How many brothers and sisters?

[Finarvyn]

Here's a quote from Nine Princes in Amber:

There had been fifteen brothers and six were dead. There had been eight Sisters, and two were dead, possibly four.

I accept the fact that this statement is made by a character (Corwin) who may be mistaken on his family tree, has recently suffered from amnesia, and who has been out of contact with his siblings for a very long time, but...

...assume that Corwin is correct. Who are they?

[Finarvyn]

First, the brothers. We need a total of 15, but six need to be dead.

There were three brothers in the first wave:
1. Osric - dead long ago (we think)
2. Finndo - dead long ago (we think)
3. Benedict - alive

And others more recently, although the actual order of birth is still up for discussion: (so I listed them alphabetically)
4. Bleys
5. Brand
6. Caine - dead occasionally, but alive at the time
7. Corwin
8. Eric - dead now, but he was alive at the time of the quote.
9. Gerard
10. Julian
11. Random

We don't know where these fit in the list:
12. Unknown son 1 (Delwin?) - presumed dead
13. Unknown son 2 - dead
14. Unknown son 3 - dead
15. Unknown son 4 - dead

[Finarvyn]

Now for the eight daughters, two (or four) need to be dead as well. Whereas the sons are clearly listed as having a gap between the first three and the rest, the daughters are not broken down in such a manner by Zelazny. Because of this, we can just count them:

1. Deirdre
2. Fiona
3. Flora
4. Llewella
5. Mirelle - dead
6. Unknown daughter 1 (Sand?) – presumed dead
7. Unknown daughter 2 – lost somewhere, maybe dead
8. Unknown daughter 3 – lost somewhere, maybe dead

[yorlum]

I don't know that you can count Sand, Delwin, and Mirelle on the list. Were they not born after Corwin was exlied? If so, he would not have known to include them.

[Finarvyn]

That's a great question. I'm not certain when those three were born.

I always had this impression that Sand and Delwin went away a long time ago, maybe in the Osric/Finndo era? I'll have to see if I can re-read to find when they lived....

[yorlum]

Well, Somewhere in the Merlins (Blood of Amber, I think), they talk about Delwin and Sand being born after Paulette died.

[trevelyan]

yorlum said:

Well, Somewhere in the Merlins (Blood of Amber, I think), they talk about Delwin and Sand being born after Paulette died.

IIRC, and I may well be worng, this is correct. Which would in turn lead them to be younger than Random, but since we don't have definite ages for any of the family Corwin could still have known of them.

We also know that Delwin and Sand left Amber is somewhat difficult circumstances (albeit the details are sketchy) so Corwin may have assumed that Oberon either killed them or arranged to have them killed.

[stormraven]

In general, I don't assume Mirelle to be dead. What's the source for that decision?

[Finarvyn]

stormraven said:

In general, I don't assume Mirelle to be dead. What's the source for that decision?

Roger himself. When Roger wrote the introduction to the Black Road War (a choose-your-adventure book by Neil Randall) he listed Mirelle as "high-strung; a suicide, possibly from our shadow Earth".

[stormraven]

Ah. Well, as with all the others, reports of her death could very well be mistaken.

[Finarvyn]

stormraven said:

Ah. Well, as with all the others, reports of her death could very well be mistaken.

Hey, that's part of what makes Amber so much fun. Just about the time you think you've figured out what's going on ... BAM! ... an new plot twist!