So, what do we know about the CAS? Options

[Johnny Reb]

Lots of little nuggest have filtered down over the years, but despite a short overview of the major cities in Shadows/North America, there's not been much on the actual *culture* of the CAS.

Some interesting tdibits:

Racism had a small push during teh Night of Rage, but has settled down and is now less than what you'd find in the UCAS.

The CAS has teh largest military in North America (And possibly the world), but it's an older, bulkier style force. Their special forces are pretty crummy.

CAS magic is as strong or stronger than teh UCAS with only about a quarter of the population. Much as teh UCAS has an 80-20 Hermetic to Shaman split, the CAS has about an 80-20 Shaman over Hermetic split. Power is concentrated in the northwest region, the Louisiana Bayou, the Carribbean border, and Appalachia.

CAS is a True Democracy, with a Matrix connection in every household. When you log in, you're asked to vote on local, county, state, and Confederation isssues. Majority rules (Tho sometimes taking a two-thirds, rather than half plus one). System tampering seems non-existant and isn't overseen by any corporation. CAS deckers sling some of the most solid code around ... rarely cutting-edge, but totally stable and hard to infiltrate. More Rolls-Royce than Ferrarri.

The CAS shares a friendly border with the UCAS and the Pueblo, a warm border with teh C-League, and a hot one with Aztlan. A war is pretty much a given, doubly-so now that teh Azzies are taking hit after hit from all sides.

The CAS is friendly with Ghostwalker. Probably more of a 'Enemy of my Enemy is my friend' status, but, who knows?

No Great Dragon is known to operate in teh CAS. No Immortal Elf is known to operate in teh CAS. No Megacorp operates out of teh CAS (Tho MCT and SK are worming in). No AA coprs (Or A!) have ever been tied to CAS locations.

The CAS is the second-largest economy in North America, third if Aztlan is considered. Lacking heavy industry by and large, teh CAS is a serious player in matrix, communications, electronics, and pharmaceuticals.

Teh CAS doesn't use a SIN number. The religious forces consider them to be, well, sinful. Similarly, there's no real national ID card setup, nor 'chipping' for easy police state-like overseeing of teh populace.

The CAS still uses the dollar, rather than Nuyen, for transactions and is now pushing to be seen as 'The True US'. It still uses the old US Constituition.

Major cities include several in Texas, Atlanta, Nashville, and New Orleans. There's some bad blodo between teh major cities over the selection of the capital.

The Vol Sprawl, a section of interstate running between Nashville and Knoxville, is a massive Rigger paradise, where drivers and police battle in a non-leathal test of skill on a regular basis. Think Dukes of Hazzard, only faster.

Anyone have anything else?

-- Johnny Reb

[FlakJacket]

Mainly what's in Neo-Anarchists Guide to North America and Shadows of North America. :)

[Hasaku]

13!!! Thirteen instances of "teh" in that post! That's all I can say!

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Wow. Reading that post made my brain hurt.

The CAS is the most clear-cut inheritor of the modern U.S. in Shadowrun. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about the culture.

[FlakJacket]

It is? I know that they certainly claimed to be. Not being a sep myself, could I ask what differentiates the UCAS from the current US to give the CAS the top spot as it were?

[jezryaldar]

As a side note, has anyone noticed some modern day rants going on regarding succession of the South or the expulsion of some of the NE states? Or the movement in California (small at this point) to go back with Mexico?

I found those things VERY interesting looking at the Shadowrun Timeline and how the world came to pass.

I also have found some interesting conversations with folks from Europe over the EU....

[Fortune]

[FlakJacket]

You know I just can't decide, is all the teh-ing unintentional yet so very apt or a nod to the uber-jingoistic-ness of the piece? :)

So far the theme seems to be 'Teh CA$ is l33t j0!'

[Mercer]

Well, Reb's not submitting this for publication. Its an informal note jotted down on a forum, and if someone isn't the grandest typer in the world or just banging out a quick note at work, typos are to be expected.

I guess the theory on CAS being the most like Old America is that while the UCAS is a combo of Canada and the US, the CAS is just old US. Now, as to what the exact cultural differences are between Canada and the US (they're more polite, cleaner, they call ham "bacon" and don't pronounce the letter "u"), I'd care not to get into (except, perhaps, parenthetically).

[Shanshu Freeman]

[Connor]

I've had a CAS-related question floating around in my head for awhile now. The part of Oklahoma that didn't join the CAS, did Kansas basically claim that territory?

[Mercer]

Kansas, the band?

Because that would be sooo cool.

[Fortune]

In which case, would the border be called 'The Point of Know Return'?

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Well, I just think it's worth noting that the UCAS has become a backwards, paranoid quasi-police state even though from a general perspective it contains almost all of the most liberal regions of the U.S. plus Canada, which is also pretty liberal compared to the U.S. in many regards. Now, granted there have been plenty of bad things to happen to the UCAS to warrant the paranoia. They probably also were unfortunate enough to inherit all of the rabid conservatives in the Rockies region (you think the South is conservative? These are the people who sent Dick Cheney to Congress. Repeatedly.) who didn't tough it out in an Anglo Reservation (oh, man... Payback's a bitch.). They also sit on the border of the most hostile neighbor we've ever had to deal with, and combined with the fact that plenty of the people are still "red" and the states are getting redder (I like to think of the states in shades of purple) with the Western refugees.

CAS has had it easy compared to them. Texas and Aztlan? BFD. They still have three relatively peaceful borders, and worst comes to worse they are an hour's drive south of the UCAS Capital. They are relatively liberal compared to the UCAS, including having the distinction of having elected two women to be President, and enjoy a rather stable economy and general social structure whereas the UCAS is filthy, resource-poor, magic-hating, irrational, paranoid, and just insane. They elected a Great Dragon President, but without even a quarter of the popular vote. The CAS even retained the Electoral College.

So... What am I missing?

[DrJest]

[Fortune]

Jenna is most likely (but not totally proven to be) Alachia's daughter.

See Ancient History's Immortals for more information. :)

[DrJest]

Hmm. I think I'm going to take issue with that one (gasp! shock! horror! Taking issue with the Ancient one, I may never live this down... :spin: )

Tir Tairngire, p. 51. Following the description of the portrait in Ni-Fairra's home (a female figure sprouting thorns), there is a snippet of conversation from Harlequin and Dunkelzahn:

"Ah yes, our dear sweet Blood Queen. Now there is a tale to be told."
"Then tell it."
"In time."

(Of course, I expect someone has repudiated this one, but given my limited access to later material, it's pretty convincing to me :) )

[Fortune]

There is no mention that the portrait is actually depicting Jenna though ... only that it is in her home, is old, and bears a resemblance to her (from memory). That the portrait is in fact of her mother is entirely feasible, and fitting when viewed in context with other information.

[Demosthenes]

[Fortune]

[Johnny Reb]

(sags head) Lone Star. I have no idea how I forgot about that one.

And, for the record, the 'teh' problem is speedy typing, not intentional. My one typo that follows me everywhere like an albatross. Arg. It just kills my points.

This was less a chance to say "Look at how cool the CAS is!" than to try and gather up some info in one go, getting additions where able. The Atlantean Federation, for example, was a bit of a surprise. I thought it was in Boston, not Atlanta. Oops.

Hopefully there's a bit more from people, however? Anything at all? I'd imagine that, say, Arkansas isn't on the top of most people's list of intrests but surely there's *something* going on around there.

-- Johnny Reb, types too fast for his own good.

[Kagetenshi]

You're thinking of the Dunkelzahn Institute for Magical Research, which is indeed in Boston.

~J

[Fortune]

As opposed to The Draco Foundation, the head office of which is in DC.

[Deamon_Knight]

Yea, the CAS seems undercoverd, but I only have the SR3, Mits and M&M, I;m getting all my other game universe info second hand from this board. The question is, is Johnny_Reb right? If so, I'm going to have to work this into a character I'm working on.

Two inconsistancies I've seen posted just in this thread are that the CAS has direct elections on everything, as said by Johnny_Reb, and that the the CAS maintains an Electoral College, like the US has (Stated by Crimson dude).

Another inconsistancy is that its been quoted from other source material ,IIRC, that UCAS and CAS both retain portions of the old US Constition, while Johnny Reb seems to state that CAS actualy uses the US Constitution.


**********THREAD HIJACK//AVOID AS NESSECARY*********************





















Criomson, maybe the absorption by the UCAS of all that "Blue" territory could explain all the trouble? *wink/nod*






***********/HIJACK-OFF****************

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Yeah, and maybe my ass is actually the map to Atlantis.

SoNA "corrected" a lot of the nonsense in the NA placebooks, which is a nice euphemism for, "The creators were insane." As such, yeah... They have always had an EC. They, uh, just didn't tell us in NAGNA. Riiight. That's it.