Take a stroll through a visual guide of the Fallout universe

Fallout is based in an alternate timeline that diverges after World War II. In this universe, microtechnology never took off and the immense, inefficient, fossil fuel-dependent technologies of the 1950s remained in place. It is heavily influenced by the science fiction anthology Worlds of Tomorrow, and as such the universe is a stylized representation of the future as envisioned by people in the 1940s through 1960s. This explains much of the aesthetics, the house-cleaning robots, the tail-finned automobiles, the neighbors saying “Hey there, sport!” and the gigantic supercomputers. In other words, the Fallout universe can be viewed as a stylized representation of the future through the eyes of those living in the beginning of the Atomic Age.

“I do not know what the Third World War will be like, but I do know there will be no Fourth World War.” Fossil fuels were nearly exhausted by 2050, and this led to a very tense geopolitical struggle between major superpowers – particular China, Russia, and the United States. Thus, the major contributing factor to the Great War was a scarcity of oil, leading to the Resource Wars as nations fought for resources. This included China invading Alaska and U.S. annexing Canada. Ultimately, the situation came to a head as key members of the U.S. Government (the Enclave) retreated to their safe zone on an oil rig, and all nuclear-armed nations let loose. In just under 2 hours, the modern world came to a hault.

The U.S. government commissioned the Vault-Tec Corporation to build underground bunkers termed vaults. Their stated purpose was to house and protect the American people in the event of nuclear war until the surface was safe to re-colonize.They had another purpose. Their REAL purpose… The vaults were ACTUALLY designed to allow the government, the Enclave, to conduct social experiments on the vault dwellers and see how different populations react to different situations. Of the 122 known vaults, only 17 were made as experimental controls. That is, they were made to the public’s expectations as an actual fallout shelter. As such, various other experimental vaults had different populations and designs. Each vault was run by an official called the Overseer and each vault had different experimental conditions. For example, there was a vault populated entirely by clones of a man named Gary. There was a vault where the door was deliberately left open, exposing its inhabitants to nuclear radiation and transforming them into subterranean Ghouls, thereby establishing the city of Necropolis. There was a vault populated by 20 men, 10 women, and 1 panther, and a vault where psychotropic drugs were set to be released into the ventilation system 10 days after the door was sealed. There was even a vault where inhabitants lived connected to a virtual reality simulation in which the Overseer mercilessly tormented them. Another vault was deliberate overstocked with unsecured weapons and explosives, giving rise to the Boomers of the Mojave Wasteland. Some vaults were purposely overcrowded, or genders were disproportionate, or deliberately segregated. Inhabitants were often deliberately selected for specific characteristics. The town of Arroyo in Fallout 2 was established by the original Vault Dweller in Fallout 1, who left his vault in search of a water purification device to replace the broken one. So who exactly survived the Great War?

There is a veritable pharmacopoeia of medicinal and recreational chemicals found throughout the world. Some are highly addictive, while others are benign. Be careful regarding what you put in your body, or else you may not be so intelligent or charismatic when you need to be.