You've experienced the FALLOUT series in your own way, but want to learn more about its story.
Well- to get to the heart of the story- you have to go back to the beginning...
Has your life taken a turn? Do troubles beset you? Has fortune left you behind? If so, the
If so, the Sierra Madre Casino, is inviting you to begin again. Come to a place where wealth, excitement
and intrigue await around every corner. Countless diversions await: Gamble in our casino, take
in the theater, or stay in one of our exclusive executive suites that will shelter you and
cater to your every whim. So if life's worries have weighed you down, join us, let go, and
leave the world behind at the Sierra Madre grand opening this October. We'll be waiting…
In bygone years these lands had tall tales of folk heroes like Pecos Bill, John Henry,
and Paul Bunyan. Little yarns about big men. They helped children believe the world was
a more magical place than it really was. Lately, folk don't need to tell campfire stories to
make the world seem... interesting.
Travelers will still find a few pre-war posters and postcards about the Sierra Madre scattered
around the wasteland, and every now and then some crazy old scavenger scrawls “Gone to
Sierra Madre” along the highway before wandering off into the desert to die on a fool's quest.
Hundreds of years ago, foolhardy men would head out West into these hills in search of
gold, but the prospectors these days are panning for pre-war prosperity.
The Sierra Madre is an Old World resort whose opulence is said to be perfectly preserved
through the apocalypse. It was built by an industrialist named Frederick Sinclair, for
the highest of high society. Makes the New Vegas strip look a back alley in Junktown.
An oasis where the lucky could win a fortune at the roulette table, see the biggest celebrities
in the world like Dean Domino, or promenade with up and coming starlets through quaint
Villas.
It was an exclusive, far-off vacation spot. Suspiciously secluded for a tourist destination,
as though Sinclair might have had some ulterior motive for building it. The great War struck
before the place could have it's grand opening. Maybe that was Sinclair's plan all along,
to spend the apocalypse with the movers and shakers. Or there could have been some quieter,
more personal meaning behind all the grandeur.
Finding the place offered a chance to let go of your troubles, whatever they are, and
start again. For folk who never got a fair shake in life, a chance to begin anew is more
valuable than gold, water, or even caps.
Plenty of people have heard the call on their radios. A sultry siren's voice telling them
of the opportunities the Sierra Madre holds. Those who follow that voice disappear into
the wastes. Could be that the fabled casino is so wondrous that no one wants to leave,
or it might be that anyone who heeds that call ends up cashing out their chips the hard
way. Others have trekked out into the deepest wilds of the wasteland, only to be turned
back by a cloud of poisonous red mist that kills those who try to enter. Somewhere within
that cloud they are certain a treasure awaits.
There's an abandoned bunker near the banks of the Colorado river – used to be a Brotherhood
of Steel outpost, but lately it's been used by an undetermined individual. Someone who's
been to the Sierra Madre and brought back a few souvenirs from what looks like a mighty
interesting vacation. A safe full of shiny chips with the Sierra Madre logo on them.
Jars of toxic red goo that must be related to that mysterious red cloud. Even more interesting
is an art deco vending machine with the same logo.
The thing is a lot more advanced than a simple vending machine, though. Lots of machines
will take in a handful of coins and spit out treats, but that vending machine from the
Sierra Madre was the pinnacle of what the Back When times had to offer in terms of luxury.
Some of the schematics brought out of the Big MT show prototype matter recombinators
that operate along similar principles as that vending machine.
Maybe the people who built the resort thought that these machines would let them run the
place with their own currency. Replace the old paper money with something more intrinsically
valuable. No need to stockpile junk when you can make whatever you need right on the fly.
In the hands of altruists like the Followers, or the New Canaanites this would be a boon
to humanity, but the man who is most likely running things at the Sierra Madre is definitely
not a humanitarian.
The location of the Sierra Madre was lost centuries ago, but those vending machines
and other tech were developed by the Think Tank at Big Empty, and surely the exact location
of the casino could be found somewhere inside Big Empty. A while ago a few people caused
a big ruckus there, and among them was a former Brotherhood of Steel elder named Elijah.
Elijah had the technical know-how to uncover all of the Think Tank's secrets, so he is
without doubt the one person who could have discovered the location of the lost casino,
and learned the nature of the treasures within.
There was a time when Elijah meant well. Suppose the same could be said for the Brotherhood
on the whole, but Elijah took the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood on a particularly dark
path. Before he became Elder, he was a Scribe. His role with the Brotherhood was to research
technology, and figure out how to restore whatever gizmo the paladins discovered on
their expeditions. He was a genius, even among even the Brotherhood's bloodline of technophiles,
and he rose to the esteemed rank of Elder in the Mojave chapter.
Once in a leadership role, he defied the Brotherhood's traditional approach. He sought to improve
technology, rather than merely catalog it. He pushed for new, more dangerous weapons.
Ones that could unleash mass destruction on the foes of the Brotherhood. After all, their
isolationism left them few in number and devoid of allies. A trump card was needed.
When the Brotherhood discovered an old world solar power plant called Helios One, Elijah
was convinced that it would give him the weapon he would need to put the Brotherhood at the
top of the Mojave's food chain.
Even a mind such as his requires time and study to fully comprehend such a masterwork
of engineering. Unfortunately Helios One was also coveted by the New California Republic.
Elijah couldn't let go, and forced his soldiers to endure a siege while he struggled to unearth
the arcane secrets of Helios One.
It was ultimately a futile effort that wasted lives on both sides. The Brotherhood abandoned
Helios with its mysteries still unsolved, and the surviving members of Elijah's chapter
retreated to their base. Elijah, however couldn't accept the defeat,
and set off to the far corners of the wasteland in search of other means to see his Brotherhood
take revenge on the NCR.
Many members of the Brotherhood felt betrayed by his disappearance, others presumed he was
dead. A few, who genuinely believed in him once saw this as the final step in his decent
into madness. Among his protege's were a pair of younger members of the Brotherhood, who
tried to see the good in him, even though he had repeatedly interfered with their happiness.
He placed his interests ahead of their young love, and that would only be the first of
many injustices he would inflict upon one of these women in the name of the Brotherhood.
While the Brotherhood of Steel had access to amazing technologies, they were still limited
to what they could find in the ruins of the Old World. Elijah knew that in the days leading
up to the Great War, there had to have been inventions that weren't released to the public
yet. Secret prototypes, and forbidden research that even the Brotherhood could not unearth.
He found an array of unethical scientific goodies scattered all over Big Empty. The
place was a giant toy box for him, containing the kind of reprehensible devices that would
ensure his next group of subordinates would be even more loyal than his Brotherhood underlings.
Among them was an advanced form of bomb collar, similar to the ones used by slavers, but with
additional features that would reward teamwork, and punish treachery.
At Big Empty, Elijah discovered another form of pre-war gizmo that never made it into mass
production – Holographic emitters. These devices were miraculous even two hundred years
ago. There's still a working prototype at Big Empty for those who want to behold this
wonder for themselves, but the only place where they were widely-used was in the Sierra
Madre.
The man who built the Sierra Madre, Frank Sinclair used them for security purposes.
The holographic security force was composed of pure energy. Invulnerable, and deadly.
They don't need armor, they don't need guns. And badges? They don't need no stinking badges.
They originally had the benevolent purpose of protecting the inhabitants against the
potential dangers of the pre-war world, but in the hands of Elijah, they could be used
as an army to wreak havoc on an already chaotic Mojave. With an army of such soldiers he could
slaughter the less civilized cultures of the Mojave, and even fend off the New California
Republic.
The mysterious red cloud around the Sierra Madre is no naturally occurring phenomenon.
Certainly an invention of the devious minds at Big Empty, perhaps intended as a weapon
to be used against pre-war China. In Elijah's control it would mean indiscriminate death
to anyone outside the safety of the Brotherhood. Or a fate worse than death if that cloud has
mutagenic properties.
If Elijah is out there in that lost city of gold, looking for a way to rebuild the glory
of the Brotherhood and take revenge on the NCR, he'd do best to heed the words of that
sultry dame who invited him there in the first place. “Let go”. Let go of his vengeance,
his humiliation, his losses. Those who can appreciate what they already have, have no
need for stories of buried treasure. Besides, if there is anything the Wasteland can teach
us, it’s that things that reside in the past best stay buried there.
The wasteland holds more stories than any one person can experience. Over the decades
of my life, I've walked from one end of this continent to the other, and back again. My
own role in the wasteland's history isn't as interesting as that of the Vault Dweller,
or as exciting as the Chosen One, but it is a long story...
And definitely one for another day...