» Fri May 27, 2011 8:03 am The Great War is the single event that has shaped the Fallout world into its current form. On October 23, 2077, the United States, China, and other countries bombarded each other with a rapid exchange of nuclear missiles and bombs lasting two hours. The destruction caused by the brief nuclear war was staggering; more energy was released in the early moments of the war than in all previous conflicts combined.
The Fallout games take place years after the Great War as humanity struggles to survive and rebuild. Some groups have barely managed to survive above ground, either scavenging the scorched ruins of cities or surviving and adapting through mass mutation. Communities that were sealed in underground Vaults during the war are now emerging to re-populate the blasted landscape. Striving to organize and sustain the human race, these tattered remnants of civilization are threatened by psychotic mutants, rogue machines, raiders, and all manner of hostile creatures. The first two games take place mostly in the area known as the Core Region, where the main threats so far have been the Master and the Enclave, while the third game takes place in the Capital Wasteland on the East Coast.
Before the War
In the Fallout setting, twenty-first century America also descended into an era of paranoia and mania similar to the 1950s. The U.S. government became more and more militant and aggressive against real and imagined enemies. As the world’s fossil fuel supplies started to dry up and conversions to nuclear power lagged, people became desperate.
The United Nations failed in 2052 as the planet's natural resources dried up, causing many smaller nations to go financially bankrupt and fail. Europe and the Middle East were cast into a long, drawn-out war over the few remaining productive oil fields.
In late 2053, the United States closed its borders when a new super plague was discovered, and a terrorist nuclear weapon destroyed Tel Aviv. In early 2054, the U.S. responded by creating Project Safehouse. This project, financed by junk bonds, was responsible for creating large underground survival shelters, commonly known as Vaults.
Great War
In 2060, the Middle Eastern oil fields ran dry, ending the European war. The European Commonwealth soon dissolved into quarreling, bickering nation states bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.
In the winter of 2066, China attacked Alaska over what were most likely the last drops of oil in the world. The U.S. responded with force, but it would be ten years before the conflict would end. In a desperate maneuver, both superpowers invaded neighboring countries in an effort to bolster their dwindling resources. The U.S. annexation of Canada was concluded by 2076. Canadian timber provided fuel for U.S. military needs, and Alaska was reclaimed by early 2077.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 23, 2077, the sky was filled with nuclear missiles. No one knows who started the war, but after two hours of nuclear devastation, no one cared.
Because of frequent false alarms, few made it to the Vaults when the final alarm sounded. Most people were trapped outside the closing Vault doors. The Enclave, the remains of the United States' shadow government, retreated safely to an Oil Rig on the Pacific Ocean.
After The War
The Great War changed most of the planet into a radioactive wasteland. Those who did not die in the nuclear weapon exchanges (likely less than half the world's population) lived in darkness or misery for decades. Living in subterranean vaults or frozen in cryogenic chambers, humanity persevered. Most people outside the Vaults were killed, and many of those who were lucky (or unlucky) enough to survive, mutated. The first effects of radiation were seen in the survivors around 2080. Widespread mutations occurred with animals and humans alike. Those that survive the effects of the mutations are permanently changed. New species are created almost overnight. Among them were the hideous ghouls.
Years after the bombs dropped, the first Vaults started to open and their inhabitants emerged to rebuild the destroyed civilization. The Core Region, corresponding to the American West Coast and Southwest was one of the first areas of the world in which significant interaction emerged, eighty years after the war. Though many regions of the formerly-civilized world are waking up, humanity has a long way to go if it is to ever stabilize.
Creatures
The various types of mutant creatures that inhabit the wastelands were mostly caused by radiation. This is where mantises, geckos, spore plants, radscorpions, brahmin and the various mutant rodent species come from. Also, this is how ghouls, decrepit, ragged, almost rotting, zombie-like victims of massive radiation poisoning, are made. Generally, in the Fallout universe, massive exposure to radiation causes humans to transform into ghouls. Also, in this world, in accordance with the 1950's sci-fi physics, radiation makes most creatures bigger and meaner.
Marcus, a super mutant
The other source of mutations in the Fallout world is FEV: the Forced Evolutionary Virus. The super mutants, floaters, centaurs and possibly wanamingos were products of FEV infection. It was initially called the Pan-Immunity Virion Project and was created to fight a disease called the New Plague. However, abnormal side effects were observed in test subjects: the test animals began to grow dramatically and their brain activity decreased. The project was renamed FEV: Forced Evolutionary Virus and was tested by the Army on humans.
After a man known as Richard Grey discovered the base and was accidentally dipped in the FEV vats, he slowly mutated into an unrecognizable mass of living flesh. He developed psychic powers, which were enhanced by consuming living creatures and absorbing their minds to expand his own. Slowly, he started doing his own experiments with FEV, at first on animals and later turning other humans into his super mutant army. He decided that he would have to force humanity to evolve, and even continued injecting his own twisted body with more of the virus to continue his own evolution. Those who could not evolve would die. Eventually, the mutants turned out to be sterile and the Master himself was killed by the Vault Dweller.
Taken from The Fallout Wikia
Images: http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/...f/Great_war.jpg
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/...rn_USA_v1.0.jpg
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/...rn_USA_v1.1.jpg
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/...f/fc/Ghoul_.jpg
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I Just wanted to make this cause, New players that start to play fallout 3 doesnt know how it all started and why it started:P
So i just wanted to point this out to new players!
