Lessima

Unbothered by Trump calls, you continue your trek, the shadows growing bleaker and bleaker, turning into, basically, a desert of some kind. And then there it is, a huge sprawling tangled edifice in the distance. Black as onyx, and seemingly itself alive, it sits on the edge of a sea whose salt you can smell even from here. The Citadel of Lessima. You've heard stories of it...whispers, intimations...you are sure that this is the place, perhaps two or three miles away.

The Approach to the Courts of Lessima

Everyone has enemies.

No, this enemy is more homegrown, closer to home, too, and an even more fundamental challenge to the raison de etre of the Courts themselves.

I speak of the Court of Lessima, formerly the Great House Lessima, now seperate from the Courts of Chaos.

With Good Reason...

What defines Chaos? What is the meaning and reason for the courts? Why do they exist at all?

The Serpent. The Logrus.

Certainly there are worse answers. The heart of the Courts is not Thelbane and the Emperor, but the Power which gives the Courts Hegemony over Shadow.

Not everyone appreciates this, however. Especially considering one little...problem with the Logrus, which helps to explain just why they were beaten by a small royal family using the squiggle Dworkin drew.

The Logrus is Deadly.

Oh, the Pattern is dangerous...and not having the blood of Amber will be a quick way to assure death if attempted is undeniably true. Also, too, walking the Pattern in less than perfect condition is also dangerous. Even so, it is not that 8 out of 10 tries to walk the Pattern leads to death or madness, as it is with the Logrus.

The Logrus is a dangerous thing. True, it leads to enormous power. Properly wielded,and with practice, a Logrus Master is an Amberite's equal. Too, in the Courts, if you have walked the Logrus and survived, you are automatically SOMEBODY. A good thing in a large Courts, where getting noticed is often half the battle to rising in the ranks.

Is it all worth it though? The Courts of Chaos, continually sacrificed to the Logrus, as it were. It is even possible the Logrus/Serpent likes and wants it this way--blood sacrifices to it. Chaosians continually attempting it, willing to pay the ultimate price for the ultimate power.

A millenium ago, one Great House said NO.

House Lessima, one of the moderately powerful Great Houses. As Hendrake had mastery over warfare, and Helgram's sorcerers are unmatched, Lessima specialized in something almost every Chaosian is born with...ShapeShifting. Going far beyond what even the more ambitious members of other Houses would call "advanced".

However, the House forbid any member of it from assaying the Logrus, from the lowest son of the lowest member, to the Head of the House Herself, Lady Juesica Lessima.

A millenium ago, this became intolerable to the Church of the Serpent. Was it not heresy to deny the Logrus? What if a member of Lessima became Emperor or Empress? A Lord of the Courts without the Logrus, and that never would take the Logrus would be horrible, inconceivable. It could even encourage this...perverted and heretical line of thought from the Lessima.

Thus, the Church used it then great power to try and bring Lessima into line. First, in the court of public opinion. Then, sending cultivated minor Houses to try and strip Lessima of the rank of great House by defeating and breaking the House. Unfortunately, Juesica led inspired campaign after campaign, and it was the challengers, not they, who were broken. Lessima stood firm.

And then came the Church's final, and most powerful card of all. Excommunication. The Church of the Serpent effectively declared the House no longer part of the Courts, and open game for all. Emperor Orbutteser went along and encouraged the Church, figuring to make political gain out of the expected destruction of the Lessimans. He had already made House Aricline a strong and loyal friend by promoting it to the position formerly held by Lessima.

By this time, however, Lessima had enough of the Courts. Thus, with nothing to lose, House Lessima, and some allied minor Houses fled the Courts altogether, setting themselves up in an unsettled, inhospitable region of the Black Zone...a dangerous area in which their shapeshifting talents were more of a necessity than merely exotic. A new home.

Angered by their refusal to simply die out, the Church and the Emperor decided to squelch any other Houses getting similar secessionistic notions. A Jihad was declared against Lessima, and the entire Courts mobilized for War.

As the South in the Civil War showed, however, the defending secessionist often has enormous advantages...terrain, and the fact that if made unpopular enough, the persecuting force can fall apart for lack of support.

And unlike the south, Julesica made good use of these advantages. Refusing to give the Courts a decisive battle, several skirmishes over several years made the Courts frustrated. As Lessima had used a primal shadow to settle in, manipulating the shadow proved futile. Ambushes, traps and feints were in the Lessima playbook when it came to battle...and the Courts simply could not win.

Desperate, the Church and Emperor taxed their subjects too far in their desperation to destroy Lessima...and both were broken. Finally, 6 years later, the Lessima War ended. The Courts simply stopped prosecuting it. They permanently left large garrisons in various worlds against the fear of Lessima attack, and went home and declared a 'victory'.

The general public did not buy it, and the Church lost its influence, and the Emperor was assassinated. Guarded trade began with Lessima, and those members of the Courts who wish to learn special shapeshifting skills visit there. But the garrisons are still in place, in fear that Lessima will one day decide to try and take the Courts for themselves. With this large portion of their forces on this frontier, is it any wonder the Courts could and were beaten by Amber?

And yes, Lessima occassionally harnasses its power...just so that the Courts never forget. And, perhaps, so neither does Lessima.

When Lessima finally had a chance to organize, it is no coincidence that the Lessiman Court formed a power structure similar, but different, than Chaos. Houses grew up and formed, but a much more egalitarian sort of structure. There are no "major" or "minor" houses in Lessima, perhaps a memory of the angle by which their opposition in the Courts attacked them from. The various Houses of Lessima, like the houses of Chaos, specialize, but in this case it is specializations of shapeshifting, rather than more general specializations.