[Twitchy D]

Winternight. Neo-Norse mythology based cult that believes that the Matrix will bring about Ragnarok. Made a deal with Pax and her "God" Deus. Got their hands on a stockpile of nuclear weapons and an experimental nanoweapon called Ymir. Helped bring about the Second Crash, then after that, I lose track of what happens to them, other then they have a few terrorist cells hiding throughout the world, possibly one or two in or around LA. That sums up all the knoledge I have of them right know, using only the Core Book, Vice, Feral Cities and Corporate Enclaves. I'm still tring to figure out how they first started, who their leaders are/were, what their ideaolgy is, why they seem to be fighting against Deus and Pax now, and whether or not a PC could be a former member of their cult. Thus, the creation of this topic. Enlighten my uninformed mind, oh keepers of knoledge unknownst to me!

[Wakshaani]

Surtr, not Ymir ... the king of the Fire Trolls and the one whose flaming sword ingites the Tree of Life during Ragnarok.

Leaders were Thursday (Thor's Day), Friday (Freia's Day), and Wednesday (Woden's Day).

Most of them were rounded up during Crash 2.0, but a tad too late, and the ones left became pariahs and were hunted down. There's almost nothing left of them.

[Twitchy D]

Okay... That's a good start. But I thought that Augumentation had mentioned that they had a weapon called Ymir, whose vector was ingested or inhailed and caused cold damage...

Also, with the tree thing that's now in the Matrix appearing on the deeper levels, wouldn't Winternight have a vested interest in it, seeing as it looks like a massive tree? And how do the remains of the group feel about what they had done? Are there any known survivors that excaped into the shadows besides the one mentioned in Vice's wanted section? Any that could be running in the shadows? And if their past came out, just how likely is it that a team would murder the heck out of that person, and how many initiative passes would that take?

PS: Ymir is in Arsenal, in the chemistry chapter. It's an inhaled/contact vector poison that causes blood to congeal, leading to frostbite-like effects. My bad.

[Wakshaani]

They're probably interested in the World Tree, yes, but trying to get themselves re-organized is the bigger force at the moment. The Corporate Court unleashed, well, *everything* to eradicate them during the Crash 2.0... they attacked the Z-O and nearly crashed it, set off nukes all over the globe, created the Jormungandr worm which brought down the Matrix ... to call them public enemy #1 is to sell them short. Two of the three heads got chopped off, while one (The decker I *think* but not sure off the top of my head) managed to get free later.

The corps don't mind a little crime in their order, keeps the people scared and in line, but CHAOS, they hate, and when you bring down teh Matrix and nearly the Z-O, well, you gotta go down. Even in the shadow community, Winternight is a pariah, and I'd lay odds that there are less than twenty of them left in the world. (I could, of course, be wrong on that part.)

[Sengir]

Made a deal with Pax and her "God" Deus.

Pax had long parted ways Deus at that time. And if her vision of a dissonant matrix had come true, it would probably have hurt Deus just as much as the rest of the world.

She is also heavily hinted to be still around, but I doubt she holds much allegiance to Winternight any longer. Pax only used WN as means to an (failed) end.

[ArkangelWinter]

Pax had her own terrorist cell, Ex Pacis. They only allied with Winternight, and neither side, I think, was totally honest with the other. She's hinted to have found a way to slow down her own Fade (probably as Dissonance's Greatest Champion), but if she's a major player it's very behind the scenes.

That said, she shouldnt be too old, early to mid 30s, assuming she was a little older than FastJacks daughter, so shes got some decades left to raise hell

[Twitchy D]

Made a deal with Pax and her "God" Deus.

Pax had long parted ways Deus at that time. And if her vision of a dissonant matrix had come true, it would probably have hurt Deus just as much as the rest of the world.

Didn't know that part. I thought that she was still associated with him in 2072.

She is also heavily hinted to be still around, but I doubt she holds much allegiance to Winternight any longer. Pax only used WN as means to an (failed) end.

I would figure that she ditched Winternight after the Second Crash. She just seems like that to me. It would explain why whatever remenants there are would be hunting down any and every technomancer they could find, judging by the fact that the world tree could possibly be related to Deus, and their Emergance synchs up after the fight in Manhattan.

[Twitchy D]

... to call them public enemy #1 is to sell them short.

I don't know... While Winternight is very bad news, I doubt that they could compete with THE BUGS. Winternight is made up of people, with human needs and human wants. Insect spirits are, judging by their thought processes regarding humans, as Cthulhu-like as currently possible in the Shadowrun Universe. We'll just leave the Horrors alone for now...

PS: Does anyone know what happened to the Threats: Winternight free PDF that the main site used to have? Saw it mentioned in the Winternight entry of the Shadowrun wiki.

[Ethan]

I think the Shedim qualify as as bigger Big Bad right now than the bugs.

The bugs are insidious for sure, but they have pretty natural patterns: multiply. The Shedim live off fear and death do they not? I don't think the bugs have a greater agenda than to feed/grow/whatever.

But anyway, I hope Puck opens up a bit more about Winternight and Pax. Also, what was he up to again in the recent books? Can't recall if it's been revealed.

[Mirikon]

Pax is still around. She is leading a group of dissonant technomancers, and has apparently found a way to use some kind of 'ritual technomancy' to corrupt AIs.

Also, Pax broke with Deus immediately after the Shutdown ended, when she saw that they were all just pawns to the AI. She started working to slow her own fading at that point, which is what drove her to work with Winternight and try to reform the Matrix in her image. The fact that she got to strike at her enemy, Deus, was an added bonus.

As for Winternight, they'd been weakened dramatically after the Court's reprisals during Crash 2.0, but Friday still lived, so they continued. There are hints as subtle as an anvil to the forehead that Ghostwalker was using them as pawns in his bid to gather the Piri Reis Map and other associated artifacts so he could go on another metaplanar hop.

[Sengir]

Didn't know that part. I thought that she was still associated with him in 2072.

As Mirikon said, she got heavily disillusioned about her "god" and instead turned to following the Dissonance. Her vision was turning the matrix into a dissonant hellhole, although to Winternight she sold it as trying to destroy the matrix altogether...which means the two are certainly not on good terms now that the truth is out.

It would explain why whatever remenants there are would be hunting down any and every technomancer they could find, judging by the fact that the world tree could possibly be related to Deus, and their Emergance synchs up after the fight in Manhattan.

What battle in Manhattan? Something in Missions?


PS: As to Winternight having more human motives than other threats, remember they were big in toxic magic. Toxics tend to have extremely alien world views

[Twitchy D]

It would explain why whatever remenants there are would be hunting down any and every technomancer they could find, judging by the fact that the world tree could possibly be related to Deus, and their Emergance synchs up after the fight in Manhattan.

What battle in Manhattan? Something in Missions?

Sorry, let me try again... The fight in The East Coast Stock Exchange. Forgot that The New York Stock Exchange was no more, and it's replacement went to Boston...

PS: As to Winternight having more human motives than other threats, remember they were big in toxic magic. Toxics tend to have extremely alien world views

Winternight still had two other leaders that, while they worked with toxics, were still relativly normal, for all the worth you could give a cult that belives in Neo-Norse mythology and was filled with people who likely had some screwed up lives that led them down a path to purpously bring about the end times. I would suppose that the toxics would still be delusional lunatics, just more focused on a Winternight-based philosophy rather then a Toxic Mage based agenda.

(Starts shouting aloud) OF COURSE, I ACCEPT THAT I COULD BE WRONG ABOUT THAT FACT. I DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SETTING, SO THERE MAY BE SOME MISTAKES IN THE PREVIOUS SENTANCES, WHICH WOULDN'T REALLY BE MY FAULT NOW, WOULD IT?

There, that should be sufficiant armoring...

[Wakshaani]

Well, the East Coast Stock Exchange is the one that's no more, and the New York Stock Market is now up and running again. The ECSE never recovered from Boston getting hit with atomic EMP, and Manhattan got itself up and running at almost teh same time. Getting the stock exchange back was a major feather in Manhattan Inc's hat and they feel like a real city again. (Or, well, *the* real city I suppose.)

[Twitchy D]

Well, the East Coast Stock Exchange is the one that's no more, and the New York Stock Market is now up and running again. The ECSE never recovered from Boston getting hit with atomic EMP, and Manhattan got itself up and running at almost teh same time. Getting the stock exchange back was a major feather in Manhattan Inc's hat and they feel like a real city again. (Or, well, *the* real city I suppose.)

So the NY Stock Exchange goes down in 2005, the EC Stock Exchange goes up, then the Second Crash happens, EC goes down, and NY returns?

No wonder I got confused...

[Wakshaani]

Pretty much, yeah. I think the ECSE limped along for a year or so before New York got up and running.

Lemme check right fast.

*checks*

Alright, no official date mentioned, but, yeah, in the wake of Crash 2.0, Boston couldn't run it anymore, so Manhattan took it back.

(For more on this, and general New York stuff, pick up Manhattan, the ROtten Apple, on drive-thru RPG and other PDF purchase sites today!)