recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
PBU

## People's Builder's Union

Another group with strong ties to both the anti-corp andCraftpunk movements, the People’s Builder’s Union is a grassroots co-operative movement with a vaguely socialist agenda, the bastard offspring of the old neo-Coms and Habitat for Humanity. The PBU is the local branch of the Reclamation Movement  .

Reclamation is a movement that seeks to end poverty and capitalist exploitation by direct action, rejecting political or charitable efforts. It plans to do this by bringing the labor and resources to the needy directly: occupying abandoned real estate and working with small property owners, usually in neglected areas, building new housing with sustainable infrastructure (solar power, hydroponics, etc.), and bringing in needy tenants. The PBU does not purchase the buildings it converts, but instead works with the existing owners or, in abandoned, squats in them according to the common-law practice of adverse possession: in essence, if they succeed in continuously and publicly making use of the property for long enough, without interference by the owners, they may eventually gain legal title. The PBU is organized into loose, democratic ‘locals’. The Reclamation Local 42 is the PBU's official designation. They maintain ties with other, similiar anti-corp groups, including Fargo's  Prairie Public Underground .

Return to: Minnesota Politics
Swing Barrel

## Swing Barrel Brewery

* **Location:**700 1st Ave N, Moorhead, MN 56560 UCAS
* **Style:** Paleo-Deco bar, worked stone, sort of a cave with a great view of the river.
* **P2  Rating:**10:10:22
* **Gang:**Swing Blades
* **Description:**The last fortification in Moorhead before the River. Also a tap room, no extras.

Common wisdom on the Moorhead side of the River has it that Swing Barrel is cursed.

One of the last of the classic area breweries to be founded during the Awakening, Sling Barrel kept running afoul of historical disasters and regular bad luck. It went through two sets of owners and three locations in its first decade. It even went out of business before it actually opened, which was canceled during the shutdowns during theVITAS-2 outbreaks. It suffered from flood and fire and was wiped from the "Internet" (pre-Crash Matrix) during the Crash of '29. It took a couple of years for the new owners to gather enough capital to reopen and when they did, it was in the old American Legion building (which had been a restaurant and venue for twenty or thirty years before the rising River had forced it to be abandoned). The current bare-bones arrangement was supposed to be temporary until they raised the funds to do a full renovation.

That was over forty years ago.

Sling Barrel Brewing has settled into a strange kind of a niche betweenthe Corner and Junkyard Brewing , not just geographically but also socially, attracting a fringe, gig-working-class crowd, not as rough as The Corner but not as connected and sociable as Junkyard. These are people who want a drink and don't want to be bothered while doing it. In many ways, it replaced the venerable Mick's Office and Vic's when the former was bombed in the Whiskey-Callahan War and the latter was wiped out with the rest of the Moorhead Central Mallsoleum. Protected at least in part by the reputation of the Swing Barrel Curse (which some people who should know claim is real).

   For all this, the actual building it is in is surprisingly nice. Built by the federal Works Progress Administration in 1936, it became an American Legion post and community auditorium with fieldstone pulled from Sabin Area fields.The Legion used the building until the mid-1990s, when the club moved to a new facility on the east side of Moorhead. For years, it sat vacant until being turned into first a series of restaurants and then a wedding venue before the rising Red River during the Awakening forced its abandonment. It is a beautiful old stone building with stylized faces at the corners and a magnificent view of the River, which part of the building extended over even before the Red rose. Nowadays only the front is on shore with the river lapping hungrily at three walls of the old building, which survives only at the River's continued sufferance.

Return to: Hotspots
Vintage Wheels

* **Location:** Parsley Blvd and Ames Ave, Tsêhéstáno, Tetonwan CF, Očéti Šakówiŋ
* **Style:**Vintage Automobiles
* **Bias:**No Anglos, No cyberware or nano-augments.

Vintage Wheels is part nightclub and part automobile museum, hosting a collection of nearly 140 vintage and classic vehicles from around North America and Europe, most of which are worth more than 150,000 nuyen. Nearly a quarter of the collection are vehicles from the 20th century, with four of them having been built in the 1950s and restored to mint condition. The club hosts a wide range of automotive memorabilia, from pieces of famous racecars to artifacts tracing the history and development of the automobile. Guests are welcome to wander the floor, checking out the vintage cars in a rather subdued atmosphere.

The recent damage from corrupt nanites has put the staff of the museum on edge, and new security precautions have been introduced. There are three different scanners located at the front door to the club, set up to specifically detect nanites and anyone contaminated with them. These are top-quality scanners—the club does not want to take any chances with their collection. Vintage Wheels has three VIP rooms on the second level that can be rented for private meetings. The club can hold up to two hundred and fifty people and is generally packed every night, even with its 75 nuyen cover charge. Vintage Wheels is believed to be have ties to the Tiošpaye, though the full extent of this alleged connection has yet to be discovered.

Return to: Tsêhéstáno
Vance Martin

* **Name:**Vance Damian Martin
* **Position:**Chief Executive Officer of Shangri-la Productions (a Horizon  Company)
* **Metatype:**Human  (*Human sapiens sapiens*)\*
* **Education:**Has a Masters-Equivalent Certifications in Personal Management and Business Administration from Horizon KnowBase.
* **DOB:**1/1/2035, Miami-Dade Metroplex, Caribbean League (according to Horizon personnel records)

The new head of Shangri-la Productions (Horizon's flagship subsidiary in the Twin Cities) Vance Martin is too good to be real. Which, in the Sixth World, means he probably isn't. A handsome, hard-charging, ambitious, charismatic overachiever with an almost prescient sense of what's new, what's next, what's hot and what's over. Since taking over the one-time record label, he's been responsible for signing such breakout acts as Nabo and Background County as well as expanding Shangri-la into entirely new arenas (such as backing the most recent Eric Jonrosh effort, a remake of the 2057 Neil the Ork Barbarian hit 'Dawn of Earth', which industry sources say is meant to be the flagship of Shangri-la's entry into the Simsense  field). Vance is uncompromising, All or Nothing, he demands perfection from his people and from himself and second best is just first loser in his book.

All this and not a single blot on his SIN.

That's not as surprising as it could be, as, according some Jackpointers of my acquaintance, said SIN didn't exist until about 5 years ago. Vance Martin seems to not have existed before that moment, seemingly sprung forth fully formed from the head of Gary Cline (Which is one possible explanation for his absurdly-good P2  score). However, there are whispers about a Shadowrunner who had dropped out of the scene shortly before that, an elven  Face named "Burner" who used to work the Miami, Havana and Atlanta shadows, but those are just rumors and if there's any weight to them, Horizon would have scrubbed away anything even a little bit like proof a long, long time ago....

Return to: Horizon
Technocrat

## Technocratic Party of Minnesota

   **Motto:**"Grow or Perish"

The Technocratic Party of Minnesota is a Major political party in the state of Minnesota and the state branch of the national Technocratic Party. Peter Keating serves as Chair. Party Headquarters are in Saint Paul .

Despite a diverse Congressional delegation, the Technocrats have dominated in-state politics for the last two decades, although the last couple of election cycles have seen their majority decrease in the legislature, although they still control the executive branch such the Governor’s Office and Mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

The national party was formed by presidential candidate (and future President) Martin Vincenzo in 2035, the first major new party to form in the UCAS . Ideologically, the party traces its roots back to the Reagan era of smaller government and privatization. The Technocratic party takes these ideas and takes them to their logical conclusions. It is the position of the Technocrats that private enterprise is better able to perform nearly any task than government and maintains that government can best serve when it contracts out its functions to competing contractors. It should go without saying that the Technocrats are the best funded of the major political parties, due, in no small part to their absolutist views on money as speech.

### **Prominent Minnesota Technocrats**

* Governor Terrance James
* Mayor Carol Bergen of Minneapolis
* Mayor Liam Pho of Saint Paul
* State Treasurer Melissa Colburn
* Diane Stoddard esq. Ares  Corporate Lawyer, has announced she's running for Senate in 2076

Return to: Minnesota Politics
Rap-ajo

## Rap-ajo, the beat of a nation

**Rap-ajo** is the hip-hop cuture particular to the Native American Nations, practiced by the populations of the NAN, most often in urban areas.  As such, it is not a specific form of hip-hop but varies in style along the lines of hip-hop in general. While the term 'Rap-ajo music' dates back to the artist Russell Means in the 1980's, Native Americans have been present in hip-hop culture since its inception as breakdancers, DJs, rappers, and graffiti artists. While in modern times, rap-ajo is often in the languages of the NAN, it can also incorproate other languages, such as English or even Sperethiel  or Or'Zet as the artist desires.

Predecessors to Rap-ajo started appearing on the pre-Crash 'internet' in the late 1990's, offering a wealth of links, reviews and downloads in the file types of the era (esp. so-called "MP3's"). With the Treaty of Denver and the independence of the newly-established NAN saw an explosion of nationalist artistic expression, expressing the feelings of these people about the massive changes happening to the world they lived in. While music nerds and historians study pre-Awakening Rap-ajo, for most fans its the post-Awakening, pre-Crash explosion that is considered "Old-School" or Golden Age Rap-ajo. And what little of it survived the Crash of '29 is so rare as to be collectors' items.

Rap-ajo was dependent on Matrix for marketing and distribution and nearly disappeared in the Crash of '29, except on a purely local level, not coming back in a big way until the 2040's with 'Big Time' rap-ajo, which faded during the 2050's onslaught of 'Pop-hop' and 'Synth' movements. The current  Rap-ajo, while usually touching on a debt to Big Time Rap-ajo, can be traced back to the Second Crash. With another wipe-out of online files, there was a sudden 'Replacement Year' (beginning with the #Replaceit! hashtag popularized by Rap-ajo classic artist Howing Wind in early 2065), boom, where young artists rushed to replace the gaps in popular music and brought a lot of underground artists back into the light of popular acclaim. To a lot of people these new artists are part of a real Golden Age of Rap-ajo.

### Rap-ajo in the Zone

On the border between the Oceti Sakowin and the UCAS, there's a lot of Oceti Sakowin-based Rap-ajo music played on Zone  playlists. There aren't really any local acts that are pure Rap-ajo, but there are a number of ajo-influenced acts (such as Hyperzip and Heyoka) coming out of the Zone. The most notable is probably Mink  of Saint, Mink and Tachi, who actually comes out of the western Oceti Sakowin Rap-ajo tradition.

Return to: Music
Tin Box

## The Tin Box

* **Type:**River Ferry
* **Ownership:**Captain Krell and his Riverling  Band (loosely associated with the Highland Crew)

The Tin Box is not the most expensive ferry on the River, and not even the biggest. But it is the best known. A big converted, rusted hulk of a river barge that Captain Krell got from.... OK, so here's the thing, Captain Krell won't say where he got the damn thing before he showed up to ferry refugees from one side of the River to the other during the Great Manastorm of '43. Just that he did. It doesn't show up on any official records and the Cap'n's certainly never payed a nuyen of tax on that hulk. The crew has a lot, and I mean a LOT, of stories about it and none of them are any more probable than any of the others.

But the current facts of the matter are this: if you want across the river and you don't want to answer a lot of questions or... let's be honest, you just want to get to the other side of the River to the other at all, then the Tin Box is your ride of choice, because Cap'n Krell is not just a good River Captain, but also one of the most respected Riverwalkers on the Red. The Tin Box is famous for being the most reliable ferry on the Red River, largely because of the Cap'n and his crew. It is also the most discrete, well, largely because the Cap'n, well the Cap'n just don't give a drek. All he cares about is his boat. Which is fortunate if you and your car also happen to be on that boat.

He used to, until very recently, also let his crew borrow or rent the Tin Box out themselves, but after an incident during the most recent manastorm, the Cap'n has resumed his original policy that the Box does not go out on the River without her Cap'n...

Return to: Riverlings
Underberg Motors

* **Rating:**DDD/C (Pending)
* **Main Location:**201 40th St S, Fargo , RRDMZ  58103
* **President:**MacKenzie Rasmussen
* **Status:**Underberg Motors is a privately-held corporation, part of the Underberg Holding Group.
* **Description:**New and used automotive sales and service with locations throughout the Zone and the western UCAS.

Underberg Motors has a history much longer than the Underbergs themselves. Founded as Corwin Automotive in 1914 and owned and operated for six generations by the Corwin family, it had already been an institution for over a century when a young Ryan 'Buddy' Underberg was hired on there in the mid 2030's, their first metahuman  salesman. As Underberg rose from salesman to floor manager to eventually Vice President of the company, by means that anybody smart enough to wonder at was also smart enough not to ask about, he used his growing influence to increasingly use the company as a front for his other activities. A good deal of the planning for the Whiskey-Callahan gang war of the 2040's was done from the sales offices of Corwin Auto's main location.

Buddy Underberg finally managed to buy out the Corwin Auto empire in 2056, rebranding it as 'Underberg Motors' and using it as a convenient front for both money laundering and as a cover for car theft. At the time of the purchase it was gem in the Underberg crown, although in the years since it has come to be eclipsed by the waste disposal giant Underberg Utilities.

Even today, now under the leadership of Buddy's daughter, MacKenzie (nee Underberg) Rasmussen, it is the single largest money laundering operation in the Underberg machine, and its the second-biggest legitimate money-maker. As well as the money-laundering, it still provides cover for the chop-shops and its dozen or so locations in six cities (Springfield and Kansas City MO, Green Bay WI, Bellevue NE and Pasco in the Salish-Shidhe ) in four states make for convenient courier work for the other Families in those locations.

With all its ties to local crime, it is also easy for those of us in the shadows to forget that they are the single largest car dealership in Region 3 of the Zone and that a lot of the cars you see driving the streets in a law-abiding manner, using GridGuide and everything, also came off the lot at Underberg Motors.

Return to: Business
Techno

### **Shadowsona: TECHNO**

**Shadowsona Profiles: Supplemental Asset Management Solutions (a HorizonProduct)**

**Last Updated 7/29/2075**

* **Identity:***Unknown*
* **Description (Metatype):***Unknown*
* **Description (Gender):***Unknown*
* **Skillset:**Matrix Intrusion, Hacking, Information Gathering
* **Affiliation:**The Fargo Team 4.0 (core)
* **Area of Operations:**Matrix - Fargo  RRDMZ
* **Available:**Medium-to-High
* **Reliability:**High

**Notes:**No records exist on subject previous 7/25/75, research in progress. No confirmed physical sightings of subject, has always interacted remotely via the Matrix.

Return to: The Team
Novamind F

* **Brought Online:**5.16.2065, Novatech  Labs, Boston  MA, UCAS
* **Affiliation:**Under a work/ownship licensing agreement with NeoNET
* **Function:**In charge of all operations for NeoNet's Great Plains Campus in Fargo, Region 3, RRDMZ
* **Seed Code:**Built from the Novamind-Prime Fuchi v.5.4 KnowBot.

Part of a series of 'bootstapped' near-AI knowbots encouraged to full self-awareness through application of rigorous algorithmic trials by Novatech just after the Second Crash as a safeguard against other, opposing AI.

Novamind F was named F after the Fargo location, the Great Plains Campus, that it was sent to protect and coordinate. For the last ten years, Novamind F has provided tech support, customer service and Matrix security, largely as a countermeasure against Fargo's other resident AI, the Group's own TANNIN, its long-time counterpart and rival, as they've both clashed for virtual territory and cooperated in enforcing ZOD's dictums.

On a personal level, Novamind F is a flamboyant local figure, known for a love of showmanship, flashiness, humor, wit and a truly startling array of pop culture references from the most up-the-date and popular to the most ancient and obscure and is beloved by a certain set of NeoNET subscribers and PvR  adherents.

In the aftermath of the Solstice Blackout it was revealed that Novamind F has been touched by the same corrupting influences as TANNIN and that its core seed had been wiped out in the subsequent GOD intervention. It has been reported that Carol Drummer, head of NeoNET's Great Plains Campus, has successfully lobbied corporate to send a replacement AI to take up the functions the former Novamind F had filled.

Return to: Great Plains Campus
Masonic Temple of the Western Bank

* **Purpose:**The Masonic Temple of the Western Bank is a magical society founded to take advantage of the resonance of the mana of the old Shiloh Lodge #1 of Masons (built in 1899, replaced in 1968), in the current location of The Red Bank Pylon, The Block 2-1, FargoRRDMZ58124. The Temple owns the fifth floor (five being a sacred number to them) for their purposes. Their primary activity is the study, acquisition and control of wealth as a way of ordering the material world.
* **Membership:**The Temple likes to maintain exactly 25 at all times (Hermetic  full Mages only), divided into five Orders, 1 Master Planner of the Spirit, 3 Architects of the Heart, 5 Builders of the Mind, 7 Hands of the Stonecutter and 9 Eyes of the Student. However after the events of the so-called 'Solstice Blackout', which saw nearly half the order either dead or in prison, they are aggressively recruiting to replenish their numbers. New members must be nominated by an existing member of at least Builder rank.
* **Leadership:** acting Master Planner Patty Wolford (not yet initiated to Rank 5)
* **Strictures:**Obedience, Fraternity, Dues, Limited Membership, Oath (Group)
* **Resources:**High, Dues are available for individual use, pending a superior's permission and besides their headquarters, the Temple owns a number of properties and private lodges, as well as an almost unlimited supply of reagents and telesma. This is deceptively low for the actual power of the group as it does not count the vast personal fortunes that the members have all accrued through their connections. They have also invested heavily in the Astral Space around the Temple proper, shoring up its defenses and strengthening the power of the nexus point that already existed there.
* **Allies:**The Temple maintains close relationships, and often occupies leadership positions in, several similarly minded local initiatory orders, including Concordia 's Principia, The Group 's Supermodern Design Team and the Tri-College Working Group .

Return to: Magic
Yolanda Diaz

## Yolanda Diaz, MidGuard Security

* **Name:**Yolanda Maria Diaz Moreno
* **Position:**President and Founder of MidGuard InfoSecurity Strategies .
* **Metatype:**Duende  (*Homo sapiens nobilis*)
* **Education:**Bachelors in Matrix Design from Fuchi Universidad del Pacifico. Advanced Information Defense Certification from Novatech Internal Training Program.
* **DOB:**2/10/2041, San Juan, Borinquen , Caribbean League
* **Family:** Major (ret.)Oscar Diaz (father, Miami , Free State of South Florida, Caribbean League), The Late Captain Inez Moreno Diaz (Mother, deceased)

Yolanda Diaz comes from a long line of military service, her grandparents served in the old US Army, her parents were both officers in the Free Marine Corps , working as mercenaries throughout the Western Hemisphere. And do not think, even for a moment, that just because she is a decker and does not currently serve in a national or corporate military that she is anything less than a soldier.

Early on in her schooling, Yolanda showed an aptitude for math and technology and her parents, both supportive and pragmatic, and all-too-aware of the value of good intel, channeled her into training that would make the most of those strengths. She was recruited in 2060 right out of college by the newly-formed Novatechcompany and served with honor (Employee of the Month, Golden Smiley Face of Exemplary Company Service) as a Pre-emptive Security Outreach Specialist  (ie. combat decker) in the battles for the assets of the recently-dissolved Fuchi Industrial Electronics. She even stayed at her post in 2061 instead of going to her mother's funeral when her mother was killed during the fighting for Bogata, a move that impressed her superiors no end.

She quit her position with Pre-emptive Security after the Second Crash in '64 and went into consulting, working almost exclusively with Novatech's successor NeoNET . In 2067 she formed Mid-North Guardian Projects (rebranded in 2070 as 'MidGuard InfoSecurity Strategies' to reflect a focus on data security) and opened offices leased from NeoNET on the Great Plains Campus .

Yolanda Diaz is among the most trusted and most hired security specialists that NeoNET employs locally. She has a record for discretion and results and is known to maintain a good working relationship with NeoSec and, it is rumored, still has a lot of friends deep within Trend Micro, NovaStar, Echo Chamber Security, ShieldWall and other firms that make up the labyrinthine intelligence and security apparatus of NeoNET. And it is known that when she gets her teeth into something, or someone, she never, ever quits. In her own, very profitable, way, she's still every millimeter a good company soldier.

Return to: MidGuard
Whistler Pawnbroker

* **Location:**1411 S University Dr, Fargo , RRDMZ  58103
* **Type:**Pawn Shop

Most pawn shops are perfectly legitimate enterprises, serving as a necessary economic safety valve in a system that doesn't much care what happens to people who don't have the credit to afford being taken care of. The sleazy pawn shop owned by gangsters, a hangout of thieves and grifters, a place where money is laundered and stolen goods are moved is primarily a creation of the ShadowSims, a creature of the crime dramas.

And then there's Bernie's place. Sorry "Whistler Pawnbroker". Bernie's been in this game longer than you. Longer than any of you. No, really. He opened this place of about the time of the Awakening , which surprises a lot of people because that makes him older than its possible for any Dwarf to actually be. And that's because while, yeah, Bernie's a 'dwarf' but what that means for him is that he has a medical condition called 'Achondroplasia', not the metatype *Homo sapiens pumilionis,*he's technically a Human by metatype, he's just really short.

Even if he's not a capital 'D' Dwarf, Bernie's still an Underberg man, he's been in the fence game since the North Dakota Oil Boom of the early 'teens. He started off taking stolen goods off of thieves passing through the Bakken Oil Patch, working with the Mexican Mafia, then he was recruited by Buddy Underberg to work as his go-between as he expanded into stolen goods. He survived Buddy and continues to make money for Ma. Trust Bernie on this, whatever happens, the guy always finds a way to survive.

You need something hot cleaned or moved? Bernie Whistler's your guy. You need to buy something without a trail linking it to you? Bernie. You need no questions asked except 'What's in it for Bernie?'. Yeah, talk to Whistler. He's not a good guy, but he's one of our guys.

Return to: Hotspots
PvR

*I reject your reality and substitute my own!*

* **Description:**PvR "Player vs Reality", also sometimes called 'Full Immersion AR Gaming'
* **Dress:**Irrelevant. Who they are in the meat world isn't their primary focus. However, they often accessorize in brand logos and ‘merch’ from their world of choice.
* **Symbolism:**Generally go for brightly-colored faux-movie-fantasy imagery. The more artistically inclined often do very elaborate symbols for their characters and Guilds.

PvR is online speak for ‘Player versus Reality ’. The invisible world, every bit as exclusive as cabals of mages who meet in astral, of online Sim game players who live in their bought-and-paid-for shared computer fantasy world. Their usual picks including things such as World of Legends, ArcadiumOnline and Neil’s 'Fourth Age Online '.

Getting lost in Sims and games goes back well before Sims and almost as far back as games. However, one could always only do so within the limits of technology. Before the Second Crash , true full immersion meant actually plugging a physical datajack into a cyberdeck and then arrange for the care of your meat body while your mind was otherwise occupied. However with modern advances in Augmented Reality (AR) and commlink interactivity, a user can get lost in Sims whenever you like, although you could debate whether or not someone is really “Lost” at all if they're able to move about and interact while doing it. With the ‘Outside Window’ apps most Sim games include in their code these days, the user can go about, walk, talk to people, shower, eat, dance, take drugs, hold down a job and (Matrix legend insists) even have sex while still level grinding your back-up character.

While the media picture of PvR aficionados is unwashed people wandering the streets in a daze, getting bits of burrito makings on their ‘Neil the Ork Barbarian’ t-shirts and mumbling to themselves (and certainly those types exist). But for every hygiene-challenged non-functional you can see there's a number of others who just look like the normal person glued to their comm.

And that’s the thing, the difference between PvR Players and members of other subcultures. To be Ergi , you need to dress up like a transsexual wizard, to beCraftpunk  you need to wear costumes and make things, to be MainScene  you have to be seen to be MainScene, even Spacemen  have habits that make them obvious to the careful observer. But while there are PvR who are obvious to anyone, how many more of them are there quietly playing a game through the chores that make up their so-called “real” lives?

Fargo , with its large college  population and its thriving IT  industry, has always been a big games/nerd community and has thriving PvR community, with the most popular being ParaZoo Go+ (The Block even licenses special release ParaMonsters and events from ParaZoo's corporate owners at NeoNET ) and the Khistova Server for Fourth World Online, which is famous throughout the game for its high-level of players, assistance its guilds give for rapid advancement and truly epic mass raids, the vids from which often go viral.

Return to: Culture
Manoomin Consortium

## The Manoomin Consortium

* **Headquarters:**Siipiising, Upper Yankton CF, Očéti Šakówiŋ
* **Chairperson:**Lloyd Fox Leaping
* **Rating:**B-equivalent

Founded at the Treaty of Denver, the Manoomin Consortium was formed by members of the Anishinaabe  people within the Očéti Šakówiŋ to control and safeguard the Wild Rice (*Manoomin* in Anishinaabe) crops that they held sacred. What started as a group of concerned farmers and Mide  has become a powerful lobbying force in the agricultural sector in the Očéti Šakówiŋ.

The Anishinaabe consider wild rice to be a sacred component in their culture. They call this plant *manoomin*, meaning "harvesting berry" (commonly translated "good berry"). Ways of preparing it varied from stewing the grains with deer broth and/or maple syrup, made into stuffings for wild birds, or even steaming it into sweets like puffed rice, or rice pudding sweetened with maple syrup. For these groups, the harvest of wild rice is an important cultural (and often economic) event. The Menominee tribe were named Omanoominii by the neighboring Ojibwa after this plant. Many places in Illinois, Indiana, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Wisconsin are named after this plant, including Mahnomen, Minnesota and Menomonie, Wisconsin; many lakes and streams bear the name "Rice", "Wildrice", "Wild Rice", or "Zizania".

The Consortium has an exclusive contract on the Wild Rice production within the Očéti Šakówiŋ and a substantial control of its harvest even on the UCAS  side of the border. They are a privately-owned concerned and buying into the Consortium is by invitation only. This has let the Consortium remain exclusively in Anishinaabe hands, especially Mide, and have close ties with the *Manoomin Midewigaan*"Wild Rice Lodge" of the Midewiwin.  They involve themselves in everything from teaching ricing to the young people to being involved in protectionist trade policies in the highest levels of government.

Return to: Economy
The Team 1.0

* **Years Active:**Mid-2030's to the Mid-2040's.
* **Patron:**None/Freelance

**The Prairie Fairy,**an Elf (?) mage, nobody knows from whence she came or where she went.

**Gun Show,**Human**,** ex-UCAS Marine, survivalist, said to have retired up North (possibly connected to the Jacks?)

**Oakenshield,**Dwarf, PhysAd, warrior, Dwarven culture enthusiast/Tolkien Lifestylist, devoted to the PF. Gunned down during a failed raid across the border into the Niswi-mishkodewinan sometime around 2043 or 2044.

**Trax,**Human**,** ex-military long haul trucker, smuggler, first gen rigger. Died in 2048, after the dissolution of the Team, in a crash during a chase with BSI TranSec during a smuggling run to the MSPlex.

**Snowblind,**Krieger-infected infiltration expert, last member to join the original Team and the first to die, dying in unnamed circumstances sometime in late 2042.

Local underworld legend paints this first Team as having Robin-Hood tendencies. Sure, doing crime for money, but also for their various pet causes and some of these names are remembered as local legends even today.

No one event signaled the end of the first Team, more of a gradual fading away, as legitimate authorities once again took hold. When the Prairie Fairy disappeared, the group lost cohesion and effectively ceased to exist.

Return to: The Team
Underberg Utilities

## Underberg Utility Company

* **Rating:**C
* **Headquarters:**435 14th Ave S, Fargo , RRDMZ  58103
* **CEO:**Andrea Gibb
* **Chairman of the Board:**Everett Underberg
* **Partnerships:**Underberg Utility is a core member of the Red River Valley Investment, Holdings and Development Group
* **Description:**Sewage and Waste Disposal provider for the city of Fargo.

The largest legitimate business owned by the Underberg Family, Underberg Utilities legitimately provides Sewage treatment, water treatment waste management and underground infrastructure for most of the city of Fargo (excepting theThe Block , which takes care of its own needs in-house), this single-C corp has grown to become a vital part of the Group, working hand-in-hand with the other major corporations of the area.

Back in Buddy's day, leadership used to be stocked mainly with Buddy's old cronies, but Everett has been changing that, bringing in Urban Design specialist Andrea Gibb to run things, recruited fromKilbourne Urban Design. However, below upper management level, there really are more 'Worksite Supervisors' than actual worksites and a lot of them have rap sheets.

Beyond the legimate water treatment and waste disposal activities, control of the tunnels beneath the city has always been a great boon for the Underbergs and allows them to come and go with relative impunity. Its a good place to get away or hide a body or move contraband and those UU employees who don't work directly for the Underberg's criminal enterprises are pretty much all smart enough to turn a blind eye to it.

Return to: The Group
Politics

Politics tend to be local and personal here. Especially because Zone residents tend not to have a voice in the national governments of either of the states that run things here.

Still, its a hard light to put out, and a lot of people remember when Fargo was part of a larger state in a real nation with voting and the like. And civic values are still pretty strong out here.

Who knows? Maybe there's some nuyen in it if you spin it right.

### Parties

* Reformed Republican Party
* Technocratic Party
* Archconservative Values Alliance
* New Democratic Party
* New Century Party
* Non Partisan League

### Policlubs

* The North Star
* Clans of the Red
* Prairie Public Underground

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Terrarium

## The Terrarium

* **Location:**The Block, 3-5, sub-level one, Fargo , RRDMZ  58012
* **Style:**Bare-bones renovated basement
* **Description:**The Block's premier music venue.
* **P2  Rating:**3:45:91
* **Gang:***Disputed*(between the SOMA  Crew and the Dirty E's)

The Terrarium is probably the most famous underground music venue in Region 3, and by underground, I mean literally underground.

The property under which the Terrarium sits used to be the home of a music venue called 'The Aquarium' which was the second floor (this is before the Block when downtown was made of separate buildings) of Dempsey's Irish Bar. This was one of the buildings that was smashed by the rising of the Red during the Awakening. While the companies that would later form The Group were beginning the rebuilding efforts, the bands that were supposed to be playing the Aquarium need someplace to play, so the basement was cleared out and they were booked there, nicknamed 'The Terrarium' (as a pun on the Aquarium).

Over the years, through its purchase by Kilbourne Urban Design and several renovations to change it from a drafty, water-damaged basement to a major music venue and playing host to big-name acts, the Terrarium has somehow managed to retain just a touch, a memory of its DIY, underground roots. Sure, Maria Mercurial played an acoustic set there once, but so did Vendetta Violent and Riot Blue while they were on the run. Its where Background County plays when they come to town but it also is home to wacky local acts like the Ex-Mrs Scratch and the River Orchestra. Part of this 'dangerous' reputation is the ongoing feud between the Dirty E's, who claim the underground as their turf, and the SOMA crew, who control a lot of the music hangouts, over who controls the drugs and rackets for this profitable location.

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The Night Bazaar

* **Leadership:**I'm not yet certain, but as far as I can tell its organized by a combination of Prairie Public activists, hippie Biodynamic  farmers, local Craftpunks, Moorlocks, Roamer families, the Snipe Hunt, the SOMA  gang,  and other assorted radicals and desperates. Also, given that they almost never seem to get busted by BlockSec, its a dead cert that someone inside the Underbergs  or the Group must be giving them cover, although who that is has eluded me so far.

So, like a lot of these mid-sized company towns, legitimate commerce is limited to Corporate-Court-registered business entities. Now to the criminal element , like us, this doesn't make a lot of difference, drek, the stuff we do business in we aren't allowed to get licenses for anyway. But among the non-shadows folk, the small timers, the average citizens, this does keep a lot of smaller businesses, those who can't pay the registration fees to form legit corporations, from doing business openly.

Still, business is business and where people can't do business openly, they'll do it clandestinely. Again, we work the shadows, we get that. And around this area a lot of those smaller groups are farmers and artisans. The rise of the Group and the influence of the Megas and Corporate Court was the death of the truck farmer and the legitimate Farmer's Market. But people kept growing and making things and other people wanted to buy them, and not just at the official businesses' inflated prices, especially as the power of labor waned and average people started making less and less.

Now you'd think, with the "free market" line that the Corps are always spouting, they'd realize that where there's a need, somebody is going to step in to fill it. And that somebody is the Night Bazaar. Or rather, to be more accurate, that somebody is AT the Night Bazaar. A collection of local farmers and craftspeople, some who can't pay the fees and compete with Big Business, a few who won't, its times and places are known to the various informal local support networks, spread by word of mouth, almost never on the Matrix, or through channels that aren't closely monitored by the Powers That Be (ie the Khistova Server #sidechat), and is guarded against the Military-Industrial-Criminal-Enterainment Complex (or MICE as the anti-corp rads insist on calling it) by a patchwork of gangs and militias, including the PPU, SOMA, some Craftpunk militias and others. Its a place where you can sell almost anything, goods, service, experiance or knowlege, buy nearly anything, or engage in barter, swaps, sharing and the other means that the losers of the Great Game of Corporate Capitalism use to survive in a world where they shouldn't.

Still, even with the precautions they take, this should have been stepped on long ago and the fact that it hasn't is the mystery I haven't quite cracked. Maybe the Powers That Be realize that the people need a safety valve to compensate for the inadequacies in the current system or maybe somebody higher up is looking out for it. Or maybe there's some other answer I haven't yet found...

Return to: Underworld
McPunks

## Uptown McPunks

* **Turf:** Uptown, around South Hennepin, mostly…
* **Colors:** Red and Gold. Naturally. And usually a ‘McHughs’ golden arches defaced in some way. (Despite the name, they do NOT love the fast-food giant)

The name ‘McPunk’ goes back nearly a century, to the underage hardcore and punk crowds that hung out at the McDonalds on South Hennepin between all-ages gigs (and sneaking into adult shows) all the way back in the 1980’s.

Over the last hundred years, the term has mutated and shifted, until the late 2050’s, when it came to be applied to the down-and-out criminal elements of the reborn Twin Cities hardcore scene, who hung out south of downtown to avoid the scrutiny of CorpSec, often clustering around South Hennepin to enjoy the (loose) protection of the Rain Dogs. It wasn’t until the Crash, that the community came together into something like a gang, for protection.

These days, the McPunks are still mostly hard-core punk kids, with ties to most of the other subcultures in the ‘Plex. They don’t have much in the way of structure, but there’s a few acknowledged ‘leaders’ or at least centers around which the scene revolves. They get by on petty theft, grifting, carjacking, BTL and drug dealing, hacking public utilities (and StufferShacks), and, of course, lots of media piracy. Like a lot. They still enjoy a casual but friendly relationship with the ‘Dogs, but definitely occupy their own, minor, niche in the ‘Plex underground.

**Return to: Minneapolis Gangs**
The Basement

* **Location:**The Block 5-8, Sublevel One, Fargo  RRDMZ  58102
* **Style:**Dive bar.
* **Gang:**Dirty E's
* **Description:**Working Class bar.

The Basement is so called because it is literally built beneath, in the first basement level of the Block, in the parking garage. It doesn't really have a name, just a nickname. Its a pretty bare bones joint, cash only, with a single bar, some badly-lit booths and a selection of basic boozes. No food. No stage. But it is enough for what it is. Its where the people who actually work in the Block, mechanics, maintenance, security, janitors etc, come to drink. The decoration is minimal and the hygiene barely up to code, but its quiet and people don't ask a lot of stupid questions as long as you don't get up in their business. The place is more peaceful than you'd think, mostly because the patrons themselves want a nice, peaceable drink and take it upon themselves to correct anyone who tries to mess that up.

The Basement is built beneath the location of two local bars, the Empire and the Bismarck, that were not deemed sufficiently tourist-friendly to be preserved in the recreation of Downtown at street-level.

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Vivian White Crane

* **Name:** White Crane in Flight 'Vivian White Crane'
* **Position:** Očéti Šakówiŋ OMI military observer and liaison with Fargo Knight Errant, member of the Manoomin Midewigaan.
* **Metatype:** Human (*Homo sapiens sapiens*)
* **Magical Tradition:** Shaman (Midewiwin)
* **DOB:** 11/21/2044, Mni Lúzahaŋ, Lower Yankton CF, Očéti Šakówiŋ
* **Education:** Spiritual Instruction Certification from the Oyate Owa Yawa, Field Shaman Training, Office of Military Intelligence (Sioux Defense Force)

The one question everybody always asks about Vivian White Crane is 'What in the drek is SHE doing HERE?'. From a powerful branch of the influential *Baswenaazhi* ("echo-maker" or White Crane) clan, she is a naturally powerful Mide who manifested her abilities young, she graduated top of her class from Oyate Owa Yawa, recruited for an internship with the dreaded OMI, White Crane could have written her own ticket anywhere on the continent. But she chose to serve a second-tier security company in a distant border region of the Očéti Šakówiŋ. She claimed it was because it is interesting work, but people still asked the question.

As part of BlockSec's 'Magical Response Unit', Mage-Investigator White Crane was one of a small, but highly-trained team of field shamans deployed to look into magical crimes on behalf of BSI's clients. As a Mage-Investigator White Crane was known as a crack crime scene Assencer, using her education to read minute details in the Astral plane and, as the child of a clan known for producing diplomats, a master of the art of getting useful information out of witnesses with a combination of authority and charm.

During the events of the Solstice Blackout, White Crane provided confidential information to Region 3 Commissioner Harold Standing Bear about the events surrounding the Blackout and was instrumental in the subsequent military occupation of the Block. In the political and corporate aftermath, White Crane's rank in the OMI was reinstated (leading to the usual speculation that she had never really left) and she was appointed as the Sioux's official observer to the new Knight Errant branch in Fargo, and has been working closely with Captain Jungroth and his chief magical officer, Mage-Lieutenant Harukor on restructuring the security apparatus to prevent the SDF from having to intervene again in the 'Zone's internal affairs.

Return to: Joint Patrol
Temple Theater

## The Temple Theater

* **Location:** 21 9th St S, Fargo , RRDMZ  58103
* **Gang:**None (under the protection of SOMA )
* **Description:**Former church turned theater.

Originally built in the early parts of the twentieth century as a Christian Science church, built in their distinctive neo-classical style, later abandoned, and used by other Churches. During the wild rebuilding of Fargo after the Great Ghost Dance, a consortium of local artists, actors and writers took over the building and renovated it as a local theater.

Today, the theater serves as a home to several companies, including the 'Merry Wives', which focuses on doing all local new works and the 'Eleftheria Comapny' which only shows public domain scripts.

Return: Hotspots
Tamanous

Not a lot is known about the local branch of the shadowy Tamanous  organization and what is known isn't good.

The thing is this, what is known is that Tamanous in rural areas such as the western UCAS , northern Oceti Sakowin or the sparsely-populated Niswi-mishkodewinan isn't out here generally in the sales end of their business of selling black-market body parts. They're out here to pick up (or 'Harvest') inventory. And since their "Inventory" is fresh body parts to sell and metahuman flesh to feed on, what that entails is pretty grisly stuff. Kidnapping people from lonely roads, robbing rural ambulances, picking off the sick and homeless from the shadows.

Naturally, this hasn't exactly garnered a lot of what you could call 'local support'. The UCAS has labeled them a 'criminal organization', the Oceti Sakowin classifies them as '*Tohka'*or an Enemy of the People. The Niswi-mishkodewinan doesn't bother with fancy titles, they just shoot them.

They don't have a lot of support among the underworld around here either. The Underberg Family , the Misko-ziibi and Wakiyan  tiwahe of the Tiošpaye , the Winter Cartel and the Heathens all have shoot-on-sight policies for Tamanous body-snatchers. This is also fed into by a deep distrust and hatred of ghoulsin a region that only just avoided being devastated by VITAS  and watched as surrounding regions were depopulated. The Krieger strain of the HMHVV virus that creates ghouls (HMHVV III) is still an enormous stigma here (as it is most places) and the bloody activities of the Tamanous only verify people's worst fears about them. Even the Jacks don't get on with them, since as penniless nomads living deep in the wild, they are among the groups most likely to be targeted by the body-jackers.

Ironically its this very animosity that drives some of the more rural ghouls into the arms of the Tamanous, who will provide them both sustenance and a chance to strike back against the society that has rejected them and its known that examples of rare local ghoul variant 'Bakaak' (HMHVV IIIE) have been seen in their harvesting parties.

Rumors abound about the leadership of the 'Harvesters', naming a "King Filth" at their head, although given the number and amount of the bounty attached to the head of the local Tamanous pack, if this King Filth does exist, they have every reason to be as elusive as they can manage.

The relationship between the Tamanous and the Moorlocks , the other ghoul organization in the Zone, is undefined. While publicly denying any connection to them, they would have to do to business with the Underbergs, and often being held up by outsiders as the alternative to the bloody ghouls of the Tamanous, they do perform many of the same secondary functions as the Tamanous, acquiring semi-legitimate sustenance for ghouls, finding ways to ship those infected out to countries where they can live legally (such as the ghoul nation of Asamando ) and there is always the rumor that their mutual interests can outweigh the differences in approach that they have...

Return to: Underworld
Godzilla "Gojira"

UPA

New World Pictures

TriStar Pictures

Legendary Pictures

Polygon Pictures

The ***Godzilla*** (ゴジラ ''***Gojira''***) **franchise** is a Japanese *kaiju* media franchise created and owned by Toho, featuring the fictional giant monster character Godzilla, having been in ongoing production from 1954 to the present day, with several hiatuses of varying lengths. The film franchise consists of 35 films, 32 produced by Toho and three Hollywood films.