New California (location)

The Core Region is a portion of the Fallout World that corresponds to the twentieth century’s American West Coast and southwest in general. It was the focus of the Fallout games prior to Fallout 3 and, as such, has much more detail to it than other regions of Fallout Earth. It is the setting with which fans of the games are most familiar; being the first Wasteland introduced and also the largest one.

Places
The basic Core Region stretches from Baja in the South to Klamath in the North. It covers most of California, as well as parts of Oregon, Nevada and North Mexico. It was a largely inhospitable region, which is why most people chose to seek refuge in the remains of old cities, where they found (relative) safety in numbers. However, as resources grew more and more scarce, people and creatures came to consolidate into groups of their own kind, so locations are far more homogeneous than one might expect from a world ravaged by mutation. By the time the N.C.R dominated all of the Core Region, except for South Oregon, peace came between humanoid creatures.

The ghoul population of the wasteland was mostly clustered around the pre-War city of Bakersfield, California (now known as Necropolis), but were scattered after an attack by the Master's army. Most of the surviving ghouls eventually found a home in Gecko or Broken Hills along with humans and super mutants, both far to the north-east of their former home.

Super mutants were plentiful in the Mariposa area from 2102 to 2162, with patrols sent as far as Los Angeles. After the Master's defeat, however, most of them retreated to the east.

Humans are the dominant species of the wasteland, and their main cities in the Core Region are The Hub, Los Angeles Boneyard, NCR, Vault City, New Reno and San Francisco.

Pre NCR
Prior to the formation of the NCR the individual townships within the core region with limited interest in the affairs of other settlements.

Shady Sands, later to become the capital of the NCR was a backwater village constantly beset by raiders. The Hub served as the center of commerce being home to the three most powerful trading companies in the waste (the Crimson Caravans, The Far Go Traders, and the Water Merchants) with a plutocratic city council and a heavily armed police force. Traders from the [Hub could be found conducting commerce with the new settlement of Junktown, the ghouls living in the ruins of Bakersfield (rechristened "Necropolis" {the city of the dead} after their undead like appearance, farmers in the Adytum settlement (in the ruins of Los Angeles; also known as the Boneyard) and the Lost Hills Bunker that housed the Brotherhood of Steel.

The core region was also home to a movement called "The Unity" or "Children of the Cathedral" which sought to bring to live the twisted vision of peace invisioned by Richard Grey (aka "The Master") which involved turning all of humanity into mutants either through conversion or prevention of further non-mutant breeding. This threat to humankind, along with many other deeds was resolved by the Vault Dweller who later founded the tribal village of Arroyo.

Tandi's Presidency
After the removal of the mutant threat, the core region started to organize beyond the township level;  By 2186, these efforts had bloomed into the New California Republic, with Tandi as its first president. 80 years after its founding it comprised of five states: Shady, Los Angeles, Maxson, Hub, and DayGlow. Although efforts were made to contact the supposed home of the Vault Dweller, Vault 13, these efforts proved hopeless with the existence of Vault 13, and to some even the vault dweller reaching mythical status within the fledgling republic. Vault 15's racial diversity experiment served the republic well in accepting Super Mutants and Ghouls in to the regular population, although most "mutants" facing racism from other groups generally drifted to communities of their own kind.

Throughout this time traders also spread north, to the former gambling mecca of Reno, now christened New Reno, the former (and again) Gold mining town of Redding, the slave-trading down of Den, Klamath Falls (now rechristened just Klamath), farming town of Modoc. New Towns also sprung up including Vault City, Gecko and Broken Hills.

This period also saw the rise of the Enclave; hoping to return to the land of their forefathers the Enclave were shocked and appalled to see the mutations that had effected the people of the Californian wastes and established an outpost at Navarro. In response to what they considered the "mutant threat" they formulated a plan to destroy anyone and everyone that did not meet their standard of human (ie- anyone but them). Thankfully this plot would be stopped by the Chosen one of Arroyo, as fate would put it a descendant of the one who saved the wastes from the Mutant threat.

Over time, many of the Northern towns joined the NCR, some more willingly than others.

War with the Brotherhood, and expansion
Searching for new sources of food and new trading partners, the NCR began to move South into Baja California, and East into Nevada merging Nevada's own Desert Rangers into the NCR ranger force. Railways would begin to be established in the region built on the backs of prison labour.

In addition to the enemies the NCR faced in these new territories, the NCR faced a threat from an old friend - the Brotherhood of Steel. Although the Brotherhood assisted the NCR in its early days, they had become increasingly concerned with the level of technology used by the Republic. The war would prove disastrous for the Brotherhood, but not before the NCR's economy nearly collapsed when the BoS destroyed the NCR's gold reserves.

The future of the Core region faces some challenges. Limited water supplies, a population that is growing faster than the food supplies and an enemy from the east could cause major problems for the core region's population moving ahead.

Factions
There are very few factions in the Core Region that aren't limited to one or two towns. After the Master's defeat, the New California Republic became the most influential organization that unites several major towns, including Shady Sands (its capital, now known mostly simply as NCR), the Hub, Junktown, Maxson and Dayglow. The major goal of the NCR was to unite all of California under a single government, a goal that was accomplished by the time of New Vegas.

In contrast, the Brotherhood of Steel is a mysterious techno-religious organization, with roots in the US military. While few in number, they make up for this with their arsenal of pre- and post-War technology: They have laser weapons, Power Armor, surgical enhancements and combat implants. Unlike the NCR, the Brotherhood is not interested in conquest nor in saving humanity, but instead in maintaining their secrecy as well as preserving and developing technology.

The Mojave Outpost
A small portion of the Core Region appears in Fallout: New Vegas, from the California-Nevada state line to the edge of the map, encompassing the region near Nipton and the covers the Mojave Outpost. The Mojave Outpost, however, is not part of the Core Region or the Mojave Wasteland but rather a boundary or border between the two wastes.

Appearances

 * Fallout
 * Fallout 2
 * Fallout: New Vegas