Cicero is one of Skyrim’s most unsettling characters, and if you’re diving into the Dark Brotherhood questline, you’ll hear his name before you ever lay eyes on him. The jester, the night mother’s keeper, the mad fool lurking in the shadows, he’s all of these things and more. Whether you’re just starting your playthrough or planning your next build, understanding who Cicero is and how to interact with him can dramatically shape your Dark Brotherhood experience. This guide covers everything you need to know about finding him, what makes him tick, and the critical decisions you’ll face about his fate.
Key Takeaways
- Cicero is the Night Mother’s devoted keeper and a morally complex character whose fractured mind and obsession blur reality with delusion, making him one of Skyrim’s most unsettling companions.
- You’ll first encounter Cicero during the ‘Delayed Burial’ quest near Dawnstar in the Pale, where his crashed carriage serves as the starting point for recruiting him into the Dark Brotherhood.
- As a follower, Cicero specializes in Pickpocketing, Light Armor, and Blade weapons, making him ideal for stealth-focused builds despite his vulnerability in frontal combat.
- The critical decision to kill or spare Cicero during the Sanctuary attack shapes your Dark Brotherhood experience, with each choice offering different mechanical and narrative implications for your playthrough.
- Cicero’s personal questline reveals dark secrets through scattered journals across Skyrim, exposing his paranoia, murders committed in the Night Mother’s name, and absolute loyalty to the organization.
- Whether you play vanilla Skyrim or use mods, Cicero’s character refuses easy categorization—he embodies the moral ambiguity that defines the Dark Brotherhood questline.
Who Is Cicero and Why Does He Matter in Skyrim
Cicero is the keeper of the Night Mother and one of the most devoted Dark Brotherhood members you’ll encounter. He’s been protecting the Night Mother’s coffin for years, driven by religious fervor and a fractured mind that blurs reality with delusion. In Skyrim‘s Civil War climate, he arrives as a broken man, the last of his order tasked with resurrecting the Dark Brotherhood.
What makes Cicero essential to the storyline isn’t just his role: it’s his complexity. He’s simultaneously pathetic and terrifying, comic relief and genuine threat. His unique dialogue, mannerisms, and questline reveal layers of depth that most Skyrim followers lack. Players often find themselves torn between sympathy and revulsion, which is exactly the point. Cicero forces you to confront the moral ambiguity that makes the Dark Brotherhood compelling in the first place.
How to Find and Recruit Cicero to the Dark Brotherhood
Finding Cicero requires you to progress through the Dark Brotherhood questline. You’ll first encounter him during “Delayed Burial,” a quest that starts when you overhear guards discussing a carriage accident.
Locating Cicero Near Dawnstar
Cicero’s carriage has crashed on the road near Dawnstar in Skyrim’s frozen north. Head to the area between Dawnstar and the Pale (coordinates roughly point northwest of Whiterun). You’ll find an overturned carriage with a body nearby. When you investigate, you’ll discover the driver is dead and Cicero emerges, alive, eccentric, and desperate for help.
After the initial encounter, Cicero becomes recruitable once you progress further in the Dark Brotherhood questline. He eventually joins the Sanctuary and becomes available as a follower and marriage candidate. His recruiting happens naturally through story progression rather than a specific quest step, making him accessible to players committed to the Brotherhood’s path.
Cicero’s Unique Questline and the Darker Secrets He Holds
Cicero’s personal questline is tied directly to his role as the Night Mother’s keeper. His obsession with the Night Mother goes beyond religious devotion, it borders on romantic delusion. He speaks to her, confides in her, and believes she speaks back. This isn’t mere roleplay: Cicero genuinely believes the Night Mother communicates with him, making his sanity questionable.
The questline deepens when you discover Cicero’s journals scattered throughout Skyrim. These entries reveal his journey transporting the Night Mother’s coffin across provinces, his paranoia about betrayal, and his fractured grip on reality. Recent guides on Dark Brotherhood mechanics highlight how these journal entries contextualize his behavior. You’ll also uncover that Cicero has secrets, darker ones, about his past with the Dark Brotherhood and people he’s murdered in the Night Mother’s name. His loyalty to the organization is absolute, sometimes to disturbing extremes.
Cicero’s Combat Role and Abilities as a Follower
As a follower, Cicero brings a specific skill set to your party. He specializes in Pickpocketing, Light Armor, and Blade weapons, making him particularly useful for stealth-focused builds. His combat style is erratic but effective, he moves unpredictably and deals respectable damage with daggers or swords.
Cicero’s strengths include high agility and stealth capabilities, which complement sneaky player builds well. He excels in dungeons where stealth is an option but won’t carry you through frontal assaults. His Light Armor rating means he dies faster than heavy-armor companions like Lydia or Mjoll. On Switch, performance remains consistent, though his AI pathfinding can occasionally cause him to get stuck in tight spaces.
For combat optimization, equip him with Daedric daggers or Elven blades and complement his Light Armor with perks like Bladestorm. He works best alongside stealth archers or assassin-focused builds where crowd control matters less than burst damage. Some players enhance Cicero’s companion mechanics through mods that improve his AI and dialogue options.
Cicero’s Fate: To Betray or Spare Him in Skyrim
The climax of Cicero’s story arrives during the Sanctuary attack when Mzuchthu invades and attempts to purge the Dark Brotherhood. Here’s where player choice becomes consequential. The game presents a critical decision: kill Cicero or spare him.
If you kill Cicero, you eliminate a potentially unstable liability and take the Night Mother’s dagger as a reward. This path aligns with pragmatism, Cicero is clearly unhinged, and his obsession with the Night Mother poses risks to the Brotherhood’s mission. Many veteran players choose this route for mechanical reasons: the dagger is a solid leveled weapon, and removing an unreliable follower simplifies gameplay.
If you spare Cicero, he becomes a permanent follower and remains at the Sanctuary. This path reflects character development and an argument that Cicero, even though his madness, represents the Dark Brotherhood’s traditions and loyalty in its purest form. Sparing him also keeps a skilled stealth companion available.
Neither choice locks you out of completing the Dark Brotherhood questline, but it does affect post-game dynamics and available followers. Detailed walkthroughs discussing this decision point outline how narrative and mechanical implications intersect. Your choice eventually reflects your interpretation of Cicero: tragic figure worthy of redemption, or broken tool best discarded.
Conclusion
Cicero remains one of Skyrim’s most memorable characters because he refuses easy categorization. He’s simultaneously tragic and comedic, loyal and dangerous, necessary and expendable. Whether you’re playing vanilla Skyrim on Switch, using console commands to spawn his items, or experimenting with Skyrim mods, Cicero’s role in the Dark Brotherhood questline ensures he’ll leave an impression. The beauty of his character lies in the moral ambiguity he presents, there’s no objectively “correct” choice about his fate, only the one that resonates with your version of the story.
