Introduction to Shadowrun

The Short Version - Your World.

In Downtown (old Seattle proper) the shining skyscrapers and arcologies spin toward the sky, a glittering metropolis. A place of fantastic wealth, testaments to human ingenuity and power in the modern, high-tech world. But the towers and glittering lights are built on rot, secrets and blood. Beyond and below them lies check points, staffed by secret police for government and corporations to protect their employees from both the victims of their crimes and from each other. Alongside them are the crime syndicates and corrupt politicians that keep the wheels of progress turning.

A short distance away you have the Redmond Barrens, crumbling ruins of an urban jungle of the 2010's stretches on for hundreds of miles. The two rounds of VITAS plague, the riots of the Awakening, the tech collapse and the rise of the new nations (and the ensuing refugees) destroyed the city of Redmond. It's long since become a lawless haven for shadow runners, gangs, squatters and the black market. Assuming the stuff the corps dump in the river or air doesn't kill ya. They don't call it Glow City for nothing chummers! This is where things go to disappear.

Technology and science has torn ahead at insane speeds over the last fifty years. The birth of Deckers from the (literally) deadly computer virus that brought down the grid in'29. When the dust cleared, the war for information had vastly accelerated. With the major corps and the new shadow communities of Deckers. Cyber and organic tech, simsense chips, new drugs, and techniques to further pollute or clean the world depending on who has the keys. Ignore the smell - that's progress!

The Awakening in 2012 signaled the formal rebirth of magic into the world, in the chaos and aftermath of the first VITAS plague. Dragons returned with their schemes and plots, and knowledge perhaps of times long past. Magical genetic mutation caused 4 out of 10 people on Earth to turn into Orks, Trolls, Elves and Dwarves – now called the metahumans. And alongside the new peoples, many other scholars and tribal people discovered that their magics now truly worked, with an iota of the effort needed before. Magic is the new science today that we've barely begun to scrape the surface of.

Secession fever hit all through the 30's around the world with new nations appearing everywhere. No continent escapes the break up – but the wheels of the corps keep raking in the nuyen.

Magic and Technology. New nations, ideologies, and races. All have an axe to grind, and money to pay for it.

Welcome to Shadowrun.

This is Circa 2060, but the map is essentially the same as it is now and a good reference.

Map of Shadowrun

Better Map of North America

Big Changes of Note:

The Geography of North America. Canada is gone, United States is gone. Seattle is a satellite city of UCAS in semi-hostile territory. Denver is a treaty city under joint rule of the major powers.

California Free State, under it's own, independent rule. With the exception of San Francisco, which is under Japanese imperial rule, and Los Angeles, which was given status as a 'free city' when the CFC military failed to demolish the slums and clean out the crime of the Inferno.

Western Europe largely holds onto it's original form - having common cause against Russia in the Euro-Wars has helped. However many of the former nations are fraught with civil unrest, or have become loose republics of states only united for defense. The German Allied States is one such example.

Timeline of Shadowrun Universe:

1999

• A 3-month truckers' strike causes food riots in New York.
  
• A Seretech truck hauling infectious medical waste on Staten Island is attacked by a mob in the mistaken belief that it carries food. Seretech security forces use lethal force to protect it. Twenty Seretech employees and 200 rioters are killed.
  
• The Supreme Court’s Seretech Decision upholds Seretech's
  actions as responsible for saving thousands of lives, rather than
  costing hundreds.
  

2000

• Scientists are surprised to discover a distinct new species of ferret in North America. Dubbed the Century Ferret due to the time of discovery, it is later concluded to be a "Spike Baby - a premature awakening.
  
• Martin Hunt is elected as the 43rd President of the United States.
  

2001

• The Shiawase court decision establishes extraterritoriality for megacorps when a radical eco-group called TerraFirst! attacked a Shiawase nuclear power plant. Though the attack was repelled, the corporation used the incident to convince the Supreme Court that major multinational corporations need the ability to protect themselves. To this end, the Supreme Court granted major companies extraterritoriality.
  
  
  
  • TerraFirst! manages later to acquire evidence that the attack was in fact a setup with the intent to force the courts into granting sovereignty. However, before the group can act on said information, their headquarters are destroyed and key members killed in what is considered to be one of the first shadowruns.
    
  
  

2004

• Nuclear meltdown at Dungeness in Kent (England) creates a localized irradiated zone.
  
• Philip Bester is elected as the 44th President of the United States.
  
• Libya attacks Israel with chemical weapons.
  

2005

• Israel retaliates against Libya with nuclear weapons. Most major Libyan cities are destroyed, many of the survivors are killed from radiation poisoning before being evacuated. Libya as a nation ceases to exist, and is absorbed into Egypt.
  
• A major earthquake hits New York City on 12 August, killing 200,000 and causing 200 billion in damage. It will take 40 years to rebuild.
  
  
  
  • United Nations moves to Geneva as a result.
    
  • East Coast Stock Exchange moves to Boston.
    
  
  
• Regional parliaments established in Scotland and Wales.
  

2005

• Japanese megacorps push the Republic of Korea into a war with the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea
  

2006

• South Korea launches a nuclear attack at Japan, but the missiles do not reach their targets. No nuclear detonations are ever detected by satelites, the fate of the missiles is unknown.
  
• Japan declares war on the DRK (South Korea).
  
  
  
  • South Korea is overrun. Japan proclaims newJapanese Imperial State.
    
  
  

2008

• Jesse Garrety is elected as the 45th President of the United States. William Jarman is his Vice-President.
  
• The cooling towers of the Catternon-GAU French reactor fracture, and begin leaking radioactive gasses. French and German governments are forced to designate the afflicted area as a emergency area (the SOX), evacuate several nearby cities and construct a five meter high, three meter thick barrier around the zone pending cleanup options. It remains to this day.
  

2009

• The resource rush hits its peak.
  
  
  
  • United Oil receives rights to 25% of national parklands and 10% of Indian lands.
    
    
    
    • Sovereign American Indian Movement (SAIM) is founded in retaliation.
      
    
    
  
  
• SIAM seizes the Shiloh launch facility in Montana. Delta Team retakes the site, but not before the terrorists launch a Lone Eagle ICBM at Russia. The missile never arrives at its destination. The reasons for this are unknown by the public.
  
• Re-Education and Relocation Act (Nepean Act in Canada) round up Native Americans into "reeducation centers".
  
  
  
  • Native Americans are spared the worst of the later VITAS outbreak because of this internment.
    
  
  
• King Charles III is crowned in Westminster Abbey
  

2010

• Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome (VITAS) emerges in India, and
  spreads world-wide to kill off a quarter of the world's population.
  
• Desperate nations attempt to quarantine or slow the outbreak – Mexico razes entire neighborhoods to prevent the spread.
  
• The Yakuza of Seattle is given official recognition as the Dungeness Crabs of the 87th Prefecture, by the Oyabun of the Watada-rengo in Chiba, Japan. This approval of and support for their activities allows the Seattle Yakuza to grow rapidly and expand its operations.
  

2011

• England's Sizewell B nuclear power station suffers critical meltdown, resulting in a total death count of 17,000.
  
• A nuclear power plant in Dounreay, Scotland suffers a meltdown, creating the Scottish Irradiated Zone.
  

2012
The Year of Chaos

• Unexplained Genetic Expres​sion(UGE) – Babies bearing a close resemblance to Elves and Dwarves are born across the world. Widely believed to be a foreshadowing of The Awakening ahead.
  
• Pope John Paul IV denounces metahumans as abominations in the eyes of God.
  
• Operation Discovery, an 8-man Mars Mission, makes planetfall and begins its survey.
  
• Dec 24: The Awakening
  
  
  
  • The great eastern dragon, Ryumyo, is sighted flying over Mt. Fuji, the first dragon seen by mankind in thousands of years
    
  • Under the cover of a fierce storm, Daniel Howling Coyote leads a walk-out of the Abilene detainment camp. Although guards fire upon him, none of the shots fired hit Daniel, and he leads his people into the storm, leaving no trace.
    
  
  
• The operations module of Operation Discovery crashes on Mars, killing 5 of the 8 astronauts.
  
• Dec 26: Ley lines and standing stones re-emerge all over Britain. First sighting of the great Welsh dragon, Celedyr, in Caerleon.
  

2013

• Jan 27: The great western dragon Dunkelzahn's first appearance at Cherry Creek Lake in Denver.
  
  
  
  • Grants exclusive 12-hour interview with Holly Brighton during which he explains The Awakening.
    
  
  
• The great western dragon, Lofwyr, appears in Germany and becomes a corporate player.
  
• England's King Charles III abdicates in favor of his only surviving son, George.
  
• Formation of Hildebrandt-Kleinfort-Bernal (HKB) megacorporation in England, an increasingly major power in world financial affairs.
  
• First televised Combat Biker match (Baton Rouge, LA)
  
• Jesse Garrety and William Jarman are reelected as President
  and Vice-President of the United States.
  

2014

• Daniel Howling Coyote announces formation of the Native American Nations (NAN)
  
• Following magically enhanced terrorist activity, the governments of the UK and Éire sign the Treaty of Galway establishing the United Free Republic of Ireland.
  

2015

• May 5: Francisco Pavón of the Azatlán party becomes first directly elected president of Mexico.
  
• Hong Kong breaks free from mainland China and proclaims independence. The British government uses its influence to protect Hong Kong.
  
• Schism splits the Irish Republican Army (IRA) into two factions: the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA.
  
  
  
  • The Provisional IRA is incorporated into the state security apparatus, where it counters Protestant paramilitaries. It would grow into the core of the Tir Republican Corps (TRC).
    
  
  

2016

• Daniel Howling Coyote and his forces seizes a broadcast station in Arizona and declares war on the United States over national television, declaring their intent to reclaim Native American land for the formation of the Native American Nations.
  
• December 12: President Garrety assassinated by William Springer (never captured). VP William Jarman is sworn in.
  
  
  
  • Also assassinated:
    
    
    
    • Russian President Nikolai Chelenko
      
    • Prime Minister Lena Rodale of the United Kingdom
      
    • Minister Chaim Schon of Israel
      
    
    
  
  
• President Jarman passes Executive Order 17-321, the extermination of the Native American tribes.
  
  
  
  • Redondo peak erupts and buries Los Alamos, New Mexico – preventing military retaliation against Daniel Howling Coyote from the base until he has departed the broadcast station.
    
  • This is the start of guerrilla warfare between the US military and the rebel NAN forces. Daniel Howling Coyote employing magical recon, storms and other effects which the US has no counter to stay ahead of the superior conventional power.
    
  • The United States military suppresses or denies the Native American claims that the storms and eruptions (that continually delay deployment of units) are 'magical' in nature or caused by the rebels.
    
  
  
• The megacorp Ares buys NASA.
  
• A major oil spill in the North Sea creates the Scottish Fringe Toxic Zone.
  

2017
The Great Ghost Dance

• Daniel Howling Coyote continues to run a guerrilla war against the US Military, culminating in a final warning for them to leave Native American lands. The warning is ignored and dismissed.
  
• Aug 17, 10:32 a.m
  
  
  
  • Daniel Howling Coyote broadcasts live to the nation, as he and his shaman begin the Great Ghost Dance.
    
  • Simultaneously, Mts. Hood, Ranier, St. Helens, and Adams all erupt in cataclysmic fury.
    
  
  
• United States and Canada finally enter into treaty negotiations with Daniel Howling Coyote and his people.
  

2018

Treaty of Denver

• Mexico is invited to join the new Sovereign Tribal Council (STC) of the Native American Nations. It declines.
  
• The Treaty Of Denver resolves the dispute between the United States and the Native American Nations.
  
  
  
  • Denver is divided between the US, Aztlan and then-three members of the NAN: Pueblo, Sioux, and Ute.
    
  • Denver and the surrounding territory becomes the Front Range Free Zone, a technically sovereign state governed by the Council of Denver.
    
  
  
• Civil war in China results in yet another fractured nation: Manchuria, Xinjiang, Guangxi, the Canton Confederation.
  
• The spaceplane America disintegrates in orbit, crashing in Longreach, Australia and killing 200.
  

2019

• The violinist Leonora Bartoli becomes the first to have a cyberlimb successfully implanted.
  

2020

• Aden destroys Tehran in response to the Ayatollah's declaration of jihad against the metahuman races.
  
• Ares launches the new Apollo space program.
  
• William Jarman is reelected President of the United States.
  

2021

Goblinization

• Shiela Blatavska establishes the Atlantean Foundation
  
• Apr 30: Goblinization strikes 20% of the world population – Orks and Trolls emerge to an already tense and traumatized world.
  
  
  
  • Martial law and concentration camps in the US
    
  • Yomi Island (Philippines) is claimed by the Japanese Empire, and the site of early deportation of Japanese metahumans.
    
  • England's King George VII is declared dead, rumors persist that he was killed when he began changing into a troll.
    
  
  

2022

VITAS 2

• Race riots continue around the world in reaction to Goblinization.
  
• Electronic news mag Data coins the term "Awakened".
  
• VITAS 2 outbreak - claims another 10% of world population.
  
• Cuba, Jamaica, Grenada, Bermuda and the Virgin Islands join together to form the Caribbean League
  
• Los Angeles is rocked by gang warfare, eventually suppressed by National Guardsmen. The city's worst slums are walled off, soon renamed "El Infierno" by local residents.
  

2023

• US Supreme Court grants equal rights to metahumans.
  
  
  
  • Alamo 2000 group (violent anti-metahuman) founded in response to Supreme Court decision.
    
  
  
• Riots over hoarded VITAS 2 serum level the LA neighborhood of
  Watts.
  

2024

• First commercial simsense hits the market.
  
• After a prolonged succession dispute, George Edward Richard Windsor-Hanover becomes King George VIII in England.
  
• William Jarman is reelected President of the United States. This is possible because the recently passed 29th Amendment allows more than two terms.
  

2025

• UCLA establishes first undergraduate program in occult studies.
  
  
  
  • Followed by Texas AMM (Agriculture, Medicine, and Magic) and MITT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Thaumaturgy).
    
  
  
• Cyberware enters professional sports (NFL)
  
• Lone Star takes over law enforcement in Seattle after Seattle PD goes on strike.
  
• Pope John XXV issues In Imago Dei encyclical:
  
  
  
  • Metahumans have souls and are capable of salvation.
    
  • Magical abilities are not inherently evil
    
  • Spirits are manifestations of nature (gray area).
    
  
  
• The United Kingdom Constitution Act is passed in the United Kingdom, creating the office of Lord Protector.
  

2026

• The Mafia appoints Brian O'Malley from Milwaukee as the head of the Finnigan family and as Don of Seattle. He is assigned to deal with the growing problem of the Yakuza in the metroplex and throughout the west coast.
  
• Oxford and Edinburgh Universities establish Bachelor of Science degrees in occult studies.
  
• World Combat Cyclists League (WCCL) founded. Combat Biking becomes a major sport.
  

2027

• Desperate to alleviate water shortages, the Los Angeles Power and Water Company pioneers the first use of cold fusion technology, which produces fresh water from salt water as a by-product.
  
• The Lord Protector's office (England) drafts the Magical Practitioners Registration Bill, which Parliament passes into law.
  

2028

• A major earthquake hits L.A., destroying LAX.
  
• Cambridge institutes a magical studies program.
  
• Britain withdraws from the European Economic Community (EEC)
  
• Andrew McAlister is elected the 47th President of the United States.
  

2029

• CIA, FBI, and NSA begin Echo Mirage project. Dedicated as a anti-cyberterrorism team, they begin training using the prototype cyberterminals – these are tank-sized sensory deprivation chambers that Echo Mirage used to access the network.
  
• The Salish-Sidhe Council (SSC) opens its borders to all metahumans (not just Native Americans). The Sinsearach elf tribe is founded in the southern region.
  

Computer Crash

• Feb 8: the Crash of '29
  
  
  
  • A computer virus strikes sweeps the global, shutting down corporations, banks and infrastructure in it's wake.
    
  • Aug: presidential emergency order drafts hotshot corp and university hackers into Echo Mirage. 32 graduate training. First-generation cyberterminals are room-sized and require a sensory deprivation tank.
    
  • Eighteen minutes after engaging the virus, four members of Echo Mirage were dead. When the data logs were analyzed, two things became apparent: First, the virus program could induce lethal biofeedback in humans accessing the Matrix. Second, no existing computer security could even slow down someone using a cyberterminal.
    
  
  

2030

• Oct 15: Act of Union signed in Washington D.C., Canada and the US merge into the UCAS.
  
  
  
  • U.S. President Andrew McAlister becomes the first President of the UCAS
    
  • Canadian Prime Minister Harold Frazier becomes the first UCAS Vice-President
    
  
  
• Brian O'Malley is shot and killed in his home by Yakuza assassins. A retaliatory hit the next day kills the Yakuza oyabun responsible, along with his lieutenants. Losses on both sides of the Mafia/Yakuza conflict result in a truce.
  
  
  
  • Patrick Finnigan becomes capo of his family and the Don of Seattle.
    
  
  
• Awakened and native forces in Russia seize Siberia - formation of Yakut nation.
  

2031

• Beginning of the Euro-Wars - loss of Siberia forces Russia to turn west for resources.
  
• Echo Mirage finishes off the virus (7 total survivors).
  
  
  
  • Second-generation cyberterminals developed by government are desk-sized and no longer require sensory deprivation to operate.
    
  
  

• The surviving members of Echo Mirage leave for the private sector. Shortly thereafter. Sony Cybersystems, Fuchi Industrial Electronics, and RCA-Unisys begin developing prototype commercial cyberterminals.
  

• James O'Malley, capo of Milwaukee and Brian's older brother, becomes obsessed with revenge against the Yakuza. He neglects his city's operations so dramatically that the Commissione strips him of his position and forces him to retire.
  

2032

• President Andrew McAlister and Vice-President Harold Frazier
  win the first UCAS-wide election, keeping them in office.
  
• Euro-Wars continue.
  

2033

• Jan 23: The Nightwraith airstrike on the eve of a massive push by Russian and western Europe forces. Fighter-bombers attack key C&C centers on all sides of the Euro-Wars, bringing the fighting to a screeching halt.
  
  
  
  • Whodunit? Swedish air surveillance implies that the aircraft were of UK origin, but this is denied by the government.
    
  
  
• Nanosecond Buyout: Damien Knight takes control of Ares.
  
• The Seattle Yakuza, nearly crippled in the conflicts with the Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza send a new upper echelon of Koreans to Seattle to help regain ground. These Korean leaders begin aggressively reclaiming lost territory.
  

2034

• Awakened forces emerge from the Amazon Jungle – led by three dragons, and numerous Awakened animals, native people and Matahumans, they seize control of Brazil in a relatively bloodless conflict.
  
  
  
  • Amazonia founded. The remaining urban settlements are not destroyed, but they are isolated and further urban growth is ceased while the new Awakened leadership begins repairing environmental damage to the region.
    
  
  
• CAS secedes from the UCAS, after several years of brewing tensions over changes of power structure within the UCAS after the induction of Canada.
  
• South Florida joins the Caribbean League.
  
• Richard Villiers (former Echo Mirage member) owns one-third of Fuchi Industrial Elec.
  
  
  
  • May: Matrix Systems, Boston, releases first gray-market cyberterminal.
    
  • Jun: Matrix Systems suffers a computer crash and its two primary shareholders die in "unrelated accidents".
    
  • Jul: Richard Villiers, the remaining majority shareholder, buys into Fuchi with the Matrix Systems technology.
    
  
  
• Dec 25: Formation of the Metahuman nation of Tir Na nOg
  (Ireland) announced.
  

2035

• Liam O'Connor becomes State President of Tir Na nOg.
  
• The Ceneste branch of the Sinsearach elves establish the elven nation of Tir Tairngire (TT) in what once was Oregon.
  
• Tir Tairngire secedes from the Native American Nations.
  
• Lugh Surehand appointed High Prince of Tir Tairngire.
  
• Tsimshian secedes from the NAN.
  
• Texas demands the CAS invade Aztlan to regain stolen territory in the earlier conflicts. The CAS refuses to support Texan resistance, causing Texas to secede. Briefly, they were re-admitted 4 months later after Aztlan invades Texas, capturing the city of San Antonio.Austin remains in contention.
  

2036

• UCAS Pres. McAlister withdraws all
  federal support from CA after they threaten secession.
  
• Creation of California Free State.
  
  
  
  • Tir Tairngire invades CFC south to Redding.
    
  • Aztlan invades CFC north to San Diego.
    
  • California Free state reaches out to the Japanese Empire for assistance, pointing out the large number of Japanese companies that have Headquarters in the state.
    
  • Japan says “good point!” and launches a full military take over of San Francisco.
    
  
  
• The Great Dragon Hestaby ends the immediate fighting over the Redding area by claiming the area around Mt. Shasta as her own.
  
• Alamos 20,000 claims responsibility for the firebombing of a town in rural Ohio, their first public atrocity. 20 people (mostly metahuman) die.
  
• 14th Amendment to the UCAS Constitution: The SINs mandate.
  
• Fuchi markets 3rd-generation cyberdeck, desktop CDT-1000.
  
• Akiko Kano and Arthur White-Eagle earn the Nobel Prize for the "Kano-White Eagle Theory of Metaphysical Phenomena".
  
• Regeneration and transformation of regional forests begins in Scotland.
  
• Martin Vincenzo (Technocrat) and Vernon Washington (Republican) are elected the 2nd President and Vice-President of the UCAS
  

2037

• Emotive simsense. Hello, BTLs!
  
• Denver Data Haven shows up in the shadows. GOOD MORNING SHADOWLANDS!
  
• DocWagon founded.
  
• Lofwyr announces 63% ownership of Saeder-Krupp, votes himself chairman of the board, president, and CEO.
  
• Guerilla warfare in northern California pushes Tir Tairngire back north as far as Yreka. The territory between Redding and Yreka becomes neutral ground, claimed by both sides.
  
• Wolves and bears are restored to the Scottish Wild Lands.
  
• First North American Urban Brawl championship, "Super Brawl"
  

2039
Night of Rage

• Feb 7: Thousands of metas, friends & family, and wannabes die in global riots.
  
  
  
  • New York City: 836 dead.
    
  • Seattle: "Hands of Five"
    terrorist group firebombs the metahuman detention center on the
    Tacoma docks.
    
  
  
• Feb 10: Alamos 20K destroys the Sears Tower in Chicago.
  
• St. Patricks Day: Boston, Knights of the Red Branch bomb an elven restaurant on the parade route, killing 24 and inciting a race riot that claimed hundreds more.
  
• Nadja Daviar becomes Dunkelzahn's third and current interpreter.
  
• Charleston, South Carolina: Serial killer caught and convicted on evidence obtained from a ghost.
  
• Fuchi sponsors the Universal
  Matrix Specifications (UMS) conference, Tokyo.
  
• A massive chemical spill kills 70,000 people in Teeside, England.
  

2040

• Southern Africa unites into Azanian Alliance, composed of the Cape Republic, Oranje-Vrystaat, Trans-Swazi Federation, and Zulu Nation.
  
• Renraku Arcology in Seattle begins construction – they're still working on it chummers!
  
• The Universal Brotherhood opens shop – the one bright spot of the last several years of bad news, the religious group promotes tolerant, good works and peace no mater your magical or genetic makeup.
  
  
  
  • They establish a temple in Seattle in 2045. Weekly soup kitchens in the Barrens.
    
  
  
• Carl Preston is elected the 3rd President of the UCAS
  
• Mexico becomes Aztlan, backed by ORO corporation – which becomes Aztechnology.
  

2041

• EuroAir Flight 329 from London to Atlanta destroyed by the Dragon Sirrurg.
  
• Yamatetsu elbows its way into the Big Seven of the Corporate Council, becoming the Eighth major megacorp.
  
• Policlubs appear in Europe.
  

2042

• Dunkelzahn begins semi-annual "Wyrm Talk" radio program.
  
• Akira Watada, oyabun of the Watada-rengo Yakuza, issues an ultimatum to the Korean oyabuns of Seattle. They must pledge their loyalty to the Watada rengo or suffer the consequences.
  
• Liam O'Connor (President of Tir Na nOg) disappears from public life.
  
• First biannual international Urban Brawl World Cup.
  

2043

• After Akira Watada's ultimatum, the Korean oyabun go independent. Former Korean Yakuza oyabun Park Jai Kyu begins organizing the Seoulpa Rings in Seattle with the help of his remaining contacts and followers.
  
  
  
  • The concept catches fire with the disenfranchised elements of the underworld and begins to spread through the metroplex and the rest of North America.
    
  
  
• After this betrayal, the remaining Korean survivors within the Yakuza are forced to pledge loyalty to the Akira Watada or be executed. New Japanese managers are put in place, and within a few weeks the Japanese once again control the Seattle Yakuza.
  
• Gwynedd elves make major advances in Welsh regional parliament.
  

2044

• Hanzo Shotozumi is appointed the oyabun of the 87th Prefecture in Seattle. He re-institutes and enforces traditional Yakuza ways and values, and begins an aggressive campaign to expand Yakuza operations in the Pacific Northwest.
  
• Carl Preston is reelected President of the UCAS
  

2045

• Don Patrick Finnigan fails to hold the line against Yakuza encroachment in the Seattle metroplex, and so the Commissione calls Don James O'Malley out of enforced retirement to resume control of Seattle operations. O'Malley is appointed Don of Seattle specifically to slow Yakuza growth in the metroplex.
  
• The Seoulpa Rings start making a name for themselves in the Seattle underworld as their operations expand; they begin to encroach on the markets of the other syndicates.
  

2045–47

• Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua are accepted into Aztlan republic.
  

2046

• A team of rogue deckers erases the results of California's gubernatorial election, allegedly aided by a Los Angeles street gang. The so-called Lost Election prompts the government to declare war on the "criminal element" in Los Angeles, sending army and corporate mercenary troops to raze El Infierno.
  
• After fighting a losing battle, California's central government declares Los Angeles a Free City.
  
• VITAS outbreak in Tynesprawl (England) kills 120,000.
  

2048

• Panama admitted into Aztlan.
  
• First Corp war kicks off with Aztlan (Aztechnology) nationalizes all foreign businesses.
  
• Corp Court of the Big Eight authorizes a joint corporate military strike, "Operation Reciprocity", against Aztechnology—the first known Omega
  Order. The end result is a classic "half a baby" decision—Aztlan allows foreign companies to maintain subsidiaries, but requires that the nominal holders must be Aztlan citizens.
  
• Veracruz Settlement: Aztechnology pays reparations for lost property.
  
• Panama canal becomes a Pan-Corporate Zone under the Corp Court controls.
  
• Colbert Group CEO Alan Adams is elected president of the UCAS.
  
• Alan Adams (Democrat) and Thomas Steele (Technocrat) are elecetd the 4th President and Vice-President of the UCAS
  

2049

• Aztlan and Amazonia squabble over Colombia and Venezuela.
  
• Fighting breaks out between native Yucatan forces desiring independence and the Aztlan military. Knowledge of this brewing civil war is suppressed within Aztlan, as terrorists being funded by external forces.