Here you can definitions of the terminology used in the Helgram and Crown Casino Games

The Courts of Chaos

  • Thelbane: this refers to both the Rock on which the Logrus was drawn, and the palace where King Swayvill holds his Court.
  • The Royal Ways: this comprises the five rings of worlds directly around the Rock of Thelbane. The individual House Ways are at least partially located within this zone: usually the public areas which are the interface with the Royal Ways.
  • The Courts of Chaos: the wider “Courts” encompasses the fifteen rings of worlds directly around Thelbane, which had already formed when Great Cornelius gave himself to the Logrus. Other sections of the House Ways are usually linked to this zone
  • The Black Zone: these are the lands extending out from the Courts which came into existence in the millennium between Great Cornelius’ sacrifice and Dworkin Barimen drawing the Pattern.
  • Chaos Shadow: the worlds between the Black Zone and the Great Divide.
  • The Great Divide: aka the Dancing Mountains, where Chaos Shadow meets Amber Shadow.

Amber

  • Greater Amber: the world created when Dworkin-Barimen drew the Pattern. In elemental terms, it would be considered the “earth” world. It has two sister realms: Rebma, beneath the waves; and the sky city of Tir-na Nog’th. It has been speculated that there may be a “fire” realm, but thus far, it’s existence has not been proven.
  • The Golden Circle: Amber’s trading bloc in the worlds nearest to Greater Amber. Most of the Golden Circle worlds are within 10 Shadow Veils of  Amber, although there are exceptions.
  • Amber Shadow: this officially starts outside the Golden Circle, around Veil 10-15, although as with the Ethyr Zone at the other end of reality, there are 5-10 Veils where the worlds are slightly more real than, or different to, “Open Shadow”.
  • The “Shadow Earth” zone. This comprises the worlds about 10 Veils in all directions from “Shadow Earth”. It is situated about halfway between Amber and the Dancing Mountains.

Degrees of “Reality” (sometimes called Substance)

  • Rocks: these are landmasses that originate in the Abyss, either formed spontaneously or as remnants of other places and times. The inscribing of a Great Power must be undertaken on a Rock.
  • Fundamental: this refers to Rocks and worlds brought from the Abyss or formed when the two Great Powers (the Logrus, the Pattern) were first created. The Fundamental lands are Thelbane and the first five rings of worlds around it, plus Amber, Arden and Rebma.
  • Real : worlds in close proximity to the Poles of Thelbane and Amber are considered to be Real, as are the people who come from them. These include the worlds that comprise the Courts of Chaos, outside of the first five rings of worlds around Thelbane, as well as many of the Black Zone territories – especially the BZ Nexus worlds – and the Golden Circle.
    • The Black Zone is connected by a system of naturally occuring pathways known as Serpent Lines, built around or radiating out from a number of “Nexus” worlds, which are often more Real than those which surround them.
  • Semi-Real: the degree of Reality declines the further a territory is from the Pole. These semi-Real worlds are towards the edges of the Black Zone, but existed before the Pattern was drawn.
    • These worlds are more fluid, sometimes changing their nature, or moving, or breaking up and forming multiple new worlds, or equally, consolidating together to form larger worlds. When this happens, the Dragon Lines adjust to the changes over the course of a few months.
  • Shadow: persons and places originating in the worlds that were cast between the Black Zone and the Golden Circle when the Pattern was drawn.
  • It is unclear whether the worlds of the Great Divide, or the moon world of Tir-na Nog’th are of Shadow or Substance.

Denizens of the Courts

  • Cornelians: direct descendents of Cornelius the Great, who still have up to 5% of the blood of Cornelius.
  • Lords and Ladies of Chaos (aka Chaosians, Titans): the inhabitants of the original Rocks drawn together by Cornelius from fragments of other worlds found in the Abyss, as well as those who came into being with the lands which formed in the first fifty years after the Logrus was drawn (roughly the first five rings of worlds around Thelbane). Many of these have  some measure of Cornelian blood through intermarriage.
  • Demons: the everyday denizens of the Courts of Chaos (and Amber), as well as many of those that hale from the worlds of the Black Zone (and the Golden Circle).
    • Courts or House demons will have been born in the fifteenn rings of worlds that make up the Courts of Chaos, and are usually more substantial, and longer lived than Black Zone demons.
    • Black Zone demons will have been born in the Black Zone.
  • Shadow Folk: people who live in the worlds cast between the Black Zone and the Golden Circle when the Pattern was drawn.
  • Dancers: denizens of the Great Divide, where Chaos and Amber Shadow meet.

Denizens of Amber

  • The Royal Family: the rulers of Amber, who are descended from Cornelius the Great through Dworkin Barimen, and have powers and abilities not shared by the rest of the residents of Amber.
  • The Nobility: descended from the earliest residents of Amber, who came into being when Dworkin drew the Pattern. Some of the noble families have royal blood to some degree, due to marriages between the Royals and the Nobles. These are equivalent in reality to the Lords and Ladies of Chaos.
  • Amber Denizens: the residents of Greater Amber appear to have come into being as the centuries have past, and the Royals and Nobles realised that they needed people to do the actual jobs around Greater Amber.  These are equivalent in reality to the Thelbane demons.
  • Golden Circle visitors: the Golden Circle worlds have inherited a certain degree of reality due to their proximity to Greater Amber, and therefore the people from these worlds fall somewhere between Amber Denizens, and the people of Open Shadow.
  • Visitors from Shadow. This is the smallest group of visitors to Amber, as they would need either some way to get there on there own, or to have stumbled onto the Royal Ways out in the Golden Circle, or were brought into Amber by someone else.

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