The Brothers of Darkness                                        Pellarne Assi                                                                                                                                                      )	    ,  
  '        The  Brothers of  Darkness            As their name suggests, the Dark Brotherhood has a history shrouded in obfuscation. Their ways are secret to those who are not Brothers of the order (Brothers is the generic term: some of the deadliest of the assassins are female, but they are called Brothers as well). How they continue to exist in shadow, but can be easily found by those desparate enough to pay for their services is not the least of their mysteries.    The Dark Brotherhood sprang from a religious order, the Morag Tong, during the Second Era. The Morag Tong were worshippers of the daedra spirit Mephala, who encouraged them to commit ritual murders. In their early years, they were as disorganized as cultists usually are. There was no one to lead the group, and as a group they dared not murder any of any importance. This changed with the rise of the Night Mother.    All leaders of the Morag Tong, and then the Dark Brotherhood, have been called the Night Mother. Whether the same woman has commanded the Dark Brotherhood since the second era is unknown. What is believed is that the original Night Mother developed an important belief of the Morag Tong.    This first belief is that, while Mephala grows stronger with every murder commited in her name, certain murders were better than others. Murders that came from hate pleased Mephala more than murders commited because of greed. Murders of great men and women pleased Mephala more than murders of unknowns.    We can approximate the time this belief was adopted with the first known murder commited by the Morag Tong. In the year 324 of the 2nd Era, the Potentate Versidue-Shaie was murdered in his palace in what is today the Elsweyr kingdom of Senchal. In a brash move, the Night Mother announced the identity of the murderers by painting MORAG TONG on the walls in the Potentate's blood.    Previous to that time, the Morag Tong existed in relative peace, like a witches coven. Occasionally persecuted, but usually ignored. In a remarkable syncroncity at a time when the Arena was a fractured land, the Morag Tong was outlawed throughout the continent. Every sovereign gave the cult's elimination his highest priority. Nothing more was officially heard of them for a hundred years.    It is more difficult to date the era when the Morag Tong re-emerged as the Dark Brotherhood. Assassin guilds have sporadically appeared throughout the history of Tamriel. The first mention of the Dark Brotherhood that I have found is from the journals of the Blood Queen Arlimahera of Hegathe: she spoke of slaying her enemies by her own hand, or, if necessary, "with the help of the Night Mother and her Dark Brotherhood, the secret arsenal my family has employed since my grandfather's time." Arlimahera wrote this in 2E 412, so one can surmise that the Dark Brotherhood had been in existance since at least 360 if her grandfather truly used them.    The important distinction between the Dark Brotherhood and the Morag Tong was that the Brotherhood was a business as much as a cult. Rulers and wealthy merchants now used the order as an assassin's guild. The Brotherhood gained the obvious benefits of a profitable enterprise, as well as the secondary benefit that no longer could rulers actively persecute them. They were needed. Even an extremely virtuous leader would be unwise to maltreat the Brotherhood.    Not long after Alimahera's journal entry about them was penned came perhaps the most famous series of executions in the history of the Dark Brotherhood. The Colovian Emperor Potentate Savirien-Chorak and every one of his heirs was murdered on one bloody night in Sun's Dawn in 430. Within a fortnight, the Colovian Dynasty crumbled, to the delight of its enemies. For over four hundred years, until the age of Tiber Septim, chaos reigned over Tamriel. Though no comparably impressive executions have been recorded, the Brotherhood must have grown fat with gold during that age.    The Dark Brotherhood has no shortage of business opportunities -- an accounting, I have been informed, is the Brotherhood's favorite euphemism for execution. While they are officially an unlawful organization in every corner of the Empire, like the Thieves Guild, they are almost universally tolerated.       