Welcome to the World of Shadowrun!

Shadowrun* is a role playing game based on an alternate earth and set in the future. It is a game based on an opposed test system* rather than the standard system used by ADnD* and most other games. This makes for a more complete system, based on the vagrancies of fate more than the stat itself.

The world of Shadowrun is based in the 2050s on an Earth where magic was reawakened soon after the turn of the twenty-first century. This was intitially recognized by the Native Americans, some of who still praticed the religion of their ancestors. Praying to the bear totem - or any other - took on new meaning when suddenly Bear appeared before you. Remembering their traditions, many members of various tribes got together and performed a Great Ghost Dance, in an attempt to regain their land. Due to the strength of a ritual magic that involved so many people, all of the volcanoes on the West coast of what was then the United States erupted. This caused the USA to rethink their policies and - when asked - they gave much of the West to the Native American tribes. This, of course, caused more problems, as squabbles broke out over who should have what bit of land. The former Confederate States took one look at the havoc and broke away once again. This time, the North did not have the strength to fight them, as they were trying to deal with the NAN*, and instead let them form the Confederate American States, CAS. What remained of the United States merged with the eastern portions of Canada, who had also felt the pain when the volcanoes erupted, and formed the United Canadian and American States, UCAS.

Strife continued until NAN, UCAS and CAS decided to meet in Denver to work out a treaty. During the peace talks, the continent of North America was split into many nations, each getting small sections of land. Many of the smaller tribes connected themselves with larger tribes and combined their lands. UCAS was awarded Seattle, the largest port city on the west coast, and Denver was split into six sections.*

Major corporations, realizing that the political unrest in North America was risking the safety of their employees, as well as their abilities to ship goods, decided that they should be extraterritorial. They took this case to the Supreme Court, who awarded them extraterritoriality and the right to raise their own private armies. Other countries around the world followed the UCAS' lead and the Corps suddenly had a new-found power - the ability to rule themselves.

Soon after the Great Ghost Dance, differences in the people themselves began to appear. Some were being born taller, skinnier, more lithe and graceful. In short, elves. Some were shorter, swarthier and more heavily muscled. Dwarves. These changes were often welcomed and considered by most to be improvements on the species. However, some teenagers began to develop painful side-effects to their adolesence. They began to grow horns, fangs and dermal legions that acted like armor, absorbing damage. These children, as they grew older, became trolls and orcs. Unlike the elves and dwarves, the common populace was afraid of the orcs and trolls and so ostracized them.

A series of major plagues decimated the world's population, making it easier for the ostracized trolls and orcs to find places to live by themselves. There was no way to tell whether someone was going to "goblinize" or not until they hit adolesence, which made the population even more nervous. Many of the elves, troubled by the treatment of their fellow meta-humans and feeling that they were superior to their human counterparts, broke away from the recognized nations and former their own. In North American, Tir Tangiere was formed out of the former states of Oregan and northern California. The island nation of Ireland became known as Tir na'Nog and the druids brought a dense cloud of fog around it, to shelter it from the outside world.

Most of Europe, dealt with the coming of magic and the plagues much better than North America. There were not as many shamans there, so it didn't strike as close to home. However, soon after the return of shamanic magic, it was found that magic could also be cast hermetically, using spell formulae.