World of Order, leaders in protecting the balance of the four worlds.
Read the history and basic information for Amber in the following text, or read about recent events behind the Unicorn.
Amber has been prosperous for as long as history records. When there are disturbances in the balance of power between the four worlds, people in the royal family die. This usually happens with unusual accidents, duels, or fights. Many would describe this world as paradise. Humans are prevailant throughout this world, though rare, some have elven qualities to them.
Worlds are considered shadows of Amber, a multitude of reflections. When at Amber, technology does not work, and leaving by magic is difficult, only slight changes can be made until some distance has been acquired from the Pattern.
History states that Chaos held power over the pattern, then Dworkin stole the Eye of the Serpent and awoke the pattern in Amber, creating a balance between order and chaos.
The Patternfall was was the Courts’ first attempt to return chaos to the universe, but instead, Serma and the Tris were formed, throwing all off balance because the Tris represented peace. The Balance Wars nearly ended all life as each of the three powers attempted to gain complete control over the planes of existance. Before all was lost, a soldier named Tagon sacrificed her life on a desert world to bring intelligence to the Kajiah, the power over war.
The power of Amber will only allow those of it’s bloodline to traverse the Pattern and use it’s energies, those who are not of the bloodline are vaporized when they come into contact with it. A person attunes themselves to the Pattern by stepping onto it’s starting line and following the path through it’s series of arcs and curves until you reach it’s center. As they traverse the Pattern, a field of electricity will slowly start to encompas them and memories of important events in the person’s life will be relived. Once a person starts the walk, they must not stop, for they may never start again, and stepping off the line will cause the Pattern to absorb the walker. Once at the center of the Pattern, you may command it to take you wherever you would like to go.
Travel through worlds is done by walking away from the castle in Amber and using your powers to change objects until the person reaches the world they wanted to get to. Amberites see the worlds all as a reflection of it’s source of power, each “Shadow World” being slightly diferent than the last. The further from Amber, the more the other three worlds have effect on the shadow world.
The Pattern’s energies may be concentrated to imbue powers into Trumps, a magic card that allows the carrier to use it with only concentration instead of using magical energies.
It takes a minimum of two hours to draw a card that will work, and cards can only be found in the posession of Amber Mystics at a high price of 12 gold per card. Roll percentile against difficulty of the card the caster is drawing. Failure uses the card and mana up. Once a useful card is made, the user must concentrate for one melee round. Cards are very durable and can only be destroyed by direct magical attack. Card will detonate (reflex saves for ½ damage) 3d6 damage.
Typical trump cards are places, people, and items, though magical effects can be drawn with a higher chance that the spell will fail (+15%).
Cards of places allow one to go to that place
Cards of people allow one to contact the person depicted
Cards of items summon the item
Cards of spells calls the spell forth
