You live a long and fruitful life. A little bit too long, because you outlive all your friends and relatives, and see even your grandchildren perish. Then you die.
Upon dying you enter a hazy netherworld. There, the Pattern and the Logrus appear before you. They demand that you choose between them.
If you choose the Logrus, you will be reincarnated as an infant Lord of Chaos in a Great House (or Lady, as per your gender preference), a shapeshifter, and possess both the capability and future opportunity to traverse the Logrus successfully.
If you choose the Pattern, you will be reincarnated as an infant descendant of Oberon (your gender preference), with both the capability and future opportunity to walk the Pattern successfully.
You will be reborn possessing all of your Shadow Earth memories, and no one will be able to read or probe your mind as against your own will. This by their grace.
You must choose one or the other. Unlike Merlin, you cannot get away with choosing both or neither. If you try this tactic, they reincarnate you in a very disadvantageous position on Shadow Earth, and bestow the blessing of this choice upon the person you despise most.
This choice occurs to you, personally, not a made-up character.
Which do you choose, and why?
Quote from: Syzygy...the Pattern and the Logrus appear before you. They demand that you choose between them.[/i] not a made-up character.
Which do you choose, and why?
The Pattern.
I'm going to hold off on explaining my reasons until later in the thread.
Interesting question!
Erick
Hrm ... let me think ... a choice between submitting a a chaos-thing that will literally break my mind into pieces that I can never quite reassemble, in order to subsume my identity into its own image, or a crucible that will form and anneal who I already am into its purest state, and make that one of the fundamental facets of the universe?
Amber's for egotists, baby! That's where I'm at :D
Definitely Amber. Less history of advancement by murder.
Quote from: OthaDefinitely Amber. Less history of advancement by murder.
Definitely. They're no less determined to murder each other, but at least you know it's motivated by clean, pure, hatred and not some grubby little ambition.
I pick Pattern. The blood curse is M.A.D..
Exactly, Tony, and since I'm such a nice guy loathe to cause offense, I'm sure I'd be able to actually enjoy that Amberite near-immortality. Sure, I might not earn their respect, either, but that's how survival works.
I'm gonna break with the trend and go for Chaos/Logrus.
Logrus is far more versatile than Pattern and the Shapeshifting is an added bonus. Plus, the average Lord of Chaos seems to have a far better idea how the universe works than the average Amberite.
Amber. I like having an intact mind, and the power of shapeshifting isn't worth the risk of a shattered psyche.
Pattern, of course.
Why bother with the courts, the obvious logrus-induced madness and all? The entirety of Shadow is mine to find my happiness, be my playground and explore at will. If I find my simblings troublesome, I can always escape them and made myself forgotten.
Pattern. I'm not so much for the madness and chaos.
Seanchai
I want to be a shapeshifter, so it's Logrus for me.
I'll sit in my easy chair and summon boxed sets of DVDs that were never made on our Earth. Season 2 of Surface, season 4 of Deadwood, seasons 4-7 of Star Trek TOS.
Ride a horse through Shadow? Fergettaboutit! I'll take the couch and the energy tentacles every time.
Logrus...the power source for homebodies.
Pattern. Not even a balanced choice, I think.
From a pragmatic standpoint, Pattern seems to be the way to go. Oberon's get are remarkably hard to kill, and it does seem like they have a lot of fun. Still, I love the bloodlust seething beneath the veneer of civility that the Courts are so good at, and the variable laws of reality there sound like a real trip. Maybe I could arrange to be Amber's ambassador, and just go native ...
Chaos, cos it sounds better an I am going to buy and paint some chaos space marines tomorow...
Logrus, because all of the other players here are taking Pattern and will be surprised by my abilities...
Or, more seriously, I'll have a little chat with them, Merlin-style. In such a game, there are always hidden rules. I suspect that a power of Chaos, taking its roots in the Abyss would be far more powerful but I need to learn more than what we learn through Corwin's obviously biased point of view and through Merlin's childish (sorry!) eyes.
I would choose my life as an Amberite. The partial sense of stability that comes from not having everyone in the family be a shapeshifter, the challenges at dealing with shadow (and the feeling of accomplishment for success) rather than reaching out to simply pluck my heart's desire from it, are both rather appealing.
While being a shapeshifter might be cool, I could easily lose my identity and there are so many "Chaos" Lords out there as it is (along with the heinous line of succession), that I think I'd like to stay out of family trees with so many branches that your daughter might also be your aunt/best friend's fiance/stepmother sort of thing...