Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-33795071-20171130175045/@comment-2604:2D80:8808:86B0:6948:D8FD:E605:838E-20180114022933

68.2.79.175 wrote: I am not fully aware of the history of the Dark Brotherhood (Oblivion). However I imagine that with all things there was a necessity for creating that roll. Otherwise all of the members would have to look after The Night Mother. Although in the article you have described in your discussion I did notice something:

"It is said that the Night Mother and her five children were the first sacrifices to Sithis many years ago, and that she now guides her Listener through the Statue of the Lucky Old Lady in Bravil."

So from this line I can only imagine that her body was never actually present to take care of. Rather not something you physically witnessed in Oblivion. I never played Oblivion so I would not know. However if there was indeed a handler or keeper of the Night Mother I am sure that it was an order within the Dark Brotherhood but separate from The Black hand. As a need to know basis otherwise other factions would target and eliminate the primary anchor of The Night Mother between the waking world and the Void. I would like to think that the Keeper roll was indeed part of the Dark Brotherhood.

As per your question in regards to Cicero being a fraud, I knew at face value that he was never to be trusted. He has way too many parallels to the Joker from Batman to be anyone worth trusting. He is after all one of those villains that you end up loving to hate as they say. At the same time though I did enjoy his character development and ended up saving him on my first play through. Actually that is not accurate I killed him and felt bad for doing so because I had not personally witnessed his treachery. Additionally remembering that I had read his journals he seemed genuine in his role to guard The Night Mother. I also realized that with him gone I would have to take care of The Night Mother myself and that was not something I wanted to do (oh man that is funny). So I reloaded my game to point before I killed him from the stories point of view. I never fully trusted Astrid in her cause as her attitude towards the Night Mother’s presence set off my bells and whistles.

it's as close as it gets to canon not to kill Cicero, if you got the spectral assassin (Lucian LeChance) accompanying you through the old sanctuary, you are told under no uncertianty that Sithis does not want Cicero harmed.