StormWolf
Elder Member
In 2080, only a couple years after the mysterious disappearance of the latest and greatest Night City legend, the corporate powder keg exploded into yet another corporate war. The Fifth Corporate War was a different beast altogether, seeing the near-eradication of Arasaka and the deployment of terrors beyond the comprehension of all but a few. Under the self-destructive leadership of Yorinobu and hobbled by the crushing losses in 2077, they fought desperately, but ultimately abdicated by 2084, taking an indirect and clandestine approach to the fight once they were off the front lines. Militech, and the NUSA by proxy, was a titanic war machine that swept over continental North America, annexing old US territories and parts of Canada.
When Arasaka folded out of the war, many thought the conflict would come to an end, but NightCorp rose to stand staunchly against Militech in their attempt to sweep all the way to the Pacific. Out of necessity, alliances were drawn with Biotechnica, Lazarus, Orion, Orbital Air, DangerGal, and other NeoCorps that considered Night City their haven. NightCorp backers even went so far as to pay out Nomad Clans and Night City gangs as guerilla forces; offering payment, supply, and pardons for services rendered. From 2088-2091, the Militech-NUSA westward march ground to a screeching halt. They could not advance, nor could NightCorp push them back. The badlands of the western states became a no-mans-land, from the Californian high deserts to the irradiated wastelands of Texas.
Militech deployed their latest super-weapons to try and collapse the Pacific defensive - AI-infused ‘Borg death squads and virus bombs all across Pacific subnets. It worked. The Pacific defensive collapsed nearly all the way to the coast, forcing NightCorp’s hand.
After decades of secretive research and development, they deployed their own secret weapon: Project Oracle.
Militech cyborgs, Drones, NUSA Commandos, enemy edgerunners, officers, politicians; neural ports through the fracturing net provided a backdoor into the very minds of thousands. In a single night, NightCorp’s ‘Oracle’ turned the opposing armies feral. A mass-outbreak of cyberpsychosis, suicide, assassination, and political sabotage within NUSA led to them to abdicating in weeks.
The Fifth Corporate War ceased active hostilities in the year 2095. While the lion’s share of the fighting took place in the continental Americas, the impact was felt around the world. The Pacific Confederation remained intact, but the Western Free States and the Lone Star State were once again within the control of the NUSA. Texas had been decimated, much of Canada bearing scars that will never heal. Great swathes of Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia, and what remained of the Middle-East all but crumbled under the brunt of the conflict.
Japan is barely staying afloat, somewhat literally. With Arasaka’s defeat early in the war and the climate crises that followed, the once-great megacorporate superpower was all but broke. Though Arasaka continues licking its wounds, the tiger is most dangerous when it is wounded.
With such widespread devastation in the wake of the war, a refugee crisis flooded the Pacific Confederation. The Free City of Night City saw its population skyrocket to over double its size. Homelessness, unemployment, and crime all became a crisis the likes of which the world hadn’t seen since the collapse of the United States of old. In the five years that followed, Night City expanded outward and upward to accommodate the fifteen million people now calling it home. New arcologies sprung up like weeds as city districts shifted farther outward, claiming much of the badlands beyond the old city limits. Reclaimers and Nomads were forced to either become part of the growing megacity, or be displaced by the unstoppable march of mechs and heavy machines.
Taste the waste of our neon disgrace
Deformed children made from corporate god's grace
Better wear a mask 'cause the air melts your face
No one wins in this human race
It was a toil of decades that got us to this point. The Carbon Plague of 2022, residual fallout radiation from all the Corporate Wars, genetic tinkering in food, medicine, and fashion all paved the way for a divergence of the human genome. The emergence of those who are different, some might even say wrong. The label of "abhuman" applies to all who possess extensive mutations, whether they are physically expressed or not.
Twists are the poor unfortunates who have had their bodies fighting against them from the very start. Malformed, misshapen, and while human-looking, they would never pass for normal. Some are oversized or undersized, possessing leathery skin or oversized eyes. The most fortunate among them have mutations that are beneficial to their livelihood, even if they might be unsightly. Most of them, however, are not only an eyesore, but accursed half-lived creatures rife with malignant defects. Of all the abhumans, Twists are considered the most repugnant by society. In an age of affordable beauty, those 'born wrong' are a particular affront to the status quo. The luckiest of Twists might have the right mutations to make them a valuable bruiser for a gang or SecCorp, but they can count on being taken advantage of.
Named after the bodysculpting fad that has come and gone in waves since 2013, Exotics are mutants who are naturally born with the traits that their parents (or grandparents) spent thousands of eurodollars gene-grafting. Exotics can range widely, from those born with elfin qualities - including the ears, to those who take on a fully anthropomorphized appearance. Though this is mostly a cosmetic mutation, some Exotics will possess a minor trait two that sets them apart. A crocodilian Exotic might have tougher skin and a powerful bite, where a lupine Exotic might have enhanced olfactory senses. Where normally one would need cyberware or bio-augmentations (aka wetware) as part of the bodysculpting package, these natural-born Exotics come bearing the alterations naturally. For better or for worse. Similar to Twists, Exotics can't really hide who or what they are without extensive biosculpting, some more than others. Most Exotics find themselves taken advantage of for their unique appearances, filling the roles of joytoys to cater to particular tastes, or otherwise bought like property to fill Biotechnica's Menagerie.
Once considered the stuff of science fiction and DeepNET conspiracies, psions are seemingly the rarest of all abhuman types, likely because they are the only ones who can feasibly pass as a normal human. The mutations of a psion are in the subject's brain and nervous system, allowing them to tangibly manipulate matter, physics, and electrical currents. They are considered some of the most dangerous, painted as an insidious enemy by most media outlets, blending in with society to tear it down from the inside. Ironically, a psion can also be a Twist or an Exotic, but the most famous cases are always the ones that look like an average Joe or Jane until they blow up their megablock floor with their mind.
Still, even with so much sentiment against them, it wouldn't be the Dark Future if there weren't companies ready and willing to provide cyberware to a new consumer base. When the secrets of the abhumans could no longer be kept, various cybernetics corporations developed the "psionic amp", a piece of neural cyberware that allows the psionic to better focus and amplify their abilities.
Less of a mutant or abhuman, but rather a cursed state of being. The Fragged are poor unfortunate souls who have suffered "complete psychological defragmentation" via Rogue AI tampering with their minds. Unlike Cyberpsychos, who have moment of lucidity and the wherewithal to utilize their cyberware, Fragged are absolutely feral nano-infected husks. The Voodoo Boys call them zonbi, and while apropos, the name bears a level of paranoia that media and corporate sources do not want fanning the flames.
Fragged are commonly shot on sight or dropped into a combat zone for containment.
The 6th Street gang remains mostly unchanged. They are a coalition of combat veterans who were kicked to the curb and forgotten by the corporations and nations that once held their tenure. They threw their lot in with the NUSA during the Fifth Corporate War, acting as a proxy element within Night City, attempting to destabilize the Free Cities infrastructure. This gained them few friends, tarnishing the gang’s reputation, even among those they supposedly protected.
After the war ended, however, 6th Street numbers swelled with an influx of new veterans. With the NCPD remaining a flimsy shadow of its former self, 6th Street has self-deputized themselves as a private law enforcement contractor. They operate like a professional militia more than your standard gang, thought they supplement their income as gun-runners and combat cabbies.
The heart of their territory is Santo Domingo, with their base of operations sitting right on the border between SD and Haywood. Said base is a sprawling, nine-story, retrofitted National Guard armory.
6th Street maintains a positive working relationship with most Nomad Clans that operate in and out of Night City, though many bridges have been burned since the gang’s golden age in the 2040s. They are a regular sight at Woodchipper’s, as Nomads have been their lifeline to the gun trade for decades.
The animals are a juiced up street-fighting booster gang from west Pacifica that prioritizes physical prowess above all else. Members are installed with physique-enhancing implants, linear frames, gene-tailoring and drug treatments to make themselves peak-human, even post-human in their strength and speed.
Often outsourced as bouncers and enforcers, they are impossible to miss, cutting a figure far larger than most in Night City. They are one of the few gang that will welcome Exotics and Twists into their fold, so long as they undergo the same treatments as every prospect. One of the Animals’ best fighters is an ursine Exotic called Kodiak.
Combat veterans and life-long Combat-zoners, Barghest is a more of a military militia than a gang. Rivaling 6th Street in form and function, these Militech turncoats have claimed Dogtown as their sovereign territory, and make black-ops style incursions into other Combat Zones in order to spread their influence and territory.
Their base of operations is still the Black Sapphire, the gang’s constant flow of blood money allowing them to fund completion of the megabuilding
God help us, they’re back. Pozer-gangs have made a comeback overall, but did they really have to?! If you don’t know who the Bozos are, you’re a gonk younganger who hasn’t learned their history. They’re Night City legends. Nightmare killer clowns, a nightmare legion of violent, bodysculpted pranksters causing chaos and mayhem. Grenade clown noses, acid-spitting flowers, hand-buzzers that can melt your neural port, and more nefariously - bombs in stuffed animals and black lace’d candy.
They’re a gang of all borderline cyberpsychos, and depressingly, a haven for mutants who can’t pass for human. Their ranks are a welcoming community to the broken and the damned, like the freakshows of old, though they are known to abduct people and break them into an agreeable state.
Their base of operations, The Big Top, is more of a concept than an actual place. It is constantly on the move, as the Bozos remain one of the few Night City gangs that just about will shoot on sight.
The kids ain’t all right. Night City has its fair share of children who are lost, forgotten, or on the run. The Fifth Corporate War made orphans out of thousands, and Night City has always put the squeeze on the concept of a healthy family.
These kids came together, Lost Boys in their own Nightmare Neverland. The Chrome Kids are what would be called a YounGang - a gang of juviniles. While they may be kids, they’re kids with ordinance. While they may not be sporting hardware like the other gangs, they have more than enough to be a threat to your every-day citizens or beat cop. The little bastards run in packs, after all!
Their base of operations, or Clubhouse, is located in the Old Combat Zone. An abandoned school, of all things. It has been turned into a teenage wasteland, complete with a rickety skate park and ever-changing graffiti murals.
The psionic cyber-cult. Fanatical nanomancer heralds of the two-headed daemons. The true children of Lilith, promised deliverance to the Tenth Circle. These fanatical cult-psychos will tear their victims off the street, keeping them alive for nefarious cyber-rituals. Their doom-cult mentality and unhinged techno-psionic powers make them a truly terrifying enemy on the mean streets.
The Inquisitors are a cult gang; like the hate-gangs, they center on a specific ideology, in
this case, religious. The Inquisitors think cyberware is blasphemous, and think nothing of tearing it right out of your body. They consider this "saving" your soul. Not only do they believe that cybernetics are "evil," but they also have a war going on with every other gang in the city. Everyone hates these guys.
The Iron Sights are a relatively small, but surprisingly tough, combat gang of borderline cyberpsychos. Once funded by Arasaka, they fell on hard times after the War. But word on The Street is that they have a new benefactor and are once more flexing their Rippers.
Maelstrom is one of the oldest and hardest gangs in Night City, being a bona fide boogieman for many. They are the Borg gang, chromed to the gills in bleeding edge cyberware. Since the late 2070s, they have grown increasingly erratic, some might even say zealous.
Whether Maelstrom or the Voodoo Boys were the first Chrome Cult is up for debate, but all that is known that Maelstrom has adopted a satanic-adjacent form of cybermysticism into their pathos, worshiping an enigmatic AI known as ‘Lilith’, treating Rogue AI as her dark angels.
Since they glory days of 2020, Maelstrom has run their gang out of Totentanz, the legendary ‘borg slam-bar. While all major players in Night City have safe houses, satellite locations, and auxiliary territories, Totentanz has been Maelstrom’s home since they were a small boostergang. It survived the Arasaka bombing, and with some renovation, it has been the gang’s nerve cluster ever since.
Wherever there is joytoy work, there will be need for the Mox. They haven’t changed since their formative days, being one of the youngest gangs in Night City. They still operate out of Lizzie’s, catering to their BD clientele and making sure that anyone who roughs up sex workers in the city get roughed up back.
The NCPD is a shadow of its former self. They have always been underfunded, understaffed, overworked, and overwhelmed… which led to widespread corruption throughout most precincts. With the criminal surge from 2060 to 2077, the NCPD started to subcontract to Edgerunners and security firms. The result, damningly, was a resounding success.
This led to NCPD strikes, layoffs, and even mass resignations as Lawmen saw a more lucrative opportunity in the private sector. As it stands, the NCPD is widely considered ‘the gang with the badge’ by Night City citizens. There is a measly handful of precincts that try walking the thin blue line, but wealthier burgs in Night City have hired private SecCorps for law enforcement, and the more destitute neighborhoods would sooner rely on their resident gang than call the cops.
Sadly, the NCPD are the sole proprietors of all legal long-term holding facilities, and despite the privatization of many districts’ local law enforcement, the NCPD still has jurisdiction everywhere.
Their ace in the hole is MaxTac, aka the PsychoSquad. Likely one of the most feared entities in Night City, and the recipient of the majority of the NCPDs budget. They are those sent in to kill the boogeyman. As such, they have no real friends or allies. Not even among the NCPD.
Also known as the Seven Nations, there are nearly 7 million Nomads in the USA alone. The Seven Nations represent the most powerful clans, tribes, and families which share common interests, enemies, or goals. There is the Snake Nation, Blood Nation, Folk Nation, Thelas Nation, the Jodes, the Aldecaldos, and MetaCorp. There are countless smaller tribes and families out there, as well as the Raffen Shiv (aka the Wraiths), but the Raffen are pariahs on the open road.
Aldecaldos
The Aldecaldo Family was the first true nomad family to form, carrying with them the proud traditions of the founding, never forgetting where they came from and who they are. The Aldecaldos departed Night City in 2077, and were not seen in the region again for some time. When the Fifth Corporate Ware broke out, they returned to NC under contract to NightCorp to act as outriders in the fight against the NUSA. During the war, the Aldecaldo Lobos, their infamous special forces group, saw a renaissance for the first time since they joined Silverhand and Blackhand in the raid on Arasaka.
Blood Nation
Formed by refugees from Cuba and Haiti, as well as members from Florida, Louisiana, and Central and South America. The Nation has a long-standing reputation of being smugglers par excellence, a stock and trade that got them out of the Miami combat zone and has kept them funded up to the present day. While they started in the drug trade, the Blood Nation also trafficks in black market firepower and cyberware. During the Fifth Corporate War, they made a killing in picking the battlefields clean on both sides, building massive stockpiles of black market hardware to flood the Night Markets.
Folk Nation
Reugees from the Midwest, especially the combat zones of Chicago and Detroit, they are considered one of the largest gang forces in the world, filling the the stereotype of Nomads being brigands, bandits, and pirates. The only difference is that the Folk Nation will not prey on other Nomads, preferring instead to hit corporate convoys, roll over gogangers on the road, or raid Reclaimer settlements.
Jodes
The original Jode Family came from Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. Driven from their homes by ecological crisis, they retain their roots as farmers and ranchers, keeping their barns and greenhouses on wheels. With the mass-destruction of Texas during the Fifth Corporate War, the Jodes lost a great deal of their home connections. Even their new territories in Colorado were hit, forcing the Jodes to relocate, trying to keep with the most agreeable weather to tend their guerilla gardens and tend their herds.
MetaCorp
The youngest of the Seven Nations, it is also the strangest. Formed by veterans from the SouthAm and Corporate Wars, the Meta family came together as a mercenary and arms company as much as a Nomad Nation. While they have a building in Corpo Plaza, the MetaCorp family runs out of the mobile island-city called MetaKey, floating in the gulf of Mexico where the Free City cultivates its premiere line of weapons, armor, and highly trained mercenaries.
Snake Nation
The largest of the nomad groups, Snake Nation is a confederation of tribes and clans, the Snake Nation doesn’t have a single identity or specialization like the other clans, but is involved in all areas of the Nomad economy. They arguably travel the most, keeping venues of supply and demand flowing between their various satellites and settlements. There are several subgroups within Snake Nation, including the Bakkers, Dogs, Ghost Dancers, and the railway-bound Iron Riders.
Thelas Nation
Marine nomads, sea nomads, and water nomads are all names that could be used for the Thelas Nation. However, most governments prefer a far simpler word: Pirate. The Thales Nation is a nautical superpower, making their home on the bleak and polluted seas of the Dark Future, plying their stock and trade in piracy and smuggling, making themselves a navy-for-hire during the Fifth Corporate War, but also helping transport refugees in the aftermath.
Raffen Shiv (Wraiths)
The most-hated nomads, even among other nomads. To call any other Nomad a Raffen is asking for lead in the gut. Outcasts, renegades, exiles, criminals, abd betrayers. The worst of the worst on the open road. They will steal from, kill, enslave, and/or violate any whom they can trap, and pillage those they encounter.
The Vamps are a prankster gang who were dubbed the "Philharmonic Vampyres" in the 2020s when five members clad in tuxedos, capes, and vampire teeth flew up on wires behind the Night City Symphony on Halloween night. Are they artists, hoodlums, or social commentators? Are those teeth part of the costume or not? Who knows?
Yet another Posergang that has cropped up as a blast from the past, though this time around, they seem far more bent on the hypnosis, mind control, and blood orgy bit.
Can you put a price on bliss? The Piranhas have the cost – and the drugs to give it to you. Whether you need a mile-high party with no budget or the slickest show possible for your gang for only a few eurobucks, the Piranhas got you. You can find the Piranhas at every party, teeth shining. Wherever a good time is needed, they lurk, providing everything anyone could want to guarantee the best night of their lives, transforming the concrete prison of Night City into a neon wonderland.
Considered the first and greatest Party Gang, the Piranhas move drugs of every stripe, from nova jane and synthcoke to black lace and blue glass. They operate out of pop-up locations, usually run-down warehouses in industrial districts, but wherever music pulses and parties rage, that is where you can be guaranteed to see them.
The Players are a poser gang who use biosculpting to look like members of old sitcoms and TV shows from bygone eras. They are an extended family gang which protects their neighborhood and longs for a bygone time. The Players are broken up into a number of different factions based on various shows. They are territorial and fiercely protective of their members.
Part of the Posergang resurgence following the Fifth Corporate War, the Players are as dangerous as they are incorrigible. While they may look like they stepped out of black and white noir dramas, they represent a desperate need to escape from the grinding oppression of the City.
The Reckoners are one of several apocalyptic cults that sprung up after the War. They roam the streets, preaching the coming Harvest of Souls, recruiting from the homeless, and looking for donations, often taken from your unconscious body. A few are serious crazies who want to evoke the End Times right now with blood and C4.
The Legion is a neo-fascist hate-gang; young people united around various hate group ideologies. Uniforms and militaristic slogans are the rule. The Red Chromers will attack anything that they think isn't "right."
In the present decade, they are the primary perpetrators of violence against Abhumans, taking extensive glee in their “calling” to purify the City of the mutant menace.
Scavenger are ruthless lowlife scum who prey on unwary law-abiding citizens and gangers alike. They emerged as a side effect of the mass availability of body augmentations. Harvesting cyberware and organs is a nasty but profitable business, and Scavengers fill this niche by assaulting their victims on the streets. They are absolutely brutal with zero regard to human life. To a Scav, a human is just a set of products waiting to be sold on the black market.
They are considered one of the most reprehensible gangs in Night City, filthy carrion eaters with no scruples in harvesting anyone and anything for all that can be useful.
The Tyger Claws served as a proxy gang for Arasaka in Night City for decades, but has since been abandoned by their former handlers. Not once, but twice. First was in the aftermath of the AHQ bombing, when Arasaka was kicked out of Night City. Following the Fifth Corporate War, many of the founding and inspirations of the Tyger Claws also cast them aside, painting them as pale impersonations of the Yakuza lifestyle.
This has left the Tyger Claws embittered to their progenitors, violent and rebellious children looking to stick it to their elders. Delegated to the Kabuki district, the Tyger Claws call the Kabuki Waterfront Hiveblock their fortress. Here, they run brothels, gambling dens, drug operations, extortion rackets, and smuggling. Their numbers have swelled as the Kabuki Waterfront’s population exploded. And while the Yakuza have a high pedigree, the Tygers are more than happy to accept their washouts.
Based out of Haywood, the Valentinos are one of the largest gangs in Night City. Strictly territorial, they operate in the vast impoverished Latino barrios in the Glen, Vista Del Rey, and wellsprings, where they are strongly rooting in the local communities. They have territorial disputes with 6th Street in Santo Domingo, and have for some time.
They have withstood the test of time from the 2030s to the present, never straying from their values and beliefs. Even as Night City grew, the Valentinos adapted. They even formed a splinter group called the Steel Vaqueros, a Nomad-adjacent biker gang to spread their influence rapidly between their territories, as well as into the Reclaimer territories in the Badlands they have claimed as their own.
The enigmatic Pacifica gang remains true to their Haitian roots and their Netrunning vocations. Still the steadfast guardians of Pacifica and the Favela Flotilla, they are considered some of the most terrifying Netrunners in the city. They are also one of the only gangs to welcome psionic abhumans into their fold as celebrated members, provided they are of Haitian blood.
In the wake of the Fifth Corporate War, the Voodoo Boys are still exploring the Blackwall and the NET beyond, looking to better understand the unimaginable power that the NUSA and NightCorp have started to tamper with. In particular, they are looking for a means to cure the Fragged; to not only heal the mind of one ravaged by a Rogue AI, but to perfect the process of possession and assimilation.
Arasaka
Arasaka originally started in manufacturing, and it remains one of their three major pillars in business. Their weapons and equipment are some of the most sought after in the world. They are the largest manufacturer and exporter of Japanese made products and cyberware in the world. Their major exports are in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Despite their recent misfortunes leading up to and into the Fifth Corporate War, Arasaka retains their real estate in the Corporate Plaza. Despite murmurings of internal strife among the factions within the megacorp, they have rapidly made up for lost Eddies. Though their Relic project went belly-up with the mysterious destruction of Mikoshi, they have all but recovered by 2099 via covert licensing of their troops to other firms around the world as security guards, couriers, and mercenaries.
Hanako and Yorinobu Arasaka still fight over who is the face of the company, their factions (Kiji and Taka, respectively) clashing internally. Michiko Sanderson (nee Arasaka), head of the Hato faction, is still present within the board, but diverts her attention to other project with greater personal importance.
All Foods Inc
All Foods, Inc. (formerly known as All Food Inc.) is a corporation based in Mexico which focuses on providing its customers with readily available quality food (usually meat based products). The majority of All Foods products and their sales go to the United States.
Biotechnica
When the fuel crisis really began to affect the industrialized community in the late 1990s, Biotechnica, then a small firm with only one office, came up with the answer: CHOOH2 TM (pronounced 'chew two'). CHOOH2 (not its actual chemical formula) is a complex grain alcohol produced by genetically engineered yeasts and wheat strains created by Biotechnica. The potential of CHOOH2 was realized almost immediately after it was introduced, and within a few years, all fuel-burning vehicles and power plants had converted to the new product. Although Biotechnica held worldwide patents, it lacked the production facilities to meet worldwide demand, forcing it to license production to several large Agricorps and PetroCorps.
These deals made Biotechnica an extremely wealthy, but still not particularly large, company. Biotechnica is also probably the closest thing to a "good guy" Corporation in the Time of the Red. Its labs have provided much of the tech that enabled the Pacific Confed to develop new bio-engineered "replacement species," and Biotechnica is active in restoring both animals
and habitat throughout the blighted environments of this era.
Biotechnica is behind the Exotic trend, and now the rise of Exotics as a species of abhuman. If you believe the pirate broadcasts and conspiracy theorists like Maximum Mike, they have also developed a series of cybernetically enhanced monsters like the Cybersquatch, the Borghest, and other “myths made meat”. Additionally, Biotechnica is behind most pharmaceutical production around the world.
Danger Gal
Danger Gal is a private investigation, bodyguard, and security corporation that has been headquartered in Night City since 2025. Founded by Michiko Sanderson (nee Arasaka) after she graduated Stanford. They have been an exclusive and lucrative firm ever since, with the added business sense to commercialize their star squads of operators - Puma Squad - in the form of television shows, costumes, action figures, and interactive brain-dances.
Danger Gal agents, operatives, and employees are immediately recognizable by some kind of cat-ear headgear, be it part of a helmet, techwear, tech-hair, bodysculp, or natural mutation. While they will hire abhumans, Danger Gal will only hire abhumans that fit the corporation’s high aesthetic pedigree.
Their base of operations is hard to miss, as it has a whole building of its own at the outer periphery of the Corporate Center. Danger Gal is famous for their physical and digital legwork and cohesive dossiers. They have a file on just about every gang, exec, and edgerunner in Night City. Yes, even you.
Faroh
Also known as Faroh BioChem, or Faroh Inc., this New Cairo megacorp stands a sole bastion of endurance from the devastation in the Middle-East. A medical corporation first and foremost, Faroh started with treatments of those tortured by radiation, eventually growing outward into developing cyberware, wetware, bio-augmetics, and gene therapy.
Malorian Arms
Malorian Firearms, Inc. (also known as Malorian Arms) is a weapons manufacturer specializing in powerful market firearms and custom weaponry. The Malorian name is synonymous with hand-machined excellence, often considered the go-to firearms designer for the greatest Night City legends around. While they make a small catalogue of standard issue firearms, they are considered well and above the market standard, and reflect the price.
Eran Malor’s family still takes the rare custom order, sticking to their founder’s method of zero-G machining to make artisanal irons like the 3516 Silverhand. Though it struggles in the market with its exclusivity, that same distinctive clientele keeps the brand alive.
Militech
Militech specializes in military armaments and equipment manufacturing, but also deals in paramilitary & police contracting. They're not as big as their competitors in this field, but their presence can be felt in NUSA territory. After being nationalized, many of Militech's members were incorporated into NUSA's Department of Defense.
Despite being on the losing side of the Fifth Corporate War, Militech still came out like a bandit, making money hand over fist with their NUSA partnership, R&D, and manufacturing. Though their reputation is somewhat tarnished in Night City, there are few who would turn their nose up at Militech hardware.
Network News 54
NN54 is a 24 hour news service across the US, which gained control of several smaller cable networks and pioneered the small-scale development of several new broadcasting and production technologies.
Pentex
Originally an oil and mining company, Pentex is now a holding company with a host of subsidiaries covering every industry. Its paper trails are labyrinthine and its directives subtle. They are more of a corporate umbrella-corp and investing firm now, its subsidiaries ranging from oil to arms, cybernetics and game development.
Rocklin Augmetics
Early to the game of cyberware, Rocklin first supplied artificial limbs to veterans of the Central American Wars. Though they quickly fell to obscurity afterwards, a total rebrand in 2030 recaptured and kept public attention with the overly stylish designs—tech and fashion in equal measure—that now characterize their lineup.
Raven Microcybernetics
Raven Microcybernetics, commonly referred to as Raven Microcyb or R.M.C. is a corporation dedicated to the cyberware business. Its headquarters are found in Night City. Raven Microcyb was once the main American manufacturer of cyberware, wetware and cybernetic electronics, and were known for always surfing the cutting edge of cybertechnology.
Trauma Team
Trauma Team International (TTI) is a corporation that specializes in rapid response medical services. As the premium paramedical franchise, Trauma Team™ is one of the most notable corporations of the 21st century. The company automatically bills their patients from the moment they receive the order to the location of retrieval.
Zetatech
Zetatech is among the number of corporations that specializes in wetware and computer hardware and software design. They have a wide catalog of cybernetics, drones, bio-augmetics, aerodyne vehicles, and computing goods. As of 2099, the hold 80% of the drone and AV market.
Time of the Red: a slang term for the period from 2023 to the late 2040s, taken from the red skies common throughout the world as an aftereffect of the 4th Corporate War.
AV: Pronounced "Ay-Vee." Common slang for an aerodyne; an automobile-like vehicle powered by ducted jet fans.
AI: Artificial Intelligence; a computer with full self-awareness.
Beaverville: A safe suburban neighborhood primarily inhabited by mid-level Corporate executives and their families.
Bonanza: The location of a big score like an abandoned Corporate facility.
Borg: Someone who is 'Borged Up', mostly mechanical, borderline cyberpsycho.
Booster: Any member of a gang that affects cyberware, leather clothing, and random violence.
Stims: Any one of a series of designer drugs created to increase speed, stamina, and reflexes. Usually referring to "combat stimulants", or combat drugs
Chilled: To be cool; to be together.
Chip: Any type of data recording, usually in the formof small colored, slivers of plastic.
Chippin' In: To buy cyberware for the first time. To cast your lot with a group. To connect with a machine.
Chombatta (Choomba, Choom): Neo-Afro American slang for friend, family member.
CHOOH2: Pronounced "Choo-Two". Streetslang for alcohol, as used in vehicle power plants. The vast majority of vehicles in the Time of the Red are fueled by an advanced form of alcohol with a higher burning temperature than normal methanol.
Chromer: A 21st-century heavy metal rock fan. See also Chromatic Rock.
Chromatic Rock: A type of heavy metal characterized by heavy electronics, simple rhythms, and violent lyrics.
Conapt: A condominium apartment in a Corporate Zone.
Cybered-Up: To get as much cyberware implanted as possible before going over the Edge.
Daemon: A form of Black ICE with a limited artificial intelligence designed to defend a NET architecture or to be loaded into a Netrunner's cyberdeck to deploy against a NETs ICE.
Data Term: A street corner information machine, with a screen, CitiNet inputs, and keyboard.
[Let's] Delta: Colloquial for "GTFO", "Move out", and "Get out of dodge"
'Dorphs: Street slang for synthetic endorphins, a designer drug that increases healing powers, limits fatigue, and produces a "rush" like a second wind.
Exotic: A human biosculpted with non-human elements fur, long ears, fangs, etc. Now also used to refer to natural-born "second generation" mutants expressing Exotic qualities.
The Face: The representative of a Megacorporation for legal purposes.
Flatline: To kill. A dead person or thing.
Go LEO: To make the trip into Low Earth Orbit, i.e., to visit one of the inner space stations.
Gyro: Small one- or two-seat helicopters, used mostly in police work and Corporate strike operations.
Gonk: Idiot, Dumbass
Handle: A nickname; a working name you are known by on The Street.
Hydro: Streetslang for hydrogen fuel, used to power some vehicles in the 2000s.
Input/Output: A mechanistic term for a casual lover.
ICE: Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics; security systems within a NET architecture or subnet. Black ICE is a kind of ICE specifically designed to hunt down intruding Netrunners or inter-system AIs.
Keyboard: Streetslang for a computer interface deck with manual keys. Also, a terminal.
Kombi: A large vehicle capable of carrying cargo and passengers. Popularly used by Nomads as housing on the road.
Lawman: Police officers or other law enforcers. Originally derived from Captain Max Hammerman's post-war police task force known on The Street as "The Lawmen", this streetslang has come to be synonymous with any and all law enforcers.
Mainline: A term for your partner in a serious, longterm relationship.
Meatspace: A term commonly used by Netrunners to refer to the physical world.
Midnight Market: Top secret, temporary marketplaces put up by high level Fixers to sell highly illegal goods. Powerful members of the criminal underworld often hold their meetings in private rooms in a Midnight Market.
Mutie: Derogatory for an Abhuman. Colloquial with Twist, Freak, and Trog (as in troglodyte)
Netrun: To interface with a NET Architecture and hack into its programs and controls. Also used to refer to running the Old NET until the advent of the 4th Corp War.
Night Market: Off-the-grid, temporary marketplaces set up by groups of Fixers with solid connections. In the Time of the Red a Night Market is the best place to find new cyberware and gear.
Nova: For when something is amazing, awesome. Interchangeable with "Preem"
Pixelfreak: Someone with a crippling addiction to pornogrpahic braindances or erotic AI.
Polymer One Shot: Any cheap, plastic pistol, usually in the 5 to 9mm range.
Posergang: Any group whose members all affect a specific look, style, or bodysculpt job.
Preem: Meaning awesome, fantastic, or very good. Slang for "Premium/Supreme". Interchangable with "Nova"
R.A.B.I.D.S.: A particularly deadly form of black ICE spread throughout the Old NET after the death of their creator, Netrunning Legend Rache Bartmoss.
Resyk: Recycling Facility. Nothing can be wasted in an age of scarcity. Don't ask what keeps the lights on.
Ripperdoc: A surgeon specializing in implanting illegal Cyberware.
Ronin: A freelance assassin or mercenary. Usually considered to be untrustworthy.
Samurai: A Corporate assassin or mercenary, hired to protect Corporation property or make strikes against other Corporate holdings.
Inversely, a Street Samurai is considered a reputed Edgerunner or Street Merc.
Slammit On: To get violent; to attack someone without reason.
The Street: Wherever you live, late at night. Also, the Subculture; the Underground.
Stuffit: To have sex. Also, to forget about something.
Younganger: A juvenile gangster, thug, gang member
404'd: When a Netrunner experiences brain-death in the NETspace
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