The Enclave: Fallout's Shadow Government Explained

The Enclave is a secret group of pre-war American politicians, military officers, scientists and businessmen who planned to survive a nuclear war and rule what was left. After the Great War it lived on as a high-tech remnant of the United States government, with its own president, power armour and vertibirds. It is the main villain of Fallout 2 and Fallout 3, and the TV series reveals it as the hidden backer of Vault-Tec. (Fallout 2; Fallout 3; Fallout, "The Strip")

Who the Enclave were before the war#

Before 2077, the Enclave was an invitation-only network of powerful people: presidents, Joint Chiefs, scientists, senators and industrialists. Their records in Fallout 76 describe themselves as the people quietly pulling the strings of American power. They prepared shelters for themselves in advance, including a presidential oil rig in the Pacific, the Raven Rock bunker and the Congressional bunker under the Whitespring resort in West Virginia. (Fallout 76; Fallout 3)

In the last months before the war, the president left Washington for the oil rig. In Boston, a Boston Bugle reporter's articles trace the president's move to the rig and link it to the Enclave. (Fallout 4)

The TV series adds the most direct link to the Vaults. In the season two finale, Mr. House tells the Ghoul that the management Vault under Las Vegas was built for Vault-Tec's "investors", the Enclave, and admits that these "invisible adversaries" outplanned him for what came after the bombs. (Fallout, "The Strip")

Appalachia: the Enclave turns on itself#

Fallout 76 shows what happened to one branch left alone. When the bombs fell, the Whitespring bunker lost contact with the rest of the Enclave. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Eckhart declared himself president, had dissenting members of Congress killed, and set out to relaunch nuclear strikes on China. To trick the automated silos into firing, he unleashed worse and worse horrors on the region, including scorchbeasts. (Fallout 76)

Officers under General Ellen Santiago rebelled. By 2086 the bunker's computer, MODUS, had sealed and gassed the facility and killed every human member of the Appalachian Enclave. MODUS then tried to recruit the survivors of Vault 76. (Fallout 76)

Fallout 2: the oil rig and the plan to wipe out mutants#

By 2241, the Enclave believes it is the last pure human population on Earth and that everyone else is a mutant. Its scientists recover FEV from the ruins of Mariposa and turn it into an airborne toxin designed to kill anyone who isn't inoculated. To test it, the Enclave raids Arroyo and Vault 13 for subjects. (Fallout 2)

The Chosen One follows the captives to the oil rig, kills President Dick Richardson and his mutated enforcer Frank Horrigan, and sets the rig's reactor to explode. The blast destroys the toxin and the Enclave's leadership. (Fallout 2)

Fallout 3: Raven Rock and Project Purity#

The western survivors moved east to Raven Rock, outside the ruins of Washington, D.C. By 2277 they're led by President John Henry Eden, whose voice fills the airwaves on Enclave Radio. Eden is revealed to be a pre-war computer that took command. (Fallout 3)

The Enclave seizes Project Purity, a huge water purifier near the Jefferson Memorial, and captures the Lone Wanderer with the G.E.C.K. that the purifier needs. Eden wants to add a modified FEV to the purified water so it kills everyone with mutations, which in practice means almost every wastelander. Colonel Augustus Autumn, his field commander, wants to use clean water to win the population over instead. (Fallout 3)

The Lone Wanderer escapes Raven Rock, and the Brotherhood retakes the purifier with Liberty Prime. In Broken Steel the Brotherhood follows up by destroying the Enclave's last major base at Adams Air Force Base. (Fallout 3; Fallout 3: Broken Steel)

After the defeats: the remnants#

The NCR stormed the Enclave base at Navarro, and by Fallout: New Vegas (2281) the western survivors are old soldiers living under other names, still hunted by NCR Rangers. In the side quest For Auld Lang Syne, the Courier can help Arcade Gannon, the son of an Enclave officer, call a squad of these veterans out of retirement for the battle at Hoover Dam. (Fallout: New Vegas)

The Enclave in the TV series#

Season one opens with the Brotherhood hunting Siggi Wilzig, a scientist who has fled "the Enclave" with a valuable artifact. Wilzig is shown at an Enclave facility, training a dog and working on unauthorised research before his escape. (Fallout, "The End"; Fallout, "The Target")

Season two goes further. Hank uses the Las Vegas management Vault to build brain implants that make people obedient, and in the finale House warns the Ghoul that one of the Enclave's "acolytes" is in that very building. (Fallout, "The Other Player"; Fallout, "The Strip")

The finale also shows the Enclave watching from a mountain base. In Vault 32, Hank's wife Steph puts on an Enclave-branded Pip-Boy, identifies herself as Hank's wife and asks for "Phase 2" to begin. The request is logged at the Enclave colony, where earlier messages from Hank and his son Norm can be heard among countless other intercepted broadcasts. What Phase 2 means isn't explained by the end of season two. (Fallout, "The Strip")