If his power was lost with his Divinity, then it would make sense he would try to rebuild it before exposing himself to open conflict with the Mage's Guild like he did. In Daggerfall he proved himself to be an excellent manipulator and kept himself hidden away with a group of allies far too powerful to make him vulnerable to attack, even if he had no abilities of his own.

I just don't see how it's possible that the two NPCs are one and the same. It seems far more likely that someone decided to dupe a bunch of necromancers into thinking he was Mannimarco by using an artifact he came across.

Re: the battle in Oblivion, I had the same experience Nightbeat. I only had Restoration for magical abilities, as I was mainly a Paladin type. I just waled up to him and bashed him in the face. Power attack, slash+slash.

It was actually enough to make me turn the game off for about three weeks, and even after that I never really got back into it.

That's what i'm thinking. I mean, without the Staff of Worms he really can't be considered a Necromacer at all. It makes sense he would use it as a way of claiming such power.

This seems very likely to me. I am still pushing for the fact he's a divine, and that would make sense. If he ascended into divinity, he would've left that Staff of his behind. Quite easy for a random High Elf to pick it up, and with all the confusion following the Dragon Break, it wouldn't have been hard for fim to sort of "usurp" power. Though I'm sure there'll be another retcon put in place to explain what happened. (Presumbly called "The Warp in the Weast".) There's also the issue of whether this was even canon. The MQ is obviously, but the MG quests were technically side quests, so for all we know, that could've never happened anyways.

Mannimarco in Oblivion is the real one, its just an yet another Oblivion flaw, just deal with it

Bosses NEED to be important powerful and look as sixy as that picture otherwise they're forgettable. PLEASE BETH MAKE BOSSES REAL BOSSES. k bye.

That may be true, does mean that just about everything in the games up for debate.

For instance, I don't think Martin was the real illegitimate heir. He was just a Priest. Never mind that all evidence points to him being the last descendant of the Septim line... just as all the evidence points to that not being the real King of Worms.

If they confirm it in some way, then it's taken care of, but based on the current evidence, I don't think that's the case.

I like Mannimarco and I hate the oblivion version but I still don't hope he will make an appearance in Skyrim.
The epicness of him would kinda disappear if he returned in every game and got his ass kicked. No offense to Skeletor or Shredder.

I'm hoping that if they bring him into Skyrim, it will be only as a reference to resolve the Oblivion version issue. If they were to include the NPC, then I'd hope they'd put him in a Scourge Barrow environment where attacking him would be a bad, bad idea.

If you want to have a memorable fight against mannimarco, FCOM Mannimarco is really terrific.