"We will begin not at the beginning, but at the point where records in the Chaos Bloodguild of Healers are of a complete tapestry and this shall have to suffice. These are the facts then for us to consider in this, the age of King Vicmys the Harbinger.
The Abyss generates intangible tendrils of destruction that lash and permeate the Courts at unfathomable intervals. There are no known protections sufficient to stay these energies from penetrating any House of the Courts, but buffering techniques and ablative magics have given all of Chaos some measure of security and welfare. This is, without a doubt, the reason that our Blood of Chaos is so terribly infertile. The shaping spark in the Crucible of creation between men and women has a threshold that is defeated by proximity to Abyssal energies. And too, it is the reason that a majority of children die before the age of six years, owing that small lives are so much more vulnerable than mature ones.
Despite our best arcane thought on this, these are both the strengths and subtle ironies of our impregnable and violated Courts.
As all know, it is not out of the question that children be sent beyond the Black Zone to be raised in conquered shadows far from the Edge of Oblivion. In fact, those Houses with less resources within the Courts have done this as they are able with what means they have. The philosophy of Chaos' survival might override that display of apparent weakness, in particular if it yields success in defending life and dominion.
Regardless, it is less likely and less feasible to remove couples of reproductive age from the Ways. It is also no solution as we know the Crucible is damaged over years of exposure. There is evidence that by age 12, even before most youngers approach puberty, that the Crucible is already less than half as potent as it should be in a couple of untainted health (this projection defended by study of exiled criminals of various Houses). By age 24, the Crucible is half again as capable as at age 12. We estimate on average that by age 48, there is only one chance in one thousand thousands of a viable heir.
While the programs for raising entire reproductive caches of loyal subjects far from their native Houses is a terrible failure, the resources of Chaos and the ingenuity of our survival are vast and unstoppable."
recorded in the Thelbane reign of Vicmys the Harbinger (approximately 243,000 years ago on the Royal Calendar)
The Eternal City campaign deals with the reproductive poverty of Oberon and his children head-on by establishing the same conditions for ancient Chaos. This single decision allows the GM to establish a limited cast of immortals, and within the scope of a single campaign, to control the replenishment of Chaos Houses from previous wars, including PatternFall.
Corwin points out, fifteen hundred years of his father's wayward ways didn't produce many children.
As you can read in the left sidebar, the Chaosians have long had a problem with reproduction. They "solved" their problem so long ago that the Solution became an integral part of their bodies and culture. The Solution involved placing a Doom of power upon the Blood of Chaos. A Doom engineered to awaken stored energy when special conditions were provoked.
Oberon carried the Doom with him when he went into exile with his father and he passed it to his children.
As recorded in the Eternal City campaign, Oberon sought to defy this ages-old Doom upon the Blood. He hoped that Amber would thrive without it, as the Abyss was not a consideration. He deliberately withheld his understanding of the special rituals of Chaosian reproduction from his children, with the expectation that ignorant of the "Chaos Solutions", they would find some better or more flexible course. Some may say he did this to control his children from building dynasties of their own, or to protect his domination of the Amber realm, or even to test the manifestations of the Pattern in the Blood of his Get, and perhaps all these things are true to some degree.
The fact is that the Children of Oberon did not know the Chaos Circumstances of reproduction. They only knew about recreational sex.
Looking at pre-history, there are those who suggest that Shaping might have been the Solution to the reproductive Ritual of the Crucible and that the strange forms of the Chaosians were this necessity. This was not the case, Shaping being only first a weapon of the conquering Chaos Houses, and then a social necessity of the Houses of Chaos in building a unified Kingdom from their disparate ancient breeds and points of origin.
That is a story for another time.
The Solution was much more daring, permanent, and unfathomable. It was actually the First Artifact of Necessity that touched all Houses of Chaos by order of King Vicmys and transmogrified the Blood of Chaos to a character which could ensure the race against the Abyss. The Keeper of the Artifact crafted all the Blood such that during proper mental ritual, extra energies would be drawn up from within each gender in order to spark the Crucible despite the Abyssal drain.
Today, the Blood holds to this transmogrified state of Circumstance, even in decendants of Dworkin.
As an important side-note, it is also this arcane well of erotic Circumstance energy that can overpower and saturate the Crucible relationship between long-familiar couples-- eventually running the Crucible at temperatures too searing for proper healthy conception. It is therefore normal that two or three children are the most that any couple of Chaos Blood may safely have. Healers attest that 'fourth children' are born misshapen or ill-formed, particularly in mental stability. 'Fifth children' brought to term are notoriously monstrous.
This fact Oberon did not dare ignore.
In all of shadow there has always been imperfect reflection of those things true in the Realms of Chaos and Amber. The complexities of erotic attraction and reproduction are less clear in shadow, being but poor reflections of the true state of the Circumstance crafted by Chaos. The children of Amber would be hard pressed to learn directly of the Chaos Circumstance from the murky broken reflections of shadow. They were also ignorant of the history and evolution of Chaosians in their Fortress Ways at the Edge of Oblivion, where bathed in the harshest and most deadly emanations known to the whole universe, those ancients still managed to ensure the continuation of the race.
The various Chaos Houses and their special natures developed special Circumstance rituals apart from each other. A natural safeguard and a point of diversity. It is normal that now, after timeless centuries, most Houses have narrowed these rituals to one major and a handful of minor Circumstances that work within their Blood. It is rare for individuals to actually have mixed Circumstances, then requiring the double or triple enactment of all requirements of that mix in order to reproduce.
Amber's ancestors, those outcasts of House Nemirab, are known to have one of three Circumstances, one major and two minor. Oberon's own Circumstance was the 'minor Keeper'.
But it has been demonstrated that among other things, Oberon's search for strong women to be his queens also involved twists of fate engendering children of amazing vitality. While Oberon was limited by his Circumstances, he worked to see that his children might not be so. While he did not succeed, he did breed a great flexibility back into the Circumstances of Amber Blood that is not found in Chaos.
When Oberon mingled his line with the strongest of Shadow, permutations of the Circumstance flowed from each of his Queens. The history is dry; let us talk about some specific* cases.
Prince Corwin and Prince Merlin demonstrate that the line of Faiella has Circumstances which are aroused by danger. Their attractions to women happen in a climate of danger or when the female represents specific danger or potential danger. The more dangerous the woman, the more potential attraction called from the Circumstance. That this happens in defiance of apparent logic is merely the ancient doom of Circumstance in their Chaosian blood.
It has even been suggested that after King Oberon invoked dire penalties for his offspring having carnal relations, that Eric, Corwin, and Deirdre developed stronger attractions for each other. In this, Oberon was hoist on his own decision not to explain or investigate Circumstances in his Get.
Prince Benedict's own Circumstantial Doom is like his father's; he is pulled to women who demonstrate they are extremely competent and completely dedicated to a higher principle or station. Women who place something in higher regard than their lovers. This is why it was most likely for Oberon and Benedict to be drawn to women with codes of high honor, or avocations to church, or even in extreme cases like Deela the Desacratrix, a fanatic desire to undo Amber itself. It is recorded that Benedict's attraction to the Hellmaid Captain Lintra was nearly his undoing.
In the worlds of shadow, healers and scryers of the psyche often misunderstand unusually strong drives and exotic desires in courtship and sex. Most often, this is because they have the mistaken impression that people without these unusually strong desires are "normal". The complexities of erotic attraction and reproduction are less clear in shadow, being but reflections of the true state of the Circumstance crafted by Chaos. The strongest and brightest of those in shadow tend to also find a Circumstance in their erotic desires.
* game notes:
Of course, in "game speak", each GM would have to imagine the Circumstances for the different sons and daughters of Amber themselves as to reinforce the kind of game desired. Sex without invoking the greater erotic charge of Circumstance has no Crucible potential for children.
This makes it incredibly easy to allow children to become plot points where it suits the game and not allow where the players are as ignorant of the Chaos Circumstances as are the Characters.
The Line of Clarissa of Embre; being Fiona, Bleys, and Brand.
Circumstances for this line are complicated by Clarissa coming from one of the primal reflections of the initial Amber Event. Descended of the royal line of Embre, Clarissa was Circumstantially Oberon's reflection, though she also had primal attractions to fire-- making for doubled Circumstance. Where Oberon was erotically immune to women of amazing charm and yet captivated by their powerful agendas, Clarissa was drawn to men of great presence and careless to their motivations. Clarissa never loved Amber, but was passionate mostly for herself. Oberon had small desire for Clarissa the woman, but was attracted to her great love of her own mental prowess and needs. He urged her into avenues that made her cling more to the idea of returning in pomp and splendor to Embre, which she adored. The erotic attraction of Oberona and Clarissa was a history of Fire and Obsession. The passion passed on to Clarissa's children.
Fiona was the strongest of mind, but like her mother-- by Clarissa's craft as much as Fiona's heritage. For years, Fiona's erotic Circumstance was held down under the overwhelming quickness of her mind. Not until she was in her early twenties did an accident become a romantic attraction that the princess could not shake off.
Considering Princess Fiona's abilities and power, as shown from preteen years, it is small wonder that she was all but ignored by possible suitors. Even if courted, she often subtly tested her suitor for mental agility and seldom found too much interest in them afterwards. Fiona garnered the reputation for an engaging social manner and distant personal passion. Fiona hardly dwelt on the fact that there were only two men who held her attention. Naturally one was Oberon and he loomed large in her young admiration.
The second, strangely, was Oberon's antic court jester, Droppa. Fiona found the aged fellow and his 'humor' to be quite vulgar. She made several efforts to have her father dismiss the jester from the court because of his indecent and unrefined clowning. To which Oberon denied her saying, "You have no idea how needful I am of my little amusements."
In was during the antics of a casual luncheon when Fiona first realized the draw of her Circumstance to Droppa. Horseplay between Bleys and Droppa resulted in a soccer ball landing in Fiona's soup bowl, splashing her face and dress. Droppa immediately remarked that eating that way looked fun and he grabbed up a bowl to overturn it on his own head. "Ah, tasty!" he remarked twinkling at the drowned princess.
To her shock, Fiona felt the burn of awakened Circumstance.
Exposure, vulnerability and wounded pride were her erotic Circumstances. The flush of fire was added impetus from the Embre background. In Chaos, this line of Circumstance is called the Sawall 'witch minor' and is also known by the common misnomer, 'the Compromised Psyche'. The princess' fabulous engine of a mind longed for uncouth behavior in order to let go her normal constraints and enjoy chaotic passion. Some part of her perception had early on recognized Droppa as a comedic creative chaos that might compromise her control.
To her credit, she did not destroy Droppa out of hand, she began the slow steps toward learning more about the man that so drew her arousal.
Be mindful, Gentle Reader, that Fiona knew nothing of Chaos and only what she could read about sex. She secretly studied Droppa with intensity unrivalled while keeping everyone in Amber in the dark about her feelings. If anything, she became more proper, more studious than ever before.
However, one astute scholar has pointed to a particularly distorted Trump shadow of the red-headed princess named, 'Jessica Rabbit'. While the details of Mrs. Rabbit's marriage to her unlikely husband are not important to our discussion here, what is significant is Jessica's explanation to the unlikely pairing:
"He makes me laugh."
We can hear an echo of Oberon's sentiment in this, too.
*
Bleys was strongest of body, and he was much under Clarissa's sway as well. Bleys favored adventure and where he could not find it, he created it. His Circumstance was the reverse of Fiona's, what in Chaos is called the Sawall 'witch major' and is also known as 'the Binding Compromise'.
He is famous for his affairs with strong capable women from various shadows. In private, he pushed the bounds of his lovers' eros. His was the agile spirit that provoked women (and men) to throw away their pride and give in to lusts orchestrated by Bleys.
*
Brand was most elegant and comfortable in both mind and body. A man of many potentials and a good balance between Fiona and Bleys. He was totally independent of his mother's wiles. But Brand was also insightful and moody to extremes.
His Circumstance was the unheard of double-Sawall, or 'major vs minor'. His attractions could run in both modes at once and made his moods quite passionate.
His pride was internalized and yet longed to be stretched beyond its limits at the same time. Prince Brand was sexually thwarted through most of his adult life until he came upon Bloodguild records in the Courts of Chaos and analyzed his own complex desires.
It was shortly after this that Rinaldo was conceived with Jasra. Small wonder that Jasra had such a strong hand with Rinaldo in his young years, if she had any inkling of the Circumstances of red-heads, and Brand in particular.