Villainpedia: Mankar Camoran

i have waited a long time for you champion of  old tamriel you were the last gasp of a dying age   you breathe the stale air of false hope how little  you understand you cannot stop lord dagon hello   my friends and welcome to a very very special  episode if i sound a bit stuffy it's because i'm   getting over the flu so uh i've covered degather  alduin and even mirak here on this channel so for   months going on a year people have been asking  to see good ol mangkar cameron one of the main   antagonists of the elder scrolls for oblivion  and at last here we are but i want to dedicate   this video to one of my subscribers ana malacharis  dude i hope you enjoy it and here we go mankar is   an extremely mysterious villain and i think i've  said that about all of our elder scrolls villains   he is the leader of the mythic dawn cult a mighty  force here in oblivion and while he isn't the   overall main bad guy you're building up to kill  at like the end of the game he is instrumental   in the events of the story and leaves a lasting  impression cameron and his followers orchestrate   a grand plot to assassinate the emperor uriel  septim vii along with all of his royal heirs to   pave the way for their cult's target of zealotry  mehrunes dagon daedric prince of destruction to   invade tamriel and bring an end to the third  era but would you be surprised if i told you   that things are not just that straightforward  because the further we dig into this character   and the backstory the more question marks appear  just who is this madman how is he able to wear the   amulet of kings a relic suited only for dragonborn  what did he do to earn himself his own slice of   oblivion as a mortal and was he really all that  mad well let's get right down to it be sure to   like the video if you do like it and subscribe for  more videos that are just like this one right here   so as we always do how about we begin at the  beginning well for mankar cameron the beginning   is hazy at best because his concrete origins are  actually unknown for sure but what we think we   know starts with the cameron dynasty the cameron  dynasty is a large royal family tree that spans   nearly the entire history of the province of  valenwood home of the bosmer or wood elves   and beyond just that it spans the entire written  history of tamriel as we know it as the founding   of the cameron dynasty by its first king king  eppleer is widely accepted as the event that   began the year zero of the very first era so this  is potentially some old blood we are talking about   with mankar cameron the history of this dynasty  spans ages great kings tyrants wars betrayals and   so much more but along this threat of time in the  throes of the third era or the era that the game   oblivion eventually takes place in the cameron  dynasty had mostly taken up post as a figurehead   monarchy in ballenwood but eventually a dispute of  secession arose and many different people popped   up as claimants of this throne it's very typical  aristocratic kind of [ __ ] you know what i mean   but this struggle for power caused much unrest  and eventually war in the region one of these   claimants was a guy named cameron caltos who  through strategic movements and ruthless command   had claimed much of valenwood over the course of a  two-year campaign he did this along with his chief   lieutenant friend and head sorcerer named haman  cameron it seemed that valenwood was under kalto's   command the throne there for his taking but haman  saw the lands and peoples of the north as a threat   as well as ripe fruit for the picking he  took a large chunk of their shared army   and split ravaging colovia and just generally  being a complete [ __ ] kaltos pleaded with his   old friend to come home and chill out come on man  what are you doing but heyman refused and in turn   grabbed the cameron throne for himself after this  event he was known far and wide as the cameron   usurper this led to around two decades of just  anarchy in western tamriel as the usurper caused   tons of chaos all the way up into hammerfell  and even high rock during this reign of the   usurper or heyman the heart king as he was also  known it seems that he had a sort of mistress   though perhaps and probably more than one the  mistress we are interested in is a bosmer woman   named kallus but back to her in just one second  now this ride as usurper must have been a blast   for old hayman but hey everything must come to  an end eventually and his old master kaltos had   rallied enough support in western tamriel  with other factions and races to muster   big force to oppose the usurper and at  last after much conflict in the barony   of high rock known as dwinnen the cameron  usurper was surrounded defeated and killed but just before the final battle kallus and  other refugees from the usurper's reign were   kind of hanging around in an encampment within  the city's walls as the fighting began kallus   just went into a frenzy she screamed that mankar  was coming to destroy them all of course no one   knew who the hell man car was so everyone's just  kind of looking around awkwardly like the hell is   she talking about but this screaming continued  stating that mankar had arrived he was here he   would be the end of everything and see the world  set ablaze stuff like that and this continued and   continued until the height of the battle when  refugees could see smoke from the burning docks   and hear the conflict moving closer a very tense  situation when kallus snuck away to find some   healers and secretly gave birth to a baby boy and  that little boy is of course our very own manker   cameron the time of cleansing draws nigh the son  of the cameron usurper and his bosmer mistress   if you buy into the lore connection here the  way that i certainly do so one confusing side   thing let's pause for a second is what exactly is  mankar's race race and identity play a huge role   in the elder scrolls universe so you'd think they  would want to make this quite clear but i mean in   the game if you've played it of course you know he  looks like an altmer or a high elf but if you're   looking at this valonwood history and taking  it as it is presented here he should just be a   straight-up wood elf right well officially within  oblivion his race is listed as altmer so why is   that well it could be that the cameron dynasty one  of the oldest elven bloodlines around is descended   from some super super old elf blood aldmer altmer  ayleid i mean who knows for sure but actually it   seems that it's probably this added story element  of mehrunes razor an artifact with which mankar   uses to kind of alter himself and his reality to  his liking now we do learn at some point that he   altered his body amongst other things so if he is  so obsessed with this ancient elf ancestry and the   ayleid architecture and all that jazz i mean  why not carve himself just a little bit taller   a little more yellow toned to better represent  his idea of elf superiority or the best theory   of all is that the writers had to change them to  an altmer within the game because bosmer were just   goofy potato eating gnomes that no one would find  intimidating yes a great and mighty grand champion   anyway let's get back to this backstory now no  one really knows what kallus did with mankar after   this she fled the situation and we can assume that  mankar had some sort of upbringing in the magical   arts or possibly even the occult i mean some  sources say that kallus fled with her son into   the wilderness and others say that she abandoned  him there at the place of birth and split i mean   did the usurper before his death even know that  she was pregnant that he had a son on the way   probably not but who knows all we really have here  for sure with mankar is a probable origin story   and the reappearance of him some 200 or so  years later as he begins to take up his role   as a villain so sadly for me there isn't all that  juicy in betweens about the path that mankar took   to be radicalized and turned into this daedric  cult mass attending manipulating master of evil   but somewhere along the way in his early life  mangkar was drawn into worshiping the daedric   prince mehrunes dagon this is ki and mankar was  devout enough or lucky enough i guess to be chosen   by dagon as the new owner of a very powerful  and evil relic known as the mysterium xarxes   now this is a very evil and stinky book written  by dagon himself and this is really the beginning   of cameron's villainy as we know it so maybe just  maybe before he was being whispered sweet nothings   by the big man mankar was a normal mage guy i mean  i kinda doubt it i think he's nuts to his core   but he was certainly corrupted further by  the whispers of a daedric prince because this   mysterium xarxis filled mankar's head with wonder  i mean prophecies promises poetry and other dark   secrets the book is extremely dangerous to even  handle without some sort of magical protection   so i think we can safely assume that mankar's  brains were just totally scrambled after   diving in and taking this for light reading but  reading this book led mankar to pen his own opus   a collection of commentaries that would end up  being the very foundation of the mythic dawn cult   he very creatively titled them commentaries on  the mysterium's arksies now i'm gonna get into the   contents of mankar's writings and his personal  philosophies for the world and all that jazz   in a moment so let's first just finish off this  backstory so along with radicalizing mankar and   turning him into a new york times best-selling  author the mysterium xarxes also gave him the   power to open a portal to oblivion itself now  for the uninitiated oblivion is the realm of the   daedra and daedric princes a different plane of  reality all together from our own mehrunes dagon's   realm within oblivion is known as the deadlands  which you get to see in the game more than enough   but using the ability to access oblivion mankar  created gaiar alata or his paradise his very own   little piece of oblivion which would serve as a  home base for his growing cult and a haven for   himself and his two freaky children raven and ruma  i mean very little is known about mankar's life   outside of the cult's dealings around this time i  mean is there a mother to these children not quite   but we'll come back to that later because if  you're rubbing elbows with daedric princes   i don't think you really have to worry about  getting out and meeting people but mankar and   the cult's purpose was becoming extremely clear  to assassinate the emperor of cerebill all of   his heirs steal the amulet of kings to weaken the  realm and begin opening those portals for dagon   and his minions to enter and throw a big daedra  party where the snack balls are just human flesh   and souls so i think that's a good amount of  backstory for the fella and you get the general   plan but what exactly constitutes menker cameron  as a madman what are those philosophies that we   find in the writings well to understand mankar's  ideas i think we first must understand together   lord khan so lord khan you can think of as  well god well god of mortals that is the   being responsible for the existence of nirn  and all who dwell on it lor khan decided one   day in his infinite wisdom and existence that  he wanted to create mundus which is the realm   or plane of existence that we consider the  mortal realm he convinced other ethada or   immortal beings of insane power to work with him  on this little project or maybe he tricked them   duping these godlike beings into giving up some  of their divinity and power to create this realm   but at any rate this split the so-called  etada into those who contributed heavily to   this project and those who did not these beings  would eventually be known as aedra and daedra   respectively now this is the elder scrolls baby  and things aren't just totally clean and nice   because different races have different practices  and beliefs as far as what actually happened   with the gods and lord khan and all of that drama  also there are just legitimate little lore farts   especially here in oblivion they kind of seem  like errors or misplaced things typos and just   all these different takes on michael kirkbride's  original lore ideas i mean it just gets messy   and abstracted i think if you're watching this  video and you like the games you know that much   so that is all to say that for this video i want  to try to stick with the elf belief that we see in   the games here because a i like it and b mankar is  an elf so we can kind of compare and contrast so   the elf belief with lor khan and the gods and the  drama is that the aedra found out lorkhan tricked   them totally into giving up much of their power  in making all of reality and pretty much killed   him for it major punishment for lord khan but  eventually mortals came to worship the aedra   and the daedra for various things though most  overwhelmingly viewed the aedra as the benevolent   divines as they are called and daedra as  malevolent tricksters with a handful of exceptions   so what about mankar cameron you might ask well he  had been convinced by dagon that this was just a   grotesque retelling of events a blasphemous sizzle  piece on lorkhan himself now i mentioned earlier   that each daedric prince holds their own plane of  oblivion right dagon's deadlands hermaeus mora's   apocrypha molag bal's cold harbor the list goes  on and on for each prince will mankar and his cult   believe that lorkhan was in fact a daedric prince  just like their master and his realm of oblivion   is that of tamriel or as they call it dawn's  beauty that the death of lorkhan was a disgusting   betrayal at the hands of the aedra they also  believe that the aedra or the divines that are   now worshiped in tamriel are just weak baby ass  gods that hide behind mortal worship and are not   worthy of any attention while their counterparts  the daedra are much stronger and eternal and   worthy of your attention and worship now this is  of course somewhat true twist your perspective a   little bit but the aedra kind of emptied the tank  of power that they had to create mundus hence why   mortals would like worshiping them like hey thanks  for everything while the daedra i mean they vary   as far as how much they even care about mortals  and let's just say they aren't widely loved and   have a habit of being a little bit evil in  one way or another so this twisted version   of divine legend and history have led the mythic  dawn cults and especially mankar cameron to deem   tamriel a land of weakness a realm of stagnation  and displaced worship in need of new management   and from their perspective what better man for the  job than the daedric prince that they all worship   mehrunes dagon who in addition to being the  prince of destruction is also the prince   of change and revolution and it's a pretty  compelling narrative to spin if i'm honest   your gods suck look how little they really do and  look at mine he's huge he gave me a sick ass house   and oblivion and he looks like forearms from  ben 10 but in all seriousness i think mankar is   extremely effective as a villain in this way his  twisted version of reality is intriguing enough   to lure other mortals into the cult gain influence  minions and favor with dagon as their plan comes   further and further into view he also personally  just isolated as a really sick and twisted son of   a [ __ ] in his commentaries books he claims  to have eaten his daughter her name was ruma   and i ate her with no bread and made another which  learned and i loved that one and blackbirds formed   her twin behind all time okay so it seems his  children are kind of just aspects of himself that   he cut off of his body with the power of the razor  and turned them into living breathing speaking   people pretty sick stuff his paradise is also  a display of his cruelty and his insanity along   with his brainwashing at the hands of dagon it is  very beautiful to the eye but the more you explore   the more you realize it's just an absolute horror  show where members of the cult that have died in   the mortal realm are being tortured and tormented  by daedra for all eternity literally begging you   to stop this madness i mean it's so bad his former  right-hand man tries to join up with you to help   kill him toward the end let me help you  kill mankar cameron i am not without power i am no match for mankar cameron but perhaps  together we can find a way to defeat him   lead on this is a paradise for mankar and  his freakish children only although it is   right in line with dagon's methods of torture to  become ascended after so much pain and anguish   the idea is that you will be a higher being  so mankar talks a big big talk and he seems   to definitely have made really good friends with  mehrunes dagon but how much in the loop really   is he well surprise surprise i think our dear cult  leader here was duped by the daedric prince just a   little bit i think dagon is willing to tell and  give mankar anything he desires for he needed   the use of the hands of a mortal in his scheme  but what are the actual plans for tamriel here   well full credit to reddit user happy b3 for  this wordage i came across it several months   ago when i was first writing this video and i just  think it sums it up perfectly mehrun's dagon never   planned to turn tamriel into the dead lance at  least not permanently or even paradise he would   just utterly destroy the continent until life is  completely impossible and purged from the world   and then have something else made in its  place starting over with a blank slate   change the revolution destruction and ambition  is the crux of mehrunes dagon sphere in this new   world people would be tortured and reincarnated  until they transcend their condition just like in   paradise a taste of the tamriel to come but first  the world must be cleansed until nothing is left   his followers and subjects are being tortured  and tempered for their own good to improve them   through violence and make them gods among men so  maybe i'm wrong but something tells me dagon was   ready to just throw mankar away the second he had  control of tamriel he's nothing more than a tool   so now comes the great point in this video where  we have to ask the question why did mankar fail   i mean of all the villains we've covered here  on this channel mankar possibly got the closest   to glory and he personally is an incredibly  powerful mage wizard summoner whatever you want to   call him so how did it go wrong well the plan goes  off nearly perfectly he assassinates the emperor   assassinates all the royal heirs with scary  precision and then shortly after begins his   invasion with dagon or wait did he because there  seems to be one little thing that seemed to get   away the emperor's bastard son who had been hidden  in plain sight as a lowly priest in the town of   kovach none other than martin's septum who's  pretty much the main hero of the entire game   and yes i am working on a hero pdf for old marty  as we speak in the background emperor uriel septim   you think the emperor is my father no you must  have the wrong man i am a priest of akatosh   my father was a farmer he was hidden  as a baby to be raised by simple folk   and even he was completely unaware of his royal  lineage so by saving martin bringing him into   the safety of the blades while we the player  venture out to learn more about the mysterious   mythic dawn cult in mankar cameron the stage is  set beautifully to build an opposition to the   so-called master but i mean the daedra invasion  begins in kovach where martin is so mehnkar was   as close as like a straight arrow or fireball  from having a much firmer grip on the situation   but even still mankar is a good improviser he's  able to steal the amulet of kings from us very   shrewd move and this seems to be a move that tips  the scales to hopeless for us and tamriel they've   taken it the amulet of kings is gone the enemy  has defeated us at every turn because this is   much more than just a pretty gem but an insanely  powerful heirloom artifact of the septum line   and one that is the key for either side if  they want to come out victorious but of course   we are the protagonists mankar sorry buddy and by  tracking down all of the mythic dawn commentaries   a hidden message is revealed this allows us to  pose as a mortal interested in joining the cult   infiltrating their shrine and stealing the fabled  mysterium xarxes martin then reveals to us that he   has a bit of a history with deidre colts himself  and kicks back for a while to read the book and   find a way to open up his very own portal to  paradise so that we can head on inside and claim   the amulet but martin's mind and our might combine  to make an insanely strong combo and eventually   the materials are amassed and you can finally open  a portal into mankar cameron's turf i believe that   manca cameron acts as the anchor for paradise just  as a sigil stone anchors an oblivion gate in place and you will unmake his paradise shall i open the  portal to paradise are you ready it's a long road   getting here baby and it feels amazing to  finally come face to face with mr cameron   but first paradise and this is probably one of  the coolest parts of the entire game as the speech   that he spouts while you're making your way toward  him in paradise is just a wonderful cross-section   of his beliefs plans and namely his insanity so  the cat's poor of the septims arrives at last   you didn't think you could take me unawares here  of all places in the paradise that i created   look now upon my paradise gaia alata in the  old tongue a vision of the past and the future   behold the savage garden my disciples are tempted  for a higher distance to rule over tamriel reborn   if you are truly the hero of destiny as i  hope the garden will not hold you for long   lift your eyes to kairak again my seat at  the pinnacle of paradise i shall await you how little you understand  you cannot stop lord dagob   the principalities have sparkled as gems in the  black reaches of oblivion since the first morning   many are their names and  the names of their masters   the cold harbour of meridia perryites  quagmire the ten moonshadows of mythala and   and dawn's beauty the princeton of lorcon misnamed  tamriel by deluded mortals yes you understand now   tamriel is just one more daedric realm of oblivion  long since lost to its prince when he was betrayed   by those that served him lord dagon cannot invade  tamriel his birthright he comes to liberate the   occupied lands ask yourself how is it that  mighty gods die yet the dangerous standing   corruptable just leave us alone how is it that the  daedra forthrightly proclaimed themselves to man   while the gods cower behind statues and  the faithless words of traitor priests   it is simple they are not gods at all the truth  has been in front of you since you first were born   the daedra are the true gods of this universe are all lorcans betrayers posing as divinities in  the principality that has lost its guiding light   what our scholarship love and mercy when  compared to fate night and destruction   the god you worship are trifling shadows of  first causes they have tricked you for ages why do you think your world has always been  contested ground the arena of powers and immortals   is tamriel the realm of change brother  to madness sister to deceit your false   gods could not entirely rewrite history thus  you remember tales of lorcan vilified a dead   trickster whose heart came to tamriel but if a god  can die how does his heart survive he is daedrath this heart is the heart of the world for one was  made to satisfy the other you all remember this   it is in every legend daedra  cannot die so your so-called   gods cannot erase him from your minds completely well done champion your progress is swift  and sure perhaps you will reach me after all   you think i mock you not at all   in your coming i hear the footsteps of fate you  are the last defender of decadent tamriel i am   the midwife of the mythic dawn tamriel reborn i  welcome you if you truly are the agent of fate i   tire of the self-styled heroes who set themselves  in my path only to prove unworthy in the event   i have waited a long time for you champion of  old tamriel you were the last gasp of a dying age   you breathe the stale air of false hope how  little you understand you cannot stop lord dagon   the walls between our worlds are crumbling the  mythic dawn grows nearer with every rift in the   firmament soon very soon the lines now blurred  will be erased tamriel and oblivion rejoined the   mythic age reborn the emperor is dead the amulet  of kings is mine and the last defender of the last   ragged septim stands before me in the heart of  my power let us see who at last has proved the   stronger and when at last you find and confront  the master he is wearing the amulet of kings   now hold the [ __ ] phone we gotta touch on this  for just a second a relic that is only able to be   worn by dragonborn or else it slips right off your  neck this is yet another fork in the road as far   as lore and interpretation so maybe the camerons  are just so old and pure of blood that some of   them are in fact dragonborn ah i don't personally  think that's it so maybe the game just glitches as   it often does and it equips the amulet on mankar  automatically no i don't think so either perhaps   then it's that with along with altering his  body to become more altmer in appearance he also   changed his very destiny with maron's razor he  forcibly gifted himself this dragon blood and this   stature of dragonborn so he could don the necklace  and flex while simultaneously becoming even more   powerful and intimidating yes i think that's what  i like to believe anyway because mankar in many   ways lives in a complete fantasy land dagon's  influence his own arrogance and insanity have   put him in this place of just elation and delusion  he really truly sees himself as like the savior of   tamriel he thinks that he's liberating his  homeland and bringing about true change as   it ought to be and i just think any villain worth  their salt definitely sees themselves as the hero   right i mean he's not even intimidated by your  coming to kill him he's at peace with his destiny   which he so unwaveringly believes to be this sort  of demigod for this future tamriel that he keeps   speaking of so now i want to take a moment to just  comment on his ideals philosophies and just kind   of what i think of them because there are plenty  of people on the internet that seem to think   mankar is on to something that indeed tamriel  could be a plane of oblivion lord khan and daedra   etc i mean it is fun to consider for sure don't  get me wrong and there is some sound logic to the   points that mankar and the mythic dawn live by  especially when you're talking about the daedra   but i choose to believe that these are mostly the  ramblings of an individual completely disconnected   from reality lorkhan literally could not have  been a daedra because the daedra and the ayadra   were historically all at hada and only had a line  drawn between them based on lor khan's tricking   or working with some of them and not others  to create mundus so i guess mankar was saying   as that line was being drawn in the sand lorcan  is actually on our side and not yours it just   doesn't really totally make sense to me there are  also other cultures where lorkhan is worshipped in   tamriel i mean in the nordic pantheon he's known  as shore and has a physical throne in sauvengard   so is that really a daedra i mean wouldn't  have someone figured that out by now it also   seems to me that there is a pretty nice balance  of things in the lore of the daedra and aedra   i mean these are cosmic naturally occurring beings  here and mankar's plan just puts so much emphasis   on dagon as this superior beastly leader who has  a birthright to take another dead dater prince's   realm it just to me sounds like too much dagon  propaganda was whispered into this dude's ear and   he just ate it all up but as always i mean i have  to state in these videos i am not an expert on   the lore at all i just really love the games and i  started digging deeper when i started this channel   last year so please let me know your thoughts on  these things below because i'm always interested   in hearing learning more and just new perspectives  but at any rate madman or not the grim reaper   has finally come for mankar i mean this is an  extremely high stakes encounter the amulet of   kings the champion of cyrodiil and the leader of  the mythic dawn cult this is everything at stake   right here and i love that feeling in a video game  man the story is told so well and mankar is so   devilish that it just feels great to confront him  smash him and return home safely with that amulet   mankar largely goes out a complete and utter  villain no redemption no last breath clarity   he is and was a scoundrel through and through and  deserved the bitter end that we eventually deliver his legacy as a villain i think is fantastic  oblivion though it is my favorite elder scrolls   game has its fair share of flaws i think we all  know that even how mankar cameron looks i mean he   just looks goofy as hell let's be honest but the  story here with the voice acting the presentation   and the writing even with a few little errors is  just great to me i love it dagon is a fine villain   in his own right but i mean he's daedra he's bound  to his nature of destruction and change and i   think mankar is just so much more interesting my  only wish here with the character is that i knew   more i mean what was his childhood like how did  he first come to worship daegon and what was it   like when he was chosen by dagon what did he look  like physically before the razor changed him so   dramatically i could go on and on and on but to  me he is a quintessential elder scrolls villain   shrouded in mystery partially insane and from a  certain point of view potentially right all along   so we wrap up another villainpedia episode  everyone and this one was just too long in   the making sorry it took me a year oblivion  is just the best man i mean there are so many   fun characters in this game but i have  a question for you what in your opinion   is an underrated villain from any  video game let me know in the comments   and i will see you all very soon thank you again  so much for watching and until next time peace

Channel: Ghostcharm

Views: 449,805

Keywords: Mankar camoran, lore, elderscrolls, oblivion, cyrodiil

Id: wXj7PdKrzvA

Length: 31min 56sec (1916 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 25 2021