So, there's a lot of events in shadowrun that seem pretty weird, and I think the reason is that I've never read any ED books nor gdo I have any knowledge of it. The thing is, there's a lot of stuff that I'd like to get clarified.

Mystery no. 1: What's the deal between immortal elves and dragons? Why do they generally hate each other?

Mystery no. 2: Assuming mystery no. 1 is correct, why did Lofwyr have a seat in the council of Princes, and later Hestaby?

Mystery no. 3: What's that spirit in the Tunguska, assuming it came with the meteor, which, IIRC Harlequin had something to do with?

Mystery no. 4: What's the reason for the secrecy of the IE's, is it just to maintain their power? There's no greater agenda?

Some of you might find all this obvious, but the fact remains that a lot of going-ons in shadowrun have more or less to do with ED-history.

1) Ex-slaves tend to hold grudges against their former masters for irrationally long times. even moreso when it's not "my ancestor was a slave of your ancestor" but "I was your slave, 7000 years ago and I'm still ticked"
2) #1 does not preclude them from being manipulative back-stabbers and aid accross the lines of arbitrary hatred for a greater personal benefit
3) He was tossing a rock without enough mana
4) As long as humans think they are just eves, they are still similar enough not to be slaughtered. Humanity is very good at banding together against things that are different from them, and spending an entire downcycle watching humans come up with reasons to slaughter each other will result in a fair bit of secrecy.

This is a great reference compiled by Ancient History.

http://ancientfiles.dumpshock.com/Shadowru...o_Earthdawn.htm

It doesn't say much about who was slave to whom. Was any particular immortal elf enslaved to any particular dragon?

Don't listen to the Herald of Verjigorm. He's the enemy! It says so right in his name! They are lies ! All lies! It's all just part of the IE cabal's conspiracy to discredit dragons so that they don't join forces with the Drop Bears!

Damn you Herald! Daaaaaaaammmmnnnn yoooooooooouuuuuuuuu!!!!!!

I must admit I always suspected most of them being linked with Alamaise, due to the stuff mentioned in Bloodwood's history.

The Earthdawn Dragons book implies a familial relationship.

There is a slight difference between Dragonkin and immortals. Dragonkin were longer lives than others of their metatypes but were mortal. The original Immortal Elves were probably dragonkin elves who were subjected to lost magic rituals.

Okay, more questions (will they ever end?)

Mystery no. 5: What reason would Harlequin or Ehran have for slaying Dunkelzahn? I know either one of them did it, but in the short story thay asked each other if they had done it. And, furthermore, if they didn't do it, and it was none of the other immortal elves, then who did?

Mystery no. 6: It's obvious that Lofwyr's motive for his action is to gain power, but to me Dunkie was kinda of a hippie, wanting to make the world a better place, or was this just skillful pr? So the question is, do the dragons or immortal elves have some special motives beyond power? As an example I'd like to give Hualpa, whose actions to me seem also sincere, as the takeover of Amazonia had in my opinion maybe the greatest single effect to the world, ahter awakening of course, since without the revival of the rainforests all would've gone to hell. But I'm not naive enough to believe that he/she didn't also crave for power. But still.

5

6 Dunk believed that dragons should rule the world, and firmly believed in a Lords responsibility to improve that which he was Lord over.

Sort of like the enlighted monarch/dictator concept of our world's past...

6. That, and he wanted to covertly prepare metahumanity for the Scourge, an event that lasts for several hundred years around the peak of the mana cycle when the Horrors (spirits who feed on pain, suffering, and destruction) swarm the planet and destroy virtually everything in their path.

Also remember that Dunkie wanted to reveal the whole ED/Horrors/Magic Cycle/IE ball of wax, and had already revealed alot on TV. This is something that the other Dragons/IEs thought was a Bad Idea and they were already considering knocking him off before he revealed too much.

^Ahh, thank you, some things make that much more sense now.

Mystery no. 7: The Atlantean Foundation. Now it seems pretty obvious that immortal elves run this organization, and it's also pretty clear that everyone's keen to find ancient artifacts and what not, but are these guys looking for something big, something specific, like the Atlantis? Or did such a thing ever exist?

Mystery no. 8: Mars. Dunkie left the fotos in his will, are these structures made in some connection to the 4th world? Or is Dunkie's interest purely and understandably curious, like it probably is to every being on the planet, extraterrestrial life that is.

Mystery no. 9: The Tir-conspiracy. I know certain things in the Tirs' culture, such as the Ways, elven court and so on, bear resemblance to the things in ED, but are the locations of the Tirs' in some connection to the previous age of magic? Or did they just randomly choose where to found these nations?

9 Sorry for skipping 8 and 7 but I know some of this one. The elves first choice for a location would have been the old site of Wyrmwood(Bloodwood after the scourge). However last time Halleys comet came over it got slightly irradiated.

Chernobyl is russian for wormwood, and Barsaive is the southern Ukraine. The reactor is I think fairly close to the location of the Old forest heart. I do wonder who fiddled that little trick.

Who fumbled the trick? That's easy - Soviet workers who were fuckin' round with what they shoulden't have fucked with in ways they shoulden't have fucked.

Not every huge disaster needs be Horror or Immortal-Elf or Dragon-related. Some things, like WWII and Chernobyl, can be just a pure coincidence, no? And that Wormwood thing is a bad translation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_accident


Besides, that story is scary and creepy enough without bringing the supernatural into it. But then, you can also adapt it for your Sixth World.

What happened in the Alienation Zone during the Awakening? Well, the answer is.... Nobody knows. Even if the USSR didn't collapse in '91 like it did IRL, they were hurting bad, and busy worrying about things like Siberia spontaniously deciding it wanted to be Awakened, and shedding the hammer and sickle. With all that going on, they weren't watching the Alienation zone... And that place is a Bad Thing waiting to happen. Who knows what could be inside the Zone, soaking in the one-two punch of radioactivity and mana? Well, for starters there's a whole bunch of horses and wild animals they released back into the zone, a few stubborn holdouts (though these are probably dead by 2011, let alone 2050, 2060 and 2070.

Also, of course... The Soviets left the bodies of the emergency workers who died on-site, inside the sarcophagus. Master Shedim, anyone? Not to mention that place is probably a toxic spirit playground.

For Mystery #8, my completely not-AH opinion says that Big D was curious too, and he wanted to know what was out there.

Yei thank you guys, a lot. Still, some questions left.

Mystery no. 10: Darke. Yes, I've read Threats, but who is this guy really? An immortal? Servant of the Horrors? What was his connection with Aztechnology really?

Mystery no. 11: Oscuro. I see this name popping up from time to time, but really haven't found out much about him. Is there anything mystical about this dude? Somehow I've got the feeling that he's connected to the azzies too, but have no idea how. Also, I've somehow got the feeling that he's also got something to do with the Horrors, true or not?

Mystery no. 12: The Horrors. If the Aztlaners are that keen on the Horrors like it seems, are there some immortals, elves or dragons, running the game from the top of the pyramid? Or how is it that a half-century old corp can even know about the Horrors? IF there is some being telling them about the Horrors and guiding them towards that direction, is this the same "dude" that has taught the blood magic? I remember reading somewhere that Tzitzimine was a concept in the ancient Aztec culture that could refer to the Horrors. If this is so, does the newly "revived" Aztec culture have some sort of base from the 4th world?

And please tell me if I'm getting too greedy about the info
And great thanks again for the info you've shared so far.

10) A man who make a pact with something much meaner than himself.

11) See #10

12) Mostly they just learned the joys of blood magic and were told (by Darke or others) "this is even better than blood spirits."

Aztechnology: Ignorantly charging full-steam ahead where no magician, mortal or otherwise, should tread.