The Complete Fallout Timeline Explained

The Fallout Timeline Explained

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re doing a deep dive into the “Fallout” timeline, from the very first game through to the TV show today.

The “Fallout” lore isn’t too complex, but there IS a lot of it, with the game world having an entire, alternate history that begins centuries before you step out of your first vault. Much of “Fallout’s” history is the history of our own world, with a few differences deep in the past – things like the influence of the fictional Cabot family on Boston way back in the eighteenth century. But things get notably different after the Second World War, when “Fallout” pursues alternate forms of technology to us in the real world. Specifically, they invest hugely in nuclear physics, mastering nuclear fission and, eventually, nuclear fusion, to create vast amounts of power. Energy is revolutionized, but other forms of technology – like television and radio – remain stuck in the 1950s, never moving on, except that they’re nuclear-powered now.

“Fallout” is so concerned with technology and exploring the impact its futuristic tech has on the world that all of its biggest, private companies work in science and technology, many of them becoming defense contractors for the US government. These are companies like Vault-Tec, RobCo, and REPCONN. Vault-Tec is, of course, hugely important because it’s the company behind the Vaults that save humanity – at least, on paper. RobCo Industries, meanwhile, was run by Mr. House before the war and is responsible for practically all of the robots we encounter – as well as inventing the Stealth Boys. Finally, REPCONN largely built rockets but was crucially contracted by the US government to create new fuel sources – including nuclear fission, which makes the world go around.

The world was also reliant on fossil fuels by this point, a finite resource - but nuclear power was a finite resource, too, because it depended on uranium. This eventually led the world’s two largest superpowers, the United States and China, into conflict through the Resource Wars, beginning in 2052. Our only real look into what the world was like at this time is through the Liberation of Anchorage simulation, which shows American soldiers freeing Alaska from Chinese occupation. Alaska had been under occupation since 2066 when the Sino-American War broke out, but in early 2077 it was brought back into the US. China’s power led to extreme paranoia within the US about the impact of communism, which again mirrors real life in the 1950s, when America was gripped by the Second Red Scare and thought communism was hiding around every corner. But in “Fallout”, these fears weren’t unfounded. Not only were spies genuinely working to undermine America, as we see in “Fallout 3’s” “Point Lookout” DLC, but China had armed submarines stationed around the coast.

This, of course, culminated in the Great War, which lasted for all of two hours on October 23rd, 2077. America and China together, in the last hours of the Sino-American War, destroyed the world. Some people survived, either by descending into Vaults or by finding refuge in other places; we see this play out at the beginning of “Fallout 4”, as the Sole Survivor descends below the Commonwealth to be cryogenically frozen. In “Fallout 3”, we see that a community managed to survive by hiding in the Lamplight Caverns, creating Little Lamplight; on the other side of the country, Vegas was left largely unscathed because of Mr. House protected it with his superior technology. But it would take a long time for the world to even begin to recover.

With the exception of “Fallout 4’s” opening, the earliest we’ve ever gone in the “Fallout” timeline is 2102, which is when “Fallout 76” begins. You start in Vault 76, a Vault designed to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence back in 1776, when it opens 25 years after the war. Luckily, Vault 76 was one of Vault-Tec’s control vaults, meaning it didn’t have any sinister experiments running in the background. Even better, Appalachia is definitely a more pleasant place than other “Fallout” settings – though, it’s been ravaged by Scorchbeasts, which are enormous, mutated bats. Because it’s an MMO, the plot of “Fallout 76” is always growing, with expansions released following the Zeta aliens and returning to Pittsburgh. But you spend the early hours and initial quests in the game trying to rid Appalachia of the Scorchbeasts and the infected humans they leave behind, known as the Scorched. It ends when you drop a nuclear bomb, but Appalachia bounces back from this quickly enough. Crucially, this is one of the earliest iterations of the Brotherhood of Steel we see; even though they were actually established in 2076, right before the Great War. But “Fallout 76” is still set far away from the main continuity of games, since the story really begins in the year 2161, in California.

This is where “Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Roleplaying Game” starts, almost ninety years after the war that destroyed the world. You’re playing as the Vault Dweller, who’s been chosen to leave Vault 13 – another safe, control vault – because the vault needs extra water chips to operate their water purifier, otherwise, it’s not going to survive. You leave the Vault and soon encounter Shady Sands, a small town that’s beaten the odds and already learned how to grow fresh crops in the Wasteland. But it hasn’t all been plain sailing; Shady Sands was founded by dwellers from Vault 15, a vault that WAS a social experiment gone awry when the dwellers – chosen because they held beliefs across the political spectrum – came into conflict. A group left and stole the vault’s GECK when they did; that’s a Garden of Eden Creation Kit, the crucial piece of pre-war technology that terraforms the wasteland to make it habitable. In Shady Sands, you’re witnessing the birth of the New California Republic, which will be officially founded in 2189, twenty-seven years after the first game begins – more on them later. Back in the 2160s, the Wasteland is under threat; a group calling itself “the Unity” is growing, a cult with the aim of turning every human being into a supermutant – a giant, green monster. Its leader is the Master, a mutant himself who wants to use the Forced Evolutionary Virus – or FEV – to transform mankind. Like the GECK, the FEV is a key part of “Fallout” lore that will return time and time again. The quest for the water chips eventually leads the Vault Dweller into conflict with the Master. To pull off this final, dramatic confrontation effectively, you’ll have needed to explore the Wasteland to get several, key pieces of information, so that you can prove to the Master that the supermutants are sterile. This means that his all-mutant society is doomed, because it will be impossible for them to reproduce. When the Master realizes this, he sets his base – the Cathedral – to explode, scattering the Unity, known to others as the Master’s Army, far and wide.

Between “Fallout 1” and “Fallout 2”, we’ve actually got two spin-off games. These are the confusingly named “Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel”, released in 2001, and “Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel”, released in 2004. The former follows a Brotherhood campaign in the Midwest in 2197, as soldiers journey southwest to find the semi-mythical Vault 0 to claim its technology. They, again, come into conflict with mutants and a villain called the Calculator, a grotesque supercomputer powered by an amalgamation of real, human brains – not dissimilar to the Master himself. It’s not clear which ending is the canon ending, but it almost certainly ends with the Brotherhood getting its hands on even more powerful, world-ending technology – for better or worse. The 2004 game, on the other hand, is set nineteen years on, in 2208, following an Initiate recently brought into the Brotherhood. Interestingly, 2208 is the same year that the original Vault Dweller leaves their town, Arroyo, for good. Unfortunately, this game was critically panned, and doesn’t offer too much new – though, it is the only “Fallout” game set in Texas, taking place in the city of Carbon. You’re fighting yet another army of mutants who are, in-game, modelling themselves on the Master.

“Fallout 2” sees another big time skip. It begins in the year 2241, and you’re a new player character, nicknamed the Chosen One, living in Arroyo, grandchild of the Vault Dweller. At the end of the first game, the Vault Dweller returned to Vault 13 to bring back the water chips, but was exiled by the Overseer; by 2167, Arroyo had been built in Northern California. But the town is hit by a severe drought, and there’s only one thing that can help: another GECK. The Chosen One leaves to find it, but the Enclave soon emerge as a new threat. You find out that before the war, the US government made a lot of contingencies, with many top, government officials escaping nuclear annihilation and forming the Enclave, which has been biding its time for over 150 years. Its main base is Control Station Enclave, an offshore oil rig, but it also has a major presence at Navarro, a military base on the west coast. The Enclave plan is, again, preoccupied with the Forced Evolutionary Virus. They want to modify it so that it’s lethal and airborne, capable of infecting and killing everybody in the Wasteland. When this is done, they’ll move in and rebuild America to their own specifications. Obviously, you can’t let this happen, because it turns out that while the Chosen One is successful at retrieving another GECK, the entire population of Arroyo has been kidnapped by the Enclave to serve as test subjects for the modified FEV. The Enclave is ultimately destroyed when the oil rig’s nuclear reactor is detonated by the Chosen One, who uses the GECK to turn Arroyo into a powerful force in the west. Crucially, by this point in time, the NCR has been founded officially, and is building Shady Sands into one of the most advanced cities in the entire Wasteland.

But it’s time to skip another few decades, ending up in the year 2277, and in a brand-new location: the Capital Wasteland, the ruins of Washington, D.C. A lot of people joined the franchise with “Fallout 3”, with this game serving as their introduction to the world of “Fallout”. It starts officially in 2258, though, when the main character, this time dubbed the Lone Wanderer, is born. Your father James, AKA Liam Neeson, decides to break out of Vault 101, another Vault-Tec experiment where the populace was ordered never to open the vault doors. The Lone Wanderer decides to follow him and is violently expelled from the Vault, where you begin the long journey of tracking James down. Eventually, the Lone Wanderer discovers that they were born outside the vault and that the Overseer remarkably let them and their father in, after their mother dies in childbirth right at the beginning. Their parents were working on something called Project Purity, a high-tech installation built around the Jefferson Memorial designed to deliver clean water to the Wasteland. But it needs a GECK to get up and running properly, and that’s where James has gone. The Lone Wanderer tracks him down to Vault 112, where he’s been trapped in a simulation called Tranquility Lane. The simulation is being controlled by sadistic scientist Stanislaus Braun, who, incidentally, is also the creator of the GECK – but, unfortunately, Vault 112 doesn’t have one. The Wanderer breaks James out by either going along with Braun or breaking his control of the simulation and freeing the residents.

James rallies the former Project Purity scientists, now all working in Rivet City. They return to the Jefferson Memorial to get it up and running, but are thwarted by the Enclave, many of whom have survived the events of “Fallout 2”. To stop the Enclave’s leader, Colonel Autumn, from activating the purifier, James seals himself inside and gives his life, dying from the equipment’s massive radiation output. The Wanderer and the other scientists fight off the Enclave and flee through the sewers, eventually finding sanctuary in the ruins of the Pentagon – now renamed “the Citadel” and occupied by the Brotherhood of Steel. This faction of the Brotherhood has, by now, gone against the group’s original mission statement of hoarding technology for technology’s sake; they want to HELP the people in the Wasteland to rebuild. This has led to the formation of the Brotherhood Outcasts, who roam the Wasteland in red power armor and dismiss outsiders – more on them later.

With the Brotherhood’s help, the Lone Wanderer determines that Vault 87 still contains its GECK, the only one in the Capital Wasteland. You’ve got two options for how to get in: through the front door, which requires a LOT of anti-rad medicine and equipment, or through the back tunnels, which require you to get in good with the people who live in the caves. The catch is that these people are children, and in their town of Little Lamplight, they hate adults and won’t want to help – unless you do a quest or pass a speech check. Whatever the case, the Wanderer gets into Vault 87 and acquires the GECK – only to be snatched by the Enclave at the last second. They awaken in the Enclave’s high-tech base, Raven Rock, and make their way to the President of the United States, John Henry Eden, at his invitation. This is where they find out Enclave’s grand plan, which is, yet again, to release the modified FEV and reclaim the Wasteland. Eden is easily talked into blowing up Raven Rock and the Wanderer makes their escape. The final assault begins, with the Brotherhood activating its enormous, pre-war robot, Liberty Prime, and taking back Project Purity.

At the end of the game, the Lone Wanderer has two choices: activate Project Purity themselves, dying in the process, or send Sarah Lyons, one of the Brotherhood, to do it instead – in which case, SHE dies. The game was later patched to give you the third option to send Fawkes, the supermutant companion, to do it, since Fawkes is immune to radiation. But they don’t ACTUALLY die, because the “Broken Steel” DLC sees them awakening back in the Citadel. From there, you’re tasked with wiping out all that remains of the Enclave. Along the way, you’ll also get abducted by aliens and have to fight your way off their ship; you’ll help the Brotherhood Outcasts to gain access to a pre-war stash of dangerous weapons; you’ll journey on a riverboat to Maryland and have part of your brain removed; and you’ll return to Pittsburgh, seen much earlier in its history in “Fallout 76”, to free its slaves and cure its plague.

Finally, we’re moving on from the surprising density of “Fallout 3”, to 2010’s “Fallout: New Vegas”, where we return to the West to see the expanding NCR – which is now one of the most powerful forces in the Wasteland – come up against a new faction, Caesar’s Legion. The Legion model themselves on Ancient Rome and have brought peace and security with them from Arizona – albeit, peace and security enforced strictly by slavery and crucifixions. The two groups are fighting for control of the Hoover Dam and subsequently, Vegas. We’re also going to catch back up with Mr. House, owner of RobCo, who still controls Vegas from the shadows. Since the war, Vegas has regained its pre-war reputation for hedonism, with large casinos now run by the Three Families. They were originally Wasteland tribes that Mr. House saw potential in, giving them control of The Tops, the Ultra-Luxe, and Gomorrah, while HE kept control of the Lucky 38.

The game opens with you, Courier Six, being shot in the head and buried in a shallow grave in Goodsprings in 2281. You wake up with no memory of your previous life and decide to hunt down the man who shot you, tracking him all the way to Vegas. The Courier discovers that this was Benny, the leader of the Chairmen, who run The Tops. He killed the Courier to retrieve the coveted Platinum Chip, which they were trusted to deliver to the Lucky 38. It turns out that the Platinum Chip is a computer chip, carrying upgrades to the Securitron robots that patrol the Strip and keep its citizens – and Mr. House – protected from the NCR and the Legion. There are four ways the Courier can proceed. They can side with the NCR, the first and largest faction they encounter, and work to claim the Hoover Dam and the city for California. They can work with the Legion and do the opposite, undermining the NCR from within and despatching Mr. House. They can take Mr. House’s side and let HIM have absolute control with his upgraded army. Or, finally, they can take Benny’s plan for themselves and become his legacy, creating a truly independent Vegas. We don’t know which of the four endings is canon – despite widespread debate – and won’t know until the series revisits the Mojave.

But, we’re now travelling all the way back to East Coast for “Fallout 4”. After being sealed in cryostasis for decades, the Sole Survivor is briefly awakened – only to see a hardened mercenary kidnap their newborn son and kill their spouse, before they’re sealed away again. They finally wake for good in 2287, six years after “New Vegas”, and leave Vault 111 to track down their son, Shaun. This search takes them to Diamond City almost immediately, a large settlement built in the ruins of Fenway Park in Boston. They learn about an alleged conspiracy by members of a shadowy group that may or may not exist, called the Institute, to kidnap and replace the citizens of the Commonwealth with synths. By tracking down the mercenary who kidnapped their son and getting the help of one of the factions, the Sole Survivor discovers that not only is the Institute and its plan real, but that its leader is their son, Shaun, who’s far older than initially thought. We then head into Act 2 of the game, where the Sole Survivor helps all four factions until reaching various points of no return.

If they decide that Shaun is right, there’s another plan to get rid of the current human population with pure, non-irradiated people – albeit, not by releasing a dangerous virus. They side with the Institute and destroy the other factions, taking the Commonwealth for good. Alternatively, they can side with the Brotherhood of Steel. This is another iteration of the East Coast Brotherhood, but now, they’ve only got one mission: purge the world of synths, mutants, and anything else that isn’t completely human. Third, you can team up with the Railroad. They want to destroy the Institute and the Brotherhood because they threaten the synths and their freedom, but they don’t care half as much about humankind. Finally, you’ve got the Minutemen, who just want to protect the people of the Commonwealth. Only the Minutemen and the Railroad can co-exist; the other factions all demand you destroy two of the others, leaving the Minutemen alone in most cases. Whether “Fallout 4” has a canon ending or not, we also don’t know, and likely won’t until the next game in the series.

But that brings us to the present day in “Fallout” terms. 2296, nine years after the events of “Fallout 4”, and the blockbuster television show opens in Vault 33. Vault 33 is also in the ruins of Los Angeles, last seen as the Boneyard in “Fallout 1”. It’s in the Los Angeles Vault, a demonstration Vault built by Vault-Tec that was fully functioning and used as a shelter, where the Master originally waited to build his army. And it’s very close to Shady Sands, now, supposedly, the sprawling capital of the New California Republic – unless the Legion has had something to say about that. Todd Howard said that he didn’t want the TV show to build much on the existing lore, but we can’t help but wonder why, if that’s the case, LA was chosen as the setting at all.

We’ll have to wait and see whether the show sticks to the established “Fallout” timeline or veers off in another direction. And that was the “Fallout” timeline explained.