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| “ | How interesting. It appears Gallus's history has repeated itself. Karliah has provided me with the means to be rid of you, and this ancient tomb becomes your final resting place. But do you know what intrigues me the most? The fact that this was all possible because of you. Farewell. I'll be certain to give Brynjolf your regards. | „ |
| ~ Mercer Frey to the Dragonborn before he stabs him/her. |
| “ | Then the die is cast, and once again my blade will taste Nightingale blood! | „ |
| ~ Mercer Frey to the Dragonborn before he engages them in combat. |
| “ | If I see Frey, I'll pluck his eyes from his skull with my bare hands! | „ |
| ~ Vex, after she discovered about Mercer Frey's betrayal. |
Mercer Frey is a major antagonist in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He serves as the main antagonist of the Thieves Guild questline.
He was voiced by Stephen Russell, who also voiced Lucan Valerius and Belethor.
Biography[]
Mercer Frey is the current leader of the Thieves' Guild, which has fallen on hard times since the death of its previous Guild Master, Gallus Desidenius, who was apparently murdered by his subordinate and lover Karliah twenty five years prior. When the Dragonborn joins the Guild, Mercer is openly dismissive and rude to them, until it is discovered that Karliah is attempting to undermine the Guild's operations in an attempt to make Mercer look bad in front of the Guild's only remaining benefactor, Maven Black-Briar. Upon learning that Karlaih is hiding in Snow Veil Sanctum, where Gallus was murdered, Mercer has the Dragonborn accompany him in apprehending her before she can escape again. While traveling through the ruins, Karliah shoots the Dragonborn with an arrow, knocking them to the ground. It transpires from Mercer and Karliah's conversation that Mercer is Gallus's true killer, framing Karliah for the crime. After Karliah escapes, knowing that confronting Mercer directly would be a death sentence, Mercer tells the Dragonborn that they are no longer useful to him now that they have learned the truth, stabbing them with his blade and leaving them to die.
The Dragonborn regains consciousness being tended to by Karliah, who explains that they survived Mercer's attempt to kill them because the arrow she shot them with was coated with a special poison that slowed their heartbeat, preventing them from bleeding out when Mercer stabbed them. After decoding Gallus's journal, the two discover that Mercer has spent years stealing from the Guild's coffers in order to live a lavish lifestyle, and that he murdered Gallus when he came close to exposing his treachery. Presenting their evidence to Brynjolf and the rest of the Thieves Guild leadership, they discover that Mercer has emptied the Guild's seemingly impenetrable treasure vault of all it's riches. With Mercer having vanished, the Dragonborn searches his home, Riftweald Manor, for clues of his whereabouts. There, they discover Mercer's plans to retrieve two enormous, priceless gems known as the Eyes of the Falmer, after which he intends to flee from Skyrim and vanish for good. Karliah then takes the Dragonborn and Brynjolf to be appointed Nightingales, an order of thieves in the service of the Daedric Prince Nocturnal, of which she, Mercer and Gallus were members of. She explains that Mercer was able to break into the Thieves Guild Treasure Vault via Nocturnal's artifact, the Skeleton Key, his theft of which is the cause of the Guild's string of bad luck since Gallus's death. The Skeleton Key can open any lock, and is used to open the Ebonmere, the portal connecting Nirn to Nocturnal's plane of Oblivion, the Evergloam; however, the Key is capable of unlocking more than just locks, with Mercer having used it's power to unlock his full potential, granting him greatly enhanced strength and power.
Pursuing Mercer to the Dwemer ruins of Irkngthand, where the Eyes of the Falmer are located, the Nightingales corner him after he has dislodged the Eyes from the statue they were embedded into. Confronting the Dragonborn, he declares that there is no honor among thieves and that Noctural does not truly care for those who serve her before attacking them, casting a spell on Brynjolf and forcing him to attack Karliah against his will. The Dragonborn slays Mercer in combat, taking the Eyes and the Skeleton Key from his corpse, along with anything else salvageable, and they return the latter to the Twilight Sepulcher, reopening the Ebonmere, breaking the curse on the Guild's luck and avenging Gallus's murder. Afterward, in recognition for their service to the organization, the Dragonborn is made the new Guildmaster of the now prosperous Thieves Guild.
Personality[]
When confronted, Mercer claims that the player and the other thieves are no better than him, as he believes that "honor among thieves" is an illusion and that, if one is to be a criminal, they shouldn't have any moral inhibitions. He has a very negative personality, as he is extremely arrogant, impatient, failure-intolerant, power-hungry, and an expert on both manipulation and deception. He is also greedy as he stole all of the guilds treasure they had collected over the past decades from their vault and attempted to steal the eyes of the falmer out of selfish desires to get what he and only he wants.
