THE LOGRUS

As with Advanced Pattern as given in the Rulebook, this is a power which (especially in its Advanced form) has no justification in the first series of books. Because of this I would be very tempted to simply not include it in games which I run, replacing it with (for example) the Black Pathways power.

Despite that, here it is. The power comes in two levels of knowledge, the basic and the advanced.

Basic Logrus

Cost : 45 points; cannot be bought partially

[A power which is apparently the Chaos equivalent of the Pattern, and which has a distinctly unpleasant psychic 'odour', at least to Amberites.]

PRE-REQUISITES : Basic Shapeshifting, Psyche and Endurance of over Amber rank (i.e. it is actually harder to assay the Logrus than walk the Pattern; this is essentially to provide a justification of why there are not vast numbers of Logrus initiates in Chaos).

The Logrus is not something which is walked, like the Pattern. Instead it is a three-dimensional mass of writhing black tendrils which is assayed by studying it until one comes to understand the way in which it functions. The Madness of the Logrus usually manifests itself as catatonia, into which the new Logrus user falls when they have understood the Logrus. The time they stay catatonic is the way in which the human mind comes to integrate the new knowledge of the Logrus into itself so that it can be used. The length of this time depends on their Psyche; with Psyche below the minimum limit, the person never comes out of their catatonic state. If the person trying to assay the Logrus does not have the minimum Endurance, then they die of exhaustion from the large amount of shapeshifting which assaying the Logrus forces upon them. This interpretation of the Logrus is a get-out from having to worry about the madness of the Logrus during a game, as no game I've played in, and not many I know of, deal with the madness of the Logrus at all.
Because of the Psyche and Endurance limitations on this power, Logrus is quite a rare ability in Chaos, and a number of people there go mad or die each Turning while trying to assay it.
At the basic level, a Logrus user can only summon up and control a single Logrus tendril to actively do their bidding, though they can still summon up many 'tiny' passive tendrils when searching or sensing for something. One of these can be 'pumped up' into an active tendril to grab a found thing.
There is no Logrus Lens/Logrus Sight; passive Logrus tendrils are sensitive to power and Psyche (much more so than Psyche alone) and transmit touch, but all sensations they transmit are touch based not sight based. Power of any kind cannot be transmitted down basic Logrus tendrils. As with the Pattern a Logrus user is not sensitive to the nature of the shadow they are in in anything other than the most basic fashion.
When travelling through shadow using the Logrus, most of the time taken is spent searching for the destination with Logrus tendrils; once a tendril has locked on it takes no more than minutes to 'reel it in', pulling yourself to the destination. Of course, if using the Logrus to get to somewhere one can actually see in the same shadow, this allows what is effectively teleportation. The more real a shadow is (as around Amber) the harder it is to force Logrus tendrils through the shadow walls around it.
Logrus users can carry as much mass with them when travelling via the Logrus as they could lift with it by physically manifesting a Logrus tendril. However, carrying much more than the clothes on ones back takes considerably more effort than otherwise.
Using the Logrus to search for items or creatures of power the length of time spent searching (and obviously the number of points in the thing searched for) is limited by ones Endurance. The Logrus user cannot stop part way through and restart later; it must all be done in one go. When searching for items with the Logrus, it takes the following times:
Note that things found by the Logrus which are single-shadow stable are only stable in the shadow in which they are found and which cannot, of course, be removed from that shadow by the Logrus without destroying them. In this case the Logrus user must go to them to use them.
The situation in which a searched-for thing is found, and any initially imperceptible problems it may have associated with it, depend on the Stuff of the searching character (e.g. for a Bad Stuff character a magical sword might be in the horde of a powerful evil dragon; for a Good Stuff character it might be stuck in a rock in the middle of an empty wasteland).
As with Pattern defence, Logrus defence takes too long to really perform in combat, and requires so much concentration as to severely restrict ones effective Warfare. This is the case with both physical and mental Logrus defence.
Summoning the Logrus in order to use offensively takes considerably less effort than doing so defensively, but it still reduces ones effective Warfare. The Logrus can only be used offensively in a line-of-sight manner; this can be either using the basic active tendril (with strength equal to Psyche) to hit, grapple or throw, or forming it into a weapon (in which case they use ones Strength). In either case Warfare is the main factor determining whether one hits or not.
An initiates Logrus imprint can also be used to rack spells within the Logrus itself. This is basically the same as storing spells within a spell rack item.
Because Logrus does not included any form of probability manipulation, Chaos characters would be ill-advised to put any points into items, because if they are lost they will tend to stay lost. This is not to say they will not have such items; it is just unlikely that they will have had points paid for them.

Advanced Logrus

Cost : 60+ points

This replaces the version of Advanced Logrus from the Amber rulebook, for which there is no justification in the books. Admittedly, there is no justification for this either; I just think it is less unbalanced than that from the rulebook.

PRE-REQUISITES : Ranked Psyche and Endurance; a lot of experience with Basic Logrus.

Logrus links into the very thin layer of roiling Chaos (like the Abyss) in Shadow boundaries and manipulates that.

ENHANCED SENSITIVITY (10 points) - the Logrus user has learned to increase the sensitivity of their Logrus tendrils to essentially everything (though not all at once), within the area about themselves. The Logrus user has to specify what they are sensing for at the start, but once the Logrus has been summoned it can be 're-tuned' to different things. As with normal Logrus tendrils these are entirely tactile in what the user receives - there is no visual information. This means that, unless the Logrus user can see what they want to investigate they have to flail about until they hit what they are interested in.
CHANNEL POWER (10 points) - this ability allows one to channel the energies of the Logrus along tendrils and into a target; this makes them much more effective against (for example) magical effects, either by disrupting them with the Logrus, or draining the power from them. This also allows one to drain power from, or pump power into Logrus constructs such as the Black Road. Range is as for Enhanced Sensitivity, above (that is, limited to line of sight unless the initiate flails about to find their target). This also includes the ability to use Logrus tendrils as a medium of psychic attack, and as channels down which spells can be carried.
SUMMON MULTIPLE TENDRILS (10 points plus) - the Logrus user can summon more than one Logrus tendril at a time, and use them for several different things at once (though obviously with a decreasing level of control as more tendrils are summoned). This ability allows the summoning of 1 additional tendril per 5 points in Psyche; extra tendrils above what Psyche would normally allow can be bought for one per point.
ENHANCED TENDRIL REACH AND SPEED (10 points) - the Logrus can be summoned faster and with less effort; thus for the same effort tendrils can go further and reach their targets that much faster.
This part of the power also allows much less detectable Logrus tendrils to be summoned, as well as tendrils which it is much harder to dispel with, for example, the Pattern.
SHAPE TENDRILS (10 points) - this includes the ability to shape Logrus tendrils into Logrus servants and other semi-independent creatures which can act independently of the Logrus user. These take minutes to create, but it is possible to create more than one at a time; the higher the Psyche of the initiate, the shorter the time to create them. These Logrus creatures have default statistics of Human-ranked, and fade away within hours. However, with more time and effort their statistics and lifetimes can be boosted, taking the same time as to search for a creature with the appropriate statistics using the Logrus (increasing the lifetime of the creature to days, weeks and months takes as long as to search for 1, 2 and 4 point Qualities respectively). It is also possible for Logrus initiates to combine their efforts to create more, more powerful or longer-lived things from shaped Logrus tendrils.
If the Logrus initiate also has Empowerment or the Mimic Intrinsic Powers part of Advanced Shapeshifting, then these powers can be used to add Qualities and Powers to the Logrus servants in much the same way as they can be added to other creatures.
This part of the power also includes the ability to create emi-permanent Logrus tendril constructs, of which the Black Road is the largest known example. These can create easy routes across shadow, or be used in other more war-like applications.
All things created for shaped Logrus tendrils can be dissipated by their creator; this requires only that Psychic contact be made. Other Logrus users can dissipate them using the Logrus or something like a 'Chaos Negation' Power Word, but this requires a Psyche advantage over their creator.
MANIPULATE SHADOW BARRIERS (10 points) - this part of the power allows the initiate to manipulate the barriers between shadows, opening them to create shadow paths, or warping them to create shadow pockets or to chop a shadow up into smaller parts, each separate from the others. It also allows shadows to moved around in a fashion not dissimilar to sliding a bubble through a mass of other bubbles. It does not allow the initiate to change shadow properties; this is why Ways are built from shadow fragments.
This part of the power includes the summoning of 'Primal Chaos' by tearing open shadow boundaries in an uncontrolled fashion.

Pattern versus Logrus

The Pattern, being the superior power, will always win here. A Logrus user with Amber blood who walks a Pattern will lose their Logrus imprint and gain a Pattern imprint instead. Although use of the Logrus creates a highly unpleasant psychic 'stench' to Pattern users in the vicinity, it does them no harm. Use of the Pattern around a Logrus user, on the other hand, causes then at the very least a powerful headache, at worst (for example, standing right next to the Pattern, or with a Logrus user of vastly inferior Psyche) convulsions and unconsciousness. A Logrus tendril contacting the Pattern, or someone using Pattern Defence, will cause at least blinding pain to the Logrus user unless they have a stupendously high Psyche, and regardless will force them to drop the Logrus. Also, Logrus users are as vulnerable as any shadowite to the effects of a Pattern users probability manipulation.

Use of the Logrus next to a Pattern is possible, but takes extreme concentration to both bring the Logrus to mind at all, and use it over the pain generated by being so close to a Pattern.

Back to my Amber Page.

Go to Elemental Logrus - a combination of Logrus and elemental Avatar form.

Or go to the Pattern, Alternatives to Logrus, Shapeshifting, Trump, or Magic Pages.