ANDELIA

played by Scott Olson

Vengeful Daughter of Avalon
Paladin of Paradox
Assassin Princess
Timeline

Dworkin's Trump

The figure in the painting is that of a young woman, perhaps in her twenties. In it, she is standing on what appears to be a shiny wood parquet floor, perhaps a dance floor. She is wearing a full-length black gown, made of silk perhaps, shot through with golden threads, over which she's wearing a patterned sleeveless bodice that might be of cloth of gold and black velvet. Her shoes are elegant affairs for dancing, of black leather and gilt.

Her black hair falls in waves to her waist, while here and there threads of cloth of gold have been woven into it. Around her neck, a necklace of gold and malachite hangs, set with tiny rubies. Small golden earings, again set with tiny rubies, hang from her ears, and a golden tiara crowns her brows above her green eyes. Her face and features recall Deirdre, or Corwin, or Eric, or departed Darthene, she could easily be the child of one of them.

She is caught in a pose as if she heard something, music perhaps, and is straining to hear more. Her attention is not upon the viewer of the card, but rather to their right, and she is turned to face that way a bit. By her feet, the viewer might guess she's just turned, because her body and feet are not lined up completely. Her head is cocked a little to the side, as if to bring in the sound that caught her attention. It's a picture of cultured, urbane beauty, ready to break into a dance.

Urda's Trump

Pictured on the card is a young woman wearing what looks like travel clothes, perhaps riding gear. An open-necked dark blue shirt and pants of dark grey tucked into calf-length black boots. Grey dust layers her boots, shirt and hair. A smudge of dirt or ash on one pale-skinned cheek where perhaps she'd pushed hair from her face. Her black hair is worn in a long plait tied with a yellow ribbon, the tip of which has fallen over her shoulder, it's end tickling the point of her jaw. There's a tiny flash of red in her ear lobe, reflecting the firelight.

She sits before a fire looking out at and to the right of the viewer, warming her hands.

Her expression is one of both perplexity and determination, with her jaw set and her lips compressed into a hard line. There is an obvious air of missing nothing around her and storing it all. The firelight plays on her form, the shadows cast are eerie, her eyes are flame and narrowed.

Looking closely at the card, you can see that it's done in a pointalist style: it's made up of millions of little dots of color, rather than painted with broad strokes of color.


ANDELIA - VENGEFUL DAUGHTER OF AVALON

(200 Point Version by Karen Francis, player of Morgan, summer 1997)

Andelia was brought up in the near perfect surrounds of a beautiful country, Avalon. She was close to both her mother (Darthene) and father (Lancelot) and had an idyllic childhood in their company. Despite her mother's worry that she would try to go too far too soon, Andelia found her way to magic and the practice of it. From her father, she gained a knowledge of swordplay and warfare. Even though a woman had never taken up arms before at Court, her father, proud of her abilities, encouraged her.

When all this was taken from her without warning (for Darthene had kept her protected from what was going on elsewhere in Avalon), when this beautiful country was destroyed, along with all those she held dear, is it so surprising that she hated whoever had been responsible? This was how she came to hate Corwin, her mother's brother because she saw him as ultimately responsible for destroying all that she loved. After questing for her mother's return and showing that she would not simply fall over and die or quit, Andelia takes her place in Amber but she can never forgive or forget the single most horrific event in her life, losing Avalon.

ATTRIBUTES

PSYCHE15
STRENGTHAmber
ENDURANCE15
WARFARE71

POWERS

Pattern Imprint
Void Initiate
Sorcery

ARTIFACTS

Earring
Rack named & numbered spells
Sword
Deadly Damage,
Alternate Forms

GOOD STUFF: +1


GM tips for Playing Andelia

Andelia has a very straightforward manner and in return expects to be treated the same way. If people treat her well, she treats them well. If they deceive and hurt her or those she loves, then she treats them as they have treated her. She has little time for politics, or playing the games so many in Amber seem to love, for she believes that sometime soon she will die.

This latter belief leads her to try and experience everything she comes across to the full, but with so very little of an adult life behind her aside from the disasters she has already encountered, she doesn't have much to base it on. Because her growing up was interrupted by the destruction of Avalon and her quest for her mother, womanhood has also come upon her as something of a surprise. She longs to experience all the joys of finding friends and lovers, but doesn't have much idea of how to go about doing it. This leads to frustration and a lack of self confidence when it comes to building friendships and falling in love.

Be straightforward, logical and treat others as they treat you. Her determination which kept her going in times of despair often gets in the way when making judgements of other people, and is reflected in a stubborness not many can withstand.


Enemies

Corwin for destroying Avalon, though she does not put personal revenge above the well-being of the universe and so has held her hand against him in times of trouble.

Friends

Urda, Darthene, Morgan (her brother), Celia, Florimel. Jacob has helped her before, though as his logic breaks down, so he is taken further from Andelia's sphere of understanding and so farther from Andelia herself as she cannot comprehend his motives and desires.



ANDELIA - PALADIN OF PARADOX

(200 Point Version by Craig Wright, player of Deirdre and Corleu, summer 1997)

She sat on the green grass in the park of London, her clothes having seen better days, bloody wounds on her arm and foot. Beside her rested lay a long sword, with an odd black metal blade shot with golden threads and golden hilts and pommel. Staring up in cool challenge, her green eyes filled with bitterness, the night winds ruffled through her dark hair.

ATTRIBUTES

PSYCHEAmber
STRENGTH40
ENDURANCE20
WARFARE74

POWERS

Pattern Imprint
Sorcery

GOOD STUFF: +1

Andelia is the daughter of Darthene, princess in Amber, and the knight of shadow Avalon known as Lancelot du Lac. She takes after both her parents in many ways, especially in her attitudes towards others. First seen in Elektra during the thousand years of Slumber, she may know far more about that time than she reveals...

Ruthlessly pure of heart, Andelia views herself as a paladin, a righteous defender of all that is good and true. She might even be right. Unfortunately, her rigidly narrow view of what constitutes 'good' sometimes leads her astray, and she often attempts to impose her own ideals and expectations of appropriate behaviour on others.

Consumed with bitterness over the final fall of the only real home she ever knew, real people cannot live up to the impossibly high standards Andelia demands, and she blames her uncle Corwin for the death of her father. Her reaction when her mother finally proves to be only human and imperfect may be terrible to behold...



ANDELIA - ASSASSIN PRINCESS OF AVALON

(300 Point Version by Craig Wright, player of Deirdre and Corleu, summer 1997)

And how many miles to Avalon? All, they say, and none. For the silver towers have fallen, into a sea of blood.

Andelia was raised in the dying days of Avalon, and taught the ways of war by her father, Lancelot du Lac. Yet this is no guarantee that she absorbed his high ideals. Bleys appointed her to the position of assassin to the realm of Amber... why? Maybe because she has always been an assassin, and loves the duty.

ATTRIBUTES

PSYCHE40
STRENGTH40
ENDURANCE40
WARFARE80

POWERS

Pattern Imprint
Void Initiate
Sorcery

ARTIFACTS

Sword of the Abyss
Deadly Damage,
Alternate forms

BAD STUFF: -6


GM tips for Playing Andelia

Andelia is unperceptive and stubbornly loyal to the point of insanity. She loves her mother with ferocious intensity, and refuses point-blank to believe that Darthene can make mistakes, or that her mother is capable of malevolence and cruelty. She hates Corwin with an equal intensity, since she blames him for her fathers death.

Unforgiving of human frailty, proudly indifferent to the suffering she inflicts, she holds both herself and others to impossibly high standards, expecting completely rational and logical behaviour at all times regardless of circumstance. And of course, she sets the standards by which such behaviour is subject to judgement.

Such pure hearts can do limitless good or limitless evil. Andelia, like her mother, cannot cope well with the messier aspects of life, such as feelings or multi-valued choices. She likes things which are clear cut and simple. And her judgement of others has been shown as fatally flawed... she has exploded at Raven for vainglorious pride, as the other woman tried desperately to be optimistic.

One chance is all you get with this woman. She does not forgive.


Andelia as Mother

Andelia is likely to hold her children to the same impossible standards that she herself holds, which from the point of view of a child would be hellish. She is likely to have definite plans and expectations for any of her children, and woe betide the youngster who attempts to find his or her own pathway through life.

On the other hand, given her devotion to duty and her ferocious loyalty, she would also defend and protect her children with her life, even if her children had betrayed her. She is unlikely to simply abandon them.


Andelia as a Player in the Games of Paradox

Andelia has been both user and victim. She has used her cousin Jacob in the retrieval of her mother, after threatening him with death if he did not obey. She has participated in, or at the very least condoned, the mass slaughter of Rebmans, whose lives were presumeably of less importance than killing Corwin. She continually torments her aunt Deirdre with guilt, in a fashion much like her mother.

Yet, she has also been a victim, her very heart and blood transformed and stolen by the Drake. She survived the destruction of her home and the death of her father. Who can blame her for her bitterness and paranoid suspicions?


Contributors: Karen Francis (karen@helrider.demon.co.uk) and Craig Wright (sorrow@netspace.net.au)
Editor/Webmaster: Scott Olson (sdo@nospam.visi.com)
Gamemaster: Tony Pi (cpi@po-box.mcgill.ca)