The Channard Institute

A shadow bordering Earth and similar in many ways, the Channard Institute is nevertheless very different thematically. It is an Earth where people are more peaceful and life is more ordered, and yet a strange sort of surrealism suffuses this place. Crime, war, and mayhem exist on a much smaller scale here, and at the same time, elements of the supernatural occur much more frequently. It is an Earth perpetually on the edge of a dream...where reality is somehow less finite.

Konrad came to this Shadow fleeing the mental traumas he experienced in Amber, unconsciously seeking some kind of stability. He originally thought that he had come to Earth, but later discovered that this was, in fact, a Shadow touched by the Abyss...a link to the powers which had given him passage here.

He and Cassilda came to reside in on the East Coast of the United States, in New England. They made arrangements to establish themselves...secured identities, income, and a home. Together they recovered from their respective injuries and set about enjoying life for the many pleasures it offered. For both of them, their time in Shadow was a good one. They attended operas, the theater, visited museums and concerts, went sailing, mountain climbing, skiing, horseback riding, and did what any wealthy young couple would to enjoy themselves. And eventually Konrad enrolled in a major university and took to study medical science, and thus began to refine his shapeshifting abilities.

While in school Konrad came under the tutelage of a Dr. Channard, head of a major psychiatric institution and renowned neurosurgeon. Channard was known as one the truly gifted pioneers of a still-growing field, and so Konrad greatly appreciated the doctor's respect/interest. Channard encouraged Konrad to move into neuroscience and introduced him to the wonders of psychology/psychiatry. Eventually Konrad finished his medical degree, studied to become a licensed psychiatrist, and came to work for his mentor at the Channard Institute. Little did he know that the doctor's interest in him was more than academic, for Channard had sensed in him some measure of power and strangeness...a puzzle waiting to be unlocked.

Working at the Institute gave Konrad the first measure of peace he had felt since leaving the Library. He studied, worked, and enjoyed the life of a young doctor whose powers could cure nearly any illness, save his own mental confusions. Under the encouragement of Channard he strove to learn the truth about himself...ponder the strange events of his birth...and find some solution for the strange riddles that had eluded him thus far. And through intense psychoanalysis, hypnosis, and drug therapy, he eventually learned the facts of his birth and the uniqueness of his development.

Konrad also learned the truth about Dr. Channard, about this Shadow, and about the aftereffects of his opening a gate to Carcosa. Any major action that close to one of the poles of reality creates effects that ripple throughout Shadow, and so when Konrad initially opened the gate to the Abyss, this opening was echoed throughout reality in minor ways. Thus this Shadow contains the potential to connect to the Abyss, and Konrad found this connection through Dr. Channard. The doctor came to trust and value his gifted new assistant, and eventually shared with him a great secret. He showed him a magical puzzle box he owned, which could supposedly open gates to another world. The box he showed was made of some strange metal, and the tracings that covered its surface were very like those of the Abyssal Pattern. The box opened gates, indeed, to a demishadow that was a part of this land, and here Konrad found another Carcosa...a reflection...just as Earth is a reflection of Amber. Here lurked a new fount of Abyssal Pattern energy, guarded by its own unique servants, a race that called themselves the Order of the Gash. Channard became one of these strange creatures and permanently came to reside in the Labyrinth. It was easy for Konrad to assume the identity of his former mentor, and thus take complete control of the Channard Institute.

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