From the basic cyberpunk tropes mentioned above, the setting for Foreshadows began as fairly generic so the authors had plenty to work with.  Then, as each author started to invent places, technologies, and events, those were tossed into the playground for others to use, if they wanted to.  For example, once Ed Greenwood ^[5] mentioned something called the Second Multinational War in his story, then that became a reality that other stories might include.  Gradually, the world took shape, but only as much as it really needed to.

So what’s happened?  80 years in the future, we haven’t colonized other planets and we haven’t made contact with aliens—or who knows, we haven’t publicly made contact. We have severely messed with the climate, however, and wars large and small have rocked the planet. Some cities are destroyed, others have thrived. People have flocked to metropolises and places with abundant water and cleaner air, and the rich and the poor have only become more polarized.

Ed Greenwood’s story, “Best Served Flash-Frozen” (with music by Michelangelo ^[6] and Thee Crumb ^[7]), is about a handicapped tech-genius living beneath a war-ravaged and no longer hospitable city. He’s a forgotten sort of subterranean Quasidmodo with a score to settle against one of the most powerful men on the planet. Just why he wants revenge, and who it is, remains to be seen, but a small teaser can be read here ^[8].

In Don Bassingthwaite ^[9]’s “Too Much Is Never Enough” (based on music by Bilian ^[10]), the far north of Canada isn’t quite as frozen solid as it used to be, and an otherwise sparse tundra happens to harbor a globally popular sport called Stomp Brawl. His protagonist, Marco, is a unique competitor in the arena of Qingaut with a deadly agenda he’s not quite willing to accept. The first half of Don’s story (and half of the song itself) is actually available as a free download right here ^[11].

“Lament,” penned by Brian W. Matthews ^[12] (set to music by another cultural landslide ^[13]), is the story of an assassin with a serious and unexpected attack of conscience. And oh yeah, Mr. Matthews destroyed half of the city of Portland, not by the device of mankind but with nature itself. (Not everything’s humanity’s doing.)  With apologies to Portlanders.

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Some stories have a great deal of violence—gunfire, stabbings, poisonings, explosions, and even the jaws of a would-be lycanthrope—while others have absolutely none. Jaleigh Johnson ^[15] and Rosemary Jones, known for their Forgotten Realms® novels, give us thoughtful tales of loss, while C.S. Lewis savant Robert Velarde ^[16] shows us what becomes of Cheyenne Mountain and the environs of Colorado. Manila has some interesting new occupants, courtesy of Joe Rixman ^[17], Ruth Lampi, and Jess Van Oort ^[18].  Eberron® creator Keith Baker ^[19] weaves a pretty nasty tale in and out of cyberspace, and Western/PI writer Robert J. Randisi ^[20] also lends his pulp expertise in “Cold as the Gun” (with music by Joshua Wentz ^[21]) in the overcast Orleans City. Of course, the lists and synopses go on.

Ultimately, we’re not setting out to predict the future, merely to imagine what sorts of events might come about if the world as we know it takes a turn for the…worse? Mechanized?  Foreshadows is a supposal, not so much for the actual state of the Earth as for some of the experiences within it.

Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero offers a future both dark and wondrous. But it’s also a very independent and experimental project. We’re a disparate band of artists combining cybermusic and fiction in unorthodox ways. If you’d like to see Foreshadows become a reality, please come check out Forging Foreshadows ^[22].