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Telestrian origins?

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phoenix182

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« on: <03-27-14/1604:59> »
Creating the final touches on a pre-4th campaign where Telestrian is central and trying to find every bit of information I can on the corp and family. Other than Tir Tairngire are there any good info sources I should look at? I have just about every single item published for 1st-3rd editions, so access isn't a problem. Even 4th or 5th edition sources could be helpful if they talk about the origins of the corp.

The campaign has a lot of focus on the history of people, corps, and events...trying to tie things back as far as possible. For instance, what companies bought what companies, what the immortals were doing during the 5th age, foundations of research that led to 6th age inventions, etc.
« Last Edit: <03-27-14/1634:21> by phoenix182 »

martinchaen

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« Reply #1 on: <03-27-14/1625:57> »
As far as I know Telestrian is only mentioned in the Tir Tairngire sourcebook...

CanRay

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« Reply #2 on: <03-27-14/1706:26> »
And a few novels.
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phoenix182

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« Reply #3 on: <03-27-14/1713:38> »
And a few novels.

I know they appear in the 3rd Kellan Colt novel, but do you know which others?

Longshot23

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« Reply #4 on: <03-27-14/2240:41> »
Don't forget Land of Promise . . . .

Which I would have thought Critias would be in here to, er, plug . . .

Breaker

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« Reply #5 on: <03-28-14/0801:33> »
The Dead Man's Switch campaign from the Shadowrun Returns game has info the Telestrian family and corp.
Not sure how much new stuff is in it though.

psycho835

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« Reply #6 on: <03-28-14/0806:04> »
The Dead Man's Switch campaign from the Shadowrun Returns game has info the Telestrian family and corp.
Not sure how much new stuff is in it though.

Wait, Shadowrun Returns material is canon?

Breaker

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« Reply #7 on: <03-28-14/0822:41> »
Well they seemed to work with the already established canon and linked some important events together so I'd say ...... maybe? :-\

Critias

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« Reply #8 on: <03-28-14/1225:08> »
I can't be on the forums all the time (sometimes I'm teaching class). 

And yeah, it's best to take the canonicity of SR:Returns with a bit of a grain of salt.  There was some fact checking done, some Telestrian family tree checking done, some timeline checking done (I know, I did some of it)...but I, personally kind of think of it as a spin-off "What if?" universe, a little bit of an alternate reality, if you will.  I tend to treat any video game in any franchise that way (each playthrough of each game is someone's spin-off universe, just a little different from everyone else's)...but that's just me.

ETA:  Oh, uh, and my current plan includes...uhh..."maybe in more novels later," too.  Just FYI.  ;)

Namikaze

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« Reply #9 on: <03-28-14/1256:26> »
I can't be on the forums all the time (sometimes I'm teaching class).

Bah!  Tell your students to join you in a "thought experiment" and then have them make "archetypes" for their personalities, and put them in a fictional environment to explore themselves.  AKA: make them play Shadowrun.  :P
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Marzhin

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« Reply #10 on: <09-02-16/1644:55> »
And yeah, it's best to take the canonicity of SR:Returns with a bit of a grain of salt.  There was some fact checking done, some Telestrian family tree checking done, some timeline checking done (I know, I did some of it)...but I, personally kind of think of it as a spin-off "What if?" universe, a little bit of an alternate reality, if you will.  I tend to treat any video game in any franchise that way (each playthrough of each game is someone's spin-off universe, just a little different from everyone else's)...but that's just me.

To add to the confusion regarding what is canon and what is not, World of Shadows contains a story based on SR Returns, Annie Bellet's Queen for a Minute. (Yes I'm reading World of Shadows these days, which is why I'm resurrecting this old topic ^^).

There's at least three rather big incompatibilities between the video game's story and the established canon:
* in the video game, Marie-Louise Telestrian is James III's daughter. In the SR canon (see The Land of Promise), Marie-Louise is James' sister.
* in the video game, Lynne Telestrian is James' sister (at least according to the family tree found in the SR Returns Anthology, see here), while in the PnP game Lynne is his (and Marie-Louise's) niece.
* Lynne may die at the end of the video game or end in an insane asylum, but in the PnP game she's alive and well in the 2070's (as seen in Storm Front).

I don't know if it's intentional, but Queen for a day could actually be a sort-of-retcon so that the pieces can more or less fit:
* James III has a daughter named Marie-Louise
* Lynne is Marie-Louise's cousin, so that makes her James' niece
* The way Lynne is described in the short story, she seems to be under Jessica Watts' spell. So she might have survived the whole Universal Brotherhood episode and gotten better after some time in "de-radicalization" (or should it be, "debug"? :p)

On top of all that, in Storm Front the name of James' sister is now spelled Mary-Louise. Which might also be a typo, but could also be a way to help both character exist as separate entities (considering SRR was in development around the time Storm Front was being written, IIRC).

Of course now someone has to tell the various Shadowrun wikis out there that it is Mary-Louise (James' sister) and not Marie-Louise (James' daughter), who became CEO of Telestrian after he entered politics, and is a Prince of Tir Tairngire... :p
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lokii

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« Reply #11 on: <09-03-16/0708:54> »
Of course now someone has to tell the various Shadowrun wikis out there that it is Mary-Louise (James' sister) and not Marie-Louise (James' daughter), who became CEO of Telestrian after he entered politics, and is a Prince of Tir Tairngire... :p

I think you are not serious, but anyway, not in favour of that solution. ;) The Telestrian family relations have been established at least through Tir Tairngire, Lone Wolf, Shadows of North America, The Land of Promise and Storm Front.

Though I see what you mean, if you are referring to the Shadowrun Wiki on Wikia. I think I will resolve this with an additional Shadowrun Returns version for the article on Marie-Louise.

By the way there is another possible discrepancy in Tir Tairngire a Shadowland user named Byrne mentions that there are no records of James Telestrian II. Of course that's just (shadow)talk.

Marzhin

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« Reply #12 on: <09-03-16/0745:28> »
I think you are not serious, but anyway, not in favour of that solution. ;)

Yes that last comment was mostly a jest, although now I'm not sure what "solution" you're not in favour of? Considering them separate characters?
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
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lokii

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« Reply #13 on: <09-03-16/0818:12> »
Fixing the inconsistencies by making Mary-Louise "Typo" Telestrian the aunt of Marie-Louise. ;)

lokii

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« Reply #14 on: <09-03-16/0851:33> »
Another inconsistency to add to the list: her age. In 2054 Marie-Louise was head of Telestrian Biotechnology.
« Last Edit: <09-03-16/1103:22> by lokii »