Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: Nerroth on <04-16-13/2058:40>
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Hi.
Firstly, the only real source I have for Imperial Japan in Shadowrun is the Sixth World Almanac, so apologies in advance if any of this is detailed elsewhere.
What I was wondering is this; in SR terms, is there any trace of Ainu culture in Hokkaido, or Ryukyuan culture in Okinawa, as of the 2070s; or have they been wholly subsumed by the "standard" set by Neo-Tokyo?
For those who aren't familiar with either culture group, the Ainu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people) are indigenous to what is now called Hokkaido (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkaid%C5%8D), with local languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_languages) wholly unrelated to Japanese; while Okinawa Prefecture (and the southernmost islands of Kagoshima Prefecture) was once ruled by the Ryukyu Kingdom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyu_Kingdom), whose inhabitants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_people) spoke a series of languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_languages) in the broader Japonic language family (but which have been classified at times as "dialects" of Japanese).
In "our" world, the Ainu and Ryukyuan languages are collectively in trouble in terms of their continued vitality, but there are advocacy groups in their respective territories attempting to promote them with varying degrees of success.
Are things any different in the Sixth World?
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You may want to get Corporate Enclaves, which has a giant chapter on Neo-Tokyo, and/or Shadows of Asia, which has a substantial chapter on Japan.
SoA only mentions the Ainu comprise 2% of the population. On page 87:
The Ainu, the aboriginal people of the Northern (Kuril) Islands, are a very small shamanic culture that is largely overlooked by the Japanese people.
That is all.
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Not completely sure about that, Crimsondude. IIRC, the korobokuru dwarf-subtype was intended to represent, whether by implication or outright suggestion, the ainu. I'd have to do research on that to be sure, but I don't have the time just now.
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While I suppose they wouldn't be the only group to end up leaning towards a certain phenotype (I recall how the Zulu are described as turning into an elven nation in The Sixth World Almanac), I'd be surprised if such was the case with the Ainu.
(Not least since there aren't all that many "full-blood" Ainu in the modern era; most people in Japan of Ainu descent have at least some "wajin" ancestry mixed in to their family trees.)
So is there no word on the Ryukyuans in the Sixth World?
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They're pretty often marginalized or generally sidelined in the real world, with money going to people who are only interested in their own grandiosity I would be completely unsurprised with the concept the the languages fading out. Unless those with Ainu/Ryukyuan blood manifested as a distinct metavariant I don't think that we'd hear anything about them.
Not until Japan comes out as a setting as important as Seattle, anyway.
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While I suppose they wouldn't be the only group to end up leaning towards a certain phenotype (I recall how the Zulu are described as turning into an elven nation in The Sixth World Almanac), I'd be surprised if such was the case with the Ainu.
(Not least since there aren't all that many "full-blood" Ainu in the modern era; most people in Japan of Ainu descent have at least some "wajin" ancestry mixed in to their family trees.)
You really think there are many 'full-blooded' Zulu left?