Skyrim is absolutely littered with quests. Though you're introduced to the game through the main story, it can be ignored entirely almost from the off for you to find adventures in any direction you choose.
That said, it's worth paying attention to certain quest lines to get the most out of the game, many of which belong to varius Skyrim guilds and factions, such as The Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves' Guild and College of Winterhold, each with their own cast, playstyles and rewards, so if you're stuck for choice, we recommend picking up one of these questlines.
Though you'll hear whispers about them from townsfolk across Skyrim, they aren't the easiest to locate. Here's where and how you can start each major faction's quest lines. While we'll briefly describe what each one is about, from there we'll leave you on your own..
How to join Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, College of Winterhold and other Skyrim guilds and factions
Here is where to join each of the game's factions. Note there is also Dawnguard, which was added part of the game's first expansion of the same name, which we describe as part of our how to join Hearthfire DLC page.
Bards College
A faction with only a handful of quests, joining a group of bards and scholars is at least a little different to what else there is in the game. Just don't expect a lot of 'lute' in it for you.
To join, go to Solitude and find the Bards College - it's in the centre of the city, on the fork headed towards the bridge, next to one of Skyrim's Houses, Proudspire Manor.
Inside, you should be greeted by headmaster Viarmo when you enter, who will give you your first quest.
The Blades
This is faction of dragon hunters that you'll encounter as part of the main story. When you do, there's the option to do a couple of additional quests for them - chat to Delphine to learn more.
Civil War
Introduced to you at the very start of the the game, Skyrim is a battleground for the Imperial and Stormcloak factions. Technically one questline, you have to choose between either side and play your part in it unfolding. Feel free to start either, but note 'The Jagged Crown' is by which you point you must pick either one.
Stormcloaks: Go to Wildhelm, and head to the Palace of Kings - it's the huge structure more of less straight ahead as you enter the city - and watch the conversation unfold between Ulfric and Galmar in the hall. When it's over, speak to Ulfric, then Galmar, to get the ball rolling on this faction.
Imperials: Head to Castle Dour in Solitude - you can find it more or less straight ahead when you first enter from the overworld, then enter a door on the left - and chat to Legate Rikke inside. She'll test you by going to Fort Hraggstad, kicking off the quest line.
The Companions
One of the first factions you'll come across, if you're following the story, this is more aligned with fighting-type character roles. What makes them notable - spoilers incoming - is along the questline you'll also have the chance to become a werewolf.
To join, visit the Jorrvaskr in Whiterun (it's up the steps next to the giant tree in the middle of the town) and locate Kodlak Whitemane - we found him downstairs in the Living Quarters chatting to Vilkas.
College of Winterhold
Based in the northern most city of Winterhold, these have you helping a guild of mages and, as such, helps to have some magick-skills at hand. You'll have to interact with this faction as part of the main story, but you can obviously ignore it and join at your own request.
To join, head to Winterhold and go to stone bridge in the middle of the town and attempt to enter. Faralda will stop you and say only those who can offer something to the College can proceed. She'll require you to cast a spell to prove your worth; if you say you don't know it, she'll sell it to you for 30 Gold. Cast it on the ground next to her and she'll let you in.
If you're unfamiliar with magick, equip it like a weapon (go into your main menu, then Spells) and attach it to your left or right hand. If you don't have enough Magicka (if you aren't a high enough level, for example) then you can try unlocking Skills in that discipline to make it cheaper, equip a Magicka boosting item, or consume a Magicka increasing item - such as Elsweyr Fondue - to let you cast it and go on through and get the ball rolling.
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Want more help with Skyrim? Find out how to join every guild and faction, how to earn Gold fast, learning about XP and levelling to 100, max Crafting skills, max Warrior skills, max Thief skills and max Mage skills, how to get married, where to buy a house, how to start Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn DLC expansions. If you're on PC, we have a list of console commands and cheats, and you can learn about the remastered version and how to install mods with our Skyrim guide. Finally, with Switch owners, we have Skyrim amiibo support explained to help unlock special Zelda-themed items.
The Dark Brotherhood
This fan-favourite faction is a guild of secretive assassins that you may hear about on your travels, and is one well worth joining. While any character can join, it perhaps favours characters with stealth builds.
To join, go to Windhelm, and walk round the streets until you hear about Aventus Aretino trying to contact the Dark Brotherhood.
Head to the Aventus Residence - the easiest way to get there is to take the passage on the right before you enter the Palace of Kings - and lockpick your way into the easy Novice lock. Speak to Aventus Aretino inside to start the 'Innocence Lost' questline.
Disturbed collection mp3 torrent online. Thieves Guild
As the name suggests, expect to join an underground band of thieves that specialise in a variety of illegal activities.
To join, find Brynjolf in Riften. He can usually be found outside by the market stalls in the centre of the city. He should approach you automatically when you get near, and will start the 'A Chance Encounter' quest that involves a spot of pickpocketing to kick off the Thieves' Guild questline.
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Forgotten your details?Skyrim Destroy The Thieves Guild Se
Maven Black-Briar is, to me, easily the most despicable person in all of Skyrim (and I say that as an acolyte of the Dark Brotherhood). Unfortunately, I also have obsessive-compulsive questing disorder so I cannot just leave the quest “Dampened Spirits” lying around.
Is there a way to turn this quest around and betray Maven, bringing her to justice?
(I should have never started the Thieves Guild quest line but I desperately wanted to find out about the “Unusual Gems.”)
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Konrad RudolphKonrad Rudolph
2 Answers
As per the comments, Maven Black-Briar is an 'essential' character, meaning there is no way (outside of console commands) to kill her off.
She plays a part in several other quest-lines, namely the Thieves-Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, aligning herself with the 'darker' side of Skyrim.
The only quest that causes any harm to her persona is to go see a man about a horse.
Additionally, the Black-Briar Lodge also contains some hefty loot, and an Unusual Gem, so I'm sure you can have some fun beating up her henchmen and stealing her stuff. But even then, when you talk to her after this, there is no difference in her interactions so she either
- doesn't give two hoots, 'cause she's rich and powerful and has her head stuck up her own buttor (more likely)
- The dev's didn't actually allow any differences to be made to her AI, so anything that you can do is entirely for the player's benefit only, with no outside effect on the rest of the game.
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Try doing the the second main quest first which is the dragonborn quest. When you call everyone to the meeting at the grey beards HQ, you get the chance to make Maven Black-Briar into the Jarl of Riften which in theory should make her vulnerable to exploitation.
When you go with the first main quest which is to kill Ulfric Stormcloak and do the quest where you get evidence that Laila Law is corrupt, instead of removing her in theory you should be able to get rid of Maven Black-Briar for good (if the emperor has any sense) because she is worse than Laila Law. Other than that I don't think you can.
GodEmperorDune8,4471010 gold badges5555 silver badges7373 bronze badges
icemanx23icemanx23
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One of the achievements for the Thieves Guild says 'Restore the Thieves Guild to its former glory.'
Brynjolf doesn't say anything to me, I can't seem to find Karliah, and as far as I can tell, I am finished with the plotline quests for the Thieves Guild. All I have left available are repeatable quests from Vex and Delvin.
How can I get this achievement?
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Invader SkoodgeInvader Skoodge47.3k9090 gold badges309309 silver badges491491 bronze badges
3 Answers
First, complete the Thieves Guild quest line (ends with you returning the Skeleton Key).
Then you need to do Delvin and Vex's generic (radiant) jobs until you have done five (5) radiant quests for each of these cities:
- Markarth
- Windhelm
- Solitude
- Whiterun
It doesn't matter which kind of jobs you do for them. After you have completed five jobs in one city area, you will receive a special quest from Delvin for that area. Complete that quest to 'upgrade' the Thieves Guild to a higher restoration status. Riften quests do not count. I would advise abandoning the Riften jobs unless you just want easy money. After you complete five jobs for one city, further jobs in that city won't progress the restoration. To make sure you only get jobs for cities you need, you can take a job from Vex/Delvin; then quicksave after you've ended dialogue with them, but before the job itself appears. If the job that you are given is for a city you do not need, simply load the quicksave and a new radiant quest will be assigned for you. This is easier and more efficient than simply abandoning quests, which also has been known to affect your 'quests completed' count in the game.
In summary: 5 radiant quests for each city, and 4 special quests, one for each city, for a total of 24 quests.
Jim Jones2,81522 gold badges1414 silver badges5252 bronze badges
Corey CsuhtaCorey Csuhta
Listen to this video. It explains everything! It helped me A LOT.
What you need to do is complete Delvin and Vex's jobs for 4 towns, which are:
- Solitude
- Markarth
- Whiterun
- Windhelm
After doing 5 jobs for one city, you get a special job. There are 4 special jobs for each of the 4 holds above. After doing 4 special jobs, talk to Brynjolf to start Under new Management. Complete it, and you're done!
Jim Jones2,81522 gold badges1414 silver badges5252 bronze badges
tehfacelesstehfaceless
pretty much right as soon as you join the theives guild do the missions Vex/Delvin's jobs 5 times in one city. then as you do that you will notice changes around the bar. if you finish the story line then you cant restore the thieves guild to its former glory. so when you join do the side missions from vex/delvin and the do the story. hope this help.
michael meiermichael meier
protected by Community♦Feb 20 '12 at 16:37
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Archived
First up: I originally posted this on my blog. But, IDGAF about views and such, and I know posting personal blog links on reddit is a cardinal sin, and since IDGAF.. here's the whole text from my article. Also, I will try to apply the Spoiler Tags as outlined in this sub's rules, but as you know, RES ignores them anyway.. But I will try just the same.
In this article, I will be floating a theory, and I would like to make it explicitly clear right from the start that this is only a theory. That theory is: you were originally intended to be allowed to destroy the Thieves Guild. You can destroy the Dark Brotherhood (in short, kill Astrid rather than any of the hostages, and follow the quest markers), and that's a shame, because the Dark Brotherhood is a lot of fun. But why allow you to do it? I can only imagine it's because they are Bad and you are Good. So I think, the same reasoning behind allowing the player to destroy the Dark Brotherhood, led to Bethesda planning on allowing you to do the same thing to the Thieves Guild. However, they decided against it and changed their minds (again, this is all conjecture), but did not remove all references to the quest. This article contains a few minor spoilers for the Dark Brotherhood, and a really minor one for the Thieves Guild.
First, why would you be allowed to do this? The Thieves Guild is great. It’s home to some of the best quests in the game. Well, so is the Dark Brotherhood, and the point is that if you’re playing a good guy, you would destroy the Dark Brotherhood, especially since a good guy would kill the headmistress of the orphanage anyway (she tortures the kids -- I’m not joking, walk in there and listen to what she tells them, then check out the torture room, it’s at the far end of where they sleep) and this would lead to you being offered to join them.
Second, what makes me think it was ever intended that you would be allowed to? I have four things I have discovered so far, in the game alone, without the use of the Creation Kit (which I do not know how to use).
- Corruption in Riften. When you first get to Riften, you cannot enter the town. The doors are locked and you are told to go around to the other side. At the other side, you are asked to pay a visitor’s tax. I always choose the response that says, “This is a shakedown. Let me pass,” or something like that, and they always tell me to hush and go on in. I’ve done this at very low levels with no points in the Speech skill, so I assume it always works. When you first approach the Jarl’s steward, she blurts out that she doesn’t know anything about any corruption in town. The ability to report the corrupt guard, or to pursue this line of conversation with the steward, is awkwardly absent from the game.
- Mjoll the Lioness. Depending on the time of day you come into Riften, you may walk past Mjoll the Lioness, a Nord warrior, and her boyfriend, Aerin. She will be complaining about the Thieves Guild, and Aerin will apologize for Mjoll, saying the city really gets to her, and that it’s her personal goal in life to clean up Riften. That Riften is like her baby and she wants to protect it. You can do a quest for Mjoll to find her lost glass greatsword, Grimsever, which sets Mjoll at the second-highest disposition level to you. She considers you a best friend at this point. You can additionally marry her (right out from under Aerin, and nothing is said about this!), raising her disposition to the max. At neither level is the option to help her clean up Riften. If a dragon slayer and a mean Nord warrior can’t clean up a thieves guild, what’s wrong with them?
- The merchant guild. Almost every merchant in Riften hates the Thieves Guild. The Guild shakes them down for “protection money.” Bersi Honey-Hand., the proprietor of the Pawned Prawn (Riften’s general merchandise store) has a couple dozen or so pamphlets in his safe downstairs calling for a rebellion against the guild, saying any store wishing to participate should mark their store. These pamphlets are never distributed. No stores are ever marked.
- The Ragged Flagon’s escape tunnel. The Ragged Flagon is a bar in the sewers under Riften. It features what looks like a dock, on what looks like a wading pool. This pool is ankle deep, if that. If you’re on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, ankle deep is all it ever is. However, if you’re on the PC, you can enter the developer code “TCL” (Toggle CLipping), and you can go under the floor, and see that the “wading pool” in the Flagon is actually quite deep. And at the very bottom.. is an escape tunnel! But it goes nowhere. It’s just a dead end. The supports for the dock go all the way down, and the steps that go into the wading pool go about six feet down (not even halfway). Here, see for yourself! Why is there an escape tunnel to the Ragged Flagon?
Third, how would destroying the Thieves Guild work, if the feature were completed? My best guess is that the quest would start at the Pawned Prawn. Asking any merchant about the Thieves Guild would get you directed there. Asking Bersi Honey-Hand about it would get you instructed to pass out the pamphlets. You would only be given one for each vendor. There are way too many in the safe. There are three vendors in the square (plus Brynjolf’s, but he doesn’t count). There’s the food cart. There’s Balimund, the smith. There’s the bar, and the bunkhouse. The Meadery also doesn’t count, because Maven is in with the Thieves Guild. There’s also the alchemy shop on the lower level. That makes eight. Nine if you count the court wizard, but she’s an airhead, and she works out of the Jarl’s place, so let’s just call it eight.
At this point, all the shops are marked (except perhaps a couple holdouts) and since the Pawned Prawn is at the center of it, Bersi asks you to stay the night and guard the shop. The guild sends the unnamed Thief (the guys in brown who get killed every other time you’re in Riften) to hit the Prawn, and you kill him. Mjoll would be strictly optional, and I would guess that she would not even work with you until you brought her her sword. She is just a wild card and I don’t know how she would fit in, so I can only assume she would be an optional ally.
At this point or after a couple attacks, you would go to the Jarl, who would refer you to her steward. The steward would brush you off and send you packing, and then Maven’s brute (Maul) would threaten you. You could fight and kill him for a key to Maven’s, or you could ignore his threats, and break in later. Telling Bersi about this would have Bersi send you to Maven’s home to look for clues. You would break into Maven’s home, and find a document incriminating her -- something from Mercer Frey, perhaps, or Brynjolf.
Returning to the Jarl, now with proof of her steward’s corruption, the steward and Maven would both be arrested, and the Jarl would give you the option, at this point, to rid Riften of the Thieves Guild once and for all, also pledging a small group of Riften town guards to assist. Now, I’m thinking either the main entrance to the Flagon is barricaded, and you would have to enter via the escape hatch at the bottom, or, my original thought is that a lot of fire is used (not explosives, it would bring the whole center of town down) and you escape through the hatch to save your life -- and the escape hatch leads to the lake, and out of town.
The reward for destroying the Thieves Guild would be, you are instantly Thane, you have max disposition with every vendor in Riften, and who knows what else. Maybe a big cash reward. Maybe the Jarl just gives you Honeyside (the home you can purchase in town). Destroying the Thieves Guild would be the best thing to happen to Riften. You would be a hero.
Fourth, what would be the consequences? So far as I can tell, they would be minimal. The Dark Brotherhood, if not destroyed, would send you to the Thieves Guild to appraise a necklace. But there are many jewelers in Skyrim, including one right in Riften. But if you’re destroying the Thieves Guild, aren’t you also going to destroy the Dark Brotherhood? Also, the limited collectibles, the Unusual Gems, or later revealed to be Stones of Barenziah, are appraised by a Thieves Guild member. Again, these are jewels and could be appraised by any jeweler. Oh, and a Thieves Guild member sells you furnishings for the Dark Brotherhood lair at the end of the quest, but that could fall to any general store.
Lastly, if you seriously want to destroy the Thieves Guild, you can do so with this mod, but I have not tried it, and thus cannot vouch for it. Read the readme carefully, this mod has a ton of stipulations. And the Ragged Flagon escape tunnel is not utilized, nor is Bersi's merchants guild. It's just a quick n' dirty way to destroy the other evil guild, for lawful good characters. But again, the Thieves Guild is a lot of fun, and if you're looking for motivation to do it with your good character, I would recommend using this mod to start in Riften (starting off owning Honeyside, the home in Riften), then joining the Thieves Guild straight away. Go kill Grelod the Kind while you're at it (she's a real bitch, and she tortures the children) and get into the Dark Brotherhood. Do nothing else in the game until those are complete. Then go to Helgen and witness Alduin flying away -- this starts the main quest. Then, begin your 'redemption.' (The developers even spoke of doing something like this in the behind-the-scenes documentary Beyond the Wall, actually saying that a good character could start off bad and then be redeemed by saving the world.)
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