Shadowrun [2nd Edition]

The world is changed, some say Awakened. A lull in the flow of mystical energies subsided, and magic returned to the world. This event, triggering a latent genetic expression in some humans or a painful physical mutation in others, brought elves, dwarves, orks and trolls into existence. Creatures of the wild changed, too, becoming things of myth and legend. Modern society fights on, despite the odds, in an effort to assimilate the ways of magic into a technological world. The decades that followed the Awakening were years of turmoil, panic, and chaos, as the Apocalypse seemed to race across the Earth. Cultures that had never lost touch with their mystical past began to use magic against the great nations that had suppressed them for so long. The vast, global telecommunications networks collapsed under an assault by a mysterious computer virus. Nuclear missiles were launched, but failed to detonate, heightening global tensions. Dragons soared into the skies. Epidemics and famine ravaged the world’s populations. Clashes between newly Awakened races and the rest of humanity became common. All central authority crumbled and the world began to spiral down into a black abyss. But man and his kin are hearty animals. Out of the devastation and anarchy, order slowly reemerged. Cybertechnology eradicated the last vestiges of the computer virus and replaced the old telecommunications networks with what became known as the Matrix. New nation-states of Amerindians, elves, orks, and dwarfs were formed. Metroplexes, vast city-states, sprawled over the landscape. Central governments were replaced by megacorporations that had become a law unto themselves. People who accepted their extraterritorial control were protected. The outcasts, dissidents, and rebels were exploited and abused, continuing a condition that has existed between the weak and the powerful since time began.