Quizical things from Zelazny's Amber.

[Trevelyan]

'How did Oberon cross the gaps?' I suddenly saw him in my mind's eye opening a vein and restoring sections, see him weaker as he progressed...

Not very likely. You don't need to spill blood to inscribe a Pattern (Corwin didn't), indeed blood has rather the opposite effect. If Oberon has been dribbling the precious red stuff as he walked along he could have easily erased a section that he had already walked by mistake.

In this case Merlin's experience with the broken pattern is probably a useful guide. He talkes about looking inside the Jewel of Judgement when he came to a break in order to see where the proper line should be. Oberon may easily have just walked the Pattern holding the Jewel but found the entire thing more draining than usual.

If you want to liven things up, remember that leaving the Pattern creates one of those strange tornados, but that the weilder of the Jewel can control the tornados. Combine that with the tendancy for the Jewel to suck the life force out of those using it, and Oberon might have been forced to fight off a new tornado each time he repaired a section of the Pattern, and had the Jewel drain him a little more each time as a consequence.

[gabriel_ss4u]

yeah, sounds good...
But I was thinking Dworkin inscribed it with blood, perhaps Oberon's blood was infused and bleed into the GAP, not the actual Pattern itself.
still possible.

[Malleus Aforethought]

2) Corwin: "Of Shadow I have this to say;there is Shadow and there is Substance, and this is the root of all things. Of Substance, there is only Amber, the real city, upon the real Earth, which contains everything."
Which contains everything...

Yeah, it's an old post, but I thought I would throw my tuppence in:

Somewhere Corwin alludes (I think) to Arden stretching across the continent to the west (at least what was west that day). He also talks about riding and hunting in Arden and seems implied that he was still in Amber rather than into the Golden Circle or other neighboring Shadows. My assumption is that Amber is a whole Shdow or planet, while Primal Amber is just a lump of primal matter floating on the Sea of Chaos.

5) Corwin, after escaping the dungeon: "Troubled by dreams of werewolves and Sabbats, I slept, and the full moon rose above the world."
Did Eric have anything to do with his nightmare, being he controls the weir?

I believe this was after he viewed the Vale of Garnath and observed the effects of his Blood Curse on Amber. My take is that Corwin is psychically sensitive enough, especially in his weakened state (both physically and mentally), to be vulnerable to the psychic emanations of those effects. He immediate recognizes as his own handiwork after all.

6) Corwin; "I had set sail for a land near as sparkling as Amber itself, an almost immortal place, a place that did not really exist, not any longer.It was a place that vanishes into Chaos ages ago."
Did Chaos itself take over Avalon??

I have this idea that Corwin destroyed Avalon with a Blood Curse, causing it to be consumed by Primal Chaos. I view Avalon as his first Shadow of Desire where he was working out things, especially his relationship with Dierdre and Eric, and maybe Oberon. Eric tracked him down and began meddling, eventually leading to a confrontation where Corwin was willing to destroy Avalon rather than let Eric take it from him. Thus his certainty that the "real" Avalon was gone, destroyed.

[RPGPundit]

Those answers all sound very reasonable.

RPGPundit

[Bird_of_Ill_Omen]

Here's a little trick with Trump that we never saw in the Corwin chronicles, from Merlin in chapter two of Trumps of Doom (pg. 588-589, The Great Book of Amber edition), italicized emphasis added by me:

   I picked up one of the cards, which held a peculiar, almost familiar fascination for me--depicting a small grassy point jutting out into a quiet lake, a sliver of something bright, glistening, unidentifiable, off to the right.  I exhaled heavily upon it, fogging it for an instant, and struck it with my fingernail.  It rang like a glass bell and flickered to life.  Shadows swam and pulsed as the scene inched into evening.  I passed my hand over it and it grew still once again--back to lake, grasses, daytime.


Has anyone ever remembered about this breathing-on-a-Trump-then-tapping-it to activate it, and used it in a game?  Years before the iPhone...years!

[Drascus]

Here's a little trick with Trump that we never saw in the Corwin chronicles, from Merlin in chapter two of Trumps of Doom (pg. 588-589, The Great Book of Amber edition), italicized emphasis added by me:

   I picked up one of the cards, which held a peculiar, almost familiar fascination for me--depicting a small grassy point jutting out into a quiet lake, a sliver of something bright, glistening, unidentifiable, off to the right.  I exhaled heavily upon it, fogging it for an instant, and struck it with my fingernail.  It rang like a glass bell and flickered to life.  Shadows swam and pulsed as the scene inched into evening.  I passed my hand over it and it grew still once again--back to lake, grasses, daytime.


Has anyone ever remembered about this breathing-on-a-Trump-then-tapping-it to activate it, and used it in a game?  Years before the iPhone...years!

In my games this is a very advanced trump-trick, one that allows you to see the area around a trump as if it were active, without actually activating the trump.  Lets you spy directly on a location or person, though of course it can be detected and/or blocked by things that would block or detect regular trump spying.

[gabriel_ss4u]

Yeah, it's an old post, but I thought I would throw my tuppence in:

Somewhere Corwin alludes (I think) to Arden stretching across the continent to the west (at least what was west that day). He also talks about riding and hunting in Arden and seems implied that he was still in Amber rather than into the Golden Circle or other neighboring Shadows. My assumption is that Amber is a whole Shdow or planet, while Primal Amber is just a lump of primal matter floating on the Sea of Chaos.



I believe this was after he viewed the Vale of Garnath and observed the effects of his Blood Curse on Amber. My take is that Corwin is psychically sensitive enough, especially in his weakened state (both physically and mentally), to be vulnerable to the psychic emanations of those effects. He immediate recognizes as his own handiwork after all.



I have this idea that Corwin destroyed Avalon with a Blood Curse, causing it to be consumed by Primal Chaos. I view Avalon as his first Shadow of Desire where he was working out things, especially his relationship with Dierdre and Eric, and maybe Oberon. Eric tracked him down and began meddling, eventually leading to a confrontation where Corwin was willing to destroy Avalon rather than let Eric take it from him. Thus his certainty that the "real" Avalon was gone, destroyed.

Exactly!  That's how I have it woven IMC
Corwin's rivalry with Eric involving Dierdre ended up with either Chaos coming after a favored son of Amber or Corwin himself doing it, those are the 2 top rumors to those who hear tell of the story in the Castle, but only Corwin knows fer sure.
(as playing Gabriel, son of Corwin, "I always wondered if My older half brother Merlin heard that story straight from Dad's mouth")


Thanks, i always like to come back from a sabbatical and see a beloved post 'o mine revived and inspiring a favorite past-time...
talkin' about Amber.

Arden IMC is a Vast Forest, Like perhaps the Continent Pangea and all of the West is Forest, the further West you go, perhaps even the wilder the growth is, and wilder the Flora & Fauna, & even varied types of Forest...
And beyond the Western part of Amber being Forest lands, there are also unlimited amounts of Shadow Forest to use by the ruler of Amber as barriers to the West....

"My assumption is that Amber is a whole Shdow or planet, while Primal Amber is just a lump of primal matter floating on the Sea of Chaos." you said,
I Agree.

[weilide]

Arden IMC is a Vast Forest, Like perhaps the Continent Pangea and all of the West is Forest, the further West you go, perhaps even the wilder the growth is, and wilder the Flora & Fauna, & even varied types of Forest...
And beyond the Western part of Amber being Forest lands, there are also unlimited amounts of Shadow Forest to use by the ruler of Amber as barriers to the West....

If I recall correctly, in some paratextual stuff somewhere Zelazny mentions other big cities on the continent. It's a shame we never see them.

[gabriel_ss4u]

If I recall correctly, in some paratextual stuff somewhere Zelazny mentions other big cities on the continent. It's a shame we never see them.

OK, you can't throw that sstuff out without referencing it, Lemme know if ya find what yer talkin' aboiut, ya got my interest up.
But i would assume there may be other cities that nobles may have or even smaller towns, why not?

[weilide]

OK, you can't throw that sstuff out without referencing it, Lemme know if ya find what yer talkin' aboiut, ya got my interest up.
But i would assume there may be other cities that nobles may have or even smaller towns, why not?

I'm out of the country right now so I don't have access to my books but I believe it's in Zelazny's intro to either Black Road War or Seven No Trump. It's included in the NESFA collection in any case.

[AshenHaze]

Is the Amber stuff in there worth acquiring?  I know theres the short stories, but what else of interest is included?

[weilide]

The Amber stuff alone isn't worth the price of admission so if that's all you're curious about then I wouldn't bother. If you look on the NESFA Website http://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/Zelazny-Project.html they detailed descriptions of the contents of each volume. The stuff IS interesting in its way -- hints of what was likely come in the third series (more discussion of Amber's navy, for example) but it's mostly trivia, at the end of the day. That said, I'm quite happy with the project taken as a whole and am glad I have it.

[gabriel_ss4u]

I'm out of the country right now so I don't have access to my books but I believe it's in Zelazny's intro to either Black Road War or Seven No Trump. It's included in the NESFA collection in any case.

Have you tracked down that reference yet? hope to get the words on it...

[RPGPundit]

I've always envisioned Amber as being a "kingdom" with the golden circle shadows as part of its region, and treated them as a kind of "continent" even though each is also their own shadow.  If that makes sense.

RPGPundit

[Sydius Mendoza]

I've always envisioned Amber as being a "kingdom" with the golden circle shadows as part of its region, and treated them as a kind of "continent" even though each is also their own shadow.  If that makes sense.

RPGPundit

I like that idea. It's easy to rationalize how in each particular shadow of the golden circle, the kingdoms/city states are the ruling power for the entire continent, but only in their respective shadows. Kind of a situation where the continent is of equal shape and size in each shadow, and the ruling cities have different names or may be in completely different geographic locations, yes?