SHADOW AND THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

Shadow | Atlantis | Libya | Assyria | Nubia | Greece

Shadow

Shadow is the collection of the alternate lands that surround Amber.  Once the borders of Amber are reached by a traveler leaving the land of the Nile, reality becomes less stable.  Any descendant of Ra may traverse Shadow with relative ease, adding and subtracting features of the landscape as they move to reach any place they can imagine.  Shadow is tricky, however, for although the land around such a traveler seems stable, it is only the presence of an Amberite that makes it so.  Geography, technology, biology, and even the speed of time varies greatly in a particular Shadow once an Amberite has moved on.  A traveler might return to a place only a few days later in Amber time to discover that several years have passed and lush forests have become icy tundra.  This effect increases the further one travels from Amber.  Only the Amber-adjacent Shadows of the Golden Circle remain relatively stable without a continuous Amberite presence, though even they might add a few days a year or have their climates change radically over the course of a few decades.

While any Amberite can traverse Shadow, such is not the case for deities from other realms or mortals of any kind.  Such beings can only move from one Shadow to another if they are following an Amberite within visual range or traveling along an established Shadowpath - a byway between Shadows that has stabilized through frequent use.  The only known Shadowpaths are found between Amber and the Golden Circle, and between Golden Circle Shadows.

Atlantis

Reachable only by sea via a series of Shadowpaths through the Great Green, Atlantis is difficult to find in modern times.  Once a powerful island nation, with a fleet surpassing Amber's and a fiercely independent people, Atlantis is now only recognizable on the surface by a bluer-hued water than that found near Amber.  The island sank beneath the waves during a cataclysm while Amber was at war with Libya, and while rumors persist that some Atlantean ships survived the destruction, no credible witnesses have surfaced.

Some tell tales that it was no cataclysm that sank Atlantis, but some great act of sorcery by their Queen, Mera, to conceal themselves from Osiris, who was clearly planning to conquer the Golden Circle.  They say that Atlantis now thrives deep underwater, waiting for the time to strike out at Amber.  That Tawaret appears in Amber only rarely reinforces this belief.

Libya

War-torn Libya never recovered from Amber's invasion, though it happened over a century ago.  Amber decimated not only the military leaders and priests of Libya, but also the physical structures they stood for - palaces, temples, and the great fortress of Carthage were all reduced to rubble.  Most of the powerful families of Libya were also killed, leaving a power gap after Amber withdrew.  Though Amber maintains small enclaves in Libya, there is no centralized authority.  Most towns are largely autonomous, and maintain their own militias to defend themselves from roving warlords and from Amber's "training exercises."

None of Libya's pantheon survived the war.  Sorcery and supernatural powers of any kind are rarely seen there.

Assyria

At war with Amber for over a century now, Assyria is a disciplined and militaristic state.  They have repeatedly beaten back Amber's incursions, and the war has settled into a low simmer, with Amber's forces rarely pressing forward from Fort Geb, and the Assyrians apparently content to leave Amber on their doorstep as they conquer elsewhere in their Shadow.  Their pantheon is the strongest of any save Amber, with several war-gods and at least a half-dozen combatants able to compete at an Amberite level.  Reports have it that there may be some amount of infighting or at least intrigue within the Assyrian pantheon, but they have nonetheless resisted Amberite attempts to usurp power via subterfuge.

Astarte, a goddess of War and Beauty, is the Queen of Assyria.

Nubia

Amber's neighbor to the south lacks a coherent central government.  There are many different tribes scattered throughout the Shadow called Nubia, and they embrace lifestyles ranging from the farming common along the Nile (tributaries to which extend throughout Nubia) to more primitive hunting and gathering in the grasslands further from the riverbanks.  Amber's culture has seeped into Nubia; the more settled tribes build small step pyramids to honor their dead, and many tribes tell stories descended from the doings of the Amber pantheon.  

The Nubians lack a central pantheon, but there are many stories of supernatural beings aiding the populace, usually in mixed human/animal forms, that suggest that some kind of godlike beings may exist there.

Greece

Greece has become a vassal-state of Amber's, reachable via a Shadowpath across the Great Green.  Hera's rule is somewhat strict, and while she no doubt resents Amber's dominance, she knows her place.  Criminals are the first to fill the annual slave-boats to Amber.  Greece's mortal populace and settlements have largely recovered from the war, and combined with the depletion of the pantheon, this means that mortals have more of a say in Greece's government than in other pantheons.  A few of them have some sorcerous powers, and Greece is perhaps the most magical land in the Golden Circle outside of Amber.