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 overtook 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 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, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, is one of the cleanest and safest cities in the UCAS and has a long-standing reputation for being a decent place to live.

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. With the damage to New York in the 2005, 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.

The CAS government is based out of an extensive complex of buildings and facilities called Freepark, located in the eastern portion of the Atlanta sprawl around the Stone Mountain Monument.

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 city in the shallow coastal waters 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. The current active members include:

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

The members nations are independent states, but they engage in mutual support against outside influence, coordinated by the Sovereign Tribal Council, headquartered in the Sioux 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.

Salish-Shidhe Council

The Salish-Shidhe Council includes most of what was once the state of Washington and southern British Columbia. Among all of the NAN, the Salish-Shidhe is the most tribally-oriented, and their population and politics are segregated according to tribal affiliation. Each tribe sends representatives to the Tribal Council, and aside from a few nationwide civil laws and restrictions, each tribe is autonomous and self-governing.

Originally the Salish Nation, while they took full advantage of the Anglo relocation programs provided by the terms of the Treaty of Denver in the nation’s early years, in 2029 they opened their borders to all metahumans—many of whom were adopted into existing tribes, while others formed their own so-called “Pink Skin” tribes—and changed their name to the Salish-Shidhe Council.

The major tribes are:

• Salish – The most dominant and prosperous tribe. Tribal territory includes most of the land west and south of Puget Sound.
• Makah – The most military assets of all the tribes. Tribal territory is the northwest Olympic peninsula.
• Cascade Crow – Tribal territory is the land between Seattle and the Cascade mountains, as well as Vancouver. Strongly anti-Anglo.
• Sinsearach – Predominantly elven and eco-conscious. Tribal territory is the land southwest of Seattle, including Mt. Rainier.
• Cascade Ork – Predominantly ork and troll tribe with tribal territory in the Cascade Mountains.
• Nootka – Anti-technology traditionalists who have a presence in northwest Washington, Vancouver Island, and Prince George.

Other tribes include the Musqueam, the Squamish and several "pinkskin" tribes.

Among the megacorporations, only a few extraterritorial agreements have been reached with the SSC, simply because most tribes are not willing to part with the land. Most of the AAA megacorporations make do with offices in Seattle instead.

While part of the UCAS, the city/state of Seattle is surrounded by the SSC. The Council keeps a Seattle embassy on Council Island.

There's very little presence by the international criminal syndicates in the Salish-Shidhe Council. Local crime outfits are merely those from the Tsimshian Protectorate, especially the Dogmen.

Sioux Nation

The Sioux nation covers what once was the midwestern part of the United States. The Sioux has the most native-affiliated tribes of all NAN members, as it became the de facto nation for many displaced smaller tribes that did not have a traditional territory in another Native American Nation. Prior to the Treaty of Denver, the Sioux suffered some of the worst oppression from the United States, including several massacres of innocents by the US military. As a result, the Sioux have poor relations with its non-Native neighbor, and the border is fully militarized.

The Sioux have good relations with their NAN neighbors and have loaned resources, including military units and intelligence, to their neighbors when needed. The Sioux Nation has the largest military of any of the NAN members, though still short on its own of the firepower that the UCAS can wield. It similarly has one of the best-developed intelligence services of the NANs.

Cheyenne, the capital of the Sioux nation, is the focal point of much of the nation’s high-tech industry, including computer software, electronics manufacturing, and military technology. The University of Cheyenne is the Sioux Nation’s largest educational facility, and home to cutting-edge science and matrix tech departments. Because research from the U of C is only licensed to Sioux-owned corporations, there is little official megacorporate presence at the university. Cheyenne is also host to the headquarters of the Sovereign Tribal Council.

Pueblo Corporate Council

The Pueblo Corporate Council includes territory from what were previously the US states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The Pueblo were some of Daniel Coleman’s greatest supporters during the rebellion against the United States, and Pueblo shamans sacrificed their lives during the Great Ghost Dance. However, unlike the other NAN states, the Pueblo people decided to disregard ancient tribal governing methods and shaped their country in the form of a large corporation, mimicking the newly created extraterritorial megacorps.

The Pueblo Corporate Council is a for-profit corporation, with publicly traded stock, a shareholder elected Board of Directors, and a shareholder elected Chairman of the Board. Shares come in three varieties: Preferred shares hold no voting rights but are publicly traded; Residential Shares hold voting rights (along with many other rights associated with “citizenship”) and return a dividend; and Conditional Shares, good for a limited period of time, and given to newly integrated residents in territories annexed by the PCC.

Unlike the majority of Amerindian nations, the Pueblo Corporate Council is not dependent on either primary (resource-based) or secondary (manufacturing) industry for its prosperity. Instead, the country bases its economy on a strong tertiary industry, information processing. Many breakthroughs in software development methodology and computer hardware design have come out of Pueblo's high-technology corporations. As such, the Pueblo nation is the most prosperous country in North America. with the highest standard of living.

Ute Nation

The Ute nation is much of what was once Utah, Nevada, and the southern portion of Idaho. The Ute were the most thorough of all Native American nations in expelling the white man. This is hardly surprising, considering that Daniel Howling Coyote, leader of the Great Ghost Dance and the war against the United States government, was a Ute. A number of violent incidents, not performed by the government, but not prevented by them, has resulted in the Ute nation being seen as unsafe for outsiders, which has made it hard for them to attract outside investment or skilled Anglo immigrants. This, in turn, has limited the nation's attempts to cultivate a high-tech industry. Instead, it mostly operates a basically agrarian economy supported by light manufacturing.

The above comments on the Ute policy toward non-natives do not apply to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons. The majority of Church members are not native, but they are welcome within the Ute nation, with their own enclave in Salt Lake City. In effect, the Mormons are recognized as a distinct "tribe" and have considerable autonomy in conducting their own affairs, more autonomy than is given to any other tribal group within the nation. Brigham Young University is a center of learning in the Ute nation, with its biotech department and its business spin-offs responsible for the development of the engineered grains used in the nation.

True to its century-and-a-half tradition, Las Vegas remains the largest single site dedicated to gambling in the world. (Monaco is second, Atlantic City is third.) Gambling is allowed in other parts of the Ute nation, but under strictly enforced laws. All the laws are thrown away for Vegas. Almost anything goes.

Algonkian-Manitou Council

The Algonkian-Manitou Council land comprises much of what once was western and central Canada. The Algonkian Council was one of the few nations that chose not to enforce the facet of the Treaty of Denver calling for all non-Native Americans to relocate, instead allowing any current residents to remain as long as they agreed to abide by Algonkian laws. The Algonkian-Manitou Council's governmental system is based on a Cheyenne tradition dating back several centuries, despite the nation having little Cheyenne presence. Three separate chiefs lead the tribe: a civil or "peace" chief, a war leader, and a ceremonial leader.

The region had a very high rate of metahuman births, especially elves. In 2045, many of these elves joined under the leadership of Adrienne Silvermoon. Under her guidance, they petitioned the government to recognize them as a distinct tribe called the Manitou, and in response, the country’s name was changed to the Algonkian-Manitou Council. Elves in general show a strong "back-to-the-land" mentality. They believe technology interferes with an individual's connection to nature, and so should be minimized. This attitude is echoed by many in the Council, but the elven population seems particularly militant about it.

The Algonkian-Manitou Council operates on a light- to medium-level industrial economy. Significant political opposition exists to any proposed growth in the manufacturing segment, and the government is considering new, more stringent laws governing waste emissions. The western portion of the Council is largely agricultural, concentrating on growing genetically engineered strains of grain such as neo-triticale and stonewheat. The nation's income is largely based in the sale of grain to other North American countries.

Athabaskan Council

Much of what was once Alaska and the Yukon, as well as some of northern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, now make up the Athabascan Council. Athabaska has the smallest percentage of native citizens of any of the Native American Nations, with just over twenty-two percent of citizens having a tribal affiliation—which makes the political scene in Athabaska unusual, since only tribal citizens can vote or hold office, meaning the majority of residents have no political representation. However, culturally, the non-native majority is well integrated into Athabaskan society, and Athabaska did not participate in any of the relocation programs of the Treaty of Denver. Indeed, many citizens say that despite their cultural differences, the “rugged individualism” that characterizes them all unites them more than metatype, ethnicity, or tribal affiliation.

Athabaska is the most lightly populated of all the North American countries. The country relies primarily on their natural resources—while the oil reserves are dwindling, iron, platinum, and timber are still plentiful—along with fishing, aquafarming, and ecotourism. Ecological regulations are quite strict, with most resource mining done by the government, and the few allowed corporations overseen by eco-activists.

The Kodiak Island Spaceport is owned by Ares, and used exclusively by them and a few favored subsidiaries. The island itself is one of the largest in North America, with forests, mountains, and a viable copper mine. The only way to travel to the island is by air or sea. As expected, Ares thoroughly monitors and coordinates air travel, while the Athabaskan Coast Guard has a large base on the island to patrol the sea (with assistance from Ares-loaned ships and crews at times).

Trans-Polar Aleut Nation

The Trans-Polar Aleut Nation covers the northernmost regions of what were once Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories of North America, the northern areas of the eastern Soviet Union, and the entirety of Greenland and Iceland. The nation also includes several million hectares of more-or-less permanent ice cap. (The annual fluctuations of the ice cap make the Trans-Polar Aleut Nation the only sovereign country whose total land-mass varies by more than 10 percent from summer to winter.) The entire Trans-Polar Aleut Nation lies within the Arctic Circle, and so the amount of light each day is at extremes throughout the year.

When the Trans-Polar Aleut Nation formed, it expelled practically all non-native residents. In the intervening years. however, the country bowed to the inevitable and allowed a limited number of non-natives, particularly those with needed skill-sets, back into the territory. These immigrants find acceptance and respect professionally, but personally find themselves outsiders. No "pinkskin tribes" make their home within the nation.

When the Anglos left, the perceived need and desire for unity quickly faded. Today, while many of the Aleut still name themselves "Aleut tribesmen," their loyalty is first and foremost to their village or their band. The nation itself is run as a loose federation, with little central government. Rather, it is a loosely knit affiliation of tribal and sub-tribal groups and communities subsisting mainly by hunting and fishing.

Only the Inuvik region has a notable capitalist economy. The city of Inuvik boasts half a million residents, several large companies, and significant investment in modern technology. Several thousand hectares of the tundra area around is covered by a large hydroponics-greenhouse project. Sub-sea companies such as Bathotech and Pisces are involved in limited sea-floor mining and drilling operations.

Tsimshian Nation

The northern area of what was once British Columbia, including the Queen Charlotte Islands, and the south part of the old Alaskan "panhandle" is now the Tsimshian Nation, which was once but is no longer formally part of the Native American Nations union. The Tsimshian were among the most zealous in expelling Anglos from the country, but what caused their secession from the collective Native American Nations in 2037 was a schism that developed when they extended the immigration restriction to exclude even Amerindian peoples not of the Tsimshian, Tlingit, Haida, or Kwakiuti tribes. Censured by the Sovereign Tribal Council, they chose to leave rather than change their immigration policies.

Metahumans are not accepted in Tsmishian. The vast majority of Awakened Amerindians in Tsimshian moved south and joined the Salish-Shidhe Council.

The Tsimshian Nation economy is resource-based. The nation owns large expanses of forest, and conducts clear-cut logging operations on an ongoing basis, with requirements to replant harvested forests often ignored. Tsimshian's economy further depends heavily on mining.

The Tlingit are a matriarchal culture, while the Tsimshian tribe is strongly patriarchal. Surprisingly, this significant cultural difference causes no discernable friction.

Latin America

Caribbean League

The Caribbean League is a political union of Caribbean 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.

Runners here may need to get used to the pirate workflow. Rather than Mr. Johnson giving you a job, runners are expected to figure out their own scores and then reach out to a fixer once it's time unload the goods, whether it's data, contraband, or an extracted executive. There's locals accustomed to warehousing kidnapping victims for weeks as they find the best buyer for their purloined personnel.
– Picador

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.

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. While both the nation and the corporation deny the use of blood magic within the Path of the Sun, the state religion, reports of its usage are widely believed, bolstered by the openly religious character of the state's regular public executions.

The real question isn't whether or not they are using blood magic, but what are they using it for?
– Eli

Sacrifice is noble and necessary to keep the sun rising each morning and to keep the tzitzimine demons from devouring us all. You should not condemn us but thank us for preserving your lives from a far worse fate.
– Yaoxochitl

Unlike in the UCAS where people take notice first of what your metaype is and then your skin color, in Aztlán what carries the greatest weight is your cultural group. Are you a peninsular (an Azzie who descends from the Spanish), a mestizo, or an Amerindian. What metatype you are is of lesser importance. For example, a troll peninsular is far higher on the social scale compared to a human or elf mestizo. Within the three castes, there is the usual metatype hierarchy.

In Aztlán, the percentage of the population which is non-metahuman sentient is over twice as high as the global average. Which includes free spirits, dracoforms, and shapeshifters. Within Aztlán, the majority of dracoforms are of the feathered serpent type. They grant full citizenship to free spirits, unlike most countries, and banishing a free-spirit citizen of Aztlán is considered to be an act of homicide by the law and treated as such. Feathered serpents are particularly revered within the Path of the Sun, with the religion's leader called the High Priest of Quetzalcóatl, the Feathered Serpent of Knowledge and Laws.

In Aztlán, you can legally wear armor and pack weapons that is illegal in the rest of the civilized world, and visit a bar or restaurant without earning a glance.

Tenochtitlan

Formerly Mexico City, Tenochtitlan is the capital of Aztlán, one of the largest sprawls in the world with a population over 20 million. It's heavily polluted and overcrowded, with an astral environment that is equally polluted. Due to the heavy pollution it's highly recommended to wear a breather when you step outside. Similarly, when it rains, acid rain-resistant ponchos are advised.

Breather decoration is a big deal in Tenochtitlán. Whether high fashion or street chic, it's a point of pride for people to wear something handmade and custom. Absolutely beautiful stuff, if you put out of your mind why they're worn.
– Rico

When it comes to the architecture, you have cutting-edge skyscrapers that are side by side with Aztec-style buildings and retro-Mission style high-rise buildings. Residential zones vary widely from decrepit ramshackle tenements where the residents eat worse than the devil rats do at one extreme and the luxurious, exclusive high-security communities at the other extreme.

Panama Pan-Corporate Zone

When the country of Panama joined Aztlán in 2048, the Corporate Court wrested control of the canal 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 Pan-Corporate Zone grants control of the canal and its surrounding environs to the Corporate Court directly.

Administered by an appointed governor, the PPZ 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 zone.

The Aztecs still keep a close eye on what goes on at the canal. Panama City, just across the border on Azzie soil, is where Zoners go to blow off steam. From the nightclubs to the brothels, Azzie cover operations have the city wired for every scrap of information they can find, whether corporate intel or leverage over a well-placed employee.
– Uncle Benny

Despite the heavy security presence, the PPZ and Panama City are good places to enter Aztlán unnoticed. Aztechnology has its assets so focused on the canal that they aren't particularly watching for people who want to head deeper into the country.
– FastJack

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 the small rump state of Caracas semi-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 serpent 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.

Amazonia has fully embraced the Awakening. Metahumans and magic-users are welcomed and sentient awakened creatures have full constitutional rights.

French Guiana

An overseas department and region of France, and a semi-enclave of Amazonia, French Guiana is where the European powers—whether national, corporate, or criminal—interface with their South American counterparts.

With the VITAS-ravaged interior mostly abandoned to toxic shamans, paranormal critters, and the smugglers willing to brave them, most of the population huddles in the tightly-packed urban sprawl of the national capital of Cayenne on the coast. All the major megacorps keep offices in the downtown highrises, while all the major syndicates claim a corner of the sprawl. The noble families of France rarely make a visit to this side of the world, preferring to let the civil servants ensure that the government, and therefore they, get a cut of everything that happens.

The city of Kourou, barely on the map when Saeder-Krupp purchased the European Space Agency's launch facilities in French Guiana, has grown to a clean corporate haven, a harbor city specialized in the transition from air or sea into orbit. While still notably smaller than Cayenne, Kourou is a city on the rise as the megacorps accelerate the race into space.

The black market in Kourou is something else. It’ll cost you, but with the right contacts you can get meteorite samples, virgin telesma from the moon, experimental cyberware, laser weapons and bleeding-edge Matrix gear. The stuff those space-boys throw away amazes me.
– Garbage Man

Ciudad Libre de Caracas

When Amazonia conquered Venezuela, except for a portion in the west that Aztlán snapped up, the United Nations maintained Caracas as a haven for refugees. When they withdrew, they left it in the hands of the megacorps that had demanded the UN protect the city in the first place. It's now one of the most densely-packed places on the planet, glittering megascrapers towering above the slums beneath.

The Caracas Stock Exchange houses some of the shadiest corporations you can think of, which would never be allowed to trade in “respectable” places like Boston or Tokyo. Charon BioMed and El Dorado Entertainment are notorious examples. Charon was once involved in a human experimentation scandal in Marseilles, so the owners relocated it to Caracas. Meanwhile, EDE is a world-leader in extreme adult entertainment. And it’s not just infamous scum that does biz in the Chacao financial district, but also famous scum. All the big R&D names are here: MCT’s ParaShield, Cross Biomed, Genesis, Universal Omnitech, Yakashima, Genom ... the list goes on and on. Simply put, the corps love to test stuff in Caracas: zero regulations, zero lawsuits.

The port of La Guaira is the other reason this city isn’t broke. Telesma, slaves, BADs, guns, biotech samples ... I’ve smuggled so many things in and out that I can’t remember them all. There’s so much activity going on here that smugglers almost have to stand in line to pay the matraca (that’s a bribe, in case you’re wondering). Add in the Caribbean pirates selling their loot or the merc recruiters looking for cannon fodder, and you get one fraggin’ big black market. If it’s illegal, you’ll find it here and at a reasonable price.
– Carmaux

The city is a sex tourism hotspot, with pervs coming to experience (sometimes buy) the latest meat dolls, straight out from surgery. Those who don’t make it out end up in the Tamanous syndicate's hands: recycled, reused, reduced to a cheap commodity...
– Kink

Peru

While not formally Japanese territory, the Japanese Imperial Marines maintain what is an occupation in all but name of Peru. While, similar to its control of San Francisco, the military's presence is described as a security operation to protect the interests of the Japanese megacorporations in the face of Amazonian expansion, the Marines are effectively the country's military and oversee the state police.

Peruvian politics is dominated by a few powerful families, each of which has partnered with a particular Japanese megacorp. With the local powers, popular with the people, kept happy, business runs smoothly in Peru for the Japanese. Valued as a foothold on the continent by the megacorps, Peru has prospered under their rule, with a rising standard of living. This has kept the urban population happy, though the Japanese military does keep itself busy dealing with those discontents that persist in the backcountry, most notably the Maoist terrorist guerillas of the Shining Path.

The Sendero Luminoso keeps itself funded through its influence in the Andean hinterlands, with the Ghost Cartels finding it easier to pay them for safe passage for their smugglers than to fight them. They arm themselves with weapons stolen from the national and corporate militaries, relying on friendly locals to tip them off to convoys and patrols.
– Huaquero

The megacorps' primary interest in Peru is the rainforest, having the second-largest expanse of the rainforest after corp-hostile Amazonia. With the flora and fauna transformed by the Awakening, Peru is a hotbed of pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and thaumaturgical research and development. This R&D is mostly at the corporate level, but particularly unsavory experiments are handled by the Yakuza and their local criminal agents.

This has made Peru the place to go to get cutting-edge bioware, so long as you don't mind whatever nasty side-effects come from using experimental implants.
– Neon Puma

Bolivia

While having deep drug cartel roots in Bolivia from its day as the ORO Corporation, Aztechnology lost control of the country in 2051. With its security forces stretched thin from tensions on the Amazonian border and the conflict in the Yucatan, they failed to prevent the rise of the Movimiento Obrero Boliviano (Bolivian Worker Movement) party. Its leader, Limberg Velazco—an impoverished, minor miner who travelled to the UCAS on an NGO educational scholarship and returned a left-wing idealist—rallied peasants, miners, and other lower class Aymaran workers to his movement to a revolution that elevated him to the presidency.

I was a “private contractor” for Aztechnology Corporate Security, possibly the worst mistake I ever made. The MOB’s commanders were incredibly coordinated, and its shamans packed serious mojo. I heard that paracritters butchered whole Azzie platoons in the mountains. I bailed out in the Aztlán embassy’s last chopper. Last thing I heard about anyone left behind was that they’d been executed or sent to reeducation camps.
– Lynch

The Velazco regime has rebuilt the country on communist ideals and Aymaran traditions. But while Velazco nationalized Bolivia’s natural resources, with the lack of domestic heavy industry, the resource extraction has still been performed by foreign corporations. The regime has expanded the social services available to the people, but the foreign money has still flowed unequally into the country, leading to accusations of corruption. While the MOB party maintains a grip on the country and considerable support among the general populace, it's proven unable to prevent the growth of a new wave of resistance movements among the people, leaving the Revolutionary Guard to try to stamp them down one by one.

Foreign visitors aren't seen much outside the major cities or the megacorp mining projects and are likely to be treated with suspicion. Runners working within the country should avoid being associated with the wrong faction by the wrong people.
– Huxley

Bolivia teems with historical sites that are difficult to reach at best. Some haven’t even been explored by archeologists. Standing near the southern shores of Lake Titicaca, the ancient city of Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) was the center of Aymaran civilization before the Incas and subsequently the Spanish conquered them. As such, it holds paramount importance to Velazco’s regime. Religious ceremonies are held here at the beginning of every lunar month with thousands participating. Archaeologically-minded groups like the Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research have all petitioned the government to study Tiahuanaco, all rejected so far.

Argentina

Argentina is a deeply troubled country. It is troubled abroad; while its long war defending against Amazonia's attempted expansion has ended, covert hostilities continue, and the border region itself has not nearly recovered. It is trouble at home; the country's reliance on the help of the Corporate Court to bring an end to the war has led to the megacorporations being given free reign to pillage the country: resource extraction on public lands, the unwinding of corporate regulations even in those non-extraterritorial parts of the country; and government support in the takeover of local Argentinian businesses. The public response to these corporate allowances has been furious, leading to a curtailing of civil rights, empowering the government to take forceful measures to quell unrest or even public criticism.

Many Argentinians abide these measures on the grounds that they aren't too great a price to pay for peace, the possibility of employment, and generally keeping the country out of Hualpa's claws.
– Quijote

Amazonia, gorged on conquests in the north and the easy capitulation of Uruguay, turned its armies south. While Argentina put up a noble resistance, its conventionally-constituted army wasn't up to the task of defending against magically-backed forces. So Argentina's desperate government turned to the only power it thought capable of halting the Amazonian onslaught: the Corporate Court. Sure enough, Amazonia received a warning through diplomatic channels that if it didn't pull back, the Court (eager to test its clout) would put its full weight and resources behind Argentina.

Ever wonder why Amazonia dislikes the Nipponese megas almost as much as it does the Azzies? Well, MCT, Renraku, Shiawase and Fuchi sided with Aztechnology on aiding Argentina; Yamatetsu and Saeder-Krupp abstained and Ares was overruled.
- Pyramid Watcher

Not that this was public knowledge at the time. Instead, credit for Amazonia's withdrawal from the field was given to the bravery and tactical genius of Colonel Fernando Arrojo, a charismatic, well-liked leader who had held the last defense of the nation while the Court's help was requested. Colonel Arroja became General Arroja and then, one coup later, Presidente Arroja, who rules the country on behalf of the megacorps that put him in power.

Don't be fooled. Just because a lot of people hate Arroja, doesn't mean plenty of people don't love him, with plenty more at least tolerating him. Argentina has problems, but Arroja has been successful blaming them on Amazonia's malign influence, and on the metahumans and Native Indians that many associate with meta- and indigenous-friendly Amazonia. The local conservative Catholic Church would like to add the Awakened to that list, but the corps are having none of it.
– Ambassador

The country isn't a police state yet, but things are trending in that direction. Political activity is monitored, the nightly news is run by the state, firearms possession is outlawed, and the police are given virtually unlimited latitude to do as they like, so long as they stay out of the way of the corps.

Not that there aren't plenty of guns in Argentina. If you're slinging drugs, chips, flesh, or some other vice that keeps the people anaesthetized—and making sure the right people get paid—you can carry whatever you like.
– Quijote

Europe

The late 20th and early 21st century saw the rise and fall of unity in Europe. An economically ascendent Europe formed a European Union, then proceeded to be hollowed out from within: public services privatized, the people disengaged from civic life, and the growth of industrial toxic zones. Economic recession, the Awakening, goblinization, Russian expansionism in the east, each ratcheted up panic that the EU proved unable to control. The panic led to chaos, conflict, and the eventual unwinding of the EU. While a number of once-again independent countries have rebuilt themselves, Europe remains a place of considerable turmoil.

Northern Europe

• United Kingdom
• Tír na nÓg
• Scandinavian Union
  • Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden
• Svalbard Independent Environmental Zone

Western Europe

• Allied German States
  • Northern AGS: North German League and Duchy of Pomorya
  • Eastern AGS: Duchy of Saxony, Brandenburg, and Free City of Berlin
  • Central AGS: Badisch-Pfalz and Franconia
  • Western AGS: Free State of Westphalla, Grand Duchy of Westrhine-Luxembourg, Northrhine-Ruhr, and SOX Special Administrative Zone
  • Southern AGS: Black Forest Troll Republic, Württemberg, and Free State of Bavaria
• Austria
• France
• Switzerland

Southern Europe

• Italian Confederation
  • Papal States, GeMiTo Sprawl, Republic of Tuscany, Mezzogiorno, Sicily, Trieste, Carnia, Republic of Serenissima
• Kingdom of Spain
• Euskal Herria
• Portugal

Eastern Europe

• Russian Republic
• Yakut
• Poland
• Czech Republic

Northern Europe

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy off the coast of continental European. Since the 2014 Act of Dissolution and Treaty of Galway, which reunified Ireland and ultimately led to the creation of Tír na nÓg, the country of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain are effectively synonymous.

The UK is no longer the global colonial power it once was, but it has maintained a position of considerable influence as an island of stability compared to the chaos of the mainland. Many global corporations run their European operations out of the UK, often in London, a city long accustomed to serving as a hub of commerce and diplomacy. It is home to the influential AA megacorporation Transys Neuronet, headquartered in Edinburgh, a pioneer in Matrix technology and the development of cyberware and bioware. Backed by the great dragon Celedyr, it has been researching cyberware for dragons, an effort accelerated by the following entry in Dunkelzahn's will:

To the first party to develop an efficient and effective Matrix connection for dolphins, elephants and/or satyrs, and dragons, I leave the access codes to four Zürich-Orbital accounts and a personal visit from Lofwyr.

The United Kingdom's head of state is a monarch, currently King George VIII. King Charles III abdicated following the death of his two elder sons, William and Harry, in a plane crash in 2007. His third son, the young regent King George VII, died in 2011. Officially, he died of complications caused by his goblinization, but rumors that it was a regicide are widely believed—the House of Windsor would rather end the royal line than accept a troll as king. The crown eventually fell to a cousin several times removed, George Edward Richard Windsor-Hanover: King George VIII.

Lacking appreciable formal power, King George has curried influence with a number of powerful Britons, including much of the House of Lords. For her part, his wife, Queen Diana Alice Muagham-Windsor-Hanover, is widely respected and beloved by many Britons. Their only child, Princess Caroline, is a more troublesome figure for the family, though her widely reported-on love affairs made her a darling of the general public.

While official government power lies with Westminster, in practice most actual executive power is wielded by the Lord Protector's Office. Formed through the consolidation of the a number of ministries ranging from the interior to security, it's responsible for day-to-day management of the country. And while it is nominally a non-partisan office appointed by the Parliament, it's been held by the same man in the forty years since it's creation: Lord Marchment, a member of the highly-influential New Druidic Movement, formed shortly after the Awakening.

A druid being the most powerful person in the country has created some painful contradictions. On the one hand, the New Druidic Movement has been responsible for significant environmental reclamation, with the designated wild zones allowing the old forests and other natural places to grow and revert to their primordial state. But the Lord Protector, courting the economic investment of the megacorps, has allowed them to continue to despoil indsutral zones and refused to hold them accountable for the country's many toxic zones. The expansion of these has led to less space for habitable zones for the common people, squeezed by the corrupted and the feral.

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.

Scandinavian Union

The Scandinavian Union was formed out of economic and military necessity. Ravaged by the Black Tide and Crash of '29, Denmark and Norway were left reeling. Border skirmishes and the threat of invasion from Russia spurred Finland to the negotiating table, while a more stable Sweden sought to have a louder voice in world affairs. The result was a political and economic union based on the late European Union model.

The Union represents its members as a united entity in terms of international relations. Internally, the individual governments and laws are secondary to union institutions and regulations. Internal borders have effectively been dissolved and extensive immigration and changes of residency have made the Scandinavian populace more heterogeneous than ever. Despite these changes, the individual members of the union still retain their own unique character.

Denmark (SU)

A small nation tucked in between the rest of Scandinavia and Europe, Denmark has persevered the changes of the 21st century. Relatively stable prior to Scandinavian unification, it joined the union less out of necessity than solidarity with the common history and culture of Scandinavia.

With a strong democratic tradition, the country has protected itself from corporate lobbyism and corruption of its political bodies. Fünen is the only area of Denmark where the corps have a direct say on public administration. In the last few decades, its government has focused on restoring Jutland (its northern peninsula, rendered a vast toxic wasteland by the Black Tide) and recreating the modern welfare state by attracting small and medium-sized R&D companies. In particular, great lengths have been taken to welcome biotechnology business with open arms. Many of these companies supply research, bioware or weekend-personnel for the Oslo clinics. The annual Copenhagen Biotech Convention draws leading bio-corps to mingle, attend seminars and discuss the latest advances.

Ship City

A lot of Jutland's refugees packed their belongings into boats and ships, hoping to find new homes on Zealand or other islands of the Danish straits. Rebuffed, they found salvation when Henrik Gaarde, a renowned entrepreneur and eccentric, came to the rescue. He anchored two large container-vessels to an oilrig east of Amager, connected them with floating bridges, and invited people to hook up. The area quickly evolved into a floating city, simply named Ship City. It became a haven for alternative lifestyles, criminal elements, and other fringe groups.

Since the death of Gaarde in '42, control of the city has been claimed by the Vory, who maintain "order" along the main strip between the Trolden and two of the floating city's ocean liners. They run this area as an "edgy" tourist spot, complete with two casinos and a hotel.

Outside of the Vory's main street, the Ship City residents have their own tight-knit culture. In some areas, anything goes: beetles, pre-teen hookers, ripperdocs, guns, etc. Under the surface, mini-subs come and go, making Ship City a prime smuggling portal into Denmark from the Baltic Sea.

Rumor has it that the Vory have a beta-grade shadow-clinic anchored up in a sub at the bottom of the Trolden.
– Mik

Finland (SU)

Finland: a beautiful country of a thousand lakes, sauna and primeval forests. On edge during the Euro Wars, waiting for the sirens to go off and the Russian war machine to come trampling through, the war never actually came. But the country is still heavily influenced by the actions they took to prepare for it, from joining the Scandinavian Union to the nationalization of most of Finnish industry. Since that time, Finland has developed into a prosperous country with low unemployment, good welfare benefits and stable secure communities.

Finland is also a corporate state in everything but name, as the giant corp Erika totally dominates both the Finnish economy and government. Unlike other comparable nations, Finland prospers and flourishes under this rule. Not everything is rosy, however, as Erika is notoriously paranoid. As one of the leaders in surveillance tech, they have shown little respect for individual rights or privacy. Finnish cities are exceptional in their level of street-level surveillance-which keeps crime low, and makes shadowrunning just that much more thrilling.
– Kimi

Haparanda Anomaly Zone

The area surrounding the Haparanda archipelago in the north of the Gulf of Bothnia has been home to lots of bizarre activity since the Awakening. The forests along the coast transformed into a thick, dense maze around 2015, teeming with unusual paracritters and astral activity. In the years following the Euro Wars, however, an influx of pollution from the Baltic Sea countries drifted in on the currents and created a vast toxic marshland in between the islands and skerries of the archipelago. For decades, the border between these two realms has been rife with turmoil, as two opposing forces of nature (or anti-nature on one side, as some might say) battle each other.

It's a subtle conflict. One year you'd find a massive die-off among coastal trees and fish. The next year you'd see a series of unusual storms that would rip apart and seemingly cleanse vast swatches of marshland. There have also been occasional reports of travelers succumbing to toxic spores or waking to find themselves scraping toxic sludge off a tree.
– Finnished

Norway (SU)

Once a prosperous country, Norway has been transformed into a poor, bleak and dreary bureaucratic nightmare and shadow haven.

When the Crash came, Norway had already exhausted its financial reserves coping with fallout from the Awakening and Black Tide. In order to raise the capital needed to survive, Norway turned to Global Financial Services, now known as Zürich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank. With Norway effectively in its pocket, the Corporate Court let its megacorp members run wild in the country. The megacorporations polluted the land to extract the country's natural resources while staffing the operations with cheap labor from Eastern Europe.

Hundreds of thousands were thrown into poverty during these trying times, sparking large riots and a drastic rise in crime. Crippled by ineffective leadership, the corps took matters into their own hands, forcing the poor and unemployed out of the city centers. Outside of these secure corporate enclaves, police services are scarce and lacking. These areas are infested with crime, inferior living conditions and a discouraging feeling of apathy. Crimelords and gangs rule the streets at night, and no one feels safe.

In Oslo, they established "the Ring," a high security buffer zone several blocks wide, surrounding downtown. Wolverine and Knight Errant patrol the area constantly.
– Bergting

Oslo

Among runners, Oslo is famous for its numerous high-quality shadowclinics. Cyber and bioware, especially the illegal and restricted kind, are very accessible here, and the quality of both implants and installers is very high. Norway offers tax exemptions and lax regulations to encourage a proliferation of small biotech corps and start-ups, and many of them find it easy and profitable to run shadowclinics on the side. Most of these falter after a few years or succeed and get filthy rich when they sell out to the big boys. The leading biotech corps also love to field test their prototypes here, which is both good for biz and good for spending your pay afterwards.

Sweden (SU)

With the aid of magic and technology, Sweden has gone from being green to being an eco-freak's paradise, a place where pollution is criminal and any infraction treated like a mortal sin. The countryside is covered in green forests and tidy farmlands in the south, while deep woods, winter forests and mountains are the trademarks of the north.

Swedish cities are oases of landscaped urbanization in a sea of rolling greens and natural shades. The Swedish economy makes ample use of eco-friendly power sources and ergonomic designs, thanks to Sweden being one of the most advanced alternative clean energy producers in the world. Combined with a well-educated and civically-minded public, Sweden has settled at the top rankings of the best countries to live in.

The government here has traditionally been one of the most corp-hostile in Western Europe, and is the driving force behind the Union's amended accords with the Corporate Court, limiting the scope of extraterritoriality and other megacorp privileges. To withstand the resulting pressure from the corps, the Swedish government has adopted a very corp-like way of dealing with them: intrigue, espionage, and underhanded tactics carried out by deniable assets. So far, they've been able to hold their ground quite well, but the megacorps aren't known for taking 'no' for an answer.

Stockholm

In the shadows, Stockholm is known as the city where Damien Knight carried out the famous Nanosecond Buyout to take control of Ares Macrotechnology—but it should also be known as one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world.

The vast majority of services and living spaces in Stockholm are fully automated, eco-friendly and completely integrated with each other. Much of the city resembles a series of interconnecting public arcologies, with integrated, clean, no-wait public transit systems. Living and workplace are never far apart, to conserve time and energy; Matrix access is universal; and open-air parks are never far away. It verges on being a techno-paradise, possible only thanks to the relatively unilateral high standard of living in this city.

Take notice of the word "relatively" here. Stockholm has its poor sectors as well, but they're carefully tucked away, secured and watched so that they don't ruin anyone's image of Stockholm or taint the rest of the city with their "criminal elements."
– Samaritan

United Netherlands

The United Netherlands (UNL) consists of the Netherlands and Flanders, once the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The UNL is part of a region called the Low Countries, which also includes Wallonia (once the French-speaking part of Belgium) and Luxembourg (now part of the SOX zone). The country snuggles in between the ACS in the east, France in the south, and a long stretch of polluted coastline in the west. Because of their location on the North Sea and with easy access to the rest of Europe, the Low Countries have a long history as traders and merchants. The UNL contains some of the main European ports, including the Europort (a five-city corporate megasprawl) and Antwerp. Even though almost a third of the country is uninhabitable thanks to the Black Tide, the UNL still has one of the highest population densities in the world.

The weather there is horrible. When it's not raining, it's drizzling, all year around. Since the Black Tide and the Awakening, the weather in parts of the country is unpredictable and sometimes downright dangerous. Watch out for those hard rain days or toxic sludge-slinging killer tornadoes.
– Woppler the Weatherman

The Black Tide was one of the most important events in Dutch history. In the first week of February 2011, a hurricane with unprecedented power struck the coasts of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, flooding large parts of the region. When the water level dropped, a slimy toxic sludge was left behind, tainting much of the country—and some areas remain submerged to this day. While some, with hindsight, blame the Awakening, the arrival of magic in the world was almost a year away, making the theory highly implausible to authorities.

The Dutch put their minds to fixing what damage they could, but their high-tech efforts were crippled by the '29 Crash, setting them back again. Now, thanks to the unification in '43, the country is finally back on its feet.

Europort

The Europort is the biggest sprawl in the United Netherlands with a population of nearly two million inhabitants. The city itself sits on old Rotterdam and encompasses more than five surrounding cities, including Dordrecht, Vlaardingen, and Schiedam.

Europort is the prototype of an industrial mechanopolis and quite different from most Data Age corp-controlled megacities, an artificial enterprise zone with a vast web of automation. The superport complex incorporates a plethora of docks, dry docks, harbour facilities, chemical plants, refineries, steel mills, multi-level container parks, warehousing, and logistics centers, all interlinked by an adaptive web of rigged rail lines and cranes.

What do you get when you add hundreds of corporations and a strong criminal element to one of the biggest ports in the world? Drekloads of job opportunities.
– Nitterns

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the most corrupt, scum-filled, and flooded back alley in the world. Once known as a green tourist heaven, Amsterdam is now the place where the underbelly of the underworld resides. During the Black Tide, the Ijsselmeer Dam broke, fooding much of the city in the toxic remains of the ljsselmeer. After most of its population fled to higher ground, Amsterdam slowly reverted to a state of chaos. Crime bosses, anarchists, and other seedy low-lifers settled into the city.

UNL unification led to a limited attempt to retake the city, leading to a series of extraterritorial corporate enclaves, kept safe apart from the remaining portions of the city still controlled by local gang bosses and gang lords. Though the Vory—specifically the Tremaine-Guliyev Organizatsi—largely controls organized crime in Amsterdam and the rest of the country, local Dutch crime lords have most of the real action.

One thing Amsterdam is famous for is its liberal attitude towards metahumans and drugs; a sharp contrast from other areas of the UNL. Thousands of tourists from al over the world travel to the city to immerse themselves in decadent bars, coffee shops and nightclubs. An extremely tolerant atmosphere radiates from the city.

Amsterdam has one of the largest vampire populations in Europe. They are concentrated around the old Central Station building and in the subway system. Though they shun contact and don't tolerate outsiders in their territory, they mostly leave locals and travelers alone.
– Johnny Jordaan

Drowned Lands

Besides the big sprawls, there is one other place in the UNL you probably will encounter on your stay here: the toxic wastelands in the northern Netherlands. Though large parts of the UNL are still partially layered with an impossible-to-clean residue of filth such as the province of Zeeland, the coastline of Flanders, and the Rhine-Meuse river delta, none of them come close to the sheer size of the wastelands in the north.

While the weather in the whole UNL is unpredictable, the weather in the wastelands is outright freakish. Storms sometimes appear out of nowhere, and tidal patterns are irregular. The twisted magics have created some unique weather disturbances. It is known that Shiawase and AG Chemie have set up meteorological research centers to monitor magical anomalies and the weather.
– Tjibbe

Svalbard Independent Environmental Zone

Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it lies about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. Once part of the Kingdom of Norway, it is now an independent territory run by the Svalbardråd, a shamanic council made up of representatives of each of the shamanic lodges active on the archipelago.

With an Arctic climate, approximately 60% of the archipelago is covered with glaciers, and the islands feature many mountains and fjords. Three-quarters of the archipelago is devoted to nature reserves. Shamanic and hermetic communities use the unspoiled wilderness to enable spiritual communion, engage in magical research, and gather alchemical materials within strict quotas.

Formerly focused on resource extraction, the mines were shut down after the Awakening when maintaining the purity of the archipelago's environment, distant from the ravages of the Black Tide, became more beneficial than the mines' output.

The archipelago's largest settlement is Longyearbyen, the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000, on the west coast of the island of Spitsbergen. Smaller settlements exist around the various shamanic lodges and research outposts. They are unconnected by roads, requiring instead the use of aircraft, watercraft, or such vehicles as snowmobiles on land.

Formally demilitarized, no military forces are present on the archipelago, though, thanks to a defensive pact, the Scandinavian Union military and coast guard defend its territorial waters. Most policing is performed by the local shamanic lodges. The Svalbardråd's Council Security polices Longyearbyen and acts as a federal police force.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure backup facility for the world's crop diversity on the island of Spitsbergen.

The Seed Vault provides long-term storage of duplicates of seeds conserved in genebanks around the world. This provides security of the world's food supply against the loss of seeds in genebanks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, war, sabotage, disease, and natural disasters. Spitsbergen was considered ideal because it lacks tectonic activity and has permafrost, which aids preservation, as well as a clean astral background, reducing the risk of spirit intrusion.

The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Svalbardråd, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

Arctic World Archive

The Arctic World Archive (AWA) is a facility for data preservation, located on the island of Spitsbergen, not far from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It contains data of historical and cultural interest from several countries, as well as serving as a data repository for multiple major corporations.

The data is stored in a deeply buried steel vault built out of a mineshaft of an abandoned coal mine, with the data storage medium—a specialized variant of photographic film reels—expected to last for 500 to 1,000 years. The deposits themselves are stored in secure shipping containers behind the physical security of the facility itself.

Because of the island's Arctic climate, even if the power to the facility failed, the temperature inside the vault, 250 meters below the permafrost, would remain below freezing point, which is cold enough to preserve the vault's contents for decades or more. This also makes the vault situated deeply enough to avoid damage even from nuclear and EMP weapons.

The Archive is run by Piql, an independent data-storage company created specifically to manage the project. With its long-term archive using physical storage, it represents one of the few guaranteed uncorrupted stores of Internet data from before the Crash of '29.

Western Europe

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

AGS: The Wild North

Though the North Sea coastlines changed with the flood of 2011, northern Germany is still the center of civilian and commercial naval travel of the AGS.

North German League

Despite the pollution, northern Germany remains the country's grain silo. Reforestation and other restoration efforts have successfully cleaned up certain areas, but large stretches are still hopelessly polluted. Huge agricorp greenhouse complexes dot the landscape, along with vast open-sky crop fields in cleaner regions. In the industrial sector, both smaller high-tech think tanks and larger heavy industry operations favor their polluted backyards, knowing no one will complain too much if they dirty the place up.

Duchy of Pomorya

Located along the Baltic Sea coastline, including the isle of Rüge and bordering on Poland, the small elven duchy is a strong supporter of ecological interests throughout Europe. It is modeled like other elven nations on an aristocratic basis.

AGS: Gateway to the East

In some ways, the AGS eastern states never recovered from their frontline roles during the Euro Wars. They now serve as the last bastion against the powerful east European crime syndicates. German border patrols securing these borders are weak and slowly losing ground to the kapers, smugglers, organleggers and their ilk.

Duchy of Saxony

The Duchy of Saxony fills the tabloids' headlines at least once a week. Famous for its resurrected dueling culture and nobility's parties, Grand Duke August-Fritz keeps the public happy and content with spectacular military parades and illustrious parties. The Saxon nobility take the duels for real, following strict rules and regulations over the choice of weapons and the attendance of seconds. Together with the state's rather liberal weapons laws that allow everybody and their uncle to carry requisite pistols and swords, the public manages to keep the peace quite nicely, as illustrated by the significantly reduced crime rate.

Brandenburg

The state of Brandenburg serves as the main gateway to Eastern Europe for inbound and outbound alike. Smuggler bands like the Polish kapers use decommissioned Euro Wars bunkers as hideouts and storage depots. Other than that, the Brandenburg shadows are slim, since shadow activity concentrates around Berlin.

Free City of Berlin

Enclaved within Brandenburg is former AGS capital Berlin, a city divided by two walls. One surrounds the city, separating it from Brandenburg. The other contains the remnants of the anarchist movement that controlled the city for decades before overthrown by a megacorp collective in 2055. The western corporate sector is heavily patrolled as the megacorps affirms their hold of the city. In the eastern sector, the anarchists avoid their corporate neighbors and occupy themselves with their own affairs, concentrating on rebuilding their still-liberated parts of the city.

AGS: Stuck in the Middle

The AGS central states focus on their traditional petty feuds rather than escaping the recession they got themselves into. But then again, blaming the neighbor state for one's own bad luck is a tradition in the AGS.

Badisch-Pfalz

Bordering on the contaminated SOX, this region's rural areas have been sparsely populated ever since people fled in fear of the Cattenom fallout fifty years ago (dealing the Badisch economy a fatal blow at the time). When the Frankfurt Metroplex annexed the Mannheim-Heidelberg sprawl during the downfall of the South German League, many residents felt betrayed by a government unable to prevent the loss of the province's biggest employer and main source of tax income. The Badisch government, however, was too engrossed in the "Troll Wars" of the time that later resulted in the founding of the Troll Kingdom-yet another loss of Badisch land.

As Badisch residents watched their former territories and neighbor states prosper again after years of recession, the way was paved for local nationalist parties to unite under the "Great Badisch Crusade" (GBC) banner. The leader of this movement, Dr. Hedwig Gabler, was elected to the provincial parliament in 2048. Before her retaliation plans against the "occupied southern territories" were put into action, however, the German military moved into the Karlsruhe Parliament, arresting Gabler and her party's members as well as many contracted mercenaries. Karlsruhe, receiving a special jurisdictional status, was put under military law. The remaining members of the GBC vanished into the underground and have kept a low profile.

To this day, Karlsruhe remains under military law, overseen by General Michael Karaoglu. Since the German Supreme Court also resides here, the idea of stepping down and leaving the area to Badish-Pfalz jurisdiction doesn't appeal to the Hannover politicians.

Franconia

In contrast to its Badisch equivalent, Franconia's economy seems on its way up again. After losing out to the Westphalian agricorps and international competitors like Meridional and Shiawase, the state now concentrates on tourism and entertainment as its main sources of income. Beautiful scenery, green hills and healthy forests surround various first class vacation spots; Franconia is the German wageslave's ideal holiday home. Under the administration of the semi-governmental FrankenKultour AG, the numerous tourist hotspots also house expensive private clinics and the occasional health resort.

AGS: Westward Bound

At first sight, a cleric-ruled free state, a dwarf duchy, and a toxic zone might not share any similarities. Wrong. They all have something in common: though they're not as unique to the Sixth World as one might think, their mention instantly brings to mind special aspects of our time: faith, fairytale and frag-up.

Free State of Westphalla

Church-ruled Westphalia is the outsider among the AGS's member states. The separation from the Vatican in 2014 also resulted in a breach with the German government. The "True Church of the Lord God and His Saints"—also known as the German Catholic Church (GCC)-voluntarily isolated itself under the leadership of Cardinal von Heeremann. Preaching a conservative stance regarding metahumanity and magic, the GCC reshaped the state according to its beliefs, turning Westphalia into a nearly metahuman-free and non-Awakened state.

Grand Duchy of Westrhine-Luxembourg

Ruled by dwarf Grand Duke Adolphe Il, the Duchy of Westrhine-Luxembourg (WRL) borders on what's left of eastern Luxembourg after the Cattenom disaster, meeting the Hesse-Nassau region in the east. Already flooded by refugees after the reactor meltdown, many more people lost their homes in 2042 when the region's long dormant volcanoes erupted, turning the Eifel region into a lava-covered, moon-like landscape. Adolphe acquired these territories in 2043 and added them to the duchy as part of the French government's compensation to WRL for the Cattenom disaster.

A prominent member of the European nobility and high society, Adolphe supports the Grand Tour (a biannual high-society tour of Europe) even when his stately duties keep him from participating. He still attends the tour's main events, but otherwise has retired from public events. His duties as the DMC's CEO take him to meetings al over Europe, but Adolphe is reluctant to leave his court for more than a few days, preferring to invite diplomats and corporate reps to visit him.

Northrhine-Ruhr

Most of the Northrhine-Ruhr is taken up the Rhine-Ruhr Metroplex, a tightly-integrated collection of over two dozen cities. Northrhine-Ruhr's biggest claim to fame is as the home of Saeder-Krupp, the world's largest megacorporation, entirely owned and controlled by the great dragon Lofwyr. Lofwyr controls most of the 'plex from out of his two main arcologies: S-K Prime located in Essen and S-K worldwide HQ in Dortmund.

The world's number one mega runs numerous offices and facilities throughout the sprawl-too many, in fact, to point out. Lofwyr has a tight grip on the 'plex, especially the region's financial center of Düsseldorf, the large industrial port of Duisburg, and the media capital of Cologne.

SOX Special Administrative Zone

The SOX (Saar-Lorraine-Luxembourg) Special Administrative Zone is a product of the fateful day in March 2008, when both cooling towers of the Cattenom-GAU French nuclear reactor fractured and released radioactive gas into the atmosphere. Mass panic ensued, and thousands died both from the radiation and the riots and looting that ransacked the region's cities. France and Germany designated the affected area as a neutral emergency zone. Squabbling between the countries stalled decontamination and security measures until complete control of the SOX was handed to over to a joint-corporate Kontrollrat (Administrative Council) in 2053.

The Zone is valuable to megacorp interests because it has developed an extremely high background count (it has been officially classified as a "mana warp" area). It's not really clear why the level of mana pollution is so high, but the side effect is that the area offers natural magical protection. Astral space is so warped that astral intrusion is nearly impossible if not deadly, and magicians are wise to avoid using magic in the area. As such, the corps use the Zone as one big laboratory for them to conduct illegal or otherwise questionable research.

AGS: The Beautiful South

The members of the now defunct South German League still chew on their failure in 2044 when the League was dissolved. Meanwhile, Hannover politicians keep an eye on Bavaria and Württemberg, ready to react to the first sign of history repeating itself. The Black Forest Troll Kingdom is only another thorn in the southerners' flesh.

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. As the German Alliance's "problem child," the Troll Kingdom has few friends among politicians, either domestically or internationally.

Württemberg

A member state of the disbanded South German League, Württemberg is widely viewed as provincial and reactionary, with an unusually low tolerance for metahumans and the Awakening in general.

A unique attraction of Württemberg is so-called Cloud-City, in the sky above the Mid-Neckar Metro Area, the official name for the state's capital Stuttgart sprawl. Dozens of zeppelins and airships hover above the Ludwigsburg region, tied to landing poles and connected via secured walkways. Casinos, restaurants, amusement centers, and a nice panoramic view from above make your stay worth the expense and careful preparations needed to get up there. You'll need a watertight SIN to pass the ID checks, and metahumans are generally looked at with suspicion. Just forget about packing guns or armor.

Free State of Bavaria

The Free State of Bavaria has certainly received its share of chaos. Every time a new catastrophe hit central Europe, Munich was flooded with refugees. Over time, the Bavarian capital has turned into a huge melting pot. The state's only notable feature is the Herrenchiemsee Islands in the Chiemsee Lake, home to the dragon Nebelherr. Though his leisurely lifestyle is popular with local media and tourists, the dragon seldom leaves his lair.

Austria

When most people in the shadows think of Austria, the letters S and K immediately follow. Saeder-Krupp has total control of the town of Linz, from which it manages the surrounding industrial region of the country. The dragon Lofwyr casts a long shadow, with every area of the nation's economy comes under his influence and every level of its politics subject to his meddling.

Divided by the river Danube, Vienna is the capital and biggest city in Austria. It's also the only Austrian city surrounded by an actual sprawl.

The city of Salzburg, formally a semi-managing enclave, is the destination of choice for high-European corp executives looking for a holiday, thanks in no small part to the many surrounding ski resorts.

Austria's south hasn't fully recovered from when the Alliance for Allah invaded during the Euro Wars, with wide areas cordoned off due to one or more of toxic residue, astral corruption, and unremediated minefields.

Lower Austria is dominated by the Habsburg family, which owns wide swathes of the Waldviertel, a huge woodland region dotted with their sprawling estates.

France

Though advertised as the democratic land of the Human Rights Declaration, France hasn't been a democracy since the Crash. The nobility's back in power, barely concealed behind a democratic facade.

The nobility's ascension to power was orchestrated from the beginning of the century. As in the past, the aristocrats formed an alliance with the French Catholic Church (FCC). When VITAS struck, then later the Crash, the church played the media, blaming corrupt plebeian politicians during the scandals. So when the military took power in a coup d'etat, led by the charismatic and noble General Antoine d'Orléans, the people went along. The resulting Sixth Republic's Constitution, established in 2037, left the country nominally a democracy, but functionally in the hands of the nobility.

The nobility maintain a careful relationship with the megacorporations. France lacks a comprehensive extraterritoriality agreement. Rather, each megacorp has had to negotiate its relationship individually, providing a ripe environment for patronage, graft, and corruption. The nobility has similarly mastered its relationship with the church, granting it just enough wealth and power to keep it loyal to the current order.

Breton Mist

Ever since the Awakening, Brittany had been a special place-as anyone who visits can tell you, certain parts of the region just felt otherworldly. "Faerie" sightings, spirit encounters and unexplained phenomena became a regular occurrence. Then, in 2023, things turned from strange to deadly when the inscrutable magical phenomenon known as the Mist first appeared. An unearthly fog, the Mist quickly covered large rural areas of Brittany, surrounding larger towns. Metahumans within the Mist found themselves uneasy, haunted and easily lost. The Mist seemed to disrupt the use of magic and attract paranatural creatures. Thousands fled, and the Mist continued to spread. Then, after a few weeks, the disappearances began. Small towns were swallowed whole, never to be seen again, the residents permanently lost. Tales circulated of terrible things encountered in the Mist, or people who died or were horribly transformed merely by coming into contact with it. The government evacuated all areas threatened by the phenomenon and called in whatever magical experts it could find to counter it, all to no avail. The Mist continued to slowly spread, engulfing new areas, ebbing and flowing like a tide.

Finally, five years later in 2028, a grassroots movement called the Druidic Revival of Brittany (Aznevezenti drouizel Breizh) managed to contain and dissipate the Mist, reclaiming the land. But the Mist is not entirely gone. Patches of Mist recur throughout Brittany in an unpredictable pattern, wreaking havoc before the druids can drive it away, or it fades on its own. And despite official statements, a thick Mist remains in certain remote locations, persistently protecting them from prying eyes or interlopers.

Switzerland

The Swiss Confederation is a country divided in two. Long distinct, the French-speaking western Switzerland (called the Confederatión Suise Francophone, or SF) and the German-speaking east (called the Schweizer Eidgenössenschaft, or SE) were further divided by the Awakening.

While the entire country was distrustful of the appearance of metahumans, the German east was particularly metaphobic. Its political success at passing the Metahuman Segregation Law (MSL)—declaring that metahumans did not have the same civil rights and citizenship guarantees as humans, including the right to reside within Swiss borders—nearly drove the French west to secession. This division was ultimately avoided by allowing the west to opt out of the most severe of the MSL's restrictions. The west is similarly less strict in enforcing the laws passed restricting the use of magic almost exclusively to government and corporate personnel. Elves and dwarves have since been excluded from the MSL, while orks, trolls, and other metavariants are still restricted from obtaining citizenship in Switzerland.

While speaking French will get you by in the French-Swiss cantons, German linguasofts won't help you much in some of the German-Swiss territories, thanks to the unique accents of its inhabitants.

70 percent of the population lives in the 10 percent of the country that is urbanized. The rest-including a nature reserve that takes up a full quarter of the country-are rural areas, idyllic and beautiful snow-covered mountains and valleys. It is a beautiful place to live. If you are human.

Zürich

While eclipsed by Zürich-Orbital high above, Zürich itself is still one of the financial capitals of the world. Most major banks have a presence on Escher-Bürkli Island, an artificial island one square kilometer in size built in the center of Zürich Lake.

Zürich is also home to the Vault, possibly the most secure data storage facility on the planet. Used by many of the world's richest banks, it is operated by the Corporate Court Matrix Authority.

Unsurprisingly, Zürich is also the capital for organized crime bank fraud and money laundering.

Geneva

Home to the headquarters of the United Nations following the 2005 earthquake that crippled New York City, Geneva is to global diplomacy what Zürich is to global finance.

Southern Europe

Italian Confederation

Disrupted by VITAS (which killed Pope John Paul III), the Awakening (which caused a schism in the church), and the Euro Wars, the Italian peninsula shattered in the 2030s only to reform in 2044 as the Italian Confederation, a loose coalition of mostly-independent states.

Papal States

Nestled at the heart of the Italian peninsula, the Papal States are a coalition of Catholic Sees, cities and provinces centered on the Vatican, representing the seat of power of the Roman Catholic Church. Ever since the failed "corporate coup" of the mid-thirties the Roman Curia has run the show, though the corps are still in control of more public services and infrastructures than most people think. The Papal States are the most prosperous, influential, and powerful member of the Confederation, with many national corporations having relocated to Rome after the fall of Milan and Turin and many megacorporations basing their presence in Italy out of the Eternal City.

Roman Catholic Church

Following the death of Pope John Paul III from VITAS, archconservative Pope John Paul IV ascended to the papacy. As the bishop of Rome during the Awakening, he described metahumans as "abominations in the eyes of god." A later Papal Bull ratified this, going on to say that "all things magical are unholy and ungodly by their very nature."

These statements were embraced by many and rejected by many others. When John Paul IV died two years later, this time the Sacred College, reeling from the discord John Paul IV had caused, selected a moderate Brazilian Cardinal who ascended as Pope John XXV. John XXV surprised everyone when, rather than just moderate, in 2024 he embraced what would become known as the Enlightened cause: allowing both metahumans and the awakened a place within the Church. This whiplash led to a number of schisms, such as the independent German Catholic Church. More were outraged by such actions as the long-debated decision in 2042 to allow women in the priesthood. Now in his late nineties, he continues to hold the church to these more liberal positions, though he faces considerable opposition within the Curia.

GeMiTo Sprawl

An area successively razed by protestors, rebels, rioters opposing the corp-backed ultranationalist government, then further damaged by the military and security corps attempting to restore control, the area was initially written off as an unsalvageable catastrophe. However, the megacorps weren't willing to write off so much of Italy's manufacturing and administrative assets, leading to the creation of the Special Administrative Zone of Genoa-Milan-Turin (GeMiTo), a vast barrens run by gangs dotted with corporate enclaves that maintain an uneasy peace by maintaining a bare minimum of public infrastructure in their vicinity.

Markets, known as Fiere, take place every three weeks, alternating between what used to be central Milan, Genoa and Turin. During the Fiere, market-goers are protected by a ceasefire agreed upon by all the various factions. If you're looking for fuel, firearms, basic medical supplies, water filtration gear, agricultural produce from the outlying farmlands, or even just information, this is where to go.

If you known where to look or have a local guide, there's also a lot of exotic merchandise for sale. These markets are the only place I know, for example, where you can find telesma and handcrafts from the Valle d' Aosta. The only thing you won't tend to find are body parts and (meta)human slaves—the anarchists in the area tend to disfavor trading in (meta)humans, and there's enough of them that such business has been pressured out.
– Synner

Republic of Tuscany

The Republic of Tuscany, while the most powerful of the central republics, like the others maintains an uneasy relationship with Rome. Aided by the influential old money families such as the Medicis and the money that flows through the Republic's numerous small corporations—while Tuscany is celebrated for its Renaissance art and architecture, it also hosts most of Italy's smaller tech-oriented companies—it steadfastly maintains its partial independence. Florence, the capital, hosts all that remains of the once-huge Italian media industry.

Mezzogiorno

Mezzogiorno is one of the poorer parts of Italy, with barely any corporate presence and a loose government born of necessity rather than any real national unity. It's a slice of Italy no one could be bothered to control. The occasional agricorp farm dots the landscape, but otherwise it's all small villages and run down townships scraping a living off the land. The population is scattered and quality of life is low. Many of the rural communities are isolationist, with weird groups of all stripes that prefer to live where they can't be bothered.

Its capital, Naples, has kept its Mediterranean charm and appearance as well as its traditional bustling and noisy atmosphere, but is troubled by overpopulation, high unemployment, and a low per capita income, as well as pervasive corruption and crime. A lively seaport, with shipyards and tourist centers as well as commercial and industrial outlying districts, the Confederation's second largest city is the main economic and industrial center of impoverished Mezzogiorno. While it draws the companies with any significant presence in the region, these are still limited: the only significant presences are Lider (Aztechnology), Shiawase Envirotech, and Olgitechnologies.

A friend of mine says it's the perfect place to get lost...
– Prospero

Sicily

Sicily's independence allowed it to fall under the complete control of the Cosa Nostra. Not only does it keep the peace and sponsor the civil authorities, but it is quite popular with the Sicilian people. Members of the Familias are treated as aristocracy. As Capo di tutti i Capi of the Mafia, Don Feretti both runs his family and guides the global syndicate from his fortified villa, with all high-level meetings carried out there.

The Mediterranean island is blooming, especially along its eastern coastline. It's theorized that the weather changes in the Mediterranean are due to the seasonal proximity of the Erebus maelstrom in the Adriatic, and they've impacted most of south-eastern Italy. This has started to change the sleepy and serene landscape, adding greener, vivid colors to the island's traditional desolate pastels.

The Erebus is a strange phenomenon that sprung up of the coast of Greece after the Awakening. It's a seasonal storm front that migrates from the Aegean to the Adriatic every six months following some arcane route. It has changed weather patterns in the Central Mediterranean, but it's better known for falling on unsuspecting ships with gale-force winds and raging storm clouds, making them vanish without a trace.
– Weatherman One

Trieste

Trieste is a fiercely independent and vigorous port on the Adriatic. The city is a major nexus for trade routes into the Balkans and Central Europe and it shows; the architecture mixes Austrian, Turkish, and Western European influences. To remain economically viable and independent from expansionist Serenissima, Trieste has implemented huge incentives to draw corporations and businesses. And thanks to that and the fresh brains being churned out by the old university, quite a few megacorps have chosen to invest in the small city-state.

Trieste has been a university town for over 400 years and has some of the most comprehensive programs in Europe in both Antiquities and Matrix technologies. It makes for one weird combination of alumnae.
– That Pao

Carnia

Carnia is the alpine region in the northwestern corner of the old Italian republic; it was a staging area for fighting operations during the Euro Wars, but these days it's a minor state that draws little attention. The infrastructure was never rebuilt after the wars, leaving the country undeveloped, mostly rural, and surviving on a pastoral economy. The people are pretty insular, but the need for foreign credit makes most more helpful than they would otherwise be. Many people supplement their meager income by helping out the Mafiosi or Balkan outfits that use Carnia as a waypoint on their arms and black market routes.

Rumors abound of the Apep Consortium uncovering some old ruins in Carnia. Lots of noise on the docks. Lots of interested parties too.
– Kirke

Republic of Serenissima

The Republic of Serenissima, often colloquially referred to by the name of its capital, Venice, is the Confederation's second most prosperous state, vying with neighboring Trieste as the major hub for bulk sea trade carrying commerce with Central Europe. The dissolution of the Italian Republic allowed the local wealthy elites to build themselves an aristocratic government—inspired by the old Venetian Patrician families—with an elected Doge as head of government. Not surprisingly, there's a huge resentment among the Patricians, especially those of Milanese origin, towards Rome's influence in the Confederation and Venice is the only capital actively fighting it.

The city of Venice itself is an enchanting place, made even more beguiling by the changes in the last decade or so. The perpetual toxic stink has lifted as the canals mysteriously cleared up in 2057, making the city even more of a tourist trap. The Doge claims it was the result of a revolutionary new detoxification process, but nobody believes him, and the vaunted process hasn't been used anywhere else since.

Something even stranger happened to the city's foundations. Not only has the soil hardened but it's changed composition as if by alchemy. The city stopped sinking completely and no longer needs the tidal barriers put up in the '20s.
– Dr Zeus

Kingdom of Spain

Climate change, the VITAS plague, the Awakening, Goblinization, the Crash, the Catholic Schism, each one roiled the Kingdom of Spain and in each case the state responded with fear and the consolidation of control under its increasingly right-wing government, a parliamentary monarchy.

The Spanish Church partially split from the Roman Catholic Church in 2024 over its objection to Pope John XXV embracing the Enlightened cause, which allowed both metahumans and the awakened a place within the faith. Most of the Spanish people follow the national church, and it has extraordinary sway in the halls of power, which has led to Spain being a hostile place to metahumans and the awakened.

The country has lost several pieces of itself: the Santiago Quake in 2018 opened a rift that drove the northwest city beneath the waves; the Basques seceded to form Euskal Herria in 2029; and in 2046 the Asturias forest began rapidly spreading beyond control, swallowing cities and towns whole, only stopping once it had absorbed nearly the entire province.

Shadowrunners seeking to enter Spain should look to the Canary Islands. Having only somewhat recovered from a series of terrorist attacks in 2007—a string of viral bombs that led to much of the population abandoning the islands—it's become a rare Spanish safe haven for metahumans and the counterculture community, and also for pirates, smugglers, and other criminal types. The army ensures a relative peace is kept, but thanks to a steady flow of bribes they otherwise look the other way.
– Sepherim

Euskal Herria

After many years of political strife, intense repression, cultural erosion and terrorist attacks, the Euskaldunak (the Basque people) finally achieved independence from France and Spain, thanks to the Crash and strong corporate support. Proudly forming the Euskal Herria, the Basques soon realized the high price they had to pay for it. The corps who had backed their independence movement called in their debts and leverage, gaining control over the country's destiny. Though prosperous and technologically advanced, Euskal is increasingly split between corporate agendas and nationalist movements bent on eliminating corporate influence.

The Euskal Herria is much more tolerant towards metahumans and outsiders than Spain. A high percentage of the population was born dwarf, and many Spanish metas fled here to avoid persecution. The same is also true for the awakened; the country's magically-adept population is almost double the world average (1.75%).

Euskal Herria is known for having the cheapest shadowclinics in Iberia. Cyber isn't a social faux pas here.
– Caballero

Euskal's Catholic Church broke from the Vatican when the country went independent, sparking a feud with the Spanish Church. The Spanish Catholics struck back by opening new churches in the Herria, but the Basque churches remain popular due to their acceptance of magic as an important part of nature (some believe the Holy Ghost is a Divine expression of magic). Some of the Euskal Church's breakaway congregations go so far as to incorporate pre-Christian Basque spiritualism, such as veneration of the Mari, a female divinity tied to both the Moon and the Earth. Mainstream Catholics, of course, view this as the utmost blasphemy.

There's a lot of scholarly debate over the origins of the Basque people. The Euskadi language seems to be unique in origin, unrelated to any other indo-European languages. Some even claim that the Basque are the descendants of an allen culture not from this world.
– Kapoira

Portugal

The westernmost nation of continental Europe, the Portuguese Republic also counts overseas territories such as the Azores, Madeira and the enclave of Cabinda in Africa. 75% of the population and most major industry and commerce are centered in the major coastal urban centers: Lisbon and Oporto.

Depending on who you ask, Portugal is either radically socialist or a corporate oligarchy. In 2036, the Portuguese enacted the Godinho Plan, a forced merger of Portugal's 150 largest businesses into the Lusiada Corporation, now a AA megacorp, which was partially nationalized such that the government owned 20% of the final incorporated company. But some charge that the Godinho Plan was less a government takeover of Portuguese industry and more a plutocratic takeover of the Portuguese government, given the extent of Lusiada's integration into the national administration and the fact that while the state might own 20% of the corporation, 60% of it is owned by just four families.

Many influences shape Portuguese society. Its traditional Mediterranean lifestyle has intermingled with North European influences since the late twentieth century, but a lot of African, Arab, and Brazilian culture has fused as well, creating a unique blend of fashions, rhythms, and attitudes. Almost a million Brazilian refugees fled to Portugal ahead of the Amazonian takeover; their presence, like that of the second and third generation African immigrants and Arab refugees from the Alliance for Allah's purges in North Africa, is felt in all aspects of society, from Lusiada's boardrooms to Lisbon's vivid music scene. Figure in mercs from four continents, Middle Eastern diplomats, sararimen tourists, and African tribal rebels looking for help, and you've got a one-of-a-kind place. The low ethnic tension extends to racial integration as well, though you'll still find some discrimination towards the goblinized.

Algarve Corporate Enclave

To jumpstart Lusiada and pay for the partial nationalization, the southern coast of Portugal was leased to a megacorp consortium and granted extraterritorial status. Under corp rule, it has been transformed into a super-resort where corps the world over can send their execs and saraimen on holidays. It's been described as the perfect beach and nightlife vacation spot.

More than twenty megacorps are members of the consortium, including all of the original triple-As. The consortium is run by a proxy administration that has next to no responsibilities except to keep the golf courses green and the conveniences working.
– espion

The coastline is fringed with chrome palaces and the white stucco vivendas of the locals interspersed with Arabic-style bazaars, colorful nightspots, and restaurants for all tastes. Beyond the beaches stand the mountains, huge golf courses, and ranches where arcology-bred brats can pretend they're looking at wild animals. Other areas specialize in diverse forms of entertainment: the casinos and cabarets of Vilamoura, the pseudo-underground bars of Lagos, the quiet retreats of Sagres, and so on. Higher level execs have reserved the eastern side for their huge mansions in the sandy islands of the Nova Ria, guarded by man and machine against outsiders (and against each other).

This place is paradise for the international runner. Whether you're performing security, pulling an extraction or running a sting operation, the ACE is the spot to go. At some point everybody takes a vacation here.
– Portuguese Man'o'War

There's always work being handed out in the shadier bars and clubs. Spread some cash around and the natives'll point ya in the right direction.
– Ozzle

Eastern Europe/West Asia

Russian Republic

The Russian Republic is the largest successor state to the former Soviet Union, which dissolved in 1991. The Republic is fully capitalist but only somewhat democratic, ruled more by backroom deals and factional intrigue than popular will.

Major factions involved in Russian politics include the nationalist military (the Red Army and the GRU, the military police), the UGB (the KGB's successor as the secret police), the Russian Orthodox Church (which also has considered influence with the MVD, the state police), the Vory, and, of course, the various megacorp interests.

Russia's nationalism and racism has interacted in complex ways with the emergence of metahumanity. While Humanis Policlub and the Sons of Sauron both have thriving local chapters, they tend to focus their attention on non-Russian metahumans or humans, respectively.

Yakut

In 2030, the Siberian people rose up, aided in no small part by packs of shapeshifters and other mythic creatures of the Siberian wilderness, to form the nation of Yakut. Yakut is a vast land with few means of getting in or around, and little to see other than trees, more trees, wild beasts, and shapeshifters.

After Yakut became an independent nation, the government granted shapeshifters the same legal rights as regular humans and metahumans. The government in Yakutsk insists that shapeshifters are merely equal co-citizens and refutes claims that government officials are shapeshifter puppets. As any Yakut resident knows, though, local authorities may look like they’re in charge, but the shapeshifters are the real authority. Many who complained about the government’s overly stringent environmental laws have disappeared in the middle of the night, only to have their mauled bodies found deep in the woods the next day.

Tunguska

Back in 1908, something from space crashed around the Stony Tunguska River, so hard that train passengers near Irkutsk—a thousand kilometers away—saw it. Conventional wisdom says it was a comet or meteorite, but people have observed weird magnetic effects and biological mutations in the area for decades. After the Awakening, persistent claims came up of orichalcum (which can normally only be created thaumaturgically) and other alchemical mineral radicals at the Yakut blast site, but none of the stories are consistent.

The object that hit Tunguska may have been the prison of a powerful magical being. Radiological decay estimates of samples obtained from the site (by shadowrunners) confirm its terrestrial origins and suggest the object may have been launched into space twelve to thirteen thousand years ago.
– Baba Yaga

Poland

Poland came under Russia's thumb in 2039 following the violence of the Night of Rage, a violent anti-metahuman riot that started in the UCAS but spread to many other countries. President Wojciech Rybinski asked Russia to step in and stop the violence and, while backed by the Red Army, declared himself President of the new National Republic of Poland. Poland is now a military dictatorship. Civil unrest has grown throughout the 2050s, waves of strikes and riots, though Rybinski maintains control for now.

Poland's economy is oriented towards heavy industry, manufacturing arms for export to Russia and portions of Europe.

Mazury-Białowieża Containment Zone

The Mazury-Białowieża Containment Zone (MBCZ) is a joint area combining the Białowieża Awakened Forest and the Mazury Toxic Zone. Białowieża is an awakened woodland that runs across the eastern Polish border into Belarus. Białowieża awoke in 2011, the Year of Chaos, becoming a home to awakened animals, which react with overwhelming hostility to any metahuman intrusion. The Mazury Toxic Zone was the site of toxic flooding during the '31 Russian invasion. It includes such cheerful places as the Suwatki toxic swamp and the haunted Olsztyn battlefields. The animal and plant life that survive there have mutated into one of the nastiest ecosystems anywhere.

Czech Republic

Like Poland, the Czech Republic faced a Russian invasion in the 2030s, but unlike the National Republic has managed to stay independent.

Following the Awakening, Czechia reacted with outrage to the Catholic Church's denouncement of metahumanity. Catholic priests supporting the Pope were thrown out of the stained glass windows of St. Niklas Church, an event now known as the Third Prague Defenestration. The Imago Dei Encylical, moderating the Church's stance on metahumans, soothed some wounds, but the faith was never fully restored in the nation. While the country can't claim to be free of anti-metahuman bigotry, it is notably friendlier to non-humans than other countries in Eastern Europe.

Czechia has similarly embraced magic. The Univerzita Karlova (Charles University) in Prague is internationally-renowned for the study of the arcane arts. Karlova is particularly well-regarded as a school teaching hermeticism oriented towards practicing casters, rather than the theory-focused curriculums at most other major thaumaturgical institutions.

Transcaucasian Federation

After the Euro Wars, the Caucasus countries struggled to reinvent themselves as nations and formed the Transcaucasian Federation to help resurrect their collapsed economies. Consequently, the Federation quickly became a corporate client state, focused on the Transcaucasian oil industry as many oil wells outside the Caspian neared depletion. It constitutes the territory that used to be Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

Between Europe and Asia is the Caspian Sea, the biggest lake on the planet. Bordered by Russia, Turkestan, Iran, and Azerbaijan, the sea has the world’s largest remaining oil reserves beneath it. The four surrounding countries, along with Saeder-Krupp, Yamatetsu, Bioenergetica Ukraine, and Zeta-ImpChem, all have heavy interest in the region, jockeying back and forth to see who can get their hands on the most oil and decide what pipelines will carry it where.

There’s enough fighting going on that the corps have hired outside help, and mercenary outfits from Istanbul and parts beyond are flocking to the area. The only way things are going to calm down is if all four nations bordering the Caspian agree to an oil production deal, and getting the four of them to see the same way is like getting your eyes to look backward and forward at the same time.
– Big Tzar

In the cities there is a thirst for modernity and a hunger to be recognized as Asian Europeans, and they tend to a cosmopolitan character.

Turkestan

The crossroads of Asia, Turkestan is two countries in one. The cities along the Silk Road belong to the modern techno-corporate world, while the steppe nomads retain their traditional lifestyle. It has long been a meeting point for the Christian, Muslim, and Chinese worlds and is now a meeting point for megacorps from Europe to the Pacific Rim.

The steppe has changed much in the last fifty years. Long gone are the croplands, dried up by the climatic upheaval just before the Awakening. Nomads have rediscovered how to call the spirits, and they again ride proudly, their numbers swelled by city folk fleeing famine and VITAS. Turkestan’s hordes join together many different tribes under one leader, the Khan. The various hordes are the legal authority inside their territories, enforcing their own laws with heavily armed militias.

Most nomadic tribes drive their cattle during summer and spend the winter in collective farms. Many tribes also earn extra revenues by protecting the Silk Road or corporate mining operations, usually from the raids of other tribes hired by rival corporations. The nomads rely heavily on their shamans, who call the spirits of the steppe for protection and guidance. Here, shamanism and Islam have always been two sides of the same coin. Spirits are feared and admired, but only Allah is worshipped.

The peaks of the Tian Shan are full of sky spirits, and they’re not nice to intruders. No one’s going to get the truth about that ice palace ’till someone mounts a serious expedition.
– Elijah

The corporations built the reborn Silk Road, running from Russia in the west to the Chinese splinter states in the east, and control the cities strung along it. The major crossroads is in Tashkent, where the main Trans-Caspian branch meets with a trans-Afghan branch going toward Gwadar (in Pakistan). Tashkent is linked with ports in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, which makes it the perfect base for corporations with pan-Asian ambitions. They still move large cargoes by ship, but small and valuable items like cyberware and electronics can cross Asia much faster by rail or in road-trains. Saeder-Krupp operates this stretch of the Road, which makes it the dominant economic power in Turkestan.

Turkic cities are described by tourist guides as a beautiful blend between ancient and modern where many cultures live side by side. But behind the marketing, they are corporate territory. Almost 50 million people live crowded in two narrow strips of land. One starts in the Aral Sea, flows up the Syr Darya River and snakes around the Tian Shan Mountains right up to Torugart Pass; the other snakes along the Amu Darya River. Every bit of space left is taken over by heavy industry or greenhouse farms, but in the east, the desert starts right at the cities’ edge. You can see their distinct form at a distance: a line of arcologies surrounded by ugly apartment blocks, then a narrow strip of farmland, then the steppe. The Turkic people have a passion for arcologies, and with such harsh winters and summers, they are a necessity.

The arcologies are also a complication for runners; usually your marks live under several tons of heavily guarded steel.
– Finis

City dwellers are usually highly educated corporate employees, with a modern outlook on life and a taste for the latest trends from Tokyo. Although they usually follow Sunni Islam, their attitude is quite liberal; they might be more orthodox than the nomads, but they are certainly less devout. And prayers are often led by women, a legacy of Soviet rule.

Toxic Zones

Turkestan also holds many toxic zones. The Kara-Kum and Kyzyl-Kum deserts have been used by Saeder-Krupp and other corps as dumping grounds for nuclear and biochemical wastes. The Polygon was once the test site for Soviet nuclear weapons, and after the Awakening toxic spirits appeared in the ghost city of Konechnaya (“The End”) and invaded the surrounding steppes. And there is also Vozrozhdeniye (“Rebirth”), a Soviet biowarfare site back when it was an island sitting in the middle of the Aral Sea. Now the sea is all but gone and the site is a peninsula. Mutant strains of anthrax and smallpox cross the isthmus and the Aral-Kum Desert, and when the death wind blows, they reach as far as Tashkent.

AG Chemie has formed a joint venture with Kazakh and Uzbek shamans to contain and clean these sites. It’s the famous “Project Endgame” and it is creating a stir. The corporation has been experimenting with some really advanced bionanites that will supposedly terraform the worst spots. If it works, it’ll be a beautiful thing; but if the nanites run out of control, what could happen to the rest of Turkestan?
– Winter Storm

Those GreenWar ecofreaks must have asked the same ques- tion. They’re already hanging around Tashkent, ready to stop this thing. I just hope they don’t release something worse in the process.
– Tamerlane Troll

Middle East

In 2020, the great dragon Aden destroyed Tehran, Iran in response to the Ayatollah's declaration of jihad against metahuman races. Muslims in the Middle East saw the Tehran assault as an attack on all Islam. Coupled with backlash against the Awakening and dwindling oil revenues, it fueled the rise of Islamic fundamentalists during the 2020s. Their alliance with terrorist groups made the situation even more dangerous. Many countries became police states, and the Crash of ’29 delivered the final blow. Three years later, fundamentalists took power throughout the Middle East. Soon afterward, they called a conference in Damascus to decide the region’s future. They created the Alliance for Allah to “liberate all Muslims living under the infidels’ thumb,” in the words of their spiritual leader, Mullah Sayid Jazrir.

In the 2030s, the Alliance carried out the Great Jihad, declaring war on Europe and Israel. They fended off the invasion at great cost. European border countries still haven't fully rebuilt. Israel managed to resist the onslaught with the judicious use of tactical nukes and some unexpected support from the Palestinians. When Israeli forces disrupted Alliance supply lines running through Egypt and Syria, the Alliance fell into mutual recrimination, disarray, and conflict.

Come 2040, Iran and Iraq warred over who ruled the Shi’ite Muslims and the Kurds declared independence, bringing Turkey and Syria into the conflict. Before the fighting could spread further, Badr al-Din Ibn Eisa used his Islamic Unity Movement to broker a peace deal that kept the Kurds inside a new Iraqi federation. Middle Eastern leaders were impressed, and the IUM became a force to be reckoned with.

The deal in Iraq didn’t go as planned. The government went broke and couldn’t keep Kurdistan from leaving. Then Saeder- Krupp stepped in. Soon, S-K had Iraq in its pocket, together with the last oil reserves in the Middle East.
– Maghrebi Monster

By 2050, the IUM was growing, Iran was developing swiftly under Ayatollah Abdallah, and Turkey once again had a secular government backed by the megacorporations. In 2055, an ancient dream came true: the nations of the Arabian Peninsula united in a revival of the Caliphate. For the first time in one hundred years, a Caliph ruled an Islamic state.

After centuries of conflict, the Middle East is finally on the road to peace and prosperity.

Arabian Caliphate

The nation of Arabia was formed from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain by the Islamic Unity Movement led by Badr al Din Ibn Eisa in 2055. The undisputed heart of the Islamic world, Dar al-Islam, the Caliphate is one of the Sixth World’s subtle powers, holding sway over millions worldwide. Many Muslims, especially Sunnis, feel a spiritual allegiance to the Prophet’s homeland. The state is run by a coalition of noble houses, careful to avoid drawing the disapproval of the IUM.

As a signatory to the Business Recognition Accords, Arabia allows megacorps to operate semi-sovereign enclaves, in a fashion dating back to the previous century. Megacorporate involvement in the Caliphate is governed by the Islamic-Corporate Coordination Board, gathering government officials, religious figures, and corporate representatives to make sure that corporate activities benefit the Arabian people and conform with Sharia law. A number of the prominent corporations are local, from the Xenel-Oman bank to the sprawling interests Ifrit Services has in tourism, entertainment, and security services. Saeder-Krupp is the most prominent of the foreign megacorps, responsible for over a quarter of the oil and natural gas extraction in the region.

The Arabian Caliphate is deeply conservative—especially in the heartland, but even the coastal cities, while relatively liberal, can be hostile to those who don't fit in. Being a meta, a woman, an infidel, Awakened, or sporting obvious cyberware are potential sources of trouble, in decreasing order of aggravation. Any of the previous, particularly if one doesn't show due deference, risk harassment or worse by sanctimonious authorities or self-appointed enforcers of the social order.

Islam is the cement that holds the society together. Convert, speak a little Arabic, be kind to people and pray—or pretend to—at the right times; you’ll make tons of friends quickly and be five steps ahead of any other foreign talent. The local Muslim shadow scene is pretty tight, and converting is the best way to get contacts, information and gear.
– Cynical Paul

The Bedouin, desert nomads, can take you anywhere throughout the Middle East along with their shipments of smuggled goods, from Egypt to Syria through Gaza or the Negev north, south to the Arabian desert, or east to Baghdad and then connect to the New Silk Road. The Bedouin have no allegiance; they’ll ship chemical weapons to Hamas activists in Gaza one day, and the next they’ll scout the mountains of West Jordan for the Israeli Defense Forces.

The Bedouin I know might deal with anyone, but they honor their deals to the letter.
– Ammar

Islamic Republic of Iran

Following the destruction of Tehran by Adan in response to the Ayatollah's vilification of metahumanity, the Iranian doubled down on their adherence to this conservative interpretation of Islamic law, seeing Tehran’s destruction as a test of their faith in Allah.

Iran never signed the Business Recognition Accords, but the megas that own local corps can sidetrack most of the restrictions that apply to other foreign businesses. Yamatetsu in particular has significant assets in the area, and has shown more success than other outfits in keeping its employees from violating the state's highly-restrictive religious laws.

Metahumans face significant discrimination and blame for Adan's attack on the state. Mages need permits to cast spells, and they're only available for simple spells deemed relatively safe by the state. Geting caught without one can result in serious penalties all the way up to lobotomization, removing the ability to ever spellcast again, in addition to all the other mental side-effects. Only hermetic mages can receive permits; shamanic magic is forbidden under pain of death.

Federal Republic of Iraq

The Iraqi government is kept in power with the support of Saeder-Krupp, protecting its access to the Basra oil fields, the last significant oil reserves left in the Middle East. But with the oil reserves starting to run out, Saeder-Krupp has been reducing its commitment to the state.

Popular only with the rich and corrupt, President Shari’ati continues to dance to S- K’s tune for as long as they'll support him. He has resisted popular calls to establish an Islamic state or join the Arabian Caliphate, while also holding off the elite forces that seeks to hand administration of the state to a coalition of megacorps.

A civil war is brewing here, and things can get ugly fast. Until that happens, though, Iraq is a great place for runners. Everyone’s maneuvering for power, which means lots of jobs around. I really like it here. You can cast whatever spells you want, there’s no Islamic law and no religious police. Best of all, I can walk my dwarf butt down the streets of Baghdad without someone kicking it.
– as Sadiq

Baghdad is a cosmopolitan sprawl with ten million people, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Nowhere else in the Middle East will you see a greater mix of peoples, religions, and ideologies. The city center is corp turf, with large avenues and lavish mosques. All the action starts late in the afternoon and goes on through the night. This is the place to relax and have a good time.

Basra is the seat of S-K’s power. All of Iraq’s heavy petrochem industry is concentrated around the city, and its seaport is the major export route for Iraqi oil. Basra has horrific pollution problems, and one doesn’t want to get caught outside during one of its toxic sandstorms. Basra is dominated by the Ziggurat, a huge arcology built on a sea platform just off the coast.

Various tribes dominate the rest of Iraq. They often own territory around oil fields and pipelines, and almost half of Iraqis belong to one tribe or another. Many place allegiance to their tribal leader (the sheikh) before their government or their religion. Tribal bonds have grown stronger since the Awakening; during times of chaos, these ties were often the only thing standing between common folk and starvation. The IUM has little support here; their appeal for Muslim unity implicitly attacks tribal bonds, while S-K has kept the peace by cutting the sheiks into a slice of the profits.

Israel

Israel remains much has it has for a hundred years: fiercely proud of its Jewish heritage, surrounded by hostile Muslim nations, and bolstered by its strong intelligence and military ties to allied nations and megacorporations.

Israel took control of the Sinai Desert in 2046, evacuating most of its Egyptian population and turning the desert into a buffer zone with Egypt. While the annexation provoked significant international condemnation, Israel's move to grant administrative control of the Suez channel to the United Nations quelled any major opposition to the ethnic cleansing.

Palestine

Following the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, the Palestinian people chose to embrace Israel's offer of a limited sovereignty over the uncertain possibility of a more complete independence in the future. Accepting Israeli control of the territory's borders and foreign relations, and the continued presence of IDF monitoring bases, the Palestinian Authority maintains domestic governance and has built a growing economy around agriculture and limited high-tech development, though much of the nation stills lives in crippling poverty. Israel provides the territory with economic support, attempting to use their peaceful coexistence to prove their benevolent intentions to their Muslim neighbors.

Not everyone in Palestine accepts the lopsided peace with Israel. The terrorist organization Hamas carries out regular attacks against Israel, while having branched into being an international crime syndicate working in coordination with the Syrian Hezbollah. Hamas further maintains ties with the Islamic Unity Movement, seeking expansion of the pan-Arabian caliphate.

Jerusalem

Jerusalem become home to a mana warp in early 2012, causing the temporary evacuation of the historic Old City. Jerusalem and Palestine reclaimed their shared administration of the city after forty days, though sporadic magical outbreaks continued, further complicating tensions between the two factions, for whom a divided Jerusalem was the most problematic rift.

When a severe mana storm erupted in 2046, the Israeli and Palestinian authorities again were forced to abandon the city. This time, UN forces took advantage of the chaos and claimed the city for itself. While both Israel and Palestine protested the seizure, both sides preferred the situation to control of the city by the other side and the UN skillfully managed this tension to maintain control.

The UN authority maintains Jerusalem as an international city, open to people of all nations and all faiths. Its primary business is tourism and diplomacy, though rumors abound that the local government profits handsomely off of licensing megacorps the right to study the unique astral phenomenon surrounding the city's many holy places.

STOLZ

The Special Toxic Off-Limit Zones (STOLZ) are the remains of the 2004 Libyan attacks and the 2030s Second Ottoman Jihad with dozens of these catastrophically polluted zones scattered across Israel. Most of them lie in the Negev Desert, where there’s nothing but camels, Bedouins, and secret bases, but the Israeli city of Beer Sheva and the the Palestinian city of Ramallah have also been rendered toxic hellholes. Both despite and because of their inherently corrosive nature, they make for prime stops for smugglers and wanted runners.

Secular Republic of Turkey

The Secular Republic of Turkey was formed from the disillusion of greater Turkey during the broader realignment of the Middle East. Rejecting political Islam, the country has embraced ties with Western Europe and the UCAS. While there's no outright war with East Anatolia, the Republic faces a slow but steady stream of terrorist attacks from Islamist radicals.

Secularism is a strong feature of present-day Turkey. In reaction to the horror of the Jihad, and in fear of international—and Christian—retaliation, many Turks severed their links to Islam. Turkey’s once-pervasive secular tradition is back with a vengeance, even tending toward extreme atheism.
– Echec

The executive functions of the state are executed by the Neo-Atatürk, a collegial body that acts as a single entity in leading the Secular Republic. Parliament assists Neo-Atatürk in its task and provides it with expertise on various topics when needed. Many people form Neo-Atatürk, but its public face is a Matrix persona resembling a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features.

Rumors about Neo-Atatürk’s identity abound. The people behind it hold the real power and keep Parliament leashed through subtle loopholes in the Constitution, but their own identity remains secret for “security reasons.” Parliament is supposed to nominate the folks who make up N-A, but because the real control works the other way around, the whole system is screwed.
– Poly Tick

The corps and the maffiya call the city of Izmir home. On the shores of the Aegean Sea, Izmir was leveled by quakes in 2048 and has since been completely rebuilt. Almost nothing standing is older than twenty years, and the central business district resembles any other in North America or Europe.

Free City of Constantinople

Constantinople became a free city after the Euro Wars, thanks to Ukrainian and corporate support. The Philike Hetairia, a multinational organization of local states, and the 10,000 Daggers mercenaries ensure its stability and independence. Today Constantinople is a model of multi-religious cooperation and peaceful community.

East Anatolia

East Anatolia, East Turkey, or the Ottoman Empire, as it's called by the insurgents that control it, is an Islamist state situated in the eastern portion of Anatolia, ruled by extremist remnants of Alliance for Allah.

The eastern border of East Anatolia gives the fundamentalists the most concern. They often get caught in skirmishes with Kurdish soldiers protecting the borders of the Autonomous Zone, and Peshmerga commandos allegedly perform operations inside the fundamentalists’ territory. The Kurds play an important role in the region, acting as a buffer between the insurgents and other religious extremists in Syria. Though the two groups don’t seem to get along, Hezbollah is rumored to have made a few inroads into East Anatolia, reactivating older traffic routes.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is in the hands of warlords and the Kabul maffiya. Most locals live in dusty villages and are simple shepherds and farmers. Others work for the warlords, growing opium or making counterfeit copies of designer clothes and the like. The warlords sell this stuff to the Kabul maffiya, which exports them all over the world.

Some warlords deal with corps like AG Chemie and Shiawase, giving part of the profits to the maffiya. They fit some locals with third-hand skillwires and work them in sweatshops making cheap electronics for export to India and Pakistan.
– Socio Pat

The only corporate asset in the country is the trans-Afghan highway, built and operated by Saeder-Krupp. It starts in Pakistan and goes north through the Khyber Pass and Kabul until it links with the New Silk Road in Turkistan. S-K uses Kabul as a supply depot and a base for the mercs who keep the road open.

How the maffiya and S-K can coexist in Kabul is hard to imagine, though I’ve noticed the maffiya can smuggle cargo all along the highway without problems.
– as Sadiq

In fact, the only place the maffiya can’t reach is the Hindu Kush mountain range; this land belongs to the Kata tribes. Supposedly they descend from the soldiers of Alexander the Great, and converted to Islam in 1895. After the Awakening they reverted to their animistic beliefs. Nowadays they live in primitive villages up in isolated valleys, worshiping ancient gods and relying on the spirits of their ancestors for help and protection. Stories abound of lost Kata villages that made evil pacts with ancient spirits, but it’s tough to get any hard intel, as the Kata are hostile to outsiders. Afghans call this land Kafiristan, the land of the infidels, and avoid it like the plague.

Cyprus

The island of Cyprus is still recovering from the Euro Wars. With no one willing to pay for rebuilding, the island is a forsaken rock in the sea, visited only by smugglers and criminals.

Cyprus is turning into the Med Sea’s first pirate haven. Rumor mill says Trogoo, the pirate king in exile from the Carib scene, is setting up his base of operations on Cyprus after turning down a proposal to join Chocolaté's crew.
– Blue Parrot

Kurdish Autonomous Zone

After twenty years of independence, the Kurds are firmly entrenched in the Zagros Mountains, self-sufficient and self-reliant. No one recognizes Kurdistan (the local name for the KAZ) as a nation, but the Kurds’ neighbors respect their borders and trade with them, partly because no one wants to mess with Kurdistan’s military force, the Peshmerga. They proved themselves in the Great Jihad and during the Kurdish struggle for independence. Whenever East Turkish forces test Kurdistan’s defenses, the Peshmerga give them a tough lesson.

It’s not difficult to enter Kurdistan; the Peshmerga help smugglers going from Turkey to Iraq or Iran for a cut of the profits. The problem is entering Kurdish villages and towns. The Kurds don’t trust outsiders, and the neo-Communist Kurdish Labor Party (the PKK) maintains tight control over daily life, led by Ahmed Massoud.

I’ve heard Massoud abandoned Islam and joined the Yezidi sect. Supposedly, most top Peshmerga officials are Yezidi and this sect is the force behind Kurdistan. Yezidi religion has the same roots as Islam, with a twist: they worship the archangels, in particular Lucifer, whom they call God’s chief archangel. Muslims call them Satan worshippers, and these rumors are certainly fueling dissent.
– Riyalpolitik

You’re speaking about the “new” Yezidis. They worship Aden as an incarnation of Lucifer, so they’re nothing more than a dragon cult. Aden’s followers hijacked the Yezidi sect, and most “new” Yezidis are converts like Massoud. True Yezidis are either in hiding or have left Kurdistan.
– Dragonslayer

Syria

Syria is a power base for the more radical factions of the Islamic Unity Movement. President Bashar al-Ibrahim and most of his cabinet are vocal IUM members, and Ibn Eisa is said to have huge influence with Bashar. The government gets more belligerent by the day, as shown by their recent military takeover of Lebanon. Syria always treated Lebanon like an offshoot, so the invasion is mostly symbolic. The corps didn’t like it at first, especially knowing Ibn Eisa’s influence in Damascus, but they reconsidered their position after obtaining extraterritorial status for Beirut’s business district.

The Syrians didn’t stop in Beirut. Their forces are currently locked in a stand-off with Israel in southern Lebanon, and threatening to retake the Golan Heights, the region’s prime source of water. The Israeli Defense Forces are stretched thin; they’re also deployed along the Jordanian border, so they can’t do much beyond holding their ground.
– Intifada Papa

If you’re running in Syria, you’ll probably deal with Hezbollah, a terrorist organization turned crime syndicate that controls the Syrian underworld. Hezbollah’s rise to power started in Lebanon but extended to Syria with help from the Bedouin nomads. Ties between it and the current government are unclear. Both have similar ideologies and goals, but Hezbollah’s criminal activities are starting to worry President Ibrahim.

Hezbollah has its seat of power in Damascus, Syria’s capital. For a sample of the sheer chaos of the place, try visiting the al-Ḥamīdīyya Bazaar in the old city. This permanent giant fair extends over more than three thousand square meters, and you can buy and sell anything at very low prices, from weapons to slaves to mind-benders coming direct from Afghanistan. A special corner of the market is reserved for ultra-hot stuff: WMDs, Matrix viruses, implants, extraction targets, and so on.

Indian Subcontinent

Indian Union

With the disunification of China, the Indian Union became the most populous country in the world with over a billion inhabitants, still short of what it would have been if not for the almost half billion Indians killed by the VITAS plague, which was first detected in New Delhi. This massive scale defines the country. A typical political rally might see tens of thousands rather than hundreds, while the shanty towns on the edge of Calcutta and New Delhi house millions rather than thousands.

It's a country still dominated by Hinduism, religiously and culturally. The caste system was bolstered by the Awakening, though megacorporations enthusiastically undercut it to gain access to a source of eager workers, which foreign subversion then serves to reinforce the Hindu nationalist movement.

Magic use has been embraced by the brahmin caste and the country is one in which magic has touched every life. India's chronic issues with drought have been solved with the assistance of ashuras (spirits) to manipulate the weather. The nation has long held much sacred—from towns, rivers, and trees to cows, snakes, rats, and vultures—and this respect has been returned as power in the hands of their mages.

Metahumans face relatively modest discrimination in India. A kshatriya ork has more social capital than an "Untouchable" elf, which has led Tír na nÓg to recruit heavily from the latter, though India, for unknown reasons, produces an usually low proportion of elves. The hanumen are a rare dwarf variant native to India, who were originally thought to be sapient critters; they have monkey-like paws and tails and their lower bodies are profusely hairy.

Bangla Commonwealth

A new constitution ratified on the fiftieth anniversary of Bangladeshi independence (2021) established the Commonwealth as a modern Muslim nation bordering India and Burma, which, despite a history of endemic poverty, is today one of the region’s most stable and growing economies.

Khalistan

There is much bad blood between Sikhs and Hindus, more so even than between Indians and Pakistanis. The Hindus feel deeply betrayed by the Sikh separatists declaring independence while the country was reeling from the Crash and the Indian army was committed to the escalating situation in Kashmir. Sikhs have a deep-seated hatred of India for what happened next. Sikhs from all over India were still relocating under immense harassment and outcry when they heard the fateful news: India had ordered a tactical nuclear strike against Pakistani forces aiding insurgents in the Kashmir valley. Pakistan retaliated with tactical launches at Indian positions before the situation was contained by warnings from the UN and Corporate Court to both capitals. Left unsaid was that prevailing winds would carry the dreaded fallout south, over the newly-founded Sikh nation.

Most Sikhs believe the nationalist BJP government made the decision while fully aware of the consequences, as underhanded retaliation for the Sikh “betrayal” as much as to counter Pakistani aggression. Khalistan, “the land of the pure,” would never be truly pure now. Though India has since relinquished claims to Khalistan and tried to make amends for what has become a matter of national shame, the damage is done and the rift may never be healed. Cancer rates have increased ten-fold in the last two generations and many children have been born diseased or deformed.

Kashmir Wastes

Nobody truly knows exactly what triggered events in 2030—many communications and official systems were still down courtesy of the Virus—and it’s probably better that way. The official story is that a rogue Pakistani general exceeded his authority to aid Islamic insurgents in a running battle with Indian forces near the border. The situation escalated beyond control and the result was a brief nuclear exchange that left the beautiful Kashmir valley a scorched and radioactive shadow of its former self. Three tactical nuclear devices exploded and though the Himalayan valley contained much of the heat and shockwaves, the whole region is now irreparably irradiated and unsuitable for life.

Few have risked the high radiation to explore the area, which is overrun by twisted and mutated plant life and warped fauna. Occasionally reports get out of communities in the valley surviving despite contaminated water supplies and irradiated soil, but who they might be and what they are up to is anyone’s guess.

Islamic Republic of Pakistan

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a place of significant strife. Impoverished and underdeveloped with few natural resources, the government regularly engages with Islamist insurgents and local warlords each attempting to claim a piece of territory. General Jehangir, the head of the military dictatorship ruling the country, has found himself pulled by conflicting priorities: seeking to combat corruption through the nationalization of domestic industry, while also trying to draw megacorporate investment by becoming a signatory of the Business Recognition Accords (recognizing corporate extraterritoriality), a move his predecessors, mostly Islamists, had actively resisted. These efforts so far have largely backfired, with the megacorporations still withholding investment in fear of the social unrest that was amplified by the dictator's actions.

Sri Lanka

After a protracted insurgency pitting the Tamil minority against the majority Shingalese, a peace agreement was brokered by the island nation’s influential Buddhist monastic council, the Sangha. With the world becoming increasingly turbulent and unsafe, the island cashed in on its newfound peace, tropical climate and scenery to market itself as a safe haven for business and pleasure. Erecting several world-renowned conference and resort centers, Sri Lanka has become a sophisticated (and secure) environment for brain-trusts and corporations to hold thaumaturgical, scientific and academic conferences.

Tibet

Little is known and nothing has been seen of Tibet in nearly fifty years. In 2011, the year of the Awakening, Tibet withdrew from China and manifested the Maya Cloud, a magical barrier that has proven impenetrable to all attempts to cross other than those extraordinarily rare few with an invitation. On which subject, the following item was left in Dunkelzahn's will to the founder and CEO of Renraku Computer Systems:

To Inazo Aneki of Renraku, I leave the Seal of the Green Gloves, which will permit you or your proxy to enter Tibet. Use your time there as you will, but do not abuse the privilege or you will suffer for your misdeeds.

Four other such seals are known to exist.

East 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 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 Zürich-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.

Republic of Korea

Korea achieved its reunification under a military dictatorship, albeit one that left meaningful power in the hands of the nation's parliamentary republic. The conflict is widely called the Second Korean War by foreigners and the 405 War by locals, though the previous war had never formally ended, merely gone cold. The South had initially seemed to be on the losing end of the conflict, but was saved by the intervention of the Japanese, who succeeded where the USA had failed decades ago in creating a unified, capitalist Korea.

But with this help came expectations and demands. Japanese megacorporations established an aggressive presence on the island and Japan expected a highly favorable trade status and extensive international support. Korea is an economic powerhouse, but its wealth is divided between its local chaebols (industrial conglomerates) and the foreign megacorps. Over the decades, this has created significant popular opposition to the Japanese Imperial State, with successive military dictators having to balance acquiescence to popular demand against the practical realities of Japanese dominance.

The Awakening was fairly benign in Korea and was widely accepted by the general population. The progressive stance has attracted so many metas from countries like Japan that, for the first time in history, Korea has a large foreign minority.

The Matrix is an omnipresent, familiar aspect of a Korean’s everyday life. Matrix gaming is huge in Korea, with the best players becoming trideo stars, with matches against Japanese competitors highly popular events. The technophile attitude extends to other parts of society as well, with many people sporting visible or cosmetic ‘ware, especially if it makes them look a little more like their idols (orxploitation a current fad).

Christians have been making their best efforts to reverse the damage done by early bigotry during the Awakening, but Korea seems a lost cause to the western faith. In the Sixth World, mudangs (a local shaman variant) are once again the spiritual advisors for the common and not-so-common folk—some chaebol execs I’ve met never make a decision without consulting their preferred mudang. Some mudangs end up as mistresses for the rich and powerful; they’re very influential and can be useful contacts, as long as you don’t threaten their position.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Canton Confederation

Consisting of the former provinces of Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Fujian, as well as the city-state of Macao, the capitalist 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.

Republic of China

Reduced to the province of Hebei, including Beijing, and the Tianjin metropolitan district, the Republic of China has been reduced to a rump state, a shadow of what it was.

Diplomatically, the Republic has fairly good relations with non-Chinese nations, particularly Japan, Korea, Salish-Shidhe, and the UCAS. Its relations with its Chinese neighbors are generally poor, especially with Henan and Manchuria.

Manchuria

Manchuria, known in Mandarin as Dongbei, is a large region of mountains, rivers and forests of wondrous beauty that also sustains a strong industrial base and dense urban sprawls. Manchuria is one of few nations in the world to refuse the Business Recognition Accords, and the only one that nonetheless sustains an active industrial and technical economy. Manchuria is an Awakened Land, derived from its complete embrace of ancestor spirits and Spirits of Man. These spirits are granted full legal rights. Some participate in civic life as ordinary citizens; others take on a philanthropic role, manifesting to stop a criminal or change a tire; others, the Ta'ren, are more mysterious, known for quietly following those they take an interest in.

Coastal Provinces

The coastal region between the Canton Confederation and the Republic of China is a crazy quilt of Chinese microstates, known collectively as the Coastal Provinces. When the provincial governments collapsed during the eight-year Republic Civil War, the corps stepped in to protect their extraterritorial holdings and propped up puppet microgovernments sympathetic to their particular corporate causes.

Today this region is Asia’s sweatshop, highly industrialized with low wages and no environmental controls. Unlike their southern competitor, the Canton Confederation, the Coastal Provinces don’t sponsor a lot of research and development; the corps invent elsewhere and bring the final designs here for mass production.

Western China

When Sichuan, Shaanxi and the Confederation withdrew from China, the remaining western outlying provinces (Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai) found themselves politically isolated. Mongolia and Shaanxi absorbed Inner Mongolia. Most of Qinghai and Gansu degenerated into bandit country. Gansu Province has a semifunctional central government, but beyond the capital of Lanzhou—propped up by its position on the New Silk Road—local warlords hold the real power.

Taiwan

Taiwan is an independent capitalist democratic state comprising the main island, primarily also called Taiwan, though referred to as Formosa in Europe, as well as over a hundred nearby smaller islands. It is one of the more UCAS-friendly countries in Asia dude to a former history of close security ties, though this relationship has been waning as the generation taking power has little memory of the times when US security guarantees helped maintain its independence from the mainland.

Following the communist victory in 1949, the Nationalist Party under Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan, where they reestablished the Republic of China. Still maintaining its claim of legitimacy over all of China, the Taiwanese Republic was recognized by many countries until the end of the century as a legitimate government. By the time the People’s Republic broke up in 2018, however, Nationalist dreams of reunification had come and gone. The Nationalists briefly returned to power in the 2040s under a wave of reunification sentiment, but a bloody war with the Confederation put the Nationalists down for good.

That remains to be seen. Nationalist policlubs remain strong in Taiwan, the eastern half of the Confederation and many of the coastal provinces. Also, Taiwanese agents on the mainland have infiltrated separatist movements in Fujian, in hopes of enticing it to break away again.
– Polly Sci

Mongolia

Cross Mongolia and you’re as likely to run into the wild creatures that live in the steppes and deserts as you are to find a human being. Still, the Mongols are proud of the nation they have built. Inner and Outer Mongolia are united after five centuries of Chinese rule, and the Awakening helped move Mongolia away from poverty. Mongols have embraced the Sixth World and all its possibilities to build a brighter future.

Magic is a way of life both for steppe nomads and city dwellers. Nomadic clans have revived ancient shamanic rites; ritual drums once again summon the spirits of the four sacred mountains to protect the nomads’ herds from the cold winters. The guardian spirits of the ovoo stone mounds listen to and answer travelers’ prayers after years of silence. Free spirits are worshipped side by side with Buddha, and some have taken entire clans under their protection. So even with less technology, modern nomads live far better than their ancestors of the Fifth World.

But it’s in the cities that you can really feel the magic pulse. Walk the streets of Urga, once called Ulan Bator, and you’ll see shamans selling their magic and foretelling your future while they shiver and foam. You’ll also see many Vajrayana Buddhist monks. Most of them are experienced mages, and their constant presence shows the power the Living Buddha has over Mongolia.

The best reason for a runner to visit Urga is the talismongers. They can get you stuff like those weird Evenk mirrors or magical jade from the Gobi Desert. You can’t find them anywhere else in the civilized world, at least not this cheap.
— Xunga XL

Mongols are also friendly to metahumans, which isn’t surprising since orks make up 23 percent of the population. Recently, ork rockers from North America began to make an impact in Urga’s tent suburbs, and now traditional monks and shamans walk side by side with young orks speaking Or’zet slang and listening to “orxploitation” music. Local “tusker rockers” like Tchoi Khan and the Mongolorks are making waves outside Mongolia; in return, ork rights groups like the O.R.C. are paying more attention to the Mongol ork community.

Beyond Urga, Mongolia is owned either by nomads or foreign corporations. You’ll find a number of industrial and mining towns scattered throughout the steppe, usually owing their existence (and their loyalty) to Yamatetsu or Eastern Tiger. Their main assets are the oil and natural gas reserves of the Gobi Desert.

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.

Southeast Asia

Indochina

Those of you who only imagine Indochina as a scene from those old Vietnam war flat flicks are in for a shock: druglords, underworld kingpins, megacorporate schemes and shows of strength by Awakened forces mix with the old jungle guerrilla clichés in a land that seems stuck in 2010.

Indochina’s under the tropics. That means 3 seasons: cool and dry (November-February), hot and dry (March-April) and monsoon (May-October). Some will tell you to avoid jobs during the hot season because of its searing temperatures, but frankly, the rainy season is much worse: flash floods and sticky muddy terrain can ruin your day and your vehicle faster than you can download the latest sim-starlet trid, while mosquitoes and disease are more frequent.

Tropical countries come with the standard collection of exotic illnesses and dangerous critters. If you leave the major cities, pack a medkit that caries all the med care and inoculations you need, including mosquito repellent and buckshot rounds for the most hostile jungle beasts. The Southeast Asian woodlands have Awakened and now flaunt the lush splendor of a primeval forest. The creatures that live there were likewise affected; the jungle is a mysterious place, full of danger and untapped potential. Expect the unexpected there.

You’ll only find a working Matrix network in the major ’plexes, and those are still subject to grid instabilities or slow transfer rates. Even in Thailand and Burma, the countries with the best networks, large areas of the hinterland remain disconnected. This makes remote corporate facilities even more difficult to reach, as they’re connected to the Matrix only via their own (possibly rented) satellite link.

Aside from those remote labs or secret facilities, foreign corporations only started to explore the local markets in the last few years, when most of the conflicts quieted and the economies were able to generate enough purchasing power to arouse the corps’ interest. Even so, they mostly sell vehicles, mobile phones, household appliances and food. The cybertoys can be found only where there are buyers able to afford them—the major cities. In contrast, you can get weapons almost everywhere at a discount—a legacy of the wars—though they’ll be weathered second-hand models.

Burma

Burma is a rotten democracy, much like a South American drug-state of the early 21st century. The democratic dream of the twenties quickly turned sour as corruption spread like wildfire among the new political elites.

Cambodia

Cambodia’s politicians try their best to rule the country properly—that is, prying out the maximum amount of money for themselves from the already crippled nation as usual—but a new menace threatens them: Angkor’s naga (giant Awakened sentient serpents).

The story: the Cambodian royal line is said to come from the union of a Khmer prince with a female naga. Apparently, the naga are quite unhappy with how the Kingdom has been ruled in their absence. They don’t feel the same urges as metahumans such as greed or power-hunger, but they want two things: due respect from metahumans (who should know they are lesser beings) and peace in their domain. Led by a mysterious 7-headed naga raja (king) named Vasuki, they plan to rebuild the Naga Kingdom—whatever that is—and then offer their righteous rule to the land in exchange for an oath of fealty.

There are good chances that the whole country will beg for membership in snakeland. Since the naga comeback around 2013, peasants worship them as sacred rulers of rivers and rain. With a wrecked economy, recurrent famine and leaders who couldn’t care less, no wonder they’re willing to try some change.
— Krama

Thailand

Thailand came out of the war stronger than it went in, significantly enlarging its territory and reasserting its regional economic might. The junta has relaxed its rule, and pro-democracy movements have gotten bolder, all without too much of a reaction from the government. It seems prosperity has a way of softening even the hardliners. Of all surrounding countries, Thailand has the fastest growth thanks to its natural resources, educated workers and the return of tourists.

Last year, a new challenger appeared during a pro-democracy rally, claiming to be the rightful king of Thailand. Known only as Niranam (the “nameless”), he’s gaining popular support as he campaigns for more freedom and the junta’s removal. Apparently Awakened, he’s able to control the ferocious garudas (a local sub-species of harpies named after the mythological Thai creature, Garuda, symbol of the royal servants) and uses them as very effective bodyguards.

Vietnam

One of the region’s most promising countries at the turn of the century, Vietnam is on the verge of explosion. The slow economic opening initiated at the end of the twentieth century went into a sudden tailspin thanks to the war and the Crash. The government returned to harsh militaristic policies, wrapping itself in communist ideology to make it all a bit more palatable. It nationalized all the Vietnamese companies into a single state-controlled entity, called the Khouang Combine, in 2032.

The country is now very isolated, with xenophobia and paranoia the new state-sponsored religions. Engaged in ongoing hostilities with Guangxi and Yunnan, still at odds with Cambodia and no longer welcome in Laos, Vietnam’s last allies are Russia and Aztlán. Communism is used as a red herring to justify repressive law enforcement and the pervasive secret police (Bô Cong An), but the tactic is becoming far less effective with the local populace.

In serious need of currency, the country reopened its economy to the megas in 2057, allowing them to open joint ventures if Khouang owns at least 51% of them. The corps gladly accepted, as they got an abundant, dirt-cheap, qualified and compliant labor force in return.

Yunnan

Essentially Yunnan is split between various crime orgs and warlords. The weak government has little success in trying to control the large underground economy—actually the only active and lucrative part of Yunnan’s economy—run by the druglords of the Golden Triangle.

The area is an ethnic hodge-podge, with about a quarter of its population made of dozens of mountain-dwelling ethnic minorities. Most druglords are either Chinese or members of those ethnic minorities, and they tend to work with their own people, adding the racial issue to the competition between them.

Indonesia

Dipping and rising across the equator for nearly 5,000 km are the islands of Indonesia. For many centuries, Indonesia has drawn the attention of outsiders for economic and scientific reasons. Since colonial times are far from over, at least in the East Indies, Indonesia is still a magnet for every shade of entrepreneur from the East and the West—a stamping ground for corporate lackeys, pirates, smugglers, druglords, black market traders, wayward shadow dwellers and dropouts.
– Captain Chaos

The old republic never recovered after the destructive impact of the outbreaks of 2011. Shattered Indonesia—how it is called today—has become a patchwork of several smaller associations that formed in the aftermath of the collapse. Though these state-like structures reside mainly on the large islands of Sumatra, Java and Borneo, they have never regained true control (or never choose to) over the untainted wilderness of the archipelago that has risen as a natural but very primal and sometimes hostile paradise from the ashes of the fiery eruptions.

Since the collapse of China and problems elsewhere in Asia, criminals, eco drop-outs, cultist fanatics, and wanna-be warlords have been drawn here in spades to run their own little Eden on one of the uncountable islands. Most of them are very reclusive and won’t bother you as long as you leave them alone.

Javanese Republic

The Javanese Republic literally rose from the ashes of the old Indonesian Republic. After the economy had hit rock bottom and the government proved incapable of solving the problems left by the catastrophes, high-ranking military officers took control over the administrative bodies and proclaimed martial law for the whole territory. The military regime commanded widespread public support in the face of the collapsing nation. Since then, the junta has been reviving the dwi-fungsi (dual function) doctrine of the past Suharto era, which promotes a role for the army not only for security reasons but also social and political “responsibility.”

Desperately trying to rebuild their nearly non-existent economy, the junta made a deal with several Japanese corporations, granting extraterritorial rights even to smaller corporations in exchange for economic support and weapons technology. Since then, skirmishes between Euro and Japanacorps have been day-to-day business. Fighting mainly over the tobacco industries and genetically modified plantations that are Java’s main source of revenue, the junta has been catering to both corporate factions to maximize the payolas that fund their expensive lifestyles.

Sumatran Alliance

Since the Acehnese lost their sultanate in the 16th century, they have called for autonomy. When the Indonesian Army seized control of Java, the members of the Free Aceh Movement instantly sparked a rebellion to free Sumatra. It now functions as a bulwark of various allied indigenous peoples attempting to avoid absorption by the Javanese Republic.

Enlightened Kingdom of Bali & Lombok

During the eruption of the Ring of Fire in 2011, the Gunung Agung—the island’s holy mountain and seat of Siva (Shiva)—burst in a titanic volcanic eruption, killing hundreds of people and shrouding the island and the nearby Lombok in ash. It took weeks until the pall disappeared and the volcano stopped spitting lava. During this time, the Pandawa Lima (also called Five Pandawas) appeared at the Besakih temple, rising from the ashes during the pratima ceremonies. When rumor spread about the arrival of these bodhisattvas in Indonesia, Hindus from all over the world and all professions got attracted to Bali for spiritual enlightenment.

Though a lot of people (especially the Javanese generals) have taken them for charlatans and frauds at first, the spirits have been running the show. After replacing the local administration in Denpasar with trusted dukuns (Brahman mystics) that act as their speakers, they declared the area as the Enlightened Kingdom of Bali and invited anyone seeking a place of spirituality and peace to the kingdom. The Pandawa Lima themselves have rarely appeared in public since then.

Today, the kingdom is a meeting place for the spiritually interested and the number one spot of the wellness-tourism industry. Several of the Hindus that immigrated into the kingdom set up resort complexes for wellness holidays of body and mind, in which they offer healing, anti-aging and meditative treatments (including respective diets) native to Asia (ranging from Chinese acupressure to Indian ayurveda). Several corporations—especially the Japanese ones—have been sending their employees to Bali for stress management for years. This may be one reason why they have not meddled in the kingdom’s affairs so far (or allowed Java’s leaders to do so), instead even helping them hook the resorts up to the Javanese Matrix grid.

Dayak Council of Borneo & Sulawesi

A council of different animist tribes native to the islands, the Dayak Council is extremely hostile to outsiders, and make masterful use of the jungle and the spirits resident within to expel those who arrive without welcome.

Pirates and runners tell about Awakened apes (even sentient ones), animals of gargantuan size, and all sorts of nasty Awakened flora (including carnivorous plants), though the truthfulness of these stories is in question.

Malay Archipelago

This part of Indonesia—encompassing the Moluccas and the Lesser Sunda Islands—has never been densely populated and contains no major settlements. Since the collapse of the former republic, the islands’ native inhabitants have found new (or should I say re-invented old) ways to make a living. Some of them live off what the soil and sea have to offer, using small catamarans to fish in the Banda Sea or till the soil growing manioc and rice (still using slash-and-burn agriculture). Agricultural corps from all over Asia have been trying for years to lay hands on this fruitful soil without much success because of the pirates and Indonesian druglords that have their stronghold within this region of the archipelago.

Independent State of New Guinea

Since the formation of the Independent State of New Guinea, the region was constantly in the news because of ongoing violence and bloodshed, with problems arise from ethnic and religious differences between the Melanesian Papua and Indonesians living on both sides of the islands. While the UN intervention mission in Jakarta sent peace squads into the region, they failed to enforce stability and peace in any ongoing fashion.

Because of repeated encroachments on Australian citizens in the area as well as pirate raids on cities and factories owned by Australian megacorps like Tanamyre, ANZAC decided that the instability in New Guinea posed a threat to the entire region and must be stopped at all costs. Declaring the state a protectorate of ANZAC under a state of emergency (until such time as the region is stabilized and recovered), Australian Peace forces went to New Guinea. There, they have occupied vital government and rebel strongholds, disarming or absorbing units of the weakened New Guinea defensive force and local militias.

Prime Minster Lez Tagobe has declared the annexation an act of war, but has not yet ordered opposition to the ANZAC forces, instead going into hiding to evade capture. Papua resistance cells oppose the invaders as best they can, but the high-tech ANZAC forces (and high levels of training) have reduced the Papua rebels to little more than an annoyance. Though the ANZAC’s ambassadors have been admonished by the United Nations, several states have welcomed the ANZAC’s initiative to solve the internal problems island’s, including the Javanese Republic and Malaysia.

Mompracen

Southeast of Sumbawa lies Mompracen, a playground for runners, smugglers, pirates, and entrepreneurs of all shades, colors, and origins. Residing in a major ship-graveyard on top of a volcanic coral reef, this pasar terapung (floating market) is the place to go for illegal business in the archipelago. The pirate haven was given birth by a seaquake that led to the destruction of several ships. Those ships were in turn dragged onto the reef here and left to rot. Freighters, container ships, luxury liners, yachts, tankers—you name it. Sometime not too long after that, the water people settled down on the reef in the old shipwrecks. Didn’t take long for the pirates, smugglers and outlaws to follow, resulting in one of the most renowned black markets in Southeast Asia, selling or trading anything you can imagine—and likely quite a bit you can’t.

Malaysia

Malaysia has always been a cultural meeting-point, largely because of its pivotal position on the maritime trade routes between the Middle East, India and China. As is the nature of nexus points, however, conflict is as much a part of its history as trade. Its neighbor, China, tried multiple times throughout history to annex Malaysia and lay claim to the profitable nation. Malaysia has always managed to resist invading forces, however, in part due to the support of its partners in trade, including corporate players, all of whom have a vested interest in making sure Malaysia remains an independent nation. Malaysia is a center of Asian banking, due in no small part to the success of the Malaysian Independent Bank.

Singapore

To arrive in the city-state of Singapore is to step into a world where the muezzin call to prayer competes with the bustle of capitalism; where Chinese fortune-tellers and high-priced management consultants advise the same entrepreneur. High technology remains in vogue—you can’t miss the Science Park—but Singapore is turning to chemicals and biotech to offset its dependence on electronics. The largest and most modern port of Asia, it re-exports more than half of what it imports. A paradise for tech innovation, Singapore sees considerable investment by the megacorps, ranging from Mitsuhama's Singapore Science Park to local A megacorp Tan Tien's sea-surface arcology.

A former trading post of the British Empire, English is the most dominant language spoken on the island, with the other official languages (Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil) each generally only spoken by the associated ethnic population. This has made Singapore very welcoming to both western businesses and western tourists.

The Philippines

With the republic ravaged by the eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis of the Awakened Ring of Fire, the Japanese Imperial State took the opportunity in 2021 to invade the island under the guise of humanitarian intervention. Since, their keiretsus have spread across the island, exploiting the island's natural resources, while its government imposed its rule, banning any technology that can be used against them (ranging from weapons to communications gear to pharmaceuticals) while enforcing its cultural preferences, including the deportation of metahumans to the Japanese Yomi island.

Oceania

Alaska to Antarctica, the Orient to Amazonia, and Aztlan to Australia—the Pacific Ocean is our planet’s most challenging environment. Larger than every continent combined, it’s truly a wild frontier. Some folks say living out here’s a primal existence, but me, I think of it as the last remaining bastion of freedom. With a good boat you can go where you want, when you like. No barriers, no rush, no worries.
— Blackstone

Scattered across this huge watery expanse are thousands of volcanic islands, sandy atolls and coral reefs. These are the life rafts of metahumanity that comprise Oceania’s member-nations—not to mention the numerous megacorporate shoreside-aquacologies and mining rigs. Most are uninhabited specks of sand, nothing more than coconut palms and a lagoon that offers little but a shipwrecked sailor’s salvation. The rest consist of rugged islands inhabited by semi-tribal family communities, where you can refit, refuel and resupply, or just seek refuge from the elements and those frisky maritime critters.

It’s worth noting that pretty much all of Oceania’s native inhabitants originated in Asia and traveled eastwards—flora, fauna, human and island alike. Biodiversity correspondingly dwindles the further east you go. Not only do island ecosystems lead to the adaptive evolution of species that can’t fly or swim away, but they isolate the gene pool too. This explains the profusion of single-race tribes within the region. Oceania also displays an abnormally high ratio of goblinized natives: orks are commonplace in Polynesian cultures, whereas trolls are the predominant metatype among the Maori. Aside from the Hawai’ian menehune variant, dwarfs are more frequently encountered in Melanesia. And of particular note are the elusive kakamoras who dwell throughout the Solomon Islands. Strangely enough, the few elves out here are generally of European ancestral legacy, although New Zealand has a large dryad population in South Island.

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.

On the surface it looks like most people’s definition of paradise: beaches, palm trees, tourists and sun. Pull up this layer, though, and you’ll find yourself in the midst of an ongoing struggle between numerous forces. Torn between the East (the Yakuza, Japan and the great dragon Ryumyo) and the West (the UCAS, Kawaru-gumi and San Francisco freedomfighters), Hawai’i regularly finds itself caught in the middle while these and other factions constantly shift the balance of power. Always a game of politics and power-mongering, Hawai’i’s current situation is heating up. King Aliʻi Kamehameha V has shown considerable skill at keeping the various interests balanced, but it's unclear how long he'll be able to maintain that stability.

Melanesia: the Black Islands

Stuck at the far end of Indonesia, Melanesia was the first stepping stone toward Oceania’s colonization. These days it’s mainly in the pockets of the corps and beholden to tourism. Even so, it’s the most organized, internationally renowned, and easiest-to-access group in the South Seas.

Melanesian Coalition

This continental archipelago, comprising New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, split from the Australian continent yonks ago. It’s the highest, largest and most biodiverse island chain out here, with dense rainforest, mangrove swamps, steep mountain ranges and frequent volcanic activity. It’s richest in natural resources too, which the megacorps haven’t failed to notice. It’s so isolated that there’s nobody to regulate the oil- drilling, strip-mining and timber-felling operations.

Europeans named Melanesia after the indigenous, dark-skinned people who are related to Oz’s aborigines. Adverse terrain fragmented these tribes and made them xenophobic toward outsiders. Explorers discovered this to their detriment and dubbed the region the “Savage Isles” due to the natives’ preoccupation with cannibalism, headhunting and ritual human sacrifice. This kept the missionaries at bay quite nicely, for a time, and also forged a deeply traditional society with the most diverse selection of languages you’ll ever hear. Following their strong sense of kastom, over three hundred distinct languages are still spoken today, which is the essence of wontok.

Corporate Republic of Fiji

Fiji and Futuna would be a great place to visit, with luxury resorts that begin at hedonistic and work their way up to downright decadent—except for the fact that the folks there don’t take too kindly to non-natives. There’s a large corp presence here, including several megacorp arcologies, but all the land (including private islands) is leased, since it’s illegal for non-natives to own land. Culture-wise Fiji is Melanesian, but Polynesian influence is evident.

Micronesia: the Small Islands

Patrolled by numerous corporate and governmental navies (particularly Japan) and exploited by pirates (notably the Huk), these islands’ existence on the fringe of the civilized world make them an ideal haven for smugglers. A place of great natural beauty and abundant resources, Micronesia often finds itself the site of sudden invasive battles between rivals—megacorps, governments, freelancers and even local tribes with differing points of view.

Autonomous Realm of Kiribati

Kiribati includes the Gilbert, Line, Marshall, Northern Cook and Phoenix Islands, as well as Tokelau and Tuvalu (among others). Kirabati’s trying to become more high tech these days without sacrificing their harmony with the natural environment—no easy trick, but they’re pulling it off. The first of the Oceanic nations to get together and come up with a plan to avoid being evicted by rising sea levels, they pulled in resources from their various members to set up huge aqua-arcologies, semi-submerged arkoblocks similar to what Proteus AG has set up. These floating atolls ply the ocean, following nutrient-rich currents. They use enclosed aquaculture pens to raise schools of fish in the deep waters, which they trade upon arrival at established market zones. These slags might sound like tempting targets for pirates—not to mention the draw of their swimming larders for the ocean’s predators—but the tohunga shamans onboard are known to be absolutely wicked when it comes to wrangling spirits.

Confederated States of Micronesia

If you’re looking to do the tourist thing on the cheap, you could do worse than this area comprising the Caroline and Marianas Islands—you can get cheaper package deals here than the more exclusive resort complexes like Fiji. Consisting of the islands of Chuuk, Kosrae, Palau, Pohnpei and Yap, the area integrated in the early 2020s to resist Japanese expansion. It’s now known as a refugee station for metahumans—especially escapees from Yomi Island, the Japanese Imperial State's exile for orks and trolls.

Guam Freeport

General Saito wasn’t the first soldier to disobey orders, and I doubt he’ll be the last. Admiral Wallis did exactly that back in the thirties when the good old UCAS was up to its neck in secession turmoil. When the brass sounded the Pacific retreat, he and his supporters remained to defend the place they had come to call home, giving them time to establish local allies and entrench themselves upon the island. Today, Guam is the port of call for adventurous backpackers, megacorp shipping firms and scientific research vessels, as well as practically every free trader, smuggler, pirate and lowlife mercenary to paddle the Pacific.

Narau Protectorate

This area’s best known as an Aztechnology penal colony, but there’s more to it than that. You’ll find a lot of Shibata-Azzie space launches lifting off here, since it’s bang on the equator. Aztechnology also maintains an underwater naval base here, and is reputedly involved in underwater resource extraction, though exactly what they’re digging up down there is anyone’s guess.

Polynesia: the Many Islands

This place has a bloody apt name—hundreds of isles exist inside a rough triangle between Easter Island, New Zealand and Hawai’i. The remotest of the Pacific islands and the furthest from unwelcome interference, it’s an ideal location for quiet research outposts and any other hush-hush projects you’d prefer not to have discovered.

Kingdom of Tonga

Awhile back, the tribal chieftains of the Nuie, Samoan, Tongan and Wallis islands formed an alliance to defend against corp incursions in neighboring Fiji, and so far that’s been working out well for them. They maintain good relations with other Oceanic nations looking for independence against outside influences, but they’ve got a well-trained military to make sure nobody takes advantage of them. The king allows the megas to set up limited operations in the area in exchange for the latest goodies—especially weapons.

Free Tahitian League of Polynesia

Left in the lurch when the French pulled out of the area earlier in the century, “French” Polynesia, Pitcairn and the Southern Cook islands tried to cobble themselves together in the face of climatic changes and megacorp exploitation. Still scattered and divided for the most part, they’ve got good ties with Hawai’i and New Zealand, and ANZAC vessels often patrol the area. They’re getting to be a desirable tourist destination—not as hot as Fiji or Hawai’i, but getting there.

Moruroa Toxic Zone

I wouldn’t recommend this as the spot for your next tropical vacation. As the name implies, the place is full of fallout and mutated local wildlife left over from French nuclear testing, not to mention periodic toxic typhoons that make your typical sprawl-based acid rain look like a spring shower. The local shamans are working on the problem along with some ecowarrior types from New Zealand, but they haven’t had much success as yet.

ANZAC

The Australian and New Zealand Allied Confederation (ANZAC) is a political alliance in Oceania. The two countries maintain political independence, but cooperate closely on foreign affairs, including military operations, trade, and international crime. The alliance formed in 2022 when New Zealand came to Australia's defense from the encroaching Javanese Republic.

Australia

Few places on Earth were as affected by the Awakening in 2011 as Australia. Magic erupted everywhere, but in Australia this resurgence of long-buried power resulted in a cataclysmic series of mana storms that battered the island continent with fire, lightning, and, more disturbingly, inexplicable phenomenon ranging from the sudden mass mutilation of farm animals to inexplicable waves of terror and rage sweeping across the human population. While for most of the country the storms abated after a hellish six months, they remain a regular occurrence in the Outback, and Sydney has become host to a permanent mana storm that afflicts the city with frequent meteorological and supernatural ruination.

Australia's particularly difficult experience with the Awakening was further disruptive to its economy, with many corporations preferring to leave the country rather than attempt to operate around their unpredictable bouts of destruction. Desperate to protect its economy, Australia allowed foreign megacorporations to take effective control of the city of Cairns in return for their continuing presence on the continent. Over ninety percent of the city is now formed of extraterritorial enclaves, with the megacorps' only rival for power in the city being each other.

However, despite, or perhaps because of, Australia's bitter experience with the mana storms, the other elements of the Awakening have largely been embraced. The nation is friendlier to metahumans than many and has embraced the use of magic. The latter is particularly true in the Outback, now populated almost exclusively by Aboriginal Australians, who have shown unusual resilience in navigating and managing the vast mana warp that extends across it, following the paths of the song lines laid down by their ancestors in the Dreamtime.

Famously a host for deadly animals prior to the resurgence of magic, the emergence of awakened animals has only expanded this reputation. From the petrifying basilisk to the venomous bunyip to the disease-carrying drop bears, visitors are advised to take care with the native fauna.

New Zealand

Think New Zealand and one stereotype immediately stands out from the crowd—environmentalism. Aotearoa, the largest archipelago on the planet, is globally hailed as the original clean, green eco-machine and the kiwi government sincerely advocates environmental awareness and renewable resource management. The Department of Conservation (DoC) maintains strict policies toward agricultural practices, eco-management, sustainable energy production and wildlife protection. They’ve shown that with time and effort it is possible to live in harmony with our planet.

Split in twain with several satellite cultures, New Zealand’s society is a distinct reflection of its geography. The dominance of the pakeha (non-indigenous New Zealanders) is gradually being eroded by Maori population growth, and metahuman refugees from Asia have established numerous cultural enclaves within the nation.

Africa

Asamando

Asamando is a ghoul nation in western Africa, in what used to be northern Ghana. Asamando is a highly awakened-friendly nation and is also populated with spirits, shapeshifters, other meta-sapients, and HMHVV infected metahumans. Asamando was founded in 2030 by Thema Laula when she led a band of HMHVV infected into the Black Volta region of Africa. In 2038 Asamando took control of Bamboi, for its magical springs which are said to have healing properties.

The majority of the declared population of 500,000 are Sasabonsam, an African ghoul metavariant. The Sasabonsam consider themselves to be superior than the other strains of Infected and make up the entirety of the upper class. The country recognizes free spirits and shapeshifters as sentient creatures with full rights

Asamando's Infected get their food, their required metahuman flesh, by purchasing the dead from other countries.

Azania

Azania is a confederation of states at the southern tip of Africa. The Republic of South Africa is, in principle, the predecessor of Azania, although the national territory includes more states.

While Cape Town, on the southern tip of the continent, isn't the biggest urban sprawl in Africa, it is one of the most diverse. Rife with crime, primacy, and tribal warfare, Cape Town is the ideal place to enter southern Africa or look for information or resources.

Egypt

A moderate Islamic nation, Egypt has resisted the radicalism of much of Northern Africa and the Middle East. A major tourist hotspot due to the country's storied history, visitors are warned to be aware that some parts of the city are not safe for travellers due to an increase in crime and the presence of more radical Islamic elements.

The Sinai Desert was lost to Israel in 2046, who handed control of the Suez Canal to the United Nations.

Kenya

Serving as a regional hub for commerce and trading in East Africa for centuries, Kenya is a old nation, with the port town of Mombasa being a notable port, trading center, and shipbuilding dock as far back as the Middle Ages. Taken over by various colonial powers, namely the Portuguese, the Germans, and finally the British, it obtained independence in the mid 1900s.

By the turn of the century, drought and political corruption almost drove the country to the point of collapse, with major corporate and international aid keeping the country together. The Awakening was a turning point for the country, with the shifting weather patterns allowing the fertile western plateaus to have relief. The environmental and geological changes seen elsewhere in Africa had little effect on the nation’s agricultural areas, although the arid northern areas became even drier.

During the VITAS epidemics, a significant portion of its population was affected. However, its strategic importance in the shipping trade routes, along with heavy corporate investment, allowed its major population centers to receive a measure of the disease fighting drugs. During this time, tribal magicians found their traditional magic suddenly worked. All of these factors allowed Kenya to come out of the Awakening and the VITAS epidemic in better condition than its neighbors.

Madagascar

Madagascar is an island off the southeastern coast of Africa and a stateless territory.

Madagascar faired badly in the 2000s. VITAS I hit the island hard, killing 10.5 million of the island's 14 million inhabitants—the survivors fled either off-island or to the interior of the island.

The jungle occupying the interior of the island regrew at an incredibly accelerated rate just after VITAS. A Shadowland conference chat brought up many possible theories for this—Great Form jungle spirits, a magical virus, a secret cabal of magicians using forest-growth magic on the scale of Tir Tairngire, Tir na Nog, or the Native American Nations—but none of these theories have been proven.

Since then, the island has gone unclaimed by any country, making it a focal point for pirate gatherings.

The newest rumor is that some of the pirates store their goodies in the island's many abandoned buildings. Think about it. You could start searching each room in each building and spend your whole life there before you hit them all. The newest pirate maps are ones of city streets, and the "buried treasure" might be in a refrigerator on the twentieth floor of what used to be an office tower or high-priced condo.
– Zinc Oxide

International Territories

Antarctica

The Antarctica Treaty of 1959 designated Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishing freedom of scientific investigation, and banning military activity. That lasted until around 2006, when the Resource Rush put all the corps in a frenzy. Corps began surveying possible sites for resource extraction, with oil the primary target. However, the difficulties they faced operating on the frozen continent meant that when the Awakening hit, the corps abandoned their efforts in order to reinforce their operations in less challenging environments.

The 2040s and 2050s, however, saw the megacorps's gaze set back on Antarctica. Global warming had made the environment somewhat less foreboding, particularly along the coast, and the shifting of glaciers had revealed land ready for exploitation. There are now over two-dozen stations dotted across the continent. These stations range from Revlup Security's High Threat Incarceration Facilities to an expanded McMurdo Station jointly funded by Ares and the UCAS to Britain's Halley Station, the only permanent facility on Antarctica that hosts tourists who come for its ideal view of the southern lights.

Almost all of the security at McMurdo Station are contracted shadowrunners. The UCAS and Ares have gone out of their way to be "hands-off" with the station—claiming it's largely an independent effort for which they just provide funding.
— Snow White

Undersea Development

When Dunkelzahn's will was revealed in July, 2057, following the great dragon's death, it contained the following item:

To the first party to establish a self-sustaining community of no fewer than 100 persons on the ocean floor, I leave 5 million nuyen.

In the following months, both Yamatetsu and Proteus announced ambitious projects to compete for the prize. There was some surprise that none of the larger megacorps announced such a venture, leading to speculation as to whether the others didn't consider the reward worth the costs of development, preferring to keep aquacology development to the more easily-accessed and easily-accommodated shallow waters, or were instead keeping their projects secret.

Space

The waning of the Cold War following the Shiawase Decision in 2001, establishing corporate extraterritoriality, led to lessening government interest in the long-term development of space. The Unity/Zarya international space station lasted no more than a year in operation. The Russians soon after sold Mir to the Harris-3M consortium. Though the station was damaged by a meteor in 2008, leading to its controlled deorbiting, the consortium gained valuable expertise in long-term space operations. For their part, the Americans sold NASA's Freedom station in 2016 to a budding industrial conglomerate known as Ares Macrotechnology. Though the ESA and Japan had a few ongoing projects in space, from that point on space exploration became a wholly-privatized operation.

Space exploration and development now ranges from low-earth orbit out to geosynchronous, the LaGrange points, and the Moon, with the megacorporations starting to reach out for Mars and deep space.

With some exceptions, space is a massive mana void, an area without mana. The manasphere becomes thin, a mana ebb, starting at around 10 km of altitude (making spellcasting difficult) and a void at 80 km, though with the boundary itself comprising a mana warp, a place with too-much astral activity, causing chaotic astral events. Spellcasting or the use of other magical abilities is impossible in a mana void. Dual-natured or astrally-perceiving entities tend to suffer disorientation, hallucinations, and even physical damage leading to death. Large stations with significant long-term habitation may develop a thin manasphere, making the use of magic possible though still difficult.

Most estimates put the population of space between 8,000 and 12,000 metahumans, though no precise accounting is publicly available. The largest portion of space dwellers live on small low-earth orbitals of between 2 and 20 people, but a significant fraction of the remainder live on a handful of the most-populated stations, such as the Apollo transportation hub in low-earth orbit, the independent Echo station in geosynchronous, and Ares's Daedalus research habitat at the L4 LaGrange point.

Low Earth Orbit

Low Earth Orbit, or LEO, refers to anything orbiting between 150 and 2,000 kilometers altitude. It's relatively less expensive to boost something to low orbit than elsewhere in space (you can hypothetically take a suborbital plane to LEO stations), so this is where the large majority of manned space operations congregate.

There are probably almost fifty manned stations in LEO, anything from small independent space labs to Saeder-Krupp's gigantic orbital factories. Most stations here tend to fall on the small side; the interior space is about the equivalent of a large house and supports a crew of about a dozen. Some of the really small ones are no bigger than a two-room apartment and house only one or two researchers. The large majority of the corps running these small stations are non-space corps who rely on the space corps to provide transportation and logistics to these stations. Most of these small stations aren't self-sufficient and rely on regular shuttles or drone shipments from the larger hub stations to resupply them with food, power, and oxygen.

The hub system of resupply also provides a means of protection to these small stations as well. Since everything that goes through them has to pass through the hub, the corps put most of their security and defenses there. The only defense the small stations have for themselves is their isolation.
— Spandrel

Apollo Station

Apollo station became the first station to be completely built and operated by a corp in 2019 and remains in operation by Ares to this day, though much of their space activity has shifted to the Daedalus station at L-4 and the under-construction Icarus station in geosynchronous orbit.

Because Apollo is a transportation hub, many freelance shuttle pilots congregate here to find work hauling goods to and from the various space stations. Similarly, a lot of independent contractors, both the legitimate and the shady kinds, hang out at Apollo looking for work.
— Toos

Apollo consists of a linear series of zero-g central modules providing essential station services, studded with airlocks either connecting to scientific laboratories (many of them owned and operated by tenant corporations) or available as docking points for spacecraft, with a rotating hoop mounted on one end providing artificial gravity for habitation.

With so many corps leasing space at Apollo, the station is a mosaic of extraterritorial jurisdictions. The common areas fall under Ares jurisdiction, but space leased to other corps falls within the jurisdiction of their respective company. Something to keep in mind if you ever go out there.
— LeRoi

Apollo is the central transportation hub for stations in LEO, an orbital town center, often visited by workers on other stations for rest, recreation, and shopping at at the Apollo Mall, which specializes in goods adapted to orbital use.

As the place where spacers get away, Apollo is also LEO's vice capital. Chips and drugs frequently change hands at Apollo, both ordinary chips coming out from Earth as well as designer drugs heading back Earthside. There are also a couple of "service centers" where "service technicians" assist spacers with their "special needs."
— Shelly

Camelot Research Platform

Camelot is Fuchi Orbital's primary research platform, focused on material science and molecular engineering: metallic and crystal lattices, polymer chains and composite material formation, all free from the subtle distortions of gravity. The station also serves as a orbital launch hub, with satellite components transported to the station from Earth for final assembly and redirection to their ultimate orbit.

Himmelsschmiede Orbital Factory

Translating to "Sky Forge," Himmelsschmiede is the largest of Saeder-Krupp's orbital space factories. Unlike the other corps with a significant investment in space, Saeder-Krupp does very little zero-gravity research. Instead, the corporation is known for its industrial efficiency, mass-producing competent and competitively-priced copies of stolen designs, notably distinct from the usual embrace of long-term research by the great dragon's megacorporation. While Himmelsschmiede also provides logistical and support services to smaller orbitals, unlike Apollo it does not generally lease space to other corporations on the station itself.

Shibanokuji Freefall Resort

As Yamatetsu's first major orbital station, the Shibanokuji resort is also the first station assembled in space for the sake of commercial recreation. As the name implies, the freefall resort specializes in zero-gravity activities: weightless squash, sensory-deprivation simsense, spacewalk tours, and so on. The resort also isn't shy about promoting the pleasures of more intimate encounters in zero-g, at least to those with the wealth to afford an orbital hotel room.

While Yamatetsu doesn't perform research at Shibanokuji, the megacorp does use it as a distribution hub for its smaller orbital stations and those of client corporations.

The station also runs a business in zero-g medicine and therapy, which it promotes with high-profile patients, often sports stars ranging from Olympic athletes to Urban Brawl players.

Spindle

The Spindle is Aztechnology's sole attempt at establishing an orbital platform. Opened in 2048, the Spindle had major problems from the get-go and had to be evacuated in 2050 following a massive systems failure. Rumors persist that the orbital's failure was one of many moves made against Aztechnology by rival megacorps, particularly Ares or Saeder-Krupp. Others blame Aztechnology's overly-aggressive development schedule for the failure.

Since then Aztechnology has drastically scaled back operations, operating the Spindle at a third of its originally intended capacity. Shibata Construction and Engineering, a subsidiary of Mitsuhama Computer Technologies, now handles most of the station operations and provides the lift up to the Spindle. Aztechnology's own work in orbit focuses on developing hydroponic agriculture techniques for growing crops in low orbit. The only other corp with significant presence on the Spindle is Universal Omnitech (the only AA megacorporation headquartered in the Salish-Shidhe Council), which performs a portion of its zero-gravity biotechnical research there.

Zürich-Orbital

The Zürich-Orbital is the latest incarnation of the Freedom space station, sold to the Inter-Corporate Council in 2020 after Ares's Apollo station came online. From a distance, the station looks like a demented tinkertoy set, a sprawl of modular cylinders, generally four meters in diameter and ten meters long, revolving around two central dodecahedral hubs, one (called the Rotunda) serving as Z-O's orbital command center, the other as the convening hall for the Corporate Court. There are also six ten-meter diameter rotunda hubs that serve as meeting halls, community living areas, and communication centers.

Security at Z-O is almost excessively tight. Passengers can only get to Zürich-Orbital from direct orbital flights from the ground; there's no orbital-to-orbital shuttle traffic between Z-O and any of the other stations. Security screening on all passenger flights is ridiculously paranoid; ID checks incorporate fingerprint check, retinal scan, voice scan, DNA match, and even a height/weight profile. Security guards check you and your baggage with every known scanning technology, and on the ground a wage mage conducts an astral scan to make sure you're not under the influence. They even cross-check your inventory down to the gram to make sure you're not smuggling anything you're not supposed to.

It's only half true that Z-O doesn't have orbital-to-orbital flights. While there aren't any passenger flights connecting Z-O to the other habitats, Z-O does make regular supply runs to Apollo, Himmelsschmiede, and Shibanokuji. On all three stations Z-O has a staffed office to handle cargo purchases and oversee loading of supplies onto the shuttles. These offices, of course, fall under Z-O extraterritoriality, so if you cause them trouble, you'll have torqued of the entire Corporate Court!
— Toos

The security checks are intimidating, but they only roll out the full battery for first-timers and complete strangers. These checks are very time- and labor-consuming, and the orbitals do have a schedule to keep, after all. After the fourth or fifth trip up without incident, the guards only give a cursory check before waving you through.
— Baxter

Communications with Z-O passes through dedicated, glaciered uplinks. Z-O initiates, times, prearranges and heavily encrypts all outside communications, and they employ all the vanishing and teleporting SAN tricks that are known in the Matrix. Even if you did manage to find an uplink node (buried in the blackest corporate host somewhere), you'd still be looking at a minimum Red-6 host, with little time, less options and lots of IC.
— Kenzie

Out in the vacuum of space, Z-O sports a full array of killer satellites and weapons platforms floating in near vicinity of the station, eager to eliminate any would-be threat that wanders too close. In the unlikely event that something should happen to the habitat, the station carries a number of quick-inflating, solar-shielded life-support bubbles to allow the residents to escape, floating around in the black void until a scavenger homes in on their distress beacon to bail them out.

Geosynchronous Orbit

Geosynchronous orbit (abbreviated as GEO) takes place at 37,000 kilometers altitude above sea level. At this height, the speed objects need to maintain orbital velocity matches the speed of the earth. From the earth's surface it appears the object is hovering directly over the same point on the ground continuously, hence the term "geosynchronous."

The overwhelming majority of all objects at this height are unmanned satellites handling communications, weather monitoring, surveillance, and many other applications. There are few manned space stations in GEO; it's very expensive to boost something this high. Most of the manned stations in this orbit serve as refueling and transit points for orbital craft heading out to the moon or the LaGrange points. The others attend to the satellites in GEO, performing maintenance and service work.

Echo Station

Echo station used to be Harris-3M's Halo space station before the conglomerate went under after the Crash. Though Fuchi inherited most of Harris-3M's orbital assets, they focused on consolidating their low-orbit capabilities and wrote off Halo. Halo floated silent and empty for more than twenty years, until 2054 when a band of freelancers, using the station first as a deadrop then a temporary hideout, eventually pooled a few scores and leveraged some Earthside contacts to establish permanent operations on the self-declared "free station" of Echo.

Since then, the station has grown to be a place where freelancers can congregate and find work without fear of corporate reprisal. A lot of smuggling to and from the moon and LaGrange points passes through Echo station and some of the residents act as fixers, hiring independent mercs for corporate Johnsons in space. The station management takes a small cut out of all the shadowy revenue to pay for supply and upkeep.

Echo management expects the resident criminals to cheat them a little, but anyone who tries to cheat them a lot quickly learns not to frag with the people who control the air supply. Other than getting their cut, and taking retribution on anyone who skrags essential station systems, central management tries to stay out of the factional politics that occur throughout the station.
— Natasha

Of all the corps in space, the only one with any presence on Echo station is Saeder-Krupp. The megacorp negotiated a deal with the station management to provide supplies and oxygen. Central management allows the Eurocorp to dock and refuel its shuttles heading out to the moon and Seader-Krupp attempts to keep to itself, leaving most inhabitants on Echo station satisfied with the arrangement.

Icarus Station

Under construction by Ares Macrotechnology, upon its expected completion in 2060 it will be the largest toroidal-wheel station in operation, providing 0.5 g artificial gravity for long-term habitation. Icarus will serve as Ares's hub for traffic between Earth, the LaGrange points, and the Moon. An expansion into space tourism is planned for 2062 to compete with Yamatetsu's Shibanokuji Freefall Resort.

Obelisk

The Obelisk is a columnar space station belonging to the Hisato-Turner Broadcasting Corporation. Based in Atlanta and Osaka, HTB owns and operates many high-profile trid and Matrix channels, including NewsNet, Ancient Wisdom, and NostalgiaVid. The Obelisk orbital station maintains the satellite constellations that HTB owns, such as NewsNet SatNet.

Silver Pinnacle

The Silver Pinnacle space station (commonly known among spacers as the "Station House") belongs to Trans-Orbital, a New York-based aerospace corporation. The Station House is Trans-Orbital's sole orbital station, but it performs one very important function: the launch and maintenance of satellites for companies with no space assets. Its most important clients are telecommunication companies and grid providers, such as PacRim Communications and Renraku. Trans-Orbital has partnered with Fuchi on launch services, jointly operating the facility at Formosa Bay. Additionally, Trans-Orbital maintains many other commercial satellites, such as weather and navigation constellations. The Trans-Orbital station also acts as a refueling and resupply depot for spacecraft heading to the Moon and LaGrange points.

Trans-Orbital supposedly also performs maintenance to spy satellites belonging to the CAS, Israel, and the United Kingdom, though of course nobody says anything about it in public. This occasionally brings Trans-Orbital in conflict with Ares (who maintains spy satellites for the UCAS) and Shibata (who takes care of Japan's spy satellites).
— Marchand

LaGrange Points

The LaGrange points are ideal for constructing large habitats since gravitational forces are neutralized. Expect to see scuffling between corps that want to claim these orbital hotspots as their own.

L2: Darkside Junction

Under construction since 2055 over the dark side of the moon, Darkside Junction is intended to be Fuchi's deep space outpost, enabling exploration further out into the solar system.

L3: Nerva

Nerva was one of the two space stations built by Harris-3M on the LaGrange points, the other at the L5. While it was operational, it served as the location for many of Harris-3M's zero-g biotechnical programs. When the Crash hit Harris-3M in 2029, they lost contact with Nerva for several months. When they finally did manage to reestablish contact with its automated systems, there was no reply, leading to the conclusion that all aboard were losts. The corp went belly up before they could send a recovery mission. When Fuchi acquired their space assets, they wrote the station off as a loss. To this day, the station remains a silent, lifeless hulk.

The remoteness of the station, ten-times further than geosynchronous orbit, led to rumors that Harris-3M was conducting black projects deemed too sensitive or dangerous for LEO or GEO. Second-hand spacer stories abound of freelancers who attempted a salvage mission to Nerva and found themselves hunted by genetic monstrosities and other biotech nightmares. Never met anyone who's actually been there, though.
— Padil

L4: Daedalus

Daedalus is Ares' primary research habitat in outer space. Bigger than several hundred-thousand ton supercarriers combined together, Daedalus is the center for the large majority of Ares's orbital research laboratories and factories. Daedalus also acts as the main staging area for Ares's other deep space facilities, such as their Artemis lunar ecology or the Helios station in solar orbit. Daedalus's manasphere has evolved into a mana warp, with astral space overactive rather than under, leading to chaotic difficulties using magic and the periodic mana storm.

This station holds more secrets than you can imagine: ultra-secret magical research, space weapons projects, genetic experimentation. It's said that an entire section of Daedalus is populated by metahumans who have been genetically modified for zero-g habitats. Damien Knight even makes regular personal visits up here to keep an eye on his top secret projects. Scary drek, but top cred if you manage to get any paydata.
— Shrike

L5: Junkyard

The L5 LaGrange point was the site of Harris-3M's other major deep space operation, Angel station. When Harris-3M was still in business, Angel station served as Harris-3M's central orbital factory for microtronics and material engineering. Like its counterpart, Nerva, Angel station was abandoned when Harris-3M went under. Fuchi chose to write it off as a loss.

Since then Angel station has gotten the unflattering label of "Junkyard" by most space pilots. L5, as well as L4, are stable LaGrange points, which means that matter within the vicinity of L5 will tend to drift toward the LaGrange point. Consequently, L5 has attracted a lot of space junk, most of it from the previous century, which drifted towards L5 and aggregated there.

The Moon

With its distance and the additional expense created by the need to drop down and emerge from a gravity well, the Moon has seen less development than LEO, GEO, or the LaGrange points.

Artemis Lunar Arcology

Artemis is Ares's lunar base, entering operation in 2055. Situated near the original Apollo 11 landing site, the 150-person base maintains laboratories researching subjects from medicine to geology. They also engage in minor mining operations, though they are currently undertaking major surveys before establishing more thorough mining projects.

Fernseit Lunar Station

Fernseit is the Lunar Mining Corp's (a Saeder-Krupp subsidiary) lunar colony, situated within the vicinity of the moon's polar ice caps. Fernseit's major function is resource mining on the moon's surface; calcium and titanium ores are the main minerals extracted, though survery have also revealed traces of iron, quartz, and certain rare elements.

Fernseit is the central station, but S-K has mining operations all over the Lunar map. Some are so far away that it takes the drone convoy trains over a day to make the haul back and forth. It's also said that one of the stations is mobile and that it keeps on the dark side of the moon, away from prying eyes—in which case, it's probably not a mining station at all.
— Crescent Wrench

There's also another form of mineral extraction that goes on at Fernseit: telesma extraction. It's kind of hard for a mundane like me to explain, but moon rocks apparently have some sort of value in alchemical processes. Don't get me wrong, magic on the moon is just like magic in space—it doesn't happen. But the chummers I've talked to say that the material is useful for spells with a "lunar resonance," whatever that means.
— Kenzie

Olympia Lunar Base

Construction on this Fuchi Orbital base is expected to begin in 2061.

Deep Space

Few expeditions have been beyond the moon, other than unmanned probes sent out by NASA, Ares, and other assorted space agencies. However, the major space megacorps are increasingly setting their eyes outwards, making plans for Mars, Europa, the asteroid belt, and Halley's Comet when it returns in 2061.

Helios

Belonging to Ares Macrotechnology, Helios is the only manned space station beyond lunar orbit. Helios sits at a solar LaGrange point located directly opposite the earth in its solar orbit. Helios provides long-range observation of the solar system, additional monitoring of the sun for the prediction of solar weather, and may serve as a staging area for deep space expeditions to Mars, the asteroid belt, and beyond.

Mars

Mars was widely-perceived as a long-term goal for space exploration. Unmanned probes have circled Mars and landed on its surface since the 1960s and 70s respectively, but manned missions were considered too difficult to stage in the near term.

However, in 2057, the following entry appeared in Dunkelzahn's will:

To the first party to determine what the accompanying photos of Mars, taken by NASA just prior to the Ares Macrotechnology buyout, represent and who can prove their theory to the Draco Foundation, I leave 1 percent interest in Ares.

In recent months, Yamatetsu has announced plans for a manned mission to the Red Planet in 2063.

NASA Security Probe • Alpha Test • August 8, 2001 • Alpha Blue Priority • Top Secret Clearance • Destroy if compromised

NASA Security Probe • Zeta Test • October 27, 2001 • Alpha Blue Priority • Top Secret Clearance • Destroy if compromised

ARES Space • Project CYDONIA • System 12111.03 (Sub Route) • Node Destroyed • December 8, 2042 • Alpha Blue Priority • Crimson clearance only • Destroy if compromised

AAA Megacorporations

Ares Macrotechnology

Headquarters: Detroit, UCAS

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

Ares Macrotechnology is the seventh largest corporation in the world, the largest in the UCAS, and is the current leader in the defense and aerospace industries. Its five main divisions are AresSpace, Ares Global Entertainment, Ares Arms, Knight Errant Security Services, and General Motors. Ares has been run by Damien Knight since he took control of the megacorp in the famed Nanosecond Buyout in Stockholm. The corp has a reputation as a very “American” outfit: gung-ho, militaristic, patriotic, and individualistic.

The Nanosecond Buyout in 2033 was what made Damien Knight into Damien Knight. Literally, if you believe the rumors about his whole identity being fabricated.

In the span of 63 seconds using a set of mainframes in Stockholm, Sweden, Knight executed a series of transactions that caused the dissolution of three corporations, two multi-millionaires to lose their fortunes, three other people to become multi-millionaires, and Knight to gain the ownership of 22 percent of Ares. He soon became President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board.

Since then, computerized controls are in place to prevent such blindingly fast stock transactions, preventing an individual from performing the same trick twice.
– Munin

Aztechnology

Headquarters: Tenochtitlan, Aztlán

Core Industries: food, consumer goods, and thaumaturgical products

Aztechnology is the second largest corporation in the world and the largest corporation in North America. Aztechnology is tightly integrated with the Aztlán government, with significant entanglement of both operations and leadership. The corporation strongly supports the Aztláner government, which in turn enacts a number of laws at the advantage of Aztechnology. Aztechnology is the number one producer of consumer goods in the world and the leader in the magical industry. The corporation is privately owned and does not disclose the names of its shareholders and board members.

While unknown to the public at the time, Aztechnology's origins date back to a merger of the three largest drug cartels in Mexico (the Medellin, Masaya, and David). The leaders of the three cartels came together in 2007 to form the ORO Corporation. Their name was somewhat of a double joke... Ortega (Medellín Cartel), Julio Ramos (David Cartel), and Diego Oriz (Masaya Cartel) were the three leaders of the cartels that formed the company, and oro means gold in Spanish. When Mexico was reborn as Aztlán following the Awakening, ORO reinvented itself as Aztechnology and built its deep connections with the Aztlán government.

Cross Applied Technologies

Headquarters: Montreal, Québec

Core Industries: computers, electronics, multimedia products, biotech

Cross Applied Technologies or CATCo is the ninth largest corporation in the world, and the largest corporation in Quebec. It is named after its founder and main shareholder Lucien Cross.

CATCo is the largest taxpayer in Quebec and controls the state in a way somewhat similar to that of Aztechnology and Aztlan, though to a lesser extent. CATCo conducts all of its business in French, and language classes and chipjacks/linguasofts are offered free to all CATCo employees worldwide.

Fuchi Industrial Electronics

Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan

Core Industries: Matrix technology

Fuchi Industrial Electronics's specialization in computers and Matrix technology led it to being responsible for many of the universal standards of the Matrix and cyberterminal construction, and the name is synonymous with Matrix technology. Fuchi is well-known to be an alliance between three different and powerful factions, the Nakatomi, the Yamana, and the Villiers families. Fuchi is known for its aggressive business posture, taking risks beyond what a typical megacorporation would consider.

Mitsuhama Computer Technologies

Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan

Core Industries: computers, robotics, heavy industry, entertainment, magic

Mitsuhama Computer Technologies or MCT is the largest corporation in the world. It deals primarily with computers and robotics, but also possess extensive holdings in heavy industry, multimedia, and thaumaturgy. It owes its name to its founder Taiga Mitsuhama, though he and his family hold only a low single-digit percentage of the company's stock.

MCT is the largest source of entertainment worldwide, standing completely in front in profit-yielding markets like the simsense industry, the trideo market, and the music industry. MCT is number two in heavy industry, just behind Saeder-Krupp, and likewise is number two in the magic industry, behind Aztechnology.

MCT is connected closely with the Japanese yakuza. The yakuza funded MCT when it was formed, and yakuza members still sit on the board today. MCT provides enough money and money laundering to the yakuza that MCT functions relatively independently without them. The Four Oyabun Rengo is unique among the Yakuza as they control the corporation via their ownership of nearly half its shares.

MCT is considered very aggressive with regards to intruders. Their defense concept is known as Zero Zone. There is no penetration and no survival. MCT does not take prisoners, shooting first and asking questions never. The magic defense is top class and each important asset is defended with riggers. In addition, they use paranormal critters more often than other corporations.

They are strong backers of the imperialist faction in Japan, opposing the reformers led by Emperor Yasuhito. Supporting the imperialist agenda of regulation of the Awakened, technomancers, and AI, racism toward metahumans, a powerful military, and control of the Pacific Rim.

Renraku Computer Systems

Headquarters: Chiba, Japan

Core Industries: memory storage and databases

Renraku Computer Systems is the fifth largest corporation in the world, and the third largest corporation in Japan.

As the name implies, its business core is computer technology, especially memory storage and databases. Since it acquired one of the Corporate Court's original founders, Keruba International, Renraku permanently seats a representative on the Corporate Court. The Renraku Red Samurai are its internal security forces.

They are strong backers of the imperialist faction in Japan, opposing the reformers led by Emperor Yasuhito. Supporting the imperialist agenda of regulation of the Awakened and AI, racism toward metahumans, a powerful military, and control of the Pacific Rim.

Saeder-Krupp Schwerindustriegesellschaft

Headquarters: Essen, Germany

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

Saeder-Krupp Schwerindustriegesellschaft (Saeder-Krupp Heavy Industries Company), or S-K, is the largest corporation in the world. It controls BMW, one of the seven founders of the Corporate Court, and thus possesses permanent AAA prime megacorporation status. Since a leveraged buyout in 2038, S-K is wholly owned by the Great Dragon Lofwyr.

Shiawase Corporation

Headquarters: Osaka, Japan

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

Shiawase Corporation (シアワセ, "happiness"), headquartered in Osaka, Japan, is the eighth largest corporation in the world. It is generally considered the first megacorporation, defined by the Shiawase Decision in 2001. It was founded by the Shiawase family (幸 or 倖) in post-WWII Japan, and to the current day, it remains a family-owned corporation run in a traditional "family" or zaibatsu style, with most employees signing lifetime contracts and even marrying within the corp.

Wuxing, Inc.

Headquarters: Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone

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

Wuxing, Inc. is the largest Hong Kong/Chinese megacorporation. In the Sixth World it is one of the least threatening megacorps, publicly and in the shadows as it's agenda and programs rank low on the threat scale. While it is the smallest of the megacorps, it has been aggressively investing the 200 million Nuyan it received from Dunkelzahn in his will.

Though not as prominent as its rivals, in various ways, they have a longer reach than the any of the other megacorps. It's a megacorp with a reputation of being financial wizards, and are known for their uncanny insight when it comes to the stock market. They are among the biggest insurers in both the Americas and Asia. Wuxing also ranks among the largest shipping companies.

Yamatetsu Corporation

Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan

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

Yamatetsu is best known for making metahuman friendly products, being funded by a combination of Filipino and Japanese businessmen, and having a powerful animae (a metahuman form free spirit), Buttercup, on the board.

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

The Vory V Zakone, translating to "thieves following a code" or "thieves inside of law," are a loosely affiliated federation of syndicates that originated in the old thieves' networks within the gulags of old Russia. It's the 4th oldest criminal society in the world at over 150 years (with the Mafia at 200 years, the Yakuza at 400 years, and the Triads at 800 years).

Within the modern Vory, there are not only Russian syndicates but also Georgian, Armenian, Chechen, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Azeri, and Jewish mafias. Despite this, a lot of Europeans and Americans still call the Vory the "Russian Mafia."

Since they are unable to match the other major syndicates in money and manpower, the Vory's strive for an efficient "do what works" philosophy, which usually translates to violence. Blunt brutality is their go-to negotiation technique, intimidation their main public relations tool, so that they hit every confrontation at full charge, loud and raging.

Each group is led by either a man of power or a small oligarchy. The biggest organizatsi are structured like corporations and operate like them, complete with a board of directors. Smaller organizatsi are similar to the Seoulpa Rings, a tightly-bound group loyal to a single leader.

David Cartel

The David Cartel is a crime syndicate based in Aztlán.

The David Cartel is nearly 100 years old. It was originally based in the city of David in Panama. The cartel was one of the three drug cartels which founded Aztechnology, the other two being the Masaya and Medellin Cartels. It is the only one remaining of the three as the other two were absorbed into Aztechnology and continues to be affiliated with the megacorporation.

The relationship between the David Cartel and Aztechnology is as tight as the one between Aztlán and Aztechnology, with much crossover between the two just as with the latter two. It is unknown as to whether it is Aztechnology that is the power behind the David Cartel or if it's the cartel which is the power behind Aztechnology.

Due to its relationship with Aztechnology, it is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world. A criminal organization that controls much of the crime in its home country and is global in scope. Whose leader is one of the most dangerous men on Earth and which can rely on the support (intelligence and military) of both Aztechnology and Aztlán. Which for approximately six decades (since the start of the 21st century) has grown alongside Aztechnology, and slowly but steadily has taken territory from the Ghost Cartels.

Ghost Cartels

The Ghost Cartels are a loosely affiliated network of dozens of criminal organizations, the direct descendants of the cocaine and marijuana drug cartels of the Andes nations of South America, particularly those of Colombia. Syndicates whose lineage traces back in some cases over 100 years ago to the drug syndicates which emerged in the international drug trade in the 1960s with the production and trafficking of marijuana. They would join the ranks of the major crime syndicates with the cocaine boom from the late 1970s thru the mid 1990s. Facing competition from the rise of the David Cartel, Aztechnology, and Aztlan these South American syndicates put aside their business rivalries and bitter history to work together, establishing the Ghost Council.

Today, the focus of the Ghost Cartels is cocaine and the Awakened drugs, with them joining the Triads and the Kabul Maffiya as the kingpins of the drug trade when it comes to large-scale growing operations. Within their home countries, they are also involved in the trafficking and sale of BTL chips, smuggling arms to insurgents, the smuggling of goods, prostitution, and protection rackets, though those operations are minor compared to their drug trafficking. The criminal empires of the Ghost Cartels extend across almost all of South America, from the northern city of Caracas in the north to the country of Argentina. Outside of South America, their smuggling networks extend globally as they form business relationships with syndicates elsewhere to supply them with illicit drugs, especially in North America and Europe though they also send product to Asia and Africa.

The Ghost Cartels accept metahumans into their organizations with comparatively minimal prejudice; unlike the Mafia or Yakuza, metahumans can reach most positions in the cartels, even extending to leadership roles. Some metas (primarily trolls and orks) serve as the elite personal bodyguards of the cartel heads, and dwarves have ascended to the very highest positions on multiple occasions.

The Ghost Cartels are magic-friendly crime syndicates. It employs within the personal bodyguards of the leaders, shamans and adepts. Similarly, with their great wealth, the Ghost Cartels are able to afford some of the best augmented bodyguards outside of the megacorporations.

he Ghost Cartels have access to extensive military hardware plus military personnel. In South America, it is the Cartels who supply the weapons used by various national armies and insurgencies. In addition they arm the insurgencies in Peru, Argentina, and Paraguay.

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.