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This page is a part of the Fallout: The Apprentice contest. It should not be confused with in game content. |
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The Celestial Order is a quasi-religious group of warriors, made up mostly of psykers, in Fallout 4.
Background[]
When the Great War occured in 2077, approximately 800 people fled into Vault 81. Known by Vault-Tec employees as one of the two "Brain Vaults," Vault 81's experiment was to test the true limits of the human mind. For this, people were knowingly given various drugs and had surgeries performed on them. While there were many results to these experiments, both good and bad, it wasn't for a century and a half that they were able to successfully create psykers, people capable of manipulating or seeing the world through their minds.
It was sometime after this that the Vault dwellers learned that their very paranoid Overseer had the scientists secretly infect people with an inactive, but potentially fatal brain conditioning. When people learned of this, they revolted and went after the Overseer, causing him to order the Vault computer to release a chemical compound throughout the Vault. Once breathed in, the chemical activated everyone's conditioning and either killed them in minutes or drove them insane and berserk.
A small group was able to escape this disaster, thanks to Riza's grandmother, a precognitive psyker, who foresaw the events occurring the day before. The group escaped the Vault just as it all started and the chemical was released into the air, they were seemingly unaffected. After escaping the chaos of the Vault and now meeting the chaos of the outside Wasteland, the small group of psykers dedicated themselves to aiding this new world, planning to create order and spreading culture throughtout the wastes.
Naming themselves the Celestial Order, they have spent the past few decades strengthing themselves and helping nearby settlements. However, the Order has recently suffered problems. A raider group, known as the Riggers, has suddenly grown in power and is waging a war against the Order and the USPM. Meanwhile, it turns out the mental conditioning they had was indeed activated that day they escaped the Vault. It has somehow transmitted to their children and is causing various health complications and is shortening their life span, Riza commenting that her mother died of complications at the age of 40. While it's unknown why it didn't just outright kill them like the others, the effects are getting worse with every generation. If they don't find a cure soon or stop the Riggers, it may mean their destruction.
Society[]
The Celestial Order has developed their own set of beliefs since exiting the Vault. They believe that while technology is important to a society, it has an essential coexistance with the culture of said society. When the Great War occured, technology fell, but culture was nearly destoryed. When cultureless humans, like the USPM, gained technology beyond themselves, they only knew how to use it to destroy, both themselves and others, causing further chaos in the world. With the opposite problem, groups with surviving culture, but dead technology couldn't defend themselves and were killed off. Only those groups with equal culture and technology can
They believe that humans too have a similar relationship of body and mind. The mind representing one's karma and willpower, while the body represents their ability. Thus, the body and mind must be trained and maintained together. While so far the only psychic abilities they have seen have been hereditary, and even then some children do not gain them, the Order believes that through training of the mind and body, other humans can gain the same abilities.
The Order also states a belief in reincarnation, stating that bad karma can cause ill effects in either this life or your next.
Relations with the outside[]
The Celestial Order has gained some popularity due to their efforts in helping nearby settlements. The Order accepts any willing outsiders as members, as long as they share the Order's beliefs. While many wastelanders are thankful and optimistics about the Order, others will comment on the Order's psychic abilities with fear or state they believe them to be mere magic tricks. The Celestial Order attacks any raiders they meet on sight, which has now make them a target of the Riggers and has caused some distrust between them and the USPM, although they are more than willing to form an alliance with the Order.
Technology[]
Thanks to their origins from Vault 81, members born into the Celestial Order are well-educated compared to most wastelanders. While their weapon technology is lacking, consisting mostly of katanas and some guns, they make up for it with medicine and farming. They have a large stockpile of pre-War medical supplies, as well as some psychic abilities that help in this area, and are attempting to create newer remedies. They also have an efficient farming system inside the their temple's outdoor areas, producing a surplus of food which they often give to nearby towns. One major technology they do have is Vault 81's Garden of Eden Creation Kit, which they have yet to fully utilize, believing it will be more useful for a successful government than their small group.
Interactions with the player character[]
First contact with the group will largely depend on the character's Karma. If the player has good or neutral Karma, they will welcome the player and offer services. If the player has evil Karma however, the screen will begin to fade as they approach until the player falls over, unconscious. Upon awakening, they will find themselves tied up and will learn they were knocked out by Miya, a telepathic pskyer, who's now arguing with Cato, a pyrokinetic psyker who suggests killing you. After some discussion, Elder Leon will enter and demand your release, apologizing for their actions. However, he will only allow access to their temple unless you increase your Karma, fearing a similar incident.
By talking with members, listening to discussions and passing some skill checks, they can gain trust and gain access to more of the temple. Eventually, Leon will ask for the player's assistance involving their infection. The only hope they have of finding a cure in time is by getting information from the Vault, but the airborne chemical that activated their infection is still there, so a Vault descendant will be at risk upon entering, but an outsider would be safe, as long as they can handle whatever has moved in there since.
The Order will also need help against the Riggers, Gaius will specifically ask the player for help with this. While the USPM used to be a group of raiders, they have advanced somewhat since then, if only a little. Gaius asks you to deliver a request for an alliance, hoping that with their training and weapons, the two groups together may overwhelm the Riggers. With or without this alliance, the psykers will eventually launch an attack on the Riggers, although the results may be disastrous if they're alone in the fight.
Why does this make the game different?[]
While psykers have been in every main game to date, they so far have only appeared as either antagonists or minor characters (so minor I didn't even notice some of them till reading our psyker page). I hope that with this faction, more of them can be seen then in past games. They can be your best friends and you can be a member, they can help you in learning to use psychic powers yourself (not too sure about that part), they can be your worst enemies. Two of them, Riza and Cato, can even be companions, although the two of them couldn't be more different from each other. The psykers will have a variety of powers. While Cato is a pyrokinetic that creates fire with his mind, Riza would be an empathetic that feels the same way others feel around her, which may cause some problems for her if she's around a lot of negative people.
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