A brief history of Omesa:

The Griggs/Valarri War:

The key defining historical event of the land of Omesa (in which Bullets and Brimstone takes place*)* is the war between the primarily Orcish nation of Griggs and the primarily Elvish nation of Valarri, which concluded 40 years previous to the in game “present day”  and its effects are still felt on every character in Omesa. The war was devastating, especially on the human population, who lived primarily in their city states in the interior lands of their own before the war started. When the smoke was cleared, the Orcs had less territory but more strategic resources, and the Elves had to concede much of their lands to the human states to ensure an accord was signed.

Humans had always been better at technology than the Orcs and better at warfare than the Elves, and often bought time for their homes, supplying one side or the other with weapons of war. But this was not enough, with the human’s smaller states drawn repeatedly into the conflict, always to the expense of their own people. The human invention of TNT was a turning point in the war efforts. However, it was a human known as Terrence Mayhew who first used dynamite for industrial purposes. Fleeing the war, he carefully took his family up a treacherous mountain range, blasting his way to lands long thought inaccessible and barren. Before the war was over, humans en masse started migrating to the lands beyond Mayhew's Pass, taking their ambition, hope, and technology with them. They provided the Orcs and Elves one final piece of technology, which finally turned the final tide of the war… the lead firing rifle.

The losses on both sides were devastating. Ancient armor became useless. Spellcasters had no shields that could stop a single trained rifleman. The war drew to a close without much being settled. It took another few decades for all of the skirmishes to cease as the Elven Houses and Orcish Clans fell into internal conflict on how things should finally play out. But in the end, they did, with the Wyld Frontier finally providing humanity an escape. The age of Brimstone and Steel was over; the age of Steam and Powder had begun.

The Morricone Rail

The Crown Nations, as Griggs and Valari now refer to themselves (separate but cooperating), made plans not to be left behind in this new land of opportunity. The humans would never rule them; that much they could agree on. So a grand project was proposed. Humans had already been developing steam-powered trains, but a train through the Pass was still decades away. The Crown Nations threw its finest minds at a symbol of support for this new world. Not just a train that could get through the Pass, but a cross continental masterpiece providing access to the frontier to all. It would be powered by the finest Orcish alchemical engine, infused with the finest eleven accommodations and magic, and constructed with invincible Dwarven steel. Of course, this rail also heads to the capital cities of the Crown Nations, and could not continue operation without the continued magical cooperation of Griggs and Valari. The Elves and the Orcs got their claws in, and within a few years of the final spike being laid, Orcish clans were starting frontier towns, Elven medicine was in every General Store, and the new world started looking a bit more like the old.

Only, not quite.

Many of Elves and the Orcs who made their way west found being released from centuries of traditions and grudges to be a freedom they didn’t know they wanted. The hard life out west meant working shoulder to shoulder with those they were once sworn to destroy. Many got sent on assignments and never came home. The call of the west cared not for the shape of your ear or the magic in your blade. Many went home to their traditions and comfort, but those who stayed (and survived) were of a different character.

And as the Morricone Rail heads west shining and gleaming every day, always on time, the cultural divide looks less and less like Elf versus Orc versus human, and more like the old world versus the new…