Fallout

The Fallout

• Step into the Fallout, baby.

  "War. War never changes."

• God Bless America

  The earth was still suffering after the end of the second World War, despite a renowned victory people felt uneasy and reluctant to embrace the new age... until the discovery of nuclear fission technology. Instead of fearing it, people embraced it and explored it, everyone's attention turned toward that groundbreaking invention, and thanks to their effort they were rewarded with a life dreamed up in only the best science fiction. Fusion powered cars, domestic robots that never turned down a chore, powered houses full of top-tier technology. The 60's came and stayed, people only improved it. Culture never seemed to expand, but it didn't need to. Poodle skirts, business suits and jaunty radio tunes were all anyone needed to get through the day. Little Tommie would come home from school and hand over his backpack to a nanny bot before stepping outside to play tag with his friends in the street. His parents didn't need to worry, they knew and loved their neighbors! The United States of America was the poster of the world. Innovation after innovation was made, family barbecues were celebrated nearly weekly. Fairs and carnivals were always happy to roll through with games centered around the Mr. Handy brand of robots. Work was never lacking, unemployment had been all but forgotten. Poverty was defeated!
  
  
  God Bless the United States of America.

• The "Great War"

  "In the 21st century people awoke from the American Dream. Years of consumption lead to shortages of every major resource. The entire world unraveled. Peace became a distant memory. It is now the year 2077, we stand on the brink of total war... and I am afraid."
  
  With the available reserves of crude oil in the world constantly diminishing, the communist government of the People's Republic of China declared war on the United States, invading Alaska for the few remaining sources of oil there. The Sino-American War raged for eleven years, eventually culminating in a nuclear exchange between China and the United States. Both nations had built up huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and the mutual attack drew in enemies and allies from all around the world, igniting every hatred forged throughout the century-long cold war. Although the conflict lasted only two hours, the destruction it brought was staggering and complete. More energy was released in the early moments of the exchange than in all previous global conflicts combined. This global nuclear conflict came to be known as the "Great War". The American public, having been exposed to too many false alarms, largely ignored the warning sirens when the bombs begin to fall. Many Vaults are underpopulated as their doors shut.
  
  The world that remained was harsh and unforgiving. Ninety years after the Great War, humanity struggled to survive. On the surface, bandits and organized gangs fought over the crumbling remains of once-great cities, and mutants prowled the irradiated wastes. Underground, a fortunate few enjoyed the relative safety and comfort of the Vaults, designed before the war, with the proclaimed purpose of protecting residents and their descendants from the nuclear annihilation. Some planned to keep the world out, others sought to connect with and repopulate the outside. Wherever humanity survived, it was under constant threat by ravenous mutants, rogue machines, vicious raiders, and all manner of hostile mutant creatures.
  
  This was the world now, it was a Fallout.

• The New World

  The collapse of global civilization made it impossible to ascertain the full extent of the damage brought by the nuclear bombs. As viewed from orbit, there were clear signs of a global catastrophe, and much of the world's oceans were tinted green by radiation. The Great War's enduring legacy was the radiation that spread in its wake. Many of the plants and animals that survived the nuclear fire were killed by the irradiated rain that fell a week later. Of those that survived, many were mutated by 2080.
  
  The American mainland was reduced to wasteland. Most major American cities, with a few exceptions such as Pittsburgh and Las Vegas, were razed by the bombs. Even the surviving cities were reduced to hellish ruin as society rapidly disintegrated. Although the Vaults were never intended to preserve the entire American population, enough of their residents and technology survived for them to jumpstart civilization when they opened.
  
  California benefited the most from these early openings. In 2083, Vault 12 established Necropolis in Bakersfield. Eight years later, Vault 8 established Vault City in Western Nevada, and the following year, the LA Vault established the Boneyard in Los Angeles. Fifty years later, in 2142, former residents of Vault 15 established Shady Sands northwest of Necropolis.
  
  The "Mojave Wasteland" was another incubator of civilization. This was due in no small part to Robert House's preparations; his secret missile defense systems ensured that Las Vegas and the surrounding desert were hit by fewer bombs than anywhere else in the region, and as time passed, the city was rebuilt through the combined efforts of House, the local tribals, and residents of Vault 21. Its infrastructure was so far advanced that, by 2281, it was—according to House—within a century of being able to launch a colonization spaceship.
  
  In the East, Washington D.C, the "Capital Wasteland" was also left surprisingly intact. Although unable to compete with the more advanced societies of the West, it was nonetheless able to support a local radio station, caravan routes and a large-scale water purification plant.
  
  Similarly, The "Commonwealth of Massachusetts" and Boston were left relatively unharmed, being struck by only a single, high-yield nuclear weapon in an area that came to be known as the Glowing Sea. Like the Capital Wasteland, it too supported caravan infrastructure, regional radio broadcasts, and other such amenities.
  
  As these regions rose from the ashes, so too did new societies. The "New California Republic" was established in 2186 and would control all of California a century later. The "Brotherhood of Steel" was founded days after the Great War and would become a technological powerhouse by 2150. The "Enclave"—descendants of the United States government and military-industrial complex—made its presence felt in New California in 2237 and then in the Capital Wasteland in 2277. The Rome-obsessed slavers of "Caesar's Legion" arose in 2247, forged from the conquest of 87 tribes, and would control most if not all of Arizona and New Mexico, along with some holdings in eastern Utah and parts of southern Colorado.

• The New Population

  The distinctive creatures in the Fallout world arose after the Great War and were the result of exposure to radiation or the Forced Evolutionary Virus.
  
  Radiation led to the spontaneous rise of many new species three years after the bombs fell. The new species were larger, hardier and more dangerous than the animals and insects from which they mutated. Radscorpions, giant ants, and brahmin descended from scorpions, household ants and cows, respectively.
  
  
  

  ---

  
  Heavy exposure of radiation mutated some humans, who possessed a particular genetic trait, into ghouls. Although their decaying skin gave them a frightening, almost inhuman appearance, they generally retained their mental faculties: their ability to reason and communicate were left intact. Ironically, despite their physical decay, they had heightened senses and longer lifespans.
  
  Varying degrees of exposure gave rise to diversity within the ghoul community. Ghouls exposed to prolonged radiation poisoning lost their intelligence and mutated into feral ghouls. Longer periods of radiation exposure resulted in further degeneration into Glowing ones—ghouls with heightened physical capabilities who literally glow in the dark.
  
  
  

  ---

  
  The remainder of mutations were caused by the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). Its origins lie in the years preceding the Sino-American War. In an effort to defend against a Chinese biological attack, defense contractor West Tek initiated the Pan-Immunity Virion Project. The goal was simply to make the human immune system strong enough to resist any pathogen, natural or engineered. Some of the side effects, discovered during testing, were increased size and strength. The U.S. Army seized the project in an effort to create a super soldier. They moved the project to the Mariposa Military Base. They also sent a large sample to Vault 87 on the East Coast as part of the Vault Experiment.
  
  Following the Great War, Mariposa was abandoned—the surviving leadership having left to form the Brotherhood of Steel. After laying dormant for 30 years, the base was rediscovered by Richard Moreau, an exile from Vault 8. After realizing that the FEV could be used to create super mutants, he attempted to raise an army but was defeated by a nameless Vault Dweller that time forgot about.
  
  Despite the destruction of Mariposa base, a sample of its FEV was claimed by the Enclave. Using slave labor kidnapped from nearby Redding, the Enclave excavated Mariposa. Those slaves inadvertently exposed to the FEV mutated into a new batch of super mutants.
  
  On the East Coast, the FEV sent to Vault 87 was used to create that area's own variety of super mutants. Shelton Delacroix, a Vault 87 security officer, was forcibly exposed to and mutated by it. While the mutation process took away much of his intelligence, he was, astoundingly, able to reclaim much of it by studying the Vault's database. The FEV also made it into the hands Weston Lesko who inadvertently, but tragically, used it to mutate giant ants into fire ants.