The Night Mother

[Lucien Lachance]

The Night Mother (aka Unholy Matron) is the spiritual leader of the Dark Brotherhood. She receives prayers from people seeking to arrange assassinations, and relays those desires to the Listener of the Black Hand.


Identity

According to Dark Brotherhood beliefs, she is the wife of Sithis and bore five children.

The Night Mother's tomb is located underneath the Lucky Old Lady Statue in Bravil. The Night Mother is likely to have lived during the Second Era, although the woman represented by the statue lived in the First Era , which strongly suggests the two are not the same person. There are the skeletal remains of one adult and five children in her tomb, representing the mother and her children in Dark Brotherhood beliefs. More information about the Night Mother can be found on the Lore article about her.

In the game, she appears in ethereal form during the final Dark Brotherhood quest, Honor Thy Mother. Mathieu Bellamont attempted to attack her to no avail during this quest.



Night Mother Ritual / Black Sacrament

For prospective clients to contact the Dark Brotherhood, they would carry out a ritual called the Night Mother Ritual or Black Sacrament. This ritual would inform the Night Mother of their intentions. When the Listener of the Black Hand prays to the Lucky Old Lady Statue in Bravil, Night Mother will inform the Listener about location of those prospective clients. The Listener would then relay this information to Speakers of the Black Hand.

As documented in the rare and taboo work "A Kiss, Sweet Mother," the Black Sacrament involves an effigy of the intended victim -- created from actual body parts, including a heart, skull, bones and flesh -- within a circle of candles. To proceed with the ritual, one must stab the effigy repeatedly with a dagger rubbed with the petals of a Nightshade plant, while whispering the plea, "Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." As gruesome as this ritual may be, even more frightening is its intention -- the summoning of a mysterious assassin (who some witnesseses[sic, not witnesses] claim is always clad in a black hooded robe) who will then receive money to kill an innocent victim. No remorse. No regret. It is, as the merchant's say, simply business. And that's what worries Adamus Phillida.



Notes

Oblivion indicates that there is a single Night Mother, the ghost of a woman who formed the Dark Brotherhood. In Morrowind, an Imperial woman named Severa Magia was identified as the local Night Mother of the Dark Brotherhood in Vvardenfell. It is possible that the term is used to indicate a local leader as well as the Unholy Matron herself. More information can be found on the Lore article.