East Coast

The East Coast, also known as the Eastern Seaboard or Atlantic Seaboard, refers to the easternmost states of the pre-War United States of America. While in a strictly geographical sense it includes the entire eastern seaboard, in popular usage the term "East Coast" is most often used to specifically refer to the northern half of this region, which is also known as the Northeastern U.S.

Background
The East, much like the rest of post-War America, is a lawless wasteland. The Great War did not spare it in any way, however some areas were less targeted than others and civilization has rebuilt to varying degrees across the East. While some major centres such as Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. were heavily bombarded by nuclear ordnance, rural areas, such as in West Virginia and parts of Maryland, were mostly spared, though still subject to mutants and radioactive fallout. Other major cities were less heavily targeted, such as the Boston area which was hit by one nuclear bomb, which wasn't aimed at Boston proper and struck to the south.

Adams Air Force Base


Adams Air Force Base was a major United States Air Force base before the Great War. Located just outside the Capital Wasteland, the base is accessible through the presidential metro, and in 2277 served as a secondary headquarters for the Enclave, supplementing their installation at Raven Rock. Enclave operations here were centered in the mobile base crawler, which had the satellite controls needed to call down orbital strikes on several locations in the Capital Wasteland. The base was captured by the Brotherhood of Steel in 2277, following the Lone Wanderer's destruction of the mobile base crawler.

The Brotherhood of Steel constructed the Prydwen over a period of several years at Adams Air Force Base, and maintain a strong presence at the base as of 2287.

Broken Banks
The Broken Banks was one of several regions Tobar piloted the Duchess Gambit to, along with the Commonwealth and the Capital Wasteland. Nothing is known about it, except that it is located south of the Commonwealth.

Capital Wasteland


The Capital Wasteland is the area surrounding the former city of Washington, D.C., including portions of the former District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. As of 2277, the area is overrun by super mutants, raiders, mercenaries and numerous other dangers that threaten the small human and ghoul populations.

The central hub of civilization in the former capital's ruins is Rivet City, a settlement housed in the remains of a beached aircraft carrier. Other settlements include the towns of Megaton, Canterbury Commons, Andale, Tenpenny Tower, Paradise Falls and the Brotherhood of Steel Citadel within the ruins of the Pentagon. Movement through the ruins of the downtown Washington, D.C., area itself is facilitated by the remaining metro tunnels.

Commonwealth


The Commonwealth consists of the remains of the pre-War state of Massachusetts. Like most other major population centers of the United States, it was ravaged by the Great War and is as lawless and inhospitable as the Capital Wasteland. Despite its anarchic nature, it is also home to the mysterious Institute, which has continued to develop advanced technology even after the massive amounts of destruction caused by the Great War. Among its accomplishments are artificial intelligence and androids, built as a servant class, with other models serving as trackers to return runaway androids. The Railroad, another organization within the Commonwealth, works against the Institute to free the enslaved androids. A militia by the name of the Minutemen helped to maintain order in the region until they suffered numerous setbacks and internal division leading to their near extinction.

Crater Banks
Nothing is known about this area, other than the fact that it is on the coast. It is only mentioned once, in a single line of dialogue from Quinn in Underworld.

Great Lanta
Great Lanta is the birthplace of Saint Monica, who is venerated by the Church of Saint Monica aboard Rivet City in the Capital Wasteland. The exact location of Great Lanta is unknown, as it is only mentioned once in a sermon by Father Clifford, where he describes it as "on the shores of the ocean." Whether it's a real place or not is questionable, as Father Clifford's sermons are a modernized retelling of the life of the real world Saint Monica, who was born in the 3rd century in what is now Algeria.

The Island


Formerly Mount Desert Island, the Island is located off the coast of Maine. The Island has high radiation levels as it is blanketed by a radioactive fog which has mutated the local wildlife and driven many people exposed to it insane, who are known locally as Trappers. The Island is home to a secret colony of escaped synths, Acadia, the Church of the Children of Atom, and the native Harbormen.

Point Lookout


The region of Point Lookout, Maryland was a largely rural area apart from a small seaside resort town named Pilgrim's Landing. Point Lookout was not directly hit by nuclear bombs during the Great War, but fallout from areas that were and lingering radiation in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay has had a significant impact on the area. The native wildlife has been heavily mutated, and the effects of radiation amplified by inbreeding has led to large amounts of deformities in the native swampfolk.

Appalachia


Located within the Eastern Commonwealth of the former United States, the region within the State of West Virginia was spared most of the destruction and carnage of the Great War due to its relative isolation and lack of strategic targets, but much of the surviving human population nonetheless perished over the following years due to the Scorched Plague. In 2102, the residents of Vault 76 emerged into Appalachia after twenty-five years of isolation and began to reclaim the wilderness.

At some point later, settlers from other parts of the post-war US would later trickle into the region, forming settlements and raider gangs.

Erie Stretch
The Erie Stretch is a region that the Pitt raiders acquire slaves from. It is only mentioned once, by Brand.

Monroeville
Monroeville is an area east of the Pitt, which is implied to have significant ghoul and trog populations. It is mentioned only once by Everett, when he rewards the Lone Wanderer with the Mauler.

Philly
Philly is the name given to the ruins of the pre-War city of Philadelphia. It is mentioned on terminal entries in Rivet City, as Abraham Washington's Capitol Preservation Society has funded an expedition to the ruined city to retrieve the Liberty Bell.

The Abbey of the Road
The Abbey of the Road is a Christian monastery, though its exact location is unknown. The Abbey's main concern is spreading the Christian faith, with the preservation of artifacts important to the faith being a secondary priority.

The Pitt


The Pitt is a raider settlement built upon what was the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was targeted with nuclear bombs during the Great War, and its location along the confluence of three rivers meant that it was not only subject to radiation from direct hits, but also the radioactive fallout that contaminated the rivers. The radiation, pre-War industrial pollution, and other contaminants mutated the population, creating a condition unique to the Pitt's immediate area known as Troglodyte Degeneration Contagion. In 2255, the Brotherhood of Steel decided to fight through the city in an event known as the Scourge that killed much of the Pitt's population at that time. This left a power vacuum in the city, which would be filled by a Brotherhood member, Ishmael Ashur. The Pitt had the only functional steel mill the Brotherhood had ever encountered, which Ashur aimed to use to restart the Pitt's industry. The Troglodyte Degeneration Contagion which plagued the city meant that children couldn't be born in the Pitt, and Ashur recruited raiders and bought in slave labor to run the city.

Ronto
Little is known about Ronto, but some Pitt slaves are from the area. By 2277, Ronto had established itself as a regional power with a reputation that extended as far as the Pitt, as Ashur mentions the location in a speech.

<!-- The Eastern Seaboard shows an uneven recovery from the nuclear devastation of the Great War. While almost all regions are hostile to human life, rural regions in Maryland, Appalachia, and the Island remain green and full of living plantlife. Heavily bombarded areas still rife with radiation, such as the Capital Wasteland the Pitt, or the Glowing Sea of the Commonwealth remain the definition of a wasteland, however. The greater commonwealth area, while its great forests have since petrified, the region is still capable of agriculture, and there are many small farms, such as Abernathy Farm, the Slog, and Finch Farm.

Flora
While the Eastern Seaboard experienced heavy bombardment, some plant life manages to thrive in almost all regions. Alongside some basic grasses and shrubs, brain fungus and glowing fungus can be found from the Capital Wasteland to the Commonwealth.

Plants such as tatos, razorgrain, corn, carrots, gourds, melons, and mutfruit have become staple crops of many wasteland settlements. The Slog, a ghoul settlement in the Commonwealth, made its fortune by turning an old pool into a tarberry plantation. The Point Lookout tribals formed a culture tending to the Great Punga Tree, and living off of Punga fruit.

Various flowers and other plant life have taken on medicinal uses, as well as use as ingredients for the brewing of chems. These include hubflowers, bloodleaf, and ash blossom.

The FEV mutant, Harold, would eventually be trapped by the tree forming off his body that he called Bob, somewhere in the Capital Wasteland. Bob's presence caused the surrounding area to grow rich in plant life, with a number of tribals forming a community around him, known as Oasis, worshipping him as a god.

Fauna
As with the rest of the wasteland, most of the animal life on the East Coast is dangerous and mutated. While some humans still keep dogs, many wild variants remain a threat to most wastelanders. Pet cats can also be found in the Commonwealth. The most common domesticated animal is the brahmin (a mutated two-headed cow) used for their meat, milk, and as a beast of burden for almost all caravanners. Birds are common sights in the sky, and seagulls can be found in the Commonwealth. Radstags can be found in the Commonwealth, Appalachia, and the Island, which like brahmin have two heads, but also sport a pair of vestigial legs from their front. Hunted for meat and skin for leather, while generally timid, fleeing from humans and other wasteland creatures, they may defend themselves if sufficiently threatened. Crows and other birds are common sights in the skies, seagulls can be found by the coasts. Domesticated chickens could be found in Appalachia.

Most other animals in the wastes are hostile and deadly. Giant insects such as bloatflies and radroaches, can grow up to three feet in size and are found in most locations in the East Coast. There are more deadly bloodbugs (giant mosquitos), swarms of giant ants, which range from between one to five feet in length. On the far end are radscorpions, descended from emperor scorpions that were common housepets prior to the war, they are now of enormous size and highly dangerous. They can even burrow into the ground to ambush prey.

Other threats include the yao guai, descended from the local bear population, being extremely large, strong and aggressive. Mole rats, while being much smaller, tend to come in swarms and can overwhelm the unwary and unprepared; many of them will burrow underground to ambush their prey. Common to the coastal regions, and even many inland bodies of water are the various strains of Mirelurks. Mirelurks seem to be a collection of sea-creatures that have evolved into codependence with one another, having been descended from crab, lobster and turtle populations. While differing vastly, the mirelurks are all armored to some extent and share an amphibious nature. Two-legged mirelurks were common in the Capital Wasteland and Point Lookout, while more 'traditional' four-legged versions can be found in Appalachia, the Commonwealth, and the Island. A hierarchy structure is implied in their society with the presence of Mirelurk Kings, and the colossal Mirelurk Queens. Unique 'Nukalurks' can be found at former Nuka-Cola bottling plants where Nuka-Cola Quantum was processed.

The apex-predator of the wastes is the deathclaw. While they tend to be solitary, they possess immense speed strength and blade-like talons that let them quickly kill their prey. Deathclaws can be found in Appalachia, the Capital Wasteland, and the Commonwealth. -->