| “ | If you go shopping in the slave market, please bring your purchases DIRECTLY to me! | „ |
| ~ Amberfuce |
Amberfuce, the Chancellor of Undertown, was a waif in The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell and a major antagonist of books eight and nine of the series. He betrayed Undertown's principles that abolished slavery, killed off half its population, and had everybody set to work on Vox Verlix's projects.
Biography[]
Amberfuce came from the Deepwoods and was a waif, but he was especially evil for waifs. Waifs are small reptilian creatures which are three foot and have remarkable hearing, able to see people's thoughts, which many consider disturbing, and true, many waifs act embarrassed about mind-reading.
But Amberfuce loved playing with people's minds. He used the ability to great effect and got around the threat of death for betraying Undertown's principles of anti-slavery due to his mind-control. Amberfuce was pure evil and he hated people being free because in his mind it was just laziness.
He was a good friend of Vox, when they were in Sanctaphrax together, and he made plans with him to take over the Edge. Amberfuce put Vox's projects into being, such as the Tower of Night, the Mire Road and the Sanctaphrax Forest. Amberfuce was a cunning manipulator, and although Undertown was a success for him, he had a "real" project going on in the Deepwoods. He wanted to be with Hemuel Spume, slave master of the Foundry Glades, and he wanted to leave Undertown (which Vox wanted destroyed anyway) and escape to the Deepwoods.
Leaving Undertown[]
When Rook Barkwater, a new slave, was introduced to the palace of Statues, Amberfuce was angry at Hestera the cook for not having bought him Rook personally. Amberfuce berated Hestera about this and then sought to look in Rook's mind. He manipulated his memories and deleted memories he found unworthy and replaced them all, so he thought, with a blank slate. He commented that Rook had a good mind and it was "a shame" to delete such memories. But Rook had one memory that could never be deleted - his rescue by a banderbear in the Deepwoods, his first memory when he was five. Amberfuce could never erase this, and Rook clung to that thought, and it helped him rebuild his full memory.
Amberfuce learned Vox sought to have the Librarians rescue him and take him out of Undertown before the Storm hit, but Amberfuce cunningly betrayed Vox by leaving him to die in the palace. Rook unknowingly started the Storm proper and destroyed Undertown. Rook later saw Amberfuce in Vox's carriage on the Mire Road and he knew Amberfuce had betrayed Vox.
In the Foundry Glades[]
Amberfuce travelled with some treacherous sky pirates under Quillet Plume's care to the Slave Glades; he met his business partner, Humuel Spume, again after almost fifty years. When Plume bragged about Spume making him and the pirates slave masters, Spume asked Amberfuce what lies he had been telling the pirates. Amberfuce said he had told no lies, and told Plume "goodbye" as he had eavesdropped on Plume's thoughts and knew that was the word Plume was planning on using to abandon Amberfuce. The pirates were dragged off as slaves, and Amberfuce and Spume set up a hegemonistic plan.
Amberfuce was getting annoyed with Flambusia, his maid, and he told her to get lost. She despaired. Amberfuce arranged the Battle of the Free Glades, sending his war machines, the Glade Eater tanks, out to destroy the Glades, but Amberfuce did not take part in the battle due to his ill health and his lack of fighting skills. He was eventually forgotten as the battle was won by the Freegladers and the Foundry Glade shut down. Spume was killed and Amberfuce lay forgotten by all but Flambusia. He lay in cold water shivering and asked where everyone was, and then Flambusia came in and complained about being forgotten and its ironic Amberfuce finally needed her after he shut her out so long. She turned on the water to warm, asking if he wanted a hot bath. He complied, and she turned it up to hot. He said it was hot, but she ignored him, having put up with his insults too long. She then turned it up to scorching, and he shrieked out. She then turned it up to infernal, and this killed Amberfuce because he was burned to death, because she had had enough of Amberfuce's evil manipulation and feared his mind-control powers.
Personality[]
What was terrifying about Amberfuce is that he was a symbolic villain, he had been a nobody before the destruction of Old Sanctaphrax and then he rose up amongst evil doers until he was their leader. He was the perfect Bigger Bad because he was considered so fragile, weak, and generally incompetent, thus because of his disability of being unable to walk, and being old and frail, Amberfuce used this to his advantage and used his power of mind control to do whatever he wished people to do. He got carried away with his own power. He also valued his own enemies, he wished the Librarians and Guardians could continue in their brutal existence of war because this would only empower him. He truly cared for no one but himself.
The true moral of the story of Amberfuce is how literally anybody could become evil. He was, as aforementioned, a true nobody before his rise to power in the Night of the Gloamglozers. He was one of the most disturbing of all the villains of The Edge Chronicles, because he was the least ominous to look at. This way he fooled the entire world and got people to see Vox and the Guardians as the villains, when in fact, Amberfuce is the mastermind.