The Wasteland

I Don't Wanna Set The World On Fire
During the mid to late 21st Century, the United States of America (and indeed most of the World at large) began a decline amidst the height of the so-called "New Cold War". The European Commonwealth fought a brutal war against the countries of the Middle East, beginning the Resource Wars, and America would face problems of her own when the oil reserves outside of Alaska began to dry up and her old rival the Soviet Union entered a state of decline and gradually was replaced by a new rival and communistic thorn in America's side: the People's Republic of China. The fighting between the US and China over oil mining in Alaska (especially around the State's only "major" city, Anchorage) would lead to the final stage of the Resource Wars, the Sino-American War, and, eventually, the Great War.

America's Decline
After catastrophe upon catastrophe, among them the destruction of Europe, the Great Passion Fruit Famine, the New Plague, the defeats in the Gobi Desert Campaign, logistical issues originating from its invasions and occupations of neighboring Mexico and Canada (and annexation of the latter), and the stalling of the Liberty Prime Project despite dire straits in the Liberation of Anchorage, The US was in decline. However, it would win some major victories over the Chinese before The Reckoning. However, the destruction wrought by the Great War of 2077 would prove to be a deathblow to the great nation.

The Great War: America's Reckoning
On Saturday, October 23rd, 2077, everything about the World that was would cease to be. On that day, the Sino-American War spiraled out of control and/or, beginning a sequel war/new theater of unparalleled destruction: the Great War. The Great War was a mutual full-scale nuclear exchange which would last only two hours, both starting and ending on October 23rd, 2077. In the ensuing nuclear holocaust, all the glory and optimism of the Old World would be swept away in a blaze of atomic fire, as the whole world went dark. The very surface of the Earth would be both irradiated and physically modified for centuries to come.

Project Safehhouse - Background 2: Electric Boogaloo
In the wake of the oncoming nuclear holocaust, rich and powerful shadier members of the American Government, political Establishment, and corporate and social elite would conspire together to preserve their own existence, becoming what is now known as The Enclave. They launched a government-sanctioned semi-private venture, Project Safehhouse, alongside the Vault-Tec company to construct atomic fallout shelters or "Vaults" to protect the populace. However, this was all a ruse. The Vaults were not a sanctuary from atomic fire for the American people, but rather a network of blast-resistant test chambers for a bizarre paradigm of social experiments meant to test Dwellers' actions in scenarios of extreme isolation with the application of certain factors, all of which was devised clandestinely by both Vault-Tec's corporate leadership, Vault-Tec's scientists, and The Enclave. Of the 122 Vaults finished by the Great War's beginning (not counting unnumbered Vaults such as the Los Angeles Vault, Vault-Tec Among The Stars, the Secret Vault, the Unfinished Vault. etc. or the mysterious Vault 0), very few were "Control Vaults" (actual as-advertised Vaults in line with the public façade of Project Safehhouse's purpose, which did not run experiments, such as Vaults 8, 13, 15, and 76). Each Vault was supposed to be supplied 2 Garden of Eden Creation Kits (G.E.C.K.s), an armory full of a modest supply of moderate yet effective weapons, and enough provisions to last (in some Vaults) up to 2 centuries. This was not truly the case for many non-control Vaults, albeit most did still have pre-installed water chips.

The Enclave
The Enclave's membership merely fled to isolated bunkers or to the Enclave Oil Rig (formerly the Poseidon Energy Rig), an oil rig owned by one of The Enclave's corporate backers; Poseidon Energy. There they would bide their time, designing new weapons, vehicles, and models of postwar power armor, until their inevitable plan to retake the Wastes, genocide the non-Enclave and non-sealed-Vault-Dweller and Mutant (or Mutie as they say) population, and eventually colonize other planets. However, they wouldn't make their presence fully known until the early to mid 23rd Century.

First Vaults Open
[Control] Vaults 8 and 15 would eventually open. Vault 15 would not use its G.E.C.K. until much later due to factional infighting, which would give rise to the Khans (a famous postwar criminal organization or "raider gang"), the Vipers (another raider gang), the Jackals (a third raider group), and the peaceful farming community and settlers of Shady Sands (who, despite their relative insignificance, aside from their use of the G.E.C.K. to create their town, would eventually give rise to the New California Republic, or NCR). Vault 8's inhabitants sprang from the Vault in 2091 upon receiving Vault-Tec's all clear signal, and used their G.E.C.K. to create Vault City. Meanwhile, Vault 12, an experimental Vault located in Bakersfield that never could fully seal, would eventually open after its population became physically warped by long-term radiation exposure, creating the Ghoul town of Necropolis upon the ashes and ruins of Bakersfield. Vault 22 collapsed as a result of its experiments with spores, while Vault 87 disintegrated due to its FEV experiments. Some of Vault 22’s residents would begin an exodus to Zion Canyon, but the Vault itself would never open. Vault 76 would open in 2102, the same year that Richard Grey and Harold’s doomed Expedition to Mariposa Military Base would occur, while 76’s ”sister Vaults” would remain sealed either indefinitely or until an unknown time (Vault-Tec never revealed this information). Vault 94, an experimental Vault and “sister Vault” of Vault 76, did open and send Vault Ambassadors into the surrounding area, but it was resealed by 2102. Vault 101, located near Springvale in the Columbia Commonwealth, would remain sealed indefinitely, as per its experiment.

The Rise of the Master
While the East Coast remained in a period known collectively as the “Eastern Dark Ages” (the Commonwealth Provisional Government collapsed, Appalachia was overwhelmed by the Scorched Plague, the Capital Wasteland labored under its lack of clean water and Vault 87 collapsed due to its experiments while Vault 101 remained sealed, The Pitt‘s Troglodyte Pandemic was starting to begin, Great Lanta’s status was unknown, and New York had allegedly been hit by a direct strike), the West Coast was seeing a more prosperous era. However, the Superior Strain of the Forced Evolutionary Virus located at Mariposa Military Base was eventually discovered by an Expedition led by Richard Grey of Vault 8 (and then Vault City, prior to being exiled) and Harold of Vault 29 (and then The Hub, from which he used his job as a Caravan Boss to act as the Expedition’s Financier). The Base’s automated defense systems were still active and the base was filled with Mutants, and eventually Grey’s Expedition was all but annihilated by the installation’s Mutated Inhabitants and Grey was knocked into one of the Vats by a robotic arm, becoming horribly disfigured and mutated in the process, but also developing powerful psionic abilities. Afterwards, Harold was also infected and turned into a green-skinned Ghoul-like Mutant and fled, before being abandoned by his now-horrified employees from The Hub, and Grey was left in the base as essentially a blob of biomass in constant agony who was also a Psyker. Grey, now horribly mutated by the FEV, crawled out of the Vats covered in FEV and terrible pain and barely able to think (his psionic powers had yet to fully manifest), eventually reached the base control room and started an audio log and later drifted in and out of consciousness for periods lasting sometimes even weeks. Grey soon began experimenting with the FEV, testing it on animals, and eventually embraced his transition and corruption by FEV and believed FEV’s role was to transform and evolve Humanity in the Post-Nuclear Wasteland by force, as the “Forced Evolutionary” part of the Military’s name for the Virus would indicate. He then christened himself as “The Master”, and set about executing his Master Plan.