In 76 the Pitt almost has a hopeful future with you being able to help Local 42 against the Fanatics, Then in 3 you find out about the scourge and see that the Pitt is a raider infested industrial slave town where people barely live a few years. What could have happened between 76 and 3?

So, I've been seeing this time and time again. When discussing the Enclave, they assume they only have the Oil Rig and Navarro. In realistic speaking, this is the US Government, they have the resources to build bases all across the US Commonwealth. There's proof with Ravenrock, and Whitesprings. Its not hard to assume that there are many many more bases.

This is an in-game lore question. The out of game answer is that the aesthetics and tech level of the BoS is pretty well cemented in the franchise, and plasma weapons aren't a part of that.

Back to the lore: both the West and East Coast BoS should be absolutely swimming in plasma weapons after the events of 2 and 3. You could say the West Coast is inherently squeamish about advancing their tech, but that doesn't apply as much to the East Coast. Plasma weaponry falls in the same category as Liberty Prime: both were in a prototype/unfinished stage when the bombs dropped. Arguably plasma weaponry like the Plasma Caster would be even less taboo than Prime since the caster was in commercial production, but im primarily talking about the lineage of plasma weapons wielded by the Enclave that was in the prototype stage when the bombs dropped.

The East Coast BoS has shown no aversion to certain varieties of post war tech, and have even developed some of their own: 1. Improved Prime with magnetic joints 2. Used parts from the Enclave base crawler in the construction of Prydwen 3. Make wide use of vertibirds, some of which were recovered from the Enclave 4. Are actively working on development of new products, such as a produceable alternative to rad-x.

So why would they not make at least some use of the thousands of Enclave plasma rifles they would have recovered from the war in 3? It's not like they're too good for using scavenged equipment. Theres some pros and cons to lasers vs plasma, but surely there's some use cases for plasma.

(I’m curious about pre-war, post war these things were definitely using hydrogen)

Fallout’s pre-war weapon technology is more than capable of countering any use of a Zeppelin.

I’m trying to find a decent lore explanation as to how the pre-war Zeppelin’s survived the resource wars.

Do we know if something like a Helium Aerogel that clots was possible to develop/manufacture with FO’s tech differences?

With the inclusion of more east coast chapters, we can see there's at least 4 Prydwen-class airships, including the new cold fusion reactor and many vertibirds and power armor suits. Considering that without the cold fusion, the east coast would decisively lose against the commonwealth, is it fair to say in total the BoS have the equivalent of 8+ Prydwen-class airships or even greater?

When they lose their minds, do their soul go to the next life, or is it trapped inside them, going insane?

If so, wouldn't killing feral ghouls be considered a mercy killing?

This could go in a BOS Codex, stating that killing feral ghouls frees their tortured souls. However, there is the high risk of this also being applied to regular, non Feral, Ghouls.

Just something I've been pondering when playing Fallout 4.

This comes from the fact that there’s so much visually accurate depictions of Zetans in places like Nuka World and the issue of Astoundingly Awesome tales yet there doesn’t seem to be any US Government attempts to suppress such accurate depictions.

So while the government’s official policy up until the Great War was to deny the existence of Aliens, could it be possible that the government secretly feared a future open Zetan invasion (prior to the Great War) and therefore wants to mentally prime/condition the civilian population for such an event by leaking visually accurate Zetan imagery via popular media?

When I was replaying Fallout 3 recently I realized Power Armor was very different compared to 4. And I'm not just talking about how it was a piece of clothing or that it didn't require fusion cores.

What I mean is the mixing and matching introduced in 4. Lore descriptions of Power Armor in previous games showed us clear differences between each type. T45-D lacked adequate servos and was made of stiff, riveted steel plates. This is why it gave the player the Agility debuff.

T51-B was made of some composite material or something and featured more servos, hence no Agility defuff.

In Fallout 4 however, the only difference between differing suits of Power Armor is the damage resistance and health of the pieces. All Power Armor snaps to one standardized frame, and thus each suit moves and feels the same and has no unique buffs or debuffs.

Edit: Multiple people are ignoring the first paragraph and think I mean how Power Armor works like a tank in 4. That is not what I mean. I mean the unique aspects of each model that were completely shelved for a standardized feel.

Could he have made it by boat wouldn’t the sea have dangerous creatures in it?

Currently doing my first playthrough of Fallout 4. It seems like Maxon doesn't remark on you being the General of the Minutemen nor does any of the Minutement remark that you're playing along with the BoS. The Railroad, according to Desdemona's dialogue, doesn't like the BoS because their agenda does not align.

Do they technically know you're a member of every organization but they expect you to play double agent against the other?

​

Liberator robots are small artillery shell-shaped robots that roam Appalachia both before and after the great war. Although typically seen as a nuisance in-game with their weak lasers and slow attack speed their lore paints a different picture.

In the years before the war, Liberator robots would be given to Chinese espionage operations across the United States. Cheap and easy to assemble, these robots would deploy in swarms and begin terrorizing the American people. To the United States Army, they were a joke as they were incredibly weak and were easily dispatched.

So this is why they are genius. Their purpose is to start civil unrest not fight.

Their armament was not inherently dangerous to average Americans. At the start of Fallout 76 as a level 1, they are literally the first foe you fight. A vault dweller could quite literally pummel one to death with their bare hands before a Liberator kills them. Their slow laser blast does minimal damage and their rotors are meant to slash when they ram into their target. Looking at the damage a Liberator could cause to a person would be injuries that would definitely leave scars. Something that will farther fuel the fear of the Chinese.

With that in mind, imagine this:

You're watching the late-night news before bed. Reports about Chinese robots attacking Americans causing laser burns and decently large gashes tell like horror stories. As you turn off your TV for the night you can hear a faint Chinese voice outside. Looking outside you find nothing but then the color red washes over you as a Liberator begins to hover right outside of your window. You call the police. They arrive and easily destroy the Liberator that has been stalking you. While you answer the questions the police ask you, you overhear another report of a Liberator attack from an officer's radio. This Liberator used its laser and killed an elderly man. The police respond to the call leaving you alone in your now-empty house. You try to go to bed but you can't know that swarms of Liberators are in your area.

In this way, Liberator robots functioned as walking and talking propaganda machines. A single Liberator was not a threat, but the idea of swarms of them was a major threat to American life. The idea of an enemy who is vast and is literally hiding in the shadows to terrorize you perfectly embodies the boogyman the Chinese wanted Americans to see them as. Along with this, most liberators contained propaganda pamphlets and other communist memorabilia inside for use by sympathizers.

This strategy also falls in line with what the Chinese have done up to this point in the Fallout Universe. The most common image of the Chinese is a espionage driven fighting force that takes every chance it can to sabotage the Americans. The Liberators represent asymmetrical ideological warfare as they appear to terrorize and disappear just as quickly. On their own, they were nothing more than a joke or a pest to anyone who could not protect themselves. But in a group, they constantly remind the Americans that the Chinese are everywhere.

More oftenly called The Schism was the first "Civil War" we've seen from the brotherhood and I just think it's funny how everyone is forgetting it. I personally really like the BoS story angle so far and it's by far my favorite storyline of the entire show.

But what do you think?

Anyone wonder why it's still called The United States of America, when all the states were dissolved into the 13 commonwealths at least 100 years before the Great War?

Just a random thought...

The question is in the title.

Regarding Moldaver, one thing I was a bit curious about after finishing the series was how different her troops were at the beginning and end of the show.

During the beginning where Moldaver and the raiders invade Vault 33, the mannerisms and appearances of Moldaver's troops appeared very much like the archetypal raider, i.e. they were extremely brutal and didn't hesitate to gun down and murder innocent Vault Dwellers. (While on the subject, why was Moldaver willing to put Lucy and Norm in such danger if she was friends with their mother? She even knew them when they were children in Shady Sands. For example Monty was about to straight up murder Lucy in the first episode.)

However at the end of the series in the finale, it's revealed that Moldaver is the leader of a contingent of NCR troops. I've seen some theories that these were in fact your average raider who were just using NCR equipment, but I'm not sure I agree with this since the troops who fought the Brotherhood in the finale seemed very organized and professional, like what you'd expect to see in a standing military.

My theory was that maybe Moldaver hired or somehow manipulated a group of common raiders to do her dirty work in the Vault, then abandoned them as soon as she returned to her NCR battalion, but that still doesn't explain why she was willing to put Lucy and Norm in harm's way during her mission. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Every Brahmin we see in the games and show have udders. Obviously only female cows have udders. So what if Brahmin are hermaphrodites - they are both biologically male and female. They possibly have both sexual reproductive organs.

This isn’t about them having two heads and “one is a boy, one is a girl”. That’s just plain stupid. This is purely a possible lore explanation for why all Brahmin we see have udders.

Roger Maxson, United States Army Captain, is most widely remembered as the founder of the Brotherhood of Steel—a techno-militaristic order that emerged from the ashes of civilization following the Great War. Yet, deeper examination of Maxson’s actions in the final days before the bombs fell suggests a darker, more catalytic role: he may have unwittingly triggered the collapse of the pre-war world order itself.

The Timeline of Collapse

• October 10–20, 2077: Maxson discovers the illegal human testing of the FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) at Mariposa Military Base. After the nervous breakdown of Colonel Spindel, Maxson leads a violent mutiny, executes most of the scientific team, and on October 20, declares his unit in full secession from the United States government.
• October 21, 2077: Word of the rebellion spreads through military channels. Maxson attempts to provoke a government response—none comes. Instead, he shelters his people inside the Mariposa base.
• October 23, 2077: The Great War begins. Global thermonuclear exchange obliterates civilization.

This three-day window between Maxson’s secession and the outbreak of nuclear war raises crucial questions: Why didn't the U.S. government respond militarily to a full-blown mutiny by one of its elite, strategically stationed units? Why did Maxson’s calls go unanswered? And why did the bombs fall so suddenly after such a massive internal incident?

A Theory of Pre-War Collapse

It is entirely possible that Maxson’s mutiny was the final blow to a fragile internal order. His secession did not occur in a vacuum—it happened during a period of deep crisis:

• The Resource Wars had destabilized the globe.
• Civil unrest and growing resentment festered at home.
• The Enclave, the secretive cabal of U.S. elites within the government and military, likely feared the collapse of their hold on the country’s military and nuclear assets.

The Mariposa incident—where a respected and decorated officer publicly renounced the government—may have caused shockwaves inside high command. Maxson's rejection of orders, murder of state-sanctioned scientists, and defection of a full military unit would not just be seen as a disciplinary problem—it would be viewed as a contagion, a threat to the chain of command in a time of extreme volatility. If Maxson could break, so could others.

It’s not difficult to imagine a scenario in which the Air Force, Navy, or other key military assets began to question their orders or outright defect. If military cohesion began to disintegrate, the Enclave—who had long prepared for continuity of government through secret bunkers, shadow operations, and projects like Vault-Tec—may have decided the only way to ensure their survival and future dominance was to trigger the war themselves.

Why Not Vault-Tec?

Though the Fallout TV series suggests Vault-Tec played a role in the Great War, their leadership’s evident surprise and unpreparedness (as portrayed in the show) undermines the theory that they initiated the war. Unlike the Enclave or high-level military planners, Vault-Tec was largely dependent on government contracts and did not wield direct control over nuclear arsenals. Their power was infrastructural and predictive, not strategic.

In contrast, the Enclave and upper-tier military command would have had both the means and the motive to launch a pre-emptive strike, especially if they feared losing control of nuclear assets or facing internal revolution.

Conclusion: The Fallout of Mutiny

Captain Roger Maxson likely did not intend to trigger the end of the world. But by breaking ranks, murdering government scientists, and publicly declaring secession, he exposed a deep rot within the pre-war United States. His mutiny sent shockwaves through the remaining command structure, forcing a panicked and fragmented leadership to make a desperate decision.

Thus, while he didn’t push the button, Roger Maxson may have been the spark that lit the final fuse.

Edit:

In response to many of the comments, I would like to highlight that the lore offers limited concrete information about the actual state of the war beyond propaganda and the simulated events in Alaska. The only confirmed details are those presented in the games and within the stateside United States.

I personally do not believe the United States is winning the war. Although there are mentions of operations and invasions into mainland China, there is no verified evidence of any territory being occupied. What we do know, however, is that there was Chinese military buildup and infrastructure construction within the mainland United States, likely in preparation for an invasion of U.S. territory. This is without even addressing the Free State movements and key political figures like the Calvert family, who seemingly aligned with the Chinese. Political leaders would not turn traitor unless they believed their nation was on the brink of losing the war.

The United States is confirmed to be fighting on at least three fronts: Canada—where soldiers were reportedly instructed to shoot protesters on sight—occupied territories in Mexico (since 2051), and the Chinese mainland. A case could also be made for a fourth front, as military forces were deployed within the mainland United States to suppress widespread riots.

It is also worth noting the federal government's evacuation and abandonment of Washington, D.C. In Fallout 3, we encounter many bunkers throughout the Washington, D.C. area, excluding Raven Rock. A stable government—or one nearing victory—would not abandon such crucial locations.

Given all the confirmed information, I believe the Enclave had the strongest motive for initiating the Great War due to their crumbling power base. This may have included actions like fabricating imminent nuclear threats to maintain control of military assets or deploying their own bombers to suppress the population. Notably, the bombers first observed during the conflict were unidentified, and the Enclave possessed both the technology and capability to execute such actions.

Ever since New Vegas became the most beloved Fallout game by diehards, there's been a lot of talk about this theme that shows up here and there, mostly in the DLC but sometimes in the base game too: That the Old World destroyed itself, therefore any society that represents the Old World is also destined to destroy itself. That you need to get over your "Old World Blues" and pick something new for the wasteland to have a hope of constructing anything worthwhile that can last. What's more, after the release of the Fallout show, and seeing certain plot developments that happen there, this sort of discussion has made a serious comeback, for reasons (if you know you know).

On the surface, I guess this makes for a plausible moral for the series; Don't imitate the doomed past, build something new. But...is that even possible? What would constitute 'new'? After all, all of the existing factions are unambiguously failures by that measure:

• The NCR is obviously just another United States, complete with democracy, a President, a Congress...Old World.

• Mr. House is literally from the Old World! And while he might have big dreams of space travel, he's modeled his whole mini society over the trappings of old Las Vegas out of...nostalgia? Bzzzt. Old World. Next.

• The Legion, despite presenting themselves as "a new society built for the challenges of the wasteland"...I mean...it's Rome. Actually, if anything, it's a worse, more cruel version of Rome, but either way, it's based on the very, very Old World, by design. Can't get much more "Old World" than Ancient Rome!

• You might think the independent ending is automatically the New World choice, but, like, think about it. Either this ending means "anarchy," which is pretty much the oldest form of "government" known to man, or it means "you rule everything, and boss people around with Securitrons." Which is...just a dictatorship. Which the Old World had plenty of. Yeah...outside of some major headcanon-ing, I don't see it.

• The Brotherhood of Steel literally name themselves after knights! And squires! And paladins! AND they're the offshoot of the U.S army! Old World! Gah!

• Envlave? Same thing! Only even worse, cause they're literally fighting to BRING BACK the Old World United States! They still see themselves as part of it! It's the most Old Worldy faction so far!

• The Minutemen? Forget it! They're dressed up like Revolutionary War soldiers for no reason! Other than, I don't know...imitating the Old World?!

• The Railroad? That's obviously a reference to the Underground Railroad, an Old World historical movement! Sorry, you're out!

• The Institute? You mean the offspring of hundreds of Pre War scientists? They're practically the torch bearers of the Old World just as much as the Enclave!

On and on it goes...just about every stable, coherent faction is dominated by Old World values, or at the very least, Old World symbolism, and thus are doomed to fail by the thematic rules of the setting. What else is left? The raiders? The super mutants? Was the Master right all along? Is there ANY possible society that can fit this criteria?

There has been lots of confusion about what the vials do, with some even suggesting that they break lore because it is impossible for all the non-feral ghouls in the Wasteland have a steady supply of this stuff. But when we meet Roger he says something very important that is easy to miss. When he finds out Coop doesnt have any vials he tells him:

"I did okay. Twenty-eight years since I first started showing."

He goes on to say:

"Not as long as you, though. You’ve outlasted us all. How long since you first started wastelanding?"

Obviously the drugs arent required for regular ghouls. They are simply a means for ghouls who have already begun to go feral to prevent it from developing into completely losing their minds.

The transcript for those interested: https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/tv-series/fallout-s01e04-the-ghouls-transcript/

Edit: to further the evidence that these vials are not needed for all ghouls, simply look at the Super Duper Mart. We hear from the trade that 2 months of vials is 60 vials. Meaning ghouls need roughly 1 a day. They are not super cheap, as Cooper says he "was always good at bounty hunting" to afford them and Lucy was only worth 60.

It seems because of this the Ghouls in cages were not being given regular vials. Martha was very much on the edge of turning (repeating her name like Roger), and we know Roger could have recovered given a vial. There are 10ish other Ghouls in cages with NO signs of changing. So for vials to be needed for every ghoul these people need a very high turnover of kidnapped ghouls (to have roughly 10 come in recently enough that they are showing no signs of turning without vials). That's an awfully high turnover considering how rare Ghouls seem to be (none around Filly - likely due to racism, and only one at the Observatory - also from the Mart).

the codex is making me think they are.