The World

North America

Already reeling from the VITAS plague, the Awakening of magic, and the appearance of metahumans, North America splintered August 17, 2017 when—responding to the United States' escalation of its conflict with Sovereign American Indian Movement into a campaign of outright extinction—Howling Coyote initiated the Great Ghost Dance at Native American communities across the continent. Freak weather and uncanny disturbances assaulted the US military effort, with the havoc reaching its height with the eruption of Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. Large portions of the United States and Canada were carved out to form the Native American Nations (NANs).

Already weakened, the United States and Canada were further destabilized with the Crash of '29, when an unprecedented virus swept the world's computer systems, crashing systems, wiping records, and destroying hardware. In need of a lifeline, they joined together into the United Canadian and American States in 2030. The alliance couldn't hold together, however, and the UCAS soon faced a rush of secessions.

United Canadian and American States

The United Canadian and American States, also referred to as the UCAS, CanAmerica, or America, is a federal republic in eastern North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the beginning of the Rocky Mountains. It is the successor state to both the Dominion of Canada and the United States of America. It shares land borders with Quebec, Algonkian-Manitou, Sioux, Pueblo, and the CAS. The state of Seattle on the West Coast of North America is enclaved in the Salish-Shidhe territory.

The country consists of 33 states. These include twenty-seven former American states: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine (now incorporating formerly Canadian Newfoundland), Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, North Missouri, North Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. They further include the five former Canadian provinces of Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia (including Prince Edward Island), Ontario, and Saskatchewan. The capital, Washington, FDC, was expanded from the American capital of Washington, DC and is now recognized as a state of its own. The Seattle Special Administrative Region is similarly recognized as the state of Seattle. A UCAS citizen is formally known as a Canadian-American, with CanAmerican the acceptable diminutive, but the term American has retained significant global usage due to the dominance of the old USA in the new country and the term Canadian remains proudly claimed by residents of the former provinces.

Seattle

See the dedicated page for the Seattle Special Administrative Region.

Chicago

See the dedicated page for Chicago, including the Chicago Containment Zone (Bug City).

Northeastern Metroplex Axis

A megalopolis running along the northeastern coast of the UCAS, collectively referred to as NEMA. Heavily interconnected politically and economically, the region boasts the only high-speed train network in North America.

Boston

Boston is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts. Following the 2005 earthquake, it overcame New York City to become the business and cultural center of NEMA, with a diverse economy including global leadership in finance, education, health care, and technology. It is home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Thaumaturgy (MIT&T), the East Coast Stock Exchange, and the headquarters of the Novatech AAA megacorporation and the Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research. In addition to its old moniker of Beantown, Boston is popularly known as The Hub.

The Five Boroughs

New York City was devastated by the great earthquake of 2005, with hundreds of thousands dead and hundreds of billions in property damage. While substantially rebuilt over the following decades, it has lost its perceived status as the capital of the world. The five boroughs were re-divided into individual cities while the East Coast Stock Exchange moved to Boston and the United Nations relocated to Geneva, Switzerland.

The crown jewel, Manhattan, was handed over to the megacorps, which jointly rule Manhattan Inc. via their seats on the Manhattan Development Consortium. After the earthquake, the corps rebuilt the island with a series of skyrakers and arcologies reaching high above the old skyline. The island features possibly the heaviest corporate security in the UCAS, restricted not only to SIN-carrying citizens but further by a series of color-coded pass-cards, issued by the municipal government dependent on status as a resident, commuting worker, visitor, government official, VIP, and so on. The pass-cards are frequently checked by various authorities and the penalties are swift and severe if an individual does not present and/or possess an acceptable pass-card.

While only Manhattan is formally under corporate control, their influence has spread throughout the rebuilding of the other four boroughs, now independent cities. The Bronx hosts the Villiers Arcology, commonly known as Co-op City, one of the largest condo megaplexes in the world. Brooklyn has seen the formation of the Coney Island Amusementplex, a massive megacorp expansion on the old amusement parks. Astoria in Queens features the largest simsense production center in the UCAS, the heart of the UCAS immersion industry since the secession of California and the quarantining of the Chicago Containment Zone. Of the old outer boroughs, Staten Island is the least changed, functioning as a relatively-affordable suburb of the other cities.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia has retained much of its original character from before the Awakening, adapting smoothly to the new world. The city sees investment by a number of AAA megacorporations, remains fiercly loyal to and critical of its many sports teams, and hosts the headquarters of the Humanis Policlub human supremacist organization.

Washington, FDC

Washington, FDC, officially the Federal District of Columbia and commonly known as DC, is the capital city and administrative district of the United Canadian and American States. It comprises the territory of the old American capital of Washington, DC plus the counties of Montgomery, Prince Georges, Howard, Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax, creating a state from much of the historically recognized National Capital Region.

Detroit

Detroit or the Greater Detroit Metropolitan Complex is located in the state of Michigan, in the UCAS. Site of the global headquarters for Ares Macrotechnology, parent company of Knight Errant Security Services, Detroit is prosperous and one of the safest cities in the UCAS. It is held up as a model of balanced civic and corporate governance, with a mere three percent unemployment rate according to the 2050 census.

Toronto

Toronto, Ontario is on the northern shore of Lake Ontario and part of the collection of metroplexes that make up the Lake Ontario Ring. (New York: Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo/Niagara Falls, and Watertown; Ontario: St. Catherine, Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Toronto, and Peterborough). Toronto is one of the cleanest and safest cities in the UCAS and has a long-standing reputation for being a decent place to live.

The area saw some growth after the earthquake that hit New York City though some aftershocks from the quake were felt, but the damage was minimal. Some of the corporations left NYC looking for more stable ground and Toronto had an open for business sign. The Treaty of Denver saw a huge influx of Canadian expats to make it a boomtown and the Treaty of Richmond saw more investment when the corporations in the UCAS were worried about the political climate of the CAS.

Toronto is the entertainment capital of the UCAS. Having served as the ‘stunt double’ for other city locations, particularly New York, for years, when the UCAS lost California and Nashville, and most of its major film and television industry, New York and Toronto tried to take up the slack. Toronto proved the better venue for most entertainment corps, which bought up land and set up facilities here. Some are just subsidiaries of California Free State corporations, giving them a presence in the UCAS, while others are independent or belong to one of the megacorps. Vision-Quest, NBS, Mediaworks, Brilliant Genesis, and others maintain studios here.

Prince Edward Island

PEI drew the nation's attention for the first time in the 21st century when Dunkelzahn established his residence there, enabling his UCAS citizenship and eventual run for president. Following his death in 2057, his estate on the island was left in a trust dedicating it as a public park for use by the people of the UCAS. The site has drawn the devotion of many of his faithful, including such cults as the Children of the Dragon.

Confederation of American States

The Confederation of American States, abbreviated as the CAS, and sometimes referred to as the Confederated American States, is a republic in eastern North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the beginning of the Sierra Madre. It shares land borders with UCAS, Pueblo, Aztlán, and South Florida.

The country has 13 states, which have a level of local autonomy according to the system of federalism. A CAS citizen is formally known as a Confederationist, but much of the world knows them as Confederates. While much of the country itself embraces the term, a minority of it, and many expatriates, consider it an insult, given its association to the moniker used in the American Civil War.

While marginalization of metahuman populations is common globally, the CAS has a reputation for the extremity of their subjugation, with the non-human portion of its prisoners being vastly higher than the already-common disproportion and prison labor being highly integrated into the national economy.

Atlanta

Atlanta is the capital of Georgia and the CAS in general. While the third largest metropolitan area in the CAS, behind Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston in Texas, it sees significant economic activity outside political administration. Major megacorporations headquartered in Atlanta include Hisato-Turner Broadcasting, Cord Mutual, DocWagon, Coca-Cola, Shaw Textiles, Global Business Computers, and the Atlantean Foundation. Many foreign corporations also install their CAS division HQ in Atlanta. The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) has achieved significant renown in the field of magical studies.

Dallas/Fort Worth

The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex is the second most influential sprawl in the CAS, second only to Atlanta. The population of the city swelled tremendously following the invasion by Aztlán in 2035, mostly with Houston refugees, but also with a sizable number of Aztlán immigrants. The city was already on the edge of breakdown, but the influx of refugees pushed the services of the city to the breaking point. It is only within the past 15 or 20 years that DFW has managed to get a handle on its problems and emerge as a cultural and economic powerhouse in the CAS.

Socially, there are three dominant factors in DFW society:

Firstly is the sizable Aztláner population, which forms upwards of 40% of the populace of the city. Confined to low-cost regions of the city, these de facto ghettoes have created a vibrant social scene in the city, which is becoming world renowned as the place to go for Mexican music and dance. It is part of their cultural identity that they are not Aztláner, but Mexican (or Latino), and calling someone an Aztláner is considered offensive and can be grounds for violence – at least for some.
Then there are the associated tensions with the Aztlán government itself (or rather, Aztechnology). Anti-Aztláner paranoia is rampant, and is used to justify much discrimination against the Aztláners, and is the source of much violence within the Mexican/Latino community as well. The problem is complicated by an explicit policy of helping refugees flee Aztlán combined with a propensity for the Aztlán intelligence service to send agents disguised as refugees. There is a significant fear that Aztlán may be planning to start an insurgent campaign in DFW as a prelude to invasion – a fear stoked by the occasional terrorist bombing. Then again, the CAS and various refugee groups are trying to do the same thing to Aztlán.
Lastly is the rather significant gap between the rich and poor within the sprawl, which manifests in a number of different ways. The small middle class is largely human, corporately affiliated, and rarely leave their gated enclaves. Lower class consists of a mix of Aztláner immigrants, poor Texans displaced by the Aztlán annexation, and a disproportionate number of metahumans (particularly orcs). The upper class consists of a mix of wealthy Aztláner aristocrats, upper crust CAS natives, and the social "glitterati" that dominate the DFW social scene.

California Free State

The California Free State is a libertarian republic on the west coast of North America. California borders the Pacific Ocean the length of the Sierra Nevada, featuring a diverse landscape and Mediterranean climate. The CFS comprises only a portion of the former state of California, with the territory from San Diego south claimed by Aztlán, Los Angeles having succeeded, and San Francisco—while still formally part of the CFS—being in practice controlled by a coalition of Japanese megacorporations.

Northern Crescent

The Northern Crescent, a mountainous region of California which borders Tír Tairngire, is home to the world's largest redwood old growth forest and has long been a target of the Tír elves. Much of this land was captured by them in the 2036 war, but guerrilla activity has kept the Tír from holding it safely. As such, the disputed territory is a constant see-saw battle of California Irregulars and Tir Paladins. The border is still porous and fluid, with lines changing from week to week.

The great dragon Hestaby makes her home on Mount Shasta in the Northern Crescent. She has mostly kept out of the border dispute.

San Francisco

San Francisco is a metroplex in the Bay Area of the California Free State, which has been under military occupation by the Japanese Imperial State since 2036 when it invaded the city to protect Japanese corporate interests during the breakup of the United States. Administered under military law, access to the city requires a SIN or other authorization acceptable to the Japanese Imperial Marines. All five Japanese megacorporations maintain a major presence in the city.

The larger Bay Area remains independent from Japanese control and has become a haven for metahumans expelled from the Japanese enclave. The People's University in Berkeley has produced a steady stream of notable shadowrunner deckers since its inception.

Big Sur

In the north the local water table has been rendered undrinkable by agribusiness, making the area a sparsely-populated toxic wasteland. Black and twisted plants, some of which move and hunt. In the south, towns and military bases abandoned during the breakup of the USA were taken over by gangs forced out of SF by the Japanese military.

There’s small farming communities dotted along the Salinas and Carmel rivers, these areas purified by powerful nature magic. The state governments unleashed the megacorp agribusinesses to take back the now-again productive land, but the same magic used to clean it was unleashed on them, leading to a long stalemate.

Massive aquaculture takes place off the coast growing genetically-engineered seafood in waters that have to be constantly protected from their toxic byproducts by powerful magic. The biggest of these is Kalamri Incorporated, whose aquasphere is a self-contained underwater city that can hold up to 15,000. The smallest notable one is Aqua Arcana, specializing in magical management of the local wildlife.

The southern portion of Big Sur is a pirate haven, the big three pirate kingdoms being O’Malley’s Empire, Monday of Morro Bay, and the Dread Pirate Paco. However, independent troops control a number of former military reservations.

Mojave

The Mojave covers a vast stretch of southeastern California. It's bordered by the Iny Forest on the north, Aztlán on the south, the Ute Nation on the east, and the Sierra Nevada mountains on the west. The California Rangers keep up with fixing potholes pretty well, but no one's resurfaced the roads in decades. Visitors are advised to use a hovercraft or something with four-wheel drive.

If you're a typical shadowrunner—somebody who eats, sleeps and breathes the sprawl—you'd best not come to the Mojave Desert without a fragging good reason. And if you do come here, read up on the place first. Aside from the few habitable towns scattered within it, the Mojave is an alien environment. It's a place of extremes, where relying on anything or anyone except yourself can kill you. At one end of the spectrum lies the corporate resort of Palm Springs, a monument to the power of corp money and technology. Here, richer-than-God execs and their friends cavort in air-conditioned splendor, insulated from the realities of everyday fiel by the best entertainment, food and assorted luxuries money can buy. Outside the fortified walls of Palm Springs lies the open desert, a harsh and unforgiving place. There aren't too many spots in it fit for (meta)humans to live, other than the military town of Barstow and a few scattered corporate military bases. There sure as drek isn't anyplace like the sprawl you're likely used to. No glass towers, no Stuffer Shacks, no climate-controlled shopping arcologies. The desert si its own world—a world of strange magical creatures, fierce nomadic bands, solitary shamans and powerful magical sites, where only the strong and cunning survive.
— Road Runner

Free City of Los Angeles

Enclosed on land by the California Free State, The Free City of Los Angeles sprawls across what used to be the Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange counties, and additionally includes the western part of San Bernardino county. The free city is best known for its still-dominant position in the entertainment industry, ranging from film and TriD to simsense recordings and video games.

Moneyed Angelenos live in a select few scattered sanctuaries across the L.A. sprawl: Hollywood, Mulholland Drive, Westside, the UCLA campus and its immediate environs, and the corporate enclaves of Fun City and Studio City, each walled off from the sea of urban blight surrounding it by heavily-manned fortifications.

Studio City includes West Hollywood, Universal City and Beverly Hills, named for the many video, trideo and simsense studios there, plus all the necessary supporting industries. Those visitors allowed inside the walls will find such classic old-Hollywood tourist attractions as the Walk of Fame, Griffith Park, Universal Studios, Man's Chinese Theatre, and the Hollywood Wax Museum. Senior studio executives, major performers, and senior technicians and support personnel live inside the walls of the city itself, while the less important commute from nearby communities.

A collection of corporate interests, Fun City is a gigantic family-friendly amusement park that includes Virtual Disney, the Crystal Cathedral, Knott's Berry Farm, as well as a variety of newer additions. While it includes parks from a number of distinct corporate interests, management of Fun City is dominated by Amalgamated Studios, the largest player in the Los Angeles entertainment industry.

Republic of Québec

Québec, officially la République du Québec (English: Republic of Québec) is a country in eastern North America, between Hudson Bay and St-Laurent River, with its capital in Québec city. A socialist republic, it is traditionally an isolationist nation known for its fervently Francophone population and strict laws outlawing the use of other languages. Its economic face is the AAA megacorporation Cross Applied Technologies, though all AAA megacorporations maintain some presence in the republic. It shares land borders with the UCAS and the Algonkian-Manitou Council.

Tír Tairngire

Tír Tairngire (Gaelic for "Land of Promise") is one of the two Tír Nations (see Tír na nÓg), elven ethnostates established after the Awakening. Tír Tairngire comprises most of the former American state of Oregon as well as a portion of Nevada, while contesting territory in northern California.

Established initially as one of the Native American Nations, Tír Tairngire soon transitioned from a home for elven Native Americans to a refuge for elves from across the Americas, whether or not they possessed Native American lineage. It is ruled by the Council of Princes, an eleven-member body forming the high aristocracy of the state. The original members were appointed by Lugh Surehand, the founding High Prince, with replacements selected from the social and economic elite of the elven nation. The council includes one non-elven member, the great dragon Lofwyr.

Tír Tairngire did not sign the Business Recognition Accords. As such, megacorporations can only operate in Tír Tairngire through subsidiaries which do not enjoy extraterritoriality. Further, by law, the Council of Princes as a collective owns at least 5% of each such subsidiary and the head corporate officer must be a Tír subject, barring special dispensation by the Council.

Tír Tairngire security is provided by the Tir Tairngire Peace Force, a combined military and national police force. Its special forces are referred to as Paladins, which include the feared Ghost Circle, an initiatory circle of magically-adept warriors.

Native American Nations

The Native American Nations (NAN) is a union of Native American countries in North America. These include:

Algonkian-Manitou Council
Athabaskan Council
Pueblo Corporate Council
Salish-Shidhe Council
Sioux Nation
Ute Nation
Trans-Polar Aleut Nation
Tsimshian Nation

Denver

Denver was where the agreement establishing the North American Nations was signed. It and its surrounding territory form the Front Range Free Zone, a formally sovereign state governed by the Council of Denver, though highly subject to the whims of its controlling members. It is governed under the joint administration of these members, which comprise the five signatories of its creation (the UCAS, Aztlán, the Pueblo, the Sioux, and the Ute) and the CAS, which gained membership following its secession from the UCAS in 2034. Each of these parties controls a sector of the city, forming a series of wedges around the core Joint Administrative District, the CAS sector splintered from the territory of the UCAS.

Besides being a center for work in the Native American Nations, Denver is famous among shadowrunners for the Denver Nexus, the largest data haven in the world and home of the central node of the Shadowland BBS, the main hub of the North American online shadow community.

Central America

Aztlán

One of the Native American Nations created in the wake of the Great Ghost Dance, Aztlán covers all of Central America, between Rio Bravo and Nueces River and the Andes, including the former territory of Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama (excluding the Panama Canal Zone under the direct control of the Corporate Court). It also includes territory that used to belong to Venezuela and Columbia, as well as portions of the former US states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

The country of Aztlán is inextricable from Aztechnology. The AAA megacorporation dominates politics with its Azatlán party, intermingling its corporate governance with the national government, while also being the primary provider of security and military services to the state. The nation and corporation are notorious for their use of blood magic.

Panama Canal Zone

When the country of Panama joined Aztlán in 2048, the Corporate Court wrested control of the Panama Canal Zone from the expansionist state as part of Operation RECIPROCITY, launched by the other members of the Court to check Aztechnology's flouting of corporate law. The Panama Canal Zone grants control of the canal and its surrounding environs to the Corporate Court directly.

Administered by an appointed governor, the Panama Canal Zone has no army or security force of its own. Instead, the Corporate Court provides troops to defend it as needed, sourced from its constituent members. Those aboard a ship traversing the canal will find along the shores a mix of uniforms, from the red-and-navy of Renraku and the pale blue of Mitsuhama to the grays of Fuchi and the jade green of Yamatetsu. The dusty ochre of Aztechnology is missing, however, as the Corporate Court declines to include their forces among those used to control the Pan-Corporate Zone.

South America

Amazonia

Amazonia (port. Amazônia) is a major country located in the northeast of South America, comprising the territory of the former nation of Brazil as well as significant territory that used to belong to Venezuela (the remainder claimed by Aztlán or forming a small rump state enclaved within Amazonia) and the portion of Colombia not claimed by Aztlán.

Amazonia was formed in 2034 when revolutionary forces, led by the great dragons Hualpa, Sirrurg, and Arleesh, took the capital of Brazil. The feathered dragon Hualpa has served as Prime Minister of the state ever since, his Amazonian party forming a majority every election either independently or in coalition with one or more minority parties. The state has overseen comprehensive environmental reclamation, with the Amazonian jungle in particular seeing strong regrowth. The largest urban area, called the Metropole or "Rio Paulo" unites the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, though the capital remains in Brasilia.

Tensions have been high between Aztlán and Amazonia for some time. The last open military conflict was in 2049 when Aztlán claimed a portion of Venezuela, but diplomatic and public relations remain tense with ongoing minor border conflicts.

Amazonia has not signed the Business Recognition Accords, denying megacorporations their typical extraterritoriality. Aztechnology is banned from conducting business in the country altogether.

Europe

United Kingdom

Tír na nÓg

Tír na nÓg (Gaelic for "Land of the Young") is one of the Tir Nations, elven ethnostates established after the Awakening. Located west of the United Kingdom, it covers the entire national territories of former Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Following magically enhanced terrorist activity, in 2014 the governments of the U.K. and Eire signed the Treaty of Galway establishing the United Free Republic of Ireland. Over time, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) split in two factions: the Official IRA and a Provisional IRA lead by Liam O'Connor, a "spike baby" elf, whose force would eventually be reincorporated back into the national military as a separate security apparatus, the Republican Corps, dedicated to countering Protestant paramilitaries. In 2034, civil unrest after the Irish president is impeached for illegal surveillance of his political opponents leads the acting president to ask O'Connor to impose a state of emergency. O'Connor leveraged this authority to become state president, exert his will on the senate, and push through a series of constitutional changes reforming Ireland into the elven state of Tír na nÓg.

Tír na nÓg is nominally a democracy, with a prime minister selected from a popularly-elected senate. However, both of these have little more than advisory authority over the president, a role assigned constitutionally to the head of the Council of Stewards. The Council functions as a parallel legislature, with members appointed from the noble Danaan families, predominantly elven, selected initially by Liam O'Connor as the chosen people of the goddess Danu, but since self-managed. O'Connor served as President and Head Steward until his disappearance in 2043, with the positions currently held by Tiernan O'Neill.

While the elven population, rising as high as a third of the population in some parts, is largely comprised of European immigrants, there is also an unusually high number of elven children born in the elven state.

The elven people of Tír na nÓg mostly follow the Paths of the Wheel, a belief system based on the reincarnation of elven spirits. While many non-elven residents follow the doctrines of the Wheel of Life for the social advancement it can bring, they are unable to hold senior positions within the various orders that embody the different paths: the paths of the Warrior, Steward, Bard, Druid, and King. Oversight of the orders is performed by the exclusively-elven Seelie Court, lying at the heart of Danaan mysticism, counterbalanced by the disavowed Unseelie Court. The Seelie Court is currently run by a Queen, Lady Brane Deigh of Connaught, wife of the now-missing Liam O'Connor.

The Roman Catholic Church has been banned from the country for its discrimination against elves. Its place has been taken by the Irish Catholic Church, though many human residents of Tír na nÓg still hold loyalty to the old church.

Tír na nÓg does not recognize the Business Recognition Accords. While AAA megacorporations maintain some presence in the country for trade reasons, the lack of corporate extraterritoriality prevents significant investment, as intended by the Council of Stewards.

Allied German States

The Allied German States (AGS, German: Allianz Deutscher Länder, ADL) is the loosely organized collection of kingdoms, duchies, and republics that were once the Fifth World country of the Federal Republic of Germany. These include: Baden and Palatinate, the Black Forest Troll Kingdom, Brandenburg, Franconia, the Free State of Bavaria, the Free State of Saxony, the Free State of Thuringia, the Free State of Westphalia, the Grand Duchy of West Rhine-Luxembourg, Greater Frankfurt, Hesse-Nassau, the North German League, North Rhine-Ruhr, Wuerttemberg, the Free City of Berlin, the eleven enclave of the Duchy of Pomorya, and the Saar-Lorraine-Luxembourg Special Administrative Zone (established to contain the damage caused by the meltdown of the Cattenom reactors in 2008).

The AGS is notable for having several great dragons and a (relatively) large number of Night Ones and Giants.

Black Forest Troll Republic

The Black Forest Troll Republic is an Allied German State (ADL) and one of the Awakened Lands. After the secession of the Süddeutschen Bund (Southern German Federation) in 2038, an attempted pogrom of orks and trolls led to a resistance movement by King Berthold (suspected to be the dragon Kaltenstein) that established a constitutional monarchy within the Black Forest to shelter metahumans.

Austria

Czech Republic

Italian Confederation

Scandinavian Union

Russian Republic

Black Sea City States

Middle East

Arabian Caliphate

East Anatolia

East Anatolia or East Turkey (also called the Ottoman Empire) is an insurgent-ruled state situated in the eastern portion of Anatolia and is ruled by Islamist extremists who are remnants of Alliance for Allah.

Secular Republic of Turkey

Israel

Palestine

Asia

Japanese Imperial State

The Japanese Imperial State or JIS (日本帝国, nihon teikoku) is a constitutional monarchy ruling the Japanese archipelago and various neighboring protectorates.

The rebirth of the Japanese Empire began in 2005 with its successful intervention in the Korean Unification War aiding South Korea in its efforts to unify the peninsula, ending its decades-long deference to the United States in military affairs and gaining it a powerful pro-Japanese client state. It subsequently took advantage of the collapse and fragmentation of China to the west and the fragmentation of the United States to the east to continue its expansion, with the Philippines becoming a prefecture of Japan and nominally-independent countries such as Hawai'i and Peru becoming protectorates. Further, de facto control is exerted over the cities of Cairns in northeastern Australia and San Francisco in the California Free State.

The JIS is also an economic powerhouse, home to fully five AAA megacorporations: Fuchi Industrial Electronics (Tokyo), Mitsuhama Computer Technologies (Kyoto), Renraku Computer Systems (Chiba), the Shiawase Corporation (Osaka), and the Yamatetsu Corporation (Kyoto). The global reserve currency of the Nuyen, while now managed by the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank, is dominated by the Japanese economy. In 2039, Japan was able to assert its power to make the standards of Fuchi Industrial Electronics those of the Matrix, giving the Japanacorps an advantage that has lasted for decades.

While possessing only modest, advisory formal power, Emperor Kenichi is a powerful political actor, the de facto leader of the dominant Imperialist Party in the National Diet. An active head of state, Emperor Kenichi is the face of the JIS in foreign affairs, providing continuity over multiple government administrations and a widely-respected spokesman for the Japanese megacorporations in aggregate.

The appearance of the first dragon (Ryumyo) in 2011, followed by the manifestation of spirits and the return of magic, was embraced in Japan, resulting in a resurgence in Shintoism and the strengthening of the emperor's position. Not so embraced were metahumans, with newborn dwarves and elves seen as strangers, mutants, or Oni (demons). They and their parents were cast out of companies and communities. It was worse for those who goblinized into orks and trolls, as they were deported to the volcanic island that came to be known as Yomi.

The national underworld is ruled by it's homegrown mafia, the Yakuza, a dominant economic, political, and cultural power in Japan and a powerful criminal player internationally. The Yakuza maintains deep ties with both the Japanese Imperial State, particularly its intelligence services, and the Japanese megacorporations.

Chinese Splinter States

China is no longer a country, but a region occupied by dozens of splinter states all warring with each other. The four largest states (the Canton Confederation, the People's Republic of Henan, the Kingdom of Shaanxi, and the Sichuan Dominion), which retained the former country's nuclear weapons, vye to reunify China under their respective banners, while the other lesser states serve as political wildcards.

Canton Confederation

Consisting of the former provinces of Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Fujian, as well as the city-state of Macao, the Canton Confederation is the most economically powerful of the former Chinese states, but its weak-confederation system prevents its federal government from exerting significant non-economic foreign influence. Bordering the South China Sea, the confederation is the Chinese Splinter most integrated into global commerce.

People's Republic of Henan

The People's Republic of Henan became the home of the remaining hardline communists following the breakup of the PRC. Governed by a neo-Communist regime and hostile to corporations, it has attracted a number of anti-corporate policlubs and is believed to provide anti-corporate terrorists with covert support, rumored to be home to training facilities for GreenWar and the Sons of Sauron.

Kingdom of Shaanxi

The Kingdom of Shaanxi is a monarchy comprising a large portion of north-central China, with a desert in the north and mountains through the central region forming a natural barrier with much of the rest of former China, but with the population concentrated in a subtropical zone to the south. The kingdom puts itself forward as a cultural center of pre-communist China, with Queen Michelle being a dedicated promoter of both traditional and modern Chinese art.

Sichuan Dominion

The Sichuan Dominion is a militaristic and magocratic constitutional dictatorship located in central China. Advised by a democratically-elected parliament, it is ruled by the Mage General Liang Hong, backed by the Eastern Great Dragon Lung. The structure of the Dominion favors the awakened, rewarding them in its extensive civil service program even beyond the utility of awakened abilities, with the unawakened barred from holding high-ranking position in the civilian government and military.

Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone

Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone, is an independent corporate-governed city-state in South East Asia.

Since winning its independence from the People's Republic of China, the Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone has been subject to direct corporate control. Each participating corporation has a seat on a Board of Governors that appoints the rotating directors of an eight-member Executive Council to administrate the state, headed by a Council Chairman selected by the Council itself.

The Wuxing, Inc. AAA megacorporation is headquartered in Hong Kong, though all AAA megacorporations have a presence in the enterprise zone.

Kowloon City

Hong Kong is particularly famous among Shadowrunners for Kowloon City, the original urban barrens. While the original Walled City is over 120 years old, in the 2040s the Tsang Corporation rebuilt the district in a state-funded Prosperity Project with the stated aim of building a thriving, dense neighborhood of low-income housing. This immediately turned into a slum worse than the original. A nightmarish place, the tightly packed crumbling slums are full of refugees and gangs, with the Triad's domination of the district uninterrupted. The Kai Tak airport has been turned into an open-air bazaar tenanted from the Triads by counterfeiters, tinkerers, smugglers, and junk merchants. Few shadowrunners come out of Hong Jong without either originating or at least learning some part of their business in the Walled City. The astral space within Kowloon is so toxic that it saw the emergence of a Yama King in 2054, thankfully neutralized by a group of Shadowrunners.

Indian Union

Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Oceania

Australia

Island Nations

Kingdom of Hawaiʻi

The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi is a parliamentary monarchy established in 2017 when the islands seceded from the United States and a protectorate of the Japanese Imperial State. It's governed by King Aliʻi Kamehameha V, who traces his lineage back to the old kings of the Big Island. 80% of the population of the archipelago lives on Oʻahu, which features the state capital of Honolulu and the Pearl Harbor military base permanently leased to the Japanese Imperial Marines.

Caribbean League

The Caribbean League is a political union of Carribean nations established as a collective check against the ability of megacorporations to dominate any of its constituent members. Founded in 2022 by the First Secretary of the Neo-Communist Party of Cuba Lady Guadalupe Martinez, its presidency is now held by her son Enrique "Pretty Boy" Martinez, who has been responsible for controversial overtures to megacorporate investment. The league comprises the federated states of:

Cuba
South Florida
Borinquen (Puerto Rico)
The Bahamas
Cayman Islands
Jamaica
Haiti
The Dominican Republic
Virgin Islands
Anguilla
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Antigua and Barbuda
Guadeloupe
Dominica
Martinique
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Grenada
Trinidad and Tobago
Aruba
Netherlands Antilles
Curacao

Bermuda and Barbados are still British overseas territories and as so are not part of the League.

The Caribbean League is famous for its tolerance to piracy, with multiple states governed by former or active pirate lords. Criminal syndicates operate alongside the pirates without significant interference, most notably the South American Ghost Cartels.

South Florida

South Florida joined the Caribbean League in 2034 shortly after the CAS split off from the UCAS and consists of Miami-Dade County, Monroe County, the eastern edge of Broward County, the south-eastern edge of Collier County, and the south-eastern corner of Palm Beach County (including Boca Raton, but not West Palm Beach). The border was set by CAS when they quickly built the "orange curtain" across the peninsula in 2034.

The Miami Sprawl

The Miami Sprawl, while still part of South Florida, is entirely controlled by the Gunderson AA megacorporation. Gunderson is a diversified company with considerable investment in manufacturing, shipping, and security personnel, with subsidiaries including TransSea (shipping division), Atlantic Security, and Montclair Industries (specializing in advanced drones). Gunderson is rumored to be fully integrated with the American Mafia, particularly the Cuban and Puerto Rican gangs folded into La Cosa Nostra during the aftermath of the Awakening.

Borinquen (Puerto Rico)

Borinquen (formerly Puerto Rico) seceded from the United States in 2032 to join the Caribbean League, renaming itself Borinquen, the named used for the island by the Taíno-Kalipona people indigenous to the Lesser Antilles. It is loosely ruled by the Pirate Queen Maria Fransisca, who maintains the island as a megacorp-free zone.

AAA Megacorporations

http://theshadowrun.proboards.com/thread/346

Ares Macrotechnology

Headquarters: Detroit, UCAS

Core Industries: AresSpace, Ares Global Entertainment, Ares Arms, Knight Errant Security Services, and General Motors

Ares Macrotechnology

Aztechnology

Headquarters: Tenochtitlan, Aztlán

Core Industries: food, consumer goods, and thaumaturgical products

Aztechnology

Cross Applied Technologies

Headquarters: Montreal, Quebec

Core Industries: computers, electronics, multimedia products, biotech

Cross Applied Technologies

Fuchi Industrial Electronics

Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan

Core Industries: Matrix technology

Fuchi Industrial Electronics

Mitsuhama Computer Technologies

Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan

Core Industries: computers and robotics

Mitsuhama Computer Technologies

Novatech

Headquarters: Boston, UCAS

Core Industries: Matrix infrastructure, software, electronics, biotech

Novatech

Renraku Computer Systems

Headquarters: Chiba, Japan

Core Industries: memory storage and databases

Renraku Computer Systems

Saeder-Krupp Schwerindustriegesellschaft

Headquarters: Essen, Germany

Core Industries: heavy industry, nuclear energy, oil, chemistry, aerospace and telecommunications.

Saeder-Krupp Schwerindustriegesellschaft

Shiawase Corporation

Headquarters: Osaka, Japan

Core Industries: power systems, biotech, environmental technology, business analysis

Shiawase Corporation

Wuxing, Inc.

Headquarters: Hong Kong Free Enterprise Enclave

Core Industries: finance, heavy industry, shipping, automotive, consumer goods and services

Wuxing, Inc.

Yamatetsu Corporation

Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan

Core Industries: Crashcart Medical Services, consumer products, naval technology

Yamatetsu

Criminal Syndicates

Triads

While the Triads include the world's oldest crime syndicates, dating hundreds of years before the oldest Yakuza or Mafia organizations, they rose to their current dominant position following the collapse and fragmentation of China in the 2010s, selling food, weapons, tech, and whatever else was needed to the warlords and the desperate people who lived under their rule. The profits were used to build up their criminal empires and for some of them, to expand outside of China. Under the direction of the dragon Lung, the Red Dragon Triads became the most ambitious and expanded first throughout the Pacific Rim and then into the greater world.

Often based out of a local Chinatown, in most cities of the world it is the Triads that dominate the smuggling racket. It is the Triads (along with the Ghost Cartels) who are the kingpins of the global drug trade, as they produce, transport, and distribute the lion's share of the illicit drugs (organic, Awakened, and BADs). The Triads are the biggest manufacturers and distributors of brand counterfeit goods and of illegal BTL chips, as well as the leading talisleggers and people smugglers.

Among the world's organized crime groups, the Triads are one of the most enlightened and progressive when it comes to women, ethnicity, and metahumans. At least in comparison to the Mafia, the Vory, and the Yakuza, though being a Chinese organization there is still a hierarchy favoring the Chinese. They are also the criminal organization which is most likely to fight against oppression and help the freedom fighters. While the Triads are primarily secret societies involved in organized crime, for the Awakened they are also magical initiation groups, with the heads of Triads often being Awakened themselves.

Mafia

The Awakening functionally saved the Mafia, not through an embrace of magic and metahumans, but rather by cementing relationships with a variety of ethnic syndicates that also reacted to the Awakening with prejudice and distrust. For the American Mafia, this meant strengthened bonds first with white ethnic mobs (Jewish, Irish, and Polish), then the Latino syndicates (Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican), then finally the Black street gangs, allowing them to join the national syndicate, though with the old Italian La Cosa Nostra largely still dominant. This resulted in a resurgence of the Mafia's power and the restoration of its dominance over the American criminal underworld, helped by a weakening of the Latin American drug cartels following the takeover of Mexico by the ORO Corporation (later renamed Aztechnology) in the 2010s and the temporary refocusing of Triad attention within the former China following its breakup. This power, however, has waned in recent years as the strength of the Triads, Yakuza, and Seoulpa Rings has grown in Europe and North America.

Yakuza

The Yakuza is the second oldest criminal society in the world and is generally considered the richest and most powerful of the international crime syndicates. Tying itself to the Japanese megacorporations, the Yakuza likewise became global as Japan made it's play for dominance, expanding overseas, especially throughout the Pacific Rim and in North America. This expansion initially allowed for the recruitment of non-Japanese members, particular in Korea, though this policy was changed in the 2040s with the Yakuza Purge, resulting in the formation of the Seoulpa Rings.

The Yakuza is shaped by ancient traditions and ideas of honor and duty. These ideals, and the Yakuza's relationship with Japanese megacorporations, have led it to be one of the most technologically savvy criminal syndicates, but also to be one of the most bigoted organizations in the world, with a tendency towards racism, sexism, and anti-human bigotry beyond even that common in other criminal syndicates. While the Yakuza may make use of non-Japanese, non-male, and non-human agents where profitable, they are never allowed into the formal structure of the clans.

Seoulpa Rings

When the Yakuza purged their ranks of Koreans in North America, they did not succeed in killing them all. One of the survivors was a Korean oyabun, Park Jai Kyu. Rumors are that he was half-Japanese, the offspring of a powerful oyabun and his Korean lover. The story goes that he survived due to his having magical talent, specifically precognition and clairvoyance. On the other hand his survival may have been due to effective planning. Whatever the truth may be, he established the Seoulpa Rings.

Less a centrally-organized syndicate than a series of personality cults, the Rings are formed around specific individuals and usually disintegrate if that individual is killed or removed from power. Periodically senior lieutenants will break off from their parent Rings to establish their own independent outfits, often done with the approval of their former leader. While individual Seoulpa Rings are not overseen by a central body like the Mafia, direct conflict between the Rings is rare, with no turf wars, campaigns of assassination, and so on unlike the mob wars between Yakuza clans, Mafia families, or the Triads.

Vory V Zakone

David Cartel

Ghost Cartels

Islamic Crime Cartels

The Kabul Maffiya is a Pashtun criminal network which dominates the criminal underworld in Southwest Asia. Initially based out of Afghanistan, being the central authority thereof, it has expanded across Central and South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, and is now looking towards Europe.

Working with them is the paramilitary syndicate, the Grey Wolves, descended from nationalist militias supported by the secular and military regimes of 20th century Turkey. Despite formally being a secular organization that is nominally distinct from religious fundamentalism, they are in practice supporters of Islamo-nationalism and regularly do business with fundamentalists cartels. The Grey Wolves dominate the underworld, particularly in regards to smuggling, in most of the region bordering and otherwise near the Black Sea.

Also often operating in coordination with them is the Al-Akhirab Aswad Mayid, an Arabic syndicate based in Spain with influence extending into North Africa.

Technology

System Identification Numbers (SINs)

People are identified by many identifiers in many systems, but the System Identification Number is the gold standard. Every SIN is tied to at least a name, a picture, and a fingerprint. While every SIN holder has been fingerprinted, many registrations include retinal scans, limited DNA profiles, and voice samples. Maintained by Global Systems Registries, the SIN is used by most governments and corporations to identify citizens and employees.

GSR provides for the vast majority of identification-check services throughout the system. With even a basic scanner, and a service contact, GSR can identify whether a particular subject's biometrics match a provided SIN. Authorized customizers, such as law enforcement agencies, can retrieve a SIN based on provided biometrics.

Many older SIN holders have a UV-reactive barcode tattoo on their wrist of their number, with younger citizens often relying solely on embedded short-range radio transmitters.