Fallout's Children of Atom Have a Secret 

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You're telling me that after years of imagining Nate as a lil dorky dude he's actually been a bit of a daddy this entire time?

I love the concept of blowing up Megaton to solve the water issue. "Oh, you've returned. Have you completed your mission?" "Yep, they won't be drinking radiated water anymore!" "Great, here's your rewa-" *BoS person bursts through the door* "THE BOMB WENT OFF, THE BOMB IN MEGATON DETONATED!"

Curie the Third's voice actor fuckin nailed it. Her initial hello and saying how, "I hope the others haven't given you any trouble" genuinely made me smile.

Actually, the game does consider the "unfixable amount of karma" a very fixable thing, since there's a rather hidden dialogue choice only available if you blew Megaton, but have very good karma by the time James asks you about what happened at Megaton: Normally you can outright tell him you did it or try lying about it, in which case he will say h doesn't believe you and instead express disappointment at you. However, if you have very good karma by the time this conversation takes please, he will express relief and say he knew you weren't capable of something like that, in other words, he will believe your lie... Also, there's a unique scenario where you can accept to blow Megaton, but finish the Tenpenny Tower quest in favor of Roy Phillips, which will result in a most unusual scene where apparently Mr Burke fought his way to the top of the tower to confront Roy. Ultimately they will agree to join forces, but Mr. Burke says he first needs to finish his previous job, and then proceed to ask you to blow Megaton.... despite Tenpenny being dead by this point.

This connection might be talked about in the video, but in case its not, i'd like to mention there seems to be a weird connection between Ghouls and Lorenzo Cabot, and by extension, the Children of Atom. If you choose to side with Lorenzo Cabot, you can find him wandering the Wasteland, examining the bodies of 3 sentient Ghouls he just killed out of curiosity. He remarks that their "radiation syndrome" shares striking simularities with "my own condition" so...considering that we know Lorenzo's genetics was changed due to exposure to the Ancient Alien Crown, the species who supposedly created Humanity... Perhaps things like Ghouls are intentionally placed resistances to radiation poisoning placed in some Human Genetics by the Ancient Aliens? Perhaps the Children of Atom have the same genetic gift, but at a higher frequency, with Lorenzo only having it at its purest form? Even Feral Ghouls are surprisingly non-hostile to the Capital Wasteland Children of Atom Branch...

You didn't mention a few really interesting things. 1) Sister Mai says that "the Glow" doesn't harm most of the inhabitants, but some need anti-rad meds. 2) If you go to the crater after Far Harbor you get different dialogue options 3) Robes of Atom's Devoted can confer total rad immunity.

The conversation with Maries mom at 1:06:24 killed me. “That means kidnapping this baby is the key to ruling this city. Yoink!” 😂😂

Every time Nate pronounces the T in Apostles a puppy dies

If anyone is interested in doing a good deed for the day, the Fallout Out of Context Twitter account owner's father has recently had some health issues and any support would be appreciated! www.gofundme.com/f/shannons-heart-transplant-fund?member=25417677

Thank you for all your hard work and effort that goes into making these lengthy videos, it’s truly appreciated!

Sometimes I do wonder if a lot of decisions are actually clever storytelling or not. Bethesda has a track record of really good environmental storytelling, and I think it’s really easy to default into saying it’s laziness because it’s a big company. But I do think plenty of things line up well enough that they aren’t just coincidence

I was amused by Mother Curie calling the Brotherhood Knights "angels". There's a different chapter of power-armored warriors who usually bear that title.

i like how if you bring fawkes to the purifier and have him activate it the game throws it in your face and calls you selfish

I appreciate the revised closed captions upon release, it makes your content accessible to deaf and hard of hearing folks like me 😊

In our own Universe, Atomic power very early on took on a dangerous connotation. Various accidents combined with the ever present fear of nuclear destruction in an atomic war, led to many trying their best put but anything atomic related out of their minds. In the Fallout Universe, it is VERY different. In the intro cinematic to Fallout 4, Nate describes how the world completely embraced the potentials of the atomic, in all its forms. Even Nate's voice as he describes the the potentials for atomic energy and science takes on an almost reverent quality, as if even while rehearsing his speech he can't forget the possibilities past, present, and future that atomic science can and has provided. What I getting at, is that, in the Fallout Universe, by 2077, the people have been living with a great and ever expanding respect and gratitude for the atomic sciences. Its power runs their homes, fuels their cars, activates their robots, moves their war machines, protects their food and heals their bodies. While in the real world we have embraced some atomic science that we can make as safe as humanly possible, the Fallout Universe embraced anything and everything that atomic science could do, even the potentially unsafe, leading to bigger and better breakthroughs. Simply put, even the average, everyday person Pre - Great War had a near reverence and love of the atomic that we in the real world have all but shunned. So I find it not so crazy to believe that even before the Great War, there might be religions or cults that saw atomic science as a force from a god or gods, and worshiped it. And sense it would seem that that the potentials and realities of gods and aliens are real in Fallout; that those entities might use atomic science for their own ends in their interactions with Humanity, would seem to be an easy path to accomplishing their goals.

My headcanon is that the reason radiation acts so weird and unscientific in the Fallout universe (what is essentially spicy light in our universe vs. Ghouls and Super Mutants in Fallout) is because of the eldritch god Ug-Qualtoth, and maybe Atom is either a separate god (like how there are multiple gods in the Cthulhu mythos) or simply a false identity used by the eldritch monster to better influence humans Ghoulification

I agree that Ysolde's anti-radiation aura is likely a game mechanic just to let you listen to her dialogue without dying from ambient radiation.

That musical connection is definitely something to look into, as musical connections like that are very rarely coincidental. If you're able (and I myself am not) to do so, try overlapping the tracks of the Mother and Mothman so the synth notes play as close to simultaneously as possible, but don't change the pitches or anything like that. I think there's a distinct possibility for the overlapping tracks to reveal something that your research into both Dunwich and the Children of Atom may have previously missed.

Also, my Crazy Theory about the eldritch horrors of the Fallout universe is this: The Fallout 76 cultists and the Dunwich corporation and stuff were worshipping one entity, which was about to come into the world and take over, but the nukes fell just before it could. This would be the weird entity who's tooth sword you find at the bottom of Dunwich Borers. Anyways, that entity is actually at war with Atom, who blew up the world to save it in an example of the Godzilla Threshold trope. The Great War, destructive as it was, pales in comparison to the havoc a fully realized eldritch horror could wreak.

Fallout 4 just turned the children of Atom into a generic mob. One of the many ways Fallout 4 watered down the fallout franchise.

As someone who spends way, way too much time picking every nuance out of this universe's lore, thank you! This was an absolute treat to watch, and I'll be sharing it with some fellow Fallout friends later today. And, as someone who thinks you're really onto something, here's a few things I've noticed myself: -The confessor in Far Harbor is wearing a chest piece made of the same oxidized copper as the giant heads that are found all over the Fallout universe, including the bottom of Lucky Hole Mine. -The heads all wear headpieces that bear a striking resemblance to the helmet of Lorenzo Cabot. -Children of Atom in Fallout 4 are about the only ones that use the gamma guns. Mothman cultists can also be found firing gamma guns even though few other enemies use that weapon. They also wear very similar-looking hide/leather clothing. -Children of Atom worship radiation and are legitimately not affected by radiation. Similarly, the Dim Ones worship the red-eyed Moth, and it never attacks them but instead can often be found sitting calmly among them. -The glowing one at the top of the Kingsport lighthouse seems very similar to the Mothman cultists' ritual to illuminate the Landview Lighthouse to call the Mothman. -Big similarities in ideology between the Mothman tomes in Point Pleasant's church and the Great Division cut scriptures from Fallout 4 that you mentioned. -Fallout 76 has a Charisma card that allows you to cure nearby teammates of rads if you're irradiated. In addition, there is a card to raise radiation resistance to a very high amount, and a mutation that will give you a chance to explode in radiation when attacked. Lastly, "bloodieds" in 76 are builds based on more rads essentially making you more dangerous, characterized by high damage but low resistances based on an extremely debuffed health bar due to a high radiation count. Considering the end goal of Atomites is to become ghoulified, this would seem like a mechanical demonstration of the steps and/or abilities along to that goal. Add in the effect Ysolda has in Fallout 4 on the player, and it really starts to get weird. -We know the denizens of Appalachia did travel to the Pitt after the Great War. Baby Marie in Fallout 3's the Pitt DLC seems to have had Starched Genes, an aspect in Fallout 76 meant to prevent mutation and usually used to 'lock in' mutations without acquiring more. -In 76's the Pitt, in the yard of the Foundry mission, there's a room that's full of the bottle lights exactly like that of the Children of Atom in Fallout 4. -Children of Atom lamps look like they're filled with a very familiar glowing yellow liquid in Fallout 76 that's used to summon the Mothman... bioluminescent fluid. Drinking it will incur 1 rad. -The Landview Lighthouse is a guaranteed spawn for multiple feral ghouls that mill and sleep around the property. -Far Harbor is full of the same dry and wilted vines we find in various Moth-related locations around Appalachia. -South, slightly southeast of Vault 76, between the Moonshiner's Shack and the Isolated Cabin I believe (about where the cow picture is on the map), there's an unmarked and very weird little location with a bunch of thorned, dead vines grown up around one of the Mothman effigies. On the ground, there's a bunch of corpses, including that of a Dim One. If you duck next to the vines and look through them, everything on the other side has the same weird shimmery effect as the vision during Atom's vision quest in Fallout 4. This unmarked location is eerily close to the Landview Lighthouse. -In 76, strangler vines lifted Tanagra town right out of the ground. At the top of Tanagra town, there's a cavern with another head in it. To the northwest, very close to Tanagra town, there's an abandoned waste dump full of radioactive barrels. -Father Charles of the Moth Enlightened seems to be a Psyker that's gone mad with the knowledge, but the stuff he rambles always sounds creepily like any number of characters from Lovecraft's works that have had their minds scrambled by an eldritch abomination. -In Lucky Hole Mine, there's a note 'His Birth', talking about him being the 'firstborn of the wood', and blood weeping from his branches to share his knowledge. Could be the Mothman or it could be whatever eldritch thing they worship down there, but it's weird that both the Cultists and the Atomites have references to trees giving knowledge. -The Interloper, which is also at the bottom of the mine, is a giant tentacle/vine monster created in Vault 94 when the GECK was violently destroyed, releasing a ton of radiation (and god knows what else as it was a terraforming device loaded with all sorts of genetic blueprints, apparently). If the vines in the Mire are connected to the Interloper, and they're known as Strangler Vines, that would presume a connection between the Interloper and the Strangler Heart. If it's as prevalent underground as above, that's truly dizzying for how huge this thing must be. A horrifying half-alive monstrosity that stretches alive, dead, and all states in-between across and underneath all of Appalachia, like a... Deep... monster... thing... Deep One. Or something. It should also be noted that Lucky Hole Mine is on *direct* opposite side of the map from Vault 94 down the Savage Divide. The Divide itself seems to render the vines dry and brittle without the moisture of the mire/bog, which are more prominently radioactive areas of the map. -There's a misshapen, dead Interloper called "the Visitor" in the kaleidopore tunnels of the Deep, outside of the Communist Listening Post below the Whitesprings. It's got some weird black stuff rising from it, a lot like the black smoke aura from Mothman. -In Lovecraft's work, many of the characters either were emotionally or mentally compromised before their encounter with the eldritch, or as a result of. It was also established as part of Lovecraft's lore that those with weak or compromised minds, or those of inferior genetic makeup, were more susceptible to being manipulated by these beings. I know Lovecraft was extremely bigoted and narcisstic, and he used his prejudice as the basis of some of his lore, but moving away from that rather loaded take, Bethesda might still be using this aspect of the lore. Here's how: -By completing 76's Mothman Equinox event multiple times, one is able to progressively open six religious tomes spread across two locked cases located inside the church in Point Pleasant. The catcheism of Hilary has a passage that says: "While the mad were called to their chthonic master, we spurned the slavery of the unliving." As the verse before speaks directly of Dim Ones, is this a reference to the Dim Ones still residing in Lucky Hole mine? A mine full of lead, which is known to cause madness in humans? Humans who we've been told time and time again in Lovecraft's lore that when weak-willed, are very susceptible to the machinations of supernatural beings? Beings that might reside in the deep places of the Earth? That you'd be closer to in, I dunno, a mine? -The giant heads found all over are green because they're oxidized copper. There's pipes of the same material running through the mine, which are presumably the same age as the heads. It really doesn't make sense for modern humans to have made pipes out of copper, as we now know that long-term or high-dose exposure to copper can be toxic, causing depression, irritability, sinus irritation, headaches, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, liver damage, and kidney disease. -Now, for the unliving reference... During the Mothman Equinox, Cultist High Priests control other beings to attack you, denoted by a red aura of tiny moths around the controlled creatures. These priests are especially concentrated where there are high amounts of feral ghouls. I feel like this is referencing that specific ability, perhaps granted them by some eldritch entity or entities masquerading as the red-eyed Moth to the Dim Ones. It would seem to me that humans who are still whole in body but so neurologically deteriorated as to be completely without any reasoning of their own would be the perfect tools of some eldritch abomination. Unrelated, probably: -THE HEADS HUM in Lucky Hole. Seriously, go listen with headphones. It's creepy. -Pipe is life: there's a randomly appearing ominous pipe in 76. Selecting it makes the pipe hum in a way to denote it's buried *very* far underground, and it makes the world vibrate and turn funny colors. Like a temporary boon for huffing the fumes of some deep eldritch thing, lol. IDK, probably not related, but when I first saw the copper pipe in Lucky Hole Mine, the random event was the first thing I thought of.

There's something strange about Pickman's art with how it focuses on eyes, strange glyphs in the sky, arms reaching for the sky, and other things. Also, his place is near Cabot House. Could there be a connection of sorts?

Hey nate, ive been subbed your channel for the past 6-7 years, and i cant tell you how much i appreciate you coming back and doing in depth dives into your older content. Alot of youtubers will just move forward and not think about what their old limitations did to impact their videos. I just want to tell you how much i appreciate you going back and taking videos that were already very engaging and stirring, and delivering even more of your passion, knowledge and effort. Keep up the fantastic work nate. Youve always been awesome! ❤

Another two hour lore video? Count me IN!

i swear, Football Head is the best song to loop and use for fallout videos

To be fair to bethesda, some characters looking older is feasible. Stress causes visible aging in people, and the wasteland would no doubt be stressful even if its all youve known

Currently working on a minutemen general character, a saviour for the commonwealth, and my plan was to have him eventually go insane from the initiation ritual in Far Harbor. The implication of Ug'qualtoth behind the violent chapter of Atom just takes it sooooo much deeper for me 🥴 just think, a shining beacon of a man putting the commonwealth back together, only to unify them all under the church of Atom, which itself is unknowingly being used by an eldritch deity to irradiate and ghoulify its own following ... Humanity's greatest compassion blinded by Atom's light leaving only the unknown darkness, sealing mankind's fate for eternity ... I love this game.

if I remember rightly if you go to the Crater and talk to Ysolde after joining the Children of Atom at Far Harbour there is a option to introduce yourself as being from that "chapter" and she will welcome you as a fellow Brother/Sister - not much changes other then she sometimes address you as that.

I think the idea of Dunwich Borers using Mini Nukes as blasting caps as a somewhat reasonable idea as Mini Nukes have about 2x the power of a Frag Grenade. So not to awfully dangerous to use, but super expensive. So maybe they were attempting to say they were testing it as option to which the Army colonel at Fort Strong would say sure.

I followed after the Dunwich video, partially cause the Dunwich storylines are legit one of my favs in Fallout, but i just gotta say i love the semi casual vibe of your videos. Makes it feel like more of an exploratory discussion even if im not saying anything. Not everyone needs to have the gravitas of a Lore Keeping Librarian, and you still manage to keep things fun to listen to, lol.

28:07 Mother Curie: "You must have made quite the impression on Brother Gerard!" Lone Wanderer: "... Right. Yes. That's what happened." Brother Gerard, meanwhile, was a fine red mist sprinkled on the monastery's entrance.

Glory to Atom!

You're here putting out _film_ - length lore breakdowns of videogame trivia. Goodness gracious, we are lucky to have you!

Nates one of those RU-vidrs where I've the biggest respect for his work. It's so awesome and good to watch and listens to him. I hope, he will do an podcast or something like that in the future. I love that voice

Nate being hot is the biggest win for Fallout fans in ages

I know it's not the same religious group as the Children of Atom but I'm surprised you didn't mention the Bright Brotherhood in New Vegas with all the similarities between the two followings. They had a non-feral glowing one that was trying to lead ghouls of all sentience to a holy land like Moses to Jerusalem, but with rockets. Though I'm sure there may have not been much to go off of with them to warrant their mentioning. Still, they were in the back of my mind while listening to your lore delving.

I believe you never did specify what was wrong with the periodic table puzzle, excuse me if I missed it. Interestingly, Molybdenium is not the 99th element, it is the 42nd. The REAL 99th element is Einsteinium, making the true passphrase "Esther." No clue what that means, but it's surely intentional, there's no way Bethesda just accidentally forgot what elements are what numbers.

1:07:05 You neglected to mention the 3rd option:Eat The Baby. You need the cannibalism Perk, but you can actually Eat the Baby, which is just insane.

I find it cool at one point someone described people in power armor as "Angels"

Tbh, I think Fo3's weird character models actually work to tell a weird "nonliteral" story, like people look older than their age because that's how their new age correlates. Like the "oldest woman" in Megaton is in her mid 60s, I have had two grandma's hit late 80s early 90s. If 60 is the new 90, making 40 look 60 visually shows that. (Not that I'm saying they did it on purpose, just a funny coincidence)

Just when I was looking for a longer video to watch during my gaming, Nate uploads this. Great start to the day.

The town in Lovecraft's story "The Dunwich Horror," is pronounced "Dun'ich," the "w" being palletized, which is typical of rural New England communities. The Dunwich in the Fallout Universe may be pronounced the way you pronounce it. I just thought you'd like to learn this trivia.

I would love to see a "biggest mysteries covered by this channel that have been solved" or where are they now style video sometime in the future if that sounds fun to put together, might be interesting to go back and see how theories have held up over time for things that have been solved or had major progress over the years

I like them because they're a faction unique to the east coast that could go on to have alot of influence, and could go in many directions. It is exciting to see a decently written faction from Bethesda fallout

All of the mines/quarries in Fallout are covered in Limestone. If you get the Vault 88 add-on you will be have to travel to Quincy Quarry and go deep underground. Unsurprisingly everyone in there in vault 88 are suffering from high radiation poisoning. Only the Overseer hasn't turned feral. After digging out more and more Limestone you will find pockets of untouched Uranium veins. Although other quarries lack these veins, you could imagine what they would have looked like before everyone got "Uranium Fever" as the song goes. When scrapped, it can be used as nuclear material and provide nuclear power to the vault. Further investigating the vault you will encounter highly radiated mole rats, feral ghouls, radscorpions, mirelurks, Queen Legendary Deathclaws, which have been living surrounded by limestone and uranium for 200 years. Beneath the Dunwich Building (FO3 1:37:04) you see a statue they're worshiping which looks like a tall obelisk. We've seen pillars like this before. In the middle of Bunker Hill there is a tall obelisk. The Bunker Hill that's right next to the Atom camp. The one Piper said had to be "cleaned up" (52:50). Ornate Obelisks was a pre-War company that manufactured stone obelisks and the supplier of their stone was Thicket Excavations. Thicket Excavations ordered materials from companies located in Rockville and Damascus, Maryland. Damascus was home to the company "Pillar Pushers". These companies and locations are mentioned at the Thicket Excavations (I think?). If they have connections to the Children of Atom, they may have viewed the sites as holy as it contained raw Uranium aka Atom's Blessing. It may have been part of their rituals to test everyone in Atoms name. The worthy stay alive while the heathens perish. Maybe they believed that the limestone could retain the radiation, which it can in real life, and be used as a beacon to spread radiation to anyone in the area. That then brings into question the other site at the lighthouse which again is a pillar of white stone containing the radioactive ghoul at the top. They could make obelisks into holy objects Maybe thats what the point of the faces are for. They believe if they build it and put enough radiation into it, it will possess the spirit of Atom and come to life?

What if Bethesda doesn’t even realize they’re connecting all these factions to ug qualtoth, and ug qualtoth is actually using the writers and developers to spread its influence throughout the games?

The resilience is pretty well explained in The Nucleus. Some of them look unaffected because they “scour”. Outside of that a lot of them look rough and they often have feral ghouls around, which could very likely be former members.

Didnt Deacon have a line about when he was in DC that it's home to an insane cult (I assume the Children of Atom) and even ends with "thanks guys!" ? which seems to imply that the commonwealth branches are either directly from DC or at the very least came from the same-ish direction

I can’t imagine the time and energy that goes into a video like this. Constantly impressed! The only thing is… the ‘t’ is silent is ‘apostles’

The children of Atom are written so well. They capture the absurdity of religion perfectly.

My head-canon holds that the Children of Atom are a natural evolution of whatever process turns you into a ghoul. They're basically ghouls who didn't end up rotting.

Yea they do keep getting weirder and weirder 😅 Despite how weird they are, I really do find the Children of Atom really interesting, thanks for doing a more in depth look in to what they’ve been up to Nate !

Nate’s videos are always a buried treasure that I love stumbling upon and watching. 10/10 recommended

that syth bit sealed it yea. Fallout isn't exactly full of leitmotifs but the musical choices aren't random either. something like this must have been intentional

That synth is very similar to parts of Gabriel's oboe by Morricone, from the score to the movie The Mission, given the highly religious nature of that film it make sense that Bethesda would emulate in that moment

I always like hearing about things hidden in the game files. So many things they thought about but cut or just decided not to pursue further.

I've played a ton of Fallout 3, NV, and 4 and you still show me new things that I haven't found or just straight up missed. Thank you for all of your hard work and for keeping the love for Fallout alive and well.

Knowing all the ethereal stuff Todd and Bethesda like to put in these games, i wouldnt be surprised if Starfield REALLY hammered more of that sort of thing into it

The more I look at crater house, it kinda just looks like a megaton Easter egg to me, the kind of place that’s similar enough to make you think about the original.and boats at the dock could indicate that this group didn’t draw in people from the sea but came from far harbour as that’s the closest and largest group to them. It could have been the beginning of a pilgrimage to the bomb site in the glow or a launching point for those who do the pilgrimage.

This was one of the best hermit craft episodes ever. Great building and great time spent with other hermits. It had everything

I have so much respect for all the hard work you put into these videos. Been playing fallout and skyrim for years like many others and didn't know half the stuff I've learnt from watching your channel!

I'm an Elder Scrolls guy who has only played a little bit of Fallout, but these videos make me want to try again

No one Nate: delopidaded Also nate: aposdels of atom

Could they be going into slow Ghoulification? That later supports my theory, ghouls of any type are commonly not hostile to other ghouls... it kinda reminds me of a perk the sole survivor has... It basically notes the player as a ghoul, ghouls are non hostile, radiation heals you, but your outside appearance is still smooth fresh and normal....

Perhaps Isolde’s radiation mystery is a form of absorbing the rads? Like ghouls do, maybe implying that the Children themselves are undergoing a similar biological change. Isolde’s absorption could be a similar mutation to baby Marie, or the Ghouls, where the Ghouls can feed on rads, perhaps she can feed on it as well, also providing a reason as to why Isolde can ‘absorb’ the rads, without ghoulifying.

this man has been COOKING since the last iceberg upload! i cant wait to get comfy and get lost in the world of fallout yet again. thanks nate for your awesome work this past year!

This is a fantastic video. You must have spent an incredible amount of time on this. As someone whose interested in Fallout and Religion, seeing these two interact was awesome. You're amazing

Great video on the topic, it was really fun to see the thoughts I had for years about CoA and Ug Qualtoth cult being connected being confirmed. The only pet peeve of mine I wanted to point out is you calling Beth lazy for reusing FO4 assets in FO76. It's not being lazy, it's being efficient. All developers reuse and repurpose assets all the time, and it especially makes sense when we have a case like this - two games from the same franchise, made on the same engine and released roughly in the same timeframe. Like, come on, given that when developing a game you have a finite amount of development time and manpower, what would you rather have your art department doing: make all the new stuff you need that's not yet in the engine OR spend at least half of the development cycle on remaking unimportant low-priority stuff like candles, just so there's zero reused assets?

I'd be interested in seeing a full investigation into Vault-Tech. That would be amazing. Keep up the good work!

OKAY these are my favourite Fallout faction! They really had no business being as prominent as they are in 4, they were just a cult in Fallout 3 that you could donate to. But then in 4 and it's DLC they were a full on faction, enemies and powerful end game gear. Like damn..

I really enjoyed this as I couldn’t ever put the pieces of this story together this was really helpful to the lore behind them. Great video great work

Nate is still making fallout 4 video despite it has been 9 years, can we appreciate that?

I was about an hour in before I realized this was a 2 hour video. Fascinating subject. Has me hooked.

I’ve never played any of the fallout games but I’ve watched all of your lore videos because I love your Skyrim stuff so much. This puts me in the weird position where I know a lot about all of the wildest stuff in the game, but don’t know what you do in the main quest.

I did NOT expect Nate to be Tom Hanks from cast away

I haven't seen anyone else comment on it yet, so it might be just that obscure a fact, but the children of the atom are likely based on a real world idea. The group that came up with the symbol for radiation were a group tasked with figuring out ways of protecting radioactive material in the future, even after possible civilizations had collapsed. Plutonium has a half life of 24,000 years, and when you consider that most civilizations only last a few hundred to a few thousand (china's being the current oldest with roughly 3,500 years of written history, but even then, its changed drastically over time), they needed to figure out things that would vastly outlive normal civilization life spans to protect anyone in the future that might encounter the stuff. The symbol was decided because they did surveys using multiple different countries with vastly different cultures and its the one that gave the impression of 'danger' the most, regardless of language or cultural norms. However, there were many other ideas that were floated including creating an actual religion based around radioactive materials and radioactivity. The idea being that religious ideologies have been shown to surpass civilizations in longevity, so warnings about the hazards radioactivity in religious dogma was another avenue they explored, though ultimately passed on (as there were several possible ways that could eventually go, including those that, like the CoA, would dedicate themselves to causing nuclear explosions). Another one that they explored was using ominous architecture, like fields of metal spikes, towers, pyramids, and others to try and warn off people, though this too was also ultimately passed on due to humans trending towards being stupidly curious so it would ultimately be self defeating. This was also used in fallout with the nuke storage facility in the glowing sea. What this means though, given that the world of fallout before the bombs used so much radioactive material, its actually possible that the group did go with the religion idea and were just getting it started meaning there is a very real possibility that the CoA actually pre-date the war. Oh, also small, fun fact: The CoA are actually correct, and the writers did it this way intentionally. While their dogma seems to espouse what is basically the many worlds theroum of physics and alternate realities, they are actually being quite literal. The 'great war' and the nukes in fallout lore have spawned multiple games now, with many people playing the games often multiple times, doing different things each time. So, they're entirely write that the in world nukes created the fallout games (setting wise) and thus, created infinite universes.

Epic Nate giving us what we really want

I love these lengthy episodes as much as I love the shorter ones. They both scratch different itches for me. I listen to your videos as well as the spiffing Brit to fall asleep but I also still learn as I rewatch your videos so I end up seeing it all over a few nights. Hopefully this could even be a full time thing for you. I can tell you love this. And I can’t wait for the year (although I may be waiting a long time) for ES6 videos from you

The 't' in Apostle is silent.

I love these long videos. The in depth investigations are like a long documentary. Well done!

Not related to this video so much (as I’m currently watching it) but I’ve recently been playing through fallout 4 again since it’s launch. I discovered your channel during this time and have now watched most of not all of the fallout related videos. Your delivery of information, dedication, and creation of such long videos has made the experience of playing all the better. Thank you for another video and all of the previous ones! Looking forward to this one too

Gotta love these lore videos. Helps me understand and try to sympathize with these groups more

This might be mentioned elsewhere in the comments, but I recall there being a holotape that revealed the old confessors fate. He was wanting to find the key to launch the nukes in the submarine and dima killed him to prevent that.

i wish the terminal entry was in the game, that shit was badass and have the children of atom so much more depth, i want to know more ab them so bad

Thanks for the awesome video, Nate. You're the only creator I have my notifications on for since I know every time you upload is a banger. Keep up the good work, I love the extra long video format.

Great video Nate, I genuinely do not know how you keep such amazing content coming out for games that haven't had a release this last decade! One small thing: the "t" at the end of apostle is silent.

Another interesting connection here is that Ug-Qualtoth is the Fallout universe’s stand in for Yog-Sothoth, found in the original Dunwich Horror story. He is the *embodiment of space & time* in Lovecraft’s universe & therefore inherently representative of the Atomic structure of the cosmos. He is *the multiverse made flesh,* his physical form is made of a terrible *light.* Described as *“a conglomeration of glowing spheres sometimes surrounded by black shadowy tendrils”* Some people have even depicted Yog-Sothoth looking like a collection of atomic structures or the cosmic web of galaxies bound together by tendrils of dark matter. The connections with Atom here are a little… unsettling. The fabric of space & matter, each grain of which contains an entire universe according to the church, could be the very flesh of Ug-Qualtoth who is Yog Sothoth & the church simply know him by the name of Atom.

Listening to this, especially the part with confessor Adalia, makes me think maybe at one point the plan was to have the CoA be a full-on faction you could sign with, like the BoS or Institute. They would have a reason to be antagonistic for every other faction, had a "leader" in the files, a HQ and geographical landmarks, maybe there was even plans for an Atom ending

Love Calder's work. Nice to see all their hard work come together.

Wait did we just see Nate’s true form? Have we seen this before? I do usually listen on audio so I’m not sure

For the end, I propose a slight variation of the theory at the end: The Children of Atom unknowningly worship the Wise Mothman. As possible evidence: * Both Atom and the Mothman are stated to be benevolent beings that want to aid their followers. * Both have SOME connection to nuclear power (Atom being radiation as a god, Mothman knowing and warning about the Great War). * Both give visions to some of their followers * Their primary follower group we meet have a main faction that's openly hostile to the player using the same equipment (Gamma Guns and Radiation Rifles), while there are more peaceful offshoots that don't attack the player and even give some more logical insight into their beliefs (Nucleus folks are fully aware that for the average joe, radiation is deadly - the Enlightened Ones are aware that the Mothman is a moth and sometimes just does moth things because of it). * Some of their hostile followers have a connection to the Dunwich company that's loose on the surface but probably deeper in meaning (The Atoms at the Crater House, and the Cultists worshipping the Interloper in a mine), which itself could be both also the same creature those two groups worship, as suggested by Nate at the end. Which in itself might imply a sort of on-going conflict between those two entities, potentially.

the reason confessor adalia looks healthy could be because she never has been edited more after her role has been scraped ...

I listen and re listen to these videos at night like a podcast. The lore is always fun to listen to. You do an awesome job. Just wish they came out faster! Keep up the good work.

Nate, I know its been a long time since your break but thank you for being back. I cannot express to you how much I love your content and what it means to me. Thank you!!!!

I love this. I fell asleep to it in the middle and dreamt that the questline with lady of the fog is so much bigger (in my imagination you could conspire to get her to power, help the psycho confessor or return the old disillusioned confessor back) woke up, watched to the end, kinda disappointed 😂 Nice closure with the camp though. Tremendous work overall, cannot wait for you to get to the New Vegas ❤

You know, the main outer god Azathoth of H.P. Lovecraft's mythos is supposed to be an omniversal being credited with making all realities. It is also often referred to and referenced as 'The Nuclear Chaos'. (For very obvious reasons.) I very much wonder if there could be any small connections there.

Thank you Nate! Please never shy away from long videos. I love super long format videos, they allow so much more detail and I really love diving into them :)

LETS GOOOOOOO I was just re-watching the aliens and Dunwich videos last night hoping for more content from nate

Did you know if you spend a few minutes on your pipboy doing nothing your character will observe it? You probably already know