36: Fallout 4: Medieval Ages in a post-apocalyptic future

João Paulo da Silva Roque, @JooP16996186, University of Lisbon

Fallout 4 is a role-playing game set in a post-apocalyptic future, developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks, in which the player controls a character who needs to survive a harsh and deadly environment, in the aftermath of a nuclear war. When taking into account medieval culture and mythology, this character, referred to as the Sole Survivor, can be interpreted as a knight, attempting to save not a princess, but his own son, fighting monsters and injustice along the way, thus embodying the hero trope. In order to do this, the Sole Survivor is required to brave a wasteland: a radioactive region which is barren and extremely dangerous, not only for its radiation, but also due to the presence of aggressive creatures and human factions. Gathering companions who provide assistance is indispensable; these assume the role of squires and carry the Sole Survivor’s belongings: PIP-BOY, for instance, is a personal processing unit that will nonetheless function as inventory and help during combat.

Some of the monsters the Sole Survivor will face include Deathclaws, dragon-like creatures whose appearance is similar to that of the dragons presented in the renowed medieval works Beowulf and The Saga of the Volsungs. To help fight threats such as these, the Sole Survivor will have at his disposal several power armors: these are nuclear powered mechanical suits which will act as the knight’s armor and, furthermore, they can also be used by enemy NPC´s (Non-Player Characters). This calls up the trope of the Black Knight, an enigmatic agent of evil, much like the Sole Survivor’s enemies when donning their power armors and high-powered weapons. The Sole Survivor, carrying along his mission, will, contrarily, embody the archetype of the righteous White Knight, associated with justice and bravery.

Another one of Fallout 4’s mechanics involves giving the player the option to choose to align the Sole Survivor with one of three factions (there is a fourth one, the Minutemen, to which the Sole Survivor is automatically allied with; however, for the purpose of this paper, it will not be considered for its lack of bellicism and for not interfering with the other factions): the Brotherhood of Steel, the Institute and the Railroad. The Institute, working from the shadows, creates synthetic beings, indistinguishable from humans; people fear these beings, known as synths, as they subvert what collective memory identifies as being human. For the Institute, a science hub, they are mere tools, permanently available to complete tasks for the scientists. Despite this, they are also a symbol of progress and technological evolution.

As for the Railroad, synths are equal to humans: it is unrestrained, persecuted science, while the Institute is science within the law. Let us remember Alfred the Great (848/49-899) and his attempts to promote education while under close scrutiny of the Roman Catholic Church. The Brotherhood of Steel, in stark contrast, embodies the skepticism, conservatism and zealotry of this Church in the Middle Ages; its code of conduct perceives synths as a threat, and so they are in a crusade against them. The Brotherhood of Steel is extremely restrictive and functions through a strict hierarchy.

The Institute and the Brotherhood of Steel are presented as symbols of the well-known medieval feud which opposes scientific progress and religion. As such, it is possible to establish parallels between the Middle Ages and modern games and medieval motifs retain their relevance nowadays. Fallout 4 offers a great range of thematics that can very well fall within the spectrum of medieval mythology and culture and its interpretative possibilities make it a very interesting video game.

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