A Conversation on the Fey in Amber

Sitting in the clearing in front of his Veksdale cabin, the Master of the land watches his people go about their days activities. A rustic town still void of stone roads it still manages an active populace mostly of businesses supporting the deep woods families making their living within 30 miles west, north and south of his front porch.

Feeling the trump contact he open, having expected it. "Come Through." reaching a hand Kibar steps through and looks around his surroundings.

"Interesting place. Someone here we plan to kill?"

"No.. This is one of my homes. After searching down the information you wanted I decided to spend sometime someplace rustic.

"You have certainly kicked a hornet's nest, Gastola. So lets start with your Azcalan problem first since its the easiest."

Pouring a tankard of hard ale for himself and Kibar, Vek speaks on.

"The creature calling itself Cipactli is using the name of his race, The Cipactlix, in a way that one might say I am the Amberite or I am the Chaosian. The Cipactilix are a lizardman race and that's what he is. Racially he is of a group that has a more crocodile hide pattern. He is certainly Azcalan. Azcala has sent out a great many warriors, in groups, to see what shadow holds. Azcala is sending out Cultist death squads up and down the Jeweled Road.

"Amber had trouble for a time with secretive Jaguar and Puma cult death squads killing gentry in the alleys of Amber. Once Amber hired CHAD, a Tosian mercenary guild and gave them some police powers, they dug them out of the city with extreme enthusiasm. My source says no less then 5 different Cult groups are sending death squads into Nu Yark; Jaguar, Puma, Eagle, Serpent and Crocodile. My source thinks your Cipyx is a Bond Warrior as well as a Crocodile Cultist.. A Bond Warrior is a warrior other warriors have bound themselves to magically. He can call on their strength, intellects, skills, and more as a sort of focus. It makes him extremely strong and quick, and deadly, depending how many warriors are bound to him. Be careful of him. He can summon those bound to him so if you go to the knives with him he might summon 5 to 500 of his kind. As for his own hire, he is a freelance Solo. Works for the Yakuza and well a GDC. He has a residence penthouse in the Stubaroa District. Wherever he goes, expect him to pick fights like he did with you. "

Finishing his drink, rising to refill hi first then Kibar's he waves to a friend who greets him in passing. handing the drink back he sits again.

"As for Donovan.. This is going to be complicated. The short of it is that he is the Son of Julian and a duchess of the fey named Cyrene. He is very young at 30 years in Amber, but just spent 10 years at Rasak, Benedict's training world. He recently walked the pattern for the first time. There is a lot of interest concerning Donovan for reasons I'll get to in a moment but you need to understand it in context.

"There is a lot of interest in the Fey in general these days, partly because of Donovan and his appearance in the King Random trump deck, but also because Julian and Caine have abandoned Amber for two Adask Fey who happen to be sisters of yours and theirs. The distaff royal line of Verna, a wife of Dworkn's, is Adask and deeply entwined with the Adask Fey. While there has been an Adask of the Verna Line living in the Dungeons for a century, Realmapator, he isn't Fey exactly, and recently his father Hagalta, a psycho Adask and a direct cousin of Oberon tricked his way into the Pattern room and walked it, then got in a war with Julian and Adagalask and fled into Azcalan to the acclaim of the Azcalan Adask and the Azcalan Fey. With his sister Saturna, he is Realmapator's father as well as father to two daughters, one who recently became a Lady in Waiting to Vielle and another that is essentially a ward of the court. There is also an issue with a Tosain Fey, a leprechaun, who has come to live in the city with CHAD. So there are a number of Fey issues and they are on the mind of the King.

"And now some ancient history. I've spoken to Arloxedra, to a couple Ranger friends, and briefly to Dame Margot. So my sources are sound.

"Lets start at the dawn of time. The fey are originally a race of Chaos, beings with innumerable forms. They were in Dworkin's mind apparently when he forged the pattern of Amber. Some fey were caught up in the forces of creation. Wherever they are found in shadow their origins are generally that they got trapped on this side of the abyss when the Pattern was forged and they were transformed in many ways. Others were created when the Pattern was created. You come from a tech world, you probably know of Non-borns as being born without the benefit of attendant mothers. Well, It appears that the Fea in Amber were originally cosmologically Non-borns; creatures brought into being by the creation of the pattern of Amber. So in many ways, they are the native race of the realm that became Amber.

Even Arlo says there are no book of fey heraldry or history that he knows of. So what I know is a general overview. They have a court but their history has always been their own. Their queen Titania may be non-born herself with a lifespan stretching back to the beginning. Her court is comprised of Dukes and Duchess, Counts and Baron, whatever their form or duties may be. That may also be part of their creation since the terms were used in Chaos as well.

At some time Oberon and his wife Cymnea, a Duke and Duchess of Thelusia, came to Amber with a small entourage to make a kingdom on the spot of the Pattern. There they had 4 children together; Osric, Finndo, Benedict, and Borlak. Those 6 began building Castle Amber on top of the hill that hid the pattern of Amber that now resides in the dungeon. Dame Margot was a very young girl whose father was one of Oberon's retainers. So she remembers those days.

Oberon was not faithful, of course, and had two other children at this time. One was Orsolla, daughter of Oberon and Moiren, Queen of the Mer, a fey race. Moiren founded the Line of Moins that springs forth Moire, Queen of Rebma, a well as Lewella. The other was Elfwine, and the rumor is that he is the son of Titania.

I don't know the details but Orsolla fled Amber rarely to be seen even as her mother built the Kingdom of Remba. Elfwine was aloof and nature-oriented, probably an arch-druid, and wandered away from Amber and this may be a source of sadness for Titania.

"When are you getting to Donovan?" Kibar growls.

"Soon, soon. Context, is everything. You know, when people think of Amber, and by people I mean, Golden Circle, Amber Sway, people on the trade routes and the Jeweled Road, they think of King Eric, King Random, and King Oberon. They think of the quarrelsome brood of princeliness and now their children. If they deal with Amber closely they may know the nobles, like the Feldanes, Mikhales, Charentons, Bayles, or even the Kesht. They think of the great city of Amber and its suburb North Riding, the cities of Ober, Yaj and Garn. Maybe Remba and the Rebman cities of Yal and Moins. If they know of Amber well they might remember the kingdoms of Tyalece and Acadia. maybe the Island of Cabra, and maybe the Far Isles. They see the rest of the continent as unbroken forests including the great Forest of Arden. "

"What they almost never think of is the Gentry; the commoners. But there are lots of towns, villages, hamlets, farmstead and family farms spread out around the coast of the continent stretching into that deep forest.. In the interior is the woods where the Fey mingle with the people of Amber."

"Long ago creatures, monsters, warriors and armies came into Amber anywhere through the Forest of Arden. This angered the fey because of the loses they suffered. So Oberon and his sons forged trails out into shadow that became the Great Arden Road and now the Jeweled Road. Anyone shadowwalking east hit the shadowtugs and in they came down the road, not just in anyplace in Arden. Oberon also established the Rangers to defend Arden, Amber, and unofficially, the Fey."

"However, the Fey have no representatives in Court. No official status other then as individual natives of Amber. They have little legal status since they almost never avail themselves of the civil authorities. They manage a rough kind of personal justice in their realms. But from time to time individual fey do come to the cities and when they do are treated as anyone else. There are a number of fey merchants in the cities;cobblers, weavers, carpenters. But their number is few and they are not thought of as a "People" of Amber, as they should be. Being a Chaosian in Amber, I can understand their struggle."

"Julian was always their benefactor and his Rangers intermingle, and intermarry with the Fey frequently. Warrior fey often become rangers. They have mutual festivals no one else know about. Duncan, Julian's son, is the son of a Ranger who was Julian's paramour for a time, and its suspected he has some small amount of fey blood himself. "

"Now we come to Donovan. Son of Julian and a duchess of the court of Titania, Cyrene. My Ranger friends tell me that Donovan has been something of a mascot for the Rangers as he grew. He split his time fairly evenly between Rangers and the Fey, they claim. They said that the failure of Oberon to officially recognize the fey in Amber was a horrible disservice but that Titania herself might be the reason for this. Few Ranger Fey attend Rasak because to do so would put them formally in the Army of Amber. There are rumors Random offered Cyrene an ambassadorship if Titania approved it but the offer was declined. Many think Donovan will eventually be the representative of the Fey to the Court of Amber. With Julian gone Duncan is for all practical purposes the new Warden of Arden and he is said to dotes on his younger brother. "

"Before Julian left he saw to it that Donovan attended Rasak. So whatever you may think of him remember that he did 10 year in Benedict's personal torture playground. He may seem well.. fey, but you don't get through Rasak without being tough."

"After Rasak he met with the King and was assigned an Elite named Farooq who barely escaped court martial for engaging in a deadly fight with Lord Zachary, Flora's son. He escaped that because Prince Gerard favors him and Zachary started it."

"After that he walked the pattern. His mother was in attendance and that makes her the highest ranking fey to enter the castle in a thousand years. So that's a court issue."

Vek pulls out a deck of cards d hands them to Kibar. He fumbles them about a bit the questions them. "What about them? They aren't magic."

Vek nod, "No. Those are a set of King Random's Trumps I picked up in north Riding at tourist gift shop. Thousands of those are sold. Nearly every home in Amber and far and wide beyond has a deck somewhere. Used for the same thing cards are used for everywhere, But they are also used to keep track of the family by friends and foes as well as fans. If you look you will see you are in there, I am in there, and Donovan is in there. When a new card arrives something else happens; and Alcove appears in the Amber Cult Halls at the Fane of Zilla. I'm just back from there. Young Donovan has a new alcove and..wait for it... a large following. Chaosian and Black Zone Fey have an Amberite they can now adore and they are making the most of it. Soon the alcove will be a nave. It will be interesting to see how they manage things."

Finishing his beer he smiles. " Done and done. Penthouse, bank account, and a date for dinner. I'll be in touch"

Kibar frowns, stands, and walks off into shadow.