Railroad Crowns

After the event known as the Salvation of 1889, which scorched and twisted the world beyond recognition, the only safe havens left were the railroads. Remnants of a bygone era, these vast metal arteries were repurposed, expanded, and transformed into enormous mobile cities. Towering iron carriages stacked like fortresses roamed the cracked and ashen landscapes, protected by armor plating and fortified with sentry guns. These roving metropolises, known as Rail-Citadels, carried the last shreds of human civilization through a desolate, lawless world, where survival depended on loyalty or submission to the ruthless lords who ruled the rails—the Crowns. Set in an alternate 1970, a time when the promise of progress gave way to an era of tyranny and decay, each Crown commanded their Rail-Citadel with an iron fist. These were self-proclaimed kings and queens, each reigning over their own rail-bound dominions with brutal efficiency. Some Citadels were industrial leviathans belching toxic fumes into the air, while others were opulent palaces on wheels, their interiors lined with marble and gold, taunting the destitute masses.