The Pattern

"The Pattern, also drawn by Dworkin, which could only be walked by a member of our family. . . ...and at its ending gave its walker the power to stride across Shadows."

The Grand Pattern of Amber is a large complex design located in the depths of Castle Amber. Drawn by Dworkin while using the Jewel of Judgment, It is the symbol of Order. About the size of a baseball diamond, Oval in shape, the beginning of The Pattern is located at the end of a long curve at its edge, it ends directly in the center.

If one is of the Blood of Amber, then one may set foot upon The Pattern and attempt to walk it to its center. As one walks The Pattern sparks will start to erupt around the person walking it getting higher and higher the closer one gets to its center until one is completely engulfed in flames. The Pattern becomes harder to walk the closer one gets to the center. There are 3 veils of resistance that one must pass to make it to the center. The first is near its beginning, the second near its middle and the last near its end. If one is not born of the Blood of Amber, or if one leaves The Pattern then they will be destroyed by it.

Walking The Pattern takes a tremendous amount of energy and can easily prove fatal if attempted to walk when not at peak health. It will however remove any spells or ailments that the character may have, and also restore memory.

Once the center has been reached The Pattern can be commanded to instantly transport the character to any destination he can imagine.

There are 3 images of The Pattern commonly know of, the first is located with the depths of Amber, within the twisted caverns below the castle. The Second is located in Amber's reflection in the sea, Rebma. The third only appears at night when the moonlight touches the sky above Amber, causing its reflection in the sky, Tir Na-Nog'th to appear.

There is a fourth image of The Pattern, although its whereabouts are not common knowledge and getting to it can be quite difficult. It is the original, The Primal Pattern.

Shadow:

"You may call them Parallel Worlds if you wish, alternate universes if you would, the products of a deranged mind if you care to. I call them Shadows, as do all who possess the power to walk among them."
-Corwin, The Guns of Avalon

Shadow is rated in circles from 1 - 10. 0 is Chaos, and the areas that are directly within Chaos. 1st Circle is the immediate outlying areas of Chaos, the areas bordering The Abyss (the Rim), and the Shadows immediately surrounding Chaos, such as the Black Zone. This continues out to the 5th circle of shadow, where the Dancing Mountains and Ygg are located, it is the midpoint between Amber and Chaos. 8th Circle would be about where Earth is located. 9th Circle is the Shadows immediately surrounding Amber, such as the Golden Circle Shadows, and the Forest of Arden. 10 is Amber proper, including its baronies and other lands.

As a general rule, shadows that are closer to Amber or Chaos tend to be more powerful and more dynamic. Magic is common near both poles, although different, and both areas tend to breed mighty Sorcerers. The Magic's near Amber are mainly Enchantments, they take a great amount of time to prepare and last decades, while those near Chaos tend to be short lived spells, wild, chaotic, and deadly.

Rank System:

The following is a list of abilities commonly known of among the family of Amber. Characters can attempt to learn some or all of these abilities, depending on how many points they spend in The Pattern. There are many other abilities as well, although abilities other then those listed are possessed by few of the family members and are generally not common knowledge. Characters wanting to have abilities above and beyond those listed here will need to have more then 50 points in the Pattern. The higher level abilities of the Pattern vary from initiate to initiate. The exact abilities a character can purchase will need to be worked out with the GM.

Blood Curse:

"Perhaps it was then that I pronounced the curse, or perhaps it had been at the time that the whitehot irons had descended. I don't remember. But I knew that Eric would never rest easy upon the throne, for the curse of a prince of Amber, pronounced in a fullness of fury, is always potent."
-Corwin, "Nine Princes in Amber."

The most powerful skill available to an initiate of The Pattern, a blood curse almost surely guarantees the defeat or death of the cursed. There are few specific rules for a blood curse except these, They are NEVER done lightly. Anyone pronouncing a blood curse is dooming himself as well as those he curses and should not count on outliving the cursed. And, Blood Curses are POWERFUL. The mere chance that a character MIGHT be cursed should make them think twice about whatever they are doing for a blood curse will almost always lead to their destruction. One such curse brought down the Courts of Chaos themselves, the most powerful Empire ever known . . .

In game terms a Blood Curse inflicts a high number of points of Bad Stuff on it's target. The target can also be anything, a person, government, political group, religion, etc. However, the one pronouncing the curse gains a number of points of Bad Stuff equal to the number of Bad Stuff points gained by the victim! And the GM determines how many points of Bad Stuff are spent! This Bad Stuff can manifest in anyway the GM sees fit. It can be a lose of Attributes through sickness, etc. New Disadvantages such as Enemies, or anything else the GM decided on. GM's should be nasty when assigning these points.

Shadow Walk:

"I came upon the wounded knight and the six dead men. Had I chosen to walk on by, I could have reached a place where the six men lay dead and the knight stood unwounded -- or a place where he lay dead and they stood laughing. Some would say it did not really matter, since all these things are possibilities, and therefore all of them exist somewhere in Shadow."
-- Corwin, "The Guns of Avalon"

Shadow is vast. To give you an idea of travel times it took Corwin almost a week to _hellride_ from the Dancing Mountains (Near Y'gg, the halfway point) to Amber. This was also under the best circumstances. He was rested, unchallenged, and riding on one of the fastest mounts in shadow. Walking from Chaos to Amber through shadow would have taken much longer. Easily over a month or two. Distance is not the only factor. Finding a very specific type of world can take as long as traveling a long distance in most cases. Finding a shadow of Earth that exactly matches the Star Trek setting for example could easily take longer then traveling from Earth to Amber. In general it's harder to make small changes to a shadow then it is to go from one setting to another. A good rule of thumb is that it takes 1 day per major change desired. (Tech Level, Planet, Race, etc.) It takes 10 days of travel to move from one circle of shadows to another. This time can vary greatly however depending on how long the character has been traveling shadow, the Psyche of the character, and how skilled in Pattern use they are. Also, this skill can be used for manipulating and traveling in and out of shadow briefly in order to cut down on normal travel time within a Shadow. For example: Using this skill while flying on a jet to get from one continent to another in just a few hours instead of several.

The Hellride:

"Steady movement is more important than speed, much of the time. So long as there is a regular progression of stimuli to get your mental hooks into, there is room for lateral movement. Once this begins, its rate is a matter of discretion."
-Corwin, The Courts of Chaos

A Hellride is simply a shadow walk where the character makes changes to his surroundings as fast as he can, moving through each shadow as quickly as possible. This can be dangerous, especially as the character becomes more fatigued and concentration becomes harder. A Hellride can be anywhere from twice as fast to ten times as fast. The rate is a matter of the characters discretion. The faster one goes, the more fatiguing the journey and the harder it becomes to concentrate on the proper course.

Sign of the Pattern:

"I grew angry then. I drew the Pattern from memory and held it blazing before my mind's eye. I essayed the shift once more.
Immediately, my head began to ache. A pain shot from my forehead to the back of my skull and hung there like a hot wire. But this only fanned my anger and caused me to try even harder to shift the black road into nothingness."
-Corwin, "The Guns of Avalon."

Characters may summon The Pattern for defense by concentrating on the image of The Pattern. Bringing the Pattern to mind takes only a few seconds and adds the characters Pattern and Endurance to his Psyche for mental Defenses.

Pattern Sense:

"Then he knows. If I could guess it in Rebma, then he knows in Amber-and I did guess, from a wavering of Shadow."
-Random, Nine Princes in Amber

Characters can also sense any changes in Shadow around them, as well as when another Shadow Shifter is moving through Shadow nearby. This becomes harder the farther from the character the change or movement is taking place, and a Shadow Walker can attempt to hide them selves from detection. Nearby movement, or a large force such as an army, will almost always be detected however.

" I don't understand your style of magic, but I've got my own and I know what it tells me. It was your question about who she was that got me to working on the problem, though. Have you figured her out yet?"
-Luke to Merlin, "Blood of Amber"

Characters who are also Sorcerers will gain a greater sensitivity to magic as well. They will be able to Sense Magic over great distances, sometime even through Shadow. Although not as reliable as the Sign of the Logrus, this sense is more sensitive then Logrus sight and will usually reveal more information about a spell or enchantment then the Logrus.. (A Logrus Master can 'See' magic as easily as a man can see a glow stick in a dim room, where as the Pattern gives only a 'Sense' of magic, which when distracted might not be noticed. It does have the advantage of always being active however.) Another advantage is that the Pattern has no manifestation so other Sorcerers around the character will not see it's image when brought to mind.

Shadow Shift:

"The steering wheel changed shape three more times, its latest version being an octagonal wooden affair. The car was quite tall now, and we had somewhere acquired a hood ornament in the shape of a flamingo."
-Corwin, "Nine Princes in Amber"

Characters may change an item by shifting or exchanging it with an alternate version of the item from a parallel world. Changes are usually quick, taking only a few seconds. Shifting an item to something found outside the characters current circle of shadows takes much longer. Something found 1 circle away would take twice as long, something found 2 circles away would take three times as long, etc.

Items can only be changed into a different variation of the original, something that could be found in a alternate dimension. A gem can only be shifted into a different gem, a shirt can be changed into a different type of shirt or a shirt of a different color, etc. Example: Changing a diamond from Earth (8th Circle Shadow) to a green gem from Garth (3rd circle of shadow) would take 5 times as long.

 

Shadow Block:

"Of course it would be blocked at a time like this. Ultimately, we'll be reduced to walking, and it will doubtless take all our strength and ingenuity to make it, if we make it at all."
"I'm sure I shifted just the way he wanted us to, whoever setup that block," he said, "and it pisses me off that I did what he expected -- the obvious."
-- Random, Nine Princes in Amber.

Characters may Block Shadows from intrusion by simply walking from the Shadow they wish blocked and placing dangerous Shadows in-between them and the Shadow they have left from. For every hour spent in blocking a shadow 1 hour of travel time becomes blocked around the shadow they wish to block. Characters wishing to cross the block must take extra time to do so, the exact time needed varies depending on the skill of the blocker and that of the character attempting to cross the block. With a skilled enough block, it may become impossible for the character to by pass the block.

Probability Manipulation:

"An hour or so later, I yielded to the temptation to play with Shadow just a bit. It was not all that improbable for a stray horse to be wandering in those hills, and of course I found him." -- Random, "Sign of the Unicorn"

Characters may effect the probability of events by concentrating on a action and willing it to happen. The amount of time this requires depends on how probable the action is and how random. Most actions can easily be controlled unless actively resisted, characters need only allow time for the action to take place. Causing a storm is a simple matter, a clear day can be turned into a stormy one in the time it takes clouds to form and move in.

This power can also be used to control destiny to a limited degree. Characters can cause events with a random outcome to end as they will. A bird can be made to find it's way to the place of a characters desire, or a boat left in the sea can be made to wash up on the shore of the characters choice. This can be combined with any other power of the Pattern, allowing the character to send a bird, etc., through shadow to the place of his desire.

When used against a person most effects are resisted by whatever skill or ability would be appropriate vs. the characters skill in the Pattern.

For example: Flora deciding that her maid will not answer her door is a simple test of Flora's Psyche vs. that of her Maids.

If Fiona decided to give the mortal who just insulted her a heart she'd need to beat them in a comparison of her Psyche and his Endurance attribute. Attempting to use this power on another Amberite or Lord of Chaos automatically has a penalty equal to the level in the Pattern or Logrus of the victim.

 

Shadow Craft:

"He did create Morgenstern, out of Shadows, fusing into the beast the strength and speed of a hurricane and a pile driver."
-- Corwin, speaking of Julian, Nine Princes in Amber.

Characters may over a period of time create powerful Creatures and Artifacts of power by infusing them with the Magic of Shadow. Once created, its abilities work anywhere. This creates items of supernatural durability, creatures of supernatural strength, and the like. Creatures can have their attributes raised to the equivalent of Amberite attributes. This means that a horse can be made, pound for pound, as Strong as an Amberite. Which would make it as strong when compared to an Amberite, as a normal horse that size would be too a human. (Yes. I see Morgenstern being FAR stronger then Gerard, with easily 300 points or more in Strength.)

Items can be made far more durable or dangerous then normal items with the Pattern. Swords can be made unbreakable, armor impenetrable. Assuming of course the enchantment upon them is greater then that of what they face. No mortal sword can penetrate the armor that's been worn by Julian for centuries, but a sword crafted by Fiona could.

Silver however, has proven to be impossible to enchant with this power, and often times impossible to protect against.

Creation time is a slow process, with changes taking from a few days to a few weeks.