... interesting decision on your part. Did I say it wasn't relevant, that sins of the past can come to bite the asses of individuals in the now? No, I don't believe I did. My response is that SR is about what is happening now - not what happened back then. What happened now is that Dunkelzahn died, and Hestaby wanted to be 'the next Dunkie', and took her shot - and in so doing, brought to the forefront the tensions that would have naturally simmered for another three or five or ten centuries before coming to a head.
Because we've known - we've always known - that Alamais and Lofwyr hated each other with a passion that was almost giddy to watch. We didn't need to know why, any more than we really need to know why Rhonabwy loves music, or Arleesh hates certain 4th World artifacts. In Shadowrun, we treat those personality tidbits as facts; practically as forces of nature. We don't need to know why Jojo thought he was a loner, or why he left his home in Tuscon, Arizona; all we need to know, for the story of Shadowrun, is that Jojo needs to get back to where he once belonged.
Would it be interesting reading? Sure, just as much as any other fantasy novel, novelette, short story, or vignette, EarthDawn or otherwise, about great dragons and immortal high elves. Is it relevant? Yes, as much as the Napoleonic wars are to Shadowrun, or what the Romans did. And of course, those events did shape the world, which shaped the world, which shaped the world that shaped the world that is the world of Shadowrun - but Shadowrun isn't about the Napoleonic wars, or the Roman empire - or about EarthDawn, or what the dragons did to whom then. Shadowrun is about what's happening now.
And your example is, after all, only a fragment of the backstory of one of the big clashes of the 2070 - and, despite what you're thinking, it isn't even really universe-changing. Look at where everyones' eyes are right now ...
