// THE PREMISE
What this world is
Perdition County is a sun-blasted high-desert territory in the year 1879, all red mesas, ghost-haunted box canyons, and a single hard town called Redemption where the law ends and something older begins. The railroad never came and the silver played out, but the people who stayed could not leave. The desert here is wrong: out past the last fence the dead do not always rest, old powers hold their ground, and a man can ride into a box canyon and come out changed, if he comes out at all. You are a stranger riding in with a horse, a gun, and a past.
The Ashford Combine, the cattle empire of the ruthless baron Silas Ashford, is the de facto ruling power of the county and does not believe in ghosts, which may be its undoing. Redemption's Law is the thin fraying line of order embodied entirely by the hard, weary Marshal Cordelia Vance, who knows more about the wrongness in the hills than she will say, backed by Deputy Ben Carter. The Keepers of the Old Ground, the descendants of the county's first peoples under Elder Shai, tend the boundary between the living world and what lies beneath. The Congregation of the Pale Saint, a doomsday cult under the radiant and terrible Preacher Elias Crowe, worships the wrongness as a coming god. And the Hollow Gang, raiders who have made a dark pact under the soft-spoken, unkillable Quentin Mourne, ride too easy through country that kills other men.
The boundary the Keepers have tended for generations is failing, and the wrongness atop the Devil's Mesa is spilling down into Perdition County while Ashford's range war tears it apart at exactly the wrong moment. Ride for the law, the smallholders, or a cause of your own while deciding what you believe about the ground beneath your horse.
// PLAY PROFILE
What this world plays like
Start at Redemption's saloon, the bounty board, or Marshal Vance's door. Find out which trouble is ordinary greed and which arrives with the cold after dark. You came with a past; decide how much of it to bring into town.
Take work from the Ashford Combine, defend a smallholder, or seek the Keepers of the Old Ground. Preacher Crowe sees a coming god where Vance sees a threat, and the Hollow Gang has made terms with something the county cannot afford to welcome.
Choose whether to fight the range war, help hold the old boundary, or pursue your own reason for riding in. Decide whom to believe before following anyone into a canyon after dark.
// FACTIONS IN MOTION
Principal factions
The de facto ruling power of Perdition County, built on the cattle empire of Silas Ashford. The Combine controls the best land, the water rights, and the only reliable source of supplies, using debt and intimidation to slowly strangle all competitors. Their goal is absolute ownership of the county, and they view the land's 'wrongness' as nothing more than an inconvenient superstition.
The thin, fraying line of order within the town of Redemption, embodied entirely by Marshal Cordelia Vance. She is a pragmatist, focused on preventing the town from collapsing under pressure from the Combine, outlaws, and the inexplicable horrors that creep in from the wastes. Her authority is absolute inside town limits and non-existent a mile beyond them.
The descendants of the county's original inhabitants, who see themselves as custodians rather than owners of the land. They possess generations of knowledge about the 'wrongness' bleeding from Devil's Mesa and dedicate their lives to performing rituals that strengthen the barrier between worlds. They view the settlers' actions, particularly the mining and the cults, as catastrophic recklessness.
A nihilistic doomsday cult led by the charismatic Preacher Crowe, who worships the entity within Devil's Mesa. They believe the 'wrongness' is a divine presence that will grant them salvation by unmaking the flawed, painful world. Their rituals are designed to weaken the veil of reality, making them a direct metaphysical threat to the entire county.
More than mere outlaws, the Hollow Gang are bandits who have made a dark pact with the land's corruption. Led by the uncanny Quentin Mourne, they are unnaturally resilient, cruel, and seem to move with a chilling purpose. They are vectors of the 'wrongness', and their raids are less about profit and more about spreading fear and chaos.
// KEY FIGURES
People you'll meet
// SITES OF RECORD
Places that matter
Rolling grasslands and scrub desert stretching to the southern horizon, crisscrossed by barbed wire. The land is dominated by the Bar-A ranch, a sprawling complex of barns, bunkhouses, and a fortified main house that looks more like a fort than a home.
A chaotic maze of red-walled box canyons, mesas, and treacherous scree slopes that forms the heart of the county. The Devil's Mesa looms over it all, its flat top perpetually wreathed in a strange, thin haze. The wind here never stops, and sometimes it sounds like voices.
A region of ancient, gnarled pinyon-juniper forest and hidden springs, considered sacred by the Keepers. The air here feels cleaner, the silence more peaceful. Strange rock cairns and faded petroglyphs mark boundaries invisible to outsiders.
A secluded, high-walled mission built of bleached adobe in a dead-end canyon. The surrounding forest is unnaturally silent, the trees twisted into agonized shapes. A faint, sickly-sweet smell hangs in the air.
A vast, windswept plain of grama grass and salt flats, at the heart of which sits Redemption. The town itself is a single dusty street, a collection of false-fronted buildings huddled around a well, looking like a stubborn outpost against an overwhelming emptiness.
// STORY PASSAGE
A passage from the published profile
Marshal Cordelia Vance pours two fingers of something that isn't quite whiskey and doesn't offer you a chair. "Folks in this town think the worst thing out there is the Hollow Gang," she says. "I let them think it. The truth would empty Redemption by sundown." She sets the bottle down with a care that tells you her hand wants to shake. "You've got the look of someone who's already seen past the fence. So I'll ask you plain. Are you the kind of stranger who rides on when it gets bad, or the kind who's still standing when the Mesa opens?"
She is the only law in fifty miles and she is asking you for help, and you can tell how much it costs her to do it.
Selected story passage. Your choices can lead elsewhere.
BEFORE YOU ENTER
Choose a first decision
Start with a person you want to meet, a place you want to see, or a problem you want to understand. You make choices through written actions and read the Narrator's response. The people and places above introduce this world; they do not promise a fixed sequence of scenes.
Completed turns save to your account. Review the latest scene and the relevant in-game information when returning. Check current access and Spark allowances before a longer session, and use the player guide for help with saves, artwork, possessions, and other supported features.
Profile updated .
CHECK ACCESS AND SPARK COSTS · CHOOSE A CHARACTER BEFORE PLAY