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Fallout Wiki:Fallout canon

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    FW:CAN
    Wiki policy canon.png

    Background

    Nukapedia strives to provide a comprehensive overview of all subject matter drawing on all available sources across the Fallout series, while clearly identifying the information's origins to be easily identifiable at a glance.

    Canon

    The canon distinction is applied to the video games in the series from the franchise's owner Bethesda Softworks. Canon information includes content from the following six games.

    Games

    Non-canon

    Content that is derived from any other work or source is categorized as non-canon. The following formatting section outlines the guidelines for referencing information from all non-canon sources.

    Manuals and strategy guides
    Manuals Strategy guides
    Games and expansions
    Content and promotional items
    • The Atomic Shop for Fallout 76.[4][5]
    • Creation Club content for Fallout 4.[6]
    • Official merchandise on Bethesda Gear Store or developed by third parties.
    • Promotional publications such as All Roads, One Man, and a Crate of Puppets and The Vault Dweller's Official Cookbook.
    • Design documents, concept art, and art books such as The Art of Fallout 3 and The Art of Fallout 4.
    • Promotional material, advertisements, and cross promotional releases in other video games.
    • Content that is not present in the game, but still located in its files, such as due to being unused, bugged, cut, or removed via patching is considered non-canon. Exceptions may be discussed and decided on a case-by-case basis. In all instances, if such a piece of content is referenced, it should be added to the bugs section of an article or marked with {{removed}} Fire axe icon color.png , {{cut}} Icon cut.png , or {{unused}} Icon unused.png .
    Canceled projects
    Developer comments
    • Fallout Bible: Commonly mistaken for a definitive guide to Fallout canon, the Bible is a collection of "background material and hijinks" released on Black Isle Studios' front page, compiled by Chris Avellone with commentary from various developers.[7][8]
    • Joshua Sawyer's Formspring responses (archived here), Tumblr posts, and SomethingAwful.com forum replies.
    • Origins of Fallout blog: A web article penned by Scott Campbell and released on No Mutants Allowed, the article goes into detail about the inspirations, the reasons, and the design decisions during the making of Fallout.
    • Ferret Baudoin interview on CHAD: A Fallout 76 Story Podcast: A behind-the-scenes live stream interview and Q&A session with the lead writer for Fallout 76: Wastelanders.[9]

    Formatting guide

    Reference guideline
    Non-canon sources are referenced utilizing the following format guidelines.


    Single citation
    Instructions Code
    In front of a single citation, or a citation that will only appear once in an article, replace <ref> with: 
    <ref group="Non-canon" >
    The code will look like this in the article: 
    A man named Angus founded the Hub.<ref group="Non-canon" >''[[Fallout Bible 0]]'': "2093 ''The Hub is founded by a man named Angus''".</ref>
    The citation will look like this in the article:

    A man named Angus founded the Hub.[Non-canon 1]

    In the reference section, a single referenced article will appear like:

    Fallout Bible 0: "2093 The Hub is founded by a man named Angus.

    Duplicate citation
    Instructions Code
    In front of duplicate citation, or a citation that will be used more than once in an article, give a descriptive name and replace <ref> with: 
    <ref name="name" group="Non-canon">
    The code will look like this in the article: 
    The Mariposa Military Base was newly completed in January 2077.<ref name="BibleMariposa2077" group="Non-canon">''[[Fallout Bible 0]]'': "2077 January 7  ''Major Barnett orders transfer of all FEV research to the newly-constructed Mariposa Military Base."''</ref>
    The citation will look like this in the article:

    The Mariposa Military Base was newly completed in January 2077.[Non-canon 1]

    For subsequent, identical references, instead of the full reference, replace it with: 
    <ref name="name" group="Non-canon" />
    The code will look like this in the article: 
    Barnett decided to move all FEV research to Mariposa.<ref name="BibleMariposa2077" group="Non-canon" /> The scientists objected to the orders.<ref name="BibleMariposa2077" group="Non-canon" />
    The citation will look like this in the article, the same after each reference:

    Barnett decided to move all FEV research to Mariposa.[Non-canon 1] The scientists objected to the orders.[Non-canon 2]

    In the reference section, a duplicate article will appear like:

    2.0 2.1 Fallout Bible 0: "2077 January 7 Major Barnett orders transfer of all FEV research to the newly-constructed Mariposa Military Base."

    End of the article
    Instructions Code
    If there are only canon references in an article, the following is placed at the very bottom: 
    
==References==
{{References}}
    If there are non canon references also, the following must be added: 
    ==References==
{{References}}
'''Non-canon'''
{{References|group="Non-canon"}}
    The citations will look like this in the article:

    References
    1. ↑ Alice McLafferty: "The Crimson Caravan Company has been in business for over 130 years. We're partially responsible for the progress in the NCR."
    (Alice McLafferty's dialogue)

    Non-canon
    1. ↑ Fallout Bible 0: "2093 The Hub is founded by a man named Angus.
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fallout Bible 0: "2077 January 7 Major Barnett orders transfer of all FEV research to the newly-constructed Mariposa Military Base."

    Reference box format
    Instructions Code Instructions Code
    Another option is to place all references in a scrolling reference box. 
    {{ref box}}
    		 To use the reference box with non-canon sources. 
    {{ref box|Non-canon}}

    Upcoming

    Categorization of the upcoming Fallout television series by Kilter Films is yet to be established.

    Policy vote forum overview
    PolicyFallout canon
    Proposal discussionCalls for ideas
    Proposal voteVote: Fallout canon policy overhaul
    Date and result20 October 2020 · 11-5-3

    References

    1. ↑ David S.J. Hodgson (via Twitter): "If memory serves, [the "Wasteland Census" section in the Fallout 3 Game Guide] is supposedly canon as I worked with “certain documents” and the guide was fully approved by Bethesda. You’d have to confirm with @DCDeacon of course. However, if you come across a discrepancy between game and guide canon, game trumps guide."
    2. ↑ Mashable.com interview with David S.J. Hodgson, author of the strategy guides for Fallout 3, New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76
    3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Todd Howard: "For our purposes, neither Fallout Tactics nor Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel happened."
    4. ↑ Fallout 76: Is the Atomic Shop or Creation Club considered canon?:
      Emil Pagliarulo: "Atomic Shop is a lot...we found that Atomic Shop tends to not be canon so much, it's a lot looser. Just because it's, y'know, stuff that you purchase or use Atoms get into your game that is, like... there's a big fun factor there. There's a lot of stuff in Atomic Shop that we could take out because it's not strictly Fallout canon, and then players would be bummed. Because it's in a live multiplayer game, you... it's always a judgement call, it's tough. There's a lot of stuff that's... the canon rules are a lot lighter with the Atomic Shop stuff. Because we want people to have what they want and just have fun."
    5. ↑ Ferret Baudoin - 12/16/2020 Fallout for Hope - CHAD: A Fallout 76 Story Podcast Twitch stream: "I think if you're buying it in the store, you're choosing to go outside of the game in order to customize your experience. The same way that you would getting a mod that you particularly enjoy. So I tend not to sweat that stuff. If people can rationalize it, fantastic."
    6. ↑ Fallout 76: Is the Atomic Shop or Creation Club considered canon?:
      Emil Pagliarulo: "Okay, lemme answer this. So... um, Creation Club and Atomic Shop are two very different things, first of all. Creation Club is, let's start there, Creation Club is sort of as close to canon as we can get but also sort of the lines get blurred. So, for example, the team that does the Creation Club stuff always runs fiction by me and says 'would this work? Is this canon? How close is this?' And any time there's any writing or anything that goes into Creation Club, we wanna make sure that it's, y'know, everything fits. So for example, y'know, there was a cyberpunk apartment that went in that you access in Fallout 4 that you access via Goodneighbor. And there was some notes in it, it was like a synth's apartment. So all the fiction there had to be right. It could be canon, it could be... So it's sort of like parallel to canon, almost. It's... we don't wanna limit ourselves. We don't wanna not do something completely. It's tough. Because you don't wanna not do something that would be awesome, because it might get a little close to not being canon. So, it's always a judgement call. We weigh everything."
    7. ↑ The Fallout Bible on blackisle.com (archived)
    8. ↑ Fallout 76: Would the Fallout bible be considered canon or not?:
      Emil Pagliarulo: "So, there's actually different versions of the Bible, too. A lot of the stuff from the Bible is on- public on the Fallout Wiki, online, and you can look at that stuff. For us, it's always... for us, canon always starts with what is in the games. And so... it's what is in Fallout 1, Fallout 2... even some of like, Fallout Tactics is- there's some stuff from canon from Fallout Tactics as well. And our Fallout games. So, we always look at what's in the games first, and then we go to the Fallout Bible and look at the stuff. So, some of the stuff that is in Fallout 3 that is now canon came from the Fallout Bible, some of that fiction. And so... it depends. We look at the Fallout Bible and some of the lore that really... was written, y'know, back in the day. It makes sense and we use that and put it in our games. We don't just assume that everything in the Bible is canon. We have to take it step-by-step inside. It's a judgement call."
    9. ↑ Ferret Baudoin - 12/16/2020 Fallout for Hope - CHAD: A Fallout 76 Story Podcast Twitch stream: "The primal source of lore is what you see in the games. Everything after that is varying degrees--I would say, if it's not in the games, we may use it, we may not. There's things we may fully like, 'no, this is what happened!' No, that's just headcanon for a writer. That doesn't actually exist until you see it... the funny thing is, there are things I intend that have already been re-written, but that's OK. That was never in the game. Sure, alright. You wanna change that? That's a great story; go for it! We will get inspiration from all sorts of sources, right? Who's to say what we'll take and what we won't?"