Background

Guard duty is pretty much the same everywhere, 80% of the time it’s boring, 10% it has its moments, 5% of the time you wish you were dead, 4% of the time you find you are, and 1% of the time you absolutely thought you were but found out you’re not but maybe being dead would be the better option. So it was for Edward’s grandfather, Hasard Blenerstewall, on that particular day. All hell had broken loose as some 2nd rate family’s 2nd daughter had gone missing in the family Wey, and the Militia, generally made up of the inconsequential members of the inconsequential families that made up the bulk of the Courts, had been called in to search for her. The Weys of the older families, especially the old and unused parts were a death trap for the unwary. So what if a few members of the Militia went missing as well, it didn’t matter as long as she was found. To this day he doesn’t know if she ever was. He’d slipped on an area of slick cave floor, and gone down like a sack of spilled grain. The only problem was that he hadn’t stopped either sliding or falling.

He’d awoken some time later, baking hot, the sun beating down on his back, lying face down on soft hot rock. He hurt like hell. His head hurt. Everything hurt. He must have gone primal at some point, now he was paying the price. He heard voices, but he understood nothing. He tried to rise, and was greeted by screaming. He understood that sound. The screaming died down as it receded into the distance. Then there was another sound, a mechanical sound he didn’t recognise. As he looked around a strange wheeled vehicle powered by some form of magic pulled away into the distance. At least he recognised the occupants, humans. He couldn’t stay here; slowly he started to make his way in the opposite direction to which the contraption had come.

It took him until sundown to reach some form of abandoned and derelict building. He hid as best he could, waiting till the dead of night to explore further. There was water nearby, as indicated by the small cluster of trees. With effort he managed to get some to drink. He stayed here the 5 sunrises it took for his shapeshifting abilities to return. He heard one of two of the contraptions pass in the distance, and watched the dust plumes they created, but he wasn’t disturbed. With his abilities returned, he set off away from the hills to his right – as determined by the direction the sun set - across the flatter plains. After some time he came to a more substantial road made of some material he didn’t recognise. A short distance beyond were a strange arrangement of a pair of iron rails on wooden logs. He turned in the direction of the rising sun, and as light first dawned he encountered signs of habitation, cultivated fields. He changed into human form, thankfully it had become a bit of a thing at the courts in the last few years, so he’d had a chance to learn and practice it, well at least in the confines of his own home. By following some of the tracks he located a large building. There were more of the strange magic mechanical vehicles in here, along with a cart. He found somewhere comfortable to hide.

It took your grandfather, a further month to acquire the knowledge of the language – Farsi, from the occupants of the farm, by reading their minds and hiding the fact he’d done so, like every Chaosian he’d been taught the basics of. Once he had enough understanding he could also make them bring him food, and make them “not see” him. With a basic understanding of the language, he was able to move to the outskirts of the small settlement to the West (Bahramjerd). This allowed him to acquire a greater knowledge of the language and customs of these people. It was October 14th 1961.

Over the next 8 years he slowly acquired wealth and power, moving to the capital Tehran in 1968, where he set about improving his situation further, marrying the daughter of one of the social elite in 1972 and cementing his position and influence. After she gave birth to his eldest daughter in September 1974 he took the steps of implanting a series of memory blocks in both her and the household staff, something that he knew would be necessary in the years that followed, especially when she first displayed her true heritage and before she learnt to control it.

With the birth of his eldest son in October 1977, and with the situation deteriorating in the country, he applied for the right to settle in the USA, and emigrated in November the following year. Two more children were to follow, a second daughter in Dec 1981, and a second son in Jan 1984.

At the age of 83 he was beginning to considering his next move when the war started. Humans rarely live to such age, a few beyond 100, whilst he isn’t yet middle aged. With the world in Chaos, Bahadur Shirazi “died”, well at least as far the world is concerned he died. As to the whereabouts of Hasard Blenerstewall, and under what guise he currently exists, there is only one person who knows, and that is Hasard Blenerstewall.

Life in the US had been good for the family, bar a few minor hiccups, mainly caused by his eldest daughter, Anahita, and his wife. At home in the Courts pregnancy outside of an official union is not uncommon. The impact of such an occurrence very much depends on who the girl is and who the father is. For one such as himself, had he had a daughter, her getting herself pregnant, whilst not fortuitous wouldn’t have changed either her position or outlook in life, members of inconsequential houses are always inconsequential, and a life of servitude is the best they can hope for.

To his wife, their daughter getting herself pregnant to an unknown father at a party was the end of both of their worlds, at least according to her. To him, it was significantly annoying; she had enough skill to manipulate her own biology to avoid such an occurrence. So how had she got herself pregnant?

It took an awful lot of pressure for him to get her to allow him to view that memory, but analysing it there was possibly a clue, just the merest hint that the man she’d spent that night with wasn’t human. Expending every resource at his disposal he searched for him, but came up with nothing. No one knew how exactly he was. He’d appeared about 6 weeks previously to that night out of thin air, spent the time touring the campus during Fresher’s week, and reminded on the scene, through the Thanks Giving weekend, before once more vanishing into thin air as the college broke up for Christmas. There was only one explanation, whoever the father was he could cross shadow.

Conspiring with her father, Anahita agreed she would keep the child. It was also one step in placating her mother. The other was finding a suitable husband.
So it was in February 1991 she married Ryan Zander Foyle, the newly married couple moving into a 7/11 on 16th and Bath Avenue in Bath Beach, New York, with Anahita giving birth in late August to her son Edward.

Your first knowledge that you were significantly different to you class mates, was that morning when you were 6 where you woke up feeling strange, but it wasn’t until you looked at yourself and screamed the place down as a result that you actually found out the truth. You missed a lot of days of schooling that year, until you learnt to at least be able to maintain your human form. It would be several more years before you learnt to control your body enough to change form at will.

Further changes followed at puberty, allowing you to assume other forms after an amount of study, and revealing a far more dangerous side effect of your heritage. In life and death situations your body will react to assume a form that allows you to survive, but whilst in this form you have no knowledge of or control over your actions, as happened on 7th February 2004.

Your life changed radically on that day. That was the night the demons came. That was the night your parents died. You don’t actually remember anything after the initial assault. You do remember waking up in the rubble of your home the following day as the rescue workers dug you out. You remember the torn demonic form of your mother half covered by a tarpaulin, the look of horror on the faces of the rescue workers when they saw it, the remarks about why would such demons attack a child and his father, and had anyone seen the man’s wife / boy’s mother?

With your parents dead you were briefly put into foster care, whilst a decision was made as to what to do with you. Then in May 2004 you were introduced to your new parents Sophia and Anton Pinmillion, and your soon to be sister, Sara, the adoption formally taking place in August, shortly before your 13th Birthday.

You also know something about the Courts of Chaos, although this is as they were 52 years ago Earth Time, and based on what your grandfather knew, although you haven’t seen him since New Year’s Day 2004. You have no idea whether he’s dead or alive.. If you’ve bothered to search for him then all your searches have turned up empty.

The Courts are like Medieval Europe, but instead of City States waring with each other its “Houses”. This is not necessarily physical conflict, but political and economic conflict, each House (which consists of a number of “Families” arranged in a Hierarchy of power) scoring points of each other for influence. On top of this the Courts are at War with Amber, and the two hate each other, primarily because the Primary Houses of the Courts want the Power that the Pattern gives, and each House wants it for themselves. Typically Amberites will kill any Chaosite they encounter on sight.

Within the Courts, the Cult of the Unicorn is the “In-Thing”, along with the fashion for human form. There are rumours of major problems in Amber, with several of the heirs to the throne in almost open warfare. One of them, Tiberius, has been missing for some time, and two more, Octavian and Txomin are believed to be dead. The rumour is they were killed by their father, Oberon.