Parenthood(sort of): Dierdre

[RPGPundit]

Ok, one thing that's obvious is that Eric and Corwin both had full-on incestual lust for their sister.

In many a campaign I've seen, that's translated into having Dierdre as a parent meaning that you also get either Corwin or Eric as a parent.  The grossness of which is a little offset by the fact that I at least tend to think of Amberites a little bit like a Pantheon of deities, and the greco-roman gods at least were banging their sisters on a pretty regular basis (and not just them, to be fair; I'm pretty sure that Frey and Freya were having some twin-lust stuff going there... the germanics were just a little more discreet).

But in any case, what would this mean in Amber? I mean, it seems like officially at least, incest is as discouraged by Amberite tradition as it is anywhere else.   Will a child by Dierdre and one of her brothers be shunned by the rest of the family? Will Dierdre try to keep it a secret? Including from her kid?

Besides which, how will the dads relate to such kids? Is the child a humiliating reminder of their breaking the ultimate taboo? It seems pretty likely that the brother who isn't the father will despise his nephew/niece with a passion (and use him against the other in their neverending rivalry).

Those are all possibilities. But there's almost a more interesting possibility than the "Redneck Jeb's Inbred House of Freaks" option: what if Dierdre has a kid and neither Corwin nor Eric (nor any other family member) is the father?   How will Corwin or Eric feel about that?  It seems that Corwin, at the very least, puts Dierdre up on a nearly-unreachable pedestal; I'm betting that some other guy having bedded his sister wouldn't sit well with that world-view.   And if the campaign takes place after the Patternfall war, that would leave the PC with his mother dead (Eric dead too for that matter) and their closest relative being Corwin: would corwin see that child as the last precious link to the sister he lost, or would he see him/her as a source of resentment for what he lost?  Would it make a difference if the kid was male or female?

RPGPundit

[Uncle Twitchy]

I've got a PC who was born of Dierdre and someone and raised on Shadow Earth, found by Flora shortly after Dierdre was killed and brought to Amber. The big questions of who her father was, why Dierdre was on Earth, why Flora was able to find her and why she essentially adopted her -- let alone the issue of how the other elders, Corwin in particular, have reacted to her presence -- have not been explored by the player yet, since she's too busy planning Luke's death to focus on anything else.

[gabriel_ss4u]

One of my favorite parent figures, tough, no-nonsense, yet full of armoured boobage, (or should that be amored?)
She is the parent of one of my fav. NPCs to run - Felina (Her real name is yet undiscovered by PCs)
She runs the Shadow-verse forest bordering Arden, Where her were-cats constantly battle and fued with Eric's were-dog troops.
What a sassy dish she is.

I really like all the points you brought up RGPundit, lots of possibilities.
IMC Corwin has a soft spot for anything Deirdre, including her offspring by another and, well, you see how Eric treats her.
were-eat-were.
snicker...
I wish I had more time to pursue more than the occasional response on here, but life is demanding alot of me now, so I will write as I can, and respond to those I'm waiting to respond to soon, in good time.

Until later my Zelazny brothers in arms... (any sisters out there YET!!??)

Peace,   or Chaos, as you choose.

Gabriel

[Syzygy]

If the Amberites themselves are low fertility, as they appear to be, then a pairing of two Amberites would be even lower fertility, right?

If this supposition is correct, the spawn of incestuous unions must be rare indeed.  Or the result of continuous attempts....

Anyway, Deirdre as mother...largely a blank slate.  Perhaps the least well-known royal, by my reckoning.

[Nihilistic Mind]

Anyway, Deirdre as mother...largely a blank slate.  Perhaps the least well-known royal, by my reckoning.

That's pretty true, although this can be said of many of the female amberites since Corwin doesn't focus on them or even include them in the succession.

I like to run Deirdre as the strongest authority figure in her children-PC's life. She tends to lead by example, also and is not afraid to get her hands dirty.

As a GM I like to play with the pieces that Corwin left unchecked in the story, filling the gap and giving my players a new outlook while being true to canon (or at least stay within a reasonable understanding of canon). Deirdre, along with Llewella, is one of those pieces of the puzzle that can surprise players easily while remaining in the context of the books.

[Uncle Twitchy]

Anyway, Deirdre as mother...largely a blank slate.  Perhaps the least well-known royal, by my reckoning.

Even less than Llewella?

[Syzygy]

Even less than Llewella?

Llewella got some fleshing out in the second series, I thought.

[gabriel_ss4u]

I thought Random's sister was the least well-known.

anyone?

[Nihilistic Mind]

I thought Random's sister was the least well-known.

anyone?

You mean, Mirelle, the one that was invented for the complete amber sourcebook and who isn't mentionned in the novels at all?
IIRC, she's not from the mind of Zelazny at all... Can anyone confirm or correct this?

I'd say Llewella is more unknown than most, but that's because she's playing the game the other elders play in Rebma (or maybe she plays backwards ).

Anyway, Deirdre was my very first Amber PC's mother and I'm very attached to her and the way the GM depicted her when I first started the game, some 14 years ago. She's also always seemed one of the girls who would in fact take up the helm and rule in Amber... if she could get Eric and Corwin to stop being silly and support her blindly like they should!

[Uncle Twitchy]

Mirelle was invented for the Choose Your Own Adventure books, and Zelazny assigned her colors in the foreword and hints that she died young, one of the dead sisters that Corwin mentions but does not name.

[Uncle Twitchy]

Llewella got some fleshing out in the second series, I thought.

Llewella still gets less screen time than Deirdre gets... and for someone who Corwin says stays away from the family intrigues, she's pretty much right there with the first accusations in SotU and bosses Merlin around in SoC...

...but that's Llewella. This is Deirdre's thread.

[Trevelyan]

...but that's Llewella. This is Deirdre's thread.

It's not like she's in any condition to take it back

[Arref]

You mean, Mirelle, the one that was invented for the complete amber sourcebook and who isn't mentionned in the novels at all?
IIRC, she's not from the mind of Zelazny at all... Can anyone confirm or correct this?

Mirelle is definitely created by Zelazny. He includes her in the forward for the 'your own adventure' series.

[gabriel_ss4u]

So there... that proves my first pt. SHE'S the least mentioned.
Now, has anyone a child of Mirelle's in their character creations?

[Nihilistic Mind]

So there... that proves my first pt. SHE'S the least mentioned.
Now, has anyone a child of Mirelle's in their character creations?

I've never encountered one or created one before, but I just had very little information about her to begin with (Gotta get my hands on those choose-your-own-adventure books eventually).