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LORCA |
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FORTUN |
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KEMPIS |
MAHAN |
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KANE |
LANDOR - |
STILLING FLEET |
THRYSAN |
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ULPIAN |
RENTRI |
AMBERLASH |
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Organizations of Chaos
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Rim Divers |
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Order of Castriq |
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THE ROYAL HOUSE OF CHAOS
HOUSE SWAYVIL
The Royal House of Chaos. Hereditary High Lords of Chaos.
Colours : Black, gold and purple
Only some of them know the location of the
Logrus and have control of it via Suhey Swayvil, the Master of the Logrus. This is why they are the Royal House.House Look : Black hair and gold or purple eyes.
Head : High Lord Swayvil. His father, High Lord Swayvil, died of some magical disease. The dying took a very long time. His grandfather, (who was of Swayvil) is dead, killed in a duel with Chinaway Hendrake. Assaying the Logrus is a privilege granted by the crown for individuals, it is not a right. Their control of the Logrus is what makes them the rulers of Chaos.
Heir : Currently none
Theoretically, the King is an absolute ruler. In reality he can only govern with the support of at least most of his nobles.
Notables : Lord Suhey, master of the Logrus; he is neutral on the Amber question. He has a vast book in which the details of everyone who has assayed the Logrus is recorded, including their specific Logrus signature, upon which he can be consulted.
Attitude : Uncontrolled ,
The High Lordship of Chaos is hereditary with each new Hig Lord assuming the name Swayvill. All of a Swayvill's children lead a royal house or a Princely House. When a new Swayvill takes the throne, all his children's houses are made royal, and all of the new Swayvill's brother's royal houses are demoted to noble houses.
For more details see the article on the
Succession of Swayvills.
Specialists in medicine and pharmacology
*; very good at shapeshifting, good at healing and diagnostic magic. Allegedly Ashokaways has vast plantations of medicinal plants.Medium sized house
Colours : White and gold
House Look : Pale skin, blonde hair, bright gold eyes. Tall and slender, with long surgeons fingers.
Head : Duchess Gaynor
Heir : Lord Landval
Attitude : Isolationist
Scholars, with a huge library
*Medium sized house
Colours : Orange and Brown
House Look : Dark skinned with red-orange hair and dark eyes.
Head : Duchess Yvalina
Heir : Lady Lantina
Attitude : Pro-Amber
The Sage of Angst. The Sage of Angst is a scholar of loss, warfare, and geneology.
A large house
Shapeshifting and living item creation specialists*. At odds with the magic-item creating Sawall.
Members usually advanced shapeshifter and mages. All have advanced shapeshifting to some extent.
Colours : Green and Black
House Look : Black skin, African features, curly black hair, green eyes.
Head : Nominally Duchess Velana ; the Head of House is really a vast mass of shapeshifted flesh filling millions of cubic metres. It is vast, ancient and intelligent with huge psyche and endurance, but effectively immobile. It uses blood creatures as remote units (such as Duchess Velana).
Heir : Lord Quallar, a noted scholar and researcher into shapeshifting, who is behind the plot in 'Comes in the End Despondency and Madness' (he is something of an absent-minded professor type, who ignores the rules when he feels like it); Leotus, involved in the plot of the same game and Quallar's front man, but who doesn't excel at anything.
Attitude : Anti-Amber
They make Fire Angels.
They have a tithe of prisoners; it is known they are used to create living weapons, but not how.
Using non-intrinsic or shapeshifted weapons is considered by them a sign of weakness and/or incompetence, especially in a House member.
Caryxways has a number of 'levels'.
The most important is a cyberpunk/high magic metropolis, a city of towers and the like (see the 'Wicked City' Anime), used as their main research and development area. Others include:
A post-apocalypse version of the above, used as a testing ground.
Fortress Manasa - a vast fortress in the shape of a white stone lotus, on a peak above a cryogenic sea and below a burning sky. It is their administrative centre, and where they meet outsiders.
A series of cubical steel rooms with nothing outside, linked in more than three spatial dimensions - their ultra-secret labs.
A vast tree floating in a zero-G void of air.
Infinite gardens and mazes with some very weird stuff inside.
Politicians, negotiators and diplomats; rivals of House Minobee; oppose House Sawall
Medium sized house
Colours : Red and grey
House Look : Tall and slender with pale grey skin, violet eyes and red hair.
Head : Prince Tubble
Heir : Lady Derris
Notables : Lord Elam Chanicut, a middle ranking diplomat . Lord Akash, who is holding the negotiations with the Amberites in the same game.
Attitude : Pro-Amber
Way builders. Very neutral, and highly trusted. They do not give out information on what they have built. They know how to get into Caryxways, but will not give out this information. They enforce their own neutrality very rigorously.
Large house
Colours : Blue and grey
House Look : Light brown skin, blue or grey eyes.
Head : Duke Hendrik
Heir : Lord Karostlin
Attitude : Neutral
The jailers of Chaos. They built Fortress Gantu as an inescapable prison Way containing everything from luxury cells to oubliettes. It is administered by them under the orders of the Crown. They use shapeshift-inhibiting drugs as a matter of course, though these are not always effective against advanced shapeshifters; if they do not work, the inmate in put into a hermetically sealed very clean cell with no rats or suchlike which they could use. They may be put into haunted cells where the ghosts or whatever prevent the inmate from sleeping. Some cells are cubes into which the shapeshifter prisoners are forced. Some cells are too small to stand, or lie in. Brutality is commonly used.
Specialists in the Logrus, and most expert pit-divers*
Medium sized house
Leaders of the pro-Amber faction and the plot with the redheads
Colours : Black and silver
House Look : Black skin with silver hair and eyes.
Head : Duke Tamaril
Heir : Lord Talithorn
Attitude : Pro-Amber
Mercenary assassins, thieves and spies*. Neutral if not being paid.
Allegedly a small house
They have a special House power - they can 'Ghosts', With concentration, walk through solid matter [This is an extra ability costing 10 points; the more 'real' the matter is (including items which have become part of an attackers personal reality), the harder it is to walk through and the more the 'ghost' can be hurt by it.]
Colours : Red and Purple
House Look : Average height, average looks, pale skinned. Dark purple-black hair, Scarlet eyes.
Head : Duke Garek
Heir : Lady Cathara
Lord Lugborz: Stuck on Geryon's world of Bryton.
Attitude : Neutral
They are often called upon to 'deal with' defectors from houses
House Helibore created by Iain Walker. Changed from his original
Military specialists*, who train the elite of Chaos, and often the nobles of other houses.
A large house, one of the main houses of Chaos. Formidable by any standards.
As major PC antagonists they have a more complete web page at Hendrake.
House of origin of the Hellmaids [Female members of Hendrake only. An extra ability costing 10 points which gives its possessor one additional level of armour, always, and one additional level of damage causing ability, all the time. That is, with basic shapeshifting, the Hellmaid will be Resistant to Normal Weapons and have Extra Hard teeth and nails in Human form, while in Demon form they will be Resistant to Firearms and have Double Damage teeth, claws or whatever.]
Colours : Black, white and grey
House Look : Muscular or athletic builds, with pale skin and black, white or grey hair and grey eyes.
Head : Duke Larsus, who is married to Duchess Belissa Minobee
Heir : Princess Maylan
Notables :
Chinaway Hendrake, huge male with a red scaly, taloned demon form, feared, and has a collection of more than 200 of the skulls of his victims.
Borel Hendrake, Master of Arms of the Ways of Hendrake; a feared but extremely honourable duellist.
Lady Lintra (a Hellmaid; bit of a schoolmistress-like attitude). Mated with Benedict during the Paternfall War in Benedict's Avalon. Bore him three daughter he knew nothing of. These are Deria, Doria, & Dosri. Lintra died in the war and her daughters were fostered in the Black Zone world call Swilrin by the Battle Lords of Chaos.
Lady Jasra Mordau, maid companion of Lady Lintra (originally from the minor House Mordau).
Gandril Hendrake. Part of the Lintros Clan
Falris Hendrake. Part of Lintros Clan
Lady Gilva (a Hellmaid)
Fight wars off in shadow to keep in practise, and for payment of various kinds from other houses, when those houses cannot handle a situation.
Attitude : Anti-Amber
The Hendrakes have a subhouse called Lintros. It is allied to House Sawil and Dara leads it.. It was founded by the Hellmaid Lintra. Her three daughters of Benedict meant the Amber line continued in their blood. These are Deria, Doria, & Dosri. Lintra died in the war and her daughters were fostered in the Black Zone world call Swilrin by the Battle Lords of Chaos. One of here daughters, Dosri, was said to be slain and seperated from here sisters. She Bore Donron & Daslin. Daslin bore Dara. Donron fathered Gandril & Falris. Dara bore Merlin to Corwin of Amber, Despil & Jurt to Gramble Sawill.
Specialists in the power of Trump; they do teach those of other houses, but not the Advanced techniques which are alleged to exist. At odds with Sawall. Have extensive holdings in shadow because of their mastery of the Trump, and known to do much exploration in shadow.
Small house
Colours : Green and Gold
House Look : Dark skinned with golden hair and green eyes
Head : Prince Tmer, son of Rolovians
Heir : Lady Eremina
Attitude : Pro-Amber
They keep records on everyone they train which allows them to identify Trumps and the like made by their students and ex-students more easily.
Politicians, negotiators and diplomats; rivals of House Chanicut
Medium sized house
Colours : Blue and Green
House Look : Royal blue hair, bright green eyes and pale grey skin
Head : Duke Avram
Heir : Lady Evanjala
Paid & are still paying dark prices for the creation of a full set of House Powers after the loss of their at the time of the Death of Lady Tangst.
Attitude : Anti-Amber/Isolationist.
This attitude exists from the ancient days before the creation of Amber. Their mighty way, for which they had sacrificed much, was called Cryil Aires. A fragile structure of massive beauty. A show place even amongst chaos. It was near Kolvir when Dworkin forged. In the creation of the pattern many things changed. Mighty ways became vast regions of shadow, their aspects becoming the guides for shadowrealms. The thousands of lords who styled themselves the Abyssal Lords had their realm converted to the Abyss. Smaller ways, such as Cryil Aires were destroyed.
Lady Tangst Hilras Minobee was killed at the destruction of Cryil Aires along with vast numbers of the ruling line.
The highest ranking family member at the time of her death was Landy Tangst's Handmaiden, Ril Minobee. She was Lady Tangst's Great Granddaughter from a very junior line. The full might of House Minobee powers crashed into the unprepared and for the most part, unworthy heir Ril. The house knows this much. The fact Ril Minobee stills lives is known. Where amongst shadow or chaos she may be in unknown. Many Minobee Pit Divers believe she is in the Abyss and they dive in the hopes of finding her, or the current receptacle for the lost house powers.
Once the loss of the powers was accepted new generations of once distant cadet lines fought for uncounted millennia in the depths of chaos to secure power. Eventually Duke Avram's grandfather assumed leadership and paid dark prices to gain new, but far weaker house powers. Their storage ways are vast and wild but all within a secure, paranoid boundary. Many artifacts of antiquity are the basis of their tenuous house powers.
Specialists in Magic, demonology and un-living item creation*. At odds with Jesby. At odds with the living item creating Caryx. Known to explore through shadow for things of interest.
Medium sized house
Colours : Black and blue
House Look : Pale skinned, black hair and blue eyes
Head : Duke Gramble, married to Dara Hendrake
Heir : Lord Mandor (who does not abide by the House Look)
Attitude : Anti-Amber
Entrance lies through the Maze of Art (see 'Prince of Chaos', p96)
They keep records on everyone who they train in magic, which allows their magical signature to be recognised later, if necessary.
* All houses have some skill in these areas, but these houses are pre-eminent in that field.
There are minor houses in Chaos too, still noble, but which generally do not excel at anything and which are usually allied with one of the major houses. A few of the minor houses excel at certain things which the major houses want or need (e.g. brewing or distilling). However, there are some houses which are classified as minor though they are as large as any of the major houses, which excel at trade and other 'common' things. This is a bone of contention... Thus Major House status is a very subjective thing.
THRYSAN
A large house of mainly reptilian soldiers, they serve House Minobee as guardians. Having few magicians of their own they staff their ways with young minobee sorcerors.
Shapeshifting experts
Members usually advanced shapeshifter . Many have master shapeshifting to some extent.
Colours : gray and Black
House Look : Black skin, lumpy, lizard features, green eyes.
Head : Duke Huszar
Heir : Lord Quasri, Attitude : Anti-Amber
They make Fire Angels-like creatures on a dragon frame
KANE
LORCA
MAHAN
LANDOR - Entertainers and circus people. The entrance to their ways is a black gothic helter-skelter in a walled patch of ground on the outskirts of the Citadel of Chaos. In sliding down the helter-skelter on a coconut mat, one passes through a shadow veil halfway down, and enters the ways proper. They are known to have performing Fire Angels.
AMBERLASH
STILLINGFLEET
FORTUN
ULPIAN - An ancient family, mainly scholars. Long before Amber rose most of the House Ulpian went into the seclusion of their private Ways, deep in the depths of chaos. There is evidence they were involved somehow in the fall of the Primal Realm of Calmir.
KEMPIS
OTHER ORGANISATIONS
The official state religion of Chaos, worshipping the creature from which all of Chaos arose. Everyone in Chaos is a member of the Church, even if only nominally.
Has a great deal of political power, and can excommunicate people and houses (though the latter is very rare; the last time it was done was to House Barimen, long, long ago), putting them entirely outside of the law and society of Chaos.
There is an Inquisition.
Involved in the coronation of the King of Chaos, and the accession of figures of importance in the Houses of Chaos.
High Priest : Bances Amberlash
Often a route by which those of non-noble or minor house birth can gain political power.
The Logrus is the gift of the Serpent, and as such House Swayvil are especially blessed.
There are many forms of associations in chaos. They defy discription.
All houses keep track of their own genealogy and heraldic status, though House Barraban also know a lot about these matters.
It is possible for a person to move from one house to another with sufficient justification; the precise nature of this justification varies from house to house and case to case, but can include marriage (these are often arranged) and defection...