This page is about the region in Lonesome Road. For the similarly named region in Fallout 76, see Savage Divide. |
The Divide is a post-War landmark in the former American Southwest. It serves as the setting of the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Lonesome Road and is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and its add-ons Dead Money, Honest Hearts, and Old World Blues.
Background[]
Pre-War[]
An isolated town located on the border between the states of California and Nevada, Hopeville and its bigger brother, Ashton, were established in the late 21st century in the remote badlands west of the Mojave Desert to act both as an example of the American dream in practice and its guardians. Beneath white picket fences, family cookouts and children happily frolicking in the streets lay an extensive network of nuclear missile silos built under the auspices of the Commonwealth Defense Administration's Ballistic Defense Division. Although omnipresent jingoistic propaganda declared this a solid ground for the American dream, it was anything but. The complex was established in a geologically unstable region, where minor earthquakes were quite common. Military authorities downplayed these problems, confident in the safety of American engineering.[1] Further problems arose as a result of the US Army brokering a deal with the Big MT research company, allowing them to use Hopeville as proving grounds for a research project involving weather control and the denizens of the region as guinea pigs.[2][3]
Although Hopeville was a planned community with carefully selected citizens to filter out potential Communist elements, it was not foolproof. By 2077, the region had a large community of dissidents, including those involved in a hippie counterculture who protested the ongoing Sino-American War and the ravages of the military-industrial complex at military construction camps across both Hopeville and Ashton. In an example of the "white-hot rage of capitalist justice," the Political Office arranged to have these dissidents rounded up and sent to Big MT's main facility as test subjects for the company's latest projects, aided by soldiers under the command of General Wellesley, the military liaison to Big MT.[4][5][6]
Although considered a vital part of America's ballistic shield, it ultimately turned out that building the missile complex near active fault lines turned out to be a bad idea. During the Great War, most of the nuclear missiles stored in these missile silos were never launched, remaining safely in their berths for the next two centuries.[7]
Post-War revival[]
Although Hopeville and Ashton were abandoned in the wake of the nuclear apocalypse, a small community would cling to life within the storm-covered lands on the edges of the former American territory for decades after. Braving the harsh weather unleashed on it constantly from the weather experiments done by Big MT, those who inhabited the ruins of the Old World structures in Hopeville and Ashton stubbornly clung to life, said to draw strength or inspiration from the ancient symbols and technology that surrounded them. By the 23rd century, the settlement flourished thanks to a single courier who was willing to brave the seasons and storms to deliver packages to the community. Whatever the reason, that lone courier trekked the hard road repeatedly, giving them hope and a connection to civilization.[8]
This community eventually styled itself as the Divide, taking their name not from the monstrous gash in the earth that would eventually appear there, but rather its role both as a divide and bridge between the west and east, to the New California Republic and the settlements of the Mojave Wasteland. To some, this community represented a chance to become something akin to a second Shady Sands, the infant form of something that could grow to be better than either the NCR in the west or the Legion in the east.[9] The nation that would stir to life here had a chance of bridging the gap between the East and the West, between Caesar's tribes and the great houses of the NCR. Something greater than either, that could unify the two flags into a single banner.[10]
But that would never come to pass. Instead, however, the New California Republic moved in, following the trail blazed by that lone courier. The Divide was brought into the fold, becoming a major secondary route into the Mojave and helping to reduce the traffic along the Long 15 to the Core Lands of the NCR. Both the army and the merchant houses of the NCR benefited from the new route established through this storm-wracked region. Naturally, the NCR's advantage of two lifelines leading into the Mojave were a serious problem for Caesar's strategy, as it gave the NCR a tremendous logistical advantage despite the intense campaign of sabotage in the period leading up to the First Battle of Hoover Dam.[11] In the months leading up to the battle, Caesar dispatched a group of frumentarii and assassins to cut the supply line and deny the road to the NCR, building on the destruction of New Canaan and raids on caravans out west.[12][13][14][15]
The Second Divide[]
However, it was the same courier that brought civilization back to the Divide, who would play the pivotal role in its second destruction. As both legionaries and NCR troops executed the plans of their masters, the courier came with a delivery of a single package from the faraway Navarro, recovered by the NCR and sent with them to the Divide. The NCR believed the people who lived among the silos, surrounded by Old World symbols like those on the package, could help them make sense of the item and the symbol emblazoned upon it. What they didn't realize was that the package would seal the Divide's doom.
After being delivered, the Dividers opened it up and the device suddenly activated, linking with the launch computers hidden in the dormant silos by "talking" to them in sending launch codes and security overrides. Warheads started exploding beneath the ground, triggering a massive earthquake that ripped the land open, twisting Ashton, Hopeville and the military facilities above and beneath. It became an expanse of cracked, blighted landscape, while the sand and ash from the devastation was caught and kicked up into the skies above by the artificial storms, turning an already savage weather into one, monstrous dust storm that could skin a man alive.[16][17][18]
In fact, it did flay people alive, but not all died. Those who weren't killed by the nuclear detonations or debris let loose by the earthquake were twisted by the radioactive storms, constantly flayed alive and turned into terrifying mutants; dead men walking sustained only by the radiation without and the hate within. Regardless of their previous affiliation, these creatures, now known as the "Marked Men," banded together into packs, repairing their armor and weapons with whatever this new "Divide" provided.[19] There was only one survivor, saved from death or marking by the medical robots of the Divide, which mistook the Stars and Stripes on his back for a U.S. military uniform. He walked out of the Divide, whole on the outside, but broken within.[20]
Despite the loss of the Legion task force, the destruction of the Divide was a strategic victory for the Legion. With the land around Hopeville and Ashton destroyed and the sandstorm wreaking havoc on all who tried to pass through, the NCR lost its secondary supply route and couldn't take California State Route 127 north to get around the mountains anymore. Companies sent through were torn apart before they even reached the lands of Nevada, with Ranger scouts later confirming that the route was impassable.[21][22][23] Without it, NCR could not march reinforcements into Nevada fast enough to capitalize on their victory at the First Battle of Hoover Dam, giving Caesar time to retreat to Arizona and prepare his Legion for another confrontation.[24]
The story of the Divide continued, however. The memory of the settlement has vanished from common consciousness, scrubbed by the violent storms that rendered it impossible to brave for all but the hardiest of travelers. One person remembered, though. A former Legion frumentarius, Ulysses walked the wastes for four more years, reflecting on the destruction brought upon the fledgling nation by a single courier. Disillusioned with the Legion and the NCR alike, Ulysses decided to make history repeat itself. Unlike the Courier, however, he would do so with open eyes. He gathered knowledge and slowly mastered the Divide's many secrets, bringing the nuclear silos back to life as best he could.
Then fortune smiled upon him. The arrival of ED-E in the Mojave Wasteland sped the process up greatly, as the Divide's machines remotely scanned the eyebot and manufactured a new series of robots that accelerated the restoration of the silos. In the process, fragments of the nuclear detonator that the Courier delivered were scavenged and used to manufacture a unique maintenance eyebot at the Hopeville missile silo, though it remained in stasis.[17]
Recognizing this as an auspicious moment, Ulysses sent a single message to the Courier who just cheated death at Goodsprings, inviting them to walk the lonesome road through the Divide and unknowingly bring the eyebot to him. Then he waited, preparing the nuclear missiles to wipe the slate clean once more, but not before he had a chance for reckoning with the Courier, to have an "ending to things" beneath the storms of the Divide and the Old World flag.[7]
Layout[]
Infamously known as a land of death and doom to many on the West Coast, the Divide is located northwest of the Mojave Wasteland, somewhere approximate near the Nevada/California border, with the Big Empty situated to the south.[2][22] It was once the home of Hopeville, a planned community built around and over a ballistic missile silo complex, and Ashton, a large city that doubled as a major highway junction. However, whatever the Divide was is largely irrelevant, as the nuclear disaster that befell the region at the Courier's hands has turned it into an unrecognizable mess of twisted metal, concrete and dirt, slowly weathered by the massive sandstorm blanketing the entire region.
The nuclear missiles concealed within Ashton's silos were launched by the automatic detonator delivered by the Courier, exploding beneath the ground. The explosions, combined with the presence of the Pahrump Valley fault line, created a massive canyon stretching east to west, filled with collapsed buildings, vehicles and infrastructure from Ashton. The highway network was warped and twisted by the combination of factors, with entire fragments of the elevated superhighway breaking off and crushing buildings below.
Hopeville and adjacent southern military facilities escaped much of the devastation, as missile silos were outside the range of the detonator's transmitter. However, they were subjected to the terrifying earthquakes and subsequent storms, with at least one missile bunker listing nearly fifteen degrees due to the shifting foundations. Structural reinforcement and armor ensured the survival of these installations, complete with power infrastructure.
- Ashton missile silo
- Ashton silo control station
- Ashton
- Boxwood Hotel roof
- Cave of the Abaddon
- Collapsed overpass tunnel entrance
- High Road entrance
- High Road
- Hopeville armory
- Hopeville men's barracks
- Hopeville Missile Base - Loading station
- Hopeville Missile Base Headquarters
- Hopeville Missile Base
- Hopeville missile silo bunker
- Hopeville silo bunker entrance
- Hopeville women's barracks
- Hopeville
- Junction 7 rest stop
- Marked men base
- Marked men camp
- Marked men guard outpost
- Marked men supply outpost
- Municipal sewers
- Pass to canyon wreckage
- Path to the Courier's Mile
- Ruined highway interchange
- Slide show theater room
- Sunstone Tower roof
- The Courier's Mile
- The Crow's Nest
- The Divide
- Third Street Municipal Building
- Ulysses' Temple
- Waste disposal station
- Wastewater treatment plant
Related quests[]
Name | Location(s) | Given by | Reward | Quest ID |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Reunion | Canyon wreckage | Radio Signal | 10 XP | xx003603 |
The Silo | The Divide | Pip-Boy | 2200 XP | xx003617 |
The Job | Hopeville missile silo bunker | Ulysses | 2310 XP | xx00360F |
The Launch | High Road | Ulysses | 4400 XP | xx0039E3 |
The Divide | Ashton silo control station | Pip-Boy | 4400 XP | xx003610 |
The Tunnelers | Cave of the Abaddon | Pip-Boy | 2200 XP | xx003613 |
The Courier | Ulysses' Temple | Pip-Boy | 2200 XP | xx003616 |
The End | Ulysses' Temple | Pip-Boy | 5000 XP, a footlocker containing various unique items, +1 SPECIAL Point, + Brotherhood of Steel fame and Followers of the Apocalypse fame. |
xx003615 |
The Apocalypse | Ulysses' Temple | Pip-Boy | 5000 XP Courier duster, Ulysses' duster, Ulysses' mask +1 SPECIAL Point, Access to the Long 15 and/or Dry Wells Boomers and Powder Ganger fame (both targets only) NCR fame (targeted Legion) Legion fame (targeted NCR) |
xx00BF03 |
Notes[]
- Traveling between the Mojave Wasteland and the Divide takes a total of three in-game days.
- Exiting and entering the Divide resets water, food and sleep counters to 0 in Hardcore mode.
Appearances[]
The Divide appears only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Lonesome Road. It is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and its add-ons Dead Money, Honest Hearts and Old World Blues.
Behind the scenes[]
- Before the release of Lonesome Road, Chris Avellone shared his goals with the design of the Divide, some of the limitations the team faced, and the location's relationship to the story lines of the other add-ons.[Non-game 1] He also stated that "when setting out, the goal was to deliver a Zelazny-style Damnation Alley experience in the Fallout universe",[Non-game 2] considering the book an inspiration.[Non-game 3]
- According to Chris Avellone, the package carried by the Courier was from the NCR following their destruction of Navarro.[Non-game 4]
- The real-world town of Ashton was a water stop on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, located in Nye County near Death Valley and the California/Nevada state line. Almost nothing of the town or railroad remains today.
- Before the release of Lonesome Road, Chris Avellone's Twitter avatar showed the Divide.
- The ruined buildings in the Divide were created by Megan Parks.[Non-game 5]
- David Lieu handled the propping in the Divide proper. In the Cave of the Abaddon, he also handled the lighting.[Non-game 6]
Gallery[]
References[]
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Non-game