Worldwide there are about a billion muslims. But the NIJ didn't pull down all the male Muslims on Earth nor even half that. The most Muslims on Earth live in Indonesia, followed by Pakistan, followed by India, followed by Bangladesh. The Indonesians spend most of their time in the Sixth World getting smacked around by the Nippon Empire. So if they participated in a Militant Jihad at all, they wouldn't be sacking Europe. The other countries on that list are in the South Asian pestilence zone and won't be contributing much to a European Jihad either.

Then we get to the countries like Egypt, Nigeria, and Turkey which have literally tens of millions of Muslims. That's not going to crest a hundred million man invasion force, let alone five hundred million. But a million is actually pretty reasonable. Not that a million would conquer Europe, but it could quite plausibly roll through the Balkans and shell Wien before getting turned back by European forces. And that's all the Shadowrun timeline calls for.

---

Now as far as population statistics, the 2050s population statistics said that there were like 70% humans,with the lion's share of the rest being Elves and Orks. Dwarfs and Trolls were by far the minority, with just a few percent between them. Obviously, Dwarves and Trolls were not half of their respective formation events.

Now between 2013 and 2050, a majority of the people alive before 2013 died. So having about ~20% of the children born come up elves would more than cover the predicted 12-14% elf population. And between 2050 and 2070, one would expect the metahuman population percentages to continue to rise. Regardless of whether more humans were having metahuman children, the fact is that there's a block of humans born in the late 20th century who aren't elves or dwarfs, and they die off over time. By 2070, I would expect a human population that was about 65% of the total merely on those adjustments.

Note that humans have to continue giving birth to Elves and Dwarfs well into the 2040s. From then on, Elves and Dwarfs can seriously just be a perpetuating subspecies giving birth to their own kind with their own womens. For Goblinization to take hold it wouldn't have to happen more than once. After all, the people who goblinized were already of child-bearing age and could have just made new baby orks straight away. But we also know that goblinization didn't stop. So having a world population of orks in the 14% percent range by 2050 is extremely easy to imagine. That might be low even.

-Frank

I think the SR world would adapt to trolls because it HAS to, and because it is more adaptable than today's world.

Trolls are at least 1% of the population, and have been for a long time. That's enough that all their personal needs would be well covered by specialty stores (in densely populated areas) and "mail order" (you gotta figure net based shopping and drone delivery is HUGE in 2050+). Somebody is gonna make money of this customer base- perhaps some business minded trolls, even.

That largely leaves architecture and transportation. Transportation can adapt through offering troll specific models, custom shops, and vehicles designed with adaptable controls. With advances CAD / CAM manufacturing and the fact tha many veheicles are essentially "drive by wire", its not much of a stretch to expect that any vehicle a troll can get into, would at least have the potential to be adapted for troll use as an option / customization, if not as part of its built in adjustability (fold the seats away into wall and belt yourself right to the pad on the floor, big boy!)

As to construction, lets not forget that while a large portion of trolls are SINless, an unusually large portion are probably also sports celebrities, body guards to highly visible (and perhaps politically influential) public figures, or heavy laborers. New construction is going to take those trolls into account; the former two because they have a (perceived) need for access, the last because they built the place and thus it needs to be suited to them moving about in it. Older buildings might be a problem, but at least a portion of them (especially the commercial ones) would be adapted to some extent. Plus you have old buildings (such as warehouses) that are already likely suitable for use by a population that includes trolls, and which get re-purposed; in a world with drone delivery and 100% paperless data storage, who needs a downtown warehouse any more?

I disagree with pretty much everything Mongoose has just said, and my reasons have been made clear in preceeding posts. However, the part about troll bodyguards really gets to me. Trolls are not especially desireable as bodyguards by the rich and famous as they really are not discreet nor especially effective compared to the competion. Those hits in Charisma and - especiually - Intuition hurt a bodyguard a lot more than a boost in Body and Strength will help. As for sports stars - sure they'll be big superstars, but just because you cheer for them on the field doesn't mean you want them in your classy club.

Happydaze: You forget that many people WANT their security to be highly visible and intimidating. Its a status symbol to have security, thus while discreet and professional 'transparent' security is valued by those who merely want protection, visible and excessive security is valued by those who don't really need it, but want to look like they do.

And you don't get much more visible than a troll.

Yes, in the modern day security world, common sense and people skills are the primary hiring criteria for the vast majority of venues. My father has worked for well over a decade at the Minneapolis Convention Center and more recently the Minneapolis Central Library and he is not a large man. My dad is a valued employee in 2007 Minneapolis because he accepts that he may be required to act as an information desk, mediator or authority figure on a case by case basis. And even more informal security clients such as clubs make it clear to their employees that ideally their intervention will be unnecessary and that they are to avoid raising a fuss. But you know what? 2007 Minneapolis isn't very Shadowrun. I love my dad and all, but he's got more points in the Influence group than in Firearms, and if he was ordered to gun down a rampaging troll hopped up on Nitro (it's Ares property baby, fire at will!), I don't think he'd do so well. Our world is a kinder, gentler place than the 2070s; people skills will still be needed in the Sixth World but you can also bet your ass that there's going to be some security teams and bodyguard outfits there willing to make room for 300 kilos of ornery muscle on the payroll. Hell, Runner Havens cheerfully talks about how it's not uncommon for corps to hire the biggest, meanest gangers and squatters as extra security guards for facilities out in the Barrens.

A good model for how sports teams/players are4 handled, I'd suggest watching the original RollerBall with James Caan.

and i repeat: TROLLZ IZ NOT STOOPID!
Trolls are slower in thinking/learning and not quite as attentive, maybe. That's basically reflected by the ammount of knowledge skills and language skill-points one got in SR3 depending on the int Stat. But they are not plain stupid. .

That's only being fair if a Shadowtalker calls out such an extreme exaggeration—otherwise the question is whether there was complete failure to do any sanity-checking, or if it's simply a case of astoundingly bad writing (insofar as it breaks any form of credibility that none of the loudmouths would speak up about something that big).

~J

Found the book ...

I think blame still falls on someone, but "someone" just changed to the editor. Thanks for the quotes.

~J

And, of course, no discontinuity in fluff would ever be deliberate would it? Go back to the SR3 boards Kage.

true, but more kids means you've got more people who can bash that other family over the head with a tire iron and steal their food, more people who can take turns watching the entrance(s) to the building you're squatting in to make sure ghouls don't kill you, more people to rummage through garbage to find food, and (this is a dystopia) more children you can basically sell into slavery (either working in a corp factory or in a bunraku parlor etc).

keep in mind, the lack of social security also comes hand-in-hand with a lack of controls on child labor laws and such things.

Just going to toss this out here. Five hundred million Muslims mobilizing for war doesn't necessarily mean Five hundred million AK toting fanatics swarming across Europe. It could very well mean the mentioned five million invading Europe while the rest wrestle with the colossal task of supporting five million fighting men hundreds of miles away.
Just like saying all of America mobilized for war after Pearl Harbor doesn't mean every American was grabbing a rifle and marching off to fight the Japanese.

A bit late, but to show the size difference: Here's a link to a picture of a 2.7 meter tall troll and a 1.8 meter tall ork.

(The Tusks should be bigger, and the skin rougher - it shows the size nicely though.)

that orc does not look 1.8m tall . .

The base model for both is the same, M3. I took that to be 150 cm (arbitrally), and enlarged the ork to 120%, the troll to 180%. So, they are the right size in relation to each other - and to the enviroment.

(Here's a Link to average-sized Troll, Ork, Human and Elf (250, 190, 175 und 190 cm).

Is there a way to adjust the builds without altering the height? The elf needs to have a lighter build while the ork and the troll both need heavier builds.

The size difference looks a great deal more dramatic in the first picture (1.8m vs 2.7m), I think because its greater than in the second (1.9 vs 2.5) and also because the ork in the first one is crouching a little. But its still a difference of roughly half again as big in the first one, and about a quarter again as big in the second. A few things:

1) Yeah, those might be the prettiest troll and ork combo out there, but that's okay. A guy moves to LA, he might get some skin treatments and have the tusks filed down a bit. Or maybe they're just naturally pretty. (If I and Adriana Lima are members of the same species-- and I'm assuming we are, although I still think she might be a space alien-- then those two might represent the high end of pretty for orks and trolls. The elf and the human are pretty hot themselves, but what, no dwarf? What are you, a racist?)

2) The first picture would make a great trid movie poster. Trog Justice or By Any Means Necessary. I leave that to the marketing department. (That looks a lot like a CP2020 pulse rifle that troll is holding, by-the-by.) One's a cop on the edge who plays by his own rules. The other is a 2.7 meter tall horned vigilante who collects antiques. They fight crime.

Well, like I said he is crouching a bit, making the troll look twice as tall rather than half again as tall. Of course, its not like trolls being fucking giants was ever really in contention. Its not like we've been playing for years with 5' tall trolls and someone looked it up in the book the other day and said, "Holy shit, these guys are like 8-10' tall. How is that possible?"