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Say what you will aboutthe Fallout franchiseunder Bethesda, the games really enjoyed sticking a ton of references to things within themselves. Whether that’s pop-culture nods, developers taking jabs at the studio, or references to other games and characters in the series, there’s always something to notice. One of the particularly fun easter eggs is the Lovecraftian stuff.
It’s not exactly heaving at the sides with H.P. themed things, but there are a few little tidbits here and there if you know where to look. Or just happen to accidentally stumble upon it. If you’re interested in hunting down some haunted looking habitats, or looting some lovecraftian lore inspired locales, then here’s every H.P. Lovecraft reference in the Fallout games so far.
Why Are There Lovecraft References In The Fallout Games?
It’s not a particularly difficult topic to get into, but it’s worth at least answering the most obvious question. The reason the devs putLovecraft references in the Fallout gamesis pretty simple, because they can.
After all the games have had the likes of aliens, AI that’s gained sentience, cannibals, giant monsters, men wearing robot suits that think they’re superheroes, a group based on Elvis, robots controlled by convict brains, andmuch more odder thingsin there.
Filling out the horror side of things with someLovecraftian eldritch terroronly makes sense as it really fits the theme of strangeness that the games lean into.
Plus, it allows the developers to get pretty creative and weird with the types of things they can have you encounter since Lovecraft’s works regularly feature things out of normal reality that often don’t make sense. So it fits perfectly.
Bethesda put“Shadow Over Hackdrift” in Oblivion, a reference to “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. And also developed Call of Cthulhu. So it’snot that far out of their wheelhouseto reference Lovecraftian horrors as there’s clearly a lot of love for his works in the studio.
How Many Lovecraft References Are There?
Overall there’s quite a lot of references to good old H.P. that you can find with little to no trouble depending on your level, loadout and general luck.
Here’s what you can look forward to if you go out hunting for some interdimensional horror.
Worth noting is that therearen’t any Lovecraft referencesin the original Fallout games as those weremade by different teamsover the years. Though they did have theoccasional ghostand lots of body horror.
Fallout 3
Fallout 3broke the moldwhen it came out.Shifting gameplay to a first person perspective, whilst also deploying an unexpected all-star voice acting cast. It had a lot going for it just in the base game, and it was full of oddities and strange supernatural moments.
Then the DLC’s came along, and one in particular absolutely nailed the homework assignment in terms of perfectly capturing thateldritch eeriness. The later games would go on to include more strangeness, but here’s what we found in the third game.
The Dunwich Building
First things first, if you bring up H.P. Lovecraft in Fallout 3, everyone always points with a trembling finger tothe Dunwhich Building. It’s a seemingly normal looking spot that, before the DLC, was the only way to get a bit of inter-dimensional uncertainty in the game.
But once you stepped inside its doors it didn’t take long to realize thatthings were not as they first seemed. Found on the far off south west of the map, according to the ingame lore the Dunwhich Building was owned by the Dunwhich Borers company.
Don’t worry, we’ll get to The Dunwhich Borers Company. Theypop-up againin Fallout 4.
Within thisderelict heap of officesare a series of audio logs hidden within a locked computer in the middle of the building. These are notes kept by one of the company’s execs thatcover office operations before, during, and after the bombs fell. Along with sounds of the inhabitants becoming Feral Ghouls as the background radiation mutated them.
It’s already quite unsettling, butthe true terror lies below. Underneath the building isa cavern with a strange obeliskthat’s covered in vines and is extremely irradiated. Around this object are Feral Ghouls, one of which is the previously heard Executive, all praising the obelisk.
Fun fact, the Ghoul exec mentions the name Alhazred, who in Lovecraftian lore was arecurring character and author of the Necronomicon.
If the game volume is high enough a strange voicepraising a deity known as Ug-Qaualtothcan be heard. A creature that will be referenced once again later in the Point Lookout DLC and other future Fallout games.
Point Lookout’s Blackhall
Fallout 3’s DLC’s were a little hit and miss, but by farone of the good ones is Point Lookout. A seemingly barren island, but once you stepped out from the safety of your schooner it became clear thatthe land was anything but vacant. Cults, mutants and worse were out there, and it was a spooky time for all.
The main Lovecraftian hook in the DLC that we’re looking into though isBlackhall and the Krivbeknih. For those unfamiliar, Blackhall is a large dilapidated family manor on Point Lookout that belonged to arich influential familythat helped commercialize the area before the bombs fell. Their book, the Krivbeknih, was said to be ahighly occult and powerful tome.
The locals of Point Lookout are referred to as having the"Point Lookout Look", which refers to their mutations and is a reference to Lovecrafts"Innsmouth Look".
It was stolen fromthe last surviving member of the family Obidiah Blackhall, a now elderly man who’s confined to a wheelchair that’s regularly heavily medicated. The book was thenworshipped by the demented islander cults, and in the quest The Dark Heart of Blackhall you may retrieve and then potentially destroy this evil book.
The Krivbeknih was said to haveunnaturally extended the lifespan of the holder, and was regularly used indark rituals in the swampsby the ancestors of those in Blackhall.
If the book is retrieved in the quest, the two results are;
It’s a fun and dark quest that goes to some strange places to retrieve what’s essentiallythe Fallout universe equivalent of the Necronomicon. An evil book said toalter one’s sanityshould they read from, or have it in their possession. It’s a prominent tome of unspeakable horror and power in the Lovecraft universe.
Uq-Qaultoth also makes another appearance intheFallout 4 tabletop game bookWinter of Atom.
In this tale a splinter faction of the Children Of Atom led by a maniacal leader gains access to asimiliar looking otherworldly obelisk underneath an old churchthat can alter reality, control minds and more. The obelisk is found in a city that’s said topredate human civilisation, and contains technology beyond our abilities.
The Necronomicon also is themagical evil book antagonist of the Evil Dead movies.
Fallout 4
Fallout 3 had a few spooky things here and there, but Fallout 4 really took what worked when it came to unsettling us and expanded upon it.
This time around we’ve gotmore lovecraftian areas to explorethat aren’t too hard to find, plus an entire DLC that basically gave the game a survival horror mode. If you’re looking for more Lovecraft, here’s what you can find in Fallout 4.
Dunwhich Borers
So right out of the gate we’ve got the Dunwhich Borers, a name that will be familiar to you as it’sthe same Borers that are mentioned in the Dunwhich Buildingin Fallout 3. It’s a nice link back to the previous game and just further cements the company as being one that hasa bad run of luckwith subterranean old gods.
The Borers themselves are found ina marble quarry toward the northeastern end of the map, just before Salem and to the east of The Slog. Its exterior has Raiders, but the interior is where things start to get weird.
Before the war the quarry wasnotorious for its unsafe operations, high demand on the workers, as well as low pay andundermining cost-cutting measuresthat knee-capped the workforce. Despite the company raking in the profits, onsite accidents were common, andchildren were often employed, or discovered in pieces at the bottom of excavation shafts.
As it turns out, the ruthlessness was becausethe company wasn’t after profits from marble, but access to a long forgotten temple to a dark god. The temple would be found, andsacrifices to the dark god Ug-Qaulthoth began in earnestwith those committing the rituals turning into Feral Ghouls over time.
After the war, the events that transpired can be discovered throughaudio logs and vivid flashbacksas you progress through the quarry to the temple at the bottom. Inside lies asacrificial altar and a submerged pitthat if swam down reveals a giant stone face and a powerful dagger to loot.
The dagger is called Kremvh’s Tooth, and it comes with a mod calledSacrificial Knifethat inflicts poison and bleed.
Overall, the Dunwhich company is a reference tothe Dunwhich Horror, a Lovecraft tale of a family on an isolated farm that uncovers a dark presence known as Yog-Sogoth. An entity thatrewards forbidden eldritch knowledgeto those that please it.
If you stick on NoClip and follow the face, you’ll find thatthe model is part of a much larger bustthat’s been sunk into the ground. Perhaps that’s all the worshippers could recover before they became Feral Ghouls.
Pickmans Gallery
Next up we have Pickman’s Gallery. It’s a lovelyserial killer themed questinvolving an artist that’s plagued by an otherworldly entity. Found north of Goodneighbor, there’s a seemingly unspecial building that houses a horrible secret. Within is agallery of gore, body parts and gruesome tableau’swith the artist behind it residing in the basement battling some Raiders.
The location is of courseinspired by Pickman’s Model, a Lovecraft short about an artist in Boston that created fantastic artworks that were also incredibly graphic and terrifying. In the talethe artist later goes missing, and after an investigation by his friends it’s found thatthe things he painted were based on real things he saw, not pulled from his imagination.
Cabot House
Settle in, because this ones a little long. The Cabot House isa strange manor found within Bostonthat’s home to a family of three, Jack Cabot, his sister, and his mother. At first you’ll be performinga few errands for Jack, but after a while he’ll initiate the Secret of Cabot House quest.
Here Jack reveals his family are over 400 years old, and have remained that way thanks to a strange goop that’s based onthe blood of the family patriarchLorenzo Cabot. Seems Lorenzo was an avid archeologist before the war, and after uncoveringa strange artifact in a desert tomb, his physiology was forever altered.
The object,a crown as it’s revealed, has bestowed Lorenzo with dark knowledge, strange powers, and of course his longevity that his family parasitize off for themselves. Jack tasks you withretrieving more of the substance, whilst Lorenzo is trapped under Parsons State Asylum. Forever guarded by mercenaries whilst Jack works on a cure.
Though in reality he’s justusing his father for immortalityas he knows if dear old dad got out he’d just become another monster of the wasteland.
Which is true asLorenzo badly wants revengeon his kin.
Whilst not having a direct inspiration from Lovecraft’s works, the name of Cabot is often thought to bea nod to the Cabot Museum in Bostonwithin H.P. ’s short story Out Of The Aeons. Other than that, the whole tale of anarcheologist unearthing a weird crownthat lets them talk to the old gods is something that is straight out of Lovecraft’s playbook. Plus, the quest itself is interesting and has multiple ways to play out.
Kingsport Lighthouse
This is a quick one, butKingsport Lighthouse on the east coastis worth a look for some Lovecraft vibes. Not only is Kingsporta fictional town used by Lovecraft in a lot of his stories, but the setup of the lighthouse is pretty spooky.
It’s a Children Of Atom haunt, and at the top of it is aGlowing One Ghoulthat you’ll need to dispatch if you want to claim it as a sanctuary. With the whole,strange cult by the sea led by a wholly corrupted leader at its top, you get a real Shadow Over Innsmouth feeling for a brief time.
Some fans theorise that the Children of Atom (COA) are a reference to Lovecraft as well. He wrote abouta creature called “The Glow”, whilst the COA are a cult that worship a vague and world ending “glowing being” through the Atom Bombs.
Far Harbor DLC
Whilst the rest of Fallout 4’s DLC was considered generally underwhelming, the top pick of the bunch is Far Harbor. It added awhole new island that was covered in an eerie irradiated mistknown as Atoms Veil by the local Children Of Atom cult. OrThe Fogas it’s more commonly known by the fishing communities struggling to survive on the isle.
Further within the island laythe Deep Fog, and within that was deadlier radiation pockets and mutated monstrous aquatic creatures. So it was alreadyoozing Lovecraftian eldritch terrorright out of the gate. But it doesn’t stop there, because this reference is a little layered.
First off, the DLC was inspired by a mixture ofStephen King’s works like The Mistand his other stories based around the state of Maine. However,King himself cites H.P. Lovecraft as his main source of creativityfor his books.
Next, as we already mentioned the local Children Of Atomworship an energy based otherworldly entity, and having a cult following something odd on a big isolated island is right up Lovecraft’s street. So we can safely gesture to the whole of Far Harbor and say that it’sH.P. Lovecraft approvedand a big old reference in itself.
Fallout 76
Last in our list is Fallout 76. At first it wasthought by many that there weren’t any Lovecraftian referencesto dig up in this game. But since the map is so massive, and the game took a long time to add a bunch of content, it was a while before anything was found.
But there is something as it turns out, and it’s a good sign as it could mean there may be more in the pipeline, orother secrets the community hasn’t found yet. Here’s where you should go hunting.
The Lucky Hole Mine
In the greenery of Appalachia in Fallout 76 your only real Lovecraft reference you’ll run into is over atThe Lucky Hole Mine. It’s similar to the Dunwhich Borers situation, but instead of miners it’sa splinter group of the Mothman Cult.
Known as the Firstborn Of The Wood, theyworship a being known as The Interloperthat works through a conduit known as The Chosen.
The other Mothman splinter faction would become The Enlightened. A group that wouldvisit Appalachia seasonallyas part of an ingame yearly event.
This supposed entity they cared so much about came froma strange giant statue found within a room called the Interlopers Chamberat the bottom of the mine.
Fun fact, it’s alsothe same one found within the Dunwhich Borershidden temple.
Either it’s the same head, or another one is unsure. But considering how oftenthe game rips out and reuses assets from Fallout 4, it’s safe to assume it’s the same statue model being used behind the scenes.
Along with arecurring cameo from our old friend Ug-Qaultoth, the Interloper is also a creature mentioned fairly frequently in Lovecraft’s works. It’s often an entity, orrepresentative and harbinger of the old godsthat lay just beyond the veil.
The leader of the Cult of The Mothman, Brother Charles, is blind, paraplegic and has an enlarged cranium from exposure to their deity.Mutation from dark god worshipis another common Lovecraft theme.
It’s also fitting thatthe Interloper is worshipped by the Cult of The Mothman, the game’s resident nutballs that love anything remotely resembling an interdimensional horror. With how not-of-reality the Mothman feels, it seems itwasn’t hard for them to make the jumpto a new deity not of our world.
