Editing Dabblings of Elayne deFlorimel

<Font Face="Franklin Gothic Medium"><Font Size ="4">Ive been a reader my whole life, it only serves the forces of whimsy that I dabble in writing.  So here are my dabblings.

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<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><big>'''''The Dabblings of Lady Elayne deFlorimel''''' </big></div>
<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><big>'''Introduction To the Whole'''</big></div>
I decided to begin this blog to entertain myself and to let those of you in Nenton know whats happening in the make believe world you call Amber and that I call family business.  It is entertaining to me that you who read this are probably readers of the '''''Corwin Chronicles''''', the '''''Plays of Prince Bleys''''', The '''''Seas Sagas of Gerard''''', the '''''Water Walks of Llewella''''', '''''The Musings of Mandor''''', '''''The Grasak of Hendrake''''', or any of the other Amber & Chaos genre books and graphic novels.  Perhaps you listen to the music of '''''Vek Hendrake''''' and the '''''Vek Trio'''''? Perhaps you watch the 2D show '''''The Calling of Chaos'''?  Perhaps you enjoy the holovision adventures in the '''''Chaos Line Conflicts''''', the '''''Amber  Immersion Intrigues''''', the '''''[[Gesheka]] Combat Series''''', the '''''Black Road War Combat Series''''',  or the ''(personally embarrassing for me)'''The Romantic Tales of Princess Flora.'''''.  Maybe you enjoy the amber genre holo-porn available from disreputable merchants.  Perhaps you have a copy of the illegal holovision adventures called the '''''Knives of Trasidy''''' or the '''''Red Rites of Azcala'''''? 

So you of Antheris know other universes exist.  But the overwhelming belief in this world is that only the '''[[Seven Realms]]''' exist. All the dogma and scriptures of all the religions of the Ten Spheres exclude and deny the possibility of any other worlds beyond them, dimensions on top or below them, or the possibility of the reality of the ''Stuff of Chaos'' or the ''Shadows of Amber''.  

Yet, there are piles of books you call fiction lining the Newsstand[[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Diners_of_Amber#The_Newsstand.]] down below the window of my little garret.  There is a whole genre of Amber Fiction and mine is hardly the only first person blog of someone claiming to be an Amberite, a Chaosian, an Avalonian, an Azcalan or a Shadowwalker or some other version of creature born beyond the Ten Spheres.   There is one difference between my blog and most of those.

I now that I am an Amberite.  My mother really was Princess Florimel.  My grandfather really was Oberon of Amber.  My portrait is in the actual Gallery of Kinship of Amber, if only in a nook under a small arrow slit that allows a few minutes of sunlight to grace my portrait.   I have attended the University of Fantaling in Thelusia.  I have walked the Pattern of Amber in the Depth of the Dungeons and in the moonless sky of Tirna No'gath.  My name is Lady Elayne of Amber.  You have my leave to think me mad.  You may think me artistic, indulging in the genre.  In the end, the truth does not depend on your beliefs. 


=='''Entry One'''==
Like many people across the universe I grew up with misconceptions about who exactly my parents were.   For reasons I will speak about later my father was never a presence in my life and if he should put in an appearance I will tell him how I feel about that.  Being immortal I have the time to develop a relationship with him, and I have the strength to slap him across the face.

In the world of my birth there were legends of ancient gods called Olympians who lorded over the lands of Greece.  My mother was fanatical about the gods of the world and I thought her fixation on the Olympian gods meant we might be descended from them.  I was wrong.  The truth was worse and better.

=='''Entry 2343'''==

I was strolling down the Candalat looking over the rare books and memorabilia merchants.  It amuses me that so much attention is spent on the collection of such items.  The level of museum quality artifacts is high so these places are filled with items rejected by all but mall rural displays.

==My Article of Submission to King Random of Amber==

<Font Face="Gabriola"><Font Size ="5">Liege Lord,

To whatever degree such pleases you I render my featly to king and crown.

If I may be of service do call.

Lady Elayne of Amber.

<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><big>'''''Something of a Personal Note'''''</big></div>


You asked your kin for an Article of Submission.  When my mother told me about it she rolled her eyes.    I spoke to Arloxedra and he was quite put out.  I don't see the problem. I see it as a formality. You know I am of little danger to the realm. 

I could just as easily say what Arlo said, "I submit" and let it go at that. To that end, if it suffice, I write the above.  Below is more, some thoughts about my life for whomsoever should read this.   

We little know each other. Arlo told me to talk about myself since you, the King, would not be the only person reading these.  So I write, this second month of 5202 in Amber that I be in your good graces. 

<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><big><span style=color:blue>I am an egg.  I am <big>Elayne deFlorimel</big>. I am the daughter of Princess Florimel of Amber</span></big></div>  


<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><big>My life Before</big></div>

My mother bore me before Patternfall on Earth during her time observing Prince Corwin. I'm pretty sure it was not a planned event.   I was born in Westchester County, New York in 1940 of that world.  The usual schools for the time and place followed.  Mother told me education would occur at home; the schools were for socialization.  

My mother was a professional golfer, my father had been a whisper in the dark for her, someone passing through she said.  She said I might meet him someday and at the time I didn't give it a second thought.  Now it concerns me.

By the time I was thirteen my mother had arranged for me to have all the money I wanted as long as I maintained my grade point of 4.0 and as long as I cooperated with all the private instructors she had for me. It was easy enough to do, all those things were things I loved.  I have been obsessed with reading since I first figured out what the little drawings meant.  Ive always loved learning things. Languages came easy to me. 

I was stronger then anyone I knew as a child, even adults.  More limber, quicker, and far less easy to tire.  I had to be careful not to show it too often.

Mother spent a fair amount of time with me as I grew up but she frequently left for a month at a time here and there leaving me alone, save for the household staff.  Now I know that was time she was looking in on Uncle Corwin.  

From the time I was young enough to grasp a bow she taught me archery.  We played sword fighting games, ''Musketeers vs the Cardinal's Guard'', ''Samurai & the Ronin'', ''Knights of King Arthur''. She had a odd man come teach me martial arts.  Combat Dance he called it. I learned the Katana. I had an instructor in gymnastics who helped me be able to participate in the 1958 Olympics in London. At the '58 Olympics I got a Silver in ''Women's Foil'', a Bronze in ''Womans Over-all'' Gymnastics, and lost my virginity to a British cyclist who won a Silver.  For cycling- not scoring with an Amberite. 

The Olympics were a mania for mother and I. Through the 1950s and 60s my mother and I were professional golfers of a sort and participated in international archery and equestrian events.  In 1972 she won Gold in Olympic Archery and I won Silver.  We participated in seven Olympics together.  I treated it like a hobby, collecting medals in fencing, archery, gymnastics, cycling, volleyball, diving, swimming, equestrian, canoing, and shooting both rifle and pistol.  We participated in Winter Olympics and I won a Bronze medal in skiing but she was the one who loved the cold and collected a couple dozen medals. 
 
We went camping a lot. I didn't know it then but we traveled in shadow.  She taught me field craft. I had been a girl scout.  She taught me to climb. 

We played golf, lots of golf.  We played a lot of golf.  

We raised dogs; Irish wolfhounds.  One was always with me. One still is, sitting by my feet as I write.

Was I curious of our curious nature?  Of course I was but mother wouldn't talk. 

I enrolled in New York University, near Washington Park, in 1958.  I could say I majored in a number of different things but I really majored in the 60's.  I spent time in the clubs.  The parks. The Village. The theater. I met people.  I let myself go and I let myself indulge.  It was a good time to be rich and strong.  I bought an apartment building nearby, through agents, and had it renovated for safety.  I played myself off as the property manager and charged people repair time to paint walls, sand wood, repair things..  Carve, create. 

Once a couple from Ireland moved in. They were painters and were attending a school nearby.  When asked if I thought distilling whiskey counted as creating, I gave them two apartments.   They distiled vodka, whiskey, and rum.  Made hard cider, vinted wine, and brewed beer. In time I bought a farm on Long island and they moved operations there. 

Forty rental units and social spaces downstairs.  Musicians, artists, baseball players, I rented to a type. 

<big>''There was music in the cafés at night and revolution in the air.'' </big> 

<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><big>My life During</big></div>

Then it all changed in 1974.  I was 34 at the time and the idea of immortality had never occurred to me.

A pair of uncles arrived out of the blue.   Creatures out of some hell arrived soon after and the house I grew up in was the scene of warfare. Several of my favorite hounds were killed.  I was in Manhattan at the time. 

I'd never seen my mother so flustered.  She called me after the two uncles stole one of her favorite cars and disappeared.  She told me everything then.  Amber. Eric. Corwin.  She told me while hiking and for the first time showed me shadowwalking. I was gob-smacked.  I knew we were special, but I thought maybe descendants from Zeus.  She always had a lot of mythology books around and she was obsessed with the Olympics.

She took me someplace in shadow.  I was enrolled at the Collège de France in the late 1880s.  She said she had enjoyed her time there, and found it again for me.  She gave me some gold and some folding money then she took out a Trump and I watched her disappear, her hand grasping another from beyond.

Once again I got distracted by the lifestyle while maintaining my schooling.   Artists, actors, absinthe, dancers, and the Moulin Rouge and the Luxembourg Gardens. 

She had put me in a ''fast time'' realm it seems.  I spent fifty years in that world, traveling, reading, painting, amidst the artistic places. 

A combination of bad timing and whimsy found me a nurse in 1914.  I had decided to get a medical education in 1912 and rather then becoming a doctor I spent a horrifying four years in the trenches of France as a nurse.  I'll never understand why I stayed but its been suggested something about the bloodshed appealed to the Amber blood in me.  I couldn't contact my mother, felt abandoned by her.   

One thing happened that rocked my world.  The trench was overrun.  I found myself in the center of a bloody battle. My Olympic fencing talents wielded a cavalry saber in between two dirt walls.  My Olympic bronze in pistol drove my fight in the mud and slog against German foe-men.  In the middle of a trench war I grabbed a loose horse and used my Olympic equestrian experience to ride it out to safe lands.  I never thought myself a warrior.  It never occurred to me.  But it turns out that its in my blood.  I was decorated for valor, an award extremely rare for a woman at that place and time.   

1919 found me in a New York again, though not of the world of my birth.  I could find no version of my mother in that world.  I got distracted again by music as Jazz came to rule the night.  I traveled among musicians again, and criminals and sportsman.  I was even tempted to return to the Olympics but I went as a spectator instead.   I learned to fly biplanes during the war and became something of a barnstormer.  Raced cars and motorcycles.  I collected books. I acted in a few plays and a few movies.  

One day in 1934 I was having coffee and whiskey in a joint in New Orleans.   I was listening to a cool set when in walked mother.  She sat down at my table as if she hadn't abandoned me in Paris.  She told me it was time to come home.  I thought she meant New York, but she meant Amber. My anger seemed irrelevant to her. 

<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><big>My Life From the Reign of Eric to the [[Interregnum and the Repair]]</big></div>

I came to Amber the morning of the coronation of King Eric. My mother was conflicted because while on one hand she excited that she would be an important player in the upcoming reign, it came at the cost of one brother and possibly a second.  At the time it was believed Prince Bleys was lost and it was uncertain if Prince Corwin might be executed.  I watched as King Eric ordered his brother's eyes burned from his head.  This was my introduction to the family.  While I was introduced to my aunts and uncles I was not pushed forward.  I was horrified by the brutality of a lost war and a won war and burning retribution of an Uncle.

I discovered the library early on.  I met Arloxedra there.  He and I became boon companions for a time.  We both hid from the elders though in time I found that he was far older then I would have guessed.  I did help mother build the Sea View Gardens but it was her mania, not mine. 

I rode with Julian, sailed with Caine, swam with Llewella. I'm met you in Rebma. 

I was in the field, with the medics, at the Battle before Kolvir where Eric died and Corwin returned. 

I was in Amber for Patternfall. I was there for the '''''Repair'''''.  

Left behind as the elders went to the Courts of Chaos to decide the matter, I was there during the entire time of the [[Interregnum and the Repair]].  It was a strange time. I didn't know many people and it was a strange time to try and be friendly.  Most of the time I stayed in the Library with Arlo.  I was present for the revelry surrounding the Court of Queen Margot[[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Interregnum_and_the_Repair#The_Court_of_Queen_Margot]].  

At first it seemed a joke but in time it got very weird.  

I should mention something that happened during the Repair.  Arlo took me to the Pattern Room and explained it to me.  Then said that if he made it to the center of the pattern, I should follow.  I watched him assay the pattern.  Then I followed.  We transported to the Library and he said that he and I were the first two to walk the repaired pattern.

We drank Oberon's Wine and his whiskey, while worry ruled the land.

<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><big>My Life in the Reign of King Random</big></div>

Then you returned.  Your reign began.   I stayed out of your way.  I attended family dinners.  Dame Margot suggested I attend the Royal Rights course at Fantalin. It wasn't as if I had any reason to stay in in Amber. So I made ready to travel to Thelusia with a embassy.  I then got your call to a personal meeting.   We spoke.  We came to an understanding that I was as yet an egg.  You gave me a blade, a book, a deck, some good advice and sent me on my way. 

I gathered my dog and my meager possessions and I trumped to Thelusia. It was everything I had hoped for.  

As in the past, I got lost in the social life of the land.  It served me well.  I will probably wander for a time.

Lady Elayne deFlroimel


[[Dabblings of Elayne deFlorimel]]

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