10 Most Irredeemably Evil Factions From The Entire Fallout Series
The Falloutfranchise is well known for its world-building and gameplay freedom, withFallout's unique setting and characters helping to make it so iconic over the decades when compared to other RPGs. Most of these memorable characters are split up into countless factions across the series, with some of the hostile ones posing a deadly threat to anyone they encounter across the wasteland. While some factions can have their own goals or explanations behind their cruel treatment of others, there are plenty of others that cross the line into irredeemably evil territory.
[Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for the ending to the Fallout TV show.]Compared to other games, the factions inhabiting the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout are often dynamic and change over time with each iteration of the franchise. While it will be a long wait until Fallout 5 finally becomes a reality, the upcoming season 2 of the Fallout TVshow could offer new insights into some of the wasteland's most iconic factions and what exactly happened to them after the events of the games. No matter which factions the show incorporates into its sequel, it'll have plenty of source material when it comes to the most evil factions to choose from.
10 Far Harbour's Nuclear Worshipping Children Of The Atom
Giving A Bad Name To An Othersie Peaceful Group
While the Church of the Atom is a relatively peaceful faction in most of the Fallout universe and its previous game iterations, not everyone worships the atomic bomb with the same ferocity. Most groups believe in coexistence with other factions, but a select few are hell-bent on spreading nuclear annihilation even at the cost of the remnants of humanity.
Not everyone worships the atomic bomb with the same ferocity.
Much like the other factions seen in Fallout 4, the eastern splinters of their factions tend to lean towards the justification of extreme actions to achieve their goals, best seen in Fallout 4's Far Harbour DLC. The ultimate goal of Far Harbour's Children of the Atom is to achieve their Great Division through the detonation of their nuclear stockpiles, with the Sole Survivor being able to influence their ultimate target.
9 The Brotherhood Of Steel's East-Coast Division
Restoring Humanity With A Dash Of Genocide
While the Brotherhood of Steel's core beliefs of preserving pre-war technology and knowledge make them one of the more valiant factions in the series, their actions can be more than questionable at times. Much like Fallout 4's Church of the Atom, the Brotherhood of Steel's eastern splinter, led by Arthur Maxim, fights towards their goal of a lawful wasteland by any means necessary. While the Brotherhood is one of the best chances at fighting back against the synthetic threat endangering the wasteland, The Brotherhood's methodology and purist nature are questionable at the best of times.
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The biggest issue withFallout 4's iteration of the Brotherhood is its extremist methods and image of purity. It acts out total prejudice against mutants or synths of any kind regardless of their level of sentience. Being the iconic poster boys of the franchise, the Brotherhood attempts to hoard all forms of technology for themselves while exporting or even killing anyone in their way, seeming more like a fanatic cult as time goes on.
8 The Pitt's Deadly Slave Driving Raiders
Taking Advantage Of The Wasteland's Most Vulnerable Inhabitants
It's easy to consider Fallout's endless raider factions as its most outright evil given their violent and selfish nature, but the Pitt Raiders rise to the top from their cruel and unusual methods. Following the Brotherhood's sacking of the city, the remnants founded an industrial society that lives off the back of slave labor from forcefully assimilated raider factions.
An industrial society that lives off the back of slave labor.
Not only did the Pitt Raiders force their servants into forced and unsafe working conditions, but the pollution generated by their work resulted in the birth of deadly mutations to any that came into contact. Run by a cruel tyrant that thrives off raiding and slave-trading, Pitt Raiders relentlessly attack other factions to steal resources and find new victims for its thankless workforce.
7 The Destructive Talon Company
Causing Chaos Across The Waste For Personal Gain
The Talon Company themselves are a band of deadly mercenaries that made their debut in Fallout 3, acting as a solely hostile faction that goes out of their way to target any doo-gooders making waves in the wasteland. Being motivated solely by profit, these hirable mercenaries often find themselves at odds with the player-controlled Lone Wanderer, providing a more difficult encounter than regular raiders but with worthwhile rewards.
Causing widespread destruction and chaos anywhere they go.
Acting under the orders of a mysterious third party, likely being tied to the Enclave itself, the Talon's primary goal seems to simply be causing widespread destruction and chaos anywhere they go. With an unknown but lucratively wealthy benefactor, the Talon Company works towards destabilizing the reconstruction of society by any means necessary, and solely for their own personal gain. While other factions have cruel and downright evil methods to achieve their goals, at least they have somewhat positive motives, whereas the Talon Compan is only directed by the highest bidder.
6 The Institute And Its Synthetic Revolution
Progressing Pre-War Society By Any Means Necessary
Made up of elite scientists who imagine themselves superior to everyone else in the wasteland, the Institute has few moral standards when it comes to progressing society by any means necessary. At its core, the Institute wants to help humanity in the end, but its methods make its followers harder to redeem than the other factions in post-war society.
The Institute has no problem with kidnapping children and murdering innocents whenever it suits their needs.
Utilizing their legions of synthetic slaves, the Institute has no problem with kidnapping children and murdering innocents whenever it suits their needs, spreading their influence by replacing civilians with robotic doppelgängers. Being obsessed with returning to pre-war society through scientific advancement, the Institute looks down upon the rest of the wasteland as nothing more than test subjects for their experiments. While the Insitute has achieved amazing wonders unheard of in Fallout's post-war society, from teleportation to creating fully sentient and synthetic beings, their disgust towards the rest of the wasteland's inhabitants is their ultimate downfall.
5 The Followers Of Project Unity
Converting All Of Mankind Into Deadly Super Mutants
Unity is the primary antagonist behind the very first Fallout, and its methodology of human advancement is some of the most grotesque in the series. The mutated Master himself desired a world inhabited solely by humans mutated into Super Mutants, with Unity's aims towards a nationwide ethnostate seeming to be a common trend among Fallout's villainous factions. At first, the Master's organization seemed peaceful and brought prosperity to the wasteland, but it was ultimately a facade to hide his sinister intentions.
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While the Master's desire for a Super Mutant society might not be evil on its own, Unity's use of the Forced Evolutionary Virus had horrific effects on its subjects, with only one out of every six attempts being a success. Targeting innocent civilians with a complete disregard for human life, Unity and the Master behind it are one of the most unforgivable factions in Fallout.
4 The Barbaric Methods Of Ceasar's Legion
Evil For The Sake Of Unjust Efficiency
Of every faction across every Fallout game,Ceasar's Legion utilizes some of the most inhumane methods in the franchise. Relying heavily on slavery, torture, and acts of violence to solve most of their problems, Ceasar's Legion is one faction you wouldn't want to come across in the wasteland. Led by a dying narcissist obsessed with an outdated perception of ancient Rome, the Legion's barbaric tendencies put them at odds with many of the other factions competing for control of the wasteland.
Ceasar's Legion utilizes some of the most inhumane methods in the entire franchise.
The only benefit behind the legion is that, despite the terrible quality of life for most of their subjects, Cesar's Legion offers a surprising amount of stability in the wasteland that might even get expanded upon in the rumored sequel to New Vegas. Unfortunately, the Legion's stability comes at the high cost of restricting the fundamental rights of its citizens, with cruel punishments of burning traitors alive or the crucifixion of innocents being a common occurrence.
3 The Sadists Of The Nuka World Alliance
Putting The Rest Of The Raider Tribes To Shame
Out of all the raiders prowling the wasteland, the raider factions inhabiting the ruins of Nuka World are by far some of the worst you could encounter. While each of its three groups is incredibly deadly in its own right, their rocky alliance poses a significant threat to every inhabitant of the post-war commonwealth.
The most downright evil out of the raider factions, if not the world of Fallout itself.
Compared to the other two factions, Nuka World's Disciples are by far the most sadistic, killing for the sole purpose of their pleasure above all else. On top of their abnormal levels of bloodthirstiness, the Disciples have no problems with torturing and mutilating others whenever they feel like it, being allowed to as long as they don't get caught. Having no clearly defined goal except to satisfy their twisted needs, the Disciples are the most downright evil out of the raider factions, if not the world of Fallout itself.
2 The Nightmarish Scientists Behind Vault-Tec
Twisted Creativity From Fallout's Darkest Minds
Taking advantage of pre-war America's fear of total atomic annihilation, Vault-Tec utilized its massive number of vaults to commit grossly inhumane tests on its inhabitants. While Vault-Tec isn't exactly a typical faction that can be interacted with normally, it's the one group in the series that's caused the most widespread harm across the post-war wasteland. Although Vault-Tec was presumed completely defunct after the war, the Fallout show seems to expand the faction in greater detail.
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Vault-Tec's horrifying experiments ranged from cartoonish evil social experiences to testing long-term isolation and diseases, unsurprisingly pushing countless vault-dwellers to insanity or their deaths, as learned through Fallout's terminals. While Vault-Tec claims their experiments were to learn lessons about humanity when trapped in the confines of space, a drastically large portion feels more like pointless and sadistic torture than anything else.
1 The Enclave And Its Aims For A Pureblooded Society
A Government Twisted By Mutated Ideals
Being the last remnants of the expansive pre-war United States government, the Enclave supports the supremacy of their homogenous faction's survival by annihilating everyone else. Compared to other factions, like Unity's plan to assimilate outsiders or the Legion's twisted version of rebuilding society, the Enclave simply desires the deaths of every living being that isn't themselves, with no room for moving forward.
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The Enclave is also often portrayed pulling the strings behind closed doors as the main villains of the Fallout series. The Enclave is even rumored to fund groups like the Talon Company to continue destabilizing humanity by any means necessary, on top of being largely responsible for Vault-Tec's inhumane experimentation. Compared to the rest of Fallout's factions, the one-minded destructive potential of the Enclave, with little hope for a feasible future, makes them one of the most objectively evil in the series.
- Created by
- Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky
- First TV Show
- Fallout
- First Episode Air Date
- April 10, 2024
- Cast
- Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moises Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Walton Goggins
- Where to watch
- Amazon Prime Video
- TV Show(s)
- Fallout
- Video Game(s)
- Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout 5, Fallout 76
