Denver, an executive summary, or "I read the books so you don't have to"

Having recently picked up the Denver adventure trilogy (Serrated Edge/ False Flag/ Ripping Reality), I decided to transport the runner team to Denver (or the Front Range Free Zone as it’s known). But not knowing the city, I hit the books to bone up on the setting, and this is what I found out.

Beginning with Denver City of Shadows: Denver’s Shadowrun history begins in 2018 when the Treaty of Denver was signed, effectively surrendering most of the USA over to the NAN. Denver itself got divvied up between 5 sectors, not so much by treaty, but pretty much by land-grabbing. These were the UCAS, Atzlan, Ute, Pueblo and Sioux. These ‘sectors’ are a distinct area to the countries, so passing from the UCAS sector to UCAS proper still involves some sort of border check. It’s like a Berlin of North America.

Denver is a smuggling hub, with T-birds bringing goods and services up and down the Rockies, and across sectors. It’s also a hacking hub, with a huge underground Wikileaks style network called, The Nexus. Bear in mind, this was written in 1995, so physical locations for virtual objects was still a thing. Another point of interest is the Aurora Warrens, which is nominally part of the UCAS sector, but is actually a no man’s land which no-one officially owns. It serves as the Barrens for Denver.

From various sources: Some time later, before 2055, half of the UCAS sector was given over to the CAS (voluntarily), which brings the sectors up to 6.

In December 2061, the dragon Ghostwalker suddenly appeared out of the Watergate Rift and took over Denver. In January 2062 he kicked out Atzlan, giving their sector over to the CAS, bring the sector count to 5. This coup was fairly bloodless, because resisting a dragon is rarely a good idea.

At various points later, the Ute sector was merged into the Pueblo sector, bringing the sector count down to 4. In July 2073, Ghostwalker disappeared back into the Watergate rift and reappeared again in June 2074, this time having rejoined the split spirits of Denver back into one: Zebulon. He also then made it illegal to summon or bind spirits.

From Stormfront (Lightening in Denver):October 2074, Ghostwalker's personal host was compromised and leaked, in retaliation Ghostwalker sent the ZDF to raid the Nexus data haven, taking them into custody.

Halloween 2074, the powerful mage Harlequin caused chaos in Denver, and took on Ghostwalker, for various reasons, resulting in a huge battle downtown. When the dust settled, Ghostwalker disappeared again, and Atzlan suddenly returned, and took over part of the Pueblo sector, bringing the sector count up to 5. This is the situation in 2075 and nominally onwards.

So the city is nominally run by a council, with one representative from each sector. It is assumed that Atzlan has a representative now that Ghostwalker is gone again, but it’s unlikely he’ll be away forever. A joint organisation called the Zone Defense Force enforced the dragon’s will, which presumably is now under the control of the Council. These are all assumptions!

Finally, for a map, your best bet is from the Sixth World Almanac, which simply lacks the Atzlan sector. Good luck!

Addenda: March 2078 is when the Serrated Edge/ False Flag/ Ripping Reality trilogy takes place.