jl8e | (no subject)

I suppose if I'm going to keep posting the fiction I wrote, I should provide a little background for those who may be reading.

The first story I posted covered the mechanics of the universe, bit that still leaves the high-level who's who and significant history. (Although the history's not as important as it could be; due to the needs of the CCG, we pretty much left the status quo intact except for Dark Future, where we introduced a new faction.)

The factions in the world:

The Dragons: The good guys. The action heroes. Loosely organized at best, they fight the good fight, even though in the long run, they can't possibly win.
The Four Monarchs: At one point, four incredibly powerful sibling sorcerers ruled the entire world. They hated each other, and spent too much time warring against each other and not enough paying attention to the Secret War. Somebody went back in time, took over a lot of feng shui, and erased them from history, creating the modern world instead. The Kings of the Thunder and Fire Pagodas, and the Queens of the Ice and Darkness Pagodas retreated to the Netherworld, where they are still mighty powers, but only shadows of what they once were. And they still hate each other.
The Ascended: At some point in the ancient past, some animals learned to become human. They and their descendants quite liked this, but there was one big catch: magic can cause them to revert forever to animals again. So, some of them set out to take over the world and eliminate magic entirely. They succeeded, erasing the Monarchs and setting themselves up as the secret masters of the world. A central core of transformed animals (the Lodge) rules the 1800s and modern junctures, served by the Pledged, most of whom have no idea that the Lodge are anything but human.
The Guiding Hand: The Ascended's hold on the modern era is pretty much total, but there's still resistance back in the 1800s — an organization of Shaolin monks and others, led by Quan Lo, the Perfect Master, are a persistent thorn in their side in China.
The Architects of the Flesh: In the future juncture, the Lodge has fallen. In their place is the Buro, a totalitarian world government led by BuroPresident Johann Bonengel. The Buro's research arm, the CDCA, headed by Curtis Boatman, provides them with Arcanotechnology, a horrifying fusion of magic and technology to help enforce their rule. Especially notable are the Abominations, demons cyborged with Arcanotech for use as shock troops.
The Eaters of the Lotus: A secret cabal of evil eunuch sorcerers in ancient China, and their minions and supernatural servants. Their leader, Gao Zhang, is the true power behind the throne of China.
The Jammers: Before the Architects started making Abominations, they had other inhuman supersoldier projects. One was enhancing monkeys and apes. Unfortunately, they proved hard to control. The Battlechimp Potemkin led their escape, recruited human rebels to back up the cyborg monkeys, and began fighting a guerilla war, mostly against the Architects, but they're not fussy about who they fight. Unlike most of the other factions, they don't want to take feng shui sites; they want to destroy them all, freeing everybody from the tyranny of chi. They're not the most stable folks. They're also riddled with bad monkey puns.
The Purists: A secret cabal of sorcerers who originally grew out of the CDCA. By applying scientific methods to magic, they learned how to do a wide variety of things generally considered impossible. See the previously-posted story for all the exposition.
The Seven Masters: Reclusive Taoist sorcerers in ancient China and their students. They've only been in one story, and I didn't write it.
The Syndicate: They don't exist yet. When they do, they'll be a loose organization of individuals, many of whom are cybernetically-enhanced martial artists, who control the cyberpunk version of the future juncture through a web of influence, favors, and business dealings.

The various storylines (I can't link directly to them any more; they can all be found on this page):

Limited/Standard: In Operation Killdeer, the Ascended set up a bunch of Secret Warriors to get killed. Mr. X, a top Lodge operative, uses this to create an opportunity to assassinate Adrienne Hart, because she and the Unspoken Name are in love with each other. Since she is human, and he is not only Lodge, but the head of the Lodge, this is forbidden, and will cause all kinds of trouble if it's found out.
Netherworld: The Ascended form an alliance with the King of the Fire Pagoda and the Queen of the Darkness Pagoda. This involves the Molten Heart, an artifact which can control the portals to the Netherworld. That's all I know; as far as I'm aware, there was never any written story to go with the set.
Flashpoint: The Architects are building an Arcanotower in the South American Jungles, aided by Dunwa Saleem, a member of the Lodge with his own agenda. The Dragons manage to destroy the Arcanotower, but pay a heavy price. Once again, there's no formal story, but there were lots of bits and pieces scattered through the Player's Guide.
Throne War/Year of the Dragon: The Emperor of China is dying. Gao Zhang has to hurriedly arrange a replacement, while rebellion stirs. The Lotus retain their hold on the throne, but the new Emperor, Xin Kai Sheng, is not the puppet the old one was.
Netherworld 2: This one's insanely complex. The Architects want to take over the Netherworld. The Purists want to assassinate Curtis Boatman. The Ascended get wind of this and want to stir things up to their own advantage. In the background, Homo Omega, the superintelligent cyborg who is one of the Architects' most dangerous creations, is hatching his own plans. I believe Dave wrote every single faction into this one, In the end, the Architects lose pretty badly. Boatman escapes, but their main base in the Netherworld is destroyed.
Shaolin Showdown: The Hand and the Ascended go at each other, with the Ascended hampered by political infighting. Meanwhile, the Lotus have a plan to gain power in the 1850s juncture by taking over five key feng shui sites, and its up to the Dragons to stop them, while Mr. X hunts Iala Mané, the only surviving witness to Operation Killdeer.
Dark Future:Homo Omega's plans come to fruition, and the Architects fracture, with Boatman and Bonengel each set to eliminate the other once and for all. The Purists take advantage of the civil war to take a portion of the world for themselves, while Dunwa Saleem's plans for the Reascension finally take shape, and the first of his genetically engineered children are born. Meanwhile, Homo Omega plans to remake the world to his liking, and the first step is to eliminate the Dragons.
Boom Chaka Laka: The Jammers accidentally open a portal to the 1970s. Wacky hijinks and large explosions ensue.
Ten Thousand Bullets: An ancient artifact of power comes to the Purists' attention. They want it. So does everybody else.
Red Wedding: The Queen of the Ice Pagoda rediscovers her long-lost love. One quick trip to City Hall later... no, wait. This is an action-movie universe. Nothing could ever be that easy. It's the biggest social event ever in the Netherworld. What could possibly go wrong?
Seven Masters vs. the Underworld:A renegade member of the Seven Masters and Xin Kai Sheng, Emperor of China plot to summon an ancient demon lord, and it falls to an unlikely hero to stop them.

One unexpected benefit of writing this summary: when looking at the Netherworld 2 story, I was reminded of the existence of the actual first bit of Shadowfist fiction I wrote, and managed to dig up a copy, so will be posting it next. After that, I'll get to Two-Fisted Tales of the Secret War.