Cymnea

[RPGPundit]

From the "how old is benedict" thread, I've come up with a new question, that I think is worth exploring: who the fuck was Cymnea?

I mean here we have Dworkin creating the pattern, then Oberon becomes King of Amber, and before all this there was nothing but chaos right.  

So what we have here is a kind of "where did the people who married Adam & Eve's kids come from?" sort of question: Who the fuck was Cymnea?

Was she a chaos woman? Was she an utterly fake shadow person that Oberon found with pattern? What?

RPGPundit

[Crimson]

I've always imagined her to be  a woman from a shadow close to Amber.. She's not an 'amberite' per se... but she's pretty damn close.

[Sidrick]

It's rare that I use Cymnea in a game but when I do I typically make her a Chaosian.  Oberon having been from Chaos and Cymnea having been his first (known) wife, I think it makes sense.

[Croaker]

Hum... What if she was something else... A power akin to the serpent or unicorn, but lesser? A figment of dworkin's imagination? Dworkin? The Unicorn or Serpent?

Hell, maybe, just as Dworkin fathered oberon with the unicorn, the serpent or one of its agent seduced the young oberon, planting a seed or time bomb in amber's DNA

[Dr_BadLogic]

The same question kind of applies to everyone in Amber who aren't royalty. They are more or less shadow people too- they're just closer in proximity to the Primal Pattern.  I suppose they were all brought into being by the creation of the Pattern.

I think it's reasonable to imagine that Cymnea may have been one of the shadows who live (or lived) in Amber.

On another note, although shadow people are reflections of the real, Corwin notes that their deaths are 'real deaths.'  I'm not sure it's fair to call shadow people 'utterly fake.'

[Rel Fexive]

I've always argued that if Shadow folk can kill you, win wars for you or be one of your parents, they're as real as anyone can be.

[Dr_BadLogic]

I've always argued that if Shadow folk can kill you, win wars for you or be one of your parents, they're as real as anyone can be.

Also a good point.  The fact that the Amberites don't usually see them as 'real' may say more about the Amberites than the Shadows.

[boulet]

Hell, maybe, just as Dworkin fathered oberon with the unicorn, the serpent or one of its agent seduced the young oberon, planting a seed or time bomb in amber's DNA

Me like it ! Me steal it !

[RPGPundit]

Also a good point.  The fact that the Amberites don't usually see them as 'real' may say more about the Amberites than the Shadows.

Yes, exactly!

RPGPundit

[JongWK]

Does that makes Morgan something of an oddity, Pundit?

[RPGPundit]

Does that makes Morgan something of an oddity, Pundit?

Well, you're not the only one. I think that the younger generation in general (including Merlin, certainly) tend to view shadow people as more or less the same as them. Maybe its a factor of being further away from Oberon.

RPGPundit

[boulet]

Maybe its a factor of being further away from Oberon.

Or maybe it's something that Corwin's generation had to learn by themselves. Some of them might not have reached that point or don't care to. At least that's the way Corwin's reflection makes me think about it. Random seems to have crossed this threshold too : he married and became attached to a shadow. Flora may be emblematic of those who kept an adolescent attitude and keeps on treating shadows like toys. One way or another they matter at least a bit : enough to take diplomacy in the Golden circle seriously.

[Croaker]

Well... Maybe this is a little like racism.

I'll explain: Some people will profess a dislike of, say, japanese, vote for japan-hating politicals, while at the same time having some japanese friends that they'll like and consider to be "good ones", "exceptions", sometimes not even thinking of them as japanese. Just because, as they face them on a person-to-person basis, they are forced to see them as people instead of... Whatever.

Amberites acts maybe like this: Shadow people are unreal and unconsequent, save my friend bob there, he's got a wife and 3 kids, I like him. And that bayle baron who always sips me this delicious wine when I visit him. Oh, and there's also this golden circle realm whose rebels always block my supply of exotic food, they bugger me.

[gabriel_ss4u]

IMC Cymnea is 'Lady Cymnea du Halybard' Wife of the Head of House Halybard & possible puppeteer of his strings.
She (IMC) still has a close relationship with her still living son Osric.

[Taewakan]

Being the first wife, Cymnea was of an age with Oberon (back in the day.) Her children were prodigies in the art of Warfare and had their own agendas (including or especially Cymnea.)
Oberon didn't like this. He thought Cymnea was the most dangerous of the lot so he exiled her to a shadow that her children could not get into (at the time) thanks to his control over shadow, complements of the Pattern.
Then he had Osric and Finndo killed off (in theory.)
Benedict was smarter than his elder brothers. He lived. Thus the Game of Thrones is played.
To this day Benedict has no designs on the throne
...Or does he?
I cannot imagine Cymnea taking the deaths of her boys well.
We know Dworkin was a Lord of Chaos and I imagine he thought Cymnea was a good match for Oberon for a number of reason. He may even have arranged the marriage.
Thus we have a hint at her level of power - then.

Scroll ahead a couple millennia and we may find that Benedict and his mother have been reunited by a cabal of other wives and children for the express purpose of, as many an ex-wife has said, making HIM pay.
can you imagine if (just) Clarissa and her brood were to join forces with Cymnea and hers (no one ever said that Cymnea was not pregnant when Oberon put her in exile...)
What if we have yet to see the incarnation of Mordred (Cymnea's 4th child (or 7th)) in the Amber series?

Ah! The joys of a demonic imagination.