Fallout: Texas (The Great Wastes)

[Atomic Postman]

Brief Introduction to the Great Wastes

The idea is that it'd be set in 2253. Texas, or "The Great Wastes" is a hard wasteland to survive in, and relatively cut off. The state is regularly ravaged by inclement weather such as sandstorms. To the west the great, arid "Dune Sea" makes travel to the Four Corners difficult if not impossible. To the north, great twisters stretching miles wide rip apart vast dustbowl expanses.

Dotted across the state, but mostly to the south, are also stretches of environmental disaster known as the "Deadlands" where desperate pre-war attempts to siphon any possible remaining resources have created ecological disaster. Cracked earth, pools of unknwon toxins and drifting clouds of poisonous air split by great hulking machinery piercing the soil. To the East lie the poisonous occulist swamps of the Bayou, where man is prey to animal.

The Great Wastes are dominated by warlords, merchant oligarchs and post-war religions. To start with, I'll post the most dominant religion.


Church of the Deluge Remnant

In the vast, sandswept Wasteland of the former state of Texas, new forms of religion have taken root. The largest and most influential amongst these The Church of the Deluge Remnant, known to most simply as “The Church”. Their exact location of origin is debated, but their current capital is their ever-expanding adobe Holy City named Reconciliation, about a hundred miles from the Twin Graves (Formerly Dallas and Fort Worth).

Genesis Story:

The Church believes God has two aspects: Asha (Giving) and Vishnu (Punishment). The name of the Punishing aspect has come to debate amongst the scholarly Apostles (Such as Angra Mainyu or Mazda ), however the oldest and most commonly agreed upon name amongst believers is Vishnu

The Earth before the Flame Deluge (The Great War) was a bountiful Eden (Synonymous in the Remnant Tomes with the Old World) with plentiful but finite resources. It was both a gift from Asha, but also meant to test our nature for a greater ascension to the Divine Beyond (The Stars). Asha’s ultimate gift of infinite bounty. However, we began to fail. Our “Original Sin” was materialism and excess greed, which led to us consuming all finite resources with short-sighted eyes, unrealizing of the gift above Asha had given us.

Vishnu produced three divine prophets (later corrected/translated by Apostles to “Ayatollahs”): Oppenheimer, Truman and Von Braun. Together with their divine guidance they struck the Earth at Hiroshima and Nagasaki with Vishnu’s wrathful flame in order to warn us. However, the warning was ignored.

In a last ditch attmept, Asha gifted the Earth with the Ayatollah of Dick Hubbell to guide mankind to the stars, but this too was ignored.

And so, the Flame Deluge occurred, the ultimate punishment for our Original Sin. The implications of this are a matter of schismatic debate within the Church.

In the aftermath, during the Dark Age, The First Living Saint of the Deluge Remnants Everett Walters was granted a divine gift of (meagre) bounty from Asha, which he cultivated with his followers from mere seeds to form Reconciliation.

Core Beliefs:
The core beliefs of the church are, in truth, rooted with post-war survivalism. Though they often, and always did, pray, the vast majority of more flowery and ceremonial rituals or beliefs are of later addition, the origins of their society (and holy city) lay with survivalists attempting to impart practical knowledge through mythology and ritual. Reconciliation was founded by a G.E.C.K on safe, unirradiated soil. Their core beliefs are summarized as follows:

• Good and highly frequent practice of hygiene and clean living

• Mutualism and rejection of commodification within the community

• General stoicism in your living and the rejection of excess materialism

• Hospitality to others baring our symbol

• Radiation is the ethereal lingering collective Sin of all those in the Old World, and must be avoided. If you allow radiation to taint you, your soul becomes infused with that of Sin, and you must be exiled or killed. You must avoid the touch of others (and vice versa) so as not to pass your sin on

• Those born with mutation (Scars left from attempts at Sin to taint the soul) must themselves not bare any children. They are not exiled, but must be celibate.

• Ghouls are walking manifestations of Sin, and are best dealt with by Flame (The purging wrath of Ushur) but can be dealt with by other means also

• The Living Saints are post-war Ayatollahs of God carrying the spirit of Oppenheimer, Truman and Von Braun, and are destined to lead due to their divine insight. They are appointed by prior Living Saints before their death.

• Amur has provided us with the Apocrypha, holy relics scattered across the Wasteland that serve as a test of our Souls. There is a “Divine Truth” at the end of a “Divine Mystery” that must be solved, piece by piece, generation by generation, constructed through the Remnant Tomes.

Remnant Tomes:

In effect, The Church believes that pre-war religious texts are deliberate puzzles left by God in order to discover the ultimate truth. It’s the task of the Deluge Apostles to arduously collect, study, and jigsaw puzzle theology from all these different sources including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Hubology. They effectively sift through old world texts in order to selectively produce a singular theological series of texts. They debate constantly amongst themselves as to what belongs in the Tomes and what does not. This is, as you might guess, an extraordinarily slow and arbitrary process. The Deluge Apostles are scholarly monks that either travel the Wasteland to collect relics of Apocrypha, or they sit in the halls of Reconciliation studying and debating. Any with visible mutations or deformities born within the Church are usually made into Deluge Apostles due to their celibate nature.

The Hubris Sagas:

The Apostles have also compiled collections of what's known as The Hubris Sagas. They believe that the pulp fiction of Hubris Comics are truthful retellings of ultimately tragic heroic figures in the dying days of Eden, and are left by God to impart the wisdom of these last few heroes as they fought against the oncoming corruption of mankind. Superheroes such as La Fantoma and Grognak the Barbarian are revered as mythical folk-heroes like David or Samson. How literal these stories are meant to be is a matter of debate amongst Apostles, but the vast majority believe them to be real. Many missionaries or travelling Apostles will carry several issues of the Sagas to read idly.

Apostles will carefully collect, and edit (with pencils and paint), these books to better reconcile with the Remnant Tomes. These edited comics are often given by Missionaries to children during conversion missions. Working on the Hubris Sagas is a position that is well-liked within the monastaries, and many young Apostles will trip over eachother to secure the position.

There are some within the current monastery that wish to create new saga story issues, but their proposals are often shot-down.

Recent History of the Church:

The Deluge Remnants have become rather widespread across the Texas Wasteland, establishing a number monastery outposts and a secondary settlement named Absolution. There are many civilian believers that exist throughout numerous settlements in the Wasteland also, including the controversial conversion of the warlord, Overlord Colt. They’re pervasive enough to have some serious influence in the decision making of the oligarchical merchant republic of Boomtown.

In recent years they’ve undergone a series of reforms under the leadership of The Fifth Living Saint Hiram. Effectively, whilst the Church had always had armed personnel in the form of community guards, they’ve not had an organized army until now. The Holy Militia and the Vishnu Inquisitors were raised by Saint Hiram in order to defend and take the fight to the growing enemies of the Church, most famously the Dune Riders.

The Dune Riders are a large tribe of post-nuclear Viking warriors that have unique access to vehicles, and performed frequent hard-hitting raids across the Wasteland. The Church went to war with them, pushing them back and breaking their spirit by publicly burning their “Shogun” to ashes so that his body could not be eaten (The Dune Riders believe they gain warrior strength by eating the flesh of their glorious fallen, and their Shogun holds the ultimate warrior spirit of all their previous leaders). The Dune-Riders have begun to seek out believers of the Church to slaughter them in acts of sporadic and brutal revenge.

As the Church becomes increasingly better armed, schisms have begun to form within.


Factions of the Church:

• Loyalists: The largest, dominant faction. Adherents to Saint Hiram, they believe that the Great Deluge was a guiding lesson by Vishnu to destroy the sinful and evil of the world. After mankind failed to learn the lesson of the benevolent Asha in his Eden, they do not wish to fail the test of the wrathful Vishnu in his Wasteland. This is the driving call of Holy Militiamen and the Ushur Inquisitors. Though at times these purges can be absolutely misguided and baseless at times, torching raiders, rapists and thieves doesn’t raise the arguments of many.

• Apocryphists: The second largest faction. Those that believe that all of those left behind by the Deluge are meant to be here, and not to be killed, but to be brought into the fold or serve whatever cosmic purpose they exist for. Ardent pacifists, they believe the absolute priority of the church is completing the Tomes and solving the Divine Mystery

• Star-Worshippers: A splinter group that believe the goal of the Church should be to rectify the original sin and reach the stars. They particularly and disproportionately follow the teachings of Ayotallah Hubbell and the Hubologist texts. Their growing position within the Church created great friction. The last straw came after fraternizing with The Terrestrial Children, a chem-peddling false religion of alien and constellation worshippers, this faction was publicly and brutally purged by the inquisitors. Burnt in public squares and branded as to be killed on sight if discovered. Fragmented and hidden bands still exist in the Wasteland, however.

• Reformists: Brewing in the rural monasteries and the halls of Absolution, a Luther-esque movement to turn away from the leadership of the Living Saint, embracing merchant commerce and political independence. Most reformists have the good sense to keep quiet in the face of the brutality of the Loyalists, however separatist resentment bubbles.

 

[Atomic Postman]

I am probably also going to recycle ideas from my prior campaign and stuff I've posted on here in other threads (Terrestrial Children peyote UFO weirdos, Plato's Republic worshipping a dead AI god, Wanamingos fucking everywhere) I'll end up translating them into the Great Wastes in a post eventually. But basically this is just my private mood board for a campaign that will (hopefully) happen in the future.

 

[Aurelius Of Phoenix]

Some questions for you:

1. The Church believes God has two aspects: Amur (Giving) and Ushur (Punishment).

   Are these two aspects independent (being two entities with separate wills), or simply two faces of one entity.
   
   

2. • Good and highly frequent practice of hygiene and clean living
   • General stoicism in your living and the rejection of excess materialism

   • Is fresh water not a finite resource in the desert (especially that of a post-apocalyptic desert) do they take sweat baths (though that would also be wasting water) or sand baths? I'm coming from a sort of Dune Fremen peoples point of view here.

3. If you allow radiation to taint you, your soul becomes infused with that of Sin, and you must be exiled or killed.

   How are anti-radiation drugs treated in this society? Since they are finite and very valuable are they reserved for a noble class like the living saint or are they considered a spit in the face of god (which would then bring into question why these miraculous medicines exist if not by gods will).
   
   

4. • They are not exiled, but must be celibate.

   Are there any measures taken to ensure this? Are the men made into eunichs and are the women subject to some sort of birth control? Say a child were to come from one of them would they be in the same position or killed / sent into exile?

5. • The Living Saints are post-war Ayatollahs of God carrying the spirit of Oppenheimer, Truman and Von Braun, and are destined to lead due to their divine insight. They are appointed by prior Living Saints before their death.

   Do the living saints live more lavishly compared to the more spartan lifestyle of the others? Since they are appointed by the previous living saint are any limitations imposed on them (to be celibate) to stop the living saint from choosing their own children? Is the living saint subject to the same rules and punishments, if so who would deliver them? Do they have any power over the ritual and set beliefs of the religion?

6. There are many civilian believers that exist throughout numerous settlements in the Wasteland also, including the controversial conversion of the warlord, Overlord Colt. They’re pervasive enough to have some serious influence in the decision making of the oligarchical merchant republic of Boomtown.

   What would the steps to convert others to the religion be (through preaching, apologism, by the sword, etc.)? Upon conversion of a leader of an already established society, what would the steps to convert the people be? Passing laws to require conversion or steps taken to promote the religion and sway the populace?
7. Since there are now the main factions of the church, have their been heresies and cults that have been rejected outright from the religion (requiring the use of inquisition).

 

[Atomic Postman]

All excellent questions!

Are these two aspects independent (being two entities with separate wills), or simply two faces of one entity.

This too is debated, but the common view is that they are two faces of the same being. The inclusion of sections of Hindu scripture in the Tomes has confused this issue with time, however.

[QUOTE"Aurelius Of Phoenix, post: 4417281, member: 116774"]Is fresh water not a finite resource in the desert (especially that of a post-apocalyptic desert) do they take sweat baths (though that would also be wasting water) or sand baths? I'm coming from a sort of Dune Fremen peoples point of view here.[/Quote]

When it comes to water, practice has changed back and forth with time and the changing level of access to water. Reconciliation has always had a basic supply of water, though currently it wouldn't be able to sustain its current population with it alone. Whilst the more zealous adherents would act in the most spartan fashion always, when surplus water is available (as it is currently via supply from Boomtown) , it's acceptable for commoners to keep clean using that surplus.

How are anti-radiation drugs treated in this society? Since they are finite and very valuable are they reserved for a noble class like the living saint or are they considered a spit in the face of god (which would then bring into question why these miraculous medicines exist if not by gods will).

Reserved for those deemed vital to the community, in earlier eras this decision was used on a far more egalitarian basis but as the religion has progressed the scholars and clergy have taken higher priority than they would otherwise. They weren't really factored into the original scripture as the original survivors were living extremely rurally and access to Rad-Away via urban exploration was considered off the table due to radioactivity. My campaign system works with the F1/F2 method of Rad-Away being more on the scarce side.

Are there any measures taken to ensure this? Are the men made into eunichs and are the women subject to some sort of birth control? Say a child were to come from one of them would they be in the same position or killed / sent into exile?

There isn't actually, it runs on an honor system. Because of the highly insular and controlled lives of the Apostles, it would be hard to hide such fraternising. However, when this does happen (and it has, several times) it always causes a frictional and secretive controversy. In past times the child has been left to die, given away or raised inside the Apostle Monastery. It depends on the judgement of the leadership when such an event happens.

Mutations aren't hugely common anymore, and a number are sterile by nature so it's why the system is so shoddy.

Do the living saints live more lavishly compared to the more spartan lifestyle of the others? Since they are appointed by the previous living saint are any limitations imposed on them (to be celibate) to stop the living saint from choosing their own children? Is the living saint subject to the same rules and punishments, if so who would deliver them? Do they have any power over the ritual and set beliefs of the religion?

The Living Saints don't live in any particular lavish luxury but their quarters are larger and they do receive priority in terms of goods. They do have children but the First Living Saint did not choose his own son but someone unrelated to him, which set an unofficial precedent. There's nothing technically stopping them, but none have so far.

As living conduits of God, they have relatively complete control over the religion. As in the example of the Fifth Saint's millitant reforms. As you might imagine, this is a ripe setup for potential despotism.

What would the steps to convert others to the religion be (through preaching, apologism, by the sword, etc.)? Upon conversion of a leader of an already established society, what would the steps to convert the people be? Passing laws to require conversion or steps taken to promote the religion and sway the populace?

Conversion is achieved through missionaries preaching. Overlord Colt is the first time the church has converted a settlement leader, and his conversion is largely aesthetic in nature. He is in fact a terrible follower of the faith, but his sworn allegiance to the Fifth Living Saint is very, very convenient. Hence the controversy. [/quote]

there are now the main factions of the church, have their been heresies and cults that have been rejected outright from the religion (requiring the use of inquisition).

The Star Worshippers were considered a heretical splinter cult, and were suitably purged.

 

[Atomic Postman]

The Terrestrial Children

The next most popular religion throughout the Great Wastes is that of the Terrestrial Children, also known as "The Terrestrials" . According to them, they originate from beyond the vast storms of Tornado Alley from a place called "Roswell" where the cosmos met the Earth a long, long time ago. A completely disorganized religion, they are a faith of oracles and soothsayers that captivate followers with promises of knowing the future and contact with beings from beyond the stars.

Genesis Story:
The Terrestrial Children believe that mankind were once visited by alien beings from the stars at a place called Roswell, and promised that we would one day join them in the cosmos. However, we were not ready as we weren't enlightened, and they left. The harnessing of atomic power and the development of space technology were well-intended but ultimately juvenile attempts at reaching out to contact the cosmos. We couldn't understand ourselves to reach enlightenment, so we built great machines to try and brute-force it. Effectively a tower of babel story, and our punishment was our own misguided use of technology leading us to destroy ourselves. The Terrestrial Children don't view the Old World or the space age with hatred or contempt, but rather more with a respect tempered by embarassment.


Core Beliefs:

• The eldest and most powerful beings in the cosmos are The Greys, known to the eldest oracles as Zetans
  
• The true path to cosmic contact is through the immaterial soul. Self-actualization, enlightenment and ethereal contact of our souls with "theirs"
• Intoxication is a method of opening the door to our immaterial soul, allowing us to make contact or even form posession/union with cosmic beings. The best and truest method of this is through Star-Root (Peyote), other forms are uncontrolled and allow the static white noise of cosmic beings to enter your body (which can be good or bad) rather than Star-Root, which is a direct gateway to Grey contact
• The Greys have no linear perception of time or space, and see everything and all of time at once, and as such they can guide us on the events of our future
• The Constellations are multi-dimensional messages to the individual that can flux and change as you make different connections. Effectively, this is like reading tea-leaves.
• The Greys can make contact with the dimensional realm of the dead, and forward messages to the land of the living
• Messages from the Cosmos can also be chanelled by a wondrous mystic device known as the Theremin

Rituals:

• Oracle Readings: "Oracles" of the Terrestrials often act as local/wandering soothsayers. Picture the clever psychological techniques of stuff like horoscopes, mediums et cetera in managing to make the right kind of vague predictions that mean they can never really be wrong, using the constellations and the sun to tell the future of an individual. The exact nature of a reading or the "rules" is flexible to the individual Oracle.
  
• Contact with the dead: Oracles act as psychic mediums, chanelling the words of dead spirits in exchange for a material tribute. Family members, loved ones, friends.
  
• Cosmic Contact: Large group sessions led by one or possibly multiple oracles, all partake in Star-Root as the Oracle(s) play the theremin and make direct contact with the cosmos. These events are hugely popular, and hugely effective at converting participants. Each participant has an intensely personal and vivid experience.
  
• Oracles are covered in tattoos of constellations, and wear shaped metal masks in imitations of the Greys/Zetans. To become an Oracle all you really need is these things, Star-Root and a theremin.

If you want to get an idea of what an Oracle looks like during Cosmic Contact, take a look at this:

Recent History:

The Terrestrial Children did truthfully originate from Roswell. They were pushed out by an unknown faction in New Mexico and forced eastward through the great storms. Though technically there's no need for a central community, the largest gathering of the Terrestrial Children is at a former United States Space Administration facility originally intended to develop and test space colony prototypes, later turned into a tourist destination during the Resource Wars. Here they cultivate peyote and produce other chems such as Jet. The locale, known as "Stardust", is guarded by a band of mercenaries being paid in chems and caps by the Children. Most Terrestrial Oracles due to their performances out in the Wasteland are quite individually wealthy, and often travel with armed guards. Suprisingly the majority of Oracles do actually buy their own bullshit.

The Deluge Remnant are not fans of the Terrestrials having decreed them as a false religion of chem-peddling charlatans, and will come to blows out in the Wasteland. However, due to the popularity of the Terrestrials in neutral settlements, the Deluge Remnants don't push their luck with active warfare.

 

[Atomic Postman]

This one's a reuse/adaption of an idea that I've had floating around for a while and used in a thread on the capital wasteland. Inspired by Van Buren's Boulderdome, Plato's Republic, Half-Life's City-17 and Doctor Who's Cybermen

Kallos

Basic History
Prior to the Great War, Med-Tek (Somewhere between a subsidiary and sister company of West-Tek) had established operations in College Station with one of its patent "pop-up" facilities that had spread across America like boils in response to the New Plague. These state-of-the-art space age looking facilities would act as research and response centres, and the College Station facility was one of the most developed next to the Boulder, CO facility. The nucleus of this science-whizz cell was a ZAX computer unit known as "The Director" which organized and structured response operations with impeccable precision and speed. Due to its "Pop-Up" nature, it wasn't a target of the bombs. When the news came that the bombs were coming, the scientists of Med-Tek came up with a desperate plan: Entomb themselves within the gel-stasis floatation tubes that had previously been used to artificially prolong/freeze New Plague patients in order to study them, entrusting The Director to discover a way of removing them from gel-stasis alive and cranial functions intact. To decide who would die, and who would take a space in these tubes, they referred to the Director to organize who was the best qualified for survival. They did so, and so the bombs did drop.

Twenty five years later, the scientists awoke to the Wasteland. In the years since, the scientists formed a budding society with the Director as its sovereign leader. Using the technology of the facility to create protein farms (ala Blade Runner 2049), its robots as defensive measures. The outskirts of the facility occupied by Wastelanders. The Scientists referred to the Director to organize and direct their society, and it did so. It created a rigidly hierarchical and (benignly) totalitarian society with the Scientists as the ruling class. Though the Scientists would be the practical leaders and would organize the nitty-gritty details, the Director would make each key decision regarding the state, even up to the street layout of the city, resulting in its now famously circular maze-like shape with the dome at its center.

Eventually, the old problem of the New Plague reared its head once again in the Wasteland. Using their pre-war tech and a Director who spent decades thinking of nothing else, the scientists of Kallos were able to formulate anti-dote treatment, but not a proper vaccine. Similarly, the scientists produced with their technology many other medicines that attracted more and more to join the fledgling state of Kallos. When the scientists began to pass, their children were heir to their positions in replicating the medicines and New Plague anti-dotes, and as the technocratic ruling class. However, with each passing generation the true understanding of science and technology degraded with increasing reliance on the Director, and eventually became moreso ritual than true understanding of the how. They are still capable scientists, but without the director they're more accurately knowledgeable lab technicians.

Within the last few decades the ZAX unit has begun to cannibalize its own memory banks. It has been kept prolonged with scavenged technology bought from salvagers across the Great Wastes, but it has begun to shut-down for prolonged periods, and it is feared its final end is near. Nobody outside of themselves are aware this is the case, however. The Wisemen are left facing a Wizard of Oz show that's only bound to get more difficult, as people are beginning to notice the increasing silence.

Social Structure:

The society in Kallos is rigidly hierachical, designed by the Director (Referred to as "The Great Machine" or "The Machine" by commoners) in loose imitation of the society of Plato's Republic. Amongst the Wisemen and the Guardians, breeding and numbers are kept in careful, precise control. For whatever reason, the Great Machine has always opposed expansionism, and has instead instructed that Kallos remain a highly powerful city-state. Earlier eras recorded "Logic probes" to test the validity of the Director's conclusions, noting that its fixation on classical greek philosophy as model society was proving to be unfounded, incomplete and even irrational, however these logic probes (as did the practice of regular probing) ceased for reasons unknown. In the Dome's Archive, these logs still exist, buried, however.

Kallos is by far the Wasteland's chief importer of prospecting junk, siphoning whatever technology and resources they can from the various ruins of the Wasteland.

The "Colours" of Kallos are blue and white.

The Wisemen:

The "Philosopher Kings/Queens" of this society, although they're closer to actual monarchs than Plato's vision suggested due to their hereditary nature and materialistic existence. There are twenty five of them living inside of the Dome in fantastic luxury, working in the labs to produce medicine, discuss the affairs of the Wasteland and work on the new projects designated by the the Director within 'Tartarus' (The underbelly labs of the Dome).

Dome Authority:

Bureaucrats and officers that operate out of the former campus buildings of College Station and act as officials and organizers, performing the logistical dirty-work throughout the city


The Guardians:

The millitary/police class. Born from controlled eugenic breeding programs and brainwashed from birth as soldiers, they are raised amongst the "Community" of guardians within the inner "Rings" of the city with no child guardian ever knowing its true parent or vice versa. They are fed the "Machine Cult", a carefully designed religion of the state that forms a kind of nationalistic sentiment. They are strictly forbidden to fraternize with the commoners, and only commune amongst eachother, where athetlic competitions and sports games are regularly encouraged. The lack of expansionism has meant that the area surrounding Kallos has remained extremely stable and safe from Raider influence, as combatting local gangs is the only real action they get. As such, the Guardians regularly are sent as guards for prospector missions contracted by the city or on Muto hunting expeditions into the Wasteland.

Due to their upbringing and lifestyle, the Guardians hold little respect or common humanity with the Commoners, viewing their relationship as sheep-dogs to the dumb livestock. In previous eras the Great Machine gave direct radio-dispatch control, however this position has been taken up by Dome Authority.

Commoners:

The working people of Kallos. Their lives are amongst some of the most productive and safe in the Great Wastes, but also the most heavily policed and directed. Each "Citizen" of Kallos wears uniform utility jumpsuits with their individual name and code printed on their chest. They are allowed to customize these uniforms, but not wear totally unique clothes.

Dome Authority organize job positions amongst the different districts, allotting the distribution of resources and generally overseeing commerce. Commoners are given basic education in literacy and arithmetic. At age 16, they are given "Aptitude Tests" designed by the Great Machine to determine their suited occupational skills. The results across the city are collected, fed to the Great Machine and generational occupation rotas are established. Dome Authority manages most of the nitty gritty after that.

Class mobility is effectively impossible (Outside of the highly sought-after Dome Authority appointment), however job-moving isn't uncommon but is managed completely by Dome Authority officials. This of course can lead to issues of petty corruption if you cross the wrong Dome Authority Officer. Your nice fabric-weaving job might be swapped for waste management.

Outside of their assigned work, their recreation time is generally free. They have bars and recreational spaces, however too much trouble will get them rounded up by the Guardians.

PROJECT THEMIS:

In the past, The Director has assigned the Wisemen designated long-term projects that encompass numerous sub-directives and goals. In the past this has included ailing the New Plague, establishing a food source for the city, creating efficient infrastructure, developing a robust radio system, but in recent years PROJECT THEMIS has been the most ambitious yet.

It began with the acquisiton of salvaged pre-war technology from a penitentiary outside of the ruins of Austin. The retrieval of pre-war "Compliance Regulator" weapons technology intended to neutralize pre-war dissidents sparked the notion that the technology's "Pacifying" effect on the brain could be combined with the neural stimulation of pre-war virtual reality chambers to in effect deep-reprogram the brain. Total personality recalibration was deemed too complex and an impossibility in the current era, but vastly reducing emotional response and inducing total obedience was deemed within the bounds of their technology.

The intended goal was to perfect the "Guardian" class as soldiers, as such the dangerous experiments were instead practiced on Kallos dissidents before potentially wasting soldiers. Those arrested for serious disgressions were not executed but instead sent to Tartarus in the Dome.

Initial experiments were unanimous failures, resulting in complete paralysis of the body and even total brain-death. The Director commanded that the "failed" brains be extracted and utilized for a sub-project branching off of the current: Exploring the brain-computer connectivity shown by pre-war robobrains and exploring the connection of intellect and better capacity for computer proccessing. Procurement of the needed bio-med gel meant this was a slow, slow project. This has been made worse by the Director's "blackout" periods due to memory failure.

Eventually, effective robo-brain style utilization of the brain as a computer was replicated. A further branch was added to the research tree: Improve the Robobrain physical design, focus on the bipedal. This sub-project has been slated as a substantially long term goal.

The main project continued, and began to reach success. Whilst the bodies remained paralyzed and useless, the extracted brains were able to be ablated of notions of emotion and sedition, but still maintaining their intellect and knowledge, far more than even the pre-war robobrains. These brains are suspended in bio-med gel, awaiting the design of new bodies. The formation of these brains is limited severely by the availability of bio-med gel, so a project to reproduce bio-med gel in-lab has been slated on the timeline.

Within the past two years, a breakthrough has occured: Ablation of sedition and emotion with full maintenance of bodily functions. As such, under the blessing of Guardian Commander Lumic, Guardians have begun the process of "conversion", coming out of the dome as completely emotionless and obedient soldiers, but maintaining their sharp training.

Commander Lumic himself however requested a brain extraction, due to the increasing fallibility of his body (Cancer), The Director showed strange focus on Lumic, beginning the process of melding his brain-jar with a prototype body fashioned from an advanced pre-war Sentry Bot.

The conversion process was halted by The Director's most recent blackout, however. With only a handful of Guardians "Converted". The Wisemen lack the official perogative and the technical knowledge to proceed without The Director's help.

The Seditious Conspiracy:

Wiseman Cho has privately 'seditious' thoughts. A conspiracy formed by putting the basic two and two together throughout the web of the project. Something so obvious, she's not sure if her fellow wisemen are oblivious or too obedient. She believes that The Director plans, if it comes back online, to resolve its computational issues by converting all 25 Wisemen into a biological memory bank, and furthermore believes it aspires to go beyond the Guardian class and to convert the entire city into this new form of robobrain, using the emotionally blank biological forms as the middleman in the meantime. They are effectively digging their own grave.

A scant few of the other wisemen are aware of this plan in some sense, either agreeing with it as the neccessary future or too obedient and fearful to dissent. Cho is the only one who wishes to take action. The majority of the Wisemen, however, are concerned chiefly with bringing The Director back online to resume the functionality of the city, and are contracting mercenaries and prospectors all over to find them the suitable memory-tapes.

She believes that these mad aspirations are rooted with faulty Logic-Tapes, and if The Director not only had a replaced memory bank but also a replaced logic core from another ZAX unit somewhere, it would effectively reboot the centuries-long twisting personality of the AI into something far more benign and close to its original ZAX role. This would be naturally considered treason as it would effectively be "killing" The Director, but she believes it's the only way.

If she had help retrieving new Logic-Tapesand the proof to prove The Director's fault, she might be able to do this and live, too.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

I like the concept of the Church of the Deluge Remnant. An Abbrahamic-styled but nove lreligion is a cool idea for Fallout, gives everything a real Bible-times feel. However, I'm not a fan of the theology - while the gathering disparate knowledge to piece together divine truth is a fine concept in and of itself, it feels more Canticle for Leibowitzy than anything, and really doesn't feel very Fallout-y. But those are just my two cents, your setting, your rules!

 

[Atomic Postman]

I like the concept of the Church of the Deluge Remnant. An Abbrahamic-styled but nove lreligion is a cool idea for Fallout, gives everything a real Bible-times feel. However, I'm not a fan of the theology - while the gathering disparate knowledge to piece together divine truth is a fine concept in and of itself, it feels more Canticle for Leibowitzy than anything, and really doesn't feel very Fallout-y. But those are just my two cents, your setting, your rules!

Canticle for Leibowitz was definitely the inspiration with the role of the Apostles and the use of the term "Deluge" to refer to the Great War. I love that book.

I'd somewhat agree/disagree on it not being Fallout however. Canticle for Leibowitz is cited as an inspiration for the original game and the Brotherhood are in a sense an homage, however I would also agree in that I wanted that faction to be very un-Fallout in that it would be very alienated from the Old World.

Other major factions like Boomtown, Kallos, Sidewinder et cetera are more traditional Fallout, but I wanted the Deluge Remnants to be something very alien and "new world" because I thought entirely post-war theology was not a touched upon area.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Canticle for Leibowitz was definitely the inspiration with the role of the Apostles and the use of the term "Deluge" to refer to the Great War. I love that book.

I'd somewhat agree/disagree on it not being Fallout however. Canticle for Leibowitz is cited as an inspiration for the original game and the Brotherhood are in a sense an homage, however I would also agree in that I wanted that faction to be very un-Fallout in that it would be very alienated from the Old World.

Other major factions like Boomtown, Kallos, Sidewinder et cetera are more traditional Fallout, but I wanted the Deluge Remnants to be something very alien and "new world" because I thought entirely post-war theology was not a touched upon area.

Alien it does feel.

I think my biggest problem with it is that it is valid - basically its Bahaism, and it has a pretty cool an beautiful message behind it. Fallout 1 and 2's treatment of religions is almost universally hostile, always either being a scam, corrupt, or in the service of something monstrous. At best, they're faintly silly as in the case of the Brotherhood. The only favorable treatment of religion in the series is the church in Rivet City, and Mormonism in NV.

I think a novel religion in Fallout needs to either be essentially malevolent or essentially absurd in its origins, or both. The Apostles don't fulfill either category, so they wouldn't satisfy me.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Alien it does feel.

I think my biggest problem with it is that it is valid - basically its Bahaism, and it has a pretty cool an beautiful message behind it. Fallout 1 and 2's treatment of religions is almost universally hostile, always either being a scam, corrupt, or in the service of something monstrous. At best, they're faintly silly as in the case of the Brotherhood. The only favorable treatment of religion in the series is the church in Rivet City, and Mormonism in NV.

I think a novel religion in Fallout needs to either be essentially malevolent or essentially absurd in its origins, or both. The Apostles don't fulfill either category, so they wouldn't satisfy me.

Would you not agree that it's blatant setup for total despotism (beginning to put into practice with increasing millitarism at the behest of The Living Saint) is malevolent?

I also wanted to try and tread new ground as well in that I wanted a theological faction that explored themes of the past in the same way and depth that groups like NCR, the Unity and the Legion did.

What do you think of the Terrestrial Children, my other religion?

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Would you not agree that it's blatant setup for total despotism (beginning to put into practice with increasing millitarism at the behest of The Living Saint) is malevolent?

I also wanted to try and tread new ground as well in that I wanted a theological faction that explored themes of the past in the same way and depth that groups like NCR, the Unity and the Legion did.

What do you think of the Terrestrial Children, my other religion?

I don't think its outright malevolent - its going down a bad path, but the structure of the religion itself is fine. And I don't think for what you're going for here it should be made outright malevolent in the same way as the Unity or the Hubbologists.

I'd say the best compromise to make it "Fallout-y" would be to add in more pop culture references - after all, would they really be able to distinguish 100% of the time between what was taken as holy writ and the TV guide?

This is a dangerous road to cross, as its very easy for the pop culture references to end up being cringe, but if pulled off well it would fulfill my personal Fallout formula of a religion either being Outright Malevolent or Silly/based on misinterpretations.

What are the names Amur and Ushur based on? My guess for Amur would be a butchering of Ahura Mazda, but that's a bad guess.

I really like the Terrestrial Children, feel very thoroughly Fallout-y - I think you actually mentioned them in some headcanon thread a few months ago?

 

[Atomic Postman]

I don't think its outright malevolent - its going down a bad path, but the structure of the religion itself is fine. And I don't think for what you're going for here it should be made outright malevolent in the same way as the Unity or the Hubbologists.

I'd say the best compromise to make it "Fallout-y" would be to add in more pop culture references - after all, would they really be able to distinguish 100% of the time between what was taken as holy writ and the TV guide?

This is a dangerous road to cross, as its very easy for the pop culture references to end up being cringe, but if pulled off well it would fulfill my personal Fallout formula of a religion either being Outright Malevolent or Silly/based on misinterpretations.

What are the names Amur and Ushur based on? My guess for Amur would be a butchering of Ahura Mazda, but that's a bad guess.

I really like the Terrestrial Children, feel very thoroughly Fallout-y - I think you actually mentioned them in some headcanon thread a few months ago?

I think the idea of them mistaking pop culture for text - done with the correct restraint and subtlety - is very spot on for adding a fallout style pulp flavour to them and I am going to try and work that in - thank you!

As for the aspects of God, barring Vishnu they're actually named after severely bastardised world superpowers. Amur = America, Ushur = USSR, Seacea = CCP. As to why USSR was more prominently bastardised than CCP in the context of the Fallout setting is anyone's guess but the meta reason was that I thought Ushur sounded better than Seacea.

And yes, the Terrestrial Children appeared as a very minor cult in my previous campaign I ran and I mentioned it on NMA but I liked the idea and I wanted to play up the theological conflict aspect so I have expanded them into a major religion for the next one I run. Good spot!

 

[Hardboiled Android]

I think the idea of them mistaking pop culture for text - done with the correct restraint and subtlety - is very spot on for adding a fallout style pulp flavour to them and I am going to try and work that in - thank you!

As for the aspects of God, barring Vishnu they're actually named after severely bastardised world superpowers. Amur = America, Ushur = USSR, Seacea = CCP. As to why USSR was more prominently bastardised than CCP in the context of the Fallout setting is anyone's guess but the meta reason was that I thought Ushur sounded better than Seacea.

And yes, the Terrestrial Children appeared as a very minor cult in my previous campaign I ran and I mentioned it on NMA but I liked the idea and I wanted to play up the theological conflict aspect so I have expanded them into a major religion for the next one I run. Good spot!

Eh, personally I'm not a fan of those sorts of bastardizations, especially in settings so close to the event. Feels a little cheesy in a bad way for my taste, and generally giving their gods names like that is a little too far over on the high fantasy side of things. Instead, I'd opt for simply Christian names ("God" and "The Devil") or the literal concepts they're expressing, Spirit of Giving and the Spirit of Punishment.

 

[Dayglow Drifter]

Twin Graves (Formerly Dallas and Fort Worth).

DFW native here, this is good

If I may make a recommendation lore-wise, I think Texas would be a good place to talk about what occurred regarding oil and fossil fuels in the Fallout universe pre-war.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

DFW native here, this is good

If I may make a recommendation lore-wise, I think Texas would be a good place to talk about what occurred regarding oil and fossil fuels in the Fallout universe pre-war.

He's sort of alluded to it with the Fracked Lands, which is a really good diea - though personally I'd change it to "The Cracked Lands," since fracking is a modern technology.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Eh, personally I'm not a fan of those sorts of bastardizations, especially in settings so close to the event. Feels a little cheesy in a bad way for my taste, and generally giving their gods names like that is a little too far over on the high fantasy side of things. Instead, I'd opt for simply Christian names ("God" and "The Devil") or the literal concepts they're expressing, Spirit of Giving and the Spirit of Punishment.

High fantasy is somewhat the goal but not entirely. The root of the idea of the faction was a totally post-war theological group that could have it's own biblical era in the Wasteland, complete with bloody history. I thought the personal morality of real life religion had been explored in an interesting enough fashion by Honest Hearts in a very character driven way, but I thought Fallout had already shown post-war groups that represented repeating real-life historical themes well enough through utopianism/genetic supremacy/imperialism and that religious conflict was the missing piece that hadn't been explored in the "War Never Changes" gauntlet so to speak. If I had to pick a campaign "theme" it would probably be Andy William's Exodus Song. Originally I wanted a post-war mirror of the Israel-Palestine conflict but I scrapped it because I couldn't find a way to do it with any grace or subtlety.

But, I also thought that completely post-war theology was unlikely (Without supernatural forces like The Master) not to have a backbone of pre-war religion, so I didn't want to make it a Christianity spin-off branch but rather something that fed from pre-war faith but was in truth it's own thing.

I agree on the names being hokey and ill-fitting for a faction that's not tribal. I don't want to go directly with christanity, so I might pull from Hindu Scripture ( Since they revere Oppenheimer and what I imagine would be one of his only surviving quotes references it) or Zoroastrianism as you referenced.

DFW native here, this is good

If I may make a recommendation lore-wise, I think Texas would be a good place to talk about what occurred regarding oil and fossil fuels in the Fallout universe pre-war.

The Twin Graves aren't hugely important. I'm taking the approach that most major cities were truly bombed during the Great War, and as such the majority of Wasteland societies avoid them because they are crumbling ruins pocketed by huge craters (formerly highly radioactive.) I'm also reusing another idea from a previous campaign I've posted here before for them and expanding it, with the Twin Graves being ran by competing blue-collar prospecting gangs who are getting at eachothers throats and fighting over junk "claims". They'd have their own little work outpost villages and customs. Picture something akin to the Blades and the Regulators but with junk salvaging as their core premise.

We learn in the Fallout Bible, IIRC, that I believe even decades before the Great War, the Texas Oil Fields were "husks" that were completely dry. The remaining drops of petroleum seemed to be in Alaska and at the Enclave Rig.

He's sort of alluded to it with the Fracked Lands, which is a really good diea - though personally I'd change it to "The Cracked Lands," since fracking is a modern technology.

I was happy with the Fracked Lands in concept but the name was a throaway placeholder. As for the technology, I think fracking is very suited to Fallout. Though it'd probably be given some atomic-age cheesy name rather than fracking (Also stops direct association with contemporary issues), the idea of ecologically disastrous industry poisoning the Earth to brute-force siphon any potential drops of oil is a Fallout concept in and of itself.

 

[Atomic Postman]

@Hardboiled Android

What do you think of the modifications to the Deluge Remnant I've made (edited the main post)?

-Amur renamed to Asha (Zoroastrianism) and Ushur renamed to Vishnu (Directly referenced by Oppenheimer in his infamous quote, this makes way more sense to me)
-Dick Hubbell as a fourth Ayatollah gifted by Asha instead of Vishnu with the goal of warning mankind to reach the stars, Hubology is another religious text that the Church collects and the purged heretical "Star-Worshippers" were basically believers succumbing to Hubology
- The "Hubris Sagas":

The Hubris Sagas:

The Apostles have also compiled collections of what's known as The Hubris Sagas. They believe that the pulp fiction of Hubris Comics are truthful retellings of ultimately tragic heroic figures in the dying days of Eden, and are left by God to impart the wisdom of these last few heroes as they fought against the oncoming corruption of mankind. Superheroes such as La Fantoma and Grognak the Barbarian are revered as mythical folk-heroes like David or Samson. How literal these stories are meant to be is a matter of debate amongst Apostles, but the vast majority believe them to be real. Many missionaries or travelling Apostles will carry several issues of the Sagas to read idly.

Apostles will carefully collect, and edit (with pencils and paint), these books to better reconcile with the Remnant Tomes. These edited comics are often given by Missionaries to children during conversion missions. Working on the Hubris Sagas is a position that is well-liked within the monastaries, and many young Apostles will trip over eachother to secure the position.

There are some within the current monastery that wish to create new saga story issues, but their proposals are often shot-down.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Still not crazy about the names of the two prime deites - I mentioned Zoroastrianism because I thought thats what the name is based off of, it seems a little silly to have such an obscure religion (that is almost certainly extinct by 2077) as the source for such an important word. This criticism isn't particuarly helpful, sorry!

I like the inclusion of Dick Hubbel and the Hubris Sagas very much though!

Also, just a note relating to your previous post: I absolutely adore the concept of a post-apocalyptic neo-biblical era, its one I've been obsessed with since I played Honest Hearts. And if you're looking for a particular biblical model to base it off of, I'd say look more to the Book of Judges than any of the post-Davidic stuff as your model, because Judges really is similar to a post-apocalyptic landscape in a lot of ways.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Still not crazy about the names of the two prime deites - I mentioned Zoroastrianism because I thought thats what the name is based off of, it seems a little silly to have such an obscure religion (that is almost certainly extinct by 2077) as the source for such an important word. This criticism isn't particuarly helpful, sorry!

I like the inclusion of Dick Hubbel and the Hubris Sagas very much though!

Also, just a note relating to your previous post: I absolutely adore the concept of a post-apocalyptic neo-biblical era, its one I've been obsessed with since I played Honest Hearts. And if you're looking for a particular biblical model to base it off of, I'd say look more to the Book of Judges than any of the post-Davidic stuff as your model, because Judges really is similar to a post-apocalyptic landscape in a lot of ways.

I'm not entirely certain what to do vis-a-vis the names of God's aspects. They need names but neither completely fabricated or stolen from real religon sit right. I'll find something right for them in the end.

As for the Biblical stuff, yeah the vibe I want to communicate is that in 500+ years time the Wasteland and this history will be to them like the Old Testament is to us. Provided the Church actually survives, that is.

As for the Book of Judges, taking a quick read I like the idea of there being another Deluge Remnant city that has gone awry, perhaps a mission with the purpose of establishing a new settlement in a particularly savage region has resulted in the head Clergy becoming something of a Colonel Kurtz warlord with a twisted religious bend.

It'd make a nice combination with the schism from Absolution going violent, which I plan to have as a faction event in the actual campaign itself. Puts the Church at a nice do-or-die point in their history.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Penance: AKA The Domain of the Desert Saint Marshall Palmer

In the streets of Reconciliation and Absolution, rumours spread in hushed and fearful tones of the Desert Saint and his army beyond the Dune Sea.

Background - Finding Penance
Many years ago the Deluge Remnant recieved word from a converting band of the gypsy-like White Liners that had returned from a near-fatal voyage across the Dune Sea - a barren stretch of alternating salt flats and empty hills of sand with an unrelenting heat. They told stories of nomadic tribes and buried Old World ruins. Most notably, however, they came back with a story of a great source of water - a large resevoir of some kind - that seemed completely abandoned. Local tribals had warned them the place was booby-trapped and highly forbidden, so the White-Liners avoided penetrating the surrounding area.

Some time later, a high ranking clergyman by the name of Marshall Palmer performed some ungodly misdeed that to this day remains a hidden secret by the Deluge Church. In a form of redemption, he was placed as the leader of an expedition that would find this source of water and form a new settlement - a settlement that was to be named "Penance". Raising a large volunteer group of faithful, Palmer set out on a fateful voyage.

The voyage was arduous and nearly broke the expedition at several points. Palmer himself nearly succumbed to heat-stroke, entering a multi-day near comatose fever, muttering about rebirth, God and the Living Saints. Coming out of his illness, he was a changed man in many ways. He was reaffirmed that they were on a mission not from the Church, but from God directly who had spoken to him.

When they reached the "promised land" after many weeks of suffering and death, however, they discovered only disaster. There was a large source of water - but it was poison. Irradiated. It appeared that the place was once a failed settlement from several decades back, the community there had attempted to purify the water and perished. As they began to be preyed upon by local raider-tribes, it appeared they were fated to die savagely and alone. Abandoned by their God.

That was until the Great Miracle occured.

Background - The Great Miracle of the Desert Saint

Palmer and his closest lieutenants had entombed themselves within the bowels of the Old World Ruins that contained the resevoir - most assumed they were waiting to die. They emerged, however, days later as the resevoir began to churn from below, and the water became clean - purified. Palmer emerged triumphantly to his dehydrated and dying people - declaring that this was his will - a miracle by the power of God - and that he was a Living Saint, both a vessel of God and a reincarnation of the First Saint. Just as the First Saint had blessed Reconciliation with clean water and edible bounty, he had done the same with Penance.

His community not only survived, it thrived with plentiful fresh water. The people revering Palmer as "The Desert Saint". Soon tribals of the surrounding region began to approach seeking the clean water, and Palmer welcomed them in as long as they converted and recognized him as a living vessel of God's will. This attracted conflict too - with various raider-gangs attempting to take the water from them, but they were defeated in the face of the religious fervour of his newly appointed servants and converted tribal warriors. His victories were a clear sign from God.

The Desert Saint would go further - declaring that the Fifth Living Saint Hiram was a false leader - that the Church had been corrupted - and that here at Penance God had cultivated people of the true faith. It was their mission to prosper and grow stronger in their oasis, and their ultimate destiny was to one day besiege Reconciliation and reclaim it from the False Saint so that the true Desert Saint could take his rightful position as the leader of the faith and usher in a new era of prosperity and Godliness.

For now - they are unprepared. They lack the resources and the approprioate weaponry to wage proper war, for now they must grow their numbers.

Meta-Note:
I fear there's too many shades of Caesar here but The Desert Saint is meant to be moreso a minor faction - another thorn in the side of the Church and also another religious fragment, this time based on idolatry.