Pieces of the Past

Silus Vesuius, devotee of The Mythic Dawn cult, asks the player to retrieve the separated pieces of a dagger named Mehrunes' Razor that once belonged to his family.

Background
"Silus Vesuius, the owner of a museum dedicated to the Mythic Dawn cult, wants to hire me for a job. He'll give me the details inside his house in Dawnstar"

- The [[Dragonborns Journal|undefined

Quick Walkthrough

 * 1) Achieve level 20 and receive a courier invitation from Silus Vesuius. Alternatively, you can walk around Dawnstar and townsfolk will mention the museum, giving you the quest.
 * 2) Speak to Silus in Dawnstar, agree to collect artifacts.
 * 3) Retrieve the scattered pieces of Mehrunes' Razor
 * 4) Retrieve the hilt from Jorgen’s house in Morthal
 * 5) Retrieve the pommel from Drascua at Dead Crone Rock
 * 6) Retrieve the blade shards from Cracked Tusk Keep
 * 7) At the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon kill Silus to obtain Mehrunes’ Razor.

Initiating the Quest
To start the quest, the player must be at least level 20 and get an invitation to Silus' Mythic Dawn Museum in Dawnstar. To get the invitation, simply collect other daedric artifacts and eventually a Courier will approach you. Another way to begin this quest is to walk around Dawnstar until you overhear someone mentioning the museum, which will also start the quest.

Mythic Dawn
After receiving the invitation, speak to Silus inside his house in Dawnstar. He will tell the player that his ancestors were members of The Mythic Dawn, the cult from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, responsible for the assassination of Emperor and the resulting Oblivion Crisis. Silus wants the player to find the three pieces of Mehrunes' Razor. He will tell the player the parts of the razor are with an Orc named Ghunzul, a Hagraven named Drascua, and the last with Jorgen, who lives in Morthal.



Jorgen: Holder of the Hilt
Jorgen is one of the keepers of a part of Mehrunes' Razor. Travel to Morthal; he will (usually) be near his house across the bridge. The hilt is in a locked chest in Jorgen's house. The player can pick the lock to open it, pickpocket the key off of him, or kill him and take the key from his body. The player can also speak to him and either pay him off, persuade him, intimidate him or brawl him for it.

Drascua: Holder of the Pommel
Drascua is held up in a keep south-west of Markarth called Dead Crone Rock. She will be surrounded and guarded by Forsworn. Kill her for the Pommel. Don't miss the Word Wall where you can learn part of the Dismaying Shout. On the sacrificial altar here there is the quest item Stone of Barenziah.

Ghunzul: Holder of the Shards
There are 3 methods to get the last piece found in Cracked Tusk Keep, a small Orc stronghold west of Falkreath.


 * 1) Go there and kill Ghunzul, and receive a key. Then go down the stairs to unlock the button on the wall. Activate the button, and walk forward. The last piece is at the end of the room; be careful as there are a few trip wires. The shard is on a pressure plate pedestal that will activate the arrow trap in the ceiling when you grab it, so try to grab it from the side of the pedestal. (Once you reach the hall with the tripwires, you can just haul ass down the middle row to the razor and beat the traps)(or you can drop something heavy on it, and pull an Indiana Jones)
 * 2) Alternatively, there is a novice locked door to the right of the main entrance in a recess, which can be picked in order to bypass the bandits inside the keep proper. Then, on the left, pick the expert lock to unlock the button (this is the lock that uses the key that Ghunzul carries) and proceed as normal. There are no bandits, but at least five tripwires leading to the pillar they rest on.
 * 3) There is also a hatch on the roof of the Keep that grants access directly to Ghunzul's room where he keeps a key to the Vaults on a dresser.

The Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon
Go to the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon with Silus to repair the Razor. Silus will try to perform the task of speaking with Dagon. Receiving no answer from Dagon, Silus will ask you to try. Dagon will then explain that in order for him to repair the Razor, the player must kill Silus. The player has two choices:


 * 1) Kill Silus: Mehrunes will repair the dagger and give it to the player.
 * 2) Spare Silus: Receive 500 septims, but do not receive the dagger.

Regardless of choice, two Dremora appear; kill them and loot them for the Key to Mehrune's Shrine. Should Silus survive, he will return to his home/museum with the fragments and place them into a sealed display case that cannot be further interacted with.

Trivia

 * If Silus begins attacking you once you arrive at the shrine, do not kill him, but run away until he is no longer following you. Make sure you are able to fast travel to the shrine, and do so. When you return he will no longer be hostile and the rest of the quest will carry out.
 * Killing Silus before the quest begins fails the quest, and the player is not able to construct the dagger.It also means the player will need to reload an earlier save if they are wanting the Trophy/Achievement for all Daedric artifacts
 * Be careful if travelling with Silus to the shrine with a companion. An attack on Silus by any animal can lead to him striking back, and if he hits your companion with a spell, they could kill him and the quest fails.
 * The pieces of the dagger can be obtained before visiting Silus and the hilt can be looted. Obtaining one of these pieces will not initiate the quest. You will still need to talk to Silus.
 * Getting the ingredients through qasmoke (coc qasmoke) (PC only) will not allow you to complete the quest. However, you may give the blade shards through qasmoke but that wont get you anywhere in the quest, but he will talk about the blade shards.
 * To reach the shrine, head west from Fort Dunstad, once you get through the initial range of hills the traveling is pretty straightforward.
 * It is possible to kill Alduin with the dagger in one hit if the ability activates.
 * Dual casting Expel Daedra will appear to banish the Dremora at the shrine, but they reappear immediately.
 * The Dremora respawn in the shrine every week, and killing them can be a good way of obtaining Daedra hearts.
 * When you bring the pieces back to Silus and he leaves the museum, rarely, he will fly across the lake of the town and directly to the shrine instead of walking to it.
 * If you visit Dawnstar on the Dark Brotherhood Quest Contract: Kill Beitild and have already received the courier invitation, your quest journal will say that you have failed to Visit the museum in Dawnstar if your killing of Beitild is witnessed and you accumulate a bounty. The only way to begin the quest is to overhear a conversation about Silus or if you directly talk to Silus

Bugs

 * When raise zombie is used on the Dremora they do not turn to an ash pile when it expires, allowing the player to resurrect the dremora repeatedly.
 * You can break into every case in the museum and steal the items except for the ancient and burnt page. If you open this display case, and hit the page with a weapon or spell, the burnt page will turn into a bucket.
 * The dialogue can sometimes skip and you don't get the option to let Silus live. **Solution: Approach the altar from the direction Silus approaches it.
 * The location can be discovered, cleared, and the "boss" killed before starting the quest, thus leaving it impossible to complete.
 * After Mehrunes Dagon tells you to kill Silus, there is a chance that Silus will immediately become aggressive and not give you the choice to spare his life.
 * Upon defeating Drascua, her remains (type of remains depends upon means of death) were not visible on the ground. There is a pointer to indicate the location of the quest item which pointed to an empty spot on the ground where Drascua's body should have been located. Due to this glitch, nothing appeared to be available to loot. It was only after searching the entire area (using the cursor) where Drascua supposedly died, that the loot option became available in order to collect the pommel.