Forums » Elder Scrolls

Death of a Traitor: Mercer Frey

    • 1467 posts
    March 17, 2015 7:06 AM EDT

    So this one isn't really an option like the Cicero question earlier but it does raise a good idea. 

    If you were given the option would you join Mercer Frey in becoming rich beyond your wildest dreams, or will you do the 'honorable' thing and help a Guild of Thieves return to it's former glory, leading to more stuff stolen and really worse for the people of Skyrim in general..

    So Mercer Frey or the Thieves Guild, or Nothing. 

    • 627 posts
    March 17, 2015 7:28 AM EDT

    If I had the option to join him I'd be very tempted, but I'd still fight against him since there would be an incredibly high chance of him trying to double cross you again. And plus who ever said you had to give the key and the eyes back?

    • 41 posts
    March 17, 2015 9:35 AM EDT
    I sure as hell would side with him. Unlike the forced Nocturnal worship, siding with him is something an ACTUAL thief would be tempted to do.

    Now that I think about it, just ANY option to go against Nocturnal would make me happy. It feels so wrong, in a game with this amount of choice, for the major questlines to all be... well, foregone conclusions.
    • 125 posts
    March 17, 2015 10:24 AM EDT

    Personally, the Thieves Guild is deeply valuable to me. I guess it goes back to my earliest days of playing Skyrim; theirs was the first guild that I ever joined, and I've had a soft spot for 'em ever since. They all feel like good friends of mine, you know?

    That said, after what Mercer did to my player character, all I wanted to do was kill him. And hearing Karliah's account of what other damage he did to the Guild certainly didn't help matters. Sorry Merc, but you let your ambitions get the better of you. Exposing you to the Guild and Fus-Ro-Dah'ing your sorry butt off of the Falmer statue was immensely satisfying. 

    • 649 posts
    March 17, 2015 10:43 AM EDT

    What if they were thieves using two handed weapons?

    • 179 posts
    March 17, 2015 11:14 AM EDT

    You aren't forced to worship Nocturnal at all; in fact, Karliah tells you that Nocturnal doesn't care for worship. All you're doing is simply selling your soul to her, and that seems appropriate for a thief to do. After all, who cares about things like "your soul" and "the afterlife" when you can get super rich? :P

    • 41 posts
    March 17, 2015 12:36 PM EDT
    I didn't mean that you were forced, I meant that it's inclusion felt forced. The questline would have worked just as well, if not better, if it had just been you working to take out the traitor Mercer and there were no Nightingales. To me, at least, Nocturnal's involvement felt shoehorn-ed in.

    I agree with you on the 'selling your soul" part though, that fits a thief.
  • March 17, 2015 2:58 PM EDT

    Easy answer,join him and betray him just as he did you and the Theives Guild.Make him a broken man so he can experience what it feels like to be betrayed and killed.

    • 125 posts
    March 17, 2015 3:09 PM EDT

    And then throw him into the cistern for the Guild to personally dispose of.  I actually like that idea.

    • 237 posts
    March 17, 2015 5:36 PM EDT

    B-but that's how I do play my thieves!

    • 1217 posts
    March 17, 2015 6:27 PM EDT

    It's the same as in the case of Miraak. I'm not gonna get stabbed and spend all my time trying to unravel his plans just to join him in the end. Now, if he made the offer during the quest in Snow Veil Sanctum, then I'd consider it (and I'd definitely have a character who accepted). But honestly, I never liked the guy. His voice is kinda annoying, and his attitude is insulting. He's just written really well as a bad guy, and he's definitely the follower type; you'd spent the rest of the game as his subordinate.

  • March 17, 2015 6:32 PM EDT

    I was thinking something more unmerciful,but that sounds good too.

  • Tom
    • 624 posts
    March 18, 2015 6:11 PM EDT

    I'd fit each and every one of them for a new neck tie, then escort them to the city wall.

  • March 18, 2015 10:03 PM EDT

    I was also never fond of the whole idea of the Nightingales. They could've been their own little faction, with some side quests to serve Nocturnal, and then you get some badass Daedric-themed armor (ala Boethia's quest).

    • 1467 posts
    March 18, 2015 10:05 PM EDT

    That would have been much more interesting if the NIghtingales were a mostly seperate faction, I wouldn't mind if they were still connected but not basically being fused together.

  • March 19, 2015 6:28 PM EDT

    I'd join him, if only to backstab him and take the Skeleton Key for myself. In the hands of someone as chaotic and greedy as Mercer Frey the Key's potential is completely wasted.

    • 2 posts
    March 20, 2015 3:44 PM EDT

    Why should I join a dude that shot a poisoned arrow at me and cursed his entire guild and killed his previous leader? I'd rather 'protect' the twilight sepulcher (something you actually don't have to do) and have the amazing powers and the most awesome looking armor in the game.