Oberon's Queens & Mistresses
(Lauren Bacall)
Cymnea is the first Queen of Amber of whom the records speak. She was the daughter of a master merchant, Vital, and a foreign princess named Basina. After she bore Osric, Finndo, and Benedict, Oberon's attention wandered and he moved to cast Cymnea off, going so far as to bring his mistress to live in the castle. After Eric's birth, the crisis came to a head. Cymnea's family feuded with the family of Faiella in what came to be known as "the Queens' War", leading to factionalism and blood in the streets.
The influence of Cymnea and her family diminished over time as Oberon threw his power behind his mistress and their new son; eventually Cymnea's position became untenable enough that she removed into Shadow. Perhaps not coincidentally, Osric and Finndo were ordered into the war in Rebma after the death of Osric's son Cneve, and both were killed. Ultimately Oberon dissolved his marriage to Cymnea , as Faiella's family had demanded, to protect the interests of the young Eric. A dwindling number of partisans maintained that Cymnea was the Queen until Cymnea's death in Shadow.
Cymnea's family ... had become a bit stronger around that time.
-- Corwin, Sign of the Unicorn
Memory currently runs as far back as Cymnea, who bore Osric, Finndo, and Benedict.
-- Brennan
(Hedy Lamarr)
Faiella's position and that of her young son Eric were somewhat tenuous until news came of Cymnea's death in Shadow. Even with Oberon's marriage to Cymnea annulled and his oldest two sons dead, the citizenry of Amber still thought of Cymnea as Queen and Benedict as heir presumptive. Worse, Oberon never formally legitimated Eric even after he married Faiella. After Cymnea died, Faiella bore Corwin, and later Caine, securing the succession, and there was a long period of peace and prosperity while the trade routes expanded and royal power along with them.
Trouble was on the horizon, however: Eric and Corwin feuded over their places in the succession to the point where the court feared they might kill each other. Caine retreated from court. Faiella fell pregnant again, this time, with a daughter, Deirdre, whom she died in bearing.
Faiella, mother to Eric and myself, was his wife after the death of Cymnea.
-- Corwin, The Guns of Avalon
While we were wrestling with that, the Queen - Faiella - died, which [threw] the court out of whack in a lot of ways.
-- Fletcher
(Joan Crawford)
After Faiella's death, Oberon waited many years before he sought a new wife. He was reluctant to choose a woman from Amber or the "Golden Circle" of Amber's trading partners, and ultimately found a woman supposedly from a far southern shadow: Clarissa.
The court disliked Clarissa. Gossips called her a sorceress. After the birth of Fiona and Bleys, Clarissa's relationship with Oberon grew stormy. Oberon spent increasingly long periods of time out of Amber and dallied abroad. Eventually he brought home Llewella from Rebma following a tryst with Queen Moins, and legitimated her (causing trouble with Eric's partisans). After Llewella's introduction at court, Clarissa and Oberon reconciled for a time, and she bore Brand. The reconciliation failed, and Oberon divorced Clarissa, banishing her from court. Clarissa left Amber, returning to her home, but all three of her children remained in Amber.
Dad did not remarry for many years after mother's death. When he did it was a redheaded wench from a far southern shadow. I never liked her. He began feeling the same way after a time and started fooling around again.
-- Corwin, Sign of the Unicorn
In two words? Powerful and capricious.
-- Brennan
(Grace Kelly)
Following Clarissa's banishment, Oberon married one of her attendants, a quiet woman named Dybele. Her calm demeanor lent stability to a bruised court, and she was expected to preside over a long reign. Not long after she announced a pregnancy, Oberon was called away to deal with a war in the Golden Circle. By the time he returned, less than a year later, Dybele was dead, leaving her infant daughter Florimel. She had been Queen for thirteen months.
Excuse me, Flora before Julian.
-- Corwin, Sign of the Unicorn
After Brand: Flora, born by Dybele.
-- Brennan
(Audrey Hepburn)
Oberon ruled alone, without a consort, after Dybele's death. Some years later, he brought a woman out of shadow to Amber and announced, to the shock of his children, that he had married her. Rilga bore Oberon two sons, Julian and Gerard, in swift succession, but the births tired her. She aged unnaturally quickly by Amber standards. She left court to turn her hand to good works. The infirmities of age forced her to retire completely after little more than a decade of charitable endeavors. Rilga died giving birth to her third child by Oberon, Ysabeau.
After that, it would swing over to Julian, Gerard, and Random, in that order.
-- Corwin, Sign of the Unicorn
Knowing what I now know, I believe that Mother was tied to this Shadow somehow, and that giving birth to her children elsewhere drained her in ways she did not expect.
-- Julian
(Ava Gardner)
After Amber assisted Calyx's home shadow of Etana in defeating a rival for metal supply, she spent several years in Amber, initially to negotiate trade between the two kingdoms. She aggressively courted Oberon after Rilga's retirement from court and he was amenable to her advances. Calyx bore Oberon a son, Huon. Not long after Huon was born, Rilga died giving birth to Ysabeau, and Oberon's attention was turned to his legitimate children. While Oberon was dealing with his newest daughter, Calyx fell pregnant by another lover, this time with Pinabello. While Oberon took some interest in both Huon and Pinabello, his affair with Calyx was over and her welcome in Amber cooled. She returned to Etana, leaving her sons, by now adolescents, in Amber.
Not a tremendous batting average for so lusty a liege, but then none of us had proved excessively fertile either.
-- Corwin, thinking about his siblings, The Guns of Avalon
I believe Huon happened between Gerard and Ysabeau, since we're speaking of the unspoken-of. Definitely before Paulette. I think Father might have even considered marrying her, if she hadn't gotten Pinabello off another man.
-- Bleys
(Marilyn Monroe)
Paulette was Oberon's last queen and the mother of his youngest known children. She was very young when she married him; the court speculated that he was more like a father to her than a lover. Rumors suggested that she took lovers among the Naval officers, but Oberon took no notice.
In time Paulette steadied, but both her children were wild and the court said her blood ran true in Random when he abandoned his son Martin in Rebma. Mirelle's death on the Pattern is an open secret in the family, and some of your aunts and uncles have speculated Oberon was not Mirelle's father. Even with Oberon's support, the disdain of the court and the princes took a heavy toll. Not long after Mirelle's death, Paulette threw herself off one of the castle battlements and died.
Our parents had tried to discipline him in the past, never very successfully.
-- Corwin, Nine Princes in Amber
[The Pattern] killed my sister and indirectly killed my mother.
-- Random
Random's Queens & Mistresses
(Olivia Williams)
Anna was one of the castle maids who attracted the attention of Prince Random. She realized he would never acknowledge her, so when she fell pregnant, she married one of the castle grooms, Donovan Bailey. Anna and Donovan both knew her son Garrett was actually of the royal blood, but neither of them told him until he was a young man.
HAVE A QUOTE
-- WHO SAID IT,
Your mum's been scared someone would come and take you away. From where she sits, her worst fears have all come true.
-- Donovan
(Sophie Marceau)
Daughter of Moire, niece of Llewella, Morganthe was considered a likely heir to Rebma. Random drew her attention when he visited Rebma, and they left together. She was returned, perhaps unwillingly, to Rebma not long afterward, pregnant with Martin. After Martin's birth, she supposedly committed suicide; the family knows that Morganthe actually died on the Rebman Pattern.
Surely you recall that one time Prince Random came into my realm as a friend, and did thereafter depart in haste with my daughter Morganthe?
I have heard this said, Lady Moire, but I am not aware of the truth or baseness of the tale.
It is true, and a month thereafter was she returned to me. Her suicide came some months after the birth of her son Martin.
-- Moire and Deirdre, Nine Princes in Amber
Morganthe didn't suicide herself on the Pattern. She tried to walk it. She tried to gain its power.
-- Jerod
(Emma Thompson)
Random's forced marriage to Vialle surprised everyone by succeeding, at least at first. Vialle's efforts on his behalf were instrumental in both his survival and his rehabilitation in Amber after his attempt to kill Eric. Vialle was initially a key player in Gerard's Regency and the beginnings of Random's regin in Amber, but found herself sidelined over time in favor of other royals, particularly Folly.
After Random removed the court to Xanadu, Vialle went to Tir-na Nog'th and the Queen of Air and Darkness, the legendary ruler of that city, possessed her. The Queen, as Vialle, gained some kind of magical control over Random. Vialle was defeated, captured, and removed from the Castle. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
You were without sight for a long while.
Yes.
It can embitter a person, or it can give him greater joy in those things which he does have.
-- Vialle and Corwin, The Hand of Oberon
She acts like herself, but the Queen of Air and Darkness is inside her.
-- Edan