Sorcery in the Amber game is roughly based on the Merlin saga - there isn't really a lot of it in the Corwin series. Aside from a brief display from Corwin in the Guns of Avalon, I'm not sure any of the Amberites even perform sorcery. My question is, do you think sorcery as in 'magic spells' exists in the Corwin series, or whether it is largely a product of the Merlin series?
What I'm basing this off is that Corwin (I think) mentions that only the red-heads are sorcerers. Coincidentally they are also the only ones who seem to have paid much attention to Dworkin.
I forget the thread, but in the past on this forum it has been suggested that any attributions of sorcery to Corwin have been made by Shadow people, who may have merely misinterpreted use of Pattern.
On this basis, do you think that perhaps claims that the red-heads are sorcerers might merely be a misinterpretation of their more refined use of the Pattern/Trump principles? The main count against this, as I see it, is that Merlin implies that being taught sorcery is common in the Courts of Chaos.
I'd be interested to hear all your opinions on this one.
Its interesting to note too, that at one point in the Merlin saga, Merlin comments that Fiona has sorcery, but a different sort of sorcery than he has. Maybe there's more than one kind of sorcery?
RPGPundit
It's been a while since I've read the Merlin saga, whereas I've read the Corwin saga quite a number of times. So my memory isn't too good for the sorcery in the Merlin series, but is it ever mentioned how Fiona racks her spells? I wonder if she does something with the Pattern? If the Pattern is the basis for everything bar Chaos, perhaps replicating portions of the Pattern can create effects.
[In terms of the Merlin series, that is. The two series seem very different to me in metaphysics, so I often treat them as independant settings]
It's certainly implied in the second series that Brand had all manner of sorcerous abilities (at some point in the Merlin series that Brand and Jasra met over the course of a sorcerous duel). At any rate, I think it's much more fun to imagine the spectrum of sorcery as fairly diverse and idiosyncratic. To the extent that similarities emerge, that might have to do with that person's teacher (Amberites tend to practice sorcery similar to that of Dworkin, Chaosians similar to that of Suhuy and so on).
I too think the "multiple forms of sorcery" idea is appealing. The "build over extensive time, hang, fire through completion, forget" (reminiscent of what I've heard of Vance's sorcery, which was later heavily modified in D&D) method used by Merlin could be only one of any number of ways of accomplishing the same ends. Each method would have its particular strengths and weaknesses. The weakness of Merlin's method is the exhausting time needed to rack and maintain spells, but its strength is flexibility. The weakness of Amberite sorcery could be a reversal of this, a limited function, but it could have the advantage of speed. (Power Words? Corwin uses his "hotfoot" at one point, but I don't recall seeing any others. It's been a long time since I read the Merlin books; does anybody use a "power word" like magic at any point?)