Brainstorming
Inspiration: Mainly Red Dead Redemption and the Undead Nightmare DLC
Meanings: Let go of the past. You reap what you sow, with animals overhunted intentionally seeking out their hunters and murdering them in turn.
You can go too far.
The Train: There is a train that's important the whole story. Possibly can be used to run over some bosses as a final defeat. Might be a form of fast travel, though it requires maintenance, coal, and makes a lot of noise.
Revival Spell: The cause of this whole mess. The spell was meant to give people a sense of peace or heal grevious wounds on an otherwise healthy person. However, the spell was used to revive someone who died naturally of a life of excess.
Story Overview: A power couple, the Unrestor and his wife are the main antagonists of the story, bastardizing a revival spell and leading to rampant necromantic energy.
The Unrestor lead the Hunters, wanting to grab all the valuables of this new land and make a literal fortune off of it. His wife was a Native, but she loved the wonders of civilization, which cost her life as she partied and didn't care for herself. Distraught at his wife's unnatural death, he exploited his resources to use the revival spell on her, despite being told not to.
The Revival Spell worked wonders, reviving his wife, however the necromantic unbalance it created meant the dead began to rise. The spell only got worse as the Unrestor and his wife used more of its power for personal gain, reversing their aging mainly but also some other magical bits.
The protagonist, possibly part of the revival ritual, seeks to defeat The Unrestor and his wife. Probably lightly magical, but mostly using new weapons and technologies the Hunters brought over, especially the train.
His ending depends on how willing he is to let go of the past. In a 'hold on' ending, he revives his love with the same Revival spell, locking them both away in a fantasy of happiness, probably in the Unrestor's old manor, while the world outside burns for all they care.
The 'Let go' ending has him placing flowers on his love's grave and restoring a strong balance to his home. He seeks to rebuild the world and works on easing and dissolving tensions between all.
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Important NPCs
The Gold Settler forced thousands to dig for his gold, for his riches. He was a major contributor to the original zombie outbreak.
The Unrestor couldn't get over the loss of his loved one. He shed blood, sweat, tears to get the materials to revive her, and he succeeds. His love is revived near-perfectly, but the problem was the resultant necromantic energy lead to a major wave of undead.
He has used further magic to reverse his age.
The Unrestor's Wife died of old age and a life of excess, not what the revival spell was intended to revive.
Zombie Types
Zombie Rules: They are undead resurrected by supernatural means. Main way to deal with them is to destroy the head.
They were revived when someone revived someone they love dear. However, they revived way, way more unintentionally, stuck in between the void of life and death. Animals also revived as well.
Bruisers: Larger zombies which charge and hit hard. Body shots rarely do anything to stop them, except from exceptionally powerful weapons.
Mummies: Mummies are older zombies that are far stronger and sometimes even lead hordes of lesser zombies.
Fresh: Unfortunate victims who have succumbed to the zombie attacks. Covered in fresh wounds, some of them die from their wounds or succumb to the fever that follows. They tend to be stupid, simply charging after the non-infected and/or hanging out where they were infected.
Risen: The more supernatural Fresh zombies that have been for a bit, decomposing. Or perhaps old Fresh zombies. They tend to be smarter... somehow. Perhaps the supernatural is empowering them. Some of them can use weapons.
Animals
Horses: Basic animals used for transportation of a person, goods, or pulling wagons. Different stats like speed, durability, and intelligence. The player and other NPCs can make money by catching wild horses and bringing them to ranches to be sold.
Undead Proud Beasts: The Proud Beasts became a popular target for the Hunters, as they knew the Natives relied on them as their main source of meat and hide. The Hunters hunted them to near extinction, only some Natives managing to keep a few small herds alive.
Now, some of them have Risen from the dead, and eagerly charge anyone they think is a Hunter. Some of them are even resistant to gunfire.
One Boss Buffalo is immune to bullets, necessitating use of fire, melee, explosives, and potentially having them run off a cliff. It may not be immune to the blunderbuss, however, as that fires whatever is packed into it, not a true bullet.
The Proud Beast is based off of buffalo and bison.
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Locations
Hoof Runner/Hoof Run: Something related to horses. Perhaps a business?
Factions
Overview: Groups of humans living in this zombie infested wild west. Just cause the dead walk doesn't mean bandits don't run around.
Hunters: Exploiters of the land, coming with advanced technology to mine the riches and make money. They are very much antagonistic. Most of the zombies all agree to attack them without hesitation.
Natives: Those that were here before the Hunters. They know the land, live in it, live nomadic lives. Some bartered with the Hunters, but they mostly are at odds with each other, one wanting the other gone.
One set of natives have set up a casino, really learning the ways of the Hunters and siphoning off their money through their greed. Possibly called HanHan, a Lakota word roughly translating to Makes one laugh.
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