Shadowrun General > The Secret History

What's the whole story of the Watergate rift?

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mcv:
You're right, Ghostwalker also came out of that rift. So apparently it's a hole to somewhere else where Ghostwalker spent the Fifth World, where Shedim come from, and where Aina Dupree and probably lots of other people now are?

But if it also sucks astral forms through, it can't be easy to get back here.

So to know more about how it was closed, should I get Artifacts Unbound, Conspiracy Theories, or both?

Beta:
I'm pretty sure that you only get, roughly, "these powerful magic wielders gathered powerful artifacts that have extraordinary properties when brought together and performed a ritual unlike any that the sixth world has seen ... and that did the job."

Crimsondude:

--- Quote from: Beta on ---2057, 9 August: Big D's death (or 'death'?), creating the rift
--- End quote ---
Dunkelzahn created the rift.


--- Quote ---2061, 24th of December: Ghostwalker's astral form comes flying out of the rift, surrounded by a haze of spirits -- including the shedim (to appear in notable numbers, at least)  (shortly after he appeared in physical form in Denver).  This is probably covered in The Year of the Comet
--- End quote ---
Yes. The "Ghost Stories" chapter of YotC.

The bunker was built after this and in response to it. Before then, the military had cordoned off the area but hadn't erected anything permanent for a long time because it was stable and physically benign, and astrally, it was only dangerous if people managed to get past the cordon of spirits and mages. There was also the early belief that acknowledging its permanence by building a bunker or some form of containment would be a sign of defeat, which the government could not bear to admit after everything else that happened in the 2050s.

But after a Great Dragon suddenly emerges without warning, and while not destroying DeeCee (this time), GW did a lot of damage in Denver. And that all prompted the UCAS to erect the bunker immediately.


--- Quote ---2073, 18 July: Ghostwalker leads a ritual, including Harlequin, Hestaby, Erhan, Frosty, Lugh Surehand, Jonathon Reed, Aden, Aina Dupree an unknown, and some very powerful artifacts whose combined presence was stressing reality.  (Artifacts Unbound).  About 600 civilians were killed, 2000 wounded, and 3000 disappeared (presumed pulled into the rift).  Aina Dupree was doing magic to protect everyone involved, but exhausted her magic and died. (Source appears to be Conspiracy Theories).  President Colloton announced that several government agencies had worked together to close the rift.

A bunker was built around the rift at some point, but I couldn't find when.  The ritual in 2073 caused extensive damage to the bunker.

--- End quote ---
That's pretty accurate. The non-Ghostwalker participants didn't expect him to basically blow everything up, and since what goes into the metaplanes eventually must come out, they took the hit so that not all of DeeCee was vaporized.

There have been other references to what happened to Aina, but I'd have to go back and look since quite a lot's happened since I wrote that story. The worst part was having people get upset or annoyed or curious and not be able to say anything – and still not – for various reasons. I wrote that story eight years ago and in the lifespans of these characters that's nothing, and sometimes that means it seems like, or is a case of, nothing happening.

But, anyway, that's pretty much everything. In Conspiracy Theories, the bunker area was still a mess. That area is really inconvenient to have an interdimensional rift or the remants of the giant bunker than surrounded it for a decade. I can't say exactly what it was, but it isn't necessarily a rift to one metaplane or area. The metaplanes don't adhere to Euclidian geometry. There are physical areas of the world that serve as nexi not to one metaplane but to, let's just say, multiple means of access. So the rift could have been a tear through multiple planes or not even necessarily a tear itself so much as a weakening of one or more planes, which could allow shedim and great dragons and imps and who knows what else to enter, and not even necessarily to enter the physical world in DeeCee because that's just where it appears and how it appears as we can see it on this plane.

Wakshaani:
Small side note: The Shedim that came out with Ghostwalker scattered all over and more gradually came out over time. Once Ghostwalker closed the rift, no more Shedim were able to enter the world, so their number were finite.

As of Dark Terrors, a few Master Shedim have been teaching willing mages how to summon Shedim to try and get around this problem … without these summoners, the Shedim would be on borrowed time since they can be destroyed but weren't able to get more of their kind, resulting in a gradual extermination. The DIMR (Dunklezahn Instute of Magical Research) has put out a bounty on both Master Shedim and Shedim summoners.

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