» Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:28 pm
This will turn out to be an interesting topic.
Jagar Tharn and Mankar Cameron were two different people. I haven't finished Arena.. oh, DOSbox, bless your little heart.. but I think I understand the motives that differentiate our villains. I see MC as fanatical, devoted to the Mythic Dawn and Mehrunes Dagon. He believed he would bring about the rule of his master. Jagar Tharn, on the other hand, is out for Jagar Tharn; true, he strikes a deal with Dagon in imprisoning the emperor (?) and in destroying the Battlespire. But this deal seems more in line with any other deal with a Daedric Prince, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Only on a much grander scale. "Oh yes.. for Lord Dagon, etc.. red-drink, blah blah.. now, what new little toy have you got for me?"
Jagar Tharn was an opportunist, evil, and ambitious, who seems to come out of nowhere, with uncertain parentage/history. I see him like the evil version of the archetypal TES hero. Why did you do this, Jagar Tharn? Because he could!
The Amulet is an interesting detail, though. You've raised a point I was wondering on, myself. Jagar Tharn certainly could not worn the Amulet. Was it in his possession nevertheless, or did Uriel Septim somehow have it with him in Oblivion? (Why didn't they kill Uriel Septim outright, instead of replacing him? Besides "Then we wouldn't have Arena") Perhaps the Amulet protected him there?
Though few knew of Jagar Tharn's masquerade as the emperor, I think the Mythic Dawn would have laid low about it. Tharn was useful to Mehrunes Dagon, so I think he would have called off his dogs. The time wasn't right for anything grand. And Uriel had other heirs running about at the time, his three sons who were sent off to remote places, and his bastard, Calaxes.
Regarding the Blades, it was said in Arena that Jagar Tharn replaced the "Imperial Guard" with his own twisted version of men and monsters. I like to think that Jagar Tharn purged the Blades for his own purposes, "retiring", disappearing, or outright executing the old guard in order to preserve his rule. Certainly the older members of the Blades would remember personal details and mannerisms of the true emperor, and sense something wrong or amiss with "Uriel". If Barenziah could figure it out, having only seen the emperor a few times, certainly the emperor's bodyguard would find that out. I like to think that Jagar Tharn seriously disrupted the institution of the Blades, damage they felt on up to the Oblivion Crisis.