Note, there is no record of Corwin's experiences as read in the book. Not everything in the books is true or accurate.

Things to remember are:

1. You have never heard of 'Primal Pattern', if it even exists.

2. Dworkin is known by all to be a mad artist locked away by Oberon for his own good. Only family knows he drew the trumps. No one else is known to draw Trumps. Most Amber citizens don't know that the family trumps have any special powers, though some castle staff do. Dworkin still lives in the castle, confined to a tower.

3. Chaos is a nasty dark place filled with vile and evil creatures. Your Elders told you so.

4. Travel back to Chaos is still blocked by a wave of shadow storms travelling outward like an Event Horizon. Time on both sides is wierdly effected. Those elders who returned from Chaos had a hard time making it back. No one knows when the Storm Wall (as it is called) will dissipate...it is VERY far out, a good two weeks by hell riding, several months by normal shadow walk, and years by using the Royal way.

5. Oberon, Dierdre, Brand and Eric are dead. Really.

6. Oberon died repairing the Pattern's break, but he was buried in Amber. There was NO procession to Chaos as described in the book.

7. No one knows where Corwin, Benedict, Merlin or Dara are. They stayed behind in Chaos later than the rest, and attempts by Julian and Gerard to retrieve them last year by returning to Chaos (assuming they are there) by piercing the Storm Wall have failed. They also do not answer trump calls.

8. No one knows about Corwin's Pattern, assuming he actually made one.

9. Amber Castle is a huge, rambling structure similar to Castle Gormenghast in the Titus Groan books (by Mervin Peake). It is continually being built upon, and is a melange of styles underlaid by gothic overtones. It has a population of a large town, and is took twisted, complicated and sprawling to map. It does have an overall 'ovaloid' shape, pinched a little in the middle, and runs generally north-south. From the long axis it is about 2 miles long, and it is about a third of a mile at it's thinnest, and a full 1/2 mile at it's widest. The lowest portions climb upwards along the slope of Kolvir, raising each successive story higher and higher. Portions of the castle are unused for centuries, others walled off and forgotten.

10. Amber City lies a good 2 miles from the Castle and is perched above the beaches on cliffs. Rougly circular, it is about 3 miles in diameter and has a population of 150,000 or so.

11. Most cultivated lands lie north of Amber.

12. Amber has a late Rennaisance feel to it's style, culture and fashion. There are, however, anomolies that are not reflected in our own Rennaisance period. These will be evident as we play.

13. Gunpowder of earthly or other nature (ie, from Avalon) no longer functions in Amber...Oberon saw to that after he repaired the Pattern. Instead, the Royal Arbusquers, who possess multi-firing crossbows are the elite death squads. Also note that most poisons, drugs, almost all magics, and many natural forces (such as electrical conductivity) will not work near Kolvir, or are hampered to an extreme extent.

14. Amber trades with close shadows under the Unicorn Crown Accord, which binds member nations under a trading treaty. They do not actively police or patrol these shadows, but will send Caine or Gerard or a younger prince to handle problems of piracy that the Accord members cannot handle.

15. Amber supposedly keeps a small army of 20,000 men. These are currently down to about 6,000 men due to attrition in the Chaos War, and most of these have only returned in the last several years with the elders (half were lost re-crossing the Storm Wall). Under Random's reign, with poor leadership and lack of recruiting effort, they have become disorderly and ill-trained, some say corrupt. They are often at blows with the Navy, engaging in fisticuffs in the streets of Amber.

16. The King's Guard is a force of 200 men loyal to the King, Random. They are still well-trained and guard the personal apartments of the King within the castle.

17. The Royal Dragoons are a force of 500 men trained to use the repeating arbelasts. They fall under the command of Gerard, who organized them during his regency, and he has refused to relinquish them to Random. As a result, they are not allowed within the Castle, but stay in the City.

18. The Navy is under joint command of Caine and Gerard. They remain in good fighting shape, with a total of 120 vessels of various sorts. Recently, Caine and Gerard have been playing with cannons, but only in a few experiemental ships that sail out in shadow. The Navy often taunts the Army for their lack of leadership, discipline and so forth, formenting a rivalry of great proportion.

19. The Royal Marines number 1,000 men, and serve unde the Navy, under Gerard and Caine.

20. The Arden Rangers fall under Julian's command, but numbers remain uncertain. Estimates place them between 500 to 5,000 but no one except Julian is really sure. They barely pay lip service to the King, and all know they are more loyal to Julian than Random.

21. There are three basic political camps. There are the Royalists, who are conservative and would support the line of Eric, who they consider the only true king on the throne. Half of the Northlands, and most of the oldest noble lines fall in this camp.

There are the Gauntlets, who are in support of Gerard's regency, and ignore arguments of Divine Right or succession in light of a stable kingdom offered by Gerard. MERLOGH (The Merchant League of Great Houses) is in this group, as are many of the wealthy and upwardly mobile merhant class.

There are the Loyalists, who are loyal to Random and his line by virtue of Divine Right. This includes the religious devoutees of the Unicorn Church, and many of the Garnathmen, as well as Rebma.

22. Random has proved a poor king in the five years since he came back with the blessing of the Unicorn. He took over from Gerard with the support of Fiona and Bleys and grudging assent of Caine and Julian and Llewella.

The first year wasn't so bad, but in the last three, Random has turned parts of the Castle into a 24 hour raucus party and bawdyhouse. Neerdowells, hangers on and sycophants abound in the Royal Apartments, and he himself is rarely sober.

Fiona, as his Minister has attempted to bring issues to the front but Random is often content to either let her handle it, or farms out the responsibility to others within his staff. Gerard has had it out with Random on more than one occasion, and Julian rarely comes out of Arden to bother with him.

Vialle has spent much of the last year in Rebma, heartbroken, and Martin is usually either sulking or angry at his father's irresponsible attitudes.

With the burgeoning worry of Benedict and Corwin's disappearance and the poor state of the army, many are wondering if Amber is ripe for yet another threat, if not from chaos, then perhaps somewhere else. Yet others cry that the unicorn sanctioned Random and he as king deserves loyalty and faithful service. Others look to Martin or Martel as heir, wondering if he will wear the crown better.

This is by no means an affront to the lady players among us, but is meant to reflect both historical late midieval and rennaisance views, and the views presented by Zelazny in NPIA and the rest of the Corwin books.

The role of women in the royal family are more free than their lesser counterparts, and anything 'masculine' they play with, such as hunting, is considered an eccentricity. Other women may hold them in awe, or view them as admirable, but peculiar.

Thus, while most women in Amber would be discouraged socially from engaging in manly pasttimes, princesses Cat and Isadora are allowed to be exempt from this restriction by virtue of their blood...though few of the noble men would confess they found them to be 'true hunters' of any caliber.

Women are allowed to hold money and own property, though this seems to be more common among the rising burgouis than the nobility. Apparently, the middle class aristocracy/merchants have less tradition to bind them down than the nobles.

Amber under Oberon was a darker place. Class structure and gender roles were even more confined and marked than the present. There was only a small middle class, with none of the social lattitudes given them as they enjoy today, including mingling with nobility.

Some nobles are affronted by this breach, others enjoy the money that comes from such interaction and fraternity.

During the Interregnum (ie,that period where Oberon was missing, and Eric took up the reins with Caine and Julian, some 100 years before Patternfall), such restrictions on class, money and gender were laxed a bit, as Eric gathered some power by giving freedoms to the merchant class in exchange for support.

It was a success, as most nobles enjoyed the increased revenue to be had by the merchant ventures and the merchants enjoyed a rise in status and influence.

By the time of Patternfall, there was a significantly stronger merchant class, a full burgeois.

With Gerard's Regency, and few adult Amberites to assist in running the merchant navy, a solution was found. Gerard allowed the creation of the Merchant League, an independantly run inter-shadow trading company to run the lines and trade routes under a charter with the Crown. They were buoyed with support by many of the greater noble houses, who eagerly desired to pair up with the vast fortunes to be accumulated.

(in prior years, all merchant fleets sailed directly under the Crown's own banner. Goods were directly distributed through the Royal Merchant Charter, which meant that most profits went to the crown, though significant earnings could still be had by merhants).

Under the Merchant League, the crown let the League take their own profits without passing through the governement's filter. Instead, a flat 10% levy was placed on all goods and profits brought in to Amber. This allowed the vast merchantile empire to be maintained, though at a cost of control and profit.

On the other hand, it greatly increased Gerard's popularity in the face of disaster after the Black Road War, the destruction of Garneth, and the loss of many of the Elders to the Chaos War.

In the years since, the Merchant League has come to be known as MERLOGH (Merchant League of Great Houses), with the symbiosis between merchant houses and their sponsoring noble houses blurred almost beyond recognition. MERLOGH is fast becoming a powerful faction in Amber politics, and the six great houses who compose her, and the lesser houses who attend them, are gaining in money and popularity.

Random has been content to let MERLOGH grow, and some call for harsh measures against MERLOGH (notably those noble houses NOT in the League, and thus, not earning profits).

Money in Amber is by coin. It is possible to find huge amounts of gold elsewhere (if you are family) and drag it into Amber, destabilizing the economy. Concerns for this before the Interegnum were nil, but since the destabilization of Patternfall, there has been growing concern in the more enlightened circles of Amber's scholars and merchants that such a scenario would be a disaster. Random has taken no heed of these warnings.

The younger Amberites do not possess Trump decks.

No Trump decks exist in one of the dozens of castle libraries, either.

Trump decks in existance are held by the elders, but they are rather protective and secretive about their whereabouts. It is likely you HAVE seen one up close on a number of occasions, perhaps even had chance to use them (and even if you don't, you know how) on loan from an Elder.

Trump decks currently include the following Greater Arcana: Oberon, Benedict, Eric, Corwin, Dierdre, Brand, Bleys, Fiona, Julian, Gerard, Caine, Llewella, Florimel and Random.

There are (currently) no trumps for Young Amberites, or notables like Dara, Merlin, Vialle, etc.

The only KNOWN manufacturer of Trumps is Oberon's old mad artist, Dworkin. Dworkin is so old, no one knows his true origins, though Oberon likely did, and told no one (typical of the former King). Unlike the CoA series, you have no idea he is related (assuming he actually is related in my campaign).

Living memory of Dworkin goes back over 1,000 years, to the time when Corwin and his siblings were being born to Faeilla. Most of this time, he's been confined to the Spire of Owls, a tower on the northern end of the monstrous Castle Amber.

Once a fine, grand place, the Spire is now crumbling and in disrepair, the old man barely seen except on grand occasions of state when tradition calls for the gaffer to be dragged out and given a decent plate of food. No one is truly sure if he is a prisoner, or a hermit by his own volition. It's a strange set-up.

Rumors have abounded that since the return of the Elders and the recognition of so many younger Amberites that Dworkin would be commissioned to draw up some new decks and add in new trumps...but so far nothing has come of it.

It is NOT common knowledge to the typical Amber citizen that Trumps exist or how they work. Those in the castle or who hold positions close to a Royal would know a bit more. It is rare to see an Elder make public use of trump, a sign that they are pressed for time or by circumstance. Most conduct the use of trump strictly in private.