Humanity Grew Tusks and Pointy Ears - Shadowrun Lore

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[@planetaxolotl4398]

Florida Man, an orc metavariant found commonly in the American southeast.

[@zalseon4746]

Discovered by the Naked Corvette Cult after a laser based summoning ritual performed by Bath-Salts Master Aspec.

[@floridamancode_e2673]

Am Florida man. They get the negative quality addiction moderate (beta meth)

[@freakfilicon]

Don't forget the Somali merfolk pirates, fuckers got even better at hijacking naval crafts when they got their fins and gills.

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

Florida man. Known for his bizarre behavior, fondness of alligators and alcohol and complete lack of moral disposition.

[@ramonpena872]

Immune to tasering

[@juliengosselin4277]

Just to add about the trolls, from 1d4chan: "Most racists don't want to persecute the guy who can deadlift a car and tank a shotgun blast to the chest"... If you are to deal with a troll, do it from far away, and remember that there's not really such a thing as "Overkill" with these mofos.

[@ultimasys]

40 centimeters of weight

[@TheRedneckGamer1979]

Cleatans (From the root name of Cleatus) Appalachian elves who tend to grow scraggly grew beards and make moonshine and drive beat up old trucks

[@Jo-Heike]

"For as-yet-unknown reasons, giants seem to have a greater-than-avarage tendency towards genetic reversions-one out of every four female infants born to giant mothers is human (homo sapiens sapiens)." (Shadowrun Companion, pg. 40, the Revised Version for Shadowrun 3rd Ed) I got really into 3rd Ed a couple of years ago, I specifically remember that specific quote, and was able to find it in the offical book. Also, I do like the Shadowrun Companion Book, it has details about ghouls, shapeshifters, and metavariants. It also has artwork for the veriants it mentions. Highly recommend reading it for anyone specifaclly interested in metavaraints.

[@CorvusCorone68]

in the Elder Scrolls universe it's suggested Nords share ancestors with giants and maybe trolls

[@chillyavian7718]

Could be that giants aren’t truly a metavariant but instead the proper form of gigantism?

[@Jo-Heike]

@@chillyavian7718 I don't know enough about Shadowrun lore to comment definitively, but based on what I know it sounds very unlikely.

[@chillyavian7718]

My thinking is that gigantism is just a genetic disorder and that might have been ramped up by magic, explaining why giants commonly have normal kids, their kids just dont have the disorder.@@Jo-Heike

[@jensaversjo316]

You're the Shadowrun equivalent of what Tex is to the Battletech community BK, someone who could make me a huge fan of SHadowrun if I wasn't already one. You're damn good at these lore vids, so please keep them up.

[@manarayofhope2374]

Nice

[@rougenarwhal8378]

in TN we would have whiskey downing, rib chomping, badass cowboy centaurs in shadowrun and I'm fucking here for it

[@VarangianGuard13]

I would also be very here for that.. centaur with a bottle of whiskey sticking out of his vest or bag, a winchester in his hands. "The hell do you want?" Or something. But yes, cowboy centaurs would be awesome.

[@CriminalFriday]

I wanna be a shotgun wielding Tennessean centaur so bad

[@JoeAllenD]

Central Alabama, USA: During goblinization, some trolls developed grey, white, and sometimes yellow or brown flecked skin, noticeably tougher than other regional counterparts, almost rock-like in density and texture. Their connections to families with a history in local mining isn't concrete, but the use of decommissioned mines to source reagents by mages points to a possible causation. These trolls have particularly absorbent skin, often taking on the reddish tone of the dirt, and a preference for body art. Rumor has it that some older trolls withered and turned to dust as they aged and died, however there have not been enough recorded instances of either this regional variant or observed deaths from old age.

[@WizardJim]

I believe it's mentioned somewhere in one of the 5th edition player's expansions that Formori troll metavariants occur among people of all ethnicities, if they undergo goblinization in Ireland, which would lean toward indicating that local manasphere has a heavy influence on how metavariance expresses.

[@krodmandoon3479]

Seeing Rachter in the human lineup made me chuckle. He'd probably be irritated that you chose him to represent the "normies" of Shadowrun. Well played.

[@Bysentenial]

I played an Australian orc whose submeta type was Yowie [pronounced the same as yaoi] which is basically an Australian big foot. There's also the Bunyip which I think is the same as a yowie, not entirely sure but I guess it would be the troll type. Also Australia is the down under-dark and we have prime minister Rainbow Serpent.

[@mal35m]

I could see an Australian elf submeta with tall thin fragile bodies but smarter and having super senses called the mimi.

[@KageMinowara]

I feel somewhat uncomfortable that I have lived long enough to see the wider public become so familiar with anime terms like yaoi that they can be used to describe a pronunciation.

[@ieuanhunt552]

Yaoi? was he gay

[@Bysentenial]

@@ieuanhunt552 well he was basically a shitpost of myself so... kinda

[@ieuanhunt552]

@@Bysentenial Wait a second Shadowrun was written in the 90s. How chill are they about that sort of thing. You'd think that due to all the magic and weirdness bigots would have something other than homophobia to focus on. So gay folk have it better. Or maybe it's the opposite. Everything going to shit made everything worse for oppressed people.

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

Actually I am using a couple metavariants as NPCs in one of my campaigns: More precisely a group of giants (and a handful of dwarves) who are running a bar (and brothel) in a run-down part of Hamburg (Harburg) which is inofficially known as "Ragnar's Bar & Brothel" - or RB&B for short. Officially it is called "The Longship" and is a converted coastal cargo vessel that had been beached during the Black Tide

[@TheBurgerkrieg]

fucking harburg alda Every time one of my GMs wants to bring us into a ghetto with tall buildings he brings us to Harburg

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

@@TheBurgerkrieg It depends on which part of Harburg you are looking at. Large parts of it are a FLOODED ghetto - which is even worse than a regular ghetto. But it allows for interesting plot-elements (such as randomly appearing toxic spirits - because of residue from the Black tide and whatnot). That aside, the runners are beginning their career working for the Vory - and they just happen to control large parts of Harburg, so that is why i picked that location. However, my campaign is not limited to Harburg alone. Far from it. It just so happens that one of the players' character is memeber of a pirate group that operates near that area as well - and gives me plenty of hooks for seaborne runs as well.

[@chillyavian7718]

as a Floridian, we would probably have some sort of Skunk ape Metahuman and a turbo crackhead of course. only in Miami though

[@leonardorossi998]

About the lifespan, in Complete Trog it is stated that in specific zones of the world Orks and Trolls are found to have human-like and dwarf-like lifespans respectively. Apparently they respond very well to low pollution and mana-rich environments. Also, for what concerns the intelligence of Orks and Trolls, mechanically speaking the attribute investment required to have an ork or troll of average intelligence (logic 3) is the same as humans. The main difference is that their maximum is lower. So if we wanted to translate that into world lore, we might say that the IQ distribution or orks and trolls are very similar to the ones of other races, with the difference the tails on the higher iq side are lower, which, looking at the way the Shadowrun setting is presented, might very well be due to environmental factors. Or at least, that might be the meaning behind having an attribute mechanic that sets maximums instead of bonuses or penalties. I think that's fair: Troll already have a lower agility maximum, which is very penalizing, and well, look at the priority table: Orks and Especially trolls need to have A in metatype priority to have any amount of edge.

[@Nyrufa]

Capping their Intelligence off at 6 is nowhere near the handicap that it initially sounds like. Because even if you 'only' have 6 Intelligence on your character sheet, your character is still considered to be one of the smartest people on the planet. Anything beyond that veers into the realm of super genius territory.

[@AgentOrrange]

Where I am, Western New York, was originally inhabited by the Iroquois so I would assume there would be some dwarf variants of the Jo-ga-oh, which were little invisible creature that protected people. Most other Iroquois legends that I know of involve characters that are just humans, but exceptional humans that could control the elements. I could see there being some kind of elf variant that was more muscles or had a predilection for environmental magic.

[@floridamancode_e2673]

Thinking about metavarients that would be in my area the first thing that came to mind was a gatorman and a mouseman (sort of like scaven from Warhammer but they run amusement parks) But thinking a bit more I think some type of swamp dwarf.

[@lupesimon123]

Oof, in my country there'd be dozens of different metavariants, there are so many legends about variations of humans. For example there's one about a deformed dwarf that rapes girls when they're alone, there's one about a siren that predicts if the fishing season will be good or bad, hell there's even one about a damn head with wings that will haunt you and kill you if you refuse to give salt to an old man. Chilean folclore is crazy af

[@rowanbowers5743]

Look, I live in the PNW, we got the Sasquatch literally into the game. We legally can't ask for more

[@Dampfish]

All the problems you pointed out were addressed in 4th Edition (the best one IMO, and the one I'm still GM-ing). The metavariants introduced there were depicted in the artwork in the books. Runner's Companion, specifically.

[@simongotborg3866]

Always nice seeing a new Shadowrun video and the timing couldn't be better, I've been on a deep dive in Shadowrun lore the last couple of days. Being form Sweden, a lot of our mythology already inspired the Tolkien races that are in Shadowrun, but I guess there could be more faithful versions like: - Light elf (Ljósálfar) are an obvious pick for elf meta-variant with high charisma (described as "fairer than the sun") and likelihood of being awakened. Culturally they'd be way into music. They were often associated with ancestors and the afterlife and though I'm not sure communication with the dead would fit the setting, it does seem appropriate that they would claim they could do that (just going to namedrop Dunkelzahn here). This could lead to some forms of worship which seems appropriate as they were considered semi-divine. - Black elf (Dökkálfar) would confusingly be a dwarf meta-variant (don't blame me, it's Tolkien's fault) with a lot of similarities to "regular" dwarves. They were known to sometimes haunt peoples dreams, so I imagine they'd look intimidating and have a bonus to charisma and intimidation. They also have a weakness to sunlight which, so the rumor that "dwarves live underground" (mentioned in 4e) would probably be more believable as they are a rarer and less likely to be seen encountered outdoors. - Troll would be a troll meta-variant (dude, it's not my fault Tolkien stole all our mythology) with normal agility and less charisma penalty but less reaction (generally depicted as slow mentally). Most if not all of them would be awakened (one of the old Swedish words for magic is literally "trolleri") and they would have some natural spell casting, probably for hiding. Their appearance would be base don modern depictions where they often have big round noses and even bigger round bodies. Their skin or clothes either is or resembles rock and/or moss (look up John Bauer if you're curious). Compared to most other trolls their less threatening appearance and ability to hide means they're probably better off and their lives might be quite relaxed, if a bit isolated. There's also the clans/races from creation myths: - Æsir would be a more expensive (at character creation) human meta-variant with increased strength, logic and charisma (well rounded attributes appropriate for a Viking leader). I imagine they'd look like the "stereotypical Scandinavian": blond and blue eyed (not a lot of truth to that stereotype btw). Perhaps you'd even give increased chance of awakened powers to really work that "perfect human" angle. Culturally they would probably be in a similar position as elves, but with the narcissists seeing themselves more as the "destined leaders of" humanity rather than simply "above" humanity. - Vanir would be a human or elf meta-variant with very high intuition as they were said to be wise and possess the power to see the future (not to mention Heimdallr). Many of them would be awakened (they were basically gods of magic) adding an air of mystery to their uncanny intuition. This would make them incredibly useful to corporations who have millions of nuyen riding on every decision. Being rare and likely to end up in corporate arcologies, I don't think they would have much of their own culture. But if they did it would probably be very eco-friendly as they were seen as gods of nature. This might limit how reliable they are to companies that just want to make money (although I'm sure Arthur Vogel wouldn't mind). - Jötunn (Jotun) would be a troll meta-variant with a wide variety of deformed and beastly features (in the mythology, one is a snake and another a wolf) that provide natural weapons for unarmed combat (fangs & claws). Mythologically speaking they represent the chaos that was conquered by civilization, so I imagine they would be quite impulsive in a way that isolated them from much of society. Though they're no more evil than other metahumans it makes sense to be careful around someone who is impulsive and could easily kill you. There are some more I know like the Valkyries, Nattmara, Näcken & Nissar, but I'm running out of steam. Might post them later.

[@joedan5366]

orcs philledelpiha would have a lot of orcs maybe some dwarves, but few to no elves and possibly trolls

[@lmtrichard]

Love the shadowrun stuff! It's honestly great. The group I gm for has learned most of their lore from you. Thanks a ton.

[@ilovecody7514]

Hell yeah, I love all your videos but these Shadowrun vids are really starting to peak my interest. Well these and the ones where you focus on a certain person in history.

[@amyliaclenny1866]

Tha Swami which person in history? 🤔

[@frankdamsy9715]

The most popular folk creature where I live (Acadiana) is the rougarou, which is basically a wolf person that lives in the swamp. Don't know what metavariant that would fit into, but that's the big one. There's also the Letiche which is a half man, half alligator thing (which is the inspiration for Killer Croc btw) which also probably fits into one of the metavariant but I wouldn't know which one. Both are supposedly massive (no specific height is ever really given) and really strong.

[@LilFeralGangrel]

as a french canadian (of quebecoise and acadienne descent) i always love hearing about my far off cousins so thanks, i want to learn everything about these Letiche.

[@frankdamsy9715]

@@LilFeralGangrel my family and I are implants into the region, most of my friends are Cajuns though

[@istjimmyi4202]

"Not only REALLY big horns, but also MASSIVE.. Necks" Nice save!

[@albertnonymous9759]

Locally (Western coast of Finland) we have at least four metavariants that I can think of. Giants, trolls, tonttut which I think translate well to gnomes, they do look a lot like garden gnomes, even. And Rå, which is a Swedish folklore entity that's migrated over. All Rå are attractive female as far as I know and are in folklore mischievous but good natured forest spirits. Seen from the front they're (near?) indistinguishable from humans, and the best way to tell one apart is to look at their back, which depending on story is either covered in bark, hollowed out, and/or has a fox, deer or squirrel tail. They often seduce hunters, woodsmen and the like, and bring them good fortune, but if the man is ever unfaithful the rå will instead bring misfortune and ruin. In Shadowrun, that already takes a lot of liberties with their metahumans and diverge from folklore a lot, they would probably just be dryads. You could maybe go the animal route and have them be shape shifters, but then the bit about seducing men don't make a lot sense.

[@yamizion]

Love the shadow run lore videos a ton keep making great videos. As for your question I'm not sure if they are already a thing in shadow run lore but around here windigos are the main mystical creature talked about they might be a hypothetical scrawny troll variant or maybe just pale creepy elves.

[@Mike_W78]

We have a legend of a lizardman. He comes out of the swamps from time to time. Very Bigfoot like.

[@metatron76]

That's a T'skrang. I'm sure of it.

[@itme626]

Thank you for introducing me to "goblinization" which is now one of my favorite words

[@baumaeyn]

Wow, great job on pronouncing Dunkelzahn's name! I've heard it butchered so many times, but you were spot on! Good content also. Weiter so!

[@TheBurgerkrieg]

it'd be pretty shameful if I was unable to say a German name considering I am German tbh, but I will take the compliment nonetheless

[@baumaeyn]

@@TheBurgerkrieg dann Kompliment für dein Englisch, den meisten deutschen hört man es ja deutlich an, woher sie kommen.

[@B00Radl33]

Utah guy here. Lots of mountains and moral busy bodies. But also lots of singers, dancers, and historians. I picture dwarven miners and craftsmen. Satyrs livening up the party scene. One surprisingly large community of incredibly well educated and integrated Orcs that most people are completely unaware of. And elves being very distrusted, except for a couple of incredibly zealous elves who have a literal religious following.

[@tylerh2548]

Tennessee Hill Titans....a troll variant; they are always saying stupid stuff, but people don't shut them down due to their prominent saber tusks and penchant for fiddles

[@willowbriar5296]

Late to the part but loving the lore stuff for shadowrun, being in eales I could easily see a meta variant for dwarfs called the Coraniaid, they are a dwarf race that appear in the Mabinogion that can whistle magic into the world.

[@badjuju8624]

I could see different kinds of giants all over the world honestly, like how in Israel/Palestine there could be big pale skinned, red eyed giants with great horns like the Rephaim or Anakim, and giants with elephant like feet like those ones in Africa who some tribes believe made all those big holes in the ground. What about metavariants who live in the water? Or are they more or less grouped up with the pixies and sasquatches in that they aren't part of the whole metahuman spectrum? In my area, there's a lot of Algonquin folklore from way back in the day. I know Wendigos are already a thing in Shadowrun, but there might be Jo-Ga-oh types, essentially like woodland gnomes and fae folk who live in or near rivers and rocks, very competitive and have very great strength, particularly relative to their size. Basically gnomes but really physical and chad like.

[@simplemaddness]

I live in London so I imagine it be very diverse, a lot of elves, orks, maybe dwarves I thing humans in general would have a run for there money in terms of numbers

[@johncloud3823]

Local area: mix of Cherokee and Irish blood- probably a weird mix of Elves and elf subtypes, Fomori trolls, and probably a small orc population as well.

[@NixDeimos]

In western Montana, you would have dwarvish mining communities digging deep into the mountain ranges. Trolls would create mountain peek safe-havens where they would live simple and fulfilling lives, subsisting off of elk and creating towering rock fortresses. The plains and valleys would be completely controlled by the Sioux Nation who would violently keep any megacorps from meddling.

[@micahthomas705]

As always, thanks for the deets. Stay frosty chummer

[@sirzorg5728]

A lot of the ancient Native Montana mythos was destroyed by "re-education" camps, and those metavariants would also probably only arise from remaining native populations, which are 62k people out of 1 million total. Montana as I know it has only existed for about 100-200 years at best, with the earliest possible date being Lewis and Clarke's expedition in 1804, and a more reasonable founding date being the 1880s, which is only 140 years ago. We officially became a state in 1895. Modern Montana culture just hasn't been around long enough to develop those kinds of mythos, and in Shadowrun lore the Montana culture of today wasn't around the last time there was magic, so we'd probably get the genetics for the German and British metavariants. The native culture would have their own unique set of metavariants which might be completely unexpected, and considering that a small amount of native ancestry is very common in the US that might get stretched into the wider population base. In terms of the manasphere affecting my state, we are split between the northern great plains in the east, and we have the Rocky Mountains (an amazing place name btw) dominating the more populous west, which is generally part of the greater cascadia manasphere. My limited understanding of Native mythos suggests a lot of animal-people, especially elk, bison, and various prey-birds. EDIT: after reading through the wikipedia page on the religion of the Crow (the dominant tribe in west montana before colonialism) I found this tidbit: "The Mannegishi, also called little people, are bald humanoids with large bulky, pretty eyes and tiny, tan bodies. They were tricksters and may be similar to fairies."

[@SecretPurpleQ]

texas- hogmen, bugbears, hobgoblins, cougar-like patherine shapeshifters, nagas

[@DinizCabreira]

Galiza being somewhat of a lasagna of celtic, germanic and latin layers, we' do definitely have our variants: Elves express as The Moure (mouros, mouras). They tend to be lonely and shy crowds, and have a liking for «treasure» (that is, wealth and fine things in general). Like other elves, they are generally considered to be beautiful beyond human scales, although their appeareance varies from blonde and fair to dark-blue-skinned with golden eyes and dark hair. They have their own para-society and relationships (the «Mourindade»). They have an affinity for fate-related magic, destiny, and because of this tend to take oaths and prophecies quite seriously. A local variant of dwarves are the Trasnos. Somewhat similar to goblins, they tend to be social and like hanging around people. They are charismatic, if sometimes bordering on irritant, particularly because of their crass sense of humour and pranks. Dark-skinned, socialites and clubbers and definitely nocturnal. On the troll side of things, ours lean close to the Fomori. Somewhat less gracile than their irish cousins, they tend to retain the dermal armour, bear goat-like horns, and don't seem to have the same proclivity to magic - but are sometimes considered attractive in a strange (or pervese, some would say) way. Very likely our Fomori would originally be of Irish ascent as the first human conquerors of Ireland were the Sons of Mil from Galicia (that's what the Lebor Gabála Érenn says, not us). It's likely that the Fomori were allies in their battles against the Tuath Dé, and perhaps some sought asylum here. Regarding Orks, like most Europe, we tend to have a larger percentage of ogre metavariants, but nothing specific that I am aware of. If you like modern interpretations of celtic mythology, by the way, be sure to check thewaylanders.com/races/

[@skullman-us7wn]

Something burger didn’t mention. Trolls, despite their stereotypes. Are actually the metatype with the highest literacy rate. Growing up in abandoned areas with little matrix access and large amounts of physical media meant that a vast majority of Trolls are avid bookworms. They’re even capable of reading and writing cursive, a skill which has all but died out in other metatypes

[@FractalSpiral1]

In Vermont, I'd guess that you'd see a ton of trolls, and probably plenty of satyrs and elves who came for the weed. We'd probably have a more diverse metasapient population overall.

[@burymycampaignatwoundedkne3395]

I could see the southeastern US having formori and wakyambi. Some of the native peoples had stories about hairy dwarves.

[@MrBromansa]

What really irks me is that basically EVERYONE forgets that the Wakyambi are descendants of the Zulu people, making them very specifically tied to South Africa (or Azania as Shadowrun calls my home). It even says in the wiki that Wakyambi have a big enclave in KwaZulu-Natal. Just goes to show that people either don't care or never research South Africa properly which annoys me to no end. I mean they're so close to myths of the Sky People that there's fertile ground for storytelling but nope, just black elves 🧝🏾

[@Kogarashi_sentiment]

Something like a silat which is just a desolate desert elf but with donkey feet and succubi tendencies and prolly extremely discriminated

[@nobodyofimprotance7615]

This might be a bit more then what a metavarient could be, but a mid Atlantic variant for trolls could easily be the Jersey Devil.

[@TheThundercow]

I live in rural Norway, so besides the obvious giants I would really hope there'd be a metatype for the nøkk. In Norse mythology Nøkk are basically just hot dudes/merdudes that live by streams and are magically gifted at playing instruments (especially the violin). In the mythology theyre actually pretty friendly, for the most part, and will sometimes even teach humans their supernaturally enchanting music for free. However the perception of them in modern times has shifted due to a painting made by the Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen in 1892, which depicted the nøkk as a lurking lake monster with huge glowing eyes and hair made of dead plants. Some kind of middleground between these interpretations would be a really cool template for a metatype in the Norwegian fjords. Perhaps the baseline would basically be musically gifted mermaid/man but if infected with some vampire virus they become predatory monsters that lurk just beneath the surface of the water, luring in victims with their songs. You'd never know if the music you hear in the wilderness was coming from a friendly nøkk that might even teach you some magic, or a freaky swamp monster.

[@danielhuete8798]

Love this shadowrun lore videos so much

[@ThePurpleElliot]

I watch all your content because you're great but I still have no idea what shadow run is

[@sacta]

Do you know Dungeons and Dragons? Shadowrun is that. But in the future. It's a tabletop roleplaying game, where instead of descending into dungeons to fight evil necromancers, you infiltrate corporate skyscrapers to steal prototypes or info, or fight evil necromancers (who are also CEOs of their own companies). There's also a couple videogames set in the Shadowrun universe.

[@Aravanus]

Is there a Mexican Orc metavariant? There should be. That's what would be here. Do more SR, enjoyed this video.

[@purplelemondoesstuff3044]

Well, Mexico became Aztlan and has just the most polluted air out of anywhere. Also, Quetzalcoatl and other spirits just vibe and most residents are cool with it.

[@floridamancode_e2673]

@@purplelemondoesstuff3044 don't forget all the blood magic that aztecnology absolutely doesn't do.

[@purplelemondoesstuff3044]

@@floridamancode_e2673 Blood magic? Naaaahhh, what blood magic? This ritual sacrifice shrine is just a, uh, cutting board for vegetables...

[@sipio555]

I think we don't have any folklore around humans being more than humans, maybe a localize form of shape shifters in the form of NAHUALES, but, this is more of a type of magic, not a metavariant, I think Mexico will have a broader mix of spirits and totems, along with awakened flora and fauna, we do have too much folklore around magical fauna

[@Jetstoanywhere]

Love your vids and personality

[@Talladarr]

Oh my god! you know what Old Bay is?! I'm getting unreasonably excited about this. Some 70%+ of people I talk to in the US/Canada have never heard of that shit and it's goddamned *glorious*! On the note of metavariants, sadly most of the local lore has been... I don't think "destroyed" is the right word, but simply not written down and eventually lost to history. I'd need to double check to be certain, but Iirc, the area I'm in used to be Creek Aboriginal(Indian) territory, but there's near zero aboriginals left around here, and I couldn't tell you a single piece of their folk lore.

[@thiagom8478]

Well, one thing you would certainly have in Brasil and that does not show up very often in fantasy is sacis. In the North region, Amazonia, you would necessarily find curupiras as well. Both have a inclination to be highly magical, therefore is arguably if you would find them as metahumans per se. Or something else. The saci is like a gnome perhaps, black, with only one leg. They are said to live inside whirlpools. Depicted smoking a pipe and wearing a red hood of sort, with magic properties. The writer Monteiro Lobato did a nice job shaping a vivid image of them in his books for children. Curupiras have fire for hair (could be just red hair, mind you, ginger people are quite rare in the North of Brasil. Or at least they used to be when I was growing up). They also have their feet turned to the oposite side, to their heels are to their front, their toes to their back. Curupiras have ride tapirs and they have the power to make hunters incapable to find their way in the forest. I suppose both sacis and curupiras could be designed as variants of dwarves, if you feel like. Urban curupiras with the natural capacity of make people lose their way inside shopping centers is always a cute ideal.

[@MegaSqueebles]

I live on an island on the BC coast of southern Canada. So many fairies.

[@KhaledAdwani]

I'm from Kuwait as in any Arab cultural we don't find elves, dwarves, orks and trolls in our cultural you could find jinn and ghouls so in a shadowrun world you would find alot of awakened who summon jinn to do their bidding and ghouls who hunt humans in night

[@Evergreen_Wizard]

In Russia there are legends of Leshy, who is basically an ent. I think Leshy would be a meta-variant of trolls.

[@metatron76]

Might want to look at Earthdawn... Its the same world a few cycles BEFORE now. Also has 3 more races... Also, Dunkelzahn = Charcoalgrin

[@kanarokan6060]

Very interesting. I'm loving this lore

[@theredazazelle6185]

At my table I say for meta variants that you can be that meta variant if either 1) you descend from people of that area or 2) you were born in that area which in my rendition of shadowrun created a not insignificant population of Oni in San Francisco, and all kinds of other interesting diversity in different places including Gnomes in the UCAS, Wakyambi in Hati, and Nartakyi in various places where people of Indian descent live. I recommend this approach to GMs looking to run Shadowrun as you can use this ruling to not just tackle racism in your game, but to do so by looking at Cultural racism as well as Ethnic racism. It can add a lot of cool interesting encounters to your game, like perhaps you could make the chief of police in Sacramento an Oni who was still born in California, or you could add a Gnome professor of magic to MIT&T who was born in Providence. This ruling has definitely made my Shadowrun games much more engaging to my players.

[@theredazazelle6185]

You can also add such details as an Oni in Japan who has a white American human father and a Satyr mother from California which can also be used to tackle the issue of mixed race families to your game in such a beautifully dynamic way.

[@Willothemask]

Well with Cornwall being one of the Celtic Alliance, you're gonna find Formori, but local legends include giants and piskies or peskies, gnome like fairies that live in the tin mines. So perhaps a subvariant of the Formori who are a bit bigger than the usual Formori, and a Dwarf metavariant a bit like Gnomes

[@thewakinghat]

We would have giants, brownies (tiny hous elves like 10 cm in height), trolls (there's a lot of stone trolls in Scandinavian folk lore) and pixies. Pixies are closely related to "tomtar" (the small house elves) and it's said according to legend that trolls catch pixies and take their wings and torture them in different ways 😅

[@bjorncorvin4568]

In America I would imagine that Wendigoes are either an Elf metatype or an Elf infected with a unique strain of HMVV

[@wabbajack2]

Nope. They're Orks with a strain of HMHVV, and they're all magically Awakened.

[@amysinger2201]

local variation is what drew me to shadowrun--what if ALL of it was true?! In Montana, we have little people (some Native nations have a type of leprichaun), we have thunderbirds (I've always wondered if they are more powerful than a dragon?!), we have goatman, skinwalkers, sassquatch, and most animal spirits have similar abilities to selkies where they can remove their skins and walk among humanity. Grizzly Riggers!!!

[@HephaestesVulcan]

Around my area (midwest usa,) there are mostly Scandinavian people. So likely a lot of trolls and specifically Giants! Fun fun.

[@midc23]

Wolf and coyote and bear shape shifters. Wendigos. Snow orcs.

[@fat6776]

Never played Shadowrun (Or any other tabletop, for that) But damn, does Burger do a great job at explaining these concepts.

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

True. He's doing a good job there. although I hope he gets to sapient critters and the infected soon - just to round out things. My advice for a beginner in Shadowrun, however, is to start out simple: A mundane character so that you need not worry overmuch about magic as that can get fairly complicated fairly quickly. Matrix is still manageable for beginners, but starting out with an awakened character is a bit of a tall order.

[@TheBurgerkrieg]

@@ranekeisenkralle8265 my personal take would be the exact opposite. I find matrix shit ultra complicated, but the world of magic is more intuitive. I suppose it depends on your personal disposition.

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

@@TheBurgerkrieg yes, it is complicated - which part about Shadowrun isn't for that matter - but unless you are running a technomancer you don't have to deal with the matrix-equivalent of spirits for example. Nor ritual magic and all that jazz. Matrix (for the most part) is a bit less expansive than the arcane arts.

[@DarkRonnie]

i havent read much of shadowrun, but a friend told me denmark is a nuclear wasteland, but otherwise a dwarven subtype could be Nisse or Underjordisk. Nisser being a very small (short/slime) but highly magical variant. Underjordiske on the other hand would be a much more varied bunch, but leaning towards extremes, so for example ludicrously hairy, completely hairless, or maybe thin as a reed, but all still being rather short A much more local variant would be the Bornholmske Trolls, their horns would be much shorter. but they would have noses the size of fists, and they would have fur everywhere exepte on their face (bornholm being a tini-tiny island, a Bornholmsk Troll would be pretty rare X) )

[@brianstiles1701]

If Shadowrun happened, I'd be in the heart of Tir na'Nog, and unless my family and I turned into elves, we'd be be deported.

[@TheDrow79]

As an Australian there are only three Metahuman types I could think of being here: Troll Metavariant: Bunyip/Yowei Orc/Goblin Metavariant: The Quikens Naga: Rainbow Serpent Enjoy

[@wolffang489]

12 month gestation plus they reach maturity a bit later, age 20ish instead of 17ish. Trolls, unlike Orks, age normally if I recall correctly

[@magalusha69]

A little late, but it could be a Jackalwere, like in dnd, slim, hairy and coyote like features. Part of the "desert, central Mexico area"

[@SamuraiHonor]

No variants where I live. I'm from Friesland, which is the topleft province in the netherlands :)) We're a swampy wasteland with magical storms by that time. I also swear that in shadowrun 4th edition, or maybe lower, there was another Troll metatype: The Ent. Mostly from germanic regions. And they're kinda what the Dryad is, but to trolls.

[@petertaylor328]

Just FYI if no one has commented. There are illustrations (not particularly impressive ones) for most of the metavariants in the SR4 book Runner's Companion.

[@igorpankovic5214]

I don't do table tops, I dived into Shadow Run from the Harebrained Schemes Games, but I'll take a gander at answering your question: As an Australian, we are peoples from literally all over the world. My family came as refugees from the balkans. Having grown up in Australia, I can firmly state that it will contain all the metatypes, but every single one of them would have mutated with severely potent venom glands, proficiency in pyromancy, a tendency for indifference and optimism, and very unique sense of humour. In all seriousness: Google Image - "rude place names in tasmania" - should get a hit for "british map maker" at the BBC. Have fun everyone :) I heard somewhere in Shadowrun Lore that Tasmania has become a swirling mana cloud. Damn Shame. Cummings Head sounds like fun ;)

[@MrBromansa]

I'm a South African, so Wakyambi would probably be the only metavarient - something I find very funny because according to the lore, they're extremely insular. So any black Elf you see is either just a dark-skinned Elf or a legit Wakyambi on their dreamquest (after which they just fucking go back to KwaZulu-Natal because I guess fuck everyone else). What really annoys me as a South African is that (besides the Wakyambi), Shadowrun doesn't really give us much in the way of metavarients. Hell - the game barely has any lore and what lore is present is either threadbare or hilariously suspect. South Africa (Azania) should have its own Elven kingdom to reflect the fact that Africa has it's own Elf analogues. The wiki does state that Wakyambi have their own enclave in KwaZulu-Natal, but I'm pretty sure Africa could support its own Tir - so it not being a thing in lore is a MASSIVE oversight.

[@CalebBlacksmith]

dragons, ogres, vampires, werewolfs, some sort of fusion between vampire and werewolf, some sort of shapeshifting demon if thats even a thing for shadworun, ghosts, fairies, gnomes, giants, cat like shapeshifter, harpies, thats about it i'd imagine my country would have as metahumans or creatures, there would be alot of different types of vampires and at least 2 different types of dragons

[@sacta]

The one stereotype you hear about Andorrans, the thing everyone always says when I tell them I'm Andorran, is that we drive like lunatics. That our road codes are more guidelines rather than actual rules. I also heard that we're pretty tall on average. So I guess we're kinda Warhammer 40k orkz. Big and speed-obsessed.

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

...and with all vehicles being painted red? Because red goes faster ^^

[@garchamp9844]

I am a Dane, I am 192 cm tall, and I am the second shortest guy out of 8 at our gaming table. I am quite sure that we would become elves if magic were to return.

[@logangagnepain7154]

Sorry dude. You guys are Trolls.

[@garchamp9844]

@@logangagnepain7154 But we are so pretty lol! But yeah, being a troll would be awesome as well. I’ll take it.

[@Greenknight3]

Its great to know that if magic retunes to the world, goblinization will take me and my family... great.

[@somerollerskater3656]

Meta type swamp gnomes. Meta veraint of the dwarf who attacks children who do not observe the catholic Lent.

[@EthanKristopherHartley]

Hmmm, specific Metavariant..? Like the Scandiwegian folk much of our more widespread potential meta-types are already covered (I'm a Brit, so we share a lot of fantasy races with Ireland and the Nordic countries, along with a few Germanic ones to keep life interesting! 😁) But specifically where I'm from (Lancashire) we have Jenny Greenteeth, I'm not sure what type she'd be though. She's a short, skinny creature who wears an old cotton/linen slip dress. Her head is far too big for her neck and body with huge eyes and a large gaping maw of a mouth filled with rows of pointed green teeth. Her arms are extremely long and end in almost claw like hands with long sharp talon like nails. Her dark straggly hair is plastered against her sickly pale skin as she drips water over anywhere she reaches. The dark green pond weed sticks to her wet skin, hair and clothes, highlighting the tone of her skin. She lives underwater (mostly in ponds but also some canals) where pond weed and overhanging flora can disguise the water's edge. She waits for lone children to come to the shore and then jumps out to drag them to her lair and eat them. Any suggestions? 😜

[@justingraves1291]

Ohio where i live, is known for Dogmen. Frogmen, and Grassman so those would be our rare metatyprs 😂

[@SkyTowerKurogane]

Being a troll sounds neat >brain damage o-oh...

[@leonardorossi998]

Unless you are born a troll! Then you only have to worry about the fact everyone hates you and that you'll have to deal with everything being made to accomodate people half your size.

[@purestress2597]

Georgia. Probably lots of dwarves.

[@SupLuiKir]

I live near this community college that is for some reason popular worldwide, even though it's just a shitty community college. We'll probably have all the metavariants

[@spiralbanzai4985]

I'm from Chicago. As such, I think metavariants would be the least of my concerns at this point.

[@Ghastly_Grinner]

I always thought that goblins should be variant of dwarf instead of a dwarf with a sickness

[@Reddotzebra]

All gnome, all the time! Seriously, while playing a hulking monster of a physical build may be fun, spellcaster, decker or rigger is more my style anyway.

[@arngrimurjokull8882]

I live in iceland so probably dwarfs gnomes trolls giants and definetly elves.

[@toolatetothestory]

I want Moss people variants of Elves here in Germany. Like Dryads, but cuter, as they are just covered in moss.

[@voxlknight2155]

I'd say that in Serbia the unique metatype would be the Drekavac, I think they would fall under Orks or Dwarves most likely and be tiny, sweeky voiced and ugly as hell, other than that I'd say there would be plenty of dwarves and elves, also there would probably be a lot more vampires than anywhere else, mostly due to the fact that vampire, more or less as we know them today, originated from Serbia. If I were to turn into a metatype I'd say it would have to be a dwarf, cuz they're my favorite fantasy race.

[@soupcake3092]

The metaveriant for my hometown would probably just be crackhead elves. Like elves but thinner and bonier with awful skin.

[@oliviawilliams6204]

You did not express being an Elf or a Dwarf when you where born human, unless you are a weird case like Red who was turned into a vampire in the 90's and spent a bunch of time in a coma underwater

[@JoshuaVonNoctis]

I'm now in the midwest,I'm not too sure, but probably dwarves or elves?

[@dustinshadle732]

Iowa, USA. So human, sasquatch, probably werewolves too. But this is old Sioux country.

[@MrFillyWonka]

Great Lakes Illinois, we got alot of philipino people and hispanics, so we might see some of those philipino elves and possibly pantherian shifters if they ever immigrated from mexico

[@miniondaechir]

Being from the Philippines, the obvious is the Dalaketnon (ahem, yes this is how it is spelled). If I were to write more detailed lore for my area, I'd say the people with Spanish/European ancestry would more likely become regular elves, while Dalaketnon would be a more native gene thing. Other common mythical creatures would be dwarves, like a ton of dwarves, with our local variant being the Duende/Nuno sa Punso (old man under the anthill). Though, Duende could easily be just goblins as well, kind of a catch-all name. Trolls might be a common thing here too, with a possible metavariants being the Kapre, who in our myths are large, dark-skinned hairy men who sit in dark trees smoking cigars, and the Tikbalang, who are trickster horse people (head, hooves, tail), who in lore terms might have higher magical aptitude or something. I've read about a minotaur variant in our myths as well, with them having a gem on their forehead, so that could be possible in Shadowrun in the Philippines. Beyond that, due to there being literally a hundred+ distinct indigenous languages (and thus, cultures) in the country, the metahuman variance here could be insane just in the amount.

[@TheBurgerkrieg]

That explains why I was unable to find any external lore about the Dalakiton - they just spelled it differently for no fucking reason.

[@jojobinx4020]

Not really related to meta-types, but this is a cool story and I think you might like it. In Michigan there's this tale (conspiracy theory?) of Michigan Blue Hell. I think it comes from Detroit or somewhere near Detroit? There are a couple variations but essentially they all say that there is a location, usually an abandoned building or tunnel system where there is a tear in reality. Some say it is a glitch in reality (like the backrooms before it was a thing) others say its an entrance to another universe or plane of reality. Another version is that there is a massive tunnel system under Lake Erie which Native Americans and early colonials spoke about that linked all the lakes around Michigan and it has an entrance to hell apparently. The last one I'll share is that it comes from a Native American legend of a great serpent which the tribes managed to imprison underground. All I'll say is that there are a shockingly large number of abandoned tunnels in Michigan and if you run a game in any setting that finds the players in Michigan this might be a cool angle to take it. I remember exploring an abandoned paper mill and it had an underground tunnel that stretched between each of the buildings and it was huge, and me and my buddies noped out of there. There were like seven plus buildings and each one we checked had something underground. Someone drew Shrek on one of the walls in a tunnel with "shrek is love shrek is life" wrote in red under it. Also there was graffiti (high quality too) of Rick Sanchez turning himself into two suspicious towers. Gotta love graffiti.

[@Rynewulf]

Dang there really is a theme of "Hey you don't look like a perfect tall blonde pale elf/noblest human, so you must have the brain deficient genetics!" No parallels to irl opinions from certain neckbeards at all

[@nehrumoreiradesousa6302]

here we will have a kind os Satyr with read hair no horns ens feets turn back, the CURUPIRA! welcome to Brazil!