From the Desk of Jonathan
Hello newly found cousin, sibling, or given how things have gone of late, aunt or uncle,
My name is Jonathan and I'm putting this primer together as a way to help cover some of the high points of the last few years around Amber. Most of it is second hand but I've managed to be part of several noteworthy incidents and those I'll speak of more firmly.
First, our intrepid cast:
The Family
The Elders: here I will assume some knowledge on your part. Broadly the term may be applied to all the progeny of Oberon. They are all terrifying in various ways but the worst of their excesses seem curbed of late.
Steed: Only known child of Princess Florimel. A Trump Artist and diplomat who keeps a personal shadow like a pulp fiction version of 1920s Earth.
Taranis: Son of Julian and a mountain of a man who is considered small by the measure of his home. Established and operates the first hospital in Amber.
Temur: Julian's other son, from a nomadic tribe notable for their spells and horsemanship. Slight of build, proud, and a seeker of omens.
Drake: Corwin's son, tall even among the family. Went missing as a child for years and returned with a frightening comprehensive knowledge of combat magics.
Anne: Daughter of Caine with a mop of dark curls and one of the better blades of her generation. Married to Martin and cousin to Sophia and Winna.
Martin: Random's son from a Rebmain Princess and unwilling blood donor to Brand's mad plan. Currently the Crown Prince and something of a jack of all magics. Married to Anne.
Jonathan: Your guide and son of Benedict. A blacksmith of some merit, swordsman of mild note who carries the blade named Nua.
Gabriel: Son of Eric and a prince of Rebma. Well trained fighter and well known rakehell who keeps a number of secrets to himself.
Dalt: Big, strong, and persistent. Perhaps he should be counted among the Elders, but from my view the least of them. Old foe to Amber due to personal spite directed at King Oberon.
Oberon: Right bastard who reigned in Amber for longer than I can comfortably imagine. Powerful, knowledgeable, and the reason most of our elders trust no one. Died repairing the Pattern at the end of the Patternfall War.
Dworkin: Demiurge, father of Oberon, and somewhat cracked genius. He's in better health these days, but his doctor can be fiercely protective so approach with caution.
Sophia: the prettiest woman you're likely to meet, which I dare say even in front of Princess Florimel. Excellent swordswoman, supernatural artist, and wielder of a curious hereditary power. Poor taste in men, she's linked to Jonathan by their infant son Marcus.
Winna: Older half-sister to Sophia. Concert pianist, once widowed, now married to Temur.
Jasra: Widow of Brand, master of various magics, attempted to finish what her late husband started. Failed.
Emilia Beauclaire: injured acrobat turned cafe owner in a shadow ruled by a brutal version of Dalt. Kidnapped as an infant, has reclaimed her place as ruler of Magmell over the skies of Amber.
the Unicorn: Mother of Oberon. Don't hold that against her. She rarely appears but has deigned to favor Lady Remington several times.
the Foal: Mid-wifed by Maggie. Likes apples. Major theological argument.
Dara: Great-grand daughter of Benedict, who I will always call 'niece' no matter her protests. Raised in the Courts of Chaos, once an enemy of Amber, then turned towards the First City's cause. Mother of Merlin, her health led to some complicated circumstances for a time.
Lady Remington: 'Maggie', much removed descendent of Benedict and partner to Steed. Short, fierce, and trying to adjust to our feudal society. Adoptive mother to Merlin and mother to Laurel.
How It Started
You know well enough of the War, where Prince Brand and his cohorts nearly unmade the Pattern. Prince Corwin's tale of those years has been spread far, and I will not revisit it here. Suffice to say that, save for Gerard and young Jonathan, the Royal Family and Armies of Amber were gone for decades from the city's perspective but only a few months from their own. Upon their return the newly crowned King Random began his reign and some semblance of order began to set in.
The first grand affair of state to be planned was a wedding between Caine's daughter, Anne, and Random's son, Martin. A love match and the two of them quite smitten with each other. Unfortunately the planning of the Wedding was a project for Princess Florimel, who orchestrated it with the logistics and verve of a small war. The preparations took months, trying the patience of them both.
As the big day approached the family gathered in Amber at numbers I'm not sure have been equaled in its history, especially the grandchildren of Oberon. It was a time of burying old grudges and general good will.
So of course one had to be a brat and spoil things for the rest of us. He Who Shall Not Be Named was the son of Brand, a powerful spell caster, and the worst sort of teenage melodrama in one package. His antics resulted in a coma, self-inflicted with an untested magical conveyance, which to my knowledge continues in a well warded and hidden shadow. Perhaps he'll be more tolerable when recovered but I'm not holding my breath.
Fortunately I missed most of that fracas by virtue of having met Anne's cousin, Lady Sophia Goodwin, on the road. Lodging was becoming rare in the city so I invited her to stay at a Chalet I was preparing as a wedding gift to our mutual cousin. We enjoyed each other's company and went shopping the next morning. Later we attended the Wedding together as well.
Drake had arrived by ship and Steed had brought Lady Remington to the city by this time. Temur arrived by his own means, seeking out his father.
A number of us cousins met for the first time and largely got along. Plans were made for a last night on the town for each of the Royal Couple.
Then Lady Remington vanished into thin air with Drake, by lucky chance, to witness it. He summoned Steed and myself, we found a distortion in the area and told our young cousin to alert the others while we investigated it. Having more sense than either of us, the boy did so.
On the other side we found signs of Lady Remington's passage and a lost girl-child of some giant kind. The place was strange, with a variety of vines that were quite aggressive. Escorting the girl with us, we could hardly leave her, we found Maggie in an orange grove. With the Unicorn. And a new foal. The time differential was rampant, she'd been there for weeks in the half-hour it had taken us to notice and follow. A winged lion had given birth to a litter of cubs with her help as well.
Then the pregnant serpent arrived and, grudgingly, was helped to finish the process. A sword point an inch from the eye encouraged proper manners during the process.
Trump contact proved possible but draining. We brought in some supplies and settled down for a stretch to watch over the family symbol and her daughter. The cave containing the Primal Pattern proved to be nearby and was investigated. Eventually the Giants, Agemedes and his wife, arrived to claim their daughter. The winged lions were his people's emblem and we got along passing well.
The forces of Chaos arrived next and were not nearly so pleasant. Not terribly well armed or organized they managed to force an evacuation while I kept them busy with the barn cat. Bastards managed one lucky shot with a ragged siege engine that injured Maggie terribly while she moved the foal to safety. My response was less than gentle. Time passed and another pitched battle erupted, with more parties on each side. I invited Lady Goodwin to join me and she brought a newly arrived Temur. It was messy but we held the field with the giants by the end.
Having moved the Unicorn and her Foal to safety we set about finding what had caused the odd place to form. In the roots of a giant tree the source of the vines was found. Killing the murderous plants took chemicals, battle goats, and a great deal of effort. Our reward was a near dead male form they had sent roots into, Prince Eric. The once liege removed, things began to correct themselves at the Grove and we withdrew to recover in a shadow stronghold of Princess Florimel's. Both Unicorns were sent to Amber for safe keeping under the eye of Julian and Gerard.
How Princess Florimel knew Sophia was pregnant so early in things still eludes me, but we accepted it and tried to make the best of things. Several subjective months passed as Maggie healed, Eric's identity was confirmed, and the Foal grew stronger. Lady Remington's link by distant blood to Benedict was found at this time by the Crown Prince. We all kept occupied until even the fast time shadow could not hold back the wedding day.
Sophia oversaw security and we found a cache of weapons and archer's nest before things began. We dealt with it and the Ceremony was lovely. In proper paranoid fashion the bride and groom were moved to the Castle by Trump while decoys made the carriage ride. This proved wise as the carriage was attacked by a band. Their leader was, or matched the description of, Dalt and killing him took long enough to earn myself a poisoned cut for the trouble and Sophia some bruises from a rough magical shove. Treatment was on hand and the reception at the Castle proceeded. I was in attendance to make a point but weak as a kitten.
I was carted off to Maggie's home shadow to recover and roughly half the family joined me. It was a pleasant place, a remote town in South America where Steed and Maggie operated a tourist cruise ship. By then Sophia's state was apparent and Temur's smitten state with her sister equally obvious. Even the Royal Couple had some time to relax. Gabriel delivered a number of refugees to us, including one who shared Sophia's appearance.
Then an army came across shadow. We fought, they lost. Child soldiers from a hellish place, someone had tried dark things with our blood. Thus we learned something of Dalt and Dara, although the later seemed to be in a precarious state and had slipped her young son among the fighters. In the aftermath I dragged Prince Eric to hunt for my errant niece. We found her and all but froze her in time.
Her shapechanging had gone wild and no cure could be found between Amber and Chaos. So I mounted up the Stairs, a relic from when so many realities had intersected, and found one there. With other things beside. Returning to Amber I met Gabriel, who had descended where I had ascended. Some day perhaps we will share our tales of what each direction led to. Nursing Dara back to health was no mean task but she put a name and new light on events. She and Dalt had been puppets of Jasra, widow of Brand. Her efforts to make surrogates of the Blood Royal by transfusion had led to the hellish shadow Lady Beuclaire and her wards had fled. Dalt had slipped his leash and fled, and Dara led the child soldiers to us in hopes of freeing her son from Jasra's reach.
Dworkin broke his hermitage, his health poor. A doctor from Maggie's shadow found him sugar-sick and began regulating his diet and insisting on regular company. Corwin had adopted the first refugee boys and taken them into shadow with Drake to reach their age of majority. They returned in their middle to late twenties.
How Gabriel knew that their guardian, the woman named Emilia Beauclaire, was more than a shadow I still have no idea. She walked to Tir'na'nog and it became Magmell, counterpart in the sky to Amber and Rebma. An old plot of Oberon had frozen the rival kingdom untold ages before, and left the child empress stranded in a slow time shadow.
Anne was struck by an attack through a mirror, although it cost Jasra her arm. Given the Crown Princess was with child, the family responded sternly.
Drake was appointed the overall commander, his adoptive brother contributed siege engines and blades. Taranis and Temur both took to the front line with Steed. I joined with Dara in a small, more mobile strike force hoping to penetrate deeper into her citadel city without too many pitched battles. Gabriel led aquatic marines through the aquaducts. And Emilia, the scared and scarred acrobat turned barista summoned her city to the sky over Jasra's domain and emptied troops from above.
It was a messy fight but we had numbers, power, and skill. Without her former lieutenants Jasra was a powerful shadow sorcerer on her home ground but without use of greater powers. Taranis took her head, although the honor was a near thing between several of us. More of the vines that had imprisoned Eric were found and destroyed.
I am told that it was around this point that Temur found the Emperor of Magmell and freed him from Oberon's trap. Unfortunately Steed and I were absent for those events.
We had pushed into the Citadel in search of some signs of what was being attempted and triggered some form of shadow travel I've not seen before. We emerged in a slow moving land of dragon and had to return through the Hall of Mirrors. All told, in those few hours for us nearly two years had passed in Amber.
Benedict, Drake, and Dara had searched for us since the disappearance. A memorial statue had been placed in the garden honoring the fallen. Temur and Winna were wed, and our younger cousins had become teenagers. Our own children had likewise missed us during their infancy.
Amber's economy still hasn't fully recovered from two wars in such close order but a cut to the family stipend and some stern policy measures seems to have that on the mend. Maggie still hasn't taken the Pattern but looks closer to ready each day. I'm told we picked up a new cousin in the fracas but haven't had a chance to meet him. Taranis' hospital seems to have become a proper institution and Anne's given birth to a far too shy girl. Gabriel is, best I can tell, living it up somewhere out there.
Aside from Anne and Martin, the home bodies, it seems most of the family has taken to shadow again. No immediate threats on the horizon, perhaps we will all have a chance to settle down and enjoy the peace.
Or we'll find our own trouble playing about the cosmos.
Warm regards from the Mill,
Jonathan Graff Barrimen
