There are also two other 'reflections' of the Pattern, one in Rebma (the underwater reflection of Amber), and the other in Tir-na Nog'th (the moonlit reflection of Amber in the clouds).
Walking the Pattern was the greatest trial of your life, and also your greatest triumph. Only those with the blood of Amber can walk the Pattern and live.
Pattern is the most powerful and most useful of all Powers available. Even more so than the other Powers, Pattern takes time and experience for players to master. In the hands of an expert, Pattern use is subtle and precise, wielded with an understanding that Pattern is a very large tool that can be used to do very fine work.
Although Psyche is important for manipulating Pattern and Shadow, remember that your Endurance must be at least Real in order to actually walk the Pattern.
Those with lesser Endurance must get some kind of assistance or they will die in the attempt. The higher your Endurance, the more damaged or exhausted you can be and still be able to survive walking the Pattern.
Pattern Novice is for characters who have walked the Pattern only recently: a few days or weeks ago at most. Consequently their ability to manipulate the Pattern is limited. Of the full Pattern powers, they can use only Blood Curse, ShadowWalk, and Manipulate Probability. And their skills with these powers are minimal compared to a more experienced Amberite.
Activates the Blood of Amber, so now the Blood Curse of an Amberite can be invoked. The rarest used, yet most feared, of all the powers of those of the Blood of Amber is their ability to deliver a Blood Curse. Usually delivered when dying, the curse is an evoking of a character's personal relationship with the Pattern, a directing of their life energies towards some terrible goal.
In terms of mechanics a character is trading away ten points (or more) of Stuff. If, after the curse, the character's life continues, this means they will have lost as many Stuff points, and gained as many Bad Stuff points, as is needed to make up the ten points of the curse.
Of course, if the character actually dies, well... Then it's not a problem that concerns the character anymore. The character issuing the curse may use up to 10% of their total points value in the curse.
The subject of the curse, whether person, place, or thing, is then invested with the Bad Stuff, all of which will be directed toward fulfilling the curse. It is also, theoretically, possible to perform a ''Blessing'', such as that bestowed by Oberon at the end of the Chronicles of Amber.
Once performed, there is no known way of removing a Blood Curse.
In Shadow, so long as an Amberite can move, walking, riding, sailing, swimming, flying, driving, or crawling, it is possible to move through Shadow. This is done by changing minor things that lie in your path.
The character decides that over the next hill will be a patch of blue flowers, around the next corner is a jagged rock face, in the next village is a country fair. Down that alley is a shop dealing in obscure weapons. By such minor changes you move closer to what you seek in Shadow.
Shadow Walking is relatively easy since you are changing very subtle, very small details. So, for example, in a ride through the woods of Shadow Earth, around the corner you might expect to see a greenjay instead of a bluejay. That one detail is an easy change.
Since the changes are so minor Shadow Walking is fairly slow. As long as someone can see you, they can follow you through Shadow. A person of the Blood Of Amber can lead any amount of people through Shadow. So long as there is a visual link, even if indirect (i.e. The Amberite can be seen by Troop A, Troop A can be seen by Troop B, and so on) then all parties involved move through Shadow simultaneously. Skipping Forward In Time
The character goes to a place where time moves slowly. While the character is spending a few minutes in the 'slow time' Shadow, time is speeding hour by hour along in Amber.
So a character can leave, spend a few minutes out in Shadow, and return days, or weeks later. It's even possible to find a Shadow that moves so slowly that it becomes almost like a stasis, and where the character can wait for years to pass in Amber.
The shadings of one Shadow to the next are vague. That means that small changes can be made without travelling. Short of money? Imagine a loose floorboard, under which is hidden a treasure, look and it will be there.
Those with the imprint of Amber's Pattern are endlessly lucky. What is possible can, with time and effort, be made probable, and what is probable can be made certain.
While this power is absolute, it always involves some movement, a shifting of the variety of Shadow for a particular shade. Any Shadow manipulation is also slightly hazardous because of your involuntary movement in Shadow. With enough time it's possible to shift just about anything in Shadow. However, there are two important limitations.
First, in order to shift Shadow you must move. Subtle changes don't require much movement, but the more drastic the change, the more you must move around. The problem here is that you can easily move right out of one Shadow and into its neighbour. Be wary that, while shifting, you don't start moving away from your objective.
Second, shifting Shadow is fairly slow. Far slower than combat time. If you wish to make use of some Shadow shifting it's best if it be prepared before a battle. A minor change, such as the colour of a coin, might take as much as a half a minute. Something useful, such as weakening a wall, or making a weapon brittle, could take several minutes or more.
Another problem with Hellriding is that generally a certain level of speed must be maintained for the Hellride to progress.
Since things change so quickly in a Hellride most technological means of travel (such as cars, planes, and boats) won't work at least some of the time. Most Amberites tend to use a reliable mount, such as a well-trained horse.
Animals which are to experience Hellrides must be specially trained, or they tend to panic and cause the rider difficulties they don't want, during such a stressful and concentration-intensive procedure.
Hellriding can get you from near Amber to the Courts of Chaos in less than a week. Generally three days of hellriding can get you to and from most useful places in Shadow. Hellriding can also be used to find Creatures and Artefacts with point values.
For someone of Real Psyche, each point takes one day to find; those with higher Psyches and more experience will need less time to find things.
Slower than Shadowwalking is travelling through Shadows where everything is to the character's liking. For example, one can choose to walk through the worlds where there will always be welcoming faces and rosebuds strewn on the roadway.
Or, if you choose to travel in a luxurious train, you can stick to those Shadows that contain rails. This is usually known as Selective Shadow Walking or the Royal Way, and it is extremely slow but it's very comfortable. Normal Shadow Walking from near Amber to the Courts of Chaos would take approximately six weeks, a year if Selective Shadow Walking is being used.
This ability also allows for Hellriding to a specific person as long as a clear psychic impression of the subject is known and kept foremost in mind during the ride.
The main use is defensive, so a character with Pattern Defence on is pretty much immune to the Logrus, and other Chaos generated forces.
Likewise, it's difficult or impossible to use invasive Magic on a character who has Pattern brought up like this. On the other hand, keeping the Pattern internalised requires real concentration, so the character can't run or fight effectively. If the character's attention is broken, then the Pattern instantly flickers out.
The breaks and distortions in Shadow, caused by those who have the Power to move from one Shadow to another, can also be detected through the use of Pattern Sight.
The character looks for tiny disruptions in Shadow, attempting to find their source locations in the Shadow being studied, which other Shadows are involved, and what Power was used in the disruption.
How long this takes depends on how old the trail and how major the disruption. If a single Hellrider passed through the Shadow just minutes before, the traces could be detected in just a minute or two.
If the passage had taken place the day before, it might take an hour to find the traces. However, if the disturbance was major, as is the case if a vast army was led through, then the traces will be obvious and easy to find even days later.
| Monday, August 25, 1997 | |
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