Regions

Regions (also nicknamed "kingdoms"), are large areas on the world NET map (such as Atlantis in the southern Atlantic/African Basin). They are referred to by name. A Region is a hazy zone of shifting boundaries; new regions pop up all the time, and the boundaries constantly change as potential Net reality shifts. It's not really a place; just a rough definition of an area where certain groups or governments have the most control. Regions include:

Atlantis: This is the second largest of the regional kingdoms, stretching from Central and South America to the west coast of Africa. The region is primarily controlled by the Central American Federation and its allied corporations. Key City Grids are located in Mexico City, Panama City, Bogota, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Dakar and Acension. Atlantis is a fairly freewheeling region, with a lot of black-market trade, especially out of Panama City.

Rustbelt: This region covers the Central and Eastern United States. Key City Grids are the New York/BosWash Megaplex, Chicago-GreatLakes, Atlanta-CityCore, New Orleans, and St. Louis. The region is a near absolute dictatorship controlled by a troika of NetWatch (the worldwide Net security organization), the U.S. Provisional Government, and the EuroMarket Consortium. Systems are heavily monitored and computer crime treated with draconian ferocity.

Olympia: The Olympia Region spans most of the Southwestern and Western United States. Nominally, it is the domain of NetWatch and the United States Provisional Government. Individual city grids are usually controlled on a local level by the most prominent Corporation in the area; Denver (Orbital Air), Salt Lake (Militech), Dallas/Houston Megaplex (WorldSat), Albuquerque (Militech). Most of the traffic in these regions is corporate related, with many established bulletin boards and service networks.

Pacifica: This is the largest of the regions, covering the West Coast of North America and expanding over most of the Pacific Basin. As with Olympia, it is under the joint rulership of NetWatch and the USPG to the edge of the Hawaiian Basin; at this point, there is a four way division between NetWatch, USPG, Arasaka LTD. and the Far Asian Co-Prosperity Federation. In the US, most key City Grids are controlled by the most powerful corps in the specific city; Night City (Arasaka), San Francisco (EBM), Los Angeles (Petrochem), Seattle (Arasaka). In these cities, control is relatively loose. Across the Pacific Basin, control increases as Arasaka tightens its grip.

TokyoChiba: This is a very small region covering the Japanese archipelago, specifically Tokyo, Osaka and Yokahama. Chiba is the center of operations for a number of very powerful zaibatsu, including Mitzubishi-Dai, Matsushima-Kiroshiu, and of course, Arasaka. However, due to the immense amount of inter-zaibatsu warfare, no one megacorp holds control, making this a ripe field for information brokering and corporate "netspionage".

Afrikani: This regional "kingdom" extends from the edge of Atlantis across Africa to the Middle East and Madagascar. Key City Grids are Addis Ababa, Zanzibar, Cairo, Algiers, Nairobi, Mozambique and Alexandria. With the exception of Nairobi and Cairo (under firm Orbital Air control), the rest of Afrikani is a chaotic wasteland of antiquated systems, shirting alliances and fanatics. Caution is advised.

EuroTheatre: This most powerful of the regional "kingdoms", EuroTheatre is primarily controlled by the EuroCorps. Key City Grids are London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Amsterdam, Rome, Madrid and Stockholm. The three largest EuroCorps in each city work in cooperation with NetWatch to maintain security. The EuroTheatre Net is dominated by corporate traffic; there are few private systems and most independent Netrunners are already known and recorded by NetWatch. EuroTheatre is a good place for legal business transactions, banking, Netconferencing and other legitimate transactions. It is a very, very bad place to commit computer crime.

SovSpace: This region covers the borders of the now reduced Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, extending into Eastern Europe. Key City Grids are Moscow, Leningrad, Warsaw, Kiev, Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. The USSR holds nominal control over this region, with control gradually shifting to NetWatch and the European Economic Community around Poland. Systems in SovSpace tend to be primitive, slow and equipped with a few deadly programs rather than sophisticated defenses. The Eastern European netrunners range from simple hackers alt the way to the most daring cowboys in all Netspace (these guys have nothing to lose). The entire region is rife with espionage, information trading, and the petty bickering of small political groups looking for their own economic advantages. A good place to sell information, if you don't mind being paid in low value currency.

Orbitsville: The largest potential region, covering the Low Earth and Near Earth Space. Orbitsville is a great place to meet people, pick up rumors and generally have a good ol' time. Security is loose to nonexistent Orbitsville is primarily controlled by the Orbital Corporations and the ESA (which has it's own version of NetWatch). There's not a lot of "groundhog" traffic - orbital time lag (2-3 seconds) makes Netrunning from Groundside a tough proposition. Local traffic is very busy, with every Spacer habitat and colony hooked up to a constant stream of chatter. Transactions are mostly on the small time level: trading raw materials, medicine, air, food, water and gossip.