History Characters / Shadowrun

* {{Wendigo}}: Orks infected with HMHVV I turn into wendigos, and are among the most dangerous of the infected, possessing impressive magical power along with physical capabilities, growing to the size of trolls. Unlike most Strain I infected, wendigos are particularly savage and violent, despite retaining their metahuman intelligence. They're so dangerous that they're among the only infected ''not'' welcomed in Asamando, which even discourages uninfected orks from visiting due to the risk of accidental infection.

* ServantRace: They were created by dragons, for dragons, to serve dragons, and in the sixth world, dragons want them back. Most great dragons have open bounties for drakes and hunting them is a profitable, if risky, proposition for unscrupulous shadowrunners. They still desire control over their descendants over [[NoodleIncident what happened previously with uncontrolled creations]]. Immortal elves or elves in general are canidates for previous uncontrolled creations.
* {{Weredragon}}: They can transform from a metahuman form to a metahuman-sized dracoform at will. Some people believe they're a type of shapeshifter, but shapeshifters in ''Shadowrun'' are animals that can turn into people, whereas with drakes it's the other way around (and dragons aren't mundane animals anyway). [[spoiler: True Drakes don't have to be metahuman, allowing for oddities like shapeshifters who can turn into dragons as well! It is implied that several great dragons who allowed shapeshifters to share their territory are using their true drakes to help guard their lairs.]]

* CoverBlowingSuperpower: Shapeshifters have up to three of these depending upon edition. First of which is regeneration where healing too fast when injured is a give away. By Shadowrun 4E this [[LogicalWeakness would mean RFIDs would not stay implanted]]. Second is being dual natured meaning they exist upon the physical and astral simultaneously, and may wind up reacting to astral sights in addition to being tangible astrally. This also means any ward which they lack permission to pass acts as an InvisibleWall. Third they have an essence rating of eight instead of six. This means that even if they are also an awakened initiate who took masking to disguise themselves as a metahuman astrally, they are obviously either not a metahuman or one of the Infected.

* EldritchAbomination: They're so inimical to life that just ''knowing'' about them can cause serious damage to a person.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Tír na nÓg implemented some very archaic social structures such as effective family run guilds drawn upon arbitrary domains. They got [[CurbStompBattle utterly crushed economically in a matter of decades by regular corporations, let alone]] [=MegaCorps=]. Stubbornly using Bronze Age guild social structures in a modern economy is doomed to failure even with [[spoiler: advantages related to immortal elves and their advanced knowledge from the Fifth Era]].

* PragmaticVillainy: Averted, unusually for a MegaCorp. Mitsuhama's corporate culture is badly tied up in their twisted bushido, they allow their multi-trillion-nuyen business to be used to support multi-million-dollar {{Yakuza}} concerns, and their "zero-zone" policy of killing anyone who runs against them can be taken far beyond the point where it's economical to hunt the shadowrunners, and also leads to said shadowrunners not worrying about killing the guards or causing collateral damage, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome because if you know that the corp is gonna try and slot you for running against them anyway, you might as well bleed the bull before it charges you.]]

* TricksterMentor: Deconstructed along with OmniscientMoralityLicense. Everyone who worked under him despises him. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome It turns out that people hate to be used as pawns, jerked around, needlessly endangered, and put through suffering repeatedly for no good reason.]] Frosty and Bull particularly.

* AlwaysABiggerFish: SK ''was'' the bigger fish for most of ''Shadowrun'''s timeline. Owned openly by a Great Dragon, S-K was the image of megacorporate might on the global stage. Not even Aztechnology, ''owners of the entirety of Central America'' (and holding the biggest share out of South America's economy), can stand up to Saeder-Krupp, who control most of Europe's finance and heavy industry and are noted to be the only megacorp to own their own carrier fleet.

* InscrutableOriental[=/=]TheQuietOne: In MegaCorp terms. They're quiet and nobody seems to know much about them.

* TheDreaded: For hackers, Grid Overwatch Division is a force to be feared. Even more so for technomancers; [=NeoNET=] has bounties active on them so they can cut them open and find out how they work
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The Novatech IPO set the stage for the matrix crash..

* WildCard: Considered this by Shadowrunners. Jobs by Neo can be a grab-bag.

* LightningBruiser: This is generally what a street samurai is supposed to be: The one carrying the biggest gun, the heaviest armour, ''and'' high enough an Agility score and leg enhancements to get around the battlefield fastest.

* ItsPersonal: Mitsuhama has a corporate policy of vendetta against Shadowrunners that cross them. While the other corps will try to punish enemy runners if they're able to, they generally won't continue pursuing it if it becomes too expensive or troublesome. Mitsuhama, on the other hand, is willing to spend money and resources far beyond the value of what you stole to hunt you down (and everyone you care about,) to send a message to anyone else considering a run against them.

!!Synthetic Intelligences
ArtificialIntelligence, though they prefer the term "synthetic" as for the most part, they were not purpose built and programmed, but rather naturally achieved self awareness on their own in the wake of Crash 2.0. Natives to the Matrix, they are divided into three classifications: metasapients which are the closet to metahumans in terms of intelligence and world view, and are the only playable AI; protosapients, which are closer to non-sapient animals; and xenosapients, which are the StarfishAliens of cyberspace. Synthetics make for excellent deckers/hackers and riggers, but lack physical bodies entirely.

%%* ArtificialIntelligence: Obviously.

* MorphicResonance: Shapeshifters generally retain some animalistic features in their metahuman forms that can clue others into their identity, though how easy it is to blend in depends on the species and the specific trait, and even the most distinct traits can be passed off as SURGE expression or cosmetic bioware modification. Relatedly shapeshifting is a bit more literal in that their transformation is somatatic and still has animal DNA, their blood type isn't human, and they cannot interbreed with metahumans.

* CatFolk: One of the most common expressions and the ones who tend to face the least hostilities if only due to their fetization.

* ServantRace: They were created by dragons, for dragons, to serve dragons, and in the sixth world, dragons want them back. Most great dragons have open bounties for drakes and hunting them is a profitable, if risky, proposition for unscrupulous shadowrunners. They still desire control over their descendants over [[NoodleIncident what happened previously with uncontrolled creations]]. Immortal elves or elves in general are canidates for previous uncontrolled creations..

* TheRival: To the enigmatic Sea Dragon, for reasons unknown.

* TheMedic: They'll swoop on in and haul your wounded ass to safety, shooting up anything in the way... If you have the cash, at least.

* DistractedByTheSexy: Happened to him on an extraction at the beach one time. The target's body guard pulled off her bikini, distracting him while the other bodyguard kicked sand in his face. Turned out they were wearing "Second Skin"; invisible, skin tight armor, making the ensuing fight more difficult than he anticipated.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: Dude was insanely popular. He has cults dedicated to him after his death, and there are even conspiracy theories that believe that while dragons at large are trying to take over the world, Dunkelzahn was a TokenGoodTeammate DefectorFromDecadence. It's to the point that there's in-universe HypeAversion to the guy, calling the fan worship of him outright idolatry. It should be noted that even amongst Great Dragons Dunkelzahn was notable for not feuding directly with any of them. Considering most dragons in the series go together like a house on fire (you know, fire, burning, structural collapse, people dying...) that's fairly impressive.

* FunctionalMagic: A combination of InherentGift, RuleMagic, and ForceMagic.

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: A darker example, in most awakened-first nations (Amazonia, Manchuria, and Yakut) where have rights as full citizens they infamously often wind up being part of the SecretPolice blending in as normal humans until they [[UnPerson disappear dissidents]]. A slightly lighter example is merely being powerful soldiers that leave the mundane humans as canon fodder in comparison.

* {{Cosplay}}: The intro story of ''Safehouses'' tells of how he infiltrated [=ComicCon=] dressed as an [[StarWars Imperial Stormtrooper]]. He was not amused.

%%* TheSociopath

* BerserkButton: Most of the megas have at least one thing you simply Do Not Do against them, as it will make them break the PragmaticVillainy code for revenge. This varies from mega to mega, from publically embarrasing Lofwyr for Saeder-Krupp to stealing a suit of Red Samurai armour from Renraku. And then there's Mitsuhama, for whom the ''idea'' of trying to run one of their facilities is enough to make them break out the military hardware.

* HeroicSacrifice: The company CEO (aided by a group of Shadowrunners) infiltrated the Arcology to kill Deus. He died in the process of delivering the kill command... or so the official story goes. In reality [[spoiler:he committed {{Seppuku}} upon realising the A.I. had been counting on their mission and had really manipulated them into freeing it from the Arcology.]]

A subdivision of Ares, Knight Errant began as corporate- and private security for hire, dispatching heavily armoured response teams to corporations and individuals in case of emergencies. They then began dipping into privatised police, gaining contracts with most European cities and some UCAS ones. They rose to prominence in the ''Shadowrun'' zeitgeist when, following metahuman riots in Seattle, they got Lone Star's contract as the city's official police force from fourth edition onwards.

* PopCulturedBadass: Downplayed - his Street Legends stats include nearly maxed out levels of knowledge in forms of 20th century entertainment like movies and video games, implying that he was quite bored in the Fifth Age. Possibly to give the GM an excuse to make then-current references, it also means that he will likely catch very obscure reference.

* DeadPersonImpersonation: Maybe. The ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'' campaign ''Dragonfall'' features a Shadowland user going by Clockwork who goes dark after an encounter with [[spoiler: the APEX AI]]. If you [[spoiler: free the APEX, then it attempts to pass itself off as Clockwork during the epilogue]]. However, it may be an in-universe case of NamesTheSame as a Shadowland thread in ''Shadowrun: Hong Kong'' brings up the fact that there have been cases of runners sharing the same alias.

* HotScientist: A man in his 50s with the physique of a fit 21 year-old, and with no leonization either!

* MagicKnight: Mystical Adepts, who depending on edition either split their magic score between spellcasting and adept powers, or buy adept powers directly with karma without it affecting their spellcasting.

* WeaponOfChoice: Combat Adepts can use Weapon Foci, melee weapons turned into channeling tools for their magic. This allows for things like magic swords, who are one of the better options for tackling spirits.

* FantasticRacism: Against technomancers, to the point where he betrayed Netcat to one of the megacorporations and has threatened to [[MoralEventHorizon have her "freak-baby" shipped to a laboratory]]. He also hates AIs & the HMHVV infected, constantly threatening to collect the bounties that infected jackpointers have on their heads just for being infected.

*** Just to make this clear, when you make [[ManChild Slamm-O!]] look mature and [[NamestoRunAwayFromReallyFast Kane]] look principled, there's something ''really wrong with you.''

* TokenEvilTeammate: It says a lot that he's not the worst, though he comes pretty close. Notably, unlike other less moral members of Jackpoint, most of the regulars actually respect and even like him. This is partially because unlike Haze or Clockwork he's actually got a few redeeming characteristics, and partially because he's genuinely funny and willing to be friendly with other people.

* ScienceHero: Oh yea. He is very, very cautious about science being used to harm people and the world, as he believes it should only be used for the betterment of the world.

%%* RecordProducer: Perianwyr's chief vocation and occupation.%%Is?

* TheGenericGuy: Wuxing intentonally cultivates this image: The less people notice or care about their public image, the more they can get away with.

* PragmaticVillainy: Why the Megacorps took over the bank and share its shares equally.
%%* TeamSwitzerland: Obviously.

* TheRival: To Lone Star.

* TheMedic: If you have the cash, at least.