Lots of little nuggest have filtered down over the years, but despite a short overview of the major cities in Shadows/North America, there's not been much on the actual *culture* of the CAS.

Some interesting tdibits:

Racism had a small push during teh Night of Rage, but has settled down and is now less than what you'd find in the UCAS.

The CAS has teh largest military in North America (And possibly the world), but it's an older, bulkier style force. Their special forces are pretty crummy.

CAS magic is as strong or stronger than teh UCAS with only about a quarter of the population. Much as teh UCAS has an 80-20 Hermetic to Shaman split, the CAS has about an 80-20 Shaman over Hermetic split. Power is concentrated in the northwest region, the Louisiana Bayou, the Carribbean border, and Appalachia.

CAS is a True Democracy, with a Matrix connection in every household. When you log in, you're asked to vote on local, county, state, and Confederation isssues. Majority rules (Tho sometimes taking a two-thirds, rather than half plus one). System tampering seems non-existant and isn't overseen by any corporation. CAS deckers sling some of the most solid code around ... rarely cutting-edge, but totally stable and hard to infiltrate. More Rolls-Royce than Ferrarri.

The CAS shares a friendly border with the UCAS and the Pueblo, a warm border with teh C-League, and a hot one with Aztlan. A war is pretty much a given, doubly-so now that teh Azzies are taking hit after hit from all sides.

The CAS is friendly with Ghostwalker. Probably more of a 'Enemy of my Enemy is my friend' status, but, who knows?

No Great Dragon is known to operate in teh CAS. No Immortal Elf is known to operate in teh CAS. No Megacorp operates out of teh CAS (Tho MCT and SK are worming in). No AA coprs (Or A!) have ever been tied to CAS locations.

The CAS is the second-largest economy in North America, third if Aztlan is considered. Lacking heavy industry by and large, teh CAS is a serious player in matrix, communications, electronics, and pharmaceuticals.

Teh CAS doesn't use a SIN number. The religious forces consider them to be, well, sinful. Similarly, there's no real national ID card setup, nor 'chipping' for easy police state-like overseeing of teh populace.

The CAS still uses the dollar, rather than Nuyen, for transactions and is now pushing to be seen as 'The True US'. It still uses the old US Constituition.

Major cities include several in Texas, Atlanta, Nashville, and New Orleans. There's some bad blodo between teh major cities over the selection of the capital.

The Vol Sprawl, a section of interstate running between Nashville and Knoxville, is a massive Rigger paradise, where drivers and police battle in a non-leathal test of skill on a regular basis. Think Dukes of Hazzard, only faster.

Anyone have anything else?

-- Johnny Reb

Mainly what's in Neo-Anarchists Guide to North America and Shadows of North America.

13!!! Thirteen instances of "teh" in that post! That's all I can say!

Wow. Reading that post made my brain hurt.

The CAS is the most clear-cut inheritor of the modern U.S. in Shadowrun. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about the culture.

It is? I know that they certainly claimed to be. Not being a sep myself, could I ask what differentiates the UCAS from the current US to give the CAS the top spot as it were?

As a side note, has anyone noticed some modern day rants going on regarding succession of the South or the expulsion of some of the NE states? Or the movement in California (small at this point) to go back with Mexico?

I found those things VERY interesting looking at the Shadowrun Timeline and how the world came to pass.

I also have found some interesting conversations with folks from Europe over the EU....

You know I just can't decide, is all the teh-ing unintentional yet so very apt or a nod to the uber-jingoistic-ness of the piece?

So far the theme seems to be 'Teh CA$ is l33t j0!'

Well, Reb's not submitting this for publication. Its an informal note jotted down on a forum, and if someone isn't the grandest typer in the world or just banging out a quick note at work, typos are to be expected.

I guess the theory on CAS being the most like Old America is that while the UCAS is a combo of Canada and the US, the CAS is just old US. Now, as to what the exact cultural differences are between Canada and the US (they're more polite, cleaner, they call ham "bacon" and don't pronounce the letter "u"), I'd care not to get into (except, perhaps, parenthetically).

I've had a CAS-related question floating around in my head for awhile now. The part of Oklahoma that didn't join the CAS, did Kansas basically claim that territory?

Kansas, the band?

Because that would be sooo cool.

In which case, would the border be called 'The Point of Know Return'?

Well, I just think it's worth noting that the UCAS has become a backwards, paranoid quasi-police state even though from a general perspective it contains almost all of the most liberal regions of the U.S. plus Canada, which is also pretty liberal compared to the U.S. in many regards. Now, granted there have been plenty of bad things to happen to the UCAS to warrant the paranoia. They probably also were unfortunate enough to inherit all of the rabid conservatives in the Rockies region (you think the South is conservative? These are the people who sent Dick Cheney to Congress. Repeatedly.) who didn't tough it out in an Anglo Reservation (oh, man... Payback's a bitch.). They also sit on the border of the most hostile neighbor we've ever had to deal with, and combined with the fact that plenty of the people are still "red" and the states are getting redder (I like to think of the states in shades of purple) with the Western refugees.

CAS has had it easy compared to them. Texas and Aztlan? BFD. They still have three relatively peaceful borders, and worst comes to worse they are an hour's drive south of the UCAS Capital. They are relatively liberal compared to the UCAS, including having the distinction of having elected two women to be President, and enjoy a rather stable economy and general social structure whereas the UCAS is filthy, resource-poor, magic-hating, irrational, paranoid, and just insane. They elected a Great Dragon President, but without even a quarter of the popular vote. The CAS even retained the Electoral College.

So... What am I missing?

Jenna is most likely (but not totally proven to be) Alachia's daughter.

See Ancient History's Immortals for more information.

Hmm. I think I'm going to take issue with that one (gasp! shock! horror! Taking issue with the Ancient one, I may never live this down... )

Tir Tairngire, p. 51. Following the description of the portrait in Ni-Fairra's home (a female figure sprouting thorns), there is a snippet of conversation from Harlequin and Dunkelzahn:

"Ah yes, our dear sweet Blood Queen. Now there is a tale to be told."
"Then tell it."
"In time."

(Of course, I expect someone has repudiated this one, but given my limited access to later material, it's pretty convincing to me )

There is no mention that the portrait is actually depicting Jenna though ... only that it is in her home, is old, and bears a resemblance to her (from memory). That the portrait is in fact of her mother is entirely feasible, and fitting when viewed in context with other information.

(sags head) Lone Star. I have no idea how I forgot about that one.

And, for the record, the 'teh' problem is speedy typing, not intentional. My one typo that follows me everywhere like an albatross. Arg. It just kills my points.

This was less a chance to say "Look at how cool the CAS is!" than to try and gather up some info in one go, getting additions where able. The Atlantean Federation, for example, was a bit of a surprise. I thought it was in Boston, not Atlanta. Oops.

Hopefully there's a bit more from people, however? Anything at all? I'd imagine that, say, Arkansas isn't on the top of most people's list of intrests but surely there's *something* going on around there.

-- Johnny Reb, types too fast for his own good.

You're thinking of the Dunkelzahn Institute for Magical Research, which is indeed in Boston.

~J

As opposed to The Draco Foundation, the head office of which is in DC.

Yea, the CAS seems undercoverd, but I only have the SR3, Mits and M&M, I;m getting all my other game universe info second hand from this board. The question is, is Johnny_Reb right? If so, I'm going to have to work this into a character I'm working on.

Two inconsistancies I've seen posted just in this thread are that the CAS has direct elections on everything, as said by Johnny_Reb, and that the the CAS maintains an Electoral College, like the US has (Stated by Crimson dude).

Another inconsistancy is that its been quoted from other source material ,IIRC, that UCAS and CAS both retain portions of the old US Constition, while Johnny Reb seems to state that CAS actualy uses the US Constitution.


**********THREAD HIJACK//AVOID AS NESSECARY*********************





















Criomson, maybe the absorption by the UCAS of all that "Blue" territory could explain all the trouble? *wink/nod*






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Yeah, and maybe my ass is actually the map to Atlantis.

SoNA "corrected" a lot of the nonsense in the NA placebooks, which is a nice euphemism for, "The creators were insane." As such, yeah... They have always had an EC. They, uh, just didn't tell us in NAGNA. Riiight. That's it.

New Info Trumps Old, so, I'd be inclined to follow the Shadows version over the Neo-Anarchist. Easy to say that the old system of direct Democracy didn't apply to the presidential election or that it *used* to, but there waw fear of a 'fix' akin to the UCAS one, so, they switched back.

You can always invent a rationale.

-- Johnny Reb

Did you actually check the page I linked? Ancient History has done a good job of correlating all the relevant info from both Shadowrun and Earthdawn sources.

Of course, here it should be noted that Alachia's also got history as replacing herself as her own daughter, so who knows?

-- Johnny Reb

i'm with Crimsondude on this. the UCAS is, taken as a voting whole, batshit crazy. i mean, come on, they voted a friggin' dragon president, only forty-odd years after dragons were introduced to the world! we (the US) have had twice that amount of time to elect a female human to the presidency, and we still haven't managed it.

and, yet, despite the fact that the UCAS elected a dragon for president, there's still fairly deep race issues (as supposedly highlighted by SURGE). what this says to me is, there's no more middle. you're either rabidly pro-metahuman rights, ready to kill anyone who thinks otherwise, or you're rabidly anti-meta, ready to kill etcetera. given the number of strong political parties in Super Tuesday, this trend towards rabid politics probably extends to a number of other issues.

meanwhile, the CAS has sanity. they're neither rabidly pro-meta or anti-meta. they lack a strong SF program, which indicates that they're more interested in defense than offense. they haven't allowed any single mega to dominate their economy. they are, as much as anyplace in T6W is, calm and peaceful and sane.

Actually, I like that idea for the UCAS.

For the CAS, though: calm, peaceful, and sane? Psht. Just take a look at their machinations to try to bite off North Virginia from the UCAS. They're as batshit as anyone else, IMO, and I'm surprised the UCAS didn't bomb them back into the industrial revolution for that.

~J

The main reason the CAS seems calm, peaceful, and sane on the surface (and only on the surface) is because they're largely ignored by the various storylines. The more correct take on them is that they're simply forgettable and a mere shadow beneath the UCAS. Even the NAN gets more press than they do. All of which just irks them off to no end.

they lack a strong SF program. they've got the Ferrets, sure, but they don't come anywhere near the top of the list of best specops groups, even if you only count national commands.

There's plenty of good stuff about the CAS in Target: Smuggler's Havens and if I remember there's a few AA corp that operate out of New Orleans: an Petrochemical one and an entertainment one I can't remember the names off hand. Cross BioTech is also operated out of NO too if I remember.

The biggest business for runners in the CAS seems to be running guns south to the Yucatan which the CAS turns a blind eye to since anyone who's going to stick it to the Azzies can't be all bad.

Tha CAS has a taken more isolationist foreign policy if I remember as well.

On a side note, what do we actually know about special forces in the sixth world? I know that there's quite a few mentioned, but it's a little hard to make qualatitive statements from them from what I remember. Someone was saying in a thread a while back, either Tzeentch or Raygun I believe it was, that doesn't the CAS inherit just about the whole special forces structure in regards to bases and facilities?

FlakJacket: Do you mean this?

Yeah, that looks like it.

Speaking of special forces, what canon ones have been mentioned in the past, after their being brought up I've been trying to think of them? The CAS has the Ferrets, the Sioux the Wildcats, UK has the SAS and SBS, Tir Tairngire the Ghosts, Tir Na n'Og the Reach Fuileach, Aztlan the various warrior groups, Aztechnology its Leopold Guards and Renraku the Red Samurai.

Ares (Knight Errant) Firewatch.

The Seals have been mentioned as being associated with the UCAS. Spetznaz has been mentioned, IIRC. Amazonia has something ... I just don't remember what at the moment ... maybe I'm just thinking of the whole Awakened Army thing.

I don't know how much of this is accurate, but a lot of them look familiar. It's from the same site as the Ferrets info above. I also know there's been quite a few corporate groups not in the list.

Carribean League

* Carribean League Tigersharks

Confederated American States

* CAS 1st Special Forces Combat Applications Group
* CAS Special Operations Command
* CSMC Ferrets

Corporate

* Knight-Errant Firewatch
* Saeder-Krupp Special Security Group

Native American Nations

* Pueblo Corporate Council Special Forces
* Sioux Wildcats

Russia

* Russian Spetsnaz Unit "Vympel"
* Spetznaz

Tir Tairngire

* Tir Tairngire Peace Force Special Forces-"Ghosts"
* Tir Tairngire 1st Airborne Brigade: The Parabats

United Canadian American States

* USMC Scout/Snipers

About half or so of that's canon. One's like the Tigersharks don't really mesh all that well since it seems to be a kind of federal police when the Carrib League isn't even federated if you follow me. The Sharks, first two CAS entries, SK and Pueblo, Vampyl, Parabats and Scout Snipers are all un-official as far as I know. Although I could be wrong.

To jump in I think the UCAS is in fact the true child of the USA.
The CAS has ther largest standing army because it has an almost hostile border with the Azzies and a tension with the other NAN and even UCAS on ocxcasion, they are pugnatious. It might be fun to say it's true democaracy but what it is, is the old Confedercy. Not The Civil war one, but the one that preceeded the current consittuion where it's pretty much designed to do nothing and so keep government out of people's hair.

They don't have a domestic AAA corp so have to hope to draw the attnetion of one. Heavy insdustry is not there now in RL so they would have to be building that from the ground up or import.

Of course you can pretty much justify the SR existence of just about any special operations unit (perhaps slightly renamed) that exists today, when the government/policies of or the geographic area covered by the country haven't completely changed. You can find a pretty good list of RL foreign national special operations units here.

The Tigersharks page was created back in the mid-90s when there was absolutely no canon information on the Carib League.

The same can be said for the following units: UCAS Navy SEALs, CAS Special Forces, Russian Spetsnaz, and CAS Delta.

Personally, and as much as it pains me to admit, Szeto's description of the Ferrets in SoNA makes more sense in the context of their description in Just Compensation than that article does.

Anyway, we can discuss SF all day long--and over the last six years we have, a lot--but we should move it to a new thread.

The description of the Seals may be non-canon, but there has been mention of their existance in the books.