In Which Finds-The-Way Assassinates the Emperor of Tamriel

Getting back finally to some catch up on my Finds-The-Way playthrough, which is now completed, but I still need to finish its posts. So here’s the post for the session from August 2nd, where I finished up the Dark Brotherhood plot! Contains a bunch of commentary on the whole Brotherhood plot in general.

Play by play

Play by play for Finds-The-Way’s session on 8/2/2024, click to expand…

Play date: 8/2/2024
Session number in this run: 48
Finally picked up in Skyrim again, and resumed the Dark Brotherhood plot
Rode from Winterhold on over to the Nightgate Inn
Killed various random critters on the way–which took longer than I expected because Shadowmere kept running off to fight additional critters
But finally made it over to the Wayward Pass and rode through it down to Nightgate Inn
Spotted Talsgar the Wanderer going through the pass
Turned out killing the Gourmet was fairly easy
Got there late enough that he’d gone back inside and down into the cellar, but he wasn’t asleep yet
Dropped into Sneak, quaffed a potion of invisibility, and one-shotted him with the Bow of Shadows
Then took all his stuff, including the invitation to Castle Dour
And because there was a bonus in the quest for doing so, stuffed his body in one of the barrels near the ladder
Then got out again and headed back to the Falkreath Sanctuary to report in with Festus
Astrid sent me on to Solitude to target the emperor directly, and gave me some jarrin root to use to poison him
Put on the fine clothes I’d swiped off the Gourmet
But first, tried to park the Dwarven Horse back at Lakeview since it was still parked at the Sanctuary
Mounted up on that horse and then fast traveled to Lakeview
Saw the girls outside, and Sofie hit me up for an allowance again, so I gave her another 1,000 gold
(Note to self: really ought to have left a note of some kind with the housecarls, just to warn them it may be a while before their thane is back here, LOL)
Then tried to fast travel back to the Sanctuary to pick up Shadowmere, only to find that the Dwarven Horse had come back with me, oops
So did that again, and this time hoofed it from Lakeview back to the Sanctuary
Spotted M’aiq the Liar on the way
Finally mounted up on Shadowmere and boinged to Solitude
Showed up at Castle Dour and talked to Commander Maro to show him the invitation I’d stolen; that got me access to the kitchen
(And also, I saw that Maro swore by Azura when he saw the pass I’d stolen from the Gourment–and, wut? This guy’s an Imperial officer, why’s he swearing by a Daedric Prince?)
By this point I was cross-checking all dialogue against the wiki, just because my German was not up to the task
The cook in the kitchen was rather startled that I was an Argonian, and her line seemed to question how much I could have learned about cooking in Black Marsh? (Will need to doublecheck the screenshots)
Got all imperious at her and that shut her up right quick, and put on a chef’s hat to actually make the dish with her
Let the real cook choose all the ingredients, but I put the poison in last
Then followed her as she carried the dish into the dining room where the Emperor and several other NPCs were eating
The cook served the dish, and the emperor sampled it–then promptly keeled over, and all hell broke loose
I fled out the nearby door, but got intercepted by a couple of the Penitus Oculatus guards, as well as Commander Maro–who gleefully informed me that I’d just killed a decoy Emperor, not the real one
And that furthermore, somebody in the Brotherhood had sold me out and that his men were as we spoke attacking the place
The terms of the deal were in fact sparing the Brotherhood in exchange for me
But Maro was reneging on that on the express grounds that the Brotherhood—i.e., me—had killed his son
So he ran off again, leaving me to kill his underlings and to try to get back to the Brotherhood myself
Couldn’t fast travel out, so had to figure out how the hell to get out of Solitude
We were up on a bridge overlooking the market, and I realized that it led out through the same mill with the back exit out that I’d seen in several previous playthroughs, so took the back way out of the city
Passed Meeko’s Shack on the way out
Hoofed it for a while into the marshes near Morthal until I was finally able to fast travel; apparently the blocker was having guards in Haafingar/Solitude still actively searching for me
But nobody was searching for me in Hjaalmarch, so NYAAAH
Couldn’t land directly at the Sanctuary, so fast traveled instead to Falkreath
That plunked Shadowmere right next to me, so I mounted up and rode over–and yep, the Sanctuary was under attack
Killed several Penitus Oculatus soldiers outside, then got in and found the place almost completely consumed by flame
Killed a few more hostiles; looted everybody I took out, but then of course got rapidly overloaded
So had to put on the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, which only temporarily helped the problem
Finally found my way to Nazir, one of the few who’d so far survived
Told him we’d been set up, and he was all “DUH”, but then affirmed he didn’t think it was me who’d done it
Also found Babette was still alive–and heh, it was not surprising to see she did not register with the Gray Cowl’s Detect Life ability, unlike Nazir, ‘cause of course, vampire
Got pinged by the Night Mother who told me to hide with her in her coffin
The coffin sealed around me and the Night Mother told me to sleep
Later, Nazir and Babette got me out
Got pinged by the Night Mother again, who told me Astrid was still alive and I needed to find her
Found Astrid horribly burned and lying in the middle of a circle of candles
She’d performed the Black Sacrament to atone for what she’d done, because she had been the one to sell out the Sanctuary
And now, as I showed up, she realized that her prayers to the Night Mother had been heard, and urged me to kill her
So I picked up her Blade of Woe and stabbed her with it
The Night Mother pinged me once more and demanded that I fulfill the contract to take out the Emperor, which was not done yet, and pointed me at Whiterun to talk to Amaund Motierre
Sent Nazir and Babette off to the Dawnstar Sanctuary, while I went to Whiterun
On the way, since I was carrying a fuckload of things, stopped at Honningbrew Meadery to sell a bunch of it to Mallus
“Here, have all this Penitus Oculatus armor! No, there is absolutely no particular reason I have nine sets of Penitus Oculatus armor, no reason at all. I totally just found it.” 😆
It felt vaguely surreal coming into Whiterun on this business, that’s for damn sure
Found Amaund in a back room at the Bannered Mare
Closed the door behind me as I came in to talk to him, and picked his brains about how the hell to find the real Emperor
He pointed me at the Katariah, finally, so I headed out
Sam Guevenne was in the Bannered Mare when I came out, and that triggered the quest to have a drinking contest with him; I declined, but was amused by the timing
Headed out from Whiterun, riding overland to get to the Katariah
Bandits around Silent Moons Camp sniped at me, but I did not engage
Cut through Labyrinthian and took out a frost troll that got close enough for combat; heard another one, but it didn’t get close enough to bother with
Cut past Morthal and got attacked by bandits in Vagrant mage gear, because apparently they respawned after I ran the fishing contest? Took out both of them and continued on my way
Finally got intercepted by a Haafingar guard who delivered the ‘You have committed crimes against Skyrim and her people’ speech at me
I got the ‘I’m with the Guild, how about we make this go away’ bribery option, so 750 gold made him bugger off, and that solved my Haafingar bounty problem 😉
Parked Shadowmere on the eastern shore of the bay, then swam over to the docks
Found Commander Maro! SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER, I’M STILL ALIVE!
Killing him was optional, but I went for it, because the wiki confirmed I wouldn’t get a bounty for it
Still, I let him hit first
Was vaguely disappointed no nearby guards came running, but that was probably for the best, given that I’d just paid off a guard
Took out Maro and took his armor, then jumped back into the water and swam over to the Emperor’s ship; used the anchor to get on board
Went into Sneak and threw my Invisibility and Muffle spells
Mostly avoided hostiles and made it straight to the Emperor’s cabin
Had final scene with him, and he did indeed know I was coming, and asked me to take out the guy who’d put the contract on him as one last favor
I promised to consider it, then took him out, and also took his robes
Searched the cabin but didn’t find anything I wanted (apparently I missed the Gilded Wristguards, but oh well)
Jumped back off the ship and swam back over to Shadowmere
Returned to Whiterun to tell Amaund the deed was done–and decided to not kill him, actually, because the Night Mother had not ordered me to
And unlike some other assassins Finds could name, SHE ACTUALLY OBEYS THE NIGHT MOTHER THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Went from there to Volunruud to pick up the gold that was stashed in an urn there, nice 20K payoff
Looted the nearby chest just because it was there, and got some extra goodies out of that
Then boinged back to Dawnstar Sanctuary to report in with Nazir
Saw Ahkari’s Khajiit standing around outside the town, so stopped and sold stuff to them, including Commander Maro’s armor
Then rode over to the Sanctuary and talked to Nazir
Had no reason to lie to him about how much Amaund gave me, so he suggested I work with Delvin Mallory on re-outfitting the Dawnstar Sanctuary
Off to Riften! Checked in with Delvin in the Ragged Flagon
Saw that I still had a pending dialogue option with him about doing the special Markarth job
So went ahead and took that dialogue option, just because i wasn’t sure or not if the Flagon was still pending its fourth merchant
Decided to buy all the upgrades to the Sanctuary except the torture chamber, because fuck that
Then used the new fast travel marker on the Sanctuary to go straight there
Confirmed that yep, the Sanctuary was now better outfitted, and I could not find any sign of a torture chamber, excellent
Cicero greeted me outside, and if I got the gist of his dialogue correctly, he yanked my chain about I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE LISTENER NOW I WILL KILL YOU HAHAHAHAHA JK THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE HAHAHAHA
Yes yes, Cicero, you’re hilarious now fuck off 😉
Found Nazir quietly eating in the dining room, and Babette wandering around down in the area where my new bedroom was
She offered to train me in Alchemy, why thank you, vampire child
Parked in the dining room with Nazir and saved there until next time

The most aggro horse in Skyrim?

First thing I want to note here is how I started off this session riding on Shadowmere from Winterhold to the Nightgate Inn, and stopping to kill various hostile critters as you do. But this took longer than I anticipated–because every time I killed something, Shadowmere ran off and found something else to fight. Swear to Divines, that horse is the most aggro mount I’ve ever had in Skyrim. And that’s saying something, given that the unicorn also tends to be pretty aggro!

Taking out the Gourmet

After all the intrigue and shenanigans I had to go through to track the guy down, actually assassinating the Gourmet was disappointingly easy. All I had to do was one-shot him in Sneak mode, with the Bow of Shadows.

But as I recall (writing this over a month since I played the actual session), I did have to do it twice. I can’t remember if I accidentally had the guy see me before I shot him–or if I triggered a known issue where his corpse clipped into the chair he’d been sitting on, making it impossible for me to drag him to the vat. I kinda think it was the latter, but I didn’t document it properly in my notes. Oh well!

Still, point remains: taking out the Gourmet was super easy. I had more trouble figuring out what to do with his body to get the bonus than I did actually killing him. Fortunately, that question was easily answered on the wiki. And it wasn’t difficult to stuff his body into the relevant vat.

Taking out the Emperor, take one

Then it was moving on to the actual exciting part: the first attempt at assassinating the Emperor. At this point, I was very much reconsidering the wisdom of trying to play this plot for the first time in German–because boy howdy, my German was not up to the task of following the dialogue. So I had to cross-check all dialogue against the UESP wiki, just to be clear on what was going on.

So that did slow me down a bit. But even with that handicap, I definitely liked this part of the proceedings. It was legit suspenseful going through the intrigue of convincing the real chef in the kitchen to help me make the poisonous dish, and then bring it in to the Emperor and the others at his table.

And then to watch him keel over, and not hang around to watch everybody freak out, because then it was time to get the hell out of Dodge.

At which point I was intercepted by Commander Maro and a couple of his underlings. Maro dropped the big plot reveal of “Ha ha you killed a decoy”, with a side helping of “And oh BTW I am now totally going to destroy your entire organization”. Now, I’d already known this was coming, so it didn’t pack quite as much of a punch as it would have done if I’d been coming in completely cold. Still, that scene was very nicely done. I also liked Maro’s reveal of how he was even going back on his deal with his Brotherhood contact, on the grounds of “You bastards killed my son, so fuck all of you”.

After all the times I’ve destroyed the Dark Brotherhood in previous playthroughs, it was a legit suspenseful experience to come into the Sanctuary to find it on fire and almost everybody dead at the hands of the Penitus Oculatus. Also suspenseful to have the Night Mother herself intervene, and urge me into her coffin to protect me from the flames!

And this then led to the biggest reveal of the plot: that Astrid herself had betrayed the Brotherhood, only to repent of her treachery at the last minute and do the Black Sacrament on herself, after she’d been horribly burned in the fire. I knew this was coming, too, so that reveal didn’t have as much power as it wanted to have.

But even aside from the question of knowing the spoiler in advance, I also found Astrid’s motivations in this plot something of a mess. I have a lot of opinions on that, so I’m going to cover those at the bottom of this post.

Side note about Amaund Motierre

I only realized, as I was typing out the notes for this post, that Amaund Motierre has the same last name as Mirabelle in ESO’s Dark Brotherhood plot.

The UESP wiki confirms this is one hundred percent on purpose. The Motierre family has a running history with the Dark Brotherhood, across multiple games! And they also appear in Oblivion.

So that was a nice little bit of lore consistency, there.

Outfitting the Dawnstar Sanctuary, and hard pass on the torture chamber

I opted not to lie to Nazir about how much I got from Amaund Motierre, even though I did have the dialogue option to do so. But I saw no need for that. Given that he, Babette, and I were the only survivors of the attack at the Falkreath Sanctuary, I feel like it would have been a particularly shitty move to lie to him to keep all of the money.

Just because we were assassins did not mean I had to be dishonorable about that!

And also, it wasn’t like I was hurting for money, after all. At that stage of a Skyrim game, as per usual, Finds was pretty much swimming in gold.

So I was happy to just spend all of the reward on refitting the Dawnstar Sanctuary. Minus the torture chamber–because fuck that. I just grimace at the whole idea of “here, have a torture chamber with four helpless NPCs in it that you can torture for treasure,” once you refurnish the Dawnstar Sanctuary with Delvin Mallory’s help. It’s just so egregious.

Which is rich, I know, given that the Dark Brotherhood are assassins. They’re not nice people. But assassin != torturer.

I also look askance on Delvin Mallory selling you a torture chamber for much the same reasons. Thieves Guild, also not nice people. But the Thieves Guild makes a big point of how “we don’t kill our marks”, and how “we work in the shadows”. Delvin and Vex both tell you over and over not to get caught stealing stuff. So I have a problem imagining Delvin would be okay with torture.

But even aside from my principles about both the Brotherhood and the Guild, I was all “For SERIOUS? I’m a Dragonborn with 45,000 gold in my wallet and the ability to get several thousand more just off my farm, for fuck’s sake. Why do I need to be torturing random NPCs for a measly 1-2K more?” Sheesh.

So I bypassed this whole question, and just did not buy the torture chamber off of Delvin at all. I bought everything else, then dropped into the console and entered the correct command to just conclude the quest.

For the record, that command was:

setstage DarkBrotherhoodSanctuaryRepair 200

PROBLEM SOLVED.

Final thoughts on the Brotherhood plotline in general

Even though I was running this in German and therefore missing out on a lot of the details in the dialogue, I still knew enough from prior reading on the wiki, as well as cross-checking during this session, to get the gist of what was going on. And narrative-wise, I feel like it’s a mess.

I don’t really feel like the narrative I got supported Astrid doing a complete fucking 180 from “super gung ho about taking out the Emperor, the boldest thing the Brotherhood has done in centuries” to “waaaaaah I hate the new Listener, and that crazypants bastard Cicero, and want everything to go back the way it was!”

I think the narrative tried to support it, and I saw at least some hints along those lines dropped early on. But overall, it didn’t feel substantial enough to me.

Problem number one

If she had issues with me becoming the Listener, and therefore a threat to her power in the Brotherhood, why not just assassinate me? The story does establish that this woman’s been leading her Sanctuary on her own terms, and has mostly decided that the Tenets are bullshit. Which, by definition, means she shouldn’t have a problem with killing a Dark Sister.

On those same grounds, kinda not buying that she just doesn’t take out Cicero herself. Of course, she orders me to do it because I’m the player character, I get that. But Cicero tried to kill her and Veezara both, which means that at the very least, he damn well bent Tenet number five even if he didn’t get to the point of breaking it. And I have a hard time buying that Cicero managed to flee before half a dozen angry assassins were able to stop him.

And since this is a storyline that came out long before the Wrath of Sithis showed up as an actual entity in ESO, it’s not like Skyrim could throw a punishment at Cicero directly. Or at Astrid, for that matter. So the player character pretty much has to go after Cicero.

Problem number two

Even if she decided she hated my new power as the Listener and wanted to make a play against me, why pretend to be all in on the assassination of the Emperor? Was she beginning to doubt her skepticism about the Night Mother, and trying to hedge her bets? Every step she took in the plot, up to the point of her betrayal being revealed, seemed to be in legit service to the contract. And she seemed genuinely excited by the idea of the Brotherhood pulling off the boldest thing it’d done in centuries.

A sufficiently complex character could, I feel, want both of these things at once: to return her Sanctuary to its prior state, and kill the Emperor. But the story doesn’t give the player a chance to see that kind of complexity out of Astrid.

I rather feel like she should have been cleverer about the plan, overall. If she really wanted it to happen, she should have given me orders that would have deliberately sabotaged me, while at the same time arranging for someone else in the Brotherhood to take over the job.

That might have set up for some nice initial “oh shit who’s trying to sabotage us” as I worked through the initial stages of the conspiracy… to a point. Because of course there are a very limited number of NPCs available in the Brotherhood, and therefore a very limited pool of suspects for who might be sabotaging things. And it’s really not any stretch of the imagination for Astrid to be the main suspect, since she and Cicero are the characters that have any real participation in the plot at all.

Problem number three

Which brings me to problem number three: given that Astrid was the saboteur, what the hell did she think she was going to accomplish by betraying me to Commander Maro? The guy whose son I killed? On her explicit orders?

How does she think, “That guy! That’s the guy I’ll betray our Listener to! Because of course he’ll go through with his side of the deal and won’t possibly have enough of a grudge against us that he’ll just order a full out assault on our Sanctuary!”

It’s a disastrously, stupidly naive call on her part. Which just underscores what a bad leader she is, really.

Not to mention that even if I hadn’t killed Maro’s son and therefore given him a personal grudge against the Brotherhood, did Astrid really think that Maro would just stand idly by and overlook how the Brotherhood was targeting the frigging Emperor? The guy who, after all, the Penitus Oculatus is supposed to be protecting? And even if Maro himself were corrupt enough to take her deal and honor it, did she think that’d somehow protect the Brotherhood from every other Oculatus commander?

Which brings me to…

Problem number four

Assassinating the frigging Emperor should have been a much, much bigger deal than Skyrim lets it be.

Aside from you paying off whatever bounties you accrued as part of the plot, though, there is no consequence whatsoever to the Dragonborn after doing the deed. The only impact whatsoever is guards periodically reacting to you more fearfully, because you’re now strongly rumored to be associated with the Brotherhood. And also, periodic lines about them lamenting the death of the Emperor.

By rights, I should think that at the very least, Solitude should declare a period of public mourning, given that the Imperial headquarters in Skyrim is right there in Solitude. And also given that Elisif is closely tied to General Tullius, politically.

And I’d expect the other Imperial-friendly Jarls to follow suit.

By contrast, I’d expect every single Stormcloak-friendly hold to be celebrating–starting with Windhelm, where I’d fully expect Ulfric to be urging his citizens to be partying in the streets. And I’d expect the entire Stormcloak army to take the Emperor’s assassination as a huge morale boost. Hell, I’d even buy Ulfric putting out public word that whatever assassin took down the Emperor would be considered a Stormcloak hero.

I could definitely see a spike in desertions from Imperial forces in Skyrim, especially amongst any Nords in their ranks. And I could see Tullius cracking down hard on any loss of discipline in the ranks, and reminding everybody under his command that even if the Emperor has been killed, their loyalty to the Empire remains, and their loyalty to whoever becomes the next Emperor.

I’d also fully buy Tullius putting out orders that the assassin who slew the Emperor should be killed on sight. And that any Imperial soldier who executed the assassin would get a big fat bonus and a promotion up the ranks, and that citizen who came forward with information leading to the assassin’s capture would likewise be richly compensated.

But the game doesn’t allow for any of that, and I think the whole plotline suffers for it.

Problem number five

One more of two minor things.

Given that Maro explicitly betrayed Astrid’s deal because of his grudge against the Brotherhood, it makes zero sense to me that he just walks off after taunting me with how his forces were going to destroy the Sanctuary. Astrid made a big deal of delivering me into his hands, after all.

Why the hell didn’t he attack me at that point?

Problem number six

And as I think I said in an earlier post, it’s very weird to me that there’s no way in the game for members of the Thieves Guild and members of the Dark Brotherhood to be aware of it when you are, in fact, a member of both factions. Especially if you are the frigging Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild.

Both Astrid and Nazir sent me to Delvin Mallory, and at no point did I have an opportunity to say anything along the lines of “Oh yeah, I know Delvin very well. I’m actually his boss now.” Snerk.

This is of course not a problem unique to the Dark Brotherhood–this is the case all over Skyrim, for the most part. Your membership in, or even leadership of, any given faction does not have any real impact to speak of on your membership in or leadership of any other faction.

But it sure did stand out in this particular case.

Can any of these problems be fixed?

Maybe.

My beefs with Astrid’s part in the plot, though, would require a significant overhaul of the overall flow of events, and how Astrid is portrayed in particular. And it’d have to be done in such a way that it’s not immediately obvious to the player that Astrid is bullshitting them. So maybe doable with a mod, but it’d have to be a very ambitious mod to pull it off. Including additional voice work, and maybe revoicing Astrid completely.

Skyrim-wide reactions to the Emperor’s death would be easier to pull off. You could easily do a period of mourning in the Imperial-controlled holds, with the Imperial-friendly Jarls declaring public mourning. Depending on how fancy you wanted to get, you could have mourning banners displayed all over those holds. Mourning clothes already exist in the game, so various NPCs could switch to wearing those for a while. Though if you wanted to get fancy, you could have Jarls and other nobility wear fancier mourning attire.

Stormcloak-friendly holds could put up festival banners, by contrast.

NPCs–not just guards–could have gossip dialogue about the situation. Depending on their own personal preferences, they might also get into fights with other citizens. I could absolutely see the Battle-Borns and the Gray-Manes in Whiterun getting into some brawls over this. And Vignar Gray-Mane up and moving his entire family to Windhelm (assuming he hasn’t actually taken over Whiterun himself), because under no circumstances is he going to pretend he’s sorry the Emperor is dead.

I saw somebody on a Reddit post imagining Imperial hit squads coming after the Dragonborn, and I think that’s an excellent idea. You are absolutely known to have done the deed, and the Imperial forces should want your blood as a result. Especially if you’ve run the civil war on the Imperial side, because if you made Legate in the Imperial forces and you still killed the Emperor? That’s a direct violation of your oaths to serve the Emperor and the Empire. And it should be grounds for Tullius to order your execution.

I should also expect committing this crime being big enough to cost you thaneships in Imperial holds–Solitude at the very least. If you don’t have thaneships and/or property in Imperial holds yet, I’d expect you to be blocked from getting those. Or at the very least, it should become a hell of a lot harder. You might have to do, say, two or three times as many favor quests. Or pay much higher prices for the properties. Or both.

In short, at least in the Imperial holds, taking out the Emperor should cost you.

By contrast, in the Stormcloak-aligned holds, I’d expect you to be hailed as a goddamned hero. Ulfric should instantly offer you a thaneship if you don’t have the thaneship in Eastmarch already. He might not need to make a public show of it, but I could absolutely see him sending a private courier to you because his spies have identified you as the one who did the deed. And you could enjoy much reduced pricing on any properties you haven’t picked up yet.

If you were on the side of the Imperial forces and the civil war isn’t played out yet, I’d also expect it to be an opportunity for you to defect to the Stormcloaks. With a potential opportunity for you to pressure Ulfric to be more accepting of the Dunmer and Argonians in his city, if he wants you on his side.

All in all, stuff that would be doable with some ambitious modding.

But it’d take those kinds of ambitious changes for me to be really happier with the overall Dark Brotherhood plot.

I’m still going to try the Dark Brotherhood for Good Guys mod, mind you… but I won’t be running the plot again in an unmodded playthrough.

Achievements unlocked

Hail Sithis!: For finishing up that quest in particular, and the Dark Brotherhood plotline in general

Achievements count as of this post: 41.

Language commentary

Interesting terms observed:

List of German terms observed for this playthrough, click to expand…

Pfahlwurzel: Taproot
Säbelzahntigerauge: Eye of Sabre Cat (lit. “saber-toothed tiger eye”)
Schneesäbelzahntiger: Snowy Sabre Cat
Möchtest du Folgendes vergiften: Would you like to poison the following
Uneinsehbaren: Inaccessible (used for the side objective to plant the Gourmet’s body somewhere out of the way)
Verloren(e): Lost, prodigal
Ring des Nachtwebers: Nightweaver’s Band
Schleichkünsten: Sneakiness (lit. “stealth skills”)
Zerstörungszauber: Destruction spells
Schloss Elend: Castle Dour
Passierschein: Writ of Passage
Kommandant Maro: Commander Maro
Jarrin-Wurzel: Jarrin Root
Faulpelze: Lazybones (used by Penitus Oculatus agent when criticizing Solitude’s Imperial forces)
Taugenichtse: Good-for-nothings (also used by Penitus Oculatus agent, in same critique)
Stehengeblieben: Stop right there (used by Commander Maro when he intercepts you on the way into Castle Dour)
Burgköchin: Castle chef (feminine)
Kochbuch: Cookbook
Brühe: Broth
Zutat: Ingredient
Potage le Magnifique: The Gourmet’s signature dish, “magnificent soup”, or “soup the magnificent”
Eintopf: Stew
Meekos Hütte: Meeko’s Shack
Verfluchtes Satansweib: Cursed she-devil (lit. “Satan’s wife”), used by Nazir when snarking at Babette)
Töricht: Foolish
Neuaufbau: Reconstruction (used by Astrid when I found her burned in the Sanctuary, and she gasps out that my being alive means there’s a chance for the Brotherhood to rebuild)
Klinge des Wehklagens: Blade of Woe (lit. “blade of wailing”)
Aufenthaltsort: Abode, residence
Der echte Kaiser: The true Emperor
Dämmersternzuflucht: Dawnstar Sanctuary
Vor Anker liegen: Lie in anchor
Ereignisse: Events
Schicksalsschläge: Misfortunes, blows of fate
Akquisitionsexperte: Acquisitions expert, obtainer of goods… or in other words, a thief
Dienste: Services
In Ansprunch nehmen: Take advantage of, use (appears in the objective where you use Delvin’s services to refurbish the Dawnstar Sanctuary)
Gesandte: Legate
Zwischenzeit: Interim
Zuwendung: Attention
Glanzzeiten: Glory days (used by Delvin to describe the new strength of the Thieves Guild)
Gildenmitgliedern: Guild members
Kanaldeckel: Sewer grate
Außenbezirk: Outskirts
Luxusschlafzimmer: Luxury bedroom

Noting for the record that “Potage le Magnifique” is not German. It’s French, but it’s French with a weird word order. It translates literally to “Soup the Magnificent”, and that’s a word order that makes more sense if you’re describing a person. There’s even examples right in Skyrim: Elisif the Fair, Balgruuf the Greater, Idgrod the Younger.

But if “the Magnificent” is being assigned to soup, that just sounds kind of goofy.

That said, you could make the argument that ol’ Balagog named it that way on purpose. The recipe is described in the in-game book Uncommon Taste, and the text even describes how it’s a super simple recipe. But it’s known in game lore that he was trained in Breton cuisine, and that he was specifically friends with Anton Virane, the chef Finds killed in Markarth.

So I now totally have a headcanon that Balagog had no goddamn idea what to call the recipe at first, and having a conversation with Anton about it:

Anton: So what do you call this magnificent soup of yours?

Balagog: Uh… soup? What else would I call it? It’s soup.

Anton: Oh, my friend! You have to give it a name with flair if you want the people to remember it. To remember you! Like all the very best heroes and leaders of legend! Elisif the Fair! Balgruuf the Greater!

Balagog, grimacing: Ah, dung, I dunno. “Soup the Magnificent”.

Anton, laughing out loud: Ha, yes! But let’s put it into the old tongue, my friend! “Potage le Magnifique”!

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to me that Nazir’s line snarking at Babette about her not helping him get me out of the Night-Mother’s coffin includes his calling her “verfluchtes Satansweib” in German. But in English, he calls her “stupid she-devil”. So the German game is rewording that, and that’s an interesting translation choice. We see in the game that Nazir is not short of snark for anybody, but we also see that Babette is anything but stupid. In the context of the conversation in question, Nazir’s irritated by Babette nagging him to go faster, so a bit of snark on his part is certainly in character for him. But there’s a difference between “stupid” and “cursed”. Either one could be taken by an English speaker as befitting the situation, where “cursed” could be used in place of “damned” or “Divines-damned” or what have you.

But “cursed” could also have a connotation of Nazir not being entirely comfy with being around the child-sized vampire, either. Given that he’s a Redguard, and Redguards in lore have issues about the undead, I could see that being a possibility in play here. Even if he usually hides it and is willing to treat Babette like a colleague. Having the Sanctuary attacked and destroyed, though, could certainly put a crack in that for him.

“Der echte Kaiser” appears in my dialogue to Nazir when I clue him in that the Night Mother has told me our contract on taking out the Emperor must still be fulfilled. But I don’t get why “echte” has an e on the end of it. Normally in my German lessons, an e on the end of an adjective signifies that the noun that follows is considered feminine. But Kaiser is definitely a masculine noun. So I don’t know if this was a question of the translation team just making a typo, or if there’s some nuance of German here that I’m missing.