Editing Volume One: The Vampire of the Dungeons (section)

====<big>Prelude to Madness</big>====
'''As it was told to me.''' 

*After Dworkin ‘helped’ Corwin escape from the dungeons of Amber, he also left Amber, unbeknownst to anyone. He ended up in a Shadow named Montagar; a place of High Magic with a fast Time Flow compared to Amber. Dworkin had had a destination in mind when he left Amber and began his Shadow Walk, but his madness returned somewhere along the way and when he ‘came to’ he was in Montagar and was not exactly sure who he was. He knew his name and that he wielded great powers, but not much else. 

*He set himself up as a Wizard in a small city and over time took a wife and sired a child; they named her Satura. Dworkin and his wife Verna raised Satura until she was twenty-one when she  married a nobleman of Montagar, Sir Kandith, and soon after she gave birth to a son, Relmopator.  Dworkin and Verna, Satura and Sir Kandith raised Relmopator together, teaching him everything they could; he was a gifted child.

*Shortly after Realmer’s sixth birthday Dworkin had a run in with some local Wizards who were insisting that he join their Guild, forsake the use of magic forever, or leave the area immediately; Dworkin did not wish to do any of these so he told them to leave. When they didn’t he Compelled them to leave using his powerful magic. Several days later the wizards returned with more of their kind, all with the intent of forcing Dworkin to comply with their demands. A again Dworkin refused and that is when a Battle of Magics quickly began, and ended. At the first hint of a great threat, Dworkin’s shattered mind grasped at his true identity and his true source of power. Using the power of Pattern, Dworkin temporarily changed the local Laws of Magic which prevented the wizards from casting any spells. Then he used Sorcery and his own Spells to end the lives of the original six wizards that arrived several days previously; he made sure their deaths’ were both dramatic and painful. He told the others to never return or their fate would be even worse; the remaining six wizards fled for their lives. 

*Dworkin's effort returned his memories and the errand he had originally left Amber to complete. He set out to complete it but once on the move his memory shifted again and while he completed the errand, he forgot about his wife and family and returned to Amber and the Patternfall war proceeded to its completion. With the repair of the Pattern, and a new King in Amber, Dworkin's memories were fully restored and he sought Montagar again. He knew he had to return to Montagar and set things right with his family there.

*The time flow of Montagar was very fast compared to the Shadows surrounding it and when Dworkin got back, forty years had passed there. He found that his home had been razed and burned to the ground and that his lands had been burned as well and the earth salted; there was no sign of his wife, daughter or son in law. While his powers were great, they could not locate the trio.  Investigations of nearby Shadows suggested that the three had been present when a gathering of wizards had attacked them, either killing them or abducting them. Many of the Shadows showed the child escaping. His assumption from such research was that his wife and daughter were captured and their location was significantly defended. While Dworkin has powers beyond nearly all creatures in Shadow, he is not omniscient. Since his daughter had never walked the Pattern, the Pattern could not generate a Pattern Ghost accurately. He had found evidence the son in law had died in battle, leaving a small inheritance for the maintenance of his family and that the razing of his home and lands had happened after the son in law's death.  Unable to locate his wife, or daughter, he decided he could find the grandson and searched until he did.

'''As I remember it.'''

*My first memory was that I couldn't breathe, it was hot, I felt constrained, my vision was blurry, just light and dark shadow.  Then my grandmother's and mother's faces, then sounds, their voices, as though from far away, then suddenly loud.  It was difficult to breathe, I was in pain, I wanted to cry out but was too weak, my face felt wet.  I don't know if that was my birth or sometime after, but it is the strongest and oldest memory I can recall.

*I remember grandmother telling me stories about fairies when I was still a baby and grandfather always wiggling his fingers at me, then nodding and smiling.  My mother was always watching over me, holding me sometimes, but oddly distant. I remember a man in armor with light skin and dark hair standing over me with a warm smile on his face; I recall a deep voice, but saying calming words; my father.

*Comprehension came quickly, then speech and language, but I was still weak and frail and movement was difficult.  My grandfather and grandmother noticed my gift and taught me many things while I was still but a baby.  And before I could even stand or walk, I could speak full sentences, read and comprehend what I was reading.  Then I learned many languages, both spoken and written and was already adept at a few Cantrips by the time I was six years of age. One day many men arrived outside our home and had a loud argument with my grandfather, that turned into a quick battle of magic to the death for half of them... the other half ran away after grandfather yelled at them, then my grandfather walked away and didn't come back.  My grandmother and mother were left to care for me alone, with occasional visits from my father.

*Grandmother continued to educate me and taught me many languages and how to read a few of them, my mother taught me how to read the rest, sort of, and she taught me how to write, in several different languages and several types of script.  I wished to continue my magical training, but mother warned against it, considering the visiting Wizards' problem with Grandfather Dworkin, who was no longer there to protect us... grandmother always replied that she was more than capable of protecting us all.

*Not long after my twenty first birthday, we were informed by an Emissary of the King that my father, Sir Kandith, had performed valorously and heroically to save the men of his company and died in glorious combat doing so.  My small inheritance sustained us all quite well for many years.  Then one day, while was I away getting supplies and foodstuffs, our home was attacked by Wizards and razed then burned to the ground as well as all of our lands... I assumed my mother and grandmother perished in the fire.  I tortured myself for years wondering what would have happened if I had not been away.  I spent many years working as a scribe in the next closest city to our destroyed home, somewhere I was not already known.

*Dworkin found me in that nearby city as I was still working as a scribe; I was in my late forties, but still looked like a very handsome young man. I was angry at my grandfather for abandoning us and I told him that I and my mother and grandmother wondered for many years what happened. I told him that my father had died in one of the king's wars when I was young and my inheritance, while small, allowed us a quiet comfortable life for many years... but still we wondered what had happened to you that day. I told him that many years back wizards suddenly attacked and destroyed our home. I told him I had barely escaped only because I was not present and that I assumed that my mother and grandmother had perished in the fire.

*Dworkin did not explain his absence to me, but instead said, “Our revenge shall be swift and final. Follow me, grandson.” Dworkin led me through Shadow, a short cut to the Wizard’s Guild Tower housing the guilty parties. Using a very powerful Spell (or perhaps Logrus Powers), Dworkin completely obliterated the Wizard’s Guild Tower and all within, but nothing else in the city was affected. Dworkin then took me to a Shadow ‘next door’, a world called Oerth. He took me to the Free City of Greyhawk and enrolled me at the University of Magic there. Dworkin gave me all the treasure I would need to pay for my schooling and supplies for many years to come then told me, “Learn all you can about Magic; everything. One day I will return for you and take you to your true home, but it may be many years.” Then Dworkin departed leaving me to fend for myself in a new city and a new world.

*I spent about a decade of my life and my entire 'fortune' learning Magic at the Academy of Magics in the Free City of Greyhawk on the World of Oerth.  I could have left within the first year after arriving as I had learned all the basics of Wizardry, but I stayed on to learn more, and more spells, and more magical tactics and more about magical artifacts of the land.  Many of those latter years were spent away from the Academy but still within the city, learning how to earn coin for magic, which began my dive into continualism magics and earned me much coin in the beginning, but then once everyone had what they wanted, needed or could afford, the coins stopped coming.  This turn of events is what led me to the life of Adventuring when a bartender and friend hired me and a couple of warriors, a thief and a cleric, on behalf of 'the city', to descend into the sewers beneath and find out why there was such a huge problem with the rats.

*Years after that first underground adventure, a man calling himself Merlin, but more likely a Shadow of The Merlin of Chaos, took me and some other Adventurers from Greyhawk on a trip through Shadow... but something went wrong during our 'Logrus Tendril Travel' and we all got flung into separate Shadows. The world I was in was dark and dangerous, filled with predators both fauna and flora, hostile environment and environmental events and nearly everything was toxic or poisonous to me.  Then I 'met' The Entity (a future main antagonist); a Powerful Psychic Being that was non-corporeal as far as I could tell and the name it gave me and demanded I call upon for power, has since been stricken from my memory by my choice and by my Will alone.  The Entity ‘altered’ by my body (used my own latent Shape Shifting Power against me); my skin turned a sickening shade of gray, which caused the itching and burning to stop, then my eyes changed somehow, and they stopped burning as well, and I was able to see better in the darkness of that realm and my insides were changed so I could breathe better and eat and drink what the world had to offer, those things that had previously been deadly to me.  Then The Entity forced me to change my way of using magic, my Magic Style (became a Specialist Wizard; Necromancer, with Wizard Kit; Witch/Warlock). I was forced to learn Magic again, a different way, just to cast the spells I already knew... but there were a few benefits.

*When I tried to steal some of The Entity's Power at a time when I could tell it was unaware and vulnerable, it caught me and cursed the power I took; though my vision was greatly enhanced including seeing the invisible, seeing Illusions as slightly transparent, seeing magic as an aura, night vision equal to day vision, and a few other minor enhancements, it was at a cost... my eyes changed and they looked like reflective silvery metallic orbs in my head.  The Entity then ‘altered’ by my body my body again; my muscles atrophied and drew tight against my bones, then my skin shrank down and drew tight against my atrophied muscles, then my body became wracked with varying levels of pain, but constant.  I knew it would never happen again, and I only wish I had grabbed for more of The Entity's Power more quickly, instead of slyly, considering I got caught and punished heavily.  After several years, local time, Shadow Merlin finally found me and snuck me out before The Entity could react; I was returned home to the City of Greyhawk along with my other companions, but Shadow Merlin was unable to undo what had been done to me in that Shadow Realm by that Entity of Power.  And then he left and I have never seen him since.

*During my many adventures spanning several decades and several worlds all within what I call the Gygax Shadow System, (all D&D worlds like Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, etc.) I was ‘Cursed’ repeatedly; including but not limited to: Physical Strength Drain, Life Energy Drain (level loss), Perspective and Moral Shift (Alignment changed), and forced Shape Shifting into a Dragon or Dragonkin... it's difficult to remember for sure; it literally altered my way of thinking. Then there was a turn of good luck and I was changed back into my True Human Form via very powerful Wish Magic... and then shortly thereafter I was willingly turned into a Vampyr; a not living but not undead vampire. (A forced Shape Shift into an Amberite with vampiric abilities and Forms).  I lived for a couple of decades as a Vampyr and as the Lord of an island castle filled with ‘rifts’ to other worlds and a Magical Rift Gate that could be set to travel to many known worlds.

*Then one day, out of nowhere and without warning, as seemed to be his way, my Grandfather Dworkin showed up again and explained to me about my Amber Heritage and the possibilities of many special abilities.  Dworkin took me through Shadow for a long time until we reached a Realm known as Ambir, a Shade of Amber with a Shade of the Pattern; walking it allowed me to Shadow Walk but not to wander in to Amber itself.  It also gave me access to my Shape Shifting abilities, Power Words, Sorcery, Conjuration & Compelling and a limited form of Trump Artistry.  Dworkin spent just enough time to show me how to use my Shape Shifting Powers, firstly, then how to alter my Spells according to the Magic Laws of the Shadow I was in, and how to use my Psyche to ‘feel’ the Magic of the Shadow to know what to change… and several other Psyche tricks.  He also taught me about Conjuring, Compelling and Power Words.  He also helped me create a Familiar from my own blood, a miniature Beholder that I named Bob.  After a short time, Dworkin took me back into Shadow, showing me how to Shadow Walk and Hellride... then one day he disappeared and once again left me to fend for myself in Shadow... and in exactly the same Shadow as he found me.

*I traveled through many Shadows near the Gygax Shadow System. I picked up the basics of Trump Artistry, but my Trumps were limited. After many years I grew curious about the different types of worlds and peoples out there deeper in Shadow or towards Amber... so I began exploring Shadows farther away for that shadow system with higher forms of technology and sometimes no magic, present anyway. Then places with strange physical laws and odd beings... then I turned around and began heading towards Amber. Because I had walked a Shade Pattern it allowed me to get closer to Amber than most other means, but still only as close as Ambir, so I explored a bit and I a group of Shadows I like to call the “Tarnished Circle”; a collection of Shadows just outside the Golden Circle, Shadows of current Golden Circle kingdoms that never had interference from or commerce with Amber or even the Golden Circle Kingdoms.  I spent many years exploring those little explored Shadows closest to Amber... then, as it always was and is, Dworkin found me again, and  out of nowhere took me away... but that time my grandfather took me to Amber, at long last.

*But first, I attended the Royal Studies Course at the University of Fantalin in Thelusia.  There I met Aries Colbrese, a Shadow of Dworkin, I believe. He gave me a tour and told me the history of the University; apparently the courses dated back to Caine, Julian and Gerard's youth.  While I was in attendance, I met Arloxedra, the son of King Eric, during his term as an instructor after Patternfall... we did not hit it off and we never really got along well.  But I was not concerned about making friends, I was studying and learning all I could so I could walk the Pattern in Amber.

'''As it was Written.'''

Michael's intro to Jeweled Amber; what actually happened after Patternfall.