Cool, wry, reserved - Michael is a writer and a musician. He moves between shadows, lives in them for a time, and tries to capture something of them in word and song. He is a keen listener to their own stories and music, favouring those over the official written histories (useful as those might be sometimes for detail or context). He likes dwelling in or near the underbelly of the societies he visits, the slightly seedier and disreputable locales that tell him something about the heart underneath the bright towers and squares. He is drawn to the tales of loss, yearning and heartache, although he still very much believes in "Happily Ever After" - and has been known to nudge things that way at times if it's unfolding before him.

He often adds these fables and songs as appendices to the "official" records, sometimes reworking the native versions so that they are more intelligble to an Amberite audience. Many of Lysandra's contributions are followed by these of his own, though not by all means all of them or in any systematic fashion - and nor is it limited to just her shadows either. Michael is just as happy visiting almost forgotten shadows and seeing how the things recorded in the "official" histories have become story & song themselves...

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The middle child and only son of King Oberon and Queen Samantha, Michael has inherited most strongly his mother's musical inclinations. He travelled early and often with her to her home shadow of Cerulean, and after walking the Pattern, it was where he went and dwelt for a time.

It was in Cerulean that he first fell in love with a woman, which in turn led to a decades long obsession with death, aging and existentialism, as she grew older while he did not. It was not something he handled very well, and his songs from the time are experimental, angry and confused. After she was gone - whether by fate, accident or simple old age, most in the family are unclear on the details - Michael began travelling extensively throughout shadow, seeking out and writing about their fears and hopes and the end of the world. Michael's approach to the shadows he visited during this period was unusual amongst the family, in that he refused to alter them in any way with the Pattern, which reportedly generated some significant difficulties for him at various times. The same reports indicate that he dealt with it by becoming more than passably adept at the local magic of each shadow.

After many years of living amongst the darker and seedier sides of many, many shadows, Michael eventually emerged as both more a cynic and more a romantic than ever. He certainly rediscovered a passion for life and a joy that had been absent for a long time, and it is from this point on that his most well known and most popular works were written. He continues to travel extensively, but returns to Amber often and catches up with his sisters, Lysandra and Sakura, in particular.

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Jormungandr

Straight and double edged, the silver blade is much like unto Father's own, save that its length has always precluded the double handed cleaving favoured by some of my more powerfully built and martially inclined siblings. I've always found it ironic that he chose to bestow one of these upon me, and have always been slightly bemused that he did not give the other to Benjamin, who's never particularly cared for any blade at all.

The hilt is wrapped in dark blue leather, stitched with fine silver thread; I know not the name of the great drake that I slew to obtain it, only that it matched the colour of my desire, the colours that are mine - silver and blue. The elegance of the slight curve on the plain silver guard appeals to my sense of aesthetics. The pommel is not much wider than the hilt itself, a circlet of silver embracing a sapphire of purest colour. There always seems to be the hint of light and movement within its depths, and when the portion of the Pattern etched within the blade glows with blue fire, it catches the light and blazes as well.

I've never made any particular effort to hide the name of the blade, but then, I don't go out of my way to proclaim it; I never name myself in my songs either, so that's not really surprising. It has never failed me; but then, I have never had to wield it against any of my family. By the Unicorn's grace, I trust that I never do.