With the return of Magic to the world in the 2010s and widespread “goblinization” on April 30th, 2021, humanity found itself split into new metavariants pulled directly from fantastical stories of the past. With fifty years of development, progress, and integration, each metatype can be found in every corner of the world.
This doesn’t mean that everyone is happy with the arrangement however, and some members among every variant blame their personal or society’s misfortunes on those who do not look like them. Some have taken this to extreme lengths, such as the infamous “Night of Rage” incident in 2039 which saw uncounted thousands of metahumans killed by extremists, first in Seattle and then around the globe. Some find it easier to integrate into mainstream society than others, only exacerbating the situation.
On the whole however, people are just trying to get by and while tensions may flare from time to time, metahumanity as a whole is here to stay.
Humans
homo sapiens sapiens
- Average Height: 1.75 meters
- Average Weight: 78 kg
- Known For: Average size, average build; freaking out about people who don’t meet their averages
- Seattle Population: 66%
As the majority of the sentient beings of the world, humans create existing definitions of “normal,” and then some of them set out to abuse those definitions as hard as they can. These humans know that they lack the pure physical strength and social cohesion of some of the other metatypes, so they shape the world in a way that keeps the individuals they don’t like from ever realizing what they can do, and what they can become.
The side effect of this, of course, is that many humans are caught up in the demoralizing machinery that the ruling corporate class has assembled, because they don’t fit into this artificial average. They are grist for the mill, people to be chewed up and spat out in the name of greater wealth and power for the people at the top. Because they’re humans, and there are so many of them, who’s going to notice how they’re ground down, and who is going to miss them when they’re gone?
The shadows are full of humans who could not find a way to be normal or average.
Dwarfs
homo sapiens pumilionis
- Average Height: 1.2 meters
- Average Weight: 54 kg
- Known For: Short size, stocky build; perserverance
- Seattle Population: 2%
Sixth World dwarfs are often accepted into mainstream society without being fully valued. The taller metatypes seem to be happiest when dwarfs fit the roles they have preconceived for them—sidekicks, drivers, mechanics, that sort of thing. It doesn’t help that their size helps them squeeze into vehicles that orks, humans, and elves might have difficulty with, ones that trolls couldn’t even consider using. Still, they get work and little direct hate. They’re treated nicely, but they can’t help but feel that they’re being, well, overlooked.
Dwarfs across the globe are dedicated to showing that they cannot be ignored. Dwarf deckers, street samurai, covert ops specialists, faces, and more are popping up in the international shadows, and others underestimate them at their peril.
The lack of heightened antipathy against dwarfs helped them assimilate in human communities better than other metatypes. This means that they do not have as many of their own enclaves as some of the other metatypes (it also doesn’t help that they don’t have access to whatever stream of revenue the elves tap into build their kingdoms). With the founding of the dwarf-centric Biloxi Technical Institute, southern Mississippi in the CAS is becoming a dwarf haven. What that will grow into and how that will shape the world is anyone’s guess.
Elves
homo sapiens nobilis
- Average Height: 1.9 meters
- Average Weight: 80 kg
- Known For: Slender, lithe build; being attractive and knowing it; pointed ears
- Seattle Population: 13%
Perhaps the most infuriating thing about elves to the other metatypes is that you can resent them like hell, and they just won’t care. They have two prosperous nations—Tír na nÓg (formerly known as Ireland) and Tír Tairngire (in the western part of North America)—they have people in some of the most powerful positions in the world, and celebrities whose MeFeed hits are in the billions. They are envied, not looked down on.
But plenty of elves know that this envy does not extend to every elf. If you’re an elf who is not rich, elegant, or graceful, you’re often viewed as a failure, someone who had all the gifts of life handed to them and somehow screwed them up. And it’s not just nonelves who hold this view. Never mind that you might have grown up poor, never mind what obstacles you had to face—people think you automatically had it easy because you’re an elf. But elf society is not easy to survive. The upper crust can be absolutely ruthless about enforcing their status quo, labeling those who don’t fit as malcontents and finding ways to cast them aside. The barrens of the major sprawls of the world have plenty of elves who were thrown out because they wouldn’t cave to what society wanted them to be. Their anger could burn the whole earth.
Orks
homo sapiens robustus
- Average Height: 1.9 meters
- Average Weight: 128 kg
- Known For: Big, powerful physique; tusks; constantly being seen as outsiders
- Seattle Population: 16%
Orks tend make people nervous, and people don’t like to be nervous. Their tusks, bone structure, and pointed ears mark them as something altogether else, and their strength and size clearly show the damage they could do. As humans have done for centuries, they address the thing they fear by pushing them aside, keeping orks from building collective strength, and crushing them with the sheer force of numbers.
That approach works as long as you can keep fear stoked and have it immobilize the masses. Because if people can move past the fear and start to understand the deliberate injustice that has been forced on some groups, they separate themselves from society’s machine, and the number of people used to enforce oppression gets smaller. Oppressors aren’t especially good at developing new solutions to such problems—they usually just resort to oppressing harder.
So while realization of the injustices they deal with is spreading, orks across the Sixth World are preparing for things to get worse so that they can survive and set about the work of making things better. They already have some enclaves carved out for themselves—Seattle’s Ork Underground, Atlanta’s Sweetwater Creek, Dharavi in the Indian Union—and they hope those locales will be the starting points for societies that include orks instead of fearing them.
Trolls
homo sapiens ingentis
- Average Height: 2.5 meters
- Average Weight: 300 kg
- Known For: Being so big, you guys. Just huge. And horns.
- Seattle Population: 2%
It’s not easy to live in a society where you look like the walking embodiment of everyone else’s nightmares. Being two to three times as large as everyone else doesn’t help much, either. It’s not a troll’s world, and most of the other residents of the world aren’t inclined to change that fact. Who wants to make space for imposing monsters? Trolls are going to have to force their way into a place in the world—of course, when they force their way in anywhere, they’re inevitably called vandals and destroyers.
A significant number of trolls have looked at the way the deck is stacked against them and decided they don’t need to play the rest of the world’s game anymore. They’ll stand aside and watch the world burn—and maybe throw on an extra match every now and then. The Black Forest Troll Republic is one of the most important troll communities in the world, acting as a beacon and vision for what troll society can be while keeping a certain distance from everyone else. Whether they assimilate or build a higher wall is an open question.
Trolls have the most difficult time adapting to other metatypes because their bodies are so different. It’s more than just the size and the horns—they have dermal deposits all over their bodies that make knobs, bumps, and other formations. They scrape up furniture and clothing, and make some people think twice about giving a troll a big bear hug. Especially since there are few people who can wrap their arms around a whole troll.
Others
- Seattle Population: <1%
While not strictly separate species, those affected by HMHVV (the human-metahuman vampiric virus) or SURGE (sudden, unexplained recessive genetic expression), dragons, and other strange, wondrous, and mysterious creatures also inhabit the world. For most, changelings, rogue AI, free spirits, and more may only be the subject of weekly trid entertainment, but they truly exist, and those who run the shadows are more likely than anyone to encounter them. Watch your backs, chummers!