Lore:Royal Imperial Mananauts

A Second Era-recreation of the cap and goggles worn by Imperial Mananauts

The Royal Imperial Mananauts were a scholarly organization that operated under the Elder Council. Their exact duties are unclear, but the treatise The Hierarchical Structure of the Greater Dremora was written by a Royal Imperial Mananaut named Secundius based on observations of Oblivion gleaned from the scrying chambers beneath the Imperial Palace. They were active from the Second Era to at least the end of the Third Era.

They are considered the last remaining legacy of the Imperial Mananauts, who operated under the reign of the Reman Dynasty in the late First Era. Similarly to the Sun Birds of Alinor, the Mananauts undertook expeditions across the void of Oblivion to enter Aetherius by way of the stars. In their cosmic ventures, they discovered that mortal minds must be acclimated to Oblivion by gentle degrees to prevent mental distortion. To remedy this issue, they utilized Slipstream Realms, points within the Aurbis where truths can co-exist without conceptual abrasion. These expeditions required prohibitively large amounts of magicka, however, and as with the Sun Birds, the Mananauts were eventually dissolved.

At some point during the Interregnum, the renowned fashion designer Diocletia Orbus recreated the cap and goggles worn by Imperial Mananauts, drawing inspiration from ancient inscriptions. During this period, the Mananauts were considered to be a mysterious holdover group of the Second Empire, possibly taking new identities in order to preserve their traditions.

Notes

• While the vessels the Mananauts used for Aetherial travel are never identified, unofficial texts make mention of "megalomoths" or "mothships". These vessels seem to be referenced in the official text Lost Tales of the Famed Explorer: Fragment III, where the remains of something with "great wings of metal, like the wings of a moth" and "twin domes of layered glass eyes" is found in Black Marsh.

References

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.