The Wicked West - the Elite, the Occult, and the Wondrous

Here's more about the Wicked West.

The Wicked West is lawless, the elite only recognize silver or lead.

• Each town is beholden to itself first and foremost.  Several have an elected Mayor, but true local power is held by the Sheriff.

• The Mayors are often figureheads, elected by local business men and regional tycoons.

• Sheriffs are often among the best gunfighters in the territory, many seeking recruitment into the Regulators or the Gunbrothers.
• Tycoons are magnates of regional business, from them all opportunities flow.  Each one collects a cadre of the best local killers, referred to as Regulators, to protect their interests and harass their rivals.

The Wicked West is eldritch, the occult flock to the frontier.

• Magical practice is distrusted as a rule, but the isolated settlements can't turn their nose up at a little witchcraft if they wish to survive for long.  With almanacs becoming less than consistent as the rainfall does not appear where and when it should, many farming communities surreptitiously attract water witches from Back East for help.

• The Cruach Mining Company is openly hiring adepts and promoting them to foremen in their operations above and under earth.  They pay quite well, but the mortality rate is proving high.

• Stagecoaches are the primary form of mail delivery and luxury travel between towns.  For protection they have contracted the Gunbrothers, a cabal of shootists whose guns promise Oblivion.

• Any given medicine show or frontier circus will contain some morsels of true magic, wrapped up in layers of showmanship and patter.  Patent medicine is a much dicier proposition.

 The Wicked West is wondrous, the strange is behind every mesa

• Numinous encounters are becoming increasingly common: strange lights, dream visitations, ectoplasmic extrusions, table rappings, and strange beasts whose track and spoor have not been witnessed in Aeons.
•  Throughout the Wicked West there are areas known as Branches where taking a particular path will whisk you off to some Otherspace.  Known as Malum in occult circles, these places range from the mythical to the truly alien.  Entry may be simple, but egress could prove difficult.
• Fabulists are folk born on the frontier that possess superhuman capabilities, the very stuff of tall tales.  While they may possess exaggerated physical properties, their emotions and appetites are similarly  magnified.