Weird West Story: Basic Notes and Outline

Main Characters
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The Gunslinger: A former shootist turned religious holy man, trying to live down his past misdeeds in his own quaint, quiet way as a <low ranking religious figure> at a convent. Helping the needy, feeding the poor, that kind of good vaguely Christian nonsense. Is given a divine mandate from God itself to hunt down Death herself, as he's a unique intersection of holy and lethal.

Death: An active gunslinger, the shepherd of the living from this mortal coil to the afterlife, and keeper of the gates of hell. Potentially the single most skilled shooter on the planet, as the mantle of Death can only be assumed by killing the former holder. Also, incredibly bored with her job after a lifetime of shooting, killing, and generally enduring nasty, brutish conditions to keep the world from getting too Weird. She decides to take an extended vacation, and the dead begin to walk while scores of demons pour forth from hell, generally making a mess of things.

God: A mysterious being that is vaguely, but undoubtedly, incredibly powerful. Acts to enforce a preconceived idea of how the world should be ordered, but prefers to do as subtly and carefully as possible. It defies most notions of human morality, preferring pure pragmatism- whatever its goals require, will be done. Wants Death killed, will enact its will through its agent, the Gunslinger, who very much doesn't want to take up his old gunslinging ways.



The Setting
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A Wild West incredibly similar to our own- sprawling deserts and plains, blue mountains dominating the horizon, and a glaring sun. Also, zombies are rising from their graves, people aren't quite dying right, and the legions of hell wander the Earth when night falls. Things aren't quite apocalyptic yet, but any given city in the West is almost certainly cut off from its neighbors, as the intervening terrain is almost certainly too hostile for all but the most hardened of individuals to make it through. Cities are laid siege to by night, and spend the day preparing for that the best they can.

God, Hell, and various other supernatural elements undoubtedly exist, but rarely matter in day to day life. Agnostics and atheists are essentially nonexistent- even the most staunchly anti-deific will only assert that God exists, but simply isn't involved in day to day affairs- an omniscient observer more than anything.