The year is 1935, but the history is not our own.

The Confederate States of America have been independent for over 50 years—depending on whoyou ask. Their economy has struggled like a onearmed man in white water ever since—periodically coming up for air but mostly getting nowhere. Only the North’s ill-advised attempt at Prohibition gave the South any respite, by letting them sell cheap hooch over the border to every Tom, Dick, and Nancy who wanted to wet their whistle.

A worldwide Depression has made things even worse, and one of the most desperate areas lies right at the crossroads of the Confederacy—New Orleans. The Big Easy is at the storm-tossed center of nefarious events set in motion years ago by strange and malevolent entities bent on ruining and ruling our world.

So why is this world different than our own? For starters, something happened back in 1863. The worst of the yellow rags at the time claimed the dead walked and magic returned to the world, but most people told those nuts to peddle their papers elsewhere. A few years later, an earthquake of biblical proportions shattered the coast of California into a labyrinth of towering mesas and seawater-filled canyons that came to be known as the “Great Maze.”

One man’s disaster is another man’s opportunity, they say, and in that earthquake, miners discovered a new superfuel called “ghost rock” after the strange howling noise it made when burned. Inventors found
all sorts of uses for the mineral, spurring amazing advances in technology and funding more than one
fortune. Those same advances also spawned terrible new weapons, because if there’s one thing men are good at, it’s finding new and creative ways to kill each other.

Its wheels gummed up with the bodies of the dead, the Civil War ground slowly to a halt sometime around the 1880s. That left the Confederacy an independent nation, making it technically a win for the Rebs, but for once it had the sense not to rub anyone’s face in it. Not wanting to miss a prime opportunity, the Mormons and the Sioux Indians also seceded, forming the Republic of Deseret and the Sioux Nations, respectively.

For over 30 years, the United States and the Confederacy kept their guns pointed across the Mason-Dixon Line, daring the other to flinch. Then, in 1917, both put aside their differences and briefly joined forces with the Allied Powers in the Great War. After another three years of fighting, Germany and the other Central Powers surrendered. The victory celebrations were cut short as the returning soldiers brought home with them a superflu that spread across the world. In the end, it claimed nearly 200 million lives. A brief period of prosperity followed, but ultimately, that turned out to just be the set-up for one of the biggest sucker plays in history—the Great Depression. Banks failed, stocks crashed, and companies shut their doors. Dust storms and grasshopper swarms swept the country like the plagues of Egypt, obliterating farms and dreams.

The politicians say the worst is over, but most people are still making do with hope and pocket lint, and most are running low on pocket lint. Money talks these days, and when it does, most everyone listens. A good job is hard to find, but a trustworthy soul might be even harder.

It’s almost enough to make a fella overlook the shadow at the end of the alley or ignore those strange bumps in the night. Almost, but not quite.