Ok, I'm relatively new to Shadowrun. Not to RPGs, though. Well, anyway, I got the SR books a year or two ago, some stuff happened, and now I'm actually using them, and oh yeah, I joined this community, but only recently started posting. In any case, I see a lot of stuff I have no idea about. Like, people. So, I have some questions that I hope someone gives me a rundown of, or points me to a site that will tell me. Actually, I guess its really only one question.

1) Who is Harlequin, and what did he do? Same question I guess for other names, like...FastJack, and Anubis, and such and such...

Answers would be nice, and a more descriptive thread title would help you get them faster.
For your question: Harlequin is an Immortal Elf, the Last Knight of the Crying Spire, and the most powerful metahuman mage in existence. FastJack is the best decker in existence and the creator of the Black Hammer utility. Anubis I don't remember offhand, everyone else you'll need to name specifically.

~J

Harlequin would be an immortal elf, and possibly the most powerful magician (Dragons aside) on the face of the earth.

FastJack is a decker from SR1 and is still going strong. Possibly the best next to good ol' Cap.

Its really just general curiousity about big names in SR, that aren't really mentioned in the core book, and such and so forth....don't really need to know anything. As for the thread title...I suck at making those, ok?

Voorhees, don't be bothered by Kagetenshi, those are exactly the sort of remarks you can expect from a DSF'er, we all suffer heavily from intellectual arrogance...and if you can't hack a comment like that, then wait until you meet Doctor Funkenstein!

Harlequin was indeed an immortal elf, and quite possibly the most powerful mage in the world. Immortal elves, in case you didn't know yet, are elves that lived before the sixth world began and magic came back to the world. You can read more about the cycles of magic in this short story by one of the creators of Shadowrun. Harlequin was one such immortal elf, having lived over thousands and thousands of years. To know more about him, try and find the Harlequin adventure, or the Harlequin's Back adventure, or any of the novels he appears in, like House of the Sun, or Worlds Without End. For more information on Immortal Elves I suggest checking out the Tir Tairngire sourcebook, or the Never Trust an Elf novel.

Fastjack is indeed one of the oldest, most well respected deckers in the Sixth World, and indeed the creator of the Black Hammer utility. He gets used in flavour material a lot, but doesn't actually come to the forefront very prominently, I think. The only place that I remember him mentioned outside of a Shadowtalk post, is in Target: Matrix and Renraku Arcology: Shutdown as one of the defenders of Shadowland.

Anubis, if I'm not mistaken, is one of the admins at the Nexus, the undisputed king of data havens, of which Shadowland is a member. But I could very well be mistaken, since Anubis isn't really a well thought out character in Shadowrun.

Any more you'd like to know about?

If he is referring to the Anubis in Target: Matrix (p. 83). He is a Russian Matrix Assassin specializing in killing people while in the Matrix. If that isn't the one then I don't know.

I do not suffer from intellectual arrogance! I enjoy every minute of it!

~J

Eh? I'm used to you assholes sniping me. I just think it's interesting that in doing so, you're acting exactly the same way you're accusing me of acting (nevermind that it's usually in threads I'm not even participating in at the time or in reference to someone else acting like an ass). Hence hypocrisy.

I'm in pain and I wanna share!
And regarding thread titles, this one might've been better as "Who are..., identifying SR bigwigs" or "Who's who of the Shadows, help for a newbie".

~J

Edited to remove apparent condescension

Check Ancient History's website, for tons of SR information. The guy knows his stuff.

This is why a large rock of some sorts should crash into the earth.

And didn't someone write a lengthy article on the DS-Archive as Anubis? I remember reading it a long time ago, it was pretty cool.

All these cheap shots and responses to cheap shots are unappreciated. Remember Bill and Ted's rule: Be excellent to each other!

And don't forget to "PARTY ON DUDE!!!"

*kills self*

Who cares about an HVAR when I found a prototype Ares MP-Laser that works off of oxygen!

*also finds a man-portable version of an Ares Vaporizer railgun in his left pocket* Oh, hell yeah. Mine.

Wouldn't it vaporize itself, then? Then you because you're holding it, then the molecules around you... So on and so forth...

Anti-matter bad.

Nah, comments don't get me down. I've been around the net block a few times. And I've been lurking here a while, posting here and there. I'm in a couple pbps here, in fact. As I said before just information about subtextual things in SR. Like, who are all those people that were talked about in the "Favourite NPC Decker" thread?

Fastjack: already covered.
Dodger: Elf (spike baby? I've forgotten...), paramour of Morgan and then Megaera, has Otakuesque abilites due to having grandfathered from the days when any decker could "deck naked".
Slamm-O: the best ork decker you've never met. He's a punk, and an annoying one at that.
Smiling Bandit: All-around best-informed on genetics and biotechnology.
Silvery K: I don't remember my Target: Matrix well enough for her.
Grid Reaper: Ghoul decker. Mmm, HMHVV.
Red Wraith: newly Otakuized at advanced (for Otaku) age.
Pax: Otaku, former leader of the Whites under Deus. Messed up in the head. Currently on her own, pursuing the path of the "dissonance".
Captain Chaos: need I say more?
Rache Bartmoss: I have no idea.
Spider Murphey: I also have no idea.

~J

Is Slamm-O that guy in the Matrix section of the SR3 book, with the flaming hair and baseball bat?

Rache Bartmoss and Spider Murphy are locals from Cyberpunk.

-Siege

Have I mentioned that I haven't had enough sleep recently?
Sorry 'bout that one...

~J

That's cool. I probably should have used this smiley though (even though it's no longer green!).