Those who walk the shadows, part 1. · 8:35am Sep 18th, 2015
Two sources have been a big inspiration to me in many regards. (And still is to this day.) The first, is music. I can sit down and enjoy a good progressive metal band like Symphony X, the follow it up with classical mozart or bach. Music is my muse. It always will be. The other, is a series that I intend to cover a bit more in the following passages, Shadowrun.
Shadowrun, (created 1989) originally by FASA i believe for the game setting, was a subset of the Cyberpunk genre in that while the nature of transhumanism was a big and major motivator, you throw in the nature of both High and Low fantasy. It stood out more in the nature of cyberpunk because magic made the setting have to choose what defined a person. Where cyberpunk was that good as a human concept had lost long ago. Shadowrun approached it more as a Good is down and out in the 9th round of this fight, but still has a chance to come back. The nature of power is heavily against those trying to make a difference, but the chance is there. That premise drew me to it as a teen. That all the problems I saw, that I endured from a variety of sources. I could stand, if barely, instead of being cowed down, and broken. Pure and simple, it was a chance at hope. And its something I still view as an amazing thing that I found it.
The setting itself was different in that while many cultures had in part some stereotyping (to a degree) it wasn't the issue. But rather, the social divide. It came down to something now that matters alot, Identity, and the SiN. (Social Identification Number) A string of digits that was everything, who you were, who you belonged to (it mattered.) , what you did, where you went, almost everything revolved around that little electronic device. Now then, eh, when it was first made, the nature of things was sorta different, especially with computers being what they were. (10mhtz processors, 2 megabytes of ram as rough examples, And costs in the 4 digit range.) Yet in this current time, the nature of Identity is a very core thing for people in this information age.
SiN and SiN-less folks, came down to the big divide. A SiN-ed person could get a job in a variety of places, recruitment, and have a happy life overall. Often, a SiN-less person would be lucky on the basics of day to day things. You know, food, power, water, safety. Yet, despite this kind of divide, had a vital need in the societal aspect of things. A SiN-less person could get things done, if they had the means, and power. And this drives us off a side tangent, but one needed to explain why this divide was kept. The Powers that be.
In a large variety, it wasn't the government, but the corporations. Places with figures of income that meant nothing but another corporation was a threat to them. Now these figures could fight it out, and really, accomplish nothing but wasting virtual currency. These places are depicted as a sinister Big Brother , which is often true. A great asset to the company (or a rival one) may have a highly capable physical guardian, (or a magical one) that ensures they are 'safe from outside threats' or worse. These powers, for all the vaunted wealth they have however, are bound up in such complicated rules and regulations. That there is often not much they can do underhandedly to win what they want. And perhaps here is a subversion I love to this day. They need good men (in both senses) to do what they cannot. That singular moment, in that evil in the best of places and positions, can't win against itself is what makes me love the setting. Good men did nothing, and evil could not win.
And now we return back to the SiN-less. There are those, through happenstance, luck, or lack of, that are afforded with power, skill, talent, or many other advantages. These folks do fight for the day to day survival, yet, these same folks have the eyes of the corporations on them. Where money can't earn them something they want. They can do so in getting a good being to do this for them, with their vaunted wealth. They can ensure that someone is removed from a rival, or that a place is plagued with delays. All the things legally, and (above the law) they can't. This is where so much of the world is, and takes place. This echelon of lawlessness. The heroes of this world are tested many times.
Who you are? is a big question asked in story and game respectively. And is something that defines a person. Be it if they are an ork, a dwarf, an elf, even human, or troll. Or worse, there are many worse things in the awakened world. The heroes are never seeing the full picture, but they are the ultimate agents of change (or chaos) depending on which manner they exist in. And while they are agents for so many, they exist as one against the powers that be. Too firmly rooted in to be ever destroyed. But ever so slowly are destroying themselves for needing these good men and women.
There is a ton more this setting has, but for now, i think ive talked enough. Hopefully I have spoken with passion on this topic, and that you did enjoy reading this. Have a great day.
Ahh, Shadowrun. The setting in which I learned to write, in a completely diceless forum role playing story, where each player just added pieces of story from their character's point of view, and where the only real rule was "keep it real, or the GM will write you out of the story".
We never went into the SiN thing, though. Legal identity or not was quite irrelevant; the few who had legal identities still had reasons to do what they did while keeping those activities separate from their legal self.
Though far from a traditional pen-and-paper, stats-and-skills type of RPG, I still have fond memories of the time I spent in that setting. I saw an in hindsight terribly poorly thought out character of mine (A half-dragon, half elf girl. srsly
) grow from a wide-eyed adrenalin addict teenager into a bitter realist street samurai who got her belief in the good in people crushed repeatedly 
(btw, did you just post a blog because I said I enjoy them?
)
3400701 Yes and no to that final question. I sorta get that what I want to write isn't going to happen. My inspiration that hits dries up into smoke the moment i try to get it down. And rather than keep trying, and failing to do so. I can do something else, just write on some of the things I wanted to give a breath of life into on this format instead. Your comment was a bit of a kick in the pants to at least try this way.
It's writing something, jjust not the stories that wont meet the light of day. And I had a mind to why of this, as its one story setting I wanted to try giving a different flair, given the setting of a high fantasy world having to adjust to losing, then regaining magic again, with a bit of where and what happened to various races. Which I intend to cover in later bits of writing.
And other things like music, and how it inspires ideas and stories. With one talking about gryphons and draco-equii.
3400746
Hehe. Music tends to inspire me, but I never actually write with music on; I need as few external stimuli as possible while writing. Best if it's just me and my writing, and nothing around to distract me.
3400769 When I get to music in a few days, I can show how a simple song can inspire a full chapter of an overarching story. The odd album out of two akin cd's from nox arcana. But silence, i can't stand, not the artificial one. My mind and perception is wired into sound. And actual silence is almost panic attack inducing. I listen in a very strange way, both from live and studio albums, each story that ive found from music, has been so much more how lyrically a song is sung. I hear the emotions that is given with a song. Or just in the soundscape itself. It's, difficult to explain, but I hope to try.
3400771
Well, I have ADHD, combined with a ton of (very much wasted) musical talent, meaning, one, I can't multitask, and two, when I hear music, I'm automatically analysing it and making up harmonizations. It just immediately distracts me from whatever else I'm doing.
3400808 That's very understandable, and I get that. To me, music lets me focus or the background sounds I pick up with my hearing distracts me as my brain kicks into the Fight or Flight reflex mode of thinking. I can focus on that, and weed out other noise distractions. Car travel, various public places, even now, are very high stress for me visually and auditorially. (Not sure the right syntax on that) But its something i've had to wrestle with for a long time, still will until the day I die. If you view most peoples senses, as a general principle, they are predator based in the focus. My own, and by the view of it, yours sound like a prey based one. Its neither wrong or right, just the way of mental wiring. And that so many may not get that perception, and how it shapes everything. You have to have a very different outlet of focus.
3400810
Heh. Seems like we're total opposites in that, then. I usually write on the train to work. I can tune out stuff around me when I get concentrated on stuff that interests me. It's an often ignored side effect of ADHD called 'hyperfocus'; basically the "I'm reading a book, the rest of the world stops existing" phenomenon. ADHD doesn't mean people can't focus; it just means they can't focus on things that don't interest them
This means that, sure, I can listen to music while writing, but only if the music is so familiar to me that I can tune it out (and it doesn't have lyrics. Hearing lyrics while writing results in random words from the lyrics ending up in my writings
). I sometimes do that to replace a noisy environment with a familiar one, but it'll still be tuned out in the end. Don't ask me afterwards what songs were played; I won't have a clue. 
3400813 I'm horrible that way with games and books. I get so focused, everything else just vanishes. Its thinking with pictures, as Temple Grandin dubs it in her works that helped me. I see the worlds they paint, the detail springs up in my mind, and i just let the image flow as my mind creates the world inside my skull. I've had a class of folks yell to wake me of it before, or lost six-seven hours to a game that just engaged a vibrant open world in the worst of cases.
3400815
Well, I'm that way with writing, too. I get lost in my own worlds. It helps.
3400816 Thats my hiccup, i have these ideas up there, but everything ive tried, music, help books, hands free devices(and the money spent there..), various and plenty of great online tools and videos, even pure will. It's like trying to catch a shadow with light, its always moving away from you.
3400832
And, have you tried silence?
The problem with today's society is that people get too many stimuli from their environment. The moments I get the most inspiration are those where I'm stuck with nothing but my thoughts. On the train, waiting until I'm at my destination, in the shower, heck, on the toilet.