ｆａｌｌｏｕｔ ｉｎｆｏ

Fallout is a game franchise following the player character’s journey through the ruined wastelands of the United States well after a catastrophic nuclear war. Surviving in the Wasteland will be the task of any survivors of the game, but for AU building purposes, your character would have no idea what waits outside the Vault (unless this is endgame and you’re one of the survivors, in which case, congratulations!). Instead, this is a guide for building a character's background well before the bombs dropped, as you’ll be crafting an AU for their life before they entered the Vault.

In summary, the Pre-War Fallout universe is both very similar and quite different from our own. This world is on a divergent timeline, and so there are many things that are extremely similar, and others that are quite different. The divergence of the timeline occurred after WWII, taking place sometime between 1945 and 1961. This divergence gives Pre-War Fallout a decidedly 1950s Americana aesthetic, and you can draw on this idea for crafting your AU.

However, despite the retro styling, Pre-War Fallout is still a quite advanced society and takes place in our future, with the bombs dropping in the year 2077. The major technological point of divergence is that in this world, the transistor was never invented, which prevented technology from being downscaled. So to combat the issues of power and size for technology, Fallout is instead heavily reliant on nuclear energy, and many, many common household objects are powered by tiny nuclear reactors, from televisions to radios to computers. Both computers and robots with sophisticated AIs are rather commonplace, though they too tend to have a retro and dated look and are powered by nuclear energy.

Politically, the Pre-War universe is dominated by events known as the Resource Wars. In short, the Resource Wars were a decades long conflict beginning in the 2050s as the world's oil supply starts to run out and the fallout (heh) from that. Countries scrambled to stay afloat, many nations went bankrupt, and Cold War-esque tensions began to heat up between the two remaining major world powers: China and the United States. This conflict eventually heats up into actual conflict in 2066 when China attempts to invade Alaska, where the US's major oil pipeline is located. Up until 2077, tension rises as both countries pour money into developing weapons of all kinds from biological to nuclear, and as a result, the Vaults of Vault-Tec start to be built in anticipation of nuclear holocaust. It eventually occurs on October 23, 2077, which is when your character would have retreated into a Vault located in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.

Socially, the world of Fallout is progressive in some ways and very much not in others. Based on the political environment described above, you can expect that there’s a fair degree of racism and racial discrimination against Asian-Americans. Chinese-Americans will be especially suspect, and may have even faced more extreme discrimination in being sent to internment camps, however it’s rather well-documented in lore that Asian-Americans of every ethnicity tended to face at least some discrimination. Other ethnicities seemed to be more normalized and face far less discrimination. The progressive portion comes in an acceptance of gay relationships. Fallout was actually the first video game to allow same-sex couples and marriage, go figure. This seems to be normalized enough that it goes without comment by other characters and is treated in the same way as heterosexual dating/marriage.

Of course, this is just a summary, because there is a wealth of detail in Fallout’s lore, and I encourage you to dig into the wiki to craft an AU that you’re happy with! If you have any questions about applying a canon aspect to the lore or you’re having difficulty figuring something out, feel free to ask questions! We mods are here to help.

Helpful Links

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline — a timeline of the Fallout universe

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Divergence#World_of_Tomorrow — A summary and explanation of the general aesthetic of the Pre-War universe

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Resource_Wars — The Resource Wars, or the long-term conflicts that lead to the Great War

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Great_War — a summary of events for the Great War aka when the bombs dropped

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault-Tec_Corporation — Vault-Tec, the company that constructed the Vaults

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Technology — General starting point for looking into the in-universe tech

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Computer — Computers/AI. AI are quite varied in complexity, and if you need AI to be a part of your AU, feel free to ask about them, since I can point you to the type of AI that's most like what you're looking for. However, as a note, the extremely human-like Synths do not exist until well after the War.

Recommend Videos

Lore Overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ehbBTQiyw

Vaults:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv40L5FaMcs
Vault-Tec:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9ybOUo0-U

The Great War:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdDfaROF75

Pre-War Advertisements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4gmE85XFbA

These videos examine Fallout concepts from a feasibility standpoint-- They're entertaining, interesting, and should also give you a fair amount of knowledge about lore. There are other games mixed into this playlist, but most of it is Fallout:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7pGJQV-jlzD-RlwRlK0ruJKVfKrVRvSU

More lore-- a bit stylized to be in character, but informative:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7pGJQV-jlzD17YNNbt103xp0PkkUCoPU

Missions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMNE7NRqvUo - The Wasteland Survival Guide (good intro to postwar fallout)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqN6MX5CUNw - The Dunwich Building, Lovecraftian legend that's in almost every Fallout game, also terrifying with some interesting logs about the war
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tktVmlRu5W4 - Nuka Cola, with a fair amount of lore about the prewar fallout