Your character may be from the Deadlands, but you cannot have been to or lived in Shelter.

Your character cannot have grown up in the deadlands as a child, children cannot survive in the Deadlands. Your character may've only been from/lived in the Deadlands as an adult.

📌 Summary

🔥 The Deadlands, ☢️ ‎Scorched Earth, ⚰️ ‎Ghost Roads, 💀 ‎Lawless

Once the fertile heart of the continent, the Great Plains stretched vast and wide between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies.
It has been forty-five years since the quarantine was breached, unleashing the apocalypse. Forty-five years since nuclear fire scorched the land. The soil now lies poisoned by humanity’s mistakes.

They are now called the Deadlands, an inhospitable region scarred by salted bombs meant to tear apart the very molecules of flesh and bone. Rain falls with a metallic sting that burns the skin. The ground is brittle dust that holds the memory of every footprint for miles.

Winds carry the scent of decay across dead fields and empty farmland. Even the weeds struggle to survive. Forests stand blackened. Homes are reduced to hollow remains, their foundations all that is left of the blue-collar families who once kept the country alive.

Tornadoes and violent storms still sweep through the region, stirring radioactive ash and ensuring the destruction never settles.

No major factions or permanent settlements remain. Only tents, roaming sanctuaries, and temporary colonies move through the wastes, searching for shelter or a place to call home.

Scavengers pick through ruins, hunting for forgotten bunkers and military caches. Few make it far. Radiation and the infected keep most from ever leaving.

Strange lights flicker at night. Survivors whisper of people with unnatural eyes and twisted features. It is said the laws of nature here are broken, bent into something cruel and unrecognizable.

Most steer clear of the Deadlands. Some come seeking profit. A few come in search of truth.

But no one leaves unchanged. No one leaves without a price.

🎨 Culture: None

💬 Name for Residents: None

🖥️ Tech Level: None

🗳️ Government: None

💰 Currency: None

🧭 Location: Central plains between the Rockies and Appalachians. Down to Mexico all the way to the Darién Gap where it ends.

🧟 Experience with the Infected: Constant but unpredictable. There are whispers of strange creatures sighted and hordes of implacable undead, often on the heels of sandstorms.

🕰️ The Deadlands Timeline

• December 1997
  The firestorms ignited by the nuclear exchange devastate the United States. Fires rage unchecked throughout December. Though the flames eventually die out, the suffering has only just begun. Ash and dust blanket the atmosphere, blocking sunlight around the globe. Temperatures plummet just as the cold season begins. A long and brutal freeze follows, later remembered as the Long Dark. Crops fail, and a wave of famine spreads worldwide. With infrastructure destroyed and supply lines severed, millions freeze and starve. Weakened, they stand no chance against the undead now roaming the former United States. In the cold, the undead become slower, but they do not rot. They endure. Cities and towns that survived the initial fires are quickly overrun.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to Ask Questions about Chapter 3 and answers related to the country will be added here.

• Can my character be from the Deadlands?
  Yes. Keep in mind, though, that the Deadlands is known to mark those who live there for long periods of time. It is a harsh existence full of dangers. Make sure your backstory reflects that.

• Is it possible to travel across the Deadlands?
  Yes. Time has worn on the inhospitality of the Deadlands. While still dangerous and more often than not skirted away from travel is done much more frequently than before. Rad storms are less common, radiation has withered, and raiders, cannibals, cult seekers, and hordes are more dispersed around North America than before.

• What are the infected like in the Deadlands?
  Massive hordes of infected roam the Deadlands, sometimes even as big seven figures of infected moving through The Deadlands as one organized group.

• Are there factions, enclaves, or safe zones?
  There are few regionally known organized factions. The Sentinels are one of the few who have become talked about in the past few months as a group organizing a return to Shelter. You may also have heard about The Messengers who deliver messages in the Deadlands.

Small settlements do exist, but they're often hidden and may disappear overnight. There may be bandit groups, cults, bunkers, ghost towns that still flicker with light but no maps mark them. No radio signals stay on the air for long.

But now, one of those ghost towns has been rediscovered. Shelter awaits.

• What makes it so dangerous compared to other regions?
  Radiation. Dust storms. Shifting geography. Extreme weather. Giant hordes of infected. Raiders. Cannibals and other horrors. There is also something else that no one can quite explain. The Deadlands do not just kill the body. They seem to wear down the mind.

• Do people go there on purpose?
  Sometimes. Desperate scavengers, those fleeing enemies, cult seekers, and people with nothing left to lose. A few are drawn to it for reasons they cannot name. But now, you too are drawn towards it. A new home awaits.