Necropolis

"City of the Dead"

Necropolis, also known as the City of the Dead, is a ghoul city upon the remains of Bakersfield, located in southern California.

This Greek word meaning "city of the dead" refers to this strangely silent ghost town. Most of the buildings are intact, but travelers report that no one seems to live there, and people who arrive to settle it either end up with radiation sickness or simply disappear. The truth of the matter involves a small population of ghouls beneath the city's streets.

Necropolis is east of the Hub, about halfway between it and Hoover Dam. Merchants usually avoid Necropolis altogether, or plan their trips so that they pass it during the daylight hours, as it has a bad reputation. The ghouls are intensely afraid of outsiders, and prefer guerrilla tactics to keep their city safe. There are unsubstantiated rumors that the Master and his minions wiped out the ghoul population, but caravans traveling through the area still avoid Necropolis and tell stories of ghost-like humans in tattered clothes.

Location
Necropolis can be found six squares east and twelve squares south of Vault 13.

Background
On October 23, 2077, the United States of America was destroyed as the country was bathed in atomic fire. Those with the money and luck fled into great underground Vaults, fallout shelters which were advertised as protection, but were in fact part of a sinister experiment funded by Vault-Tec and the US government.

Vault 12 in Bakersfield was one such Vault. When the bombs dropped, air raid sirens sounded, and the Vaults sealed shut, not to open for decades or in some cases even centuries. But the inhabitants of Bakersfield were not to know that Vault 12 had an intentional design flaw - the door would never shut properly. Once it became clear that the other vaults had sealed, people within Bakersfield attempted to force their way into Vault 12 to protect themselves and their families.

Despite the obvious problems, those sheltered in Vault 12 were protected from the brunt of the blasts. It was not until radiation seeped in from toxic clouds of radioactive waste when problems arose. People's skin began to dry and flake, hair began to fall out - the first ghouls had been created (excluding Desmond Lockheart).

In the summer of 2083, the city of Necropolis was founded by the Vault 12 dwellers, as well as any locals who had survived the bombs. In the spring of the following year, Set wrested control from the original Vault 12 Overseer, establishing a status quo which would remain for nearly 80 years. The Vault 12 Overseer, not willing to take a dirtnap, was driven north, where history lost sight of him.

In 2157, the Master learned the location of the Bakersfield Vault, and in order to further his plans (which required him to find humans untainted by radiation), he sent a detachment of super mutants there to seize the Vault. Many ghouls were snapped like twigs in the attack, until Set finally parleyed with the super mutants, telling them that the ghouls are the Vault dwellers the super mutants are looking for. The super mutants, angered at failing to find an intact Vault, set up a small garrison at the watershed to watch the inhabitants and ensure Set's cooperation in the war to come.

In February of 2162, the Vault Dweller recovered the water chip in Necropolis, but Ian was killed by a super mutant and reduced to a cinder during the fight. In March of the same year, the mutant army attacked Necropolis, sparing none of the ghoulish inhabitants that did not flee. After the mutant armies advanced, they left a truly dead city behind them. Necropolis, however, didn't become completely empty as a few ghouls still lived there.

The scattered survivors of Necropolis led the Great Migration across the wastes, leading to the founding of towns such as Gecko, Dayglow and Broken Hills.

Layout
Necropolis suffered extreme destruction, debris litters the streets and makes navigation practically impossible. The sewers serve to connect the various sections of town. Necropolis is divided into three districts and three sewer sections.

Motel


This district is a virtual shooting gallery, filled with ghouls. They are easy experience pickings for the distance shooter. The ghouls will become hostile easily if the Vault Dweller tries to converse and/or rifle through their storage. There are manholes which lead to the city's sewers.

Hall of the Dead


In a building that appears to be the remains of some sort of church, you can find a number of imprisoned glowing ones, Set, Garret, and various ghoul guards.

Watershed


The last district (accessed through the sewers) and the home to:
 * Children of the Cathedral medics
 * The broken water pump
 * A ghoul prisoner
 * The super mutants with rhyming names
 * The entrance to Vault 12

Sewers


Three sections of tunnels connecting Necropolis districts.

Inhabitants
The ghoul population was divided into three groups:
 * The surface dwellers were what could be called the public face of Necropolis, as they were by far the most numerous of the three groups, and controlled most of the city's surface. They were typically the first thing outsiders encountered in Necropolis, and were likely the cause of the aforementioned rumors surrounding the City of the Dead. Their operations were based out of the Hall of the Dead, where their leader Set did his business. Paranoid and intolerant of outsiders and non-ghouls, the surface dwellers were often violent, attacking strangers on sight and harboring a particularly deep hatred of super mutants. This was most likely due to the super mutant garrison newly established around Necropolis' important watershed. Though Talius mentions heated resistance to the super mutant presence in the city by Set's surface dwellers, by the time the Vault Dweller arrives there appears to be a sort of stalemate between the two groups, though Set does not hesitate in employing the outsider to eliminate the super mutants garrison.
 * The glowing ones were heavily irradiated ghouls who lived in the old Vault 12, shunned by even their own kind, who disliked the other ghouls as much as they did the normal humans.
 * The so-called underground ghouls, who were forced to live in the city's sewers, were ironically by far the most peaceful of Necropolis' residents and were much more tolerant of outsiders than either of the other groups.

Appearances
Necropolis appears only in Fallout and is mentioned (as Bakersfield) in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * In Fallout, according to the Vault-Tec Vault Locations holodisk, Vault 12 was located in Bakersfield. However, while Necropolis lies to the north-east of Los Angeles, the actual city of Bakersfield is not far to the south-west of the Lost Hills bunker. The location of Necropolis roughly matches the town of Barstow. It is probable that while Necropolis was initially placed where Bakersfield is, the locations were moved by the developers at a later date to spread them out better along the map and game files were not updated to reflect this fact.
 * In ancient Greek, a necropolis (νεκρόπολις) literally means, a "city of the dead", in this case referring to the ghouls that inhabit the ruins of the city.
 * The leader of Necropolis, Set, is a reference to the god of the same name in Ancient Egyptian mythology, who was the evil god of chaos, storms, and wastelands.