The Deadlands are a region of desert and dry mountains that occupy the land north of the great desert oasis of Vegas (the so-called “City Of Lights”) and the territory of the near-legendary Rangers. Rugged, unpredictable, and deadly in their dryness and heat, travelers (such as the trail-borne nomads) also tell of glowing horizons at night, strange reddish aurora, and weird mutant creatures that wander out of its heart to terrorize the settlements of the desert.

There is another, rather curious point I’d like to relate here. Legends surviving from my own people speak of a place, near the “Glimmering Oasis”, which once served as the testing-grounds for the awesome Fire Arrows of the Ancients. Called “nuclear bombs”, these weapons are the source of what today we know as radiation. Perhaps the “Glimmering Oasis” in fact refers to Vegas, and thus the Deadlands are so-called because only the most horrendously mutated life can thrive there (the radiation being so strong from experiments of the Ancients in the vicinity).
Whatever the reason for its terrible life, the Deadlands are far from dead, despite its name. All manner of mutant beasts originate from this hot-bed of new life. Water in the Deadlands is abysmally scarce, and legends tell of false waterholes filled with poisoned, radiated liquid.