Fallout Setting

The Fallout world is not quite our own; somewhere along the way, it diverged. Despite certain overt similarities, there are distinct differences not only in culture but in the operations of science. The base concept for the setting is the World of Tomorrow (as imagined in the Golden Age of Science Fiction), after the development of the atomic bomb. This means that before the war, the Fallout world was more or less what the people of the 1940s and 1950s thought things would be like in 2077. (see: Divergence for more details).

The most important event in the Fallout setting was the Great War which happened on October 23, 2077. The "war" refers to a nuclear missile exchange which lasted a mere two hours, but was unbelievably destructive. More energy was released in the early moments of that war than all previous conflicts combined.

Fallout games take place many years after the apocalypse, as humanity struggles to pick up the pieces. Some groups have barely managed to survive above ground, either scavenging the scorched ruins of cities or surviving and adapting through mass mutation. Communities that were sealed in underground Vaults during the war are now emerging to re-populate the blasted landscape. Striving to organize and sustain the human race, these tattered remnants of civilization are threatened by psychotic mutants, rogue machines, raiders, and all manner of hostile creatures. The first two games take place mostly in the area known as the Core Region, where the main threats so far have been the Master and the Enclave, while the third game takes place in the Capital Wasteland on the East Coast.

History
Main article: Timeline

Before the War
Main article: World before the War

In the Fallout setting, twenty-first century America also descended into an era of paranoia and mania similar to the 1950s. The U.S. government became more and more militant and aggressive against real and imagined enemies. As the world’s fossil fuel supplies started to dry up and conversions to nuclear power lagged, people became desperate.

The United Nations failed in 2052 as the planet's natural resources dried up, causing many smaller nations to go financially bankrupt and fail. Europe and the Middle East were cast into a long, drawn-out war over the few remaining productive oil fields.

In late 2053, the United States closed its borders when a new super plague was discovered, and a terrorist nuclear weapon destroyed Tel Aviv. In early 2054, the U.S. responded by creating Project Safehouse. This project, financed by junk bonds, was responsible for creating large underground survival shelters, commonly known as Vaults.

In 2060, the Middle Eastern oil fields ran dry, ending the European war. The European Commonwealth soon dissolved into quarreling, bickering nation states bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.

In the winter of 2066, China attacked Alaska over what were most likely the last drops of oil in the world. The U.S. responded with force, but it would be ten years before the conflict would end. In a desperate maneuver, both superpowers invaded neighboring countries in an effort to bolster their dwindling resources. The U.S. annexation of Canada was concluded by 2076. Canadian timber provided fuel for U.S. military needs, and Alaska was reclaimed by early 2077.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 23, 2077, the sky was filled with nuclear missiles. No one knows who started the war, but after two hours of nuclear devastation, no one cared.

Because of frequent false alarms, few made it to the Vaults when the final alarm sounded. Most people were trapped outside the closing Vault doors. The Enclave, the remains of the United States shadow government, retreated safely to an Oil Rig on the Pacific Ocean.

After the War
The Great War changed most of the planet into a radioactive wasteland. Those who did not die in the nuclear weapon exchanges (likely less than half the world's population) lived in darkness or misery for decades. Living in subterranean vaults or frozen in cryogenic chambers, humanity persevered. Most people outside the Vaults were killed, and many of those who were lucky (or unlucky) enough to survive, mutated. The first effects of radiation were seen in the survivors around 2080. Widespread mutations occurred with animals and humans alike. Those that survive the effects of the mutations are permanently changed. New species are created almost overnight. Among them were the hideous ghouls.

Years after the bombs dropped, the first Vaults started to open and their inhabitants emerged to rebuild the destroyed civilization. The Core Region, corresponding to the American West Coast and Southwest was one of the first areas of the world in which significant interaction emerged, eighty years after the war. Though many regions of the formerly-civilized world are waking up, humanity has a long way to go if it is to ever stabilize.

Creatures
Main articles: Creatures, Mutations and their causes

The various types of mutant creatures that inhabit the wastelands were mostly caused by radiation. This is where mantises, geckos, spore plants, radscorpions, brahmin and the various mutant rodent species come from. Also, this is how ghouls, decrepit, ragged, almost rotting, zombie-like victims of massive radiation poisoning, are made. Generally, in the Fallout universe, massive exposure to radiation causes humans to transform into ghouls. Also, in this world, in accordance with the 1950's sci-fi physics, radiation makes most creatures bigger and meaner.

The other source of mutations in the Fallout world is FEV: the Forced Evolutionary Virus. The super mutants, floaters, centaurs and possibly wanamingos were products of FEV infection. It was initially called the Pan-Immunity Virion Project and was created to fight a disease called the New Plague. However, abnormal side effects were observed in test subjects: the test animals began to grow dramatically and their brain activity decreased. The project was renamed FEV: Forced Evolutionary Virus and was tested by the Army on humans.

After a man known as Richard Grey discovered the base and was accidentally dipped in the FEV vats, he slowly mutated into an unrecognizable mass of living flesh. He developed psychic powers, which were enhanced by consuming living creatures and absorbing their minds to expand his own. Slowly, he started doing his own experiments with FEV, at first on animals and later turning other humans into his super mutant army. He decided that he would have to force humanity to evolve, and even continued injecting his own twisted body with more of the virus to continue his own evolution. Those who could not evolve would die. Eventually, the mutants turned out to be sterile and the Master himself was killed by the Vault Dweller.

Places
Main article: Places

Core Region
The basic Core Region stretches from Los Angeles in the South to Klamath in the North. It covers most of California, as well as parts of Oregon and Nevada. It is a largely inhospitable region, which is why most people have chosen to seek refuge in the remains of old cities, where they have 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.

The ghoul population of the wasteland was mostly clustered around old Bakersfield (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, and they sent patrols as far as to 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.

East Coast
The Capital Wasteland is a large expanse of open areas with caves, raider camps, etc. in the area of the former Washington, DC around the more urban areas of Downtown DC. As of 2277, the area is overrun by super mutants who are in a constant battle to push humans out.

The central hub of civilization in the ruins of the former capital is Rivet City, based in and around the remains of a beached aircraft carrier. Other settlements include the towns of Megaton, Tenpenny Tower and Paradise Falls, as well as the Brotherhood of Steel Citadel built in place of the pre-War Pentagon. Movement between the towns is possible through the Washington Metro tunnels or via more dangerous overland routes, where you will battle in the DC area trying to survive on pure combat tactics.

In the Jefferson Memorial, James (The lone wanderer's father) has developed a purifier that has the power to release purified water into the river running all the way through Washington DC. Depending on how the player acts in the end of Fallout 3, the water is either released, poisoned with the FEV or destroyed all together.

Core Region factions
There are very few factions in the Core Region that aren't limited to one or two towns. After the defeat of the Master's super mutant army which was a major military force in the 2161, 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 NCR is actively trying to unite the entire California under a single government.

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

The Enclave, the descendants of the United States government that considers everyone other than themselves worthy of eradication, used to operate from an Oil Rig off the coast of California, but seem to have left the area after the destruction of their headquarters. They seem to have moved their base of operations from the west coast to the Northwestern edge of The Capital Wasteland, inside of a sprawling underground maze known as "Raven Rock".

Capital Wasteland
Downtown DC and the surrounding area of Capital Wasteland are overrun with an army of Super Mutants. Separate from the Master's army, they originate from a completely different source.

Three other factions in the Capital Wasteland are not native to the area - the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel, a splinter faction of the Core Region BoS led by Owyn Lyons who swore to defend the human inhabitants of the Wasteland from mutants; the Brotherhood Outcasts, who left the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood in disagreement over Lyons' change of priorities; and lastly, the remnants of the Enclave who survived the destruction of their Western headquarters.

Other known factions include Slavers at Paradise Falls, the Regulators and the Talon Company mercenaries, and the residents of Tenpenny Tower, Megaton, Rivet City, Big Town & Little Lamplight.