Yog, Basically what Sam said. 

Abysse, Everything that happened before the Awakening happened in the real world but post Awakening the last few years were different. You could probably write small stuff happening because of the Awakening in different countries but nothing like "China completely collapsed" or "Israel was overrun" kinda stuff. Big geopolitical events would actually be determined by the players. 

Sam, No it was a great post, just that when I wrote the mandrakes leaked fluid from their eyes I was implying that was a weakpoint.

That Lovefist tho. Just saying after a few years of fighting crime I'm pretty sure you'd shave some pounds :P