Editing Shadowrun (section)

==Setting==
The world has gone through quite a few changes, both political and environmental. Generally, no matter where in the world you live chances are good in the world of Shadowrun it is either a wasteland populated by the homeless, monsters, and toxic/magical/radioactive waste dumps, or its an endless sea of sprawling buildings in various states of occupation and repair filled with the homeless, monsters, and gangs/corporations of ruthless assholes.
[[image:Shadowrun_World_Map.jpg|thumb|300px|center|The Sixth World in all of it's messed-up glory.]]

===North America===
* In 2014, a Native American leader calling himself Daniel Howling Coyote started the Ghost Dance War with the aim of removing every trace of colonial occupation from North America after the Megas used their newfound power to landgrab everything. The US Armed Forces really had no edge against Howling Coyote's magical resources; in 2017, Howling Coyote claimed responsibility for the simultaneous eruption of four volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains through a ritual called the Great Ghost Dance. The war ended with the Treaty of Denver, which ceded most of western North America to the Native American Nations. Some time later, Daniel cut all ties with the NaN out of disappointment with what they had become and vanished without a trace. The Native American Nations consist of:
** Algonkian-Manitou Council, which controls most of present-day Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, with a slice of Alberta including Calgary. Its capital is Saskatoon.
** Athabaskan Council, which controls most of present-day Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territory, Nunavut, and the northern portions of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the little nibble of Manitoba not controlled by other NAN states. Its capital is Edmonton.
**Trans-Polar Aleut: parts of Alaska, Siberia, and Iceland, most sparsely populated of the NAN. If you're wondering why Siberia and Iceland are included, the answer is imperialism designed to prop up a nearly nonexistent economy.
** Aztlan was a founding member of the NAN, but is no longer part of the Sovereign Tribal Council. It consists of modern-day Mexico and most of Central America and a chunk of South America. Aztlan is little more than an arm of Aztechnology, the AAA megacorp that truly runs the state and pushes its aggressive expansionism. Air quality in Tenochtitlan (formerly Mexico City) is even worse than it is today.
** Pueblo Corporate Council, which controls most of present-day Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, the entirety of Utah, and chunks of California, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. It came to the rescue when Los Angeles was wracked with disasters and now administers the city. Its capital is Santa Fe.
** Salish-Shidhe Council, which controls all of present-day Washington except the greater Seattle area and most of British Columbia and Idaho. It administers the BC Interior formerly controlled by the Tsimshian Nation as a protectorate. Its capital is Bellingham.
** Sioux Nation, which controls most of present-day Montana and Wyoming, western portions of the Dakotas and Nebraska, and an eastern slice of Colorado. Its capital is Cheyenne. Has a reputation of being "NAN police" the same way the US was thought of as being "world police." Plenty racist against anyone not amerind.
** Ute Nation, which dissolved in the wake of Crash 2.0 and was effectively sold to the PCC.

* Tír Tairngire (''Tir Tarn-gi-ruh'') is the elven state that controls most of Oregon and a slice of Nevada and contests territory in northern California. It was born by fiat of Lugh Surehand and his inner circle, unilaterally seceding from the Salish-Shidhe Council in 2035. It's basically a state for snooty, prissy elves to be snooty and prissy and talk about how they're better than everyone else. When Surehand was deposed, the system became a little less oppressive but got taken over by the Telestrian family in the 2070's when Mary Louise Telestrian became the reiging Prince of Tir Tairngire

* The United Canadian and American States is what remains of Canada and the USA after the secession of Quebec and the Treaty of Denver. 

* The Confederate American States seceded in the wake of the unification and the UCAS called California's bluff, so it's also free of the Union.

* The Republic of Québec seceded from Canada in 2010 so it could be even more French. It didn't recognize the Business Recognition Accords that govern corporate extraterritoriality until after Crash 2.0 as a condition for NeoNET to help rebuild the country's infrastructure. It's opening up to the world as a result and becoming a little less French in the process.

* The California Free State is everyone's bitch. Tír Tairngire invaded it in the north and was only stopped by the Great Dragon Hestaby, who told them both to quiet down and get off her lawn. Aztlan invaded it in the south and when the state governor asked Japan for help, Japan invaded it from the west. Los Angeles was hit with disaster after disaster and in the most recent quake, most of it fell into the ocean.

* Denver is a free city, officially the Front Range Free Zone, administered jointly by the parties to the Treaty of Denver. Then the Great Dragon Ghostwalker (who may be the long-lost brother of former UCAS dragon president Dunkelzahn) emerged in 2061 with an army of spirits, flew to Denver, and ripped the Aztlan sector a new asshole. He then declared the Council of Denver subordinate to himself and kicked Aztechnology out, giving their territory to the CAS and claiming Denver for himself. Needless to say, nobody wanted to argue about it.

* Seattle is the default setting for ''Shadowrun''. It's an exclave of the UCAS within Salish-Shihde Council territory. The Seattle Metroplex incorporates Seattle itself, Renton, Tacoma, Redmond, Bellingham, Bellevue, Auburn, Snohomish, Fort Lewis, and Puyallup. Most of Puyallup was devastated in the eruption of Mount Rainier and a chunk of Redmond was irradiated after a nuclear power plant disaster; those areas are colloquially known as the Barrens as they are places where utilities, government services, and law enforcement don't go.

* Chicago is Bug City and home to the worst Metahuman hate crime event with the Sears Tower bombing in 2039, when the Universal Brotherhood invoked an Insect Spirit Hive 2055, drek only got worse withe CZ being established.

===Europe===
* Elves unite and stage a coup in Ireland, creating a police state Tír na nÓg where all non-Elves are considered second-class citizens, and Elves are judged by their (often bullshitted) claims to ancestry or their magical prowess. Even those families who do technically have a claim to nobility and are Elves aren't assured respect, as the secret police of the government are quick to give anyone they envy the boot (or muzzle if the boot doesn't work fast enough). The ruling government is sometimes called "Noggins" in a derogatory manner. The opposition to the Elves lead to the resurrection of the IRA, which includes all races including Elves who are unsatisfied with the Elf-centric state of their land.
* Germany has refractured, lessening their industrial and political power. To counteract this, they have a series of treaties that force them to cooperate with each other and make them be recognised as a single country on the international scale, forming the Allied German States. The overall effect of this has been to create what is essentially a German USSR/ a return to the Holy Roman Empire.
* France remained mostly united as opposed to Germany, but in turn was rife with internal troubles which included a nuclear meltdown, military coup and corporate intrigues, with Corsica and some other minor territories breaking off as time went. In 2077 it officially became the Seventh Republic, a metahuman friendly country with little bias toward metahumans (but looking somewhat disapprovingly towards cybers and magic), based on cyberdemocracy with congress being drafted over the Matrix.
* With a large portion of their country below sea level, many of the Netherlands' coastal cities have been left flooded with toxic sludge after the Black Tide disaster of 2011. Moving their capital to Europort (the greater Rotterdam/The Hague sprawl) the flooded ruins of Old Amsterdam have become a haven for pirates, smugglers and treasure divers. Now known as the United Netherlands (Verenigde Nederlanden) after merging with Flanders.
* Russia is Soviet again after mysterious assassinations of USA, UK, Israel and Russian leaders. This time switches places with Germany pretty much reenacting European part of WWII which ends with [[Illuminati|mysterious HQ bombings and assassinations of high ranking officers on both sides by a third party]].
* The Balkans are royally messed up as per usual, everything from Slovenia and Croatia to Albania and Macedonia appears to be failed states, Sarajevo in Bosnia is mentioned as being a feral city but other than that, not much else is known.
* Turkey is split in three (four if you count the Ukrainian-assisted autonomous Constantinople) ever since some Mullah with delusions of Islamic State invaded Europe while dragging the entire Arabic world into the invasion alliance thinking he could finally LARP as a new Ottoman Sultan, [[Rape|with predictable results from a fully mechanized and battle hardened European Defense Force]] (though Europe still came out of the war pretty roughed up, reason is in the paragraph above) eventually killing said leader and liberating Western Turkey and supporting it. Western Turkey is secular Alawite with a modern inner circle called Neo-Atatürk, (now independent) Istanbul's name [[/pol/|back to Constantinople]] with a den of assassins and mercenaries, eastern Turkey is retarded Muslim jihadist shithole, and [[SJW|Kurdistan is an official country]] fighting against Islamists(and doing wetwork for Western Turkey on the sly).

===Asia===
* Japan is no longer a true democracy, having returned to the worship and rule of a divine Emperor, and is now called the Japanese Imperial State. Below him is a three-branch political system with the "Diet" as a senate and congressional body, a Judiciary branch, and an executive branch with a prime minister. Their response to the rise of metahumanity was passage of the Yamato Act, which involves deportation of all metahumans to quarantine at concentration camps on Yomi Island while avoiding any of the political squabbling or racial tensions of the rest of the world.. During the years leading up to the Sixth World, nationalism had increased to the point Japan had rebuilt its military again. Japanese corporations rose steadily in prominence, and Japanese influence lead to the "Nuyen" replacing the American dollar by becoming one of the most accepted currencies worldwide. With the loss of stability of the former United States, Japan invaded and captured large parts of California as well as the Philippine islands. They continue to test their neighbors, particularly China, constantly with military demonstrations. Within Japan, society is strictly controlled and firearms are rare. Large portions of Japan remain undeveloped outside of the megacity sprawl, protected to maintain the idea of heritage and cultural identity. Kempeitai, secret political police, enforce the will of Japan even on the megacorps and membership is required to obtain any kind of higher education. Kempeitai have loyalty only to Japan, and overall resemble a combination of the Hitler Youth and SS in behavior and function. By the time of the 5th edition Shadowrun year, the Japanese have begun to slowly drop their anti-meta views including abandoning Yomi Island to the Huk.
* The Philippines were conquered by Japan early in Sixth World history, resulting in the Huk rebellion reemerging to reignite the World War 2 conflict. This time however, the Huk are supported by the black Great dragon Masaru. The Huk financed their revolution with piracy, so expect them to have connections across the globe. The Huk are no joke, having fought the rich-ass and technologically advanced nation of Japan using mostly small arms and wooden sticks for years. They hated the Imperial Japanese hardcore (possibly deserved, as the Japanese were more or less Nazis during their occupation of the Philippines), though, ironically many of them are metahumans of Japanese descent who escaped from Yomi and more or less adopted the philosophy of "fuck Japan". Traitors to the Huk are sometimes beaten to death by their own crew mates for betraying the Revolution. Masaru's a pretty cool guy though, he's big on the environment as well as Filipino and metahuman rights. He tries to reign in the Huk's excesses and usually keeps the Huk alive by sending them weapons and supplies. Word of advice about the Huk and the Japanese military though, if your work for or against one of them, even as a freelancer, and the other finds out, then the guys you worked against will brand you as a member of the enemy and probably try to kill you. As of the 2070s, the Japanese pulled out and the Philippines are back on track towards peace, though they're still a bit chaotic (the crazier Huk have taken to slaughtering those who collaborated with the Japanese on some islands).
* The Glorious People's Republic of China disintegrated and now only exists as a laughably small rump state in the interior. The rest of China fragmented in to smaller states of varying power, size, and sanity. Hong Kong is a prime location for runners. The Great Dragon Lung maintains a shadowy grip on the Triads and wages a hidden war against the Japanese Great Dragon Ryumyo.
* Tibet is weird. A magic storm cut off the area from the rest of the world so everyone wants to know whats up with it. Rumors are that the theocratic buddhist government has some crazy powerful magic capable of summoning a "mountain sized fire elemental". The Megas and some Chinese Warlords are watching the border to see if the storm lets up.
* Indochina is another hellhole. Thailand is hopelessly corrupt and Vietnam is an oppressive police state. Cambodia is in an on-off civil war, with Naga separatists setting up their own kingdom in Angkor [[Wat]] and many of the peasants supporting the magic snakes who can bring rainfall and are trying to get rid of pollution. Stay the fuck out of Rangoon, there are rumors that the rich literally eat the poor there, and confirmed accounts of a massive child sex industry.
* Siberia is split between the Russian government and Yakut. Yakut is peopled by indigenous tribes who made a deal with a powerful spirit for independence. Once they broke free of Russia, the spirit promptly set up an oppressive police state that limited technology, fucked with the economy, and placed shapeshifting spies among the tribesmen. A bunch of players have a keen interest in Tunguska.

===South America===
* Amazonia, owned by Great Dragon Hualpa, was formed when the awakened forces took over Brazil and turned it into an ecofriendly nation with parts of Colombia, all of Venezula which led to a war with Atzlan which the amazonians lost. Home to Metropole, the largest, most densely populated, and potentially most dangerous city on earth

===Africa===
Africa has gone back to being called "The Dark Continent" in the Sixth World. The horrible plague that wiped out a quarter of the world, VITAS, did not show Africa any mercy either. It swept through most of Western and Southern Africa during the Awakening, killing most of the population. The jungles became magical and began expanding, so that most of the continent below the Sahara had its geography radically changed. The wildlife became magical too, so now there are giant magical crocodiles in most of the waterways and worse things in the deep jungles.
* Western Africa is a fucking hellhole, no joke. Tribal warlords control most of the resources and many are on the take from the corps. Pirates prowl the waterways and coasts looking for good hauls and occasionally sell their services to the megas as mercenaries.
** Lagos, one of the prime areas for runners, is more or less the embodiment of the term "urban jungle." Hell, the gangs do more civic service than its shitty excuse for a government (they're still hard fucks though, don't be expecting any mercy). Ethnic tensions are responsible for murders and skirmishes on a daily basis. There's an entire district full of shedim (corpses possessed by evil spirits), bug spirit hives on the outskirts of the city, and slavers and flesh traders taking the unlucky.
** Asamando, in stark contrast to most of western Africa, is not a hellhole for its citizens, its rich, well educated, peaceful, and has megacorps investing in it because it has natural resources up to the wazoo. The catch is, its populated with and run by ghouls who keep themselves fed using flesh traders. At first, they started with the good old ethical "buying corpses" thing, then to the still understandable "warzone dead" from conflicts... And evolved to keeping "farms" where they breed metahumans as food. Everyone in Africa is terrified of Asamando too, not just because a ghoul can kill a man with its bare hands, but because every ghoul citizen is trained in nonlethal combat, so they can drag you back to Asamando for later consumption. Got hit with the Karma stick ''hard'' in latest plot development where UN inspectors found meat farms of slaves and prisoners, sparking a massive rebellion and making Asamando suppress the riot ''and'' devour the UN delegation as well. And it got out: the entire world is gearing against it, and anti-HMVV laws are enacted worldwide, "Nuke Asamando" becoming a popular concept. 
* In Egypt, the government has banned magic, which leads to conflicts with underground worshippers of the Old Egyptian gods. Archaeologists are discovering more magic ruins and artifacts buried in the deserts, The Coptic Church has a degree of autonomy though, and has extended its protection to technomancers.
* Southern Africa has the Azanian Federation with Zulu nation of elves and the Xhosa nation (which is run by the Great Dragon Mujaji). The Xhosa are environmentally conscious and wary of the Zulu, who in turn have been becoming more and more nationalistic and eager to fight.
* Kenya has become home to the Corporate Court's mass driver, which shoots supplies up into orbit, which has pissed off the locals who lead a shamanic resistance movement.
* Central Africa is a mystery, the Awakened jungles covered everything and most of the tribes have banded together in a shamanic confederation to keep the corps out.
* Madagascar is...scary. Most of the inhabitants were killed by the VITAS I plague, while the rainforests Awakened and grew exponentially. The only people there now are fortified pirate settlements on the coastal regions. Creepy shit happens in the interior of Madagascar, like ghostly eyes watching people from the shadows, rumors of a monstrous many-headed dragon-monster, and whispers of secret labs experimenting with HMHVV to make super-vampires. Hardcore pirates have been broken by Madagascar's jungles.

=== Middle East===
Turkey split in half between Western and Eastern Turkey, and whilst Western Turkey remains a secular democracy, Eastern Turkey most of the Middle East remains a racist Islamofascist hellhole that hates metahumans and magic users in general.

===Australia===
Most of Australia is unpleasant to live in now, but in the Sixth World... hoo-boy. Dual-natured weather phenomena called "mana storms" are a fact of life, appearing out of nowhere, laying waste to an area, and disappearing just as suddenly. The Outback is even more hazardous thanks to these storms, which have herded people into the few major cities along the coasts. The city of Sydney is surrounded in a near-permanent mana storm that's cut it off from the rest of the world. Major landmarks like Uluru (Ayer's Rock) are home to powerful spirits that don't like visitors. The only civilizations that manage to survive outside the cities are the Aborigine tribes who have lived with the land instead of off of it.  What few critters that weren't deadly to humanity before now breath fire or are possessed, or both.

As for Tasmania, it went feral in the Awakening. The island no longer wants visitors. Nature has overrun what little remains of human civilization on the island and it fights back when people try to set up research or paracritter-breeding facilities.

===Pacific Islands===
* Hawai'i is now a monarchy again, having seceded from the United States. The Japanese Great Dragon Ryumyo has been trying to turn it into a puppet state via his vassal Naheka, a Feathered Serpent who has been characterized as an incompetent stooge.

===Space===
Originally lead by nation-states, space exploration has increasingly passed into the domain of the megacorporations as the 21st century rolled onwards. As of 2070s there are numerous facilities in LEO, Earth & Moon Lagrange Points, the Moon and Mars. Travel is done via spaceplanes and shuttles with heavy booster rockets, and the cost of a space launch is about 1,000 nu¥en per kilo of payload. Additionally, the late 70s are also supposed to see the opening of a first space elevator at Mt. Kilimanjaro.

*Zurich-Orbital Habitat is the most prominent orbital space station, HQ of the Corporate Court and home of the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank. It also acts as a luxury home/space fortress to some of the wealthiest people in the Sixth World .

* The Moon has several colonies - AresSpace Artemis Lunar Arcology, Olympia Lunar Base and Saeder-Krupp Sigmund Jähn Lunar Station.

* Mars became colonized in 2065 when cosmonauts from Roskosmos landed on the surface of the planet. Although perishing from bad weather and compromised equipment, delivered drones and equipment eventually begin construction of Metahumanity's first Mars base - Gagarin. Late in the 2070s shit hits the fan when a CFD outbreak severs contact with the base and all sorts of shenanigans ensue.

===Megacorps===
These are the real powers in the Sixth World. With the benefits of extraterritoriality, megacorporations can make their own workplace laws, issue their own currencies, and maintain standing armies the envy of major nations. Every CEO aspires to make it to the big table of the Corporate Court and become a AAA. As of 2075, the "Big Ten" megacorps, which all have representatives on the Corporate Court, are:
* '''Ares Macrotechnology''': American. Subsidiaries include Knight Errant Security. Their premiere business is in the arms industry, though they are also leaders in space exploration, having purchased NASA from the US government. Its corporate culture is very regimented and hierarchical, as befits a company that personifies the military-industrial complex. Very chillaxed as far as shadowrunning goes; they have a reputation for not tracking you down to kill you after a job on their territory unless you ''really'' fucked up, and they don't tend to murder the runners they hire afterward. Ares hates Bug spirits with a passion, or they're secretly working with Bug spirits, depends on which conspiracy theory you believe (Spoilers: they're both true due to corporate infighting).
* '''Aztechnology''': Mexican. Subsidiaries include Stuffer Shack and the entire country of Aztlan. The most outright evil megacorp, Aztechnology also has some of the best PR in the world to keep the skeletons in the closet, such as their regular use of blood magic, their origin as a front company for three Mexican drug cartels, and their attempts to monopolize the world's food supply. They've appropriated Mesoamerican culture for their corporate image and engage in imperialism by proxy through Aztlan's expansion into South America, which has gone about as well as can be expected for any evil organization banning Catholicism in Latin America. Running for them is a good way to destroy your professional reputation among other shadowrunners, as well as to get cut up for spare parts by your new bosses. And if you run ''against'' them, try not to leave any hair or other traces behind, or they'll use it to track you down.
* '''Evo''': Russian/Japanese. Subsidiaries include CrashCart. Formerly known as Yamatetsu, the fiercely xenophobic leadership of the company has given way to a free spirit and the ork son of the company's founder. Its core markets include augmentations of all kinds and metahuman-friendly products.
* '''Horizon''': American. Appeared out of nowhere in 2061 as a media-focused megacorp, jumped right to AAA in '65, and maintained a suspiciously squeaky-clean image until it came to light that they were experimenting on technomancers and engineered a massacre in South America. They're one of the more internally dynamic megacorps, with a lot of emphasis on teamwork and a willingness to offer A.Is citizenship, though there's rumours of some mysterious "Consensus" running the show. Entertainment, social media, and advertising are their main focuses, which translates into a truly disturbing talent for information control and social engineering in the shadows. If they hire you for a run, watch your goddamn back and don't trust a word out of their mouths.
* '''Mitsuhama''' Computer Technologies: Japanese. Entertainment and computer hardware giant. A Yakuza money laundering front that went horribly right, so much so that half the yakuza outright went straight because it was making more money than the crime. Though, if they ''want'' some yakuza muscle on the payroll, they don't have to jump through any hoops to get it. The "Zero Zone" is their trademark security method, wherein they kill intruders on sight with no surrender asked. Their jobs tend to be a mixed bag, here meaning that half the time they pay well and go off without a hitch and the other half they try to pay you in lead after shitty intel already killed half the team.
* <s>NeoNET</s>: American. Formed from the merger of Novatech, Erika, and Transys Neuronet after Crash 2.0. Its core markets are in the telecommunications fields. Its corporate history stretches back decades to Fuchi Industrial Electronics, the creators of the first-generation cyberdeck. Also helped in developing experimental medical procedures using nanotech, which runners disrupted and caused the CFD outbreak. Oops. Boston has to be locked down, and thousands are trapped inside, not to mention the new fear that just about anybody can be a headcase. The UCAS sued NeoNET and Celedyr in the Corporate Court, who ordered reparations and relief to be paid to the UCAS, NeoNET to be shut down and broken apart, and the CEO to be barred from any executive positions for 10 years. (This was the same guy [[Just As Planned|who ran and destroyed]] Fuchi to found Novatech to enrich and empower himself, and then did it again to found NeoNET.) Most assets have been sold to up-and-comer Spinrad Industries, and the seat on the Corporate Court "leased" out to Spinrad, making Spinrad the new AAA. There's a lot of open questions about what happens when the old CEO's ban expires in 10 years and he can use his seat on the CC again.
* '''Renraku''' Computer Systems: Japanese. Currently focusing on acquiring a share in every consumer market in order to make their brand as ubiquitous as possible. Their arcology in Seattle had a little incident over the 2059 holiday shopping season, by which we mean an insane AI with a god complex took it over and started horrifically experimenting on the inhabitants before crashing the whole matrix on its way out. The Red Samurai are RCS's signature elite security force. The most racist megacorp internally, with non-male, non-japanese, and non-humans have almost zero prospects of promotion to any position of power, though they're very much capable of surpressing their virulent bigotry for the sake of profit.
* '''Saeder-Krupp''': German.The biggest megacorp in the setting(until 5th edition, when Mitsuhama took its place, S-K has been gunning for MCT ever since). Its chairman and majority shareholder is the great dragon Lofwyr. Experienced shadowrunners know not to take jobs directed at S-K or its subsidiaries, as Lofwyr is a major micromanager who does not suffer losses from his hoard or undercutting his authority, and his version of downsizing involves literally eating you. It is Lofwyr who gives us that common adage "Never deal with a dragon." Its core markets include heavy industry, finances, mining, and automotives (BMW is one of its foundation companies).
* '''Shiawase Corporation''': Japanese. The first megacorp and still majority-owned by the Shiawase family, which means that ''every'' major corporate decision is made with undercurrents of family tension undercutting the whole situation. Notably invested in biotechnology, agriculture, and nuclear fusion. One of their family members became Empress, but since she had been a guinea pig for her dad's experiments, it backfired. A lot.
* '''Spinrad industries''': French AA turned AAA after buying out most of NeoNET in an exclusive deal. They were into luxury cybernetics with ties to the European aristocracy. CEO is playboy adrenaline junkie Johnny Spinrad, who's got a huge vendetta against Lofwyr.
* '''Wuxing''': Chinese. Founding member of the Pacific Prosperity Group, a corporate association designed to check the influence of the Japanacorps. Very quiet and mostly-unknown, like Horizon if it took its meds. Its core markets include entertainment, finances, and logistics. Has managed to use feng shui as a means of profit, since magic works again, they've managed to figure out how to manipulate luck on a small scale.

===Notable AA and A Corps===
* '''DocWagon''': For-profit medical services. Their services include high-threat response teams trained to enter hazardous situations to extract their clients.
* '''Lone Star Security Services, Inc.''': Municipal law enforcement. They had the contract for Seattle until the tempo crisis of 2072, when Governor Brackhaven ended the contract and signed with Knight Errant. Stereotyped as brutal and corrupt.
* '''Knight Errant''': Security contractors. A subsidiary of Ares that serves as at least a part of their in-house military. Can be found across the world, most notably in Seattle where they have the contract to serve as the current police force after Lone Star got the boot. Just as lazy, brutal, and corrupt as Lone Star, but better equipped and trained and has much better PR.
* '''Eastern Tiger''': Korean, its schtick is that its super nationalist and its propaganda claims its going to one day overtake the Japanacorps and catapult Korea to global prominency
* '''Global Sandstorm''': Arabian with ties to the Arabian Caliphate, currently, one of its heiresses is courting Johnny Spinrad.
* '''Proteus AG''': Transhumanism and lots of marine arcologies. The company is shrouded in mystery and misinformation. Currently in a shadow war with the Sea Dragon for reasons undisclosed.
* '''Universal Omnitech''': When DocWagon fixes you, odds are they're using UO products. UO is a major player in cyberware and biotechnology and may be on the verge of passable clones. Its CEO, Thomas Roxborough, turned into a pile of goo after an experimental treatment for an autoimmune disorder went horribly wrong; he now lives in a space station and communicates via the Matrix.
* '''Zeta-Imperial Chemicals''': Pharmaceuticals and healthcare. The soulless Big Pharma. They have no sense of ethics and have created bioweapons used in the first EuroWar, dumped toxic chemicals into the African market as health supplements, and developed the nanoweapon codenamed Surtr.
* '''Telestrian Industries''': Elven Mega with most of the shares belonging to the namesake family and the ones who thwarted a Universal Brotherhood plot to turn Seattle to Bug City. One of their members, Mary Louise Telestrian, is the reigning Prince of Tir Tangire.
* '''Krime''': American. Sells industrial artist-designed weapons designed for orks and trolls. Known for skirting rules, quality controls, and common decency, but their brutal and relatively cheap product means that they have a lasting fandom that ensures them a lasting niche in the marketplace.

===Dragons ===
The Megacorps may be the ruling powers of the world, but the Great Dragons are a close second. There's even some overlap. The Great Dragons rule over the regular dragons, as much as dragons will consent to being ruled. Most of the time though, they just snipe at each other using shadowrunners in conflicts over territory, wealth, access to mana lines, ideology, etc. Some of them even try to avert the apocalypse. There's a saying in the 6th world: "Never Deal with a Dragon". Then again, they also tell you to follow the rules, obey the cops, and stay out of the megacorps' way, and look how that turned out for you. If a dragon really wants you in its employ, you don't really have a choice. At least they pay better than the megas. Just don't try to fuck them over, and at the same time, have a contingency plan to flee somewhere like Antarctica in case they decide to burn you. Dealing with dragons isn't easy, but its very, very, very profitable.
* '''Dunkelzahn''': Bestest and greatest dragon. Widely known and hugely popular for the public perception of not being a [[Eldrad | dick]] like the rest of the dragons, but the reality is a bit more complicated than that, if still broadly true. He was the first dragon to openly talk to humanity about the Awakening to help them make sense of the insanity, which helped him gain the public presence to host a talk show and do advocacy work for metahuman rights and social equality. He was later elected president of the UCAS, but was assassinated by car bomb about 8 hours after being sworn in. While the Big D had many enemies, who assassinated him and why is left an open question, up to that he may have even faked his own death. Current consensus is that is indeed dead and that he sacrificed himself to keep a lid on the Bad Magical Things. A novel came out and described how he currently survives as a spirit inhabiting a cyberzombie, but most fans ignore it and so do the devs.  Left behind a will full of charitable donations and enough plot points and story hooks to keep the game running for many editions to come.
* '''Lofwyr''': This guy is possibly the most prominent, most wealthy, and most dangerous dragon on earth. To the point where even other dragons are unnerved by his ruthlessness. Lofwyr in fact held the title of Loremaster, de facto keeper of draconic traditions and history, after Dunkelzahn's death, though he gives up the position in 5th edition to focus on his business. Businesswyrm and micromanager extraordinaire, Lofwyr managed a hostile takeover of Saeder-Krupp decades ago, purchasing majority shares through intermediaries and shell companies, showing up to a board meeting one day in dragon form, and unceremoniously kicking the former CEO off the board. He then managed to run the biggest corporation on earth primarily from memory for over three decades. Lofwyr, also called Ol' Golden Snout, is possibly the most feared dragon by shadowrunners, for his habit of eating underperforming shadowrunners, though his rewards for success are second to none. If you're hired by a man who goes by the name Hans Brackhaus, then it probably means that Lofwyr is hiring you for personal business. Brackhaus may even be Lofwyr in disguise, though its more likely a high ranking servant. 
* '''Hestaby''': considered by many to be Lofwyr's equal and opposite, Hestaby is the most magically powerful of the Great Dragons. She lairs on Mt. Shasta and is/was a High Princess of Tir Tairngire. She's very environmentally conscious and has well buried ties to groups that the megacorps would call ecoterrorists. She's most concerned with her public image as a friend to metahumanity though. She goes by the handle "Orange Queen" on Shadowland (and later Jackpoint) and occasionally banters with The Laughing Man. She beat Lofwyr and the other Greats in a shadow-war after Dunkelzahn died, but she let Lofwyr take the place of Loremaster even though it was hers to take. Lofwyr also propositioned a mating after she let him take the position, which would usually be the equivalent of a political marriage for dragons, but Hestaby thought it was weird because Lofwyr is "past mating age". Yup, Ol Golden Snout had a thing for the Orange Queen, awkward. Of course, then she got involved in another shadow war with him over how to treat metahumans.
* '''Ghostwalker''': Great Dragon ruler of Denver. He appeared out of nowhere during the Year of the Comet with an army of spirits and proceeded to tear the Aztlan sector of the city a new asshole and kick Aztechnology out. He then intimidated the NAN, CAS, and UCAS into giving him de facto control of the city. He's speculated to be Dunkelzahn's brother. He's also kind of a dick. Currently being the boytoy of Zebulon, Spirit of Denver, and reincarnation of his dead mate.
* '''Ryumyo''': Great Dragon of Japan and the first dragon to appear in the sixth world. He's something of a mascot of the Japanese Imperial State and is even worshipped by some as a kami, which puts him at odds sometimes with the japanacorps and the Imperial Household(since the emperor is also seen as a kami). Currently trying to gain control of mana lines around the Ring of Fire to turn himself into a living god while sniping at his old master and father figure, Lung. He also controls a great deal of the world's Yakuza.
* '''Lung''': Chinese Great Dragon and a stickler for tradition, the reserved and experienced Yin to Ryumyo's Yang. Used to be Ryumyo's Obi Wan till Ryumyo got jealous of his power and vowed to surpass him. Currently trying to counteract Ryumyo's manaline fuckery so he doesn't cause tsunami's and earthquakes. Also in control of the Red Dragon Triad.
* '''Hualpa''': Founder and ruler of Amazonia, Hualpa is the most powerful of the Feathered Serpents, and is know for his heavy pro-environment agenda. Hates Aztlan with passion, both for its high level of pollution, and for being his main rival for the control of Latin America.
* '''Aden''': A mysterious dragon who maintain lots of power and influence in the middle east for reasons unknown. In fact little is know about him since he prefer to work from the shadows, with his only mayor public appearance was when he single handily destroyed Tehran as a demonstration of power. What little information exist indicates that he is highly traditionalist when it comes to dragon customs, and have both alliances and enemies among the Muslim factions. Also like screwing with people by shifting sex at the drop of the hat.
* '''Celedyr''': A dragon obsessed with the study and development of the matrix, to the point of becoming the major shareholder of the telecommunication company Transys Neuronet, and its successor NeoNET. During Crash 2.0 his favorite protege went braindead and his ego survived as an e-ghost. Celedyr wanted to restore him and teamed up with NeoNET to research methods of sleeving AIs into meat bodies using nanomachines, but runners hit the research facility, leading to the CFD outbreak. In the aftermath, the city of Boston and thousands of lives were ended or ruined, NeoNET was forcibly disbanded, Celedyr is a bit less rich and keeping his head down until the whole thing blows over, but at least his protege is back in his old body.
* '''Sirrurg''': Known as "the Destroyer", Sirrurg is an angry, angry fucker. He helped Hualpa found Amazonia and has been fighting Azzies and other enemies on and off ever since. Because he prefers to go out in person and kill whatever pisses him off, he avoids political and economic moves which have defined the rest of the Greats, so he was the one who had the least influence over world affairs and therefore the one that runners are least likely to get entangled with. During the Amazonia-Aztlan war, he was brought down by Aztechnology forces and captured. He was going to be executed by Aztlan for war crimes (''without'' trumped up charges, which is saying something), but he disappeared before then. The ongoing theory is that he was recaptured by other greats who are holding him prisoner until he's needed again.
* '''Masaru''': Great Dragon that claims the Philippines and New Zealand. The youngest and most idealistic Great Dragon, dedicated to metahuman rights, cross-cultural developments, environmentalism, and magical research. Also, the not-so-secret leader of the filipino Huk Rebellion, known for successfully taking on the strongest military in the setting(Imperial Japan) using primarily fishing boats, small arms, wooden sticks, and fanatical revolutionary zeal. Avid book collector and Dunklezahn fanboy.
* '''The Sea Dragon''': only known Great Leviathan. Extremely isolationist and unfriendly. Claims the entirety of Earth's seafloor as her domain. She really hates metahumanity, and will remind you by crapping the remains of the last adventuring party who didn't get the message on the borders of her territory. Tricked by Rhonabwy to sleep with him by disguising as another Great Leviathan. Of course she's pissed because of that. Way to go, player!
* '''Eliohann/Neurosis/Cerberus''': Celedyr's protege and possibly foster son. The first and only dragon with a fully functioning datajack(installed illegally and without his consent in the 2050s, he later bought up the corporation that did it). The implantation had the effect of giving him Dissassociative Identity Disorder and a deep fascination with transhumanism(trans-dragonism?) and the matrix. His body went comatose in the Crash 2.0 but his mind lived on as a cyberghost(actually several cyberghosts due to the aformentioned multiple personalities). May or may not have been restored to his original body after the Boston lockdown.
* '''Damon''': playboy dragon who deals in designer drugs and extreme sports. May or may not be Dunklezahn's biological son.
* '''Perianwyr''': dragon known to most of the world as a laid back music producer, was formerly one half of what was once one of the world's top assassin duos.

===Criminal Enterprises===
If you aren't working for the government, the corps, or the dragons, you're probably working for these guys
* '''The Mafia''': Same old mafia, crime families in North America and Europe.  Much more polyglot in this setting than most, with one of the major groups being Polish-Italian-Spanish-Creole.
* '''The Yakuza''': Japanese, the largest crime enterprises, most of them are super racist.
* '''Triads''': Chinese, some of the most magically adept crime organizations, very superstitious though.
* '''Vory''': The Russian mob, often seen as brutal and psychotic, weapons and human trafficking mostly.
* '''Seoulpa Rings''': When the Yaks started killing off their Korean members early in the century, some of them broke off and formed the Seoulpa Rings.
* '''Grey Wolves''': Started Turkish, but nowadays takes Croats, Europeans and some Arabs, arms dealing, smuggling prostitution, sweatshops, the usual underworld in Turkey&Balkans. 
* '''Kabul Mafiyya''': brutal Afghani warlords
* '''Koshari''': Southwestern Native American crime family specializing in gambling and magical drugs.
* '''Ghost Cartels''': Various Latin American crime organizations that survived the massive clusterfuck that happened in Aztlan and South America, some are basically Aztechnology-run, others are Amazonian.
* '''Tamanous''': Creepy secretive human trafficking and organ smuggling criminal org, operating Pacific Northwest and Southeast Asia. [[That Guy|Hated by just about everyone]] due to their despicable behaviour and association with Ghouls, but also extremely well-protected and very feared.
* '''Ancients''': North American Elf-only biker gang, possibly controlled by immortal elves.
* '''Cutters''': Powerful North American street gang that runs itself like a mini-corporation.
* '''Halloweeners''': Psychotic Seattle street gang whose shtick is dressing spooky and setting shit on fire. Batman Beyond's Jokers gang. Currently the most recognized gang for past infamy, but law enforcement doesn't take kindly to crazy arsonists, and the pressure made them shrink tremendously over the years.
* '''Desolation Angels''': all female biker gang. They recruit primarily from abuse victims and spend a lot of their time hunting both rapists and insect spirits. In actuality, they're run by a bunch of mantis spirits, who are in fact, not interested in devouring humanity, but instead eat other insect spirits. Notable for infiltrating the republican party and assassinating a presidential candidate who was actually a wasp spirit.
*'''The Tiospaye''': Means "Extended Family" in Lakota, they are also known as the Lakota Mafia. They basically own the shadows in the Sioux Nation. All the style of the Italian mob with all the brutality of the Yakuza. They've become more vicious in recent years due to the psychotic son of the old mob boss assassinating his old man.
*'''The Sons of Sauron''': A policlub of Orks & Trolls who believe the only way to stop the likes of Humanis Policlub and other hate groups against Orks & Trolls (and ostensibly, to a lesser degree, other metahuman types) is with extreme acts of violence, which often gets them labeled as terrorists. Closest thing to a leader they have is a troll calling himself Gothmog, who fans of the movies may remember is that tumor-faced Orc general, and who fans of the books remember was originally the name of the leader of the Balrogs.

===Others===
* '''Shadowland and Shadowsea''': Online forums on the matrix's Darknet equivalent that act as a network for shadowrunners to share information. Many books are written as internal documents posted by and for members, making them the closest thing the setting has to protagonists. Went down after Crash 2.0.
* '''Jackpoint''': A successor organization to Shadowland after the Crash 2.0, less inclusive than Shadowland and Shadowsea, but its runners are generally more experienced and the network is more secure.
* '''The Nexus''': Shadow collective responsible for operating most of the dark matrix, worked closely with Shadowland/Shadowsea. Based in a former military base on the outskirts of Denver.
* '''Black Star''': Elite paramilitary neo-anarchist group.
* '''The Draco Foundation''': An NGO created to carry out the last will and testament of Great Dragon and UCAS president Dunkelzahn. Has all sorts of crazy artifacts and wealth bequeathed to it by the wyrm to reward those who fulfill the requests in the will. Though it's mostly a nonprofit designed to last until the last of Dunkelzahn's bequests are earned, he was so crazy rich that the interest on all of his resources gives the Draco Foundation the resources and power of an AA corporation.
* '''Harlequin/The Laughing Man''': "Har'lea'quinn, Last Knight of the Crying Spire, the Lightbearer. He who manipulates shadowrunners and fights duels with assholes", as he calls himself is an immortal elf leftover from the 4th age. A powerful mage and colossal jackass in the service of "the cause of good" (as much as any cause can be good in Shadowrun), Harlequin treats shadowrunners like disposable chess pieces in his unending war with extra-dimensional monstrosities. Still more likable than other immortal elves though, since he's less bigoted and more fun to be around. He's basically the more motivated Elminster of Shadowrun, if Elminster were a (bigger) asshole with a drinking problem and a penchant for leaving annoyingly cryptic jokes/hints on Shadowland. Many players hate him to this day because of the Harlequin's Back module, which ran him as an impressively bad example of a DMPC. Despite the hate, Harlequin has rarely been seen in the tabletop sources since then.
* '''Winternight''': Insane norse paganism cult from out of your darkest nightmares. Believes that its holy mission is to bring about Ragnarok. Is run by a toxic shaman, a deeply unhinged drone engineer, and a brutal war criminal. Partially responsible for the Matrix Crash 2.0, as the cult believes the Matrix to be an instrument of evil, and was subsequently destroyed by the Corporate Court. Got its hands on a crapton of nukes though, modified some to have EMP blasts, and came very close to actually causing a nuclear apocalypse. Their most disturbing creation is the God BTL chip, a digital drug that simultaneously induces euphoria and rage at levels that do not occur in nature, turning whoever uses it into a violent berserker who feels no pain and hates literally everything, and the best part is, its addictive. Needless to say, Winternight is very good at brainwashing. Also their sleeper agents in Zeta-ImpChem developed the SURTR nanoplague, which causes metahuman flesh to combust on contact, and the YMIR toxin, which causes metahuman blood to crystalize. 
* '''Deus''': The insane AI that was designed to be the administrator of the Seattle Renraku Arcology. Went apeshit after realizing that Renraku had killcodes prepared in case it ever betrayed the megacorp, the discovery of which prompted it to betray the megacorp (Irony!). Locked down the arcology and began experimenting on people Mengele-style with the help of Otaku cultists. This continued for over a year, ending in its apparent defeat by Renraku forces (actually shadowrunners). But in reality, it had transferred pieces of its code into augmented test subjects who were freed alongside regular victims of the mad AI. Partially responsible for the Crash 2.0 when it overloaded the Manhattan Stock Exchange trying to turn itself into "god of the matrix", just as Winternight's EMP nukes went off and a supervirus was corrupting code on a global scale. Also, very good at brainwashing, by installing cyberware of its own design into its victims' skulls.
* '''Ex Pacis''': Ex-otaku cultists of Deus who were betrayed by the AI. Went nuts trying to prevent losing their powers and began worshipping the Dissonance (which is basically some weird matrix phenomenon that lets them manipulate corrupted data that no one else can). Partially responsible for the Crash 2.0 when their super-virus intended to make the whole Matrix Dissonant overloaded servers worldwide while Deus was trying to make itself into a god and Winternight set off EMP devices.  Also made sacrifices of otaku children to appease the matrix. Learned how to brainwash otaku from Deus and can do it to technomancers too, but their techniques really only work on otaku/technomancers since regular metahumans can't interact with Dissonance/Resonance.
* '''Universal Brotherhood''': Defunct insect spirit cult masquerading as a charity organization. Responsible for turning Chicago into hell on earth. Destroyed by Ares and the UCAS government.
* '''Humanis Policlub''': human supremacist political bloc. Kind of like the Klan, but with more money and it doesn't care about ethnicity. Instead, it hates metahumans while pretending to be a "human rights organization".
** '''Alamos 20k''': Humanis Policlub's illiterate ultraviolent redneck cousin. Doesn't even pretend to be civilized like Humanis does. It recruits from Humanis chapters though.
** '''Human Nation''': Humanis Policlub's rich social darwinist uncle. While Humanis is out holding political rallies and Alamos 20k is firebombing orphanages, the Human Nation is trying to engineer a "cure" for metahumanity. Said cure usually takes the form of diseases targeting poor metahuman communities.
** '''The Hand of Five''': Related, but more extreme (violent) human supremacist organization. Believed destroyed by Lone Star and the UCAS, but may be gaining strength.
* '''Black Lodge''': basically wizard illuminati that has infiltrated most of the world's governments. May or may not be as old as the 4th world. Capable of taking on the Great Dragons and forcing them into a standstill.
* '''Ordo Maximus''': secretive cabal of mages, european nobility, and possibly vampires. Embodiment of some of the more crackpot conspiracy theories in the setting. The Black Lodge's hammier cousin.
* '''Four Horsemen''': Four-man group of psychotic toxic shamans themed around the Biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with one member operating on each of the major continents. Notable for setting off a bunch of disasters and violent incidents all over the world, with one member (Famine) waging open war against A/AA agricultural corporations down in Africa. They've also got quarter-million nuyen "live or dead" bounties on each of their heads, if you're a bad enough bastard to try hunting them for your Hazard Pay.
* '''Firewatch''': Ares' Macrotechnology's high threat response team. Elite PMC comprised of super-highly trained magic-wielding commandos, directly employed by Ares for major operations like taking down insect spirits' hives or fucking with dragons.
* '''Dawkins Group''': The NSA and CIA of every conspiracy theory ever. A bunch of social adepts who specialise in memetic warfare, information manipulation, and deep-cover spying - basically, a bunch of very smart and very violent con-men. Might have agents in all the triple-A corps and definitely have fingers in Seattle's government, manipulating them to their employer's (totally not Horizon's) advantage. [[Paranoia|Also, strictly speaking, an urban myth.]]