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Despite this massive wealth of information, there are always lingering questions that remain unanswered. Fallout’s setting, in particular, still has holes left to fill when it comes to lore. It’s always possible the next major entry in the series may answer them. However, in the meantime, these interesting queries currently remain a mystery.
8 Why Are Caps Used As Currency?
Any Fallout fan worth their salt knows that bottle caps serve as the franchise’s currency. After a nuclear apocalypse wiped out the old civilization, a new one took its place. Contending with a radically different set of circumstances, survivors adapted to a new form of economics that utilizes bottle caps. But why?
As any serious explorer should know, coming across pre-war money isn’t that difficult. In fact, it’s still quite abundant. Why did bottle caps take precedence? Certain factions, such as the New California Republic, use paper money along the same lines as the pre-war variety. There’s also a myriad collection of other junk-like objects that could have been used instead of caps. Thus, people’s initial preference for bottle caps is never explicitly explained in any detail.
7 What Is The State Of The Rest Of The World?
The games in the Fallout series imply that nothing remained untouched after the bombs dropped. The extent of the damage inflicted on specific places is hard to ascertain with complete certainty. Typically, protagonists of a particular game are busy enough as it is dealing with their own problems. Mainline entries in the series are always limited to one broad geographic location.
As such, it’s hard for players to grasp the full picture. They know things are bad, of course. But is everywhere on the planet equally bad? Are some locations better than others? Only a few details here and there mention the state of specific locations. It’s very likely that Fallout 5, whenever it drops, will explore a new setting that will at least partly answer this question.
6 Why Didn’t The Soviet Union Fall?
In the Fallout universe, unlike the real world, the Soviet Union never fell. Information that’s accessible across multiple Fallout games implies the Soviet Union existed until the Great War. But how? Why didn’t the world’s leading communist nation fall in 1991 like it did in real life?
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This would be an interesting question to answer in a subsequent game. Players already know that America’s chief rival in the Fallout universe before the bombs dropped was China. But how exactly did China supplant the Soviet Union as communism’s champion? What changed in the latter country that allowed it to survive beyond 1991? Perhaps players will never know.
5 How Long Do Ghouls Live?
Animals and wildlife weren’t the only things affected by radiation. Humanity was also scarred in more ways than one. The most unfortunate are arguably the ghouls, a race of humans seemingly stuck between life and death. Their most visible feature is their skin, which was horrifically deformed by the heat of the nuclear blast.
One other side effect is their advanced age. Ghouls, although infertile, are clearly able to live for centuries. But what is the limit of their life span? Is there even a limit? Players also know that some ghouls suffer from mental deterioration, while others are seemingly unaffected. Why? These questions relating to ghouls can potentially (and will hopefully) be answered in a future title.
4 Who Masterminded The Enclave?
The Enclave occupies a rich history in Fallout lore. Broadly speaking, they represent the remnants of the U.S. government that survived the Great War. However, the details are a bit more complicated. The Enclave actually existed pre-war, composed of various influential individuals in U.S. society.
But who actually started the Enclave? Was there a single person who masterminded the shadowy organization’s birth? The games as yet fail to shed any light on that front. Perhaps the Enclave didn’t begin with a solitary individual. Rather, it may have been the brainchild of several people, as the games seem to imply.
3 What’s The Deal With Vault-Tec’s Experiments?
The Fallout series’ faithful are well aware of Vault-Tec’s strange experiments. In addition to providing shelter from a nuclear blast, this corporation designed its vaults with an ulterior motive. Most vaults possessed a social experiment connected to them, meant ostensibly to study human behavior in preparation for a post-war world.
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Vault-Tec’s reasoning behind this endeavor is a little unclear. Why exactly did many of these experiments have to be so unpleasant? Who thought of these exercises in the first place? It’s assuredly a shady organization that’s ripe for more exploration in a subsequent release.
2 Who Are The Aliens & What’s Their Story?
The presence of Aliens is a recurring theme in the Fallout games. An entire DLC, Mothership Zeta, focuses on the extraterrestrial beings in Fallout 3. Resembling little green men, the whole backstory behind these creatures is a complete mystery.
What planet do they hail from? Are they inherently violent? Peaceful? Or perhaps are they just misunderstood? Their technology is unsurprisingly advanced, surpassing that of humanity by leaps and bounds. The identity of these creatures remains a mystery. It’s a distinct possibility that fans may never get the full story.
1 When & How Did History Diverge?
The Fallout universe takes a unique spin on history. Much of the game’s setting is familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. History in the world of Fallout mirrors our own until a certain point. Then, it diverges quite drastically as it enters the realm of fiction.
Pinpointing the exact moment that history diverges from the real world is difficult. The lore implies this divergence occurred at some point in the aftermath of World War II. Fans do know that people in Fallout embraced nuclear technology more aggressively compared to the real world. Exactly why this happened isn’t expounded upon in any great detail.
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