Merlin (The Chronicles of Amber) - Powers

Powers

Merlin's magical skills are quite varied, owing to his unusual background. Being of both Chaos and Amber, he is one of the few people to have traversed both the Pattern and the Logrus. In addition, he later walked Corwin's Pattern to give it additional power in the fight between Order and Chaos.

As the son of the Chaosian Dara, Merlin was trained in spell-casting, but he frequently relies on the objects he carries with him. Frakir, a piece of rope enchanted during Merlin's walk through the Logrus, warns of danger and acts as a weapon. When Ghostwheel is completed, Merlin occasionally "wears" it in the form of a bracelet. Merlin eventually discovers a ring of great power called a spikard, and abandons Frakir after Frakir objects to the spikard. Merlin also obtains an unusual set of Trump that contains many locations and individuals absent in a normal deck.

Merlin's other abilities include shape-shifting (a usual talent of the Chaosians) and Trump creation. He also uses the Logrus emanation to reach into Shadow and retrieve various objects, as well as "Logrus sight" which enables him to see patterns of magic and dimensional anomalies. Though he was trained in swordsmanship and other forms of combat, his talents are not found in those areas and he rarely uses purely physical means to fight.