Castle Amber is at the top of the mountain Kolvir, Amber City at the base on the eastern (seaward) side, and parks and the estates of nobles in between. The Great Machine is buried beneath the castle, with some portions extending down below the base of the mountain, while the lower parts of Kolvir are tunneled out to hold factories and power plants.
The ocean around Amber City is tropically warm and clear due to the waste heat from the Great Machine.
Within the Great Machine there is a place where, by setting the verniers, you can open a window onto any place in the Aether. Opening a window onto the same place you opened one before is somewhat more problematic, since the verniers are manual.
For repeatable travel into the Aether, Amber has railroads. The rails of thaumite must be connected to the Great Machine at one end, but can extend far out into the Aether, passing through many worlds and branching frequently. The endpoints are usually sources of raw materials, or sometimes a popular vacation spot for the nobility. For communication, telegraph wires are strung along the rails.
If the rails are broken, everything beyond the break is lost. In the process of laying track back to the original terminus, some lengths of the old rails may be found, and they can be melted down and recycled, but the likelihood of following the same route isn't high.
You can follow a rail line on foot as long as you are connected to one of the rails. Hobos have a variety of clever contrivances to manage this without getting run over when a train comes through.
Deep within the Great Machine is a room with a switchboard where Morlocks manually connect various communications channels with patch cables, including the connections to the remote terminals in Oberon's Children. Not far away is a wall where a row of high-voltage knife switches are mounted, each labelled with a name. The four at one end are closed and padlocked in position, but the rest are open, and some are locked that way. There are a few gaps where switches and nameplates have been completely removed.
Morlocks are simian creatures with sparse black fur and large yellow eyes. Germinated in vats, they are sexless and need wear nothing except tool harnesses and utility vests. They are mechanical geniuses but quite lacking in social skills, which is why they work underground. Although they are disrespectful and sarcastic, morlocks are quite loyal. Unfortunately, since they grumble as a matter of course, it can be difficult to tell when they are carrying a serious grudge.
The nobility of Amber, and those who are often seen by them -- servants, shopkeeps, entertainers, clerks -- are what are referred to as "normal humans", although some of them come from the Aether and are rather exotic.
This file was last modified at 2129 on 04Sep06 by trip@idiom.com.