The Pitt (Fallout 3)

The Pitt is a raider-dominated city built in the ruins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was established in the aftermath of the Great War by local gangs and by 2103, they had control over the raider settlement. Around 2255, its inhabitants were nearly wiped out by the Brotherhood of Steel, only to be revitalized by former Brotherhood Initiate Ishmael Ashur and his recently formed army of raiders. By 2277, the city's slave trade and steel industry had made it a major power on the East Coast.

Establishment and decline
The Pitt was once the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a major industrial center for the production of steel, Pittsburgh was a priority target for Chinese warheads. The warheads that landed near the metropolis would dramatically alter the environment around the city. The radioactive fallout mixed with the heavy industrial pollution from the steel mills created a hazardous environment entirely unique to the area. The devastation of the bombs did also provide ample room and raw materials for construction, and the river provided a seemingly-useful source of water. Unbeknownst to the city's inhabitants, however, the river had been heavily polluted with radioactive material, mutagenic agents, and dangerous carcinogens.

Following the Great War, the city fell into chaos, with various raider gangs establishing their own spheres of control in the city. These gangs began building a settlement they called "the Pitt" using conscripted and enslaved workers, at the point where the Ohio River diverges. By 2103, the gangs had established a system by which raider "enforcers" oversaw the enslaved civilian workers in the construction of the settlement.

Seeking to escape the violence and oppression, as well as issues with the Pitt's rivers - the Monongahela, the Allegheny, and the Ohio - becoming heavily irradiated, a number of locals led by Paige banded together to flee the city. During these events, Captain Oliver Fields, Sergeant Fred Radcliff and Sergeant Thompson of the U.S. Armed Forces unsuccessfully attempted to liberate the civilians located in the city, getting severely wounded in the process. The locals that managed to flee the ruins of Pittsburgh with Paige became the Settlers, gathering up more survivors on their way as they traveled south towards Appalachia. They would go on to form the settlement of Foundation in the Savage Divide in 2103.

Prior to being employed by Dr. Blackburn in Appalachia, the Hellcat Company was hired to deal with the Fanatics in the Pitt. At some point after the war, a group known as the Expedition Squad Delta - made up of a vertibird pilot and at least three more members, of which two were named Miller and Hernandez - arrived at city, landing the vertibird onto one of the ruined buildings. The expeditioners were attacked and killed by unspecified creatures, leaving the pilot afraid of their whereabouts since they didn't answer the radio calls.

Over the following decades after the war, children would be born with deformities such as cancerous growths or vestigial limbs, and as the years passed, nearly the entire population became afflicted with genetic diseases and mutations caused by the polluted river waters.Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition pp.43-44: "Pitt Raiders Pitt Slaves Trogs Wildmen Following the Great War, survivors established a settlement on the remains of a city at the confluence of rivers. The rivers seem to provide a clear resource, and enough of the city was cleared by the bombs that a new settlement could be established. However, radioactive material and unidentified mutagens mixed into the groundwater, causing it to become slightly mutagenic and highly carcinogenic. As a result, the people in the new settlement began to change ever so slightly. ''The changes were subtle, not nearly to the degree of the Super Mutants or the various Wasteland creatures, but over the next 140 years, it became undeniable that something was affecting the people of The Pitt. Starting from the first few years, children were often born with strange growths or extra vestigial limbs. The mutations never went far beyond the occasional hunchback or cleft palate, but it wasn't long before the vast majority of the residents of The Pitt developed some sort of physical deformity in their lifetimes. Although many children were born "clean," the older they got, the more likely that a problem would develop.'' ''The most disturbing change that the environment caused was not nearly as noticeable as the physical deformities. The infected water and poisoned sky began to cause neurological damage to those exposed to it. People became more hostile, violent, and short-tempered; they became known as "Wildmen." Their emotions became out of control, and their actions often teetered on primal. In severe cases, mutated humans devolved into hunched, savage beasts nicknamed "Trogs." Over the first 50 years, The Pitt quickly degenerated into a dangerous den of murderers and rapists; even cannibalism was not uncommon. The only loyalty was in strength, and the only organization was between those who were strong enough to control others and those who were controlled.'' ''Rumors of the horrors of The Pitt spread throughout the Wasteland, and all travelers knew to avoid it at all costs. However, The Pitt became one of the most self-sufficient communities in the Wastes. Granted, their self-sufficiency relied on the citizens occasionally eating one another, but they functioned without trade or export.'' ''In 2042 [sic], Star Paladin Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel led the Scourge, a large-scale military action that wiped out nearly the entire population of The Pitt. In a single night, the Brotherhood swept through the city, eliminating any resident who put up a fight. Although the intent of the Scourge remains unclear, several unmutated children were taken from The Pitt by the Brotherhood and placed into initiate training. The motivations for the Scourge are unclear to this day, but many in the Brotherhood note that it was a marked change in the way the Brotherhood operates. Additionally, it is known that something was recovered from The Pitt during the Scourge, although to date it would seem that only Elder Lyons knows what it was.'' ''It is said that a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin from the Scourge stayed on in The Pitt, seeking to bring law and order to the unwashed masses and creating an underclass of Pitt Slaves in the process, guarded by Pitt Raiders under his personal command. However, in the decades following the events of the Scourge, nobody has heard anything from The Pitt. Travelers who have gone to investigate have not returned, and no survivors have emerged."'' (Fallout 3 Official Game Guide faction profiles) Mutation was the least of the inhabitants' concerns, however. Among the genetic diseases that spread in the inhabitants was a neurological condition that caused its victims to descend into a violent, primal state. Those who suffered from this condition came to be known as "wildmen," roaming in packs outside the Pitt and preying on anyone who crossed their path. Worse off were those who suffered from what came to be known as the Troglodyte Degeneration Contagion, or "TDC"; victims of this pathogen would rapidly devolve into hunchbacked, animal-like creatures known as "trogs," with newborn infants being especially susceptible to the disease.

As the population degenerated, so too did the order established by the city's raiders. Within 50 years of its establishment, warring tribes of cannibals and rapists had become the dominant power in the city, with what little order existed taking the form of the strong commanding the weak. While this eventually allowed the Pitt to settle into a state of brutal self-sufficiency, it left the city with a terrifying and infamous reputation, and travelers from across the East Coast came to avoid the place as a matter of common sense.

The Scourge
Around 2255, an expeditionary force of the Brotherhood of Steel, led by then-Paladin Owyn Lyons, arrived at the outskirts of the Pitt on their journey to the Capital Wasteland. After reconnoitering the ruins, Lyons, for reasons unknown to his soldiers, ordered an attack on the city. More of a massacre than a military action, Brotherhood soldiers entered the city from Mount Wash, and in a single night slaughtered half of the city's population, sparing only those who surrendered immediately. This operation would come to be known as the Scourge.

Shortly afterwards, the Brotherhood left the city, taking 21 healthy children, including one Greg Bear, and placing them into Initiate training. Rumors claim that the Brotherhood also recovered an important asset of some kind from the ruins, but few if any know what it was. Having suffered only a single casualty, one Initiate Ishmael Ashur, the Brotherhood marked the operation as a success, albeit a harrowing one. However, while the Scourge succeeded in calming the city and clearing it of its most violent inhabitants, it also left a power vacuum that would be seized by an unlikely individual.

Lord Ashur's reign
While he had been reported as killed in action by his squadmates after they witnessed a building collapse beneath him, Initiate Ashur actually survived the Scourge. However, while his power armor had protected him from death in the accident, he still sustained severe injuries that left him comatose for several days. When he was finally awoken, it was by a woman who had survived the purge, attempting to pry his armor off of what she believed was his corpse. After questioning the scavenger, he learned that she and her family were staging raids into other parts of the Pitt to gather supplies. Recalling recon data and his Brotherhood knowledge, he realized that the building that he had been trapped in was an operational steel mill, something that the Brotherhood had never seen before, and decided to help the locals restore their city. To this end, he recruited the scavengers, many of whom had come to see him as a god due to his miraculous survival and imposing armor, to aid him in the rebuilding process. The rebuilding of the city was made easier by the Scourge, as when the Brotherhood swept through, their focus had been on looting intact assets, leaving behind a large amount of valuable salvage that they had written off as "damaged goods."

The city grew rapidly under Lord Ashur, who ruled with an iron fist, pressing local raider gangs into his service and enslaving the weak to restore the steel industry, using the subsequent profits to recruit outsiders into his army and purchase healthier slaves from outside sources. While he never expressly forbade it, procreation among the Pitt's citizens was highly discouraged both by both Ashur and the people themselves due to the threats posed by the city's toxic environment and TDC, with the city relying almost entirely on recruitment and slave importation to sustain its population. Recognizing the precarious and volatile nature of such a system, Ashur made careful use of propaganda to keep his subjects docile and avoid a popular revolt. He would make frequent public appearances to the city's slaves, in which he spoke on his high-minded ideals and made promises of eventual emancipation. Among his most "progressive" policies was allowing slaves to earn their freedom and join the ranks of his army by competing in fights to the death at a gladiatorial arena known as The Hole, which doubled as a source of entertainment for slave and raider alike.

Ashur considered this brutal approach to governance to be both a necessary evil and a temporary measure until a solution to the city's rampant health crisis could be found. While progress on this front at first seemed unlikely, an unexpected breakthrough came when Ashur's wife and chief scientist, Sandra, gave birth to a daughter they named Marie. Not only did the infant show no symptoms of TDC, she seemed to be actively immune to the disease. Viewing the girl as a sign and a symbol of the Pitt's potential for the future, Ashur tasked Sandra with carefully studying their daughter's immunity, in the hopes of one day ridding the city of TDC and transforming it from a struggling autocracy into a prosperous regional empire.

Wernher's uprising
At some point, a man named Wernher joined the ranks of Ashur's army, earning a reputation as one of the smarter members of the Pitt's raider class. Some time before 2277, Wernher started a coup and attempted to overthrow Ashur, but failed. Ashur had Wernher enslaved, and as punishment fitted him with a slave collar, something no other Pitt slave had to wear. Despite this setback, Wernher never gave up on his plans to take over the Pitt, and began laying the groundwork with another slave, Midea, for a second attempt. Eventually, he used his knowledge of electronics to disable his collar and fled the city to the Capital Wasteland.

Knowing his plan would need outside help, Wernher set up a radio broadcast to try and get assistance with his plan. This signal would be intercepted by none other than the Lone Wanderer, who arrived just in time to save him from a group of Pitt raiders. After the fight he recruited the Wanderer, telling them his version of events, leaving out his role as a former Pitt raider. He then directed them to retrieve a disguise from a group of slaves being held near a train tunnel leading to the Pitt, in order to sneak into the city as a slave. After reaching the Pitt, Wernher and the Wanderer were forced to fight a group of Pitt raiders in the trainyard, after one of them recognized Wernher. After the fight, Wernher split off from the Lone Wanderer, telling them to cross the Pitt bridge by pretending to be an escaped slave who had had second thoughts and to meet with Midea. Upon reaching the other side of the bridge, the Wanderer either stuck with the plan and entered the city as a slave, or attempted to enter the city undisguised and was beaten up by a group of raiders after heading through the gate to Downtown.

Upon arrival in the Pitt, the Wanderer met with Midea, who told them to meet her in her quarters. Midea began explaining Wernher's plan further, and that in order to avoid the guards becoming suspicious of them that she is putting the Wanderer on one of the Pitt's most dangerous work assignments, steelyard duty. They are interrupted by Jackson, who asks Midea what the pair are doing, and Midea tells him she's informing the Wanderer of their new job. The Wanderer then heads into the Mill to meet with the steelyards foreman, Everett. Everett explains to the Wanderer what steelyard duty entails, and why so many slaves die trying to do it. He then orders them to retrieve steel ingots from the yard, and to not come back until they retrieve at least ten. After retrieving the ingots, the Wanderer returns to Midea, who tells them that Ashur plans to open the Hole, and whoever wins will earn their freedom and an audience with Ashur in Haven, where the Wanderer can acquire the cure. The pair then head outside, where Ashur is giving a speech to the assembled slaves from one of the catwalks. During the speech, Midea volunteers the Wanderer to fight in the Hole, which Ashur agrees to.

After surviving several fights in the Hole, the Wanderer earns their freedom, and the audience with Ashur. Upon entering Haven, Ashur questions the Wanderer about Wernher, finding their arrival so soon after his escape suspicious. Depending on their answer, Ashur either attacks them, or allows them to go to his wife Sandra's lab to see the cure before he is called away to deal with a riot Wernher started to cover the Wanderer's retrieval of it. The Wanderer heads into Sandra's lab, and speaks with her. Finding out that the cure is her daughter, Marie, the Wanderer either leaves without Marie to assist Ashur with putting down Wernher's riot, or steals Marie from her crib and flees Haven to take Marie to Midea. Making their way through the riot with Marie, the Wanderer meets Midea in her quarters, who tells them to take Marie to Wernher's hideout in the steelyard. If the Wanderer left without Marie, Midea can be killed or intimidated to learn the hideout's location. The Wanderer then reaches Wernher's hideout, and if they don't have Marie either kill or convince him to leave the city, ending the riots with Ashur still in control of the Pitt. If they do have Marie with them, Wernher takes her off the Wanderer, and tells them of the final part of his plan - turning off the floodlights in Uptown, and letting the trogs massacre the Pitt raiders who survived the riot. The Wanderer then either agrees to the plan, heading through the Pitt underground to shut down the power plant running the floodlights, or disagrees with it, killing Wernher or convincing him to leave, and returns Marie to Ashur.

After the uprising, Ashur either retains control over the Pitt, or Wernher succeeds in overthrowing him and takes control for himself. If Wernher failed, the status quo of the Pitt remains, with Ashur leading the city from Haven while Sandra attempts to find a usable cure for TDC from Marie in Haven. If Ashur was overthrown, the Pitt falls under Wernher's control, with the Pitt raiders wiped out while trogs overrun Uptown and Haven leaving them uninhabited. Midea researches a cure for TDC from her quarters in Downtown, and the slaves are nominally in charge of the Pitt, although Wernher keeps them working in the mill.

Fallout 3
When the Lone Wanderer visits the Pitt in 2277, it is a city that has undeniably seen better days. Smoke from the steel mill chokes the air, and the city streets are clogged by abandoned vehicles and rubble. The occupied areas of the Pitt have been fenced off from the surrounding ruins to prevent escape, and the glare of spotlights keep the trogs that have overrun the rest of the city away.


 * Train yard: The main trainyard for the Pitt has long since fallen into disrepair, and the main rail bridge into the city has fallen into the highly toxic river. In addition, the tunnel leading to the bridge is collapsed, preventing further journey on rails. A small scouting party of Pitt raiders guards this yard, ready to report back to the main gate if any enemies are spotted or if slaves try to escape. This is moderately well guarded and is the last stop between the wasteland and the Pitt.


 * Bridge: Despite ruling the Pitt with an iron fist, there are still pockets of resistance throughout the city, not least of which is an old slave trading post near the Wabash Bridge, which is now under the control of Wildmen. The bridge is a dangerous trap-filled pathway with vicious dogs and a sniper, but it's better to face these than dive into the river below, as radioactive death is instantaneous. On the north side of the bridge, slaves periodically attempt to flee and are blown apart by the many scattered mine traps. Down the street is the main gate to Downtown, guarded by the ever-offensive Mex and his lackeys.


 * Downtown: Home to the majority of the slaves working in the nearby Mill, the Pitt's Downtown is a gruesome, grimy, and desperate place, where Pitt raiders rule and slaves are treated worse than dogs. From the main courtyard, with a hole and a furnace, there's an alley leading northeast toward market square, where the majority of the slaves' plot rebellion. Above the ground, and accessible only to Pitt raiders, are the upper scaffold pathways and bridges. These are home to Pitt raiders, who can keep a constant vigil on their property down below.


 * Steelyard: Once the main Steel-producing center of the Pitt, recent and increased activity by Wildmen and trogs have rendered this a largely-uninhabitable area. Slaves unlucky enough to be ordered to work in this gloomy location are usually killed, eaten, or both by the inhuman trogs and Wildmen that prowl area, or fall to their deaths from one of the many decaying catwalks and balconies.


 * Uptown: This area is primarily a Pitt raider paradise, with defenses and lighting constantly checked to ensure no trog incursions occur. Part of the crumbling tenement blocks holds a number of wandering raiders, all loyal to Ashur. Much like downtown, the Lone Wanderer is able to access the ground and upper levels via a series of scaffolds and catwalks. North of the open-plan tenements is an abandoned apartment. To the east are the main courtyard and the entrance to the power plant and Haven interior.


 * Haven: Dominating this expansive courtyard plaza is a giant effigy, flanked by two bouts of intermittent ﬁre. A twisted monument to the sickness, this has the added benefit of keeping trogs away, as they are light-sensitive. However, Ashur knows from past massacres that the lights must be kept on to avoid a trog influx. The effigy stands at the foot of Ashur's base. It is a skyscraper known as Haven, due to the safety and experimentation into curing the sickness that takes place inside.


 * Underground: A series of sewer pipes and abandoned utility tunnels running under the city, the Pitt underground is a forgotten passage between the Steelyard and Uptown. Populated by a large number of trogs, the explorable sections of the Underground can be entered from a power plant off of the main plaza in front of Haven and from a manhole next to a collapsed rail tunnel in the Steelyard.

Appearances
The Pitt appears in the Fallout 3 add-on The Pitt. It is also mentioned in Fallout 3 and its add-on Point Lookout. The pre-War city of Pittsburgh is mentioned in Fallout 76 and its update Wastelanders, while The Pitt itself will appear in the upcoming Expeditions: The Pitt.

Behind the scenes

 * An interview with Jeff Gardiner from March 2009 made the claim that Pittsburgh was never hit by any atomic bombs in the Great War. This was later retconned in Fallout 76.
 * Several buildings on the skyline, including the BNY Mellon Center, PPG Place, the U.S. Steel Tower, and the Fifth Avenue Place are real buildings in downtown Pittsburgh.
 * The entry sign resembles the real world Pennsylvania state welcome sign.
 * The Pitt alludes to the 2006 George A. Romero film Land of the Dead. Both are set in Pittsburgh, which is split into a poor part and a rich part where the leader lives in a tower. Outside Pittsburgh, in both the film and The Pitt, are animalistic creatures (zombies in the film, trogs in the add-on) and if following Wernher's path, the creatures invade the rich area.

Bugs
Upon first return from The Pitt, the player character's Pip-Boy may still have an "orange outline" on it, this will be fixed if the player restarts the game.