Setting & Lore Overview

Once part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the Fairmont Territory remained largely beyond the attention of American expansion, serving as a frontier of dense forests 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.

Founded in 1849 by Albert Fairmont and his wife, 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.

Fairmont was not entirely untouched by the prejudices and conflicts of the wider world. While displacement, discrimination, and violence defined much of America's history and westward expansion, the Fairmonts sought a different path through negotiation, trade, and coexistence with the Indigenous nations already living within the territory. These injustices are acknowledged as part of America's history, but they are neither glorified nor upheld within Fairmont. The prejudices and discriminatory values of the old world have no place within the territory or among its people.

Albert and Isobel saw in the land both beauty and opportunity. They envisioned a thriving territory connected to the wider world. A land where settlers and Indigenous nations could progress together into the future. With the expansion and progress of the Western Frontier, they thought, there would be prosperity. And so, through negotiation and trade, the Fairmonts, settlers, and Indigenous nations found ways to coexist.

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. This was to be its fate. While many embraced the changes sweeping across the territory, others rejected the technologies being introduced, believing the transformation of the natural world carried a far greater cost than any prosperity it promised.

The year is now 1899. Industrial expansion is turning westward, bringing more and more people to Fairmont. The promise of a new beginning and the chance to carve out a future full of potential riches are 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 centers of commerce, law, and industry. What began as a vision of connection and prosperity has instead brought new divisions, as the cost of progress grows harder to ignore.

Elsewhere, towns like Armadillo still cling to a fading memory of rough freedom, haunted by the shadow of the dying gunslinger. Some Indigenous nations remain steadfast in protecting their lands and traditions from the march of progress, while others embrace the changing world and seek their own place within it. As times have changed, Fairmont has become a melting pot of ideas and ideologies, its people divided by different beliefs about what the territory is and what its future should become.

As Fairmont's population swells, calls for statehood have grown louder. Yet months of political deliberation have produced little agreement over what that state should look like or who should govern it. With no state-level government or judiciary yet established, Fairmont's laws, institutions, and political identity remain unfinished.

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

West Elizabeth

West Elizabeth is the youngest part of Fairmont to see the results of what some call “true” settlement progress. Logging companies, ranchers, and old-money families have all played their part in shaping it into what it is today.

With Fairmont’s fate still in the hands of its people, there are those who point to the fine streets of Blackwater as proof that statehood is inevitable. Others share the sentiments of their neighbors in New Austin: that the West was never meant to be tamed, and ought to remain free.

For decades, New Austin has been walking on a tightrope between lawlessness and order. On a good day, law passes through and enforces the peace. On a bad day, it's up to whoever has the most guns that week to keep the West calm. The way of life in the West is just a tad different from that of the East.

Communities are smaller, the law is farther away, and people have learned not to wait around for someone else to solve their problems. Out here, reputation carries weight, a man's word can mean more than a piece of paper, and sometimes the difference between outlaw and lawman depends entirely on who you ask.

New Austin

New Hanover

New Hanover is the region where industry, agriculture, and frontier life collide. Railroads cut across open plains, bringing trade and opportunity to towns like Valentine, while ranchers and homesteaders continue to work the land much as they always have. Here, progress has arrived but it has yet to decide what it will replace.

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, debating the fate of the territory, while old families and new industrialists quietly bargain over who will prosper from whatever comes next.

Ambarino

Ambarino is a silent, snowy beauty. It is wild, cold, and unforgiving. Much of it is nearly impossible to inhabit year-round, and its storms are harsh. Still, civilization perseveres. Within the Wapiti Reservation reside Indigenous peoples who know well the arts of survival and craftsmanship.

Ambarino remains a peaceful ghost of the past, largely left alone because of the difficulty and danger of claiming it. For many Indigenous nations, parts of Ambarino remain sacred ground, preserved by tradition and protected from the march of progress. High in the north rests Colter, a small settlement where winter feels eternal.

Nuevo Paraíso is a remote federal territory in the north of Mexico. Although Mexico City has laid claim on the territory, Nuevo Paraíso has had its struggles. Attempts at establishing permanent administration has failed, with corruption, the distance from the capital of Mexico, and lack of money have been few of the many troubles destabilizing the region from ever being properly governed. Because of this, the people of Nuevo Paraíso have learned to govern themselves, finding ways through community to live and protect their interests.

At the heart of Nuevo Paraíso sits Chuparosa. It is the largest settlement of the territory and remains the forefront of trade between local residents and travellers from Fairmont. People of all walks of life pass through its streets. What order exists within Chuparosa depends largely upon the people who call it home, and their willingness to maintain it.

Beyond town, life continues much as it always has. The wilderness is teeming with wildlife and herbs ripe for the picking. Las Hermanas Ranch works the fertile land and helps feed the people of Chuparosa, while the local distillery turns the territory's people quite merry. Farther away stands El Presidio, an old fort, a remnant of authority, over the northern frontier. It now serves more as a reminder that claiming Nuevo Paraíso and actually governing it are two very different things.

With Fairmont and Nuevo Paraíso separated by little more than a river, the border has never truly stopped people from crossing. With the promise of new opportunities, Mexico remains a symbol for those who want a quieter, or perhaps more prosperous, life than what Fairmont can offer. There is money to be made by anyone willing to take on the journey.

Nuevo Paraíso may belong to Mexico, but out here, its future belongs to the people.

Nuevo Paraíso