DworkinIndex | Time Under Chaos | Non-Player Characters | Dworkin  He was a small man. Tiny, might be an even better word. He was around five feet tall and a hunchback. His hair and beard were as heavy as my own. The only distinguishing features in that great mass of fur were his long, hook nose and his almost black eyes, now squinted against the light. -- Nine Princes in Amber I fingered my cards, weighed the deck in my hand. I could try a contest of wills through them, with either Eric or Caine. There was that power present, and perhaps even others of which I know nothing. They had been so designed, at the command of Oberon, by the hand of the mad artist Dworkin Barimen, that wild-eyed hunchback who had been a sorcerer, priest, or psychiatrist-- the stories conflicted at this point- from some distant Shadow where Dad had saved him from a disastrous fate he had brought upon himself. The details were unknown, but he had always been a bit off his rocker since that time. Still, he was a great artist, and it was undeniable that he possessed some strange power. He had vanished ages ago, after creating the cards and tracing the Pattern in Amber. We had often speculated about him, but no one seemed to know his whereabouts. Perhaps Dad had done him in, to keep his secrets secret. --Nine Princes in Amber Dworkin Barimen, once lord of House Barimen. Secret Grand-Patriarch of Amber. Wizard, artistic genius, artificer, psychologist, priest*, doctor, and madman. Men who are his peer in any one subject are as rare as hen's teeth in all of Shadow... and as for those who could master them all... there is perhaps only one. As Dworkin was known to be an accomplished shapeshifter while still in Chaos, it can only be assumed that he wanted to be seen as a crazed hunchback. Most men would be content to (re)invent the Trumps, magical tarot-style cards which forge a trans-dimensional connection between individuals with sufficient will, or to inscribe a labyrinthine Pattern into reality in his own blood with the Jewel of Judgment to cement the forces of Order in the universe. Dworkin did both, then forged the Pattern blades on the steps of Tir as an encore. He stole one of a pair of eyes of the personification of chaos, The Serpent, then fled the Courts with his prize to use it to create his masterwork. The Pattern completed, rather than rule the Eternal Realm he left that to his son Oberon. Dworkin was the Pattern, and the Pattern was Dworkin. So long as one remained, the other was safe from harm. There were only two only catches. One, any imperfection in the inscribing of the Pattern would lead to an imperfection in Dworkin. And, two, as Dworkin's blood was used to inscribe the Pattern, his blood (or that of his descendants) could also be used to erase it. The first flaw caused him to be mentally unstable, yet still extremely powerful. The consequences of the second flaw are equally well-known. After stealing the eye, fleeing with his family with the help of the Unicorn, and inscribing the Pattern, Dworkin and Oberon discussed how to safeguard all that had been created. Dworkin had already created a 'front' for the Pattern in the form of Amber City. The Pattern in the basement of Castle Amber is only a reflection of the True Pattern, and immune to harm so long as the True Pattern remains. Dworkin had also insured that Oberon and all of his line would have a very low fertility rate, but Oberon had already had children and would likely have many more as the years passed. Dworkin's blood was that of an accomplished shapeshifter, and genes are selfish things. It was decided that the children of the family would all need to prove themselves upon the Pattern. Along with the Trumps, which Dworkin recreated along different principles to function outside of chaos, the Pattern ordeal would bind the family together behind a single source of power. Dworkin and Oberon soon disagreed about what to do regarding Dworkin's madness. Oberon locked his father away for his, and everyone else's safety, but not before he had placed honeyed words in the ears of the Clarissan children. Dworkin spent many years imprisoned in the dungeons beneath Amber, but his powers soon caused those dungeons to warp and twist through reality. Oberon placed a guardian beast to prevent him from walking from the dungeons out onto the True Pattern, but Dworkin's prison relied as much on his own complicity in his brief moments of lucidity as it did on Oberon's skills as a jailer. When Corwin was blinded and imprisoned in Amber's dungeon, it was Dworkin who helped him to escape. The damage to the Pattern done, father and son once again saw eye to eye on correcting the situation. As Corwin tells the tale, both men had selected him as their agent to set the universe right. Since Oberon's death while attempting to mend the Pattern, Dworkin was only seen once, before the storms reached Amber. He was present after the final battle just long enough to conduct a funeral ceremony and intern Oberon's dead body into the Abyss. Once the Shadow Storms reached Amber, he disappeared along with the Pattern.
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