King of Worms

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The King of Worms is a fictional character from the games Daggerfall and Oblivion in the Elder Scrolls series.

The King of Worms, Mannimarco, is a powerful necromancer in Tamriel and the archenemy of the Mages' Guild. He was originally an Altmer and a Psijic, and a contemporary of Vanus Galerion. At some point Mannimarco broke away from the Psijic order (as well as Galerion, who went on to found the Mages Guild) to further practice his necromancy, and this is the point at which he actually first styled himself "King of Worms". From Scourge Barrow in the Dragontail Mountains, he has cleverly played all the political games and powers for millenia. His influences have even reached Summerset Isle, the homeland of the Altmer. The Sload, the necromantic slug-like creatures living in the Thrassian Reef, worship him as a god.

Mannimarco's influence has led him to be responsible for several notable happenings in Elder Scrolls lore. He is one of seven people who have been in control of the Totem of Tiber Septim. According to ambiguous accounts, he used the Mantella which powers the Totem to ascend beyond the mortal realm and become a god. From the book "Arkay the Enemy", signed by a "KW" assumed to be the King of Worms, Mannimarco states "Once I was a lowly man such as yourselves. By my will I entered the ranks of the gods". However, Mannimarco's presence in Cyrodiil at the end of the Third Age argues circumstantially that things didn't happen quite that way. However it is also hypothesised that time fluctuations, such as the Warp of the West, allow every eventuality of a choice to happen at the same time, which would explain the existence of two versions of Mannimarco, one the King of Worms which did not receive the Mantella from the player at the end of Daggerfall, and the other the Mannimarco that did receive the Mantella and became the deity that his "Order of the Black Worm" worships, the "Revenant" or "God of Worms" mentioned in the book, "Necromancer's Moon".

The King of Worms is the creator of the Necromancer's Amulet and the Bloodworm Helm, two legendary magical items that of course aid in the practice of necromantic magic.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the player gets a chance to fight and defeat the King of Worms if following the Mages Guild's quest line. The King of Worms holds power over the large underground necromancy cults known as "The Order of the Black Worm", and "The Order of the Black Rose", which typically meet in Ayleid ruins or old ruined Reman forts, to avoid the prying eyes of the mages guild and others. When confronted by the player, Mannimarco reveals that not only is he responsible for the death of Galerion the Mystic, founder of the mages guild, but he has also reanimated him as a worm thrall servant, and has also killed and reanimated several arch-mages throughout his existence. The player, however, is rendered immune to this by the possession of a black soul gem containing Hannibal Traven's soul. Thus, Mannimarco's attempt to enthrall the player fails, forcing him to try to kill the player through more conventional means. After his defeat, the player can wield his staff, the Staff of Worms, which enables temporary (30 seconds) reanimation of dead bodies, and appears as a collection of bones, with three hands gripping a skull at the top.