Well yeah, it has been bugging me since I found and read The Refugees during the Wolf Queen quest in Skyrim. The book is a nice read and all, but the end kind of bugs me, when it is indicated that the Bosmer woman in the basemant probably is the mother of Mankar Camoran. However, when this is compared to what Racial Physiology tells us about the mother race more or less dictates the race of the child and while only minor traits of the father is carried over.

So even though he has the Camoran Usurper, an Altmer afaik, as father, that still wouldn't make him one if his mother is a Bosmer. Or am I completely wrong?

That's what the books say... I can only imagine his father being some kind of dragonborn type character makes his DNA more powerful then the mothers...

Seems a bit silly to think in terms of DNA when for all we know there may be no such thing in Tamriel. The same goes for cells, microbes and what not. But there are still several ways about it.

• She came from Valenwood but was not a Bosmer. Many Ayleid refugees fled to Valenwood in the first Era, if she wore the dress and spoke with the accent of a Bosmer the mistake is easily made.
  
• Mankar was born a Bosmer and changed his appearance when he was reborn in Paradise.
  
• http://www.imperial-library.info/content/morrowind-notes-racial-phylogeny-and-biology is not correct. This seems like a serious study so I doubt that.

Simple answer: when he acquired a Neonym he reshaped himself as a Daedra might want into a form more fitting what he viewed as the inheritor to the legacy of the Ayleids.

More complicated answer: Race in TES is more to do with culture and philosophy than it is with some kind Mendellian notion of inheritance. Racial Phylogeny is referring to a real phenomenon where children of various races tend to be accultured into the heritage of a whichever parent is around to raise them. Prior to the formation of the 3rd Empire, the various races never really interacted with each other beyond the blade of a sword. So any interracial child born would likely be a bastard of conquest (a polite way of saying [censored] and pillaging). And who tends to raise a [censored]-child? Now, in the case of Mankar Cameron, when he grows up with the knowledge that his father claimed lineage with the Ayleid Kings of old and conquered most of the West Coast of Tamriel, who do you think someone like him might identify more with? And then when he ties himself with the Red King and is in the process of shaping his own reality, how do you think he'll shape it? He changed his own reality until Heritage and what people saw matched what he wanted to emphasize and identify with.

I said DNA for a lack of a better term, still it's obvious DNA does not work like it does in our world. from your options I'd definitely go for 1... Makes the most sense.

It could be that she was a Valenwooden Altmer, and the human author got mixed up, or that the Bosmer and Altmer are physically close enough (bosmer are really just short, tan Altmer) that the difference isn't significant enough for Nirnian Maternal Primacy to kick in.

Or maybe we never met the true Mankar Camoran at all!

It's mostly because it would be hard to take a Bosmer serious as a villain. And besides, Skyrim shows that they aren't all three inches tall.

He's basically a Bosmer lore wise, but an Altmer ingame.

Yep. I was surprised quite a few times when my Cyrodil (he hates being called Imperial) came face to face with a Boiche and they were the same height.

Anyways, Manky was Bosmer nobility, effectively making him Altmer-by-any-other-name (is just as pompous).

Disease exists. That probably means bacteria and viruses. Viruses are just floating chunks of RNA.

So was the Camoran Dynasty made up of Bosmer or Altmer?

"After much anolysis of living specimens, the Council long ago determined that all "races" of elves and humans may mate with each other and bear fertile offspring. Generally the offspring bear the racial traits of the mother, though some traces of the father's race may also be present." - From Notes on Racial Phylogeny and Biology

Its conceivable simply that Mankar was one out of 1000 where the Fathers racial traits superceded the mothers. Its just more rare. I dont think the anolysis is cut and dry and more that it is more common for a child to gain the mothers racial attributes, not an unbreakable rule.

It could also mean curses from the gods, bad humors, something blocking the creatia-channels in the body, parasites, etc.

Even within an earth-biological context, its possible for Notes on Racial Phylogeny to be correct. Consider mitochondrial DNA. In humans, a small (but critical) part of who you are is passed on only by the female parent. The rest is inherited from both male and female parents. On Nirn, the ratio of female-exclusive to mixed-inheritance could be reversed, and males might only be able to pass on a limited number of minor traits.

It's an Ayleid line that mixed into Bosmer families.

It does say "GENERALLY the offspring bear the racial traits of the mother..."

I think it was just done by the developers so one of the main bad guys wouldn't be a short little elf

How many times do I have to say it, he's Ayleid with Ayleid ideals and Ayleid names and Ayleid agendas. Roughly speaking, in TES culture and heritage are stronger determinators of race than parentage. Therefore, Cameron is a Heartland High Elf. Bethesda consciously chose his culture, just like they consciously chose his parents. If they just did it "so one of the main bad guys wouldn't be a short little elf," then they'd just change his mother to a different race. It's not that difficult.

Add to that the assumption that generally the young ones are raised by their mother - in their mother's culture - in case of separated parents, and the pieces fall neatly into place.
And as a side note for this specific case, the mother's situation as a refugee does fit as a wild elf, does it not?

Sure, that would make sense, when you take the physical appearance of the Bosmers in Oblivion into consideration. However, Skyrim showed us that Wood Elves can be pretty badass, so in that case yeah, maybe Camoran would have been depicted as a Bosmer had they used Skyrims design in the first place


That could also be the case, I suppose

The question is are these parasites sentient, and what is their version of Akatosh?

So he is in fact the "Ayleids" mentioned in the Nu-Mantia Intercept? It's not like the game itself made an effort to connect to its own pre-release lore......

He is inheritor to their legacy, yes.

Allessian revolt, right? Humans overthrowing Ayleids, Pelinal-inspired Elvish Pogroms, all the Ayleids either scattered into the wilds or went to Valenwood. They were the ones who established the Camoran dynasty, to which Haymon was a distant bastard. By the end of the 3rd era, they were intermingled with Bosmer lineages though. The pure Ayleid lines are in the true 'Wild Elves', but Ayleid culture is in these civilized elves living in Valenwood.

Haymon and his presumed son, Mankar, took things a step further and shunned all the Bosmeri culture they assimilated into, essentially purifying their culture into the same late-royal-Ayleidic culture of Daedra worship, enslavement of Men, etc, trying to spur a resurgence of that culture by conquest.

If you want proof, just look at the High-Ayleidic architecture in Paradise, or how Ecstatic he paints Mehrunes Dagon. No Altmer ideal would think Mehrunes Dagon was a good idea.