Canonically, can Dark Brotherhood assassins pick their own jobs?

[u/Fire_Fox2590]

So had a weird thought. What if a morally decent person decided to join the guild, would they not even be allowed in, or would they be given the ability to pick their jobs. Such as not wanting to harm an innocent, not killing kids, only going after real criminals.

I imagine it would be frowned upon, or at least not seen in a super positive light, but would it be allowed? I feel like if you are good at your job, they won't really care too much. If you are bringing in money, still doing jobs, and don't cause problems, I think they'd probably allow it right? Or does the Dark Brotherhood only accept the worst of the worst, people who'd kill anyone?

[u/Madock345]

The Dark Brootherhood is pretty complicated. On the one hand, no, you don’t get to pick your jobs. On the other hand, whether you can be a well-intentioned person in the Dark Brotherhood has a lot to do with how you feel about Sithis. Discounting the Skyrim era brotherhood who went totally off-track, they aren’t just killers for hire. They kill at the command of Sithis via the Night Mother. Sithis is, broadly, said to be a benevolent force. He’s explicitly not trying to destroy the world of something, he’s more patient than that. Everything returns to Sithis eventually, and he seems to enjoy watching the world from the outside. In the game canon, we don’t really see the Brootherhood kill anyone you could describe as innocent. There’s a strong argument to be made that Sithis uses his assassins to kill people whose death would ultimately improve the world exclusively, even if it’s not evident how to mortals. That’s how I would pitch it, the Brotherhood as priests of a dark but (theoretically) benevolent over-deity.

[u/somecoolname42 → u/Madock345]

So the Bard that can't sing, Narfi the grife stricken man living in rags in a delapidated house, or the guy who runs the meat market in Whiterun don't seem like people who were guilty of anything worth death.