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 Fallout 2 designer Chris Avellone in 2002 on Black Isle's homepage.

In 2011, Avellone stated on Twitter that "Fallout Bible is no longer canon" and that only elements from the Bible in Fallout 3 and onward were canon. In 2016 he explained that it was written to consolidate information for Van Buren. In 2020, Bethesda lead writer and designer Emil Pagliarulo spoke about the Bible, stating that "for us, canon always starts with what is in the games" and that although they have looked at information from the Bible during development, explained that "We don't just assume that everything in the Bible is canon. We have to take it step-by-step inside. It's a judgement call."

Background
Community veteran Dan Wood coined the phrase Fallout Bible, which is a separate initiative than what was written by Avellone. Avellone explained that "the term "Bible" is misleading, since it's not supposed to start some religion or be the word of some holy power" and was intended for, "fans who already snagged the game and wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about what went on behind the scenes or what material never actually made it in."

Segments included behind the scenes information from Fallout developers, including Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, elaborating on details and answering community questions. A compiled version of the Bible was included with a purchase of Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics on GoG and includes a foreword by Chris Avellone.

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)