Whethಌer or not you believe in the verity of any given conspiracy theory, there’s no denying that they’ve got one🌺 hell of a pull. explains their popularity by reference to a human fondness for patterns,༺ aﷺnd the appeal these ultra-juicy stories make to community and safety. that theories of this nature prey on a secret belief that people are ultimately self-interested, leading to situati🃏ons where the truth must necessarily be obscured. In other words, evolution did this. Evolution is why we can’t have nice things. At least, why we can’t have nice things without thinking they’re probably bad things.

Away from real life and it’s Hobbesian temptations, video game conspiracy theori𓄧es are largely concerned with divining what exactly those tricksy devs are up to, or what still lies up t🐠heir sleeves for future iterations of a series.

And what a long series it’s been for Fallout. Twenty years to be exact, with the original Fallout hitting an unsuspecting audience all the wa🍌y back in 1997. That kind of legacy leaves a massive potential for some stellar conspiracy theories. No character and no story plot have been spared a🔯 suspicious gaze. From Elder Scrolls tie-ins and Vault Boy’s signature thumbs up, we’ve got fifteen conspiracy theorie𒅌🧜s every true fan of Fallout needs to know.

15 Vault Boy Isn’t Winking At 💟You, He’s Testing To See If He’s About To Die. ༒

We all like Vault Boy. He’s a likable kin🍃d of guy. One that could probably teach Matthew McConaughey a thing or two about being chill. There you are in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, fend♕ing off raiders and mutants alike, but he’s always at the ready with a charming smile, a thumbs-up, and a wink. Except maybe he’s not.

We can’t find 👍evidence♊ of this outside of video game circles, but thꦆere are those th𓆏at say Vault Boy’s famous stance is actually a survival technique taught to everyone who made it through the fallout. If the mushroom cloud from aꦦ bomb is bigger than your thumb while your arm is stretched out, you’re in big trouble. We assume that if it’s smaller, you’re only in medium- to small-sized trouble💃. We’re not altogether sure, but let’s hope we never have toꦆ be.

14 You Are A Synth, And The Inꦗstitute’s Finest Work.

In Fallout 4 (2015) players took on the role of the Sole Survivor, 🃏with a face and body🦂 that was as disturbing as so♏me people could manage. And the Sole Survivor’s a human, right? WRONG! A fan theory suggests that Soไle Sur🌜vivor is actually a synth, and the ultimate Institute experiment. We think Youtuber, Graenolf, for this.

He claims that advanced synths were being created around the time you’re awoken in your pod to watch your son, Shaun, being taken. The Institute see🏅s fit to port your being into a synth — it being ꦑa win-win for them.

Either you find Shaun and replac꧙e him as a Father all on your own, or you join the Brotherhood and become what the Institute🎶 have longed to recreate - a truly autonomous being.

13 𓃲 Dogmeat May Be One, Too.

has put forward the idea that your Fallout 4 (2015) canine companion, Dogmeat, might be more android than best friend. We’re gutted, too. It makes sense, though. 💃The Institute would do what they could to lead you to Shaun, and that could entail (sorry) sending one of their a🌼nimal synths to help you navigate the Commonwealth. But you’ll want more hard evidence.

Let’s take Dogmeat’s smarts. No one ♒in the Commonwealth has time to train a dog that well. No one. Yet Dogmeat is smart. It’s synthery, we tell you! We’re also sus▨pect about 🌸how Dogmeat’s managed to look so clean in a world where water is a scarce resource. Hmm.

12 While We’re At It, The Mysterious Stranger Also🦩 Has Some Synth-ness To Him...

Look, we’re not trying to say that everyone you meet🌳 is a synth. We’re not the Oprah🔯 of Fallout, as much as we’d love to shout ‘You’re a synth! You’re a synth! You’re all synths’ while pointing at random in-game characters.

But it’s not tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚhat much of a stretch. It would help explain how the Mysterious Strangers can appear and disappear as suddenly as they do. Either they’re a synth, or the fallout left them with speed that rivals Usain Bolt’s. Trumps it, really, because Bo✤lt nဣever had to set a world record after a close brush with death.

11 Then Again, Maybe The Mysterious Stranger Is Actually A Role Passed Down Fro🅺m Person To Person.

This would explain how the Mysterious Stranger has managed to aid you in every game since 1997. Twenty year🐬s! Even when you’v♌e factored in radiation, that seems like an awfully long time to be alive and chipper enough to help out a spritely protagonist that you should definitely be invoicing for danger pay.

It does sound like a job you’d inherit rather than apply for, right? Cue thoughts of a hilarious scenario whe𓆏re an aged Mysterious Stranger is grooming his son to take over, but all his son wants is to be is a pop star on the New Vegas strip.

10 ꦆ Fallout And The Elder Scrolls Series Might Be Set In The Same Universe.

If you’ve ever been an intrepid explorer in Tamriel, 𒆙you𓄧’ll know the siren’s call of a little💝 herb helper called ‘Nirnroot.’. Well, it seems this healing plant w꧒as also discovered in a r🀅esearch centre found in Fallout 4 .

On the left, you’ll see the specimen found in most parts of Skyrim, in the middle is a variety only found in Blackreach, and on the right the ‘experimental𝓀 plant’ you’ll spot in Fallout 4 (2🧜015). We’re pretty sold already, but there’s more. The log informꦆation that accompanies the plant’s entry in Fallout has each en🅰try diarised under the label ‘NRT.’ UM, NIRNROOT MUCH? Some say it’s just an easter egg, but we’r🔯e calling it proof that one day we’ll find a Khajiit civilian sporting a vault suit.

9 Fallout 3 Might Have Predicted A Major IRL Event. ꦡ

Radio signals are a big feature of the Fallout series, but only those in Fallout 3 (2008) seem to predict the future. Galaxy News Radio w🌠as sometimes interrupted by an unnervingꦡ signal - a mixture of numbers and Morse code that didn’t seem to have anything to do with the mission(s) at hand.

Eerie already, but some believe that these numbers are supposed to be dates, and the Morse code is a description of historical events occurring on those👍 dates. One entry is a line that’s ‘nine-four-five, four-two-zero, two-zero-one-zero. Accident in the gulf, several dead🌠. Oil spill apparently averted’.

Some of you might remember the Deepwater Horizon explosion that happened in the Gulf of 🥃Mexico on 20th April (‘four-two-zero’), 2010 (‘tw🅘o-zero-one-zero’) - a little under two years after Fallout 3 (2008) was released. What’s more,.

8 𓆉 Vault-T♔ec Started The Great War.

Vault-Tec may not be the friendly🃏 fallout-shelter provider that it see𓂃ms. purports that Vault-Tec were the ones that detonated the nuclear weapons that caused the Great Wa✨r. You see, th♊ey’d built all these fancy shelters, and had all these nice weapon🎃s - thanks to their alliance as a military contractor. Off the bat, that seems like a WHOLE lot of motive to us. 

Then there’s the small issue of staff. How come all the vaജults were extremely well equipped and managed, considering the planet was in a state of peace? Human error just doesn’t allow for that kind of efficiency. Just ask the ꦯattendants of Jurassic Park.

In all likelihood, this is the least surprising entry on the list. In any video game, a government-run company that's also condꦫucting secret weapons testing is never going to escape villainy. 

7 Thiಌs One's Going To Hurt Your Brain. In Fallout 4, Are You Playing Your Own Grandpa/Grandm♉a?

It’s a bit of ♉a stretch, but let's think about🐲 this. 🌊Shaun is the Lone Wanderer’s father, making the Sole Survivor the Lone Wanderer’s grandparent. How? According to the Fallout 3 (2008) wiki, your in-game father (‘James’) is 51 years old. Fallout 4 (2015) occurs exactly a decade after Fallout 3 (2008) so that makes him 61 years old. Shaun sure looks 61. 

You might be rightly thinking t൲hat Shaun and James clearly have different names. But it is possible that after James was abducted, he was given a new one. You’re not going to kidnap someone and𝓡 call them by🐭 the exact same name.

The timeline checks out, too. Let’s ꦉjust try and forget the fact that James dies at the💯 end of Fallout 3 (2008). It’s entirely feasible that he tossed back a few ♕RadAways and slept it off...

6 Everything That Happens In Fallout 4 Could ꦆBe In Your Imagination.

It’s not easy to find a bevy of reputable sources in an article about video game co🍎nspiracies, , no less. The source argues that everything that happens iܫn the Commonwealth is in the Sole Survivor’s imagination. The claim says the actuality of everything that happened after your character was placജed in cryo-stasis is up for debate.

There’s a good amount of p✱roof in favour of this conjecture, but we o🎀nly have space to mention our interpretations of one. So, the Sole Survivor’s is placed in that frozen state while hooked up to a sy⭕stem that can fail in such a way as to cause issues with consciousness, true? What happens in a half-conscious st🃏ate? Nightmares, tha🃏t’s what. What’s a parent’s worst nightmare? A kidnapped child. Boom!