This is an encyclopedia by, and for, the fans of Fallout based on the wiki concept, which allows anyone to edit the articles.
General information
In 2002, Chris Avellone started putting out on a semi-regular basis what he called a Fallout Bible. The idea, initially elaborated by community veteran Dan Wood, was to create a document that would serve as a total guide to Fallout: the history of the setting, the elements that compose it, the things that define it and the rules that guide it. It'd also serve to tie off loose ends left by the games and to generally do some clearing up of things. It was certainly a good idea, especially as the prospect of someone who wasn't Black Isle making Fallout games grew ever more real. The problem, however, is that it really didn't work out that way.
Instead of being a definitive, unambiguous guide to Fallout, Avellone's FOB became a sort of long question and answer session with fans emailing reams of queries to him and getting answers. Avellone would also usually toss in interesting bits of information about the games. This was all right, really, as it was still an interesting read for the fans and provided all kinds of information about the game world, but the problem was that Avellone would keep contradicting himself, mostly because fans would often correct his shaky logic, and also that the whole project was cut short when Avellone had to leave Black Isle because things there were getting silly. We never really got our complete guide to Fallout. This wiki ttempts to remedy that problem somewhat.
What you're reading here is a sort of general consensus on matters. A lot of it is the result of several years' discussion and debate and a lot of it is based on hard evidence from the games themselves. Information supplied by various Fallout developers fills in the blanks (many thanks, incidentally, to said developers for being so open with the fanbase when we're so critical of everything they do).
This, then, is The Vault, an ambitious project that attempts to be the definitive, community driven guide for all things Fallout.
History
The Vault was set up by Ausir and DarkUnderlord in 2005, and was originally hosted by Duck and Cover, a Fallout fansite at the address wiki.duckandcover.cx, then vault.duckandcover.cx. In 2007, because the original host could no longer take the wiki's ever increasing traffic, The Vault moved to Wikia, where it has been hosted ever since, independently from any other Fallout website. Since the release of Fallout 3 in 2008, it has become one of the most popular Wikia gaming wikis.