Amber : Games set in the universe (multiverse?) of Zelazny's Amber books. Currently only Vivek Dasmohapatra is running a game, but others may follow. Hint Hint.
So far we have had (players are welcome to make their own pages if rob doesn't mind, I suggest beginning all the targets with Amber):
The P Cs - Aaron - Crucius - !!Elizabeth - !!Herbert - !!Julia - Rachel - Vito
Aaron (back to P Cs)
Played by Simon Booth
Rebman in appearance, introduced to court by Llewella
Aaron is known to have apartments in Rebma, and in Serenissima. He is more serious in outlook than Vito, but often ends up on one of Vito's nights out, against his better judgement. He is a keen student of submarine engineering, and keeps his prototype, The Horn of the Narwhale, at the university in Serenissima. Aaron has described his home as being like Rebma, but with more pyramids. Aaron has been observed manipulating pattern energies: It is supposed that he walked the pattern in Rebma. He has been observed using sorcery, or something very, very like it. He usually carries a trident, in which is embedded a green gemstone with a flaw in it, and wears scale mail armour. Aaron has been involved in a few meetings with both the Priest of the Unicorn and the Priest of the Serpent that Manifests the Logrus (from the Chaosian Embassy). He has given talks about "the Narwhale" at the Shrine of the the Unicorn in Amber; it is presumed that this is the version of the Unicorn in his home Shadow. Aaron's colours are Red and Gold.
Crucius (back to P Cs)
Played by Alden Spiess
Son of Brand Not a happy bunny. Has been observed shifting shadows; his path was not an easy one, but he was hellriding at the time. It is not known whether this ability comes from walking the Pattern, but he has since been seen walking the Pattern in Tir-na Nog'th.
He keeps a stable by a tower in a plain in his Tower Shadow. He seems disinterested in the natives of that shadow, and doesn't know (or won't say) what it's called. Crucius' colours are Blood red, Black, and Teal.
!!!Elizabeth (back to P Cs)
Played by Steven Kitson Elizabeth's family are dead. They may or may not have been killed by raiding parties, and the shadow she comes form may or may not have been
within raiding distance of Phaedra, as she has said that she was travelling for 'months, maybe as much as a year' before meeting the other PCs. She has a motorbike called Century that can turn into a horse, and has acquired a rag-tag band of loyal fighters which the other characters haven't been able to shake off. She seems to enjoy the protection of one of the elder Amberites. !!Herbert knows which one, but hasn't said.
!!!Herbert (back to P Cs)
Played by Mike Pitt
Son of Julian Liaison with the Chaosian Embassy and Envoy to (what's left of) !![Phaedra]. Herbert is not known to have his own shadow: He is often found around Arden or serving in some capacity in Amber's armed forces when he is around. It would be reasonable to deduce from Herbert's comings and goings that he has previously walked the pattern - though since he has now been watched doing so in Tir-na Nogth, it's rather academic. Herbert occasionally has duties relating to his role as Liaison, but they are light, most of the work is carried out by the staff that came with the job. He has a stamp with his signature on. Since Herbert's blood was used by Brand to bring about his return, he has acquired a link to Brand. Research continues into how to break it. Herbert's colours are Black, Red and Gold.
!!!Julia (back to P Cs)
Played by Catherine Pitt
Daughter of Benedict Rock-climber. Julia has never been observed manipulating shadow in a way that confirms she has access to the pattern. Julia's colour is Red.
Rachel (back to P Cs)
Played by Tristan Barback Daughter of no-one special, so far as the other players know. Minor noble in the court, merchant of some note. (She has the title of Baroness dy Porifors, a minor domain on the fringes of the Golden Circle.) Known to hail from a shadow close to, but not on, the Golden Circle,
which may or may not be the same place as Ibra, where she is referred to as "Your Highness". Rachel has told the other characters that she is an agent for one of the elder Amberites. Rachel is either a Trump artist, or has access to some form of trump related power. She is also somehow able to aquire crossbows at very short notice. However, Rachel has strongly implied that she has not walked the pattern. Rachel's colours are Gold and Green.
Vito (back to P Cs)
Played by Rob Hague
Son of Florimel
Vito has his own shadow, Serenissima. Vito is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky type who enjoys having a good time, and raising the odd bit of hell. (Or possibly heck). He is known to be good friends with Aaron, who currently resides in Serenissima, studying engineering at the university there. Vito is known to have walked the pattern. Vito's colours are Black, White and Gold.
Events or "They did what?"
- The campaign is set a while after the patternfall war: Random is king, and events transpired, as far as people can tell, largely in accordance with Corwin's account. (Although a few details, such as
the existence of the real primal pattern, are not generally known, even by the players.)
Season 1: The Worlds' Wide Web (!![Rachel], !![Vito], Herbert, !![Aaron]) [ Note: The characters may have gone off and done other things on their own at certain points: What is recorded here is the common verifiable story as presented by the characters to outsiders. Some of it may even be true. ] The story opens with the characters meeting at a party in Castle Amber: Rachel and Herbert are the first to meet, with Vito and Aaron entering later. They pass the time pleasantly enough, trying to find find out what they can about one another in the usual amberite way, and at one point, Vito invites them all back to his Shadow (Serenissima). [ To be accurate, he invites Rachel and Herbert: Aaron has already been resident in Serenissima for some time, attending the university there. ] The cousins (and Rachel) head off towards the docks the next day, where Vito has a small yacht waiting for them: They board and sail out into the deep blue waters of the sea around Amber, and follow the channel out into the Golden Circle shadows around Amber. The journey is uneventful at first, but as they leave the Golden Circle proper, Herbert notices a ship behind them - this is slightly unusual, in that they are off the regular shipping lanes, and in a not very heavily travelled shadow at that: What is more interesting is that the ship doesn't fade away as Vito tacks into another shadow - it seems to be travelling across shadows in the same general direction as Vito's yacht. More worrying still, after a short while, they encountered a fleet of similar ships ahead of them, apparently engaged in a skirmish with the local equivalent of Serenissima's navy. Vito steers a course through the shadow fleet (flying, the others note, a flag with a nautilus on it) and manages to weave his way through without incident - largely thanks to the element of surprise: Naval fleets don't usually expect pleasure yachts to materialise out of nowhere and take a shortcut through the middle of them, it seems. As they leave the startled combatants behind, someone shifts shadow probabilities and a stray cannonball at the limit of its range thumps down onto the deck, leaving a shallow splintered groove behind it. Herbert and Aaron examine the projectile with every display of interest: They offer to show it to Rachel but she declines the opportunity. Vito is busy with the yacht, and is now hellsailing to Serenissima, so Herbert and Aaron discuss the nature of the fleet and its military tactics with one another. Upon arrival in Serenissima, Vito discovers the docks and city to be buzzing with gossip about the "Nautilus Pirates" who have been raiding up the coast from Serenissima, and have (apparently) just been beaten off by the Serenissiman fleet, which is now out on patrol looking for them. The party decides to retire to Vito's house, where they discuss what to do about the pirates (Vito says he didn't put them there, and they seem to be some sort of cross shadow phenomenon anyway). Herbert is in favour of commandeering some ships out in Shadow and hunting them down: They visit the Admiralty, where Vito knows people, and after some persuasion by Vito, they get a letter of authority effectively granting Vito and Herbert a privateer's charter for 10 ships. After some further discussion, the characters retire for the night (they all have rooms in Vito's house, which is easily large enough). The next morning, Vito and Aaron are woken by a crash from the courtyard, and rush out to it, to be joined moments later at a window overlooking the courtyard by Rachel. They find there a broken drainpipe and a few roof tiles, and some footprints indicating some swordplay. There is no sign of Herbert. Rachel repairs to Herbert's door, accompanied by Vito's servants, while Aaron and Vito made their way up through the attic onto the roof. Herbert turns out not to be in his room, but therea re no signs that he left it in any sort of hurry. On the Roof, Aaron concentrates, then states that somebody is moving away rapidly through shadow. After a brief moment spent exchanging this information, Vito takes off running, followed closely by Aaron and Rachel - after a short while, Rachel convinces Vito that perhaps running is not the best plan in the world: Vito offers to carry Rachel, but this is met with what might be termed a certain degree off coolness from Rachel, so they acquire mounts in the next busy square they come across, by the expedient of stunning the owners with a couple of well aimed bags of gold, mounting the horses, and galloping off. Vito and Aaron had to spend a little time calming their horses, which were (unsurprisingly) unused to riding through Shadow, but Rachel seemed to have been lucky and acquired a much less easily alarmed steed. As they caught up with the person fleeing through shadow, they noted that there was an odd effect pulling him through from world to world: A sort of rail running through shadow - it gave off a sensation quite dissimilar to normal shadow shifting (or indeed anything else they were familiar with). Hills started to rise on either side of them: Deciding that this had "trap" written all over it, Vito led the charge up the side of the developing valley to the left: After a while they noted that Herbert, in pursuit of another rider, had emerged on the right-hand slope. The players soon located the site of the expected ambush, and charged into them, making mincemeat of what turned out to be merely human opposition. Two of them cornered the fleeing rider, but were unable to avoid killing him (Rachel having produced a crossbow from somewhere) while the remaining cousin (Vito) scrambled up the hill to assist a by now almost unconscious Herbert in despatching what was left of the other half of the trap. Rachel interrogated the fleeing man as he died, and was able to get a few garbled details of a city, an army and a warlord out of him before he died. The man turned out to have a crossbow, some poisoned quarrels on his person: Rachel also retrieved some sort of amulet from the corpse - Aaron did not object to this. At this point, Vito returned with the unconscious Herbert: Vito wanted to contact his mother and get help for Herbert - rachel argued that it would be better to deal with this themselves, especially as Julian and Flora might not be on the best of terms (although with Julian, it is always hard to tell). In any case, they settled on trumping through to Castle Amber, and stashing the body in one of the morgues and Herbert in the infirmary. At this point, the characters went their separate ways: Vito to explain to his mother why he was dragging dead bodies into the castle, Rachel to her townhouse to recover, and Aaron for parts undisclosed. Later that night, the three healthy companions met up again, had dinner at Bloody Bill's (without starting a fight) and rounded off the night at a wine bar (where, to Vito's dismay, his mother turned out to be spending the evening with friends: He was very quiet and kept an extremely low profile). At the end of the evening, Rachel returned home; Vito and Aaron wound up doing the Golden Pub Crawl back to Serenissima.
- A day or so later was the night of the reception for the Chaosian embassy: Herbert was fully recovered by this point - Everyone was seated at a table with Daella of Hendrake, second in command of
security at the new embassy, Lord idonthavemynotes, the trade delegate, and a couple of other minor nobles from both the palace and the embassy. The evening passed well enough: There were discussions of the merits of wines: Reds, Whites, Greens and Paisleys, the nature of shadow travel with the Logrus and some riveting discussions about engineering. Herbert displayed his immaculate diplomatic skills by dancing an impressive Tango de la Muerte with Daella, and Vito offered to show the Chaosians around neighbouring shadows (who in turn offered to demonstrate use of the Logrus), while Rachel took the opportunity to make some tentative trade arrangements. As the reception wound down, several of the younger members of both the Amber court and the embassy (including prince Martin) repaired to downtown Amber, where they proceeded to occupy a large tavern, clear the floor, and participate in something called "slamdancing", often in demon form. This appears not to have resulted in any trouble, although various rumours about the residents of the Chaosian embassy are now all over the city. Martin was observed shapeshifting at said tavern. No one seemed surprised by this. The party eventually broke up in the small hours of the morning.
- The next day, Herbert volunteered to be Liaison with the Chaosian embassy (by being the first person to raise the issue with Random) and was duly assigned an official position and diplomatic staff. He seemed suitably happy at this great honour when he later met Vito, Aaron, Rachel and the Chaosians, before setting off for the docks to borrow one of Florimel's yachts for the trip. (Vito having decided that his own was too small for the size of the expedition). The trip to Serenissima was uneventful and pleasant; No pirates were encountered this time, although the Serenissiman fleet did seem to be out on manoeuvres when they arrived. The group made their way to Vito's house, where a light meal was served, and were just beginning a demonstration of Logrus use (several Amberites had to resist an almost reflexive urge to bring the Pattern to mind at this point) when the alarm bell started sounding, and people started rushung to (and from) the docks.
<<< Ok - I think this is basically what happened; I think Rachel might have returned to Vito's house, I'm not sure -- Vivek Dasmohapatra >>>
Lord idonthavemynotes insisted on riding down to the docks to see what was going on - and the rest of the group rushed off with him - when they arrived, they found Serenissima under attack by a small fleet of ships flying the Nautilus emblem, which seemed to have slipped past the Serenissiman fleet somehow. The loud "buzzing" sensation experienced while following the previous intruder was once more in evidence. Vito made his way towards Florimel's yacht, followed by Rachel, while the coast guard battled with the pirates in the harbour. Aaron and Herbert found a temporarily unused fortification (a small tower) and once Aaron opened it, they convinced idonthavemynotes to use it as an observation point. Vito discovered that his mother's yacht did indeed contain some heavy armaments: The crew were hauling a large, many barrelled mahcine gun onto the deck: They soon brought this to bear, and with an unholy racket, scythed the nearest nautilus ship in half, sinking it. Meanwhile, the trade delegate had summoned the Logrus, and was sending tendrils of it seeking towards the ships, channelling some sort of lightning towards them along its length, while Daella (and Aaron) looked on, worried. Just as the tide of the battle seemed to be turning, something strange happened... there was aloud bang, and the delegate appeared to be sucked into one of the retreating ships along a Logrus tendril, leaving behind a fading afterimage, and a sinking feeling in the pit of Herbert's stomach. Herbert and Aaron quickly rushed to the nearest available boat, shoved the owner to one side, and sailed after the fleet: Vito ordered the crew to set sail after the pirates, and they started to weigh anchor. Aaron and Herbert took a moment to get themselves sorted out, nautically speaking, then sailed after the retreating pirates, who weren't really expecting to be pursued by a dinghy. They caught up with the nearest ship and proceeded to board it, much to the surprise of the pirates. Luckily for the intrepid duo, only a few of the pirates were armed with muskets, so they were able to carve their way through the crew with only minor injuries to themselves, fighting their way over to a hatch, through which Herbert then dropped one of the primitive black-powder grenades he had recovered from one of the pirates during the fight, slamming the hatch closed to keep (quite literally) a lid on the explosion. There was a loud bang, the sound of tearing metal under great stress, and then the ship lurched and started listing heavily to one side, although the strange buzzing sensation stopped. As the crew abandoned the sinking ship, Aaron and Herbert opened the hatch and made their way into the hold. Meanwhile, Vito and his ship had finished destroying the raiding fleet in the harbour (what was left of it anyway) and had sailed out in pursuit of the survivors, although most of them had receded into shadow. At this point, Rachel contacted Vito by trump and joined him on his yacht/pocket destroyer. As they were discussing what to do next, Herbert contacted Vito by trump and came through on his own, stating that Aaron was salvaging some items from the pirate ship. Rachel revealed that she had a trump sketch of the trade delegate, but that contact seemed difficult. After some discussion, the group came about and headed back to the harbour. Back at the harbour, the amberites were met with the expected chaotic scenes of a harbour recovering from an attack. Leaving the boat for dry land, they began to discuss what they had seen, and what to do next. Herbert appeared to be particularly worried about what happened, and wanted to do something (anything) to find the missing Delegate: Daella (who had rejoined the group) seemed similarly anxious. While the group were considering their options, a large ripple appeared out to sea: Concerned citizens were beginningto wonder if this was another attack of some sort when Aaron emerged from the waves on the back of what appeared to be some sort of very large manta ray. Aaron glided into the harbour and the manta ray turned around and left. After Vito had reassured the harbourmaster and assorted officials that everything was Ok, the group went down to Aaron's workshop and minature drydock. There, in addition to Aaron and the
Horn of the Narwhale they found a large, semi-wrecked machanical device, consisting of a cage of thick metal tines around a complex revolving mechanism. The damage appeared to have been caused by some sort of small explosion. Aaron explained that the device was the one recovered from the wreck of the ship he and Herbert had boarded. After examining the device for any clues it might offer, the group decided it would take too long to try and repair it, and returned to Vito's townhouse to decide what to do next. After some anxious discussion, Herbert stated that he wanted to try and reach the delegate via Rachel's trump sketch. Rachel indicated that it was unlikely that he would get through on his own, and the group decided to try the "multiple callers" trick from the account of the patternfall war. At first, despite the strange interference, the group were able to get a sansation of movement, but then the contact became very difficult to sustain: Herbert tried to press the contact but there was a loud bang, several arcs of energy leapt from the sketch, and those in the contact were thrown back, severing it. Thos struck by the arcs found that their clothing seemed to have been altered where the arcs had struck, blending smoothly into fabrics of different kinds and colours. The effect on their actual flesh was similar but far less pronounced, and seemed to be healing quite rapidly.
<<< more to follow: all typed out for now -- Vivek Dasmohapatra >>>
<<< continuing season three here so as not to fall further behind -- Vivek Dasmohapatra >>>
Season 3: Brand Management (!![Aaron], !![Crucius], Elizabeth, Herbert, Julia, !![Rachel], !![Vito]) After witnessing the creature traverse the pattern and disappear, Random immediately demanded to know what was going on and ordered everyone upstairs for a family meeting/interrogation. He could be heard issuing orders to tighten security at Tír-na-nogth as well as here at Castle Amber, and send messages to Rebma. The characters gathered the unconscious Vito and deposited him in the infirmary on their way upstairs. Most of the elders known to be alive, with the exception of Benedict, were present. The characters were quizzed, and Herbert took the lead, giving a precise if somewhat strained report of the events leading upto that morning. As he came to the end of his report, and was answering questions fired at him from all sides, Herbert suddenly passed out and collapsed to the ground. Everyone gathered around him... Herbert seemed to be dreaming, but Bleys was unable to access his mind by direct psychic contact. Herbert remained in this state for just a couple of minutes before recovering consciousness. In his dream, Herbert remembered being in a hospital, and was able to sketch some of the unfamiliar script that he had seen on the signs there - the script was familiar to Aaron, who recalled seeing it before. On Random's instructions, Herbert was taken to the infirmary to be examined, accompanied by Flora and Julian, while Bleys, Llewella and Aaron went down to the library to try and narrow down the possible locations in the dream. Rachel was called back into the meeting and spoke with the king and the other elders there. Down in the library, as they decided on a probable location for the
hospital (a shadow called Finlantia) the Amberites were approached by a slight, red-haired man in a leather cloak. Bleys recognised the man, addressing him as Crucius, and said that this was a bad time, and that Crucius should stay close to him, as things were unsafe for him. Having made sure Aaron had the information he needed, Bleys then led the group back upstairs and into the family meeting. Rachel, Fiona and Corwin left the meeting. Random assigned Aaron the task of following the Finlantia lead, and said that Crucius should go with him (as an opportunity to establish his credentials). He then called the meeting to a close, at least as far as the characters were concerned. (Aaron obtained a family deck of Trumps at this point). After some discussion down at the infirmary (Herbert was instructed to drink two cups of willowfine tea and call the chirurgeon the next day) the group were rejoined by Rachel, who trumped in via Aaron, and decided to set off for Finlantia. They were going to take one of Rachel's boats, when Crucius said he had access to a shadow closer to Finlantia. The characters decided to trump there and proceed on
horseback to Finlantia. At the Tower Shadow Crucius provided shadow-trained horses and the characters proceeded along one of the nastiest hellrides they had ever been on, led by Crucius, who seemed to know the way to Finlantia. Halfway there, they decided to change course, shadow shifted to a port, and hellsailed there with Herbert opening the way instead, and Rachel steering. Upon arrival in Finlantia the group proceeded down the street, gradually (mostly) changing their clothes to blend in, till they decided to hail a taxi to the hospital. Herbert was about to describe the destination when Crucius told the driver to go
to the VexCorp Medical Treatment Centre. At the hospital, Crucious again took the lead, and the party was ushered in to meet the hospital director. ALthough friendly, the director was evasive, and as Herbert wandered off down the corridor he admitted to Crucius that the patient had escaped after recovering unexpectedly. While Crucius (angrily) extracted from the hospital director the facts of the case (that the patient had been kept heavily sedated, as instructed, but had recovered miraculously quickly) Herbert found his way to the hospital room he remembered from his dream - there he found a security team in the process of examining the room. Although they objected to his presence, Herbert was not dissuaded and rapidly disabled the three agents who attempted expel or stun him. The fourth agent provided Herbert with the erstwhile patient's charts, which Herbert took as he left the scene. Shortly after this, while Herbert waited by the taxi rank outside the hospital, and the other characters discussed their course of action upstairs, an alarm was heard in the corridors, stating that a dangerous lunatic was loose in the hospital waving a sword around and attacking people. At this point, Herbert contacted the others by Trump, and they joined him at the Taxi rank. Deciding that it was pretty likely the cabbie he remembered from his dream would still be on duty, Herbert hailed a likely looking passing taxi, and the characters set off to track down the missing patient (one "Paul Morgenstern"). The Cabbie took the group to a nearby shopping centre: There, after some searching and a little bluffing their way as shady people with lots of cash (which in this shadow meant the authorities), the characters learnt that the patient had purchased some clothes from an
upmarket store. At this point, Crucius and Rachel <<< correct me if I'm wrong here -- Vivek Dasmohapatra >>> left for the local police station to see if they could use CCTV recordings to track Mr Morgenstern. meanwhile, the other group, led by Herbert, continued to try and follow his trail at the site. After spending some time (and money) searching, the shop group found someone who did remember Morgenstern - the shop staffer indicated that he had entered "that store over there". The characters turned to see.... an art supply store. When Herbert had done swearing, loudly and at length, the players entered, and after some digging, found that Morgenstern had purchased large quantities of art supplies before leaving. He was also, it was noted, carrying a large bag of jars and bottles from a health food store - these turned out to have been high-protien dietary supplements. Meanwhile, the police group had paid their way into the local police station security archives, and found that Morgenstern had left the complex, hailed a cab, made his way to park and set up an easel there. He had remained still, apparently working for a while, and then had disappeared at some point while the CCTV camera was pointed elsewhere. Having taken a copy of the CCTV recordings, the police group rejoined the others and they then made their way to the park. While they were engaged in the (as yet) fruitless search for more clues, Herbert received a trump call... being naturally suspicious of incoming calls after the events in !![Phaedra], he hesitated for a moment, then almost instinctively pulled out his trump deck, riffled through them till he arrived at a card which seemed to satisfy him, and then took the call. Rachel seemed alarmed at this behaviour, but Herbert seemed not to notice, and none of the other characters commented on it. After the trump conversation, Herbert announced (he seemed disgruntled) that Elizabeth was in some sort of danger. Rachel produced a bound leather book containing many sheets of loose paper, from which she removed a sketch of Elizabeth : During the following trump conversation with Elizabeth a crossbow bolt crossed the trump contact and embedded itself in a nearby tree - and the characters decided to trump through to Elizabeth and save the day.
<<< yay. Ok, that's what I remember. If you make a correction, flag it so I can update the master plot whiteboard. -- Vivek Dasmohapatra >>>
<<< I just changed Vito) to !![Vito]) in the headers. -- SimonBooth >>>
<<< too sleepy. will continue later -- Vivek Dasmohapatra >>>
Shadows
Crucius' Tower Shadow
A shadow containing a tower in an arid plain, where Crucius maintains a stable. About one-third of the way to Finlantia, as the hellion rides. The plain is littered with the remains of a battle just fought. Ravens can be seen gathering to feast on the remains.
Federer
A shadow similar to Phaedra, ruled over by a similar warlord. Federer is gone. Attempts to reach it simply fail.
Finlantia
A futuristic shadow not far from Finstantia, ruled by a shady corporation known as VexCorp. Crucius has had dealings here before, and Aaron has passed through it during his researches. Finlantia appears to be unaffected by the !![Phaedra]n implosion.
Finstantia
A futuristic shadow which Aaron has mentioned as having been attacked by Nautilus Pirates. Finstantia appears to be unaffected by the !![Phaedra]n implosion.
- A misty plain containing a great pit, where until recently some of Amber's former enemies, the Moonriders, were contained. Since the !![Phaedra]n implosion, they have been freed and are now raiding through shadow.
Ibra
A shadow where Rachel is known as her Highness, and where many of her paintings are kept. It appears to be a perfectly ordinary late-mediaeval shadow. Ibra appears to be unaffected by the !![Phaedra]n implosion.
Kabuum
- A shadow where fireworks are particularly effective, and revered by
the natives. The P Cs exploded some !![Phaedra]n machine dust here, and came close to detonating some of the excrement from Elizabeth's horse. The characters later returned to find thay had been made the focus of the local religion. They attempted to detonate some !![Ghenesh]i armour with local explosives, and when nothing spectacular happened
Crucius took a shot at it with a rocket launcher. This failed to impress the natives, so Aaron let off a Lava burst spell.
Phaedra
- A shadow ruled over first by a council of mages and later by a
Warlord installed by the P Cs as their puppet. The mages of this world created a machine capable of producing "rails" along which its raiding parties (one band of which are known as the Nautilus Pirates) travel through shadow. Phaedra is gone. Attempts to reach it with ordinary pattern powers result in failure. A large chunk of shadow, corresponding to Phaedra and its neighbouring shadows, are simply not there. Shadows bordering this ring of vanished shadows contain a blasted dust-bowl plain, many kilometres across, centred roughly on where Phaedra used to be. Residents of those shadows have no clear memory of anything ever being there. Many Phaedran raiding parties are now trapped in shadow: They are well trained and effective, and have mostly taken to grabbing small chunks of territory and settling down. (Those that haven't been exterminated by the local powers).
Serenissima
- A cleaner and more technologically advanced version of Venice, with
Vito as its Doge. There is a large university, where Aaron is a student. There is a fashion in Serenissima for blue-green hair dye, so Rebmans do not stand out here. Glider technology is widely known and used as are Cannon and gunpowder. Serenissima has not yet discovered large scale sources of power other than human or animal muscle power, or at least has not deployed such power (eg steam) on a wide scale. Serenissima appears to have been on the outer edge of the disturbance caused by Phaedra's percussive dissolution: It contains no blasted plain, and the shadow storm has subsided. The Serenissiman military have now seen a gatling gun in action: since Serenissima has advanced engineering and mathematical knowledge compared to Venice, this may influence Serenissima's development.