The Awakening

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==The Awakening==
The Awakening was the return of Magic to the world and the beginning of the Sixth World. It is commonly accepted to have happened over the course of the year 2011, dubbed "The Year of Chaos". It was not until January 27, 2012 that any coherent explanation of the events of the Year of Chaos was given, due to the awakening of the Great Dragon Dunklezhan.
Aside from magic, many creatures thought to be mythical or otherwise supernatural have found their way into the world. These creatures include, but are not limited to: elves, dwarves, orks and trolls in the form of metahumanity, magicians who can harness astral energies, as well as magical entities such as dragons, sasquatch, and various forms of non-corporeal spirits. The list goes on.
Its effects on Politics
Politics have changed little due to the new elements of the awakening themselves. Save for those politics that tie directly to new social issues which have arisen. Candidates for various political offices are now considered minorities based on their metatype, rather than their ethnicity (in most cases). Magic, the astral planes and magical creatures may be hot topics in politics at times, but no more so than any new event. Politicians remain as opportunistic as ever.
Its effects on Society
The entertainment industry benefited from the Awakening as it does from any big trend. Some fashions may include classic magical elements subtly interwoven with normal styles, and metatypes of different sizes and shapes must now have clothing of varied sizes made for them.
Racism remains prevalent, if not even greater than it was prior to the awakening, though it is more often focused on an individual's metatype rather than their ethnic or religious background. Even greater differences mean that it is far easier to think of your fellow man as something less than human (or less than what ever your given metatype may be), though all metahuman races are still, at their core, genetically human. The different genetic markers that result in the massive size, horns, tusks and dermal bone deposits of a troll have little difference from the genetic markers that result in blue eyes or darker skin in a pre-Awakening human.
While magic has come into the world due to the Awakening, it honestly has had little direct impact on people's lives. People know magic exists, accept this as part of their everyday lives, but encountering an actual magician is about as common as encountering an actual particle physicist. Few have any real understanding of how magic works, knowing little more than its highly dramatized image on the trid or in simsense dramas. For the most part, the world has just come to accept that magic exists, dragons are flying around and that their coworker is an ork with pointy tusks; the world moves on.