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Posted by: Voran Aug 30 2013, 11:28 PM

I was wondering at the feasibility of adding another faction to the SR setting. "Immortal Humans" representing a group (likely Therans?) that gained immortality and survived much like the Immortal Elves/Dwaaaaaagons working quietly in the 5th age and now in the 6th.

So they'd be mages possibly connected in collateral ways to Black Lodge, but otherwise, would the idea be feasible? Is there "room" for this group or does the metagame sorta feel to crowded with "dragons know everything" stuff. Would there be a way they could avoid knowledge of their presence even to powerful types roaming the metaplanes looking for answers/hints about them?

Would they be redundant given the Black Lodge? Could they reasonably hide within the ranks of the Black Lodge?

Being Human in form, they've been consistently active in the world since the beginning of the 5th age, heck maybe make some of them like Highlander Immortals or something. Now in the 6th age and their magic returning at their strongest, they work towards human dominance but also defense against the Horrors, as well as keeping the Immortal elves and Dwaaaagons unaware of their presence until a time of their choosing.

Posted by: Angelone Aug 30 2013, 11:48 PM

There were humans that had their blood mixed with those of dragons. They weren't immortal but lived several hundred years. I can't remember the dragons name but he became outcast among dragons.

Posted by: Rubic Aug 30 2013, 11:56 PM

There's also, from 4th ed, the possibility of alternate metagenetic expression, such that an Immortal Elf might express as looking like a human. This doesn't account for other possibilities (spirit pacts, humans with an "elf attribute: lifespan" metagenetic expression, or straight-up genetic mutation). There's more than a few ways to explain it, and all would be exceedingly rare, beyond that of elves. Heck, at least some of the Immortal Elves were such before the turning of the world to a low-magic cycle; immortal humans would have been rare as heck back then, so I.E.'s have it stacked in their numerical favor.

Posted by: Nath Aug 31 2013, 12:05 AM

The Denairastas clan, named after the great dragon Denairastas (which the other dragon only called the Outcast), who secretly ruled the city of Iopos, northwest of Barsaive and west of the Blood Wood.

Posted by: Angelone Aug 31 2013, 12:13 AM

Thanks! That was really bugging me.

Posted by: Voran Aug 31 2013, 12:25 AM

Hm. Come to think of it, Immortal Highlander type Humans would fit pretty easily as some sorta mystic adept types, with like "Immunity to Age" and "Regenerate" type powers.

Posted by: Bigity Aug 31 2013, 12:40 AM

IIRC the Denairastas came up with the 'fake' drakes?

Posted by: Shemhazai Aug 31 2013, 02:29 PM

It can fit perfectly into Shadowrun. I've had my own ideas for a long time, and I may write them into a story someday.

Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Aug 31 2013, 03:17 PM

Would love to see your take on it, Shemhazai...

Posted by: KCKitsune Aug 31 2013, 04:46 PM

Why would you have to spend points on Elven Lifespan? It has no mechanical bonus in the game and therefore would cost zero. It would just be a fluff kinda thing. Heck I was thinking about my Combat medic mage who is a level 3 human SURGEling with fox ears and a fox tail. His parents were elven (reason for his prejudice against the elven lands). I always had in my head his one-line when asked about the furry bits: "Yeah... these things... I am living proof that fantasy genetics does work. You just need enough magic and" makes a sweeping gesture down, "ta da!"

When my character went through SURGE, his elven genes partially activated (life span and lack of body hair)

Posted by: Slithery D Aug 31 2013, 04:50 PM

Did we ever identify the human guy in the fiction at the end of Artifacts Unbound? The one Harlequin remembered fighting with at the gates of Vienna, so who must be at least several hundred years old?

Posted by: Tymeaus Jalynsfein Aug 31 2013, 04:57 PM

Not there yet, but he could have been a Dragon in Human Form. Assuming he was not lost in Slumber.

Posted by: Slithery D Aug 31 2013, 05:00 PM

The only other mysterious human of Mystical Significance I can remember in the world is the Pendragon, but that doesn't really clarify anything.

Posted by: Lantzer Aug 31 2013, 05:06 PM

Nah, that was Alamais, I think. He didn't trust full drakes. Due to his history with free-willed elven servants.

Posted by: Shemhazai Aug 31 2013, 05:45 PM

The Elders

Tribes throughout the world have in them wise people who tell stories handed down to them from previous generations. Usually the oldest members of their tribe, who is to say when exactly they were born, and that these stories aren't from personal experience? In the sixth world, some of them have come forward, hermits, village elders, medicine women, witch doctors, even some outcasts. Hidden for millennia, they claim to have witnessed times before recorded history. Most people telling these wild tales come from places that had magical traditions in the fifth world.

Noble Blood

Some of the oldest of the old money families go to great lengths to cloister themselves from the rest of us. More than anything else, they want privacy from our prying eyes and ears. So it is, they live quiet lives on their chateaus, estates and villas, more often than not surrounded by high walls and dense evergreen trees. The matriarchs and patriarchs of some of these large families hold terrible secrets.

Evil Reincarnate

In their quest for eternal life, some have settled for being reborn time and again, regaining their memories slowly, and sometimes painfully, with each new lifetime and hoping to once and for all discover how these immortals are doing it. Even better, to learn how to maintain their youth and vitality like those damnable immortal elves.

Posted by: Rubic Sep 2 2013, 11:01 PM

Runner's Companion, p 114, "Metahuman Traits." While it doesn't expressly allow elven lifespan, it also doesn't expressly deny it, either. Furthermore, elven lifespan might, in some regards, be more of a cosmetic enhancement (affects apperance mainly) than anything else listed. This could explain historic figures such as Merlin, who were supposedly half-human and half something supernatural.

Posted by: Sendaz Sep 2 2013, 11:23 PM

You could probably even combine these two a bit. While some have settled for reborn, it takes time to grow up and reawaken fully. Some of the elder nobles might not be so patient and decide to usurp a younger generation's body, by grooming them as an heir then when the time is right, whisks them off to a remote location for the soul swap. The exchange works best with the most similar bloodlines so the family keeps a close eye on who weds who, possibly even keeping this entirely within the family like some pharaohs did to ensure the stock remains as pure as possible. Control of the swap is tight guarded and those who stray from the family line will find themselves without a body to jump to in the long game. While getting a new body is great, they are still human and all that goes with it.

Posted by: Shemhazai Sep 3 2013, 05:41 PM

And of course there should be a couple of vampires in the mix.

Posted by: Stahlseele Sep 3 2013, 06:01 PM

Immortal Humans:
Rich Fucks. Leonization makes everybody functionally immortal.

Posted by: EKBT81 Sep 3 2013, 06:51 PM

Feasible? I guess so. But I don't think they'd add anything meaningful to the game. I find the whole super-secret, super-magical background movers field already overcrowded as is and taking up too much place in the SR metaplot. I'd much prefer giving mundane corporate, criminal and political intrigue more focus than adding another magical faction that's basically more of the same.

Posted by: Stahlseele Sep 3 2013, 07:06 PM

imagine what ehran and the likes must have thought when they learned that humanity had cracked immortality through tech already . .

Posted by: Sendaz Sep 3 2013, 08:14 PM

Well, it's not like Ehran & Co can go back to wherever they got theirs and get their money back.

Pfft.. in our day we got immortal the long way, these punks got it easy......

And speaking of which, got a http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=39666&view=findpost&p=1258417 on that too, though it probably predates some of that bunch as well.