Queens of Amber and Mothers of Amberites

This is a listing of not only the queens of Amber but the mothers of Amberites as well.

Queen Cymnea

Mother of Osric, Finndo, Benedict

Cymnea was Queen of Amber in the earliest of days in Amber, during the creation of the State. She was a dynamic woman and a good queen. Oberon saw to the creation of the army, navy, and other explorations of Shadow and contacts made with nearby shadow that led to the first of the GCST kingdoms. Cymnea saw to the creation of the Court of Amber.

Many of the most ancient Noble houses of Amber bear Grants of Arms with Cymnea's name above Oberon's. This means that, technically, Oberon issued the Grant, but Cymnea signed it first in the absence of her husband. Once she had signed it Oberon would have been hard pressed to revoke the Grants and, in fact, never did so.

A member of the Royal Family of Thalusia, she was a powerful, immortal, sorceress in the dawn of Shadow and Amber. She was also reputed to be a serious bitch. The arguments between her and Oberon were epic and destructive as she tried to settle that a Queen was an equal political force to a king, knowing that as it was done in Amber it would be done throughout shadow. In the end she lost, Oberon annulled the marriage making Osric, Finndo and Benedict illegitimate.

Living in seclusion in Thelusia, she is the proverbial 'Elephant in the Living Room' of Thelusian politics. Many times a threatened appeal to Cymnea has halted the Thelusian Monarchs from rash actions. Perhaps a better metaphor is the Hungry Dragon in the stockyards.

Point of order: Oberon annulled his marriage but he did not remove Cymnea from the Rolls of Queens. She is still listed as a Queen of Amber but her claim is besmirched by the annulment.

Queen Faiella

Mother of Eric, Corwin, Deirdre

Faiella is the first Queen of Amber whose claim is unstained. Eric was born out of wedlock and was never officially recognized. By all records a kindly queen she ruled a diminished court and suffered at the hands of the assembled nobles and the long line of royal historians.

What is clear is that she bore Eric while Oberon was still married and an incident took place between Cymnea, Faiella and Oberon that has never been truly explained. Somewhere between the heart strings and the reins of monarchy Cymnea lost her throne, her legacy, and her son's legitimacy. Yet Faiella lost as well, her son Eric could not be recognized without causing Thelusia to rise against Amber. In those days the end result was less certain.

Corwin was born after Faiella and Oberon wed and bears the first clean claim on the throne of Amber.

Many genealogies list Faiella as Caine's mother as well as. This is inaccurate despite the fact it is an improbably common occurrence in shade Amber. The details are complex but a brief synopsis is that Faiella disappeared into shadow near the end of her reign, still a young woman. Soon after Oberon arrived with Rilga and Caine. Amber press and Rumor was that Faiella died in wedlock and it was damnably hard to shake them of that even after Rilga was revealed as both Caine's mother and Queen of Amber.

Faiella died in shadow of consumption. All of Oberon's efforts to save her failed.

Rilga-Caine

Rilga bore Caine while in wedlock as Queen, making Caine's claim clean. It was widely believed at first that Caine was Faiella's child and the sickly woman who carried him was his wet nurse. However she was from a fast shadow and aged poorly in Amber. She retired to a nunnery at a Shrine of the Unicorn and became a recluse. Oberon's overwhelming despair led him to spend time looking for answers in magic-rich shadows. Since the Church of the Unicorn considers entrance into certain Religious Orders a legal divorce, Oberon was free to marry again.

Queen Clarissa

Mother of Fiona, Bleys, Brand

Clarissa was a fiery, charismatic, loving, wicked, & powerful woman. Many claim this Queen of Amber was evil, insane, and/or wickedly funny.

Historians have perhaps labeled her unfairly because she was a compulsive liar and cared not at all for historians. She in fact had a habit of assigning the Court Historians and Court Heralds to increasingly arduous and bizarre duties; frequently causing them to choose new careers far from Amber. One example of this occurred at the Rebman Sky Ball when Lord Galis Feldane, the court historian, defended himself to the queen's taunts by saying he was an honest, unbiased reporter of facts. Clarissa, grabbed a court dagger and cut off her own long, blazingly red hair, and handed the bunch to the startled Galis. She told him that if he could correctly tell her the numbers of hairs in his hands she would believe him honest. It went poorly for Galis.

Clarissa was a powerful sorceress. Far more powerful than any other Queen, even Cymnea. Her powerful connection to the pattern, despite her lack of Royal Blood, was a source of considerable speculation amongst the sorcerous community. She was known to be an initiate of other systems and is reputed to have been a Broken Pattern sorceress as well as both a Reliees Nalin and an Anvir-Syne sorceress. She was known to have demonstrated abilities that were almost certainly Sigil At Riess in origin but this was before Cogswell At Riess arrived in court.

Anvir-Syne was an outlawed form of powerful magic that Oberon hunted to extinction during Clarissa's reign and at her instigation. The pogrom against the Anvir-Syne is one of the acts that historians point to in order to show her evil side despite the whole hearted support given the persecution by Oberon, Benedict, and Eric.

It is widely believed that Clarissa came from a Black Zone shadow. There is even some evidence she may have actually come from Chaos itself though no house in Chaos claims her. The reason for this belief is that Reliees Nalin sorcery is a Logrus-style magic. There is even some evidence that she may have been a Flawed Logrus sorceress.

Numerous pranks occurred during her reign around June 15th, for no reason anyone could ever discover. She always claimed she picked the day at random but most believed there was some reason for the choice. Most were not satisfied believing that the day was chosen at random and that every June 15th they were to expect to find whipped cream, jello, spikes, tacks, or tarantulas in their boots. This practice continued after she left Amber. The Practice is now called Cally's Whim, in honor of Clarissa.

Clarissa divorced Oberon, despite the court records that show it was the other way around. She always said Death lasted too long to spend so many years living in Amber; not the best thing for a Queen of Amber to believe. The reasons are unclear although any reason was good enough as far as many Amberites were concerned. She had a considerable following among both the artistic, theatrical, and sorcerous communities. She is known to have a Chaos Cult dedicated to her as well as having a popular heretical following connected to the Church of the Unicorn itself.

Moins, Queen of Rebma

Mother of Llewella

A dalliance with the Queen of Rebma produced the daughter that bound Amber and Rebma together more soundly that their proximity ever could. Llewella, Moins' younger daughter, was shy, reclusive, and showed signs of immense magical power.

Moins always considered the birth of her daughter by Oberon both a blessing, an embarrassment, and a cosmic joke. While she loved her daughter immensely she was none to pleased with Oberon and taught her child to steer clear of the House of Amber and it's king.

Clarissa- Brand

During a brief visit in shadow Oberon and Clarissa attempted reconciliation. Despite her terrible reputation and wicked history, most sources agree that she honestly loved Oberon, and their children. All of the children of Oberon who knew her have some fond memories of Clarissa, even if they are glad of the divorce. The reconciliation was doomed from the start but it produced Brand. In general a bad turnout as far as Amber was concerned.

Queen Rilga

Mother of Julian, Gerard

Rilga came out of retirement once Oberon found a way to stabilize her aging problems in Amber. She reigned for a considerable time.

She died when Random and Mirelle fled into shadow for unknown reasons, fearing Oberon. Rumors were that they my have broken the Consanguinity Laws. While the details are unclear, it is known that Rilga was slain by Mirelle while she made her escape.

Oberon eventually caught up to the two, and it was long believed he reluctantly was forced to slay Mirelle. Random was reconciled with Oberon, however unhappily, but soon went in to shadow for a very long time, only returning to stay when Corwin returned.

During the reign of Random, Mirelle returned out of shadow, burdened by a form of magical mental illness. At that time the Sons of Rilga Crises occured when Caine, Julian, & Gerard threatened civil war if Mirelle was not executed for regicide. The king did not back down and the offices of Warden of Arden, Admiral of the Navies, and Director-Central Intelligence, were vacated and given to others. Dalt controlled Arden. Vance, Son of Delwin, took over the Navies. Delwin took over Central Intelligence.

The crisis resolved itself when Mirelle was imprisoned in the dungeons of Amber.

 

Paulette

Mother of Random, Mirelle, Giovanni

Paulette was never a queen of Amber but there is a strong belief that she may well have been the love of Oberon's long life, first of the small group of women he loved that include Cymnea, Clarissa, Rilga, and Paulette. She was found in an earth shadow in the early renaissance at a time of High Drama and Doomed Love. The time factors are unclear, it is clear that this occurred while he was married to Rilga, but the order of birth is clearly established.

Star-crossed and hopelessly in love, Oberon took Florence, a city-state in Italy, and ruled there for 80 years. Random, Giovanni, and Mirelle were born here, raised in Italy and trained, educated by the best tutors. Michalangello was a friend of Random's in childhood.

Queen Lora

Mother of Sand, Delwin

The details of Lora's reign as Queen of Amber are sketchy, much as if someone purposefully removed information about her from the public record. Her reign was brief and left little mark. Furthermore she is only mentioned in passing in the Annals of the Queens. There is only one portrait of her on public display in the Royal portrait Gallery. Until recently there had been no portraits of either of her children. Neither Sand nor Delwin were represented in the trump decks of pre-Patternfall origin, despite their known existence.

She was kind, even loving, and quiet. She was called quaint. She loved needlepoint and wildflowers. Her colors were pale blue and white and usually represented as clouds on a blue sky. Many rooms of Castle Amber display this popular motif without remembering its origins were from this forgotten queen of Amber.

During her brief reign the powerful houses of the nobility and ladies of the court openly mocked her. Her quiet, retiring nature and deep love of simple pleasures amused the nobility in a less than friendly way.

Dame Margot, a fixture in Amber since before Cymnea and well-known for her role as Head Cook and Queen of the Kitchens of Amber, was her Chief Lady in Waiting; a choice that upset nearly every noble family that had hoped to provide a lady for the role. Margot proved more then up to the role when she publicly beat Linda Bayle, daughter of Baron Kylin Bayle, to within an inch of her life for openly insulting the queen at the Rebman Sky Ball. She repeated the beating 3 times till Linda Bayle left public life and entered a Nunnery of the Unicorn. After this no public insults were leveled. After each of the 4 incidents brothers and suitors of Miss Bayle came forward to challenge Margot. In each of the 12 instances except 2, Benedict stepped forward and for lack of a better word, executed the suitors and beat the brothers into bloody submission. The other two instances Margot herself defended herself. Once by quickly kicking the challenger in the nuts with pointed shoes, and once by dashing a boiling pot of soup into his face, scarring him for life.

Sand and Delwin both fared little better from the nobility. They took after their mother.

Sand was retiring but loved archery. She was a champion of filed archery and distinguished herself as a commander of Archers during an assault on Amber.

Delwin was an artist of great renown. Moody, quiet, contemplative, and utterly ruthless if necessary. His portraiture was well respected in the art community. He is believed by many to have been a sorcerer of some skill and a trump artist even while in Amber. When it was discovered that he was studying Anvir-Syne sorcery Oberon beat him senseless and somehow removed the knowledge from him.

He was frail for an Amberite, weak and sickly, though his older brothers learned he could be tough and ruthless when needed. Caine once tried to toughen him up by taking him to sea. After repeated failures to learn seamanship Caine tossed him overboard and told him to swim back to Amber. Delwin convincingly feigned drowning. Caine spent days at sea trying to recover his remains. Even importing diving gear and Rebmans to scour the depths for Delwin's body. Eventually he returned to port, dreading to tell his father that he had drowned the disliked child. He discovered Delwin having tea with his mother. He had apparently feigned drowning then swam as deep as he could, shifting shadow away from amber to oxygen-rich Rebma-style shadows, coming to land in a shade of Amber and returning by established trade routes. It was not known at that time that Delwin had already taken the pattern and instead of traveling in shadow for a time, as was typical, had returned to his mother's side.

Lora despaired of court life and was also aging poorly. Oberon despaired of teaching her refinements and was fed up with her piety. Oberon had also had dealings with various factions in Lora's homelands that were enemies of Lora's household. After an argument where Oberon threatened to divorce her, Lora packed her belongings and her children and left Amber forever, returning to her beloved homeland, and retiring from public life.

She entered a nunnery freeing Oberon to marry again. Yet he never officially did, although he did in shadow, and Lora ends the list of the legitimate Queens of Amber until Vialle resumed the Queen's Crown.

One last incident bears mention. The households that were enemies of Lora's family and which Oberon was trying to establish relations with for unclear purposes saw no profit from the absence of Queen Lora. Sand and Delwin suddenly invaded the lands of their enemies in great force, leveled the regions, slew every man, woman, and child, and destroyed ever house, building and construction in the region. Oberon was furious and nearly killed both of them, only restraining himself at Lora's insistence. This is the last time Lora, Sand or Delwin ever saw Oberon.

Dybele-Flora

A beautiful woman Oberon found by specifically seeking a beautiful and uncomplicated woman after the fiasco of his marriage to Lora. He found one of the most beautiful woman in shadow but she was frail and died giving birth to a scion of Amber.

Deela the Desecratix- Dalt

Deele was a religious fanatic who hated Amber. She spent many years destroying Unicorn Shrines. Oberon defeated her in the field and after capturing her, either raped her or seduced her. Dalt was the result. Eventually Oberon sent Bleys in and he defeated her troops and killed her. Dalt took some convincing to end his vendetta against Amber. His article of Submission is called 'Dalt at the Gates of Dawn.'

Dalt was a mercenary for many years and raided both Amber trade routes and Golden Circle Kingdoms. While he hated Amber he was not quite the religious type his mother was and tended to avoid shrines because they generally were gold-poor targets. He even attacked Amber on three occasions. The last time he was captured and engaged in a storied and epic battle of fisticuffs with Prince Julian, who eventually defeated Dalt. As part of his agreement to the fight he then reluctantly rendered his fealty to Amber andhas since served with surprising skill as Julian's second in command.

Kinta- Coral

Kinta was the wife of the Prime Minister of Begma that Oberon had an affair with.

Coral came to Amber in the early years of Random's riegn and after an afternoon with Merlin, who mistakenly einforced Coral's belief of her parantage, she walked the pattern. For reasons never made public Dworkin surgecally implanted the Eye of the Serpent, known as the Jewel of Judgment in Amber, into Coral. She gained great power for this even though she wore it for less than a year. She married Rinnaldo and has since become a Golden Circle Signatory Trearty Queeen as Queen of Kashfra.

 

Recently the Ambassador to Amber from the Courts of Chaos gifted Amber with a document called Dworkin's Heirs and Spares, which detailed all the children of Oberon. This included many not known of till recently. As information becomes available on these children it will be added. The names of those for whom no parentage details is available are Fleece, Cymnea, Av Reet, Eater, Hinarik, Vox, Naaler, Nalshik, adrian, Orsolla, Evelyn, Jaques, Josef, Borlak, Hanvir, Nina, Emilia,Elfwine, Pierre, Kundjiq, phillipe, Willem, Hamilton, Evelar, Evankala, and Kibar

Known Children of Amber and their Mothers

Fleece

Cymnea

Av Reet

Eater

Hinarik

Vox

Naaaler

Nalshik

Adrian

Osric

Cymnea

Finndo

Cymnea

Benedict

Cymnea

Orsolla

Eric

Faiella

Corwin

Faiella

Evelyn

Deirdre

Faiella

Caine

Rilga

Jaques

Josef

Borlak

Hanvir

Fiona

Bleys

Llewella

Brand

Nina

Emilia

Jullian

Rilga

Gerard

Rilga

Giovanni

Paulette

Random 

Paulette

Mirelle

Paulette

Sand

Delwin

Florimel

Dalt

Elfwine

Pierre

Kundjiq

Phillipe

Willem

Hamilton

Evelar

Evankala

Kibar

Coral