Alternate History

Manowan Civilization (Parallel Brazil)

40,572pages on
this wiki
Add New Page
Talk0 Share

Ad blocker interference detected!



Al'tera Kol'imann (Altotih)
Kingdom of Manowan
Timeline: Parallel Brazil
Preceded by 700 BC - 1630 AD Succeeded by
Manfl ManFc
Flag of Manowan Seal of Eliandor

(Manowan Kingdom Seal)

Capital: Eliandor
Other cities: Niss, Degoun (Daegun), Liantiss, etc
Language: Altotih (Manowan)
Religion: Manowan Polytheism
Ethnic group: Manowans
Type of government: Monarchy

The Manowans are a unique ethnic group of unknown origins native to the southwestern Amazonic region. They consisted of a developed, independent kingdom between 700 BC and 1630 (spanning 2330 years), formed after the unification of various tribes in the area.

Manowans were more advanced than most other pre-Columbian peoples: they developed naval knowledge, mastered a phonetic alphabet and crafted iron and bronze much before their first contact with Europeans. Their mathematics, base 10 like ours, knew zero. Their language, Altotih, is mysteriously not related to any Native American language family. While the origins of their civilization and their divergent technological development are now known, the origins of the people and the ethnic Manowans themselves are still one of the greatest mysteries of mankind, since their genetic connection is to Africans and not to Native Americans or Polynesians like the other peoples of the region.


Manowans call themselves man'uuwain, which in Altotih means "Heirs of the First World", a clear reference to their belief that they are "gods expeled from Heaven", as said the Portuguese priest Fernando de Almeida. The Spaniards, the first European people with whom they made ​​contact, named them manoas or manoanos.

The Manowan Kingdom, as their state is known, is natively called by Al'tera Kol'imann, Altotih for "Refuge of the Ancients".


Manowan People


The Brazilian singer Lara Nissi, who has a pure Manowan phenotype.

When used to describe the Manowan ethnic group, the term "Manowan" refers to a people of Southeastern Amazon which are different from the other pre-Columbian groups. The Incas and other Andean people used to call them "Ghosts of East", while the Mayas called them "The Jewel Eyed Ones". The term "Manowan" came from a Brazilian spelling of the Spanish term "manoano", which came from Altotih language (also called Manowan) "man'uuwain", the endonym term for the natives themselves.

Manowans are not related to any other ethnic groups of the Americas. Their genetic origins are traced to Old Africa, when the human race had not left the continent yet. Some researches lead to the conclusion that they are probably the oldest surviving known ethnic group.

Its is not uncommon to find in all Brazil, and mostly in the Northern region, people with pure Manowan phenotype (white/silver straight hair, true violet eyes and tan skin). And less uncommon is to find people with some Manowan phenotype. The Manowan people miscigenated with the colonizers for more than four hundred years in a way that, nowadays, does not exist such thing as a "pure Manowan" (even people with pure Manowan phenotype). However, the Manowan phenotypical traits are defined mostly by dominant genes, in a way that most of Manowan descendants have some Manowan trait. As the Manowan hair and eyes are the most dominant of all their traits, most of Manowan descendants have one of those, or both, even if they are, mostly, White, Black or, even, Asian.

The Brazilian singer born in Niss, Lara Nissi, is the most famous example of pure Manowan phenotype. Other famous examples of Manowan phenotypical traits are the surfer Rafael Valois (true violet eyes); the rapper Carol Souza (white hair); the governor of Paraná province, Murilo Arantes de Paula (true violet eyes); and the Miranor branch of the House of Braganza.

Manowans have many unique characteristics. Colonial records and folklore from other Amerindian peoples confirm it; they were known for their unique phenotypes: olive or light brown skin, true violet eyes (true violet eyes differs from the common violet or deep blue eyes, as such as Elizabeth Taylor’s, because they come from another genes and are truly violet colored) and natural white or silver gray straight hair (most of Manowans have darker, even brown, eyebrows, though). As to their eyes and hair color, these are phenotypes unique to them. The genes which allows that features are mostly dominant and remained in much people of Manowan descent even among the strong Brazilian miscigenation. For that, it is not uncommon to find in Brazil, mainly in the province of Manowan, people with white skin, but natural silver or white hair, or with true violet eyes. By the way, many Manowan descent people have one or more of the Manowan phenotype hidden by miscigenation.

With miscigenation and the so called "Manowan Diaspora", after the War of Supremacy, the Manowan people expanded throughout Brazil. At 2015, aproximatelly 11% of the Brazilian population (18,810,000) had some Manowan ancestry and 8,7% (14,877,000) had one or both of the dominant Manowan phenotypical traits (true violet eyes and white/silver hair) or pure Manowan phenotype. Also, it is expeculated that aproximatelly 1,020,000 people worldwide (outside Brazil) have some Manowan ancestry (due to the Brazilian colonial expansion and travels), as the French actress Clarisse Dumont and the Malagasy ex-Prime Minister Manoel Vila.

The "Manowans", as a sole ethnic group, were largely destroyed by colonization and the War of Supremacy. The survivors that lived in the colony such generally intermingled with the settler so much that they ceased to exist as a distinct group. A few Manowan aristocratic families are famous for maintaining pure Manowan lineages - those with "the blood of Old Manowan" retain strong Manowan features of pale hair and purple irises. However, there are regions in which the Manowan heritage are still strong enough so large segments of the population can still exhibit classic Manowan features, like the towns of Saint Claire, Carlota and Vila Rosa in Manowan, and Ribeira Alta in São Paulo.

Genetical experiences prove that Manowans have no relation with Polynesian, European or Asian ethnicities, except for a few of Phoenician ancestry. They share a large bunch of genes with Africans and probably came from there. However, some studies indicate that the Manowans may be older as a ethnicity than even the oldest African ones, which reinforce the Theory of the Manowan Eve. These theory postulates that the Manowans may be the oldest known human ethnic group and that they may have arrived in Africa and migrated to America somehow.

That lack of information about the Manowans origins, plus their beliefs about being descendants from powerful gods who had their land destroyed and sunk at sea, allowed many people to speculate that they might be the legendary Atlantis or, at least, the empire which inspired the legend.

The most notable remnant of the ancient Manowan nobility, the House Miranor, noble house of the Duke of Niss, is descendant of the ancient Manowan kings. During the War of Supremacy, the youngest of the Manowan king's sons, Mir'anor, shifted side to the Portuguese, bringing with him many Manowans, and received, in exchange, the title of Duke of Niss. Mir'anor have always been fascinated with the Europeans and took a Brazilian woman of European-descent, Cecília Maria de Melo, as his wife. Their life and love for each other is more in the field of folklore than history, but it is known that their firstborn son was named Emílio Miranor, giving birth to that noble house. For centuries, the Miranors have exhibited their Manowan status with pride, even if they were undersaw by most of the other Brazilian noble houses. By the end of the 19th century, their investments in the rubber boom and, after, in other activities made them one of the richest Brazilian noble houses. During the reign of Queen Helena, her second-born child, Princess Mariana of Braganza, married Tobias Miranor, heir of the Duke of Niss, founding the Miranor-Braganza branch of the House of Braganza. Of their children, Princess Amara and Prince Lucario, the latter is the only one who inherited his father's have true violet eyes.

Examples of Manowan descent people

Manowan Kingdom


Non Unified Period (until ±700 BC)

As already said, the origins of the Manowan people are unknown. Their language, Altotih, is considered a language isolate among Native American languages and genetic studies have also shown that ethnic relationship between Manowans and other pre-Columbian peoples are almost nonexistent. The only sources as their origin is their own myths.

According to their mythology, the Manowans descended from ancient gods, called Lianti, who lived in a idilic place called Al'Lianti. These gods were powerful and ruled over the Earth and the great waters (the sea), but the envy of other gods, called Kor'iandi, led to a war that ousted the Lianti of their power and sank his kingdom in the oceans. The majority of the Lianti survivors, stripped of their godhood and transformed into mortals, were guided by the Lianti who remained gods (only the royal family of Al'Lianti) to a rainy and warm land and divided into fourteen tribes. The remaining Lianti gods achived continuously to protect their mortal people from the Kor'iandi. Since then, the Lianti and the Manowans live a symbiotic relationship: the Manowans' worship and veneration feed the Lianti powers and allow them to fight against the Kor'iandi for their own lives and the Manowan ones.

The historical origins of this myth are still unknown, but it is known that that the Manowans were actually divided into fourteen tribes to the period between 900 and 850 BC (some historians even put that period as far as 8000 BC), when the Manowan people were unified under a confederation, in order to protect themselves from other Native Brazilian peoples, by whom they were despised for their different ethnicity, despite of their technolgical advantages.

Unified Period (700 BC - 1630)

The Manowans in Colonial Brazil

The Manowan People in Independent Brazil





The Manowans in Culture

  • The Manowans were mentioned in the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), as the old civilization which built the city of Akator (El Dorado) and worshiped transdimentional aliens as gods.
  • The Valyrians from the book series A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin, were based on the Manowans.
  • The Atlanteans from Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, were based on the Manowans and their language was based on Altotih, Sumerian and Native American languages.
  • The Manowans appear in the computer game Age of Empires III as one of the Amerindian tribes the player can ally with. They provide the units Tok'ra Sail Ship and Steelbow Archer. They also appear in the expansion The Warchiefs as one of the five new playable Amerindian civilizations (the Aztecs, Sioux, Iroquois, Incas and Manowans), being trade and water navigation their advantages.
  • The Manowans appear in the computer game Age of Mythology II: Gods of America as one of the three civilizations (Aztec, Incas and Manowans). Their major gods are Dakara, god of Order, Aman, god of Sun, and Ghór, god of Chaos.
  • According the Pixar's movie The Incredibles director Brad Bird, the character Mirage is a Brazilian Mexican of Manowan descent.

Also on Fandom

Random Wiki