Carcass Decree

The Carcass Decree was born from the first great culling - when the Deadlands first opened its cursed borders and claimed its inaugural victims. A spectral tribunal formed from the collective despair of those first fallen, establishing the immutable law that would govern all who followed: survival means remembrance, failure means becoming nothing but carrion for the frontier's circling vultures. The decree writes itself upon the spirit rather than the flesh, marking all who dwell beneath its authority with the weight of judgment that can never be lifted.

The Carcass Decree manifests as an oppressive spectral weight that settles upon the bearer - invisible but unmistakably present, the accumulated mass of every failed competitor who became carrion in the Deadlands' cursed soil. It carries a faint copper-scented aura detectable only by fellow survivors, a blood-and-dust perfume that marks those who have passed beneath the tribunal's gaze. The decree grants its bearer the grim premonition of sensing when nearby competitors approach their own potential carcass moment - a supernatural warning that carries no mercy. When spoken aloud, the name produces an unsettling resonance, as if carrying the final exhale of all who fell beneath its judgment.

The Carcass Decree serves as the supernatural law enforcement mechanism of the Deadlands - an invisible tribunal that judges competitors across all leagues and determines who survives the culling. It creates ongoing tension by reminding every bearer that they are perpetually on trial, that the frontier's vultures circle endlessly, and that the next score could write their name among the forgotten carrion rather than the remembered survivors.