The City of the Sign

The City of the Sign was a suite of Shadows (like the sum of Amber, Arden and the Golden Circle Shadows) with various, diverse physical laws situated where the Abyss now is. It was founded over ten thousand years ago (that's how far back the records in the Courts extend) and was inhabited by "real" people, immortals like the current rulers of Amber and the Courts. Their civilization was considerably more advanced than that of the Courts or of Amber and their understanding of the Great Arts (sorcery, Trump, etc.) was far greater than that of any modern realm. The City contained (and was named for) at least one Pattern.

Around five thousand years ago, magicians (for lack of a better term) of the City made contact with beings in another reality. This reality existed in addition to and alongside the linked array of reality (Shadow) accessible by Trump, etc. However, the magicians of the City were unable to learn much of the other reality's physics and metaphysics using the Arts in the ordinary fashion. The beings that they were communicating with were so alien, it was hard to question them about their home or even to determine how much they knew about it. So the magicians decided to strengthen the point of contact, creating a gate between the two realities. The entities on the other side attacked them and began flooding through, into the City. For the sake of the rest of reality, some now-unknown mage(s) destroyed the City of the Sign before the invaders could escape it, tearing the City away from Shadow and leaving the Abyss behind.

Somehow, the influence of the City's Pattern(s) still exerted their influence, stabilizing the Shadows around the Abyss, but their physical laws changed after the City was destroyed (this is why they have no native vegetation and why some places within them move around from time to time). The rest of Shadow was devestated by storms and became considerably less stable, so "real" people who knew enough of the Arts to move through Shadow moved to the Shadows near the Abyss and founded the Courts. For almost three thousand years, the Courts were the only stable Shadows and the center of civilization.

The City of the Second Sign

Dworkin Barimen was one of the few who escaped the City of the Sign. He settled in a relatively distant Shadow, in a now-impoverished port city named Amber, with his children: Oberon, Moire, Azaroth, Loren and Sian. Over two thousand years ago, his oldest son, Oberon, convinced hism to use an artifact he'd taken from the City to draw a new Pattern, making Amber and its surroundings stable and prospersous.

The rulers of the Courts were alarmed, fearing another disaster. Dworkin assured them that he was by no menas a mage of the caliber of those who'd been responsible for the destruction of the first City. His Pattern was a simple, two-dimensional one, in a reality barred to all but himself. He had even engineered it so that none but Oberon and his descendents could walk it and they would only have access to its reflections. He doubted that it would ever function as an engine of great sorceries because the people of Amber, including Oberon's young, were merchants, not scholars, inclined to use the Arts for transportation, uninterested in the Arts for their own sake.

For two thousand years, it seemed as if Dworkin had spoken truly; none of Oberon's children seemed to have learned Trump artistry, shapeshifting or any but the most basic forms of sorcery. Then Clarissa's children made contact with the Courts, seeking aid to usurp Amber's throne and to control the Pattern, exhibiting all kinds of dangerous knowledge. The King of the Courts decided that it was time for Test for the youngest generation: to use Clarissa's children to conquer Amber so that the Courts could decide how best to deal with the Pattern. Brand, however, seduced many young people of the Courts to his side with promises of power and of the restoration of the glory of the first City of the Sign.