Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-14027812-20131117233629/@comment-24261859-20131209041435

In the one playthrough that I didn't destroy the Dark Brotherhood, I did not kill Nilsine. There were a few reasons for this.

1. Roleplaying. This is a little complicated, as I needed to justify joining the Legion, Companions, and the Dark Brotherhood. I eventually came up with that Tulius' legion had defected from the Empire, and the Emperor had agreed to a Thalmor demand that all combat-capable guilds in Skyrim (i.e., Companions and College of Winterhold) submit to Thalmor investigation and rulership. This obviously made a lot of people angry, so they teamed up with the Dark Brotherhood to take the Emperor and Thalmor down. Thus, my character was an assassin only out of necessity, so she avoided killing the targets when it was not necessary.

2. As I spent a good minute or two lecuring Muiri on, she wouldn't really want Nilsine dead. I suspected that Muiri was originally a decent girl but was now blinded by her hatred, unable to see that Nilsine was innocent in the matter and her (and consequently her mother's) death would not bring about any peace or acceptance. No, it was better for everyone involved for Nilsine to live.