Fallout

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"War, war never changes."

-Ron Pearlman

Fallout is a post-post-apocalyptic game series that takes place in America about a century or two in the future where America had been bombed so much that it has been left as a rotting, smelly and depressing wasteland that happens to have high as fuck raiders come up to you and attempt to have anal with a chainsaw or a laser weapon.

Despite the setting, most of the games are fairly noblebright, with a darkly humorous streak and a series-long theme of rebuilding.

Plot and Setting

For those wanting an in-depth analysis of the Fallout storyline, the "Fallout Storyteller" Youtube series has a large number of episodes dealing with the subject and can be viewed here.

Basically, post-apocalyptic America was filled with what seems to be... 50's-60's art style and pop culture humor.

Transistors were invented in 2067 rather than 1947, and humanity encountered alien technology around the time of World War 2 resulting in a society with computers that barely had 1MB of data storage and television was still black and white, but robots would clean your house and police your neighborhood while you yourself could own a disintegration ray hanging above the mantlepiece in case undesirables move into your neighborhood.

Some events still happened, such as Ronald Reagan and Nixon both becoming president. Others, such as the entire world running out of oil all at once, didn't. The US still landed on the moon in '69, but set up a moonbase and fought a war against aliens. Vietnam occurred, but the United States openly participated in combat operations rather than simply attempt to defend the South. There are other divergences that occurred much earlier as well (possibly because aliens were monitoring and abducting humans throughout Fallout history) evidenced by the altered architecture in Washington DC. Hippies and McCarthyism remained right up until the end.

The United States reorganized itself into 13 commonwealths with the states functioning as counties and the old Maryland Cowpens Flag with 13 stars replaced the Old Glory 50 stars. The US progressed through the women's liberation and civil rights movements so by the time of the bombs falling racism and sexism were mostly forgotten.

One of the biggest differences is the miniaturization of nuclear reactors in Fallout, to the point that everything from cars to ammo cartridges for laser weapons have them. The cars that still remain, mostly no longer functional, actually explode in a mushroom cloud if damaged sufficiently.

During the lead-up to the end of the world, oil became the major resource in the world as supplies dried up. The Middle East oil reserves were drained dry and the region ceased to matter on a global scale when they pooled their uranium into weapons stockpiles and gave the world a preview of what was to come. Europe had united into the "European Commonwealth" rather than the European Union, but when the Middle East blew itself away they turned inwards in petty wars over remaining resources until they had depleted themselves and ceased to matter on a global scale . The same thing happened to the Soviet Union, leaving only the United States and China as the remaining superpowers, which stood alone. Alaska became the only source of oil left on Earth resulting in the last great war occurring between China and the United States for control of it. The US annexed Canada in its entirety, turning it into one giant mobilization center to retain the great white Northwest. The South American nations were left to fend for themselves. China, rather than deploy the expected numerical superiority, focused on small elite teams utilizing advanced stealth technology while the United States deployed atomic-powered robots and advanced powered armors that contained commandos.

To advance their chances of victory, the US took the greatest minds of the world and created a secret facility contained underneath a mountain which was dubbed "Big Mountain" that lay somewhere in the deserts of the American southwest. There, scientists churned out amazing works straight out of science fiction from technology that could keep a brain alive in a jar forever to teleportation to cracking the secrets of the Chinese stealth suits. They were given ample numbers of Chinese prisoners of war to experiment on, as well as American citizens (and hippies) who were disappeared during the paranoia of the extended Cold War. Despite the high casualties and useless horrors that came out of the Big MT, the six executives in charge of the site were given unlimited authority within. Towards the end of the Resource War there was significant development of biological agents which would give a boost to the performance of ordinary soldiers; these were highly toxic, highly mutagenic substances called the "Forced Evolutionary Virus" or FEV and never resulted in a breakthrough. Although the war ended with the United States victorious, many foresaw the coming of the end as both sides built up their arsenals.

The Enclave, a secret Illuminati society which controlled the world governments (other than China), planned on allowing humanity to survive the oncoming destruction of all things that they believed was coming. They began building secret facilities which would serve as city-sized bomb shelters to allow them and their families plus a small select community to ride out the apocalypse, but many questions remained about how to rebuild. To study the psychological effects of living in giant underground vaults well in advance they set up a dummy corporation called "Vault-tec" which offered a place in shelters nearly identical to those belonging to the Enclave all over the United States. For a modest fee, citizens could purchase a place within these Vaults in the event of an imminent nuclear attack. Vault-tec hadn't predicted just how paranoid the people of the US had become, and as a result places filled up extremely fast. Those who couldn't get a place in the Vaults began coming up with alternatives, from personal fallout shelters to finding safe places for themselves and their communities to retreat to once the bombs fell.

Each Vault was put entirely in the hands of a Vault-tec employee called an Overseer, and most Vaults were actually sabotaged with some fatal flaw. These ranged from simple things like giving a population access to a large number of small weapons and encouraging them to see guns as an integral way of life while having a massive armory full of artillery and explosives that they were forbidden from accessing, to a Vault with a damaged seal on the door to let in radiation and see the longterm effects on humans, to a Vault with 1000 men and one woman and another with 1000 women and one man. Control Vaults also existed as a basis of comparison for all results. The Enclave planned on using a false alarm nuclear attack to drive populations into the Vaults then keep them contained while studying the populations. But the actual nuclear apocalypse occurred much sooner than expected. What happened to cause it isn't known and who fired first isn't either, but the United States and China both unleashed their nuclear arsenals at each other. What the effects on the rest of the world were is unknown as the games take place entirely within the United States, but the US was devastated.

The people in the Vaults hid away within, all suffering from the experiments needlessly with most Vaults falling to catastrophe as a result. The people who didn't get into a Vault attempted to survive as best they could. Most of those who did manage to escape annihilation had hidden in mountains, natural caves, or wilderness so far from civilization no bombs were launched at them.

Some property of the people in the Fallout universe results in some humans that receive radiation turns them sterile and causes them to lose the skin from their muscles rather than die horrible deaths like real life humans do. These people are called Ghouls, and they were known about before the bombs fell as the United States had done horrible experiments on people to satisfy the Enclave's paranoia. Some Ghouls lose all hints of their humanity and go feral, acting as animals and attacking everything that isn't another Ghoul with abandon while some Ghouls retain their intelligence, being exactly the same as they were prior (often a little grumpier, and in some cases...hornier). Ghouls are no longer harmed by radiation, and in fact receive some kind of nourishment from it. All Ghouls, regardless of intelligence, are immortal unless killed with violence and their bodies regenerate when irradiated. Perks that player characters can take in Fallout 4 suggest that some normal-looking individuals have taken on Ghoul characteristics, although it's equally possible to just be more flavorful description of an old Fallout standard Perk.

The humans who didn't turn into Ghouls mostly became tribals with varying degrees of friendliness and/or savagery. Few tribes retained the civilized knowledge from before and were oftentimes extremely hostile to those they encounter although many can be civilized through friendly contact with educated peoples.

Eighty four years after the bombs fell, Vault 13 in California opened and one of the Dwellers was sent to find a water purification chip to replace the malfunctioning one in their Vault. This is the story of Fallout 1.

The Vault Dweller (the canon name of the Fallout 1 protagonist) had many adventurers, and uncovered the secrets of a new race in the Wasteland; Super Mutants. The Forced Evolutionary Virus was one of the bioagents the Think Tank had discovered while attempting to create a type of super soldier to win the war against China, and was stored in various places when the bombs fell. The FEV turned some humans into giant hulks, many with reduced mental capacities although some were as intelligent as any other human variant. Like Ghouls, Super Mutants are immortal and healed by radiation. When a human who fell into an FEV vat and merged with a super computer studied the Super Mutants, he decided that they would be the new master race of the world and began to organize their numbers while having them abduct more humans to dip into FEV. Only those with no exposure to the Wasteland resulted in the pure Super Mutant strain he desired, and he took the name "The Master" while planning his glorious future. In time he created a cult of humans called Children of the Cathedral who turned the surface of his great facility into a church. After stopping The Master (possibly simply by pointing out that Super Mutants are sterile, possibly with a lot of dakka) the Vault Dweller returned to his Vault with the water chip only to be exiled forever. Many chose to follow the Vault Dweller, heading out with their action Moses into the Wastes where they founded a city called Arroyo in Oregon.

Many years later in Fallout 2, the Vault Dweller's descendant called the "Chosen One" was sent to discover their ancestor's legacy and retrieve a lost piece of technology called a "Garden Of Eden Creation Kit" or "GECK" from one of the Vaults to turn Arroyo into a verdant paradise (supposedly). This lead the Chosen One on a journey where they discovered the Enclave had become active, causing immense misery to the Wasteland. They believed only those who had survived in an Enclave Vault to be worthy of inheriting the future with the tribals, mutants, and survivors of the Vault-tec Vaults as obstacles and threats. The Chosen One defeated them by blowing up their base of operations, an old oil rig on the Pacific Ocean that was once the base of operations of the Poseidon Energy company that ran the bulk of the gas stations in the United States at one point. Along the way they helped a small local government in the town of Shady Sands establish themselves, which eventually became the New California Republic. One of the factions helping the Chosen One was the Brotherhood of Steel.

In Fallout Tactics, the Brotherhood of Steel began inducting tribes into its ranks in small numbers while defending the Wasteland against threats ranging from an army of renegade robots. The main group of the Brotherhood is separated from this group, which takes over Vault 0 and continues pushing eastwards. Although the bulk of Fallout Tactics is non-canon, the basic story remained.

In Fallout 3, the Lone Wanderer is the name of the protagonist and they leave Vault 101 after their father escapes the Vault in order to see the Wasteland restored to a livable state. They fight for control of Washington DC to wrest it from the grip of slaver tribals, the Enclave, and the various horrors created by FEV. They enlist the aid of the splinter Brotherhood group from Fallout Tactics in order to activate a GECK and restore the old US capital. Originally the Vault Dweller or an important storyline character died at the end from radiation poisoning, but a patch later made the player survive. In DLC content, the Lone Wanderer participated in a virtual simulation of the Battle of Anchorage between the US and China before the bombs fell in order to give the eastern Brotherhood access to a pre-war armory. They also traveled to Pittsburgh, now called "The Pitt", a former and current slavery operation in order to save the people there from tyrant and mutagenic degenerative disease resulting in horrible cave monsters in a very Mad Max storyline. They also journeyed to Point Lookout in Maryland to deal with pre-war maniacs and vicious cannibal tribals. The Lone Wanderer then assisted the Brotherhood of Steel in wiping out the last of the eastern Enclave. At some point they entered an alien craft called "Mothership Zeta" that had been storing objects and humans stolen from throughout Earth's history, leading the abducted peoples in wiping out the aliens onboard the ship and taking it for themselves.

In Fallout: New Vegas, the player is known as the "Courier" and was shot in the head while taking the strange package of a poker chip made of pure platinum to New Vegas, which was the parts of Las Vegas that survived the bombs falling due to the Howard Hughes of the Fallout universe named "Mr. House" installing lasers on top of various buildings that neutralized the bombs as they fell. The player discovered that Mr. House had planned to survive the apocalypse suspended in a tank of fluid and thus timelessly immortal within it while controlling an army of robots. His robots were never activated as the control chip was lost when the bombs fell, so he used his robots to search for it for many years. After finding it he set about the task of ensuring it was brought to him while organizing the tribals into three groups that ran New Vegas casinos just like they ran before the war. He also booted out the inhabitants of the nearby Vault 21 (which studied the effects of gambling) and filled it with cement to protect the controls of his robot army. While the chip made its way to him, the New California Republic and a group of horrifyingly violent tribals called Caesar's Legion clashed for control of Hoover Dam. The Courier reclaimed the chip, then either sided with the NCR, Mr. House, Caesar's Legion, or simply took control of Vegas for themselves using the plan of the man who shot them to do the same. In any event other than Mr. House controlling the army he dies, and whoever is picked takes full control both of the Dam and New Vegas itself. In DLC content the Courier journeyed to Utah where they helped save two groups of peaceful tribals from a third group that had the backing of Caesar's Legion, then traveled to a hotel called the Sierra Madre full of advanced technology which had been blanketed in a deadly fog after the bombs fell and was coerced under threat of death by an insane renegade leader of the western Brotherhood of Steel to get into the secret vault, where they sealed him forever either to stop his plot to wipe out and enslave the Wasteland or simply for revenge. They then traveled to the Big MT, where they were dissected and replaced with robot parts by the insane executives from before the Great War who had converted themselves into robots controlled by brain jars. The Courier either destroyed the scientists or made him/herself their leader (possibly leaving their own brain behind to keep them all out of trouble). The final journey of the Courier was to The Divide, an old area of Nevada full of military bases that had contained the nuclear arsenal of the United States. Another courier calling himself Ulysses that had served almost every faction in the middle American Wasteland that had gone quite insane had lured the Courier there, as the travel of the Courier had provided enough economy for the people there to build a community before accidentally delivering a detonator which later blew up the people there. The Courier then either killed or recruited Ulysses and either prevented a nuclear launch or obliterated their enemies with an atomic payload.

In Fallout 4, the player character was a man or woman from before the bombs fell living in Boston, Massachusetts and had escaped to Vault 111 with their husband/wife and infant child when the first nuclear detonations began. This character is called the "Sole Survivor", and entered a Wasteland controlled by the eastern Brotherhood of Steel as well as many separate communities with their own eccentricities gained from the places they chose to settle at (from an American Revolutionary theme to a baseball culture). The story revolves around the hunt for your child heavily featuring the Institute, a scientific group form from the remains of CIT (Commonwealth Institute of Technology) which creates androids similar to Blade Runner Replicants, who not only can have AI but can even be unaware they're not human, which are hated and feared by almost every other group in the Boston wasteland area.

Factions

• New California Republic: The self-styled successor to the United States of America, the New California Republic started as an alliance of small settlements in northern California that now flies the flag of the two-headed bear. Through diplomacy and vigorous expansion, NCR controls most of old California and is currently (as of 2281) expanding into Nevada, intent on acquiring Hoover Dam to provide electricity to its citizens. NCR believes in liberty and justice for all, but staggers under its own bureaucracy, the corruption that comes with it, and high taxes. It is, by all means, the nicest of the larger nations, providing support to their citizens in return for relatively heavy taxes and following strict laws. The NCR grew out of an alliance of settlements, including Shady Sands (which later became the capital city), Vault City, the Hub, Redding, and Klamath. Because of them, the West is largely a safe place to live, but many individual towns aren't too happy about their desire to take everything for themselves. Their military is based on the Pre-War US military, but with a more tribal feel; normal troops are volunteers and conscripts from around the west, while the Rangers are the Special Ops unit, taking on any tasks too delicate, tough, or convoluted to be resolved with raw power (they also wear the bad ass Ranger Combat Armour from the front of the Fallout: NV box). The Nevada branch also took to using Heavy Troopers with big guns and salvaged power armour from their war with the Brotherhood, which, while cool, isn't as protective as the real deal, and loads heavier, too.

• The Brotherhood of Steel: Originally a group of US Army personnel who announced their desertion days before the bombs fell, the Brotherhood of Steel has evolved (or devolved) into a neo-chivalric order devoted to acquiring and maintaining the technology of the old world. The Brotherhood is divided into three major orders: the Scribes analyze and manufacture technology, and the Paladins and Knights form the core of the Brotherhood's military strength (the equivalent of officers and enlistees). Although they have the second-highest technology level of any faction in North America, the Brotherhood is slowly dying thanks to a combination of attrition, an unwillingness to recruit from the outside world, and generally being assholes to outsiders.

• • The only order that actually is capable of surviving is the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel and the East Coast (D.C.) Capital Wasteland detachment. Not only did the Midwest guys opened up towards taking in new recruits from humans, but also include ghouls, deathclaws, super mutants, and the only robot that is not trying to murder people all the time, thus making them less asshole than the rest of the Brotherhood. These guys offer protections to people in return for fresh recruits and supplies. They rule like feudal lords over the Midwest, but they keep the place safe and humans and mutants actually like them. In the East coast, the Capital Wasteland detachment has fortified the ruined Pentagon, making it their base of operations, and are actively protecting the surrounding settlements in the area by engaging super mutants and helping to distribute clean water to the people.
  • Due to a difference of opinion with Elder Lyons of the Capital Wasteland detachment, a sizable band called Brotherhood Outcasts existed in the Capital Wasteland area. Elder Lyon's job in the Capital Wasteland was to obtain technology, but he willingly diverted resources to help the local population, which caused a strain with the soldiers under his command. Things came to a boil and Protector Henry Casdin left abandoned Elder Lyons with as many like-minded members he could, taking with him massive amounts of resources with them in the process in 2276, which crippled operations for Elder Lyon's outfit and immediately cause a civil war out between the two groups. This war would die down as the Brotherhood Outcasts began to be reintegrated into the main Brotherhood body over the years of 2281 to 2287 by Arthur Maxson, who would go on to lead the Brotherhood operations in Boston against the Institute. They liked to paint their armour black with red iconography on it, the little rebellious edgelords.
  • Most chapters (all but the Midwest, really) also really hate mutants. This was fine when all super mutants were under command of the Master, but they also like killing ghouls (who are some of the nicest people in the series) and post-Master (read: civil and peaceful, although a bit mad if a Nightkin) super mutants. They are kind of like space marine, hating mutants and other abomination, wearing power armor and playing knight(space marine are space knights afterall). A notable exception was Jacob, a Paladin who befriended a super mutant named Marcus after getting into a fight with him. Marcus renamed the Mount Charleston ski lodge Jacobstown in his honor.
  • BoS's primary objective is to find technologies like laser weaponry and storing them in their own locker (because they believe the excessive use of high technology in the pre-war time is what caused fallout)

• Caesar's Legion: Caesar, the self-styled son of Mars, the God of War, has united eighty-six tribes under his banner (the bull) in Arizona, with undisputed territorial claims stretching as far west as the Colorado River. The Legion does not engage in diplomacy beyond "Join us or die." The Legion completely assimilates the people it conquers, destroying their old ways of life. To become citizens of the Legion means to throw away your heritage and traditions for security, prosperity, and continued existence. The Legion's army is a slave army composed solely of able-bodied men, owned entirely by Caesar. Women are confined to domestic roles and sexual slavery. The discovery of Hoover Dam brought the Legion into direct conflict with the NCR, which drives the story of New Vegas.

• Followers of the Apocalypse: Despite the ominous name, the Followers are the most chill faction in the wasteland. They are devoted to understanding the mistakes of the past, helping people survive the harsh present, and building toward a noblebright future. While the Followers were instrumental in the formation of the New California Republic, they split over disagreements about the state's future and NCR poached many of the Followers' top people to staff their new Office of Science and Industry. Without NCR's backing, the Followers are chronically under-funded and over-worked, but hold on to their ideals in the face of harsh realities. Usually. There's one notable exception, a guy named Edward Sallow. His entry is right above this one.

• The Enclave: The Enclave's leadership is comprised of the descendants of US government officials from the Great War. They are the most technologically-advanced faction in the wasteland and take pride in being the only uncontaminated, mutation-free strain of humanity left outside the Vault experiments. Like the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave arms its soldiers with energy weapons and advanced armor systems and are generally jerks to the world at large. Unlike the Brotherhood, the Enclave are willing to innovate and work with outsiders. Unfortunately for those outsiders, "work with" generally means "enslave and work to death." They got properly curbstomped in Fallout 2 and 3, and are as of 2188 almost eradicated from the wasteland, save a few stubborn survivors(who could be recruited in the last battle of new vegas depending on your decision).

• New Vegas: Thanks to billionaire industrialist Robert House, Las Vegas had a missile defense grid so it and the surrounding area survived the Great War mostly unscathed. Drawing power from the Hoover Dam and fresh water from Lake Mead, New Vegas is a small but successful community built primarily on providing entertainment to NCR citizens. As of 2281, House is still in control of Vegas. He maintains his iron grip on the three "rehabilitated" tribes that run the three major casinos with his Securitron robots. The people of New Vegas are secure from outside threats, but House demands absolute obedience and does not seem to care about the state of Freeside, the crime-ridden neighborhood built up outside the Strip.
  • The Chairmen: Real cool gigs, baby, real cool. Rules the Tops Casino, they are the most cool and suave motherfuckers in Vegas. They mostly just play the rules and foster leaders who want to take over Vegas, all cool. They ain't no finks, dig?
  • The Omertas: The leaders of the Gommorah Casino and Brothel, they ain't no damn low time criminals, see? They respect only their family and them Securitron of Houses', 'cause you don't wanna mess with the coppers. Sleazy bastards who are civilized only in appearance.
  • The White Glove Society: The gentlemen and ladies of the Ultra-Luxe, they give only the most luxurious performance in whatever they do, be it their dresses (creepy porcelain-masks and pompous suits) or their cuisine, which definitely isn't human meat and never has been.

• • Freeside: House controls the Vegas Strip. This is all the other stuff, like how no one cares about the actual city of Las Vegas.
  • The Kings: An exception to the 50s theme. Two guys found a place called 'The King's School of Impersonation', filled to the brim with Elvis impersonation stuff. They wore out the only tape of Elvis's voice they found so only Pacer and the newly-named The King talk like him. So on the outskirts of post-WW3 Las Vegas you have a gang based on Elvis impersonators. Actually decent; they were shoved out of Vegas proper but keep a little bit of order in Freeside.

• Shi: The Shi are focused around San Francisco. The Shi are led by the Emperor, though his chief adviser is the de facto head of the organization. The Emperor is actually the computer mainframe of the Chinese submarine Shi huang ti, which washed up on shore after the Great War. Although the Shi prefer to remain apart from wasteland politics, they come into conflict with the Hubologists of San Francisco. They probably got conquered by the NCR.

• Hubologists: Scientologists with armor, guns, a spaceship, and porn stars instead of Tom Cruise. WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN THINKING INTERPLAY!?!?

• Tribals: Small independent tribes still persist in the wasteland. Some are peaceful, while others take to raiding and pillaging to survive or simply for lulz.
  • Assorted Towns: Take some less-than-usually-ruined buildings, a bunch of people looking for a peaceful place to carve out a living, and a few guns, and you've got a city. Most towns have everything from ten to hundreds of citizens, and each one is often ruled by an unofficial leader of sorts (people rarely live long enough that it makes sense to elect some idiot). Notable cities are Megaton in Washington DC (a town build around an atom bomb that hasn't detonated yet), Shady Sands, Rivet City, Primm, Novac, and many others.
  • New Caananites: Centered around the city of New Caanan in Utah, these bible-reading badasses kept Christianity alive with Tommy guns, .45s, and pure stubbornness until the White Legs razed the city to the ground and salted the earth. Now destroyed, their only surviving members are two guys of very different beliefs arguing over whether to save or to save a bunch of underdeveloped tribes in Zion. That is not a typo.
  • Zion Tribes: The Dead Horses and the Sorrows are a bunch of real tribals who had reverted to something resembling Native American tribes. They are the tribes the aforementioned Caananites are arguing over.
  • White Legs: A tribe based near Salt Lake City, the White Legs are trying to join Caesar's Legion. The price for joining the Legion is the destruction of New Canaan and all of its inhabitants. They succeeded at the first task, but two escaped their genocide and they followed them to Zion Canyon to finish the job. What they don't know is that Caesar will simply annihilate their culture and he's just using them to kill Joshua Graham. Dealing with them is the main plot of the New Vegas DLC campaign Honest Hearts.
  • The Great Khans: Formed by a cool guy named Papa Khan after the Chosen One murdered the New Khans (who were dicks), the Great Khans are one of the oldest raider groups in Fallout still active, about the same age as NCR as they both came from the same Vault. Unlike most raiders in the game, they're fairly friendly and figure it's better to just sell drugs and run protection rackets to villages than raiding. When they followed the old ways, the New Khans were led by the paranoid 90-year-old son of the leader of the Khans, who were the original group who came out of the Vault. They were also dicks who got stomped by the Vault Dweller. Their new leader Papa Khan was cool enough to stop all that dickery and replace it with drugs (although the Fiends, who get high on Khan drugs, make up for the lack of violence tenfold). The NCR still hates them, though, and the feeling is mutual due to a massacre at a Great Khan settlement that nobody wants to talk about.
• The Institution: MIT turned evil. This is what happens when you don't play Big Mountain for laughs. For the past few decades been flooding the Commonwealth with robots.
• Minutemen An volunteer defence group made up of people all across Boston.
• Raiders A bunch of drugged out sadistic mad-max backup dancers with no ambitions besides getting high, attacking settlements and people wandering the wastelands. Good for target practice and ammo for small guns.

Species

• Ghouls: A few people who get hit with a crapload of radiation don't die (despite appearances) but mutate into ghouls. Corpse looking dudes and dudettes, ghouls don't age and thrive in radioactive environments but are sterile. A lot of wastelanders hate ghouls because many of them "go feral", losing their minds either as part of the transformation or afterwards and becoming little better than your standard brain-eating zombies. Even intelligent ghouls aren't necessarily nice guys/gals, and Fallout 4 emphasizes this with ghoul raiders, basically like non radblasted people. Lore tucked away in Fallout 1 implies that ghouldom actually is a combination of radiation damage and exposure to FEV.
• Supermutants: When a genetically pure human is exposed to Forced Evolution Virus under the right conditions, they turn into these things. Several times larger than humans, immensely strong, tough and durable, they display ghoul-like traits of radiation immunity, biological immortality, and sterility. The Master in Fallout 1 wanted to turn all humans into Super Mutants, but committed suicide when it was pointed out that they were A: sterile, and B: almost exclusively retarded violent idiots. More of them were made out of Vault 87 which had FEV chambers. They also went from having fucking goofy overhanging front lips that they had to strap out of the way to be able to speak to saner designs in the 3D games.
• Centaurs: These are what happens when you expose humans who aren't genetically pure to FEV. Hideous living blobs of living fuckno meat, centaurs are mindless abominations that drag themselves through the wasteland, hoping to be killed.
• Deathclaws are not casually named. They will fuck up your shit. They were an FEV experiment from before the bombs dropped, an experiment to turn Jackson's Chameleons into Super Soldiers. Guess what? They went fucking horribly right. New Vegas introduced the idea of Deathclaw variants in the form of the female Matriarchs, Infants and Alpha males. Fallout 4 built upon this with a bunch of new variants, including Albino Deathclaws, radiation-emitting Glowing Deathclaws, and the paranoia-inducing Chameleon Deathclaws, who can turn fucking invisible at will. Fallout 2 let you have an intelligent talking Deathclaw as a secret companion.
• Robots: Back before the bombs fell, America had a variety of Atom-punk themed robots running around, and many are still kicking around in the wasteland. These range from weak utility droids like Eyebots, Protectrons and Mr. Handys to more deadly combat droids, like Securitrons, Mr. Gutsys, Sentry Bots and Assaultrons.
• Synths: Developed by the Institute over the centuries since the bombs dropped, the Synths are androids designed to mimic the human form, in comparison to the clearly inhuman robots. Although their more primitive mechanical synths have been mostly abandoned and left to roam the Boston wasteland, by the time of Fallout 4, they have perfected human-mimicing synths, who they use to covertly interact with and manipulate the Commonwealth to their advantage.
• Aliens: Grey/Little Green Men types with space blasters.

Timeline

• 1945: Someone forgot to make the transistor and ultimately screwed it up for everyone
• 2077: Humanity screwed up this year
• 2161: The plot of Fallout 1, back when there was only about 3 deathclaws and lasers actually CUT.
• 2241: The Plot of Fallout 2, mega badassery and improvement off Fallout 1.
• 2277: The Plot of Fallout 3, the beginning of full 3D FPS, slow as fuck plasma weaponry and mega debuff power armor, also tried to turn up the Grimdark but failed. Terrible story.
• 2281: The plot of Fallout New Vegas, what Fallout 3 should have been. Made by Obsidian.
• 2287: The plot of Fallout 4, a more Call of Duty-style combat system with a voiced main protagonist, base building, as well as a dialogue wheel, gutting the dialogue choices to 1-3 words indications of what the character will actually say.

Technology

Now, the weapons tech used in this can be explained in many, many ways, but the easiest way is to think of all the WH40K tech, but more convenient with the added bonus of not blowing up in your face once in a while but with the downside of guns jamming every 3 seconds and guns that rot before your eyes. Still, the weapons tech can be badass in an alternate universe (if you accept the 37,933 year difference between the universes) so the fallout tech is still considered cool. The fallout universe also incorporates REAL LIFE GUNS into the series (and a whole bunch of them) such as the skorpion, MP5, MG60, M9, etc. This then changes in the later games (and in the 1st, but that was the 1st) to 'Hunting Rifles', '10mm Sub-machine Guns' and 'Miniguns'. Oh well. Its easier to just say the tech in fallout swings between Madmax weapons, to real weapons to 50's ray guns, to crazy shit like shotgun fist and a weapons that fire eight mini nukes (a shotgun of nukes if you will). Also one of the deadliest weapons in the 2D games was a BB gun. No, really. Aim for the eyes.

As for armor, well...
The majority of the wasteland has rags as 'armor' and a baseball glove as a 'pauldron', although some people have done better (and some creatures too). Let's go over the basics:

• NCR has your mass produced, easily recognizable uniform that has a desert color (no, not dessert, but I wish it did. That is, if the dessert wasn't so IRRADIATED!). The most technologically advanced armor they have is the other 'mass-produced-but-not-produced-as-much' NCR veteran combat amour, which is basically riot armour with a trench coat over the top and a riot helmet with glowy eyes, though they also have T-45d power amour with the tech ripped out of it so untrained users can wear it without killing themselves, leaving an empty and sad metal shell behind. Though they do put an AC in it.
• BoS has power amour (don't get your hopes up, this is Fallout power armour we're talking about).
• Legion has football gear since its the closest thing to roman armor they can find. Higher ups do have better armor, mostly just scrap-metal plates but a few like the Legate have sweet forged armor.
• Raiders have stuff stolen from: women they've raped, people they've slaughtered, houses they've raided, prospectors they've held up then slaughtered etc.
  • Khans you get biker gear you bought with the drug money you make.
• The Enclave have power armor far superior to that of the brotherhood (still Fallout power armor)
• Various mercenaries have 'combat armour'. Supposedly the stuff average troops wore in actual military things. Usually mid-level gear for you in the games, and pretty decent when it comes to letting you not get killed.
• Minutemen, going with a colonial American Revolution appearance/theme, have made laslocks laser muskets to help recreate the ensemble. You crank the firing mechanism up to build up a charge to make its single shot more powerful, but each crank will consume more ammo than the last when fired, and requires prior upgrade to allow more cranks.

Notable People

• Protagonists
  • The Vault Dweller: From Fallout 1. Sent out of Vault 13 to fix the 'water chip', ends up saving humanity (or at least the bits of it in that part of California).
  • The Chosen One: From Fallout 2, grandkid of the Vault Dweller. Foretold to do cool stuff, and does.
  • The Warrior: The Fallout Tactics main character. The player can create their own character like in the other games, but can also go with the presets called "Mick", "Snake", "Peter", "Wilma", or "Betty". All were Tribals recruited by the Brotherhood of Steel army that moved east, and by the end of their career was appointed General of the pacified Chicago.
  • The Lone Wanderer: From Fallout 3. East coast, lived in vault 101. No-one ever enters, no-one ever leaves. (Yeah, right. Plot kicks off when your dad bails on the place, and you follow him.) Until the Broken Steel DLC, it was possible to actually not survive the 'good' ending at the end.
  • The Courier: From Fallout: New Vegas. Not from a Vault at all, just some Courier who gets shot in the head by some hip creep in a chequered suit during the opening cutscene. You get better, then get to decide who controls Hoover Dam.
  • The Sole Survivor: From Fallout 4. Boston area, Vault 111. A pre-War American citizen, former army stiff who mustered out before the bombs dropped, and got thrown in cryo with most of the Vault members when they got in, oldest living person in the Fallout universe who isn't a mutant or a robot. Woken up by a couple of douchebags who shot their spouse and kidnapped their son, starting the plot who then knocked him out for a bit again, until he woke up and left, starting the plot CORRECTLY this time.
• Allies:
  • Mysterious Stranger: Some guy in a trenchcoat and fedora (not a trilby mind you) who appears when protagonists who are extremely lucky need him to take a few shots at their foes then disappear again. In Fallout: New Vegas, a guitar playing man is hinted to be the Mysterious Stranger's son and carries his special pistol that he can give to the player. In Fallout 4, the Mysterious Stranger sticks around a bit longer and can actually be interacted with for a short time.
  • Miss Fortune: Same as the Mysterious Stranger, except as a woman wearing an elaborate showgirl costume who was only found around New Vegas.
  • The Storyteller: A character from a Youtube series, linked earlier in the article, that began as a voiceover presenting the lore of Fallout and turned into a full-time job for the creators as a Brotherhood of Steel gentleman who never shuts up tells everyone he meets the stories and history of the setting. Due to fan request, he became a fully-voiced mod companion for Fallout: New Vegas who was quite pleased to meet the Courier he'd been telling folks about. Bethesda, current producers of the Fallout games, became quite fond of the project and are considering him for a legitimate addition to Fallout 4 (and thus canon) while the team works on the Fallout 4 mod and season 4 of the series (which is how he fits into Fallout 4, chasing an android/clone NCR experiment designed to recreate the Chosen One that has gone rogue and abducted a female NCR Ranger on its way to The Institute).
• Antagonists/Villains:
  • The Master: formerly known as Richard Moreau/Richard Grey. He is some kind of bizarre mutant that somehow got itself hooked up to computers after infected by the FEV(Forced Evolutionary Virus). Believe in the idea of unify the wasteland, he created the super mutants using the contained FEV that he had found and humans he had abducts. He is fun to talk to since he spokes in multiple recorded voice (even feminine tone). Sadly, he was dealt by 'The Vault Dweller' where he could be killed in a straight fight or convinced to suicide (after found out the critical flaws about the super mutants, that they are unable to reproduce)

Gallery

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  A Vault Girl pinup, wearing common Vault Tec clothing

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  A vault dweller turned wastelander with an eyebot in the background.

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  A common Mr Handy domestic robot

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  T-45 version of Power Armour

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  X-01 version of Power Armour

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  Power Armour modified by raiders

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  Fan made models

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See Also

Brother Vinni for not-Fallout miniatures.