Psychic (Fallout)



A psyker is a person or creature that possesses a certain paranormal/psychic power. A number of methods have resulted in the creation of psykers, such as FEV like the Master's experiments and Melchior, radiation like the Beastlords, natural selection like Hakunin, artifacts such as the ancient crown recovered by Lorenzo Cabot, or prolonged separation of consciousness from one's body such as the 200 years of seclusion in a glass jar experienced by Professor Calvert.

Fallout
After being dipped in FEV vats, absorbing other people and being connected to the Los Angeles Vault computer, the Master gained some psychic powers. He was able to attack humans mentally, although his attacks could be repelled with proper training. The Master was able to bring forth psychic abilities in certain humans after they were injected with FEV (usually the pineal gland, but also the amygdalae or medulla), but most of the experiments were failures (resulting in insanity) or used to line the Corridor of Revulsion. There were four psykers in the Master's lair:
 * Wiggum was electrokinetic-dominant.
 * Lucy was telekinetic-dominant and a minor photokinetic.
 * Moore was pyrokinetic-dominant.
 * Gideon was a receiving-telepathic-dominant (without the ability to control his telepathy, requiring the psychic nullifier to block incoming thoughts) with minor photokinetic abilities.

All four of them died when the Cathedral was vaporized in nuclear fire.

Additionally, Chuck in Adytum displays some form of psychic power.

Player character abilities
The ability to resist the Master's psychic attacks is represented in the SPECIAL system by the Mental Block perk.

Fallout 2

 * Hakunin, the Arroyo shaman, apparently also possessed some telepathic abilities, as he was able to speak to the Chosen One in his dreams (the Chosen One was able to receive it and record it to his Pip-Boy).
 * Melchior, miner from Redding, was able to summon dangerous animals (deathclaws, fire geckos, mole rats), when he became mutated by FEV in the Mariposa Military Base.

Fallout 3

 * Bloomseer Poplar is one of the members of the Treeminders and can predict the future. She describes the settings of some of the major quests that can be done like The Superhuman Gambit; "I see a battle between insects and industry, and the men who control them..."
 * The AntAgonizer appears to have some sort of psychic control over giant ants. It started when she was a child and her parents were killed by ants but she was spared. Later, she gained control over them and used them to harass the townspeople.
 * Harold is an FEV mutant with a mental connection to Bob, the tree growing from his head.
 * Professor Calvert, one of the residents of Point Lookout, achieved psionic powers after an experimental procedure. When his brain was extracted from his body (in the same fashion as for robobrain models) and put into a jar, he gained an ability to communicate with people all around the region by entering their minds. To a person, it appeared like a mysterious voice in their head.

Fallout: New Vegas

 * The Forecaster is a child who has cryptic visions of the future, similar to Bloomseer Poplar, but cannot control his powers. He needs his "medicine" to keep him from overthinking, thus helping control his headaches. For 100 caps, though, he will forgo his medication and look into the future for the Courier.
 * Nightkin inside Black Rock cave seem to have some paranormal knowledge of events and characters, if having completed the quest Crazy, Crazy, Crazy by repairing Rhonda they will tell the "voices" said things that will happen in the main storyline, as well as special comments about the companions. For example, upon bringing Craig Boone as a companion, they will comment "silent man knows more about the spiked crowns than what he says" inferring that Boone knows more about the Great Khans than what he says (the Bitter Springs Massacre).

Fallout 4

 * Mama Murphy appears to have a similar power to the Forecaster and Poplar. She foresees the Sole Survivor being attacked by a deathclaw outside the building during When Freedom Calls. It ends up coming true soon after. She was also the one who told Preston Garvey and the settlers to go to Sanctuary. She later reveals she saw the Sole Survivor exit cryo sleep "clear as day" and will be able to offer more and more true but vague visions as the player character supplies her with chems. It seems taking chems is the trigger for her abilities, they are used to expand her awareness. She calls this special ability "the sight" and does not know the reason behind it or when it has began.
 * Lorenzo Cabot in the The Secret of Cabot House was granted enhanced strength, resistances, immortality and telekinetic powers due to an artifact that he discovered during an archaeological dig in the Rub' al Khali, the Empty Quarter of Arabia in 1894. Some of these abilities can be artificially granted to others, albeit temporarily, through a serum derived from Lorenzo's blood. This has been the case with his family and, may potentially be so for the Sole Survivor.

Fallout 76

 * The Flatwoods monster is able to "warp minds" in order to put almost any entity under its control.
 * The Interloper sent visions to Jeff Lane, beckoning him to Lucky Hole Mine in order to become its conduit. It also appears to have the ability to alter nearby terrain.

Fallout Tactics
A group of tribals known as the Beastlords had a kind of psychic control over animals. This power was caused by decades of exposure to a special form of radiation present within Mardin's underground caves.

Appearances
Some kind of psychic power appears in every Fallout game.

Behind the scenes

 * The term "psyker" is often attributed to the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop games that likely coined it. In Warhammer 40k psykers can also use psychic powers and abilities.
 * Chris Avellone believes psykers creates narrative difficulties for the Fallout writers, as stated in Fallout Bible 3. Avellone says: "For Fallout fan-fiction purposes, you are welcome to make use of the psykers and their potential from Fallout, but I'd be careful - the psykers in Fallout show some pretty over-the-top mutations that could take the world to Childhood's End faster than you can say 'uh, his eyes are glowing?'"
 * Joshua Sawyer views psykers depicted in various games as going a bit too far (along with some other supernatural aspects). Sawyer explains: "I think a li’l bit is okay and it feels like if we’re going to accept some of the wacky science of the setting, we’re already off the rails of strict realism. That said, I think it’s best if it feels alien and remains more or less unexplained.  Personally, I think the ghost girl, Hakunin’s visions, Mama Murphy, and Dunwich Borers go a little far for my tastes.  Even though the Forecaster was my idea, I still felt like he might have gone a little over the edge (not the writer’s fault, my fault)." and further posits that the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series handles its supernatural elements well, both keeping them mysterious and weird without going into H.P. Lovecraft or traditional ghosts and affecting the overall tone and understanding of the setting for the player.


 * "Sykers" were confirmed within the Bethesda Softworks LLC v. Interplay Entertainment Corporation court case to be present within the design wiki for Project V13, also known as Fallout Online. It is unclear if the difference in spelling is attributable to a stenographer's error.