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Unsolved Mysteries of the Sixth World #1: Nadja Daviar

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Acme

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« on: <01-07-11/0649:46> »
(This is something I did somewhere else, so if for some of you this is a repeat, well.. Meh.  But OTOH, I think that Secret History is PERFECT for this kind of rampant psychosis.)

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(One big NOTE: This isn't a wheedling plea to people like Hardy and Adam for explanations or an accusation that they screwed up on x plot point. I appreciate the hard work that everyone who's ever penned the game has put in and understand the difficulties that it takes. If someone who works/worked on Shadowrun WANTS to give a "official" explanation, great. Or they can put their own speculation in.  ;D It's all for fun.
SECOND NOTE: If the Unsolved Mysteries have in fact been explained, please provide reference, not just go "This already got solved!" I may own a LOT of the books, but maybe there's one I didn't get to yet. Danke schoen.)

Hey all, long time SR player, semi-first time poster (I believe I used to have an account back way back) but I thought that I'd start my posting here with some interesting ideas. The first being.. *Cues Robert Stack voice* Unsolved Mysteries of the Sixth World.

There have been a few dozen things that just seem to have blipped off the radar here and there, either never to be brought up again or just simply shelved. The obvious answer is change in direction for the game due to new staff shuffling in and out, and frankly 20 years of canon will cause many a headache of loose ends and frayed edges. Just ask any Trekkie. In my opinion, the two biggest causer of UMs: the end of FASA and the scrambling to find new writers and keep the old ones as it advanced to FanPro and the clearing away of most of the pre-Crash storylines in System Failure/advancing to 4th Edition. (Let's not have nitpicking about the stories that DID happen. Yes, Second American Revolution got the shaft. Deal with it. It still has ramifications like Colloton taking presidency, so that's better than nothing.)

Will they get worked out? I don't know. Maybe some of them were left intentionally vague in order for enterprising GMs to work out in their own games, or for future freelancers to gather together for their proposals. But that's what this thread series is about. The chance for we 'Runners to discuss and speculate about those things that are unsolved. If anything, it makes for a good collection for theories and explanations.

SO: To open this series, let us look at a fairly recent Unsolved Mystery of the Sixth World:

Nadja Daviar.

Voice of Ol' Unkle Zahn himself and former Vice President before Haffener got the lead resignation letter in '65. She disappeared right afterwards and now marks 7 years since she ghosted. If you didn't catch the five or six references to her still being gone in Ares' section of the Corp Guide, her missing still has ramifications for a lot of things, such as Gavilan Ventures' stock giving the Aurelius family a way back into Ares and the chance to screw over ol' Damien Knight with Art Vogel's help.

I'd actually credit her disappearance to the sweeping of most of the pre-Crash storylines that went with System Failure/the beginning of 4th Edition. She was used fairly often, but after Haffener got the presidency and the whole dark times with the end of FASA, she dropped off the radar.

So where did she go? Biggest theories:

-The SAR got to her as well. (I don't think this is that good of a thoery. She was a pretty power player and to kill her off-screen without a single mention in 4-5 years of books is a little hard to do. They probably would have kacked her right along with Haffener in the SAR writeup in System Failure if they were killing her off.)

-Went Underground because of Ghostwalker. Pet theory of mine. With all the psychotic speculation of Ghostwalker being Dunklezahn's brother (or similarly connected) maybe he pulled her to his side or she went there in order to get some last vestiges of D that she was holding onto. Being a voice for a dragon HAS to have some sort of lingering stuff, and Ghostwalker had been doing all he could to be kinda like a hardcore Dunkelzahn. (Dunno, this is an odd theory but has merit. Could be shot through, since he's got his own voice and all.)

-Went underground because of Ryan Mercury. This actually was a bit of an interesting theory that I've seen from a thread here on the forum, that since she was GF with Ryan Mercury even after his Drake self emerged, there was the possibility that the elf and Drake DNA was compatible enough to have kids. Maybe the gestation period is that long? Or maybe she just retired with RM so they could raise their children without people trying to vivisect or exploit an offspring of a meta and a drake. (This has possibility, but does this mean that Assets Inc. has been completely folded then, or just like the ever revolving mage, they just found a new leader?)

-Falling out with Draco Foundation. Maybe the DF went in a direction she didn't like and there was some sort of tiff. She's supposed to be their Director, but maybe with her being VP and all they went in directions she couldn't control and she had to go deal with it; perhaps it backfired.

-Went rogue? Well, there's always that possibility. Something went ping in her mind, maybe she was a plant by the SAR the whole time, maybe Dunklezahn's spirit found a way to contact her, maybe she went on a 7 year vacation to where he and Burnout have been keeping the enemy at bay... you get the drift.

And a side-question with her. You knew it had to come, there's always speculation about any elven lead. Is she a member of Those Wacky Immortal Elves™? That could be a possibility right there. Either she is Immortal now because of some gene and we'll see her later anyway, or she already was one, took on the ND personality to get close to Dunkelzahn and eight years later figured she did all she could do and just go back to where she came from?


THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW.

Seriously, have fun, speculate away.  ;D If this is popular, I'll be doing a few more of these. Or suggest your own!

Frostriese

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« Reply #1 on: <01-07-11/0744:19> »
-Went Underground because of Ghostwalker. Pet theory of mine. With all the psychotic speculation of Ghostwalker being Dunklezahn's brother (or similarly connected) maybe he pulled her to his side or she went there in order to get some last vestiges of D that she was holding onto. Being a voice for a dragon HAS to have some sort of lingering stuff, and Ghostwalker had been doing all he could to be kinda like a hardcore Dunkelzahn. (Dunno, this is an odd theory but has merit. Could be shot through, since he's got his own voice and all.)
Her going underground because of Ghostwalker is possible, but are you sure it is as his ally? Do not the Draco Foundation and Ghostwalker regularly clash about such issues as drakes? And she has a vested personal interest in the wholes drakes thing. So, she could as well be Ghostwalker's opponent, either privately or as a secret operative for the DF. I mean, yes, hes a Great Dragon, but she got plot amour, surely that must count for something as well? ;)

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-Went underground because of Ryan Mercury. This actually was a bit of an interesting theory that I've seen from a thread here on the forum, that since she was GF with Ryan Mercury even after his Drake self emerged, there was the possibility that the elf and Drake DNA was compatible enough to have kids. Maybe the gestation period is that long? Or maybe she just retired with RM so they could raise their children without people trying to vivisect or exploit an offspring of a meta and a drake. (This has possibility, but does this mean that Assets Inc. has been completely folded then, or just like the ever revolving mage, they just found a new leader?)
Err - humans and elves; as well as drakes and elves have always been genetically compatible. And the gestation period is always the mother race's one, unsurprisingly. Which is about 12 months for an Elf, IIRC. Though of course, it could indeed be for the sake of raising a family, its just that all your associated points do not fit, heh.

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-Falling out with Draco Foundation. Maybe the DF went in a direction she didn't like and there was some sort of tiff. She's supposed to be their Director, but maybe with her being VP and all they went in directions she couldn't control and she had to go deal with it; perhaps it backfired.
It always seemed to me she was more the DF Director than the UCAS Veep. More like the DFs liason in the UCAS government, really. Still, it's possible, but is the DF really the organisation who would necessitate going undergr... wait. Shadowrun. Okay, maybe it is, heh.

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-Went rogue? Well, there's always that possibility. Something went ping in her mind, maybe she was a plant by the SAR the whole time, maybe Dunklezahn's spirit found a way to contact her, maybe she went on a 7 year vacation to where he and Burnout have been keeping the enemy at bay... you get the drift.
Now, that would be disappointing. We got to see her pretty close in the novels, and there was no hint of her being a plant or anything. Of course, her being busy with other, more important but less worldly stuff is possible, but that would not be "going rogue".

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And a side-question with her. You knew it had to come, there's always speculation about any elven lead. Is she a member of Those Wacky Immortal Elves™?
Always possible with Great Dragon voices, at least.  Of course, not all IE have to be ancient - it's a genetic issue and hence inherited. However, we have not seen any real hint in that direction, or have we? So that would come sorta out of the blue.

raggedhalo

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« Reply #2 on: <01-07-11/0759:09> »
Always possible with Great Dragon voices, at least.  Of course, not all IE have to be ancient - it's a genetic issue and hence inherited. However, we have not seen any real hint in that direction, or have we? So that would come sorta out of the blue.

Plus, surely the Big D would have recognised her?  Either from prior personal meetings or from assensing her and finding her larger-than-normal Essence ration.
Joe Rooney
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Acme

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« Reply #3 on: <01-07-11/1537:56> »
-Went Underground because of Ghostwalker. Pet theory of mine. With all the psychotic speculation of Ghostwalker being Dunklezahn's brother (or similarly connected) maybe he pulled her to his side or she went there in order to get some last vestiges of D that she was holding onto. Being a voice for a dragon HAS to have some sort of lingering stuff, and Ghostwalker had been doing all he could to be kinda like a hardcore Dunkelzahn. (Dunno, this is an odd theory but has merit. Could be shot through, since he's got his own voice and all.)
Her going underground because of Ghostwalker is possible, but are you sure it is as his ally? Do not the Draco Foundation and Ghostwalker regularly clash about such issues as drakes? And she has a vested personal interest in the wholes drakes thing. So, she could as well be Ghostwalker's opponent, either privately or as a secret operative for the DF. I mean, yes, hes a Great Dragon, but she got plot amour, surely that must count for something as well? ;)

Well, thumbing through here (in the Denver thread of all places) has it that Ghostwalker is Icewing, which really WOULD make him Dunkie's older brother.  (That makes me wonder if this possibility with her and GW being allies or going round and round that she's going to crop back up in the revised Denver book...)  But you've got a good point that she could be sparring with him over drakes.  GW could have tried to claim Ryan as his vassal due to familial heritage and Daviar put her foot down.  Though granted, GW hasn't seemed to reclaim any of Dunkelzahn's other stuff.  And plot armor isn't everything, ask Art Dankwalther, hehe.

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-Went underground because of Ryan Mercury. This actually was a bit of an interesting theory that I've seen from a thread here on the forum, that since she was GF with Ryan Mercury even after his Drake self emerged, there was the possibility that the elf and Drake DNA was compatible enough to have kids. Maybe the gestation period is that long? Or maybe she just retired with RM so they could raise their children without people trying to vivisect or exploit an offspring of a meta and a drake. (This has possibility, but does this mean that Assets Inc. has been completely folded then, or just like the ever revolving mage, they just found a new leader?)
Err - humans and elves; as well as drakes and elves have always been genetically compatible. And the gestation period is always the mother race's one, unsurprisingly. Which is about 12 months for an Elf, IIRC. Though of course, it could indeed be for the sake of raising a family, its just that all your associated points do not fit, heh.

Well these aren't really points as much as wild hairs.  But the point of exploiting the offspring is still valid, because there's the chance that the child will end up drake as well.

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-Falling out with Draco Foundation. Maybe the DF went in a direction she didn't like and there was some sort of tiff. She's supposed to be their Director, but maybe with her being VP and all they went in directions she couldn't control and she had to go deal with it; perhaps it backfired.
It always seemed to me she was more the DF Director than the UCAS Veep. More like the DFs liason in the UCAS government, really. Still, it's possible, but is the DF really the organisation who would necessitate going undergr... wait. Shadowrun. Okay, maybe it is, heh.

Well hell DF employs runners, and inherited Assets Inc (IIRC Talon split off because he didn't like working for the DF buut it's been a while since I read Crossroads so don't quote me there.) so it's not completely lily white.  My other theory is she went off looking for a few inheritors in the Will that hadn't shown up for fifteen years, either for the publicly known stuff or some secret private pieces. 





Always possible with Great Dragon voices, at least.  Of course, not all IE have to be ancient - it's a genetic issue and hence inherited. However, we have not seen any real hint in that direction, or have we? So that would come sorta out of the blue.

Plus, surely the Big D would have recognised her?  Either from prior personal meetings or from assensing her and finding her larger-than-normal Essence ration.

Well now see, that could be a good argument as to why he picked her.  That he recognized her as an Immortal Elf and it factored into some plan of his, or he thought it would be a good bridge between dragons and the IEs.  He was always big on trying to fix things after all.

Digital_Viking

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« Reply #4 on: <01-07-11/1608:52> »
And plot armor isn't everything, ask Art Dankwalther, hehe.
Excuse the derail - but one of my favorite quotes from a SR book was in System Failure regarding Mr. Dankwalther:

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> Let me see if I’m getting this straight: they wasted a fragging
Thor shot on ONE guy?
> Arctic White
> No. They wasted a guy with one Thor shot. Besides, you can’t
bribe a smart-guided orbital launch platform.
> Ancient History
"Which is better and which is worse,I wonder - To understand or to not understand?"
"Understanding is always worse. To not understand is to never carry the burden of responsibility. Understanding is pain. But anything less is unacceptable."

Frostriese

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« Reply #5 on: <01-07-11/2359:58> »
Well, thumbing through here (in the Denver thread of all places) has it that Ghostwalker is Icewing, which really WOULD make him Dunkie's older brother.  (That makes me wonder if this possibility with her and GW being allies or going round and round that she's going to crop back up in the revised Denver book...)  But you've got a good point that she could be sparring with him over drakes.  GW could have tried to claim Ryan as his vassal due to familial heritage and Daviar put her foot down.  Though granted, GW hasn't seemed to reclaim any of Dunkelzahn's other stuff.  And plot armor isn't everything, ask Art Dankwalther, hehe.
Difference is, Danwalther was a plot device :p But my point was there are normal people who go toe-to-toe with Great Dragons.

And it would not necessarily be about Ryan himself. The DF gives sanctuary to any Drake, and that pisses off just about every Great Dragon, including Ghostwalker. Which makes him a potential now and then enemy of the Foundation, so maybe Daviar, personally motivated about "Drakes rights", is underground in Denver to keep tabs on him.

Or raises children, or is on some mystical quest, or looks for some people named in Dunkelzahns will, or is on the run... everything is possible.


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Well now see, that could be a good argument as to why he picked her.  That he recognized her as an Immortal Elf and it factored into some plan of his, or he thought it would be a good bridge between dragons and the IEs.  He was always big on trying to fix things after all.
Yeah, but wouldnt Dunkelzahn have told her, at least posthumously? He told all kinda stuff after his death, after all!

Longshot23

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« Reply #6 on: <01-09-11/1040:48> »
I considered Daviar one of the prime pin-up ladies of 6W.  I know one of my characters had a photo collection LOL . . .

Seriously though, this is something I would ping as worth a published adventure.  "The Hunt-" no, wait, it's a Quest "-for Nadia" . . . suitably retitled.

Crimsondude

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« Reply #7 on: <01-09-11/1637:53> »
/whistles innocently.

Daviar is my favorite Shadowrun character/personality/plot device.

Acme

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« Reply #8 on: <01-09-11/1744:30> »
Actually, I've considered a "Where on Earth is Nadja Daviar" for my next campaign.

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Well now see, that could be a good argument as to why he picked her.  That he recognized her as an Immortal Elf and it factored into some plan of his, or he thought it would be a good bridge between dragons and the IEs.  He was always big on trying to fix things after all.
Yeah, but wouldnt Dunkelzahn have told her, at least posthumously? He told all kinda stuff after his death, after all!
[/quote]

Maybe she already knew?

Frostriese

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« Reply #9 on: <01-10-11/0131:09> »
Maybe she already knew?
Possible, but a bit contrived. In that case we should have gotten to know in the Dragon Heart trilogy, seeing how prominently she featured there.

Acme

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« Reply #10 on: <01-10-11/0226:17> »
Maybe she already knew?
Possible, but a bit contrived. In that case we should have gotten to know in the Dragon Heart trilogy, seeing how prominently she featured there.

Which could lead back to the Dunkelzahn knew but didn't tell her for some reason.  Maybe he felt she'd turn on him and join the ranks of TWIE- but I can already pop that bubble since Frosty worked with him a lot. 

My biggest supposition is that she's doing something dealing with Ghostwalker and is in Denver right now.  Maybe she's helping the negotiation of the treaty with secret DF files.

Longshot23

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« Reply #11 on: <01-10-11/0425:37> »
Well, look at this:

1) According to System Failure, Nadia was in Seattle at the time of the New Revolution's attempted coup, and disappeared then.  A possibility is a Rinelle faction grabbed her and Ryan and has been keeping them under wraps.  Rather unlikely, but . . .

2)  Somewhere (Vice? Seattle 2072? couldn't find page) Chimaera are said to be suspects in her disappearance.  Then you have to consider who hired them.  Also, they're assassins, not kidnappers.

3)  Who ordered Haeffner's death? Colloton?  Damien Knight? A false order slipped into the operation plan?

Acme

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« Reply #12 on: <01-10-11/0532:05> »
Well, look at this:

1) According to System Failure, Nadia was in Seattle at the time of the New Revolution's attempted coup, and disappeared then.  A possibility is a Rinelle faction grabbed her and Ryan and has been keeping them under wraps.  Rather unlikely, but . . .

2)  Somewhere (Vice? Seattle 2072? couldn't find page) Chimaera are said to be suspects in her disappearance.  Then you have to consider who hired them.  Also, they're assassins, not kidnappers.

3)  Who ordered Haeffner's death? Colloton?  Damien Knight? A false order slipped into the operation plan?

1) That one's been kinda expanded/nullified by 6WA.  In the entry of the coup, it notes that she must have gotten back to the capitol the next day or sometime later because she declares martial law and is Acting President, so she got her oath of office via the LBJ route.  So if she got grabbed, it would have to be sometime AFTER this whole mess settled down because security would have been ultra tight with a presidential assassination, especially being the SECOND one she's been close to.

2) You are indeed correct that Chimaera is "suspected" to be behind her disappearance (Vice, p 155) but it's shadowtalk, and the guy in the same paragraph has a rumor they're behind O'Malley's death and IIRC that was an in-house job the whole time, at least that was the implication in the Underworld Sourcebook, so that implication becomes suspect.  Granted, Chimaera was created sometime after Underwold, so maybe they retconned that one, therefore leaving the implication still possible.

3) If you're implying that the same one behind Haeffner's death is the one behind Nadja's disappearance/death, then I just don't see the writers killing a character like that off screen. 

If that's just a question, that's a good one.  I don't think it's Knight.  David Gavilian-er "Damien Knight" (heh) I think still had a little bit of kinship with Haeffner from the Echo Mirage days, not to mention Kyle had basically handed Knight the keys and let them be the All-American Mega.  Knight didn't really have a reason to off the prez, even with the possibility of a corp-backed career military person like Colloton taking the reins.

Colloton does make a good suspect, with how quickly that she "restored balance", and the implication in System Failure that there was some keyword with using the Thomas Jefferson quote in her speech, not to mention the hook that says that the whole unit involved in the president's "rescue" was eliminated due to "accidents".  There are also a couple more interesting things to note if you will.  In her 6WA pic (p 95- Year 2068), she's got a strange pyramid pin on her collar.  That could be a hint that maybe there was something shady, as we old INWO fans know that triangle could both be an in-joke or a symbol of shady affiliations.   If this is true, then I'm thinking that what happened was one of two things:
1) The New American Revolution decided that what they were attempting was too broad and decided to cut a few ties, focusing on UCAS leadership and expansion from there.
2) A whole different conspiracy was behind Colloton.
Unfortunately, we may have to wait until the 2076 election and whether or not Colloton gives up power to see...


Longshot23

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« Reply #13 on: <01-10-11/0620:11> »
I thought that triangle thing on Colloton was a medal, awarded for her command in the former Renraku Arcology takeback operation.  Haeffner supposedly distinctly remembered the ceremony (yeah, yeah, i know - implanted memory by INWO  ::) )

My Question 3 was indeed a question - my bad in not making that clear (should have left off the 3, i suppose).  Seeing as how Ares has lost out post-Haeffner, I'm inclined to agree that Knight/Ares are more unlikely.

Tossing in Rinelle was just as a possibility, given their relative proximity to Seattle.  Hell, Brackhaven is just as much a suspect because Nadia is an Elf in UCAS power (big no-no, according to Humanis et al).  I just looked up the 6WA entry, it says that Nadja survived an assassination attempt.  So that's on record, as is her status as Acting President.  But there's nothing to say she was sworn in.  A pro tem President and Colloton are supposed to have gotten things back from whatever brink.

Nath

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« Reply #14 on: <01-10-11/0623:17> »
In her 6WA pic (p 95- Year 2068), she's got a strange pyramid pin on her collar.  That could be a hint that maybe there was something shady, as we old INWO fans know that triangle could both be an in-joke or a symbol of shady affiliations.
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System Failure, page 106
Standing behind the podium was a steel-haired woman in her mid fifties, wearing the dress uniform of a UCAS general. Two stars graces each shoulder, and around her neck was a small silver medal shaped like a pyramid. Haeffner knew that honor well-he had awarded it only a year ago.
I think the author intended it be a Seattle Arcology Service Medal.