There is also an excellant web ring here. There are two real places: Amber and the Courts of Chaos. Between them are an infinite number of variations on those two, including our own Earth. Certain people, such as the royal family of Amber, can gain power to influence Shadow. The royal family of Amber is also backstabbing and ruthless. You are playing a young member of that family. Enjoy.
I also highly suggest reading the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, which all of this is based on, just because they're really good, especially the first five.

Most characters I don't care if they are male or female, so two names are given. With the fact (sigh) that most gamers are male, I will use the male name and pronoun in descriptions so I don't have Marissa/Kell all over the place or whatever.

Specifics to my game:
This game takes place after the Patternfall war, after the first five books. The second series has not yet happened and may never happen.

Martin, son of Random, is dead, to the best of anyone's knowledge. After he was stabbed, no one has ever heard of him. (If you're a purest and want to know where Dara heard all about Amber, it doesn't matter to this game.)

You do not know about the Primal Pattern.

Sorcery and Conjuration work in Amber, but it is slightly more time consuming and difficult.

Deirdre, Brand, Dworkin and Oberon (as well as Osric and Finndo) are dead. At least that's what everyone thinks.

Corwin is missing and Merlin has been heard of and that's about it.

People with Pattern can detect Logrus, but only Advanced Pattern can detect Advanced Logrus. Even Advanced Pattern does not mean you can ask questions of the Pattern.

Fiona periodically takes vactions to visit some people in the courts. (Yes, Random was suspicious and worried at first. Since it's been seventy years since the Patternfall war, he only worries a little bit about her now. She seems to have learned her lesson. Not sure what lesson, but some lesson.)

Any other questions, please email me.