Emerald Wasteland

This article is intended as a reference for the gamemaster and thus contains spoilers for Fallout: Emerald City.

The Emerald Wasteland is the setting of Fallout: Emerald City. As of the year 2286 when the game is set (209 years after the Great War and five after the events of Fallout: New Vegas), industrial civilization is returning to the region and multiple factions are vying to implement their version of the future.

Politics

There are two main political centers of gravity within the wasteland, Seattle and Skagit Valley. Despite this, politics also hinges on one key question that looms over everyone: what is to be done regarding the New California Republic? This polity is much larger and better organized than any in the Emerald Wasteland, and to many it appears only a matter of time before they turn their gaze northward. Already some Californian investors are looking to put their capital towards Washington-based ventures. To integrate into the NCR could mean prosperity, but it could also mean exploitation as a far-flung and resource rich peripheral territory. To stand independent of it, though, could mean isolation and conflict with a stronger power, bringing its own brand of ruination. The four major players of the region (whether public knowledge or not) have their own answers to this question.

The Salish Confederation, a group of several towns and tribes spread through Skagit Valley, Whatcom County, and the San Juan Islands, is the oldest polity in the Emerald Wasteland. The 2208 Chuckanut Treaty brought together the fishing-based Lummi tribe of western Whatcom and the San Juans, the coal mining settlement of New Whatcom (once Bellingham), and the two agricultural centers of Skagit City and Cedro Crossing under one 'common charter.' Individual governance is still left to each of the four members but trade and diplomacy is negotiated as a democratic collective. Though prospering, the Salish Confederation is nearing an impasse. Their charter is causing friction when attempting to govern a population that has grown well beyond the founders' horizons. The council structure works slowly amid a quickening pace of events. Tensions between towns are rising as regional challenges mount. If the Confederation is to hold together, let alone thrive in the face of the NCR, something has to change.

The Republic of Magnolia is a corporate republic established out of the well-preserved neighborhood of Magnolia just to the northwest of central Seattle. While its sovereign territory is small, its impact on the region is undeniable. The Republic's president is Caroline Pierrepoint, who took the position and established the Republic in an ambush hostile takeover of two rival merchant houses. Pierrepoint believes that the Emerald Wasteland will inevitably fall to the NCR, economically or militarily, should it fail to unite itself as one unitary sovereign state. Everything she does is in pursuit of this goal; the Republic's current project is bringing the Wasteland's main shipping concern, the Mosquito Fleet, into the fold. While Pierrepoint has a good deal of momentum behind her she is also gathering enemies in equal measure.

The New Altruists are an anomaly. What would a shattered, irradiated, mostly pre-electric wasteland want to do with computers?

In the deep corners of the Earth dwells the Columbia Division.

Economy

Pre-war corporations

• Med Tek
• Poseidon Energy
• RobCo
• Vault-Tec
• Yoyodyne

Postwar industry

As settled society has returned to the Emerald Wasteland, so has industry. The Northwest's abundant resources have been a springboard for development.

Trade

Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean more broadly act as a highway for trade. Where other regions see traders struggling through harsh terrain with land-based caravans travelling only at walking pace, one can see trading clippers and even steamboats plying the waters of the Emerald Wasteland on a daily basis, carrying timber, bituminous coal, and even high-tech manufactured goods from the repurposed Yoyodyne factory in Renton to buyers in the New California Republic further south.

Technology

Computing and network technology

Even before the war the Seattle region was a hotbed of computing development.

• Artificial intelligence
• Project SEANCE
• TriNet

Energy

• Fusion power
• Hydroelectric power

Military technology

• Laser and plasma weaponry
• Power armor
• Strategic and tactical nuclear weapons

Culture

The Emerald Wasteland features a great diversity of cultures which, while retaining their identities, have blended together into their own unique formulations. These include but are not limited to the Salish peoples indigenous to the area, Hispanic migrant farmworkers, Sikh immigrants, and more.

Locations by subregion

Southern British Columbia and Vancouver

• Annacis Island
• False Creek
• UBiC

Whatcom

• Border Security Zone
• Peace Arch–Pacific Highway Joint Checkpoint

Skagit Valley

• Cedro Crossing
• Lower Baker Dam
• Skagit City
• Vault 12

Fidalgo, Whidbey, and San Juan Islands

• Al'le'lang
• Anacortes
• Fort Casey
• March Point Nuclear Power Plant
• Ts'el-xwisen'

Snohomish

• Mt. Forgotten bunker
• Yoyodyne Everett Factory

Seattle

• The Denny Triangle Arcology
• Magnolia
• Pacific Tower
• Renton Landing
• RobCo Northwest campus
• The Space Needle
• Volunteer Park
• Yoyodyne Renton Factory

South Puget Sound

• Joint Base Lewis-McChord

Kitsap and Eastern Olympic Peninsulas

• Bremerton Crater
• Port Townsend
• USS Turner Joy