing the black sacrament to get to them. in order to preserve the night mother’s quickly deteriorating corpse, the black hand re-instituted the ancient position of keeper: the member of the brotherhood who abstains from killing, & is charged with the upkeep of her corpse so her spirit can remain in tamriel & contact a new listener. the person that they chose for the job was none other than cicero himself, who described himself as both being both ‘incredibly honoured & deeply saddened’, since that meant he would have to give up his contracts. he was permitted to one more kill, a jester, & the memory of his victim would follow him throughout the events following. the night mother still did not speak, which sought to demoralise the remaining members even further, as the black sacraments went unheard. rasha, the leader of the cheydinhal sanctuary & the only remaining member of the black hand, suddenly proclaimed that he was the listener. however, a slowly maddening cicero realised he could not recite the words that the night mother taught all listeners, & was remembered by all keepers, so he convinced another member to kill him. cicero became the only remaining member in cyrodiil, driven mad from a combination of isolation, demoralisation, & desperation, & adopting the persona of a jester, tormented by the memory of his last kill. by 4E 200, only the falkreath sanctuary was active, so cicero began the long trek to deliver the night mother there ( though not before discovering the dawnstar sanctuary & making it his own home ), only to find that the living assassins who resided there had abadoned the tenets, & operated under the leadership of one woman, astrid. after a listener was finally found, astrid betrayed the brotherhood, also consequently on the day they were to assassinate the emperor, titus mede ii, under contract. the falkreath sanctuary was destroyed, & most members, save three ( including the listener, & cicero, who the rest of the brotherhood believed to be dead, aside from the listener ), were executed by penitus oculatus agents. despite this, the listener & the remainder of the brotherhood successfully executed titus mede ii, onboard his ship, the katariah.
the dark brotherhood presently resides in dawnstar sanctuary, & whilst still small, has now regained their continental notoriety.
