Character History
Brigid was born several years before Corwin disappeared, but she wasn’t brought to Amber until many years after his disappearance, so he never knew about her.
As both a child and as an adult, Brigid spent most of her life away from Amber and away from her mother, but never away from her mother’s influence until she became an adult.
As a child. Brigid was raised in distant Shadows in which Fiona had control or major holdings. As a child and then as a young adult, she would benefit from an intensive and exhaustive education as befits a noble and noblewoman of Amber, as well as the daughter of Fiona; later, she would also benefit from own initiative and willfulness.
The finest teachers from several Shadows were employed to tutor and train Brigid. Fiona had arranged an exacting training schedule for Brigid: mornings were devoted to training her physical skills, while the afternoons were devoted to training her mental skills and the evenings to training her social skills. She learned to fight, fence and ride; to read and speak several languages, reason and debate; and conjure and enchant and to socialize, sing, dance and play a number of instruments.
But Brigid was not one to merely acquiesce with her mother’s plans for her education; she, herself, took them several steps further. Brigid secretly watched and learned from the servants, her teachers, even from her mother herself. When she was younger, she raided her mother’s library and read prodigiously. When she was older, she persuaded the servants to smuggle her out to the more dangerous quarters of the town near her residences, where she learned how the “other people” lived. She even persuaded some of them to teach her the skills of their less-than-legal trades.
It was soon obvious that Brigid had inherited more than her mother’s beauty, charm, intelligence and quick wits; she had also inherited her mother’s persuasiveness, stubbornness, strong will and willfulness.
By the time she became an adult, she was a cut and polished jewel with numerous hidden highlights, ready to be presented to the Court of Amber.
But she was not ready for them.
As an adult, Brigid didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the family. Although her social skills were sufficient even for Florimel’s high standards, Brigid felt uncomfortable in Family social circles. She was unprepared for the competitiveness and backbiting between family members and the slight, subtle snubs she received in polite society in being the daughter of Fiona; likewise, she was unwilling to play the pointless (to her) games of power that surrounded the throne.
But the worst was that Brigid and Fiona argued. Their arguments were notorious in the Castle; two stubborn, strong-willed women who had widely divergent plans for Brigid’s future. Because of that, they started arguing, starting with little matters and eventually encompassing practically everything: Brigid’s upbringing and education, her position within the Family, her unknown father, her future, her Trump, her friends and companions, politics, literature, even the weather. It pained Brigid to be so at odds with her mother, yet she secretly believed that somehow, Fiona was fiercely proud of her daughter, who was so much like herself that she couldn’t admit it.
Finally, at a time when Fiona was away pursuing her own interests, Brigid left the castle for good and took up residence in a modest rented townhouse in the city. She also traveled to Golden Circle realms, learning her chosen profession. For that reason, she was not in Amber during the troubles surrounding Eric’s and Corwin’s regencies. It was only when Gérard asked to come to the Castle and assist him after the others had left to conclude the attack upon Chaos did she even consider returning, and only did so solely out of respect for Gérard. But she didn’t like living in the Castle, and so she volunteered for duty with the remaining military troops as a field surgeon and physician.
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