Looking at the map, I can't help but notice that this country surrounds Seattle and yet I know almost nothing about it other than there's a lot of Native Americans. Can anyone here give me a brief rundown, or tell me where to get one? In particular, how should border crossing's work? Do the megacorps have the same influence there that they do in the UCAS?

Thanks

Check out Shadows of North America for the full details.

They've got a booming economy and they're constantly at war (or at least at tense peace) with Tsimishian and their other neighbors in the 2060s. They're the most tribal of the NANs, as well.

The poverty level is 20% and the corp affiliation level is 23%. Compare to the UCAS 26% and 51%, respectively.

By SR4, they've conquered Tsimshian...

The Salish nation encompasses the former US States of Washington and Idaho, as well as the Canadian Province of British Columbia. Much of the area is sparsely inhabited, though there are a fair number of Mid-size cities in their territory. The landscape is very diverse including Islands, Beaches, Mountains, Coniferous Forests, and Deserts.

Largely, the coastal regions of the Salish-Sidhe Council are the most economically-developed. Vancouver, the largest city in the SSC territory, has a relatively low megacorporate presence. So think of it as a pared-down version of Seattle that also happens to be the corporate headquarters of two AA-rated transnational corporations: Gaeatronics, an energy firm; and Universal Omnitech, specializing in genetics and other biotechnology. Vancouver is home to a delta-grade cyberware and bioware clinic, possibly operated by UniOmni, and I believe it serves as the NAN's chief port to and from the Pacific Rim.

I thought Gaeatronics was based out of Olympia. I'll have to check SONA on that. East of the Cascade range things get pretty sparse. Lots of agriculture and wilderness. Major cities are limited to Boise and Spokane, and then a handful of smaller communities. Anyone know if Gaeatronics is operating Grand Coulee Dam?

There is probably no significant power plant (fusion, hydro, geothermal, wather) in SSC not operated by Gaeatronics (though some may be joined ventures). IIRC GT is not headquatered on Olimpia, only thair main Fusion-Plant, which supplies most of Seattles power sits there.

Universal Omnitech is nominally headquartered in Vancouver, but they have a larger presence in their DeBeers-Universal Omnitech headquarters. They could probably lose the entire Vancouver installation without a huge loss in effectiveness. Research and development is mostly in South America, mining and production is mostly in Africa. UO's presence in the Northern Hemisphere is largely ceremonial as far as I can tell.

-Frank

Man, the Shadowrun universe is well developed. Thanks for the replies.

Finally had time to look it up. Gaeatronics is HQ'd in Oly (see pg 120 SoNA) additionally Aztechnology's presence in the Salish NAtion is located in Oly as well. Most of the other commerce is based out of Vancouver except for Eibisu Biomechanics in Boise and Kyuushi Medical in Spokane.

Re: Gaeatronics

Yup, my mistake.

Re: Universal Omnitech

UniOmni has a pretty good working relationship with Aztechnology, does it not? Are there any documented instances in the books that detail any joint ventures the two have taken?

Had.

System Failure has more info. Aztech also owns Genetique, which is IIRC a competitor of UO's and is based in the AMC.

Jea, but Thomas Roxborough was probably one of thair most extensive joint ventures. Ah, I like that old Blob .

Back in the old days, when evil villains really had charisma... sort of.

As long as we're on the topic of Seattle / Salish here is a link back to a previous topic http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=11450

Does Salish-Shidhe's poverty stat include people who go back-to-the-trees? And does the fact that its poverty level's lower than the UCAS's despite not having as much megacorporate affiliation mean that the good guys are winning?

NOOOO, The good guys may never win, they just get a headstart, so everyone is fealing save! Muhaha, MUAHAHA, MUAHAHAHAHAHAR

Okay... but they ARE doing better. Can just about anyone move there?

It's not impossible for an anglo without corporate affection to move to tribal country. Ol' Dirk Montgomery moved to Cheyenne, though I'm not sure how he did it. I guess if you're SINless, all you have to do is make it across the border and avoid authorities.

<edit> Off course, if you're SINless you have no use for lower poverty levels. Then you want big hordes of dirt poor scumbags to hide among, and lots of high and mighty fat cats to rob blind.

I'm sure it's possible to do without corporate sponsorship, but you still probably have to convince the Tribal Goverment that including you in the nation will be beneficial. This is probably extremely difficult for a runner without a SIN and work history or with a Criminal SIN and an extensive rap sheet to do.

Part of it was my interpretation of Emo Sam's question too. Obviously if you're going illegally noe of what I wrote is relevant. But he did ask if just anyone could move there, which I took to mean a legal relocation by a normal person, not a runner or smuggler on the sly.

I figured that too. We're propably on the same page.

The Salish has ports, resource industries, food production, tourism (skiing), med-tech, and massive energy production.
It is pretty much what the northwest is now, minus the Seattle metroplex. So, they export the resources and energy for heavy industries and cities in the surrounding nations. So, in spite of their relatively low population compared to other places, they do have a bit of a monopoly on the juice you need to run your home. Their economic sanctions have some weight, but it would hurt them too.
They also dedicate a big chunk of their sizable tax revenue sources to maintaining SotA defenses. And even though I think of the Salish a lot like I think of present-day friendly-neighbor Canada, they are no pushovers when it comes to protecting what they have. Sorta like present day Canada... The US and Canada fought once a long time ago. The US lost. Most people forget that.

I figure Seattle is where they kicked all the pure-whites and others they didn't want in their new country. So, I would imagine they cleaned out a lot of criminal elements by just claiming they didn't meet heritage requirements (whether true or not). So, Seattle got all the crap, and the Salish kept all the best people they wanted. They adopted the mixed cultural traditions of the NAN, strong nationalism, and a strong economic foundation.

It's the perfect breeding ground for neo-native fascism. They've also inherited the Tsimshan Nation's woes by 2070, so their economy has some backlash to recover from. (And a lot of people who would find comfort in becoming native-nazis.) So, as far as being a vacation spot for shadowrunners to retire or blend in, it's a lot worse than Seattle. The reasons I've already mentioned. Their low population means that it's a lot harder to just assume a fake identity, because your data trail is a lot more obviously abrupt then normal folks. Everybody tends to know each other moreso than a huge mixed up metroplex, so being a stranger in town isn't gonna fly. And, as a NAN nation with military elements left over who were trained by Ghost Dancers, their awakened and magical forces, detection, and defenese are probably at a much higher ratio than most other countries.

It would be a nice place to visit. But, you wouldn't want to live there. Especially when a police shaman gives you an aura reading and sees you're cybered up the wazoo, or one of those hermetic pukes.

(The Salish seem like they could be a lot like the present day locations, but things can change tremendously in a couple of generations.)

So the NAN is where the SR universe breaks from Gibson's Sprawl, in which the back-to-the-forest people win, but don't create a world that's really any better than the corps'?

"Better" is always a matter of opinion. You've basically got all the luxuries of an industrial world but a much more eco-friendly system (yay fusion!).

"Utopia" is almost never what most people think it is but seems to be the inevitable goal for most governments. The Salish Sidhe, at least in the SR1/2 supplements, was quite a bit more relaxed on the weapons stance (having been recently oppressed does that), pro individual magic use, and less invasive of the individual. On the flip side, they seemed to feel that since the rules were a bit laxer in general that crossing the line deserved a righteous wuppin' and tribes had a lot of flexibility in how to do that.

I can't say what's gone on since about 2060 (I pretty much ignored the later SR3 supplements since none of my GMs were using them) but I doubt the Salish have gone too much farther into the invasion of privacy. After all, they're only about 60 years out from the internment camps.

Other NaN countries were a bit more...uptight but I think the Salish was a decently balanced setting.

The Tsimshian homeland has collapsed completely and I'm thinking that the Tsimshian tribe still has guerilla groups fighting the Haida token gouvernment installed by the Tribal Council.

A lot of Tsimshians will want to flee to the more prosperous annexing country. These fugetives, unless Haida, will not be welcomed by common people in Salish. There was a lot of hateful propaganda in the long lasting war between the countries. Salish people feel that Tshimshians are evil, polluting, murdering people. On a street level, I'm thinking this can mean tribal gang war in cities that has drawn significant amounts of fugetives.


Another thing that is worth noting is the very liberal laws on organic drugs. Just about everything that is grown from the ground is ok. This means a lot of smuggling, but it also means looser strings on the chemical corporations. Kyuusei Medical in Spokane is said to develop a lot of magical drugs that find their way to the smuggling routes some way.