Shadowrun: 2988, Space Runners with an eartdawn feeling Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Dentris]

Ok, this idea was probably brought before by someone else, but the search function brought nothing ressembling this...What would the world of shadowrun look like in the dawn of the 4th millenium?

If my calculations are correct, this period of time would bring the magic rating to a level similar to the magic level present in Earthdawn, only just before the scourge instead of after it. (The Mana Curve follows a 5000 years cycle. Thus, the magical part of the curve would last 2500 years, with the mana peak being after 1250 years of the beginning of the magical era. 2988 would be 977 years after the awakening, thus 273 years before the mana peak. Earthdawn setting starts 204 years after the mana peak (called scourge). That would mean both settings would have a similar mana level)

Now, how is the 4th milleniunm? I have ideas i want to share, and your suggestions are welcome. Right now, for simplicity's sake, I'll make a rough timeline between 2070 and 2988.

2070: Shadowrun current events
2091: Unexpectedly, what appeared to be small and cute awakened animals called the fairies are recongnized as a sentient species when scientists finally deciphered the songs they made as a language. Since then, they were gradually accepted and many were given SINs, although they remain a fundamentaly mischevious species.
2113: The plagues that threathened the Sixth World showed no sign of rest. Bug spirits were reproducing at an alarming rate. New kinds of spirits from even more alien metaplanes were sighted on a regular basis and a dangerous cult was formed: The Spawns of Verjigorm. Their goal is the anihilation of all living form.
2150: Unable to face all the dangers of the awakened earth, metahumans have a desperate plan for survival. Hide in a place where magic doesn't exist and where the magical threats may not follow them: space. Hundreds of millions of metahumans fled to space, leaving a desolate, war-torn, polluted and ravaged planet behind them. The fate of the ones left behind is unknown...but they are either dead, or worse...
2173: Luna City is a sprawling metropolis, the asteroid belt is filled with space stations and the megacorporations are mining the great gas giant and their moons and rings...when something wrong occured. What appeared to be a perfect plan, was in fact, an ellaborate trap. The space wasn't a magical void after all, but a mana webb of a kind nobody knew about. Spirits and magical entities far more dangerous than anything metahumanity had to face back on earth swarmed the space dwellers. Horrors with unknown names, so alien no metahumans could bear their sight and kept their sanity destroyed Luna City and all but a few of the megacorporation stations, the belt is almost turn into rubble and the survivors are hiding in fear in the remaining stations, small enough to go unnoticed. Metahumanity is down by 99.5% of its population.
2341: The horrors are still hunting the remaining metahumans when the first sign of hope appears. A new alien species, known as the adaptoids are encountered. In fact, the first adatoids were travellers who stumbled across the solar system by accident. They offered help and ressources, as well as friendship against the horrors. The adaptoids were nothing compared to other metahumans. They literraly survived in open space. Their metabolism was made to live in space. In fact, the air and water needed for metahumans to survive was dangerous. Fortunatly, their metabolism is able to adapt to almost any kind of foreign environment, although sometimes not fast enough to prevent injury.
2346: Shortly after the adaptoid first contact, one of the most important discovery of all metahumanity was made by an orc scavanger living in one of the saturn's space station: true air. While the remaining space stations had to rely on life support, these functions were aging and breaking more and more often, putting the lives of the remaining metahumans at risk. (and the adaptoid were not of any help, since they lack any life support system at all) This discovery, a single mineral-like ore that seemed to create air out of nothing was a blessing. Soon after, true water, true fire, true earth and true wood were found too...All was in place for the creation of metahumanity's spaceship.
2352: Using true elements, as well as the scavangers' help, metahumans were able to create ships using beasts. From DNA samples and equipment from the ruins of megacorporation station, they created beasts large enough to accept a fair number of cyber-implants. This mix of living tissus and mechanical devices allowed them to create transports capable of housing metahumans as well of limited space travel. (the speed was limited, but fast enough to come and go across the solar system.
2380: The adaptoid population was growing in the solar system from immigration.
2397: A long-range exploration beast discovered in the Oort Cloud (an asteroid belt far away from the sun, past pluton) a giant tree! It appeared to be a space-capable ship crafted from a city-sized tree. Inside, they found a new alien race. They were all placed in statis except for a single one of them, which appeared to be immortal, who controlled the whole ship. It appeared they were waiting to be discovered. They called themselves the T'Skrang. According to their story, they were sent into space by dwarves scholar several millenium ago in order to protect all the knowledge from the age of legend. The T'Skrangs were the only one, the dwarves said, that could master the tree's control and to survive the prolonged magical statis, even when the whole earth would turn mundane. Why is so, nobody knows. Inside the ship, as well and thousands of "frozen" T'Skrangs, they found tomes written in a Dwarven script 4000 years old...
2460: The first dwarven tomes were translated. They contain tales and legends of individuals who fought against the horrors 5000 years ago. Hidden in these tales were teachings about how to master new forms of magic and powers. They were called, according to the T'Skrangs, Disciplines and the practionners of these Disciplines were Adepts...From these tomes, metahumans learned, again, how to master the awakened world.
2700: New T'Skrang tree ships were discovered.
2743: A new alien race is discovered in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. From the very rocks the asteroids were formed emerged entity made entirely of stone. They call themselves the Elders, although they say some of their kind felt on earth some time ago (probably millenia) and called themselves Obsidiman...
2749: A group of individual, calling themselves the Theran Syndicate is starting to gather many metahumans to his cause: reclaiming the planet Earth still swarmed by many magical threats. They were quite successful and all their members showed incredible skills in many disciplines. They even showed talents unknown by anybody else.
2814: After several skirmishes and full scale attacks, the Theran Syndicate annouced that earth was safe again, but instead of inviting all the metahumans back, they sealed it off with massive magical energy, an armada of dual-natured sattelites and other protection. They closed themselves from space, and the horrors...
2846: The Beastman are accepted as a sentient species. Unexpectedly, some of the beasts, now used for any technological use (from firearms to mining tools) showed signs of sapience. They were self-aware and many asked for freedom. They were granted, since all the help possible was needed to fight the horrors, still hunting metahumans.
2891: The megacorporations are revived, although in a new form. As the situation in space was improving, people started to gather in larger communities, soon reaching a sizable population. It was a matter of time before nations emerged. From the ashes of the old megacorporation, new nations were born around the gaz giants. Luna City and the Belt community was the other "nations" not linked to any particular old megacorporations.
2899: Finally, after several decades of travel, a long range exploration vessel reached the solar system of Sirius, a few light years away...The two suns were theorized to be too much for any planet to develop a lifeform, but the theory was wrong. They found the Sirians...A highly developped species with a brand new space capable fleet, but with a mana level close to nothing, as if the mana curve on their planet was different than earth's...They, too, had serious problems with the horrors, though, since they dwelled in space, and the relationship was friendly...Many Sirians asked to travel to the solar system, and with their help, they managed to upgrade the speed of the beasts to substanstially reduce the time needed to travel between the two solar systems (the light-speed barrier wasn't broken, though, and travel was still long)
2950: As new dwarven tomes were discovered, and new disciplines mastered, t hope was slowly going back to the metahumans' heart. Unfortunatly, the power of the horrors were still growing more and more powerful and rival nations were starting to struggle for territory and ressources.
2988: Space is still a harsh place to live, the gas giant nations are fighting a war against two enemies: rival nations and horrors. Luna City is trying to contact earth by all possible means as well as surviving the horrors's assault and the belt communities led by councils of Elder, are struggling to find enough true elements to suit their needs...The survival of metahumanity is still uncertain, but it is time for heroes to come forth and make their own legend.


So, what do you think? (and yes, I've been working on that for a long time)