I don't recall it saying that!

They're already brainwashing everyone and everything that holds still long enough to BE brainwashed.

Certainly. Then again, we only know the name and nothing else...if you want to be really paranoid, do we actually know that the Theresa who went into rehab is the same one who ran away into the arms of her six-legged friends?


It says the rift is deepening and might allow some things from astral space to cross over into our world, not that it allows access to the deep metaplanes or even beyond...at least not for the near future.


Or maybe it doesn't have anything to do with The Enemy and Wuxing just secured a strategic positio. People used to build towns where important trade routes crossed, now the big players in the magic scene set up shop where mana lines cross.


40k has dragons? Well, I knew the universe has immortal space elves, so...



In general I find some of your ideas (like Renraku Arc being a Caer prototype) highly interesting, but IMO you are concentrating too much on interpreting a sinister plot by The Enemy into everything. There is more than one conspiracy going on in SR...and even those which might be connected to sinister things from far out do not neccessarily have to support them. Sure, strong magic does attract Horrors, but as the Dragonheart and Harlequin have shown it can also put them in their place.

Yes, we do.


It's one of the Necron deities. 40K surely also has dragons though, just make them a Xeno species with strong psychic abilities. The really weird stuff is in the necrons, though.


I am not. I said Aztech and possibly Wuxing suffer from a Horrors infestation. Not saying they are linked (the Horrors are individualists, not a grand army of hell). And other corps, like Ares and it'S Bug Problem, have different horrible things happening.

Pity Schockwellen never was translated, it went into great depths with the whole idea that arcologies are caers. Proteus', granted, but Raku's arc was very, very similar in conception to Proteus' Arcoblocks.

I don't really think Wuxing suffers from a Horror infestation, but they do have a creepy partnership with Aztechnology going. There are numerous references to back-room deals made between the two corps and at least one of those deals involved the exchange of Wuxing's knowledge of geomancy for Aztechnology's knowledge of blood magic.

Elements within Wuxing might be. As with Aztech, though not as widespread.

Personally that's I think the saving grace of the megacorps, their huge enough that short of literary device it's unlikely that they'd all fall to any single conspiracy. Hell even aztechnology the poster child for enemy toe hold in this world has signifigant members of the inner circle who disapprove of blood magic and it's associated issues. It is entirely possible that some of these issues are compartmentalized, it's entirely possible that Knight is aware who and what his head of magical R&D is and has chosen to watch it or work with it always having a set of highly competent and trusted shadowrunners on speed dial to take care of the issue or a firewatch team if he decides to be unsubtle about it.

Did someone do a DNA check? Maybe Ares snatched her and replaced her with a double, if you want conspiracies everywhere...


...and except for the Azzies dealing with the enemy those are only conjecture. Wuxing infested by Horrors? Maybe, or maybe they are using the artifact inherited from Big zo fight the horrors, or they could just use the jackload of mana for something completely different


Hmm, I only remember that Nachtmeister had a lot of interest in the arc projects...which again could mean anything, dragon plans are rarely straighforward or philanthropic.

Of course he does. But that never, ever works.


Uhm ... you have no idea of the Dirk Montgomery story, do you?I'm not saying this as an affront, only to point out it seems to me you are unaware of key facts of it, like that she became a bug far before she became attached to Ares, which is an integral part of this character's story. And no, you can not switch a bug spirit for a cloned double agent, because said agent would not be a bug.


Horrors are not cheesy Buffyverse demons who appear when called. Horrors are abyeffect of strong magic. You cannot have one without the other. Daniel Coleman could not, Aina DuPree could not, the Therans could not, the Dragons could not, and neither can the megas. It's an integral part of the canon lore.


Proteus build survivable, sealed, autonomous and heavily warded arcologies and sought to reopen the lost human space habitats. Proteus also owned a habitat themselves. Proteus gengineered humans adapted to life in space entirely.

All those ventures make zero business sense. Proteus had little in the money making department too. Proteus lived off (vast) amounts of mones two megas, three second tier eurocorps, a host of PPG corps, a Great and several lesser dragons poured into it for the sole role of building caer-ish habitats. Seems they were not eager to pay in blood for whoever found the Books of Harrow this time.

Why not? Have we truly become so tropified that we can't even conceive another possibility? Is the enemy literally so skilled that they always win if you don't kill it with fire and so implacable and unified in their evilness that some sort of workign relationship couldn't be reached. I mean lets not sell Knight short, he is arguably the worlds smartest man and possibly the most powerful non-dragon on the planet. I would be rather disapointed if we went to the whole beyond your ken route with this.

Firstly, Bugs are not the Enemy. Bugs are a different awakened threat.

Secondly, spirits are really damn hard to contain. Bug infestation is incredibly hard to control. And you also have to contend with bug shamans or queen spirits who call these lesser worker spirits Knight seems to think is a good idea having around.

That is a venture that is very likely to spiral out of control. It is enormously risky and has few and limited benefits. If Knight really is so intelligent, he must have a plan, and whatever that is, since it involves a large scale bug infestation, it cannot be good.

Maybe Knight himself has been bugged? At least some bug spirits can planeswalk. Nothing can stop them unless you always have sentries with their weapons at the ready and special bug killer ammo on hand.

But only after she was send to rehab. The hypothetical conspiracy would go like this
1.) Ares collects people who had a close brush with the bugs
2.) They learned of Theresa and swapped the real one for a double to avoid suspicion
3.) The one Dirk sees in company of the bug shaman is fake

Not that I believe this, just saying that the answer might not always be "evil spirits from the metaplanes"



In case of mana warps and mana lines (Ring of Fire, Australia, Britain) you obviously can. And like I said, several rituals of great magic have been used AGAINST the horrors, so even if we assume the whole shebang is connected to creepy things from another world, we don't know what side Wuxing is on.


Or from outside the universe: SR is not a one-trick pony. Horrors are great story devices, but not behind everything.

Yes. I never said that? Sometimes there are, for instance, Invae. Which is what you responded to in the very same post. That is a bit ... incoherent.


The british Ley have never been fully activated, nor has the Ring of Fire. Also, those are large areas where the Mana has a lesser 'density' than if focused in a small spot of immense power, like the crossing of five ley line, or one of the world's navels or whatever the white rock and crater lake are. That cannot be compared. Tibet might, but then again we have no idea what is going on there. Maybe the cloud is not to keep something out - bit something contained?


And what about her precious bodily fluids?

Sorry, that is so far out there I refuse to consider this.

Uh, great. Sometimes the force behind everything is not a magical menace from the deepest metaplanes, but a magical menace from the deepest metaplanes. Maybe add some hostile aliens who will crush us once [stuff happens]?

In terms of plot devices they are all the same and get boring real soon.


Especially the RoF, which is somehow connected to the dragon lines, saw some pretty heavy manipulations. So far without too many horrors coming through, maybe mana follows the old "nature = good, artifical = evil" cliche..

The only thing they have in common is that they're magical threats. And if you had bothered to read my posts above, I have said that Aztech (Horrors) and Ares (Invae) are the most 'evil' corps, the other megas being somewhat lesser evil and in vastly different ways.


To a dregree. It is artificial, focused magic versus magical potential, if you will. There are no naturally occurring Ghost Dances or other large-scale blood magic. There is magical potential, but left by itself it does little more than generate an odd Mana storm and make local Fey happy little critters.

Here's a question.

What are the major forces for good today, and why do you suspect that they no longer exist in the 6th world?

I would say FOX News just to see the reaction, but I can't even in jest.

Okay, all insulting jokes aside, there are 'forces of good' in this world? Would you care to name a few?

World Health Organization?
Red Cross?
UNO/Blue Helmets?
Bono?

Suppose we get new SR novels (not counting those obscure ones like Digitaler Albtraum), and every single one of those novels ends with the same scenario: The situation is FUBARed in truly epic porportions, until a mighty magician comes along, performs some weird ritual and the everything is fine again. However, the nature of this magician and his ritual is different in each novel, once it it a shaman, then a hermetic, a theurgic mage...

What would you say about these hypothetical novels:
1.) Every novel is creative and not in any way a cheap copy of the previous one
2.) Booooring, it's the same Deus Ex Machina every time and they just change the exact nature of that device.


The Japanese might want to have a word with you regarding what happened in 2061...

I always assumed that he was killed by Elves after they got their own little island.
What about the Branjolina couple, I'm sure they would be all excited about adopting a kid of each metahuman species (and their metavariants).
Of course, by 2070 they would be with a hundred-ish years but nothing that money and geneware can't cure (after all, getting old IS a disease).

You know, cannonically speaking, Damian Knight is a megalomaniac who would rule the world if he could. Ares is probably a tool toward that end. Perhaps he also percieves other things to be tools, not threats to himself. After all, how could a man of his stature and potency be wrong or ever fail?

Point is, the Invae and the Horrors are neither the only threats, nor are they so similar. Your comparison just lacks. But let's be kind of constructive. What kinds of evil would you have then? Surely you must have some ideas up your sleeve, or would you be just complaining for the whine's sake (if so, have some cheese to go with it).


Yes. Exactly. Hubris and fall and all.


Nope. They built him a memorial, his work is protected by their draconian culture laws, and most elves agree he had an elven spirit (yes, Tir na nOg EXPLICITLY says all three).


You mean an earthquake? I cannot remember that it was accompanied by freak storms and critter stampedes eating the Japanese army, the weather being fucked up for generations, and several nuclear powerplants going up like mushrooms. It was an earthquake and a volcano erupting. Considering Japan is Japan, this is nothing unusual. The Ghost Dance was a few magnitudes above this.

I have to say, hermit, you are rocking my world. This is great stuff.



As for the original question... God, or the Great Spirit. The Tao. Use what name you want. It has been made clear that there is a power beyond normal human understanding. We've seen it in the astral, in the ripples we know to be spirits (and we know that dragons and elves and each of us too are only a ripple on that sea of magic). The "gods" or great spirits, everything else falls from that selfsame source. And while it is that source of all life and all magic which leads to conflict, to suffering, to greed and sin, when one steps beyond the cycle, he can recognize in that constant flow of life the rapture of all living, of all dying.

This flow exists, is real, and cannot be defeated, because it is the fabric of the universe.

Certainly this source is still with us, is still benevolent, and in its way, is guiding the way of all things.

Minor, quibbling correction: Theresa Montgomery is head of Ares Medical.

That is NOT better!

I like to think Magic in SR is kind of like the Force was before the Prequels - the Aether, just existing and birting weird stuff. Unlike Star Wars, however, Shadowrun's Force is amoral and uncaring - and so are most Shadowrun gods. Shadowrun gods would appropriatly be very lovecraftian in nature and not give much of a damn about indivisual people or even metahumanity as a race.

At least in my book. The Universe and the Force are one. Just, the Force coul care less about you.



Has already been noted, but thanks. I was wrong there. Still, she runs an important subsidiary now. And a Bug running Ares' medical assets is actually even scarier than a bug running Magic R&D.

In terms of plot devices they are exactly the same.


As I said before, I prefer NOT to have a sinister evil conspiracy behind every even in the 6th world, so I see no need to interpret one into every sentence in a sourcebook.


Several quakes and volcanoes all around the pacific. Which is exactly what major part of the GGD was.

No, it wasn't.


Neither do I. I see a (pretty much confirmed) Horror cult conspiracy behind parts of Aztech and Wuxing. I see Invae making inroads into Ares. The other 7-odd megas are not affected by this. Clear enough?


No, they are not. But anyway,

Uhm, what was the GGD about, then?


Except that you see their large projects as defensive measures against The Enemy.


Mind to point out the differences?

Crushing the USA and making the Native Resistance invincible. Wiping out entire US task forces. exploding volcanos to destroy startegically imortant installations. Unlike the Ring of Fire that just got kind of active, like it does from time to time.


Yes, because that was the metaplot of SR during much of 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition.


The Scourge is an extinction level epic threat. It has little variation there. The Scourge also is a looming threat rtather than one that will ever become real. It is the McGuffin that will destroy the world, not an actor in a story.

Bugs, on the other hand, are a cathegory of actors as well as a possible extinction level epic threat. They are much more flexible and can be used in a variety of ways. Foir instance, I once knew a slightly rules defying character who was an insect shaman who had burned himself out (but still had to deal with his totem, mantis). You simply cannot viably do this with the Enemy. You can use Bugs as scaled threats too - from Ares' bug-dogs to random encounters of cockroach spirits in the gutters to the classic sect that really is a hive to looming infiltration. You can use bugs in a lot more ways than the Enemy, even as odd allies (the Desolation Angels especially lend themselves to this).

Clearer?

ORLY?
Source please. I'll buy the pdf just to read this.

Tir na nOg. It's a sourcebook from the early 90s.

Info is scattered about the book, in various places ... I think the Bono Memorial is mentioned in the intro chapter, the cultural protection in the chapter on laws and regulations, and the Bono being an Elven Spirit part in the ways and paths. IIRC. I don't read it right now. The book is an interesting read, though, because it is so *old*. It is scary at times how much this Tir, which was intended to be an eco-fundamentalist, isolationist, police state pseudo democracy, reminds at least me of modern European states, especially Germany.

The .pdf is not for sale, though, to the best of my knowledge, you'll have to look for a hardcopy.

Kind of during YotC and kind of when the dragon lines were manipulated...might as well claim that the shenigans at the Wuxing tower all just "happened". And blowing up those volcanoes was the pinnacle of the Ghost Dance, so the mana levels should be comparable.


See, that's where we differ: You see everything as connected to The Enemy, I don't


If there was a bridge (not just some astral link to a shaman, but a connection which every bug can use whenever it pleases him) to the bug metaplane we'd probably be just as screwed. As far as my limited ED knowledge goes the problem does not seem to be the existence of horrors themselves, but the fact that at some point in time they can step into our world at leisure.

You might. It'd be nonsense, and I said so above (and Demonseed and Ancient added, among others), but you might. You might want to reread that, though.


I'd rather say we differ in literacy? How often do I have to say not everything is connected to the Enemy? But why can't you accept that some things actually are?


There isn't. Bugs need HOST BODIES to remain in our plane. If there was a bridge it'd help them squat.


Your limited knowledge is limited then.

The problem is that strong magic weakens the thresholds between the planes. There is a "Tally", if you will, and if that tally is filled, horrors appear. This will inevitably happen. It could happen extremly fast if you do a ritual of epic proportions on a site where the threshold is low to begin with, though.

And with that in mind, it makes SENSE for everyone who knows what is coming to prepare. Hence the arcologies, arcoblocks, space stations, the veil, possibly the Tibet cloud. That doesn't mean EVERYTHING is connected to the Enemy'S appearance, though, just as currently not everything a nation does is geared towards preparing for global warming and the climate catastrophe that many believe may come.

Crap, it is most unlikely that I put my hands on a hardcopy, only the second edition, the Urban Samurai Catalogue and the adventure Metagene were translated to portuguese and since you said it is an old book... shame, I think it really is an interesting book.

It really is, yes.

And yet another correction: Immentioned Blue Bacosoy above. Actually, the "Slurm" Soy was caled AmberGel. My apologies, guys.

and why should it be different for the RoF?


And with a bridge to our plane they would have a world full of fashionable hosts and tasty snacks...yummy.


uuuhmmm...how is that different from my understanding that the problem with The Scourge is not the existence of one or two horrors on our little planet, but the fact that when the planes overlap every malevolent entity from astral space gets a free trip to earth?

Quoted for truth.

There are organizations that "do good in the world," but none of them are "forces of good" because they're limited by what people (and the government) will give them.

I.E. donations.

Its really really hard to help someone (or help society) when you have no money. On the other hand, its trivial to "be evil" with no money.

Just having a bridge to our astral space wouldn't help though. They have very specific rituals required to invest a host, not something than can just do while they are quite literally dying in Earthly astral space.

As is generally the case with parasitoids, the population would boom, then come into equilibrium. Eating all or even most of the humans would be not only disadvantageous, but impossible.

I worked in an entemology lab studying parasitoid flies and wasps by collecting caterpillars and watching them for if anything hatched out. I would guess somewhere between 5-10% of all our caterpillars were successfully attacked and turned into a host for a parasitoid. Obviously, the comparison doesn't translate over completely, but it seems reasonable - we should not expect more than 10% of the population to become victimized, because beyond that rate, the parasitoid species threatens to destroy itself (by eliminating a critical link in its lifecycle). This applies for ALL parasitoids - not just a single species - since they all rely on the same link.

There was something that limited the effects of nuclear weaponry, buth during System Faillure and earlier exchanges (Japan/North Korea).

I'm just going to hop into this thread for a moment, because during the development of Street Magic, we spent a lot of time thinking about and discussing the Deep Metaplanes and the beings from them, and how the mana cycle fit in with the process.

There are two main things to consider: how do Deep Metaplanar beings get to the Gaiasphere and how do they stay in the Gaiasphere? At the beginning of a mana cycle, the Gaiasphere and the Deep Metaplanes are distant, in a manner of speaking. It's not that they are physically distant, but in some metaphysical sense, there is a nearly-insurmountable distance between the two that prevents Deep Metaplanar beings (Imps, Shedim, Invae, Horrors, etc.) from coming over to the Gaiasphere. As the mana cycle goes on, this distance shortens and Deep Metaplanar beings find ways to get to the Gaiasphere. Certain magic spikes can also build temporary bridges that span that distance, such as the Great Ghost Dance.

But even once a Deep Metaplanar being finds their way to the Gaiasphere, they aren't in the clear. The Gaiasphere is an alien, hostile habitat to Deep Metaplanar beings (and vice versa). They suffer from evanescence; literally they can only survive for a limited amount of time in the Gaiasphere unless they develop a method to sustain themselves. It seems that each type of Deep Metaplanar being has adapted their own methods for surviving in the Gaiasphere: Imps inhabit foci, Shedim inhabit corpses, Invae inhabit living hosts. The Horrors, it can be speculated, sustain themselves in a myriad of ways, including the popular "feeding off of the misery, suffering, and pain of metahumanity." Chances are the beings classified as Horrors are actually a collection of different types of Deep Metaplanar beings with their own methods for surviving the Gaiasphere.

And, of course, there appears to be some variance within the Deep Metaplanes and the being that inhabit them. Some are able to cross over sooner than others, which is why the Invae are always a precursor to the Horrors.

I always figured this for dragons, even if it is technically too early. The Japan-Korea exchange was in 2006, the Lone Eagle Incident was 2009; and Ryumyo popped up first in 2011. However, in less than a month after Ryumyo woke up, both Celedyr and Dunkie were out and about in the world. It's entirely possible that one of the more secrecy-loving dragons -- say, Aden or Alamais -- woke up early and just kept their heads low, acting only when the survival of the gaiasphere was at stake. There are other incidents that imply a powerful magical intercession, and the "Nightwraith" strikes during the Euro Wars would imply an airborne presence, which implies only one type of culprit.

Now, are dragons our saviors? Probably not. Even during the 4th World, they at least act in the defense of the greater good. They fight against the Therans when they become too great a menace, for starters -- but again, part of that was provocation on the part of the Therans, if memory serves.

Aside from dragons, I feel the need to touch on the topic of God(s). Personally, I'm a rabid atheist, so bear with me and I'll try to keep the sarcasm down. In Threats 2, there's talk about the Catholic Church's new clandestine warrior order, a rebuilt Order of the Temple, known to history as the Knights Templar. According to the shadowtalk, these Templar are able to call upon the services of angels who act to protect themselves and other true believers. It's floated that these are just high-Force Guardian Spirits that take the form that the Templars want them to, but there remains the possibility that they are, in fact, angels of the Lord answering a call to war against those who harm His servants. Of course, the two are not exactly mutually exclusive, since no one knows the whats, whys, and hows of spirit origins.

And to touch on two previous topics real quick:

1.) I'm not seeing the connection to the Void Dragon you're trying to make here.
2.) Ares being involved with Bugs in any way other than "It twitched! Reload, quick!" disturbs me, but I also firmly believe that Ares is one of the good guys. Not one of the best, certainly, but I'll take a tarnished champions over a black knight any day of the week. Knight was a *friend* of Dunkelzahn, and everything D did, whether 4th World or 6th, points to a respect for metahumanity and a hope for its survival.

Knight is just a means justify the ends kind of guy; like most of the "good" in Shadowrun, it comes with a price attached. (Ps - I still think he's the Echo Mirage team leader)

AFAIK the horros are also parasites in the widest sense, they feed from mankinds' fears and dark emotions. Now that DOES sound like 40k, but more importantly it sounds like even the badass things from outer space need us...as cattle, like the Invae.
Of course we are assuming that the insect spirits act like normal parasites...that hive metaplane does not sound like a major part of it is populated by non-insect hosts.


RE Dunkelzahn: I wouldn't call his view of humanity "respect", more like the attitude people had towards amerinds in the 60s. "They are too dumb to care for themselves, so they need a hard hand to lead them for their own good".

No, the Big D actually WAS the good guy in Shadowrun. All of the time.
Basically, the Dragon was the shining white knight riding around on his really big steed to fight other metaphroical dragons to save us.

Hmm, wonder who would win in an Parasitic War between the invae and the Horrors? O.o

Sorry, NO. Those are spirits of man shaped like angels (in murals, in all likelyhood, and not the aerodnamically unviable odd-winged angels of the bible). All other religions get spirits shaped according to their respective beliefs and supersitions. Arabian Muslims get Djinn, NA shamas get animal respective spirits, Aztecs, Hinduist, Daoist ... and Christianity doesn't need to be treated in a special way, IMO. Those angels are angel-like looking spirits, and that's that.


The connection being the VD as the ultimate technology oriented horror.


Why? It is Saeder-Krupp in American. And Knight is a megalomaniac and arrogant in the highest degree. He is Palpatine with better looks and less Force. Lofwyr is the same with scales and equal footing in mystical power, but at least Lofwyr is honest about it. Ares is a darker shade of grey than most megas.


A 'friend' as much as you can be a freind to a creature that is, by nature, solitary. Dragons are not pack oriented, they hence form no deep personal bonds with fellow dragons or other creatures. Dunkelzahn was benevolent. He cared for humans, like many of us care for the environment. He found humanity intriguing. He was, as far as a dragon can be, a decent person.

However, he was not 'a force of good'. His will included more than one instance of fairly petty revenge - one overt and several covert. His will might have cost a four-digit number of peoples' lives. SSorry, but that is not what a force of good is suposed to do. Like pretty much everything in Shadowrun, Dunkelzahn was ambivalent. He was a fairly bright shade of grey, though, I give you that.


That makes them asmuch a parasite as you are, feeding on - effectively - sun harvested from the biosphere. Or do you have any other way of sustenance? Can you live off Black Smoke or Sunlight, huh? All photo- or chemotrophic creatures are parasites to a degree, if you will. Just, what does this prove? Rien, mon ami.

But yes, in a wider sense the Enemy is kind of like the Chaos Gods. Only, it needs magic to come into the world, not loads and loads of kinky sex.

Horrors feed. Horrors do not depend on a host, though. The Scourge is not a parasitic relationship (with exceptions, like Yrswhatshisface). It is a locust swarm. Invae, however, do not need humanity for cattle either. Effectively, they're bodysnatchers. Less like Aliens, more like the Great Race of Yith.

And no. They do not *need* humanity to feed, either. They can feed on anything that can suffer, even though a lizard suffering probably is not as entertaining to a wraith as humans suffering. Most horrors feed on anything, though. Some even ate mountains. Some really just are feeding machines - most of them are, actually. Only few actually feed on emotions.

Hermit is right about the horrors. There are exceptions, but overall, they cannot be compared. From what we have seen, the invae require humans for their lifecycle. They may be able to use another species, but humans seem to be the dominant prey. Presumably there's something they can use in their home plane, but we don't know what it is.

Assuming Earth becomes just a suburb of their home plane, then we may have a problem - the source in their native plane supports a population boom, Earth suffers an overabundance of parasitoids, and is picked clean. But given that, from what we have seen, crossing over is difficult and continues to be difficult, this isn't a serious concern.

Because the horrors are not parasitoids but predators - and broad-ranged predators - we are now in trouble. Assuming that only a limited number of horrors got through, and they could ONLY eat humans and our near cousins, and assuming also they are limited by metabolization (i.e. - they can starve) then again, the population will steady. The number of predators compared to prey is limited by their metabolism. If you look at normal, earth predators, endothermic predators make up around 2% of the (animal) biomass. For exotherms, predators are closer to around 10% of the biomass. However, if the horrors can also eat rocks and the air, the calculation changes - our effective biomass is huge, and we humans are but a drop in the bucket. There is nothing preventing us from accidentally being devoured to extinction.

If you want to get into the thick and sticky of it of who is evil or good or evilest in the Aztechnology, Ares, Dunkelzahn grouping, I suggest you open Augmentation to page 145:



That's a pretty innocuous comment, isn't it? Time to open the wayback machine and check in on Harlequin's Back, Dunkelzahn's Will, Dragonheart, Aztlan, and of course Cybertechnology. We'll start at the end.

Inti Jiwana and Chikoaze are the Aztlan dragons. They don't talk much, and they don't get much screen time (Inti Jiwana appears in a vision in the Aztlan book), but they did talk to Dunkelzahn. They are also on the Aztlan board. They weren't always the only dragons on the board, either. Which brings us to Oliver McClure - the man whose projects they got to take over when he left the board. Oliver McClure is the man who inherited Dunkelzahn's voting shares in the will - meaning that the project in question was originally Dunkelzahn's to do with as he willed. And during that era it was run by "a fringe group of blood mages." Who are they? Well, that would be the Blood Mage Gestalt, who are the villains in Harlequin's Back. They are the guys doing blood research and actively attempting to build the horror bridge.

But wait... what actually happens is that Dunkelzahn (who bankrolled that project with his Aztechnology board position) gave a load of information on their plans to Harlequin. Then Harlequin got a group of shadowrunners together and whacked the leaders of the Blood Mage Gestalt. At the end of that, Dunkelzahn knew more about the horror bridges than anyone else (somehow), and constructed the dragonheart to put a stop to them.

In short: Aztechnology funded the Blood Mage Gestalt in order to gather information on and (rather successfully) fight the horrors.

Now, let's talk about Dunkelzahn's other friend, Damien Knight.



OK, the "dissident" cybermantic technicians are the remainders of the Blood Mage Gestalt. Those that were not killed off by "The Black Jaguar That Eats the Sun" (which is what Inti Jiwana translates to in Quechua, by the way) apparently went to work for Mitsuhama. It's not known that Mitsuhama is playing any long term game, so whether knowingly or not, Mitsuhama seems to be playing for the "end of the world" team, while Aztechnology is not.

But that's not why we grabbed that quote. We did it because the rest of the quote is shockingly direct for Jackpoint conversation. Ares developed cybermancy that operates on a different principle from Aztech systems, and they did it all at once with their new Ares Medical division. A division which is now headed up by... Theresa Montgomery. Sticks is, of course, a former Ares warrior and a bug hunter. For those of you who want to bring the mechanics into it - cybermancy itself is game mechanically essentially the same as becoming a Flesh Form inhabitation of yourself.

Just, you know, food for thought. None of the corps are all good or all bad. And their plans are so complicated at times that even fairly high ranking members may not know what they are "really" up to.

-Frank