#the institute fo4

[sillylittlereptileguy]

Fallout four themed blinkies made by yours truly because the autism won💥💥 i realized way too late i can only include ten images in one post so the railroad, institute, and brotherhood of steel ones will be in a reblog or two

GENERIC

DIAMOND CITY

MINUTEMEN

explodes and dies PLEASE REBLOG AND INCLUDE CREDIT IF YOU USE THESE!!

[theology101]

I’m bored, so I’m rewriting fallout 4. Lets start with the big factions

Fallout 4 Enhanced, part 1 - major factions

The Minutemen

So despite trying to uphold the values of Old World America, it’s a military junta made up of disorganized paramilitary troops. My brother in Christ, thats Yugoslavia.

After retaking the Castle, we should have the ability to form a democratic government and perfect the Commonwealth Provisional Government. And then have elections for Governor that the player can run for but also very much can choose not to. If you’re playing an evil Institute run one candidate should be Mayor McDonough as your puppet, but forbidding you from running. If we’re rebuilding America, let’s start with Democracy, eh? I think that the president should be Abigail Finch, but I’ll take Blake Abernathy or Preston Garvey.

Also, I want there to be a continuous through line of the Gunners-Minutemen rivalry. Honestly, once the Institute is gone, I want a big set piece battle against the Gunners in Quincy (maybe destroying the Overpass with Artillery?) and freeing the still captive population of Quincy. Give us a fourth act, semi protracted factional conflict

I think it would actually be fun if this was a multi faction battle, but we’ll get there.

Railroad

The biggest negative for them (besides the brain wiping) is that they put a lot of focus and effort into freeing *only* Synths. Which makes sense, because there are only Synth Slaves in the Commonwealth (besides ones explicitly being removed) - so here is an idea, say that is because of the Railroad. Make them be this famous and legendary group who’s broken up countless slaver groups and factions, and have no turned to the Synth as their latest Crusade.

It’d definitely give them a lot more good will with your average citizen who, even if they don’t like Synths, remembers their story. A large, established network that stretches across the entire East Coast that has the vast resources to fight the Institute on a level, if asymmetric, playing field. Hell, let’s even have a few long-term Brotherhood infiltrators who are leaking secrets to the Railroad (Maybe they’re a vertibird pilot who “throws their trash” and agents pick up the encoded message). They know of the Brotherhood and have agents in the Capital Wasteland, it isn’t impossible. There should be an option to assassinate Maxson and replace him with Danse whos more sympathetic and wont attack them, but also won’t work with them either.

Speaking of, during the Battle of Quincy, they should be freeing slaves. We see massive empty cages when we go in game, have them filled and make it the basis of the Gunner’s new slave trade operation. We convince Desdemona for a joint strike, so while our artillery is firing, a few squads of heavies and infiltrators hit the cages, free the prisoners, and bounce before anyone notices.

Brotherhood of Steel

This one is going to be the most radically changed, because I think the Brotherhood, while cool in principle, felt undercooked. Which is why I think there should be sub-factions within the Brotherhood of Steel - Hard Liners and Sympathizers, split between their view of Synths. Brotherhood Ideology is not monolithic, in fallout 2 there were debates if Super Mutants were bad, or Hostile Super Mutants only, and similar ones about Ghouls exist in Fallout 3. And then there are the ones who are Space Marines fighting for the God Emperor Elder Maxson.

Hard Liners: Kells, Quinlan and Teagen

Sympathetics: Ingram, Cade, Neriah and Madison Li

Maxson himself starts off as a Hardliner, but based off of choices in other questlines, the Brotherhood’s own new quest lines from the characters I just mentioned, and your charisma in dialogue checks, can be changed into being Sympathetic.

Kells is just a straight military man, also the easiest Hard Liner to convert once you convince him of the military impossibility of trying to actually find Synths, his quest would probably be making an airbase at one of your settlements for the Brotherhood. Quinlan is just a Maxson sycophant and propagandist and has fully bought into whatever Maxson says, even writing his propaganda piece, he also already has quests so he’s good. Teagan is a right bastard and Synth Racist, who will also disapprove of you making democracy if you’re a Minuteman - you have one quest were he sends a squad to intimidate your settlement and they kill the squad and you can either punish them or bring Teagan up on charges of plundering and terrorizing innocents.

Ingram feels a lot of sympathy for the Synths due to her own bio-mechanical nature and thinks that some institute tech can be used for good like agriculture or limb replacement. Her quests should be about finding a way to lessen her work load, maybe with robots, maybe by training and recruiting settlers, maybe by optimizing the Prydwen - her quest ends with her leaving the power armor frame and getting to sleep. Cade is a doctor, he isn’t too interested but since he cant tell a Synth from a Human under tests, he doesn’t really trust the Brotherhood to perform summary executions of them - his quest should just be getting the Covenant research to validate his assumption of ‘dont kill synths.’ Neriah thinks that Institute research in general, especially in bio science, and that Synth researchers with their long lives and rad resistance would be a massive boon for the Brotherhood, she also thinks Synths are similar to Star Paladin Cross and he was fine? - her quest already exists. Madison Li obviously values Synths and the Institute and, one step further, doesn’t want to destroy it either. Hold trials and take over? Sure, but not destroy a perfectly good lab filled with good people

Also, someone on the Sympathetic side is a Railroad agent but idk who, you decide! Not the only one, but definitely the highest ranking

Based off of all these people and their quests, I want a Far Harbor style “Everyone pause and let’s talk about it!” where there is just a full on debate between the leaders of the Brotherhood about wether or not Synths need to be destroyed, or just the method of creating and controlling Synths, allowing them to be free people. Hell, let this happen after Danse runs off but before you go get him. Make a case that the Institute records you stole have him as an escaped slave who then enlisted, of his own free will - while he needs to be taken off the active line of fire while the Institute still has the ability to control him (albeit only up close and if he hears it, so maybe just blast death metal?), let him be the thing that changes Maxson’s policy.

Or if you’re an absolute bastard, instead of doing anything that I just said you encourage everyone’s worst tendencies. Tell Cade that Covenant is almost there and that you let them carry on, get Proctor Ingram believing in conspiracy theories and Teagan an alt-right podcast where they debate whether or not the Brotherhood should have mandatory breeding regulations. I doubt anyone would play it, and all this option would do is lock you out of other stuff (probably preventing or toppling the Commonwealth Provisional Government but hey, at least you get to be Elder of the newly founded Commonwealth Chapter!), but if someone wants to be a bastard and not an unhinged freak who eats corpses, this is how

Let your choices in the story matter.

For the Battle of Quincy, just send a vertibird or two and drop in some guys in power armor and heavy weapons. Land them inside the walls while the Minutemen storm the gates - after the Artillery and Railroad have escaped, of course

The Good Ending

Before we get to the Institute, this is what I call the Good Ending. With the Brotherhood no longer having a desire to take down the Synth, and the Railroad, while powerful, very much lacking the firepower to take down the Institute, are both brought to the Castle for a meeting between Maxson, Desdemona, the Governor, Preston Garvey and you (if you’re not Governor-General). There is shouting, yelling, insults traded (maybe there is even an intermission) but unless you fuck up badly or intentionally screw yourself, you have a joint Minuteman-Railroad-Brotherhood attack force against the Institute.

The Brotherhood still play Pacific Rim, as a distraction, while Railroad operatives sneak through the tunnel system in the Charles. By the time Liberty Prime has blasted a hole into the Earth and Minutemen and Brotherhood troops are storming the base, Loyal and Rebel synths are already fighting on the ground for their freedom. Unlike in game, some of these scientists absolutely would not go down swinging. I can talk those nerds in bioscience or engineering are gonna fight to the Death? SRB sure, but come on. Maybe not all of them are genuine and there is some post game shit with that but with your planning and overwhelming advantage, the Institute falls rather bloodlessly

Now, you can decide to do what Arthur wants you to do and blow it up, or… you can decide to give the Institute to be jointly run by the three factions and the Synths. It’s just a social hub, maybe some act 4 shenanigans (racial conflict)

Oh boy,

The Institute

Hey what’s their goal?

Like, beyond keeping the surface permanently destabilized (Sabatouging any collective government, fomenting conflict between Goodneighbor and Diamond city, seeding Super Mutants at random to ensure chaos) so it remains their pretty, perfect little petri dish, what are their goals?

I got the idea for this from a youtube video, so I’m just gonna say it “Why did you program them to feel fear?” Like, what purpose does it serve to give the Synths complete, perfect sentience and then enslave them? The Gen 2s seemed to be doing just fine. Okay, maybe you wanted to make perfectly humanoid ones, why arent they all like Coursers? Why, why, why? And no one can give me a damn answer!

So, here’s an idea: Shaun is dying of Cancer, so he had his eyes set on True Immortality. A Gen IV Synth, perfectly capable of human thought and creativity, perfectly human in every biological way only superior - faster, stronger, quicker reflexes - immune to radiation, disease and starvation and, once they reach a certain age, become immortal. And I did say “reach a certain age.” Using biotech and nanomachines, lil Shaun is the first Gen IV Synth, born as an infant in a lab womb and fully capable of spreading as a new Ubermensch i mean, new tomorrow. Shaun was going to wait until the body was in its 20s, but his brain cancer is getting so bad that only fragments of his mind can be copied into the 10 year old body.

This should be an active debate of whether or not this is the next step in Cyborgs and Synths (after all, was Kellog not just a Synth at a certain point?) where as some view it as a gross violation of human dignity. Show me some angry academics, damn you! Regardless, some (especially older people) should be Quite Excited about getting flash copied into a “perfect” Gen IV body. This also, at least to me, explains why they needed to be perfectly human - they wanted a perfectly platform to hold onto their intelligence and not go insane or lose their “soul” like the Necrontyr-Necron. It gives an actual reason for all the weird shit they do

As Director you get to decide wether or not this gets to go ahead or not - also whether or not you should kill and replace people with Synths. Give me moral consequences, damn it, there is NO WAY Piper isnt getting replaced in an Institute Victory and you the player should have to carry that burden.

Also i want assassination missions where I replace people with Synths. I think it would be a fun stealth segment to get NPCs alone and either kill em or teleport em. We’re a shadowy cabal, we should be able to end all the faction disputes quietly. Send the brotherhood home, break apart the railroad in a single night. Right proper evil stuff. Or, if you want to play terminator, you role up with an army of death bots and destroy everything for the Gen IV Synth Army!

End Notes

Fallout 4 needed a fourth act. After the Institute is gone, nothing changes. I just blew up a solid chunk of cambridge and am i high ranking leader in two military governments and im a secret agent, and that’s it? No interaction with each other beyond killing? No “crossing idealogical boundaries for the greater good?” I don’t want to fanboy for New Vegas but there, I could cross boundaries and convince people to join their enemies for their own safety and betterment. Preston Garvey is just like “Hey, we can blow up the Blimp if you wanna. Danse is cool, and I know there are kids on board, but I don’t want them breathing down our neck.” Like, motherfucker I’m their Sentinel - no.

The point of the series is “War Never Changes, so Men Must Change.” There’s no change in Fallout 4. There is no seeing the bigger picture and reaching peace. Once the Institute blows up, most factions could probably just go home because the only reason they’d bother to do anything is to kill each other. And that’s deeply boring to me.

Next episode, the minor factions - Gunners, Children of Atom, Raider Gangs, and Super Mutants

[nukacoola]

I wish there was more functionality with disrupting the different factions in Fallout 4. It would be so cool if you could stealth kill someone important and it would effect all of the factions they contribute to without you necessarily become enemies with the faction if you do it right. (Spoilers ahead)

Kill Liam Benêt? No more synths are able to escape the Institute. You have to claim innocence when the Railroad realizes something’s wrong and when the Institute realizes the kid’s dead frame someone else, reveal Liam was betraying them, or have great difficulty trying to appear uninvolved with the killing entirely.

Kill Prof Scara or Doctor Li? The Liberty Prime project is dead or stalled. Maybe this means you can no longer end the game with the Brotherhood (like what happens when you blow your undercover mission with the Railroad).

Finally shut that asshole Doctor Ayo up for good? Someone else becomes the acting head of the SRB possibly even making the program less reactionary or prioritized by Father as a new acting head may not steal extra energy or find it necessary to hunt down every single escaped synth.

There are so many interesting possibilities, I could go on forever. Imagine if you could somehow stealth kill Desdemona and the Railroad suffers or becomes less concerned with casualties or empathy towards humans under their new leader Dr. Carrington.

In another life maybe…

[ibbity]

I haven't followed the main Fallout 4 questline that far (current mission is "find Virgil in the Glowing Sea" and I've been ignoring that for several in-game months) but I'm not satisfied with the only option at the end being to nuke the Institute. I feel like the most just thing to do in-universe would be to execute and/or expel the Institute's leadership and hand the place over to the non-courser synths as reparations, since their labor was what sustained it. Gameplay-wise, this could be an option for the Railroad and/or Minuteman ending - if you got kicked out early on, you would be stuck with "nuke 'em" as your only option, but if you managed to stay undercover long enough, a quest with this as its final stage would become available. Maybe there would be some tasks or a specific mission you would have to accomplish to open up that possibility. The Brotherhood of Steel ending, however, would remain as just "nuke 'em" since the BoS hate synths.

Coursers who were willing to accept the changeover could stay on as defense; those who weren't would have to share the leadership's fate. Maybe a new ruling council or board of governors could be elected from among the older/more knowledgeable synths. The rest of the non-synth Institute population would have to get their own fates decided by the new synth ruling council. Perhaps they could choose to extend mercy to those who weren't cruel to them and decree execution/exile for those who were. Or they could simply kick all of the non-synths out, since all of them benefitted from synth slave labor. In-game, this could be accomplished by having them lay out various options to the sole survivor and ask what sole thinks would be the best option. The synths could then choose whether or not to continue expanding their own population by creating more of their own kind. Maybe some of them want to be parents, and so could use their own genes/combine their genes with a partner to make a child for themselves to raise. This could also be a decision made in-game by having them discuss it with the sole survivor. Or it could just be stated that the new ruling council will make such decisions based on what they feel is best.

The Institute could then become a synth community, optionally with some non-synth researchers/workers there as well depending on what decision was made about that, and could serve as a center of free learning and progress, rather than closed and slave supported. Maybe it gets a new name at this point and isn't called "The Institute" anymore. The synth leadership could arrange for trade with other communities like vault 81 does - maybe there could be random encounters with a synth trader from the Institute after this was all accomplished, like Rylee from 81. Or random encounters with synths who wanted to go out and see the world. Other post-ending aspects could be that the sole survivor gets to have a permanent base in the Institute and is granted special status as a valued ally. At this point, the Railroad's original purpose would be obsolete, so they could pivot to spreading the word about what went down and advocating for synth acceptance now that the Institute, as such, no longer exists and will no longer do the things people were afraid of. The fact that the Institute's scientific and technological achievements can now be shared with the Commonwealth - if its people are willing to deal with synths as equals and allies - could be a good bargaining chip for this. As a special ally, and as the official Railroad/Minuteman liaison to the reformed Institute, the new synth management could sometimes ask the sole survivor to do quests for them. These quests could be things like persuading infiltrator synths to stop spying and come back to the Institute, or fixing a problem/helping with some work within the Institute, or rescuing an adventuring synth who went out into the Commonwealth and got into some trouble.

This endgame allows the synths to benefit from the results of their own labor, puts them in charge of their own destinies, and avoids the problem of "oops now there are a ton of homeless synths running scared among a surface population that fears them to the level of committing murder, and that doesn't understand what's actually going on." It also seems like the most just and equitable solution to me - the problem-causers are gone, the advantages of scientific/technological progress and development are retained, and the former slaves now have control over a safe and familiar environment that they've already been managing on the ground level anyway. Plus it opens up the possibility of some more interesting post-game missions and gives the Railroad a meaningful postgame raison d'etre.

[nukacoola]

This is actually an interesting point op accidentally brought up. Synths can’t build muscle or fat. The body type that they have at creation is all they will ever have. So why does Danse have such voluptuous tits and ass? Is Danse a copy of an existing human/a replacement? That wouldn’t really make sense because he doesn’t know that he’s a synth. Is he a synth that escaped and got new memories? Most likely but unless he also got full body surgery why is he built like a ford f150? Was he apart of a line of synths that all had that body type? Maybe again but no courser is that buff so why would the Institute make such a line? Most likely one of the scientists was horned up while creating Danse.

if synths are so bad then why did they give danse such huge tits huh?

[callmewisteria]

Something Glowing (At The Precipice Of Something New Chapter XXXI)

After ten days with little concrete information, the Institute finally learn what happened to Dr. Li and Jacqueline Spencer? Piper and her wife gossip with Vadim, Travis, and Scarlett in the Dugout Inn? A storm abated, Nora and Nick finally meet the elusive, former Institute scientist in the Glowing Sea? Frustration taking over after over a month without any cooperation, Maxson decides to speak to Dr. Li personally about why she and Jacqueline were taken? MacCready tells Duncan bedtime stories?

I don't care the new year was ten days ago, this is my new year's chapter. Read it on AO3, ff.net, and/or wattpad!!!

(also reblog and/or comment if you want to be added to a tag list for this fic 💖)

[gageisahomeboi]

Another one

[pomarrillo]

*grips u hard on the shoulders* SHAUNNNNNNNN

[nukacoola]

There are also cats but the answer is they synthesize it. The ingredients of the meal packages they serve imply that they use synth leftovers. If you can make a person you can make protein for food.

In the institute, the only animals they have are synth gorillas. Where are they getting protein? Are they vegetarians and get it only from beans and stuff of the sort? I think that theory is most likely but I will (if I remember to) research more into this.

[queam]

Deacon Gage and Nick

[sillylittlereptileguy]

Punk fallout blinkies because every time I see someone being racist and I check their profile to see Brotherhood propaganda an angel loses its wings & i’ve been playing fallout: new vegas and the followers of the apocalypse is up there with the minutemen as my favorite faction

+ userboxes

“a real patriot” ncr & legion ones are in the reblogs i forgor them originally

as always reblog and credit if you use and feel free to send me an ask requesting more

[capcollector]

She had a smile like on those old magazine covers.

[nukacoola]

Fo4 Far Harbor DLC spoilers

Replaying Far Harbor and watching vids abt the different lore it’s impossible to see DiMA as anything but an evil, hypocritical, and downright stupid monster. I don’t get how so many people love him.

He’s a murderer who had plans to obliterate an entire people and who did murder and replace an innocent woman. When you confront him about those memories that he purposefully removed bc he couldn’t live with how evil he is he’s like “I can’t believe I did that :’( we should totally do it again tho that’s a really good idea.” And then you can!!! It’s literally the exact same horrible things that the Institute does! He manipulates Kasumi (who we can determine by talking to the Institute, the people she knows, and by killing her in an Institute quest is not a synth) into believing she is a synth and lures her to the island with this manipulation!! He manipulates many others like this too to get his evil desires done in pretty obvious ways. I would count many of his synths, Nick, and the player among his targets.

If you’re sided with the Institute and you tell him and his synths to come back to it he says no but that he will not run and will not attack you. He condemns all of the synths in his “sanctuary” by taking not action and allowing you to go report back their existence to the Institute so that coursers can come reclaim or kill everyone there!! Same thing happens if you tell him you’re with the Brotherhood and synths existence is an affront to humanity he’s like “okay but we’re not gonna leave still” and then you can bring the Brotherhood forces to murder them all.

If you blow up some of the factions on the island he’ll be like “You’ve only brought death here >:( I hope you can live with yourself you monster!” Like that wasn’t his WHOLE ASS PLAN that he removed his memories of bc he couldn’t live with himself!!! Fucking hypocrite!!! This is only a few of his crimes. He is so evil and stupid it hurts.

[scandalousadventures]

My Hancock print for @falloutghoulzine ☢️ I love an excuse to draw our sexy ghoul mayor 💞 so excited to get my copy of the zine and merch!

[stoat-party]

[artbyblastweave]

Credit where credit is due on the big twist of Fallout 4; the reveal that Shaun is the now-elderly director of the Institute comes part and parcel with the realization that with the death of Kellogg- who, as it turns out, was basically turned over to you as an olive branch- the institute is now completely free of anyone who has actually wronged you personally; your straightforward, no-further-justification-needed revenge quest has been cut off at the knees. Which does, in fact, clear the way for you to evaluate The Institute as it actually currently exists and not as the amorphous boogeyman you were planning on John Wicking as little as five minutes ago; if you stand against them it's going to have to be on general principle, based on what they've done to others, and on the flip side a sufficiently amoral character, absent the roadblock of a personal umbrage, is completely in the clear to throw in with them for comfort and power. They did not square the circle on this because they cannot square the circle on anything. But in the abstract it's a pretty clever piece of storytelling- where are you going to direct that narrative-propelling righteous anger when it turns out that institutional turnover has beaten you to the punch? Were you ever actually angry at the machine, or just at the specific cogs? Are you playing as the kind of person who thinks that there's a difference?