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One of the shadows linked to Amber by the shadow paths that go out from it, Ensilarum lies at the very end of one of these shadow paths. It is a large vertical-sided mesa of obsidian-like black rock projecting up through bottomless cloud decks into an intensely blue sky at the zenith of which burns a single yellow-white sun which never moves or sets. From above the mesa is shaped roughly like an equilateral triangle, about a thousand miles along each edge.
The only access from the outside of the shadow is via a single natural-seeming staircase which leads up from below the top of the cloud deck; this is where the shadow path allows access to the shadow. Other than the staircase the sides of the mesa are impenetrable and frictionless (suction cups do not work on its walls either).
This staircase will take no more than three people abreast at one time, or two if they are fighting. The staircase is dotted with guard towers, each a well defended fortress with all kinds of defences, magical and mundane, to prevent unwanted people from getting in. Magic can only be cast down the staircase; magic cast with effects going upwards simply has no effect. Projectiles fired upwards slow and stop vastly sooner than one might expect too. Of course, when firing up the stair one is also firing directly into the sun.
The staircase emerges onto the top of the mesa at one point of the triangle. This emergence point is also ringed with defences, and a fortress sits right over the top of the staircase.
On top of the mesa, shadow Ensilarum is a world of vegetation encased in metals and glass, so that every plant is sharp and hard. There are sword bushes (which literally grow swords of green-filled glass, the pommels attached to the root), dagger trees (with green-filled glass daggers instead of leaves), razor-edged green metallic grass, flowers whose petals are effectively razor blades, and so on. However, inside their metallic and glass casings the plants are actually edible. Likewise, the animals of the shadow are tough, and armoured, but also edible.
Because of its distance from Amber, its extremely restricted access, and its dangerous environment Ensilarum ('Sword-Flower') was uninhabited for a very long time, and not even visited very much. Then came a group of people (a noble house, perhaps; the histories are not clear on the matter) who Oberon had exiled from Amber for reasons which are not recorded, and whose wandering had brought them here. They were attracted partly by the shadow's inhospitality to Pattern and Trump, which they thought might protect them against Oberon if he decided to persecute them further. Since coming to Ensilarum, Circaea has learnt that the it was a house that served an Elder Amberite named Havoc who, it seems, was a sister of Oberon. Why her servants were banished is unknown, as is what became of Havoc herself...
With the aid of armour, both magical and mundane, the exiles were able to survive on Ensilarum. Survive, and grow, and prosper. Still concerned about outside attacks, they fortified the shadow and the staircase to make Ensilarum as protected as possible; this concern, and the maintenance of the defences, continues until the present day.
As time passed they developed into a Victorian-type society with the mesa divided into a number of competing (and sometimes warring) semi-independent Duchies. A King or Queen ruled from Aurrefal, the capital city of the shadow, and which is also the capital of the Duchy of Aurrefal. Aurrefal is built on and around a mountain in the centre of the mesa which bears some resemblance to Kolvir, and is a city of gold and iron. The monarchy is not hereditary. Instead, upon the death of the old monarch competitions of power and skill are held, the winner of which becomes the new monarch.
Everyone uses armour when outside. The lower classes use physical armour; the upper classes use the more elegant conferred magical protection.
Several hundred years ago, a race of sentient clockwork mechanical-magical men with mini-Babbage-engine brains - the Ticktockmen - were constructed as servants and labourers, particularly miners. Unfortunately they were too intelligent and, in a secret underground location they, they built a huge (though immobile) 'super-brain' and rose up seeking their freedom. And they largely succeeded in doing so.
A separate underground Ticktockman Republic was set up, ruled by the Brain, and the humans could not destroy it. There was war, then cold war, which lasted for a very long time. One result of this was the passing of strict laws amongst the humans against creating sentient machines, magical or otherwise.
Although it was initially unpopular, one of the first things Circaea did on coming to the throne was end the cold war by recognising the Ticktockman Republic as its own Duchy. Time has shown this to be a sensible decision - the war is over, trade with the Ticktockmen is good, and things have generally improved.
Although she is an absolute ruler, Circaea does her best to be benevolent, and has a highly competent (and loyal) advisory council which assists her in running the place, and also acts in her name when she is absent from the shadow. She can't help thinking that governing in a way that is kind and just is simply better for stability; otherwise it's going to be secret police, repression, disappearances and that whole vicious circle, which she would really rather not have to live with in her shadow. If nothing else it's a huge waste of resources that could be more gainfully employed elsewhere...
And Ensilarum has been having a bit of a cultural renaissance since she came to the throne due to her importing food, music and so on that she likes from other shadows into Ensilarum (this includes actual cooks, musicians and what have you).
Sorcerous Magic works in Ensilarum (normally on top of the mesa, but only down the staircase; spells cast up the stair simply do not work), as do Power Words and Conjuration. Normal or Broken Pattern, Logrus and shapeshifting do not work there at all. Normal or Broken Pattern will not allow one to enter the shadow anywhere other than the staircase, but one can leave from anywhere. Trump and Magic do not work through the walls of the shadow (that is, one cannot use Trump or Magic into or out of the shadow, but one can, for example, Trump from place to place within it).
Time in Ensilarum flows at the same rate as it does in Amber.
In addition to the stair guards the history and society of the shadow keeps people fit and ready to fight at all times.
Also, there is a species of magically-created Guardian Butterfly which the nobility use to protect themselves in their estates on the mesa. These are medium-sized butterflies with a blue, black and gold fractal design on their wings. They are linked to a person when they are bred, and can sense those who bear active hostility to the person they are tasked to protect (just dislike is not enough; it has be an active hostile intent). They will appear from all around and swarm over any person who they detect as hostile, attacking them with their bite, which injects a sleeping poison whose effects accumulate the more butterflies bite the hostile person so that eventually even Amberites will be felled. The people of Ensilarum know what swarms of Guardian Butterflies mean and will alert the local Watch if they see such a swarm in progress. Circaea has had some of these butterflies attuned to herself in both the capital and her Duchy of Justicia.
The shadow is industrialised, using magic instead of technology (so there is no pollution, and cities are very clean). Ensilarum does trade across shadow, via the shadow path that leads to the place, but they are entirely self-sufficient in the necessities and so mostly trade in luxury goods, largely keeping themselves to themselves. They do have closer trading links with some of the shadows close to them along the shadow path.
Although they try, it is quite hard (though not impossible, as Circaea herself proves) for spies and other intruders to get into Ensilarum via the staircase. This is because the people of Ensilarum are rather paranoid about outsiders, the environment is hostile, and there is only one access point, so watching and controlling the movements of outsiders should be relatively easy. This is even before the Guardian Butterflies are taken into consideration. Ensilarum's security forces know quite a lot about what goes on in the shadows adjoining Ensilarum, and find out what they can about all visitors. In fact, most visitors see only the fortress at the top of the Stair, and never go further into the shadow than that. In some cases the locals simply lie to the visitors, telling them that the Fortress is the shadow; in other cases they just imply this.
As the triangular land mass of Ensilarum is about thousand miles along each edge, that means that Ensilarum has a land area of about 433000 square miles (which is about the same as the areas of the South American countries of Columbia and Bolivia on shadow Earth). Based on this, the population of Ensilarum is roughly fifty million people.
This is actually quite a low population density, certainly less than most European countries on shadow Earth, though this is not unreasonable given the low starting population and how dangerous a place it is until one learns its ways.
Most 'common' people have higher starting attributes than normal shadow-dwellers due to their origin in Amber. That is, they are of Chaos rank plus their age in points; most shadow dwellers are of Human rank plus their age in points. [Very few shadows have natives born with Amber level attributes unless someone has altered things to be that way. Amber is one such place, which is why it is so hard to invade; being more real because of the Pattern there they are stronger than the normal run of people, with the same caveat applying to Rebma, too.]
The flag of shadow Ensilarum is a royal blue rectangle with an inscribed downward-pointing iron-black equilateral triangle inside which is an inscribed golden circle with a black dot in the centre, representing the sky, the mesa, the people and the monarch of shadow Ensilarum, respectively.
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