My character for the game entitled 'Parents and Originals', run by Genevieve Cogman at AmberCon UK 1996. This document is divided up into a number of parts:
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Solon is tall, and handsome, with a distinct resemblance to his mother. He has pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. His clothes are usually coloured some combination of royal purple, royal blue, gold and black.
Solons item is a ring which acts as a spell rack, and which can turn into a suit of nearly impenetrable armour. The ring is a gold band, with a royal purple faceted crystal mounted on it. When triggered, the gem sends out bands of amythyst which flows out and around Solon, fusing into a suit of armour. This armour is closely fitting full plate of faceted royal purple crystal shot through with gold. The helmet looks similar to that of a giant crystalline mantis, with transparent crystalline "compound eyes".
Solon was raised on Shadow Earth, ostensibly by Flora, but in fact by a string of nursemaids and tutors. He was sent of to boarding school at an early age, under the name of Simon Flaumel, and in fact didn't see too much of his mother as he grew up. This didn't stop him becoming somewhat arrogant, vain, and spoilt... Flora has never told him who his father is, despite his questioning, both direct and subtle, on a number of occasions.
Because Flora never hid his true heritage and position from him, Solon always knew he was superior. As he became older, this grew into something of a hunger for power. He pestered Flora until she tutored him in the arts of Magic.
About a year ago, Flora finally judged him ready, and took him to Amber to walk the Pattern. He was officially recognised by Random as Flora's son at this time. He was somewhat surprised that his being his mothers son didn't accord him the respect he felt he deserved; he (secretly) blames Flora for this to some extent, and has become distanced from her since he walked the Pattern.
He left Amber and explored Shadow for some time. After a while he came accross the shadow of Aegirine, just outside the Golden Circle. This is a highly magical world ruled by a God-King who has vast powers over the world and everyone on it (see below for more details). Solon challenged the then-God-King, Orbothraxes, for his position. After a hard fight, which Solon had originally though would be a simple matter, he won, and killed Orbothraxes. On Orbothraxes death the powers of the God-king passed to Solon, and he was the new God-King, a position he has held to this day...
Soon after taking over Aegirine, Solon took the almost impenetrable armour/spell rack of Orbothraxes and after purging it of all his forebears influence, made it his own.
Solon divides his time between Aegirine and Amber. Part of the reason for this is that one of his old nurses, a woman named Charlotte now lives in the city; she is now teacher of the children of the castle staff. Whenever he leaves Aegirine Solon reduces its timeflow to as slow a rate as possible, for protection. He likes Amber as it is the only place containing people who are anything like his peers; however the lack of absolute power he has in Amber prevents him from staying there for too long at a stretch.
Solon devotes a considerable amount of time to his magic, researching the basic principles, and experimenting. He has made some attempts to combine Pattern and Magic, but with no success, or even any hint that it is even possible, so he has essentially given up that line of experimentation...
Solon does have a few Trumps, obtained through Flora: a family deck, of the Elders, one trump of Amber itself, and one of Aegirine.
A shadow lying just outside the Golden Circle, Aegirine is a roughly Earth-sized world which orbits about three suns, one orange (the largest), one green, and one blue (the smallest). This means that the ambient light is usually white, but can vary depending on where the suns are, as can the colours of shadows, sunrises and sunsets. Aegirine has ten moons, of varying size; eight appear rocky and have colour varying from grey to yellow-grey. Two appear to be made of faceted crystal, one royal purple and one royal blue.
Aegirine has two almost entirely separate ecosystems, which interact very little. One is vaguely Earth-like with green and red vegetation, plus a variety of 'normal' animals. The other is made up of some kind of living crystal, with plant-like crystalline 'trees' and insect-like crystalline animals. There are two dominant species on Aegirine. One is a non-sentient crystalline insectoid, with a very ant-like social structure, although the creatures themselves are more like man-sized crystal centipedes; they live in huge crystalline hives which they construct themselves. The other dominant species is human, with pale skin, eyes which are usually grey, and almost transparent hair.
The humans have learned how to manipulate the 'ants' so that they live as parasites on them, with the 'ants' building and maintaining their cities (usually located over/around 'ant' hives) and providing raw foodstuffs. The countryside of Aegirine is densely wooded (with both normal and crystal trees) apart from near the cities where it is farmed by the 'ants'. Very little technology will function on Aegirine, but magic is very powerful so the humans live with a fair degree of leisure in city-states, all of which are fanatically loyal to the God-King. There is a large percentage of scholars, many of them skilled in magic, amoung the populace, and there is constant scheming for positions of power and influence. Travel is generaly by flying magical contrivance (flying carpets are especially popular).
The day to day running of Aegirine is handled by the Priests and Priestesses of Solon; policing and military activities are carried out by the Guardians of the temple. Even more than the rest of the populace, his direct servants possess an unswerving, indestructible faith in Solon...
Psyche : 45 Strength : Chaos Endurance : 8 Warfare : 1
Pattern : 50
Sorcery : 15
Power Words : 10
[Nogtz (Magic Negation)
Askiir (Psychic Disrupt)
Krolak (Neural Disrupt)
Lievz (Lifeforce)
Magique (Process Surge)]
Zero Stuff : 0
Ally in Amber : 1
Item : 7 [Spell Rack - 2, Invulnerable Armour - 4, Alternate Form (ring/suit of armour) - 1] Shadow - Aegirine : 3 [Personal Shadow - 1, Control of Timeflow - 2] Diary : -10
Total Points : (45 - 10 + 8 + 1) +
50 + 15 + 10 + 0 +
1 + 7 + 3 - 10 = 120
Solon generally uses Intrusive and Defensive spells, rather than whizz-bang combat spells. In particular he likes Cardiac Arrest, Stone Binding, Strength Drain, Defensive Shield and Defensive Psyche Ward.
There are days when I really have to think very hard to remember why I ever bother to return to Amber. This has been one of them.
First Benedict disappears and turns up catatonic. Then Bleys turns up with the mind of a child, Beauty seems to think she is Fiona at age ten (an appalling prospect!), and Mordred believes himself to be Eric. At the same time, Random thinks himself Oberon, Fiona Clarissa, and Llewella Moins, replaying an ancient lovers tiff between the three of them. If it hadn't been for those of us unaffected, myself in particular, who knows what might have happened?
Apparently this whole debacle was started by Random fishing in the Jewel of Judgement for Oberon's memories; his precise reasoning for this currently escapes me. Instead of finding what he wanted, he was hooked into thinking he was Oberon, in the process ensnaring Fiona, Llewella, Beauty and Mordred into his delusion. What did he think he was doing?! Imbecilic seems hardly a strong enough word to describe his behaviour!
Personally, I would have been quite happy to let all of them stew in their own juices. However, the others who were unaffected seemed likely to attempt to solve the problem, and given how Kathy would probably go crying to Random as soon as she could, I thought gaining a few brownie points by saving the day might be useful.
I was appalled by the way Kiana and Kathy over-reacted to the deaths of those two guards when I had them try to break down Fiona's door. Presumably they considered them to be important in some way. I wonder why. It's not like they aren't ten a penny in shadow after all. Presumably bad parenting is part of the answer. While Flora may be a vacuous waste of space at times, at least she had me properly raised. From the way Gerard reacted to the death of those two guards, I can see where Kiana gets it from. I wonder what Kathy's excuse is?
At least Kirk, Magdalene and Mordred seemed more reasonable, Mordred in particular. Magdalene obviously knows far more of the healing arts than I do, and for that reason alone is someone to keep on the good side of. Mordred seems to have some clue about military matters, though it seems he needs to familiarise the castle guards with security procedures a little more than he has, and possibly strengthen his mind against malign outside influences. Beauty could also use a little of that, I think.
I now somewhat regret attempting to take revenge on Kathy for her assault on my person so soon; perhaps I acted a little precipitously. I should really have disguised the scene behind me, and not so underestimated her mental strength (though it was a natural thing to do). Perhaps she assumed I was trying to kill her, rather than cause her to suffer. Idiot! What would be the point of causing her death, when it would only bring the wrath of the rest of the family down on my head. Still, when next I try I'll know better, and use a more surreptitious and subtle technique. After all, my millions of loyal followers on Aegirine must be good for something! And a new spell; one to reflect back her bullets before they hit me, might also be useful to give Kathy a nasty and well deserved surprise. Perhaps some kind of hallucinatory spell to infiltrate her dreams might be useful too...
At least I anticipate my revenge on Kiana and Gerard to be a little easier. How hard can it be to have vengeance on a mental midget like Gerard? Of course in his case, a little more circumspection than normal may well be appropriate; when you plan revenge on a force of nature like him, I can't help feeling caution is advisable. Especially given how he, like Kiana and Kathy, over-reacted to the deaths of those two guards. Revenge on Kiana simultaneously would be wise too, I feel, given that she is his daughter, after all. I suppose I should feel just as angry with her as I do with Kathy, as her assault was just as extreme. However, I find it hard to stay angry at the monkey when the organ grinder is present.
I wonder why Kathy calls herself a 'Peacemaker', when peacemaking is quite obviously the last thing she ever has on her tiny mind. Perhaps when she says 'Peacemaker' she means the Colt .45 version. Personally, I would consider 'Troubleshooter' to be a far more apt title, from the way in which, when anyone makes trouble, or indeed offends her limited worldview in some other way, she shoots them. I can't help wondering what she would do if the offender was an elder. It might be interesting to watch. Perhaps something should be arranged... Or perhaps she only shoots what she considers to be troublemakers when they are family. I haven't heard of her gratuitously shooting people about Amber, so perhaps this is the case. If not, I pity the people on her home shadow, where such an ... abrupt style of 'law enforcement' is presumably the norm. Assuming any of the inhabitants are left by now, of course! Perhaps I should attempt to visit it, and if necessary ... free ... the unfortunate locals from the harsh yoke of such oppression.
It would also be interesting to find out how her gun continues to function in Amber - Corwins pink powder, perhaps - and perhaps arrange for it not to. Of course I can't help feeling that Kathy is not likely to voluntarily let me examine her gun any time soon, but we'll just have to see about that...
I also wonder why she calls herself 'Kathy'. Surely 'Princess Katherine' would be more appropriate. Perhaps mere royalty is not good enough for her, or, more likely, she is simply incapable of spelling words more than five letters long.
Ah well, enough reminiscing. Now it is time to plan...