 | The following is based on Fallout Bible developer commentary. |
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The Great Awakening was a pivotal event in the history of the Vipers tribe. It is mentioned in the Fallout Bible.
Background[]
Origins in the Vault[]
As with the village of Shady Sands and rival tribes the Khans and Jackals, the Vipers were descended from the inhabitants of Vault 15. As part of the social experiment conducted by Vault-Tec, the dweller population was carefully selected to be a mix of radically diverse ideologies in order to observe and collect data on their interactions and potential conflicts over the 50 years the vault was planned to stay sealed.[Non-game 1] When the bombs fell on October 23, 2077, the dwellers reported to the Vault and were sealed inside, with all contact with the surface including other Vaults subsequently lost.[1]
As the years went by, the conditions within 15 deteriorated. Population control was not implemented properly and by 2097, 20 years after the nuclear apocalypse,[Non-game 2] the Vault had become overcrowded, with correspondingly bad living conditions. Once-passive conflicts started to become more aggressive, tensions boiling to a point.[Non-game 3]
By spring of that year, Vault 15's internal strife exploded, and a schism fractured former neighbors into separate groups. When the Vault's doors finally unsealed, most of the original dwellers marched out, beforehand taking the time to strip the shelter of the best equipment, including the Garden of Eden Creation Kit. By the end of the mass exodus, only a small group stayed behind, trying to continue living in the now gutted Vault.[2]
Reborn in the Pit[]
Among these fragmented groups of former neighbors, a man named Jonathan Faust had gathered a 200-strong group to him and they set out to brave the horrors of the wasteland. The group made it through the desert, eventually locating a small oasis that emerged around a large, crater-like pit. Shortly after making camp, Faust fell into the pit, after a member of the expedition startled him. After a nearly forty feet (twelve meter) fall, he discovered that the pit was a nest of vipers. They surrounded Faust, who let out one loud scream heard above, then disappeared. None of the three people who followed him inside ever returned, leaving two hundred people without leadership and with supplies on the verge of exhaustion. Worse, over one fourth of the people at the oasis suffered from radiation poisoning. Some of those who had the strength left the camp, while others remained for a week after Faust's disappearance, trying to come up with a plan, discussing reunification with other groups from the Vault or even going back to Vault 15 itself.[Non-game 4]
After that fateful week, as the group was preparing to move away from the oasis, Faust returned, pale, emaciated, and with a feverish gleam in his eyes. He explained what happened in the pit, that he was visited by a god and learned of "the True Way." Within this "sacred" pact, the tribe would be required to sacrifice people to the Gods of the Pit in return for wealth and happiness. When the group expressed skepticism, Faust unleashed two giant pit vipers on the group and laughed as they attacked both him and the others. By the next dawn, the pit vipers were dead by Faust's hand and a hundred former Vault dwellers as well, the rest of them on the verge of dying. By the afternoon, just a fifth of the two hundred dwellers remained alive, maddened by the effect of the mutated venom. Faust helped them through the fever and hallucinations, forming the nucleus of the new tribe, the Vipers, the event of the "Great Awakening." The Vipers built a shrine around the Pit and began carrying out raids on the "blasphemous" wastelanders they believed had rejected the Winding Way of the Great Snake.[Non-game 5]
Appearances[]
The Great Awakening is mentioned only in the Fallout Bible.
Behind the scenes[]
"Great Awakening" is a term that has been used to describe several periods of religious revival in American history.
References[]
- ↑ The Vault Dweller: "{138}{}{Where was this Vault of yours?}"
Katrina: "{140}{}{It was Vault-15. It is due east of here. We tried to make contact with some other Vaults, but we always failed. I think it was the raiders who attacked my fellow dwellers. Be careful!}"
(Katrina's dialogue) - ↑ The Vault Dweller: "{130}{}{Tell me about yourself.}"
Katrina: "{137}{}{My life was very boring. I was raised in a Vault. I lived there for many years. Unfortunately, we were crowded and life was very bad. There was a schism, and many people left, taking with them the best equipment. Still, some of us tried to stay in the Vault. But then we were attacked. I was hurt, and I ended up here. Now I try to help people . . .}"
(Katrina's dialogue)
Non-game
- ↑ Fallout Bible 0, List of Vaults and their experiments: "Vault 15 Intended to stay closed for 50 years and include people of radically diverse ideologies. Gathered from what you hear from Aradesh in Fallout 1, he has quite a bit of multi-cultural flavoring to his speech."
- ↑ The precise date of the settlement's founding is not established in any of the released video games and supplementary sources give conflicting information. Fallout Bible 0 places the founding in spring of 2142. However, this conflicts with Jarvis' statement about its foundation by a great ancestor of Aradesh. There is also no mention of the people of Shady Sands coming out of a Vault, which is inconsistent with the relatively recent founding date. Finally, as the Vipers, Jackals, and Khans emerged out of Vault 15 together, it's impossible for them to raid the Hub in 2125, sixteen years before their emergence. Meanwhile, the Vipers design document establishes that the Vipers left Vault 15 in 2097 (64 years before the game's time), emerging alongside the settlers that would establish Shady Sands. The date used here is based on the Vipers design document also published in the Bible, which states the following: "64 years ago [in 2097], a man named Jonathan Faust led his group of about 200 people from the overcrowded Vault into the wastes of the outside. It was there that his small band came to a small oasis in the middle of the desert. In the middle of this oasis was a large pit, almost like a crater. While resting and setting up camp, Faust decided to look into the pit. Darkness greeted him.
When a member of the band called out to him, Faust turned, startled, and slipped into the Pit. He slid down twenty feet and then fell another 20 and broke his leg in the process. As he lay there dazed, a half dozen gigantic Pit Vipers slithered toward him. Not knowing what these things were, Faust was terrified. The group above heard one loud scream and then nothing. Three others went to look for him, but never came out.
The small band, leaderless and stuck in the desert with no food and water, decided to stay at the oasis, at least for a little while. They covered the pit with a tarp and nailed spikes around it to keep whatever horror lived there encased there. They then set up their camp as far from the Pit as possible. Whatever was down in the Pit never bothered them. Days passed. The more influential of the group argued about what they were to do. There was talk of joining up with others from the Vault. There was talk about going back to the Vault." - ↑ Fallout Bible 0:
Fallout Bible 3: "2141 Spring Vault 15 opened." - ↑ Fallout Bible 6: "64 years ago, a man named Jonathan Faust led his group of about 200 people from the overcrowded Vault into the wastes of the outside. It was there that his small band came to a small oasis in the middle of the desert. In the middle of this oasis was a large pit, almost like a crater. While resting and setting up camp, Faust decided to look into the pit. Darkness greeted him.
When a member of the band called out to him, Faust turned, startled, and slipped into the Pit. He slid down twenty feet and then fell another 20 and broke his leg in the process. As he lay there dazed, a half dozen gigantic Pit Vipers slithered toward him. Not knowing what these things were, Faust was terrified. The group above heard one loud scream and then nothing. Three others went to look for him, but never came out.
The small band, leaderless and stuck in the desert with no food and water, decided to stay at the oasis, at least for a little while. They covered the pit with a tarp and nailed spikes around it to keep whatever horror lived there encased there. They then set up their camp as far from the Pit as possible. Whatever was down in the Pit never bothered them. Days passed. The more influential of the group argued about what they were to do. There was talk of joining up with others from the Vault. There was talk about going back to the Vault." - ↑ Fallout Bible 6: "During these four days, almost ¼ of the group was either dying or already dead. Those who survived the radiation poisoning were too weak to travel, while those who survived either left or stayed and helped defend the little settlement against the desert creatures.
Finally, after a week, the remaining members of the group decided to move on. They started to pack their belongings when an almost spectral figure emerged from the shadows. It was Faust, except this was not the strong leader they remembered. He was wan, pale, and emaciated, and there was a feverish gleam in his eyes. He told them that when he was down in the pit, a god visited him and told him the True Way. They would make sacrifices to the Gods of the Pit, and wealth and happiness would be theirs.
Of course, everyone was skeptical. Some were even violently rebellious, saying that Faust was crazy. After Faust patiently listened to them, he then whistled, and from behind him, came two very large Pit Vipers. Without warning, they struck. They attacked everyone in the group, including Faust, but he just laughed as they bit his flesh.
As the sun rose the next day, the two snakes lay dead by Faust's hands. Half of his people were dead, the other half were on the brink of death as the Pit Venom started to sink into their systems. By that afternoon most would be dead, but the forty or so survivors of the venom were half crazy with the aftereffects of the venom. Faust, himself immune to the venom, helped the remaining few through this time, which has come to be known as the Great Awakening. He whispered things to them, told them how the Great Snake has spared their lives, so that they would fight for His mighty cause.
And thus the Viper clan was born. They decided to make the Pit their Shrine, and to go out into the wastes and take what they needed from those blasphemers that did not follow the Winding Way of the Great Snake."