#Fallout Fundamentals

[hawkbutt]

Hi! I have to admit that I know nothing about Fallout but would like to understand your AU so idk could you explain Fallout for beginners please? (and maybe how the AU works specifically) 🧡

I’m going to try and put this in the most straightforward terms I can and maybe steal a few things from Wikipedia if I can’t.

And I hope you don't mind, I'll publish this as well so others can learn.

There are currently 7 Fallout games: Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76. (This is not counting the small things like mobile games or the table top games, or even the freaking pinball game either) PLUS there is also the “Fallout”  TV show on Amazon (It's good, My dad who knows NOTHING of Fallout loved it) ▬ The Show on Amazon is based in Los Angeles.

▬ The setting, back story, lore, just a little history:

The series is set in a fictionalized USA in an “alternate history scenario” that diverges from reality after 1945, following World War II. In this alternative "golden age", where atomic physics serves as the foundation of scientific progress, which leads to a bizarre socio-technological status quo. This means things like advanced robots, nuclear-powered cars, directed-energy weapons, and other futuristic technologies are seen alongside 1950s-era computers and televisions. 

▬ Nuka Cola ad featuring Nuka Girl leaning heavily into the atomic/nuclear aspect

The United States divides itself into 13 commonwealths, and the aesthetics and Cold War paranoia of the 1950s dominated the American lifestyle well into the 21st century.

▬ Map of all of the Fallout Commonwealths

The a whole bunch of history happens, it’s honestly wordy and gives the lead-up to how the bombs dropped on the morning of October 23, 2077, a “global nuclear exchange”, which subsequently created the post-apocalyptic United States, the setting of the Fallout world.

▬ Now, in my AU, I say that Buck is from a Vault.

The U.S. government, having foreseen this outcome just a few decades earlier, began a nationwide project to build fallout shelters known as "Vaults".  The Vault-Tec Corporation designed the Vaults as public shelters, each able to support up to a thousand people. Something round 400K Vaults would have been needed if they actually wanted to help the American people, but only 122 were commissioned and constructed. 

Vault Boy; He is the corporate mascot of the Vault-Tec, His female counterpart is Vault Girl. They appear in virtually every released game and evolved over the years into a symbol of the Fallout franchise in general.

However, the Vault project was not intended as a viable method of repopulating the United States; instead, most Vaults were secret social experiments and were designed to determine the effects of different environmental and psychological conditions on their inhabitants. 

▬Lemme just use Norm Maclean (Fallout Series) here to showcase the sort of view in the vault and the lovely blue and gold jumpsuits ALL vault dwellers basically wear.

Now, only Seventeen control Vaults were made to function as advertised, in contrast with the other Vault experiments. However, they were usually shoddy and unreliable due to most of the funding going towards the experimental ones.  Many Vaults remained sealed as part of their respective experiments even after the radiation had reached safe levels.

EDIT: I forgot to actually talk about the Brotherhood of Steel.

▬ Eddie is a former Brotherhood of Steel Knight.

The Brotherhood of Steel, commonly abbreviated to BoS, is a quasi-religious technocratic military order founded in the immediate aftermath of the Great War  The BOS' core purpose is to preserve advanced technology and regulate its use. They believe humanity cannot be trusted with the means to destroy itself, and they think that acquiring technology would prevent another apocalypse. The Basics of BOS came from the fall of the western Roman Empire when the knights and scribes kept the fire of civilization going after the empire imploded. The BOS is a military order with a strictly enforced hierarchy and chain of command. At the foundation, that mandates obedience to one's superiors and forbids circumventing ranks when giving orders. When it comes to the individual members of the BOS, loyalty to and defense of the organization are the top priorities, - 1st: Loyalty to and defense of the organization - 2nd: Dedication and loyalty to the mission. - 3rd: Dedication and loyalty to one's superior officer. Brotherhood members are expected to follow each of these rules in that order. If one's superior should act against the interests of the organization or mission, the third rule is superseded by the second or first rule.

▬ Brotherhood of Steel Ranking Structure

The Brotherhood has been featured in every game and other entry in the Fallout series in one form or another.

▬ My manip of Eddie in a Brotherhood jumpsuit

Eddie's History with the BOS without spoilers

▬ My manip of Eddie in a Brotherhood jumpsuit

While homosexual relationships are generally tolerated, they are pressured to instead seek relationships that will result in 'repopulation.' This leads Eddie to be arranged with Shannon, which then leads to Chris's birth, though Eddie and Shannon are able to keep Chris' Cerebal Palsy (though in the FO Universe, it would be considered his 'disorder or ailment) secret from the BOS for the first few years. BOS finds out about Chris, and would never tolerate someone like Chris within their ranks. Eddie ultimately decides he can no longer remain a part of them, and following his own moral compass, he chooses to desert the BOS.  The Diazs, on their own, now in this new reality, Eddie is constantly on the lookout, aware that his status as AWOL from the BOS makes him a target.

▬ I have planned in the future that Karen is a former Enclave Scientist.

The Enclave is another military organization dedicated to the execution of an all-inclusive holocaust of non-members, who they dehumanize as "genetic non-compliance offenders." While being the continuation of a pre-war American deep state consisting of high-ranking political, military and corporate figures, its members publicly claim to be the direct continuation of the United States of America and its government after the destruction of the world during the Great War.

▬ Enclave power armor, X-01 power armor 

Without going too in-depth with them, it's obvious I hate them, they're the worst, they Suck, and I'm glad Karen left them (In my AU).

here are things I may mention in my AU (when it comes to finally posting my fic)

Pip Boy: The Pip-Boy (Personal Information Processor-Boy) is a wrist computer given to the player (Vault-Dweller) early in the games and series, which serves various roles in quest, inventory, and battle management, as well as presenting player statistics.

▬ This version of the Pip-Boy is not stated in-series, though the official replica sold by The Wand Company is called the Pip-Boy 3000 Mark V

Power Armor: Power Armor, is a type of powered exoskeleton featured in every game in the Fallout series. It allows for protection from enemy fire and enables the wearer to carry cumbersome weapons and other objects with ease. There are so many types, levels and styles of Power Armor. It is considered an iconic part of the Fallout universe, an effective marketing tool for a faceless protagonist, and a prominent symbol within the game's lore. ▬ “Post-war” the Power Armor is most widely used by the Brotherhood of Steel, a cult-like organization that collects and preserves technology (My husband said the BOS is like Mormons and their obsession with Geneology)

▬T-60 Power Armor

There are INSANE Animals that roam the ‘wasteland’. Some were modified by the Government (ie. Death Claws), but some were also just changed by radiation.

▬ BAD: genetically engineered creatures developed by the United States military to replace humans during missions, but they escaped into the wild in the aftermath of the Great War

▬ GOOD: Brahmin are mutated two-headed cattle; they still provide meat, milk, hide, and manual labor.

Ghouls... Ghouls are humans mutated by radiation, rather than killed by it. The mutation process, referred to as "ghoulification", this typically results in an extended lifespan, if not functional immortality, real-time regeneration of wounds allowing for reattaching limbs, and immunity to direct damage resulting from irradiation. However, it changes their appearance, resembling rotting corpses, burn victims, or walking corpses

▬ Cooper Howard - The Ghoul From the Fallout Amazon series

▬ Feral Ghouls in Fallout 4

Now, with my AU, I’m doing a small mix of The TV show, but throwing in elements of Fallout 4 and New Vegas (Kinda) While I won't delve into the details of every single game and its historical context, I hope this overview will provide you with enough information on the basics of Fallout? If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

Much Love, ▬ Kenna

[bravoechoes]

it’s touching to hear McQuarrie talk about how protective he is of Ilsa and how much he wants her to be her own character outside of her relationship to Ethan & how that informs the continual cutting back of explicit romantic elements between them. which is crazy bc that decision itself becomes a part of both Ilsa’s and Ethan’s characters, like it becomes part of the narrative of the films and is read as a denial of desire that feeds into both of their own separate insecurities and regrets and fears. They both are literally narratively incomplete without each other

[ao3-anonymous]

Fastest Growing Fandoms on AO3 This Week (04/29/2024)

Every week I pull data on how many fics are in each fandom and compare to the previous week, then calculate the percentage increase to determine fastest growing fandoms.  Since this naturally skews towards smaller fandoms, I have included the same data filtered to Over 1k, 5k, & 10k fics.

Overall:

Over 1,000 Fics:

Over 5,000 Fics:

Over 10,000 Fics:

Source: AO3 Fandom Dashboard

[actualartistgrill]

and heaven moves further away

insp/ref: Red Sanctuary 2 by Takato Yamamoto

[dykedvonte]

Ulysses obsession with the Courier is a special type of sad to me cause the Courier’s part was so important but so unwitting. They had no idea what was in the package they delivered and neither did he. Neither had an idea of what it could’ve done and the Courier was only caring out their job (mind you the Courier could be killed via notes in the express contract if they don’t). To them it was just another regular delivery to the divide and one that they likely thought would help, just like all the ones before.

It’s so tragic for Ulysses to hold so much ire to the Courier when it really was the case of it could’ve been anyone. Anyone could have delivered that package but they did and so he focused the blame on them and it destroys what he is trying to instill in the courier on a fundamental level.

[riftclaw]

tbh i think one of the most damning things i can say after playing pokemon scarlet is that the bugs aren't even funny when they're happening to you

[twosides--samecoin]

Wasteland adoption be like "this grown-ass 22-year-old woman is my daughter now"

You can read about Jack and how he's fumbling through the fatherhood he never got to experience with the child he thought he'd lost his chance to raise here

[anetherealpoetess]

i laughed when i saw someone on tiktok say how can anyone ship lucy with the ghoul when he sold her for parts and let me just tell you right now, if one character sells another character to a gang with an organ harvesting robot, i will immediately ship them. immediately. zero hesitation. that's peak romance to me.

[professionaljester]

actually. you know what? maybe I will play Fallout 3

[lacefuneral]

iirc i never posted about this but. it's on my mind rn.

okay so. i'm FTM, yeah? and by some metrics i am a "late bloomer" in that i didn't begin my transition until i was an adult. and also, i am effeminate. i've never really been a Masculine person.

growing up, i had access to my older siblings video games. and then whatever my parents got me for birthdays and holidays. which tended to be games that were marketed towards girls. i'm talking your barbie games, your horse games, your nintendogs.

and when the internet began to develop central hubs for flashgames that weren't just insensitive jokes and pro iraq war propaganda, i always gravitated towards the "girly games." usually dress ups.

and as i kid i never wanted, say, nerf guns or toy soldiers. i think the most masc interest i had was rewatching the same power rangers episode on VHS over and over.

so i never got into War Games. i never got into Male Power Fantasy. i was playing harvest moon. i was playing pokemon for the cute critters. i played TF2 i guess? but that was about it.

and i feel like. my experiences as a Man Who Plays Video Games is very different from other Men Who Play Video Games. i will watch streamers on twitch and they'll gleefully reference something from their childhood that i have no frame of reference for.

there's a disconnect there. what feels like, to me, a Central Lore that i am missing. and it can be very alienating sometimes. like i'm not Allowed into the Boys Club because i was playing with virtual dolls instead of virtual guns

and that, as an adult, i still tend to skew in the direction of cute games/dress up games instead of like. fighting games and FPS and RTS

so.... ya. this is a post for Girly Gamers. love u

[archersgoon]

like celie did take a break from her super serious super secret spy job to go do some almost entirely unrelated holmes and watson shit with the guy she was actively trying to steal from, purely for love of the game. not a serious individual

[icicleteeth]

Went on a tangent a bit about this on twt but the useless hill I'm ready and willing to die on is wanting these rpg worlds to have a more fleshed out (from a lore perspective) explanation to how the currency system works, because so many just use single gold pieces, which makes sense in a gameplay way but how does this work in terms of commerce... Are we just carrying around sacks of several hundreds of thousands of coins...

Just think about how much of a pain in the ass it would be to buy an enchanted weapon from an enchanter for, even just 1k gold, okay maybe we can assume there's like some standardized 500 gold sleeves (like how there are coin rolls irl) well what if that weapon is a weirder number like 1439 gold, okay well now you gotta get more specific, and the vendor's counting all the coins to make sure you got the right amount (assuming we're talking purchasing rather than bartering, but at least in TES, bartering has long stopped being a thing) And don't even get me started on large quantity sales like purchasing estates... I know we're never going to get an actual banking system like Daggerfall again, but at least...idk have a bank or mention of that stuff somewhere, even if it's just flavor text or decorative and has no gameplay function to it... I am begging....

[ao3-anonymous]

Fastest Growing Fandoms on AO3 This Week (05/07/2024)

Every week I pull data on how many fics are in each fandom and compare to the previous week, then calculate the percentage increase to determine fastest growing fandoms.  Since this naturally skews towards smaller fandoms, I have included the same data filtered to Over 1k, 5k, & 10k fics.

Overall:

Over 1,000 Fics:

Over 5,000 Fics:

Over 10,000 Fics:

Source: AO3 Fandom Dashboard

[moonchild-in-blue]

So how much longer must I wait to fill this emptiness? I make mistakes and had my dreams slip through the cracks I've seen such hate surround the inside of this dark abyss But all this pain just makes me certain that there's love for me to find a brighter paths

[dykedvonte]

If Ulysses has a million haters, then I'm one of them. If Ulysses has one hater, then I'm THAT ONE. If Ulysses has no haters, that means I'm dead. If the world is with Ulysses than I’m against the world.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

yaz, whose master mirror status becomes so very obvious when shes mad: nice house you got there.........would be a shame if someone..............burned................it down..............haha! unless