The Wastes
Miles of Badlands
The largest region in the Valta Empire, the Wastes are miles and miles of expansive, empty desert. Formerly the Fulgur Republic, sparse settlements are connected with a complex network of railways. The terrain is challenging to traverse without some survival skills, so foot travel, and even travel by horse is not recommended for anything but the closest settlements. If off-rail travel is required, airships can be chartered to fly directly to other towns along patrolled trade routes. Deviating from common traffic has a tendency to invite pirate raids or bandits.
The Outer Barons
Much like the Iron Cities, the wastes is divided into dozens of districts, each tasked with sending a quota of raw materials into the heart of the Valta Empire. Called the Outer Barons, they are a group of desperate nobles that have fallen out of favor or merchants of lower class that are eager to prove their worth and take their place amongst the nobility in the Garden. However, these barons are even more desperate than the Iron Barons of the Iron Cities. Willing to go to any length and undercut, sabotage, or even assassinate Barons that have a better chance of being promoted or recognized. Each one rules their district differently, but they all exert total authority over the people in their districts, typically choosing quarterly profits over the welfare of their citizens, and safeguarding their mines and means of production viciously against outsiders.
The Stations
Most towns are situated around the many train stations of the Wastes. Everyone needs a place to go, and trains are one of the few ways to do it out in there. Even the smallest settlements and mines have at least a train stop in the near area for deliveries, mail, and transport access. Your typical train station is a place of business with the majority of the local structures huddled up against it, usually leading right up to a boardwalk to the main drag of whatever town happens to be there.
Obscure Rails
In the last years of the Era Duellum, the Fulgur Republic had a labyrinthine railway network. With its fall and the rise of the Valta Empire, many of this knowledge and mapping was lost. Now, the common trade rails are patrolled but venturing off on any rail can be dangerous. Unmaintained rails at the best, these Obscure Rails, as they are called, can lead to bandit hideouts to cult-like towns that don’t take kindly to visitors, or simply lead nowhere; going farther and farther away from any help or maintenance for when your engine finally breaks down or your quicksilver runs out. Tales of whole trains vanishing after being forced to take a detour are not uncommon and the Wastes are too expansive to properly map or patrol. Combine that with air raids from pirates in the remote regions and no one will come for you if you don’t show up at the next station.
Vagabond Trains
Not all trains are owned by Barons. There are many trade caravans that own their own engines and train cars. These vagabond trains will stop in towns to perform shows for money, sell goods, trade with the townies, or make private deliveries. Maintenance on a quicksilver engine can be very expensive however. So budgets are tight on such operations. Since the rails are the responsibility of each district, as well, many of these trains need special licenses to operate on certain railways, adding to their already inflated costs. However, it would not be uncommon for a Vagabond train to try and sneak through a district, greasing palms as they pass through.
Bandit Gangs
Out in the wastes, the biggest danger after the lack of food, water, and shelter are the bandit gangs. When the Fulgur Republic collapsed in the Era Duellum, their forces went to ground and hid in the massive expanse of desert. Over the years, rebel cells became indistinguishable from bandit gangs, raiding trains and stealing goods. Tactics usually involve intercepting the vessel and boarding trains or airships via grappling hook. While thoroughly patrolled routes are considered safe, a lean year can always make these gangs desperate, attacking trains along commonly patrolled rails or even pillaging small settlements.
Hooks
- Talk of a station on an obscure rail exists with people laughing and dancing at night. The station is not on any known map.
- A vagabond train needs to pass through high risk territory to take a new shortcut and they are hiring extra muscle.
- A train traveling through on a safe rail gets attacked. The limited security on board the train is easily overwhelmed by bandits.
- The baron of this district is squeezing a town dry, giving meager wages for 16 hour work days. The people are starting to revolt.
- You encounter an abandoned train in the middle of the wastes. Undamaged, there is no one on board.
Themes - Survival, Outlaws, Frontier life, Tyranny, Vigilante Justice, Gray Morality, Travel