Selina is a small town North East of Dodge. Kansas is known as Bloody Kansas in this setting. Selina is rather basic, consisting of a respectable if quite bare bones Bed and Breakfast run by one Father O’Flanagan, the monastery where O’Flanagan works, a General Store run by a ex-miner who once hit it big, and a taxidermist by the name of Zeke. Selina is more friendly than most toward the various Indian tribes as there has been in large part an unofficial policy of live and let live. Most inhabitants of Selina get by by being as self sufficient as possible and selling any food or goods beyond what very little they truly need in Dodge.
Here is what the Players Guide has to say on Bloody Kansas,
Kansas has been the site of 25 years of guerilla warfare, and shows no signs of calming down any time soon. According to the original Kansas-Nebraska act, which opened Kansas to settlement back in 1854, the people of the territory would vote on whether the territory would enter the Union as a free or slave state. One can guess what kind of conflict this caused. For a while, Kansas had been fighting its very own Civil War, well before the Blues and Grays ran into their little problem. “Border ruffians” from Missouri filtered across the border and tried to ensure Kansas became a slave state, while abolitionists—called “Jayhawkers”—tried to counter their efforts. Neither group shied from vio- lence to influence the decision of Kansas’ citizens. Kansas wound up joining the Union as a free state only a few months before the Civil War broke out.
While no major military campaigns have been fought here, the long tradition of guerilla warfare and intimidation continues to this day. Diehard Rebs and staunch Unionists often live side by side in some Kansas towns. The fact that regular military units are pretty much prohibited in Kansas only allows these tensions to boil out of control, sometimes even erupting into “Territorial Wars” between towns loyal to differing nations. The fire of the Civil War may only be embers and coals, but Kansas is a powder keg, and the fuse is still burning.
Dodge
Dodge meanwhile, though we’re not going there in this story, is a large bustling trade center thanks to it being a stop on two major rail lines and an area with a plentiful buffalo population. Between all the trade, all the buffalo hunters, and the general tensions of Kansas it’s a hell of a dangerous city. Fortunately Deputy Wyatt Earp has the constitution necessary to enforce a law requiring the temporary confiscation of firearms upon entrance into town.
Also, because the section on Kansas mentions it, here’s the skinny on slavery in this setting, straight from the Players Guide. Probably the best way to deal with an awkward situation so we don’t just make it a Black and White morality thing.
Let’s get this out of the way early— whether in the North, South, West, or somewhere in between, slavery is a thing of the past. While it was a divisive issue in 19th Century America, and many on both sides of the Civil War cited it as a moral motivation to prosecute the war, the real causes of the Civil War were quite a bit more complicated.
In any event, it rapidly became clear to Confederate leadership that in order for the fledgling nation to gain international recognition, the “Peculiar Institution” must be discarded. In 1864, Generals Robert E. Lee and Patrick R. Cleburne proposed a plan to offer slaves their freedom in exchange for military service. President Davis quickly endorsed the plan in a Congressional address.
This helped convert the British Empire’s passive sympathy toward the Confederate cause into formal recognition of its independence, and French Emperor Napoleon III soon followed suit. In exchange for the aid of England and France in breaking the Union blockade of Southern ports, and an agreement with England to fix the Confederate dollar to the British pound at a very favorable rate, the British asked the Confederacy to abolish slavery altogether. The Davis administration complied, and on April 9, 1865, all slaves in the Confederate States of America were freed.
Fearful of losing the moral high ground (and “naturally anti slavery” himself), United States President Abraham Lincoln quickly followed the earlier Emancipation Proclamation (which only abolished slavery in states in rebellion against the United States) with the proposed 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which would end slavery in America. The Amend ment was ratified by the end of the year.
By 1879, racism is becoming a thing of the past in the Weird West. Progress has been made, and more will come as peace returns and folks resume their normal lives. The prospect of further integration of Confederate society is aided by a greater sense of community and shared values than in actual history. Circumstances are similar in the North. Just as in the real West, folks are willing to overlook the color of a person’s skin in favor of the content of his or her character. Bottom line: just as in our own lives, bigoted and outright racist attitudes are the province of villains and the shamefully ignorant.
That’s probably mostly the case, but as it’s close to Dodge (let’s say 2 Days average travel time) if that’s not what you want for your character there you could be just passing through or a fairly recent arrival.
Eli will have been ferried into Dodge, then traveled to Selina, to visit his friend buddy pal. I'd say that he would just be arriving when the RP starts.
