#the hinter

Hinter Settlements

The region called The Hinter starts at the Northern border of Massachusetts. I typically demarcate it somewhere West of Montréal, and out East some way into Nova Scotia. Settlements are few and far between, but it’s not unheard of for individuals and single families to occupy houses “in the middle of nowhere.” There’s a lot of mountain life abound. Vault-Tec only built two proper vaults in New England outside Massachusetts--one in New Hampshire, and one in Bar Harbor, Maine. Most settlements consolidated survivors in locations ripe with prewar amenities.

The warhead that struck Montréal permanently obstructed the flow of the St. Lawrence River. Lake Champlain subsequently dried up and became a valley, no longer able to collect sufficient water from the Richelieu. Its sediment is rich in nuclear deposits washed in from the inundation of the tributary being blasted off course, and its lime in particular a major facet of the glassblowers’ artistry in Burlington, VT.

The Underground City (Montréal, Québec): Based on the location by the same name, much like in the Capital Wastes with its extensive subway tunnels, Montréal’s population largely took shelter beneath it. I haven’t fleshed it out, but it’s definitely still the largest Canadian settlement. It’s not very well known to outsiders, and the primary travelers are Children of Atom pilgrims on Valence track. (Eternal thanks to @mayihavethisdanse for cluing me into details for this area. You’ve contributed some really great insight for this region in general.)

Burlington, VT: A Children of Atom settlement. The Grand Mother Skwodovska of the Hinter Children resides in the Five Sisters monastery here, a sect dedicated to archival of holy knowledge. Much of the settlement overall is monastic glassblowers, who craft with a mixture of lime from the now-dry Champlain Basin and trinitite silicates that washed ashore from the Montréal blast. They make non-radioactive glassware as well, but only for commerce.

Montpelier Galleria, VT: A settlement with both pockets of Children and a sizable secular population. The federal district provides housing for a diverse mercantile settlement structured much like Bunker Hill in the Commonwealth.

Manchester, NH: [Redacted] live here, unknown to a majority of the region. Not even Children at The Ledge tend to be aware of their misanthropic hidden neighbors.

Ant Lane (Nashua, NH): Once the Pheasant Lane Mall, Ant Lane was erected as an experiment in above-ground vault design. It held fast on Great War Day, and now stands as one of the largest settlements in the entire Hinter. Many of the inhabitants of both the mall and the satellite strip are descendants of those shopping on October 23, 2077, but it is a major travel hub on the border of the Hinter. Ant Lane’s Concourse is a significant Granitic Mass site, lined with holy Barre granite, but for reasons unknown to a majority of Children, it does not whisper. Children have thus nicknamed the mall “the Quiet Granite.” Burlington Glassworks is the Children’s home within Ant Lane, and while living at the mall on their Valence pilgrimages, they spend the season diligently maintaining the Armillary Bulbs which illuminate an otherwise entirely dark shopping mall. The Aldermen and the Mayor have a generational dynamic. Also there are literal ants.

Far Harbor, ME

also, included to bridge my worldbuilding, these two aren’t in the Hinter proper, but are still important-ish:

Worcester, MA: CIT Worcester is overrun with Super Mutant activity hostile to outsiders. There are human settlements in the outskirts.

Lowell, MA: Largely a ghost town. There’s still signs of life on base at the Deenwood Compound in Chelmsford, but the largest settlement is in Voire in Centralville. The Furriers are heavily mutated social chem addicts who do travel to do trade with their meat and leather craft. Their leather is the zenith of Rad-Resistant gear, for one intending to live in the Hinter for any duration.

The Hinter Children

Hinter Children’s religious history goes back well before the Megaton caravan brought Cromwell’s Children into New England, but the religion found its direction and unity in their arrival. Much of the area saw Joual-style modification of Quebecois, and Children are frequently fluent in a “Church French” version of Quebecois called Keb, complete with the bleed of Catholic imagery. Many Children are bilingual, but it’s far less common for them to speak English in locations where its inhabitants are residents not travelers, such as Five Sisters, the Rock of Ages, or the Singing Stone District. As a whole, the Hinter speaks Keb, regardless of whether their spirituality follows the Church of Children.

Armillary Bulbs: Glassblowing has become a religious practice for the children of Burlington, approximating the ideology of Holy Atom as a World-Vessel. Their primary commerce by caravan with other settlements is their rich glass artistry, most notably their alchemical lights, armillary bulbs. Klein bottles with necks flourished to intimate an atomic diagram, these bulbs are filled with a fluid which fluoresces in reaction to the radiation present in the glass. (They’re in essence reverse uranium glass: the contents glow, not the glass.) They provide a long-lasting light source free of electrical necessity, a crucial utility for anyone living in The Hinter.

The Far Harbor Children got along on neutral terms with the nomadic Hinter Children for years, until Tektus took on the mantle of High Confessor and shut out the slightest hints of heresy. The lighting in the Nucleus is the only thing that remains now of the time during which Hinter Children could make pilgrimage to the hangar, albeit disguised as or transferred to other vessels to mask their origins. When pressed on the matter, the High Confessor will insist that the chemistry of the light source is a gift found in Atom’s Kingdom and available for the pious and humble, NOT those heathen Fog-Lost.

Atom As a Woman: Burlington Children in particular believe Atom is a World-Mother.

Granitic Mass: The greatest source of Tektus branding them heretics, the Hinter Children regard not just nuclear sites as holy but large granite and marble quarries also. Granitic intrusions have a tendency to “imprint” resonance, especially upon adopting its crystalline structure. All Children believe in Division: just as atoms split and spill forth Atomic Light, so to does the soul. For the Hinter Children, these Granitic Masses are evidence of entire worlds that underwent Division, the cosmic dust of which forged our current world. Certain quarry sites are settlements for higher orders of Hinter Children, most notably the Rock of Ages, home to the Daughters of Radon.

In addition to the quarries themselves, granite hewn from specific quarries to erect architecture and monuments are of particular holy significance to Hinter Children. The Hope Cemetery, the Singing Stone District, and Saint Gaudens Park are notable examples. Traveling Route 89 from Ant Lane to Burlington, Children frequent any major cemeteries rich with statues and headstones. The Singing Stone District in the ruins of downtown Montréal is one of the largest concentrations of both Barre and Stanstead granite, used for federal and financial district structures such as the Sun Life Building. It is a harrowing site to traverse, however, and observing here is often reserved for Hierosacristans.

Valence Pilgrimage: Just as atomic particles follow an orbit drawn in by Atom’s nucleus, Hinter Children travel extensively from Granitic Mass to Granitic Mass. Typical travel takes them clockwise from site to site at the changing seasons or more frequent. Only Sacristans, tasked with curating a Granitic Mass, stay longer. Pilgrims travel in troupes by caravan, doing commerce with non-Children along the way and spreading the good will of the World-Mother. Not all Children travel the same orbit: some cut wide and far, while others visit only a couple of Granitic Masses.

Hierosacristans and the Daughters of Radon: Most Hinter Children follow set travel routes on their Valence orbits. Within Barre’s Daughters of Radon are two groups. The first remains behind to worship the granite and listen to its whispers. The other travels off the well-traveled orbit, in search of documenting other Granitic Masses. The latter, Hierosacristans, are in essence the Hinter Children’s Zealots. They are a rare example of the pacifistic faction taking up armor and defensive weaponry. Sacristans act as scribes, archivists, and religious leaders. Hierosacristans act as trailblazing cartographers. Prior to their exile from the Nucleus, Hierosacristans were afforded access to procuring Marine Armor, but they have since been denied even that. Their armor in recent years is frequently a mix of salvaged metal and the fur and leather of CaRadBou, the fur of which absorbs all Atomic Glow and shines a brilliant white. Due to their sheer size, hunting CaRadBou is also an activity left to Daughters, who can travel as a pack to collect one to feed a settlement as needed.

Stone Tape Sites (Children Holy Sites)

Hinter Children worship not just nuclear sites, but also granite and marble quarries and architectural remains which used stone hewn from them. As stated above, under Granitic Mass, the material’s tendency to record information in its crystalline structure presents itself to Hinter Children as proof of the Worlds Before. (Granite can be very radioactive as well, depending on its composition.)

(A wip of the Ant Lane Concourse.)

The Singing Stone District (Montréal, QC): The federal and financial district in the ruins of what once was downtown Montréal. Barre and Stanstead granite were both used extensively during the city’s deco revival. It’s incredibly hazardous to travel at ground zero in Montréal, both due to failing buildings and the various wildlife that’s reclaimed the involuntary park, so travel here is typically reserved for pilgrims equipped for it. The most highly revered of the structures is the still standing Sun Life Building. Children just love that company logo...

Burlington, VT: The Hinter Children’s mecca. Some study at the Five Sisters monastery as Sacristans. Others observe glassblowing practices, crafting Armillaries. Though not a granitic site, the entire Champlain Basin is of particular significance as a nuclear site, due to the geological sequelae of the Montréal bomb during the Great Division.

Stanstead Quarry (Stanstead, QC): Prewar, this quarry was bored by the same company that owned Rock of Ages. Its makeup is largely the same as Rock of Ages, but it lay deeper in the Fog, and can be a difficult travel location on the Valence orbit. It’s socially acceptable for Hinter Children to season here for long stretches, as most Children are not versed in combat and wildlife this deep North into the Hinter can be harrowing. The granite here typically does not produce audible playback, but often yields breathtaking boreal effects.

The Nucleus (Mt. Desert, Bar Harbor, ME): Nucleus Children call pilgrims the “Fog-Lost” after the High Confessor’s pejorative. They’re forbidden from entering the hangar, but are known to wander the wilderness directly surrounding it. Hinter Children insist that Atom’s Spring is for all Atom’s Children, not only those Tektus will call his own. Every season the Zealots will elect a single “Fog-Lost” to drink from the Spring and report back their experience. If the Zealots believe the individual’s vision indicates the good favor of the Fog Mother, the entire group of pilgrims may partake in a Fog sabbatical together. They are not allowed to season anywhere on the island past this test and ritual. Harbormen no longer trust any Children, regardless of their allegiances. (Mt. Desert is additionally a granitic site, but it is not from a granitic intrusion with strong imprints.)

Maine State Prison (Thomaston, ME): Originally a penitentiary quarry abandoned long before the Great Division, the warden used prison labor for recreational excavation. This location has only just recently been discovered by Hierosacristans, and is not populated. Grand Mother Skwodovska has yet to declare it safe for pilgrimage. Despite its original imprint of the Worlds Before, due to the nature of the labor which carved it out of the Earth, it’s also picked up the essence of repetitive manual labor.

The Ledge (Derryfield Park, Manchester, NH): This granite lights up in a brilliant boreal tapestry under the right conditions. Before the Great Division, prewar Manchesterites were drawn to the water that fills this quarry. Many swimmers were once compelled to jump from the top of the quarry walls down into the water below, often to their deaths. Hinter Children do not venture any deeper West into the ruins of Manchester, content with the forested region surrounding The Ledge and Vault 140. Second only to the Rock of Ages, Children regard wintering at The Ledge to be the height of their religious experience. They will ice skate on the pond well to dance with the lights.

Ant Lane (Pheasant Lane Mall, Nashua, NH): Its Concourse is lined with holy Barre granite, but for reasons unknown to Children it no longer whispers. The Children call the mall “the Quiet Granite.” Children usually only stay for one season at a time, to share the task of maintaining the Armillary Bulbs which illuminate the settlement, before handing the task over to the next caravan of pilgrims coming in from The Ledge.

Saint Gaudens Park: Monument to one of the greatest sculptors of the modern world, and the designer of countless bronze monuments throughout the country, the grounds are filled with examples of his granite, marble, and bronze work. The park lay just off Route 89 on one’s way Northwest through the White Mountains. Many Children pass through here. It still functions as a sculptural school, and here many hone their grasp of three-dimensional space to heighten their glassblowing skills upon returning up the interstate home to Five Sisters. It’s said the artistic medium whispers to the artist, begging to be freed.

Dunwich Borers (Salem, MA): A site chiefly reserved for Hierosacristans, as traversing such a deep mine shaft requires skill and purpose... It’s also necessary for Children entering the mine to be able to remind feral ghouls of what they are, as the deeper one goes, the more one will find. The granite in this location is especially radioactive.

Kingsport Lighthouse (Kingsport, MA): a splinter sect of Children who worship a Glowing One. An example of a denomination of Children who regard ghouls, feral or not, as touched by Atom. They likely once studied at the Church of Eternal Light before traveling with the Megaton caravan that brought the Capital Wastes’ Children into New England. (included as an afterthought cause I forgot)

Thicket Excavations (Bedford, MA): I can’t remember off the top of my head what I had planned out for this site. I can’t even remember if I think the Children would have determined a way to drain it, or if they’d leave it flooded. It’s there. I guess.

Quincy Quarries (Quincy, MA): An abandoned quarry picked as a site for widespread improper nuclear waste disposal. Not a Valence site, but Hierosacristans do make occasional visits to the location in an attempt to convert the rational ghouls who have taken up residence in the quarry. Despite these ghouls’ resistance thus far to listen to religious fanatics, Hinter Children still regard them utmost as Atom’s Undying.

Crater of Atom (Providence, RI): When the Children traveled from Megaton to make pilgrimage to the Nucleus, the caravans eventually split into three directions. The then-Sister Skwodovska took one North, and founded Five Sisters and the Singing Stone District. The Then-Confessors Martin and Tektus led a second Northeast, and founded the Nucleus. Sister Isolde took the third East, and founded the Crater of Atom amidst the Glowing Sea. Now Mother Isolde, she cares deeply for all Atom’s pilgrims. The settlement will accept any of Atom’s Children, regardless of whether they are simply visiting, so long as they will not hesitate to protect the holy site without hesitation. (included in sentiment only cause I cropped to where it isn’t shown on the map)

Retreat Trail (Retreat, Brattleboro, VT): In a similar way that Maine State Prison prescribed prison labor as a mode of rehabilitation, so too did Brattleboro Retreat, the nation’s first asylum committed to recovery. Many of the stone formations in the area Currently only known to a single immodestly heretical Hinter Child, August, though Hierosacristan Fresnel will eventually cross paths with him and seek to study the site. The tower was erected in rough-hewn local granite, but the whispering stone lays below ground in a cistern where digging had allegedly continued past the point the project required. The nature trail which encircles the Tower is of particular caliber for meditative strolls for Hinter Children, a personal solipsistic Valence track of sorts. The asylum itself is a strong candidate for Children housing, should the Grand Mother ever declare it appropriate for Children to make pilgrimage.

Norcross-West Quarry (Dorset, VT): The oldest marble quarry in the country. Though not granite, the metamorphic rock contains some of the most potent Worlds Before imagery. Many of its subterranean inhabitants observe a hybridized religion between their wilderness beliefs and the ideologies the Children have brought with them on their Valence. Sacristans remain on site year-round to study the visions the granite yields, though many inhabitants consider the phenomena ordinary by their everyday standards, they’re so commonplace.

Hope Cemetery (Barre, VT): Mausoleums, monuments, and headstones here are all carved from holy Barre granite. Sacristans curate the monuments here year round, often traveling only a two-site Valence between it and the Rock of Ages. Its imprints are fragmented and scattered, but frequent in the open air.

The Rock of Ages Quarry (Barre, VT): The holiest Granitic Mass to the Hinter Children. Only Hierosacristans are permitted in its deepest caverns, but the vast deep dimension rock face of the site whisper so loudly and so continuously that even Children who are not Daughters of Radon can hear it. Rock of Ages was regarded as a Stone Tape site even before the Great Division, and pursuit of its secrets has been ongoing for centuries. Its history is the most well documented of any of the Children’s holy sites.

Weather

Weather in the Hinter still includes events commonplace before the Great Division, but two types of weather have since developed.

The Fog: Not isolated to Mt. Desert Island, a dense radioactive fog blankets a high ratio of the Hinter. Unless settlers are able to tolerate mountain life above the Fog, they must adjust their living conditions accordingly. It can yield a weak magnetic field at times that can cause the simplest technology to malfunction. Even a seasoned internal compass can be led astray. Without extensive Wasteland homoeopathy or sufficient Rad Resistance, it’s impossible to survive in the Fog for any extended duration.

Nor’easters: Before the war, they posed the risks of both a blizzard and a hurricane, but now the highly radioactive seawater they carry ashore has mutated them into an entirely different, more potent hazard. Once a storm cell hits the Fog front, they magnify one another, generating deeply disorienting magneto-acoustic fields and scattering upwards of ten feet of radioactive snow at a time. These magneto-acoustic fields “activate” the granite imprints and trigger replay events of the sensory input contained therein. Children consider such experiences deeply entheogenic, as only Daughters can experience the granite whispers without a storm to bring out the Worlds Before.

Hinter Children are especially winter-ready, and even pilgrims mid-transit rarely struggle in the face of heavy winter weather. They have to be ready, if they’re to witness for themselves every event time the eldritch arcane seems to bleed from one reality into the next.

_________________________________________

August was born to a sect of Mothman cultists who called themselves the Acolytes of Holy Light. Descended from the cultists who inhabit the Lucky Hole Mine, they were convinced other mines may contain the Interloper’s cousins, and raided them. They were holistic cannibals, eating the meat and crafting with the bone and skin, and using the blood for the Stimpaks crucial to guarantee survival of harrowing mine shaft missions. In a similar way to how the Interloper seemed to have absorbed the first to step foot in its chamber, they believed they kept their deceased with them always by consuming them. Their high regard for Scorchbeasts as touched by divinity did not protect them from attacks by the colossal bat-dragons, and they often lost entire parties to a single Scorchbeast. Any time they prevailed against one, they made sure to utilize every last scrap of the creature to respect it.

He often remained at home with his grandfather, while his parents often went on mine shaft missions. His grandfather taught him how to craft Stimpaks for the other Acolytes, and between them, he learned also how to make Skeeto Spit. With an uptick in Scorchbeast encounters, the cult’s numbers dwindled sometime after he turned ten. His grandfather passed when he was twelve. When his parents would go investigate another mine, he would then be left to his own devices, whereupon he secretly devised a corrupted variation between Stimpak and Skeeto Spit which could utilize Wasteland blood.

The last party his parents attended stumbled upon not just a Scorchbeast, but a nest of them. Several followed fleeing cultists back to camp, to level it. The cultists at camp managed to lethally wound one of the Scorchbeasts, but fewer than ten Acolytes survived the attack. The survivors lived off the meat provided by the beast for several weeks, but once all that remained was the bone and leather, the survivors disbanded. August understandably suffered a crisis of faith after having so much taken from him all at once.

August crafted Wasteland Stimpaks from the blood of that Scorchbeast. Uncertain as to the effects it may have on its user, rather than share them, he gave the other survivors his remaining supply of normal Stimpaks. In the next few years, he relied on these Scorchbeast Stimpaks whenever he needed to heal himself badly enough to warrant it. The only effect he noticed at first was a magnification of his Dark Craving.

By fourteen, he found himself traveling with a caravan to Megaton, where Confessor Cromwell renewed his faith. He believed this “Atom” of which Cromwell spoke was the same Holy Light his brethren had chased in Mothman’s steps. He listened, captivated, to likely hundreds of sermons of the Children of the Crater, wholly convinced of the concept of a World-Vessel. The only thing he struggled to make peace with between his childhood religion and his new one, was the cultivation of shame for his Dark Craving. He’d been raised to pride himself for the quality, but the Children would have none of that behavior no matter the level of violence involved. The most common reason he would step foot out of Megaton was to cull a raider outfit: the easiest way to temper his cravings and loot wealth he could give the Church for tithes. He tithed heavily throughout his teen years, attempting to make it up to the Church that he Craved at all.

He additionally earned money for tithing by helping Moira Brown with her Wasteland Survival Guide. Were it not for Moira, his guilt complex from following the ways of the Children of Atom may well have run him off from it altogether after some time trying to live with it. She tasked him with becoming heavily irradiated, and he did so by fasting in prayer in the Crater waters for several days. When she treated him for his acute radiation poisoning, he grew a third mostly-complete arm. His Endurance and healing factor were heightened by the treatment, but only if he carried in him some of Atom’s Glow. He came to understand he had developed a tolerance for large quantities of radiation as well. He decided it was his divine duty to curate himself in ways that would give him as much radiation tolerance as possible.

Part of his soul searching landed him in Meresti, where he sought Vance’s guidance for ways to quieten his Dark Cravings. August underwent a catechism of sorts during his first trip to the train yard, whereupon he picked apart the different ideological tenets of the belief systems he’d known to date, and sorted out which tenets were in opposition with one another, and which tenets aligned together. He came to the understanding that Acolytes were too holistic to live the ways of The Family--using the entire body, not only the blood, was one of the deepest reverences for the death. An Acolyte could make peace with the life of a Child, but neither could be a member of The Family. (It’s possibly interesting to you to include that chapter of his fic. Even though I haven’t added to it in ages, flashback chapters like “Nuka-Cherry” read as standalones.)

He developed history with Sierra Petrovita as well, forging early on his fixation with Nuka-Cola Quantum as some of the most significant evidence that prewar societies had any understanding of the true nature of the Holy Light.

When Confessor Tektus proposed a pilgrimage to Far Harbor, August leapt at the chance to travel large distances again. The caravans broke into three once they hit the Southern Massachusetts border. One traveled East, to found the Crater of Atom; another traveled Northeast, to found the Nucleus; and a third traveled Northwest, to Vermont to found chapters in Barre and Burlington. August traveled with the Far Harbor pilgrims.

At first, the Far Harbor Children were permitted to intermingle with the Harbormen, and many took jobs on the dock. August worked at the Last Plank as a cook, where he took to Wasteland herbology like second nature. He often used the excuse of having to go hunting for fresh meat, to sneak away and snag himself a Trapper or two to sate himself, but he did not do so without worrying Martin and Tektus would think he was becoming a Trapper himself. Shortly before the Children were exiled from the Dock, August wondered to himself whether he were a Trapper above all else. Ultimately, he decided Trappers were the lowest of the Fog’s primal defenses against unbelievers: the Fog would turn the unfaithful into ravenous creatures that picked clean the holy land of those who wouldn’t welcome Atom’s Glow into their World-Vessel. He still half-identified with them in secret while living in the hangar.

Once shuttered into the hangar at the Nucleus, he could no longer regularly sneak away to kill Trappers for food. He resorted to stealing blood packs from the Archemist for months before he finally confessed everything to her and left the Nucleus of his own volition--while it would still be his decision. He feared subsisting solely on blood would only prevent harm to his Brothers and Sisters for so long. He scoured himself, visited Atom’s Spring seeking the Fog Mother’s guidance, and let himself wander the Fog alone for years. During his Sabbatical, he let only the Fog dictate his Dark Craving, and he made Stimpaks of countless Wasteland creatures. (His argument with the Archemist is in “Nuka-Grape.”)

During his Sabbatical, he began to manifest visible physical effects from his Wasteland Stimpak usage: true transfigurations beyond the arm he gained from assisting Moira Brown. His eyes paled, his ears flared out like a Scorchbeast’s, and his facial hair wilded into wiry sideburns. The next time he stepped foot in any settlement, his height towered over any human by half a head or more.

Fully embracing the caravan lifestyle, the Vermont Children pride themselves in pilgrimage throughout the Hinter (New England’s Wasteland). They intimate their travel patterns with atomic valence. Unless they’re tasked with holy site curation, most Vermont Children do not stay put more than a few months at a time. Their holiest local site is the Rock of Ages quarry in Barre. Only priestesses are permitted into the deepest chambers, where they commune with the granite, which they insist whispers to them. Granitic formations throughout the Hinter experience unusual phenomena during certain weather conditions, most notably both the Barry quarry itself and rock hewn from it. This passion for granite and marble sets Vermont Children apart from other denominations, wherein they see some connection between granitic phenomena and the worlds which saw Division and from their cosmic dispersion created this one. Some denominations consider them heretical in this regard; once Tektus took the mantle of High Confessor, they were no longer permitted to include the Nucleus in their pilgrimage.

I could rave forever about my fan-Children. *hides face in hands* They take the concept of a World-Vessel to an extreme, and are the chemistry-savvy glass artisans responsible for the fluorescent lighting characteristic of the Nucleus. All throughout the Hinter, one will find this light source, which is in essence reverse uranium glass: the fluid reacts to the radioactivity of the glass itself.

At one point during August’s Fog Sabbatical, he traveled with the Vermont Children. Although not permitted entry to the inner chambers of the Rock of Ages, he could draw countless similarities between the quarry and the Lucky Hole Mine of his youth. Of all the hundreds of mine shafts the Acolytes entered seeking evidence of other Interlopers, he became convinced the next nearest one lay beneath this quarry. (The Dunwich Borers is another. I have been piecing together my fan-lore since before 76 got Wastelanders, and ran with all that I know of it to flesh it out. Metro Men *heart eyes emoji*)

Vermont Children have two prominent ranks--Sacristans and Hierosacristans--both of which are something like cartographers or historians. The former aid in curating holy sites, both nuclear and granitic, while the latter are the closest to Zealots they have. Hierosacristans travel off the known Valence in search of other holy sites to study, and return to Five Sisters to counsel with Grand Mother Skwodovska for permission to update their master scripture with their discoveries. The most highly esteemed of the Hierosacristans are the Daughters of Radon, a sect of priestesses capable of a psychic connection with granite.

Daughters are the only clerics permitted in the Rock of Ages inner chambers. Lacking the ability to become one in any capacity, instead August took in their footsteps and walked off the beaten path. He left to the Hierosacristans the hunt for further Interloper dens, and fragments of those intrusive igneous formations dispersed throughout the region not unlike atomic debris, and turned in on himself with renewed passion. He seized their enthusiasm for cultivating and caring for one’s World-Vessel, and married it with the Acolyte’s holistic views on keeping one’s deceased at your side always by consuming them. August came to the understanding that his World-Vessel contained further World-Vessels, most notably by absorbing them from the essences of other living things. (I.e., absorbing = eating them or making Stimpaks.) August from this point onward purposefully sought to mutate himself as much as he could, in order to make himself as capable as possible of holding as much radiation as possible. Everything in his life felt like it clicked into place.

He uses his Wasteland herbology to tend to his World-Vessel cultivation, both using heavily practiced recipes to bring out the most in his meals, and using specific combinations of dishes to maximize their benefits to him. Yes, this extends to his use of both Wasteland and human meats.

He wandered the Hinter in this way, hunting Fog avatars such as the Shipbreaker, for making Wasteland Stimpaks. (The Shipbreaker hunt has a one-shot from Longfellow’s perspective: “Running Interference.”)

His eventual common Valence includes the area between Montpelier VT and Nuka World. He considers Nuka-World a holy site in itself, if not solely for its elevation and (consumerist) worship of Nuka-Cola. He makes visits for two important things: Bloodworm meat to make aspics, an Endurance-stretching dish crucial for the food-based rites in his observances, and Gatorclaw blood, which he ironically regards one of the greatest of Atom’s creatures. (He is not happy to learn about the Replicator, most notably that it can be turned off.)

When Coulter moved into Nuka-Town USA, August took on the role of the park grounds’ protector. He picks off raiders whenever possible. The whole year Coulter’s been around, August’s wanted more than anything to rid the park of the raiders altogether, to no avail as a single fighter. The raiders only know their bogeyman as Father Wachusett, in that standing next to him is like standing next to a mountain. (Taking after Savoy here, partly, for the Disciples to name one another after the local geographic features.)

He has made his primary home in Brattleboro, VT, at Retreat. There’s a cistern chamber on site with extensive granite work. Eventually, a Hierosacristan crossed paths with this location, and her studies suggested that, before the war, people had put effort into digging deeper. I suppose in this regard he becomes something of a Sacristan to Retreat, because he stays there most of the year, just for solitude. The two Children become close. He gets to “hear” the granite through her stories, and she gets to study it without his interference.

My other half has walked over here and joked that this post is longer than August is tall. Send paramedics. I’m hitting send post. Thank you again for the ask. I hope this is at least mildly interesting, and makes enough sense?