Wander the streets and you'll find dozens of runners, hundreds of gang members, and thousands of squatters. What you rarely come across is a legend, a runner, or a ganger, or even a corp who has elevated themselves or has been elevated by others to a level of near mysticism. They can work for evil or for good. For themselves, for a group, or for nobody at all. Some are now dead, others have simply vanished, but all continue to exist in the corners of the minds of those who hope to someday achieve the same fame. To die without dying. To live forever.

Job Freemont

When Job goblinized into a troll at the age of 13 his devout Baptist family interpreted the event as a sign that Satan has entered their lives. They decided to cover up their dirty secret, forcing Job to live in an old basement coal cellar and demanding that he read the Bible over and over and "repent". Job read, and read, and read but, with no clear definition of what repenting meant, he descended into a mental world of confused thoughts and ideas, warping the words of the Bible even more than they already were until he established the belief that the only true way to be with God was through crucifixion. Using primitive tools and aged lumber he furnished the weapon that would serve him on his quest for the next ten years: The crucifixion mallet.

An object of art to those who study weapons, the crucifixion mallet consisted of an oversized wooden hammer of troll proportions with a spring mechanism which could flip up a nail the size of a rail road spike from its concealed position within the hammer itself. With a single blow the nail could penetrate nine inches of wood and, of course, the human hand or foot. He first struck out against his family, crucifying his mother and father by nailing them up in various places around the house.

Under normal circumstances an individual like Job would have been tagged a monster and, if it wasn't for the somewhat off balanced compassion of a young reporter named Marcy Keller, he would have been. Other than the police, Marcy was the first individual to visit the "scene of the crime" and from he observations of the family's strict, almost psychotic, religious nature and Job's horrid hell hole of a home in the basement she was able to reconstruct the horribly oppressive environment that led to Job's behavior. She also found evidence that Job had been beaten, whipped, and, at one point, castrated by his mother and father. When her telling of the events hit the air waves, complete with images telling the terrible story, sympathy quickly grew for Job. In a way he became a hero for anybody who had even been oppressed, beaten, molested, raped, or otherwise punished for "wrong doings" created in the warped minds of their assailants.

Meanwhile, Job had carried his "crusade" into the heart of Seattle where he, in a way, went undercover, working for various charity groups and religious organizations just so he could gather information on "wrong doings" and "punish" the offenders through crucifixion. The ironic thing is, Job never considered his actions as punishment. He felt that he was simply doing the will of God, helping those who followed God's law get as close to the intangible being as possible. In a way, he felt that what his victims were doing was right. He couldn't understand why they wouldn't want to be crucified. To be one with God.

December 25, 2058. The cops had caught on to Job's activities and set him up by giving him a prime target: A devout Baptist family living in the Seattle slums who had a history of mysterious beatings and even the death of a child. Unbeknownst to Job this family did not exist. He entered an old second story row house apartment and found nothing. Moments later a heavy response team stormed in, guns raised, and demanded that Job drop his weapon. Job had no intention of harming the police, they were not his target and, in his mind, they were "sinners" who did not deserve to be with God. Cornered with no way out Job held his mallet out at arms lengths, looking as if he was going to drop it. Whether intended or not the nail mechanism sprung, startling one of the cops who opened fire with a riot shotgun. The other officers followed and after the smoke cleared there was little left of Job Freemont.

After a fierce legal battle the remains of Job were obtained by a small children's rights group called Immortal Tears and were buried in a small Redmond park under a large, bronze, sorrowful statue created in his image. In the statue's hands, held tight, is the original crucifixion mallet, nail deployed and sealed in bronze. Engraved on the statue's base are the words "May The End Justify The Means".

Jerico Holt

Jerico never thought his weapons manufacturing corporation would get as far as it did. At the age of 19, already rather business smart, he invested in a small upstart weapons plant called Shockweapons. When the company began to falter and their stock prices fell he obtained a loan and managed to acquire 60 percent of the company in a matter of hours. A day later he was installed as the CEO and, at the age of 21, was in charge of his own corporation, Holt Defensive Firearms.

Jerico was never a fan of violence but realized that, with the number of weapons in criminal hands mounting, it was important that regular citizens have access to the same firepower. He established his corporate principals on the basis of protection, not assault, and only sold to weapons stores which executed the proper background checks and followed all legal procedures. The company continued to grow at a geometric rate, a phenomenon which made Jerico more uneasy than it did happy. He was quickly losing the ability to personally oversee all aspects of production and feared that a lack of monitoring may result in his company engaging in activities he didn't especially approve of. More and more of his board members expressed the desire to engage in the production of military weapons, an action Jerico was vehemently opposed to. The stress of simply keeping things in order finally got to him and he retired to his secluded mountain cabin to regroup his thoughts and decide on the future of the corporation.

While he was away, Hellen Selon, who was a Hold board member while simultaneously working as an "agent" for Ares, made her move. A computer expert she reprogrammed many of the manufacturing robots to produce faulty products with the ultimate plan of lowering the company's stock value to the point that many holders would be willing to sell to Ares. Through the utilization of a team of deckers she also managed to "destroy" 20 percent of Jerico's stock in the company, thus placing him in control of only 40 percent of Holt's total value. When Jerico returned from his vacation he found that he was no longer in control of the company which bore his name. The new CEO, Hellen Selon, immediately demoted him to a position of non existent power. Jerico's company was no longer Jerico's company.

This story would end like any other hostile take over if it wasn't for Jerico's drastic response to the situation. Although he could have sold his stock to Ares and made out with a good profit he decided to take another path. Jerico hired a team of runners for the purpose of destroying Holt Defensive Firearms. His response wasn't spontaneous, however. With the ultimate purpose of revenge on his mind he waited until the latest possible moment, right before the company was to be sold to Ares. As represenitives from both parties met at a hotel in a nearby city Jerico attacked, successfully destroying Holt's administrative building and all of its five orbiting factories. Not knowing that they were purchasing a non-existent corporation, Ares purchased the stock. Mere minutes later they learned of what had happened and declared that the deal was off. This angered the Holt represenitives who stated that a deal was a deal and that they'd be expecting their cash. The argument soon erupted into violence as the meeting room at the Mariott suddenly turned into a battle ground as the two contingents of weapons manufactures opened fire on each other. Only one Ares represenitive and two Holt negotiators survived. Hellen Selon was killed in the fire fight.

After the fiasco Jerico simply vanished. Some believe he started working with the running group he had hired, known as Club Nightmare, while others believe he was killed when as he bombed on of his plants. The clearest evidence that he's still alive manifested in the form of a small hold out pistol called the Snake which recently appeared on the street and which incorporates some of the technology his former company utilized.

Lisa Faraway

A street shaman runaway, Lisa early on tried to distance herself from the snobby attitude many people had toward elves. She lived in near poverty, working odd street jobs from until the age of 18 when she was offered an apprenticeship with a talismonger named Firetooth. She worked diligently and became quite skilled at her trade and built up an extensive network of street shaman contacts, mostly with younger runaways like she had been.

On a stormy Halloween night in October of 2049 the shop was raided by a local gang known as the Hell Knights. During the attack Firetooth was killed and Lisa, who simply went by the street name Faraway, was severely beaten. Left for dead, she was found by a group of her young street mage friends who helped her recuperate and rebuild the shop. Not the kind who would seek revenge Faraway quickly put the incident behind her and went back to talismongering. During this time she also met a shaman known as Tree Healer. They quickly fell in love, married a year later, and together had a child whom they named Firetooth, in honor of her old teacher.

Five years to the day that Firetooth was killed the same gang again raided her store, brutally murdering young Firetooth as well as Tree Healer and a friend of the couple who had been visiting. Faraway, who had been visiting her old teacher's grave at the time, returned to find her family and friend murdered, the Hell Knight's gang colors spray painted triumphantly on the corpses. Calmly she left the store, got into her van, picked up a few of her street shaman friends, and disappeared from the city of Seattle.

In early October 2057 various members of the Hell Knights began to turn up dead, their deaths apparently caused by massive magical damage which often reduced the body to near nothingness. Although there were witnesses who observed some of the deaths they never were able to identify the assailant or even where the magic had come from. In most cases the victim simply "exploded".

Halloween night, 2057. Astral observers report a massive influx of energy emanating from an unknown location but obviously targeted on an old warehouse where the Hell Knights had their hideout. Within seconds the warehouse is GONE, along with everybody inside of it. The mystery of the disappearance isn't solved until a year later when the warehouse, along with the bodies of the members of the Hell Knights, is found in a remote section of Salish woods. Also found are the remains of three of the five young street shamans Faraway left Seattle with three years earlier, their demise apparently caused by the massive drain usually caused by a powerful ritual sending. Faraway was never found.