History Characters / TheChroniclesOfAmber

* SemiDivine: [[spoiler:According to Dworkin, Oberon's mother was the Unicorn, which is the physical manifestation of the Pattern, a.k.a the SentientCosmicForce that holds the entire multiverse together.]] It would certainly explain why he's TheAce even compared to the other Lords of Amber, who are superhuman in their own right.

* MessianicArchetype: [[spoiler:Oberon, the multiverse-creator's only son]]
* SemiDivine: Possibly. [[spoiler:According to Dworkin, Oberon's mother was the Unicorn, which is the physical manifestation of the Pattern, a.k.a the SentientCosmicForce that holds the entire multiverse together.]] It would certainly explain why he's TheAce even compared to the other Lords of Amber, who are superhuman in their own right.

! King Oberon, Lord of Amber; [[spoiler: Ganelon]])

* BigGood: Well, okay, morally not very 'good'. But very powerful, and implacably devoted to Amber.

* RefugeInAudacity: Widely considered a MagnificentBastard - even by his children, many of whom qualify for that label themselves.
* TheReveal

* SoleSurvivor: Not just during his centuries of military adventure off in Shadow; he's also the only survivor of Oberon's first set of children. This may explain some of his other traits, considering that the family scheming he despises was what got his two brothers killed.

* MayDecemberRomance: With [[spoiler: Dara. Maybe. The time differentials make it hard to tell.]]
* MirrorCharacter: Eric, the eldest son of King Oberon by his second wife, and Corwin, the eldest ''acknowledged'' son of Oberon by his second. Corwin says they are probably the most alike of the siblings despite Oberon's children numbering in the double-digits, and their bitter rivalry fuels the plot of the early books.

* MirrorCharacter: Eric, the eldest son of King Oberon by his second wife, and Corwin, the eldest ''acknowledged'' son of Oberon by his second. Corwin says they are probably the most alike of the siblings despite Oberon's children numbering in the double-digits, and their bitter rivalry fuels the plot of the early books.

* VillainsDyingGrace: [[spoiler:In his final moments, Eric uses his [[TakingYouwithMe blood curse]] against the Courts of Chaos instead of his hated brother Corwin. This last act of nobility haunts Corwin, as Corwin's own blood curse was used in a moment of weakness against Eric, and manifested as a threat to all of Amber]].

* TrappedInTheHost: She attempted to possess [[spoiler:Coral's sister Nayda]], but unfortunately for the Ty'iga, [[spoiler:Nayda's]] health problems caused her to suddenly die right as the Ty'iga was doing this and it promptly became stuck in the body. Said body continues functioning like normal because there's a spirit inhabiting it, so at least it's not as though the body is decaying and falling apart, but it's a definite drag for the Ty'iga.

An exception to the usual tropes (aside from FunctionalMagic) because Vialle is not a member of Amber's royalty [[spoiler:except through marriage]]. She is a minor noblewoman of Rebma, a sculptress and a seer despite being blind.

* NoodleIncident[=/=]RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun: The Moonriders of Ghenesh were the only serious threat to Amber in her entire history (prior to the Black Road) and their invasion force made it as far as the slopes of Kolvir itself. It's implied that they overpowered Oberon himself, Eric, Corwin, Bleys and all the other Princes of Amber. Benedict was recalled and stopped them cold with an elite regiment in the pass above Arden.

An exception to the general tropes listed above: Bill is just an ordinary human attorney on 'our' Earth who happened to be a neighbor and acquaintance of Corwin. Corwin tries to keep Bill uninvolved with his abruptly far-more-complicated life, but to no avail. Corwin's disappearance and subsequent reappearance keep getting Bill involved at the very edge of the story. In the Merlin books, he has become, on occasion, legal council for the Court of Amber.

The eldest child of Oberon and his fourth wife, Rilga. Known for being a consummate sailor and pirate, he is part of the trio of Princes (along with Eric and Julian) that rule Amber at the start of the series.

* ManipulativeBastard: Caine doesn't even pretend to like the others, except Julian and Gerard. He does still show remarkable skill at playing his brothers against each other.

Coral is a princess of Begma, a Shadow-realm close enough to Amber to trade and otherwise hold commerce with the city. Thus, not all of the tropes apply to her. [[spoiler: Well, actually, only CainAndAbel and ImmortalImmaturity are disqualified, and even those may just be due to her not being immortal for ''long enough'' yet. Coral is actually Oberon's daughter via an affair with her mother Kinta, wife of the Begman Prime Minister]].

* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: [[spoiler: Dworkin claims that he fathered Oberon with the Unicorn. Since he's a shapeshifter, it's possible; but he's also notably mad and nearly as big a compulsive liar as the rest of his family, so who knows.]]
* ObfuscatingInsanity: A variation, in that Dworkin really ''is'' insane [[spoiler: until the Pattern is repaired,]] but his conversation even in his lucid moments is so bizarre that [[CassandraTruth nobody's sure how much they can trust what he says.]]

Eldest child of Oberon and his second wife, Faiella. Eric was born from an affair before his parents actually married, while Oberon was still married to Cymnea. Eric was never formally acknowledged, although everyone knew his paternity. The hated rival of his brother Corwin.

* BastardBastard: Subverted. Eric, bastard son of Oberon and Faiella and hated rival of [[TheHero Corwin]] seems to be the main antagonist of the series. [[spoiler: Mortally wounds his brother Corwin and carries his comatose body off to some plague-infested Shadow. Later, he locks Corwin up and burns his eyes out with a red hot iron (though to be fair, the blinding was Julian's idea.) Yet, at the end, he turns out to be a good king and a good man, and he ultimately dies a hero's death saving his city and his crown from disaster and forcing Corwin to acknowledge that just because Eric was his personal enemy he wasn't necessarily a bad person.]]

* TheEvilPrince: Subverted.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:He dies defending Amber from its enemies. Corwin speculates that there is a further layer to his heroism, if he knew the draining effects of the Jewel of Judgement, and used it anyway.]]

* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: [[spoiler:Corwin slowly lets go of his hatred for Eric after his death, and acknowledges that his brother died a heroic death in defense of their homeland.]]

* VillainsDyingGrace: [[spoiler:In his final moments, Eric uses his [[TakingYouwithMe blood curse]] against the Courts of Chaos instead of his hated brother Corwin. This last act of nobility haunts Corwin, as Corwin's own blood curse was used in a moment of weakness against Eric, and manifested as a threat to all of Amber.]]

Eldest child of Oberon and his third wife, Clarissa. Of all the Princes and Princesses, she is most associated with magic and knowledge of the arcane, with the possible exception of her younger brother, Brand.

* EvilRedhead: [[spoiler:Formerly a straight version, by ''Courts of Chaos'' Fiona is as close as it gets without actually being on the bad guys’ side.]]

* [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]]: Accuses [[spoiler: Julian]] of attempting to murder another character in ice-cold blood, while knowing ''full well'' that it wasn't he. [[spoiler: Because she was the one that did it.]]

* HeadTurningBeauty: She's the pretty one, and given that the Princesses of Amber seem to always turn out attractive, that's saying a lot.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Despite being born ''after'' most of the other Princes, Gerard displays this trope. He has a fondness for looking out for people and preventing harm to them.

* SuperStrength: True of all the Princes, but Gerard is acknowledged as the very strongest. Corwin, who is capable of using a ''recliner'' as a ''lethal throwing weapon,'' regards Gerard's strength as "a thing of legend." At one point, he snaps a chain that had successfully held one of his brothers in place for years, and begins using it to dispense some ChainPain to his enemies.

* MyBelovedSmother: Acts as this to Rinaldo. That said [[spoiler:her attitude towards Luke is more conventionally maternal than Dara's is towards Merlin (she keeps tabs on his girlfriends and college grades, and even attends his sporting meets), and he is very capable of denying her if need be]]. Her final appearance, in the short stories following ''Prince of Chaos'', [[spoiler:has her wishing him the best of luck in ruling Kashfa.]]

* CainAndAbel: Like most of the others, but he's specifically murderous toward Merlin and seems indifferent to his brother Despil and half-brother Mandor.

* AffablyEvil: Although sinister and Machiavellian, Mandor is usually polite, and even capable of friendship. [[spoiler: Just don't count on him allowing your friendship to get in his way.]]
* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler: He and Dara (and, to a lesser extent, the Logrus) act as Merlin's final adversaries in book ten.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: We find out at the end of the series that he actively tried to magically enslave Merlin, and when he found out it hadn't worked he attacked Merlin and tried to forcibly put the spells back. He accepts his defeat rather gracefully, though]].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: [[spoiler: Subverted at the very end of Merlin's series. Until that point, he had played the trope straight, being the more knowledgable and powerful figure that Merlin could come to in a crisis, but in Merlin's final book he learns that Mandor was part of a conspiracy to brainwash Merlin and turn him into a PuppetKing.]]

* ApocalypseMaiden: [[spoiler: Gender-flipped. It is his blood that damages reality, an event that took place off-stage in the first book but was not discovered until the fourth.]]

The only son of Oberon by his sixth wife, Paulette[[note]]He may or may not have had a younger full sister named Mirelle, who is shown on the family tree in the ''Visual Guide to Amber'' but never mentioned in the books[[/note]]. [[spoiler: The second King of Amber.]]

* TheManBehindTheMan: It's revealed in the tenth book that [[spoiler: Dara and Mandor]] are the Lords of Chaos it has employed in an attempt to regain its previous level of power.

* AmbiguousGender: "It" and "its" are used. [[spoiler: Possibly later subverted... if Dworkin's claim that the Unicorn is Oberon's mother can be trusted.]]

An exception to the usual tropes (aside from FunctionalMagic) because Vialle is not a member of Amber's royalty [[spoiler: except through marriage.]] She is a minor noblewoman of Rebma, a sculptress and a seer despite being blind.

* AmnesiacDissonance: Not exactly - but his memory loss and three hundred years on Earth helped him to become a better person.

* ManipulativeBastard: Caine doesn't even pretend to like the others, except Julian. He does still show remarkable skill at playing his brothers against each other.

An exception to the general tropes listed above: Bill is just an ordinary human attorney on 'our' Earth who happened to be a neighbor and acquaintance of Corwin. Corwin tries to keep Bill uninvolved with his abruptly far-more-complicated life, but to no avail. Corwin's disappearance and subsequent reappearance keep getting Bill involved at the very edge of the story. In the Martin books, he become, on occasion, legal council for the Court of Amber.

* DisneyDeath: Falls off the Cliffs of Kolvir to his apparent death in the first book, but Corwin throw his Trumps to a falling Bleys. While Corwin sees Bleys catch them, it's not revealed if he survived until [[spoiler:the final book of Corwin's series, where it shown that he did manage to use the Trumps to teleport himself away from certain death.]]

The only son of Oberon by his sixth wife, Paulette[[note]]He may or may not have had a younger full sister named Mirelle, who is shown on the family tree in the Visual Guide to Amber but never mentioned in the books[[/note]]. [[spoiler: The second King of Amber.]]

A mysterious and hard-bitten mercenary leader introduced during the second set of books. He has a deep hatred of Amber, so much so that his personal symbol is a lion rending a unicorn. He once led an assault on Amber itself, and was turned aside by Benedict. Despite being run through by Benedict himself in the battle, Dalt survived, and still leads a formidable mercenary group. [[spoiler:He is a secret son of Oberon, whom he claims raped his mother when she, an enemy of Amber herself, was captured by Oberon. Deela eventually escaped captivity and gave birth to Dalt.]] He also has a connection to Rinaldo.

* BrotherSisterIncest: Has an unrequited desire for his half-sister Fiona, which makes Fiona's comment about Julian in ''Sign of the Unicorn'' HilariousInHindsight:

A woman from Shadow [[spoiler: (near the Courts of Chaos)]] who shows up as an inexplicable enemy of Amber in the seventh book. Looks human; has a poisonous bite... which sums up her personality as well, actually. She is the mother of Rinaldo/[[spoiler:Luke]] by [[spoiler:Brand]], a former servant of Dara, and mentor of [[spoiler:Julia]].