The battle between Galerion and Mannimarco was inconclusive, IIRC. Galerion's side won, Galerion himself died, and everything else is a mystery. At least, that's how I've always interpreted the story.

I always got the impression that they thought they killed him but he secretly survived.

Why wouldn't the King of Worms teach a willing pupil?

He would teach him most of what he knew but not all. That would eventualy make him something of a threat. It is not uncommon for necromancers to betray their masters (or anyone) to gain knowledge and power.

Intellectus did you just sign up to Candlekeep?

Excellent info. Thanks for your answers

Wait a minute. Sload are Necromancers?

How did yo know that ?

The Sload are the most simplemindedly necromancy-practicing group on Nirn. No other race can claim, "We really love necromancy," the way the Sload can.

Mannimarco's throne-room in Scourg Barrow was populated by liches and vampires. If he wasn't afraid of them, what makes you think he'd be afraid of someone so reverential that he continuously refers to the Worm-God as "Sovereign"?

There is a differecne betwen them and Celedaen. They were mearly Mannimarcos proles, and he wanted them to be almost powerless compared to himself. Celedaen on the other hand would have more power than any of them.

What I said earlier would imply that he isnt a threat YET. Was Mannimarco afraid of him before he was murdured? No. But if he wasnt murdured and became a student of Mannimarco there would always exist a posibility that he could betray his master and end him. A risk Mannimarco couldnt aford.

Mannimarco is already a God, and has nothing to fear from any of his students. All he wants now is more necromancers to join him in defiance of Arkay the Enemy.

I was refering to lich Mannimarco, not god Mannimarco. Two of 'em remember?

Oh and anyone with information on the nature of liches and their phylacteries is welcome to share. The help would be apreciated.

The information that Celedaen got was from the God Mannimarco though. Not sure if Lich Mannimarco even cares/knows about Celedaen at all.

You can't make a broad, overarching statement claiming that necromancers are any more likely to betray one's teacher for knowledge and power than anyone else. A necromancer is not "evil" nor are they inherently power-hungry or corrupt. There is no difference between them and any other mage save for the school of magic in which they specialize.

I also can't remember reading about any necromancer (in The Elder Scrolls) betraying their master to gain knowledge and power.

Regardless Mannimarco has more than a thousand years on Celedaen. He won't be betraying Mannimarco anytime soon. Also Mannimarco has many followers and resources at his disposal, he could most probably crush Celedaen at any time. I mellenia old lich is unlikely to be careless, he is going to be highly calculative and cunning and likely to eliminate any potential threats before they can become one.

Saw that you made a post and there is also a section on the bottom that tells everyone to "welcome our newest member: NAME"... yours was that name.

As for phylacteries, I don't think we have any real information on them. The only information I can find is from http://www.imperial-library.info/content/path-transcendence.

"Even the most pedestrian peasant fairy tale has long held that a lich must somehow remain bound to his soul, and that connection most commonly manifests itself as a transference of the spirit into an actual physical object. An urn, a sarcophagus, a crystal phial.... One Khajiit fairy tale even tells of a lich who preserved his spirit in the severed head of a Wood Elf infant! And these same peasants long comforted themselves with the belief that if they ever had the grave misfortune of facing a lich, they would need only find the vessel containing his spirit form and then destroy it, thus destroying the lich himself. Fools and their folklore! True liches possess no such weakness! Can one of the Sovereign's Worm Eremites be bested by shattering a glass vase? The very notion is so absurd as to be comical. Yes, a Necromancer must transfer his soul into a physical vessel, but once that transference is complete, once the Necromancer has fully metamorphosed into his lich form, the vessel is inconsequential."

Well... you're right. Sadly there arent many necromancers in the series and so we dont know much about them. But I have to point out the fact they are practicing the school of magic that most mages THINK is corrupting (and may be for all we know). Therefore it is likely that most people drawn towards necromancy are power hungry. Others are probably machiavellians, doing whatever they can to achive their goals (good or bad).

As for The Path of Transcendence it is the ONLY source of information on phylacteries. With that in mind we dont and CANT know if it is valid.

I sugest we bide our time till TES Online gets out. It might hold new lore on the subject.

http://uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Affairs_of_a_Wizard corroborates the journal/book. It states the phylactery must not leave his possession while the transfer is happening, or else he'll die. To complete the quest, you have to pickpocket his phylactery which instantly kills him. We know at least some of what the book says is true, so what reason or evidence is there for the other parts be lies?

That is the thing. We dont know if other parts are true. Some of it is, but the rest might be wrong. If we had other sources, like more books on phylacteries , we would know. But we dont. We can speculate forever but we ultimatly cant be shure of anything not proven.

At some point, you just have to take it on good faith. There's no reason for the book to lie (particularly since it was a personal journal not meant for anyone else to read), and we're able to verify that at least some of what the book explains is true. Sure, it's possible other parts of the book are wrong, but there's nothing to suggest that and there's no way for us to find out. So unless more information comes to light regarding the nature of the phylacteries, there's no reason to doubt what the books says.

So, Mannimarco, who's made it his divine mission to flip Arkay the finger, deliberately lies to a faithful servant preparing exactly that?

No, only some berks at the Mages' Guild think so; it's the reason the guild ultimately fractures.

I said MOST mages not all. When you put them all together there are more mages that stayed loyal to the guild than necromancers.

I don't know about that. I've killed hundreds of necromancers, yet they keep receiving reinforcements from somewhere and repopulate their old hideaways by week's end. I doubt the Mage's Guild in Oblivion even has fifty members total.

And let us not forget all the hedge mages too.

I remember killing Lord Dagon with the Wabajack. Funny, acording to the lore he was driven back by Martin Septim.

Not everything that happens ingame is cannonical. There are infinitly many necromancers if you keep killing them forever. They keep respawning to make the game fun.