Fallout Bible 2

Fallout Bible 2 is the second installment of the Fallout Bible, a collection of documents containing background material for the first Fallout games compiled and written by Chris Avellone. This installment was released on February 2, 2002.

All information from Fallout Bible 1, Fallout Bible 2, and Fallout Bible 3 was later revised and included in Fallout Bible 0. All notes in italics come from The Vault editors, not from Chris Avellone himself.

Forward

 * 1) I wanted to let you guys know that I'm planning to have an updated version of the Fallout timeline in the next Bible update on the 11th - and thanks to everyone who sent in feedback on corrections as well as screenshots and message files to help with the content; it makes revisions a lot easier.
 * 2) This isn't a full update, but it should address a few problems and discrepancies from the last update.
 * 3) Also, I just wanted to say if you guys ever have any movie or book suggestions that you think have interesting material relating to the Fallout genre, don't hesitate to email me. Again, my contact information is Cavellone@blackisle.com. I may not be able to respond to every email you send, but I guarantee I will read them all and try to give you a response when I can.
 * 4) Again, some of the information contained within this documentation could ruin some surprises in Fallout 1 and 2, so watch out for spoilers.
 * 5) The next addition will be Monday the 11th. I'm planning for an updated timeline, and hopefully some additional material.
 * 6) Suggestions for material to include in the Bible, questions about Fallout events, and suggestions for good source material are welcome, but I cannot give hints or walkthroughs for the game, provide technical support, answer questions outside of Fallout 1 or 2, or read fan fiction or fan-created material for Fallout.

Thanks for supporting Fallout,

Chris Avellone down here at Black Isle Studios

Questions, questions
This submission we answer a question from Michael Ward:

I read the start thing of the bible that's on the net. One thing I don't agree with in the fallout universe is that the vaults were just a bunch of "social experiments". I mean why. Even though the enclave were a bunch of assholes, why would they want to purposely see their own country men die when the vaults were societys last chance at a good survivial. I like to think that lots of people died because the vaults just didn't work. Like in FOT there is a terminal that says that money had been diverted from much needed common sense things to an underground game hunting facility or whatever it was. experiments was a bit over the top, but corruption is far more believable. that's what i think anyhow. and Fallout 3, is it a possibility or not? - Michael


 * Answer: The vault experiments were an idea created by Tim Cain, and I don't really know the reason behind them, but I can offer some speculation.


 * First off, thematically, it's pretty creepy, and we all know that developers will pull all sorts of crazy shit to try and mess with players' heads. It's possible that Tim had just finished watching an X-Files episode and had conspiracy theories swimming around in his subconscious. As to your comment about the experiments being a bit over the top, well, yeah. We're guilty as charged.


 * Secondly, as proven time and again in Fallout 2, the Enclave isn't a particularly rational bunch of fellows. Thematically, they embrace a paranoid view of the world and a heightened sense of superiority over everyone else in Fallout.


 * Third, the federal government (or whatever branch of federal government was responsible - it was not necessarily the Enclave) may not have ever considered the Vaults as society's best chance for survival - the government may have considered themselves the best candidates for rebuilding the world and already had their asses covered in the event of a nuclear or biological war by relocating to other remote installations across the nation (and elsewhere) that weren't necessarily vaults. The Enclave certainly didn't seem to be devoting much effort to digging up any other vaults and trying to use the human stock there to rebuild civilization.


 * Fourth, a lot of people did die because the vaults didn't work. Some suffered worse fates.


 * Nonetheless, even members of the Enclave probably could not answer the question of who created the Vault experiments and their reasons, as many of the people responsible for the creation of the Vaults died long ago, and many records were lost in the great static of 2077. President Richardson was familiar with the purpose of the Vaults, but he never saw them as more than little test tubes of preserved humans he could mess with.

Horrigan update
Just to clarify...

Horrigan is a mutant, but Horrigan was a monster before his exposure to FEV in the military base (he had many psychological problems which may be included in a Horrigan psychological profile in the future).

It's important to note that Horrigan has never considered himself a mutant; only the scientists at the Enclave would consider him one, but they mostly referred to him as an "experiment," and even then, not to his face. Most soldiers considered Horrigan a walking nuke, something the tech boys built, and they were not generally aware of his mutant status. Most did consider him a freak, however, and there were few soldiers who wanted to accompany him on missions.

Horrigan has always been loyal to the Presidency, to the Enclave, and the armed forces - this loyalty was present before his exposure to FEV, and it was reinforced by Presidential Directive through various conditioning and testing programs developed by the Enclave. Horrigan's low Intelligence (which was further damaged by the FEV exposure) made these conditioning programs take root easily.

Wannamingoes update
Sorry about the error on the Wannamingoes and sterility - I had forgotten about the mother and the eggs in Redding. In any event, to clarify, the eggs you see in Fallout 2 are the last generation of Wannamingoes to exist in the wasteland; the young Wannamingoes seen in F2 will perish in five years, and their parents a few years before that - an internal genetic clock will simply stop ticking, and they'll fall over dead. The Wannamingoes are a vicious mutant breed that had their moment in the sun, and now their sun has set.

To put the tombstone on their extinction, the largest known nest of Wannamingoes were wiped out when the Great Wannamingo mine was reclaimed by Redding with the help of a traveling tribal. The mother was killed, and the last remaining eggs were hunted down, stepped on, and then the remains were examined by local scientists and doctors who came to the extinction conclusions mentioned above.

Again, Wannamingoes are not aliens - they are a curious mutant or genetically-designed fighting machine that has only been able to find a home in the cold, dark places of the wastes.

It is possible that the wannamingoes were old Enclave experiments (or even experiments from before the Great War), and if this is true, then it's likely their genetic/biological deadman's switch was purposely engineered to keep them from breeding past a certain generation.

As a final note, this is strictly a personal decision on my part. If you want them to live for fan fiction, pen-and-paper role-playing campaign purposes, or for your own peace of mind, feel free to have some of them survive the stopping of their genetic clock - in the Black Isle universe, however, the little buggers are already dead and their irradiated shells are scattered along the floor of abandoned mines throughout northern California where they make nice crunching noises when you step on them.