The beginning of the Scourge in the Sixth World would be around 4100AD? (This magic upcycle began 2011AD, duration= +/- 5000 years, Scourge= +/- 800 year period in the middle) Has there been any references to that in SR novels, sourcebooks, adventures,... (not ED)? Anyone preparing (searching blood magic alternatives), trying to find the Horrors, ...? The weird spirits in the Deep Metaplanes, Street Magic refers to, are they the Horrors?

Horrors may cover some of the deep metaplanar spirits.

Proteus AG seem to have been doing the most scourge preparation, and a lot of Dunkie's Will could cover scourge useful stuff. Both Tir's have or have been working on a magical ward to protect their borders...

There has been quiet a bit of preparation.

I think Grinder of the Red Hot Nukes has a cunning plan to explode them.

He saw something once. Once.

Plus remember that even if you believe that the Mana Cycles are roughly the same length (Remember that even in the 4th Age they couldn't understand why the Mana Level seemed to 'level out' during 'Earthdawn'.) the 6th Age's Mana Cycle was sped up right from the start with the Great Ghost Dance, and I don't even want to venture a guess at the damage caused by the maniplution of Astral Space that Big D allowed to happen down in Aztlan.


So in theory everything is so messed up that I seriously doubt that anyone really knows when the Scourge could start anymore. (Of course Big D wandering around the metaplanes might help level things out some, if you believe that is his real plan.)

Horror Mark? What makes you think that we'd be lucky enough for him to only have been Marked?

Wind River Corp based out of Laramie in the Sioux lands. SONA p 136.

They are conducting an underground agriculture project called Shoshoni Hydroponics farm. It covers 20k sq km and is tended by over a thousand drones. It is free from insects, diseases, and adverse weather and is able to generate 10 harvests a year including tropical produce such as pineapples and saffron. They are also planning 4 other farms (which would have been finished in 2068 plus whatever backlash from the Crash 2.0).

Looks like someone out there is working on advancing kaer technology into the modern age.

As to refernces about the Horrors and such in SR. There was mention of it in Threats (section about Mr. Drake). Some linking to the fact that blood magic has been speeding things up. Can't recall all the times that is talked about but it does get into the whole issue in the Dragon Heart Saga.

There will be no hiding this time.

The Draco Foundation is definitely preparing for it. All you have to do is check out some of Dunkelzahn's bequests, especially on AH's annotated will. The Atlantean Foundation as well as the various Elf nations are probably preparing as well, though I doubt they think it's as big of an immediate problem as Dunkelzahn did and are more worried about their own little problems. Laughing Man aka Harlequin has a personal investment in fighting the Horrors.

Basically the trend is they're coming earlier than was previously thought, but that technology will be a great weapon against them. Especially the Matrix as, aside from the Resonance, magic flat out doesn't work on the Matrix and therefore spirits can't go there. It's an entire world that the human race can exist in but that the Horrors can't touch.

There's a lot of info on this in the Dragonheart Trilogy or whatever it's called, then there's House of the Sun I believe, the last novel by Nigel Findley...there's some info in the Aztlan sourcebook...and of course the adventure series Harlequin's Back...oh, and World's Without End...

The Abstruse One

What do you think Emergence is about? JK

What about the Yama Kings of Hong Kong? I'm none too familiar with Earthdawn, but a creature that promises great wealth for beggars in return for the hearts of fourty-four friends seems pretty horror-like to me.

There's also Aztechnology, and the mana insanity of Hong Kong. There's some serious mojo at the Evo building, it would appear.

One thing to consider for either how soon it happens and defense. Is there are ALOT more people on earth in 2070 then in earthdawn. Not as much if that virus hadn't wiped out a couple billion. But still quite a bit. Isn't mana levels in some ways dependent on the amount of life
For example don't a few orbital stations have some mana present due to the population living on board.

So by the time the scourge comes around they'll have far greater numbers to contend with. And a good chance of not only advance technology, but more magicians then before
And don't forget those survivors from the 4th age who've been planning for the next scourge.

Now here's an idea, perhaps mana levels die out partially because the horrors come along and kill nearly everybody and everything. The horrors finally leave because they've wiped so much life.


And of course you have Strain III which may kill of a bunch of horrors.
And piss of the strong ones really really bad.

Maybe they can merge MADS with FAB 3.

I dont have the sourcebooks at hands at the moment, but who designed the FAB materia ?
Actually it could have been done exactly in that purpose ...
The horrors come at every high mana cycle.
They will always come, at each cycle.
Some day it will be them or us, so some solution must be found.
So how to get rid definately of horrors ?
Kill them all ? its not possible, they are all powerfull.
Dragons, Therans, Elves couldnt fight them, how could mundanes do it ?
So the only solution would be to end the magic cycle at once : that's right, you destroy magic, once and for all. Definately.
End of times or end of magic ?
If someone like Dunky had created (or at least funded) such research, then it could clearly have been his final objective, or at least some kind of ace in the hole : destroy magic !

Question, what happens when you find out after releasing the virus that almost everyone is Horror Marked from eating that new brand of candybars that came out last year?

Or that one of the AAA is really run by Bonecrown?

Or when Artifacer gets its mitts into the Matrix and all of the wonderful techology that humanity is devolping for it.

Yeah, we can only hope that Big D was wrong and that metahumanity will be able to find a deep enough hole to hide in again, otherwise we are so boned.

For some reason I see the future of Shadowrun mirroring FASA's BattleTech/MechWarrior universe.

I'd expect to see some people putting some minor but constant amount of R&D funds into an extreme tech project with results expected in a couple hundred years.