How to Join the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim

Here’s our complete guide on how to join the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim!

Skyrim has tons of various guilds that you can join depending on your preference and your playstyle. Each of these guilds has special quests and rewards depending on how well you perform in them. One of the most notable guilds is known as the Dark Brotherhood – which is an assassin’s guild. This dates back to the first game in the Elder Scrolls series, so you know that this guild has a long and rich history. That is why this guide will show you how to join the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim.

How to Join the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim

To join the Dark Brotherhood, you need to follow these steps:

Find Aventus Aretino
Complete the Innocence Lost quest
Wait for a full in-game day until you get the letter saying “We know”
Sleep on any bed and you’ll be abducted by the Brotherhood
You’ll wake up in a shack where you have to decide if you want to join or not

If you want to know about the detailed steps on how you join the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim, continue reading to find out. Plus, we’ll also talk about what happens if you decide to destroy the Brotherhood instead. With that said, let’s dive right in and find out how to join the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim.

Joining the Dark Brotherhood

The Dark Brotherhood quest is one of the most popular and best questline in Skyrim. It adds a ton of new content to the game which you can completely miss if you do not initiate this questline. Plus, some of the characters you meet along the way are amazing and have deep lore that will make you fall in love with them.

With that out of the way, let’s discuss how you can join the Brotherhood. First of all, you need to clear the scripted intro section of Skyrim. After you are given the freedom to explore the open world, make your way over to Windhelm. From here, you can proceed one of two ways.

Firstly, you can enter any inn and ask the barkeep about gossip and rumors. You’ll have to do this multiple times for the innkeeper to tell you about a boy in Windhelm called Aventus Aretino. You’ll get to know that he is trying to perform the Black Sacrament which is a ritual for the Dark Brotherhood.

Alternatively, you can head straight to the Honorhall Orphanage in Riften. Over here, talk to the children and they will tell you about the boy that is trying to summon the Dark Brotherhood. Regardless of which method you choose – or find convenient – you will be able to move on to the next step.

Now, head over to Aventus who will be located in Windhelm in his parents’ house. Interact with him and choose the option where you talk about his “dark tendencies”. Doing so will successfully trigger the Innocence Lost quest.

Progressing through the quest will lead you to an orphanage situated in Riften – which you might have entered earlier if you decided to take that route. Once you reach the area, you will have to kill Grelod the Kind – the old woman operating the orphanage.

Don’t feel all bad though because after killing her, all of the nearby orphans will cheer. Plus, Aventus already told you that she is a bad person that doesn’t treat the orphans right.

After doing the bidding, return to Aventus and tell him that it’s done. Now, the quest will be done and you will think that there is nothing else to do since you get no markers or any new quest. At this point, you have to wait an entire in-game day. Now, when you enter any city, you will get a courier with the message “We know.”

Once you receive the letter, you will have to sleep on any bed. Since this will cause your screen to go to black, you will be abducted by one member of the Brotherhood in your sleep. When you come to, you will find yourself in an abandoned shack with a member known as Astrid in front of you.

From here, you can again choose two paths depending on how you want to play the game. Firstly, you can attack Astrid to trigger the questline where you have to destroy the Brotherhood. I do not suggest choosing this option if this is your first time playing since this path does not nearly have enough content as the other option. Plus, you will not meet some of the best characters in the game.

Alternatively, you can talk to Astrid and start the questline where you help the Dark Brotherhood. Do as she says and you’ll get tons of quests that you have to complete and learn the secrets of the Brotherhood. Along the way, you’ll meet tons of interesting characters and fun quests. However, this questline is often considered the ‘darkest’ questline in the game, so be prepared for that.

Looking for more Skyrim content? Check out these guides:

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is available to play on Steam.

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