Synths: the Institute's Artificial People in Fallout

Synths are artificial people built by the Institute, the secretive scientific society hidden under the Commonwealth. The first two generations are clearly machines. The third generation is grown from human tissue and is almost impossible to tell from a real person, which is why the Commonwealth lives in fear of being replaced. Synths are at the centre of Fallout 4, and an escaped one turns up in Fallout 3. (Fallout 4; Fallout 3)

What are synths?#

A synth is any of the artificial humanoids the Institute builds. The Institute once called them androids, and Fallout 3 still uses that word. Its director later had the term dropped, arguing that the latest models are fully synthetic beings, not machines dressed as people. (Fallout 4; Fallout 3)

The three generations of synths#

Gen 1 synths are bare metal skeletons with a power cell in the chest. They do the Institute's simplest jobs and make up the numbers in its patrols on the surface. Their navigation software is notoriously buggy. (Fallout 4)

Gen 2 synths are the same frame with a protective mesh and a mannequin-like skin over it. They still speak in flat robotic voices. On the surface they are the Institute's scavenging teams, feared for stripping whole settlements and killing anyone in the way. (Fallout 4)

Gen 3 synths are something else entirely. They are grown from lab-made bone, muscle and organs and wake up as adults. Each has an implant in the brain that lets the Institute reset or command them with a code phrase, and it can't be removed without killing them. No medical test in the Commonwealth can pick out a living Gen 3. They don't age, and when killed they leave a synth component, which is how people find out after the fact. (Fallout 4)

How are synths made from Shaun?#

For decades the Institute tried to build organic synths with FEV and failed, because radiation had damaged every human sample it could find. In 2227 the mercenary Conrad Kellogg took infant Shaun out of Vault 111. His undamaged pre-war DNA solved the problem, and Gen 3 synths are built from it. By 2287 Shaun is the Institute's director, known as Father, and has a synth child made in his own image. (Fallout 4)

Why do people fear synths?#

Because some synths are sent to replace real people. In 2229 a prototype Gen 3 calling himself Mr. Carter went on a shooting spree in Diamond City, an event remembered as the Broken Mask incident. Since then the Commonwealth has been gripped by fear of the Institute and of neighbours who might be copies. Diamond City's own mayor, McDonough, turns out to be a synth replacement. (Fallout 4)

The factions split over what synths are. The Institute sees them as machines. The Railroad sees escaped Gen 3s as slaves and smuggles them to freedom with new faces and memories. The Brotherhood of Steel calls them abominations of technology and wants every one of them gone. (Fallout 4)

Famous synths#

Nick Valentine is a prototype between Gen 2 and Gen 3, built around the memories of a pre-war Boston detective. He runs a detective agency in Diamond City and helps the Sole Survivor track Kellogg. His fellow prototype DiMA also got out of the Institute and founded Acadia, a refuge for runaway synths on the island of Far Harbor. (Fallout 4; Fallout 4: Far Harbor)

Paladin Danse is a loyal Brotherhood soldier who learns during the main story that he is a runaway synth with a wiped memory. Elder Maxson orders his execution, and the Sole Survivor can talk him out of it. Curie, a robot scientist found in Vault 81, can be moved into a synth body. (Fallout 4)

In Fallout 3, the quest The Replicated Man has a Commonwealth scientist hunting an escaped android in the Capital Wasteland. The android is Harkness, head of security in Rivet City, who has a new face and no memory of what he is. (Fallout 3)