Blade of Woe & role-play

Zells · April 2018

My fellow role-playing, backstory-obsessed friends, I have a question:

How do you justify using the Blade of Woe with "good" characters? Or do you not use it with them?

I have a Sorc I'm running as a thief, but her story is that she was a Coldharbour captive my main character freed in the main quest. I'd like to pickpocket with her, but I'm really hung up on the Blade of Woe - her whole deal was being a captive of Molag Bal; I really cannot see this character willingly sacrificing random innocents to Sithis for several hours in a row for fun and profit.

What I'm looking for here is a story-based work around that fits canon - tell me the story that makes it work for you. Pretty please.

And if any ZOSy folks are listening - I'd like to see this adjusted. TES games have a tradition of the Thieves Guild being thief-with-a-heart-of-gold types. "Don't kill anyone while doing this quest, we're not the Dark Brotherhood!" But constant murder is de rigeur for pickpocketing in ESO. I built almost all my thieves as good-guy types, with the TES tradition in mind, and pickpocketing is a Thieves Guild skill... but if you don't kill the npc afterwards, you can't work a circuit, and you're leaving behind empty-pockets npcs, which other players will (rightfully) curse you for, it's like leaving trash behind in a treasure chest. A thief stealing from someone's pockets is one thing, a serial killer leaving a trail of dozens of dead bodies through a town in order to collect pieces of paper is a different deal, RP-wise. I've heard a number of convos amongst players about this since DB & TG came out. It just doesn't sit right.

Kierro · April 2018

Just think of it as a random dagger and not the Blade of Woe. My Argonian, Spells-In-Shadows, doesn't kill ANYONE who isn't his targets. This means from an RP perspective, during an assassination contract, I kill no one. Sometimes this is impossible, because my target is in the same room as an "innocent". So I have no choice but to kill them both, but RP wise, the innocent lived. So you want to believe your character isn't an assassin, then your character isn't an assassin, it's that simple.

kadochka · November 2018

Zells wrote: »

My fellow role-playing, backstory-obsessed friends, I have a question:

How do you justify using the Blade of Woe with "good" characters? Or do you not use it with them?

I don't even get it with 'good' characters.. again, if it is technically just a dagger, what difference should it make?
I don't know.

Itacira · November 2018

Yeah, I had the hardest time starting the Dark Brotherhood questline with my character because I RP her as some kind of chaotic-good/lawful neutral (IT MAKES SENSE IN MY HEAD) personality.

Eventually I started the quest because GDI I have access to the DLC might as well do the storyline ! and I gotta admit I now mindlessly BoW and loot. It's actually gotten me out of my RP mindset a bit. So yeah, I make a lot more gold but...

And no, I haven't been able to find any acceptable if convoluted reasoning for my character dropping innocents bodies all over the map.

jpo · November 2018

As the Eyes and Ears of the queen, I'm often required to kill some that may seem innocent to those outside of my circle.
But know that each of my targets are dangerous threats to the survival of the Aldmeri Dominion.

Nobody I kill is innocent.

RaddlemanNumber7 · November 2018

By having my Vestige unquestioningly believe in the goodness of the higher power that guides their actions. By believing that if they are guided to do bad things, like join the Dark Brotherhood and do all that killing, then this will in the grand scheme of things make the world a better place. You kill an evil leader and their followers so that they can be replaced by someone better. You kill an anonymous little man in the street, seemingly at random, but guided by the higher power you have unknowingly saved his family from a future of abuse. It's a matter of having Faith.

Sending souls to Sithis - I also have a story line which says the Blade of Woe grants the victim karmic release allowing their soul to achieve instant transcendence. You can't use BoW on people like bosses because they have too much karmic debt to deserve instant release. Not exactly canon but close enough for me.

goaway · November 2018

I had the same trepidation initially, but love using the Blade of Woe so much that I wound up getting it even for my "good" characters.
While my reasons aren't as thoroughly thought through as many other players', mine boils down to this: all of my characters have a little piece of insanity in them. Some more, some less, but they all have a dark side. Some, the "good" characters, simply lead a double life, have more to hide. Or they might kill less, say mostly only their contracts. However, that spark of insanity in them, means at any point in time if the circumstances line up, they may not be able to resist the call of the blade, the sweet release as it tastes blood, and they may act accordingly. For some characters it's kind of their dirty secret. But I tend to make mostly "dark" characters anyway, and I do love the "corrupted good" character.

But that's just me.