Nine Princesses in Umbra

~sample detail~

It is through Corvidae that we discover the worlds of Shadow. Corvidae is a raven-haired woman of moody practicality. She is passionate, determined, and more than mortal. She flourishes at night, often sleeping during the day when she can and is irritable when she can't. She moves quickly despite her lack of memory to track the connections to her Family and finds Flight, a darkly handsome brother living in New York. Corvie cleverly hides her amnesia and gets much information from her sibling.

Flight warns Corvie that her sister, Eerie, is Regent now and that Corvie should not to attempt to take the Throne of Night. Then Rakshasa, a much younger sister, arrives and they are all soon attacked by enemies who have been chasing young Rak through Shadow.

As we see more of the Family, we begin to see that they are all more than mortal and possessed of beauty and magic. They are, in fact, the Family of which all dark legends are but shadows. Witches, Dark Queens, and wicked footloose gypsies all, their numbers include a few dashingly handsome men like Lord Flight.

As Rak and Corvie begin to Cut through Shadow in Flight's automobile, they are confronted by terrible scenes of disruption and bleak landscapes that would fit perfectly in classic horror tales. Black moors, dead forests, and roads that are broken and battered as well as being filled with adversaries and unfortunate obstacles. Shadows all through their trip are full of peril. All this is hauntingly familiar to Corvidae.

The two finally arrive near the Realm of Night, invading the Argent Forest and encountering Lady Jewel riding the infamous NightMare among the fog-draped silvery trees and leading her pack of flame-eyed HellHounds. Jewel and Corvie fight and Jewel is dominated by Corvie after a long difficult wrestling bout where both are bruised and injured. Rak and Corvie pass on towards Umbra where they rescue a captured brother, Daedalus.

Once they free Daedalus from the Regent's Weir-fell, Rak and Corvie flee with Daedalus to Arb Mu, under the Black Sea of Sleep. There, King Morte pronounces sentence on stoic Rak, she will remain in Arb Mu and marry the blind poet, Vio. Morte also gives Corvie permission to negotiate Arb Mu's reflection of the Night Blade. It appears that Mordant has no love of the Regent Eerie.

Within a room deep beneath Arb Mu, the Night Blade is driven into the ancient stone floor. The Blade empowers the descendants of Darkweir, if it does not kill them. Corvie must keep to the Spiral Shadows of the Dance towards the Blade and yet avoid the cutting gleams that flicker in the water about the Blade. Stopping in the inward Shadow Dance or intersecting any bright reflection is almost always fatal. Once successfully in the center, Corvie allows the Blade to drink some of her blood and her memory is largely restored.

Corvie uses the Blade to transport to Caer Umbra and almost immediately faces her sister, Eerie, who has taken the role of Regent in the abscence of Queen Odessa. This confrontation leads to renewal of old conflict between the two. A fight ensues, but Corvie must flee before getting the better of Eerie though both are badly injured. Not long thereafter, Corvie and Blythe are allied in an assault on Umbra to remove Eerie from the Throne. An attack that slowly turns into disaster as all troops are lost. Blythe is pitched from the stairs in the battle for Caer Umbra. Corvie is captured, tortured and imprisoned beneath the Caer.

Twenty-five years pass with increasing levels of despair for Corvie, though her eyes, teeth and left hand do grow back. Then mysterious Darkweir herself appears by chance and provides an escape from the shadowy dungeons of Caer Umbra.

Corvie flees into distant Shadow, a wrecked shadow of her former self but more determined than ever to wrest the Regency from her sister.

~end of sample detail~

The Threat

The Host at the End of the Universe

Geography

The Vortex is the End of the Universe, the crumbling edge of the living multiverse. The Courts are not a globe, or other planetary mass, but a bastion of arcane boundaries and wards. Surrounded by the Black Reaches, the Courts of the Host have stood at the Vortex for so long, no one can say when they were first raised up. Access to the fortress-like Courts is through the Leather Gate, from a single piece of an immense creature's skin. The surrounding terrain at the edge of the Vortex hardly qualifies as much more than bare stone and tortured waste. It is sometimes refered to as the Battle Mountains. Things improve as one moves into the Black Reaches. Beyond the Black Reaches, things worsen again and some Shadows are actually deadly environments.

In the Courts, Shadow is everywhere. Shadow Drones do the rigorous work of keeping Shadow in some sort of structure. Where there is no Shadow to 'enhance' the local reality, a rare condition, there is only the bleakest sort of spare environment.

How Things Work in the Courts of the Host

Order.

If a single word or concept can stand as a touchstone for the Courts of the Host, it would be Order. The very age and success of the Courts has led to little examination of the way things are done. In some cases, no one even remembers the reasons for the laws, yet they are honored unto death.

The powerful Host Lords and elite of the Hives must all respect these tenets or suffer the loss of power.

The mature body of the Host, also understand the structure, but still have some time and ways of personal expression. If they can show the asset of a personal expression to their Hive, and it is not too opposed to tradition, they may become recognized as an innovator. Young people tend to fall into two categories. First, those who honor Order and restlessly wait to be recognized for their efforts on behalf of their Hive. Second, those who try to do the first method and lose their way. The second group can fall to listlessness, caprice, or simply be ignored. In the more extreme cases, they may leave the Courts, be banished, or actually be killed. Most Hive crimes are punished by Death.

In matters of ancient the Host's history, it is said that the Courts have forgotten more history than other people have recorded. Sometimes, this seems a point of pride. Language in the Courts is strictly Thari. It is considered to be lowering to speak the lower tongues of other Shadowfolk.

The Creatures of the Vortex

Drones.

The name is one that can be translated into a thousand languages, from the Vortex, to the Horizon of the Eventide Veil. Even in Shadows and cultures where Drones are long forgotten, the word has not lost its meaning. Legend has it, that the distant ancestors of the Lords of the Host, gained their first understanding of how to survive and prosper at the Vortex from the study of Drones.

These Creatures are the most adaptive, resistant sentients to the forces of the Vortex. Some can even prosper and survive in the Realms of Night. No few words can describe the fascinating power and variety of the Drones. The Hives of the Host have found means to control these beings. The practice is considered desperate and unwise. Without exception, there are no other creatures native to the Vortex Realms. Over time, the Hives of the Host have imported hardy breeds of various Shadow creatures as pets, working creatures, and war tools.

Mature Fiction

I'd like the stories of this weave to carry a greater threat from Outside than from internal Family matters. The Family is smaller because of the War. Eerie, Beneficent, Carnage, Break, and Daedalus are all gone.

And in case it is not obvious, everything is harder for this Family of Immortals by comparison to Amber. They bleed more easily. They do not control probability. They do not shape Shadows so much as endure them. The Night Blade is a dangerous Artifact. The Shadow Dance of the Blade kills quickly for the smallest mistake. The Realm of Night makes demands on the Family, and the new Queen needs to keep a watch on the Host.

I'm going to call this campaign mature in nature. The Broken Power of the Night Blade permits the Family control of Shadow only at the cost of suffering and obstacle and sacrifice. No topics are off-limits, but remember, I'm thinking that the odds are stacked against this family already. They have just learned what the cost of Break's betrayal is and they are more cohesive though still not tame in their views of each other.

I'm thinking these are dark heroes who manage to find common spirit in spite of their burdens. A Family that Amber might learn something from.

Game Back Story and Flavor

The Threat

Mature Fiction

Trumps