Here be character sheets, the backstory of the characters, and any incidents from their past they care to show off. I'm also going to add in setting specific information.<br/><br/>First up, a map of the Deadlands setting<br/><br/>(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/9/91/Deadlandsmap.jpg)<br/><br/>This will be followed with a timeline of key events, and a information on different regions and factions.<br/><br/>Timeline of Key Events of the last 20 years or so.<br/><br/><strong>1840 </strong>- Most Indians have realized that the white treaties are worthless. The seeds of the future are sown.<br/><br/><strong>1846 </strong>- An Independent Texas is annexed by President Polk and once again Mexico invades. This ends with the American capture of Mexico city.<br/><br/>The Mexican–American War begins. The US sneaks Santa Anna back into Mexico so he can negotiate a peace treaty on US terms. Santa Anna agrees but breaks his promise soon after arriving. He raises a 200,000-man army and is “elected” president.<br/><br/><strong>1847</strong>- Salt Lake City founded by Brigham Young and the Mormons.<br/><br/><strong>1848</strong>- The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War, giving the United States most of its present Mexico-Confederate territories.<br/><br/><strong>1850’s</strong>- Fear of voodoo fades and it becomes an accepted religion.<br/><br/>Steamboats become popular forms of floating entertainment along the Mississippi River.<br/><br/><strong>1853</strong>- Import broker Joshua A. Norton loses a fortune after rice importing prices crash. He disappears and returns years later, crazy, calling himself “Emperor Norton the first.”<br/><br/><strong>1853</strong>- July to October Almost 9000 people die of Yellow Fever in New Orleans.<br/><br/><strong>1859</strong>- The Cortinas War. Texas Rangers fight Juan Cortinas after he occupies Brownsville. After an initial failure they return and drive Cortinas back to Mexico.<br/><br/><strong>1860</strong>- The elections of '60 creates the climate of conflict and the Civil War is launched!<br/><br/><strong>1861</strong>April 12 - Fort Sumter is bombarded by South Carolina militia. These are the first shots of the Civil War.<br/><br/>April 13 - Fort Sumter falls to the militia attack started the day before.<br/><br/><strong>1862 </strong>April 15th - Picacho Peak Civil War battle. ORE 06/02/2000<br/><br/>May 1 - Union forces take the city of New Orleans after a short naval bombardment.<br/><br/>Union forces drive Confederates out of Arizona and New Mexico and then turn attentions to the Apache and Navajo. They are successful until around 1864 when the Apaches begin to acquire more weapons.<br/><br/><strong>Early1863</strong>-  US General Ulysses Grant lays siege to the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.<br/><br/>A detachment of Union cavalry retreating from Vicksburg, enter the Montevallo field hospital and slaughter the patients and student nurses.<br/><br/>Bill Quantrill and group burn the town of Lawrence, Kansas, killing over 150 men, women, and children.<br/><br/><strong>July 3 The Reckoning. </strong><br/><br/>July 3rd - CSA Gen John Pemberton prepares his army for the surrender of Vicksburg to Union forces led by Gen Ulysses Grant.  But his army escapes the city that night.<br/><br/>The citizens of New Orleans stage a rebellion against the Union occupation forces. The entire Union 5000 man garrison of New Orleans is killed in a single night. They then defeated a Union relief flotilla that arrived within the week.<br/><br/>July 4 - US General Grant marches into and occupies the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Soon after a disease, the “Wasting”, begins to creep through the civilian population and occupying troops. Before the city is evacuated a few days later, over 10,000 people have died.<br/><br/>At the rate of about one a month, small ships are being found abandoned and adrift in the waters off the coast of Pennsylvania. This continues til the present day<br/><br/>The Texas Rangers are removed from standard service and start investigating various reports of strange happenings<br/><br/>First reports of Salt Rattlers on the great salt flats of Utah<br/><br/><strong>1864</strong>- Bill Quantrill raids and burns Centralia, Kansas.<br/><br/>April 9th - General Grant increases the responsibilities of the Pinkerton Detective agency on orders from Lincoln to investigate the “Infernal creatures” that had begun to show up.<br/><br/>Lincoln Executive Order issued that enforces Local and county law to comply with Pinkertons.<br/><br/>October 2 - A hastily assembled force repulsed a Union advance toward the Stuart, Buchanan & Co. Saltworks in Saltville, Virginia. The defenders then murdered more than a hundred of the Union’s wounded. These people were court-martialed.<br/><br/>November 11th - The Confederate Congress enacts the Manumission Law, first proposed by General Patric R. Cleburne. This allows the emancipation of its slaves and the CSA receives European recognition soon after.<br/><br/><strong>1865</strong>- April 14 President Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.<br/><br/>Bill Quantrill caught by Union soldiers and killed, scattering his band along with Frank and Jesse James.<br/><br/>April 9 - CSA President Davis frees all slaves.<br/><br/>Late - The sweeping offensives and army movements begin to stall into a stalemate.<br/><br/><strong>1866</strong>-  February 2 The town of Quarryville, Pennsylvania is attacked by giant groundhogs. The town is attacked every year on this date.<br/><br/>Brigham Young announces that Utah will operate as an autonomous entity until the Civil War ends.<br/><br/>July - In his famous July Memorandum Jefferson Davis authorizes the Texas Rangers to become a CSA wide Police force with authority over local and state law enforcement.<br/><br/>The Apache are now firmly in control of their lands with the Union troops forced to retreat to the safety of their forts.<br/><br/><strong>1867</strong>- Smuggling along the Mississippi River begins in earnest.<br/><br/>Cholera hits Memphis, Tennessee. Followed by Yellow Fever later that same year.<br/><br/>Major General Grenville Dodge camps under a tree Indians marked as a "plug" to the Hunting Grounds. The town of Laramie, Wyoming Territory is founded on that spot.<br/><br/><strong>1868 </strong>- Benjamin Strand discovers GhostRock in the Wasatch mountains. CoG pg. 14<br/><br/>The Great Quake claims large chunks of California as it tumbles into the sea.<br/><br/><strong>Late 1860’s</strong>- The rivalry between Queen Marie Leveau and Baron Simon LaCroix escalates.<br/><br/><strong>1870</strong>- Darius Hellstromme arrives in Salt Lake with his invention of the Steam Wagon.<br/><br/>Dr. Hellstromme’s Factory #1 is constructed for building Steam Wagons.<br/><br/><strong>1871</strong>-  February  "The battle of Washington" The South attacks Washington with newly developed war machines and forces the northern capitol to evacuate. The Southern machines soon lose effectiveness due to lack of fuel and repair and are forced to retreat.<br/><br/>Fighting continues over the course of the year, with gains and losses on both sides, and ultimately little to show for it.<br/><br/><strong>1872 </strong>- The Sioux Nations are founded by Sitting Bull and other Lakota elders.<br/><br/>A rumor that Baron Simon LaCroix had placed a curse on Queen Marie Leveau eventually leads to street warfare between the followers of each voodoo leader. The riots stopped two days later when martial law was declared.<br/><br/>The Demeter, captained by Jack MacGowran, disappears near Vicksburg, Mississippi. A nearby town is also found deserted with no sign of what happened to the people.<br/><br/>Fall The sickness called "the Walking Death" appears among the Chickasaw. Its spreads like wild fire throughout the five tribes of the Indian Territories.<br/><br/>Late-year The Mary Celeste found adrift, near the Azores, with no sign of passengers. Union journalists first use the name “Devil’s Triangle”.<br/><br/>Ed Schieffelin comes east from California and stakes two silver mines Tombstone and Graveyard. One becomes the town of Tombstone.<br/><br/>The Coyote Confederation is formed a few months after the second battle of Adobe Walls.<br/><br/><br/><strong>The Disputed Lands</strong><br/>Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah:<br/>The Disputed Lands are those states and territories with no clear allegiance to either the North or the South. Both nations may claim they own these states, but in truth the towns and cities within switch sides frequently—and often violently.<br/><br/>Like the Disputed Lands, the land itself turns broken and jagged as it crawls westward. The plains of Kansas rise slowly to the rolling hills of eastern Colorado before finally becoming the Rocky Mountains and the jagged hills of Utah.<br/><br/>Kansas has been the site of more than 20 years of guerrilla warfare. Back in 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, opening the territory to settlement. According to the Act, the people of the territory would be allowed to vote on whether it entered<br/>the Union as a free or slave state. It didn’t take long for pro-slavery groups from Missouri to filter across the border. Dubbed “border ruffians” by settlers, these groups tried to ensure that Kansas would become a slave state. Their mortal opponents are the Jayhawkers, Kansan abolitionists.<br/>Despite the border ruffians’ best efforts, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state in January, 1861. A few months later, the Rebels opened up on Fort Sumter and the Civil War began. No major campaigns have been fought in Kansas, but many neighbors harbor grudges from the earlier fighting, and the war always provides an excuse for a new round of hostilities. Guerrilla fighting is particularly intense along the Kansas- Missouri border. The recent influx of troops into the state has only made things worse.<br/><br/>Dodge City<br/>Like Kansas itself, the loyalties of Dodge’s citizens are torn between the North and the South. The old animosities run as deep here as anywhere back East. While most towns in Kansas are pretty solidly blue or gray, Dodge is split right down the middle. Dodge’s original charter explicitly stated that those of all political persuasions were welcome, and even made provisions for a larger police force to keep the peace.<br/>Most folks are willing to put up with a little conflict in the name of the dollar. Buffalo hunting is big business in Kansas, and Dodge has become quite the commercial hub. Thanks to cattle plagues elsewhere in the country, buffalo meat has become a valuable commodity, and a hunter can bring home as much as $30—in just about any currency he can name—for a single buffalo. Local slaughter houses usually buy the meat and hide for shipment to points East.<br/>The rest of Dodge’s economy—other than the money to be made by rail passengers who spend the night in one of the city’s hotels or houses of ill-repute—is based on serving buffalo hunters. Saloons, dance halls, and supply stores are thick on the ground, and you can’t take more than a few steps without tripping over a snake-oil salesman or grifter.<br/>Naturally, all the booze and guns—combined with Kansas’ seemingly inevitable inclination toward political divisiveness—leads to a lot of folks coming down with terminal cases of lead poisoning. A couple years back, the Town Council had enough, and passed a law that required anyone entering the town to come to Marshal Larry Deger’s office to check his guns.<br/>Needless to say, this didn’t go over well with the rowdier elements of society, but the law’s chief proponent—Deputy Wyatt Earp—isn’t one to be trifled with. More than a few buffalo hunters who “forget” to check their rifles wake in a cell with an “earp”—a nice shiny new bruise delivered by the barrel of Earp’s pistol.<br/>Of course, the day anything’s made illegal is the night a lively black market springs up. In this case, back alley trade in weapon claim slips is common.<br/>Combined with the fact that Dodge City is served by two major rail lines—Black River and Union Blue— and is as far East as you can go without heavy border patrols, this lively underground makes Dodge an attractive stopover point for spies bound for points both North and South. All of this adds up to a rowdy nightlife in the boomtown.<br/><br/>Denver<br/>There’s a saying that goes, “all rails lead west to Denver.” The Queen City of the Desert lies nestled in a valley in the foothills of the Front Range of the Rockies. It’s the largest city between Dodge and the City of Lost Angels, and between Texas and Seattle, making it the perfect place to run a rail to. Colorado was only made a state in ‘72, with Denver as its capital, and the people are prouder than peacocks. Of course, both the North and the South claim ownership of the state, but this far from the battlelines, it doesn’t seem like most people care much. Of course, there are always exceptions.<br/>The best way east or west of Denver is by the Denver Pacific railroad. It connects with three of the major lines in the Disputed Lands, so it’s accessible to the East. It reaches far west as well, all the way to Salt Lake City where the owners, Smith & Robards, use it to ship their incredible wares.<br/><br/>Independent Deseret<br/>In 1866, the current leader, and Joseph Smith’s successor as leader of the Mormon people, President Brigham Young, declared the Utah Territory the independent “State of Deseret.” While young declared publicly that Deseret’s loyalty remained with the Union, few believe that young wants to be part of either the North or the South. Brigham almost says as much in his sermons— but never within earshot of representatives of the US or CSA governments.<br/>As things stand now, neither the Union or Confederacy can spare the manpower necessary to dispute the Mormon’s sovereign status.<br/><br/>Salt Lake City is often called the City of Gloom. This title is not some satirical comment on the Mormon lifestyle, but rather recognition of the city’s incredible factories. These factories build ghost rock powered devices of steam and steel. The constant cloud of ghost rock soot that hangs in the air and permeates certain sections of the city gives it its less than cheerful moniker.<br/>Worse still is the Junkyard, the maze of streets, overhanging pipes, and gantries built up in and around Darius Hellstromme’s numerous factories. The maze overhead is called the Steel Sky, and pretty much blots out the sun on even cloudless days. Squeezed smack dab between Salt Lake City proper and the nearby Rockies, the Junkyard isn’t a place proper Mormons go. It’s left to the Gentiles— and the bloodthirsty gangs, desperate fugitives, and darker things that run it.<br/><br/>The Law<br/>There are three tiers of law in the West: town marshals, county sheriffs, and US marshals & Texas Rangers<br/><br/>At the lowest level is the town marshal. Most large towns have one, as do a few smaller ones. Marshals are usually elected by the locals, though many towns allow the mayor or a town council to appoint them instead.<br/><br/>A step above a town marshal is the county sheriff and any deputies he’s appointed. These men and women are the law throughout the county.<br/><br/>In Union states and territories, US marshals have ultimate authority over the law. They can hire deputy US marshals, authorize posses, cross state and territorial lines, and even call on county sheriffs and town marshals if need be.<br/><br/>The Confederacy relies on the military or territorial rangers to do its interstate policing in the West. Regiments scattered throughout rebel states and territories always have jurisdiction over local town marshals and county sheriffs.<br/>The South’s elite are the Texas Rangers. These surly fellows fought as regulars in the early years of the war, but they were later detached from the regular military to serve the Confederacy as mounted police officers. They continue to fulfill that duty in the South today, though rumors persist of more secretive duties.<br/><br/>The Revenant<br/>There is a rumor of a tall cowboy dressed in black mounted atop a pale horse riding from town to town in the Disputed Lands. The papers have named this grim figure “the Revenant.” The Revenant rides into towns searching for lawmen. It isn’t known if victims are chosen beforehand or if this dark stranger simply challenges the first lawman he sees. Once his prey is spotted, the Revenant pats his six-gun, silently challenging the law to a duel. In a heartbeat, the lawman is dead, and the Revenant mounts his pale horse and rides away.<br/>The Revenant has visited Lawrence, Abilene, Wichita, Dodge, and Denver. Where he’s headed next is anyone’s guess.