This is an in-universe comprehensive overview of Humans, Super Mutants, Ghouls, and other Man-made Sapients, made by a Nightkin scholar named Zekhau, who features in our Fallout: Caldera faction The Firemen.
I've included little citations to certain concepts, though this also contains quite a bit of speculative lore-welding - including everything from the original Vault 13 GURPS timeline to the apocrypha of the Fallout Bible - as well as references to our unreleased Fallout Rewrite.
Below the cut is a full excerpt as a preview!
Misconceptions On Nightkin
To be Nightkin is to reject the harsh light of the great flame and to become kin with the night, for in its darkness all are equal. Such is the name we choose for ourselves, still reverent to our Night God even as we unlearn or reject his tenants - in fact, it was once that all Metamorphs were Nightkin, until age and changing tongue saw the shift. Now only those who pledged themselves the deepest are still referred to as such - telltale in our strange skin and manner.
Many misconceptions reside on both - but in truth the explanations are some simple and some complex.
To the nature of our skin, it is a simple mutation: In all strains of Metamorph, a curious development of yellow-pigment in place of our melanin as brought about by FEV - but so too is another, which causes blue or purple tones, those typical in the ‘Born’ Igneous. It is the loss of the former which causes our cerulean parlor - the Old World termed such ‘Axanthism’, that which prevents yellow in many green Amphibians thus turning them to blue.
This seems to be an effect of our use of Stealth Boys - to which many ascribe the changes in our minds as well. The latter is… not an untruth, but not correct either. In all natures of the mind, the answer is more complex.
It is true that the Stealth Boy, prolonged of use, causes paranoia, delusions, a creeping organic psychosis which makes the world fuzzy and strange - the inner circle of the Brothers of Steel have reported as much, so say the watchers. Yet this is so often confused, conflated with the Pre War term ‘Schizophrenia’, a diversity of neurology with many stigmas even then, whose presentation is not always the similar - more often catatonia in nature, or flat in emotion, chaotic of speech or sense.
Similar, but distinct - for while this can be supported by community or aided with Chems known Antipsychotics, the usage of a Stealth Boy deteriorates the physicality of the brain itself, requiring other methods of assistance. Even so, this does not elaborate the reason why even without, so many Nightkin are strange in compatriots eyes.
Nightkin were the best and brightest of the Master’s Unity, and as such were given the hardest tasks - those of bloodshed and subterfuge, of hearing the First Hive most clearly, to which the loss of such we know was devastating. This reveals another secret: that of remembrance - where as others change upon transformation begat a forgetting, many of us recalled old harms, of overseers and vaults and pain of wasteland or fear of being taken to the Unity.
For some, we were always this way, and our diversity of mind made pain and change natural to us. For those who were many living as one, their mind-kin stepped forward to take the pain. For those who survived pain, we embraced it.
For some, when the Master fell, we embraced Stealth Boys, becoming one with the Night in the only fashion left to us. In the absence of Hive, we listen to whatever voices we can - and in the absence of even that, our minds invent ones to hear.
For some seeking stability the answer may lie in Nullification of noise, Amplification of voice, or in medicines strange. For others, simply others familiar may be our savior. I myself have found kin in strangers, born not from Unity but from Spore, and in those that read my scriptures.
Should you require it, seek out the strange - kin in mind can work as one, should we have kin in heart to guide us.
Fallout: Caldera is a theoretical post-apocalyptic role-playing fan game inspired by & expanding upon the setting associated with Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks. While Caldera is neither a direct sequel nor prequel to any of the games, it references many of the events surrounding the era, including cut or outright canceled content & concepts. While the theoretical game would likely make use of a modified Fallout 4 or Fallout 76 engine, its overall tone & themes would likely be more typical of Fallout: New Vegas or earlier titles. The theoretical game is set primarily in a post-apocalyptic Montana, specifically Yellowstone National Park, a Postgame ‘Add-on’ facility, and The Grand Teton 'Add-on' Area.
Setting
The game takes place in 2256, 179 years after the Great War. The events of Fallout: Caldera occur 154 years after Fallout: 76, 95 years after Fallout 1, 59 years after Fallout: Tactics, 48 years after Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, 15 years after Fallout 2, and 3 years after the canceled Van Buren, which it considers as semi-canon.
This means it is also 21 years before the events of Fallout 3, 25 years before Fallout: New Vegas, and 31 years before Fallout: 4. Chronologically it is the fifth game in the series after Fallout 2 (though sixth if counting Van Buren).
The game takes place in The Caldera, which is composed of the former Grand Loop of Yellowstone National Park. Much of the main game takes place across various ‘Domesticons’ - planned condominium communities reliant on android ‘Securiunits’ to keep them safe & maintained, along with various campground-based shanty communities, ranger stations, and firewatch towers.
Famous local landmarks like the the Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful Inn, and Fort Yellowstone are included in the game world, though Caldera takes a semi-’procedural’ approach akin to earlier games like Fallout 1 & Fallout 2 - with the majority of the actual mapping focusing on points of interest & landmarks while otherwise pulling from a series of random encounter map tiles designed to fit that area, such as Mountain, Forest, Lake, Road, Ect.
Story
The Homemaker, the player character, arrives in Yellowstone to join a new kind of planned community in Madison, a 'Domestic Condominium', or 'Domesticon', created by an expanding medical company called REGENT. After leaving their bus & interacting with various neighbors or protesters, they meet their assigned 'Securispouse' - a cutting-edge comfort & service android.
Although the player can decide both the Homemaker & their Securispouses name, gender, and appearance, they are commonly referred to as 'Mx. Nazerov' & 'Daisy Belle' due to these being the names given as default both in-game & in expanded media. Fallout: Caldera briefly begins on October 23, 2077 (the day of the Great War), showing the player arriving at their new home and interacting with their Securispouse before being rushed inside as the bombs drop. After a series of events, they emerge after the Great War to a largely decrepit Madison Domesticon.
The story of Fallout: Caldera guides the player into its world, discovering a series of different factions with varying ideals & conflicts with others, albeit generally being introduced as paired groups.
These include the grungy and patch-job’d Outskirts, continuingly pushing-and-pulling with the large, pristine, and repressive Stepford Domesticon, whose citizens live in a perfect simulacrum of pre-war americana at cost of their sanity & deepening guilt while their Outskirts neighbors grow increasingly disruptive to their illusionary way of life.
Out in the campgrounds, a group of ghoulified tourists and their descendants now known as Caldera Runners chafe against the rules and regulations still-enforced by the Caldera’s Ranger Corps, having ample reason to utilize what many in the Ranger Corps think should be pristine wilderness and virgin pools.
Then there is the Ranger’s sister group, the Firemen, who have grown their own new brand of social structure thanks to the Caldera-strain Super Mutants withins constant fight against both the natural wildfires of the Caldera, and the arsonist tendencies of the flame-worshiping raider group known as the Char - who speak of great calamity, past sins, and strange visions from their psyker oracles and triad of ‘Sears’.
Meanwhile a group known as the Bison Riders has had the differences amongst their two subfactions come to nearly a head, with the Bison Ranchers summer lives differing so much from the Bison Nomads winter movings that both groups can barely recognize the other as the same. Though the player cannot change their minds on the subject, they might be able to influence their hearts.
All the while, two groups connected-yet-disconnected from the rest of the Caldera are about to be forced to find where they stand, with the strange neolithic Mammoth Men reinventing the wheel when it comes to culture, and the Golden Eagles scouting out if they are fit to be part of everyone's life again properly or not.
Fallout: Caldera has four main endings, one for each reaction to the end event sequence, with variations regarding the choices made involving each of the ten distinct political factions, along with separate ending slides for Recruited Companions.
Add-Ons
REGENTs Crown is a post-game Add-On similar in concept to Fallout 3’s ‘Broken Steel’, split between a winterized post-ending Caldera and the REGENT Headquarters facility, which is designed as a Survival-Exploration-Horror Add-on with puzzle elements.
Broken prototypes & creeping-flesh mutations roam the halls as you descend into the depths of the still-sealed ruins in an attempt to either reactivate or destroy the almost-eldritch AI construct below, guided by a production master-prototype ‘E.V.E.’ Securiunit named Earth.
Grand Teton is a (canonically post-game spring of 2257) anytime playable Add-on intended for high-level characters still in development, featuring new enemies, in-depth environmental hazards, and ambush gameplay.
The term used for Limb Damage has been changed to ‘Maimed’ caused by excessive damage to the Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg, The Torso (Based on Fallout 3), The Head (Based on Fallout 2 & Fallout Tactics), or The Eyes. They do not auto-heal and must be healed by a stimpak or by a doctor.
Legs can become Maimed if over-encumbered, prevent running and slow down the walking pace. When both legs are maimed, traveling in the third person is dramatically slower than traveling in the first person.
Maiming prevents enemies from moving, attacking or flying, forcing them to land. Some enemies will regenerate their maimed limbs while others such as ghouls remain maimed until killed. A legendary enemy that mutates has all of its limbs instantly restored. Robots that are completely maimed will heat up and explode
Canes & Crutches, which are usually usable as weapons in Fallout, will automatically be used to balance or walk faster if held when maimed. Splints can be applied from the medical menu. Tissues can be used to prevent stealth debuffs when ill.
Language Changes - ‘Tribe’
The cultural anthropological term used for groups known as ‘Tribes’ has been addressed in-universe. ‘Clan’ is used in its place for the sociocultural context of groups which are being officially termed ‘Postwar Neocultural Groups’
Postwar Neocultural Groups (PNGs) are defined as:
Considered ruins-avoidant by most groups, regardless of actuality
Reliant on postwar artisanal chems or otherwise prefer them
Generally attempt to adapt culture to postwar life (IE creating new institutions, adapting new symbology to prewar subcultures)
Postwar Paleocultural Groups (PPGs) are defined as:
Considered ruins-reliant by most groups, regardless of actuality
Rely on prewar industrial chems or otherwise prefer them
Generally attempt to preserve culture from prewar life (IE learning rules to baseball, maintaining stigma against Metamorphic or Ghoulified people)
Vault Dweller Descendants tend to have a mix of both aspects due to their heavier reliance on Vaults & the unique cultural evolution encouraged by the combination of small population, limited space, and Vault Tek Experiments. Theoretically, these would be “Prewar Refugiocultural Groups (PreRGs)” which once opened eventually become “Postwar Refugiocultural Groups (PosRGs)” such as the Boomers, Shady Sands, or Vault City.
Like previous Fallout games, weapons and armor can deteriorate with use and require constant maintenance unless changed by gamemode or accessibility settings. Some power armor require fusion cores to run at full performance, while others do not at the cost of lower stats. Fallout: Caldera restores the cut ‘Cryo’ & ‘Fire’ Damage as well as their respective resistance to armor types, which were changed to generic ‘Energy’ in Fallout 4.
The clothing system in Fallout: Caldera is extensive and based partially on Fallout 4’s split-piece system for different limbs, allowing dozens of set variations - it’s also expanded upon, with color changes being handled by the Equipment Modding System.
Clothing system is as below:
Head
Hat Slot
Head Slot
Eye Slot
Face Slot
Chest
Arm Armor Slot
Left & Right
Jacket Slot
Bandolier Slot
Chest Armor Slot
Shirt Slot
Binder Slot
Legs
Belt Slot
Skirt Slot
Leg Armor Slots
Left & Right
Pant Slot
Bloomers Slot
Feet
Shoe Slot
Sock Slot
Combat & V.A.T.S.
A returning gameplay feature is the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.), which can play a critical part in combat. Like Fallout 4, a critical meter that will fill up and players can decide when to execute a critical hit. Unlike Fallout 4, however, the ‘Critical Chance’ statistic makes a re-appearance, allowing for random criticals while striking enemies, partially influenced by Perks or the Luck stat.
While crafting in Fallout 4 was much more of a focus compared to the previous games, Fallout: Caldera takes this a step further by being heavily survival simulation based, focusing on environmental hazards & avoiding wildlife rather than attacking it outright..
Like ‘Hardcore’ mode in Fallout: New Vegas or ‘Survival Mode’ in Fallout 4, the player will be required to keep track of Exhaustion, Hunger, Thirst, and Illness - though will not be subject to risk of outright death but rather increasing stat debuffs with a hard percentage cap modifiable by Perks.
Survival - Base Game Difficulty.
Stimpacks heal over time
Radaway heals radiation poisoning over time.
Doctor's bags heal limbs partially.
Only a doctor, a doctor's bag, sleeping in any beds (though owned ones provide more benefits), healing poultice, weaponbind, Auto-Doc, or Hydra can heal a maimed limb
Ammunition is weightless
Companions cannot die, but take a little while after battle to heal.
In normal mode the Homemaker must drink, eat, and have proper sleep cycles or will suffer increasingly negative effects (sometimes represented by contracting diseases), but these are capped at a certain % (modifiable via perks) and wont kill you.
‘Classic’ - Standard Difficulty for previous titles
Stimpacks heal instantly
Radaway heals radiation poisoning instantly
Doctor's bags heal all limbs fully
Maimed limbs can be healed with stimpaks, or by sleeping in any bed or mattress.
No Dehydration, Starvation, or Sleep deprivation
Hardcore - Hard Difficulty for previous titles
Sleeping in unowned beds will not heal maimed limbs.
Ammunition has weight.
Companions can die. However, they still heal without needing or using any stimpaks after battle.
Dehydration, Starvation, and Sleep deprivation hit harder, with no % cap, and can even lead up to immediate death.
Player Homes & Transport
Customizable room-swap player homes like those typical of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim make an appearance, along with various non-customizable homes which feature safe storage, bedding, and probable survival aids such as water & food sources.
Vehicles also make a return from Fallout 2, allowing for significantly faster travel & carrying capacity, as well as, at the highest upgrade, acting as a mobile base.
Conversations are a fusion of earlier talking-heads typical of Fallout 1 & Fallout 2 as well as the cinematic style of Fallout 4, making use of camera angles to show the Homemakers expressions and face while pausing combat & companion AI - unless optionally set to allow interruptions via accessibility settings or choosing ‘Hardcore’.
Named Ghouls & Super Mutants are given unique face textures in order to more closely resemble earlier Fallout titles in both scope & tone, with some select characters even having unique models.
The Caldera featured ambient flora & insects such as butterflies, moths, and bees), with associated crafting based on systems used in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Caldera butterflies are depicted as universal bilateral gynandromorphs & lorewise are hermaphroditic.
Companion Affinity, Relationships, Wheel
Like Fallout 4, the companions of Fallout: Caldera have an affinity system that keeps track of various attributes, monitoring every choice and action you make and labeling it using categories like "generous", "nice", "mean", "selfish", "peaceful", "violent", with each companion remembering the total number of each act witnessed - a system originally built into Fallout 4 that was at some point discarded.
Some companions can be engaged in a relationship with the protagonist, though Fallout: Caldera also allows players to have temporary romantic or sexual partners like in Fallout: New Vegas. Companions do not get jealous of one another or comment negatively on temporary relationships, though may comment on one's choice of partner in particular.
Companions in relationships tend to focus on romantic dialogs, rather than implications of sexual relations, and when sleeping in a bed with a max affinity romanced companion the pop-up for Well Rested is replaced with ‘Lover's Embrace’. These changes are largely to allow for some roleplaying of asexuality.
The companion wheel from Fallout: New Vegas has been re-added to quickly and easily give companions commands such as "Talk," "Use Ranged Weapons," and "Wait Here." Also returning are companion preferences & weapon limits; giving a sniper companion a shotgun, for example, will result in a negative impact and decreased effectiveness, assuming they can use it at all.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L. System, Stat Checks, and Perks
Skills have been restored & fused with Fallout 4’s ‘Perk Chart’ system.
At each level-up, the player can acquire a new perk, each with prerequisites based on SPECIAL attributes and level, and most have multiple tiers. A consequence of the advancement system is that there is no hard level cap, allowing players to experience a little more freedom when it comes to exploring and combat.
However, the skill system acts separately, being exclusively utilized to give certain bonuses to dialog checks, alternative quest solutions, grant occasional stat boosts, or unlock more specialized perk-tree options. This allows for advanced roleplaying options while remaining relatively unobtrusive.
Hello Fallout Tumblr community, for months now, I've been tagging seemingly random things with "Calderaposting", in hopes one day someone would ask me what the fuck I was talking about, No one asked me what the fuck I was talking about. Now, on the edge of victory, the cusp of greatness (The Picrew we've been working on for a month is almost done) Me and my Coauthor cannot simply wait to be noticed any longer.
So We're making a dramatic post and maintagging it.
Anyway Hello I'm Ren, welcome to the thing me and a friend have been working on for nearly a year, this is Fallout Caldera, Our theoretical Fangame, if you follow us back to our blog we have a document outlining most of the game already in the navigation tab, and will soon probably be creating a pinned post to act as a similar hub for mobile users as well as put a link to the server we've set up, feel free to send us questions about our nonsense through the ask box and myself or Cilantro will do our best to answer, thank you and have a pleasant Day
REGENT SecuriUnits & SecuriAI - or just what the hell IS a ‘SecuriSpouse’ anyways?
In short, ‘SecuriSpouses’ are biosynthegenic constructs with a two part A.I split between a SecuriAI (Artificially Intelligent Security Management Hubs), and SecuriUnit (Android Domestic Security Units), created sold by a Formerly-Canadian Medical company called REGENT during the leadup to the Great War, they were marketed as house aids, babysitters, End-of-life caretakers, and even emotional support for unmarried isolated bachelorees.
Secretly, however, their true purpose was to save as many people as possible when the inevitability of the war going hot came to fruition, and to this end were explicitly given self determination and the right to defend themselves and others if they deemed it needed to happen.
Full Lore Below
SecuriUnit (Short for Android Domestic Security Unit, primarily advertised as SecuriWives, Securihusbands, or SecuriSpouses, and commonly termed SpouseSelves or SecuriSelves), is a common term used to refer to syntheorganic beings manufactured by REGENT before the Great War.
These were intended to pair with an architecture-based SecuriAI (Short for Artificially Intelligent Security Management Hubs, primarily advertised as DomestiHubs or SecuriHubs, and commonly termed HouseSelves), though in the post-war world it is not uncommon for a pair to either be cut off from one another to the point of severe desync artifacts, or amicably split when encountering desync.
Background
Though various prototypes had been in the works even pre-annexation, REGENT SecuriUnits were officially produced from 2071 onwards after the first production-master prototype E.V.E. (Short for Electrochemical Variable Equipment) unit, EVE V1 Sol, was brought online in the Alberta Complex in Canada.
Sol was intended to be a fully functioning SecuriAI piloting multiple differing SecuriUnits, however the sheer complexity of Sol’s processing caused a psychic resonance that damaged several test units and injured several psykers on the development team.
Following the U.S. military announcement the official annexation of Canada on June 3, 2072, REGENT reformatted as an allegedly ‘American’ branch of the company, shifting from a policy largely consisting of quiet corporate espionage to full-blown manufacturing, utilizing REGENT’s status as a front-line medical provider to largely avoid suspicion.
Physiology
SecuriUnits were designed generally to user specification, with both relatively cheap ‘Matchbook’, off-the-line models, as well as pricier custom units. Any combination of simple traits were selectable, up to and including gender, but ‘SecuriWives’ & ‘SecuriNannies’ were more heavily advertised due to the curb-appeal factor & statistical modeling.
SecuriUnits are designed with a synthetic skeleton with various augments which allow organic & syntheorganic parts to heal, though large-scale cosmetic damage is generally repaired by their maintenance bays. All SecuriUnits have a series of serial blocks - equivalent perhaps to modern QR codes - printed in & on certain parts of internal anatomy that allow for autodocs to properly treat them, though maintenance bays are vastly preferable.
Enough damage can leave a limb completely skinless until regrown at home or grafted at another maintenance bay, though the process is complex when working outside of normal parameters and can cause undesirable ‘patches’. That said, some SecuriUnits prefer to keep emotionally significant or inconvenient-to-fix scarring.
When a group of particularly adventurous SecuriUnits from the Caldera made an excursion westward with the intention of locating several Vault-Tec bunkers in 2157, several of them eventually came in contact with FEV which affected their organic parts. Other SecuriUnits had already been affected by ghoulification, though the consistency of which varied.
It’s generally assumed that some combination of cloned tissue & REGENTs proprietary biogels affects how easily these processes do or do not occur, though no concrete knowledge has been gained.
Unit Sync
Though SecuriUnits & their SecuriAI counterparts were capable of acting separately, as a collective unit they were designed as different extensions of the same AI and were intended to sync semi-regularly.
In the post-war world, desync due to long-term disconnection or even destruction of one part of a system was not uncommon, leading to various differing relationship arrangements ranging from familial to romantic, or even quasi-plurality.
There’s also the plausibility of a differing base AI being accidentally placed in either half, or two entirely separate SecuriAI & SecuriUnits being paired after losing their equivalent other, which has some fascinating implications.
This is especially relevant with the fact that units were intended to connect with the Crown REGENT network in order to receive further instructions, assistance, and plausible alternate repairs at more robust facilities, with the assumption that Domesticon communities would only have to weather the conditions long enough for proper reconstructions efforts to begin in stages.
At the highest, the estimated time was around 10-20 years at the most, and units were never intended to be left alone self-repairing & self-industrializing for nearly 180 years.
Psychology
Freshly activated SecuriAI generally come off as logical and stern, with a tendency towards paranoia due to their various security protocols, while SecuriUnits tend to be highly emotional and prone to neurotransmitter volatility until their systems adjust to the raw input inherent in sensation.
Though the specifics can change widely depending on the individual, their experiences, and syncing variables, it’s generally been noted that those who spend most of their major life events as one or the other can develop certain behavioral trends - one whose time was spent majorly as SecuriAI will take longer to connect with others, while as SecuriUnits may be more affected by emotional issues - especially thanks to the interference of their semiorganic parts.
Notebly, many SecuriUnits often refer to their SecuriAI component with It/It’s even if their own pronouns are something else, or otherwise alternate preferred pronouns based on which module they’re inhabiting, indicating some level of dissociation between the selves even when well synced.
