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Originally the Courts of Chaos was an 'archipelago' of small, fairly stable physical and non-physical shadows moving and changing with time, inhabited by what at first glance might seem to be many types of demon. However, the demons were all of one species, but with many forms, physical and non-physical, adapting to the many and changing environments of the shadows they inhabited and the Abyss between. They are all entirely hermaphroditic, and subject to both Darwinian and Lamarckian evolution.
Then the Serpent of Chaos came, carrying a few humans - who were all shapeshifters - on its back, from somewhere else off through the Abyss. It taught the humans how to survive in the archipelago using Spaceshifting and Real Empowerment and then left, leaving one of its eyes behind to guard and watch over its people. The Serpent has not been seen since, though it is still worshipped in Chaos.
Humanity quickly tamed the demons of the archipelago, who were primitive, not too bright, and weak compared to humans, but very adaptable. They set themselves up as the Royal House and, in time, using their Spaceshifting powers, expanded over the whole of the archipelago and beyond, setting up what became known as the Empire of Chaos. Their original Spaceshifting power, when used from a base of stable shadow(s) could be used to grow and stretch the shadows out in an amoebic fashion to find new shadows, make links between them, change their properties, expand them and so on.
Originally, the Royal House of Chaos was a small group of humans ruling over a mass of demons. The humans of Chaos are not less powerful than those of Amber, person for person. [Average Chaos humans are built on 75 points with shapeshifting for free; high-ranking Chaosites can be built on more points, up to the level of Elder Amberites.]
But as human numbers grew, more and more very long-lived, intelligent and manipulative people with great power pursued their own interests, forming cliques and societies (which became known as Coteries) devoted to those interests outside of the Royal House, even though they were, of course, nominally members of and loyal to the Royal House.
This in turn gave rise to an underclass formed of the majority of less driven, intelligent and manipulative humans who did not belong to Coteries, below the Royal House and the Coteries (though, potentially, as powerful as them on a person-for-person basis, and all shapeshifters) but above the demons. This underclass became known, in time, as The Commons, while the Coteries themselves became known as The Powers. Below the Commons are the demons, who are essentially servants and slaves. Coteries do employ Commoners for various tasks, usually as servants; Commoners do also work for other Commoners, but this is quite rare. These jobs are not as menial as those performed by demons, and can be a route by which a particularly exceptional Commoner can be elevated into membership of a Coterie (though this has happened less and less as time went by). Many of the 'demons' found in Chaos are actually human servants in demon form.
The Coteries made homes for themselves in the upper levels of the Courts of Chaos, building what became known as Ways from fragments of shadow knitted together by their various powers. Each of these is a series of worlds closed to outside entry, in which the Coteries can do essentially what they please. There are also public areas, consisting of a number of plazas and streets which link the public entrances to the Ways. On the far edge of the Courts of Chaos from the side facing Amber are the Citadel of Chaos, where the Council of Coteries meets, and the Temple of the Serpent, the main place of worship for the Courts. Below the area in which the Coterie Ways are situated are the tunnels where the members of the Commons live and, below them, the demons. There is usually a high degree of magical surveillance around the entrances to the various Ways, and to a lesser extent in the public areas of Chaos.
Over time the brains and talent of Chaos came to be found in the Coteries, not the Royal House. The Coteries formed the Council of Coteries with members from all of the Coteries to protect their interests and resolve disputes between them, though it had no influence over the internal affairs of the individual Coteries. When this Council of Coteries formed the Royal House became in truth what it had been for a long time - a powerless figurehead. And in time the Royal House simply withered away and disappeared. [This is what Amber could become in time, as the number of Family members increases and increases.]
It was during this time that the custom of Coterie members having surnames as of their Coterie (for example, Timandra of the Spaceshifter Coterie would be known as Timandra Spaceshifter) grew up. Commoners had, and still have, more normal surnames.
And as long-lived as the Chaosites are, these Coteries have formed the basis of Chaos society for a very long time. At present the Coteries and their important members are:
The lines between some of the Coteries are rather blurred; for example between the various types of specialised shapeshifters (Spaceshifters, Mimics, some Assassins and Beastmasters) and between Spies and Entertainers. All humans in Chaos know basic shapeshifting, and many also know magic.
The laws in Chaos vary from Coterie to Coterie. The Council of Coteries enforces some laws which apply to all of Chaos, but otherwise Coterie laws apply within and to Coterie members only. Coterie laws do vary considerably, with some having far stricter laws than others; the Warriors and Assassins are particularly strict, while the Artisans and Farmers are particularly liberal; the Council of Coteries tends to apply the most liberal of the laws of the more powerful Coteries. Because of this legal variation, Coterie members have diplomatic immunity in each other's Ways.
There are around twelve hundred Coterie members in Chaos, divided equally across all the Coteries, making roughly ten to fifteen percent of the total human population of Chaos. The roughly ten thousand Commoners make up the rest of the humans in Chaos, and are divided into hundreds of Commoner families. There are also hundreds of thousands or millions of demons in Chaos.
The Coteries of Chaos recruit new members from the children of the Commons. The children of Coterie members are always fostered out into the Commons to avoid nepotism and ensure that only the best qualified make it into the Coteries, not simply those lucky enough to be born into them. When a baby is born to a Coterie member, representatives from the Commons see it fostered out to a suitable family. Instances of Coterie members keeping, or keeping in touch with their children are stopped by their own and other Coteries. Instances of Commoners killing Coterie children are severely punished by the Commoners and the Coteries.
But nepotism and people keeping in touch with their children has been increasing within Chaos, and the Commoners are not happy with this. In the past, the Coteries kept the Commoners divided by various manipulations, but more recently Coterie corruption, nepotism and oppression has, despite this, driven the Commoners together.
Examinations taken, in theory, by all Commoner children select the very best into the Coteries at a young age. Although there are many Chaosites, their low fertility means that there are not too many children at any one time for this to be a problem. However, this is another area of friction, as the lower members of the Commons are more and more being excluded from the examinations.
A complex network of inter-Coterie trade in goods and services maintains the structure of Chaos society.
Unbeknownst to the humans of Chaos, a secret conspiracy of demons sought revenge on them for what had been done to them, and over time bred a creature - which became known as the Unicorn - as the 'ultimate' demon, the instrument of their revenge. However, it turned out to be a little too free-willed to do exactly what they wanted and destroy all of the humans, although it did seduce Dworkin and steal the Eye of the Serpent away...
When the Pattern was drawn and shadow crystallised out of the Abyss, the Chaos power of Spaceshifting was crippled. The power required loosely-coupled shadows in a sea of Chaos, and once the Pattern was drawn could only operate very close to Chaos where shadow were still weak and loosely coupled enough for it to work (by pushing between the existing shadows). This allowed a small Chaos Empire to continue to exist in the Black Zone near Chaos despite the huge death and disruption which rippled through the Empire as shadow formed and Chaos was pushed out and away from the new zone of shadow.
But the humans of Chaos found ways to move through the new shadows by mimicking the powers of creatures which could move through shadow naturally. This was how they came across Amber, and found out who and what it was. As such, war was inevitable. However, Chaos lost resoundingly, and the Treaty of Awarcon set the boundaries between the two realms. With their limited powers (further limited by the forces of Amber carefully exterminating all the species of shadow-shifting creatures they could find living near Chaos) and their resounding defeat, Chaos tuned inwards, away from the universe, concentrating only on matters within the Empire of Chaos. And so it went.
Amberites with Pattern are the only ones who truly do not age; Chaosites do. As time went on all of those who fought in the war died of old age, and the current generation of Chaosites has never not had the Pattern and shadow there as they are now and thus they have used their powers and what they have developed within that structure, for internal Chaos matters only. The Coteries became conservative organisations run by beings so ancient and powerful, so much part of the system that they thought it belonged to them, that they were above it. And so they became corrupt.
Over time the Spaceshifter Coterie developed a new form of Spaceshifting which worked with shadow as it now was. But this development was kept secret and used only for their own advantage in the area surrounding Chaos.
Then the redhead children of Oberon appeared in Chaos - Bleys, Brand and Fiona. Although hardly welcomed with open arms, they were allowed to speak to the Council of Coteries. They managed to convince the Council that, if they helped them take over Amber, they would give the Coteries the power to greatly expand the Empire of Chaos and its power. The Coteries agreed to this and, aided by Corwin's Blood Curse, the Spaceshifter Coterie, led by one of their number, Timandra, were able to slowly drive the Black Road all the way from Chaos to Amber.
At the same time, Oberon secretly contacted the few remaining members of the Royal House of Chaos and offered them power, the ability to take back control of Chaos from the Coteries and break them, if they would assist him in the coming struggle. They agreed, and it was out of this agreement that Lintra - a former Warrior, but also with the Royal Blood - came to have Benedict's child, from whom Dara is descended (of course, things did not go entirely as Oberon planned, but...).
With the failure of the attack via the Black Road, and its remaining in place as a path leading directly back to Chaos itself, the feeling in the other Coteries of Chaos turned against the Spaceshifter Coterie. This led to the major members of the Coterie 'volunteering' for a second attack on Amber. All of the other members of the Spaceshifter Coterie remain behind in Chaos as what are effectively hostages on the good behaviour and success of the expedition.
The second attack force have been sent out to take Amber by more indirect means. They are travelling in a mobile shadow fortress known as Agharti. Agharti is a closed shadow which folds back in on itself, about twenty miles in diameter (a volume of 18000 cubic kilometres; giving space for billions of people inside). Inside it is like an extended three-dimensional cave system encrusted with fungus with which it appears to be very overgrown inside; some of this fungus glows in various colours, providing light. The rock is a semi-living substance like hard fungus itself, which can moves and restructure itself under the control of the crew, and which will heal itself if damaged. There are large volumes inside it, including parks, farms, seas and docks. It wraps around on itself, so by going far enough forward one ends up at the rear, far enough left one ends up right, and so on.
Agharti is crewed by a dozen or so humans from Chaos, mostly Spaceshifters but also including a Trump Artist, a Warrior and a Priest. The leader of the expedition, Timandra Spaceshifter, insisted on having a Trump Artist along on the mission, and so an out-of-favour member of the Artist Coterie, Portunus, was included in the mission too, to provide Trumps and keep the secrets of that power. He has no interest in the war, but again, those he cares for back in Chaos will pay the price if he does not do his job. Likewise, a Warrior is along on the expedition for obvious reasons; he is old, but very skilled, and intends to mostly direct activities from behind the front lines. He is genuinely enthusiastic about the mission, and is here because he wants to be. There is also a Priest, Econstis, along to provide religious support. It is suspected that he is a spy, with some means of communicating back to Chaos (miniature mobile message-carrying shadows) to ensure the mission goes according to plan.
In addition they have steeds and other beasts, some demons, and other minions, particularly a great many normal (and less normal) humans recruited from various shadows en route to Amber (they would use demons, but they are of no use in the shadow environment close to Amber, weakening and dying there, so they have recruited humans instead, using the 'Shift Shadow Properties' part of Spaceshifting to assist in this, in getting the troops they want). They have also made living sailing ships and other living vehicles to use as necessary. Some of the creatures they carry are a very dangerous, ancient species of shadow-eating armoured worm known as Vadgaon who existed before humans came to Chaos.
Agharti has the following properties:
| Primal Plane | 4 |
| Guarded | 4 |
| Control of Environment | 1 |
| Unlimited Mobility | 4 |
The space-shifters of the crew can extend out remote tunnels through shadow boundaries as entrances and exits. This allows members of the crew to come and go without having to go to the vessel itself.
It has taken them longer than expected to get to Amber, though, due to shadow storms, the zone of shattered shadow resulting from the collision of waves of Pattern from the redrawing of Amber's Pattern and the creation of Corwin's, and so on, and they do not know the outcome of events in Chaos. Their journey has taken roughly sixty Amber years, though only six subjective years. Agharti is now hiding where Ghenesh used to be as shadow is damaged in that area anyway so its presence there is hard to detect. Active Spaceshifting is hard near Amber; one has to be at least but more passive things, such as sensing, are as easy to do as they are near Chaos.
They are planning to come to Amber as 'Envoys', claiming that the forces of Amber were defeated and destroyed at Chaos; this is all a huge bluff. However, they have the heads of the Princes and Princess of Amber to prove it (they are fakes). They call on Amber to accept the sovereignty of the Courts of Chaos, swear loyalty to Chaos, disband its armies and accept the Chaos government and army. The old rulers will not be mistreated, and in fact will be needed as they will provide continuity with the new regime.
The bad handling of the war against Amber, where so many of Chaos have died, and the growing feeling that the redheads have basically used Chaos, combined with the long-term nepotism and bias of the Coteries against the lower-class Commoners had turned the majority of the Commons against the Coteries. Society there was on a knife edge, only a hair away from violent revolution. The increased use of spies and secret police by the Coteries to help control the Commons was not helping in this.
The Royal House's conspiracy, which somebody exposed to the Courts as a whole, also made the few survivors and Dara and her relatives very unpopular as their very existence was so against the accepted social rules of Chaos.
When the Amberites routed the Chaos armies by the Abyss the last support the Coteries had was lost. Chaos simmered with resentment until the Amberites entered Chaos proper, saw the situation, and called on the Commons to rise up to bring in a new regime to replace the corrupt and repressive old one.
And rise up the Commons did, storming the Ways of the Coteries and the hated Fortress Gantu (in a manner not unlike the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution). They killed many of the members of the Coteries, though some, the sneakiest or more powerful, did manage to kill many of the Commoners, and in some cases escape, too, or flee into the depths of their Ways. All of the surviving members of the Royal House died during this time. The chambers of the Council of Coteries and the Citadel of Chaos were destroyed in the revolution. The forces of Amber have taken over the ancient and largely abandoned Royal Palace of Chaos as their headquarters, and imprisoned the surviving Coterie members, for their own safety if nothing else.
Not, apparently, wanting a wholesale bloodbath the Amberites offered a compromise deal to both Commons and Coteries. The Commons could have a new properly meritocratic government once things have settled down in the Courts; the Amberites would remain as a 'caretaker' government until then. The Coteries were to be offered exile to safe haven shadows of their choosing, in return for giving the Amberites knowledge of their powers and abilities. For the Amberites this plan had the advantage of putting a stable friendly government in power in Chaos while both removing the real powers of Chaos and learning from them. Fiona would have Trumps of all the exiles.
However, the Coteries had not agreed to this, and there were separate resistance groups of Coterie members and Commoners in the Courts working to remove the Amberite occupiers when the player characters arrived, returning to Chaos with the second Chaos attack force. Initially intending simply to free the members of the Spaceshifter Coterie imprisoned in Chaos in return for the Spaceshifters not destroying Amber, they soon became involved with Elder Amberites in Chaos.
Initially the Spaceshifters were willing to let Chaos go the way the Elders wanted, and leave to set up their own state elsewhere in the universe. However, Whippoorwill managed to convince both the Amberites and the Chaosites that the way forward was to make all of Chaos friends of Amber, thus avoiding any future 'misunderstandings'.
After a long Courts of Chaos Constitutional Conference (CCCC), which considered a variety of possible governments, including a full dictatorship, an elected dictatorship, representational participatory democracy, and the original Coterie system, with its corruption removed, consulting members of the Diviner Coterie throughout, Whippoorwill convinced them that the best idea was that of an elected senate for the Courts of Chaos. The new Chaos Constitution gives Chaos a Senate with one hundred and ten elected members, roughly one for every hundred people in the Courts, an independent Judiciary, a Bill of Rights, a declaration of understanding of international law (between Chaos and Amber), and several controls designed to keep it in line with both Coterie and Commoner interests. The corruption in the Coterie system was also removed. Each Coterie has a senator, along with around a hundred Commoner senators from a hundred new Commoner constituencies. Most of the Coterie Senators are in fact their representatives to the old Council of Coteries.
By the time of the Chaos elections, several political parties had formed there, the largest two being the Isolationists and Progressives. The former wishes to return Chaos to its former state of Coterie control, and want to have nothing to do with Amber. The latter wish to move Chaos forward, and to continue the good relations with Amber which have been built up in the last few weeks. Notable amongst the smaller parties is the Revenge party, whose agenda is indicted by its name obvious; this party is led by Kersen, the Senator from the Farmers Coterie. However, the Progressive party took the majority of seats in the election.
And so the new Chaos regime began to form...
There are a number of types of troops and creatures in the shadow of Agarthi. These include:
The Vadgaon are a type of demon which appears to be a huge black iron armoured worm, bristling with long stiff hairs, each anything up to as long as its body. They date from before humans formed the Courts of Chaos, and are able to resist Primal Chaos by sheer invulnerability. They digest reality and substance from shadow by generating a sort of 'digestion field' about themselves which renders everything down to Primal Chaos while sucking out the Reality within it. They can 'smell' and 'taste' the properties of shadow, and can, in addition to eating Reality itself also vomit up Reality as an attack or a defensive mechanism - which is very bad for magic, Trump and so on, let alone living flesh. Apparently shadows which the Vadgaon eat returns to something very much like Primal Chaos, or the depths of the Abyss.
It was quite possible that the Vadgaon would get free in the attack on Amber, or be released as an 'ultimate weapon'. If this had happened they would have bred unchecked in the rich feeding grounds of Amber's 'shadow' until there was nothing left and everything reverted to its pre-Pattern state. Fortunately all of the Amber Patterns are now protected from this danger by Real Empowered obelisks, which modify the emanations of the Pattern so as to make it 'unpalatable' for the Vadgaon.
There are a number of facilities in shadow, outside Agharti, which the Spaceshifters constructed before beginning their attack on Amber.
Coraltown
This is a co-ordination centre and home base from which Trumps can be used (as they cannot from within Agharti). Coraltown is a walled settlement made from a single giant living organism; as such everything in the town heals rapidly (this effect also extends to people in the town who the town recognises), and the town keeps all the stores of expendables topped up as they are used. There is a keep in the centre, then three ring-walls around it, all of equal height and toughness with towers spaced along them, and three very well defended guardhouses. All of the streets between the walls are laid out in a defensive arrangement. All of the defences of Coraltown are configured for attack from the air and from underground as well as from ground level. There are no ground-level doorways on any buildings in Coraltown. Organic drawbridges drop down to ground level to let people in and also to give access to the streets. Likewise, only rooftop-level bridges (normally kept retracted) link the rooftops of the town.
The slope outside of the town is laid out as a kill-zone and a target for spells to create pit-traps and so on. The troops stationed there firing out from the walls. The minotaurs use very big arrows. Some troops also use magical blasters too, containing hard-wired Random Bolt spells (a few also have Turn Inside-Out hard-wired in). Magic there is like that in the home shadow of one of the servitor races; as such a hundred or so people there are Sorcerers, and another hundred or so are Empowerers; others know Power Words too. Everyone there can fight, even if their primary duties are of a non-combat nature.
Attacking forces will have their commanders targeted, including teleportational kidnapping. Others are attacked in ways designed to provide maximum distraction and fear in their underlings and in the structure of the attacking army - with blood barbs, fast-growing maggot eggs, hallucinogens, love drug, fear drug, spontaneous combustion drug, and so on.
A Trump power source (made by Portunus, and easily removed if necessary) is emplaced in the town; it powers a variety of magics. These include:
- A self-charging Random Ball spell projector (like Random Bolt, but produces explosive balls rather than bolts).
- Magic-seeking attack spells.
- A constant Attack Reflection spell.
- A constant Defensive Psyche Ward against those of low Psyche (Amber or less) which prevents them approaching.
- A spell to animate the dead trees into warriors to use against attackers [Mobility 1, Chaos Strength 1, Combat Mastery 4; 1 hour for one, in one shadow only; 2 hours for twelve; A hard-wired spell to create twelve of these takes 4 hours for the Hard-Wired part and 2 hours for the spell; a spell to create a tree which can cast the spell once takes 16 hours for 12 trees; the basic twelve trees are animated and each one creates twelve more for maximum effect]. These are cast behind attackers.
- Use of illusions, of attackers, or attacks, as distraction.
- Use of invisibility on troop formations.
- Use of teleportation, as an attack to kidnap attacking commanders for interrogation, and to place troops on the field.
- An effect which causes all the dead to rise as zombies on the side of Chaos.
- A one-way mirror maze spell, which is cast on the ground outside Coraltown; those inside cannot see out, and have solid walls; those outside can see in, and can fire in through the walls.
Coraltown is:
Resistant to Firearms 2 [20 minutes to Empower] Mould Shadow Stuff - Resupply 1 [1 hour to Empower] Regeneration, Conferred 14 [14 hours to Empower] Magic Resistance 1 [10 minutes to Empower] Cosmetic Changes 1 [1 hour to Empower] Trump Powered 4 [1000 hours to Create] Hard-Wired Spell - Random Ball 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Animate Corpse 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Invisibility 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Teleportation 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Mirror Maze 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Attack Reflection 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Defensive Psyche Ward 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Animate Trees 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Magic-Seeker
[A Random Bolt spell with Combat Mastery 4, Self-Charging 4,
Able to Speak 1, Magic Resistance 1 and Enhanced Sense (Detect Magic) 1;
a version which uses Random Ball also exists]4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Force Wall 4 [4 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Dispel Magic 4 [4 hours to Empower] Total : 68 points or 1068 hours 30 minutes to Empower; everything is single-shadow Empowered only
The Moving Army
They have a harder job, as magic is not constant along the shadows through which they travel, so only the Chaosites can cast actual spells. There are two Spaceshifters with it, both mages, Terrato and Alcina. The army also carries two of the Trump-homunculi which are there for Anaximander and others to use; this is mainly done by Anaximander, to allow him to assess and co-ordinate the situation in which the army finds itself without leaving the central command post. Terrato and Alcina have spells racked which are similar to those hard-wired into Coraltown. These include (but are not restricted to):
- Random Ball, Empowered with Combat Mastery 4, Self-Charging 4, Able to Speak 1, Magic Resistance 1
- Animate Corpses
- Invisibility
- Teleportation
- Dispel Magic
- Mass Healing
- Attack Reflection
- Magic Seeker
- Force Wall
As the army moves it is surrounded by a complex net of patrols and outriders so that it is very hard to approach without being spotted. At night the army does not camp, as such. Instead, Alcina has created a flying fortress, which during the day travels as a charm about her neck (like a small, curled-up woodlouse), and which, at night, unfurls into a huge invisible flying fortress; this is a two hundred metre diameter chitinous sphere (with a volume of 4.2 million cubic metres).
The Flying Fortress is:
Resistant to Firearms 2 [3 hours 20 minutes to Empower] Mould Shadow Stuff - Resupply 1 [10 hours to Empower] Regeneration 4 [40 hours to Empower] Magic Neutral 2 [3 hours 20 minutes to Empower] Psychic Neutral 2 [3 hours 20 minutes to Empower] Mobility 2 [1 hour 40 minutes to Empower] Alternate Form - Charm/Huge Invisible Fortress 1 [10 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Defensive Psyche Ward 4 [40 hours to Empower] Hard-Wired Spell - Cover Tracks
This is an anti-forensics spell which gives the army the
appearance of having camped somewhere for
the night and moved out in the morning, and covers all
traces of the flying fortress.4 [40 hours to Empower] Total : 17 points or 110 hours, 40 minutes to Empower; everything is cross-shadow stable
There are actually twelve of these fortresses.
The Dock Area
A shadow on the very edge of the shadow storm where Ghenesh used to be. It is only a staging post and temporary halt on the way in or out of Agharti. Those in Agharti open a small tunnel to it now and again, high up in the air, through which Trump will work, and through which they can scan the scene below. This can then, if necessary, be opened up into a full tunnel through space, through the shadow storm and to Agharti to let ships and troops move in and out.
The old Royal House of Chaos set up a prison below Chaos to hold its undesirables, a place known as Fortress Gantu. It was originally built using all the skills and powers available to those of Chaos, including Spaceshifting, Trump, Magic, Real Magic, Guard Beasts and so on, to hold people possessing all of those skills and powers, and it has been continually improved since then. When the Coteries came to power, they kept Fortress Gantu for this role. Fortress Gantu is the high security prison of Chaos, and is a place which can be tailored to the prisoner, from the deepest, darkest oubliette to a luxurious cell which would put a ten-star hotel to shame. The fortress is isolated from the rest of the Courts of Chaos, hanging below them in the depths of the Abyss, and is reached by a private route separate from the Commons and the demons.
All of the cells within the Fortress are anti-Magical and Trump simply does not work within them. Real Magical items are used to fortify the shadows against the power of Spaceshifting. Other than this the environment of the cells varies from luxurious to hellish.
The corridors linking the cells together are magical, and Trump works there. However, they are alarmed with Magic and Trump Traps, and have a variety of surveillance systems, including magical, Trump and creature-based ones. Various powerful Guard Beasts also patrol the corridors and will report anything untoward and attack it if necessary [Ranked Strength 4, Psychic Neutral 2, Enhanced Sensorium 2, Extraordinary Psychic Sensitivity 4, Double Damage 2, Resistant to Forearms 2, Able to Speak and Sing 2, Engine Speed 4, Mould Shadow Stuff - Sleep Poison 1, Alternate Form - Invisible 1; Total 24].
The guards of Fortress Gantu live and are stationed near the entrance of the Fortress, though there are other guardrooms scattered through the Fortress in case of need. They keep extensive records there of whom is imprisoned where in the Fortress. Magical teleportals and Trump-based systems allow the Guards to quickly travel to wherever they are needed in the Fortress.
Large portions of the Fortress, near to the entrance, are prisons for Commoners who have transgressed the laws of Chaos in general or of the Coterie for which they work. As such these parts of the Fortress include punishment and execution facilities. Prisoners from the Coteries are held further in, in more secure facilities.
The Courts of Chaos are an old civilisation, and very experienced in the use of magic. As such they have a wide variety of spells usable for many different things. This is a selection of them: