Cosmology
Survivors
A record of those who survived the transition from the fourth world (Earthdawn) into the sixth (Shadowrun). Based on information gathered by the Dunkelzahn Institute for Magical Research.
Dragons
| Dragon | Earthdawn Identity | Earthdawn Patron Race | Date of Awakening | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunkelzahn | Mountainshadow | Orcs | 2012 | Assassinated in 2057 |
| Hestaby | Rathorn | Skaven | 2035 | Allied with Dunkelzahn prior to his death, she's now the self-proclaimed inheritor of his mission to champion metahumans |
| Lofwyr | Khorne | Centaurs | 2012 | Sole owner of the Saeder-Krupp AAA megacorp |
| Alamais | Alamaise | Goblins / Trolls | 2019 | Suspected of being killed by an orbital laser in 2054, Dunkelzahn's will indicated she's still alive and in hiding |
| Feuerschwinge | Vasdenjas | Humans | 2012 | Killed by the German military in 2012 |
| Kaltenstein | Vestrivan | Humans | 2012 | Suspected to be King Berthold, leader of the Black Forest Troll Kingdom |
| Eliohann | Earthroot | Dwarves | 2047 | Low profile, last seen in 2053 |
| Lung | Aban | T’skrang | 2012 | An eastern dragon, rumored to be the leader of one or more triads. Involved in the death of Alamais |
Lesser Divinities
| Shadowrun Identity | Earthdawn Identity | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Franklin Yeats | Usun | Born in 1997, entering the service in 2014, he transitioned to the private sector in 2043 a highly-decorated UCAS general, becoming a consultant for a variety of defense and security firms. He re-entered public life in 2057 when he joined the presidential election, defining himself as an advocate for UCAS expansion: rejoining California and retaking Bug City. He died during the election, which the runners determined was an assassination by insect spirits. He shares an appearance with the Ogre Dragon Usun from the 4th Age. | 
|
Mortals
| Shadowrun Identity | Earthdawn Identity | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Larry Bird | Birdie Crowntooth | With them both being highly-mobile shooters recruited from remote small towns, with a similar appearance given an accommodation for the distortions caused by the skaven genotype, some DIMR researchers—noting that the name 'Larry' means "crowned with laurel"—suspect a connection between the players, whether it comprises a rebirth or an echo. Born in 1956, died in 2042. | 
|
Recollection: The History of Creation
The valley leads to a pair of stairs cut into the stone. One, steps higher than a man’s head, each carved with illustrations: on one dryads bathing beneath a waterfall, another a vast cityscape teaming with life, and so on as the stairs rise; each scene unique. The other a plain path set off to the side, made for the mountain’s mortal servants; the only one of the two showing wear. The stairs climb halfway up the volcanic peak to a towering set of double doors. Beyond the doors is an entrance hall in the style of a cathedral, hallways leading to the mountain’s inner chambers separated by illustrated panels stretching to the high, ribbed ceiling; the heat of the volcano seeps through the walls.
The turtle crone, leading the way, flicks one hand in the direction of the illustrations and asks, “How much do you know of the history of creation?” but does not wait for an answer.
The first panel is a jumble of material, color, texture, and shape. Precious metals and gems, brick and clay, fur, bone, and teeth. An inscription below it reads “The World of Chaos.”
“The First World, soon washed away. Not worth much mind.”
The second panel is gold, embedded jewels arrayed in illustrations of varied creatures locked in battle amidst convoluted landscapes: a lizardine wolf entangled in a cephalopods’ arms; an insectile creature impaled on a great horned beast; dragons of every color. The inscription reads “The World of Wonders.”
“The gods placed their power into life: the dragons and other apprentices. ‘Endless creation and creativity,’ to hear them describe it. But one eternal’s creation is another’s abomination and the whole thing got out of hand.”
The third panel is grey slate crossed with glowing light in arcs that evoke an endless pattern in endless variation. “The World of Reason.”
“The Third World. No more fighting. Truth and beauty. This is when much of creation was set in stone. Fire is hot, honey is sweet, this and that make such. A nice break from all those wonders, they say, but not very exciting.”
The fourth panel is silver, cousin to the second, inlayed with jewels, with a single golden disk showing the dawn of a rising sun. Again, scenes of conflict, but here dragons lead vast armies of lesser creatures in the shadow of great cities in the plains, mountains, and skies. “The World of the Demigods.”
The caretaker’s longing for this age is apparent. “The dragons were given another chance. When one fights another there’s chaos. So instead the gods charged them with our creation, of humans and orcs, bullywugs, tabaxi, and all the rest. In the second world, an eternal might make a crystal city in a day, then another smash it on the next. In the fourth world, this would be the work of entire lives, generations of mortals. It was beautiful.”
“In this age, the dragons were to be the sole avatars of the gods. Calmed into a truce with the banishing of their more distant rivals, they banded together to make the mortal races, raised heroes and villains, and carried out the gods’ design for this age.”
She indicates a corner of the illustration, where a band of human figures venture out from a mountain cavern. “The emergence went as planned. The gods, watching from their sanctum in the planar depths. Each dragon with its enclave filled with its chosen people. The mortals, expanding outwards, seeking to claim the new world. And heroes, their mettle sharpened against monstrosities crafted by the gods to test them, leading their people to glory. Stories of rise and fall, triumph and despair. An age of greatness.”
“But the dragons desired a distance from their creations and their mortality. For their personal attendants they made the elves, immortal. Who chaffed at their servitude and meddled beyond their mandate. Who took advantage of their power, cavorted and interbred; and who learned forbidden magic.”
She points at the panel, to a glittering tower rising above a lone island. “The elves' secret domain, apart from the eyes of man or dragon. The tower that divided creation and banished the gods.”
The fifth panel is obsidian, pure black, white lines illustrating a progression, a formless void, an explosion, galaxies, stars, planets. A cell, a cluster, a plant, an animal, and at the end of the chain: man. “The World of Death”
“Mankind as the conclusion of a blind process. A world in which nothing as grand as a dragon could survive, but an immortal elf thinly could: warlords, holy men, kings and presidents. Empires of power, without their draconic masters.”
“But as the world was remade the dragons kept a slim hope, that the gods wouldn’t allow the elves their victory forever. And so, in a desperate last resort, they divided themselves. Their bodies would wander the Earth in human form without knowing their true nature. Their memories—of who they were, of what had happened, of the gods themselves—committed to material repositories, buried deep within the mountains. You’ve seen these: the sorcerer used one to snare you. And this place, a pocket space, to house their souls until a world existed that would allow them to be whole.”
The sixth panel is copper illustrated by lines of jewels. A golden sun and a silver moon. “The World of Heroes.”
“The elves proved poor stewards of the world and the natural forces they exulted spun out of control of their material influences. The Earth fell. For dead aeons the world spun in darkness. But with time the god’s awoke, their prison cracked, and they used what strength remained them to reach back and turn creation in a new direction. Again, an emergence. But rather than men into a world of magic, magic into a world of men. And the story after that,” a broad expanse of the copper canvas left incomplete, “yet to be fully inscribed.”
Pointing then to a space beyond the blank expanse, at a few elements, barely sketched in: to a cloaked and hooded figure, “the gods’ avatars arisen;” to a winged person inscribed in silver, “the anti-draconic;” a vast battle, shown only in broad strokes, “the fate of creation undecided.”
She pauses for a moment to gather herself, as if unprepared for the length of her recitation. “But this isn’t what you came here for…” as she leads you down one of the mountains’ passageways.
Humans and the Cycle of Magic,
The following is a transcript of a speech given by the keynote speaker, Ehran the Scribe, at the YET (Young Elven Technologists) yearly fundraising dinner in Seattle on March 12, 2049.
| Age | Beginning Date |
|---|---|
| 1st | 01 / May / 23610 ʙᴄ |
| 2nd | 11 / Sep / 18487 ʙᴄ |
| 3rd | 22 / Dec / 13362 ʙᴄ |
| 4th | 03 / May / 8238 ʙᴄ |
| 5th | 12 / Aug / 3113 ʙᴄ |
| 6th | 24 / Dec / 2011 ᴀᴅ |
The Humans are confused.
This is their normal state of being. Their lives are so short, they never have time to think things through. I know this is a gross over-simplification, that there have been many brilliant Human scholars throughout the ages. Even the Da Vincis and the Einsteins, while brilliant enough to see a glimpse of the larger pattern, and imaginative enough to visualize a complex and interconnected world, still did not have the time to analyze their own thoughts. In my conversations with Da Vinci, I saw the glint of perception in his eyes, but he never could express or believe what he had visualized. It takes years, sometimes hundreds of years, to get the correct perspective on ideas, even your own ideas. Humans just do not have the luxury of that time. They are also limited by their devout belief in not believing. Since the earliest recorded Human history, they have had stories of magic, great unexplained ancient civilizations, and other mysteries. The Humans chose not to believe these and thus, when the mother returned the magic to us, they became disoriented and confused, their normal state of being.
What I am about to tell you must remain an Elven secret. I know that the Humans will eventually discover it, but it should be delayed as long as possible.
All things that the great mother gives us, she also takes away. Nature, as the Humans call it, moves in cycles: the rising and setting of the sun, the seasons of the year, the flowing of the tide, it is always a cycle. Magic also runs in a cycle, it comes and goes from the Earth, as does the warmth of the summer sun. Its cycle is measured not in hours, as the sun's is, but in thousands of years.
From a scientific viewpoint, magic, when charted, is a semi-regular wave form moving through the history of the earth. There are slight fluctuations throughout the wave, and the wave itself is not completely uniform.
The point in the cycle at which the world becomes magically alive or magic falls dormant is called the Threshold Level. Every magical race and, in some cases, each individual within a race, has its own specific magical trigger point for metamorphosis to occur, thus the transformation of the world takes place over a period of time. Traditionally, the Threshold Level has been set as the date of the Awakening of the first Great Dragon on the upswing, and the hibernation of the last Great Dragon on the downswing. The average time between Threshold Levels is approximately 5,200 years.
As the last age of magic came to a close, Atlantis was readying itself for disaster. The Atlantean culture was a racial Human/Elven hybrid that had achieved both scientific and magical wonders, but in its later years, it turned against itself by fighting nature to maintain the island. As the end came near, a migration of technology and culture spread from the isle to the rest of the world. This is the reason mankind's ancient calendars all start within 100 years of each other. The Hebrew, Egyptian, Chinese, and most importantly, Mayan calendars all show the direct influence of Atlantean culture.
The Mayan calendar is the most amazing, as it contains a complete description of the magic cycles, including this current crossing of the Threshold. The Mayans described the cycles as "worlds", and stated that only certain life forms made the transition from one world to the next. The calendar, written over 5,000 years ago, predicted the exact day the Threshold Level would be passed. If we Converting the Mayan dates to the current Christian calendar, it correctly states that the Threshold would be passed on December 24, 2011. On that day, the first Great Dragon was seen in Japan. The precision is amazing. When I advised the Pharaoh in creating the Egyptian calendar, I thought I had been as precise as possible, yet my calendar missed the Threshold date by over two years.
Atlantis sank on August 12th, 3113 ʙᴄ, thus marking the end of the Fourth World and the beginning of the Fifth. The Sixth World has begun, and will end, according to the Mayan calendar, on April 4th, 7137 ᴀᴅ.
We have the intervening time to enjoy what the Great Mother gives us. We must use both the energy of nature and the power of technology to try to fix the damage done by our short-lived relatives.