WARNING: This website is still under construction. Certain edits also cannot be made without further discussion between players and myself. Thank you for your patience!
CAVEAT: There's a lot of history here. A LOT of NPCs running around doing things, but this game is about the player characters and the players. You will be the focus, your choices will be the ones that matter, and you will determine the shape of the future.
THE SETTING
This game is set nine thousand years after the events of Prince of Chaos. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth generations after Oberon, becoming obsessed with carving out their own bastions of Reality, as Corwin had done before them, and Dworkin earlier still, set up a Universe with four Patterns: Amber, Paris de Corbin, Atlantis and Arcadia, as well as the Logrus. There was no balance. Shadow was dangerous, chaotic, constantly shifting, changing and being swept away by forces outside of most anyone's ken. Eventually, war broke out, a war that lasted one thousand years.
For one thousand years, people fought, suffered, strove and died on all five prongs of the battle. Eventually the goal that was dearest to each of the survivors of the Blood Royal was to consolidate the world down to two Poles of Existence once again. Of course, everyone wanted to be the last Reality standing.
Atlantis was destroyed first, the casualty of a brief alliance between Arcadia and the Courts of Chaos. Amber was responsible for the mutilation of Corwin's Pattern. At this point, attempt after attempt had blackened and damaged the Pattern in Amber until it was holding by a string. Arcadia, where the Pattern was hidden, and the only known way to destroy it was to destroy its creator, Sethry son of Eric, seemed the more logical choice of final City. This was partially because Arcadia held within it both Chaos and Order, light and dark, its own delicate source of balance, and the subsequent destruction of worlds had resulted in the deterioration of Shadows on the way to Chaos, culminating in a massive Shadow storm cut through with pure Abyssal energy, which most deemed the Great Wall of Chaos.
Still, those who had survived from the destroyed worlds, particularly from Amber, weren't likely to simply bend the knee to King Sethry and his people. They wished assurances, they wished alliances. Most of all, they wished to ensure that the war that had broken their family and destroyed most of the multiverse could never be replicated. Arcadia would survive, and no more Patterns would ever be created.
To that end, anyone with the knowledge of how to make another would agree to have those memories and abilities forcibly removed from their minds, or else they would be imprisoned for eternity behind supposedly impenetrable wards set up by those who had come up with the rules, the soon to be christened Council of Thirteen.
Only Random agreed to the lobotomy. Sethry, Coral, Gerard, and Queen Velucide of Atlantis fought and cursed this decision to the last. They were not victorious and the plan was carried out.
THE EVENTS OF THE PREVIOUS GAMES
Over the course of the next thousand years, few things changed about the Arcadia formed by Sethry's final curse. One member of the Council (Rinaldo) chose to leave for Shadow, three more were killed, two by Eris Echidna and one by the Jester (Random's new incarnation in Arcadia).
The rest chose to settle in and as they did, their domiciles began to reflect not simply what they had desired in a kingdom, but the instability of minds troubled by curses, self imposed sacrifices which held together the seals on the place they had imprisoned their four old enemies and the pressure of guilt. Most had children, and their children bore children.
Then the seals began to weaken, to break. The force of time, aided by external forces loyal to Sethry and Gerard, burst the age-old prison. The Council, terrified at this new threat and unable, due to the curse, to leave their respective lands, sought out their most loyal children and advisors, as well as the most powerful people of the Blood they could find in the City and tasked them with finding and killing those who had escaped: all but Sethry, who must remain alive, though imprisoned, in order for Arcadia to survive.
Those they asked found Sethry first, and killed his daughter and managed to incapacitate him so that Melchior could tear his psyche from his body and imprison both separately, as a safeguard against his having further allies. In the course of their search, they found the Pattern of Arcadia hidden beneath Sansovino's house in Tir Na Nog, and a few chose to traverse it. Others suggested that the Jester should do the same. Doing so restored Random's memories and form, and he disappeared into Shadow, wracked by guilt at the creature he had become.
They had also met Queen Coral, as well as a badly injured Gerard, but chose to work with these two rather than either killing them or capturing them, going so far as to save Coral's life when Sansovino slit her throat.
A week later, with Coral recuperating in Rose Arbor, Gerard recuperating in the ruins of old Amber, and Velucide still unknown, the inhabitants of Arcadia begun to be plagued by mysterious visits from the legendary Hall of Mirrors. Following its twists and turns and other odd psychological activity which seemed to be a cry for help from a powerful but deeply wounded mind, they found Sansovino's prisons, which were adjoining to the Pattern Chamber, and managed to free a half-starved, totally insane old hunchback.
After a battle with an enraged and similarly unstable Sansovino, he escaped, near death and Dworkin was relocated to Rose Arbor.
The sudden emergence of an enormous amount of territory (namely Funland) now with no potential domitor had not passed beneath the radar of the Council, however, and it was not long before Eris began massing an army in Draconis to attempt to take the entire southern half of the City for herself. As the only person who was able to even partially counter the sheer numbers of Draconian soldiers, Prince Arayen abdicated control of the Castle to his son Absalom and went to take charge of his own armies (as well as some from Elysia and some Skullmen eager to keep Funland as it was). Strangely, in this interim, Funland had not begun to deteriorate into the Orchestra Pit or fall back into Shadow as the curse suggested it might.
The mysterious Nadzieja, seeking the 'Father' of the Pattern of Arcadia, whom she had discovered was at least sentient enough to speak to her (though she may be a special case), came upon the spirit of Sethry where it had been imprisoned in Elysia, in a torture chamber of memories. She managed, using the psyche trapped within as a battery, to force this tower to become real, and the memories (and psyches) within it became likewise as Real as any normal citizen of Arcadia (though they did not possess the Old Blood or any of their old powers not dependent on knowledges.) This brought into being a duplicate Sethry, a form of Magdalene from her old warrior-queen days before she was unable to even consider harming another, and a ten-year-old version of Leonard Alemane.
Alliances were formed and much information, new and old, was shared and disseminated. Random was discovered in Shadow by his son Nightingale, and talked gradually into taking an interest in the workings of the Universe.
In the War raging in the South, Arayen's son Wakerobin almost single-handedly defeated the entirety of Eris' elite guards, the Golden Dragons, turning the battle's tide once again.
A week later, Madeline Tynes managed, via her sorcery, science and blood transfusions, to make it possible for the Shadow Magdalene to walk the Primal Pattern. Nadzieja also walked this Pattern, and while she was walking it Sansovino appeared, seemingly to attack the others present. He was defeated again and again nearly killed, but then Faith attempted to kill Nadzieja in her walk, only stopped by the combination of the reflexes of her son Diarmuid and of Wakerobin.
Once things seemed to be sorted out here, Absalom checked in on Coral, to whom he had previously given the Jewel of Judgment after he removed it from its safekeeping in Shadow, and found that she, along with the mad and mindless Dworkin as well as Gerard and Random, were going to attempt to use it to restore Amber's Pattern. After a brief altercation, he stabbed her, nearly fatally, but Gerard managed to cut off the contact before he could get the Jewel. By the time they made it to the scene, Dworkin had taken the Jewel and Random was attempting to use it, with the battery of Dworkin's mind and what little memory he had remaining, to restore Amber.
Through the combined efforts of all of the player characters (details are available if you truly wish to know them), Random succeeded, though the subsequent invasive force of Shadow storms may have killed Dworkin and certainly made it impossible to get back to Amber for months afterwards.
CAVEAT: There's a lot of history here. A LOT of NPCs running around doing things, but this game is about the player characters and the players. You will be the focus, your choices will be the ones that matter, and you will determine the shape of the future.
THE SETTING
This game is set nine thousand years after the events of Prince of Chaos. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth generations after Oberon, becoming obsessed with carving out their own bastions of Reality, as Corwin had done before them, and Dworkin earlier still, set up a Universe with four Patterns: Amber, Paris de Corbin, Atlantis and Arcadia, as well as the Logrus. There was no balance. Shadow was dangerous, chaotic, constantly shifting, changing and being swept away by forces outside of most anyone's ken. Eventually, war broke out, a war that lasted one thousand years.
For one thousand years, people fought, suffered, strove and died on all five prongs of the battle. Eventually the goal that was dearest to each of the survivors of the Blood Royal was to consolidate the world down to two Poles of Existence once again. Of course, everyone wanted to be the last Reality standing.
Atlantis was destroyed first, the casualty of a brief alliance between Arcadia and the Courts of Chaos. Amber was responsible for the mutilation of Corwin's Pattern. At this point, attempt after attempt had blackened and damaged the Pattern in Amber until it was holding by a string. Arcadia, where the Pattern was hidden, and the only known way to destroy it was to destroy its creator, Sethry son of Eric, seemed the more logical choice of final City. This was partially because Arcadia held within it both Chaos and Order, light and dark, its own delicate source of balance, and the subsequent destruction of worlds had resulted in the deterioration of Shadows on the way to Chaos, culminating in a massive Shadow storm cut through with pure Abyssal energy, which most deemed the Great Wall of Chaos.
Still, those who had survived from the destroyed worlds, particularly from Amber, weren't likely to simply bend the knee to King Sethry and his people. They wished assurances, they wished alliances. Most of all, they wished to ensure that the war that had broken their family and destroyed most of the multiverse could never be replicated. Arcadia would survive, and no more Patterns would ever be created.
To that end, anyone with the knowledge of how to make another would agree to have those memories and abilities forcibly removed from their minds, or else they would be imprisoned for eternity behind supposedly impenetrable wards set up by those who had come up with the rules, the soon to be christened Council of Thirteen.
Only Random agreed to the lobotomy. Sethry, Coral, Gerard, and Queen Velucide of Atlantis fought and cursed this decision to the last. They were not victorious and the plan was carried out.
THE EVENTS OF THE PREVIOUS GAMES
Over the course of the next thousand years, few things changed about the Arcadia formed by Sethry's final curse. One member of the Council (Rinaldo) chose to leave for Shadow, three more were killed, two by Eris Echidna and one by the Jester (Random's new incarnation in Arcadia).
The rest chose to settle in and as they did, their domiciles began to reflect not simply what they had desired in a kingdom, but the instability of minds troubled by curses, self imposed sacrifices which held together the seals on the place they had imprisoned their four old enemies and the pressure of guilt. Most had children, and their children bore children.
Then the seals began to weaken, to break. The force of time, aided by external forces loyal to Sethry and Gerard, burst the age-old prison. The Council, terrified at this new threat and unable, due to the curse, to leave their respective lands, sought out their most loyal children and advisors, as well as the most powerful people of the Blood they could find in the City and tasked them with finding and killing those who had escaped: all but Sethry, who must remain alive, though imprisoned, in order for Arcadia to survive.
Those they asked found Sethry first, and killed his daughter and managed to incapacitate him so that Melchior could tear his psyche from his body and imprison both separately, as a safeguard against his having further allies. In the course of their search, they found the Pattern of Arcadia hidden beneath Sansovino's house in Tir Na Nog, and a few chose to traverse it. Others suggested that the Jester should do the same. Doing so restored Random's memories and form, and he disappeared into Shadow, wracked by guilt at the creature he had become.
They had also met Queen Coral, as well as a badly injured Gerard, but chose to work with these two rather than either killing them or capturing them, going so far as to save Coral's life when Sansovino slit her throat.
A week later, with Coral recuperating in Rose Arbor, Gerard recuperating in the ruins of old Amber, and Velucide still unknown, the inhabitants of Arcadia begun to be plagued by mysterious visits from the legendary Hall of Mirrors. Following its twists and turns and other odd psychological activity which seemed to be a cry for help from a powerful but deeply wounded mind, they found Sansovino's prisons, which were adjoining to the Pattern Chamber, and managed to free a half-starved, totally insane old hunchback.
After a battle with an enraged and similarly unstable Sansovino, he escaped, near death and Dworkin was relocated to Rose Arbor.
The sudden emergence of an enormous amount of territory (namely Funland) now with no potential domitor had not passed beneath the radar of the Council, however, and it was not long before Eris began massing an army in Draconis to attempt to take the entire southern half of the City for herself. As the only person who was able to even partially counter the sheer numbers of Draconian soldiers, Prince Arayen abdicated control of the Castle to his son Absalom and went to take charge of his own armies (as well as some from Elysia and some Skullmen eager to keep Funland as it was). Strangely, in this interim, Funland had not begun to deteriorate into the Orchestra Pit or fall back into Shadow as the curse suggested it might.
The mysterious Nadzieja, seeking the 'Father' of the Pattern of Arcadia, whom she had discovered was at least sentient enough to speak to her (though she may be a special case), came upon the spirit of Sethry where it had been imprisoned in Elysia, in a torture chamber of memories. She managed, using the psyche trapped within as a battery, to force this tower to become real, and the memories (and psyches) within it became likewise as Real as any normal citizen of Arcadia (though they did not possess the Old Blood or any of their old powers not dependent on knowledges.) This brought into being a duplicate Sethry, a form of Magdalene from her old warrior-queen days before she was unable to even consider harming another, and a ten-year-old version of Leonard Alemane.
Alliances were formed and much information, new and old, was shared and disseminated. Random was discovered in Shadow by his son Nightingale, and talked gradually into taking an interest in the workings of the Universe.
In the War raging in the South, Arayen's son Wakerobin almost single-handedly defeated the entirety of Eris' elite guards, the Golden Dragons, turning the battle's tide once again.
A week later, Madeline Tynes managed, via her sorcery, science and blood transfusions, to make it possible for the Shadow Magdalene to walk the Primal Pattern. Nadzieja also walked this Pattern, and while she was walking it Sansovino appeared, seemingly to attack the others present. He was defeated again and again nearly killed, but then Faith attempted to kill Nadzieja in her walk, only stopped by the combination of the reflexes of her son Diarmuid and of Wakerobin.
Once things seemed to be sorted out here, Absalom checked in on Coral, to whom he had previously given the Jewel of Judgment after he removed it from its safekeeping in Shadow, and found that she, along with the mad and mindless Dworkin as well as Gerard and Random, were going to attempt to use it to restore Amber's Pattern. After a brief altercation, he stabbed her, nearly fatally, but Gerard managed to cut off the contact before he could get the Jewel. By the time they made it to the scene, Dworkin had taken the Jewel and Random was attempting to use it, with the battery of Dworkin's mind and what little memory he had remaining, to restore Amber.
Through the combined efforts of all of the player characters (details are available if you truly wish to know them), Random succeeded, though the subsequent invasive force of Shadow storms may have killed Dworkin and certainly made it impossible to get back to Amber for months afterwards.