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| “ | Our access to those bits of luck are what separates us from common bandits. | „ |
| ~ Gallus Desidenius. |
The Thieves Guild are major characters in The Elder Scrolls franchise.
In Skyrim (the franchise's fifth mainline game), they're located within the Ratway under the hold capital of The Rift, Riften, the guild includes a bar by the name of The Ragged Flagon, with the secret entrance to their headquarters in the cistern located just off to the side of the door to the Ratway Warrens.
History[]
Skyrim[]
By the start of the game in 4E 201, the Thieves Guild is on its last legs. Twenty-five years prior, unknown to the guild at the time, the current Guildmaster, Mercer Frey, had betrayed the Daedric Prince Nocturnal, patron god of the Thieves Guild, stolen her Daedric Artifact, the Skeleton Key, and murdered his fellow Nightingale Gallus Desidenius, the leader of the Thieves Guild previously, and framed fellow Nightingale Karliah for it, alienating her from the Thieves Guild. Karliah swore to avenge Gallus and kill Mercer for his treason to the Thieves Guild and Nocturnal. Using the Skeleton Key, Mercer unlocked his full potential, and secretly began robbing the Thieves Guild blind of all their loot kept in their impenetrable vault, while not caring that, with Nocturnal's connection to Nirn and Tamriel from her realm of Oblivion known as the Evergloam severed, the Thieves Guild's luck began to dry up, leading to many of their contacts severing ties with them and merchants that worked with the Guild to move out of the Ragged Flagon, further weakening the Guild. They only are surviving now thanks to their last contact who remains in good standing with them due to living in Riften, above the Ratway where the Ragged Flagon is, Maven Black-Briar, matriarch of the Black-Briar Family and owner of the Black-Briar Meadery that is a major part of both Riften and Skyrim's economy.
When the Dragonborn enters Riften for the first time, Brynjolf approaches them to encourage them to complete what was actually an initiation to have the Dragonborn join the Thieves Guild. The plan was for Brynjolf to distract everyone in the marketplace with promoting his so-called "Falmerblood Elixir" while the Dragonborn covertly broke into the Argonian jeweler Madesi's strongbox in his stall, took the ring inside, and pickpocket it onto the Dark Elf merchant Brand-Shei, thus falsely framing Brand-Shei for theft, and having one of Riften's Hold Guards arrest Brand-Shei and imprison him in the Riften Jail in Mistveil Keep. Once successful, Brynjolf invites the Dragonborn down to the Ragged Flagon to meet Vex and Delvin Mallory, along with the other staff or customers there, then takes them to the Cisten to introduce the Dragonborn to Mercer. In the meantime, to try and expose Mercer for his lies and deceit, Karliah had been aiding threats to Maven Black-Briar and the Thieves Guild's operations, such as Goldenglow Estate and Honningbrew Meadery, leaving behind notes with her seal on them for Maven and Mercer to find as clues as to how Maven was losing out on the honey for her Black-Briar Mead and how her rival meadery, Honningbrew, got started so quickly to threaten her claim on the mead market. As Mercer learns of these developments, it is through a former Thieves Guild fence in the Argonian Gulum-Ei in Solitude that Karliah sends him a message, challenging him to battle at Snow Veil Sanctum in Winterhold, where Mercer betrayed and murdered Gallus. However, bringing the Dragonborn along, this forces Karliah to waste her arrow tipped with a potent paralysis poison on the Dragonborn, which inevitably saves their life when Mercer attempts to kill them to remove any witnesses to having heard the truth when he and Karliah confronted each other before Karliah, knowing she's outmatched, flees under cover of invisibility to escape him. Karliah later rescues the Dragonborn and nurses them back to health, but with the Dragonborn her only means of showing the Thieves Guild the truth of Mercer's betrayal, she asks for their help, giving them Gallus' journal to decipher as it was written in the Falmer language.
Heading to Markarth to infiltrate Calcelmo's private lab to decipher the Falmer writings and avoid his personal guards watching the lab, along with his nephew/assistant Aicantar, when the Dragonborn returns the translation to Karliah, she and the Dragonborn head back to Riften to show Brynjolf and the rest of the Thieves Guild. Though they are hostile to Karliah's presence, still thinking her a traitor, once she shows the truth with Gallus' journal to them, and they find the vault containing all their gathered loot empty, that's all it takes to convince them that Mercer betrayed them and must be punished. Brynjolf joins Karliah and the Dragonborn to be initiated as Nightingales by Nocturnal, restoring the Nightingale trinity that Mercer betrayed when he killed Gallus, before heading to the Dwemer ruins of Irkngthand to confront Mercer as he attempts to collect the Eyes of the Falmer and then make good his escape from Skyrim to avoid facing justice. Though he manages to keep Karliah and Brynjolf at bay by forcing Brynjolf to fight Karliah due to a Frenzy spell, he has to face the Dragonborn. Despite all his skills and abilities as Guildmaster and a Nightingale thanks to the Skeleton Key unlocking his full potential, Mercer is finally slain by the Dragonborn, avenging Gallus and delivering justice to Mercer for his treason against the Thieves Guild and their patron Daedric Prince in Nocturnal.
After the Dragonborn returns the Skeleton Key to Nocturnal at the Twilight Sepulcher, and Karliah has one last goodbye with Gallus' spirit, the Dragonborn is made the new Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild with Maven, Karliah, Brynjolf, and the other members' support and blessing, but only once the Dragonborn can help the Thieves Guild get back on their feet by doing odd jobs for Vex and Delvin Mallory to restore the Thieves Guild's influence in Markarth, Solitude, Windhelm, and Whiterun. After doing a special job in each hold capital, the Ragged Flagon will get new merchants and businesses, while the cistern is renovated to help show the Thieves Guild is once more a threat to all of Skyrim.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Dark Brotherhood
- Nocturnal
- Nightingales
- Dragonborn
- Nerevarine
- Hero of Kvatch
- Hero of Daggerfall
- Vestige
Enemies[]
- Nine Divines
- Tribunal
- Fighters Guild
- Mages Guild
- Aldmeri Dominion
- Thalmor
- Daggerfall Covenant
- Ebonheart Pack
- Akavivi
- Sloads
- Dragons
- Stormcloaks
- Great Houses of Morrowind
- Imperial Legion
- Emperor of Tamriel
[]
  Villains
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Primordial Gods and Forces Daedric Princes Daedra Dragons Vampires Frostbite Spiders Ayleids Aldmeri Dominion Imperial Legion The Longhouse Emperors Thieves Guild Order of the Waking Flame Dark Brotherhood Blackwood Company Order of the Black Worm Glenmoril Witches Stormcloaks Penitus Oculatus Legion Zero Tribunal Sixth House Dragon Cult/Dragon Priests Dwemer Dunmer Draugr Soul Cairn Gray Host The Ascendant Order Creatures Others | ||