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Peter's goblinization was traumatic and slow, taking over a month. The doctor refers to the change as ingetisization, and Peter's metatype (troll) as homo sapiens ingentis. By extension, the process of goblinizing into an ork (homo sapiens robustus) would be robustusization.
The doctors classify the metahuman condition as Unexplained Genetic Expression (UGE). The sudden transformation of an apparently normal human into an ork or troll is called "Spontaneous UGE", or "goblinization". Elves and dwarves were born to human parents beginning in 2011 but orks and trolls did not appear until Goblinization Day, 30 April 2021, when 10% of the world's population metamorphosed into orks and trolls (SR3, p.28).
Page 10: "Spontaneous UG-Expressions haven't been common since 2021."
The Night of Rage occurred on 7 February 2039, while Peter is recovering from his metamorphosis in the hospital. It sparks race-riots across the globe. This doesn't quite mesh with the date given at the beginning of the book (September 2039).
Widespread use of the Matrix and sophisticated user-friendly programming, speech recognition software, etcetera has led to a decline in literacy. Page 32: "Kids made fun of him in elementary school because his father wanted him to be literate, not just functionally literate, or 'iconerate,' the new term for those who went through life using only symbols and key words for written communication." This phenomenon is actually consistent with SR3 rules, by which the reading skills of beginning characters are at half the rating of the language skill (SR3, p.91).
Page 33: "Years ago, when the corps took over primary support of the public school system, all the reading programs -- well, the entire curriculum -- was changed to a more 'vocational' approach. To get a return on their money, the corps decided they wanted people to learn only as much as they needed to carry out a job."
Page 133-134: Peter finds three models in Katherine Amij's home, miniatures of a drawing room, a cathedral, and an old English kitchen. These are probably Thorne Miniature Rooms, currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Page 176: Peter mentions that it's 2053, which conflicts with the date at given earlier (December 2052). Only a few days have passed, without any mention of the New Year.
Page 187: "Most of the genetic-manipulation work dried up after the fiasco in London." The fiasco in quesion involoved the Adams-Hoffman Corporation conducting malign genetic manipulation experiments on humans and metahumans in the London sprawl in 2038, with the full knowledge and cooperation of the British government. Called "Project 42-20", it precipitated riots and plague and led to the creation of the Lambeth Containment Zone. (London Sourcebook, p.20, 109-110). Popular reaction against the atrocity apparently makes any research into nanotechnology and genetic engineering a potential public-relations time-bomb.
The famous Georges Seurat pointilist painting, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (painted in 1884-86), was liberated from the Chicago Art Institute and is currently in the Noose, hanging in an apartment belonging to a pair of female shadowrunners: Liason (a decker), and Breena (a mage). Liaison calls it "Sunday Afternoon at the Grand Jetty," and is fond of it because it reminds her of early computer graphics.
p.248: "A slag I knew, he got it from a friend, who stole it from an accountant, who stole it from a partner, who grabbed it out of the Institute when they shut it down after the IBM Tower collapsed."
Movie fans may remember seeing this painting in Ferris Bueller's Day Off; art lovers who have the opportunity should go see the original at the Institute. I have -- it's impressive. I wonder if Liason and Breena realize they've got a multimillion dollar wall decoration? I wonder if it survived the Containment Zone? The painting may have made its way into the possession of media baron Dan Truman by the events of Burning Bright (Tom Dowd, 1994).
Between the Seurat painting and the Thorne Miniatures, I'd hazard a guess that Chris Kubasik visitied the Art Institute either while he was writing the book or shortly before.
In 2053, the world's leading bioresearch nanotechnology developer is Geneering in France (page 196). Geneering is supplying prototypes to ABTech Enterprises in Chicago (page 216, 247). ABTech is a subsidiary of Biogene Technologies in Seattle (page 271). Biogene ended up on the wrong side of a confrontation with Aztechnology in 2050 (the shadowrun adventure DNA/DOA) and was subsequently acquired by Yamatetsu. Yamatetsu transferred the bulk of Biogene's assets to ABTech to protect them.
Page 295: Breena casts a Physical Mask spell on Peter, but appears to take much more than the Medium drain the spell normally imposes. Rule of Ones on the drain resistance test, maybe.
Because of the main character's obsession with "curing" his own metahuman condition, the book goes into some detail on the biology of metahumanity. I don't know enough about genetics to comment on the plausibility of the science involved, but this was the upshot:
Genotype is the genetic potential of an individual, the basic blueprints of a person. Phenotype is the potential of the person's genotype in combination with the environment. The same set of genes (genotype) would produce remarkably different people (phenotypes) under different environmental circumstances -- good diet and exercise versus a life of malnutrition and privation, for example. Following the Awakening, the introduction of Magic into the environment led to the possibility of Metahuman phenotypes (in the absence of magic prior to the awakening, the same genotype would have produced a base human phenotype).
Pleiotropic genes affect multiple traits. The presence of a single pleiotropic "metatrigger" gene could affect multiple genetic changes that separate human from metahuman. Another type of gene is an operator gene, which activates the more structural gene to which it is attatched. Operator genes can be blocked by repressor proteins which attatch to the operator gene and prevent the DNA from transcribing to RNA. The repressor itself can be bound by other chemicals, preventing if from disabling the operator gene.
Peter Clarris' theory is that the pleiotropic trigger for metahumanity is attatched to an operator gene that responds to the presence of magic in the environment. In the absence of magic, the operator is repressed. The presence of magic neutralizes the repressor proteins, allowing the operator gene to enable the metatrigger and voila! Metahuman.
In the course of thirteen years of research involving numerous thefts of proprietary or classified data from various megacorps and universities, Peter develops a theoretical process for suppression of the operator gene, as if magic were not in the environment. The process relies on nanotechnology and would be HIDEOUSLY expensive.
After accepting his own metahumanity, Peter destroys his research.
Interesting to note that Renraku exec veep Hohiro Sato claimed he could induce goblinization with a serum (Find Your Own Truth). Yet according to Peter Clarris' research, goblinization can be reversed only through a sophisticated nanotechnological process.
Da'Profezzur (Peter Clarris) is a "Prime Runner" card in Shadowrun: the Trading Card Game.
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