The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth is a geographic region largely encompassing the former state of Massachusetts in the New England Commonwealth. Among other locales, the Commonwealth includes the former state capital of Boston.

Following total nuclear annihilation, most of the Commonwealth was reduced to a "war-ravaged quagmire of violence and despair" like much of the rest of the former United States. It serves as the game-world of Fallout 4.

Pre-War
A powerful force in the history, industry and culture of the United States, Massachusetts was one of the original Thirteen Colonies belonging to the United Kingdom. Massachusetts was often settled by religious colonists in its early days, resulting in sustained growth and rising religious unrest, which included atrocities such as the Salem witch trials of 1692. Neither the governor nor England were popular in Massachusetts, which became a hotbed of secessionist sentiment. The conflict between colonists and the crown was only aggravated by attempts to tax the colonies without giving them representation in the parliament, the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. The powder keg finally ignited in 1775, when the Thirteen Colonies openly rebelled against the crown during the American Revolutionary War.

The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first engagements of the war, which spilled across the colonies. Massachusetts was a vital battleground in the revolution and a major center of political thought. Following the nation's independence and becoming part of the United States, the area grew into an industrial power. Its industry continued to play a prominent role well into the 20th century, though the state began to change midway through the century, after the formation of the 13 Commonwealths in 1969.

21st-century America
The evolution transformed the face of Massachusetts, with the state's economy supercharged by the emergence of a vibrant high technology sector spearheaded by the Commonwealth Institute of Technology. Located in Cambridge, the CIT was one of the foremost centers of higher learning in the nation, providing it with many great minds, including Robert House, who founded RobCo Industries in 2042, after graduating CIT, and turned it into one of the most profitable companies on the planet within five years. As private and public interests flocked to Massachusetts, the face of the state changed as well. Skyscrapers sprouted across the financial district, with cutting edge facilities established by every notable corporation on the market. To accommodate this boom, a sophisticated network of elevated superhighways and monorail lines was developed, all of which spanning from the 2040s up until 2077.

This mosaic of old and new was host to the most notable companies and government agencies in the United States, including Mass Fusion (the state's primary energy provider), Vault-Tec Corporation (which also established a number of its vaults across the state), Poseidon Energy, General Atomics International, Galaxy News Network, HalluciGen, Inc., Nuka-Cola Corporation (setting up Nuka-World in the western part of the state) and many more. The ports of Massachusetts continued to bring in commerce and traffic, until the beginning of the Resource Wars and especially the Sino-American War in 2076. Boston shifted easily into its new role, providing the United States Army with technologies to fight communism on all fronts as the country slid towards authoritarianism. Cambridge Polymer Labs developed nanotechnology to further refine the military's weapons. Sentinel site Prescott to the southwest of the state was erected as a deterrent against enemy nuclear weapons.

However, the erosion of civil rights and basic morality did not spare the state or its people. Corporations operated as if unhindered by labor or environmental regulations, especially those with exceptions by the state. The pollution eventually reached such a degree that mutations started to occur in the marine wildlife. Military checkpoints proliferated across the United States, with Massachusetts no exception. The military routinely responded to food riots with violence, including the massacre at the Boston Police rationing site, where the 184th Infantry Regiment gunned down hungry Bostonians with impunity. In spite of the violence, the Boston Bugle continued to distinguish itself as a voice of reason, with dissident journalists continuing to cover the atrocities of the regime regardless of risk to themselves.

Additionally, a number of other military facilities and projects were based in the Commonwealth. The region was used as a major staging point for military aircraft. Fort Strong served as the development ground for the Fat Man portable nuclear launcher and the testing ground for the Army Corps of Engineer's T-51b power armor. Military outposts such as USAF Satellite Station Olivia and the National Guard training yard also dotted the landscape. The Defense Intelligence Agency operated unhindered across the state, operating the Switchboard and a network of hidden caches across the state, while the federal surveillance center K-21B monitored citizens for compliance. The Army, in cooperation with General Atomics, established the covert RB-2851 facility beneath East Boston, where prisoners would be harvested for use in robobrains.

As international tensions flared and the worldwide energy crisis erupted into the Resource Wars, the Commonwealth experienced an even more higher military presence as the threat of Chinese infiltration and nuclear war drew closer. Echo Company of the 104th Infantry Regiment was subsequently deployed to man the South Boston military checkpoint, and began conducting mandatory inspections of all vehicles passing through it on August 1, 2077. While the inspections purported to detain "suspicious elements," they discriminated against those of Chinese origin, many of who were already located in Chinese internment camps. Financial reports from this time indicated that increased military spending was coupled with a reduction in healthcare, utilities and public transportation. Combined with rising energy costs as a result of the Resource Wars, along with hyperinflation and war weariness gripping the country, especially after the annexation of Canada, public order became a serious issue, especially after images of U.S. atrocities were made public. Lieutenant Governor Graham eventually placed Boston under martial law, while American units serving in China and on the Anchorage Front Line found themselves pulled back to deal with domestic unrest at home.

Few survived the blast, besides those who were able to gain entry to the various vaults and bomb shelters located in Boston and the surrounding area. As Boston itself was not targeted directly, much of the city survived the initial bombardment relatively intact, including such locations as the Massachusetts State House, Boston Common and Fenway Park. The military attempted to maintain order in the aftermath, utilizing power armor to help quell unrest and transmitting emergency frequency RJ1138 over the airwaves to other Commonwealth Army soldiers promising food, shelter and aid at the South Boston military checkpoint. With its command structure in tatters, however, the military eventually disbanded. The heads of various government sectors presumably survived the blast, at least initially, including the mayor of Boston who holed himself up at the Boston mayoral shelter; when the shelter was besieged by an angry mob, the mayor and his family perished. Ultimately, dwindling supplies, disrupted communication networks and the lack of a clear leadership structure prevented any form of organized government from reasserting control in the Commonwealth.

The Great War
On October 23, 2077, the day of the Great War, the nuclear conflagration that lasted only two hours plunged the state into chaos. Following nuclear strikes on Pennsylvania and New York at 9:42 am, a nuclear missile hit a designated site southwest of Boston at 9:47 am, with another missile simultaneously striking the Washington D.C. area. The Commonwealth's ground zero held industrial and military significance, housing arms factories and manufacturing plants, including the Sentinel site. Additionally, the Chinese Yangtze-31 submarine, which infiltrated the bay and bypassed missile defense systems, fired its full payload of six strategic nuclear SLBMs at the U.S. eastern seaboard, before being damaged and forced to seek shelter in Boston's harbor. Despite the success of the Chinese attack, the 132nd Engineering Corps stationed at Sentinel site Prescott was still able to retaliate by firing their own nuclear stockpile before the Chinese missiles hit due to early warnings via radar.

The brief bombardment spared most of the city, with military units stationed in and around the city struggling to maintain order. To the southwest, the Glowing Sea was born in the nuclear fire, with the aforementioned nuke in the megaton range detonating northwest of the sentinel site, turning a vast stretch of land into a radioactive hellscape that would persist for centuries, bolstered by the destroyed nuclear reactors seeping fuel into the atmosphere and the ground. Harsh crackdowns by the military only contributed to the chaos, with any semblance of order eventually collapsing in on itself.

Post-War
The CIT was hit hard; although the college survived intact, the staff had trouble surviving the conflagration, with the science staff taking refuge underground, slowly carving out a subterranean habitat for themselves. The Institute was formally founded in 2110, as the children of the original survivors dug into the earth and built increasingly sophisticated habitats and laboratories, starting an ongoing process of expanding the Institute's facilities and infrastructure. Isolated from the outside world, the scientists continued their work, disregarding the mayhem and destruction occurring outside of its grounds. As they worked on creating synths, they attempted to work peacefully with the people of the Commonwealth using first generation synths, but mutual mistrust ended that relationship quickly and they returned to isolation. The key element of the future Commonwealth was founded at the ruins of Fenway Park stadium in the mid 2130s, when Diamond City was established. The settlement greatly benefited from its central location and the natural protection afforded by the baseball stadium, gradually rising to the position of the "Great, Green Jewel of the Commonwealth" and becoming an integral part of the region's history and its many factions. It also became the site of many of the region's miseries, such as when the Commonwealth Provisional Government, the first and only attempt to form an unified government for the Commonwealth, was wiped out by a synth from the Institute. Whether it was deliberate sabotage or a play made by one of the factions within the Institute, the loss of the CPG doomed any future attempts at organizing a government, and led to the Institute sealing itself off from the surface permanently after developing the molecular relay in the 2180s,

The Minutemen came closest to becoming an organized army protecting the Commonwealth, rising to prominence after defending Diamond City from a super mutant attack in 2180 - the mutants being the first experiments released by the Institute into the wild as part of their research into organic synths. Their rising star was snuffed out in the middle of the 23rd century, after the loss of the Castle to mirelurks in 2240, after a queen mirelurk decided she fancied the location. The loss of their headquarters, radio station and General McGann sent the Commonwealth Minutemen into disarray. Without artillery support and their resources, they were picked off one by one. The formation of Goodneighbor by exiled criminals from Diamond City that same year also signaled a shift in the Commonwealth, with it becoming a quagmire of violence and misery. The Broken Mask incident of 2229 and the revelation of third generation synths to the general population established the Institute as a bogeyman and contributed to the mutual distrust and paranoia that kept the communities of the Commonwealth divided.

Since then the situation has remained miserable, but stable. The Institute continued to experiment on the surface and use it as a source of raw materials for the expansion of its underground habitats, raiders and Gunners preyed on the people of the wasteland, too numerous to be killed off, but too disorganized to take the Commonwealth over, while the Minutemen died a long death. The Railroad conducted a guerrilla war against the Institute, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the Institute's pursuit. However, the fertile soils of the region, its technological legacy and the ready availability of salvage meant that region remained a crucial source of trade and resources. Tobar has once included it in his trading circuit, while caravans from the north, south and west continue to pass through the region, contributing to the wealth of Bunker Hill and especially Diamond City. Perhaps the single greatest upheaval came with 2287, when the War of the Commonwealth started with the arrival of the Brotherhood of Steel in the Commonwealth, setting its sights on the Institute and its atrocities perpetrated against humanity in general and the Commonwealth in particular.

Lexington and Northwest Commonwealth
This section of the Commonwealth has its borders roughly from the rolling hills of Sanctuary in the north, to the west among the foothills of the Sudbury River; to the east and south, this region ends at the elevated freeways, or at least what is left of them. In the southeast corner, at the congruity of the two freeways is Lexington; a gateway to the greater Boston area.

Once a burgeoning landscape, this region still has the remains of suburbs and cities alike. Among the ruins are several settlements; among them are Abernathy farm, Drumlin Diner and Tenpines Bluff. Due to the high traffic and relative safety, thanks to relatively low background radiation compared to the rest of the Commonwealth, this region is home to several raider gangs who prey on the caravan traffic.

North Central Commonwealth
This section of the Commonwealth has its borders roughly established from the rolling foothills in the north, the south to the Mystic River, and the east and west by elevated freeways. This region was more developed the farther south traveled, at its center is the remains of city of Malden.

Although scarred by the war this region – such as the case with the rest of the known Commonwealth – was also environmentally scarred by the greed and casual disregard of its inhabitants. One of the worst disasters was the case with Lake Quannapowitt. Once a popular fishing and swimming hole, this locale was used as a dumping ground by Mass Fusion. Its local containment shed dumped waste via pipeline directly into its waters. The lake bottom is strewn with detritus and safety barrels.

Despite the lake and its tributary, the Saugus River, becoming dangerously contaminated, it remains one of the more hospitable regions surrounding Boston, with the settlements of The Slog and Greentop Nursery having become stops on the caravan routes. Settlers, however, are not this region's only inhabitants. Super mutants and raiders have made their homes in several landmarks, overrunning – such as the case with Breakheart Banks – and threatening nearby settlements such as the Forged at Saugus Ironworks. Another, and far more infamous locale exists here: Parsons State Insane Asylum.

Western Commonwealth
This region consists of foothills to the west descending into the suburban neighborhoods of the Greater Boston Area to the east. Mostly wilderness, even before the war, it is dominated by the remains of Fort Hagen township to the west. Once flowing directly northeast is the Charles River. A long deep natural navigational channel this waterway has been devastated by the cataclysmic destruction of the southern Commonwealth.

Along its riverfront lies the ruins of several townships and developments that have since been flooded by the change in water flow. Such as the case with the Forest Grove Marsh: once a burgeoning town on the waterway its locke stuck in the closed position. Not unlike the Weston water treatment plant, which as only flooded due to a failure in its machinery, despite it being constructed below the waterline. Another instance of environmental destruction is the site of Jalbert Brothers Disposal.

Despite this the region is not without successful settlements. Graygarden which was founded mere days before the war and Oberland Station. A recent farmstead built on the remains of a rail station, on the crest of the hillside east of the river. Among the ruins of the Mass Pike Interchange the Gunners have made constructed a major encampment. To the west is the ruins of the Federal ration stockpile, once a place where the federal government stockpiled supplies, now its a raider encampment. To the east is Vault 81, constructed near Chestnut Hillock Reservoir

Environment
The Commonwealth suffers from terrible radiation storms caused by the Glowing Sea, the area hit by the nuclear weapons that destroyed much of the region. During a storm, the sky turns to a sickly lime green color while a thick fog moves in, limiting one's visibility. These storms behave in the same manner as thunderstorms, with every "strike" emitting radiation across the land. Despite this, the Commonwealth appears to be a somewhat healthier area of the post-nuclear United States. The skies are brighter and clearer, and vegetation such as mutfruit, melons, tato plants and corn can be seen growing plentifully in the region, providing wastelanders with a reliable source of food. Similarly, water pumps can be seen throughout the region as well, providing wastelanders with a reliable source of fresh, clean water. The Commonwealth also sees regular rainfall, in a similar vein to Zion Canyon. The overall landscape is less blasted and scorched than other areas, such as the Capital Wasteland, due to the fact that the Boston area never suffered a direct hit, with the nuclear explosion detonating farther southwest, in what is now the Glowing Sea. However, since the Commonwealth covers the entirety of pre-War Massachusetts, it is unknown whether the rest of the region has emerged as fortunate.

Organizations
The most infamous faction within the Commonwealth, the organization known only as the Institute, was founded by the descendants of students who once attended the Commonwealth Institute of Technology. The scientists who worked within this underground, sealed environment possessed highly advanced technology and technological skills. They had managed to create true artificial intelligence (A.I.) and were capable of manufacturing androids, also referred to as "Synths"&mdash;short for "synthetic organic," with the latest models completely indistinguishable from ordinary humans. Ergo, the Institute was blamed for many of the Commonwealth's disappearances; and some have suspected that the Institute had a hand in the failure of the Commonwealth Provisional Government. The Institute appeared to use the rest of the Commonwealth as a dumping ground for various failed experiments; the Commonwealth's strain of super mutants can trace its history back to the Institute's experiments with the FEV.

Another organization active within the Commonwealth, the Railroad, functions in direct opposition to the Institute. Named in honor of the Underground Railroad, the Railroad's mission is the rescue and salvation of synthetic humanoids, though enslavement as a whole is also fought against.

There are more factions in play than The Institute and the Railroad, however. Preston Garvey was part of a group called the Minutemen, a citizen's militia that fought against the vicious bands of raiders and the super mutants which plagued the area. Although they once commanded the respect of the Commonwealth, their numbers steadily dwindled after the disastrous Quincy Massacre, with infighting and corruption tearing the organization apart. By the time of 2287, the Minutemen were in few numbers, with the supposedly last member; Preston, trying to keep a small group alive from violent raiders which sought to end them and abduct one of their group after fleeing Quincy. Their fate is entirely up to that of the Sole Survivor.

The Brotherhood of Steel sent several reconnaissance teams into Boston and the surrounding areas prior to 2287. Eventually, the Brotherhood deployed the Prydwen over the skies of Boston in the hopes of establishing a permanent foothold in the area. Led by Elder Arthur Maxson, the Brotherhood had merged some of Lyons' ideology with their traditional ways; and now attempted to bring the Institute down along with its synths due to their belief that the Institute's meddling in advanced technology may bring about yet another apocalypse.

Fallout 3

 * Harkness, Dr. Zimmer and Armitage are from the Commonwealth.
 * During the events of Broken Steel, Dr. Li leaves the Capital Wasteland on a trip to the Commonwealth, apparently to clear her head after the final activation of Project Purity. At an unspecified point, she joins the Institute.
 * Tobar, captain of the Duchess Gambit, made frequent trips to the Commonwealth when his ferry was in better condition.
 * Ishmael Ashur, ruler of The Pitt, mentions the Commonwealth, stating that it has reason to envy the Pitt.
 * Marcella mentions the Commonwealth on her terminal in Point Lookout.

Appearances
The Commonwealth appears only in Fallout 4, and is mentioned in Fallout 3 and its add-ons The Pitt, Broken Steel and Point Lookout.

The Commonwealth is also mentioned only in the Fallout Shelter quest Game Show Gauntlet, the multi-stage questlines The Great Tato Famine and Zines from the Commonwealth as well as the description for the bloodhound.