"The sun was that great orb of molten gold we had seen earlier. The sky was a deeper blue than that of Amber, and there were no clouds in it. The sea was a matching blue" "which seemed to merge with the same-coloured sky," "unspecked by sail or island. I saw no birds, and I heard no sounds other than our own. An enormous silence lay upon this place, this day. In the bowl of my suddenly clear vision, the Pattern at last achieved its disposition upon the surface below. I thought at first that it was inscribed in the rock, but as we drew nearer I saw that it was contained within it - gold-pink swirls, like veining in an exotic marble, natural-seeming despite the obvious purpose to the design."
'Sign of the Unicorn', Chapter 11
"Another moment, and he moved forward once more, passing into a world of sky-candles and blue velours. Continuing after him, I gasped briefly at that amazing view. It was not simply that the stars in the moonless, cloudless sky blazed with a preternatural brilliance, nor that the distinction between sky and sea had once again been totally obliterated. It was that the Pattern glowed an almost acetylene blue by that sea-sky, and all of the stars above, beside and below were arrayed with a geometric precision, forming a fantastic, oblique latticework which, more than anything else, gave the impression that we hung in the midst of a cosmic web where the Pattern was the true centre, the rest of the radiant meshwork a precise consequence of its existence, configuration, position."
'The Hand of Oberon', Chapter XI
The Primal Pattern lies in a depression in an oval shelf of rock, as if Mount Kolvir had been cut off just above the level of the floor of the Amber Pattern room, exposing the Pattern there to the elements. The entrance to Dworkin's cave lies to one side, hidden from view from above:
"There was a cave mouth back to the right, on level with the oval plain. Its situation was such that it had been hidden from sight when we had occupied our higher position."
Corwin, in 'The Hand of Oberon', Chapter 1
The cave mouth is actually a tunnel leading into the rock. The ceiling gets lower and the tunnel narrows as one goes deeper inside until, at length, the tunnel opens out into a "little appendixlike area". A large metal ring is set into the rock a couple of feet above the floor. This was the lair of the purple griffin, Wixer, who Oberon set to protect the Primal Pattern from Dworkin, and which Brand killed. Beyond the griffin's lair the tunnel, quite narrow now, leads off again, turning to the right and downwards. Eighty paces or so later the tunnel is blocked by a large armoured door, which requires a considerable amount of strength to move. Beyond this door are the rooms of Dworkin himself, with the door opening into Dworkin's living room:
"The room it let upon was deserted, a small, windowless living place faintly lit by the still smouldering embers in its single, recessed hearth. The room's walls were of stone and they arched above me. The fireplace was a possibly natural niche in the wall to my left. A large, armoured door was set in the far wall, a big key partly turned in its lock."
Corwin, in 'The Hand of Oberon', Chapter 4
There is a chair by the fire, and at least one other elsewhere in the room. Another leads off from the living room into Dworkin's study, which Corwin describes as follows:
"I cast my eyes about the place. There were bookshelves on all four walls. No windows. Two doors at the far end of the room, right and left, across from one another, one closed, the other partly ajar. There was a long, low table covered with books and papers beside the opened door. Bizarre curios occupied open spaces on the shelves and odd niches and recesses in the walls - bones, stones, pottery, inscribed tablets, lenses, wands, instruments of unknown function. The huge rug resembled an Ardebil." ... "Something resembling a branch of coral shone faintly on a shelf across the room."
Corwin, in 'The Hand of Oberon', Chapter 4
No-one has been able to reach the Primal Pattern since after it was re-drawn by Oberon, and even before that it could only be reached by those with more advanced control over the Pattern. Even walking the Pattern in Amber, Rebma or Tir-na Nog'th and attempting to teleport to the Primal Pattern does not work - one just goes no-where. Even Fiona was unable to reach it after the elders returned to Amber, and it is assumed that Dworkin sealed it off for some reason. However, Gerard, who saw it re-drawn, has stated that it was somewhat different after it had been redrawn than he remembers it being before, though he is vague on the specifics of this.
The Last Enemy game, some investigations were made of the Primal Pattern.
The depression where the Primal Pattern is located is equivalent to the position of the Pattern in Amber, with the top of Kolvir lopped off, and the coastline is also roughly equivalent to that at the foot of Kolvir. However, the horizon is quite close, and the coastline turns a right angle quite soon after one is out of the sight of the Primal Pattern's depression. This places the Primal Pattern in a depression on the top of the only rise on an essentially square island, roughly two miles on a side, made up entirely of barren rock.
Absolutely nothing lives at the Primal Pattern. The land is barren rock and the sea crystal clear and empty of life. Seeds will not grow there, nothing seems able to reproduce, and things also decay very, very slowly.
Clockwork and any more sophisticated technologies do not work there.
Forging metal at Primal Pattern produces items that are very Real but otherwise normal, and which are too Real to Empower using normal Empowerment.Although not powerful in itself, it is possible that such an item would be a good base material for creating items using Real Empowerment.
Despite its lack of life, the Primal Pattern is a dangerous place for visitors. The whole place is hyper-Real, so that, although it is so barren, after a while a visitor begins suffering almost from distracting sensory overload from the sheer detail and texture of everything there. One begins to find oneself studying even the most insignificant pebble or bit of rock, or the tiniest sound, as if it is the most beautiful thing in the world, with vast detail and meaning in every tiny aspect.
The sea is even more hypnotic than the land, what with its glittering and constant movement. With the very close horizon, one can quickly lose sight of land, and with no horizon visible - the sea and sky seem to simply join, seamlessly - it appears almost as if one is floating in the middle of the sky. At night the geometric stars twinkle and glitter overhead and are reflected in the sea, and are also very hypnotic. Lying in the bottom of a boat so that one cannot see the particularly hypnotic motion of the sea helps a little, as the sky is less distractingly hypnotic than the sea, but it, and indeed the boat itself, are hypnotic in their own right, so it does not stop the hypnotic effect. Navigation must be done by way of the sun, as the geometric patterns of the stars make navigating ambiguous - one could be sailing in any of a number of directions.
The stronger the mind of the visitors, the slower the hypnotic effect takes hold. However, regardless of this it still becomes worse and worse the longer one stays there, so if one stayed there long enough one would just stop eating and stare fascinated at some rock until one died of starvation. Precisely how Dworkin avoids this is a mystery; perhaps his link to the Primal Pattern protects him, or perhaps his mind is simply very strong.
Bringing the Pattern to mind does not seem to protect one from this. Impossigon power also neither helps nor hinders one in resisting the hyper-Reality effect. Blocking ones sight and other senses is also ineffective. Importing some boredom, such as elevator music, accountancy text books, Harp beer, Little and Large joke books and so on, on the theory that they might be a counterpoint to the truly fascinating stuff there, is also ineffective. Having other people along to nudge those who are becoming 'tripped out' does help, though.
Also, when one returns to Amber, and shadow particularly, everything seems very flat, bland and texture-less compared to things at the Primal Pattern. This effect seems to slowly wear off over time.