THE PATTERN


The Pattern is the primary and supreme power in the Amber multiverse. No other power can match or beat it.

In my opinion all Amberites who are known to be Amberites will have walked the Pattern. It is unlikely that they will have had any choice in the matter; their parent or any other elder who is concerned for their well-being will not have let them avoid gaining the one power which makes them truly a part of the family of Amber, and which makes them much more able to take care of themselves when out in the multiverse. This is why its basic form has an alternate cost of nothing, below. Walking the Pattern is considered the coming of age for Amberites.

I also make every Amberite have basic Pattern for free for game balance reasons. I have played in many one-off games where some Amberite players have walked the Pattern and spent half their points on doing so, and some have not, following which the entire game is set in Amber, meaning that those with Pattern do not got to use it at all and those without effectively have characters built on fifty more points than the others. Admittedly this is less of a problem in campaigns, but even so making Pattern something every Amberite has is my way of removing this irritation in my games. The same argument could also be applied to making all Chaosites have Shapeshifting and Logrus.

The power of the Pattern comes in two varieties, the basic and the advanced. Both varieties are superior to basically all other powers, in particular powers such as the Logrus.

Also at the bottom of this page is a discussion of Elemental Patterns, and some Thoughts, Options and Notes on the power of the Pattern.


Basic Pattern

Cost : 50 points [Free]; cannot be bought partially

PRE-REQUISITES : Psyche and Endurance of Amber Rank or higher

This is essentially the same as in the rulebook.

Because Pattern is the superior power, it will over-write a Logrus imprint and cannot itself be overwritten (except by walking another Pattern, in which case the new Pattern imprint over-writes the old one; the only exception to this is the Primal Pattern, which overwrites all other imprints and cannot be overwritten by any other Pattern imprint).

Walking the Pattern is very tiring; anyone, even Corwin, who walks it is too tired afterwards to fight at all effectively against anyone with Ranked Warfare.

Possession of Pattern imprint lets the Amberite feel roughly how real things are; shadow stuff feels less substantial and more malleable than that of Amber. Their reality is part of what makes Amberites so physically and mentally superior; even Amberites who haven't walked the Pattern have this effect, but it is enhanced by walking the Pattern.

However, basic Pattern does not make the Amberite more than vaguely aware of the properties of the shadow they are in. They can walk to shadows of specific properties, and will know when they are there, but they will have essentially no idea if the given property has not been specified.

There is no such thing as Hell-riding as a separate aspect of Pattern. It is simply moving flat-out, and dangerously fast, like running over rocky terrain rather than walking carefully; it can be done, but it is a risk, and it gives little time to recover from mistakes. The top speed at which one can shift through Shadow is determined entirely by your Psyche. How long you can keep moving is governed by Endurance. Moving quickly has a tendency to take one through more hostile areas, especially if one has Bad Stuff. Obviously one can move at slower speeds for longer.

When moving through shadow, a Pattern initiate has to follow a sequence of degrees of separation to arrive at their target. Whether large or small, the initiate must make incremental changes to arrive at their desired destination. Even with shadows that are relatively stable, there may be false starts and false stops. Every variation is not infinitely replicated in infinite location. An analogy to this are the word games where one changes a word from one thing into another by changing only one letter at a time, but each change must produce a word itself, such as: Cow, Bow, Bog, Big, Pig, Pie, Die. As the words become larger and more different, then the possible ways to do this become increasingly difficult, and, eventually, impossible. For example, turning Prestidigitation into Preendometriosis is not possible in the English language. And so, by analogy, one could not shift shadow from one to the other as the connections to do so do not exist.

It is possible to shift others who can see you through shadow along with you. This can be done in one of two ways; first, if the Pattern user concentrates they can carry along a number of people or things who are as protected in the same way as the Pattern user from problems with walking through shadow; however, this is quite tiring. Secondly, and more easily for the Pattern user, much larger numbers can be carried along simply by being able to see the Pattern user and move with them. This works at longer separations too - as long as someone can see the Pattern user, and others see that person, very large numbers can be move. However, they are much more vulnerable to hostile shadow effects than people actively being 'carried' by the Pattern user.

Also, (as Corwin mentions in 'Nine Princes in Amber') it is easier to shift towards Amber than away from it, because Amber is the centre of things.

Pattern Defence takes too long to bring to mind for it to be an option in combat, and the concentration it requires makes keeping it up in combat something which will reduce ones effective Warfare considerably. However, it does have a bad effect of magic, even if cast by someone with a higher Psyche than that of the Pattern user.

Likewise, Probability Manipulation takes too long to be of use in combat in anything other than relatively trivial ways (for example, it can allow one to find a knife in a drawer during combat); it does not take much effort, just time. It is also limited in that it will not allow near-impossible events to occur without fairly major shadow shifting. It is possible to use probability manipulation in combat to protect someone else while they fight, for example by making bullets miss them, or their bullets hit much more than they otherwise might. This works on a Psyche versus Warfare basis. Note that one does not necessarily need to shift shadow to use probability manipulation. Whether one does or not depends on what the Pattern initiate already knows:

It is possible to teleport from the centre of a Pattern to anywhere with which one is reasonably familiar - one cannot Pattern teleport to shadows of desire. People cannot be teleported to under any circumstances (as there is no justification whatever for this in the books - think how different they would have been if it had been possible to Pattern teleport to, for example, Corwin, Eric, Brand or Oberon). Unless the entire family were conspiring against Corwin, of course.

It is also possible to teleport from the centre of one Pattern to the centre of another, and then teleport further on from there, using the second Pattern (as Corwin does it in the first book, though it is never made clear precisely why this two-Pattern jump should be necessary). Allegedly it is possible to walk off a Pattern from its centre, retracing ones steps; this is not something which is commonly done.

The Pattern cannot be used to walk towards people, unless there is a fairly recent trail which one can follow; the higher ones Psyche, the older is the trail which can be followed; trails older than a day or so fade beyond the ability of a basic initiate to follow, regardless of Psyche. Obviously, if the trail is broken (for example, by use of Trump) then it is lost. The faster one moves through shadow, the more of a disruption one makes, and the easier the trail is to follow. The faster one moves through shadow, the more of a disruption one makes, and the easier the trail is to follow. A trail cannot be broken by movement within a single shadow (i.e. it is not possible to break ones trail by, for example, shifting to London on shadow Earth, flying across the Atlantic to New York and continuing to shift shadow from there).

The Pattern can be used to put things to assist or obstruct in the path of other Pattern users; this is effectively a use of probability manipulation. However, to do this, the Pattern user must know either the destination or the route of the person whose path they are trying to affect. To use this power against an Amberite requires the person doing to have a Psyche advantage, or the person it is being used against to have no idea that it is being used against them.

It is also possible to use the Pattern to summon up forces to use against ones enemies as one goes.

The Pattern can also be used to Blood Curse (or Blood Bless) ones enemies. This is generally done when the Amberites dies (or thinks they are about to die), and leads to very serious effects on its object. However, it also has equally serious (though not necessarily the same) effects on the person doing the cursing. Also, to carry out the Curse, the Pattern initiate must be able to formulate the curse in their own mind (so very fast attacks can kill an Amberite before they can frame a Curse in their minds, for example, as when Caine tried to assassinate Corwin); they do not have to speak it.

Even without a blood curse, those with advanced skills may well be aware of the death of an Amberite nearby.

Any Basic Pattern initiate will be casting shadows of themselves while they are out in shadow; this is not something which can be stopped. The effects of this depend heavily on the reality of the shadows one passes through, the time one spends there, and ones Stuff level. Personal shadows (for which points have been paid, or in which one spends significant time) will also cast shadows of themselves.

When shadow shifting towards items or creatures using the Pattern, it takes the following times:
Obviously things which are single-shadow stable are only stable in the shadow in which they are found and will lose their special properties if moved to a different shadow. Note that these times only apply to things which are not part of a characters personal reality (i.e. for which points have not been paid); things which are part of characters personal reality take minutes, at most, to find when in shadow. 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).

When using the Pattern to find a shadow of desire, it takes approximately two weeks of shadow shifting per point in the shadow (to a minimum of two weeks), regardless of whether one intends to pay points for it later or not.


Advanced Pattern

Cost : 60 points

This replaces the version of API from the Amber rulebook, for which there is very little justification in the books, in my opinion. If it does exist, then Brand was the only one to have it as it exists in the rulebook, but I prefer to consider what he could do as some kind of power unique to him.

PRE-REQUISITES: Ranked Psyche and Endurance; a lot of experience with basic Pattern.

This must be learnt in the order of indentation, but one can stop learning at any point.

SENSITIVITY TO SHADOW (10 points) - the initiate has increased their sensitivity to shadow to the point that they can feel the exact properties of the shadow they are in (which can't be done with basic Pattern, though basic Pattern can be used to shift to shadows of specified properties). It also allows the initiate to sense nearby shadow paths without moving along them, and also properties of shadow such as Trump barriers and the like. This also allows the user to know power sources, their nature and the like, usually on touch, but large power sources may show up at range (up to about a mile away). With more effort this ability allows the initiate to detect whether an item or creature is part of the Personal Reality of a person, by sensing the fact that it is more Real than other things.
Note that this ability is not a form of sight; if anything it is most analogous to hearing in nature, giving the ability to sense things all around one, and their rough direction and distance, but hardly something one could use to navigate around by.
CONTROL PATTERN EMANATIONS (10 points) - the initiate has learnt how to gain increased control of the Pattern energy within themselves, and can control the external emanations of their Pattern imprint. This allows one to mask ones Pattern imprint, appearing not to have one (though ones reality will still be apparent), and also to radiate Pattern energy around oneself in an enhanced form of Pattern defence, to use actively rather than passively. This takes a degree of concentration inversely proportional to ones Psyche.
Suppressing ones Pattern imprint allows magic and/or the Logrus to affect one much more than is otherwise the case.
Emanating Pattern energy around oneself, in addition to acting as a form of Pattern defence, also has serious effects on magic and technology in the vicinity - it basically reduces them to the level of that in Amber (i.e. spells only have the effectiveness of Power Words and empowerment effects above the 1 point level are suppressed), or with more effort to the level of magic by a Pattern. In this no magic functions at all, and un-real (i.e. ones for which points have not been paid) empowered effects are entirely suppressed.
The suppression of magic affects different ranged magics differently:
  • Spells which use magic to (for example) affect the mind of the target, i.e. in which the magic has to be in contact with the target, are entirely negated.
  • Spells which use magic to create a non-magical effect which is fired at the target (such as a lightning bolt, where the magic is in the creation and direction of the bolt rather then bolt itself) are not affected unless the caster is close enough to the advanced Pattern user for the Pattern emanations to affect their magic.
The emanating of Pattern energy will also make the use of Trumps in the vicinity of the initiate much more difficult.
Suppressing ones Pattern emanations also allows one to reduce, or even eliminate, ones casting of shadows of oneself while away from Amber.
The next two parts of the power consist of the initiate learning how to use their sensitivity to shadow and ability to control the Pattern within themselves to take advantage of the existing properties of shadow, allowing them to do things much more effectively.
ENHANCED SHADOW SHIFTING (10 points) - by feeling for the weak points between Shadows one can move though shadow as fast as normal, but using far less effort, or much faster with the same expenditure of energy, or carrying far more people along safely, or leaving a much weaker trail to follow. This ability also allows the initiate to track other Pattern users through shadow much more easily, and after a longer time, than a basic initiate can. With this ability, someone of Amber ranked Psyche can more through shadow faster and/or more easily than someone with the same Psyche as Fiona who was using only basic Pattern to move through shadow.
In addition, this (normally) allows 'shadow' shifting to the Primal Pattern from Amber or shadow (and indeed to the Amber or Rebma Patterns from shadow), and moving through shadow from much closer to Amber than normal. Note that (as Corwin mentions in 'Nine Princes in Amber') it is easier to shift towards Amber than away from it, so that although one can use this ability to reach a Pattern, it is much harder to shift away from the same Pattern. In Amber, this means that one has to be at least as far away as the bottom of the plateau on which Amber City lies before one can start shadow-shifting.
ENHANCED PROBABILITY MANIPULATION (10 points) - one can manipulate probability much more than with basic Pattern, fast enough to use in combat, and without having to shift shadow. This allows more unlikely, more dangerous, or faster manipulation of probability to take place. This includes controlling the weather, and the direction of (for example) lightening bolts at opponents (using Warfare), plus the creation of near-impossible events. This ability does not work above the level of normal probability manipulation in Amber itself.
Note that with a great deal of effort it is possible that this ability can be used to influence even Amberites (with a Psyche advantage to both create the influence and have it go undetected), especially out in shadow. It is possible that this is how Bleys influenced Corwin to join him, and Fiona managed to stab Brand after he was rescued and get away with it, even with Benedict in the room.
Although this power can be used to protect oneself from random effects in combat (ricochets, and when opponents are blazing away randomly), it does not make one invulnerable to high Warfare opponents - only Warfare can do that (or under some limited circumstances, Psyche).
It can be used to make opponents weapons break or jam; the more complicated the weapon the easier this is to do. The realer the weapon the harder it is to do - causing the swords of a bunch of bandits who jump one in shadow to all break would be much easier than doing the same thing to the sword of a Ranger in Arden, for example.
This part of Advanced Pattern also allows the initiate to summon creatures of desire, and have them reach their destination, much faster than with basic Pattern, and to find creatures and items of power as well as shadows of desire roughly four times faster than with basic Pattern.
SHADOW MANIPULATION (10 points) - the initiate has now learnt how to use the properties of shadow so effectively as to be able to actually manipulate and change them. They can spread 'waves' of change out into the shadow one is currently in from themselves, changing its properties to obtain a desired result. This includes adding shadow barriers and the like, but not affecting more than ones current location. The Psyche of the initiate and the Reality of the shadow determines how quickly changes can be made (tens of minutes up to hours, depending on the reality of the shadow), while their Endurance governs how long they can work for without resting. This ability does not work in Amber.
The waves of change which the initiate can generate can affect all the properties of the shadow itself - natural laws, physical structure, civilisation, society, history, everything - even how Real the shadow is. Want to make this shadow non-magical? You can do it. Whether the inhabitants are aware of the change is up to you. Want to stop technology or Trumps from working there? You can do that too. Want to erase the civilisation there? It's gone, with no trace it ever existed. Want to create a swathe of trap shadows across the route of the invading army? You can make them. Or a single shadow which it is the destiny of someone or types of someone to arrive at (as Oberon made Lorraine a shadow Corwin was destined to enter). If you want to (for example) destroy the fortress shadow of your enemy then this will let you do that also. Note that shadows with 'Control of Destiny', like Lorraine, will not make inescapable traps which will suck in those the shadow is 'aimed' at from wherever they are in shadow - the shadow must be one in the vicinity of the target or in an area the target will travel close to for it to affect them. It is feasible that someone with this ability could, given time, construct an array of trap shadows, but this would be a very slow and hard way of going about things...
Changing the Reality of a shadow allows it to go from as unReal as the shadows near Chaos to as Real as Amber itself. However, unlike other shadow properties Reality does appear to be conserved across shadows, so that (for example) making a shadow more Real will make all of its neighbours less Real, although the loss of Reality will be spread over all of the neighbouring shadows so that no individual shadow will have its Reality drained as much as the modified shadow has its raised. Likewise, making a shadow less Real will make all of its neighbours correspondingly more Real.
This power works without shifting shadow for the desired results, but by changing the properties of the shadow one is in to get the desired results. It is useful for creating and/or adjusting personal shadows too - one can create a shadow attuned to a person (not just oneself) and over the contents of which they have control. Or to which access is restricted or guarded in some way.
Admittedly one can get similar effects to this by just shifting for what one wants, but this way lets one get what one wants in a specific location, not just the shadow one ends up in which has the properties you want. If one has this ability it is also much faster to (for example) make a Trump-barred shadow than it is to find it.
See the Personal Shadow Creation page for more details.
Note that this ability can lead to battles between APIs as they fight to twist a shadow into the shape they want. In this case Psyche is the primary statistic which matters, with Endurance coming second.
MERGE SHADOW (10 points) - the initiate has now learnt enough to be able to go beyond manipulating shadow to being able to affect the barriers between shadows. They can merge shadows while walking the route between them and opening a 'hole' though the barriers between them; these can be temporary or permanent. Basically the shadow path is expanded until it covers the whole shadow. Shadows cannot be moved, but this and Shadow Manipulation can be used to chop up shadows into fragments. For this reason this part of Advanced Pattern includes the ability to create shadow pockets and the like. It does not work in Amber.
Unless they are deliberately changed, shadows that have been merged using this ability retain their individual shadow properties in different locations within what is now the same shadow. The only difference to their previous state is that now there is no shadow veil separating them, which can have detrimental effects on things traveling from one part of the 'compound' shadow to the other.
This ability also allows the initiate to effectively change the properties of shadows they are not physically in, by merging the shadow they are in with the one they wish to change, making them one, then using Shadow Manipulation to change the part which was the other shadow before (if they wish) replacing the shadow veil between them.

Elemental Patterns

It is common to consider the reflections of the Primal Pattern to be related to the four elements - Earth for Amber, Air for Tir na-Nog'th, Water for Rebma, and a missing Pattern for Fire. However, there are at least two alternative classifications that I have considered using.

First, the reflections of the Primal Pattern could be considered to be aspects of the four major terrain types that exist around Amber. That of Amber would represent the mountain, that of Tir na-Nog'th the sky, which could also be the realm of the spirit to some extent, and Rebma's Pattern would represent the ocean. The destroyed Ht'gon An-Rit Pattern would represent the forest; this is also the realm of the beast.

It is also possible that the reflection Pattern signify different components that make up a human being. In this case that of Amber (perhaps linked to Oberon) would be the physical. That of Rebma would be the intellect, while that of Tir-Na Nog'th would be dreams and the unconscious. The fourth, destroyed Ht'gon An-Rit Pattern would represent the emotions. The lack of this Pattern is perhaps why there is so much strife in Amber - it has no emotional balance.

Alternatively, it might be possible to have five Patterns (including the Primal) based on the five senses.


A Thought

Shifting through shadow allows a Pattern initiate to change their clothes, the car they are driving and suchlike things. Perhaps it changes the body of the Amberite (and anyone with them who is also moving through shadow) too, automatically adapting it to the environments of the shadows they pass through...

Of course, in this case, passing through Trump links could be a problem if the two ends of the link are in different environments. Perhaps passing through a Trump automatically resets of changes the Amberite so this is not a problem.

Pattern-Based Shapeshifting is a power based on this idea.


An Option (From Jane Winter)

One has to spend at least as many points on Psyche as one spends on API in order to 'drive' the power properly.


Another Option

If one has Advanced Pattern one retains some Pattern-using ability even when in a non-physical state or when in a body without the blood of Amber. In this case, how much normal Pattern ability one has depends on how much Advanced Pattern ability one has; if one has 50% of Advanced Pattern, one can, in (for example) a body without the blood of Amber, use normal non-Advanced Pattern as if one's Psyche were 50% of what it actually is for the purposes of speed, contests with others and so on. [NB: it might be better to use ranks rather than simple numeric statistic values for this.]


Another Option: 'Exalted Pattern'

It might be possible to buy some parts of API more than once. For example, buying 'Sensitivity to Shadow' more than once might allow one to track through shadow better or for longer, or even track people who have covered their trail using Enhanced Shadow Shifting, or perhaps even to track Trump links. Plus giving the person with it more sensitivity to power sources and so on.


A Note

In the Last Enemy game it has been discovered that it is possible, under certain circumstances, for the Pattern to only teleport the soul or mind of the Amberite, leaving their body behind in the centre of the Pattern. The only time this has happened so far was when several of the group attempted to use the Pattern to teleport to a place which was (unbeknownst to them) an entirely non-physical (mental) realm. It is quite possible that doing this without there being somewhere for the mind to go at the far end might well prove fatal to the soul/mind of the person involved.


Back to my Amber Page.

The Powers of Corwin's Pattern, assuming they are different to those of the Amber Pattern.

Or go to Pattern-Based Shapeshifting - an alternate form of Shapeshifting with Shapeshifting as a form of Advanced Pattern.

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


Elements of Hell-riding and the use of degrees of separation in shadow shifting are adapted from the guidelines of the Play-By-Board Amber game 'My Enemies Have Sweet Voices' by Wired*Nun (Dave van Dyche).