Shadowrun Wiki

The United Kingdom of Great Britain is a country in North Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland.

Since the reunification of Ireland in 2014, "United Kingdom" and "Great Britain" are effectively synonymous.

History[]

  • 2004 - The partial meltdown of the Dungeness reactor creates the Kent Irradiated Zone.
  • 2005 - The Conservative government establishes regional parliaments in Scotland and Wales.
  • 2007, Dec 23 - Crown Princes William and Harry are killed in a plane crash.
  • 2009 - King Charles III is crowned in Westmister Abbey.
  • 2010 - The Virally-Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome (VITAS) pandemic results in the death of 26% of the UK's population and extends into the coming winter.
  • 2011 - The Year of Chaos. In England, the Shiawase-owned Sizewell B reactor suffers critical meltdown, resulting in a total death count of 17,000 from cancers in the next three decades. In Scotland, the Dounreay reactor and HazMat facility explodes, creating the Scottish Irradiated Zone. Floods hit central and southern England, destroying much property. Toxic leaks fron landfill sites erupt into an epidemic of pollution. First magical attacks are made on military targets in Northern Ireland. First elven and dwarven children are born as Unexplained Genetic Expression (UGE) begins to make itself felt.
  • 2011, Feb 19 - The Black Tide surges across waterways of East Anglia, devastating the region and creating the polluted Stinkfens.
  • 2011, Dec 21 - Across the country, stone circles and monolithic standing stones erupt from the earth as the great ley lines are reactivated.
  • 2011, Dec 26 - Celedyr, a Welsh great dragon, is first sighted in Caerleon.
  • 2012, Jan 1 - King Charles III abdicates the throne in favor of his only surviving son, George VII, and disappears.
  • 2012 - Formation of the Hildebrandt-Kleinfort-Bernal (HKB) megacorporation, an increasingly major power in world financial affairs in the coming decades.
  • 2014, Jun 16 - Following magically-enhanced terrorist activity, the House of Commons passes the Dissolution Act. The British and Irish governments sign the Treaty of Galway a week later, establishing the United Free Republic of Ireland.
  • 2015 - Hong Kong breaks free from mainland China and proclaims independence. The British government uses its influence to protect Hong Kong, but is duped by megacorporations and loses face over the incident.
  • 2016 - Prime Minister (PM) Lena Rodale is assassinated, as are the leaders of other world powers. A major oil spill magically manipulated by eco-terrorists in the North Sea creates the Scottish Fringe Toxic Zone.
  • 2021, Apr - King George VII's death is announced to the nation.
  • 2021 - 2024 - The first wave of Goblinization hits the UK; rumors persist that King George VII was killed when he began changing into a troll. Rival bloodlines compete for the throne; supported by megacorporations, George Windsor-Hanover is crowned King George VIII. The Office of Lord Protector is established; first Lord Protector is Edward Gordon-Windsor, a leading light of the New Druidic Movement.
  • 2025 - The Conservative Party is renamed the "Conservationist Party"; it wins the general election under new PM Kenneth Redmond. The UK Constitutional Act is passed; it formalizes the roles of Parliament, royalty, and the Lord Protector. All UK police are now routinely armed.
  • 2026 - Oxford and Edinburgh universities establish Bachelor of Science degrees in occult studies; Cambridge follows suit in 2028.
  • 2027 - The Lord Protector's office drafts the Magical Practitioners Registration Bill, which Parliament passes into law.
  • 2028 - The Conservationist government takes Britain out of the European Economic Community (EEC).
  • 2029 - The Crash 1.0. The birth of the Matrix. A druidic schism over technology foreshadows the Celtic/English druidic schism.
  • 2030 - The United Canadian and American States (UCAS) is established by the Act of Union. The UK establishes strong political relations with the UCAS through its old Canadian commercial, educational, and political ties.
  • 2031 - The EuroWars begin in Europe. The UK is not an active participant in military terms, but rumors exist concerning covert and technical actions.
  • 2032 - (EuroWar I) Great Britain deploys troops in the Netherlands and Flanders.
  • 2033 - Nightwraith bombers strike both sides in the EuroWars, effectively ending Western and Central European involvement. Swedish surveillance states the aircraft were of UK origin; this is denied by the government, and the truth is never established.
  • 2035 - The Yarrow reactor meltdown creates the Northern Irradiated Zone.
  • 2036 - First anti-metahuman atrocities follow as copycat versions of Alamos 20,000 actions occur in the UCAS. These activities are limited to isolated pockets of overt violence in the UK, where systematic institutional racism is more the British style.
  • 2036 - In Scotland, regeneration and transformation of regional forests begins. In the following year, species formerly extinct in the UK begin to return to the Wild Lands (bears and wolves).
  • 2036 - The Zone Allocation & Procedures Act is passed. The Gwynedd Elven Enclave is established in northwest Wales.
  • 2037 - In North America, elves establish Tír Tairngire. Very early on, links are established with young elven British aristocrats.
  • 2037 - British military forces evacuate and secure the Yorkshire Fringe Toxic Zone due to an undetermined "chemical and radioactive threat".
  • 2038 - 2039 - "Project 42-20" - the Adams-Hoffmann Corporation's gene-pool manipulation experiments on English citizens in London - is exposed by the media. The ensuing riots - and terrorist missile strikes on political targets - result in the establishment of the Lambeth Containtment Zone to minimize future terrorist actions.
  • 2039 - A massive chemical spillage in Teeside Industrial District, Tynesprawl, kills over 70,000 from nerve gas effects. The outcry over the ecological (and secret military) effects of this event leads to a schism in the Conservationist Party, resulting in its election defeat of 2041. A Pan-Europa strike introduces a wood- and biofabric-destroying virus that wreaks havoc on many London sprawl buildings.
  • 2040 - The discovery of the Conservationist government's active encouragement of the Adams-Hoffmann study foreshadows the downfall of the goverment early the following year.
  • 2041 - Policlubs become organized in Europe. British policlubs are generally Green-oriented, but a typically-British eccentric fringe also exists. The first Green government is elected, and rules up to the 2060s, with Democrat support from 2045 to 2047.
  • 2043 - Rhiannon Glendower becomes Countess of Snowdon; the Gwynedd elves make major advances in the Welsh regional Parliament. The Knights of the Rage group at Caerleon to serve the great dragon Celedyr.
  • 2047 - A para-VITAS outbreak kills 120,000 in Tynesprawl; it is believed to be the work of eco-terrorists of unknown identiy.
  • 2048 - A toxic eruption of gas north of Merseysprawl generates a vast gas plume; fallout products drift to Tír na nÓg (Ireland).
  • 2050 - An outbreak of cholera and typhoid in Merseysprawl from collapsing sanitation systems.
  • 2057 - Parliament certifies the Northern Habitable Zone after several half-hearted detoxification programmes.
  • 2061 - Halley's Comet's passage triggers nationwide magical phenomena, including astral shallows at Glastonbury, the mysterious "restoration" of Stonehenge, and the lengthening of several ley lines.
  • 2062, Oct 31 - The island of "Lyonesse" re-emerges from the English Channel[4] and is immediately cordoned off by the Royal Navy.
  • 2062, Dec - The "Pendragon" makes his first recorded appearance during London's Midwinter Festival.
  • 2064 - On the Summer Solstice, wild and Celtic druids successfully awaken a new Great Ley Line, running from off the northern coast of Tír na nÓg through Scotland to the Shetland Isles.[5]

Politics[]

Before 2071

Beginning in 2025 until 2071, the Lord Protector was the most powerful man in England and a powerful druid; for most of that time the title was held by Edward Arthur Charles Gordon-Windsor (born 1994). The Lord Protector's Office controlled the administration, education, the licensing and registration of Magic Users, Technomancers, and Cyberware, and the national security. His main rivals for power were the monarch Queen Caroline (young and quite popular), and the growing political power of the People's Party.

After 2071

In 2062, the island of Lyonesse rose in the Channel, and a man calling himself Pendragon was sighted, claiming to have retrieved Excalibur from the island and organizing the political opposition. He was occasionally sighted, and remained the apparent leader, until June 23, 2071, at which time a massive peaceful protest by the People's Party acquired the consent of Queen Caroline to dissolve the Lord Protector's Office and the position of the Lord Protector. The Lord Protector went into exile and the new government attempted to shut down the Office entirely, but ultimately found that some of their functions were necessary and had to settle for a restructuring, carried out with the assistance of Hildebrandt-Kleinfort-Bernal. Pendragon took no role in the new government and was never sighted thereafter.

Foreign Relations[]

Geography[]

England
  • 47 boroughs: Barnsley, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Bury, Calderdale, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Halton, Hartlepool, Kirklees, Knowsley, Luton, Medway, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, North Tyneside, Oldham, Poole, Reading, Redcar and Cleveland, Rochdale, Rotherham, Sandwell, Sefton, Slough, Solihull, Southend-on-Sea, South Tyneside, St. Helens, Stockport, Stockton-on-Tees, Swindon, Tameside, Thurrock, Torbay, Trafford, Walsall, Warrington, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton.
  • 36 counties: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire,[9] Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire.
  • 29 London boroughs: Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth.
  • 12 cities and boroughs: Birmingham,[10] Bradford, Coventry, Leeds, Merseysprawl (Liverpool and Manchester),[11] Tynesprawl (Newcastle upon Tyne),[12] Salford, Sheffield, Sunderland, Wakefield, Westminster.
  • 10 districts: Bath and North East Somerset, East Riding of Yorkshire, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Rutland, South Gloucestershire, Telford and Wrekin, West Berkshire, Wokingham.
  • 12 cities: City of Bristol, Derby, City of Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, City of London,[13] Nottingham,[14] Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, York.
  • 3 royal boroughs: Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Windsor and Maidenhead.
Scotland
  • 32 council areas: Aberdeen City[15], Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, The Scottish Borders, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, City of Edinburgh,[16] Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow City, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney Islands, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Shetland Islands, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, West Dunbartonshire, Eilean Siar (Western Isles), West Lothian.
Wales
  • 11 county boroughs: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Conwy, Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Torfaen, Wrexham.
  • 9 counties: Isle of Anglesey, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, The Vale of Glamorgan.
  • 2 cities and counties: Cardiff (Welsh: Caerdydd),[17] Swansea.

Locations[]

Economy[]

Corporate Presence[]

Crime[]

Within the United Kingdom, the dominant organized crime network is that of the Tongs of which the most powerful is the Silent Reeds Tong. In the city of London are the indigenous British crime families, known as the Firms. Other foreign crime syndicates and mobs involved in the rackets or whose smuggling networks extend into the United Kingdom include the Russian Vory, the Yakuza, the Ghost Cartels, the Afro-Caribbean Zobop, and the Indo-Asian crime families. Street gangs are a plague in both the London sprawl and Merseysprawl, especially the Yardies.

References[]

  1. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 21
  2. o34954845Sixth World Almanac p. 156
  3. o30783549Shadows of Europe p. 192
  4. o42265136Loose Alliances p. 77
  5. o30783549Shadows of Europe p. 207
  6. o84296706Germany Sourcebook p. 42
  7. o89952224Tír na nÓg p. 53 - 54
  8. o21639523Tir Tairngire p. 46
  9. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 118 - 119
  10. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 116
  11. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 116 - 117
  12. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 117 - 118
  13. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 52 - 114
  14. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 118
  15. o94379615Target: Smuggler Havens p. 70
  16. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 120
  17. o66933837London Sourcebook p. 119 - 120
  18. o35702881Shadowrun Third Edition p. 269
  19. o04858358Magic in the Shadows p. 84
  20. o57280352Target: Matrix p. 27
  21. o57280352Target: Matrix p. 45 - 47
  22. o68357443Year of the Comet p. 85

Index[]

Semi-official[]

External Links[]

  • This page forked from Wordman's The Sixth World: A geographical index to the world of Shadowrun
  • United Kingdom at Wikipedia