The intent was more malleable to dragon's and their manipulations.

I am curious where you believe being AAA means its all group hugs and singing Kumbiya in the board rooms. A good chunk of the runs you will be hired for are internal matters, pitting one department against the other or sometimes a lower exec trying to make space above by outing a senior exec via runners. The Villiers are a good case of this as they may be in the same corp but they are not necessarily working to the same ends, as a few runs can show...

Horrors are not known for being subtle so most options for manipulations are lost on them, though a few do enjoy playing their games, but these tend to be the exception and not the rule. most are little more than beasts razing and scouring the land of all life, intelligent and otherwise.

Bug spirits, they are sneaky and manipulative. But considering the tales that a certain AAA is embracing using them as new tech, they don't need to manipulate a bunch of scattered A's and AA's, they are being brought in via the back door by a AAA itself. And it will bite them on the ares..err.. arse. Just another reason to show that the AAA's are not necessarily going to be our best line of defense in and of themselves. Hell, I don't doubt that there will be bean counters in each of them that will be trying to cut deals for themselves, sort of what some sections within the AZ (oh look.. another AAA) were doing. Granted with the Smoking Mirror taking a kick to the groin they are not as prevalent as before, but no one should believe they are down and out for the count.

The various bean counters will be thinking they can negotiate with some of these things, because that's they have been bred to believe- everything has a price or can be negotiated and that they will sell out their own mothers and the rest of the world to secure that spot for themselves.

I am not saying that the level of organization that a AAA can bring to the table won't be useful in the coming fight. It will be, but under the current mindset most of the corps have now, I do not believe they will be any more likely to suddenly cooperate than a myriad of A's and AA's will be in the face of a common foe.

How do you improve that mindset? That would be the 64K nuyen question. Horizon's method is still just a bit too creepy, and these are the closest we have currently for anything approaching a 'nice' corp.

You need to invest Karma to raise your Knowledge: Earthdawn skill.

Certainly there were the few Named ones who did play their games and some species that took delight in causing suffering, but there are just as many tales of the hordes of raving creatures that destroyed the lands with no attempts at subtlety or trickery. They don't stand out as much since they were more like a storm in their passing, while we remember those who played cat and mouse with metahumanity.

Things I'd like to see. MCT/Mitsuhama inadvertently take their covert/less-than-public actions against the Meta-loving Emperor too far and get smashed, not so much by the State, since it doesn't really have the power to do so, but some local powers that want to disrupt the hold of the MCT-allied Yaks, as well as MCT dominance. Some infighting, along ideological issues, a civil war within MCT would be nice too.

I'd like to add a dust-up with Yakashima (the takeover king) after they smell the blood in the water.

Ignorance?

The purpose of a source book is to give gaming and background information.

The purpose of a novel is to tell a story, nothing else.
I found that frequently the writer's priority - as it should be, since he is writing a godamn novel - is on telling a decent story (no matter his actual success with that) and NOT on seemlessly fitting that story into the respective game world. Frequently you will find that a lazy writer has an inadequate level of familiarity to write for the brand in the first place, which does not prevent a company from publishing his book.

Which does not prevent that publication form being Canon. It just means that Canon can become muddled.
As a result, Unless otherwise indicated by Publisher, Published Novels and Resource Material are Canon. Personal preference does not really play into that. Now, individual gaming tables can ignore the things they do not like at their table, but that does not make them any less Canon.

There's a hierarchy of canon. Generally the sourcebooks trump novels if details conflict. And some events from the novels have only been vaguely hinted at, if mentioned at all.

So... does geography and natural law trump sourcebooks? *coughBogotacough*

no. a wizard did it

Damned Wizards...

Not of the Coast though. Seeing how Bogota is up there in the Mountains and all . .

Wait a second Xena can't fly!

Lucy Lawless can.

Indeed, but I was always more partial to the ROC... Being from Texas and all...

Oh ok...

Yes, yes she can

Nice...

Wanted to post the one where she is tearing open the blouse to show the Big S underneath, but she forgot to put it on, thus resulting in a wardrobe malfunction and hence NSFW.

Would love to see that one.

Seconded. PM?

Generally, yes. But there's a few points of oddness that may or may not be canonical differences in geography. e.g. the location of Boise, coastline changes in California, incompatible borders in Shadows of Europe and Sixth World Atlas, etc. I've described some of these in my mapping thread.

It's a conspiracy by the GDs and IEs to hide something. Whatever it is, it's big.