Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Cookie

2012-07-02T20:02:58Z

PaulW:

[[Image:Plate of cookies.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Plate of cookies]]
A '''cookie''' (or '''biscuit''' in the UK) is a small flat or slightly raised cake. In the USA, cookies can be large and chewy in texture, or crispy.
The name 'cookie' derives from the Dutch ''koekje'', which is a diminutive of ''koek'', cake. Popular types of cookies in the US include Oreos and chocolate chip cookies.

In the UK, a cookie is not usually called a cookie. It is called a [[biscuit]], from a French word for twice cooked bread. In the UK biscuits are generally small and crispy in texture. The UK term for a US-style biscuit is a [[scone]].

== Oreos Gay Rights Controversy ==
On the 25th June, 2012, Oreos uploaded a picture of a rainbow coloured Oreo onto their Twitter page, with the quote "Support love!" and the word "Pride" written below it. This was an obvious support of homosexual rights groups, and Gay Pride. Many Christians were upset by this obvious display of liberal bias, some deciding no longer to eat Oreos again while others claimed that eating Oreos was now a sin and was evidence of going directly against God's commands. Liberals seemed to find this amusing, making fun of the obesity of some Conservative Christians, while others reported that the Oreos sign of supporting homosexuality was a plan to stop obesity in the southern states of the USA.

[[Category:Baked Goods]]

Dante's Inferno

2012-07-02T19:57:42Z

PaulW:

[[Image:Gustave_Dore_Inferno1.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Dante lost in the dark forest: ''In the midway of this our mortal life / I found me in a gloomy wood, astray'' (Canto I)]]
The '''Inferno''' is the first of the three cantiche in [[Dante]]'s poetic work, ''[[The Divine Comedy]]'', about his imagined trip to [[Hell]] ('Inferno' is the Italian word for 'Hell'). It is very frightening. According to Dante, the inscription at the entrance to Hell reads "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

''The Divine Comedy'' was most famously illustrated by [[Gustave Doré]], whose very literal interpretations of the punishments sinners suffer in Hell are truly horrifying. However, the book is not nessecarily Biblicaly accurate, and so is most likely not the correct view of Hell.

[[Category:Poetry]]
[[Category:Sin]]

==Structure of Hell==
Dante's vision of Hell is a very ordered one. Hell is an enormous conical pit that leads down to the centre of the Earth. Within the pit are nine circles of decreasing size, where those condemned to Hell are punished. Every kind of sin has its own allotted place, either an entire circle or, lower down, a subdivision of a circle. Down the side of the entire pit runs a crack, which was caused by the [[earthquake]] that happened at the [[Crucifixion]].

===The gate of Hell===
At the gate of Hell there is an inscription, famously ending 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here', because those condemned to Hell have lost their chance of salvation for good. Beyond the gate is the river [[Acheron]], the first of four rivers in Hell. As in classical mythology, [[Charon]] the ferryman carries the souls of the dead across the river. Gathered on the near bank are the Futile, souls of the dead who did nothing remarkable in their lives and are condemned to be forgotten.

===Limbo===
The first circle of Hell is [[Limbo]], home to those who led good lives but were not Christians, so cannot enter Heaven. Although it is in Hell, Limbo is relatively pleasant - the only punishment is disappointment and regret. Limbo in the Divine Comedy is analogous to the [[Elysian Fields]] in classical mythology.

[[Image:Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_006.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Dante and Virgil are ferried across the River [[Styx]], towards the City of Dis: ''And thus the good instructor: "Now, my son, / Draws near the city, that of Dis is named"'' (Canto VIII) (Illustration by [[Eugene Delacroix]]).]]

===The lesser circles===
The next four circles are known as 'lesser Hell', because the sins that are punished there are the result of weakness rather than malicious intent. These are:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Circle
! Sin
! Punishment
|-
| Second
| [[Lust]]
| Wind
|-
| Third
| [[Gluttony]]
| Rain
|-
| Fourth
| [[Greed]]
| Pushing boulders
|-
| Fifth
| [[Anger]]
| Submerged in a marsh
|}
The marsh in the fifth circle is the river [[Styx]]. Dante and his guide must again be ferried across to continue their journey.

===The City of Dis===
The four lower circles of Hell (known collectively as lower or nether Hell) are inside a walled city called Dis (one of the names of [[Satan]]). From outside the city looks like a bustling metropolis of [[evil]], but inside it is revealed to be an eerie and deserted graveyard. This is the sixth circle of Hell, where [[heretic]]s are buried in tombs and set on fire.

===The seventh circle: Violence===
The seventh circle is split into three regions, where different forms of violence are punished:

* Violence against others, including tyranny, is punished in [[Phlegethon]], the river of fire. This river runs right round the outer edge of the seventh circle and then down towards the center of the pit.
* Violence against oneself. On the inner bank of Phlegethon is a wood, where the trees turn out to be [[suicide]]s who have been condemned to give up their human form. Wanton spendthrifts (mainly compulsive [[gambling|gamblers]]) are also punished here, pursued through the wood by harpies.
* Violence against [[God]] or nature. This category includes [[blasphemy|blasphemers]], [[Usury|usurers]] and [[homosexuals]]. All are punished in a desert of unbearable heat where fire rains from the sky.

The only way to cross the desert is to walk along the dykes that guide the river Phlegethon towards the center of Hell. Beyond the desert, this river flows down a sheer drop into the eighth circle.

===Malebolge===
The eighth circle is called Malebolge (which could be translated roughly as 'evil ditches'). It is made up of ten concentric trenches, each of which is home to those guilty of a different form of [[fraud]]:

[[Image:Mohammed by gustave dore.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Mohammed]] and other sunderers are punished in the eighth circle: ''"Now mark how I do rip me: lo! / How is Mohammed mangled"'' (Canto XXVIII)]]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Form of fraud
! Punishment
|-
| [[Seduction]]
| Forced marching and whipping
|-
| [[Flattery]]
| Buried in filth
|-
| [[Simony]]
| Stuck in wells and set on fire
|-
| [[Sorcery]] and soothsaying
| Heads twisted backwards
|-
| [[Barratry]]
| Immersed in boiling tar
|-
| [[Hypocrisy]]
| Crushed under lead cloaks
|-
| [[Theft]]
| Turned into [[lizard]]s
|-
| Evil counsel
| Fire
|-
| Sundering
| Mutilated by [[demon]]s
|-
| [[Deceit]] and [[forgery]]
| Disease
|}

These sins are known as minor fraud, as distinct from treachery (see below), which is considered a worse form of fraud. The imaginative, cruel and grotesque punishments of the eighth circle provide some of the most enduring images in the Inferno, and are what most people have in mind when they think of the works of Dante.

[[Image:Gfdyte7y6.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Satan in the Ninth Circle of Hell: ''That Emperor, who sways / The realm of sorrow, at mid breast from the ice / Stood forth'' (Canto XXXIV)]]

===Cocytus===
The ninth and lowest circle, situated at the bottom of a deep well leading down to the center of the earth, is set aside for [[Treachery|traitors]]. The circle takes the form of a frozen lake called [[Cocytus]] (the fourth river of Hell), and the traitors are frozen into the [[ice]]. Some have their heads free, while others are completely covered, according to the severity of their treachery.

In the ultimate depths of this circle, the travelers come upon [[Satan]] and the three worst human offenders: [[Judas Iscariot]], [[Brutus]] and [[Cassius]]. Satan is depicted as a three-headed, winged [[demon]] of immense size, yet at the same time he is a pathetic figure: he is unable to move except to beat his wings ineffectually, and he cries constantly. The three worst traitors are punished by being chewed by Satan himself, and Judas, as the worst of all, is also lacerated by Satan's claws.

In Dante’s time, [[Julius Caesar]] was honored as the first emperor of Rome, and Rome brought the ‘[[Pax Romana]]’. Hence, his assassins Brutus and Cassius are seen as having betrayed the divinely-ordained natural order.<ref> [[The Divine Comedy]], By Dante Alighieri, Translated by Charles Singleton, Bollingen Series 80, Vol 1: Inferno. Copyright 1970 by Princeton University Press. </ref>

==Denizens of Hell==
===Sinners===
As he and Virgil travel through Hell, Dante speaks to many of the people he meets. Each circle is home to a multitude of sinners who are punished there, but the ones Dante identifies are mainly taken from antiquity, the [[Bible]], and Florentine and Italian history.

Some notable encounters are:
* [[Ulysses]], who is punished in the eighth circle for his role in the [[Trojan War]] (Dante sympathised with the Trojans as the ancestors of the founders of [[Rome]]).
* Brunetto Latini, a teacher of Dante's, who is punished for his homosexuality in the seventh circle.
* [[Mohammed]], who is punished as a sunderer in the eighth circle. As the founder of [[Islam]], his is blamed for leading many people away from Christianity. However, not all Muslims are treated so badly - some are allowed a place in Limbo, which means they committed no sin other than lacking the correct faith.
* Various [[Pope]]s - Dante took an extremely dim view of what he saw as the corrupt nature of the [[Church]] at the time.

===Demons and monsters===
As well as the shades of humans, Hell is home to a number of supernatural creatures. Some of the punishments are carried out by demons, for example a demon with an enormous sword mutilates the sunderers in the eighth circle. In addition, each circle is guarded by a creature who personifies the sins punished there:
[[Image:canino.png|right|thumb|200px|A carving of Cerberus, guardian of the third circle: ''Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange'' (Canto VI)]]
* '''Minos''', mythical king of [[Crete]], guards the second circle (lust). He is depicted as a monstrous creature with a tail, who has the task of assigning new arrivals in Hell to their allotted place.
* [[Cerberus]] the ravenous three-headed dog guards the third circle (gluttony).
* '''Plutus''', the personification of wealth, guards the fourth circle (greed). He speaks the unintelligible phrase 'Pape Satan, Pape Satan aleppe!', which has caused much debate among scholars as to its meaning.
* '''Phlegyas''', another mythical king, is the ferryman who carries Dante across the Styx (circle of anger).
* The '''furies''' are seen on the walls of the City of Dis before Dante and Virgil gain entry to the circle of heresy.
* The seventh circle (violence) is guarded by the [[Minotaur]] and patrolled by [[Centaur]]s.
* '''Geryon''', depicted as a strange beast with a handsome face and scaled body, carries Dante and Virgil down into the circle of fraud.
* Many giants, including [[Nimrod]] and the [[Titans]], stand around the edge of the lowest circle. The [[Titans]] committed treason by waging war against the gods, while Nimrod committed treason against God by building the [[Tower of Babel]] (he now speaks a language that none can understand).

== Punishments ==
The most famous feature of the Inferno is its wide and imaginative variety of punishments, many of which have an obvious connection with the sin in question. This connection is mentioned directly in canto XXVIII, where those who caused divisions and schisms are themselves split apart by a sword-wielding demon. The [[Italian]] word ''contrapasso'' is used to describe this idea.

The degree of ''contrapasso'' varies from one punishment to the next. In some cases, such as the schismatics already mentioned, or the [[hypocrisy|hypocrite]]s who are crushed under lead cloaks with a thin layer of gold on the outside, the association is very direct. In others, it is more oblique; for example, the souls of the lustful are blown about by a wind, which some commentators see as representing how, in life, they were buffeted by the caprice of their own emotions. In still other cases, it is hard to see any correspondence at all - for example, [[barratry|barraters]] are boiled in tar, which is obviously painful but has little to do with political corruption.

This variation could be seen as a good example of the inconsistency of style that characterises the Divine Comedy as a whole (see the discussion on [[The Divine Comedy#Style(s)|styles]] in the main article).

== In Popular Culture ==

A 2002 best-selling mystery novel by Matthew Pearl, ''The Dante Club,'' is a piece of historical fiction set in [[Boston]] in 1865. It is based partly on real events; the [[Dante Club]] was real, the mystery story is not. At the time, not many people in the [[United States]] knew [[Italian]] or Dante's work. A group of writers formed a club to translate Dante's work and promote his importance. Three of them were [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]], and [[James Russell Lowell]]. Like Dante's work itself, it has frightening and gruesome scenes, but is rich in historical background.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External Links==
* [http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.html ''Research Edition''] of ''The Divine Comedy'' by the Electronic Literature Foundation

{{DivineComedy}}
[[Category:Christian Literature, Art, and Media]]

Ancient Greece

2012-06-10T20:50:41Z

PaulW:

[[Image:Greek empire.jpg|left]]
[[File:Beginnings hist greece.jpg|thumb|700 - 600 B.C.]]
'''Ancient Greece''' was the area of the world similar to modern day [[Greece]] but also had [[Greek]] colonies in the modern nations of [[Turkey]], and [[Macedonia]].

Greece was responsible for much of modern [[democracy]], [[philosophy]], [[mathematics]], and [[science]], as well as a great deal of art and the introduction of the [[Olympic Games]] (See: [[Greek influence on Western Culture]]). Ancient Greek works had a great influence on the [[Rome|Romans]]. By the time of [[Christ]], Greek was the dominant language and literary form of the day even though Greece itself had been conquered by Rome. Many of the early missionary journies were into Greek areas and all of the epistles that [[Paul]] wrote were to churches set up in Greek lands. Paul's philosophical discussions in [[Athens]] and the belief of the people that he was [[Zeus]], all tied into the Greek culture of the day as well as the [[New Testament]] books themselves being written in [[Greek language|Greek]] and using a Greek translated [[Old Testament]] ([[Septuagint]]). Ancient Church Fathers were careful to draw a distinction between Greek culture and the unique message of [[Christianity]] that was meant for all.<ref>As [[Tertullian]] said, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?"</ref>
[[File:OedipusSphinx.jpg|180px|right|Oedipus and the Sphinx]]
The ancient Greek consciousness made a common reference to the [[Trojan War]] as the point of cultural origin, and self-awareness as a society in works such as the [[Iliad]] and the [[Odyssey]].

While it was independent, the ancient Greek world never unified into a central polity. Rather, individual city-states fought for dominion over many centuries, fighting with one another as to who would be prominent. This was especially true between Athens and [[Sparta]]. But while they fought amongst themselves, when a foreign entity sought to invade, such as the [[Persian Empire]], the Greeks would come together in a unity seldom rivaled in history. [[Alexander the Great]] of [[Macedonia]] would eventually subdue Greece along with almost the entire known world at the time, but that would only lead to the spreading of Greek culture as Macedon was Hellenistic in nature and Greece was once again "free" after his death. Rome eventually put an end to ancient Greek independence, but not its influence.

<blockquote>
Greek life was dominated by [[religion]] and so it is not surprising that the temples of ancient Greece were the biggest and most beautiful.They also had a political purpose as they were often built to celebrate civic power and pride, or offer thanksgiving to the patron deity of a city for success in war. <ref> [http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Art/ Architecture in ancient Greece] </ref>
</blockquote>

[[Greek mythology]] is a collection of stories and narratives concerning their gods, heroes and mythological creatures. Hesiod's ''Theogony'' is an important source of myths as well as Homer's epic poems.

== Homosexuality and the affects on Greece ==

Homosexuality was generally accepted in Ancient Greece, although not in the way it is known in the modern world. Gay rights activists sometimes use Greece as an example of how homosexuality can be benefical, normally unaware of methods such as pederasty which were commonly practiced. Some historians also believe that homosexuality helped lead to the downfall of Ancient Greece, as the population was not growing so much and food sources were not being produced as a result and armies became small.

== See also ==

*[[Acropolis]]
*[[Parthenon]]
*[[Homer]]
*[[Greek Philosophy]]
*[[Architecture]]

==Further reading==
* Pomeroy, Sarah B. et al. ''Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History'' (1999) [http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Greece-Political-Cultural-History/dp/0195097432/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255295458&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]

== References ==
<references/>

[[category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Ancient Greece]]

Fallout Series

2012-06-10T20:35:45Z

PaulW:

The '''''Fallout'' Series''' is a series of four [[role playing game]]s (named Fallout 1,2, and 3 and New Vegas) and a series of more action oriented spin offs named Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel; both of which are considered non-canon by developers and generally ignored by the players. The first two were developed by Black Isle Studios, released in 1997 and 1998, the third was developed by Bethesda Softworks of ''Elder Scrolls'' fame and released in 2008; and New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and produced by Bethesda in 2010.

The main series revolve around the player character interacting with a post-nuclear war America in the years 2161 (fallout 1), 2241 (fallout 2), 2277 (fallout 3) and 2281 (New Vegas).

==Setting==
The setting of the fallout series is in a alternate timeline post nuclear war America; with the first two games taking place in the California region, the third in the immediate area of Washington DC and New Vegas in the area of the Mojave Desert around Las Vegas.

===Background of the in game world===

The Games timeline split off from the real world shortly after [[WW2]] ended, with american culture staying at the 1950's while technology followed the path of the "World of the future; complete with fusion powered cars and robots, laser rifles and the world as seen in a leave it to beaver episode. Also kept from the 50's was the extreme (and in some/many cases justified) paranoia of communism. This state would last until the late 2040's, when oil supplies across the world began to run dry, and conflict broke out in the resource wars, seeing the united nations disband, fighting between the European commonwealth (this worlds [[EU]]) and the Middle east until the oil fields ran out; and eventually, America VS China for control of the alaskan pipeline (which also caused the United states to annex Canada).

Fear of the imminent nuclear war would cause the United states to start the vault program, which was designed to build a number of underground fallout bunkers that could hold a thousand people until it was safe to recolonize the earth. However, through the machinations of the semi-shadow government Enclave, most became social experiments that were never designed to actually save it's inhabitants. At the same time the American culture was on rotten stands, soon to collapse as the strain of the world began to take it's toll.

All of this would become pointless on October 21st, 2077, when the world slate was wiped clean in a 2 hour long nuclear bombardment that radically changed the world. It is not known who fired first, but as far as most people living in the wastes care, it doesn't matter.

===Post-War===
Immediately after the war, chaos ruled as people tried to find a place to survive the bombs. Many people either died of radiation sickness or turned into ghouls, besides the lucky few who were killed by normal methods of death. To compound on a horrible situation, entire continents either sunk or rose, mountains were created and the entire world environment collapsed, with most of the planet turning into a barren wasteland; ontop of the black radiation filled rain that killed most surviving species after the war.

==Common elements of the series==
===Radiation===
Radiation acts much like it did in the 1950's world of tomorrow, and instead of simply killing you or causing horrible problems, can mutate you into something more; or maybe, if your lucky/not so lucky, turn you into a ghoul, people who resemble the living dead and have very long lifespans. As the basis of the series is a nuclear war; radiation is everywhere: the food, the water, the ground, everywhere.

===Ghouls===
Ghouls are who have been subjugated to a immense amount of radiation and instead of dying of radiation poisoning, have turned into zombie like creatures. For the most part they are still human, just, different, but because of this they are horrible prejudiced against by most of the world, mostly because they look like zombies. In the later games, Feral ghouls were introduced, which for all intents and purposes are zombies and can not be reasoned with at all.

===Super Mutants===
Humans who have been subjected to a government made virus called the'' Forced Evolutionary Virus'' (FEV), which was designed to create super soldiers. It worked to a degree, the subjects became strong, tougher, but at the cost of both intelligence (for some, many original super mutants are intelligent) and became aggressive to a fault and, as a major plot point in the first and third game, Sterile, forcing them to use more humans to keep the super mutant species alive. In the first game they were the main enemy and in the third a major sub-enemy.

===World of Tomorrow Idealism/Cultural Stasis===
The basis of the entire series, in the words of a fan, is "The American 1950's vision of the World of tomorrow, nuked to hell". The world of fallout contains the Radio still being a entertainment superpower, TV is cheap and still resembles the antenna sets, robots do the house keeping for mom who stays home to do what she has to; dad is king of the castle and the children are obedient to their elders. Along with this, computers are still room sized, and if they are portable, they resemble early Macintosh's.

===Brotherhood of Steel===
The decedents of a group of soldiers and their families who, shortly before the war declared themselves in desertion from the U.S. Army as a result of scientists using unwilling soldiers for FEV tests.. They more or less worship technology and seek to take all advanced technology from the hands of the wastelanders, although the reason varies from, "simple selfishness" to "wanting to protect them from it". They are very secretive and xenophobic, and besides a few members and the detachment on the east coast could care less about what happens to the world unless it threatens them. By New Vegas, they have fought a costly war with the New California Republic and lost, at least on the west coast and are slowly dying because of their refusal to change their ways.

===Enclave===
Like the brotherhood of steel, they have ties to pre-war America and also xenophobic, but to a much more extreme degree. When they first show up in Fallout 2, they are in power armor (Armor that makes them a walking mechanized division), and kill most of the people inside vault 13 (the first games player's home) and establish themselves as being opposed to most of the wasteland. Later they kidnap the player characters home village for evil experiments. Eventually, on an pre-war oil rig, you confront the president, a man leading the plan to use a modified FEV Virus to infect the jet-stream and cleanse (Genocide) North America so "Pure Strain" Humans can reclaim it.You can choose to join them, but canon has you blowing up the oil rig; afterwards "President John Henry Eden" a super-computer summons the remnants across the continent to reclaim Washington DC, intended to activate and infect "Project Purity" to both purify and poison the waters for any creature mutated in the wasteland. This plan also fails because of the player character and east coast Brotherhood of Steel. also revealing that the human second in command had no interest in the genocide part of the plan, merely wanting to activate Project Purity so the enclave could have the credit for saving washington and begin reuniting america.

===Vaults===
Giant, underground fallout shelters designed to hold a thousand people comfortably til they could recolonize the planet. The exact number is unknown but thought to be around 115, spread across America. This in itself reflects the vaults were nenver meant to save even a good fraction of the American population; and also hides the true nature of the vaults: Social Experiments of the enclave to test various conditions on people (apparently to see how people would react during a trip across the void of space to a new home planet). Some vaults were normal, some vaults had annoying but understandable test ideas while others were simply cruel. See below for a few examples
*'''Vault 101''' The door was never meant to be opened again, and the overseer was given omnipotent powers.
*'''Vault 12''' The door was designed to not close, testing the effects of radiation on people.
*'''Vault 11''' A social experiment where the group was to sacrifice one person every so often or they all died. When they finally did choose to say no more, there were 5 left, and it was revealed it was a test to see how long that would take and the door opened.
*'''Vault 43''' populated by Twenty men, 10 woman and a panther
*'''Vault 55/56''' in the former there was no entertainment tapes, in the later, only tapes of a bad comedian. tbhe later was predicted to fail first.
*'''Vault 68/69''' in the former, 999 woman/1 man, in the latter: 999 men, one woman.
*'''Vault 92''' Populated largely by renowned musicians, this vault was a test bed for a white noise-based system for implanting combat-oriented posthypnotic suggestions.
*'''Vault 106'''Psychoactive drugs were released into the air filtration system 10 days after the door was sealed.
*'''Vault 112'''Stanislaus Braun's personal vault, populated by him and a few others, where he tests a virtual reality program on the other residents; which has degraded to him simply killing them over and over

==Reception==

The mainstream Fallout games have been received very well by both critics and consumers alike. Fallout 1 is frequently ranked among the top 100 games of all time; Fallout 2 has an average review score of 86/100 on Metacritic, which also gives Fallout 3 an review score of 92/100.

==Promotion of Homosexuality==

The Fallout series has maintained a very liberal view towards homosexuality throughout most of the series, and sometimes seems to openly promote the [[Homosexual Agenda]]. Fallout 2 was one of the first games to allow same-sex marriage. Fallout: New Vegas includes a perk which allows users unique dialogue with members of the same-sex. This can include anything from simple flirting, to free sex with a male homosexual prostitute in Freeside.

==External links==
[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki The Vault, a wiki designed around the series containing numerous guides and information]

[[Category:Video Games]]

Fallout Series

2012-06-10T20:21:23Z

PaulW: /* Promotion of Homosexuality */

The '''''Fallout'' Series''' is a series of four [[role playing game]]s (named Fallout 1,2, and 3 and New Vegas) and a series of more action oriented spin offs named Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel; both of which are considered non-canon by developers and generally ignored by the players. The first two were developed by Black Isle Studios, released in 1997 and 1998, the third was developed by Bethesda Softworks of ''Elder Scrolls'' fame and released in 2008; and New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and produced by Bethesda in 2010.

The main series revolve around the player character interacting with a post-nuclear war America in the years 2161 (fallout 1), 2241 (fallout 2), 2277 (fallout 3) and 2281 (New Vegas).

==Setting==
The setting of the fallout series is in a alternate timeline post nuclear war America; with the first two games taking place in the California region, the third in the immediate area of Washington DC and New Vegas in the area of the Mojave Desert around Las Vegas.

===Background of the in game world===

The Games timeline split off from the real world shortly after [[WW2]] ended, with american culture staying at the 1950's while technology followed the path of the "World of the future; complete with fusion powered cars and robots, laser rifles and the world as seen in a leave it to beaver episode. Also kept from the 50's was the extreme (and in some/many cases justified) paranoia of communism. This state would last until the late 2040's, when oil supplies across the world began to run dry, and conflict broke out in the resource wars, seeing the united nations disband, fighting between the European commonwealth (this worlds [[EU]]) and the Middle east until the oil fields ran out; and eventually, America VS China for control of the alaskan pipeline (which also caused the United states to annex Canada).

Fear of the imminent nuclear war would cause the United states to start the vault program, which was designed to build a number of underground fallout bunkers that could hold a thousand people until it was safe to recolonize the earth. However, through the machinations of the semi-shadow government Enclave, most became social experiments that were never designed to actually save it's inhabitants. At the same time the American culture was on rotten stands, soon to collapse as the strain of the world began to take it's toll.

All of this would become pointless on October 21st, 2077, when the world slate was wiped clean in a 2 hour long nuclear bombardment that radically changed the world. It is not known who fired first, but as far as most people living in the wastes care, it doesn't matter.

===Post-War===
Immediately after the war, chaos ruled as people tried to find a place to survive the bombs. Many people either died of radiation sickness or turned into ghouls, besides the lucky few who were killed by normal methods of death. To compound on a horrible situation, entire continents either sunk or rose, mountains were created and the entire world environment collapsed, with most of the planet turning into a barren wasteland; ontop of the black radiation filled rain that killed most surviving species after the war.

==Common elements of the series==
===Radiation===
Radiation acts much like it did in the 1950's world of tomorrow, and instead of simply killing you or causing horrible problems, can mutate you into something more; or maybe, if your lucky/not so lucky, turn you into a ghoul, people who resemble the living dead and have very long lifespans. As the basis of the series is a nuclear war; radiation is everywhere: the food, the water, the ground, everywhere.

===Ghouls===
Ghouls are who have been subjugated to a immense amount of radiation and instead of dying of radiation poisoning, have turned into zombie like creatures. For the most part they are still human, just, different, but because of this they are horrible prejudiced against by most of the world, mostly because they look like zombies. In the later games, Feral ghouls were introduced, which for all intents and purposes are zombies and can not be reasoned with at all.

===Super Mutants===
Humans who have been subjected to a government made virus called the'' Forced Evolutionary Virus'' (FEV), which was designed to create super soldiers. It worked to a degree, the subjects became strong, tougher, but at the cost of both intelligence (for some, many original super mutants are intelligent) and became aggressive to a fault and, as a major plot point in the first and third game, Sterile, forcing them to use more humans to keep the super mutant species alive. In the first game they were the main enemy and in the third a major sub-enemy.

===World of Tomorrow Idealism/Cultural Stasis===
The basis of the entire series, in the words of a fan, is "The American 1950's vision of the World of tomorrow, nuked to hell". The world of fallout contains the Radio still being a entertainment superpower, TV is cheap and still resembles the antenna sets, robots do the house keeping for mom who stays home to do what she has to; dad is king of the castle and the children are obedient to their elders. Along with this, computers are still room sized, and if they are portable, they resemble early Macintosh's.

===Brotherhood of Steel===
The decedents of a group of soldiers and their families who, shortly before the war declared themselves in desertion from the U.S. Army as a result of scientists using unwilling soldiers for FEV tests.. They more or less worship technology and seek to take all advanced technology from the hands of the wastelanders, although the reason varies from, "simple selfishness" to "wanting to protect them from it". They are very secretive and xenophobic, and besides a few members and the detachment on the east coast could care less about what happens to the world unless it threatens them. By New Vegas, they have fought a costly war with the New California Republic and lost, at least on the west coast and are slowly dying because of their refusal to change their ways.

===Enclave===
Like the brotherhood of steel, they have ties to pre-war America and also xenophobic, but to a much more extreme degree. When they first show up in Fallout 2, they are in power armor (Armor that makes them a walking mechanized division), and kill most of the people inside vault 13 (the first games player's home) and establish themselves as being opposed to most of the wasteland. Later they kidnap the player characters home village for evil experiments. Eventually, on an pre-war oil rig, you confront the president, a man leading the plan to use a modified FEV Virus to infect the jet-stream and cleanse (Genocide) North America so "Pure Strain" Humans can reclaim it.You can choose to join them, but canon has you blowing up the oil rig; afterwards "President John Henry Eden" a super-computer summons the remnants across the continent to reclaim Washington DC, intended to activate and infect "Project Purity" to both purify and poison the waters for any creature mutated in the wasteland. This plan also fails because of the player character and east coast Brotherhood of Steel. also revealing that the human second in command had no interest in the genocide part of the plan, merely wanting to activate Project Purity so the enclave could have the credit for saving washington and begin reuniting america.

===Vaults===
Giant, underground fallout shelters designed to hold a thousand people comfortably til they could recolonize the planet. The exact number is unknown but thought to be around 115, spread across America. This in itself reflects the vaults were nenver meant to save even a good fraction of the American population; and also hides the true nature of the vaults: Social Experiments of the enclave to test various conditions on people (apparently to see how people would react during a trip across the void of space to a new home planet). Some vaults were normal, some vaults had annoying but understandable test ideas while others were simply cruel. See below for a few examples
*'''Vault 101''' The door was never meant to be opened again, and the overseer was given omnipotent powers.
*'''Vault 12''' The door was designed to not close, testing the effects of radiation on people.
*'''Vault 11''' A social experiment where the group was to sacrifice one person every so often or they all died. When they finally did choose to say no more, there were 5 left, and it was revealed it was a test to see how long that would take and the door opened.
*'''Vault 43''' populated by Twenty men, 10 woman and a panther
*'''Vault 55/56''' in the former there was no entertainment tapes, in the later, only tapes of a bad comedian. tbhe later was predicted to fail first.
*'''Vault 68/69''' in the former, 999 woman/1 man, in the latter: 999 men, one woman.
*'''Vault 92''' Populated largely by renowned musicians, this vault was a test bed for a white noise-based system for implanting combat-oriented posthypnotic suggestions.
*'''Vault 106'''Psychoactive drugs were released into the air filtration system 10 days after the door was sealed.
*'''Vault 112'''Stanislaus Braun's personal vault, populated by him and a few others, where he tests a virtual reality program on the other residents; which has degraded to him simply killing them over and over

==Reception==

The mainstream Fallout games have been received very well by both critics and consumers alike. Fallout 1 is frequently ranked among the top 100 games of all time; Fallout 2 has an average review score of 86/100 on Metacritic, which also gives Fallout 3 an review score of 92/100.

==Promotion of Homosexuality==

The Fallout series has maintained a very liberal view towards homosexuality throughout most of the series. Fallout 2 was one of the first games to allow same-sex marriage. Fallout: New Vegas includes a perk which allows users unique dialogue with members of the same-sex. This can include anything from simple flirting, to free sex with a male homosexual prostitute in Freeside.

==External links==
[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki The Vault, a wiki designed around the series containing numerous guides and information]

[[Category:Video Games]]

Fallout Series

2012-06-10T20:20:39Z

PaulW:

The '''''Fallout'' Series''' is a series of four [[role playing game]]s (named Fallout 1,2, and 3 and New Vegas) and a series of more action oriented spin offs named Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel; both of which are considered non-canon by developers and generally ignored by the players. The first two were developed by Black Isle Studios, released in 1997 and 1998, the third was developed by Bethesda Softworks of ''Elder Scrolls'' fame and released in 2008; and New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and produced by Bethesda in 2010.

The main series revolve around the player character interacting with a post-nuclear war America in the years 2161 (fallout 1), 2241 (fallout 2), 2277 (fallout 3) and 2281 (New Vegas).

==Setting==
The setting of the fallout series is in a alternate timeline post nuclear war America; with the first two games taking place in the California region, the third in the immediate area of Washington DC and New Vegas in the area of the Mojave Desert around Las Vegas.

===Background of the in game world===

The Games timeline split off from the real world shortly after [[WW2]] ended, with american culture staying at the 1950's while technology followed the path of the "World of the future; complete with fusion powered cars and robots, laser rifles and the world as seen in a leave it to beaver episode. Also kept from the 50's was the extreme (and in some/many cases justified) paranoia of communism. This state would last until the late 2040's, when oil supplies across the world began to run dry, and conflict broke out in the resource wars, seeing the united nations disband, fighting between the European commonwealth (this worlds [[EU]]) and the Middle east until the oil fields ran out; and eventually, America VS China for control of the alaskan pipeline (which also caused the United states to annex Canada).

Fear of the imminent nuclear war would cause the United states to start the vault program, which was designed to build a number of underground fallout bunkers that could hold a thousand people until it was safe to recolonize the earth. However, through the machinations of the semi-shadow government Enclave, most became social experiments that were never designed to actually save it's inhabitants. At the same time the American culture was on rotten stands, soon to collapse as the strain of the world began to take it's toll.

All of this would become pointless on October 21st, 2077, when the world slate was wiped clean in a 2 hour long nuclear bombardment that radically changed the world. It is not known who fired first, but as far as most people living in the wastes care, it doesn't matter.

===Post-War===
Immediately after the war, chaos ruled as people tried to find a place to survive the bombs. Many people either died of radiation sickness or turned into ghouls, besides the lucky few who were killed by normal methods of death. To compound on a horrible situation, entire continents either sunk or rose, mountains were created and the entire world environment collapsed, with most of the planet turning into a barren wasteland; ontop of the black radiation filled rain that killed most surviving species after the war.

==Common elements of the series==
===Radiation===
Radiation acts much like it did in the 1950's world of tomorrow, and instead of simply killing you or causing horrible problems, can mutate you into something more; or maybe, if your lucky/not so lucky, turn you into a ghoul, people who resemble the living dead and have very long lifespans. As the basis of the series is a nuclear war; radiation is everywhere: the food, the water, the ground, everywhere.

===Ghouls===
Ghouls are who have been subjugated to a immense amount of radiation and instead of dying of radiation poisoning, have turned into zombie like creatures. For the most part they are still human, just, different, but because of this they are horrible prejudiced against by most of the world, mostly because they look like zombies. In the later games, Feral ghouls were introduced, which for all intents and purposes are zombies and can not be reasoned with at all.

===Super Mutants===
Humans who have been subjected to a government made virus called the'' Forced Evolutionary Virus'' (FEV), which was designed to create super soldiers. It worked to a degree, the subjects became strong, tougher, but at the cost of both intelligence (for some, many original super mutants are intelligent) and became aggressive to a fault and, as a major plot point in the first and third game, Sterile, forcing them to use more humans to keep the super mutant species alive. In the first game they were the main enemy and in the third a major sub-enemy.

===World of Tomorrow Idealism/Cultural Stasis===
The basis of the entire series, in the words of a fan, is "The American 1950's vision of the World of tomorrow, nuked to hell". The world of fallout contains the Radio still being a entertainment superpower, TV is cheap and still resembles the antenna sets, robots do the house keeping for mom who stays home to do what she has to; dad is king of the castle and the children are obedient to their elders. Along with this, computers are still room sized, and if they are portable, they resemble early Macintosh's.

===Brotherhood of Steel===
The decedents of a group of soldiers and their families who, shortly before the war declared themselves in desertion from the U.S. Army as a result of scientists using unwilling soldiers for FEV tests.. They more or less worship technology and seek to take all advanced technology from the hands of the wastelanders, although the reason varies from, "simple selfishness" to "wanting to protect them from it". They are very secretive and xenophobic, and besides a few members and the detachment on the east coast could care less about what happens to the world unless it threatens them. By New Vegas, they have fought a costly war with the New California Republic and lost, at least on the west coast and are slowly dying because of their refusal to change their ways.

===Enclave===
Like the brotherhood of steel, they have ties to pre-war America and also xenophobic, but to a much more extreme degree. When they first show up in Fallout 2, they are in power armor (Armor that makes them a walking mechanized division), and kill most of the people inside vault 13 (the first games player's home) and establish themselves as being opposed to most of the wasteland. Later they kidnap the player characters home village for evil experiments. Eventually, on an pre-war oil rig, you confront the president, a man leading the plan to use a modified FEV Virus to infect the jet-stream and cleanse (Genocide) North America so "Pure Strain" Humans can reclaim it.You can choose to join them, but canon has you blowing up the oil rig; afterwards "President John Henry Eden" a super-computer summons the remnants across the continent to reclaim Washington DC, intended to activate and infect "Project Purity" to both purify and poison the waters for any creature mutated in the wasteland. This plan also fails because of the player character and east coast Brotherhood of Steel. also revealing that the human second in command had no interest in the genocide part of the plan, merely wanting to activate Project Purity so the enclave could have the credit for saving washington and begin reuniting america.

===Vaults===
Giant, underground fallout shelters designed to hold a thousand people comfortably til they could recolonize the planet. The exact number is unknown but thought to be around 115, spread across America. This in itself reflects the vaults were nenver meant to save even a good fraction of the American population; and also hides the true nature of the vaults: Social Experiments of the enclave to test various conditions on people (apparently to see how people would react during a trip across the void of space to a new home planet). Some vaults were normal, some vaults had annoying but understandable test ideas while others were simply cruel. See below for a few examples
*'''Vault 101''' The door was never meant to be opened again, and the overseer was given omnipotent powers.
*'''Vault 12''' The door was designed to not close, testing the effects of radiation on people.
*'''Vault 11''' A social experiment where the group was to sacrifice one person every so often or they all died. When they finally did choose to say no more, there were 5 left, and it was revealed it was a test to see how long that would take and the door opened.
*'''Vault 43''' populated by Twenty men, 10 woman and a panther
*'''Vault 55/56''' in the former there was no entertainment tapes, in the later, only tapes of a bad comedian. tbhe later was predicted to fail first.
*'''Vault 68/69''' in the former, 999 woman/1 man, in the latter: 999 men, one woman.
*'''Vault 92''' Populated largely by renowned musicians, this vault was a test bed for a white noise-based system for implanting combat-oriented posthypnotic suggestions.
*'''Vault 106'''Psychoactive drugs were released into the air filtration system 10 days after the door was sealed.
*'''Vault 112'''Stanislaus Braun's personal vault, populated by him and a few others, where he tests a virtual reality program on the other residents; which has degraded to him simply killing them over and over

==Reception==

The mainstream Fallout games have been received very well by both critics and consumers alike. Fallout 1 is frequently ranked among the top 100 games of all time; Fallout 2 has an average review score of 86/100 on Metacritic, which also gives Fallout 3 an review score of 92/100.

==Promotion of Homosexuality==

The Fallout series has maintained a very liberal view towards homosexuality throughout most of the series. Fallout 2 was one of the first games to allow same-sex marriage. Fallout: New Vegas includes a perk which allows users unique dialogue with members of the same-sex. This can include anyhting from simple flirting, to free sex with a male homosexual prostitute in Freeside.

==External links==
[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki The Vault, a wiki designed around the series containing numerous guides and information]

[[Category:Video Games]]