Ok, that seems to sum up the state of Tech.

Anything magical happen?

I have heard that the fae are real, and that ghostwalker went berserk? Either of those things that are accurate? I got them from a non-SR friend who follows general RPG news more than I had time for the past few years.

When you say "Fae" you mean...?

(Read: I know what the Fae are in a number of settings, but I'm just not sure whether this is referring to Elven origin stories or Windlings or what...?)

Something about a hole into the metaplanes where beings that appear to be much like traditional gaelic folktales live?

Like, a manaspike happened and instead of Horrors we got leprechauns and Banshees?

Wait. Whuuuut?

Does anyone have more information on this?

Me again!

Yeah, there's a fae Metaplane (whose name I forget just now) and it has some access to meatspace. The main connection was the fog that roiled around Normandy back in the 50's, but has since managed to pierce through a bit in other places.

They may, or may not, be connected to the Yellowstone Incident, a manastorm that fades in and out that was "born" in Yellowstone and has since appeared in different places in North America, sometime sbriefly, sometimes for a while. The Fae have either managed to tap this energy, or are behind why it exists, to create short-term portals to and from meatspace and some people have travelled between the two.

The Yellowstone Incident creates weird magical effects in most places it shows up at, but not always... sometimes they're severe, sometimes it's just, like, blue rain. No one knows why it exists or what it's *doing*, and it's hard to research since it vanishes and reappears, but it's known to have never shown up near Salt Lake.

You may or may not have been around for the Las Vegas Incident, where Horizon did some rather bad things to some spirits and, in return, REAL BAD STUFF was inflicted on Vegas by some spirits.

Ghostwalker was involved in a quest to gather several artifacts from Dunk's will, and when he gathered them all, he did some kind of ritual in Washington DC at the rift that he came out of. This closed the rift (explosively), which has had some ripple effects on the manasphere that are not yet fully explored. (And predates the Yellowstone Incident. Connected?) … at least one Immortal Elf was killed during this explosion, and her death drove Harlequin into a revenge cycle.

Ghostie vanished for a while after closing the Rift. When he showed up again, it was with a fully-united Spirit of Denver and he was weirdly calm.

Harlequinn teamed up with Aztlan to take down Ghostwalker, trading off some knowledge for resources. This *possibly* helped them create anti-dragon weapons, but it's more likely that they got some other type of knowledge in exchange and the anti-dragon weapons were designed in other ways. (Rumor has it that much of the work was done in Memphis, TN, in the Memphis Pyramid there as dragons seem unable to enter Memphis for some reason.)

Harlequin and Ghostwalker eventually engaged in a formal duel in Denver that Harlequin lost... he was rescued by Erhan and Frosty but was allowed to leave. Denver went solo, becoming a private city-state, and Aztlan was briefly kicked out, but was later allowed back in after showing up with a big military convoy that drove through the PCC. (Aztlan, before doing this, gave a lrge chunk of land to the PCC, namely, a chunk of Texas nearly as large as Louisiana, the so-called "Rio Gambit". That the PCC did not immediately turn around and give this land to the CAS has caused a rift between those two countries and moved the PCC closer to being friendly with Aztlan)

Elijah used the chaos of the Aztlan-PCC transfer to slip down into the region and examine some of the mana hole (Faovre? I can NEVER spell it right!) where he discovered that spirits wouldn't go near them willingly, and eventually he projected his own astral form into one. He wound up having BAD JUJU VISIONS of a chasm and a bridge and bloody spirits and stones being used to rebuild a broken bridge and kind of lost his mind for a bit, but managed to fall back into his body and is still dealing with the trauma of that.

Wild spirits are cropping up more often, especially in areas that have been visited by the Yellowstone Incident. These spirits aren't Free Spirits (summoned spirits that broke away from their masters) but seem to be either spontaneously generated (if you're Hermetic) or woken from a deep slumber (if you're a Shaman) and have been reclaiming some areas, serving as local protectors. Of note is that they haven't just been in natural areas, but spirits of the city, and other urban environs, have cropped up. New elementals have also been uncovered, such as Electricity, Plastic, and Concrete. Ghost Trains are a Thing, haunted spiritual ships have been seen, and there's at least one Parliament of Cars that can be visited for advice.

Oh, and people are calling into question the Unified Magic Theory based off this, and other, new discoveries, such as mana planar beings that have nothing to do with spiritual energy from Earth's manasphere.

There's a LOT going on out there and I'm not even scratching the surface on the magic front.

Oh, HMMV has been acting weird, and some new strains have been possibly created as vampires and ghouls have been acting more feral and wild. Some hidden vampires were outted, public ones snapped, and it's been a rough time for their kind. The Ghoul Nation in Africa got exposed for having a much larger population than first thought, keeping their feral members hidden. The Ethomalian Territories, who long ago sealed their borders and are *very* restrictive about who gets in, claim to have some kind of weapon of mass destruction that can be used against ghouls, and that their nation is 100% ghoul-free, setting up a bit of a cold war between the two nations, where they basically pretend that one another don't exist and don't mess with one another at all.

Crater Lake went from being a mana source to being a mana drain and the birthrate of Talented people, and Metahumans, has started going down in the Tir since then. The reduction is *very* small, but they fear it could get worse. The area's offlimits for any but the top-end Tir officials and the military, and lasers are used to blind flyover sats.

There's... man. There's a LOT. Forbidden Arcana gives you a crash course on much of this, while Dark Terrors will take you on a tour of the nastier stuff.

Oh, and Sirrurg the Destroyer parked a Category 6 hurricane over Puerto Rico for 24 hours, using spirits to feed it wind and water, then he, and his dragon allies, flew into the storm (protected by magic and bound spirits) and proceeded to la waste to anything they could find, starting with NatVat, then spreading out to gobble up people and wreck the place. The damage is incaluable, and when it was over, Aztechnology washed its hands of the place and walked away. The island's absolute devastated.

Sirrurg earlier wiped out an entire city in Aztlan, and later svaged several in Aztlan, the PCC, and the CAS, while operating out of a cave near Rsowell, New Mexico. He was eventually tracked down by the Aztlan military, and Aztechnology assistants, and was brought down. This turned Aztlan into "Dragon Slayers" and gave them a HUGE PR boost that they're still riding high on.

(About the time that Puerto Rico was ravaged, a plague of some kind struck the corn fields of Aztlan, as well as corn stored in silos, and ruined it. This blight, called the Atlacoya Blight, was never fully understood, but vanished roughly a year after it appeared. This, combined with the loss of NatVat, stuck Aztlan into a serious famine cycle for two years and drove up the value of food worldwide. Horizon managed to snag the Wind River underground farm complex during this and is now the largest agricultural provider in North America by a hair.)

Lofwyr and Alamais fought the climatic battle of the Dragon Civil War, which Lofwyr won, letting his human hirelings slay his brother rather than do it with his own claws in defiance of Dragon tradition. He resigned from being Loremaster after this, passing the role to Celadyr. Lofwyr is known to have suffered some kind of magical strike during this battle that was from afar, but, as of yet, nothing more of that attack is known.

(Are you up on the whole dragon civil war? It was a Thing.)

I just wanted to say a big "Thanks!" Wakshaani before I dive into something that is going to completely melt my brain in a wonderful way. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


Sure!

I'm sure that there is law of diminishing returns when it comes to brain melting anyway. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I have Clutch of Dragons on my shelf, I think it might've been the last thing I bought.

Man, that is a lot.

Seriously, don't do this to me again. I just knee-jerk bought it for $18. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Gaaaah!

Yeah, trying to juggle all of this, and remember what I can say in public and what I can't, is tricky. Like *I* know the backstory to some of this (but not all!) but I have to check and see what's been published, what's in the pipeline, and what's not on paper anywhere.

For instance, I had to track down what was meant by "Where the rock meets the sky" from the will, but it's never been released, so I can't talk about that at ALL.

5E had a TON of books and I only worked on maybe, MAYBE a third of 'em, probably less, so there're lots of subplots I have to check up with other people about.

But I can say that Forbidden Arcana and Dark Terrors are filled TO THE BRIM with goodies.

My bank account is shaking a fist at you right now. Like, really vibrating with the implied "Waaaaaghhhh!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Wish more of my Ork army was painted. I should *really* give you a good reply here. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

(Forbidden Arcana's the one I like more, but we won an award for Dark Terrors, so I think it was more popular.)

((TECHNICALLY my second Ennie, but I don't count the first one since I wrote, like, five lines of Shadowtalk and nothing else.))

It's all golden. As long as there is good craic that's what I love. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Is that where the Ghostwalker stuff is?

Depends on the part. Ghostwalker's in the Artifacts adventures, then gets time in the Dragon Civil War, and his big fight with Harley's in Stormfront. Since then, he's mainly been quiet in his little Denver fiefdom.

Some might say TOO quiet...

Are the "Artifacts adventures" the Dawn of the Artifacts adventures?

Sorry, in trying to break back into Shadowrun I'm having to deal with the standard "Can I have a vowel?" situations? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Those are the ones, yup!

(And no need to apologize! I know how it can be trying to get back in. I took about a year off and I was shaking other writers, going, "What the heck is THIS thing?!" It happens!)

I have the first few Artifacts advenrltures, then the delay in releases led to me having to wrap it up on my own shortly before losin that group. I actually have no idea how those ended, but I guess that's the setup to the rift stuff?

Yuppers.

OH!

Almost forgot!

As a side-effect of Ghostwalker closing the DC rift, the Shedim no longer have a path to get to our world. Thus, whenever one is destroyed, it goes home, never to return, making them a limited-time threat.

Some Master Shedim realized this and got together to work out how to teach metahumans how to summon Shedim, similar to bug spirits and bug shamans.... common Shedim are fully under the control of the summoner, but it gives a pathway for new Shedim to come in. What the long-term plan of the Master Shedim is by teaching this ability isn't fully known, and there are *very* few people who have this ability (less than a dozen, probably half that), but it could, *could*, turn into a Thing.

Doing this requires changing your magical tradition. That's been *possible* for a long time (the first known insect shaman, from Queen Euphoria, was a Dog Shaman before he heard the call of Ant, for example) but this is codified in Forbidden Arcana.

Also Elementals are back, far, FAR more subservient spirits that Hermetics can call up that have the downside of being rather dumb.

I didn't realize Elementals ever left, fluff-wise. I just thought they were mechanically reskinned to simply Summoning in general. Neat that they're back, though.

Also, it never really occurred to me that there would need to be rules for changing your Tradition, but I guess it makes sense. It both never came up, and I figured I'd be refluffing it as GM as I went if a PC went Toxic, or Bug, or something.

FA introduced several new traditions, some of which are temptation-based, like bug shamans, blood mages, and Shedim-summoners, so it was the perfect place to codify "Here's how to change it up" in case someone's character wanted to go that route instead of ap layer making a whole new character to start anew. Obviously it's going to be *super* rarely needed, but, you know, tool in the toolbox and all that.

I always try to put a few things in that are more for background than for PCs, to help showcase the world. Popular TV shows, ad micro=blimps, how someone trads in their tradition, and so on. 95% is PC-focused, but those other little bits are keen. For instance, I hope no GM ever unleashes the fuel-air bomb drone from GOD onto a PC's head since that's just a TPK, but having that threat laying around that, if needed, GOD can, and will, level an entire city block to get a single decker if they're valuable enough … speaks volumes about the world as a whole, you know?

Yeah, that sort of extra detail is very nice. Helps people get the world and integrate fluff into characters. And the threat of a fuel-air bomb is always nice to have when the trollbow goes trollerskating too hard.

To be fair, the in-setting commentary is one of the things that make most Shadowrun books so enjoyable to read just for the sake of reading and mining for ideas.

Shadowtalk is my favorite thing about how the books are formatted. It's very, very good.

For the record, it's my favorite thing to write, too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)