Cities float in space, computers interact directly with the mind, and the line between soul and machine is no longer fathomable. Technology has seen fantastic advances in medicine, transportation, and communication: nanosurgeons and metabolically-tailored drugs knit the gravest of injuries in days, Transdermal Direct Neural Interface (TDNI) technology links the brain with machines and the computers of the Matrix, flying cars ply the airways, and with the recent advent of gravtech orbital colonies exist in the greatest comfort.
But the changes in the world are deeper than the technological tools of its inhabitants. In recent years, the long-overextended governments of the world collapsed under the inexorable competition of a handful of gigantic and overwhelmingly wealthy corporations, leaving most territories under the direct control of one company or another. Executive directorships have replaced elected leaders and military tyrants alike; shareholders are the new citizenry. Corporate security enforces company directives, and company lawyers argue contract violations in what once were courts of the people. Meanwhile, those out of the corporate loop by chance or choice struggle in the shadows of every city, in the dirty and decrepit sprawls where company resources (and hence company security) are lacking.
The foundations of Shadows of the Soul were begun in 1990. From 1990 to 1993 I ran several adventures, most of them loosely connected at best, for friends in Birmingham, Alabama. The themes and results of these old scenarios form the basis of this new campaign, set some twenty-five years afterward. The world has changed, but the stories move on. Some tales take years to reach fruition...
--Napoleon Solo, 2170
