Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia,^[1] was a state of the pre-War United States of America.

Background

Historically, Virginia was one of the original thirteen colonies of Great Britain in North America, founded by English settlers. In the 18th century, Virginia subsequently became a state of the newly-independent United States following the American victory in the Revolutionary War.^[2] Some of the key figures in the war, and in the early years of the U.S., were from Virginia, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Virginia was also a major battleground in the American Civil War.

The state had strong U.S. military and corporate presences in the years before the Great War. The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which included parts of northern Virginia along the southern bank of the Potomac River, housed military facilities such as Fort Bannister and Fort Independence, as well as multiple Vault-Tec Vaults. Shenandoah National Park, a National Park Service-operated attraction further to the southwest in Appalachian Virginia, was largely bought up by Stolz Enterprises for the grand schemes of its CEO Hugo Stolz, a Vault-Tec board member who used the park as the site of Vault 63. Shenandoah also housed the Rapidan Camp, a holiday retreat and continuity-of-government bunker for the executive branch of the United States government.

Post-War

Like the rest of the United States, Virginia ceased to exist as a political entity after the Great War. Parts of the state were targeted more or less heavily during the Great War; the entire D.C. metropolitan area was heavily targeted due to its strategic and political significance, and was left as effectively a desert wasteland for the following centuries. On the other hand, Shenandoah National Park and the rest of Appalachia were largely spared due to their remoteness, with the valley retaining much of its forests even just 25 years after the Great War.

By 2105, the area around Shenandoah National Park had become known as Skyline Valley. That year, a weather experiment gone wrong created a permanent, massive, unnatural thunderstorm over the area which devastated much of the region. The experiment also mutated many of Vault 63's surviving dwellers into beings known as the Lost, who spread throughout the region, posing a threat to all of its remaining inhabitants. The Vault Dwellers of Vault 76 worked with the surviving leadership of Vault 63 to try and resolve this crisis, though the Lost and the storm seem to be persistent for the foreseeable future.^[3]

The D.C. metropolitan area became known after the Great War as the Capital Wasteland. By 2277, some settlements such as Megaton persisted in the northern Virginian portion of the Capital Wasteland. However, like the rest of the region, it remained largely as a lawless, deserted wasteland, in no small part due to hostile raiders, super mutants, and wildlife, despite the efforts of some groups like the Brotherhood of Steel to protect innocents. That year, the Enclave emerged to seize control over the region, leading to a region-wide war between them and the Brotherhood which ended with the Enclave's defeat and retreat from the entire Capital Wasteland.^[4][5][6]

Locations

This list contains major locations in the Capital Wasteland and Skyline Valley regions, as well as other prominent mentioned-only locations within Virginia. For a full list of other, smaller locations within the Capital Wasteland, see here. For other locations within Skyline Valley, see here.

Appearances

Virginia appears in Fallout 3 and Fallout 76, expanded in its update Skyline Valley. It is mentioned in Fallout 4 as well in the Fallout 76 updates Wastelanders and Boardwalk Paradise.

References