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"Hyde-White" is a pretty obvious tag-name. "Hyde" because there's a monster lurking behind a human mask, "White" because said monster is a wendigo.
Hyde-White is able to mask his aura to appear human.
Orks infected with HMHVV (Human-Metahuman Vampiric Virus) express as wendigo. In addition to the physical transformation, the virus also makes its victims magically capable. All known wendigo are shamanic magicians. Prior to her goblinization into an ork, Janice Verner was tested for magical ability by the Hoboken Institute (p.59) and found to be mundane. After her transformation, she became a wolf shaman.
p. 101: The Seelie Court in Tir Na nOg is more a social distinction than a political one. It refers to the elven nobility and to the physical location of the Court itself. The latter encompasses an estate with every modern convenience, blanketed by multiple layers of magical illusion to provide the appearance of a sylvan paradise.
The metaplanes are depths of astral space accessible only to initiates, steeped in metaphor and mythological imagery and perceived largely according to the needs and expectations of the visiting magician. Apart from the requirement that the magician be an initiate, there is an obstacle to accessing the metaplanes called The Dweller on the Threshhold (Grimoire 2, p.93). The dweller appears to Sam as "The Man of Light", and is particularly effective in blocking Sam's progress, using his own skepticism against him. In accordance with Sam's adversarial encounters with wendigo, the Man Of Light adopts those characteristics. Sam eventually discovers that Hyde-White used sorcery to impair Sam's memory and skills, but it seems equally probable that the Dweller is simply taking advantage of Sam's growing suspicions and insecurities.
From Find Your Own Truth, p.217: "Once, the Dweller had been perverted by an evil wendigo and warped through some unknown magic to bar Sam from the totemic plane."
The Hidden Circle has nine members, two of whom survive the events of the novel:
1. Sir Winston Neville, Archdruid (killed by Dodger)
2. Andrew Glover, second Archdruid (killed by Hart)
3. Hyde-White (killed by Sam)
4. David Neville (killed by White's toxic spirit)
5. Barnett (killed by Dodger)
6. Fitzgilbert (killed by White's toxic spirit)
7. Thomas Alfred Carstairs (killed by Willie's combat drone)
8. Ashton
9. Wallace
The Hidden Circle computer system uses a Camelot metaphor (p.194). In cracking that system, Dodger encounters the Renraku AI again. Intrigued by Dodger, the AI has been observing his activities in the Matrix. Pursuant to the host's Camelot metaphor, it assumes the guise of Morgan Le Fey. From this point forward, the Renraku AI exhibits female personality traits and uses the name Morgan.
p.219: "Belief was the key to shamanic mindset. Belief also terrorized generations of urban children who had heard and believed that alligators dwelt in the sewers of their cities. Did that make Gator an urban totem? If that were the case, a totem was no more than a symbol, a way to place the mind in a receptive frame."
p.250: "Since the Reunification, celibacy is no longer required of [Catholic] priests."
p.251: "The Sylvestrines gather the cream of the Church's magical talent, but not all members are magically active and most of the rest are adepts or students."
Father Rinaldi has astral senses, but no other magical ability.
p.252: "a person's aura showed only strength. While those with strong auras were often magically capable, it didn't show unless they were actively manipulating mana. Even then, the tradition they followed might not be clear unless the nature of the magic was strongly allied in the form of manipulation."
p.286: the model name of the Narcoject Rifle (Street Samurai Catalog, p.62) is the Hypnos. In Greek mythology, Hypnos was the god of sleep (his brother was Thanatos, god of death). The palace of Hypnos was on the banks of the River Lethe -- Lethe is also the model name of the Narcoject Pistol (Street Samurai Catalog, p.62; Never Deal With A Dragon, p.228).
p.296: Dodger traces Janice Verner on a GWN corporate flight from Hong Kong to Mexico City. But "Mexico City" has been Tenochtitlan since roughly 2015. So either Dodger is showing his age, the GWN system is unbelievably archaic, or the author (Charette) missed an edit.
None of the locations and few of the people described in this novel are mentioned in the London Sourcebook, which was published in the same year. In its history section, the sourcebook states that the current monarch, corporate favorite George Edward Richard Windsor-Hanover "won out over the candidate of the growing druidic interests." (London, p.19). The druidic candidate, Edward Arthur Charles Gordon-Windsor (named in the novel, not the sourcebook), appears in this novel as a puppet of the Hidden Circle.
p.335: nice display of a decker's practical offensive capabilities. Dodger traps several corporate heavies in an elevator, disables the emergency brake, and sends it plummeting to the basement. Interesting design flaw -- one would expect the emergency brakes on an elevator to be purely mechanical.
The dwarf rigger (Willie) gets some good print as well, via her manipulation of surveillance and combat drones and by subverting Hawthornwaite Tower's rigged security system (the first appearance of Closed Circuit Simsense security systems in a Shadowrun product -- they won't be detailed in a sourcebook for another four years, until Corporate Security Handbook in 1995).
Sam's climactic battle with the wendigo (Hyde-White) makes heavy use of conjuring, and features a nice contrast between healthy and toxic City domains.
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