The Royal Imperial Mananauts are a scholarly organization that operates under the Elder Council. Their exact duties are unclear, but the treatise The Hierarchical Structure of the Greater Dremora was written by a Royal Imperial Mananaut named Secundius based on observations of Oblivion gleaned from the scrying chambers beneath the Imperial Palace.[1] They were active from the Second Era[1] to at least the end of the Third Era.[2]
They are considered the last remaining legacy of the Imperial Mananauts, who operated under the reign of the Reman Dynasty in the late First Era. Similarly to the Sun Birds of Alinor, the Mananauts undertook expeditions across the Void to enter Aetherius by way of the stars. In their cosmic ventures, they discovered that mortal minds must be acclimated to Oblivion by gentle degrees to prevent mental distortion. To remedy this issue, they utilized Slipstream Realms, points within the Aurbis where truths can co-exist without conceptual abrasion.[3] These expeditions required prohibitively large amounts of magicka, however, and as with the Sun Birds, the Mananauts were eventually dissolved.[2]