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AMBER: PERSONAL SHADOWS

"I looked to the east, from whence the day brightened. No sun stood new-risen in the heavens, but rather a great, blindingly burnished crown, a gleaming sword hanging through it. From somewhere I heard a bird singing, notes almost like laughter. I leaned forward and covered my face with my hands. Madness..."

'The Courts of Chaos', Chapter 6

Shadows can be very weird.

It is possible to possess a shadow over which you have far more control than the powers you possess would actually allow. This basically indicates that either that shadow is special in that you can control it very easily, or someone modified it for you so that you could do these things. Basically some justification or explanation is needed for anything like this.

Shadows can basically be defined as you wish, but with the caveat. It is possible to find shadows with effectively omnipotent or omniscient gods or other equally powerful entities within them. However, none of these entities have any power in other shadows, or through shadow. Their initial attitude to a character is likely to depend upon the characters Stuff level.

SHADOW FEATURE	COST	NOTES
TYPE OF SHADOW
Personal Shadow	1	A personal shadow has no real advantage over just living incognito in shadow. The main advantage is that you have 'planted your flag' on it, marking it as your own and not to be messed with. Of course, over time a personal shadow will tend to become more real as your presence affects it.
Shadow of the Realm	2	A shadow with some degree of power or reality to it, resistant to outside changes, probably located in or near the Golden Circle, or somewhere an Real person has lived for a long time. Alternatively, it could be particularly rich in some unreal power (e.g. Magic)
Primal Plane	4	A shadow which is real independently of Amber, and highly resistant to change. It may well have existed before the Pattern was drawn, and would probably survive its destruction. Rare and hard to find.
PROTECTION
Communication Barrier	1	The shadow is barred to one or more of the major powers. This may be a natural or artificial feature of the place, but cannot be changed without (for example) use of Advanced Pattern.
Restricted Access	2	As in the rule book; cannot be changed without (for example) use of Advanced Pattern.
Guarded	4	As in the rule book; cannot be changed without (for example) use of Advanced Pattern.
CONTROL OF THE SHADOW
Control Environment	1	This allows one to control all aspects of the shadows environment, but not its physical structure and nature. This boils down to control of the weather/climate, and perhaps volcanoes, earthquakes and the like. The main advantage of this over Pattern is that it can be done much more quickly, and with more fine control than just use of the Pattern would allow.
Control of Contents	2	Essentially as in the rule book.
Control of Destiny	4	As in the rule book.

Note that being linked to a shadow can be a bad thing - if the shadow is damaged, then the damage may be reflected, in some fashion, in the person linked to it, though this will not have any affect across shadow it would certainly affect the owner of the shadow once they returned there...

Example Shadows

A land of mesas and spires of reddish rock, of varying sizes; streams and ponds between; a low brush of bushes and climbing plants, all with flowers of many kinds, which also entwine the mesas etc.
A world of misty swamps and primitive fern-forests, with huge dragonflies.
A sunset version of New York City, with an extra mile-high tower in mid-town, where a lord/lady/god lives.
Infinite sky, with ribbon-suns of various colours. Floating islands, inhabited by angelic human types, very beautiful, with feathered wings.
Shadow 'Many Islands' - lots of islands, generally fairly small, separated by (usually flowing) water in channels of varying width. All long distance travel is by water. Roughly 19th century technology, Indian culture.
Infinite jungle in all directions, with gravity, lit by luminescent vegetation. Gloomy. Dark vegetation. Strange creatures. Parasitic plants. Voids (spaces/gaps that is) in the jungle.
Shadow Sargasso : ocean with floating islands of seaweed, some very big and solid, essentially permanent, on which people live.
A grim world comprised of red seas poisoned by pollution, dark skies filled with smoke, cities under domes, with the rich living in the towers and the poor dying in the gutters.

Go The Creature and Item Creation Page.