Summary
Guilds and their questlines are a permanent and enthralling part of world building and gameplay inThe Elder Scrollsseries.Oblivion Remasteredreintroduced familiar guild questlines, complete with overarching stories of political intrigue, supernatural horror, and moral complexities. Each faction in Cyrodiil offers memorable experiences with a distinct tone and structure for players to adapt their role-playing and combat styles to.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion(and thus its remaster) reintroduced the Fighter’s Guild and Mages Guild seen in previous games, and introduced the Dark Brotherhood emerging from the followers of Morag Tong inThe Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. This ranking examines which guilds deliver the most immersive storylines with the most satisfying payoffs in terms of story closure and rewards.
6The Arena
Tamriel’s Brutal Gladiator Bloodsport
The Arena is not exactly a guild, but features a gladiatorial experience set in the Imperial City, where combatants ascend through nine ranksfrom Pit Dog to Grand Champion. Players can use this as a way to make money as they rise in warrior status, with a narrative built around how the audience and Owyn of the Bloodworks view them. Owyn manages the fighters and offers tips on how to engage with the next fight, increasing his favorability towards the player the higher in rank they ascend.
The Arena reveals a side quest revolving around the current Grand Champion of the Arena, Agronak gro-Malog. He sends players to Crowhaven to seek out his aristocratic father to find out the truth of his “noble bloodline,” but the information that returns shakes him to his core. If players want to become the Grand Champion themselves, they must fight and end Agronak gro-Malog once and for all.
5The Fighter’s Guild
Mercenary Work and a Dark Twist
The Fighter’s Guild is present across most of Tamriel, providing a place for people to train and find work in a legal and (usually) moral mercenary line of work. The early stages ofOblivion’sFighter’s Guild quest line send players to several cities to take on a variety of tasks that usually require some form of combat prowess. However, members of the guild gradually uncover a growing threat tied to a rival mercenary group known asthe Blackwood Company. This group is also responsible for taking over the job market and leaving the Fighter’s Guild without work.
Further investigation into the Blackwood Company crisis reveals a horrific source of power responsible for feeding the group’s chaotic courage. Once justice is served, players can become the Master of the Guild, with the ability to determine the guild’s priorities and receive a monthly reward based on the choice of priority.
4The Mages Guild
Arcane Power and the Return of Necromancy
To join the Mages Guild, players finish strange tasks for recommendations to the guild, with some tasks revealing strange notions concerning possible corruption among the ranks of the guild. Once this is done, the Arcane University gives players access to numerous tools and people who can assist in their magical journey. Thereal storyline of the Mages Guildbegins with the quest “Ulterior Motives.” Players discover a secret vampire in charge of Skingrad, who reveals that he is fighting the resurrection of necromancy in Cyrodiil, and the Mages Guild seems to be unaware.
The story continues through a series of discoveries around a conspiracy involving Black Soul Gems and necromancy within the guild, and the revival of the lich known as Mannimarco. In the culmination of the storyline, the player faces Mannimarco, the King of Worms, in a high-stakes battle to save the Mages Guild and Cyrodiil from the necromancy crisis.
3Knights of the Nine
The Holy Crusade Against Ancient Evil
SinceOblivion Remasteredincludes all of hte original game’s DLC,Knights of the Nineis a part of the base game. Considered more of a cult faction than a guild, this group worships the Nine Divines. This quest line features an epic story centered around restoring the sacred order and confronting an ancient evil known as Umaril. Joining the faction requires a bit of role-playing, as players must take a pilgrimage to visit every Wayshrine across Cyrodiil and never gain infamy. Should players receive any amount of infamy, they must start the Pilgrimage over.
TheKnights of the Ninequests send players into trials of combat against the spirits of former knights and solve puzzles to acquire the Crusader’s Relics. Once players battle and end Umaril once and for all, they gain access to thefull set of Crusader’s Relics, which can only be worn if their Infamy stays below 1. This is one of the only factions that requires full engagement in roleplaying in order to get full access to its benefits.
2The Thieves Guild
Robbery, Wealth, & Underworld Politics
The Thieves Guild is a group dedicated to a life of subterfuge and robbing the rich. Thieves in Cyrodiil operate underthe enigmatic Gray Fox, bound by rules of honor such as never stealing from other guild members or the poor, and never killing anyone while thieving. All tasks and contracts given by the guild involve crafty ways of leveraging power in a non-violent way.
As players contribute to the Guild’s wealth through fencing stolen goods and assisting members in special jobs, stakes and tensions rise as the Gray Fox’s quests involve higher-quality and hard-to-get to items. The final quest culminates in a great reveal of the Gray Fox’s identity and a turn of events that leads players into the role of Master Thief and the new Guildmaster.
1The Dark Brotherhood
Murder, Loyalty, & Sithis Worship
The Dark Brotherhood is a guild of professional assassins, a secretive organization only known through legends. Entry into this organization is permitted after the Brotherhood witnesses the player murder someone. The message“Your killing has been observed by forces unknown…”lets players realize this. Once Lucien Lachance invites players to join the guild, they will gain access to the Cheydinhal Sanctuary and a series of contracts that showcase the guild’s dark operations.The Dark Brotherhood storyis equally impressive in story elements and rewards.
The quest line inOblivionhas some of the most fun Dark Brotherhood quests in anyElder Scrollsgame, like the quest “Whodunit?”, which involves a murder mystery party where each guest in Summitmist Manor must be discreetly eliminated. And the climactic quests reveal traitors among the guild with a violent purge that sets off a tragic sequence of events, ultimately resulting in the player becoming the supreme leader of the Dark Brotherhood. By the end of the story, item rewards like the Blade of Woe prove devastating in battle and Shadowmere offers one of the fastest mount speeds in the game.
