lissa deeply values the opinions of the advisors she trusts and cares a lot about making sure she takes the perspectives of those her decisions may effect into account – for example if she’s making a degree that affects the lives of dhampirs and/or the lower class, she knows she can’t expect to know how it will affect them on her own. she understands that as a royal and an extremely powerful and privileged one at that that her perspective is limited even if her intentions are good and while this doesn’t mean she makes perfect choices all the time, especially early on in her reign, she really does make an effort to hear from those around her who have different experiences than she does and that the people she listens to aren’t all of the same or of similar status as her. when lissa becomes queen there are a lot of royals trying to get close to her and offer their advice, and this is a really difficult thing for her to try and navigate – who is really trying to help her, whose intentions are pure, who like her may not be able to see beyond their own privilege. beyond that, after all the betrayal she’s faced she’s dealing with quite a bit of paranoia and having difficulty trusting people, which can make it all even murkier.
it can be tempting to listen to royals who seem to genuinely want her to do well, especially because she becomes queen in such a tumultuous time and without the support system other candidates would have had or the preparation – she never planned to be queen so she has very little time to adjust to the idea of being queen or what that means she’s giving up let alone the actual reality of being queen, she’s just graduated high school, etc. laura @outlivespast and i determined that one of the first things lissa would have to do is execute tasha ozera, who despite her crimes is christian’s only immediate family left alive and someone he regards as a parent, and for the foreseeable future that leaves their relationship in tatters to put it lightly, so in addition to everything else.... lissa’s lost the person who has been a large source of stability for her. the person she 100% planned to marry and have children with someday.
all of these factors mean lissa feels extremely unprepared and out of her depth not to mention in an incredibly fragile mental state, so it would be easy to want to latch onto the first source of guidance that she can find. after all, she’s only eighteen. she’s had no form of higher education and she has far fewer years of navigating the political scene under her belt than most of the people crowding around her trying to shape her into their version of a good queen, but ultimately lissa knows she needs to know more about the people whose lives she’s impacting, and that listening to the people who have allowed and contributed to such a corrupt system being in place is going to do the exact opposite of what she wants. lissa wants things to change for the better, for dhampirs and non-royals to have the same rights and protections that royals do, and she isn’t going to achieve that this way. but.. she’s still really lost and out of sorts and in a horrible place emotionally because of all of the upheaval in her life. she doesn’t have a family to look to for support or guidance and she doesn’t feel like she’s earned the title of queen; it feels like something that fell into her lap and even though she’s far more progressive than any of her opponents and sees the necessity of that, it doesn’t make her feel any less guilty about the events that transpired to get her here.
it’s not until she begins to build a friendship with @lingeringscars’ bellamy blake – who is head guardian of her #protection squad in our canon – that she begins to feel steadier. bellamy gives her a look into the lives of people much different than her in terms of privilege as well as being a great source of emotional support and safety for her. he also becomes one of her most valued advisors even though the council would probably throw a fit if they knew she was basing policies off of the opinion of a dhampir. she often looks to him for advice and guidance and considers him a part of her family as well as one of the people she can depend on to give his honest opinion and be straight with her.
he has a great deal of influence in that sense and even if she doesn’t agree with him she’ll always hear what he has to say with an open mind and a great deal of respect. she considers him to be a large part of why she’s made it this far – both because of his friendship and because he was one of the first, if not the first person, that she felt she could talk to without him having any kind of agenda or trying to steer her in some way. when she felt really lost and didn’t know what to do she could ask him for his opinion and get a different perspective and trust that he was being honest. that meant a great deal to her especially during this time when it was so hard for her to trust people and find someone genuinely trying to help her. i consider him to be a permanent part of her canon and will likely refer to him in any verses / interactions that take place after she becomes queen.
she has this profound love and appreciation for it built into her body that manages to endure incredible loss and hardship – an incredible ability to look at the worst moments in life and see how they circle back around to lighter ones and find that journey beautiful and valuable and a blessing to bear witness to. having died once and living a life where brushes with death are common place just makes her more grateful to be alive, more desperate to witness everything that life has to offer. she sees all aspects of life, those wonderful and those dirty and gritty and unbearable, and she wants all of them, every bit.
she’s kind and often mistakes others for having the heart that she does but even when her faith is disproven, rather than becoming aggrieved or trying to hide from the harsh realities of life and people, she pushes forward and continues to love life with everything she has and believe in the people around her because she thinks one of the most important lessons life has taught her is that so often it’s rewarded and there is kindness in the world you don’t always expect. she wants to grow and learn and love and fall down and get back up and become a more compassionate and all-around better person in the process, the very best version of herself, and she thinks loving someone is wanting that for them, too.
she’s been through so much shit and would be so justified in becoming jaded and bitter, and yet she looks at every awful unfair thing as a reminder that you can survive things you never thought you would and come out better and stronger and kinder for it.
she wants!! to live!! so bad!!! wants to experience living so much!!!! and yet she would lay down her life for her people, for her family, in the name of justice, and despite possessing a remarkably painful awareness of her own mortality, lives her life fiercely and without reservation, throwing herself into dangerous situation after dangerous situation because it’s simply the right thing to do. one of the things that gets me so much about her is that she’s so often accused of being reckless when she rushes in to do what’s right no matter the cost as if she isn’t aware of the consequences her actions might have, and like... no, that’s not it at all. rose isn’t oblivious to this. this isn’t one of those things she doesn’t consider.
rose is capable of being very impulsive and not thinking things through, but she knows what it’s like to die, knows what it’s like to suffer – and despite knowing this, she chooses to risk herself anyway because there are things – people – causes worth dying and suffering for. she wants to live more than anyone but it isn’t going to make her afraid of living, isn’t going to stop her from doing what is right and being the protector she is at her core.
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.
rose has a lot of skills but one of my personal favorites is her unflinchingly ability to confidently use words like ‘favoriter/favoritest’ and ‘most bestest’ and basically anything of that nature in conversation
i think one of the strongest, most beautiful things about rose is that as deeply as her frustration with herself can run, as unforgiving and unkind towards herself as she can be, is that there is almost always a little voice in the back of her head saying: don’t i deserve something soft and good and kind? is that something i can have? isn’t that something me and people like me should be able to have? am i allowed to want that? am i allowed to look for that? she has this discussion with herself over and over again.
and.. so often she decides the answer is no, so often she can not allow these things of herself because she’s been conditioned since birth to believe to do so is to endanger herself, endanger others, prescribe to weakness... but she almost never loses that voice, never stops wanting to love herself and be good to herself in the way she is to other people even when the desire to be kind to herself feels like treason and sends her spiraling into self ridicule.
there are all of these voices and rules in her head and a lot of the time they win over hers, but this part of her doesn’t stop resisting, even when that resistance is quiet and difficult to determine. even when trying to exist is keeping her own head from being so overrun with the fear weakness doctrine she was raised with that she cannot hear her own voice.
i just think it’s really fascinating that rose is both this character that is so, so hard on herself and so unable to allow herself any kind of deficiency and also someone who is not self-loathing at her core – someone who is striving for self love and self like and has had to love herself out of necessity because the society she grew up in did not value her. rose is always always growing and learning even when it isn’t linear or even visible; every experience she has is teaching her and even though she has every reason to take these hard and cruel life lessons from these moments in which she is nearly or entirely broken down, she instead derives purpose and meaning from what she can and discards what she can’t.
she doesn’t want to learn to be distrustful or cruel. she doesn’t want to learn to shield herself from life in order to shield herself from hurt, and she would rather be shattered again and again than allow an experience to leave an impression on her that makes loving or trusting or vulnerability any harder for her than it already is. it would be easy to look at the things she’s experienced as confirmations that someone like her is not meant to love or achieve happiness, but she doesn’t. she resists and resists and it isn’t always loud but it’s always so powerful to me.
whatever u do . dont think abt how guilty ben felt sometimes for being the one who got to raise peter . how he’s torn between how much he loves peter and the little family they’ve made to get through this but how much he misses his little brother and feels like he’s doing something dirty by trying to be the dad richard deserved to be .
you can always catch darling feyre in a small reading nook, curled up with a soft ivory blanket pulled up to her waist, vanilla and cinnamon candles burning around her, music filling the room. a small white canvas placed on her portable table, drawing your muse in pencil, small delicate features peppered on the canvas.
