The Burned Frontier

The southwestern United States is a dangerous, inhospitable land known as the Burned Frontier. Once a popular region for ranching and mining, worsening climate change pushed the majority of its inhabitants out by 2055. Those that were left behind would lose everything, including their lives, to violent storms and years of drought. Wildfires have destroyed much of the forests within the Burned Frontier and some stories even claim that these fires never die out. Radiation poisoning is also a concern due to past nuclear bomb testing in the Mojave desert. Ghost towns and bones litter the burned landscape, acting as a visual warning to those brave enough, or stupid enough, to travel through the Burned Frontier. There's a high presence of scrappers in the region as of 2094. They've started the process of quarantining the Burned Frontier, presumably to prevent travelers from interfering with their research. Travel to and through the Burned Frontier is discouraged, but several corporations have staked a claim to the land for capitalistic ventures. The Burned Frontier sees a lot of travelers who have put too much faith into old world stories of gold being buried in the region. These tourists are often unprepared for the realities they will face and perish before they find much of anything.

Geography

The Burned Frontier is a barren landscape for the most part, though not all of it is damaged. The soil is cracked and dried out from years of drought and dust storms are far too common. The rare portions of viable soil house sprawling forests of blackened and burned trees. Rivers and lakes dry out on a constant basis, only to spring back to life during the storms that tear through the region. On the far western end of the Burned Frontier is the Pacific Ocean, which has eaten away at the shoreline substantially over the past several decades. Maps of the region are useless as former settlements and roads are obscured by layers and layers of sand. The Burned Frontier has its moments of beauty though; from the mesas that stand tall over flowering cacti and playful coyote pups, to the rocky mountaintops that host a view unlike any other.

Fauna & Flora

Despite the Burned Frontier's anxiety-inducing name that paints a picture of a desolate wasteland in people's minds, the region is teeming with life. Without a shred of human civilization left, nature has reclaimed what was rightfully hers. Ghost towns were overrun with coyotes, raccoons, and rodents. Whatever was left by humans has been picked through by the animals until nothing substantial was left. Up in the mountains, desert bighorn sheep have flourished. They live in small herds, feeding on dried grasses and shrubs. Cougars also inhabit the mountains, hunting vulnerable sheep and desert hares. Now vulnerable to extinction, the Gila monster is a rare creature to see. After a storm, they emerge from their shelters to cool off in puddles and hunt for eggs and small animals. Their venomous bites are known for being painful, though not fatal if treated properly. Unfortunately, with medical resources being in short supply, reports of fatalities associated with their bites have increased within the past thirty or so years. Plants that grow within this region include marigold, primrose, prickly pear cactus, juniper, and mesquite trees. The Burned Frontier is also home to the large Sphinx moth, which is often mistaken for a female hummingbird. Unfortunately, the hummingbirds of the southwestern United States have been extinct since 2042.

Natural Resources

Ranching was big in the Burned Frontier before it became the land it is today. Bighorn sheep were tamed and bred for their meat and horns, the latter being a popular item in southwestern souvenir shops. The land was rich with minerals, including salt, that were consistently extracted from salt flats and other dried river basins. Almond and pistachios were some of the most economically successful crops, but frequent flooding and fires irreversibly damaged these crops. The Burned Frontier is chock full of metals like copper and iron. Certain minerals and metals are in high demand and as such, the Burned Frontier hosts many ongoing mining operations. Time constraints and unpredictable weather make these jobs anything but safe, but the payout is life-changing.