I believe you to be correct about about the dragonborn having the contract against them. What i would like to see from you in the future would be a video about known history about the Dark Brotherhood, where they are going, the role the dragonborn will play in the factions future, weather Astrid will be our ghost follower in the next TES and all other theories you have surrounding the Dark Brotherhood. I think Astrid was right to frame us to try and save her family and faction, i think it's slightly possible Astrid has a child, i think Nazir would make a good leader, Babette must have seen great things during her immortal life, i think Veezara is still alive, even tho he overreacted Cicero wasn't wrong, Cicero possible did what he did because he knew what Astrid was planing for the dragonborn, i wish for the falkreath sanctuary to be rebuilt, i wish we could have saved Astrid, i wish we could recruit people into the Dark Brotherhood. The Dark Brotherhood is my favorite faction because of the people, their stories, the way the change toward you, the way they make you change and last but not least their history. I hope they return to us in TES 6 either in a better state or in a state where we make it stronger or even expand it wherever we will be. On a later game i refused to finish the quest line so i could be with my whole family forever. I enjoy you videos very much and wish a long career upon you. P.S sorry for the extremely long comment that is riddled with unsubstantiated claims as well as sentimental emotion.
Astrid: “One person in this room has a contract on their head” Dragonborn who has already sliced their way through 10 Dark Brotherhood assassins sent after them: “No Shit”
Astrid "One person in this room has a contract on their head" Dragonborn, who has already killed several DB assassins sent after him: "Yeah, actually I wanted to talk to you about that...."
Astrid: "Someone in this room has a contract on their head." My Dragonborn, having murdered several assassins, wearing one of their sets: "But who could it be?! Ah, maybe it's in one of these notes!" Begins reading contracts. "No, nothing." Astrid: "Is this a game to you?!" Dragonborn : "Bitch, I eat dragons."
I just love how absurd it is. You’re telling me Astrid walked through my front door, snuck past my wife and kids, past my husky, past my armoured troll, past my daedric armour-wearing steward, past serana and inigo then proceeded to haul my 6’2 fat ass out the door along with my full 450 point inventory and my full dragon bone armour without waking anyone up.
@@ausar7002 its usually easier when you know 90% of the locations and when you are certain you can kill everyone there, I always choose Muiri as my wife so I always need to do the extra quest she gives for which extreme sneak is needed
The thing I hated most about the Dark Brotherhood questline was: For a "Secret" organization everyone and their Mother knew you were a member. I do hope the ES 6 addresses this issue and refrains others from knowing you are a Member of Assassins Guild in the future.
@@Malkontent1003 I think the guards know even if you're not kitted up though. Kind of like how if you're a werewolf they'll say "I find your wolfish grin... unsettling" even if you're wearing a mask or helmet that completely covers the face. Town guards in Skyrim just have uncanny knowledge. But also sometimes know nothing at all, like they'll continue assuming you're the new member of the Companions who just fetches the mead even after you've finished the questline.
@@6236003 Oh, for sure. But then again, setting up conditions for stuff like that is tricky at times. As it stands, yeah, guards know a lot of things they have no reasonable way of knowing. I mean, hell. They know exactly what every Daedric artefact is, and that's not really common knowledge, ya know.
On the other hand, if you managed to kill the Emperor in spite of his security detail, they'd probably just want to placate you, so they just say what you wanted them to hear.
I don't know. I think it's just a bug, maybe they didn't programmed another death sound for Astrid. For some reason, most of (weird) things i saw in game, i'm used to think of them as bugs. I.E.: In any game, if u found a naked body besides the roads, normally i would think that he/she was killed and robbed, but if i'm playing skyrim, i check the inventory of the dead, and all the things are there, even the clothes.
When I had this happen to me the first time, I slept after becoming the Harbinger of The Companions. I thought some Companions cutscene was loading in for a finale of the questline, but then I woke up in the shack. Super creepy to think that Astrid was able to haul my unconscious body out of Jorrvaskr past all of the members of the Companions. I ended up mauling her as a werewolf.
The couriers are the strongest faction in the game. Why else would they be so confident that they can travel around the dangerous Skyrim wilderness in just their underwear.
@@T4RHUN "I've been looking for you, got something i'm supposed to deliver. Your hands only. Well, that's it, got to go. And by the way, how the hell did i get in here?"
Long outdated but Lokir was the one who mentioned going to Hammerfell, the Dragonborn was NOT trying to cross the border there. Dialogue with Hadvar and Ralof both state that the Dragonborn was in fact crossing the border from Cyrodiil into Skyrim, and got caught up in the ambush.
When he said that the dragon born tried to go to hammerfell threw me. Hadvar literally says if you pick a nord that “you picked a bad time to return home”
@@scalycoronet5198I think it was confirmed that the nord (who im positive is the canonical dragonborn) hasn't lived in skyrim for a long time or at all. So he would technically be considered an outsider even though he is nord
It would be a bit strange narratively if your character had been trying to leave Skyrim for some reason, got caught in an ambush, and then wouldn't continue trying to leave Skyrim when able to do so
linkofthewild 2 I killed her a lvl 4 and didn’t get there till like lvl 41 or something like that didn’t do any quests just slaughtered my way though dragons, and he undead, and most of the storm cloak and the imperial camps.
Jagd Panther Facinating~ I’ve seen trolls pretend to be racist before... but to think you’ve gone the extra mile and done so against a race that doesn’t exist... masterful sir, I applaud you. But we all know it’s those goddamn knife eared Elves that need to go. Literally the majority of antagonists in the series are fucking high elves.
In Oblivion, the first time I saw the "Your killing has been observed" line or however it goes, my friend and I freaked out thinking we had pissed off one of the gods and reset the game... It wasn't until a few weeks later that we found out it was the Dark Brotherhood... Lol That was right after my friend decided to go on a killing spree in the Imperial City after duplicating Apotheosis many times, being chased throughout the entire city by guards, and shot with enough arrows to knock him through the terrain... We both agreed that it had meant that the gods were absolutely sick and tired of the massacre, so our reaction to the "observed" message made sense...
I remember being in the 5th grade when this game came out. One of my classmates at my private Christian school described this whole scene to me, and very proudly told me that he just executed everyone. That was one of the first earthly memories I have of Skyrim. Good video, man!
🤣🤣🤣 that is hilarious!! At my school, none of the kids were allowed to play video games, or if they were, they and their parents all had to keep it massively covered up…like, we were genuinely indoctrinated to spy at other kids homes for any “troublesome” things, and even slumber party invites had strict dress and behavior codes…okay, well, that came out a lot darker than I intended, but yeah, there’s like not one thing about this game that wouldn’t have horrified 12-year-old me. Demons! Murder! Idolatry! Oh my! Thanks, IBLP, if I didn’t have morals, I’d sent the dark brotherhood after your entire organization. 😡
@@TaikaJamppa yea I get the sarcasm - ha ha. I'm talking about how gaming experiences are so extremely different when you're a kid vs when you're an adult. You actually get scared for the characters, worry for the characters, invested in the characters.
"There you are! Astrid's told me all about you. Heard she pulled the ole' "Choose your victim" gag with you. Ah, I love that one..." - Babette dialogue when you first meet her.
Her dialogue also suggests it was all just a test, because if you kill one, two or all three guests she'll say she gave you order to kill and you followed that order at which time you get invited to join the Brotherhood.
Not really. If someone in the shack did in fact have a contract out on them and the game says that it wasn't one of the guests, then it MUST have been you.
I remember the first time I got picked up by the Dark Brotherhood. It took several in-game months for me to actually get picked up, because I never slept with my character, I always found waiting more convenient. However, when I finally decided to sleep in a bed, I was in a bed in Tel Mithryn. Astrid managed to sail all the way to Solstheim, travel through the ash wastes, get all the way to Tel Mithryn, take me in my sleep without Neloth (A guy who never sleeps) knowing, haul me all the way back to Skyrim, and carry me all the way to a shack deep in the treacherous swamps of Hjaalmarch.
To be fair, Neloth seems like the type of person to just let Astrid take you, he wouldn’t interfere just like he didn’t with the stones, he’d most likely just want to see what happens.
I love how the dark brotherhood quest begins in Skyrim. Like I've gone out of my way to try and sleep on the furthest north side of Solstheim and still woke up in the abandoned shack. Astrid really went through the trouble of hulling my ass all the way from there by boat and about halfway across Skyrim just so she could have the most dramatic 'who's guilty' party ever.
I started a new run the other day, and started the quest real quick and then decided what happens if I never sleep, I'm at level 41 and nothing, was hoping Astrid would take me another way, but no. I wish I did it though, the mount there was great for leveling up some magics
I didn't realize that it took sleep to get kidnapped. I spent freaking HOURS trying to figure it out, and it only occurred to me to check online AFTER I had built my entire house on Windstad manor. The abandoned house mocked me as I searched the marsh for nirnroots and swamp fungal pods, and eventually I just decided to sleep in a bed in my house for 1 hour and woke up in that situation. I found it funny knowing exactly where I was and how I could just walk 20 feet from the shack and end up back in my house
Better question: If you're like me your first contact with the Dark Brotherhood in most playthroughs is when a Brotherhood assassin tries to kill you. 1) Who wanted you dead? 2) Why would Astrid and the Brotherhood abandon the Contract to recruit you?
@@inceldestroyer69 He didn't really point out who put the contract on us. But he mentions that the Dragonborn was trying to run into Hammerfell, but by the location of Helgen, it is equally likely that we tried to pass the border to Cyrodiil. At the time the game takes place the Jarl of Falkreath hold, where Helgen lies, is a supporter of the Empire. And the road into Hammerfell goes by Falkreath, not Helgen. The road next to Helgen is the one into Cyrodiil. Why drive the prisoners through half the hold for the execution, when there are other places closer. The fact that Ulfric is in the carriage as well supports the idea towards the Cyrodiil border. It is also unclear why the Dragonborn had the contract. What have we done before the beginning of the game that warrants someone wanting us dead. Sure, in the end it's up to the player to make up their own backstory for their character, but there has to be something, because the random encounter can happen no matter who we are. A merchant or a thief are equal to a Stormcloak supporter or a Thalmor agent. It matters not.
Not OP, but usually after the beginning when you see Alduin, you don't see any other dragons until you actually start the main quest. If you never start Dragon Rising, you 'll just never see any dragons.
Maybe, but Astrid's exact words are not "someone in this room." She says "If you turn around, you'll notice my guests...there's a contract out on one of them." Them. It has to be one of the tied three. Coincidentally, Astrid's last words "Well done.." and the fact that the storyline ends with her burned up or "well-done" is pretty funny.
Also, from what I read on the wiki at least, it's still possible to encounter Assassins after having started the DB, so this doesn't really hold up. It's more likely that Astrid is just impressed the player killed a gal unprompted and wanted to test whether they'd kill anyone, like she said originally. Notions like "debts of life" and the like don't really exist anymore anyway, since the Night Mother's silent and Sithis' tenets aren't upholded.
@@boldbearings It could be. "Them" is referring to her "guests", which includes you. Sure, one could argue that it'd be more accurate to say "one of you" as in "one of the group you belong to (the guests)", but I don't think it's impossible that she could have meant "one of them" as being "one of the people who belong to that group (the guests)", which you just so happen to belong to.
@@bib4eto656 better question, how would she have already decayed to bones, because hall or no hall there's no way she's been dead long enough for him to gather her bones.
The reason it can be broken down is because Bethesda put almost no thought into this quest. It's so blank and barren that it literally REQUIRES players to fill in the blanks. It's not "open-ended" for intrigue purposes. It's blank. There would be evidence of these characters in the world, families, homes, lived lives, if there was any real thought to it. We'd have to investigate, find out more about them, or even by happenstance, find out about them beforehand, even if it's from obscure references or from meeting them. This quest is barren of anything, really. Just like 90% of quests in this game...
Plot twist: the courier set the contract on you. He's mad he has to travel to different sides of the map and dimension to just give you just one letter each time.
yeah, unless you go with one of the many survival mods :D i did a gameplay with so many of them on i could die if i eat something funny or go for a swim in the wrong place :D
Dragonborn: "Hey. Cool headgear I can't get anywhere else in game... I'll just... Kill you all..." Astrid: "had to be one of them, right?" Dragonborn: "oh yeah the contract"
Astrid could've said "Well done." in reference to the destroy the dark brotherhood quest line that happens after you kill her. So technically there were at least 2 people who we can confirm were wanted dead.
Wait, I always thought that the Dragonborn was captured trying to cross INTO Skyrim. Not out of it. The way you have no ties in Skyrim before the start of the game as well as when you chose a Nord you are told it was a bad time to try to return to your homeland.
Apparently you get captured nere dark water crossing with the stormcloak. Thats not near the border. Plus none of the border gates are guarded. Maybe they forgot some critical npc
"One person in this room has a contract on them" Me: Drops the 107 contracts on me signed by Astrid *Yes I've killed a lot of people and stolen a shit ton of things*
i always try to reverse-pick any Assassination Contracts back onto Astrid's inventory...of course, the game's code was never made this complex, but in my headcanon, my character whispers "by the way, your employees were, shall we say, Lacking, which is why you need new underlings now" as he slips the envelopes into her pocket...i wish that, for the few playthroughs that i Destroy the dark brotherhood, Astrid would read through these letters from herself and realize 'maybe this Dragonborn fellow is a much more dangerous threat than i first thought'...
I kinds thought Astrid said "good job" because she kinda knows the Nightmother wants this and feels guilt over her heretical practices and disregard for tradition. She seemed like she once was a true believer. With the fall of the dark brotherhood around her, her faith is shaken, and she becomes bitter and begins to go against everything she previously believed. She asks you to kill someone and you choose her. She accepts it as divine retribution, finally claiming her.
I always read it as her recognizing your cleverness. She says, "you don't leave until someone in this cabin dies." So gutting her and taking the key is technically following her instructions to the letter.
@@iponce2no it’s not recognizing really any cleverness, but instead skill. There isn’t really anything to be clever on, common sense is the person who kidnapped you has the key to the place you’re locked in. So either one of the three has to die so she gives you the key, or kill her for it. “Well done” yes, well done, you just killed THE leader of the Dark Brotherhood, not exactly a stroll in the park. The guards and Maro’s reaction back this is as well essentially being “You did WHAT!?”
I always thought the player character was trying to cross the border to get in, not out of Skyrim. No one's heard of you, no-one recognises you, even if you're a Nord. Idk, always just made more sense to me.
I think someone in Hammerfell performed the black sacrament, and the Skyrim branch caught wind of it. They could easily have heard about us entering Skyrim, if one of the guards that escaped Helgen is a member (many guards are, as we all know)
Considering it has already been established that Astrid has removed herself from the core values of the DB, I just assumed she made it all up... She basically tested whether or not the Dragonborn would be loyal to her. If they were she would recruit them (possibly based on their skill or just because they found a person who did the black sacrament before even the DB could). I would personally assume she merely came across the victims through her own endeavors and perhaps deemed them good test subjects.
I'm pretty sure this is a misconception. It targets all of them. Given the fact that you never see any sign of these people again, there's a good chance all three have contracts. The reality, however, is just that Clairvoyance doesn't work that way. It points at a quest target, and all three of them are valid targets. Because there's no 'win' for picking the 'right' one, there's no reason to program a special usage of it just for that scene.
yeah i mean astrid basically took a massive shit on everything the brotherhood stood for, so i'd say its fair to assume there isn't a whole lot of structure
Honestly, my first time doing that scene, I attacked Astrid. I was role-playing a kind of brutish barbarian stormcloak character, and it felt like what he would do.😂
Given her reaction, I always assumed she was lying and none of them had a contract on them. Thats why she doesn't care who you pick, there is no circumstance in which she has to worry about you letting someone with a contract on them walk away. It also matches up with her reply that it doesn't matter and the only point was seeing if you were someone who would be willing to kill on command.
I assumed that they all had contracts on them and that's why it didn't matter who you killed or spared - if you kill them all, great; if you spare anyone, they just kill them after you leave.
@@InsomniacXIII I'm going through my first playthrough of the DB questline and it did seem like either none of them or all of them have a contract on them- Babette even confirms it when you talk to her after you go in for the first time.
It ultimately doesn't matter, though. None of them have legitimate contracts, and neither does anyone the Dark Brotherhood has killed before the Dragonborn becomes The Listener. She's just a killer doing it for money, not a follower of Sithis. It's _also_ why they so easily forgive your own contract once you join. They're illegitimate contracts.
You know... the contract having been on the Dragonborn all along is a pretty solid theory. I've had that assassin show up while I was on my way to Whiterun for the first time and always wondered about it. That being our reason for running to Hammerfell makes a lot more sense!
no, dragonborn wasn't running from skyrim to hammerfell, they were caught crossing border from cyrodiil to skyrim. meaning something bad happened in cyrodiil and we want to escape from it and live a new live in skyrim.
Are you sure it doesn't just point at the one you are closest to? Isn't the spell meant to point at the path to the closest objective, not the "right" or "most important" one?
I like your conclusion I’m going to go with that. She wanted us to take a life to release our contract. The only hiccup is how many play throughs I’ve done where I haven’t had that random encounter before killing Grelod. But maybe the assassin took an arrow to the knee on his way and retired to a cozy guard position.
With the Alternate Start - Live Another Life mod, I can't recall when was the last time I started a Skyrim playthrough where I even went through the vanilla opening, let alone get attacked by that DB assassin. Holy shit, this video is on point lmao.
Like almost everyone who tried to solve this "riddle" you've made the fundamental mistake of claiming that Astrid said something ambigous like "there's a contract on someone in this cottage" what she however literally says is "If you turn around you'll notice my guests... there's a contract on one of them" so she clearly claims that one of the three has the contract on them. The mistake that most people want to make when they try to solve this riddle is that it's either Astrid or the PC that have the contract on them because if you kill her she says "well done" while the PC is ofcourse the only character who can actually have a contract on them. What however most people just ignore because they want to solve an unsolvable riddle is the simple fact that Astrid doesn't even have a listener anymore and she just uses the Brotherhood for her own gain. She doesn't take contracts from the Mother she just takes contracts that she believes makes them the most money. As Astrid herself says : It's not important who had a contract on them it's important that she told you to kill and you did without even verifying that the NightMother actually ordered the Kill in other words this was just a test wether you'd kill for her
@@SA_Caine Given how Astrid doesn't really care for the actual traditions I wouldn't be surprised if she actually just kidnapped random people and no one actually has a contract on them. But it's supposed to be open who actually, if at all, has a contract on them.
@@pentarthesage7013 If you turn around you'll see my guests one of them. I can't see myself if I turn around. But since you've wrote this in a Meme way this isn't meant for you, but for anyone who would actually believe that to be a real reason
But the tenets aren't upholded any more... And even then, who would make a contract on her head? One of the other members? Highly doubted. Every other dark brotherhood member outside of Skyrim is dead or in hiding. And I dont think anyone outside of Skyrim would know that she disobeyed the night mother. And even if they know, I don't think they'd be able to hear about someone performing the black sacrament outside of Skyrim, since the night mother has no listener, they have to hear about the contracts by word of mouth. So I'm pretty sure it's not her.
@@supasf But if breaking a Tenet invokes the Wrath of Sithis, would it not be possible that Sithis himself it not insulted if you break them? Would it not be possible that Sithis himself would tell the Nightmother that Astrid is to be killed? After all, Sithis is our lord in the Dark Brotherhood.
She broke them all actually She refused you a contract despite you being listener and therefore technically above her(listen to your higher ups) She tells you to steal Cicero's journals(don't steal from a dark brother or sister) She orders you to kill Cicero(do not kill a dark brother or sister) And she has you climb into the night mothers coffin(respect death mama's tomb)
27:41 Isn't that what happened in the destruction of the Falkreath Sanctuary? Astrid did the black sacrament on herself and the Night Mother not only heard it, but accepted it and passed it on?
I mean I ran into her in Riften after finishing the dark brotherhood quest line and she said something about her sending the dark brotherhood after me if I got on her bad side.
I feel like she might have be vengeful enough to do that, but she wouldn’t realistically do that. Setting a contract on who effectively is at that point the highest ranking dark brotherhood member is probably just going to get the entire brotherhood on your bad side. And having a group of a dozen assassins pissed at you doesn’t sound like a good idea
@@killerkitten7534 Especially when said leader is some combination of: Dragonborn, Werewolf, Vampire Lord, Vampire Hunter, Arch-Mage, Harbinger of the Companions, Leader of the Thieves Guild, etc. :P
babette, canonically: "There you are! Astrid's told me all about you. Heard she pulled the ole' "Choose your victim" gag with you. Ah, I love that one..." im so sorry camel i think you made a 41 minute long video for a question that has no answer because astrids a liar
Yea Astrid straight up tells you the point was just to see if you could kill no questions asked. It had nothing to do with there being a contract. What is important about this part in the story though is its suppose to show you that the Dark Brotherhood has been reduced to being straight up killers since there is no more listener.
There is some hidden dialogue from Babette. She states "I heard Astrid pulled the old 'pick your victim' trick." So it's insinuating that none of the victims are the one with the contract. (Sidenote: the one escaping to hammerfell is Lokir. You are actually coming in from Cyrodill.)
I mean, it's fine and fun to look for hidden underlying reasons and causes and motives, but Astrid basically says it bluntly: it was a test to see if you would kill without question or hesitation because you were ordered to do so, setting your mind on the fact that killing that person is the right thing to do. That's the whole point of the test, you're just killing a random stranger. She's not mocking you or refusing to tell you who it was by claiming that "the point is for the right answer to remain a mystery", the point is that there's no right answer. The fact that the Dragonborn has a contract on them doesn't contradict it, of course, and can expand on the irony of the situation, but I doubt that was the case with every potential entrant Astrid had tested that way.
Also DB assassins only appear after you deal with the hired thugs sent after you. These guys are after you as soon as you leave the bear cave under Helgen, the earliest I've ever encountered them was after passing the Guardian Stones and clearing the bandits cave on the right. Literally haven't done anything yet in the game (also they are tough for 1 lvl, so it was a hard fight).
@@Hirokuro_Asura not quite. I hadn’t fought any thugs but on my way to Whiterun I encountered an assassin on a playthrough. The only requirement is that you’re above level 5, which happened to be the case since I had farmed some smithing and stealth earlier that run
@@Rexis102 Well, mb that there then. But I always saw the appearance of DB assassins on the roads as a continuation of the situation with those hired thugs from before. Someone was upset with Dovahkiin's actions (killed or stole something etc.), so the character hires the thugs. Thugs fail. The NPC performs a dark ritual to make a contract on DVK for DB. Seems logical. Btw today I've encountered hired thugs yet again 30 sec after killing the smith in Dawnstar in front of his wife to reset the shop items. The hired thugs each had the note from the wife saying that she wants us dead and is willing to pay off the bounty those thugs will get for killing us, and her signature at the bottom of the letter. Oh and since it's my original save from 2011 that by now has saved (only) time of "Play Time: 930.25.21" that's the 3d time I'm running into them. Previous notes had different author. And the assassins were killed in large numbers by now (tbh I assume I'm the sole reason the DB is dying at this point lol).
@@Hirokuro_Asura I once ran into the thugs as I was leaving the Abandoned Cabin… at the same time as a dragon decided to start circling. It was my first playthrough and I had no idea how to handle any of it. Hardest scenario I’ve ever been through. But the thugs definitely can show up later than the assassins.
WARNING! Spoilers Ahead: If you follow the entire Dark Brotherhood chain to the end, you learn that Astrid betrayed the Brotherhood to the Penitus Oculatus in violation of Tenet Number 2. She also admits that they have stopped following the 5 tenets and have decided to do things their way violating Tenet number 1. She directs you to steal Ciceros Journal, which, although the player steals it, they do so under the instruction of a superior which violates Tenet number 4. She also directs you to later kill Cicero which violates Tenet number 5 (justification as per the previous violation). All of these violations invoke the wrath of Sithis who is essentially the ultimate authority of the Dark Brotherhood, and thus able to put a contract on Astrid. Since the player later becomes the listener, it can be postulated that Sithis, through his Daedric power has manipulated the fate of the player to put them in the position to carry out the contract on Astrid. The player is not in any violation of the tenets as they are not a true member yet. Also, when the Penitus Oculatus destroys the sanctuary, Astrid willingly admits she has broken the tenets of the brotherhood, and has invoked the black sacrement on herself.
Jesse C I read on another investigation video, someone in the comments dig through the game files to see who the “friend” is that sends you into dungeons after you use a shout (the ones that start the misc quests “investigate the source of power within [dungeon]”). Turns out it’s the word wall itself that sends the letters.
Something I came up with watching this that can give more credence... the aspect of time travel. Someone could have realized the dragonborn's threat and went back in time to perform the ritual in desperation to have you killed before you come into your power. But who? Maybe Miraak (who would have Hermaeus Mora to thank for the knowledge of a soon to be dragonborn and Apocrypha being outside of time and space).
If you want to consider time travel, and are playing with mods, I'd offer up that you could have put the contract on yourself. Unslaad was painful, just throwing that out there.
If we throw time travel in the round, it might be the Dragonborn who send the letters from "a friend" to themselves. And why would Miraak go that far to kill the Dragonborn? Does he know he will get defeated and decided to send a contract back in time to kill us before we can become a danger as a last means to safe himself?
There is no contract, there’s dried blood on the wall behind each of the three options. This is because this scenario is carried out multiple times, for Babette has a line of dialogue mentioning this to be so. That’s also why Astrid doesn’t seem to be very interested in your choice at all with each of her lines of dialogue. She says well done because you’ve figured it out, and you’ve beaten her at her own game. And you get attacked by assassins for committing any crime even if you do it unseen.
I didn’t think it was any crime, I thought it had to be a leveled crime against someone. Then again I’m not entirely sure because I don’t usually commit crimes on purpose. Have only had a it happen to me a few times.
@@gabrielm.942 Committing any crime vs any person can trigger either the thugs or the DB assassin. There are 2 mistakes which Camelworks makes - the first is misquoting Astrid, as she says there is a contract on one of the three guests, not on *someone* in the room; the second is claiming that you have a DB contract on your head from the get-go, which is just plain wrong.
Rosen Kostov is it really any crime? I’m pretty sure thugs can be any level crime. But I though DB had to be leveled. Again I usually don’t commit a lot of crimes so I’m not to sure.
@@t3chn0dr0n3 She insinuates that one of her guests has a contract out on one of them. What you are missing is that you are also one of those guests, behind you are just the other 3. Remember you were also collected. As for the DB contract on your head from the start. That is incorrect. It gets placed in the random encounter list when you get the quest to goto Whiterun. No matter what you do, crime or no crime, that assassin will try and kill you and will always have that contract on him in your name. One of the Bethesda team at a local Comic-con event took an audience question that was about that assassin encounter and why we had a DB contract already. His answer basically said it was also connected with why you were in the wagon headed for execution but he couldn't go into it because it was going to be explained in the first DLC. Well as for many things promised in the first DLC it never came. But the real point is he validated that the DB contract was real and intended to be there. As for if it was connected to the abandoned shack encounter who knows but it sure sounds like a good possibility to me.
I fought at least five assasins before the abandoned shack scene. I knew of the contract. Somehow, it still didn't click that I was the one. Ended up killing Astrid bc I didn't want to kill an innocent person and I knew for sure that she wasn't innocent, with or without a contract.
I like to imagine her line “Well done” is referring to the player realizing that it’s them and rather than opt to kill themselves they kill Astrid in self defense.
More than likely it's actually Vasha that Astrid was referring to as having a contract on their head. The guy is an unrepentant thief, murderer, and rapist, and when questioned he outright says that if a day goes by *without* someone trying to kill him in some manner, he finds it insulting. Vasha even states that he's made so many enemies that there are definitely those among them who would be all too willing to hire assassins to kill him. He's also the only one of the three who doesn't freak out and panic if you decide to kill them, which to me seems to lend credence to the odds that Vasha is the one you are "supposed" to kill.
@@gamester512 No. Astrid congratulates you for realizing it's you with the contract. There's proof every which way that there is a contract on you, and you are in the cabin. It's a ritual to replace your soul with another, and a test to see if you have the aptitude for killing.
Personally, I think Alea Quintus, the supposed mother of six children, is lying about her identity. Whether she is the contract or not I have no idea, but she is definitely not who she says she is. First, she is a Nord with an Imperial name. Odd, but not damning. Until you realize that Quintus is only ever used as a first name in the Elder Scrolls (yes, I checked UESP across all the games), NOT a last name, implying that Alea is trying to pass for an Imperial but isn't familiar with Imperial naming conventions. And/or she chose her name for it's meaning (see below). Secondly, Alea's name has a rather interesting meaning. Alea means "a risk, chance, venture, or game of dice", while Quintus has the less interesting meaning "fifth". So her name literrally means "fifth game of chance" or "fifth risk". This, along with her tone of outraged annoyance when you speak to her, suggests she might be more familiar with this sort of predicament than she lets on. Thirdly, in the game files her class is set as a warrior. And odd profession for a supposed single mother of six children. When, as she so often likes to remind us, would she have time for such a thing? Fourthly, a mother of six children is an awfully risky kidnap victim. Astrid's other kidnapees make sense because most won't care or notice that a murderous thief and a sell-sword have gone missing (indeed, plenty would probably be pleased, even among Vasha's supposed gang). But a mother of six children? That's six people who will miss her immediately, stand witness to her disappearance, and, because someone has to take care of them, give people reason to go looking for her, not to mention the high chance that one or all of the children would be near Alea at all times and see Astrid. It just doesn't make sense for Astrid to draw that much potential attention to herself and the Dark Brotherhood for no pay, especially since Commander Maro knows Astrid's identity and has long "watched the Dark Brotherhood's movements... waiting for the time to strike". Astrid's choice makes far more sense if Alea isn't actually a mother and is hiding her real identity behind an assumed name and sob story meant to make you feel sorry for her. Astrid likely knows or guesses that Alea Quintus isn't her prisoner's real name and certainly knows she has no children, but doesn't care what story Alea tells so long as you end up killing one of the three. Who is Alea Quintus really? Not the slightest, but she obviously works in a profession where secrecy is key. Or where her real identity would make people want to kill her more.
I don't think it was to repay a kill so you can be recruited, Astrid doesn't give a damn about tradition. I reckon it was as simple as being a test of whether you were willing and (morally) able to kill a seemingly innocent person(s). Innocent in the sense that you have no idea why they'd be deserving of death given the extremely limited info other than their testimonies. I think Astrid would recruit an obedient killer regardless of whether they have a contract on their head.
before they have the listener they cant know who is destined to die. the only way they learn about a dark ritual being performed is through rumours. so i think this test is a bs. she just collected 3 randos
She doesn’t care who you kill she just wants to see how you react to each of their responses when threatened with death. She’s just asking will you kill someone who begs for mercy, someone who people rely on, someone who threatens you with retaliation. You just need to be able to kill any of them. Technically the right answer is all three because none of them are leaving the cabin alive anyways.
Astrid at the point of the shack has already broken several tenets, else the Oculatus wouldn't have the pass phrase to enter the Sanctuary. She has invoked the Wrath of Sithis.
as someone who plays the dark brotherhood storyline almost everytime i play, i can confirm that they are generally a really chill group. there are more restrictions when youre playing with the thieves guild than playing with the db.
I wanted to kill her and restore the dark brotherhood right away, like what’s the point of being in the dark brotherhood if your just mercenaries and that’s it?
Would actualy be dope if we got wind in ES6 that theres a rumors that the kids who "run away" from the orphanedge and became DB assassins but no one really believes it
"There you are! Astrid's told me all about you. Heard she pulled the ol' "choose your victim" gag with you. Ahh, I love that one..." I've always considered the thought that none of them actually have a contract.
You recruitment hypothesis actually makes a lot of sense when you consider that Astrid's reasoning was you owed a life for assassinating Grelod the Kind as the contract was meant for the Dark Brotherhood. Accepting you into the guild would make you a guild member and therefore, the life would no longer have been owed.
I doubt he traversed by foot, there are carriage travels that you too can utilize to travel safely, Most likely the kid waited for a carriage headed for windhelm and snuck aboard.
@@johnlucas2838 Fair point, here’s a counterpoint though. Story wise instead of gameplay, if he’s taking you specifically you across Skyrim, he’s likely feeding you/attending to your needs. Plus we don’t see any other boarding. So we can head cannon the 40/50 is for accommodations. And 20 septims is because of the easier to travel/closeness of the trips.
Not true I’ve killed her before and got guards called on me it seems like you can kill her with sneak or magic with no consequences but if you kill her with a sword or melee guards were called o me but I think that might have been fixed in se this happened to me years ago back in 2012
I also got the guards after me, i killed her during her dialogue and then when i was going back to windhelm the guards appeared and tried to arrest me.
To me, it was always pretty damn obvious that the "Which one of these people has a contract on them?" bit was just a smoke and mirrors trick to distract the PC from the much more pressing moral dilemma of "Should I really kill a defenseless person just because some woman in a mask told me I have to?" As a bonus, the PC can pick out someone THEY think deserves to die, easing them into the idea of killing for Astrid. The victims were all chosen to reveal something about the PC's character. A PC who values bravery and honor might pick Fultheim for being a dishonest coward. One who thinks of themself as virtuous and lawful might kill Vasha in order to rid the world of a dangerous, unrepentent criminal. And one who is more selfishly inclined might go with Alea just because she's loud and obnoxious. None of the prisoners have a contract on them, else it wouldn't be possible for them to make it out of the shack alive even if you don't kill Astrid. It's all just mind games.
It took 40 minutes to explain that the PC was the one with the contract when it became apparent halfway for me because I remember being assaulted 4x by a DB Assassin
I've literally only experienced this once and I never really though about the contract happening before the start of the game, I just always though that I killed someone or did something that upset an npc enough to want to kill me and they thought "hey, maybe I should try something other than hired thugs for a change"
@@texasgun2731 Probably, definitely the mods. I have a mod the cleans out corpses after you've left an area because I play on a potato. So, every 8 hours of gameplay or so I'm confronted by another assassin. Until I join The Brotherhood myself and walk in like "What's up Bitches?! Remember me? Guy that killed all those assassins? Guess what! You're all my underlings now, LISTENER BITCH!" I'm sorry...
@@thegreatgabe734 Out of all the new character files I've started in Skyrim, I've somehow never had a DB encounter until Astrid did her kidnapping. I have had random thugs after me though, so I definitely would've thought I'd just ticked off the wrong crowd had I encountered a DB member.
@Dionysian Beast I mean I'm not denying they're out there or anything, but yeah I've never encountered them in the "wild" lol, maybe I fast travel too much idk
My hypothesis is that all either all 3 had a contract or none had. Either way Astrid simply wanted see how we kill and on what premise... What is our preferred weapon? How well do we extract information? Do we pity the fearful man? Do we spare a mother? Do we compromise with wealth? She was judging us and our character.
I kill all three presented targets. I don't particularly care about any of them, and if one of them has a contract, one of my arrows is bound to find the right mark. Astrid seems to appreciate the pragmatism of that decision.
Camel Lucien flat out tells you that the tenets no longer apply to you once you become a Silencer, thus allowing you to perform the Purification as ordered.
As the mouth of their patron, that basically turns the player into the rulemaker of the guild. It makes sense the tenents wouldn't apply to the player after ascended, as they would be the one to enact retribution for the broken rules.
A fanatical, religious cult of evil assassins that receives orders directly from the desiccated, mummified corpse of their patron deity, audible to only a select few selected by said patron deity? Authoritarian? Say it ain't so!
@@thanatos5150 To be fair when the diety in question actually exists, that changes the situation more than a little bit. Plus the Dark Brotherhood isn't really a cult since brainwashing would lead to weak and low-drive members.
Cicero could potentially have been the one to preform the black sacrament. He is favored of the Night Mother, even if she doesn’t speak straight to him (she allows the Jester he killed to laugh to him, something Cicero was extremely grateful for, after being trapped alone in his prior sanctuary for months)
While most of what you said is sound, you did make one mistake. The border you cross in the beginning of the game is the cyrodiil-skyrim border. And dialogue with Hadvar, who took part in your capture and thus knows, how you got into the ambush, states that you are "new in skyrim" I get where this mistake comes from though, as the horse thief Lokir says he "would already be half the way to hammerfell by now" However there is no affiliation between your player character and Lokir. Instead you come into skyrim from cyrodiil and get caught up in the ambush. That is also why you are not on the list for executions. While lokir, who was found to be guilty of stealing horses is. It is made to seem as if all on the list are known to be storm cloaks, but that doesnt have to be the case. Ergo, you are not from Skyrim and trying to get to hammerfell via Cyrodiil as Lokir does, but instead came into Skyrim from Cyrodiil. That is also a nod from Bethesda, as Oblivion took place in Cyrodiil, and you now "cross the border" from there into Skyrim.
If you see the map of Tamriel you would see that you got caught somewhere near the South west. Hammer fell is way to the east. The Dragonborn probably came from Cyrodil. Cause if he crossed the border from south east then it's more likely for the Stormcloaks to have caught him.
@@09Drdray The main character from Oblivion becomes Sheogorath. Sheogorath in Skyrim makes references to events that occurred in the previous game when you encounter him. This continues Bethesda's trend of wrapping up each characters story. Recall in Oblivion characters reference the Nerevar making a trip to Akavir and never returning. The Nerevar is the player character from Morrowind. They had to send the Nerevar away because in lore they are immortal from the corpus disease and will never die of age. To get rid of the Oblivion protagonist they mantal Sheogorath eventually becoming him regardless of race or sex.
i had a theory, that when the kid performs the dark sacrament and the dragonborn (henceforth referred to as DB) comes in, seemingly at random. it is quite possible that the dark sacrament did work and DB is the one who was called. the fact that the DB doesn't know this is irrelevant. Astrid didn't know it either. Astrid had no ability to sense when someone was doing the black sacrament, she would only hear about it through her channels that some person or another was performing it and she would investigate the details and find out and then put out the contract. but when someone does the dark sacrament, the Night Mother always hears it and then relays the details to The Listener, but there currently was no Listener. meanwhile, the DB was destined to become the new Listener. so it is quite possible that the Night Mother heard the arentino boy's plea and "sent" the DB to help him, but the DB didn't know it, they just thought they went their on their own accord but in reality, they were actually being influenced by the night mother. and then the reason Astrid kidnaps the DB is because she thinks the DB "stole" the contract, even though the contract was always "meant" for the DB. also..without watching the end of the video, my theory on who the DB is "supposed" to kill is that it doesn't matter. Astrid's test is merely a trick to gauge the reaction of the test subject. those 3 people might all have contracts on them, or maybe none of them have contracts. there is no "right" answer. all three of the "victims" could have a contract on them. all three of them could have enemies who might pay to have them killed, even that woman. the woman is kind if a bitch and she admits she might have "enemies". someone might have put out a contract on her. astrid comments "with her mouth, someone must have wanted her dead, right?" the khajiit is the "obvious" choice, but that's why he was placed there , he is the one most people will conclude is the "most likely" one, but that does not mean he was the "correct" one. Astrid even muses about it if you pick him, like "yeah, i see why you would choose him" the nord seems innocent but then when you push him further, he admits he was a soldier and a sellsword, who occasionally "went too far" while "obeying his orders". there were another type of soldiers in real life who fit this description, but i would have to invoke Godwin's Law to say it. so all 3 could be victims could have twisted logic apllied to them to justify them deserving to die. the point test was just to see if the subject was capable of committing the murder without questioning the orders. it was a way of measuring if someone was worthy of joining the brotherhood. if they refuse to kill, she will kill them. if they try to kill astrid, she will kill them. if they kill one of the people, they pass. it doesn't matter who they kill, as long as they kill one, they pass. but depending on who the subject chooses to kill, it gives astrid informaton what kind of person the test subject is. it is always good to "know" the person you are dealing with. the point of the test was to give Astrid information about the subject before letting them join the brotherhood. perhaps killing someone isn't even enough to pass the test. because the manner in which you do it might tell or show Astrid something she doesn't like and she might realize you are not a good candidate and therefore must be eliminated. but regardless, she seems impressed when you kill all three. (I always kill all three)
The funniest part of this theory is that Astrid would have had to background check all her kidnap victims to make sure they had morally diverse stories.
"Aren't we the overachiever." -Astrid Killing all three victims at the cabin is a sure sign of things to come. Poor Nilsine will die, the gourmet's body will never be found, the forged message will get planted, and every loose end imaginable will be tied into neat little knots. Let no optional objective go unfulfilled! I know this because I do it every time too.
I don’t think you understand what the listener is. You don’t just walk into the house because of fate. You can already know about him performing the sacrament due to rumor, the exact same method Astrid uses. If you don’t hear anyone talk about it (in bars, from the orphans, from the guards), you can literally go the whole game never knowing the sacrament was performed. Even if you decide to randomly go to the house, there’s a boy and woman outside talking about him doing the black sacrament. And if the night mother sends you like your theory claims, why don’t we just hear her voice telling us where to go like she does later on in the storyline? That’s why you’re reffered to as the “Listener”. Because you can *hear* her speak and do what she tells you, not because she manipulates your mind and actions. The only person who senses contracts is the night mother herself.
The Night Mother was speaking through Astrid when she said "Well done." Astrid invoked the wrath of Sithis by breaking the Five tenets. The contract on Astrid was straight from the Night Mother.
Also, forgot to say this ages ago. They don't follow the tenets anymore, but that also distances them from Sithis, and therefore the Night Mother. And if you notice, that's before the Night Mother has anything to do with them, and she might not be mortal, but she's not omniscient either.
@@Malkontent1003 she's no longer mortal. It's basically a gift from Sithis. The tenants are the most important thing to the Dark Brotherhood, because without the tenants it isn't the Dark Brotherhood and it makes Sithis very angry. When they stopped following the tenants they broke their vows to serve her and because they did so the course of action was to punish them.
@@Malkontent1003 also she is omniscient, she knew Mathew Belemont was going to do what he did before the contract on his mother was even created. She is omniscient when it comes to the family.
You truly outdid yourself with this one. My vote for your single best video... Picture me doing the head explosion hand gesture. Your theory actually makes perfect sense. You had the contact on you and your kill in the cabin was payment to Sithis so you could be recruited.
She's called "Astrid". The contract is signed "Astrid". That's how you should figure out it's you who has the contract. Since you don't want to die, your only option is to kill Astrid, the only definitively evil person in the room. It's the only option available to you besides killing yourself.
Plot twist: When Astrid says 'well done', it was referring to us for figuring out that we were the target and trying and surviving the trap, this is also why she sets you up if you continue through the dark brotherhood questline, not because of any other reason other than there was a contract on us and she wanted to use us before we died, as she saw us as worthy.
Plausible, but she set us up as a way to keep the dark brotherhood safe, Penitus get us, dark brotherhood stop getting targeted. That was the deal. Of course they lied and Astrid was made a fool. It just so happens we survive cause we that strong and she decides to "pay",by becoming the black sacrement with her remaining energy since she royally f'd up. She assumes/hopes while she's dying from the attack, that we made it and we prove that right cause we show up.
I always kill the lady because she rude the guy on the left is just a basic guy that's seems nice and Out of all the races I've play the cat so i don't kill him but that's smart
Hope you're ready for some twists :)
Love your work
If I'm not? Do I stop watching?
I believe you to be correct about about the dragonborn having the contract against them.
What i would like to see from you in the future would be a video about known history about the Dark Brotherhood, where they are going, the role the dragonborn will play in the factions future, weather Astrid will be our ghost follower in the next TES and all other theories you have surrounding the Dark Brotherhood.
I think Astrid was right to frame us to try and save her family and faction,
i think it's slightly possible Astrid has a child,
i think Nazir would make a good leader,
Babette must have seen great things during her immortal life,
i think Veezara is still alive,
even tho he overreacted Cicero wasn't wrong,
Cicero possible did what he did because he knew what Astrid was planing for the dragonborn,
i wish for the falkreath sanctuary to be rebuilt,
i wish we could have saved Astrid,
i wish we could recruit people into the Dark Brotherhood.
The Dark Brotherhood is my favorite faction because of the people, their stories, the way the change toward you, the way they make you change and last but not least their history. I hope they return to us in TES 6 either in a better state or in a state where we make it stronger or even expand it wherever we will be.
On a later game i refused to finish the quest line so i could be with my whole family forever.
I enjoy you videos very much and wish a long career upon you.
P.S sorry for the extremely long comment that is riddled with unsubstantiated claims as well as sentimental emotion.
Are you still able to play the Dark Brotherhood Quests, after you killed Astrid?
This blew my mind multiple times
Astrid: “One person in this room has a contract on their head”
Dragonborn who has already sliced their way through 10 Dark Brotherhood assassins sent after them: “No Shit”
*drops a contract signed by Astrid*
*Astrid* Shit
Astrid "One person in this room has a contract on their head"
Dragonborn, who has already killed several DB assassins sent after him: "Yeah, actually I wanted to talk to you about that...."
Astrid: "One person in this room has a contract on their head."
My character: *Pulls out a sizable stack of paper* "More like about 50."
Lol!
Astrid: "Someone in this room has a contract on their head."
My Dragonborn, having murdered several assassins, wearing one of their sets: "But who could it be?! Ah, maybe it's in one of these notes!" Begins reading contracts. "No, nothing."
Astrid: "Is this a game to you?!"
Dragonborn : "Bitch, I eat dragons."
I just love how absurd it is. You’re telling me Astrid walked through my front door, snuck past my wife and kids, past my husky, past my armoured troll, past my daedric armour-wearing steward, past serana and inigo then proceeded to haul my 6’2 fat ass out the door along with my full 450 point inventory and my full dragon bone armour without waking anyone up.
My mans doing dark brotherhood at the end of the play through I see.
@@ausar7002 I usually do it first, just for the armor bonuses. Same for thieves, start em both.
I normally go for the mages college so I can cast transmute more effectively and make a ton of gold rings
Haha I know right
@@ausar7002 its usually easier when you know 90% of the locations and when you are certain you can kill everyone there, I always choose Muiri as my wife so I always need to do the extra quest she gives for which extreme sneak is needed
Astrid: "Sleep well?"
Me: "No, as a werewolf I don't have that privilege anymore. Here, let me show you."
Nice comment.
She knows that already though, having a werewolf for a lover.
Lol
Astrid as a thing for big bad werewolves. Pretty sure she will like that. :D
@@EmberwindTale i wonder what sex would be like between them
The thing I hated most about the Dark Brotherhood questline was: For a "Secret" organization everyone and their Mother knew you were a member. I do hope the ES 6 addresses this issue and refrains others from knowing you are a Member of Assassins Guild in the future.
Psst. I know who you are. Hail Sithis!
To be fair, if you run around in their armor, it's kinda obvious.
@@Malkontent1003 I think the guards know even if you're not kitted up though. Kind of like how if you're a werewolf they'll say "I find your wolfish grin... unsettling" even if you're wearing a mask or helmet that completely covers the face. Town guards in Skyrim just have uncanny knowledge. But also sometimes know nothing at all, like they'll continue assuming you're the new member of the Companions who just fetches the mead even after you've finished the questline.
@@6236003 Oh, for sure. But then again, setting up conditions for stuff like that is tricky at times. As it stands, yeah, guards know a lot of things they have no reasonable way of knowing.
I mean, hell. They know exactly what every Daedric artefact is, and that's not really common knowledge, ya know.
On the other hand, if you managed to kill the Emperor in spite of his security detail, they'd probably just want to placate you, so they just say what you wanted them to hear.
"Never invoke the Wrath of Sithis. To do so is to invoke the Wrath of Sithis."
Well said.
Yeah, Sithis reealy wound't like that.
@@ltloxa1159 Shits about to get real.
Lol just kill the ghost. Easy pesy
This floor is indeed made of floor.
"So, you're a mercenary? That's cool! Is it a part-time job?"
"No, it's Fultheim."
Don't.
I needed a terrible joke
I read that in his voice 😂
Arbynflowiter same
I think the quarantine is getting to you
Little known fact: Her line of "Well done" is actually just a reference to how she ends up at the end of the questline.
/s
Omg 😂
F
F
G
I don't know. I think it's just a bug, maybe they didn't programmed another death sound for Astrid.
For some reason, most of (weird) things i saw in game, i'm used to think of them as bugs.
I.E.: In any game, if u found a naked body besides the roads, normally i would think that he/she was killed and robbed, but if i'm playing skyrim, i check the inventory of the dead, and all the things are there, even the clothes.
When I had this happen to me the first time, I slept after becoming the Harbinger of The Companions. I thought some Companions cutscene was loading in for a finale of the questline, but then I woke up in the shack. Super creepy to think that Astrid was able to haul my unconscious body out of Jorrvaskr past all of the members of the Companions. I ended up mauling her as a werewolf.
Valid, actually. I cannot think of a more Companion-y reaction, tbh.
Her husband’s a werewolf, so she’s probably into that.
Based reaction lol
lmfao@@chene-aurelgaudreau1072
Me getting attacked by vampires as a vampire lord: Well, guess imma educate some people.
(Spell check thought I meant vampire lore)
I guarantee you're putting more thought into this than Bethseda did.
mercmech It. Just. Works.
That's the fans job
bethseda stumbling upon this video, ooohhh write that down
Just kill Astrid. Then you can free everyone. Tell a guard at the dragonbridge and get a quest to destroy the dark brotherhood.
@@netdrifter133 yeah, but that not as fun unless I'm playing as a wholesome Noble character
I always get a chuckle at how the mighty and mysterious dark brotherhood uses the courier services.
The couriers are the strongest faction in the game. Why else would they be so confident that they can travel around the dangerous Skyrim wilderness in just their underwear.
@@Sylvershade Because gameplay demands that.
@@Sylvershade not just the wilderness, they can show up in places they really shouldn't be able to get into, or really shouldn't want to go to.
Would be funny if someone actually got something delivered in Sovangarde 😅👌
@@T4RHUN "I've been looking for you, got something i'm supposed to deliver. Your hands only. Well, that's it, got to go. And by the way, how the hell did i get in here?"
"someone in this room has a contract" (looks at contract i pillaged off an assassin with my name clearly written on it) "yeah it's vasha"
💀💀💀
Astrid: "That person cannot leave this cabin alive."
Me: *pulls out contract* "D...R...A...G...O...N...B...O...R...N...That spells Vasha, right?"
Astrid: *stunned silence* "Uh...sure...I guess."
Me: *kills Vasha*
Astrid: "Are you are idiot?"
Me: "No, I'm a Nord. "
Sometimes, I just kill Astrid because I hate the bitch.
Yoooo I just realized that🤯🤯
@@jonathandoe1367
Difference being? ;)
Long outdated but Lokir was the one who mentioned going to Hammerfell, the Dragonborn was NOT trying to cross the border there. Dialogue with Hadvar and Ralof both state that the Dragonborn was in fact crossing the border from Cyrodiil into Skyrim, and got caught up in the ambush.
When he said that the dragon born tried to go to hammerfell threw me. Hadvar literally says if you pick a nord that “you picked a bad time to return home”
Also commented the same thing, not sure how Camel confused that
Ulfric also asks why an outsider would want to fight for Skyrim if you’re a nord
@@scalycoronet5198I think it was confirmed that the nord (who im positive is the canonical dragonborn) hasn't lived in skyrim for a long time or at all. So he would technically be considered an outsider even though he is nord
It would be a bit strange narratively if your character had been trying to leave Skyrim for some reason, got caught in an ambush, and then wouldn't continue trying to leave Skyrim when able to do so
Astrid: Plans to kidnap you the next time you sleep
My Character: Laughs in Insomnia
I know right, my first play through i killed grelod at like level 12 and didn't end up getting brought to the shack until like level 30
@@roberttanner7793 who needs sleep when you can wait in front of the store for 10 hours
@kreeg i know, whenever i need to sell stuff, i'm not walking to my house while overencumbered to wait until day time.
W
I killed grelod at lv 5 and didn't sleep until lv 80
linkofthewild 2 I killed her a lvl 4 and didn’t get there till like lvl 41 or something like that didn’t do any quests just slaughtered my way though dragons, and he undead, and most of the storm cloak and the imperial camps.
Astrid: “One person in this room has a contract on their head”
Dragonborn: One person in this shack is also a werewolf and extremely hungry.
@Jagd Panther Khajiit think otherwise...
@Jagd Panther ,
It's ironic that a Panther is calling catfolk disgusting... and wanting to kill them. #Shame
@Jagd Panther I'm not a furry, but you're a bigoted asshole.
Jagd Panther Facinating~ I’ve seen trolls pretend to be racist before... but to think you’ve gone the extra mile and done so against a race that doesn’t exist... masterful sir, I applaud you.
But we all know it’s those goddamn knife eared Elves that need to go. Literally the majority of antagonists in the series are fucking high elves.
@@Neuviletteiudexofmemes He's not pretending to be racist against a fictional race; he is actually being an asshole to a fan group.
Not gonna lie, first time I got the Mysterious Note and saw that hand print with the words "We know" sent chills down my spine.
In Oblivion, the first time I saw the "Your killing has been observed" line or however it goes, my friend and I freaked out thinking we had pissed off one of the gods and reset the game... It wasn't until a few weeks later that we found out it was the Dark Brotherhood... Lol
That was right after my friend decided to go on a killing spree in the Imperial City after duplicating Apotheosis many times, being chased throughout the entire city by guards, and shot with enough arrows to knock him through the terrain... We both agreed that it had meant that the gods were absolutely sick and tired of the massacre, so our reaction to the "observed" message made sense...
Fr when I first played I was like yo wtf this shit creepy what do they know 🤣
I honestly shit my Fucking pants because i thought the game knew something i did in real life and Todd Howard was coming for me.
dude same I was like oh SHIT what did I DO ?!
It got less scared when I realized how tiny the handprint was, it must be Babette’s!
I remember being in the 5th grade when this game came out. One of my classmates at my private Christian school described this whole scene to me, and very proudly told me that he just executed everyone. That was one of the first earthly memories I have of Skyrim. Good video, man!
I'm jealous- I wish I could've played this when I was a kid! I was already 28 when it came out 😭
🤣🤣🤣 that is hilarious!! At my school, none of the kids were allowed to play video games, or if they were, they and their parents all had to keep it massively covered up…like, we were genuinely indoctrinated to spy at other kids homes for any “troublesome” things, and even slumber party invites had strict dress and behavior codes…okay, well, that came out a lot darker than I intended, but yeah, there’s like not one thing about this game that wouldn’t have horrified 12-year-old me. Demons! Murder! Idolatry! Oh my! Thanks, IBLP, if I didn’t have morals, I’d sent the dark brotherhood after your entire organization. 😡
@@mason96575Wow… I’m almost 28 myself…
@@TaikaJamppa yea I get the sarcasm - ha ha. I'm talking about how gaming experiences are so extremely different when you're a kid vs when you're an adult. You actually get scared for the characters, worry for the characters, invested in the characters.
@@mason96575 Sarcasm? I am ACTUALLY almost 28!
The real contract was the friends we made along the way
I killed all of mine...
i don't know what this meme is or where it came from but i'm already tired of it
@@thatpersonineverycommentse2195 Well shit I guess no one can ever make that joke again
Subscribe to my channel and i'll subscribe back Well I’m tired of seeing channels with names like yours, they’re annoying as hell dude.
• Wanna See My Shot Glass Collection • STFU you damn self promoter
There hasn't been a listener for decades
Night mother: New listener, I have 264 contracts ready for you from the past few decades
Hello we have been trying to reach you about your cars extended warranty
That would have been kinda fun, ngl
I'm pretty sure most targets are already dead
DEAL
(One of the only radiants quests I actually don't mind that much)
"Hey new Listener, lemme whispah in ya ear"
Says The Night Mother
"There you are! Astrid's told me all about you. Heard she pulled the ole' "Choose your victim" gag with you. Ah, I love that one..." - Babette dialogue when you first meet her.
Yeah it was just a test to see if you're willing to kill if told so.
Her dialogue also suggests it was all just a test, because if you kill one, two or all three guests she'll say she gave you order to kill and you followed that order at which time you get invited to join the Brotherhood.
Lucan Rowley camels reading this realizing he wasted his time going crazy over this lmfao
I was about to say exactly this... dude thought way too deep into this quest
Not really. If someone in the shack did in fact have a contract out on them and the game says that it wasn't one of the guests, then it MUST have been you.
Better question is where did Aventus get the required materials to perform the Black Sacrament
yea good question he cant just BUY it he has no money
@@philipkazanjian6259 even if you could who would sell that
@@FriedrichTheGreatest some black market
I can only assume he stole a dead body somehow from the Windhelm dungeon
I bet it was Calixo
I remember the first time I got picked up by the Dark Brotherhood. It took several in-game months for me to actually get picked up, because I never slept with my character, I always found waiting more convenient. However, when I finally decided to sleep in a bed, I was in a bed in Tel Mithryn. Astrid managed to sail all the way to Solstheim, travel through the ash wastes, get all the way to Tel Mithryn, take me in my sleep without Neloth (A guy who never sleeps) knowing, haul me all the way back to Skyrim, and carry me all the way to a shack deep in the treacherous swamps of Hjaalmarch.
Neloth would enjoy having the pest in his tower be taken away
To be fair, Neloth seems like the type of person to just let Astrid take you, he wouldn’t interfere just like he didn’t with the stones, he’d most likely just want to see what happens.
@@romeohio19 Yeah, pretty sure you are lol
@@romeohio19 survival mode
@@alexfolmer2204 Nah
Novice: Killing one of them
Adapt: Killing all of them
Master: Killing Astrid
Legendary: Killing Astrid then kill all of them anyway.
Ascended: Vampire's seduce spell on Astrid, get her to give you the key. Walk out of there. Kill nobody.
@@Rachano i like the way you think
No witnesses
@@theshribe or just pickpocket her?
James Parker I killed them all
I love how the dark brotherhood quest begins in Skyrim. Like I've gone out of my way to try and sleep on the furthest north side of Solstheim and still woke up in the abandoned shack. Astrid really went through the trouble of hulling my ass all the way from there by boat and about halfway across Skyrim just so she could have the most dramatic 'who's guilty' party ever.
Same!!! Went out of my way to get to the furthest map point with a bed
I started a new run the other day, and started the quest real quick and then decided what happens if I never sleep, I'm at level 41 and nothing, was hoping Astrid would take me another way, but no. I wish I did it though, the mount there was great for leveling up some magics
ikr, bethesda game making ftw
I didn't realize that it took sleep to get kidnapped. I spent freaking HOURS trying to figure it out, and it only occurred to me to check online AFTER I had built my entire house on Windstad manor. The abandoned house mocked me as I searched the marsh for nirnroots and swamp fungal pods, and eventually I just decided to sleep in a bed in my house for 1 hour and woke up in that situation. I found it funny knowing exactly where I was and how I could just walk 20 feet from the shack and end up back in my house
I wonder if she'll take you if you fall asleep on Solestiem.
Better question: If you're like me your first contact with the Dark Brotherhood in most playthroughs is when a Brotherhood assassin tries to kill you.
1) Who wanted you dead?
2) Why would Astrid and the Brotherhood abandon the Contract to recruit you?
1) He answers that in the video
2) You're the dragonborn, everyone in skyrim tries to recruit you why wouldn't TDB?
@@inceldestroyer69 He didn't really point out who put the contract on us. But he mentions that the Dragonborn was trying to run into Hammerfell, but by the location of Helgen, it is equally likely that we tried to pass the border to Cyrodiil.
At the time the game takes place the Jarl of Falkreath hold, where Helgen lies, is a supporter of the Empire. And the road into Hammerfell goes by Falkreath, not Helgen. The road next to Helgen is the one into Cyrodiil. Why drive the prisoners through half the hold for the execution, when there are other places closer. The fact that Ulfric is in the carriage as well supports the idea towards the Cyrodiil border.
It is also unclear why the Dragonborn had the contract. What have we done before the beginning of the game that warrants someone wanting us dead.
Sure, in the end it's up to the player to make up their own backstory for their character, but there has to be something, because the random encounter can happen no matter who we are. A merchant or a thief are equal to a Stormcloak supporter or a Thalmor agent. It matters not.
@_peters6221what do you do when a dragon appears?
Not OP, but usually after the beginning when you see Alduin, you don't see any other dragons until you actually start the main quest. If you never start Dragon Rising, you 'll just never see any dragons.
@@Holytitmouse huh
Good to know
Thanks 👍🏻
Who else had the "big brain" moment and just killed all of them?
Yeah lol
The College of Winterhold wouldn't have taught me how to throw fireballs if they didn't want people incinerated lol
Astrid: "Well, well, aren't we the over-achiever? Three possibilities, three victims. Must have been one of them, right? So why take chances..."
Yes, but what was Your question?
@@sheep1ewe who else did is his question
Maybe, but Astrid's exact words are not "someone in this room."
She says "If you turn around, you'll notice my guests...there's a contract out on one of them."
Them. It has to be one of the tied three.
Coincidentally, Astrid's last words "Well done.." and the fact that the storyline ends with her burned up or "well-done" is pretty funny.
But technically, you're a guest too
@@lynzylu5 Sure....but still not "one of them".
Also, from what I read on the wiki at least, it's still possible to encounter Assassins after having started the DB, so this doesn't really hold up. It's more likely that Astrid is just impressed the player killed a gal unprompted and wanted to test whether they'd kill anyone, like she said originally. Notions like "debts of life" and the like don't really exist anymore anyway, since the Night Mother's silent and Sithis' tenets aren't upholded.
Imagine your character turning around and screaming, “NO, YOU’RE GOING TO BE WELL DONE!!!”
@@boldbearings It could be. "Them" is referring to her "guests", which includes you. Sure, one could argue that it'd be more accurate to say "one of you" as in "one of the group you belong to (the guests)", but I don't think it's impossible that she could have meant "one of them" as being "one of the people who belong to that group (the guests)", which you just so happen to belong to.
It gets even darker when you realize the body Aventus is using is most likely his dead mother
...Oh god.
I figured as much. Why was she not laid to rest in the Halls of death (or whatever the name was)?
@@bib4eto656 better question, how would she have already decayed to bones, because hall or no hall there's no way she's been dead long enough for him to gather her bones.
madestmadhatter Unless he literally skinned her corpse to the bone... and it’s actually quite disturbing now that I’m thinking about it.
Ali-Nazirr THIS ONLY GETS WORSE, WHY, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS
It's crazy how something so simple like this, can be broken down into a 40 minute video, this is why I love the elder scrolls.
The reason it can be broken down is because Bethesda put almost no thought into this quest. It's so blank and barren that it literally REQUIRES players to fill in the blanks. It's not "open-ended" for intrigue purposes. It's blank. There would be evidence of these characters in the world, families, homes, lived lives, if there was any real thought to it. We'd have to investigate, find out more about them, or even by happenstance, find out about them beforehand, even if it's from obscure references or from meeting them.
This quest is barren of anything, really. Just like 90% of quests in this game...
Plot twist: the courier set the contract on you.
He's mad he has to travel to different sides of the map and dimension to just give you just one letter each time.
Next Courier İ See İs Dead
I wish i could tip him for bringing me my inheritance in Savangarde
@@inebriationconversation4526 Sovngarde? The courier brought my inheritance to Apocrypha! lol
@@Smirving why the fuck are your I s so long?
@@captainlonelygale692 I don't know what you are talIkİng about
That awkward moment when you only sleep because you learned that was how you started the dark brotherhood quest
z24CHz I didn’t even know I was supposed to sleep I just went “What happens when you sleep” because I’d never done it before in the game
yeah, unless you go with one of the many survival mods :D i did a gameplay with so many of them on i could die if i eat something funny or go for a swim in the wrong place :D
I got a letter about “see you next time you sleep” ... sooo I didn’t sleep and then forgot about about it. Then I woke up in the cabin!
@@RagingRougarou I never got that letter. I only got the "we know" letter. Are you lying?
@@Moribax85 yeah same.
Dragonborn: "Hey. Cool headgear I can't get anywhere else in game... I'll just... Kill you all..."
Astrid: "had to be one of them, right?"
Dragonborn: "oh yeah the contract"
I feel attacked
Thats exactly me xD
I remember pickpocketing the sacks off of all of them. They still couldn't see anything lol.
Yep
Jarod_Insane lololol i always just wanted those stupid headwraps
Astrid could've said "Well done." in reference to the destroy the dark brotherhood quest line that happens after you kill her. So technically there were at least 2 people who we can confirm were wanted dead.
Astrid: "Someone in this room has a contract on their head."
Dragonborn: "It could be any one of us. It could be you, it could be me"
It couldn’t be those 3. Those are bags. Not contracts.
Like in that show HBO Oz any one of us could be undercover it could be me it could be you
@@xivliai975 It could even be th-cam.com/video/envhMuIjhcU/w-d-xo.html
@@ORIGINALFBI *Shotgun shoots* What he's the one with the contract, see. Any second now. See a contract, no that's just some pamphlet to a museum.
"it could even be'
*Bang*
Wait, I always thought that the Dragonborn was captured trying to cross INTO Skyrim. Not out of it. The way you have no ties in Skyrim before the start of the game as well as when you chose a Nord you are told it was a bad time to try to return to your homeland.
I came here to type this very comment, but somebody beat me to it
Yeah I thought that too.
No he says "at least you will DIE in your homeland, Kingsman"
@@hangingdinosaur1803 He says "You picked a bad time to come home to Skyrim, kinsman." [...] "I'm sorry. At least you'll die here, in your homeland."
Apparently you get captured nere dark water crossing with the stormcloak. Thats not near the border. Plus none of the border gates are guarded. Maybe they forgot some critical npc
"One person in this room has a contract on them"
Me: Drops the 107 contracts on me signed by Astrid
*Yes I've killed a lot of people and stolen a shit ton of things*
*Proceeds to kill self*
Lol
Oh my God im rolling on the floor laughing literally too funny
i always try to reverse-pick any Assassination Contracts back onto Astrid's inventory...of course, the game's code was never made this complex, but in my headcanon, my character whispers "by the way, your employees were, shall we say, Lacking, which is why you need new underlings now" as he slips the envelopes into her pocket...i wish that, for the few playthroughs that i Destroy the dark brotherhood, Astrid would read through these letters from herself and realize 'maybe this Dragonborn fellow is a much more dangerous threat than i first thought'...
Imagine how many sacrifices were made to put out those hits
I kinds thought Astrid said "good job" because she kinda knows the Nightmother wants this and feels guilt over her heretical practices and disregard for tradition. She seemed like she once was a true believer. With the fall of the dark brotherhood around her, her faith is shaken, and she becomes bitter and begins to go against everything she previously believed. She asks you to kill someone and you choose her. She accepts it as divine retribution, finally claiming her.
I always read it as her recognizing your cleverness. She says, "you don't leave until someone in this cabin dies." So gutting her and taking the key is technically following her instructions to the letter.
She just says good job bc she's a psycho murderer and appreciates that you were able to best her. She's acknowledging you for besting her.
@@iponce2no it’s not recognizing really any cleverness, but instead skill. There isn’t really anything to be clever on, common sense is the person who kidnapped you has the key to the place you’re locked in. So either one of the three has to die so she gives you the key, or kill her for it. “Well done” yes, well done, you just killed THE leader of the Dark Brotherhood, not exactly a stroll in the park. The guards and Maro’s reaction back this is as well essentially being “You did WHAT!?”
The first time I killed Grelod I slept in Blackreach, much rage was had that day
Oh just hearing that hurts...You poor soul
Jokes on them, they had to travel to blackreach
Why? I dont get it
Holy fuck, that's the most hilariously brutal thing I've read all day.
Future Shock It’s a pain to go that far underground if I am correct
I always thought the player character was trying to cross the border to get in, not out of Skyrim. No one's heard of you, no-one recognises you, even if you're a Nord. Idk, always just made more sense to me.
Once you step off the cart in Helgen as a Nord, Hadvar says "You picked a bad time to come home to Skyrim, kinsman"
I think someone in Hammerfell performed the black sacrament, and the Skyrim branch caught wind of it. They could easily have heard about us entering Skyrim, if one of the guards that escaped Helgen is a member (many guards are, as we all know)
@@andrewsad1 yeah 'hail sithis' isn't exactly a line that's just overlooked, especially when every single guard within ten feet of you says it
@Young Victor Well it kinda does alluding to the fact he wasnt originally in skyrim and he has now returned home.
@Young Victor no, he also states that you are coming home.
I've always wanted to make a card with the Brotherhood hand and "We Know" on it's front, but "...that it's your birthday!" inside. XD
Oooh. You should. That would be the greatest birthday card ever.
Cringe
Nice
Etern4l Saiy4n how bout no you son of a fat sheep
Do it...I’ll buy one. No seriously.
Considering it has already been established that Astrid has removed herself from the core values of the DB, I just assumed she made it all up... She basically tested whether or not the Dragonborn would be loyal to her. If they were she would recruit them (possibly based on their skill or just because they found a person who did the black sacrament before even the DB could). I would personally assume she merely came across the victims through her own endeavors and perhaps deemed them good test subjects.
Whispers*
“I know who put the contract on us”
...
“It was... Nazeem”
H E S H A L L D I E ! ! !
Why couldnt you just get over to the cloud district?
Yeah i believe that, he was an instant object of hatred for most of us XD
@@claycollins9852 you are a terrible person who says terrible things XD #NazeemPTSD #CloudDistrictEnvy
@@claycollins9852 He needed the Dragonborn there so he could finally have his PUSSIEEEEEEE
"Truth is
The contract was rigged from the start."
SilvyTheUnfunnyMeme just completed my first new Vegas playthrough 3 days ago
@@ellisbarnett0292 epic
Very nice, sir. Very nice👌
From where your sitting, this may look like an 18 septum run of bad luck...
Ring-A-Ding-Ding, baby. 👍
Can we take a minute to appreciate how good the voice acting for Aventus was? Especially for a kid.
Honestly I was listening and thinking like "darn this is a kid actor?" Like he was so expressive with his voice and sounded actually believable!
Astrid's voice acting was also quite good. Actually one of the reasons I really like this questline lol
@@cameroncortel8650 I agree.
Yeah I was actually thinking that when I first met him and in this video
I’ll do you one better- Cicero
It's a good theory but if you do the quest and use Clairvoyance, you will find Vasha is the correct choice to kill. The light points to him
It actually points at all of them. When you kill Vasha and use it again, it redirects.
@@void1895 And it doesn't go to Vasha all the time. It's completely random.
@@Mere-Lachaiselongueit went to Vasha for me
@@Shadowhunter420okay, that proves that Vasha is one of the possible targets for the spell to point to. Thanks for giving us the info.
I'm pretty sure this is a misconception. It targets all of them. Given the fact that you never see any sign of these people again, there's a good chance all three have contracts. The reality, however, is just that Clairvoyance doesn't work that way. It points at a quest target, and all three of them are valid targets. Because there's no 'win' for picking the 'right' one, there's no reason to program a special usage of it just for that scene.
Alduin put out the contract on the dragonborn as a way to protect his future.
Alduin: ah yes! Big brain time
Instead of.. ya know.. just letting him get beheaded.
@@articuno8565 🤣 yeah my comment wasn't well thought out.
Well... that would go against a dragon's desire for a challenge
@@articuno8565 that's probably insurance
Astrid basically admitting the Thieves' Guild is more structured than expert assassins.
Makes sense. Thieves Guild are businesspeople more than ritualistic killers.
The Thieves' Guild is more structured than a lot of organizations in Skyrim. What is your point?
yeah i mean astrid basically took a massive shit on everything the brotherhood stood for, so i'd say its fair to assume there isn't a whole lot of structure
13:17 Of course Fultheim lives in the middle of nowhere, it's not like he could live Elseweyr
Nice
I applaud 👏👏
Ok sofia
Haaa...well played.
Not gonna lie. That was a good one
Honestly, my first time doing that scene, I attacked Astrid. I was role-playing a kind of brutish barbarian stormcloak character, and it felt like what he would do.😂
Astrid: "hey you, you're finnaly awake..."
Tomoya Zahard no
Wake up, we're here. Why are you shaking? Are you ok? Wake up.
Finally*
@Delete Me Ulfric? The jarl of windhelm? You're the leader of the rebellion? But if they've captured you..oh god! Where are they taking us?
@@mohammadshibli8163 I don't know,but Sovngarde awaits
Just use the Clairvoyance spell, it always points to the cat for me.
KorporateKotoo true.
Same
The cat is the one I spare. I love him too much. I love his attitude.
@@artsyhoodies .....
Wolfie Spark ⚡️ Wünderbar!
Given her reaction, I always assumed she was lying and none of them had a contract on them. Thats why she doesn't care who you pick, there is no circumstance in which she has to worry about you letting someone with a contract on them walk away. It also matches up with her reply that it doesn't matter and the only point was seeing if you were someone who would be willing to kill on command.
I assumed that they all had contracts on them and that's why it didn't matter who you killed or spared - if you kill them all, great; if you spare anyone, they just kill them after you leave.
@@InsomniacXIII I'm going through my first playthrough of the DB questline and it did seem like either none of them or all of them have a contract on them- Babette even confirms it when you talk to her after you go in for the first time.
It ultimately doesn't matter, though. None of them have legitimate contracts, and neither does anyone the Dark Brotherhood has killed before the Dragonborn becomes The Listener. She's just a killer doing it for money, not a follower of Sithis. It's _also_ why they so easily forgive your own contract once you join. They're illegitimate contracts.
I think its actually astrid since when you attack her she will say "well done"
@@ClockworkGearhead - Glad to see someone else recognize that coven as the abomination it is.
You know... the contract having been on the Dragonborn all along is a pretty solid theory. I've had that assassin show up while I was on my way to Whiterun for the first time and always wondered about it. That being our reason for running to Hammerfell makes a lot more sense!
no, dragonborn wasn't running from skyrim to hammerfell, they were caught crossing border from cyrodiil to skyrim. meaning something bad happened in cyrodiil and we want to escape from it and live a new live in skyrim.
If you use the spell "Clairvoyance", it point at the Khajiit. You're welcome.
Clairvoyance always points to a random target in this quest. You're welcome.
@@geistersehxr I tried multiple times and saves, it was always the khajiit.
Clairvoyance always leads me out of the place I’m exploring. It’s like it knows I just want to go back to bed.
@@majorattitude01 Clairvoyance shows you the path to your deepest desire 👀
Selahattin Alici That must be it. Boom. Mystery solved.
I used the Wabbajack on one of them, they turned into a dremora and killed the other two, then Astrid jumped down and helped me kill it.
Vornalph fucking power move
Lord Sheogorath approves of you basically giving the middle finger to Sithis.
Big brain if the dremora killed Astrid
I like you sir
200 IQ play right there...
I did this quest again recently and used the clairvoyance spell in the shack, it points at Vasha
This is essential information! Deserves more likes!
Woah, I have to try this!
@@Bluestonezee i gave you both likes
Its random who it points at. For me it pointed at the mercenary lol
Are you sure it doesn't just point at the one you are closest to? Isn't the spell meant to point at the path to the closest objective, not the "right" or "most important" one?
I like your conclusion I’m going to go with that. She wanted us to take a life to release our contract. The only hiccup is how many play throughs I’ve done where I haven’t had that random encounter before killing Grelod. But maybe the assassin took an arrow to the knee on his way and retired to a cozy guard position.
I just recently had the assassin go at me right after the whiterun tower mission where you discover you are dragonborn.
With the Alternate Start - Live Another Life mod, I can't recall when was the last time I started a Skyrim playthrough where I even went through the vanilla opening, let alone get attacked by that DB assassin. Holy shit, this video is on point lmao.
I love Australians because they upload videos in the middle of the night here so I have something to watch during night shifts. Thanks Camel!
It was 8:15 pm when this was uploaded so it still at night in Australia lol
Ahh he's Australian?!
THAT's why I like his voiceovers so much 😁🐊
@@ClipsInc. he did say his night-shift so that makes sense
Same here dude
Thanks Camel, very cool!
Like almost everyone who tried to solve this "riddle" you've made the fundamental mistake of claiming that Astrid said something ambigous like "there's a contract on someone in this cottage" what she however literally says is "If you turn around you'll notice my guests... there's a contract on one of them" so she clearly claims that one of the three has the contract on them.
The mistake that most people want to make when they try to solve this riddle is that it's either Astrid or the PC that have the contract on them because if you kill her she says "well done" while the PC is ofcourse the only character who can actually have a contract on them.
What however most people just ignore because they want to solve an unsolvable riddle is the simple fact that Astrid doesn't even have a listener anymore and she just uses the Brotherhood for her own gain. She doesn't take contracts from the Mother she just takes contracts that she believes makes them the most money. As Astrid herself says : It's not important who had a contract on them it's important that she told you to kill and you did without even verifying that the NightMother actually ordered the Kill in other words this was just a test wether you'd kill for her
@@SA_Caine Given how Astrid doesn't really care for the actual traditions I wouldn't be surprised if she actually just kidnapped random people and no one actually has a contract on them. But it's supposed to be open who actually, if at all, has a contract on them.
this argument beats the video
BuT Uh gUYs YOURE ASTRIDS GUEST TOOO THO DURHURBUR. Whet Iv Asstred be tricksy with wurds
@@pentarthesage7013 If you turn around you'll see my guests one of them. I can't see myself if I turn around. But since you've wrote this in a Meme way this isn't meant for you, but for anyone who would actually believe that to be a real reason
@@rafaelkresmar3998 I can always see myself in third person mode...
"Never dishonor the Night Mother." It's the #1 tenet and Astrid broke it on a regular basis. Nuff said.
But the tenets aren't upholded any more...
And even then, who would make a contract on her head? One of the other members? Highly doubted. Every other dark brotherhood member outside of Skyrim is dead or in hiding. And I dont think anyone outside of Skyrim would know that she disobeyed the night mother. And even if they know, I don't think they'd be able to hear about someone performing the black sacrament outside of Skyrim, since the night mother has no listener, they have to hear about the contracts by word of mouth.
So I'm pretty sure it's not her.
she broke all five throughout the questline
@@supasf But if breaking a Tenet invokes the Wrath of Sithis, would it not be possible that Sithis himself it not insulted if you break them? Would it not be possible that Sithis himself would tell the Nightmother that Astrid is to be killed? After all, Sithis is our lord in the Dark Brotherhood.
@@dragonqueenniisan4122 Yes but the Night Mother doesn't communicate with Astrid (or anyone else) so she wouldn't know.
She broke them all actually
She refused you a contract despite you being listener and therefore technically above her(listen to your higher ups)
She tells you to steal Cicero's journals(don't steal from a dark brother or sister)
She orders you to kill Cicero(do not kill a dark brother or sister)
And she has you climb into the night mothers coffin(respect death mama's tomb)
27:41 Isn't that what happened in the destruction of the Falkreath Sanctuary? Astrid did the black sacrament on herself and the Night Mother not only heard it, but accepted it and passed it on?
Yes, but it happened after Astrid played complete fool and betrayed brotherhood. I can imagine Night Mother being pissed off.
Maven definitely seems like the kind of person who would take a contract on Astrid for failure
I think Maven would eventually try to put one on you and then she will finally come to an end
For some common thug who failed? Absolutely. But Astrid is useful enough to keep around if she fails once.
I mean I ran into her in Riften after finishing the dark brotherhood quest line and she said something about her sending the dark brotherhood after me if I got on her bad side.
I feel like she might have be vengeful enough to do that, but she wouldn’t realistically do that.
Setting a contract on who effectively is at that point the highest ranking dark brotherhood member is probably just going to get the entire brotherhood on your bad side. And having a group of a dozen assassins pissed at you doesn’t sound like a good idea
@@killerkitten7534 Especially when said leader is some combination of: Dragonborn, Werewolf, Vampire Lord, Vampire Hunter, Arch-Mage, Harbinger of the Companions, Leader of the Thieves Guild, etc. :P
Clouds. Clouds are in the air. There is air in the cabin. Nazeem goes to the cloud District. The contract was on Nazeem
Yes👍
Excellent hypothesis.
#Science
#detectiveskillz
@@partygoblynn #BigBrain
babette, canonically: "There you are! Astrid's told me all about you. Heard she pulled the ole' "Choose your victim" gag with you. Ah, I love that one..."
im so sorry camel i think you made a 41 minute long video for a question that has no answer because astrids a liar
Yea Astrid straight up tells you the point was just to see if you could kill no questions asked. It had nothing to do with there being a contract. What is important about this part in the story though is its suppose to show you that the Dark Brotherhood has been reduced to being straight up killers since there is no more listener.
@@jprec5174 exactly! its a perfect way to showcase what the dark brotherhood has become since oblivion.
Doesn’t that just confirm the final theory though? That the 3 with the hoods are merely there as a way out of a contract to then be recruited?
@@jprec5174 Most likely. But Camel's theory is still a possibility, and i like it so much better so im going with that
Vasha was "bagged and dragged"? He must be from Portland.
I imagined the reason Cicero is insane is because he watched everyone die and everything be destroyed. That’s got to fuck with your brain.
J.K. Rowling reveals that you, the reader, were... the contract all along.
Holy shit
Ali Baba J.K. Rowling reveals that you, the reader, were... gay all along
@@Dzemal505 and actually the bad guys all along
@@ElvenPrince and gay
Your not funny.
There is some hidden dialogue from Babette. She states "I heard Astrid pulled the old 'pick your victim' trick." So it's insinuating that none of the victims are the one with the contract.
(Sidenote: the one escaping to hammerfell is Lokir. You are actually coming in from Cyrodill.)
I mean, it's fine and fun to look for hidden underlying reasons and causes and motives, but Astrid basically says it bluntly: it was a test to see if you would kill without question or hesitation because you were ordered to do so, setting your mind on the fact that killing that person is the right thing to do. That's the whole point of the test, you're just killing a random stranger. She's not mocking you or refusing to tell you who it was by claiming that "the point is for the right answer to remain a mystery", the point is that there's no right answer. The fact that the Dragonborn has a contract on them doesn't contradict it, of course, and can expand on the irony of the situation, but I doubt that was the case with every potential entrant Astrid had tested that way.
Also DB assassins only appear after you deal with the hired thugs sent after you. These guys are after you as soon as you leave the bear cave under Helgen, the earliest I've ever encountered them was after passing the Guardian Stones and clearing the bandits cave on the right. Literally haven't done anything yet in the game (also they are tough for 1 lvl, so it was a hard fight).
@@Hirokuro_Asura not quite. I hadn’t fought any thugs but on my way to Whiterun I encountered an assassin on a playthrough. The only requirement is that you’re above level 5, which happened to be the case since I had farmed some smithing and stealth earlier that run
@@Rexis102 Well, mb that there then. But I always saw the appearance of DB assassins on the roads as a continuation of the situation with those hired thugs from before. Someone was upset with Dovahkiin's actions (killed or stole something etc.), so the character hires the thugs. Thugs fail. The NPC performs a dark ritual to make a contract on DVK for DB. Seems logical.
Btw today I've encountered hired thugs yet again 30 sec after killing the smith in Dawnstar in front of his wife to reset the shop items. The hired thugs each had the note from the wife saying that she wants us dead and is willing to pay off the bounty those thugs will get for killing us, and her signature at the bottom of the letter.
Oh and since it's my original save from 2011 that by now has saved (only) time of "Play Time: 930.25.21" that's the 3d time I'm running into them. Previous notes had different author. And the assassins were killed in large numbers by now (tbh I assume I'm the sole reason the DB is dying at this point lol).
@@Hirokuro_Asura I once ran into the thugs as I was leaving the Abandoned Cabin… at the same time as a dragon decided to start circling. It was my first playthrough and I had no idea how to handle any of it. Hardest scenario I’ve ever been through. But the thugs definitely can show up later than the assassins.
WARNING! Spoilers Ahead:
If you follow the entire Dark Brotherhood chain to the end, you learn that Astrid betrayed the Brotherhood to the Penitus Oculatus in violation of Tenet Number 2. She also admits that they have stopped following the 5 tenets and have decided to do things their way violating Tenet number 1. She directs you to steal Ciceros Journal, which, although the player steals it, they do so under the instruction of a superior which violates Tenet number 4. She also directs you to later kill Cicero which violates Tenet number 5 (justification as per the previous violation).
All of these violations invoke the wrath of Sithis who is essentially the ultimate authority of the Dark Brotherhood, and thus able to put a contract on Astrid.
Since the player later becomes the listener, it can be postulated that Sithis, through his Daedric power has manipulated the fate of the player to put them in the position to carry out the contract on Astrid. The player is not in any violation of the tenets as they are not a true member yet.
Also, when the Penitus Oculatus destroys the sanctuary, Astrid willingly admits she has broken the tenets of the brotherhood, and has invoked the black sacrement on herself.
Right but also Sithis is not conscious
Jesse C I read on another investigation video, someone in the comments dig through the game files to see who the “friend” is that sends you into dungeons after you use a shout (the ones that start the misc quests “investigate the source of power within [dungeon]”). Turns out it’s the word wall itself that sends the letters.
@@qazxsw21000 Oh rad, any idea what the video was called?
Jesse C I don’t remember, but thinking about it, it may have been a “top 5” video or “top 10”. The channel is epicnate315
@@qazxsw21000 Oh boy, one of epicnates 400 top 5s that narrows it down haha. Ill see if i can find it, thanks bro.
Something I came up with watching this that can give more credence... the aspect of time travel. Someone could have realized the dragonborn's threat and went back in time to perform the ritual in desperation to have you killed before you come into your power. But who? Maybe Miraak (who would have Hermaeus Mora to thank for the knowledge of a soon to be dragonborn and Apocrypha being outside of time and space).
If you want to consider time travel, and are playing with mods, I'd offer up that you could have put the contract on yourself. Unslaad was painful, just throwing that out there.
If we throw time travel in the round, it might be the Dragonborn who send the letters from "a friend" to themselves.
And why would Miraak go that far to kill the Dragonborn? Does he know he will get defeated and decided to send a contract back in time to kill us before we can become a danger as a last means to safe himself?
*astrid fight will be hard*
me sleeping for the first time at lvl 80
me: curb stomps astrid with my bare hands
What are you doing fighting astrid the ebony warrior is waiting for you
@@JabronyJoenZ i already punched him to death
Astrid: Fight me
Your lvl80 dragonborn: I'll bitch slap you back to your cave
I literally just whacked her twice with Volendrung then called it a day.
you can’t curb stomp somebody with your HANDS!
There is no contract, there’s dried blood on the wall behind each of the three options. This is because this scenario is carried out multiple times, for Babette has a line of dialogue mentioning this to be so. That’s also why Astrid doesn’t seem to be very interested in your choice at all with each of her lines of dialogue. She says well done because you’ve figured it out, and you’ve beaten her at her own game. And you get attacked by assassins for committing any crime even if you do it unseen.
I didn’t think it was any crime, I thought it had to be a leveled crime against someone. Then again I’m not entirely sure because I don’t usually commit crimes on purpose.
Have only had a it happen to me a few times.
thats why my guards were always after me alot and froze
@@gabrielm.942 Committing any crime vs any person can trigger either the thugs or the DB assassin. There are 2 mistakes which Camelworks makes - the first is misquoting Astrid, as she says there is a contract on one of the three guests, not on *someone* in the room; the second is claiming that you have a DB contract on your head from the get-go, which is just plain wrong.
Rosen Kostov is it really any crime? I’m pretty sure thugs can be any level crime. But I though DB had to be leveled. Again I usually don’t commit a lot of crimes so I’m not to sure.
@@t3chn0dr0n3 She insinuates that one of her guests has a contract out on one of them. What you are missing is that you are also one of those guests, behind you are just the other 3. Remember you were also collected. As for the DB contract on your head from the start. That is incorrect. It gets placed in the random encounter list when you get the quest to goto Whiterun. No matter what you do, crime or no crime, that assassin will try and kill you and will always have that contract on him in your name.
One of the Bethesda team at a local Comic-con event took an audience question that was about that assassin encounter and why we had a DB contract already. His answer basically said it was also connected with why you were in the wagon headed for execution but he couldn't go into it because it was going to be explained in the first DLC. Well as for many things promised in the first DLC it never came. But the real point is he validated that the DB contract was real and intended to be there. As for if it was connected to the abandoned shack encounter who knows but it sure sounds like a good possibility to me.
"Ah, Vasha. Obtainer of lives, taker of daughters and a defiler of goods. At you service"
õ_õ
Vasha. Daughter of obtainers, life of goods, defiler of takers. At your service"
“Vasha, obtainer of goods, taker of lives and defiler of daughters. At your service.”
Omg I just realized I accidentally put the thing he actually said lol.
Ah, Service. Lives of daughters, taker of defilers and a goods of obtainer. At your Vasha"
Vasha, who obtains a defiled Vasha, who obtains a defiled Vasha, who obtains a defil-
I fought at least five assasins before the abandoned shack scene. I knew of the contract. Somehow, it still didn't click that I was the one. Ended up killing Astrid bc I didn't want to kill an innocent person and I knew for sure that she wasn't innocent, with or without a contract.
Genius
I like to imagine her line “Well done” is referring to the player realizing that it’s them and rather than opt to kill themselves they kill Astrid in self defense.
Yes! Exactly! Finally someone said it.
This was my interpretation as well, it is so obvious I felt frustrated when the video refused to mention it!
More than likely it's actually Vasha that Astrid was referring to as having a contract on their head. The guy is an unrepentant thief, murderer, and rapist, and when questioned he outright says that if a day goes by *without* someone trying to kill him in some manner, he finds it insulting. Vasha even states that he's made so many enemies that there are definitely those among them who would be all too willing to hire assassins to kill him. He's also the only one of the three who doesn't freak out and panic if you decide to kill them, which to me seems to lend credence to the odds that Vasha is the one you are "supposed" to kill.
@@gamester512 No.
Astrid congratulates you for realizing it's you with the contract. There's proof every which way that there is a contract on you, and you are in the cabin. It's a ritual to replace your soul with another, and a test to see if you have the aptitude for killing.
@@gamester512 If you use the Clairvoyance spell it actually points to Vasha. But that spell isn't always the best way to reach a quest target.
Personally, I think Alea Quintus, the supposed mother of six children, is lying about her identity. Whether she is the contract or not I have no idea, but she is definitely not who she says she is.
First, she is a Nord with an Imperial name. Odd, but not damning. Until you realize that Quintus is only ever used as a first name in the Elder Scrolls (yes, I checked UESP across all the games), NOT a last name, implying that Alea is trying to pass for an Imperial but isn't familiar with Imperial naming conventions. And/or she chose her name for it's meaning (see below).
Secondly, Alea's name has a rather interesting meaning. Alea means "a risk, chance, venture, or game of dice", while Quintus has the less interesting meaning "fifth". So her name literrally means "fifth game of chance" or "fifth risk". This, along with her tone of outraged annoyance when you speak to her, suggests she might be more familiar with this sort of predicament than she lets on.
Thirdly, in the game files her class is set as a warrior. And odd profession for a supposed single mother of six children. When, as she so often likes to remind us, would she have time for such a thing?
Fourthly, a mother of six children is an awfully risky kidnap victim. Astrid's other kidnapees make sense because most won't care or notice that a murderous thief and a sell-sword have gone missing (indeed, plenty would probably be pleased, even among Vasha's supposed gang). But a mother of six children? That's six people who will miss her immediately, stand witness to her disappearance, and, because someone has to take care of them, give people reason to go looking for her, not to mention the high chance that one or all of the children would be near Alea at all times and see Astrid. It just doesn't make sense for Astrid to draw that much potential attention to herself and the Dark Brotherhood for no pay, especially since Commander Maro knows Astrid's identity and has long "watched the Dark Brotherhood's movements... waiting for the time to strike". Astrid's choice makes far more sense if Alea isn't actually a mother and is hiding her real identity behind an assumed name and sob story meant to make you feel sorry for her.
Astrid likely knows or guesses that Alea Quintus isn't her prisoner's real name and certainly knows she has no children, but doesn't care what story Alea tells so long as you end up killing one of the three.
Who is Alea Quintus really? Not the slightest, but she obviously works in a profession where secrecy is key. Or where her real identity would make people want to kill her more.
You smoke good pot don't you
@@darthshivvis956 only the best
God you put way more effort in that than Bethesda did.
I always kill her, even after I kill astrid shes just so annoying
I fucking love folks who put way too much thought into stuff AND deliver their thoughts so well dude! I really enjoyed reading this, so thanks dude :)
I don't think it was to repay a kill so you can be recruited, Astrid doesn't give a damn about tradition. I reckon it was as simple as being a test of whether you were willing and (morally) able to kill a seemingly innocent person(s). Innocent in the sense that you have no idea why they'd be deserving of death given the extremely limited info other than their testimonies. I think Astrid would recruit an obedient killer regardless of whether they have a contract on their head.
And you already took one life: you killed Grelod.
I agree. I feel it was to test if we'd kill someone and follow orders.
I took it that all 3 had a contract on their heads but Astrid said only one did just to test our ability to follow orders
before they have the listener they cant know who is destined to die. the only way they learn about a dark ritual being performed is through rumours. so i think this test is a bs. she just collected 3 randos
She doesn’t care who you kill she just wants to see how you react to each of their responses when threatened with death. She’s just asking will you kill someone who begs for mercy, someone who people rely on, someone who threatens you with retaliation. You just need to be able to kill any of them. Technically the right answer is all three because none of them are leaving the cabin alive anyways.
Astrid at the point of the shack has already broken several tenets, else the Oculatus wouldn't have the pass phrase to enter the Sanctuary. She has invoked the Wrath of Sithis.
"all those files, all that discipline?"
Sweetie there are f i v e rules. There's more rules for boiling pasta, it's really not that restrictive
meloncholy_melan _ criminally underrated comment
lol
as someone who plays the dark brotherhood storyline almost everytime i play, i can confirm that they are generally a really chill group.
there are more restrictions when youre playing with the thieves guild than playing with the db.
I wanted to kill her and restore the dark brotherhood right away, like what’s the point of being in the dark brotherhood if your just mercenaries and that’s it?
And Astrid broke *four* of them!
The Dark Brotherhood has 5 recruits in the future seeing as all the honorhall orphanage kids like them now.
Would actualy be dope if we got wind in ES6 that theres a rumors that the kids who "run away" from the orphanedge and became DB assassins but no one really believes it
Those kids all have the potential
You can adopt them btw, so maybe not
If they developed useful skills, perhaps. A sympathizer does not mean they have potential.
Especially the one little girl who specifically talks about killing people.
"There you are! Astrid's told me all about you. Heard she pulled the ol' "choose your victim" gag with you. Ahh, I love that one..."
I've always considered the thought that none of them actually have a contract.
Phantavius I think I've watched too much Arkham City because I read that in Jokers voice. XD
Plot twist, it's all 3... Special dialogue if u kill all 3
@@jonjdonnelly the special dialogue is in reference to you not caring who had the contract, just that you knew one of them did and took no chances
Yeah that’s what I thought
It's prolly all three tbh
You recruitment hypothesis actually makes a lot of sense when you consider that Astrid's reasoning was you owed a life for assassinating Grelod the Kind as the contract was meant for the Dark Brotherhood. Accepting you into the guild would make you a guild member and therefore, the life would no longer have been owed.
Can we just appreciate the fact this kid made it to windhelm from riften
Fuck the Dragonborn, this kid is the most powerful person alive
I doubt he traversed by foot, there are carriage travels that you too can utilize to travel safely, Most likely the kid waited for a carriage headed for windhelm and snuck aboard.
I always assumed a stow away or just a driver guy being nice. He always does seem pretty pleasant
@@OhNoTheFace Guy has killer rates on the Dragonborn. Isn't a tavern like 10 septims?
@@johnlucas2838 Fair point, here’s a counterpoint though. Story wise instead of gameplay, if he’s taking you specifically you across Skyrim, he’s likely feeding you/attending to your needs. Plus we don’t see any other boarding. So we can head cannon the 40/50 is for accommodations. And 20 septims is because of the easier to travel/closeness of the trips.
5:56 is misleading. Grelod the Kind is the only "innocent" NPC that you can kill, unaggravated, in plain sight, and not be charged with murder.
Not true I’ve killed her before and got guards called on me it seems like you can kill her with sneak or magic with no consequences but if you kill her with a sword or melee guards were called o me but I think that might have been fixed in se this happened to me years ago back in 2012
@@RhynnMedia was the quest active when you killed her?
@@RhynnMedia you will not get guards called on you no matter what if the quest is active
..The couriers though-
I also got the guards after me, i killed her during her dialogue and then when i was going back to windhelm the guards appeared and tried to arrest me.
He's a Fultheim soldier, but he gets carried away Sometheims and acts like a bandit.
god i hate this i love it so much
Underrated
This comment is shit covered in gold.
Stay the f*ck away from me and my family.
@@csweezey18 no Satan he's coming for you
To me, it was always pretty damn obvious that the "Which one of these people has a contract on them?" bit was just a smoke and mirrors trick to distract the PC from the much more pressing moral dilemma of "Should I really kill a defenseless person just because some woman in a mask told me I have to?"
As a bonus, the PC can pick out someone THEY think deserves to die, easing them into the idea of killing for Astrid. The victims were all chosen to reveal something about the PC's character. A PC who values bravery and honor might pick Fultheim for being a dishonest coward. One who thinks of themself as virtuous and lawful might kill Vasha in order to rid the world of a dangerous, unrepentent criminal. And one who is more selfishly inclined might go with Alea just because she's loud and obnoxious.
None of the prisoners have a contract on them, else it wouldn't be possible for them to make it out of the shack alive even if you don't kill Astrid. It's all just mind games.
It took 40 minutes to explain that the PC was the one with the contract when it became apparent halfway for me because I remember being assaulted 4x by a DB Assassin
I've literally only experienced this once and I never really though about the contract happening before the start of the game, I just always though that I killed someone or did something that upset an npc enough to want to kill me and they thought "hey, maybe I should try something other than hired thugs for a change"
pretty sure only 1 DB assassin comes after you ever per character. maybe your modding made it so more appear
@@texasgun2731 Probably, definitely the mods. I have a mod the cleans out corpses after you've left an area because I play on a potato. So, every 8 hours of gameplay or so I'm confronted by another assassin. Until I join The Brotherhood myself and walk in like
"What's up Bitches?! Remember me? Guy that killed all those assassins? Guess what! You're all my underlings now, LISTENER BITCH!"
I'm sorry...
@@thegreatgabe734 Out of all the new character files I've started in Skyrim, I've somehow never had a DB encounter until Astrid did her kidnapping. I have had random thugs after me though, so I definitely would've thought I'd just ticked off the wrong crowd had I encountered a DB member.
@Dionysian Beast I mean I'm not denying they're out there or anything, but yeah I've never encountered them in the "wild" lol, maybe I fast travel too much idk
My hypothesis is that all either all 3 had a contract or none had. Either way Astrid simply wanted see how we kill and on what premise...
What is our preferred weapon?
How well do we extract information?
Do we pity the fearful man?
Do we spare a mother?
Do we compromise with wealth?
She was judging us and our character.
This is how I always thought of it
Same here.
Sad for her her little 'Evaluation' got her fried right in that shack instead of days later.
And with me, just kill em all
I kill all three presented targets. I don't particularly care about any of them, and if one of them has a contract, one of my arrows is bound to find the right mark. Astrid seems to appreciate the pragmatism of that decision.
Camel Lucien flat out tells you that the tenets no longer apply to you once you become a Silencer, thus allowing you to perform the Purification as ordered.
As the mouth of their patron, that basically turns the player into the rulemaker of the guild. It makes sense the tenents wouldn't apply to the player after ascended, as they would be the one to enact retribution for the broken rules.
ClayXros sounds kinda authoritarian to me
A fanatical, religious cult of evil assassins that receives orders directly from the desiccated, mummified corpse of their patron deity, audible to only a select few selected by said patron deity? Authoritarian? Say it ain't so!
thanatos5150 no dur, probably shouldn’t have put the kinda there it made my comment seem like not a meme
@@thanatos5150
To be fair when the diety in question actually exists, that changes the situation more than a little bit. Plus the Dark Brotherhood isn't really a cult since brainwashing would lead to weak and low-drive members.
Cicero could potentially have been the one to preform the black sacrament. He is favored of the Night Mother, even if she doesn’t speak straight to him (she allows the Jester he killed to laugh to him, something Cicero was extremely grateful for, after being trapped alone in his prior sanctuary for months)
"... As there is another person in the room, that we can kill"
Me: Wait can we kill ourself
or if you eat the right ingredients
Or if you trip and land on your sword 🤷🏻♀️😂 I mean, you never know it could happen
We’ve all tripped on that stupid set of bones in the intro. We can definitely grind ourselves out on something in the shack.
Yes you can.
Zoom out so you can see your character
open console
click on yourself
type kill and press enter.
Done
Astrid says “Well done.” when you kill her because to her knowledge you figured out you were the contracted and killed her in your own defense
Amy 14444 No, she just says she wanted to get you killed by the Penitus Oculatus or whatever for the safety of the brotherhood
Amy 14444
Just checked
th-cam.com/video/D_QHQeP_tQI/w-d-xo.html
nope
Amy 14444 no she says thank you
I am convinced that all of them have it including her and you
While most of what you said is sound, you did make one mistake.
The border you cross in the beginning of the game is the cyrodiil-skyrim border. And dialogue with Hadvar, who took part in your capture and thus knows, how you got into the ambush, states that you are "new in skyrim"
I get where this mistake comes from though, as the horse thief Lokir says he "would already be half the way to hammerfell by now"
However there is no affiliation between your player character and Lokir. Instead you come into skyrim from cyrodiil and get caught up in the ambush.
That is also why you are not on the list for executions. While lokir, who was found to be guilty of stealing horses is.
It is made to seem as if all on the list are known to be storm cloaks, but that doesnt have to be the case.
Ergo, you are not from Skyrim and trying to get to hammerfell via Cyrodiil as Lokir does, but instead came into Skyrim from Cyrodiil.
That is also a nod from Bethesda, as Oblivion took place in Cyrodiil, and you now "cross the border" from there into Skyrim.
Thank you for explaining this so thoroughly-I was hoping someone else noticed this.
Yeah I always liked how they kind of made skyrim as a potential new chapter for the same character or their offspring
Not so sure it wouldnt be easier to just go to hammerfell via cyrodil if that was the case.
If you see the map of Tamriel you would see that you got caught somewhere near the South west. Hammer fell is way to the east. The Dragonborn probably came from Cyrodil. Cause if he crossed the border from south east then it's more likely for the Stormcloaks to have caught him.
@@09Drdray The main character from Oblivion becomes Sheogorath. Sheogorath in Skyrim makes references to events that occurred in the previous game when you encounter him. This continues Bethesda's trend of wrapping up each characters story. Recall in Oblivion characters reference the Nerevar making a trip to Akavir and never returning. The Nerevar is the player character from Morrowind. They had to send the Nerevar away because in lore they are immortal from the corpus disease and will never die of age. To get rid of the Oblivion protagonist they mantal Sheogorath eventually becoming him regardless of race or sex.
Maven's Black Sacriment is against the Dragonborn themself.
This is why the dark brotherhood assassins come after you.
Astrid: in person in this room has a contract on their head
Dragonborn: *unsheathes sword*
Astrid: *sweating intensifies*
Dragon born: shouts for his dragons
@@kyle18934 *proceeds to call Odahviing and Durnehviir*
@@daws1620 lol Astrid face as the roof is ripped of showing two angry dragons
@@kyle18934 Astrid: uhh you can join us if you want or do whatever you want JUST DON'T KILL ME PLEASE
i had a theory, that when the kid performs the dark sacrament and the dragonborn (henceforth referred to as DB) comes in, seemingly at random. it is quite possible that the dark sacrament did work and DB is the one who was called. the fact that the DB doesn't know this is irrelevant.
Astrid didn't know it either. Astrid had no ability to sense when someone was doing the black sacrament, she would only hear about it through her channels that some person or another was performing it and she would investigate the details and find out and then put out the contract.
but when someone does the dark sacrament, the Night Mother always hears it and then relays the details to The Listener, but there currently was no Listener. meanwhile, the DB was destined to become the new Listener. so it is quite possible that the Night Mother heard the arentino boy's plea and "sent" the DB to help him, but the DB didn't know it, they just thought they went their on their own accord but in reality, they were actually being influenced by the night mother.
and then the reason Astrid kidnaps the DB is because she thinks the DB "stole" the contract, even though the contract was always "meant" for the DB.
also..without watching the end of the video, my theory on who the DB is "supposed" to kill is that it doesn't matter.
Astrid's test is merely a trick to gauge the reaction of the test subject. those 3 people might all have contracts on them, or maybe none of them have contracts. there is no "right" answer.
all three of the "victims" could have a contract on them. all three of them could have enemies who might pay to have them killed, even that woman. the woman is kind if a bitch and she admits she might have "enemies". someone might have put out a contract on her. astrid comments "with her mouth, someone must have wanted her dead, right?"
the khajiit is the "obvious" choice, but that's why he was placed there , he is the one most people will conclude is the "most likely" one, but that does not mean he was the "correct" one. Astrid even muses about it if you pick him, like "yeah, i see why you would choose him"
the nord seems innocent but then when you push him further, he admits he was a soldier and a sellsword, who occasionally "went too far" while "obeying his orders". there were another type of soldiers in real life who fit this description, but i would have to invoke Godwin's Law to say it.
so all 3 could be victims could have twisted logic apllied to them to justify them deserving to die.
the point test was just to see if the subject was capable of committing the murder without questioning the orders. it was a way of measuring if someone was worthy of joining the brotherhood. if they refuse to kill, she will kill them. if they try to kill astrid, she will kill them. if they kill one of the people, they pass. it doesn't matter who they kill, as long as they kill one, they pass. but depending on who the subject chooses to kill, it gives astrid informaton what kind of person the test subject is. it is always good to "know" the person you are dealing with. the point of the test was to give Astrid information about the subject before letting them join the brotherhood. perhaps killing someone isn't even enough to pass the test. because the manner in which you do it might tell or show Astrid something she doesn't like and she might realize you are not a good candidate and therefore must be eliminated. but regardless, she seems impressed when you kill all three. (I always kill all three)
I loved this short essay and I hope you get more likes 😂
The funniest part of this theory is that Astrid would have had to background check all her kidnap victims to make sure they had morally diverse stories.
"Aren't we the overachiever." -Astrid
Killing all three victims at the cabin is a sure sign of things to come. Poor Nilsine will die, the gourmet's body will never be found, the forged message will get planted, and every loose end imaginable will be tied into neat little knots. Let no optional objective go unfulfilled!
I know this because I do it every time too.
No that lady in the coffin that Cicero has can gear the dark sacraments lol
I don’t think you understand what the listener is. You don’t just walk into the house because of fate. You can already know about him performing the sacrament due to rumor, the exact same method Astrid uses. If you don’t hear anyone talk about it (in bars, from the orphans, from the guards), you can literally go the whole game never knowing the sacrament was performed. Even if you decide to randomly go to the house, there’s a boy and woman outside talking about him doing the black sacrament.
And if the night mother sends you like your theory claims, why don’t we just hear her voice telling us where to go like she does later on in the storyline? That’s why you’re reffered to as the “Listener”. Because you can *hear* her speak and do what she tells you, not because she manipulates your mind and actions. The only person who senses contracts is the night mother herself.
The Night Mother was speaking through Astrid when she said "Well done." Astrid invoked the wrath of Sithis by breaking the Five tenets. The contract on Astrid was straight from the Night Mother.
Astrid said she put the contract on herself
@@babygurleatsshickennuggits4201 Think they were referring to if you kill her at the start, not if you go through the whole questline.
Also, forgot to say this ages ago. They don't follow the tenets anymore, but that also distances them from Sithis, and therefore the Night Mother. And if you notice, that's before the Night Mother has anything to do with them, and she might not be mortal, but she's not omniscient either.
@@Malkontent1003 she's no longer mortal. It's basically a gift from Sithis. The tenants are the most important thing to the Dark Brotherhood, because without the tenants it isn't the Dark Brotherhood and it makes Sithis very angry. When they stopped following the tenants they broke their vows to serve her and because they did so the course of action was to punish them.
@@Malkontent1003 also she is omniscient, she knew Mathew Belemont was going to do what he did before the contract on his mother was even created. She is omniscient when it comes to the family.
You truly outdid yourself with this one. My vote for your single best video...
Picture me doing the head explosion hand gesture. Your theory actually makes perfect sense. You had the contact on you and your kill in the cabin was payment to Sithis so you could be recruited.
The "Well done" by Astrid could just mean you figured out that the contract was on you, so killing her means you realized that.
How does that mean we realized that?
@@suuuuuuuuuuuper because if she gone assassins gona stop. She literally has her name signed on all of them
Ya
She's called "Astrid". The contract is signed "Astrid". That's how you should figure out it's you who has the contract. Since you don't want to die, your only option is to kill Astrid, the only definitively evil person in the room. It's the only option available to you besides killing yourself.
@@BrandurnPorchiga i dunno i've gotten assassins after killing her (but i do that at the end of the dark brotherhood questline but it still happens)
Plot twist: When Astrid says 'well done', it was referring to us for figuring out that we were the target and trying and surviving the trap, this is also why she sets you up if you continue through the dark brotherhood questline, not because of any other reason other than there was a contract on us and she wanted to use us before we died, as she saw us as worthy.
Very plausible theory!
Plausible, but she set us up as a way to keep the dark brotherhood safe, Penitus get us, dark brotherhood stop getting targeted. That was the deal. Of course they lied and Astrid was made a fool. It just so happens we survive cause we that strong and she decides to "pay",by becoming the black sacrement with her remaining energy since she royally f'd up. She assumes/hopes while she's dying from the attack, that we made it and we prove that right cause we show up.
I actuallay never cared who was the target, I always killed all three with a dagger sneak attack to substancially advance stealth.
SMART
Same but I just killed them all to take the mask and enchant them
this man, right here, is Dark Brotherhood material.
chaotic evil
I always kill the lady because she rude the guy on the left is just a basic guy that's seems nice and Out of all the races I've play the cat so i don't kill him but that's smart