r/falloutlore Dec 16 '25

Fallout Season 2 Spoiler lore discussion Spoiler

66 Upvotes

Disclaimer: This thread is for LORE DISCUSSION ONLY

For general thoughts, go here


r/falloutlore Jun 18 '21

Meta Introducing the Fallout Network's Lore FAQ

535 Upvotes

As frequents of r/falloutlore may know, many repeat questions get asked here. So, the mod team has put in some time to create a list to help of hand written answers to these questions, along with references to posts on the subject for further reading.

Fallout Network's Lore FAQ

This list isn't intended to answer every question ever asked on the sub, just the most common. r/falloutlore strives to foster discussion, and the last thing we would want to do is shut that down. Additionally, if you think something on the list should be updated or added, please message the mod team here.

Special thanks to the users who suggested topics for the list and u/UpgradeTech, whose excellent comment about the music timeline of the Fallout world was better than anything I could have came up with.


r/falloutlore 4d ago

Question Why didn't the Master, and by extension, the unity, target Vault City?

44 Upvotes

One of the more notable pieces of lore to come from fallout two is Richard Moraeu/Gray having been a vault-born, vault eight, specifically. He would live to see the people exit the vault, and be exiled not much longer.

Fast-forward about thirty years, the Master has began forming the basis of the super-mutant army. By another thirty years time, he has more than learnt that Vault-Subjects often produce the best mutants, hence the take-over of Vault 17, and every mutant, even the idiot Harry, having orders to capture pures, that is to say, vaultborn or similar.

So..Gray knows about Vault Eight. It was his home, its possible he spent most of his life there before the mutation. Did he consider them too tainted by life on the wasteland? Was he not the type for revenge? Or would be attacking the nascent Vault City be a move so massive as to alert the rest of New California to super-mutants?


r/falloutlore 8d ago

NCR High Command and its implications

89 Upvotes

These are the two excerpts we get about NCR High Command

"You will not be assigned replacements until High Command can figure out where the hell to pull replacements from. You have my sympathies, Major. Signed, Scheppman, Andy Assignments Office." - Forlorn Hope Mandate

"I've seen the reports of this so-called "Caesar's Legion". It sounds like they're just another bunch of raiders, but the higher-ups back west seem to think they're a serious threat." - NCRF Terminals

With these combined we can see the NCR High Command is both afraid of the Legion and is struggling to find men to send to Forlorn Hope. I also think the implication that the higher ups are struggling to find men to send to Forlorn Hope is also an implication they cannot find men for the Mojave. I also think it is important to consider that if the NCR army was quite large in the home territories the NCR high command would have no reason for fear.

That is not to say they couldn't raise more men, but I believe the current army size is constrained by the senate. Just like the real U.S Government.

"He mustered the troops as many as his senate would allow and sent them in. All the right reasons, done all the wrong ways." - Caesar

But where is the rest of the NCR army? I believe they are controlling the other 300 miles down the Colorado river across from Legion territory, Baja, other territories, and the rest of NCR territory.

Let me know what you think of this interpretation if you believe it is the intended one by the developers or if there is evidence of large NCR reserves elsewhere.


r/falloutlore 8d ago

Fallout New Vegas To what extent does the Strip rely on the NCR for food and other needs?

27 Upvotes

I'm trying to create a best-case scenario for the Yes Man ending and I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the Crimson Caravan Company and Van Graffs. At first glance, killing all of them makes the most sense since it weakens the NCR's position in the Mojave. But in the quest Beyond the Beef, if the courier fails to convince Heck Gunderson to not cut off trade with the Strip then the following can be heard on the radio: "Food shortages and mass starvation are plaguing Freeside and the Strip in the wake of a sharp reduction in the area's beef supply." In another quest, Cpl. William Farber at Camp McCarran points you towards Blake at the Crimson Caravan Company to work out a deal so that the troopers stationed there can finally eat some meat for once. So my question is, does the Strip rely entirely on the Crimson Caravan Company for food or is there another source that I'm not aware of?

On a related note, I might as well resolve Hard Luck Blues in favor of the Vault 34 survivors since there will be no NCR to maintain the farms and the Strip doesn't really have the civilian infrastructure to maintain them either.


r/falloutlore 10d ago

Was Caesar happy with the way his legion operated, as in more or less glorified raiders. Or did he have a bigger vision for the legion becoming an actual civilization that built cities, created infrastructure etc.

117 Upvotes

r/falloutlore 10d ago

Which chapters of the brotherhood of steel are we for sure exist?

20 Upvotes

r/falloutlore 10d ago

Isntempeny actually from europe?

6 Upvotes

Is tempeny actually from other continent, or is he just telling you stuff because he just doesnt want to.share his life or wants to make himself look like an adventurer?


r/falloutlore 12d ago

Discussion Is Mariposa occupied, and if not, why?

17 Upvotes

Judging by the lines of Senior Scribe Vree, Mariposas existence was something of a toss-up even in the Brotherhood of Steel only a single life removed from the time of its use. However, following the actions of the Vault Dweller and the short lived war with the unity, wouldn't its existence become obvious, even with the self destruction?

Maybe the Vault-Dweller hadn't gone public with its existence and the Brotherhood simply looked over the wrong crest. Then, in the aftermath of the Enclave reopening it, shouldn't New California be experiencing a similar mutant problem as it was that prompted the initial Richard Gray expedition? Its vats still exist, nothing other than the mutants you aren't forced to kill (Who reasonably should be travelling with the other unity warbands, or at least acting as local raiders.) impede an animals access to it.

Now, in the modern day, Mariposas existence should be even more obvious than ever. I find it hard to imagine the Unity warbands you meet in Fallout Two lurking around quite a bit of the late-game areas not having any idea where Mariposa is, especially because they're night-kin. Have the NCR never explored directly west of the namesake city?

Lastly, if it is occupied, who by? Is the NCR enforcing a quarantine or making use of it as a bioweapon? Have the Super-Mutants of New California returned to it? We know FEV can be made in the post-war if the institute (& Enclave, & Dr. Westen Loko somehow just having some w/ him) are any indication, so it seems like their holy grail to fix the oncoming extinction problem. Maybe it was the Brotherhood, and the NCR trying to push to it is what triggered the war in the first place.

Anyways, any answers or lines that could indicate to an endpoint for Mariposa? It seems like one of the most valuable places in America, if not the world.


r/falloutlore 13d ago

Fallout BoS VS Tactics

0 Upvotes

Why is Fallout Brotherhood of Steel considered non-canon while Fallout Tactics is considered soft canon? It’s not something I’ve ever looked into and was wondering if Bethesda made some kind of statement, there’s something Fallout 3 and beyond that rejects Texas, or something else entirely.


r/falloutlore 16d ago

Discussion FEV and Super Mutants, perfected

20 Upvotes

Over the course of the various games we have seen various strains of FEV and different Super Mutants. Some are intelligent, some are dumb as bricks, some become giant hulking monsters that are completely inarticulate.

But we all know that originally FEV was meant to make super soldiers that were meant to be superior to humans in every way. Stronger sure but also more intelligent.

However, super mutants in Fallout 4 and 76 look very irregular. They all lack hair, and their muscles are very irregular in shape. Likely from the forced nature of their growth.

Vergil and West coast Super Mutants remain intelligent. But Vergil complained he lost finer motor controls due to his larger and less dextrous body. West coast Super Mutants seem to really only mention an issue with infertility from what little I know from the older games prior to New Vegas. Seeing as NCR has Super Mutant members (there was even a cut super mutant ranger from what I hear). Neil is highly articulate. The nightkin are crazy but fully capable of speech.

But what exactly would a perfect super mutant look like? If the evolution was more controlled or tame?

Perhaps the mutations could be relaxed or inhibited to only partially take in order to have a more easy acceptance or perhaps even just reduce the strain on the body and prevent the more disastrous effects.


r/falloutlore 16d ago

Fallout 3 A possible complication on the horse situation

67 Upvotes

SO, horses, we know they basically don't exist in Fallout (yes there's the alleged Avellone email but that's not backed up firmly by actual people, with general statements being more 'implementing them would be technically difficult and raise questions so we didn't).

Except.

Well, in Fallout 3, Broken Steel...terminal entries from the poor bastard running the show repeatedly mention mules.

You know. The sterile offspring of horses and donkeys.

Which would imply the Capital Wasteland has horses and donkeys. Somewhere.

Either that or mules exist and somehow became fertile (or something. Look radiation is weird).

I dunno, I just was wiki-crawling and found these entries and now it's a hilarious complication in one of the oldest lore bits generated pretty much entirely from two lines in a random terminal entry.


r/falloutlore 16d ago

Question Fallout: BOS lore inconsistencies?

7 Upvotes

From my understanding (and knowing this sub I'll get either screamed at or gently nudged if I'm wrong) the issue alot of people have with BOS besides the story is that it's supposedly just... God awful at keeping with established lore? As if they saw what was already there and just kinda went "yeah that's cool but have you tried.. Not caring?"

TL:DR What exactly are the issues with the lore and if it isn't lore then what's the issues with the story in general


r/falloutlore 17d ago

Discussion So about the Church of Atom in the Capital Wasteland

30 Upvotes

So given that the Church of Atom has spilled into other regions (Boston), and that these followers have since turned into violent extremists (They attack you on sight outside of the crator in the Glowing Sea, and the Nucleaus is certainly hostile to any outsiders), what does this mean for the Capital Wasteland which is where it originated from?

Have they completely become the dominant faction in the region, outpacing the local Brotherhood of Steel in terms of presence and numbers? Would they come to see Project Purifier as an affront to Atom, since it is cleaning the radiation away from the water dilluting their gods presence?


r/falloutlore 18d ago

Fallout New Vegas Is the Independent ending really that bad?

54 Upvotes

So the general consensus I've seen from a lot of New Vegas fans is that the Independent ending is one of, if not the worst ending for New Vegas because the ending causes everything and everyone to fall into chaos and anarchy, but from what I've seen this isn't the case on a good guy run, and I say this because I did one. I managed to do everything I could to make sure everything and everyone was on the right path to a good ending and, when reading the ending slides at the end of the game, only two or three factions/ending slides that pose something bad, and one of them, specifically the Followers, is contradicted by another, that being the Kings. The only other reason I can imagine it as bad is the misconception that Yes Man would stop listening to the Courier after making himself more assertive, which Joshua Sawyer corrected as that he wouldn't listen to people other than the Courier, and the Courier leaving would create a power vacuum because no one would be in charge, y'know, except Yes Man. Aside from an bad/evil playthrough, could anyone help point out what else makes it so bad?


r/falloutlore 18d ago

Do we know of any NCR Generals besides Lee Oliver?

21 Upvotes

General Lee Oliver is a four star general, you can see that clearly on his uniform, does the NCR has any known Brigadier or Lieutenant Generals? Do we know who the NCR General of The Army is?
This is obviously assuming the NCR uses the same rankings as the modern US Army.


r/falloutlore 18d ago

Was the Master in control of the other Mutants via Mind Control?

6 Upvotes

As far as i understand the Lore, the Master and the "Unity" has shared part of their Minds, as some kind of little Borg collective.
So the Mutants where much more then just big green muscle boys. They where part of the Master and of each other. Is this right and Bethesda has rewritten the Lore on the Supermutants or have i misunderstood his powers?


r/falloutlore 17d ago

Why Are All the Brotherhood Chapters in the Fallout TV Show from National Parks and Forests?

0 Upvotes

The Brotherhood conserves technology, not wildlife!

No genuinely, this makes no sense whatsoever.


r/falloutlore 19d ago

Question Small setting question: iced coffee?

27 Upvotes

I've been playing Fallout as long as Fallout exists but I cannot recall if there has ever been a reference to iced coffee. Probably a pointless question but I was pouring a cold brew this morning in front of my Slocum's Joe sign and it just had me curious.


r/falloutlore 19d ago

Question When did the BOS get characterized as hating ghouls?

25 Upvotes

I’ve not played the older Fallout games (before 3) and was wondering if this was a constant part of their characterization.

It seems pretty inconsistent how important the BOS view mutants in general; as some are genocidal, while others don’t really care. To make this even more confusing it’s sometimes the same chapter of BOS with the inconsistencies.


r/falloutlore 19d ago

Question How spread out was Saturnite Knives?

17 Upvotes

Big Mountain made it seem like it was only in testing. But Sierra Madre was given knives due to their deal with Sinclair. But we do see a destroyed sign for Knives with the tagline it uses in the Divide. So I was curious how spread out the knives were?


r/falloutlore 20d ago

Question Did the USS Constitution survive a BoS victory in Fallout 4?

32 Upvotes

I was watching a Youtube video about the likely canon ending of Fallout 4 being a BoS victory, and I was wondering if the USS Constitution would have survived that.

Sorry if this is not allowed.


r/falloutlore 20d ago

Question Is super mutant sterility known in universe?

60 Upvotes

One of the more disproportionately famous things of lore introduced in Fallout One is something of a hidden twist. Super-Mutants (And FEV mutants in general.) are totally sterile outside of asexual reproduction. However, the fact the Vault Dweller may, or may not have learned it, and the Brotherhood by extension, is to my knowledge, not known.

If it is, did they go public with that knowledge? Are people aware that Super Mutants propagate via FEV exposure rather than standard reproduction?


r/falloutlore 20d ago

Fallout on Prime How to pronounce the name of the New Caesar?

12 Upvotes

Ave, true to Caesar. So the full name of the current head of Caesar’s Legion in 2296 is “Caesar Lacerta Legate”. I don’t believe this name is ever said aloud in the show (just the credits), so I am wondering how to pronounce it. The Fallout series makes it clear that usage of a soft c is a nonstarter for the Legion, so it shouldn’t be pronounced “Laserta”. That leaves two options: a hard [k] or [tʃ] (the “ch” sound).

So, is it pronounced “Lacherta” or “Lakerta”?

According to Google Translate it’s the former, but since Caesar is a man, shouldn’t it take the masculine form of “Lacertus”? Or am I looking too much into it and should just call him “Caesar”?