...The best lack all conviction, while
the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
William Butler Yeats, "The
Second Coming"
|
|
Commander in Chief, Lord General Benedict (Envy and Wrath)
started the game in charge not only of Amber's armies, but also as
coordinator for the fleets and in command of the forces in Arden. His
position in Arden was proving difficult to maintain once Julian and
his son withdrew along with all the most senior Arden Rangers, leaving
Benedict's men at the mercy of Arden's true inhabitants.
|
Prince General Gerard (Envy and Avarice)
had been reduced from Prince Admiral of Amber's fleet to Prince General
of the Amber City Militia at Benedict's insistence. He was a brooding,
angry presence in the Castle at the game's start.
|
|
Prince General Bleys (Pride)
was in shadow with the Amber Expeditionary. He and Random never got
on well, but Random gave him leeway in this area to explore and to seek
out lost soldiers and shadow pockets of the Patternfall War.
|
Prince Julian (Wrath)
appeared to have ceded command of the Arden Rangers to Benedict without
a fight. He retired to his private estate in Arden with his son, Gregory.
At the same time, the most senior rangers in the Arden forces also retired,
leaving only the junior staff. Records, pathways, supply stations, and
other vital infrastructure became lost or were found vandalized overnight.
Benedict had to strip the army to reinforce the Rangers, and then found
them under constant seige by Arden's inhabitants. Julian maintained
that he was not involved.
|
|
Prince Brand (Avarice and Pride)
had been pulled from the Abyss by Swayvil's men. He was physically
weak and had been stripped of the Pattern. He returned to Amber and
was allowed to retire to a townhouse in the city, where he was being
looked after by his son Gabriel.
|
Princess Llewella
was in Rebma. Politically, she was an important force there. With Random
on the throne, Rebma's queen Moire believed they could finally press
their claim for differential status from other Golden Circle Realms,
and Llewella was seen as an effective liaison for these negotiations.
|
|
Prince Admiral Caine
plied the seas of Amber and shadow with his arm of the fleet. He came
into Amber about 6 months before to support Gerard against Benedict's
charges of incompetence. This was also shortly after Caine's ward, Aedan,
had left his service. Caine's plea was unsuccessful; he left Amber in
disgust with a skeleton part of the fleet and had not been seen since.
|
Prince Martin
spent most of his time on Texorami, where he was a musician. He avoided
the stresses of shadow shifting and other Pattern forces that would
aggravate the wound he received from Brand before Patternfall; it had
never healed.
|
|
Carl
was the son of Corwin who had been living on the Shadow Earth known
to Florimel and Corwin. He had been spying on Flora for some years before
the game began. (Carl was created by Dennis Castello. He only appeared
in the game briefly.)
|
Prince Osric
was dead. Or, not so dead, but banished, cursed, and imprisoned by
Oberon, Finndo, and Benedict. Finndo died putting him there.
|
|
Prince Corwin (Sloth and Gluttony)
had spent most of his time in Amber "helping" Random, though
he was, frankly, retired. He had grown dissolute and depressed as the
realms defined by his own Pattern turned out to be threadbare shadows
of his desire.
|
King Random
was, well, King. Of Amber. Ouch.
|
|
Princess Deirdre
had fallen with Brand into the Abyss. She had one thin thread of consciousness
present through a construct in Tir, but was otherwise lost.
|
Rowena
was the daughter of Llewella living in Rebma. She was unknown to the
players, but an acquaintance of Martin's.
|
|
King Eric
was dead. Except in the Universe in which Brand did not stab Martin.
There, he was the king of an Amber on the brink of losing a war with
Chaos.
|
Searlas
was the son of Gerard who had been raised by Osric in the shadow of
Osric's banishment. Gerard had apparently worked with Osric for some
time before Patternfall. Gerard escaped using Osric's Greatsword, abandoning
Searlas there when he was just a child.
|
|
Princess Fiona
had become Random's right hand, assisting him with the subtler nuances
of the powers he had been forced to command.
|
Sunset
was the daughter of Brand. She had been in Osric's shadow in the role
of a Witch Crone advisor, spying on Osric on behalf of Brand since before
Patternfall.
|
|
Princess Flora (Vanity & Lust)
kept herself apart from Amber, spending most of her time on Shadow
Earth and in the company of her relatives and lovers among the Fae Realms.
|
|
|
...Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
William Wordsworth, "The World is Too Much
with Us"
|
| Adhamhnan was a little
seen Fae Knight Independent. His people were being wooed by Lugh when
he took the regency of the Fae Realms. |
Eredwaith was a fae alchemist.
He became an associate of Amber's Lord Gwydion during the Pattern Beast
Uprising and refused to depart. |
| Lord Ailill was the Keeper
of the Black Oak Arden Way, loyal to King Finnvarra and to Julian, the
King in Green. A pale, dark-haired warrior of the Sidhe, He was Giselle's
lover at the start of the game. |
Elurival was a fae sylph,
also a victim of Brand's spell in Tir. She was in a debt of service to
The Derga. |
| Ailleen was the Mistress
of the Inn at the Crossroads. |
King Finnvarra was the
King of the Fae Realms, sometime husband of Princess Flora, and father
of Giselle. He had sent a shade to the meeting in Tir that had been ambushed
by Brand, but he ended up a victim of the spell nonetheless. He was also
the nephew of Oberon. |
| Aogan was a Lord Knight
of the Unseelie Sidhe; he commanded Aogan's Word, a group of Unseelie
Knights that roamed shadow at his command. |
The Inn at the Crossroads
was a cross-shadow place centered on the person of The Derga, its keeper.
It was the only neutral place in shadow for the meeting of the Seelie
and Unseelie, noble and common, friend and foe. Its destruction was a
coup for those who sought strife and weakness in the Fae Realms. |
| Caiolte was a Knight of
Finnvarra's Court. He sought Finnvarra's favor to woo his daughter, Giselle. |
Inuirre was a relatively
innocent, satyr-like fae being and sorcerer whose name was mistaken by
Giselle for that of Nuirre. |
| Prince Cian was Finnvarra's
second son. He was a sorcerer of considerable skill. At the beginning
of the game he had been turned to stone by Brand at a meeting in Tir na
Nogth. Later he and Lugh fought repeatedly over the regency. |
Llew was Ailill's Kennel
Master. |
| Cuimin, Tasgall
and Uarraig were three of the Unseelie riders that followed the
call of the henge stones to Nuirre's rising. |
Lugh was Finnvarra's first
son. Known as the Golden Lion, he was a strong, but inflexible regent.
Throughout the game he struggled to keep the alliance of the Unseelie
his father had maintained. |
| Dagda. See Mandor Sawall
in the Chaosian section, above. |
Naiomhean was another Lord
Knight of Finnvarra's court. He remained loyal to the court after Lugh
took the regency. |
| Deoradhan was a Sidhe mage
exiled from Finnvarra's court. He was assisting Skye with the henge summoning
to raise an army for his attack on the court under the banner of Nuirre.
In fact, the whole show was being manipulated by Osric and Searlas. |
Nuirre was a much-feared,
legendary Unseelie sorcerer and necromancer. Many prophecies said that
he would rise and lead an army of the Unseelie when the man who killed
him died. That man was Finnvarra. The prophecy was either hokum or Finnvarra's
near-death state wasn't near enough -- but it was used to great advantage
by Skye and Deoradhan to begin the raising of their own army. |
| The Derga was the keeper
of the Inn at the Crossroads, but also in a very real sense he was
the Inn. He was another victim of Brand's spell in Tir at the beginning
of the game. |
Skye was a Tuathan warrior
and one of Deoradhan's co-conspirators in the "resurrection"
of Nuirre. |
| Dubhdara was a Lord Knight
of Finnvarra's court who remained loyal when Lugh became regent. |
Tracker was a fae beast
in the service of Lord Ailill. |
