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Fallout Wiki
Wiki policy canon

In a general sense, Fallout canon is the body of works considered to be an official part of the Fallout universe by its current rights holder, Bethesda Softworks since 2007.[1]

In the context of the Fallout Wiki, the term refers to the framework for authoring articles and resolving conflicts that may arise when covering topics spanning multiple games. The general idea is to provide a comprehensive overview of a subject drawing on all available sources, while clearly identifying their origin so that the origin of the information can be identified at a glance.

Canon

Canon sources encompass released video games and are the only binding source for the current IP holder. These are the point of reference for every other source and take absolute precedence over other sources.[2]

The Fallout canon includes content from six games:

Non-canon

Other content or material expands on what is included in the games and provides additional information. These sources encompass content outside the video games which take precedence. See formatting section below for guidelines on referencing non-canon sources.

Game manuals and guides

Manuals Strategy guides

Released video games

Games

Additional content

Content

Cancelled games

Cancelled

Bugged, cut, removed, unused

Content

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}} Fallout 76 removed content, {{cut}} Cut content, or {{unused}} Fallout 76 unused content.

Developer commentary

Developers share various pieces of information with the public, through blogs, forums, editorials, and other means. If supplementary sources conflict with each other, they should both be referenced and source clearly marked.[8][9]

Developer comments
  • Fallout Bible (2002): 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.[10]
  • Joshua Sawyer's Formspring responses (archived here), Tumblr posts, and SomethingAwful.com forum replies (2011).
  • Origins of Fallout blog (2012): 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 (2020): A behind-the-scenes live stream interview and Q&A session with the lead writer for Fallout 76: Wastelanders.[11]

Upcoming

The upcoming Fallout television series by Kilter Films was made in conjunction with Bethesda Softworks (Bethesda executives Todd Howard and James Altman serve as executive producers on the series). However, its relation with the rest of the franchise and especially the games is yet to be established.

Formatting guide

Any source that is non-canon should be referenced in the following format:


References

  1. Asset Purchase Agreement
  2. 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."
  3. 3.0 3.1 Todd Howard: "For our purposes, neither Fallout Tactics nor Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel happened."
  4. File:Bethesda Softworks LLC v. Behaviour Interactive, Inc. et al.pdf
  5. 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."
  6. 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."
  7. 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."
  8. 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."
  9. Mashable.com interview with David S.J. Hodgson, author of the strategy guides for Fallout 3, New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76
  10. The Fallout Bible on blackisle.com (archived)
  11. 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?"

See also

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