Infamy
| Meter | Status | Consequences |
|---|---|---|
|
Upstanding | None. Meter goes away once upstanding. |
|
Disreputable | Guards attempt to arrest disreputable players who approach them. |
|
Notorious | Guards are more suspicious and arrest players at a greater range. |
|
Fugitive | Guards are ordered to kill Fugitives on sight. Most merchants do not interact with players who are Fugitives, either. |
Once a crime is witnessed, the player’s infamy level increases. This includes both the Bounty and Heat levels represented in the lower right corner of the UI HUD. The white portion of this meter is the Bounty, and the red portion of the meter is the Heat. In order to remove Bounty or Heat, the player can wait until it naturally decays, or they can pay their Bounty off at a Guard—provided they are not a Fugitive. If the player is a Fugitive, they should pay off their fine at a Fence in an Outlaws Refuge or acquire a Pardon Edict that will expunge a certain amount of your bounty.
Once a petty crime is committed and witnessed, your infamy increases. If a Guard witnesses the crime, they immediately attempt to arrest you. Citizen NPCs react differently according to their personalities—some scold you, others may attack you, some flee from you in terror. Their social class partially determines this behavior—citizen NPCs who are considered Nobles are more likely to gasp or flee from a murder than to attack the murderer.
Commit enough crimes, kill a civilian, or flee an arrest, and Fugitive status is achieved. The dagger in the middle of the meter turns red and you’re treated as kill-on-sight status by the guards. At this point, it’s a good idea to lie low or pay off the Bounty at a Fence. Once the meter slips back into Notorious, guards no longer kill on sight— unless you flee their grasp, which returns you to Fugitive status..
Note that if you pay your fine to a Guard, they take any stolen goods in your inventory as well. This is the cost of being an Upstanding citizen. You can alternatively pay your bounty to a Fence in order to keep your stolen items from being confiscated. You can also use a Bounty Pardon Edict to erase some or all of your fines.
There’s no Justice in War! Cyrodiil enlists Fugitives regularly and Guards have been instructed to leave Fugitives alone in the area.