Commonwealths



Commonwealths may refer to a variety of geographic entities within the Fallout world, including the thirteen commonwealths within the pre-War United States of America. The European Commonwealth was another similar entity, unrelated to the system within the United States.

Background
Several different varieties of commonwealths are mentioned throughout the games.

United States commonwealth system
In 1969, the United States formed the Thirteen Commonwealths, which comprised several existing states. The Massachusetts State House was retired from active use as a result of the formation of the Thirteen Commonwealths.

Known commonwealths include:
 * The , which encompassed at least the state of Nevada. Fallout: New Vegas includes this name on the Nevada state flag, found outside of Doc Mitchell's house, and a marker for the Southwest Commonwealth Conservation Area, which included Red Rock Canyon. Additionally, "Southwest" is written on the license plate on the bumper sword, though without the "Commonwealth" suffix.
 * The , which encompassed at least the state of Illinois. Fallout: New Vegas features a license plate on ED-E that reads "Great Midwest" along the top, though without the "Commonwealth" suffix, and "Illinois" on the bottom, in the same vein as the "Southwest" license plate.
 * An unnamed commonwealth included the city of Watoga, which is itself part of the state of West Virginia, mentioned in Fallout 76.

Other
The U.S. states of Massachusetts and Virginia are referred to as the "Commonwealth of Massachusetts" and "Commonwealth of Virginia," respectively. These formal names were in place before 1969. After the Great War, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was shorted to the Commonwealth.

Internationally, a group of nation-states operated as the European Commonwealth before the Great War.

Appearances
Commonwealths are mentioned in Fallout, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.

Development

 * The idea of dividing the United States into thirteen commonwealths originated during Fallout's development (1997). According to Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky did not wish to use the regular 50-star flag and instead used the 13-star design because "it looked cool," and planned to explain it as it being divided into 13 super-states, but the explanation never materialized.
 * In 2004, Joshua Sawyer wrote his own role-playing game that included commonwealths. At the time, Sawyer had left Interplay Entertainment after working on the canceled Van Buren project; he later served as the project director of Fallout: New Vegas in 2010, which mentions two of the commonwealths in his role-playing game (Southwest and Great Midwest). A list of Sawyer's commonwealths can be found on the Fallout PnP Wiki.

Non-canon commonwealths

 * A commonwealth labeled as the "Columbia Commonwealth" is mentioned on a promotional item in the Official Bethesda Gear Store.
 * A commonwealth known as the "New England Commonwealth" is mentioned in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.
 * In the tech demo for the canceled Van Buren project, Corporal Armstrong, a soldier from the "Great Midwest Commonwealth" 13th or 4th Armored Infantry Division, can be interacted with.