Setting & Lore Overview

Once part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the Fairmont Territory remained relatively untouched for decades, serving as a frontier of dense forests, sacred Indigenous lands, and vast, untamed plains. Its original inhabitants, a network of Indigenous nations, maintained deep cultural and spiritual ties with the land long before any government lines were drawn. From the hills to the rivers to the creeks, all the land is considered sacred by the Indigenous nations. The most sacred part of Fairmont is the mineral water, which once flowed freely across the lands.

Until the Fairmonts arrived.

Albert Fairmont and his wife, Isobel, envisioned a thriving territory connected to the wider world. The Fairmonts saw a land full of opportunities, where settlers and Indigenous nations could progress together into the future. Having discovered the sacred and medicinal properties of the mineral water, the Fairmonts utilized it in the expansion and progress of the Western Frontier. Through negotiation and trade, they found ways for the Indigenous nations and settlers to co-exist. However, the primary point of contention between settlers and the Indigenous nations was the technology settlers brought and its potential consequences, for how might it affect the lands and the natural environment?

Unable to foresee how devastating the consequences of technology would soon become, the Fairmonts began investing heavily in railroads, believing that rail lines were the key to opening up Fairmont, not just to outside commerce, but to the people already living within its borders. Fairmont was to be a territory of progress and growth. And while some tribes rejected the notion of progress, believing that land should remain untouched and sacred, others welcomed the future the Fairmonts envisioned, believing that change is inevitable.

As time passed and technology evolved at an ever-faster pace, the territory’s landscape began to change in more ways than just visually. The pollution from industrial expansion, including factories and broader urban development, affected rivers and lakes to the point that they lost their mineral water properties. Now, only one waterway in all of Fairmont holds mineral water, the Calumet Ravine, fiercely protected through the great efforts of Isobel Fairmont and the Indigenous nations.

The year is now 1889; the expansion of civilization is turning westward, bringing more and more people to Fairmont to populate it despite its polluted nature. The promise of a new beginning and the carving of a future full of potential riches is all too difficult to resist. Entrepreneurs, civilians, criminals, and outlaws all flock to Fairmont for their piece of the pie. Cities like St Denis now stand as the forefront of business, law, and order. What began as a vision of connection and prosperity has, in time, contributed to the very decay it sought to overcome.

Elsewhere, towns like Armadillo still cling to a fading memory of rough freedom, haunted by the shadow of the dying gunslinger. Indigenous nations have since adapted to the changing times and fiercely guard lands untouched by progress, while civilians search for a town to finally call home.

As the Fairmont Territory continues to grow in population, political discussions are brewing to form a state. Deliberations have been stalled for months. There is currently no state-level government or judicial system. Fairmont needs motivated individuals in government to take action.

Fairmont is on the precipice of becoming something great, and it is up to its residents to decide its fate.

West Elizabeth

The beauty of West Elizabeth lies in its contrasts: the eastern side’s lush forests, farms, and river valleys, and the western’s side’s rough hill and wild plains. There is Blackwater, a town that’s almost like a compromise between the harsh West and paved streets of St Denis, and then there is Strawberry, a beautiful river town perfect for photographs.

West Elizabeth is the youngest part of Fairmont that got to see the results of “true” settlement progress. Logging companies, ranchers, and old money families all came together to shape it into what it is today. With Fairmont’s fate still in the hands of the people, there are those who believe that the nice streets of Blackwater is proof that statehood is “inevitable” while others share the sentiments of the West and their neighbors in New Austin.

For decades, New Austin has been known to be lawless. New Austin’s law is mainly enforced by whoever has the most guns that week. That’s not to say civilization is entirely lost, people still go on about their lives. The way of life in the West is just a tad different than those in the East. And sometimes, law may still pass through New Austin to let the hands of justice decide the fate of the gunslingers.

New Austin

New Hanover

New Hanover is a wide-open country. Its beautiful Heartlands sing of teeming wildlife ripe for hunting as all of New Hanover acts as the center of movement for Fairmont. Trains, caravans, and law patrols all pass through holding goods, or criminals, that outlaws might be eyeing. Railways cross the lands, linking mines, ranches, and riverports like Van Horn and Annesburg.

On paper, New Hanover is a thriving middle of Fairmont. In practice, it has been known to be restless with teeming conflict between outlaws clinging onto their ways and law keeping in check the order of things. Valentine in particular is known for more tumultuous times, particularly when one’s had too much to drink in the saloon.

Lemoyne

Lemoyne is all swamps, bayous, and decaying grandeur. Soft moss hangs heavy from the trees, and insects fill the night as alligators rest in the murky waters surrounding St Denis, a city serving as a chokepoint for sophisticated trade and smuggling. Outside the big city, houses rot in the swamps, more likely to be inhabited by critters than people.

Today, Lemoyne sits at a crossroads between the new economy and old grudges. With murmurs of Fairmont reaching statehood, political agitators organize in back rooms, debilitating the fate of the territory while old nobles and new industrialists quietly bargain over future entrepreneurship and companies.

Ambarino

Ambarino is a silent, snowy beauty. It is wild, cold, and unforgiving. Much of it is nearly impossible to live in year-round, and storms are harsh. Still, civilization perseveres; up in the Wapiti reservation reside Indigenous nations who know very well the art of survival and craftsmanship.

Ambarino is now a peaceful ghost of the past, mostly left alone because of the difficulty and danger in claiming it. For Indigenous nations, parts of Ambarino remain sacred ground, preserved by tradition. High up north rests Colter, a small settlement where winter feels eternal.

Fairmont's Founders & History

Fairmont was not untouched by the realities of the wider world; prejudice, displacement, and conflict were part of the era's broader history. These events are understood in modern Fairmont as part of the past, acknowledged, but never glorified, and not reflective of the values upheld within the territory today.

Founded in 1849 by Albert Fairmont and Isobel Fairmont, the territory was built on the belief that the distant government no longer understood frontier life and that something different could be made here. Fairmont was among the earliest territories to reject the injustices that defined so much of the time, striving instead to create a place where people could live with greater freedom and self-determination.

The two founders stood in contrast to one another. Albert Fairmont became the public face of the territory; he was a man of ambition, expansion, and influence with a great interest in mineral water. Isobel Fairmont, by comparison, was the architect behind its systems, concerned with sustainability and the long-term survival of those who called Fairmont home.

As industrial growth accelerated, Isobel was among the first to recognize the dangers it posed to the free-flowing Mineral Water of Fairmont. She discovered the ill effects of pollution, causing mineral water sources to lose its unique properties, somehow turning it into regular drinking water. In response to rising pollution, Isobel funded the development of water infrastructure across Fairmont, ensuring that pumps, pipes, and sinks could provide reliable access to clean water. She also worked together with the Indigenous nations in Wapiti to preserve the last remaining mineral water source. Regulations were introduced, industrial output was curbed, and pollution slowed thanks to their efforts.

That progress did not last. Following Isobel Fairmont’s death in the year of 1869, the systems she had put in place began to unravel. Regulations were weakened, oversight diminished, and industrial expansion resumed at a rapid pace. Pollution returned, spreading through waterways and settlements once more. Only Calumet Ravine remains fiercely protected both legally and by the Indigenous nations in Wapiti.

In the years that followed, Albert Fairmont’s influence grew considerably, as did the wealth tied to industry and expansion across the territory, amassing wealth in both mineral water and industry. Now, Isobel’s legacy endures only in fragments.

Everything else has been left to the tides of progress.