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.
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:
- If the want to change something they already know to be one thing to be something else, then they must shift shadow.
- If they are defining something which is currently unknown (for example, 'I open the drawer. Inside is...') then one does not need to shift shadow to get the result one desires.
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:
- One day per point of Quality for things which are cross-shadow stable.
- Six days per point of Power for things which are cross-shadow stable.
- Twelve hours per point of Quality for things which are single-shadow stable.
- Three days per point of Power for things which are single-shadow stable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One has to spend at least as many points on Psyche as one spends on API in order to 'drive' the power properly.
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.]
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.
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.
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).