First of all, let me start out with saying this: I feel I know what Zenimax is going for with the Dark Brotherhood storyline. To me, it seems like they tried to make us care, to make us feel hate and a desire for revenge against Lyra for murdering our new family. Right from the get go, we're introduced to a whole bunch of characters, most of which are very welcoming, and immediately seek to share their entire backstory with the Vestige.

Then soon after, we watch our family die one after another, all whilst we, as the Vestige, are left utterly powerless to prevent any of the murders. Not only is the player left powerless to stop any of it, in fact, if I am not mistaken, there is not a single turn of events the player have control over in the Dark Brotherhood storyline, nothing the player says, or do changes the outcome of the story. But the worst offender in my mind, is the sheer lack of connection and emotion that is established between the Dark Brotherhood members, and the Vestige.

To put this into example, both when Cimbar and Mirabelle was murdered infront of us, it felt strangely disconnected, in the sense that I did not truly care. I had barely just met them, and the same nearly goes for Green-Venom-Tongue (Which I will add, is actually a very beautifully designed character in my mind) but one which is easily killed off, without the proper emotional attachment being built between him, and the Vestige. The same assesment goes for Cimbar and Mirabelle too, yet I do believe Green-Venom-Tongue was closest, due to his longlivity in comparison to the former two.

The Dark Brotherhood, much like the Thieves Guild, consider their fellow guild members family, they all have strict rules as to not harm, or otherwise offend each other. We see this in the Black Marsh Sanctuary too, between Lyra and her decreased 'family'. We see a struggle in her, we notice how she actually has a difficult time carrying out the burden of the Silencer, to literally murder those that she herself, considers her beloved family, all because of the purification of the sanctuary.

But with the Vestige, and the storyline in the Dark Brotherhood, there is a complete disconnect from it all. Right from the get go, we're thrown a massive amount of background chatter into the face from nearly all Dark Brotherhood members, with the exception of Brema and Cimbar, both of which only have a brief appearence before being murdered.

Now, I consider myself a story entusiast, and oh boy do I love a good story! Which is why the Dark Brotherhood feels just so much more painful to play through, because it all feels forced.

To put this into perspective: Characters like Naryu, Darion, Kirith, Raynor, Skjor, Razum-Dar, Gabrielle, Verandis and Stibbons just to name a few, are all reccuring characters that appear every now and then, and continuesly progresses. This ensures that we, the players gets an emotional attachment to these characters. We feel for them, for we have seen them in their difficult times, we have aided them, and they too, have aided us. Which is why that their sacrifice, or misfortune, comes as a grave calling to us, and actually makes us care.

One might argue, that this is only because we see them time after time again, and that the Dark Brotherhood simply did not have the chance to live up to such expectations, yet I will claim differently, due to the superb storyline involving both Upper Craglorn, and the Thieves Guild in Abah's Landing.

The Thieves Guild succeeded greatly in this, by involving each members unique quests to get a feeling for them. You see the struggle each member has amongst the crew, you see their fears, their doubts, and you even have the joyful pleasure of making Misses Snarky and Harsh Dunmer, Velsa, care and be thankful. Every single important member of the Thieves Guild who play an intergral part of the storyline, have had time to be developed so we, as the Vestige, can feel an emotional attachment.

This is why we care so much for Zeira's capture, why we seek to free her almost immediately. We fear her execution because we understand her, we got to see her soft side, and we saw her grow from a failure that had lost all hope, to an inspiring Guild Master that sought to restore glory to not only herself, but everyone else.

The Thieves Guild in itself, sheer size wise, is around the same size in its story as the Dark Brotherhood, which is why I believe Zenimax has taken a misstep here, and should seek to give characters proper time to develop. Killing off characters can be a really beautiful, and exellent tool for storytelling, however, it only works if you give the character the proper build up first, and the only two that was even close to receive that in The Dark Brotherhood, was Green-Venom-Tongue and Lyra.

If we wish to see where a sacrifice has been beautifully made in ESO, I will claim that Darion (I know he is still alive, but his 'capture/lost' state is still felt!), Verandis and my personal favorite: Little Leaf, have had the most beautiful deaths / disappearences in ESO to date, because they were characters we cared for, we got to know them, we saw them for whom they really were, an emotional attachment was esablished, and thus, the disappearence/murder of them was as brilliant as ever.

I just personally, find it really sad to buy the Dark Brotherhood DLC, only to then end up loving the small side quests with Raynor, Kirith, Razum-Dar, Naryu and even Mel-Adrys (Thank you for making a vampire hunter notice vampires btw!) much more than the main storyline of the entire DLC. The Sweetroll Killer for example, is by far the best quest in the entire DLC if you ask me, simply due to the choices, and the emotional attachment you have to the characters.

Dark Brotherhood is an awesome guild, but this storyline felt rushed and lacking, not only in its choices, but so too, in its presentation. It all felt like a build up without any other purpose, than preparing the Vestige for a confrontation between the Dark Brotherhood, and the Morag Tong in Vvardenfell. Which I do sincerely hope, will have some choices in it, for there is no way on Tamriel I would choose any of the Dark Brotherhood members above Naryu and her fellow established Morag Tong comrades, at least not with the current character build-up.