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Independent
 Dunkelzahn is a great Western Dragon, at least 7,000 years old and possibly far older. He is the only one of his kind to show real interest in metahumanity. His reasons for entering the politcal race are best summed up by this quote from a post he made in a forum about Aztlan:
>>>>>[Faith, as corrupt as the human hand may have made it, is one of those rare things that lets a person see the world not as a place of random chaos and indiscriminate loss, but one that through the heartache and grief has a purpose beyond the tragedy of the here and now. The decline of faith has stolen hope from the human race...We, all of us here and others, have striven to weaken the hold of faith on the human heart for generations, so that when magic returned they might be more open to it and embrace it more quickly. I believe we have made a terrible mistake...Their loss of faith has let them see the world as a cold place built on manipulable formulae and devoid of meaning. They are no longer afraid of the universe.]<<<<<
- The Big D <00:00:00/00-00-0000>
Dunkelzahn feels a certain responsibility toward his follow creatures, but has been continually frustrated in his efforts to enlighten and educate metahumanity by his follow immortals. They prefer to keep the masses in ignorance of the truth while guiding them toward fulfillment of their own purposes. Dunkelzahn has been closely involved in the struggles of many mortals, felt first-hand [telepathically] their hopes, dreams and fears, seen their heights and depths. He has a somewhat romantic view of the human struggle and empathizes a great deal with the plight of mortals in the Sixth World.
The events and omens of the past few years have deeply disturbed Dunkelzahn. He feels that humanity has stumbled into matters involving the Awakened world that they are simply not prepared to deal with yet. Many events are happening much too soon, and the thought that powers like Aztechnology's blood magic may be accelerating whatever is to come worries the wyrm a great deal. Dunkelzahn can no longer stand idly by and watch events unfold; he must take action.
Unfortunately, Dunkelzahn is handcuffed by his fellow mortals, and so cannot reveal most of what he knows to the population at large. [They would probably ignore it anyway; most people in 2057 have trouble paying attention to a 30-second sound bite, much less considering events centuries down the road.] He decides, therefor, to take actions that will benefit all of [meta]humanity whether they know it or not. The dragon sees himself as something of a benevolent dictator, someone who must take certain high-handed measures because he knows more than everyone else. He would rather educate and inform people so that they can act on their own behalf, but if that is not an option, he will gladly do what needs to be done all by himself.
Vice President: In need of a "human" face to put on his campaign Dunkelzahn turns to master manipulator Damien Knight, the dragon's sometime advisor on metahumanity. Knight proposes Boston-area investor and multi-millionaire Kyle Haeffner, an old friend of Knight's. Haeffner's wife Alice was one of the young "data mavericks" recruited by Echo Mirage to deal with the Crash Virus more than twenty-five years ago, and was also one of the first deckers killed by the virus in cybercombat. Kyle Haeffner has since remaried and thrown himself entirely into aiding important charitable institutions with his considerable fortune sort of modern-day Dale Carnegie]. Haeffner and Knight are linked by their common background, and Knight feels Haeffner has the skills to make the perfect VP for the great dragon, Knight also knows that Haeffner will be loyal to him first and the wyrm second, exactly the state of affairs he wants.
Platform: "A New Golden Age"
Oddly enough, Dunkelzahn's campaign does not turn on the dragon's exotic, fantastical nature. Instead, the dragon proposes to remind the UCAS of what made it great in the past - Canadian-American ingenuity, and the ability to believe in and act according to an ideal - and to help all citizens share in that greatness. Dunkelzahn points out that it is still the ordinary people of the UCAS who pursue successful technological innovations; the megacorps obey the bottom line too slavishly to accept the neccessary financial risks inherent in true inventiveness. The wyrm also plans to encourage all metahumans to rejoin UCAS society by offering one-time amnesty to all those without SIN numbers, creating an opportunity that will allow every male, female and child to register with the UCAS government wihtout fear of reprisal.
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