Abyss
The beginning of all things
or the end. A vast hole at the end of the
Courts of Chaos. Daemons live here and pit divers search its
forward edge for
interesting things it occasionally spits out.
Shadow Aeradel
"Aeradel, yes I know it,
it's damp, why do you ask?"
The image of Argent incarnated
through the element of Water, Aeradel
bears many resemblance's to Rebma.
Shadow Amber
"... often at night my dreams
were troubled by images of thy green and
golden spires and thy sweeping terraces. I remember thy wide
promenades and
the decks of flowers, golden and red. I recall the sweetness
of thy airs, and
the temples, palaces, and pleasances thou containest, contained, will
always
contain."
Good restaurants in Amber
are Fiddler's Green, "about two thirds of
the way down the main concourse - is very good for seafood. It's
a fancy
place . . "; the Net "down near the corner of the Smiths and Ironmongers
Street . . . a number of the nobles and big merchants discovered it
recently .
. . It's gotten sort of clubby."; and Bloody Bill's "on Death
Alley, named
after the last owner of the place."
Some other streets are Weaver's
Street, Vest Vine, Harbor Road,
Seabreeze Lane (commonly called Death Alley). A basement
restaurant called
the Pit, half-owned by Amber's court jester Droppa Mapantz, is a reasonable
place frequented by Bill Roth.
Arbor House
The family home of the Bayles,
minor lordlings of Amber. They are
famous for their winemaking. It is a league from Baylesport,
their private
port, ". . . the huge hilltop manor house. It commanded far views
of rocky
valleys and hillsides where the grapes were grown. A great number
of dogs
approached and tried to be friendly as we made our way into the house,
and
once we had entered their voices still reached us on occasion.
Wood and
wrought iron, gray flagged floors, high beamed ceilings, clerestory
windows,
family portraits, a couple of small tapestries of salmon, brown, ivory,
and
blue, a collection of old weapons showing a few touches of oxidation,
soot
smudges on the gray stone about the hearth."
It has a nice flower garden
and patio behind, but the family spends
most of the time in their city estate.
The forests of Arden
Lying at the food of Kolvier
they are filled with vast golden trees
and rich vibrant foliage. This is Julians domain and he and his
Hellhounds
guard it well.
Shadow Airea
"The Gate opened to a great
ledge, beyond which spun a brilliant blue
void, devoid of bottom or side. A ship awaited at the dock, filigreed
silver
and golden wood, it floated from no apparent source while its great
sails
caught the breeze. . . . eventually we came to an island, the greatest
in
Airea, or so I'm told. A great hanging rock covered with forest
and a great
river which thundered off one side to descend into spray, falling to
water the
lower islands, again or so I'm told. . . . City Airea was a place of
gauzy
towers and soaring walkways, thin light peoples who looked to be blown
away in the slightest breeze but possessed surpassing resiliency."
Airea is the incarnation
of Argent through the Element of Air. A
place of floating islands and great sorcerers.
Shadow Argent
"I appeared inside some
sort of high-tech/magical city; the local
populace informed me I was someplace called Argent."
Argent is the first Shadow
of Corwin's Pattern. It contains elements
of both high majick and technology and is filled with small and unexplainable
phenomena, such as range weapons not working.
Corwin's Pattern is not
yet able to cast a full range of Shadows, it is
surrounded only be a small ring of nine reflections of Argent.
They are Clea
(the reflection of Ruin), Elysiaum (the reflection of Wisdom), Paris
(the
reflection of Earth), Aeradel (the reflection of Water), Sandle (the
reflection of Fire), Airea (the reflection of Air), Mirage (the reflection
of
Dream), Lear (the reflection of Nature) and Rampant (the reflection
of Darkness)
Shadow Avalon
The Shadow where Corwin
ruled as a king before his exile on earth.
There he was betrayed by Ganelon, and he mentions it being destroyed
but does
not hesitate to seek it in Shadow. He mentions that it had long
slid into
Chaos. In Avalon there is the jeweler's rouge which Corwin uses
for gunpowder
in Amber. In the mountains near Benedict's estate, just slightly
through
Shadow, are a people known as the Tecys, who live in a small nameless
village
and worship the Amberites as gods. One place in Avalon is the
field of thorns.
Shadow Avernus
Bley's Shadow, in which
is a giant fortress beside a great chasm. The
sky is the color of flame there. The people are not quite human,
about seven
feet in height, with red skins and little hair, and catlike eyes.
They had
six digited hands and feet, and wore garments of a silk-like material
of gray
and blue. They wore two curve-tipped swords, and their ears,
fingers and toes,
were pointed, sharp, and clawed. They had an elaborate religion
which told of
brother-gods which resembled those of Amber and prophesied an Apocalypse
which
they would be taken to fight in.
"So I walked the land called
Avernus and considered its foggy valleys
and chasms, its smoke filled craters, its bright, bright sun against
its crazy
sky, its icy nights and too hot days, its many rocks and carloads of
dark sand,
its tiny, though vicious and poisonous beasts, and its big purple plants,
like
spineless cacti; and on the afternoon of the second day, as I stood
on a cliff
overlooking the sea, beneath a tower of massed vermilion clouds, I
decided
that I rather liked the place for all that. . . "
Baylesport
The private port of the
Bayle family.
Begma
A Kingdom and member of
the Golden Circle. There is some dispute as to
whether Begma is a Shadow or another Kingdom in Shadow Amber itself.
It and
another Kingdom, Kashfa, are in dispute over a region of land known
as Eregnor.
Shadow Buffalo
A strangely useful place.
"The smell was like a wall,
and it was taking a fair amount of
concentration simply to remain on the back of the beast I found myself
on.
Unfortunately one look down provided me with the necessary motivations.....the
beasts stretched as far as the eyes could see, a world of brown and
black
backs with a few forlorn trees sprouting out of the sea of flesh, and
the
continuous background plop, plop of their digestive processes....the
vegetation was amazing, one could literally watch it grow, not that
one
got much of a chance, as it was eaten as fast as it could sprout."
Shadow B'hellamair
The personal Shadow of Eric,
drained and near destroyed by him while
using the Jewel of Judgment during the PatternFall Wars.
"I was in a ruin, some sort
of temple by the look of it, marble or maybe
white granite, it was dark and while the moon was full it only made
everything
look surreal. It was all washed out, like Tir-na Nog'th but with
less vibrancy....there was a keening, almost subliminal, a sad wailing
soprano
voice out of some dark opera....
Eventually they came into the building I was
standing in, pale white
figures, translucent..... they moved up to the alter and put things
upon
it, baskets, boxes, even what looked to be some sort of small animal.
The
keening was louder now, it might have been coming from them, it was
hard
to tell, their faces were too indistinct. They stood around the
altar
and cried, wailing their insubstantial fists upon the washed out floor,
their silver tears falling to blend in with the general grayness.
I don't
know who their God was, but something told me it wasn't doing really
well
in the public opinion polls right about now."
Castle Amber
The hereditary home of the
House of Oberon. It contains a great hall,
many bedrooms, a long stairway leading to a dungeon and a chamber
containing the Pattern. In the library is a crystal case which
holds all
the makings of a family banquet, including four decks of Trumps.
Shadow Clea
"The Silver Towers have
fallen, are you to be our future Clea? Will
Argent come to match you, fallen block for fallen block, or are you
a
warning, a sight of what may be lest be fail to love what we
have now."
"An interesting philosophical
point in Clea. Can you have ruins without
first having something to ruin? It just came that way, prefab.
One is
supposed to have a civilization, then the ruin. I mean really,
Miss
Manners would not approve."
Clea is a mystery, it is
a blasted and ruined world, the city of Argent
in ruins. Whether this is simply another possibility or some
dark
prediction is unknown.
Shadow Clymidea
Lore's personal shadow,
and reflective of his ways.
"I made a quick stop back
at Clymidea, it had been awhile and I wanted
to insure I was never forgotten. It was I remembered it, vast
cities and
dimly lit streets. Amazing how that much industry and that many
people
can get by with that little organization. Anarchy is the principle
form
of government in Clymidea, and we wouldn't have it any other
way."
Courts of Chaos
Predating Amber, this was
the first "real" place and the birthplace of
Dworkin, founder of Amber and the Pattern. Dynastic families
rule and
plot here, under a sky that slowly rotates in a myriad of colors.
The Dark Design
"We who sit in Darkness
salute you
We who know
death revere you
You are the
source of Life in Death
We wrap our
souls in your embrace, forevermore"
Chant of Cleansing
Canticle of the Night-Mare
Chap. VII, v:4-6
"Sometimes, when we are alone,
I remember that which was, when thy
light was one with the sun and the world was spread beneath us. . .
. Doust
thou miss the light? Doust thou brood in darkness as do I, sick
with the
scent of death in my belly and the light of life forever withheld from
my
heart?"
The warped infusion of the
Bright Pattern of Fire with the dying spirit
of Finndo. It is a place of death and decay. A half alive
Pattern that
only the dead can walk, with its small Circle of Bones, a dark mockery
of
the Golden Circle and the only Shadows the moribund Pattern can
cast.
Diega
One of the Golden Circle
Kingdoms.
Dworkin's Study
"There were bookshelves
on all four walls. No windows. Two doors at
the far end of the room, right and left, across from one another, one
closed, the other partly ajar. There was a long, low, table covered
with
books and papers beside the opened door. Bizarre curios occupied
open spaces on the shelves and odd niches and recesses in the walls
- bones,
stones, pottery, inscribed tablets, lenses, wands, instruments of an
unknown
function. The huge rug resembled an Ardebil . . . Something resembling
a
branch of coral shone faintly on a shelf across the room . . . deserted,
a
small windowless living place faintly lit be the smoldering embers
in its
single, recessed hearth. The room's walls were of stone and they
arched
above me. The fireplace was a possibly natural niche in the wall
to my
left. A large, armored door was set in the far wall, a
big key turned
partly in its lock."
Shadow Earth
The Shadow where Corwin
spent most of his amnesiac time upon, watched
by Florimel. His estate there is a small place in New York State,
"six
rooms and an attached two car garage. Around seven acres.
The whole
hillside actually. . . I had spent most of my time in the den and in
my
woodshop. I wondered whether the Mori woodcut still hung in my
study.
Face to Face it was called, and it depicted two warriors in mortal
combat." Flora had a mansion in Westchester, New York, and Merlin
spent
many years going to Berkley and working in San Francisco, California.
Shadow Elysiaum
A member of Argent's Silver
Circle.
"Elysiaum was supposed to
be Rampant's counter, a shadow of Philosopher
kings and shiny happy people. It turned out to be a lot of unbathed
old
men screaming at each other from little stages while a confused populace
did its best to ignore the whole lot."
Eregnor
A small strip of land disputed
by Kashfa and Begma.
Shadow Esglendil
A university shadow, an
enlightened leadership based on Plato's
philosopher king ideal.
Faeilla-Bionin, the Stairway to Rebma
Located on a beautiful coral
beach some twenty miles to the south of
Kolvir and City Amber. It is marked with a cairn of gray, head-sized
stones about eight feet in height and in the shape of a truncated pyramid.
>From it, one heads straight into the sea, onto a giant staircase,
almost
fifty feet wide, which has an enchantment laid upon it to keep gravity
and
breathing for surface dwellers. On each side are pillars atop
which are
flames which glow and keep the water warm. The stairs themselves
are made
of some type of white marble shot through with pink and green.
There is
an archway at the bottom which marks the territory of the Queen of
Rebma.
It is big and carved with Tritons, mermaids, sea nymphs, and
dolphins.
Fire Gate
"It delivered me to a high
promontory of white stone beneath a black
sky, beside a black sea. Two semicircles of pale flame parenthesized
my
position. . . . I was at Fire Gate, a way-exchange in Shadow near the
Courts."
Garnath, Vale of
A once green vale south
of Amber, east of Arden, bordered on its south
side by the river Oisen and 80 miles from the seacoast.
Operative in
Corwins Curse on Amber, it was the terminus of the Black Road in the
Corwin Chronicles and became a place of evil, its present condition
is unknown.
Shadow Ghenesh
Fabled to be the entry point
for the MoonRiders, Ghenesh is a dark and
forbidding Shadow.
Grove of the Unicorn
A small green grove somewhat
higher up on Kolvir than Amber. It is
considered sacred because the Unicorn was sighted there several times.
Hall of Mirrors
A hall of various shaped
mirrors that appears for a few days or weeks in
random locations in castle Amber and possible other places as
well.
The entrance can always
be regained, but the far end of the hall
seems to be endless.
The purpose of the hall
is unknown but its sometimes seems to seek
individuals with bits of information or prophecy. Guests have
been found
sleeping or even dead within it.
Shadow Heerat
A block city within Shadows
were Benedict and Martin have been.
"A place of adobe and stone
- a commercial center at the junction of
several trade routes."
Isles of the Sun
A small group of Islands
south of Cabra in Shadow Amber.
Kashfa
One of the Golden Circle
Kingdoms, presently in strife with Begma for
Eregnor. It's capitol is called Jidrash.
Keep of Four Worlds
The intersection of four
elemental shadows. It contains the
Firefountain, a vast source of majickal energy. Presently it
is in the
possession of Jasra of Chaos.
Shadow Lear
"Arden has gained a sister,
greatly estranged. The same great bowles,
the leaves green tipped with silver. It is a land untouched,
may she
remain so for eternities to come."
Lear is the land where Argent
never came, a realm of endless forest
and the majesty of nature.
Lighthouse of Cabra
Located forty three miles
to the south of Amber, it is a small island
lighthouse, tall and gray. Beside it is a small quay, and a shack
in
which dwells Jopin, the keeper. His quarters are messy, strewn
with many
old books, charts, maps, and pieces of nautical equipment.
Logrus
The counter to Amber's Pattern
is the Logrus of Chaos. A shifting
maze that, once completed, gives the sons of Chaos the power to command
Shadow.
The Logrus contains as much
hazard as the Pattern and completing it
causes madness for a time. It is kept in Suhuy's basement, and
the
entrance is well decorated with the skeletons of those who failed its
test.
Shadow Lorraine
The Shadow which Corwin
went to after escaping from Amber's dungeons,
coincidentally the same in which he had once deposited a
traitorous lieutenant. In it is the Keep of Ganelon,
"it had a moat about it,
and a drawbridge which was raised. There
was a tower at each of the four corners where the high walls met.
From
within those walls many other towers reached even higher, tickling
the
bellies of low, dark clouds."
The main language is Thari.
There Ganelon had massed about eight
hundred knights from many lands. Ganelon, abandoned there by
Corwin, became
a bandit chieftain turned military leader when he joined forces with
King
Uther, who was slain in battle with the minions of the Dark Circle.
Avalon was plagued by the Wardens of the Dark Circle, who were sorcerers
who drew power from the Black Road created by Corwin's death-curse.
The Dark
Circle began with a cursed ring of toadstools, which was among the
first
of the dark and unnatural things to befall this land. They tell
tales
of the Wizard-king, a dark sorcerer who ruled and fled in the face
of
adversity. This was the Shadow of Corwin in Lorraine.
Shadow Merinsholme
The personal shadow of Gunter
of Chaos, initiate of the Abyss. It is
a medieval germanic Shadow, where majick rules and electricity does
not conduct.
Shadow Mirage
"Dream, dream on shattered
wing, shadows weave and lightning sing. . .
. an infinity of shadows, but just one, Argent can only cast nine shadows
but
Mirage contains an endless number. No two person's city is the
same. . .
. . I came to rest in the tallest of the silver towers and waited for
a
sun that would not rise, spirits of my desire mocked me and that which
I
most loathe came to sit for tea. . . . rules are delicate things
in
Mirage, easily folded into complex designs of desire.
The Well at Mirate
Seen in a painting by Brand,
"An oil, a rather somber rendering of
the well at Mirate, two men standing beside their horses nearby, talking."
Shadow Mortaille
A trap, a world where technology
and majick would not function, a
shadow bullet shaped for the killing of annoying cousins.
"I looked at my handiwork
and smiled, a small bitter little movement
that stopped at my mouth. The card depicted an almost idyllic
woodland
scene, marred only slightly be the wisps of white mist woven
amongst the
birch like trees......
The trap was primed, once
glance and the Trump would draw them in,
they would have little time to enjoy the view, for the entrance of
a
living thing into Mortaille would trigger the dousing of all light,
the
glow provided by the trees shutting out and dropping the world into
complete
darkness. Then the mist-natives would attack, oh my brothers
were good
fighters, but even they can not defeat a world. They would despair,
alone in the dark, unable to shift, unable to rest, unable to live."
Murn
A small dairy village near
Arbor House.
River Oisen
A river running through
the Arden.
Shadow Paris
"The incarnation of Argent
through Earth, how poetic. . . . .
in actual fact it was pretty similar, if a bit squat. Sort of
like
someone took Argent and sat on it. . . . .I remember watching movies
as a
child, there were these characters, "down home" types they called them,
or
"solid-dependable people", you remember them, they got all of the short
lines, primarily consisting of things like "yeup" or "Hmph" or "We
don't
do things like that here". Well I've discovered where they all
come from,
a whole city of them, a very solid city, a very solid, dependable,
traditional family values, kind of city.
The though still makes my
genitals clench."
Paris is the closest to
Argent of all its Shadows. The people here
are simple and solid, as are the things they build.
Pattern, the
"It shimmered like the cold
fire that it was, quivered, made the
whole room seem insubstantial. It was an elaborate tracery of
bright
power, composed mainly of curves, though there were a few straight
lines
near its middle. It reminded me of a fantastically intricate,
life-scale
version of one of those maze things you do with a pencil, to get you
into or out of something . . . It was perhaps a hundred yards across
at
its narrow middle, and maybe a hundred and fifty feet long."
There are
several turns and courses about it, wound spiral. It begins,
then after a
short distance one walks the First Veil. The Second Veil is next,
much worse,
and then the Final Veil, and after it is the Grand Curve. In
the center
is a circle at the end of the Grand Curve.
Shadow Prismatic
Fiona's trap/prison Shadow
where she kept Brand and her legions of
Shadow creatures.
"Finally, though, the smoke
rose and the flames danced about as I
remembered them - conforming to no particular pattern, just emerging
here
and there from crevasses, holes, cave mouths. Colors began to
misbehave
as I recalled from my brief view. Then came the actual motion
of the
rocks, drifting, sailing like rudderless boats in a place where they
wring
out rainbows. By then, the air currents had gone crazy.
One updraft
after another, like fountains. . . When I looked back down again, it
was like
viewing a free-from regatta of black icebergs. The rocks were
racing
around, clashing together, backing off, colliding again spinning, arcing
across the open spaces, passing among one another. . . The ground varies
from warm to extremely hot underfoot, and along with the jets
of smoke and
occasional jets of flame, nasty-smelling gases were escaping
from numerous
openings in the ground . . . By then, I began to notice some
interesting
regularities. First, the large stones moved at a greater velocity
than the
smaller once. Second, they seemed to be orbiting one another
- cycles within
cycles within cycles, larger about smaller, not of them ever still."
At the base of the tower
in which Brand was held was a giant hammer-
headed serpent made of glass, and inside were legions of her Shadow
creatures.
Shadow Rampant
"I had no sooner popped
in than some unpleasant person came weaving
out of an alley and deposited his intestines on one of my boots, via
an
artistic cut in his midsection. Rapture!, This place was
vacation spot
written all over it.
Going to need a new pair
of boots though. . . "
Rampant is one of the nine
shadows of Argent. It is the dark shadow,
where technology has run wild and majic is rare. The city is
run by
corporate lords and net runners, the streets ruled by the law of the
larger gun.
Shadow Rassilon
The personal Shadow of Dierdre,
where she masses her troops and
imprisons those who would oppose her.
"And I looked upon Rassilon
and saw the dark reflections of a once
beautiful land. Green hills covered the horizon, with small forests
spread across the land as though cast there by some giant hand.
Dark clouds
roiled constantly overhead, a reminder that verdant hills does not
a
paradise make....On a high hill in a position where it commanded the
view
for miles around was a fortress of black glass and gray steel, glittering
as coldly as the dark queen it served.. . . .
. . . . As the fire burned
down the small ones of the woods would
come out, dancing and cajoling, boundless in their curiosity.
Their
nativity and innocence was warming in a land that had proven itself
spiritually cold, evidence that even Amber's darkest princess could
not
wholly own the land."
Rebma
At the bottom of Faeilla-bionin
lies the reflection of Amber within
the sea. Alike Amber in all ways save that it is reversed, it
is charmed
in that those of the surface who walk there may walk and speak and
eat and
breathe without difficulty. The people of Rebma are green, black,
and
purple haired, with eyes that are almost always green. Guardsmen
wear
scaled trunks and cloaks, crossbraces and weapons belts decorated with
shells. They use short swords and long spears. The gate
to Rebma is of
gold, and inside it is lit by torches similar to those on Faiella-bionin.
Throughout the city , there are octagonal, tinted windows, and bright
bellied fish swim by. The castle of Rebma is the mirror
image of that in
Amber, through green and decorated with strangely placed mirrors which
hang on its walls, inside and out. Moire's throne is of
turquoise, and
the high hall is decorated with ropes and nets of red and brown.
The
stairway down tot he Pattern is long and spiral, and the waters do
not
keep gravity for surface dwellers. The doors to the Pattern are
huge and
of gray metal, twice a man's height, and locked with a key kept by
Moire.
The waters which run through the room of the Pattern are strong and
might
sweep one from his place upon the Pattern, and to do so is death.
Shadow Sandle
Sandle is the incarnation
of Argent through the Element of Fire. It
is a place of wide desert and secretive people.
Shadow Texorami
Random's personal Shadow.
"Palm trees and night-blooming
wallflowers. Lots of good port smells -
spices, coffee, tar, salt - you know. Gentlefolk, merchants,
and peons -
the same straights as in most other places. Sailors and assorted
travelers passing in and out. Guys like me living around the
edges of
things. I spend a little over two years in Texorami, happy."
Thelbain
". . . into the slick and
gleaming interior of Thelbane's main hall at
ground level, a study in black, grey, mossy green, deep red, chandeliers
like stalactites, fire sculpures about the walls, scaly hides
hung behind
them, drifting glo