Cobalt

A fairly real shadow of Amber where “if you can’t keep it in your pants, keep it in the family” has been taken to extreme levels.

The time differential compared to Amber sped up tremendously when the Spiral was broken. It is still hundreds to one Cobalt:Amber.

Places:

Cobalt – The city on the Mountain of Koevyr. Home of most of the family, and location of the Spiral. Its symbol is a blue-tinged white great cat rampant facing sinister, with bright metallic blue claws, eyes, and teeth, usually depicted against a black background.

Sapphire – The city beneath the waves, off the north coast, perhaps 3 hours ride from Cobalt. It is reached by the Unitair.

Cerulean – The city which appears in the skies above Cobalt at sunrise, disappearing at sunset or whenever the sun is occluded. Prophetic omens are a specialty, though most of the family consider it much the same as a bad soap opera, and don’t pay it much heed except in times of crisis. Its people are insubstantial visions, though those who are particularly psychically sensitive (or have the proper spells cast upon them) can hear and speak with them.

Beldan fell and cracked Cerulean, and Caelin unintentionally tapped the city for power while trying to heal Beldan. Caelin drained the city entirely, and now it is gone.

Azure Forest – The forest spreading to the east of Koevyr, a vast place which interpenetrates with other dimensions, particularly those with forests, quite often.

Lapis Lazuli – Local dimensions in a network of trade and defenses around Cobalt. A fairly loose confederation, which wields a fair amount of power in Cobalt (as Dana, and then Aurelia encouraged friendly relations).

Fractal Realm – The opposite pole of the Spiral, located on the same promontory. There is a way to travel between Cerulean and the Fractal Realm, involving a spell of invocation (calling the way) cast at noon from the highest tower room in Cerulean. Unfortunately, the room is rather small, and thus cannot be used to transport large numbers of people.

Things:

The Gem of Fate – Power artifact, which can be used by the wielder for various far-reaching effects. May not be intelligent, but seems to have an agenda of its own sometimes.

The Cerulean Crown – An artifact worn by Coral. It allows her to hear and speak with the residents of Cerulean, and most of them recognize and respect its wearer. It is theorized to be able to change shape (go ask Coral). It is a sorcerous aid to spells and workings of a divinatory and/or scrying sort.

Water’s Edge – A magnificent blade, it is tied to Sapphire much as the legends depict the connection between Camelot and Excaliber, and its possession by Llewellyn is one of his strongest claims on the throne, as it cannot be wielded against its will. It gives him a great deal of knowledge of anything that touches `his’ seas, and allows him to call up or put down various sea phenomena (tsunami, whirlpool, geyser, etc.), as well as allowing him communication with and the respect of creatures of the water.

The Azure Staff – Much as Water’s Edge is to Sapphire, the Staff is to the Azure Forest. Less powerful than the previous two, it allows Julia knowledge of those who enter her forest, and allows her to communicate with the creatures of the woodlands and the trees themselves. She has learned how to communicate with her forces through it (the trees transmitting her instructions), and can do so with virtually no chance of being overheard. Whoever has it wields it only if they have the respect of the trees. It can shapechange to a lance, and is nearly indestructible.

Notes

This family has taken the necessity of `good breeding’ too far. The most suitable candidate for a family member who wishes to have children… is another family member. They are cross-fertile with no troubles yet.

Osric and Caerlas were brought up by their mothers in competition with each other. When they reached the age of twenty-five, Ozma realized it had gone much too far. She tried to step between them during a magical duel and was killed. Fiona was crazed by the event and slew both of them, and was then executed (regretfully) by Aurelia. The five children who are left remind each other not get too mad with the words, “Remember {Caerlas for the girls, Osric for the boys}”. No one mentions Ozma and Fiona anymore, in case Beryl is listening.

This series of events may also have been why Coral abandoned the warrior track and sought out a new direction (which she found in Cerulean & shapeshifting), to avoid the brewing conflict between her and Erica. The two get along now, but aren’t particularly close.

The royalty of Cobalt aren’t as long-lived as their counterparts, but are living in one of those magic-dense, concentrated slow-time Shadows, with a time rate of 1:30, Cobalt to Amber time.

Cobalt is pretty damned strong compared to most Shadows of the Realm, and would be rated at least as a 4 pt. Primal due to sitting on a Kraken of it’s own. Although it doesn’t have a Pattern (or a Broken Pattern, for that matter), the royal family does have access to the equivalent powers listed for Conjuration under Shadow Travel (although they tend not to go too far, playing mostly in Lapis Lazuli and the nearby Shadows) and Shadow Manipulation. They are taught as a power-skill, much as Sorcery is (though it isn’t Sorcery), and are two facets of the same power, rather than being separate.

Royalty (and some 10% of the nobility) ride immense birds of prey called Ornithals. Their training is both lengthy (taking about five years on average) and expensive, however, so the mounts are treasured and not widely available. Fortunately, their metabolisms and internal structures are known to a degree that actually makes them easier to care for than most humans. Barring mortal wounds, a trained bird can last up to a century before growing too old to fly with a rider. They usually die before they reach one hundred fifteen years old.

Ornithals come in all sorts of colours, from basic black or grey to wild spatterings of rainbow that make some birds look like they’ve been through an explosion in a paint factory, and then flew through a glitter shower. Due to their nature, they not only come up with mattes and pastels, but glosses, metallics and gem shades.

Two adjacent Lapis Lazuli kingdoms, Gameb and Afkash, specialize in their breeding and training, Afkash turning out perhaps 85% of the birds for riding uses, the other 15% being trained in Gameb (by Catherine among others) as war mounts. The breeding mews are located in the Rongene Mountains, jointly held by both kingdoms.

Most family members are presented with one on their 21st birthday, usually after having spent about half the previous year with the bird. The only exceptions have been Julia, who allied with Sturm when she was 15, Alaric and Sashelas, as they were brought up in Sapphire, and Bast, whose bird got one look at her, flew off in terror, and has never been seen since. Llewellyn had one, which was until its death one of the few reasons Llewellyn ever saw the surface worlds, as it was mewed (eyried?) in Cobalt.

New birds for family members are usually arranged in advance, due to the training time involved. Some of the family keep more than one, but such birds were negotiated for individually by the family member in question.

One of the Shadows on the Cobalt side between there and the Fractal Realm is the Sten universe. 1:1 with Cobalt, it is the source of Mantis training (among other things), a combat training that rivals Dorsai for its efficiency, and has the added advantages of not having to be born into the Dorsai (for later era values of Dorsai), and it’s a training that can be learned by adults.

This family uses Trumps. The type in use in Cobalt have several drawbacks. Created sorcerously, they can be detected in use by anyone with the ability to see sorcerous energies, though they do not fail in low- or non-magic Shadows. Their range stretches all the way from Cobalt to the Fractal Realm, but unfortunately infinite Shadow is a LOT bigger than that. Though they might work within that range of Cobalt from outside their Shadow realm, they do not compensate well for time differentials. Any attempt to reconcile a difference in time rates between recipient’s locales fails if that difference is greater than 3:1 or 1:3.

Finally, while they are permanent items, they must be recharged (though the fact that they use charges is why they don’t fail in the absence of magic – they carry their own). Performable by any family member in harmony with the Spiral, placing a charge into a trump takes about four hours, varying slightly with Psyche ratings. On the upside of this downer, each charge will last for the entire duration of any single call, charges may be placed into more than one card at a time (no single card gets more than one at once, but you can do your whole deck {or several decks} at a time), and each card can hold an infinite amount of charges. Anyone joining a contact does so at the will of the person they are touching, who must expend a charge to let them join (so someone who doesn’t have their card for the other end out, or who has no charges left in that particular card, cannot be joined).

Dana, Aura, Beryl, Cynthia, Derek, Finndo, Blaze, Brandy, Julia, Alia, and Beau have enough skill with the Trumps to broadcast a non-interactive message to several people at once, expending a charge from each card in whatever stack they hold (Thus, if you don’t need to tell it to someone, you needn’t hold their card and expend a charge from it). The skill is pretty much a requirement for taking any permanent post in defense of Cobalt.