(Oscar Isaac)
A long-exiled son of Caine, your cousin Able, or Abel, is a senior member of the Order of Klybus, in charge of their military and of hiring mercenaries in Shadow. Several of your cousins have encountered him as they crossed blades with the Klybesians, but he has not waged war against any member of the family directly so far as your cousins know.
Bleys had found a place where the religion involved brother-gods who looked like us and had their troubles. Invariably, in the terms of this mythos, an evil brother would seize power and seek to oppress the good brothers. And of course there was the legend of an Apocalypse where they themselves would be called upon to stand on the side of the surviving good brothers.
-- Corwin, Nine Princes in Amber
... a friend of hers, a very capable soldier, as strong as myself, named Abel ...
-- Pen, recounting her adventures to Chirope
(Toby Stephens)
Your cousin Ambrose, Brand's youngest son, was raised under close watch in Uxmal by his father and cooperated with Dara to make his chance at walking the Pattern; when that failed, he took custody of Brita from her. Ultimately, with his brother Brennan's assistance, took oath to Random. He lost his long-term war with his sister Chantico for the possession of Uxmal, and brought the survivors to Xanadu. Now he spends much of his time decoding Brand's remaining papers with the surviving Uxmali code wheels, which only a handful of people can use.
What is their strength, anyway?
An endorsement of higher education. Fiona and Brand paid attention to Dworkin while the rest of us were off indulging our assorted passions in Shadow. Consequently, they seem to have obtained a better grasp of principles than we now possess.
-- Random and Corwin, Sign of the Unicorn
Ambrose gambled. Rather audaciously, at that. And while I am not without pride in my brother for the attempt, it went sour; there were circumstances he could not have foreseen, and Brand's allies are neither mine nor Ambrose's.
-- Brennan
(Winona Ryder) [deceased]
Your cousin Cambina was the daughter of Eric and the half-sister of your cousin Jerod. A scholar, Cambina was known in intellectual circles for several books she had written, including a well-received history of your grandfather's reign. Within the family, she was well-known for her mystical talents, such as her gift for reading the Fortunes, and for interpreting the signs she received on her frequent visits to Tir-na Nog'th. After the Return she grew close to your cousin Brennan. Cambina died by falling from Tir on the night of a full moon, and there is increasing suspicion she was murdered by the Queen of Air and Darkness.
I had come to the place where the ghosts play at being ghosts, where the omens, portents, signs, and animate desires thread the nightly avenues and palace high halls of Amber in the sky, Tir-na Nog'th.
-- Corwin, Sign of the Unicorn
And if you did not get to know her I am even more sorry for your loss, because she was kind in her blunt way - at least to me, and she would have cut through things to get us to our goals much faster than we have. That's a gift too. She was a historian as well. I don't think she only saw the future. I was taught time moves in a loop, so that makes sense to me.
-- Hannah
(Fernanda Tavares)
Your cousin Chantico is the daughter of Brand and one of the goddesses of her home shadow. She has conducted a long war to drive out her brother Ambrose and supplant him as the ruler of Uxmal, and ultimately warred with Edan and Lilly, who allied with Ambrose. She was last seen in Shadow and none know where she now dwells: in the remnants of Uxmal or elsewhere.
Out of every life a little blood must spill.
-- Corwin, Sign of the Unicorn
Chantico, by name. Feisty. It's not clear if the petty godlette that bore her lived to regret it.
-- Brennan
[deceased]
Your cousin Cneve lived so long ago that only Benedict remembers him. He was the illegitimate son of Osric, and little is known of him save that he bore the Rebman Pattern blade in the great war against the Tritons millennia ago. His death drew his father and your uncle Finndo into that war, which the Rebmans ultimately won. His tomb was lost until Khela located it and retrieved the blade; she died without revealing its location.
Cneve was before my time. Rumor had it he was somebody's by-blow and that's how Osric and Finndo got dragged into the war with the Tritons. At the time, nobody thought of any of the blades that way; it was just a part of his legend. The story is that it was buried with him.
-- Caine
Cneve bore my greensword, naming it Belagamon the Sea Sword. It was his death with Belagamon that brought his father into the battles in Rebma.
-- Weyland
(model unknown)
Daughter of Jerod and his lost vampire lover Marissa, Cordelia was held by the Klybesians for an unknown period. Some of your cousins found her in Paris recently and she has been introduced to the family. Random told Jerod that she would never be able to walk the Pattern, so it's unclear what role she'll play in the family at large, especially since she shares some of the characteristics and tastes of her vampire mother.
Could you not find a Shadow of your Shadow?
I don't want to try. I'm sorry.
-- Bleys and Corwin, Nine Princes in Amber
I have less than a tenday’s experience having a family around me and I don’t want to make decisions that close doors for me when I don’t even know where the doors are.
-- Cordelia
(Keira Knightley)
Dara is the distant descendant of Benedict; she was recruited by Oberon and Martin into the conspiracy against Brand. She bore Merlin to Corwin but before that, to prove she could, bore Meg to Martin. After the Battle of the Abyss and the death of her father Borel at Corwin's hands, she turned against Amber. She attacked the Coronation celebration and kidnapped Brita, and since then has engaged in various campaigns against Amber and Xanadu. Her current whereabouts and status are unknown.
I doubt there is anything of my new allegiance left for me to renounce.
-- Dara, The Courts of Chaos
Dara's a lot tougher than she looks. A terrible pity Uncle Caine's aim was off last night.
-- Jerod, to Brennan
(Anna Kournikova) [deceased]
Daughter of Julian, twin sister of Adonis, Dione was the embodiment of innocent delight in nature. She lived all of her life in Arcadia. Unlike her brother, she was incapable of defending herself against the demons of the Black Road when they attacked Arcadia, and was slain by them. Daeon joined his father at the Battle of the Abyss to avenge her death.
Then there was a forest.
And what a forest!
I had never seen trees such as this, mighty and majestic, of a deep, rich green, slightly tinged with gold. They towered, they soared. They were enormous pines, oaks, maples, and many others which I could not distinguish. Through them crept a breeze of fantastic and lovely fragrance, when I cracked the window a bit.
-- Corwin, Nine Princes in Amber
There is a ragged, Dione-shaped hole in Arcadia and the place is unbalanced by the lack.
-- Daeon, observing conditions in Arcadia.
(Taraji P. Henson) [deceased]
Llewella's daughter Khela was exiled from Rebma for her part in the Libertist movement and her advocacy of Triton freedom. Many years later, while in exile, Khela helped Celina with her awakening powers. Many years later, when Celina had learned her own ancestry, they were reunited, and Celina joined Khela's quest to overthrow Moire. When they took Rebma, Khela essayed the Pattern against all advice, and perished on it.
Here Moire blinked several times, and I speculated as to the number of her subjects she had sent upon that path, to gain some control of this power for Rebma.
-- Corwin, Nine Princes in Amber
Khela was always more passionate, more violent, than I was.
-- Martin
Khela and I have unfinished business of the heart. When that riddle cyphers shall there be a terrible force upon me and such strengths to answer broken dreams. Moire and Khela have warred over and around me for years, trimming away at my choices and bending my love. Before long I shall know which of them deserves death by my hand.
-- Celina
(Matt Damon)
Your cousin Martin was notoriously abandoned by his father Random and survived Brand's attempt on his life. After working with your grandfather Oberon and your cousin Dara in the plot against Brand, he served the Regency Council during the interregnum. After he saved his father's life during the attack on the Coronation Masque, he was named the first Knight-Commander of the new Order of the Card. Still serving as an agent of the Crown, Martin juggles his interests in Amber, Xanadu, and Rebma with his marriage to Folly and his paternal duties to their daughter Lark, complicated by the discovery that Dara bore a daughter, Meg, from their liaison. In his copious spare time, Martin plays a mean bass guitar.
The muscles in his jaw had tightened and his eyes narrowed. For a moment, all of our faces fled across his, like a riffling of the family cards. All of our egoism, hatred, envy, pride, and abuse seemed to flow by in that instant -- and he had not even set foot in Amber yet.
-- Corwin, The Hand of Oberon
He still sweet, sometimes. He's just.... He's no longer a boy. He walked into the enchanted forest and found out it's full of monsters.
-- Folly
(Ben Affleck)
Your cousin Merlin, Corwin's son by Dara, arrived in Amber for the first time with Benedict's returning army. He's a Trump artist, a sorcerer, and a shapeshifter, and has no sense that he's among the most powerful of your generation. He's had some difficulty adapting to Ordered life -- particularly around issues of reproduction -- but he's made many new friends among your cousins, the closest of which is his sister, Celina.
I have not lived long enough to have done too much.
-- Merlin, The Courts of Chaos
But true Chaosians consider Merlin and Aisling to be Ordered beings, however Chaotic they may appear to us.
-- Vere
What a well-mannered young man. Who is his mother?
Don't ask.
-- Coral and Llewella
(Anne Heche)
Long rumored to be Eric's daughter, Solace became pregnant by Lucas and he married her. She bore him two children, Hope and Phillippe, before his death. Now she lives in Paris under the protection of Florimel. Since Lucas' passing, it has come clear that he attempted to prove her bloodline by making Trumps of her, causing her headaches and serious injuries that suggest she does indeed bear the royal blood, if not enough to essay the Pattern.
But I liked her. I did not think I'd actually feel that way when I asked her out that night because, as I said, liking her was not what I had in mind.
-- Corwin, The Guns of Avalon
Well, I have a confession to make. Something I promised Lucas not to talk about, but I do consider that promise void now. Anyway. Lucas's wife Solace has had fainting spells. The second one was me trying to Trump her. I did not intend to hurt her, I didn't know at the time...that some people are hurt by Trump calls. There were rumors. Lucas wanted to determine if she was family, and asked me if I secretly could paint a Trump of her...
-- Ossian, after Lucas' funeral