The Ascendancy has come and gone, and a wave of vicissitude unlike any before has swept its neon and steel surface. The integrity of the forces keeping shadow at bay have been compromised, and realities blend together in a phenomenon that has been labeled The Bleed. Storms rage across Cyberia; those caught within their confines are subjected to winds of change as the very physical laws are bent and broken within the area of effect. Some have even disappeared, never to be heard from again. There are persistent rumours of deadly conflicts with things beyond imagining...

     Thus far, this effect is limited to a few occurrences in the Tatters and the outer areas of Cyberia. But they are growing in frequency, the storms of change moving inwards towards Prime.

     But the powers that be are seemingly oblivious to the danger. This is in part due to the fact that only the dregs of society face the effect. But more to the point, Prime has its own problems.

     The wall is no longer a secure deterrent to the horrors of the Cannibal sectors- it's defenses have been breached by an unprecedented breakdown of the computer systems controlling them. Humans now hold the line while the systems and the walls are rebuilt, but they are in no way as capable as the defenses that proceeded them. Gorehounds and worse have made it into inner Cyberia, and now haunt the sewers of the Underground. Though bounties have been placed against their elimination, and many have been terminated, there always remains the danger of a deadly encounter in the night for the average denizen of the Underworld. Fear pervades the atmosphere.

     To top it off, the Ether has become dangerously unpredictable: even runs that were simple before are now fraught with the unexpected, and areas once relatively safe are liable to become lethal in an eyeblink. Rumours of rogue programs prowling the Ether are rampant, they are not said to be benign. Even more troubling is the fact that some users are rumoured to have been driven insane by use of the Ether. But none of these incidents have been substantiated, and with the ubiquitousness of the Ether in everyday activity, rumours alone cannot slow down it's use.

     Cyberia is more dangerous than ever before. But it is also, more than ever, a land of opportunity. The changing landscape has evened the playing field; the Elders are facing just as much of an unknown as the younger generation. Opportunity favors the bold: who will take advantage of it?

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