Every Major Fallout Faction Explained

Fallout's wasteland is carved up by factions: a military order hoarding technology, the leftovers of the pre-war government, a new republic in California, a slave army that copies Rome, and a secret society of scientists building artificial people under Boston. Some appear in one game, others run through the whole series and into the TV show. This guide covers every major faction, what it wants, where it shows up, and links to the full page for each. (Fallout; Fallout 3; Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout 4; Fallout, "The End")

Factions that span the series#

These groups predate or outlast any single game. Their story runs from before the Great War to the TV series. (Fallout; Fallout 76; Fallout, "The Strip")

Brotherhood of Steel#

The Brotherhood of Steel began when US Army captain Roger Maxson found scientists testing FEV on prisoners at Mariposa Military Base, seceded from the United States, and led his soldiers to the Lost Hills bunker after the bombs. It became an order of knights, paladins and scribes in power armor, devoted to collecting technology and keeping it from others. (Fallout; Fallout 76)

It changes from game to game. Lost Hills is closed to outsiders in Fallout, the Mojave chapter is hiding in a bunker after losing a war with the NCR in New Vegas, Elder Lyons protects the people of Washington in Fallout 3, and Elder Arthur Maxson brings the airship Prydwen to Boston to destroy the Institute in Fallout 4. (Fallout; Fallout 3; Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout 4)

In the TV series, Maximus serves in a West Coast chapter under Elder Cleric Quintus. Season two ends with the western chapters fighting each other at Area 51 and Quintus holding the blueprints for Liberty Prime Alpha. (Fallout, "The End"; Fallout, "The Demon in the Snow"; Fallout, "The Strip")

The Enclave#

The Enclave was a secret network of politicians, generals, scientists and industrialists who planned to rule after a nuclear war. The president fled to its oil rig off California before the bombs. Afterwards it saw itself as the last pure humans and everyone else as mutants. (Fallout 2; Fallout 4)

In Fallout 2 it plans to release an FEV toxin that would kill everyone outside the Enclave, and the Chosen One destroys its oil rig. In Fallout 3 President John Henry Eden tries to poison the Capital Wasteland's water from Project Purity, and the Brotherhood stops him. Fallout 76 shows its Appalachian branch destroying itself by 2086. (Fallout 2; Fallout 3; Fallout 3: Broken Steel; Fallout 76)

The TV series reveals it as Vault-Tec's hidden investor. The season two finale shows an Enclave mountain base receiving a request to start "Phase 2". (Fallout, "The Strip")

Vault-Tec#

Vault-Tec built the Vaults, and most of them were experiments on the people inside. Vault 101 was never meant to open, Vault 11 demanded a yearly human sacrifice and Vault 112 trapped its residents in a simulation. Its mascot, Vault Boy, is on almost every screen in the games. (Fallout 3; Fallout: New Vegas)

The TV series turns the company into a cast of villains. Executive Barb Howard proposes that Vault-Tec start the war itself, Bud Askins keeps junior managers frozen in Vault 31 to rule Vaults 32 and 33, and one of them, Hank MacLean, destroys Shady Sands with a nuclear bomb. (Fallout, "The Beginning")

Super mutants#

Super mutants are humans transformed by FEV. In Fallout, a mutated man known as the Master was building an army of them to replace humanity, and the Vault Dweller had to stop him. Later games show different strains of super mutant in Washington and Boston, many of them hostile to everyone, though some, like Fawkes and Strong, can be companions. (Fallout; Fallout 3; Fallout 4)

West Coast factions#

California and the Mojave are home to the factions of Fallout, Fallout 2 and New Vegas, and the TV series returns there. (Fallout; Fallout 2; Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout, "The End")

New California Republic#

The New California Republic grew from Shady Sands, a village founded by people from Vault 15. In Fallout 2 it's a republic led by President Tandi, and by New Vegas it's the largest nation in the wasteland, holding Hoover Dam against the Legion with an army and its famous Rangers. (Fallout; Fallout 2; Fallout: New Vegas)

The TV series shows its collapse. Hank MacLean's bomb destroys its capital, Lee Moldaver's survivors are wiped out by the Brotherhood at Griffith Observatory, and in the season two finale an NCR battalion marches into Freeside. (Fallout, "The Beginning"; Fallout, "The Golden Rule"; Fallout, "The Strip")

Caesar's Legion#

Caesar's Legion is a slave army built from conquered tribes by Edward Sallow, a former Follower of the Apocalypse who took the name Caesar. It copies Rome, bans chems, crucifies its enemies and treats women as property. In New Vegas it wants Hoover Dam and New Vegas, and the Courier can help it take both. (Fallout: New Vegas)

In the TV series, Sallow is dead and two rival Caesars fight over his body. The Lacerta Legate reads Sallow's last note, which says the Legion should end with him, hides it, takes the laurel and marches on New Vegas. (Fallout, "The Profligate"; Fallout, "The Strip")

Mr. House and the Strip#

Mr. House was a pre-war tycoon who saved Las Vegas from most of the bombs and kept himself alive in the Lucky 38 casino for over two centuries. In New Vegas he runs the Strip through his Securitron robots and three families he recruited from local tribes, and he wants the Courier to help him keep both the NCR and the Legion out. (Fallout: New Vegas)

In the TV series finale, a computerised House, back online in the Lucky 38, guides the Ghoul through the Vault under Las Vegas and tells him it was built for Vault-Tec's investors, whom he links to the Enclave. (Fallout, "The Strip")

Followers of the Apocalypse#

The Followers are doctors, teachers and scholars who give medical help and knowledge to anyone who needs it. In Fallout they're based at the Boneyard library in the ruins of Los Angeles. In New Vegas they run a clinic in the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside under Julie Farkas, and Arcade Gannon, one of the Courier's companions, is a member. Caesar was one of them before he founded the Legion. (Fallout; Fallout: New Vegas)

Great Khans#

The Great Khans are a raider tribe descended from the Khans who kidnapped Tandi in the first game. After the NCR massacred many of their people at Bitter Springs, the survivors settled at Red Rock Canyon in the Mojave, where Papa Khan leads them and the Legion is courting them as allies. In the TV series, the Lacerta Legate lists the Great Khans among the Legion's enemies. (Fallout; Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout, "The Profligate")

East Coast factions#

Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 move the series to Washington, D.C. and Boston, with their own powers. (Fallout 3; Fallout 4)

The Institute#

The Institute is a society of scientists living under the ruins of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology. It builds synths, including third-generation synths that can't be told from humans, and it reaches the surface only by teleporter. Its director, Father, is the Sole Survivor's kidnapped son, Shaun. The Commonwealth fears it because it abducts people and replaces them with synths. (Fallout 4)

Fallout 3 mentions it first, in the side quest where an Institute scientist comes to Rivet City hunting an escaped android. (Fallout 3)

The Minutemen#

The Minutemen are a volunteer militia that protects the Commonwealth's settlers "at a minute's notice". When Fallout 4 starts, they've almost vanished after losing their Castle and failing to save Quincy, and Preston Garvey leads the last survivors. The Sole Survivor can become their General, rebuild them and destroy the Institute with them alone. (Fallout 4)

The Railroad#

The Railroad is an underground network that helps synths escape the Institute, wiping their memories and changing their faces so they can live free. It's led by Desdemona from catacombs under the Old North Church. In Fallout 3, one of its agents protects Harkness, the escaped synth running Rivet City's security. (Fallout 4; Fallout 3)

Gunners#

The Gunners are a large mercenary company in the Commonwealth. They'll fight for anyone who pays, and they're behind the Quincy massacre that broke the Minutemen. They hold fortified positions across Boston. (Fallout 4)

Children of Atom#

The Children of Atom worship radiation and the atom bomb. In Fallout 3, Confessor Cromwell preaches beside the undetonated bomb in Megaton. In Fallout 4 the faithful live at the Crater of Atom in the Glowing Sea, and in Far Harbor they hold the Nucleus, an old submarine base on the Island, and are at odds with the harbour town and its synth refuge, Acadia. (Fallout 3; Fallout 4; Fallout 4: Far Harbor)

Factions by game#

A quick list of which major factions shape each game and the show, with the year each game is set. (Fallout; Fallout 2; Fallout 3; Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout 4; Fallout 76)

• Fallout (2161): the Master's super mutant army, the Brotherhood of Steel, Shady Sands, the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Khans. (Fallout)
• Fallout 2 (2241): the Enclave, the NCR, Vault City and the Brotherhood. (Fallout 2)
• Fallout 3 (2277): the Enclave, the Brotherhood under Lyons, the Brotherhood Outcasts and the Children of Atom. (Fallout 3)
• Fallout: New Vegas (2281): the NCR, Caesar's Legion, Mr. House, the Brotherhood, the Great Khans and the Followers. Honest Hearts adds the tribes of Zion and the Burned Man, the Legion's first legate. (Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)
• Fallout 4 (2287): the Institute, the Brotherhood under Maxson, the Railroad, the Minutemen, the Gunners and the Children of Atom. (Fallout 4)
• Fallout 76 (from 2102): the Brotherhood's first Appalachian chapter, the Enclave and Vault-Tec's Vault 76. (Fallout 76)
• The TV series (2296): the Brotherhood, the remains of the NCR, Vault-Tec, the Enclave, Caesar's Legion and Mr. House. (Fallout, "The End"; Fallout, "The Strip")