Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-121.214.4.27-20150924130202/@comment-1918232-20150924141759

I haven't looked into the Lore that much, but based on Oblivion there are five (excluding Sithis and the Night Mother) top ranking members in the Dark Brotherhood referred to as the Black_Hand. The Listener (thumb) and four Speakers (fingers).

Prior to Skyrim the Listener would have to approach the Night Mother's corpse to receive the contacts, then give those contacts to a speaker whom speak with the contact and gives the target, and any special requests, to one of the sanctuary(s) they are in charge of (I don't recall if each speaker has one or multiple sanctuaries).

There are also two special ranks, four Silencers whom are kind of part of the Black Hand (the nails), acting as the Speakers' personal assassins. The second special rank is the Keeper, whom is selected to look after the body when there is no Listener.