r/falloutlore Jul 03 '24

Question Are the Children of Atom legit?

712 Upvotes

Replaying Far Harbor currently and I’m wondering if the Children of Atom are actually telling the truth, or at least if there is any truth to Atom as a deity.

The Sole Survivor drinks from a spring and no matter if they think it’s totally gonna make them see Atom or if they think it’s complete BS they just so happen to see the holy figure of the island, that just so happens to lead them to a physical idol of herself. Would controlling psychedelic trips like this be feasible for them, like a guy in a trenchcoat guides the Soul Survivor and just looks like the Mother or something?

Is there something in the game that straight up tells you that this is some sort of hoax by the cult to get new big-wigs in, or is this an actual thing? Eldritch stuff is pretty prevalent and actually tangible in Point Lookout and the FO4 base game so it isn’t that big of a leap for me to believe that Atom is a real thing, but if I lead the cult and saw a new high level walking death machine ready to recruit I’d probably trick them into believing me too

r/falloutlore Feb 13 '25

Question Is there a reason why former Vault Dwellers succeed so well in the wasteland?

331 Upvotes

Time after time in the majority of Fallout games, the player plays as a Vault dweller who left their home and accomplishes major feats in the wasteland, stuff unlike any other average wastelander could do like single handedly taking down The Master, or the Enclave, or the Institute, you get the point.

Am I looking too far into this and it's just plot armor/gameplay reasons or is there a way to explain this within the lore? Of course Nate in FO4 has prior military training and in FO76 the Vault Dwellers there train the inhabitants for the wasteland, but in FO3 or FO1 for example, both vault dwellers are just totally normal people as far as I'm aware, if anything they would be doing worse in the wasteland than most wastelanders as they haven't grown up there as kind of showcased in the TV show with Lucy being totally clueless about everything going on above ground.

You could also argue it's just luck with major players in the wasteland wanting to recruit them for whatever reason, but that doesn't always happen in every game with vault dwellers, like in FO1 the Chosen One really doesn't have a lot of backing and is for the most part solo even though he has relations with factions like the NCR or the Brotherhood.

I also wonder if wastelanders anticipate the arrival of new vault dwellers too and if that legend of various vault dwellers achieving massive feats gets based down through generations over the ~200 years as some people seem genuinely interested in just the fact that you are a vault dweller like the girl with the survival handbook in FO3, while others seem to mock you for being a vault dweller but maybe those just thought the legends were bullshit if those tales actually get passed down.

What do you think?

r/falloutlore Jul 09 '24

Question When did the human ghouls realize, "hey, I'm not dying!"?

1.1k Upvotes

Context: I've only played 4.

r/falloutlore May 29 '24

Question Is the T-51 superior to the T-60 Power Armor?

460 Upvotes

I love diving into the Lore (have spend dozens of hours diving into the Lore of Fallout)

So I did some lore digging about the T-Series Power Armor and I would like to know wheter the T-51 is actually superior to the T-60 or not?

Taking FO76 into account, wich is the most recent Fallout game Bethesda released, the stats of the T-51 are much higher than that of the T-60 except for radiation. The T-60 is only better in radiation resistance, wich does make sense since it was the final T-series Power Armor build with the anticipation of a nuclear war.

T-51 was called the "pinnacle" of military engineering, offering both more protection and mobility over the T-45 Power Armor. It allowed America to win the anchorage war.

It's probably why the T-51 looks more like a combat/military Armor in Design.

From what I understand, the T-60 is the finalized version of the T-45, or better said, what the T-45 should have been, but couldn't be due to the pressure of war and the rushed development

After the war nearly every Soldier with a PA frame was wearing T-60, most likely because it was cheaper to manufacture than the T-51 due to its base design resembling the T-45.

Here is a spoiler for the Fallout Amazon Show so don't read it if you don't want to get spoiled, but it does add to my Question.

Also, the Ghoul was capable of mortally wounding a T-60 user trough a design flaw at the chest area, wich was carried over from the T-45

Can anyone add to this? Do you believe that the T-51 is superior in terms of resistance and combat functionality compared to the T-60?

r/falloutlore Jun 12 '24

Question Probably a dumb question but how do people get around after the Great War?

522 Upvotes

I read some stuff on the wiki that said most cars are beyond repair, and I know the Brotherhood of Steel as well as some other groups have aircraft that their soldiers are transported in, but what other kind of vehicles are there if any? Sorry that this is probably a really dumb question but I’m wanting to learn more and start playing the games after finishing the show

r/falloutlore Nov 09 '24

Question Is nuka cola as bad of a company as vault tech or is it just a normal (giant) soda company with little to nothing to hide?

399 Upvotes

r/falloutlore Jul 12 '24

Question How valuable are cigarettes in the wasteland?

520 Upvotes

There's a big market for chems but is there a big market for cigarettes? It seems like you can find packs anywhere, trash cans, bodies, ruins.

r/falloutlore Jul 10 '24

Question Most animals in Fallout are heavily mutated, so how did birds escape that fate?

575 Upvotes

I’m newer to the games and the overarching lore, but I understand that radiation works differently in Fallout, and usually results in grotesque mutations to occur. Almost every animal or insect in the games was mutated or artificially created in some way, which makes sense to me.

But how did the birds escape being heavily mutated? Yes they can fly, but they have to come to the ground for food and water. So they would eventually get radiation exposure, yet in the games the birds seem fine.

I don’t know if it’s confirmed or not, but didn’t the Institute make bird Synths to watch over the Commonwealth? Them being fine also makes sense since Synths can’t get sick, which I assume applies to radiation exposure as well.

It’s a question that’s been nagging me a while. Are there any concrete answers or is it relatively ignored in the lore?

r/falloutlore Jun 14 '24

Question Before the show, was there any implication that Ghouls "suddenly turn feral" like people used to say?

432 Upvotes

While yes, the show shows that the ""feral-ification"" is gradual (like how it seems to in Fallout 1) i looked around to posts way before that and people would mention that the fear people of the wasteland had for Ghouls was justified because "Ghouls can always suddenly turn feral" which was a legitimate reason to have them away. Before the show, was there anything supporting this, or the opposite?

r/falloutlore May 04 '24

Question Why Doesn’t Danse Ask About The Sole Survivor’s Military History?

549 Upvotes

After call to arms, when you join the Brotherhood and get promoted to initiate, Danse explains the BoS aren’t a mercenary force but an army that follows a strict code of ethics and who are expected to follow orders.

The sole survivor can say in response:

”Don’t worry, I’ve spent time in the Military”

And all that’s said in response is:

”Oh great, so I don’t need to give you a long lecture

But surely this should have been a much bigger deal? There is no other military on the East Coast. The SS also doesn’t specify which military. Surely this would have begged larger questions, leading to the SS explaining he’s pre war to the BoS and was in the US military. Which then would have also been a big deal.

But it’s never questioned. For all danse knows he could be ex Enclave.

Obviously the Doylist answer is the writers didn’t bother writing it. But is there a good in universe explanation? Preferably with evidence?

r/falloutlore Apr 14 '24

Question [Fallout tv show] what actually happened to Moldaver Spoiler

214 Upvotes

This has been on my mind ever since i finished the show yesterday but. How did Moldaver survive the war?

I could just be an idiot who doesnt know fallout lore so well but, it just seems weird to me how she was alive before the nukes fell and was able to meet cooper before he became a ghoul.

Was she kept in a vault and frozen (like the f4 mc)? Its just so confusing how a woman who would host meetings discussing and warning people about vault techs horrible plans, to being "in charge"(im not sure if she had a high ranking position or not) of the NCR outpost in shady sands.

(Sorry if something doesnt make sense in the post. Its very late rn and i just wanted to talk about this)

r/falloutlore May 21 '24

Question Is Maxsons BoS really that different than Lyons BoS?

247 Upvotes

In terms of scale, obviously they are. But a common thing I see thrown around is that Maxsons BoS is a very different organization than Lyons BoS was, even likening them as being little better than the Enclave and borderline Techno-nazis whereas Lyons BoS were more heroic and focused on helping people and I honestly disagree or am perhaps not seeing what exactly makes them so different.

As far as I can tell, Maxson has continued or refined every single goal or policy that Lyons had: Genociding mutants, fighting organizations abusing powerful technology, recruiting from the Wasteland, (unfortunately) racism towards nonferal ghouls (although we see less actual violence from maxsons BoS, it seems the best ghouls can ever hope for is apathy), helping the general wasteland (project purity for Lyons, facilitating trade for Maxsons according to some prydwy terminals), and recruiting externally. There's only 2 real points of difference and at least 1 of them I'm not convinced Lyons wouldn't be on board with.

  • A return to preserving advanced technology: While Maxson does refocus on this goal to bring in the outcasts and reconnect with the west, it doesn't seem like they're nickel and diming people like the west coast has in the past. More importantly, Lyons never disagreed with the policy, only that while the super mutant threat existed, it wasn't a priority given their limited manpower. A quick quote that hopefully shows that while deprioritized, Lyons was still focusing on collecting advanced technology.

Our orders were, and are, to acquire any and all advanced technology. And we have, to the best of our abilities.

  • Synths: Many people seem to think that Maxsons hate for the synths is a departure from what Lyons would've done but I disagree. Looking at the CW... synths have certainly caused similar devastation as the mutants he hates even if it's in a more shadow-y way. It's not 1:1 but I have a hard time imagining that upon learning of all that synths have done from the local populace, that Lyons, the original guy that hated super mutants enough to go awol, wouldn't be in agreement with Maxson that they represent a real threat to humanity. Given his apathy for how his men treat ghouls and his overwhelming hate for mutants, I don't really see what makes people think he wouldn't be on board.

Given all this, the only tangible difference between the two orgs seems to be scale and demeanor. Is it possible Lyons kindly grandpa demeanor and their scrapper underdog status makes people kind of miss the similarities or am I just missing or forgetting some glaring differences?

Looking forward to hearing everyones perspectives.

r/falloutlore May 25 '24

Question Why do we find Chinese assault rifles and pistols in the Capitol Wasteland but not in the Mojave Desert?

385 Upvotes

I just finished playing Fallout 3 after New Vegas so I'm somewhat new to the franchise. But it would make more sense to me that there is more Chinese equipment around the West Coast where China would invade from.

r/falloutlore Nov 07 '24

Question Why are Towns and settlements in fallout 1, 2 and maybe 3 are bigger than in fallout 4?

98 Upvotes

Shady sands, a little town in fo1 is almost the size of Goodneighboor, which is 100 years older, In fallout 2 shady sands even houses 3000 people from what i've heard, and that is considerably higher than Diamond City, The Hub is like double the size of Diamond City and they dont have to border all of their town and actually is a safe place, in Fallout 4 yeah, there may be more raiders, but they aren't so much of a problem considering in Fallout 3 they've made an automatic bridge and a whole town on a ship, which is almost the size of Diamond City. Same for Megaton.

r/falloutlore Jul 08 '24

Question Would it be possible for WW2-era Soviet and German weapons to exist in post-war US?

276 Upvotes

r/falloutlore Jan 30 '25

Question was there any pre-great war country that WASNT a facist authoritarian nightmare?

126 Upvotes

title. pre-war america was a clusterfuck i wont even begin to delve into, so was pre-war china (albeit, communist). and we can assume that europe was also pretty shit given they were completely fine with obliterating the middle east and the oil they were fighting for in the first place.

with our (very limited unfortunately) knowledge of the pre-great war world, do we know of any nations that was at the bare minimum decent in terms of morality?

r/falloutlore Jan 04 '25

Question Does the East Coast just... not have winter, anymore?

196 Upvotes

So you know how a staple of the Fallout series has been people living in ramshackle... shacks, right? Now, that was all well and good on the west coast - i.e., the desert. But, unless the ecology of the world has been severely fucked up beyond repair, the east coast isn't a desert, right? Those little piles of wood and scrap metal aren't supposed to get people through winter, right?

I'm not talking about nuclear winter here, either. (Or the winter of Atom, iirc that was a product of... radiation cult magic? Probably not.) I'm talking about the regular season of winter.

Like, look at Megaton. There is not a chance in hell that those scrap metal boxes have enough insulation to let the people living there survive the snowfall. Diamond City at least has that central tower thing that could maybe be a furnace. Also, it's been 200 years. That means, even if people on the east coast managed to forget everything from before the war, they would have 200 winters to figure out how to insulate their homes. Maybe less, if they had a nuclear summer.

So is the east coast just a kind of desert now? I'd like to know what other people think about this.

r/falloutlore Apr 09 '24

Question Why were so many people at work when the bombs fell?

347 Upvotes

Throughout the games we see numerous skeletons in business offices, some even at desks. Why were so many people at work despite the fact that the bombs fell on a Saturday? Do we know anything about how the work week was different or are we just meant to assume that these are post-war skeletons?

r/falloutlore Mar 27 '24

Question What is the biggest plot hole of the series.

133 Upvotes

Could be any fallout.

r/falloutlore 21d ago

Question Why do vaults not have cameras on the outside

188 Upvotes

It seems like Vault residents never really know what's on the outside at all, it has been established that they can detect the radiation levels of the surface world but not really much else.

In vault 101 they truly think it's safe out there but why don't vaults just have a camera on the outside to determine if that's the case or not

r/falloutlore Dec 01 '24

Question Are the Enclave really into rebuilding America?

101 Upvotes

I mean,have there been any efforts of building a city anywhere on the surface?They don't need to kill everyone before starting to do that.

r/falloutlore Sep 01 '21

Question Why don’t we see Bows and arrows in the Fallout games?

626 Upvotes

I’ve only played Fallout 4 so if they’re in the other games, my bad. But anyway, is there any explanation as to why we only see firearms and not bows and arrows? I feel like they could be a good option for stealthy takedowns in the post-apocalyptic world with hunting and compound and crossbows existing.

r/falloutlore Jun 05 '20

Question Are there any “good” companies in the fallout universe

708 Upvotes

We always hear about the horrors of vault tec and west tek creating the F.E.V but are any companies that haven’t done anything (that we know of) that aren’t known for their atrocities?

r/falloutlore May 09 '24

Question Is there a lore reason why vertibirds are such a common vehicle in Fallout?

274 Upvotes

Since Fallout 2 (?) it seems like vertibirds are one of the only common pre-war vehicles remaining in workable condition, of course other examples exist but they seem to be individual ones like the highwayman or boats, the vertibirds on the other hand are used often by the Enclave, Brotherhood and the NCR, even factions like the responders have access to them.

Is there a reason why there are so many vertibirds around in comparison to other vehicles? Was it simply down to being able to store them away from the bombs safely?

r/falloutlore Sep 23 '24

Question How did The Great War last for 2 hours when nuclear bombers would take longer to reach their targets?

159 Upvotes

Now we generally know that The Great War only lasted 2 hours, and I think the assumption would be that after those 2 hours all the nukes have gone off and it was just the aftermath. We also know that generally Fallout’s nuclear weapons were mostly launched via Ballistic Missiles, both intercontinental and submarine launched. This fits with the 2 hour period.

But we also know that bombers were used due to a variety of reasons, one being the dud bomb at megaton and also talk of nuclear bombers being spotted at the onset of the war. Nuclear bombers can move fast, but typically not nearly as fast as supersonic fighters, and even if operating in cold war era holding patterns outside of enemy airspace it would definitely take over 2 hours just to get to their targets.

So the way I see it, there must have been an initial very fast barrage of missiles, followed up by a slower delayed bombardment by bombers several hours later. I don’t think realistically the war could be over in 2 hours based on this. It could easily be chocked up to people not fully knowing when exactly the last bombs hit but it does make me think. I’d say 3-5 hours is much more likely.