In General[]
The United States of the Atlantic is a republic that is based in the former states of North and South Carolina. Its capital is based in the city of Queensdom, formerly known as Charlotte, in the Northern half of the Republic. Following the lead of the former United States, the new USA is divided into 12 counties, the most important being that of the two Crown counties, Queen (Queensdom) and King (Kingston). In recent years, the USA became divided over the issue of the enslavement of Ghouls, culminating in King County and five other states seceding from the union and shelling a Queen's Fort in Kingston. Altogether, the wasteland is known as the Crown Wasteland.
On That Fateful Day[]
The fates of Charlotte and Charleston were very different, unfortunately.
In Charlotte, many of the citizens were paranoid. As such, the Mayor of the city had made a deal with Vault-Tec, requesting that they create large, temporary shelters for the people all around the city, along with the necessary Vaults. These Charlotte Shelters were only designed to last a few months or years, at most, so that the people would be able to leave as soon as possible.
When the President made his announcement of the nuclear strikes, people flocked to the Charlotte Shelters, enabling a large amount of people to survive the nuclear attack. Nearly 80,000 people made it into the shelters before the first bombs hit, along with those in the Vaults, making the nuclear attack on Charlotte a failure, in comparison to the others.
Only three bombs were dropped on Charlotte and the surrounding area, so the area wasn't as heavily irradiated as many other cities in the US. When the citizens were released, they began to use Vault-Tec methods to find ways to rid the area of radiation, or at least speed up the removal of them. Due to their sheer numbers, the citizens were able to found a lasting civilization and begin to extend their influence outside of the city...
Charleston, however, was a different story. The only vault was built inside Fort Sumter, a slightly inaccessible area. Thus, few people were able to get inside the vault before the bombs hit. Only about three hundred people survived the explosions in Charleston, and these survivors soon degraded into lawlessness and barbarism. The Vault survivors believed themselves superior to the ghouls, so they quickly enslaved their irradiated counterparts, forming a lawless civilization of their own.
Soon, the cities collided and Queensdom invaded Charleston, taking over the city. However, slavery was too deeply rooted in Charleston's society to be so easily removed, and thus ghoul slavery continued.
The Nation of Queensdom soon reformed into the United States of the Atlantic, renaming Charleston into 'Kingston' and making it the capital of the southern half of their nation, although Queensdom was still the overall capital of the entire republic.
Vaults[]
There are a total of eight vaults, spread over the entirety of the United States of the Atlantic. Four of them belong to the original series of vaults, while the other three belong to the 200-series. Along with these, there are the infamous Charlotte Shelters.
Vault 78
Location: Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina
General Synopsis: The Vault in Fort Sumter was not built to last forever; in fact, it was only designed to last a total of fifteen years before the vault dwellers were released back into the Wasteland. The inhabitants were criminals from a nearby prison, chosen because they were all only a few years away from being released back into society. However, they were locked back into cells in the vault, guarded by Vault soldiers with very little weaponry. It was designed to see if minor offenders would become major offenders if in the right conditions.
Vault 82
Location: University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
General Synopsis: The Vault in the University was built with all the materials to be a scientist's wonderland; however, only the students with the lowest grades at the University were accepted inside. The experiment was designed to see what low-intelligence people would do if placed within an area of many dangerous scientific experiments. The experiment ended rather quickly, as within three years a batch of FEV was spread to the entirety of the Vault, turning them into Supermutants.
Vault 84
Location: Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel, Raleigh, North Carolina
General Synopsis: The vault in the hotel only allowed 1200 people into the vault, only 2 of whom were women. Even the Vault-Tec engineers were expressly male. The Vault-Tec people specifically instructed the 1198 men in the vault that they had to repopulate the earth after the vault opened. However, what they didn't tell the men was that all but one of them had been secretly sterilized upon entering the vault. The one who hadn't been was sickly, weak, pale, and had no idea how to talk to a woman. The experiment was designed to see how soon it would take society to turn to the weak links after everyone else had failed.