Skyrim:Thieves Guild (faction)

The Ragged Flagon, headquarters of the Thieves Guild

The Thieves Guild is dedicated to the gathering and training of those who are stealthy and shadowy in nature. Although criminal by its very definition, for untold years, local authorities in places throughout Tamriel have tolerated the existence of the guild for its role as "crime regulator," as it does not tolerate competition or egregious conduct from its members (not to mention the personal financial benefits for authorities who play nice). It is usually considered to be a distinctly Imperial entity, though of course other organizations of the Empire do not officially condone their actions.

Like any trade guild, the Thieves Guild is an organization of professionals, except that in this case the professionals are burglars, robbers, pickpockets, smugglers, and other enterprising operators. They typically don't have public guild halls, but sometimes have safe-houses, and members tend to gather at a single location in large towns, such as at a cornerclub, inn, or tavern. Typically, members are bound not to rob each other, kill anyone while thieving, or rob the poor. The Thieves Guild usually has the resources to bribe officials, establish a black market of stolen goods, and maintain a network of informants.

Based in the city of Riften, the Thieves Guild's headquarters can be initially accessed through The Ratway, a network of tunnels that runs under the city.

Joining

To join the Thieves Guild, travel to Riften and come into contact with Brynjolf, who can be found at the market stalls or the Bee and Barb tavern during the day. Brynjolf will approach you and question your wealth, before inviting you to help him with a little plot. This begins the first quest, A Chance Arrangement, in which you must steal a ring and plant it on another person.

If the quest is failed, Brynjolf will still give you the next quest. Travel down to the canals and enter The Ratway. Defeat the bandits and follow the tunnels to The Ragged Flagon, headquarters of the Thieves Guild. Here, Brynjolf will give you the next quest, Taking Care of Business, tasking you with roughing up three business owners for debts he needs collected.

Advantages

Inside the Flagon

• Access to the Thieves Guild headquarters.
• A suit of Thieves Guild Armor.
• Nightingale Armor, The Nightingale Blade, and The Nightingale Bow after you proceed up the ranks.
• Three interchangeable unique powers once the Nightingale story arc is complete.
• Access to Chillrend, potentially the deadliest unique sword in the game and strongest in the original game.
• Fences who will buy stolen as well as regular goods and can carry larger amounts of gold (4,000 after completing all four improvement quests; they have 1,000 gold initially).
• Tonilia, the fence for the Guild, is one of the earliest vendors to regularly sell Daedric weaponry.
• Chests ranging from novice to master for building your Lockpicking skill.
• Free gold and lockpicks lying around the headquarters.
• Unlimited thievery radiant quests which reward gold.
• Master-level training in Lockpicking (Vex), Archery (Niruin), Pickpocket (Vipir the Fleet), and Sneak (Delvin Mallory).
• Guild Master's Armor (a decent light armor) and the Amulet of Articulation can be obtained once the main quest line and the guild improvement quests are completed.
• Dialogue option to avoid conflict with thieves encountered on the roads, later upgraded to such thieves paying you tributes.
• Guards can be bribed even if the character has low Speech skill and no bribe perk.
• The Skeleton Key, an unbreakable lockpick (temporary).
• The only way to learn all three words of the Disarm shout is to complete the first six primary quests.

Quests

Primary Quests

The primary Thieves Guild questline consists of twelve quests. Three achievements (50 points; 2 Bronze and 1 Silver) are unlocked by the guild's quests.

• A Chance Arrangement: Help teach a merchant to mind his own business.
• Taking Care of Business: Help Brynjolf collect some debts for the Thieves Guild. ( 10 pts/Bronze)
• Loud and Clear: Send a message to a former Thieves Guild client.
• Dampened Spirits: Put Maven Black-Briar's competition out of business.
• Scoundrel's Folly: Squeeze a reluctant informer for information.
• Speaking With Silence: Track down the Dunmer behind the Guild's misfortunes.
• Hard Answers: Help translate Gallus's journal.
• The Pursuit: Break into Mercer Frey's house and search for clues.
• Trinity Restored: Become one of the Nightingales, Nocturnal's guardians.
• Blindsighted: Stop Mercer Frey.
• Darkness Returns: Make it through the Pilgrim's Path and return the Skeleton Key to its rightful place. ( 10 pts/Bronze)
• Under New Management: Become the Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild. ( 30 pts/Silver)

Special Job Quests

Delvin's and Vex's jobs become available once you join the guild, and can be repeated indefinitely. In addition to the monetary reward for completing these quests, they also count towards restoring the guild's status in Skyrim. In order to start the final Thieves Guild quest, Under New Management, you must complete five of these jobs in each of the other four main cities in Skyrim (Markarth, Solitude, Whiterun, and Windhelm), at which point Delvin will give you a special "reputation" job in that city. Completing these jobs improves the condition of The Ragged Flagon.

• Delvin's quests:
  • The Bedlam Job: Steal a set amount of gold's worth of items. (radiant)
  • The Fishing Job: Steal an item out of a target's pocket. (radiant)
  • The Numbers Job: Alter the business ledger of a store. (radiant)
• Vex's quests:
  • The Burglary Job: Steal a special item from a wealthy home. (radiant)
  • The Shill Job: Place an item as evidence inside a wealthy home. (radiant)
  • The Sweep Job: Steal three specific valuable items from a wealthy house. (radiant)
  • The Heist Job: Steal a particular item from a store. (radiant)
• Reputation quests:
  • Silver Lining: Recover a stolen silver mold for a silversmith.
  • The Dainty Sload: Frame a ship's captain to get revenge for a jilted merchant.
  • Imitation Amnesty: Help get a convicted prisoner released from jail.
  • Summerset Shadows: Remove a rival guild from the picture.

• Note: If you quicksave immediately after the dialogue ends, and before the quest is displayed on screen, you can quickload until you get a quest in the city you want. This is useful to choose quickly only useful cities once you have already done some reputation quests. You can also simply quit the quests, which will be marked as failed in your journal. You can do this an infinite number of times with no consequences.

Other Quests

• Meet the Family: Speak with some of the members of the Thieves Guild and pick up your gear.
• Reparations: Make reparations for breaking the Thieves Guild rules.
• The Litany of Larceny: Find items for Delvin Mallory throughout the questline.
• No Stone Unturned: Find the 24 gems to restore the Crown of Barenziah.
• Toying With The Dead: Retrieve a necromancer's journals for an interested buyer.
• Thieves Guild Caravan Fence Quest: Deliver moon sugar to Ri'saad.

The Ragged Flagon

The Thieves Guild is headquartered within The Ragged Flagon. This area is divided into a central chamber, featuring a tavern, and The Ragged Flagon - Cistern which is only open to members and serves as a living quarters. If you join the Thieves Guild, you will receive a bed, end table and chest reserved for your own use and located next to the entrance alcove. All containers in the cistern are safe for storage. The cistern also features an Alchemy Lab, archery ranges, kitchen and locked chests that respawn for Lockpicking practice. Upon first visiting this area The Ragged Flagon will be gloomy, empty and dilapidated, but will gradually be restored as quests are completed.

Upgrading the Thieves Guild

When doing Delvin or Vex's additional jobs, you need to head out to four different cities; Markarth, Windhelm, Whiterun, and Solitude. After completing five additional jobs in a single city, you'll be assigned a special job for that city. After completing each special job, the condition of The Ragged Flagon will be improved and a new merchant will move into the main chamber. Additionally, completing a quest will enable you to use the guild's influence to pay a reduced bounty when getting arrested in the corresponding city.

Upon completion of the main Thieves Guild questline, a Shrine of Nocturnal will appear in The Ragged Flagon - Cistern. When all quests are completed, the furniture in The Ragged Flagon will be completely replaced with more upscale variants, along with new additional furniture and decorations.

Addition	Services	Prerequisites
Syndus	Bowyer and fletcher	Available after completing one special job.
Herluin Lothaire	Apothecary	Available after completing two special jobs.
Arnskar Ember-Master	Blacksmith	Available after completing three special jobs.
Vanryth Gatharian	Armorer	Available after completing all four special jobs.
Garthar	Thieves Guild recruit	Complete three special jobs.
Ravyn Imyan	Thieves Guild recruit	Complete all four special jobs.
Shrine of Nocturnal	Grants the Blessing of Nocturnal	Available after completing Darkness Returns.
Safe	Contains random gold, gems and potions	Complete 125 side-jobs for Delvin and Vex.

Larceny targets and trophies

Bust of the Gray Fox.

Various rare items can be stolen from around Skyrim and sold to Delvin. These items can be found in locations visited during the main Thieves Guild questline. Once sold to Delvin, the items will be displayed on the shelves behind the Guildmaster's desk. Collecting all the items is required to complete The Litany of Larceny.

• Queen Bee Statue in Goldenglow Estate
• Honningbrew Decanter in Honningbrew Meadery
• East Empire Shipping Map in East Empire Company Warehouse
• Model Ship in Snow Veil Sanctum
• Dwemer Puzzle Cube in Calcelmo's Laboratory in the Dwemer Museum in Markarth
• Bust of the Gray Fox in Riftweald Manor in Riften
• Left Eye of the Falmer in Irkngthand

As you complete Vex and Delvin's special jobs, trophies of the items recovered during these quests begin to fill the shelves behind the Guildmaster's desk.

Guildmaster's desk

• Jeweled Candlestick appears after 5 jobs.
• Ornate Drinking Horn appears after 15 jobs.
• Golden Ship Model appears after 25 jobs.
• Golden Urn appears after 35 jobs.
• Jeweled Goblet appears after 45 jobs.
• Jeweled Pitcher appears after 55 jobs.
• Jeweled Flagon appears after 75 jobs.
• A safe appears next to the shelves after completing 125 jobs.

Upon completing No Stone Unturned, the Crown of Barenziah will be placed on the stone bust behind the Guildmaster's desk.

Members

The Ragged Flagon Arnskar Ember-Master Brynjolf Delvin Mallory Dirge Herluin Lothaire Syndus Tonilia Vanryth Gatharian Vekel the Man Vex

The Ragged Flagon - Cistern Cynric Endell Etienne Rarnis Garthar Mercer Frey (Guildmaster) Niruin Ravyn Imyan Rune Sapphire Thrynn Vipir the Fleet Others Maul Karliah Glover Mallory

Fences

Fences are a special kind of merchant that will buy stolen goods from the player, removing the stolen tag in the process. As you progress through the Thieves Guild questline, additional fences become available throughout Skyrim. Note that the Fence skill perk allows you to sell stolen goods to any merchant.

Even with the Fence perk, however, Thieves Guild fences still have the distinction of having the most gold of any other merchants in the game (with the exception of Lucan Valerius prior to v1.9 of the Official Skyrim Patch, though his superior merchant gold is only due to a bug): Up to 4,000 gold after completing all of the Special Jobs, and up to 5,000 gold with the Master Trader perk, making them useful even after the Fence perk is unlocked.

Fence	Location	Quest Required
Tonilia	The Ragged Flagon, Riften	Taking Care of Business: Help Brynjolf collect some debts for the Thieves Guild.
Mallus Maccius	Honningbrew Meadery, outside Whiterun	Dampened Spirits: Put Maven Black-Briar's competition out of business.
Gulum-Ei	The Winking Skeever, Solitude	Scoundrel's Folly: Squeeze a reluctant informer for information.
Niranye	In the marketplace near blacksmith in Windhelm	Summerset Shadows: Remove a rival guild from the picture.
Endon	Wanders around Markarth	Silver Lining: Recover a stolen silver mold for a silversmith.
Enthir	College of Winterhold	Hard Answers: Help translate Gallus's journal.
Atahbah	Roams Skyrim in a Khajiit trading caravan with Ri'saad, seen outside holds.	Thieves Guild Caravan Fence Quest: Deliver moon sugar to Ri'saad.
Ma'jhad	Roams Skyrim in a Khajiit trading caravan with Ma'dran, seen outside holds.
Zaynabi	Roams Skyrim in a Khajiit trading caravan with Ahkari, seen outside holds.

Shadowmarks

Danger!

The Thieves Guild is also responsible for the number of symbols or runes, called Shadowmarks, etched or printed all around Skyrim.

These marks are codes that previous thieves have left for future thieves. The legend for the code is outlined in a book of the same name, authored by Delvin Mallory, which is found in The Ragged Flagon - Cistern.

Bugs

• If the option to upgrade your Thieves Guild Armor is available, Tonilia will not give any other dialogue options, making it impossible to complete her other quests or gain the One with the Shadows Achievement if the armor is irretrievable.
  • This issue has been addressed by version 1.4 of the Official Skyrim Patch; this has been partially fixed - players without their Guild armor can find more in the Ragged Flagon Cistern.
• When picking up the last Larceny item, the quest goes to stage 200 (completion) rather than the one regarding the item.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.0 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
  • To avoid this you need to manually use setstage TGLarceny 80 (tested for Falmer's Eye as the final item; stage 40 to start "Return the East Empire Trading Map to Delvin") and additem the object instead of picking it up. Then, after handing it in, setstage TGLarceny 200. There is currently no solution for consoles.
• When quitting a Fishing Job for Delvin or a Heist Job for Vex, if you have the same type of item you were told to pilfer in your inventory at the time of quitting, but did not obtain it from the mark, the item will be removed from your inventory regardless.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.0 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
• If you break into Mercer's house and take Mercer's plans before starting the quest The Pursuit, you will glitch the game and the quest will not start.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.0 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
  • If you still have the plans on you, you can continue. Prior to giving the rubbing to Enthir and talking to Karliah to finish the previous quest, drop the plans in the room, then finish the conversations. Once "The Pursuit" has been triggered, do not pick up Mercer's Plans. Finish breaking into Mercer's house. Once the quest directs you to find evidence, go back to the inn and pick up the plans (which will be a quest item from the onset of the quest being given).
• Sometimes items on Guild shelves fall off; if left untouched the item will remain on the floor, but if picked up to replace on shelf the item may disappear upon next arrival at the Guild.
  • This can be fixed by using the console command recycleactor on the items that have fallen off.
• Sometimes side job rewards behind the Guildmaster's desk do not appear.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.1 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
  • To correct this, use the console command for the missing object followed by enable. Codes to select missing objects are as follows, in order they should be rewarded:
    • Jeweled Candlestick: prid 00E8EFF
    • Ornate Drinking Horn: prid 00E8F00
    • Golden Ship Model: prid 00E8F05
    • Golden Urn: prid 00E8F03
    • Jeweled Goblet: prid 00E8F02
    • Jeweled Pitcher: prid 00E8F04
    • Jeweled Flagon: prid 00E8F01
    • Safe: prid 103398
  • If you are uncertain how many of the above they have actually earned, the console command getglobalvalue TGRMasterTotal will list the number of side jobs completed.
• The Thieves Guild caches may not appear after completing the correct quests.
  • This bug is fixed by version 1.9.26.0.8 of the Official Skyrim Patch.
  • You may enable them with the console using the following IDs:
    • Markarth: prid 00FF21F
    • Solitude: prid 00FF216
    • Whiterun: prid 00FF21C
    • Windhelm: prid 00FF219
• The miscellaneous objective marked "Talk to Brynjolf about joining the Thieves Guild" may not disappear after talking to Brynjolf. After already a member of the guild, the marker does not go away. ^?
  • To fix this, use the console command setstage TG00MaulHandler 200.
• Quitting a miscellaneous job reduces your Thieves Guild Quests Completed count by 1. ^?
• It is possible that if too many miscellaneous quests for Vex or Delvin have been completed before you become a Nightingale, Delvin will only give out one guild improvement quest, once this quest has been completed no matter how many quests you do you will not get another improvement quest. ^?