Albion

The synopsis of an Amber adventure from The Doom that Came to Amber

 

Seven months have passed since Yule and midsummer passed a week ago. Random appoints Alaric to the office of Receiver of Petitions. His job is two-fold, to vet petitions from the King’s subjects in advance, winnowing out those of importance and, in the absence of the King, to receive embassies from the Golden Circle – that is to hear them, soothe them and say nothing that commits Amber beyond its treaty obligations.

 

This is a post normally held by a member of the nobility. Unknown to Alaric, Fiona has asked the King to give him this post in an attempt to give him some sort of official role. The previous incumbent abused his position, passing on petitions only when accompanied by a hefty bribe. A member of the blood may not be so easily bribed so Random is happy to give this menial post to a junior member of the family who has shown little inclination to responsibility so far. (Incidentally, several of Alaric’s cousins have their own jobs: Aylwin is Lieutenant of Arden, Bathsheba is Captain of the Guard.)

 

Of course Alaric is less than happy at being drawn from his easel and asks why his aunts and uncles aren’t available for this most sensitive position and is told:

(a)      Titania of Faerie is making rude noises toward Amber so Julian is busy on the Elfward Marches of Arden while Bleys uses his charm on the bitch.

(b)     Chalcedony, (which happens to be ruled by the King's mother), has recently gained some special commercial status which is rubbing up the distaff shadows, principally Deiga, the wrong way. Caine is smoothing things over in Deiga.

(c)      A border dispute between Begma and Kashfa over the province of Eregnor is promising to break out into open warfare - again! Random is going to deal with this one himself.

(d)     In Amber City, a nasty serial killer has taken to leaving headless bodies lying around. Normally this would be a 'so what' event but some of the victims have occupied important positions in the town – one was a castle servant and one a minor nobleman of the Court. Deirdre is trying to unravel this problem.

(e)      Vialle has had a ‘vision’ that the next military threat to Amber will come from a hi-tech shadow. Hence Gerard is flying the flag off Zircon.

(f)      With all the above simmering, Random wants his Marshal about. However Benedict as usual is off in shadow and so Rupert and Flora are off looking for him.

(g)      And Fiona is concerned about rumours of versions of the Pattern other than Amber's. She is off in shadow doing research. Incidentally, if anyone hears from Dworkin, tell Auntie Fi!

 

And so Random leaves for Begma.

 

A few days later an embassy arrives from Hyderaghat, of the 2nd Circle. It proves to be the Shanee Indira, wife of the Shah. She says that Hyderaghat is concerned about the rise of a new power out in shadow that is waging a successful war of conquest against the 7th Circle shadows of the Moghul Lands of which Hyderaghat is the Golden-Circle representative. Reports are scarce, but rumours tell of huge metal juggernauts belching smoke and flame and a new religion burning the shrines of the Unicorn and all other religions in the Moghul Lands.

 

Indira invokes Hyderaghat's treaty with Amber. She asks for assurances of military aid should Hyderaghat be attacked and for a Prince of the Blood to come to a summit in Hyderaghat forthwith, to discuss the threat. She points out that the wars are seriously damaging Hyderaghat's distaff trade which in turn impairs her trade with Amber. “Does not Amber value our spices and silks. Our ivory and our other exports?”

 

The Golden Circle is Caine’s beat but a trump call elicits short-shrift – ‘I’m busy, show some initiative and sort it out yourself!’ Protocol demands that two or more brats are equal to one Prince of the Blood so Alaric contacts his cousins. Leaving Queen Vialle, Paulette the King’s mother and Anya in Amber, Alaric, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Michael, Nathan and the long-lost Morwaith travel with Shanee Indira to Hyderaghat.

 

In Hyderaghat they foil a clumsy assassination attempt before meeting several ambassadors at an official reception. General Ashoka Khan reports that Maghada of the 5th Circle, formally the dominant military power in the Moghul Lands, has been ruthlessly crushed. Brahmina Zhobeya Lakshmi, a temple prostitute from Kannaka of the 4th Circle says the new power called Albion is suppressing all religion, including the Church of the Unicorn. Both envoys tell of huge steam-powered juggernauts and powerful cannon. Representatives of 3rd Circle cities of Bhuna, Mahartha and Sanghali are very worried.

 

How can this happen? This is not the Technocracies, such technology is unheard of in the Moghul Lands. And how has Albion gained such power so quickly? The distal shadows of the Moghul Lands are well-charted and it has never been heard of before, but in the space of a few weeks it has come from nowhere to conquer the 7th thru 4th circles of the Moghul Lands, that’s 22 shadows! And that’s just the ones known!

 

Then a fanfare announces the arrival of the Ambassador from Albion, His Excellency Jonath, Lord Wemys and the Lady Winona, Countess Ratchet. Wemys is utterly charming while making it clear that there is only one true god, The Wyrm, and all others must be stamped out.

 

Countess Ratchet makes an assignation with Alaric, of course. The next day she tries to seduce him in to betraying Amber but he learns that Albion does indeed have powerful steam technology and the ability to traverse shadow.

 

The cousins take action, capturing Wemys dirigible and using it to gate back to where it came from, Kannaka of the 4th Circle, to find the pleasant agrarian Raj town covered in dense smokes and full of infantry in leather combat suits and face masks. They run in to some sort of half-tracked steam-powered vehicle and are shot at by the Iron-Duke, the general commanding the Albion forces, injuring Morwaith before they can scatter in to the smoke.

 

They follow another gate through to Albion itself, a steampunk shadow not dissimilar to mid-19th C Britain. There they uncover the truth of Albion.

 

At the end of the Patternfall War, Oberon's redrawing of the Primal Pattern caused the fragmentation of Dworkin's Primal Pattern and the resulting Shadowquake which hurled a large shard of Pattern across shadow to rip through a near-Earth reflection and lodge in an inconsequential shadow of sub-primal reality.

 

The shard's impact effectively stitched portions of the Earth-like shadow into a completely different shadow, creating Albion with its strange melange of cultural elements and immediately upgraded the shadow's potential technological base to create an industrial revolution.

 

The Shard has been striving to find its place in shadow relative to Amber, causing Albion to ‘drift’ towards Amber from a point beyond Earth. As it moves, it slowly spirals around Amber and is currently passing near the far shadows of the Moghul Lands. This movement also brings it into contact with other neighbouring shadows, creating ructions and wars.

 

These peculiar properties were noticed by a traveller to Earth visiting Merlin from the Courts of Chaos, Osbec of House Zigo, and he and a friend have been exploiting the shadow for their own purposes. Of course, Osbec and his friend, Tomas of House Torquemada, have coloured the outlook of Albion considerably and Tomas’ fanatical devotion to the Wyrm has made Albion a crusader-state.

 

Amidst various alarums and excursions, Tomas is killed and immediately Albion loses its crusader zeal. Utterly unfazed, Osbec recalls the armies and shortly after Albion’s movement takes it beyond the Moghul Lands and eventually it winds up in the 4th Circle of the Technocracies, where it belongs, close to the 3rd Circle shadow of Zircon.