Alright, lets break this down!! ill be calling it Culling-13 as that was the play on words of the virus. the Cull the Herd.
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-So, I’ve been looking at the human and FEV sections of this fandom and I’ve been wondering, am I thinking about this too much or am I missing something?
=The point of this premise (or general target of Culling-13) is hard to fill in if you dont have every angle of the situation in hand.
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-Alright, there are two types of humans right? Near-human and prime-humans. Near-humans are born in the wastes, being exposed to remnants of FEV and radiation from the Great War. Near-humans are damn near identical to prime-humans but their genetic makeup is a tad different to increase the gene pool variety.
Then there are the prime-humans, born in the vaults or Enclave stations. Prime-humans are direct descendants of US citizens, having their DNA not messed with by FEV or radiation.
=This point thats in bold is a small mix up. It has info that is missing and isnt really easily found. Its only obvious from playing the game from a large perspective of Fo1 and 2. This is that, not everyone has been touched by the FEV. Infact, the majority of people havnt.
Your villagers in Fo2 carry a strain of the FEV genetically passed down by the Vault Dweller from Fo1. He was made to go on that journey to The Glow by the BoS. Directly infecting him with FEV laced Radiation... or rad laced FEV. what ever.
The Enclave's take on humans (on the 2nd bold point), is that they think the ones from the mainland are fine, theres 'mutant' humans. and then the actual Mutants (which they clump ghouls up into as well), which is why they made Culling-13 in the first place.
The war between the humans and Mutants was something that Marcus can tell you in Fallout 2, the Enclave and BoS, fought together. Going as far as helping each other, providing the BoS with listening posts and tech. (Its given that the Enclave know these bunkers and their access codes, as well, they can access them as seen in Fo2. That and the BoS dont have the materials and manufacturing to make such outposts.)
But, the Enclave not knowing such a 'war' was over. As we see in Mariposa when they try to dig it up. The Master's Remnants still just killing anyone they find. so forth. The Advanced Power Armor project, finished in 2220, was made specifically to help deal with the Super Mutants and their followers. But it didnt do so well as we can see from Mariposa. So, Culling-13 was the next step.
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-When Enclave president, Dick Richardson announces to the Chosen One that when Curling-13 is unleashed from the oil rig, it will kill off all remaining mutants and near-humans. Question is, why make it lethal to vault dwellers? He said himself that anyone born outside a vault or the oil rig is "near-human" and will be purged, but then you find out that not only some of the Arroyo tribals have died from the virus, but also some Vault 13 dwellers.
=Okay, so. this is a point that is harder to grasp. But this is called a Controlled-Minimum experiment. In Experiments like this, the point is to have your control, the Dwellers arnt effected by the Anti-FEV (Culling-13), and to make the Minimum cure level to be over that of what your Villagers are in infection level. In an experiment like this, Culling-13 wouldnt have actually killed any person like the Villagers (outside experiments), but only those heavily infected by the FEV. Such as Super Mutants, Heavy infected plants, animals, and some FEV Ghouls.
Now, if they DIDNT want ANY level of FEV to exist, then they would have no need to test on the villagers. only make it so it doesnt effect the vault dwellers. The Dwellers are there to use as a controlled test point so that the version that no longer effects the Villagers, also doesnt effect the Dwellers.
When they started experimenting, they didnt know what levels of Culling-13 actually works, so they ended up over-dosing some of even the controlled Dwellers. Remember the FEV is a DNA virus.
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-Same thing with Vault City. Their descendants came from Vault 8. Did the Enclave only consider themselves to be the true successors of the US?
Then finally, we have the Chosen One, the child of the village elder, who herself is the daughter of the Vault Dweller and Pat, both from Vault 13.
=Well, yes. They are. The original owners of the territory is the US Government, which the Enclave are. The issues they came into contact with so far, is the Super Mutant threat which still existed all the way to Fallout 4. Effectively killing 20% of the human population in the US territory by that time.
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-Since the Chosen One is a descendant of the Vault Dweller, shouldn’t they be a prime-human? If so, they should be just fine!
=No, the Chosen One inherited FEV from the Vault Dweller, who explored The Glow, the FEV West Tec test site that ate a nuke.
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-I am sorry for going on a tangent about this but I was just replaying Fallout 2 and it just stuck with me for a couple of days. Is all this a lore thing I missed, lore that was added later or just a mistake made by the developers? I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you guys! If you guys know something about this, please talk about it! It would really help me out.
=There is a good chunk of lore missing from Fo1 and Fo2.
In Fo1, in the BoS bunker, the lowest floor or library was going to have their terminals read some public reports of the BoS working with a post-nuclear government. but didnt give them a name. They traded tech, weapons, ect. for info, maps, and so forth. This made sense to me as the BoS couldnt have survived in that bunker for TOO much longer without outside help. And a lack of manufacturing. And the Devs didnt know a Fallout 2 was going to be a thing, and wernt going to make this post-nuclear government in Fallout 1, so they didnt name them.
In Fo2 you were supposed to have a rival named Koga, who was 'supposed' to be the Chosen One. He hated you so much that he went as far as to tip off the Enclave about the village that condemned him from attacking the player constantly, and received high tech weapons and even APA at one point. This part makes sense as your village was hidden in the mountains, and the Enclave could have taken ANY other tribal village.
But, theres a few other points to push on as well about Culling-13. One that really sums up the intention to not actually being to kill EVERYONE on the mainland. using the jetstream could take it worldwide actually. But, if the target was anyone, and some people say that EVERYONE is infected with FEV, then that also includes all animals, insects, plants, fungi, and so forth... So, this means the target was - EVERYTHING LIVING that wasnt in a vault or on the oilrig. This is absurd.
Even in Fallout 3. the Anti-FEV doesnt effect normal people. It effects YOU because you went through that FEV vault, getting infected.