I'm no expert in lore but i read on the UESP that the Camoran's are a dynasty from Valenwood....

But wouldn't it be quite logicall then that Mankar was a bosmer instead of a altmer?

What's scarier? A insane Altmer, or Fargoth?

Especially as his mother was a Bosmer, it would be true to the lore. But really, you don't want to walk up to him, with the Adoring Fan at your side, and for the guy to scream 'daddy!' and hug the Daedra-worshipping plank, do you? He doesn't want to be hugged by Mankar Camoran, either!

An insane Fargoth.

Valenwood is home to the descendants of Ayleid refugees. I can't remember if it is ever stated that the Camoran were a completely Bosmeri dynasty.

Well, Gaenor was pretty scary

Yeah, once he was decked out in Ebony. Even then, though, he wasn't that tough.

It would makes sense if the Camorans were of Ayleid stock. But still, considering his mother was supposed to be a Bosmer...

This is a direct contradiction to other dev lore that states children of mixed descent resemble the mother. I'm not sure if this is true in all cases, though. Maybe Ayleid blood, being a more ancient lineage, is more of a dominant trait.

I'm pretty sure Mankar Camoran is Ayleid. I may be getting confused, but I believe that one of his ancestors was the progeny of an Ayleid woman and Molag Bal?

Valenwood is just where the Usurper started as I recall, he used his supposed army of daedra and undead to kick butt across the west.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=998727&view=findpost&p=14444342

This thread mentions that rumor; I don't think the Molag Bal part is proven though.

"Haymon, the Camoran Usurper, conquers eastern Valenwood. Haymon's claim to the Camoran throne and his very origins are still debated by historical scholars. The most persistent legend is that he was the progeny of a Breton woman and the daedra Molag Bal. Certainly his army was largely supernatural, but so was that of his archfoe, the Baron of Dwynnen." From http://www.imperial-library.info/history/3.shtml

oh man your gonna give me nightmares tonight just the image of him being the adoring fan's father is just creepy ''shivers''.

Another possibility is that his mother was a "Bosmer" by Nationality but not by blood...in the same way it's possible to be an American but not necessarily genetically English/Caucasian.

Remember that after the Crusade to liberate Cyrodill, the Ayleids fled and were absorbed into other Elven nations. A lot of them ended up in Valenwood and while there was a lot of inter breeding there probably remain a few full blooded or 90% full blooded Ayleids to this day. These people probably adopted many of the customs of their adoptive Bosmer, and are "Bosmer" in all but blood. In this case, Mankar's mother could have been a Bosmer and an Ayleid at the same time. Semantics. That's entirely my guess work, though, but it's a feasible retcon to explain his physical appearance.

Another is that his powerful magic and affiliation with Dagon granted him the ability to reshape his body into an Altmer form, much the same way that another genetic mixed Elf named Jagar Tharn was a Master of Illusion and could assume nearly and shape he wanted.

ALSO note that Ayleids are said to be adept shape shifters, which is apparently not a magical ability but an inherent racial trait of the Wild Elves.

*Aldmer

He wanted a return of the Dawn era which meant Aldmer. He wanted to reshape Elfendom back to the original progenitor elf (among other things).

1 - He uses the in-game Altmer model. There is no Aldmer model in game.

2 - They're probably identical anyway.

First of all, "Camoran" blurs the line between a name and a title, like "Caesar." The only source for Mankar Camoran's mother being a Bosmer is fiction within the fiction, so it might be true and might not. There's no reason (yet) to doubt that Mankar Camoran's father was Haymon the Camoran Usurper. My theory is that Haymon was a full-blooded ayleid hanging out in the Xarxes pocket world since the Alessian rebellion. The architecture in Xarxes is unruined ayleid for a reason.

I don't see why we can't accept the fictional account: Haymon as the father, and a Bosmer female as one of Haymon's favorites, and Mankar's mother.

It's an exception to the "rule" that offspring resemble their mother, but I've always thought that was unlikely and too limiting. In real life, the various racial mixtures would be visible -- it wouldn't be so cut and dried.

Valenwood was part of the Aldmeri dominion? Or was that earlier?

It wasn't called the Bosmeri dominion.

Indeed, there has been at least one precedent for such an exception. From A Brief History of the Empire:

I don't understand a lot about Camoran. Was he related to the Camoran Usurper?

Mankar Camoran was the son of the Usurper, Haymon Camoran (as far as I know).

According to http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Tar-Meena the Commentaries were written during the life of Tiber Septim (he died 3E38), according to http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/refugees.shtml Mankar was born in 3E267, so unless he was able to write the book before he was born one of the sources has to be wrong - Master-Wizard studying Mythic Dawn or fictional account?

Maybe it's only another example of the devs not coordinating their lore. Since there's so much lore, it's not surprising that details don't always match up. I'd like to get the opinions of some loremasters on it, though, since my lore knowledge is mediocre.

Bethesda didn't pay much attention to Oblivion's outsourced lore in general.

Terrence Stamp voice acting rough drafts and elves extolling the virtues of the genocidal Divine Crusader.