Fallout Season 3: Colorado is a BOLD choice... and it's all about Van Buren.

As the dust settles on Fallout Season 2, our intel points squarely to Colorado as the next stomping ground. This isn't just a geographical shift; it's a calculated dive into the franchise's deepest lore, signalling that showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet are playing the long game with the series' rich, often-forgotten history.

For veteran Vault Dwellers like us, the immediate thought might be, "Colorado? Really?" After Season 1 meticulously explored California, the OG setting of the first two games, and Season 2 expanded into the Mojave, a locale synonymous with *Fallout: New Vegas*, we expected a more obvious play. Washington D.C. or Boston, the familiar battlegrounds of *Fallout 3* and *4*, seemed like sensible bets. But Colorado, a mere footnote in Bethesda's era, is a bold, almost audacious choice. Yet, for those of us who’ve been in the wasteland since the beginning, the Centennial State isn’t just a random pick; it’s a potential meta-retcon, a massive lore dump waiting to happen.

The Van Buren Gambit: Unearthing the Lost Fallout 3

Our analysis suggests that Colorado isn't just about The Ghoul’s family reunion or the Enclave's Rocky Mountain HQ. It's about *Van Buren*, the legendary cancelled third Fallout game from Interplay and Black Isle Studios. This isn't just a fan theory; it's a recognition of the show's consistent pattern of honouring the series’ foundational design. We believe Season 3 is poised to resurrect elements of this lost classic, weaving its narrative threads into the show's existing canon.

Key Potential Influences from Van Buren:

• Dr. Presper and the Boulder Dome: Van Buren’s central figure, Dr. Presper, envisioned a post-apocalyptic cleansing via an orbital missile system, seeking to emerge into a "better world" from Colorado's colossal Boulder Dome. Sound familiar? This echoes Vault-Tec's twisted social engineering and the Enclave's ultimate goals, already established as the primary antagonists in the show. We fully expect a Presper-like figure, or even Presper himself, to be revealed as a high-ranking Enclave operative in the American Southwest.
• The New Plague and FEV: Van Buren featured the "New Plague," a highly contagious disease, and a satellite system designed to eradicate it with nuclear fire if infection rates climbed too high. Crucially, the race to cure this plague in the lore led directly to the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). The show has already made FEV a central, enigmatic plot point, linking it to the Vault 31/32/33 experiment and the Enclave's "Phase 2" activation. This isn't merely an easter egg; it's a direct pipeline for the show to explain the Enclave's FEV obsession and the purpose of those cryogenic vaults. Are the FEV-infected dwellers the new "plague" the Enclave intends to spread to gain control of a global cleansing mechanism? We think it’s a strong possibility.

Introducing Presper’s cohort of genocidal scientists obsessed with human "purity" wouldn’t be redundant; it would simply offer a deeper, more philosophical layer to the Enclave we already know. This isn't just adapting lore; it's refining and expanding it, filling in the gaps of the show's established lore with the best of what could have been.

Fallout Tactics: The Brotherhood's Rocky Mountain Play

But the Colorado deep cut doesn’t stop at Van Buren. We also have to consider *Fallout Tactics*, a spin-off that, while canon, often feels like a dead end in the broader series. Tactics sends the Brotherhood of Steel to El Paso County, Colorado, in search of Vault 0, a pre-war command bunker deep beneath the Rockies. This vault was designed as the "nucleus" of Vault-Tec's entire bunker system, envisioned by the series creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky to be controlled by – you guessed it – the Enclave, collecting data from all other vaults.

Potential Fallout Tactics Crossover:

• Elder Quintus and Liberty Prime: With Season 2’s post-credits scene showing Elder Quintus, self-proclaimed "The Destroyer," poring over blueprints for a giant nuclear robot, the connection is undeniable. We believe Quintus will dispatch his knights to Colorado, perhaps to Vault 0, to find the components needed to build their own Liberty Prime, a superweapon that would significantly buff the Brotherhood’s power build.
• Enclave Control of Vault 0: Given the show's reveal that the Enclave orchestrated the war and pulled the strings of Vault-Tec, Vault 0's original purpose as the network's nucleus under Enclave control becomes a critical plot point. This sets up a truly epic showdown: the Brotherhood, under Quintus, attempting to seize a crucial piece of pre-war Enclave technology in Vault 0. We anticipate this conflict will define the season's meta, setting up a brutal endgame between the factions.

The Showrunners' Track Record: Mining the Vaults of History

This isn't wild speculation on our part. The show has consistently proven its willingness to pull from the franchise's entire history, not just Bethesda’s contributions. Consider these critical lore drops:

• Shady Sands: The NCR capital, integral to Maximus and Lucy’s arc, was a cornerstone of the original Interplay games.
• Vault 33 Water Chip: A direct, reverent nod to the critical plot of the very first *Fallout* game.
• Brotherhood of Steel: Their depiction veers closer to the early games' more isolationist, tech-hoarding interpretation than Bethesda's later, more widespread military force.

These aren't mere easter eggs; they're foundational elements demonstrating a deep respect for the series' lore, from its initial blueprint to its modern iterations. The showrunners aren't just adapting *Fallout*; they're curating its legacy. Therefore, diving into the *Van Buren* and *Fallout Tactics* archives isn't just possible; it’s a calculated, expert play to enrich the show's narrative, giving us a *Fallout* that truly spans the generations of its own lore.

When the showrunners hit Colorado, they won't be flying blind. They know about *Van Buren*. They know about *Fallout Tactics*. And we, the veteran wasteland cartographers, are ready for the deep cuts. Season 3 isn’t just taking us to a new location; it’s taking us on a journey through the "Fallout that never was," making it the most intriguing and potentially game-changing season yet. Prepare for a lore explosion, because the Rockies are about to get real.