The Institute



The Institute is a mysterious organization within the Commonwealth. It is known to possess advanced technology, including the ability to produce androids of high enough quality to pass as humans.

Background
The Institute existed long before the Great War as the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, or CIT, a renowned university based in Boston, Massachusetts. Robert House attended it in his youth. During the Great War, CIT personnel survived by taking refuge in a sealed underground facility beneath the campus. As the decades passed, the survivors continued their research, building on the pre-War technology they had protected. Eventually, CIT transformed into the shadowy Institute, an organization known for its highly advanced technology and unsurpassed scientific expertise, with the eventual goal of completely annihilating the pre-War culture they had come to blame for the end of the world and leading humanity into a brighter future. Prior to 2277, the Institute's advances resulted in the creation of true artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-equipped androids, or "synths", which were employed as slave-labor. Periodically, androids seeking independence from the Institute attempted to escape with the help of the anti-slavery Railroad, but the Institute's Synth Retention Bureau doggedly pursued them.

By 2287, the Brotherhood of Steel had come to recognize the Institute as a major threat, and launched a campaign to eradicate it from the Commonwealth.

2277

 * Dr. Zimmer
 * Armitage
 * Harkness (former)

2287

 * Father
 * Dr. Madison Li

Appearances
The Institute is mentioned in Fallout 3 in the quest The Replicated Man, and in Fallout: New Vegas in Mr. House's obituary. The Fallout 4 launch trailer revealed that The Institute will likely play a major role in its storyline.