“ We believe that technology for basic necessities, like food, water, and medicine, should be shared, not hoarded. We're also strongly in favor of proper education. I've come across more than a few "doctors" whose techniques came out of the back of a magazine. ” — Doctor Usanagi

The Followers of the Apocalypse are a secular-humanist organization originating in New California. Followers focus on providing education and medical services to those in need, as well as furthering research in non-military areas. One-time allies of the New California Republic, they have since parted ways due to disagreements over Republican foreign policy.[1]

History

The origins of the Followers lie in a humble community on the outskirts of San Diego (Dayglow), the only remaining town near the Glow. The harsh life taught the survivors the folly of war and conflict. The first steps towards the formal establishment of the Followers happened in the 22nd century, when sickness was spreading among the settlement's inhabitants,[2][3] leading the parents of Nicole to gather the survivors and moved north.[4] During the trip, however, her parents were killed by marauders. The death of her parents motivated Nicole to establish the Followers of the Apocalypse, to educate the wastelanders and spread knowledge, so that another Great War may never happen and the paths leading to it would remain abandoned.[5][6]

By 2161, the Followers moved into and salvaged the Los Angeles Public Library. Widely known, they were considered a little strange, but generally harmless. Some believed their peaceful ways were not cut out for this world: they were allegedly poor combatants and knew nothing of the "real world."[7] Of course, their survival and expansion proves this notion to be simply untrue. Indeed, their focus on preserving knowledge, with emphasis on agriculture and medicine, had already manifested by this period, and laid the foundation for their future presence. The emergence of the Children of the Cathedral, another ostensibly peace-minded cult, raised more than a few eyebrows among the Followers. Spies sent out by Nicole brought back disturbing news, including reports of nightkin and Talius, a survivor of the vats who did not turn into a super mutant. Nicole put the Followers on a war path, dedicated to cutting the threat short. [8]

Development and the rise of the Republic

The destruction of the Master by the Vault Dweller removed the only clear obstacle in the way of Follower expansion. The Followers gradually established control over the Boneyard, as a center of higher learning and research. When the New California Republic formed, the fledgling nation state joined forces with the Followers. The influx of knowledge and education helped solidify a strong relationship.[9] The Followers focused on their goals and eventually, the Boneyard became the first known place in the wasteland to boast a University. Staffed and maintained by the Followers, the school would offer courses on a non-profit basis to anyone willing to learn.[10] By 2246, the Followers had enough resources and influence to send out scholars on expeditions to gather knowledge, including information on tribal dialects. That year was when the fateful expedition of Edward Sallow was sent to the Grand Canyon, irreversibly starting a chain of events that would lead to the emergence of the Legion.[11]

But for a time, everything seemed to be in order. Cooperation between the Followers and the NCR prospered. Trouble began with the beginning of the Mojave Campaign. In 2273, a contingent of the Followers under Julie Farkas moved into the Mojave, assisting the Republic's forces. The imperialist project of President Aaron Kimball rapidly chilled relations.[9] The failing relations were also fueled by internal dissent. While the Followers held a near-monopoly on education, particularly higher education, in the Republic's lands, some members of the organization were dissatisfied with the knowledge-centric profile of the organization.[12] This eventually resulted in a split in 2275 and the formation of the Office of Science and Industry by dissenting Followers. Focusing on practical applications of science, they became rivals of the Followers, aligned with the NCR and offering competitive higher education possibilities, though many of OSI's executives hold the Follower ideals close.[13] The NCR soon broke most ties with the Followers, and turned their support to the fledgling Office. In response, some of the Followers instigated a campaign to erode what little support NCR has among the locals of the frontier.[14]

Organization

Nicole , the co-founder and informal leader of the Followers in the Boneyard, in 2161.

Philosophy

“ We arose from the Boneyards of Adytum years ago. Since then, we have made it our mission to rebuild the wasteland and reeducate its inhabitants. We hope to forge a brave new world free of war and poverty by sharing knowledge and resources. Our primary goal is the free exchange of ideas. ” Julie Farkas , 2281

The Followers consider the Great War to have been preventable and strive to remind people why it happened in the first place and ensure it never happens again.[15] With the Great War, humanity lost many things, like methods of agriculture and techniques for basic survival and the Followers took it upon themselves to piece together this forgotten knowledge and bring it to the wasteland.[16][17] The Followers focus on the preservation and restoration of knowledge, including technology and legitimate education. They are also proponents of sharing basic necessities – food, water and medicine – instead of hoarding them.[18] Their ultimate goal is to gradually shape a better brighter future for the wasteland through education, research, and medical services.[19]

In terms of philosophy, the Followers combine the principles of voluntary association, cooperation, and equality characteristic of anarchism and a disdain for conflict that bears striking similarity to pacifism. Of course, the Followers are well aware of the flaws in human nature and ideology doesn't come before reality.[20] Despite that, they want to bring peace back to a wasteland that tends toward destruction.[21]

Structure

Despite the breaking of ties with the NCR, the Followers continue to be an influential group. From their humble beginnings as a small group of scholars living in the restored Los Angeles Public Library, they have established great permanent facilities in New California, including the Angel's Boneyard Medical University.[22][23] Outside their Boneyard operations, they operate a network of regional hubs, offering their services to local residents, although their ability to provide these services varies on the availability of supplies. Some frontier hubs, like the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside, tend to become overwhelmed without support from local merchants or powers like the NCR.[23]

The Followers are a highly decentralized group with limited hierarchy. Any leaders are typically informal and selected naturally, based on their deeds, expertise, and organizational skills. Formal structures exist in a limited fashion. The aforementioned hubs and the administrators that maintain them coordinate the activities of Followers operating in the region[24] and permanent operations, such as reconstruction and relief efforts.[25] As the Followers are always looking for new members,[26] they can be inducted at the discretion of local administrators, either as fully fledged members (typically after they have aided the local hub in some way)[27] or as probationary initiates. The administrator can assign duties to probationary members, including positions such as junior archivist,[28] assistant to a full member,[29] or cataloging the Pre-War Unexploded Munitions Collection in New California (in case a prospective member has no major qualifications).[30]

Although flexible, decentralization has drawbacks. For instance, the Followers do not have a system in place that would allow for containing rogue members and their actions, as was the case with the future Caesar and Tom Anderson.[31] However, they are liable to force people out of their organization if they are seen as a distinct threat. This is the case with former Enclave members, hunted by bounty hunters, the NCR, and the Brotherhood.[32]

Activities

Followers offer free education for all who are willing to learn,[10] as part of their philosophy.[18] They also offer medical support and other aid to those in need, both at hubs and by direct action. Every member is asked – not ordered – to help those in need when the opportunity arises.[19]

On top of education and medical services, Followers also take steps to provide basic necessities, such as access to food and water in impoverished communities, like Freeside or Westside.[25] The latter is a textbook example of the Follower philosophy: Leveraging local resources to allow for sustainable agriculture. By irrigating the desert, Tom Anderson enabled Westsiders to cultivate crops, while restored refrigerators allowed for storing food for later use or trade. As a result, Westside became a self-sufficient, ordered community with prospects for growth.[33]

Research is a major aspect of Follower operations, including both theoretical and practical disciplines. Where the OSI splitters focus on practical applications of science,[34] and the Brotherhood of Steel prefer combat technologies,[35] the Followers are one of the few organizations to devote time to both hard and soft science. Their research efforts include topics as diverse as studying the sociological, linguistic, and anthropological aspects of the people of the wasteland (including raider tribes like the Great Khans[36] and other culturally distinct peoples of the wasteland, like those inhabiting Zion or the Grand Canyon[37]), and discovering new methods of manufacturing medicine and alternative treatments for common afflictions.[38]

Funding

As a fundamentally non-profit organization, the Followers rely on a variety of sources to acquire supplies for their operations. For a good hundred years between 2181 and 2281, the Followers sustained their operations by salvaging old hospitals and medical warehouses,[39] and various donations, in return for discounts on their services.[40] Charitable donations continue to represent a major source of their funding and sources, particularly when it comes to providing low-cost medical services to the less fortunate.[41] The preferred donation size is 500 caps from the rich who can afford it,[42] although the Followers will accept any amount – and especially material donations like medical supplies.[43]

The Followers also sell a portion of their stock of supplies to fund their operations, but salvage and donations alone are insufficient to make this a major source of funds.[44] For this reason, the Followers greatly prefer to establish sustainable relations with local providers, such as providing medical services to farms in exchange for food. More specific resources, such as raw chemicals and alcohol that permit the Followers to manufacture medical supplies they need for their operations and trade, are difficult to source and they usually have to compromise for the greater good. For example, in the Mojave, they can be convinced to work with local pushers – people they normally oppose – maintaining their distillation equipment and providing intake in the form of food waste. In exchange, they would receive the aforementioned supplies, allowing them to expand their services and influence, improving the lot of Freeside residents in the long term.[45]

Of course, this source of supplies and funding only works as long as the other party is willing to accept what the Followers offer. Most merchants, like the Crimson Caravan Company, refuse to deal with the Followers on anything less than market terms.[46][47]

Ultimately, the Followers prefer for themselves and the people they care for to be self-sustainable. This means trading only for the necessary raw materials and manufacturing the supplies they need, especially when it comes to medicine.[48] Education and improving infrastructure contributes to this goal, as if local residents are able to source food and water on their own, it frees up Follower resources that can then be assigned to high priority goals.[49]

Outside relations

The New Vegas Medical Clinic , neutral and operated by the Followers for the benefit of the people of New Vegas.

As the Followers have no desire to control territory, they rarely clash with other factions.[50] Historically, they enjoyed close relations with the New California Republic, but the change in foreign policy and a push for subjugating the East soured them. Disagreements over how wealth and prosperity should serve the people of the wasteland led to the aforementioned breaking of ties in 2275 and the cessation of support for the Followers from the NCR authorities. Many among the Followers are therefore bitter about the NCR's actions and see themselves as janitors, cleaning up the NCR's mistakes and trying to introduce stability into the regions they claim.[50][51] Some also take it upon themselves to deny ancient technologies to the Republic, on the basis of the fact that they can prove incredibly destructive.[52][53]

The NCR has no official policy against the Followers. While NCR citizens can be dismissive of members of the organization as bleeding heart idealists at best or anarchic cultists at worst,[54][55][56] the Followers continue to operate excellent facilities in the Republic,[23] including the Angel's Boneyard Medical University.[22] Even the Office of Science and Industry considers the Followers more as a competitor and worthy rival, rather than enemy; the Follower's goals are simply humanitarian in origin, rather than economic.[56]

These facilities are the Followers' greatest asset. Their willingness to teach others for free and help the people of the wasteland makes them welcome among the less wealthy denizens of the wastes, particularly on the frontiers. Of course, sometimes their teaching has unpredictable effects. When a Follower taught the Great Khans how to read and write, as well as basic science, the tribe harnessed the knowledge for the production of recreational drugs to sell to the Fiends, inadvertently causing major problems for the Republic.[57]

Besides the NCR, there are only two factions the Followers are not particularly thrilled about. The first is the Brotherhood of Steel, with its desire to hoard technology and prevent it from being used for the common good.[58] The second is, of course, Caesar's Legion and the Followers do not even entertain the thought of allying themselves with the Legion. After defaming Caesar, a former Follower himself, the Followers seldom talk about this dark aspect of their history.[59]

The Followers stationed in the Mojave also show no love for Mr. House and the surrounding personnel running New Vegas, who locked Freeside out of the city and does nothing to support the people in the surrounding neighborhoods. The Followers are struggling to keep Freeside in enough medicine and all Vegas does is think about running their casinos.[60]

Technology

Thanks to decades of salvaging and research, the Followers have excellent knowledge and technology in civilian branches, including agriculture,[61] medical care,[62] construction and infrastructure,[63] IT,[64] robotics,[65] and more.

Their medical aptitude is the most noticeable facet of their operations. The Followers offer formal medical training to all at the Angel's Boneyard Medical University, ensuring a uniform level of knowledge and skill among their doctors,[22] which is then put into practice using the best available materials, up to and including Auto-Docs in some clinics.[66] The latter represent the apex of Followers' medical capabilities, as they are capable of both restoring and improving the human condition: Using them, Follower physicians can perform surgeries and apply implants to improve performance anywhere, including the kidneys, eyes, and the brain. Some clinics also offer experimental military implants, like the Phoenix or Nemean bionic modifications.[67] Their medical expertise is not limited to merely the physical. Follower ranks also include psychiatrists capable of treating a variety of mental disorders, including PTSD.[68]

Due to the aforementioned supply issues in outlying hubs, Followers also focus their efforts in researching new methods of obtaining medical supplies and other materials, which would allow them to greatly expand their efforts outside New California.[38] Other avenues of technological research include solar power as a sustainable alternative.[69] Aiding in their efforts is a substantial amount of data recovered from pre-War times, including extensive records on the various corporations that operated in the United States, like Poseidon Energy.[70]

Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes

“ At least in Fallout: New Vegas, I think it's easier to find fault in what they don't do than in what they do. They tend so much toward anti-authoritarianism that they have weak internal hierarchies and a lack of clear or unified direction. In The White Wash, Anderson's activities may or may not have been noted by other Followers, but even if they were, he doesn't have a "boss" and the Followers don't have any commonly accepted methods for dealing with rogue agents. Similarly, when Edward Sallow became Caesar, he essentially just sent Bill Calhoun away and there wasn't anything he or the other Followers were prepared to do about it. In the F:NV endings where the Followers wind up with a lot of responsibility, their tendency to over-commit and their lack of efficient organization result in a lot of problems. Even though they heavily distrust NCR, they are only able to provide adequate services in Freeside in an ending where NCR maintains control of the Mojave. - J.E. Sawyer on the problems of the Followers[71] ”

Gallery

The Followers of the Apocalypse on the playing card



Appearances

The Followers of the Apocalypse appear in Fallout, Fallout: New Vegas, J.E. Sawyer's Fallout Role-Playing Game and they were to appear in Black Isle's canceled Fallout 3. They are also mentioned in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.