Persons of Note

The Courier

Ethan Sunderland was a veteran of the trail, traveling all over the wasteland. One of his regular destinations was a thriving community in the harsh environment of the Divide known as Hopeville. Its success as a settlement brought the New California Republic's attention and assigned him to deliver a package they salvaged from Navarro, as they made the connections to the technology found in the Divide. However, little did he and the NCR know the package was a detonator for the ICBMs buried underneath the town. The onslaught resulted in massive earthquakes and powerful storms, decimating the community the Divide and turning it into a hell on Earth. He was not present when it happened.

Years later, he was one of six couriers hired by the Mojave Express to deliver a package to Mr. House, the ruler of New Vegas. His was a platinum chip. He was intercepted by Benny, who then shot him in the head and left him for dead in a shallow grave in Goodsprings. After being dug out by a robotic Securitron named Victor and nursed back to health by Doc Mitchell, a resident doctor, the Courier set out to find his assailant.

When he arrived in New Vegas, he discovered the truth behind the chip and why Mr. House wanted it. With the chip, Mr. House would upgrade the Securitrons and secure Hoover Dam for himself. The Courier put an end to his plan and assisted the NCR against Caesar's Legion at the dam, securing their position in the Mojave.

Further adventures brought him to places such as the Sierra Madre, Zion Valley, Big Mountain, and the Divide, where he confronted Ulysses, the sole survivor of the calamity years ago. Sometime after the battle of Hoover Dam, he took it upon himself to watch over Big Mountain, keeping a close eye on the sciences and goings-on of the facility while gradually reintroducing sciences both forgotten and new back into the wasteland as needed. However brief his role was, he traveled to Chicago in 2283. No one had seen him since the incident that occurred there.

Commander Shepard

Madison Shepard was a lieutenant commander of the Systems Alliance and an N7, the highest rank in Special Forces. Both of her parents were in the Alliance military, and her childhood was spent on ships and stations as they transferred from posting to posting, never staying in one location for more than a few years. At the age of eighteen, she followed in her parents' footsteps and enlisted in the Alliance. One of her first missions was an expedition to investigate Akuze, a planet on the outskirts of Alliance space that suddenly dropped out of contact. While the settlement was intact, the thresher maws attacked at nightfall. Out of the fifty marines who died on Akuze, she was the only one who made it back to the landing zone alive.

Years later, Shepard was assigned to the SSV Normandy as its executive officer and David Anderson as her captain. During a routine mission with Nihlus Kryik, a turian Spectre, overseeing them, the Normandy received a distress call from Eden Prime. The geth, led by Saren Aterius, a veteran turian Spectre, attacked the colony to retrieve data from the Prothean beacon. Shepard and her squad stopped the geth but at the cost of Nihlus' and Richard Jenkins'. For her efforts in exposing Saren's involvement to the Citadel Council, she became the first human to join the Spectres. They gave her an assignment: hunt down Saren at any cost.

The trail led her to Virmire in the Terminus Systems, where she found Saren had been working for a Reaper called Sovereign, and its kind was coming to begin their harvest of the galaxy. When Sovereign and the geth attacked the Citadel station, she stopped Saren and saved the Destiny Ascension at the cost of much of the Alliance fleet.

Because of her actions, humanity was finally allowed a seat on the Council, but the fight was far from over. However, while on the lookout for any geth outposts, the Normandy was attacked. Over twenty crew members perished on that ship, including Shepard, who saved Joker the helmsman at the cost of her own life.

Governments and Organizations

New California Republic

The New California Republic was a democratic federation consisting of less than a million people. They emphasized beliefs found in Pre-War Earth including democracy, personal liberty, and the rule of law. They strived to bring the wasteland under their banner.

The NCR started in, where else, California as a small community of Vault 15 survivors known as Shady Sands. Over the years, due to trade routes with the other settlements, the town formed a government and expanded across the wasteland. They took holdings in parts of Nevada, Oregon, Baja California, and, by 2281, New Vegas. If it wasn't for a wanderer from Vault 13 who rescued Aradesh's daughter Tandi, then the NCR would have gone down a different path.

It modeled itself off the pre-War United States, including its three branches of government (legislative, executive, judicial) and their structures save for their Presidents serving indefinite terms. With a diverse population in part with its multiethnic origin in Vault 13, there was little to no discrimination, including sexism. However, like any other form of government, it can be prone to corruption, contradictory agendas running amok, and imperialistic policies.

Caesar's Legion

Forged from the conquest of 86 tribes, Caesar's Legion was a society built on slavery, priding itself on its unity, strength, and merit. They strived to bring order to the wasteland and wipe out the New California Republic at any cost.

The Legion started as the Blackfoot tribe in Arizona. They captured Edward Sallow and Joshua Graham, a Follower of the Apocalypse and a Mormon missionary respectively. Seeing the tribe was at war with seven other tribes, Edward taught the tribe the art of warfare. His knowledge led the tribe to victory, and so he became Caesar, their leader, with Joshua as his right-hand man.

The Legion heavily built itself after the ancient Roman Empire, including speaking Latin and its method of assimilating tribes. Women were subjugated to breeding roles, nonhumans were looked down upon, and the use of modern technology and medicine was banned except in rare cases. After their defeat at Hoover Dam against the NCR, Caesar punished Joshua by burning him alive and throwing him down the Grand Canyon. Its second defeat at the Dam and the death of Caesar himself splintered the Legion into numerous tribes.

Science and Technology

Big Mountain Transportalponder!

Given to the Courier by the Think Tank as a sign of gratitude, the Transportalponder was a handheld device capable of instantly transporting the user to and from Big Mountain. Like any other technology from the Big MT, the device was highly advanced compared to the rest of the wasteland.

Its design was very similar to that of a typical detonator, it had an electronic chip at the end, which was used to calculate and determine the destination. The chip itself was connected via black tubes to a concentration of lightning, somehow enclosed in a glass top. That lightning had powered the detonator, which could last for many years.

When activated, the Transportalponder beamed the user to their intended destination via quantum entanglement. However, it had its limitations. It cannot work indoors, in certain areas in the Mojave, and outside the Mojave, as it relied on the signal from a satellite that crashed at an abandoned drive-thru.

Pip-Boy

Short for Personal Information Processor, Pip-Boys were manufactured by RobCo Industries. Alongside the blue and yellow-rimmed Vault jumpsuits, Pip-Boys were the standard equipment provided to Vault residents and staff. Although these vault dwellers were like any other human being, many notable travelers in post-apocalyptic Earth were seen with these devices.

Many features were shared across multiple models, including a high-resolution screen, the ability to store large amounts of information and transfer data to and from holotapes, date tubes, and terminals. The 2000 and 3000 models were the most common in the wasteland. Most 2000 models were handheld, equipped with an elegant yet simple form of sonar and satellite to map out areas. Although its interface can be slow, the user can enter and edit text messages on the screen. The 3000 models were wearable on the forearm, equipped with a built-in radio and a Geiger counter, and its screen can be brightened and used as a flashlight.

All 3000 and certain 2000 models came with a unique program: The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, or VATS for short. VATS can pinpoint a specific part of the target's body, calculating the probability of hitting it with deadly and efficient force. Once activated, the wearer's perception of time slowed as they lay on their target. The origins of this program had been lost to time.

The Multiverse

A term first coined by William James, known as the "Father of American psychology", it was later used by scientists and theorists, the multiverse was a set of possible finite and infinite universes. Each universe has its own set of physics and the constants that described them. Many cultures on many worlds such as the endless variations of the planet Earth explored the concept of a multiverse, not only in the scientific and religious context but also in works of science fiction and fantasy, as it was popularized by the Elric Saga author Michael Moorcock.

The foundation of how a universe functioned varies. One universe could be cyclical, going through one Big Bang, Crunch, and Freeze after another. Another could be in multiple layers, like a micro-verse. Some even theorize that multiple multiverses could exist at the same time as an omniverse, or one universe could be a simulated one. A pair of universes could have been the same at one point before a division of events occurred, or they could be radically different from one another at their conception.

Multiverse travel was thought to be impossible. However, with sophisticated enough technology and the drive (or by sheer accident), it can be possible.