Synths are a species of robotic humanoids created by The Institute.
Biology[]
Synths are seen by members of The Institute as machine based on the greatest machine, Humans, for the first two generations Synths were little more than common automatons who stuck to their programming, not much different than Pre-War Protectrons or Mr Handys, but finally after years of study, dead-end experiments and further revelations, the Third Generation Synths were born.
Many things are known about Gen3 Synths, for example they seem to never age and have nearly no mechanical components bar a small chip in their cranium, some Gen3 Synths known as Coursers have a modified version of this chip which allows for them to access the Molecular Relay, a teleportation system which allows for Institute personnel to travel to the surface and vice versa, it is also noted by several Institute scientists that Gen3 Synths seem to have a kind of addiction to Fancy Lads Snack Cakes.
History[]
The First and Second Generation of Synths began development around the early to mid-22nd Century, around the 2180s, they began seeing if Synths could cope with independent thought and judgement, one prototype (who would go on to call himself DiMA) was allowed to develop his own personality where as the other prototype was implanted with a copy of the mind of one Detective Nick Valentine. DiMA was a highly compassionate individual, so upon seeing the suffering Institute experimentation was inflicting upon Valentine, he managed to get him and Nick out of the Institute, DiMA would go on to travel to Mount Desert Island (by that time simply known as The Island) where he made peace with the people of the village of Far Harbor by giving them a form of protection against the radioactive fog which engulfed the island, in exchange they allowed him to live in the abandoned Acadia observatory, where he founded a colony for Synths whom had escaped The Institute, Nick on the other hand continued his journey through the Commonwealth, eventually stumbling upon and saving the life of the daughter of the at the time Mayor of Diamond City (a large settlement in the ruins of Boston's most famous baseball park), due to this unintentional act of heroism, Nick was granted residency in the great green jewel, where he would eventually make a name for himself as a Private Investigator.
In 2227, Two Institute scientists along with Kellogg (A mercenary from the New Californian state of The Hub and The Institute's primary operative on the surface) entered into Vault 111, a cryogenic storage facility which had frozen it's residents mere moments after the Great War began, there they found an infant named Shaun, the child of a man named Nate and a woman named Nora, all that is known is that in a struggle to prevent the kidnapping, one of the parents was killed and the child was taken and raised within The Institute, eventually this child's prewar DNA would be a primary component in the creation of the Third Generation of Synths.
In 2229, an individual known as Mr. Carter went to the central bar at the market in Diamond City, the only surviving eye witness claimed that he was talkative until something about him changed, he pulled out a revolver and began indiscriminately shooting at random civilians, including the bartender, eventually DC Security managed to put him down, but when they examined his body, they found him to to be nearly entirely made of mechanical parts.
A short time afterwards, a conference occurred between several of the major settlements in the Commonwealth as well the Minutemen (a local Law Enforcement militia) in an attempt to form a Commonwealth Provisional Government, The Institute sent a Synth to these talks, said Synth proceeded to murder every single delegate at the conference, causing the halting of any progress towards a united Commonwealth.
After all of these events, questions began to circulate, questions on the morality of the existence of these artificial men and whether or not they deserved the same rights as Humans, from these questions a new organisation emerged, in a world full of suspicion, treachery and hunters, they are the Synths' only friends, this new group became was known as The Railroad, when they began, they simply left escaped Synths to venture out and start new lives in the Commonwealth, but after an incident where a Synth was found by Coursers and a battle ensued resulting in the Synth's death and the destruction of her and her wife's farm, the Railroad began the practice of voluntary memory wipes for Synths who wished to be free from their memories of The Institute, over the next sixty years, The Railroad and The Institute played a deadly game of cat and mouse, hundreds were killed, many more were driven to fight, this secret war was occurring not just in the Commonwealth but reaching all the way to the Capital Wasteland, on and on this went until the 2280s.
In 2287, the war gained new players, not only where The Institute and The Railroad in conflict, but the remnants of The Minutemen and an invasion force of the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel, with three of these factions wanting to enslave, free and destroy the Synths respectively, nothing is known of what happened, all we know is that it most likely didn't turn out too well for the Institute.
Meanwhile on Mount Desert Island, the Synths of Acadia grew more worried as High Confessor Tektus, the new leader of the Island's Children of Atom, became more hostile towards the settlement of Far Harbor and Acadia was left with three choices, deactivate the Fog Condensers and let Far Harbor die, detonate the warheads in the U.S.S Democracy and kill the Children of Atom or kill High Confessor Tektus and replace him with a Synth duplicate.
Notable Synths[]
Brooks a.k.a L7-92: General goods merchant living in Far Harbor, first to meet with Synth escapees from the mainland
Chase: Former Institute Courser, currently living in the Acadia Observatory on The Island.
Cog: General Goods merchant within Acadia.
Danse a.k.a DN-407P: A Synth who joined the membership of the Brotherhood of Steel's East Coast Chapter, reaching the rank of Paladin before leading an expeditionary force into the Commonwealth.
DiMA: A heavily modified prototype Synth, technical brother of Nick Valentine and leader of the Synth colony Acadia on Mount Desert Island.
Glory a.k.a G7-81: Heavy for the Railroad HQ underneath the Old North Church.
Harkness a.k.a A3-21: Former Institute Courser, currently Security Chief of Rivet City
Magnolia: A singer in The Third Rail, a bar in Goodneighbor
Nick Valentine: A prototype Synth containing a reconstruction of the personality of a Late-21st Century Bostonian detective, currently residing as a private investigator in Diamond City.
Notes[]
- Synths originally appeared in Fallout 3, where they were simply referred to as Androids
- Synths themselves have obvious parallels with the Replicants of the Blade Runner universe, this is particularly notable in the mission The Replicated Man from Fallout 3, there was also a Creation Club mission for the content known as the Noir Penthouse, where one can find a unique .44 Pistol known as Early Retirement, coming from the term Retirement used in Blade Runner for when a Replicant is killed.