Supermutants

S

SimpleMinded

Vault Fossil
Hey, reading over the Fallout bible, I saw that many of the monsters of the waste were formed through the release of the FEV virus. With this thought in mind, I was curious if Super Mutants could also have formed in this manner? Or were the only Super Mutants formed by dipping?

Thinking back now, I remember the Military Bases Super Mutants in Fallout 2 having been formed when the virus was taken from there by the Enclave. However, because some of Fallout 2 does not stand true to the Fallout World, I wanted to check on this one. So, to reiterate, were Super Mutants formed solely by dipping or were they also formed by the exposure to FEV in the air after the blast, much in the way that Radscorpions or Deathclaws were formed.
 
The Fallout story was pretty much "Super-mutants = dipping".

However, "dipping" is only one way to expose someone to high concentrations of the stuff. When point comes to shove, it doesn't matter if you're dipped or working for a long time in FEV vapours.

Also notice how the MB holodiscs described a slow, subtle change to the mine-workers, whereas, to my memory, mutation after getting dipped was pretty fast.
 
Enclave logs clearly stated that every being on the mainland (except for the Enclavers of course) are mutants... and they are right since the destruction of the Glow released the FEV to the air. The radiation mutated the FEV and the radiation and the MFEV (Mutated FEV) were both affecting the people and animals on the wasteland. But those people were "worse mutants" after dipping since they've already have been exposed to the MFEV. So to get the best muties you must use clean humans like those from the Vaults or the Enclave since they don't have the MFEV in them.
 
So...

clean human (vault) + FEV = smart super mutant
human + MFEV = appears as normal but has defected DNA
human + MFEV + FEV = Dumb super mutant
human + radiation = ghoul


Animals + MFEV = the critters you encounter in the wasteland (scorpions, giant rats...)
Animals + FEV = the type of critters you find in the master's lair (floaters and such)

right?
 
Hmmm...I don't think so. It's not that simple. There were several discussions about this topic, and this one is particularly detailed, check it out.

Anyway, without going into details of the ways FEV works and how living beings are exposed to it, here's my idea of how different creatures appeared. My theory excludes existence of mutated FEV, though there are at least two strains of FEV which cause different effects. One strain acts as a lethal toxine and other induces forced evolution. There is, however, a possibility that FEV could have mutated, though not considerably, while present in Earth's radiated atmosphere. It is an RNA virus, and therefore more subject to mutations.

human + radiation (present in Earth's atmosphere after the war) = human with slightly damaged DNA

human + high concentration of FEV (in Vats or after prolonged exposure to FEV fumes in ruins of Mariposa facility) = supermutant with high intelligence

human + high concentration of FEV + radiation = dumb supermutant

human + radiation + minor concentration of FEV (also present in Earth's atmosphere after the war) = ghoul

different creatures + high concetration of FEV + taking advantage of lack of cellular differentiation in early stages of FEV induced mutation = new or 'mixed' species such as centaurs or floaters

Note that FEV doesn't cause any 'damage' to DNA, but it can fail to correctly implement quad-helix structure because of damage caused by radiation. That's how ghouls are made.
 
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