Fallout Bible

The Fallout Bible is a collection of documents containing background material for the first Fallout games. They were compiled, written, and released by Chris Avellone in 2002 on Black Isle's homepage on a semi-regular basis, as a collection of "background material and hijinks", and early releases often include segments with other Fallout developers, including Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, elaborating on details and answering community questions. A compiled version of the Bible is included with a purchase of Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics on GoG and includes a foreword by Chris Avellone.

The studio has used the Bible as a source in Fallout 3 production, and many parts of it have been used in games released since by both Bethesda and Obsidian Entertainment.

User Tagaziel corresponded with Chris Avellone in 2012 after which Avellone stated on twitter that he no longer considered the Bible canon and further elaborated: "Bottom line: Bethesda is able to write whatever they want, and they are not bound by the Bible. They are usually bound by stuff that has appeared in F3 and FNV, I believe. Ultimately, we’re not the holders of the franchise, so it’s up to them. When we were at Interplay, that was different because we held the franchise then."

Emil Pagliarulo spoke about the Bible's status within canon in August 2020. He stated that the writers of Bethesda's Fallout games often use the Bible as a supplementary source, secondary to the games themselves. Writers investigate the Bible after they look at what is in the games first. However, they do not assume that everything in the Bible is canon; instead, they take it step-by-step to include what makes sense. In his own words, "it's a judgment call."

Background
The idea, initially elaborated by community veteran Dan Wood, was to create a document that would serve as a total guide to Fallout: the history of the setting, the elements that compose it, the things that define it, and the rules that guide it. It would also serve to tie off loose ends left by the games and to provide details on questions previously raised, important due to the prospect of someone who wasn't Black Isle making Fallout games grew ever more real.

However, instead of being a definitive, unambiguous guide to Fallout, Avellone's Fallout Bible became a sort of long question and answer session with fans emailing a multitude of queries to him and receiving answers. Avellone would frequently toss in interesting bits of information about the games and original design documents, including the official Fallout timeline. Avellone made some mistakes here and there, many of which were corrected in later issues of the Bible thanks to fan feedback. The whole project was cut short when Avellone left Black Isle.

Installments
There are nine main installments of the Fallout Bible and Fallout Bible 0, a compilation of the first three with various corrections.


 * Fallout Bible 0 (released March 8, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 1 (released January 15, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 2 (released February 2, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 3 (released February 11, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 4 (released February 25, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 5 (released March 11, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 6 (released July 10, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 7 (released July 29, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 8 (released October 2, 2002)
 * Fallout Bible 9 (released November 7, 2002)

Behind the scenes

 * Chris Avellone refers to it as non-canon, i.e. not binding for Bethesda Game Studios.