Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-178.167.187.236-20130614030201/@comment-89.72.115.172-20160824185543

Aside from Mede being honourable man and Motierre being a sleazy little rat, my decision to grant the former his last wish by killing the latter was based on slightly different grounds.

First, I was a bit surprised that Titus Mede would know the hour of his death like the Septim Emperors of old, since I don't think he was granted with any mystical powers. So I assumed that the reason is that he simply knew for a long time that there was a plot against him involving the highest echelons of Imperial government, fueled probably by resentment towards the White-Gold Concordate. I think Mede knew that this truce will ultiamtely be the cause of his death, which in turn will serve to clear the space for his successor, whoever this might be. Maybe he accepted his death in order to avoid an open coup and civil war which would benefit only the Thalmor. In this light, initially his last request seemed a bit like an act of petty revenge to me, but after final conversation with Motierre I thought there might be more to that.

I never suspected Motierre of being the candidate for the next Emperor. That might have been his ambition, but despite his high status he seemed more like a member of a bigger conspiracy, and not the highest-ranking one - a leader of the palace plot would rather not risk his security in some Divines-forsaken, draugr-infested tomb, hiring shady types under his own name and handing his badge of office to them as a trinket. In this game, Motierre might not have been a pawn, but neither was he a king. I doubted whether his death would seriously hinder the power transition after Mede's death. He was needed to make the change happen, but he would only be a corrupt, treacherous hindrance later, so his allies would probably be silently grateful for disposing of him and thus cutting the loose end - the loose end that could not threaten me or the Brotherhood, but rather his fellow plotters.

Just like figures behind Motierre, the Emperor probably had a good idea what kind of a person my mysterious client was and did not want to see such a traitor as part of the new imperial government. As a supporter of the imperial cause, I could not agree more.

Furthermore, the last part of Hail Sithis! quest actually felt a bit... Morag Tong-ish (somehow I always preferred those guys over DB, which is a bit too Charles Manson-style for me), with the Emperor accepting with dignity what seemed less like a murder and more like an execution to avoid a bloody power struggle. Because of this, it felt somehow fitting to honor a dying wish of the unfortunate ruler.

Besides - apart from Grelod the Kind, Motierre was probably the only "target" within the main questline whose death could be seen as deserved or even just. The others, including Maro, were just unfortunate victims of someone's ambitions.