Consider that Raven was ageless and apparently immortal, and utterly consumed by his need for vengeance. Is it possible that [...]]]> To anyone familiar with the setting of Deadlands, the year 1863 is instantly recognizable as the year that Raven and the Last Sons set the manitou free. Or was there more to it than that?

Consider that Raven was ageless and apparently immortal, and utterly consumed by his need for vengeance. Is it possible that Raven is one of the amnesiac Corwin’s by-blows? A bastard son of Amber, unaware of his true heritage but still deadly because of it?

Perhaps Raven’s spell would not have succeeded without the resonance it set up with his father’s actions. Specifically, I’m talking about the blood curse that Corwin pronounced when he was blinded in Nine Princes in Amber. The same curse that opened up Amber, and the multitude of Shadows between it and Chaos, to the depredations of the Black Road. We’ve already seen (in The Guns of Avalon) that the road does not always manifest the same way – and that it can be called to a shadow by the right sort of ritual.

The sort of ritual that was performed by Raven on July 3rd, 1863, say.

One of the best things about this particular crossover is its subtlety – no one need suspect that this is anything more than a standard game of Deadlands at first. But slowly, pieces of the puzzle emerge, until it becomes clear that the Deadlands are merely one theatre of a universal war, and that the stakes are unimaginably higher than anyone suspected. The Happy Hunting Grounds is revealed to be a neighbouring Shadow to Earth, albeit one that is closely linked to it.

One of the best ways to begin hinting towards this is through the character party’s Huckster. Assuming as we are a link between Amber and the Deadlands, it follows that the card-based magic of the Hucksters is in some way connected to the magical Trumps of Amber. Was Edmund Hoyle an Amberite in disguise, and if so, which one? The two possibilities that spring to mind are Brand, foremost Trump artist of his generation – and Random, the foremost gambler.

While at first glance Random might seem an unlikely choice, who else but he would think to hide sorcery in a manual for gambling? The Unicorn’s selection of him as the King of Amber suggests he has hidden depths – perhaps this is one of them. Besides, Brand would never have allowed his notes to fall into the hands of others – Random is far more trusting.

The easiest way to introduce this plot is to begin circulating rumours that Hoyle is still alive, and has been sighted nearby. If there’s a Huckster in the party, you’d have to hogtie him to keep him from searching for Hoyle. Even if not, Hoyle and his secrets would be worth a pretty penny to right buyer – not to mention posing a threat to the peace that any lawman might feel needed dealing with.

At the end of the First Chronicles of Amber, Brand, the mad [...]]]> Moving on, at last, we leave the Planetary and take a turn in the direction of the cosmic. Our destination is Amber, legendary centre of all existence, and the only true reality. At least, that’s what it says in their press releases.

At the end of the First Chronicles of Amber, Brand, the mad prince who had nearly destroyed all of Amber with his schemes, tumbles over the lip of the Abyss, dragging Dierdre with him as he falls. He is grievously wounded, but that’s never stopped him before. And no one knows what lurks in the Abyss. It could be anything.

What it is, in this interpretation at least, is a Darkness Device. It finds Brand – or he finds it, or perhaps they find each other – and very soon, Brand has an entirely new understanding of the nature of Reality and Shadow. He now understands how to harvest the energies – the possibilities – of each and every Shadow. And fortunately for him, the generally unstable nature of Shadow in the wake of Oberon’s redrawing of the original Pattern and Corwin’s drawing of his entirely new one creates a pretty fair amount of background noise to hide in.

Even so, Brand has adopted a new alias to help hide from his family – especially the more vengeful members of it (Dierdre was rather well-loved, after all). And so the Gaunt Man, terror of a thousand cosms, is born.

But this cannot go unanswered. Someone will notice – perhaps Dworkin, Fiona, or Suhuy. And they will investigate.

Or perhaps the threat will catch Amber unawares – until Bill Roth manages to get a message to Corwin or Merlin regarding what has become of his Shadow.

The threat of a reborn and even more powerful Brand – and one with powerful allies such as the other High Lords – each of whom seems to be the equal of a Prince of Amber or a Lord of Chaos – cannot be ignored. It will dealt with decisively by Amber, and quite possibly by Chaos as well. There’s nothing like a common enemy to bring people together, after all.

But what will Luke, son of Brand, do in all this?