Zion Canyon, formerly known as Zion National Park, is a pre-War natural landmark in the former American state of Utah. It serves as the setting for the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts.
Background[]
Post-War[]
Being located far to the north of the Mojave Desert (around a week when hiking on-foot) and remote from most hubs of civilization, Zion was spared the devastation of direct attack by nuclear weapons on the day of the Great War. However even then, it was not safe from the resulting fallout, eventually leading to most of its waters becoming heavily irradiated and much of its plant and wild life to die off.[1][2] But that was not the end for Zion, as due to its natural qualities such as wind currents frequently blowing through the canyon, in only a few weeks' time, much of the radiation had disappeared, allowing for both flora and fauna, though mutated by the radiation, to return and for Zion to regain its natural splendor, albeit slowly.[3][4]
New inhabitants[]
Though its status as a national park was rendered defunct by the dissolution of America after the Great War, Zion still entreated visitors, the first post-War of which was Randall Clark, a former US soldier that had narrowly escaped the destruction of his hometown of Salt Lake City, though his wife and son were not so fortunate. Constructing campsites around the various natural caves dotting the canyon over his years-long residence in Zion, Clark focused solely on survival while keeping a journal to record his thoughts and his experiences living in the post-War wasteland.
In 2095, Zion received more visitors in the form of a group of Spanish-speaking refugees that had supposedly traveled all the way north from Mexico. Still living in the canyon, Clark watched over them while remaining unseen, helping them in secret such as giving antibiotics when one of their members was injured.[5][6] However, when the canyon's next visitors came, circumstances became worse as a 118-strong, armed group of former Vault dwellers from Vault 22 attacked and killed most of the Mexican refugees, taking some prisoner only to later consume them.[7][8] All of this was witnessed by Clark, who swore vengeance on the Vault dwellers and instigated a guerilla war against them, lasting 10 months and by the end of it, he had managed to kill 80 of their original 118, causing the survivors to flee from Zion.[9][10] However, Clark was not alone in the canyon as he later discovered a woman named Sylvie that had escaped from the Vault dwellers. After nursing her back to health, the two grew closer, becoming romantic and around 2100, Sylvie became pregnant with a son.[9][10][11][12] But when she went into labor, the baby ended up being a breech birth and didn't survive, and when Clark attempted to sedate Sylvie to surgically save the child, she didn't wake up. After burying his second family, Clark was left alone in the canyon once more.[13][14]
Years later in 2123, the elderly Clark discovered that Zion had received new visitors still, as he found a group of 24 children camping in the canyon after escaping from a place called the School run by the Principal. Though he was much older, Clark swore to protect them as well.[15][16] By the next year, though, the survivalist's advanced age had started to catch up with him and he decided he wanted to die somewhere quiet, so that the children would not find out that their unseen protecter, "the Father" as he called himself in personal notes to them, was really an old man. After moving to a final resting place, Clark passed away after recording his final entry and his bones remained there for decades.[17]
In the years following, the children and their descendants formed a community that eventually became the Sorrows tribe, centered on their belief in the benevolent "Father in the Caves" that had gifted them their peaceful living in Zion.
War for Zion[]
The peace in Zion lasted for years until the mid to late 2280s, when Mormon missionaries began making pilgrimages to Zion and interacting with the Sorrows tribe seeking to convert them to their faith. When the Mormons' settlement of New Canaan was later sacked by the White Legs raider tribe on the order of the warlord Caesar, the survivors fled into Zion and the White Legs pursued them, beginning the War for Zion. Against the pillaging raiders, the two leading Canaanites, Daniel and Joshua Graham faced a conflict of interest: Daniel seeks to evacuate the Sorrows and abandon Zion to the White Legs to preserve their innocent culture,[18] while Joshua seeks to retaliate against the invaders and eradicate them to end their threat completely.[19]
By 2281, in the midst of the White Legs' onslaught, the Happy Trails Caravan Company planned a desperate expedition to New Canaan, unaware of its destruction to save their financial prospects. In doing so, they inadvertently brought the intervention of the Courier to decide the future of Zion and its people.[20]
Locations[]
- The Aerie
- Ant burrow
- The Bend Bridge
- Bighorn Bluff
- Burial mounds
- Caterpillar's Mound
- Clear Water docks
- Court Fork Overlook
- Crashed scout bus
- Dagger's Point
- Dead Horses camp
- East Fork Bridge
- Eastern Virgin
- General Store
- Ghost Den
- North Fork Bridge
- North Fork campground
- Old Rockville Bridge
- Patriarchs' campground
- Pine Creek tunnel
- Ranger Substation Eagle
- Ranger Substation Osprey
- Ranger Substation Peregrine
- Red Rapids docks
- The Red Gate
- Sorrows camp
- Sorrows Fork campground
- Southern passage
- The Spine
- Sun Sentinels
- Three Marys
- Vault 22 dwellers' guard camp
- Virgin Fork campground
- Virgin River
- Wind Wall docks
- Zion fishing lodge
- Zion Ranger station
- Zion Valley welcome booth
Caves[]
Unmarked[]
- Aerie survivalist cache
- Stalkers' camp
- Survivalist's cache
- Vault 22 camp
- White Legs camp
Inhabitants[]
Notes[]
- Zion Canyon is the first location in the Fallout series to feature rainy weather.
- During Honest Hearts, Dead Horses and White Legs tribal members can constantly be found sneaking around the canyon.
- Traveling between Zion and the Mojave Wasteland takes fourteen in-game days, both on the initial journey during the questline and subsequent trips after completing the add-on. While this time elapses on the Pip-Boy's calendar, time-dependent events, such as plants respawning and Sierra Madre chips accumulating at the abandoned BoS bunker
do not progress. - Near the Zion Ranger station and general store, there is a wrecked version of the airplane that one would find at Camp McCarran. However, it is not accessible, due to it being on top of one of Zion's mesas.
- Zion Canyon is one of the few non-irradiated locations found in the Fallout series. All the rivers and free-flowing waters are clean and do not inflict rads when drinking, and there are no radioactive areas. The sole source of radiation in the canyon comes from eating pre-War packaged food.
Appearances[]
Zion Canyon appears only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts.
Behind the scenes[]
- The in-game Zion Canyon is based on the real-world Zion National Park, which is stated to be a favorite holiday destination of Fallout: New Vegas lead designer Joshua Sawyer.[Non-game 1]
- The real-world Zion National Park is approximately 180 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada, making a 14-day trek on foot, as stated in-game, plausible.
- The name "Zion" is derived from its use in Mormonism. The park's name was changed to "Zion National Park" in 1918 when the acting director of the newly created National Park Service visited the canyon and proposed changing its name from the original, "Mukuntuweap."
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Fallen Rock cave terminal entries - Year: 2077
- ↑ Year: 2077
- ↑ Fallen Rock cave terminal entries - Year: 2078
- ↑ Year: 2078
- ↑ Two Skies cave terminal entries - Year: 2095
- ↑ Year: 2095
- ↑ Stone Bones cave terminal entries - Year: 2096
- ↑ Year: 2096
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Cueava Guarache terminal entries - Year: 2097
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Year: 2097
- ↑ Cueva Guarache terminal entries - Year: 2100
- ↑ Year: 2100
- ↑ Cueva Guarache terminal entries - Year: 2101
- ↑ Year: 2101
- ↑ Morning Glory cave terminal entries - Yea: 2123
- ↑ Year: 2123
- ↑ Year: 2124
- ↑ The Courier: "Why do you need a map of Grand Staircase?"
Daniel: "Grand Staircase is farther east, deeper into the Colorado Plateau. The White Legs were able to reach us here, but it's only because Zion is close to the Long 15. They can't pursue us east of here. It's too wild."
(Daniel's dialogue) - ↑ Joshua Graham: "There may yet be time to save Zion from those who are too ignorant to understand what they have come to destroy."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue) - ↑ Events of Honest Hearts
Non-game
