hi, hope you can help
am i right that i read in either the Corwin/Merlin chronicles that Dworkin, had a couple of tries at creating the universe before creating the Pattern that brought about the Amber universe as we know it.
also while i'm here, does the book ever describe if there is some sort of afterlife for Amberites? or do they just not exist after death?
No. Dworkin is/was a Chaos Lord. The universe/multiverse and the Logrus existed before the Pattern was created. It is alluded that the Unicorn taught Dworkin how to create the Pattern, but to create the Pattern he needed the Eye of the Serpent. Exactly how much truth there is in any of the latter is down to how you want to interpret things. It is also alluded that a Pattern creates its own multiple versions of reality, so in theory there are sets of realities created by the Amber Pattern(True Pattern), and its reflections (Remba, Tir-Na Nog'th, and The Castle Pattern), and Corwin's Pattern. How you want to play this is again down to you as GM.