I wrote this document awhile ago explaining the history (our future) of the world in Shadowrun. It's based on the rule book, but this document itself was written by me. I made some assumptions, and added a few things, but I don't remember what anymore:
And so it Came to Pass…
The Timeline of Shadowrun
(1999 – 2010)
• Throughout the 1980’s, 1990’s, and especially in 2001, Megacorporations slowly grew in power, until corporations were given extraterritorial status. They were allowed to keep an armed military for the protection of themselves, and they were able to make and enforce their own laws on their own territory.
• Barely a year after Corps were granted extraterritorial status, there came a period deemed ‘The Resource Rush’ wherein the corps all decided that they wanted what was left of resources such as lumber and oil. They got these from places such as National Parks and Native Settlements, forces Natives off their land. An organization called the Sovereign American Indian Movement (SAIM) formed to fight back against the corporate takeovers. Although this new movement, it didn’t help much until 2009 when United Oil Industries acquired the country’s remaining oil resources, which laid upon one-tenth of the remaining Native settlements; in response, SAIM captured a missile silo at the US Air Force’s Shiloh Launch Facility in Montana, threatening to launch the missiles unless the government and corps returned the land to the Natives. While distracting the natives with idle negotiations, the US government sent the Delta Squad to recapture the silo, which they did, but not before a single Lone Eagle ICBM was launched toward the Russian Republic. Luckily, the warheads never hit. The US Congress used this incident to prove to people that the Natives of America were not trustworthy.
• Near the same time in Texas, a group of armed civilians stormed the Dallas HQ of United Oil. The governor called in Texas Ranger Assault Teams, and after the smoke cleared, laws were passed allowing corporate security forces to use any means necessary to deal with armed intruders. Other laws were passed giving people the right to contact private security firms.
• In 2010, the first cases of Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome (VITAS) appeared in India; by the end of the year, the disease had killed about one-quarter of the world’s population. Mexico was the hardest hit; they had to burn whole sections cities just to prevent the spread.
(2011 – The Year of Chaos)
• It was during this year that the world first seen Unexplained Genetic Expression (UGE). Apparently healthy parents all over the world gave birth to “mutant” children. Actually, these were the first meta-humans that were born. They were named Elves and Dwarves after the fantasy races that they resembled. Actually, UGE was the first expression of magic in the world.
• On December 24, 2011, hundreds of Japanese on a bullet train near Mount Fuji witnessed the first appearance of a Great Dragon – Ryumyo.
• At the same time as the Great Dragon was appearing, Daniel Howling Coyote – the Native American shaman later dubbed the Prophet of the Great Ghost Dance – led himself and his followers out of a concentration camp in Texas that many Natives were forced to live in. According to the guards, all the shots fired at Howling Coyote failed to touch him; they were stopped by a strange “glow” that surrounded him.
• No one knew what the hell was happening until January 27, 2012, then the Great Dragon Dunkelzahn made his first appearance. In a twelve-hour interview, he told the people about the rise of magic which came to be called The Awakening.
(2012 - 2018)
• The major event was the formation of the Native American Nation, announced by Daniel Howling Coyote in 2014.
• In 2015, the new the new president of Mexico renamed his country Aztlan and called for all Hispanic people to “join in reclaiming our glorious cultural heritage.” This comment was made to hide the fact the Aztlan was actually a shiny new toy for the ORO Corporation to play with, because ORO had the Mexican president and his government in his pocket. ORO would eventually become Aztechnology.
• The NAN, a coalition of tribes headed by the Sovereign Tribal Council, laid claim to all of North America and ordered out all Anglos (everyone who is not native) under penalty of pain and dire magical retribution. No one would believe them until Redondo Peak in New Mexico erupted and buried Las Alamos; shortly afterward, Howling Coyote appeared and claimed that they had caused it. Within an hour, the Sixth Air Cavalry Battalion took off from Fort Hood, Texas, only to be destroyed by sudden, violent tornadoes.
• In response to this, President William Springer issued Executive Order 17-321, calling for the extermination of all Native American tribes.
• Howling Coyote responded to this bill with his most effective weapon – magic. Over the following year, Coyote and his people – and later Native Americans across the whole continent – began the magical ritual known as the Great Ghost Dance. As a result, freak weather and other disturbances disrupted military bases and supply dumps assigned to the extermination operation. At the peak of the ritual, on August 17, 2017, Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams all erupted at the same time, throwing the country into chaos.
• The question became what to do next. In 2018, leaders of the US and Canada met the leaders of NAN in Denver. Over three months, the Treaty of Denver was hammered out, which acknowledged the sovereignty of the NAN over most of western North America. Provisions included the establishment of reservations for non-tribals and corporations, and the maintenance of cities like Seattle as extraterritorial extensions of the government. The NAN also agreed to the retention of California in the US.
(2018 – 2029)
• In the same year as the Treaty of Denver, Dr. Hosato Hikita of Chicago-based ESP Systems, INC. created the first-generation ASIST (Artificial Sensory Induction System). The entertainment industry went wild exploiting the commercial aspects of simsense. Not even a year later, Transys Corporation announced the successful implantation of the first cyberlimb in a human.
• The other development in the teens was the appearance of Lone Star Security, which was a privately owned law-enforcement agency.
• On April 30, 2021, all over the world, one out of every ten adults suddenly metamorphosized into hideous humanoid shapes. This also started affecting children, usually at puberty. The media dubbed the process “goblinization.” The creatures that emerged were called orks and trolls, after their fantasy counterparts. Soon after, racial riots rocked on a global scale. Many victims of goblinization went into hiding for fear of their lives. The US government declared martial law for months in a futile attempt at control, but things didn’t calm down into another wave of VITAS hit in 2022, causing the world to lose another one-tenth of its population.
• In 2025, Lonestar took over law-enforcement in Seattle.
• On February 8, 2029, computer systems all over the world were hit by a powerful virus, which destroyed their software and fried their hardware. This nearly caused economy to collapse. To fight it, people were mentally sent into the Internet to physically fight the virus. The first ones in the experiment came back insane. They quickly fixed some bugs, and some people went in to fight the virus. The people sent in were able to “walk” right through all the modern security could offer and access anything they wanted. When they were exposed to the virus, it send lethal biofeedback into them, killing them. More were sent in, with beefed-up cyberdecks, and they were successful in fighting the virus.
(2030-2037)
• The crash destabilized a large chunk of the world, which realigned itself with greater or lesser degrees of accompanying violence during the decade that followed. The US – Canada merger went fairly smoothly, luckily. The Crash had done so much damage to both of them that it only made sense to join. On October 15, 2030, what was left of Canada and the US united to form the UCAS (United Canadian and American States). Elsewhere, things didn’t go so smoothly. Awakened forces seized control of Siberia. Russia decided to defend its western border and sent what troops were left to there. Poland got involved, and Russia stepped on them, followed by many other countries. This exploded into the “Eurowars,” which lasted more than a decade.
• Brazil was taken over by metahumans and renamed Amazonia
• Ten southern states formed the CAS
• The elves formed a nation called Tairngire in the US and Tir na nOg in Europe.
• California became California Free State
• Hate crimes between humans and metahumans escalated and peaked on February 7, 2039, which came to be known as the Night of Rage. Thousands of metahumanss died that night in worldwide riots.
• The next day, terrorists used magic and explosives to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago, sending the building crashing down during a weekday lunch-hour, destroying blocks worth of buildings.
• In Boston, during the next St. Patrick’s day, terrorists detonatd a bomb in a popular elven restaurant killing dozens of elves. This was called Bloody-Tuesday.
• Finally, a bright spot emerged in 2042 when the Universal Brotherhood emerged. They preached love for one’s fellow sentient. Many people mistrusted them, of course, but they won the support of many people.
The present year is 2052. Tension is still high. Everything is peaceful now. But his may change at any time.
