Summary

• Sanctuary Hills, the Sole Survivor's pre-war home, holds a hidden and tragic history.
• Workbenches and clues in Sanctuary suggest a lost settlement and a possible battle between raiders and settlers.
• Codsworth's strange behavior and the Vault-Tec Rep's comments hint at the painful memories and loss in Sanctuary Hills.

One of the best-known areas in all of Fallout 4 is Sanctuary Hills, the Sole Survivor's pre-war home and the new home of Preston's group of survivors. Despite the neighborhood seemingly being abandoned since the bombs falling, recent discoveries apparently point to a hidden and perhaps tragic history. However, piecing together all the clues of Bethesda's trademark environmental storytelling and random encounters, it is possible to provide some answers almost a decade later.

Sanctuary is a Fallout 4's main character, is able to return and fully explore their old suburb. The return is bittersweet, with many choosing to follow Codsworth's advice and immediately head to Concord. However, in their haste, some players may miss some subtle details about their former home.

Clues Point To Forgotten Sanctuary Settlement

Significant Differences Post-War Cannot Be Explained By Time ing

Upon leaving the Vault and venturing back into Sanctuary Hills, now known simply as Sanctuary, the Sole Survivor can immediately run into Codsworth, their faithful Mr. Handy butler, who will claim to have been alone for 210 years. This certainly gives the impression that Sanctuary has been vacant for two centuries, but this might not actually be true. of Fallout 4's dedicated fan base have been diving back into the lore and making new discoveries that point to a lost Sanctuary Hills settlement that might have met a terrible end.

All Signs Of A Lost Settlement At Sanctuary

There Are Hints Of A Tragic End For The Settlers

The inconsistencies with Codsworth's version of Sanctuary begin as soon as the settlement is explored. Despite his claims to being alone, many of the buildings in the cul-de-sac show signs of somewhat recent habitation and there are other changes that have been made to the neighborhood since the Sole Survivor was last there. Grey Gaming on YouTube goes into excellent detail to point out the differences between pre-war and post-war Sanctuary and breaks down their theory about a lost settlement.

The most obvious things are the workbenches scattered around the settlement. Clearly, from a game mechanic point of view, these are meant to provide all the basics for what will be many players' first settlement, but their presence may still have in-world relevance with the armor, power armor, and weapons workbenches all clustered around one central house which is also where the main workshop is located. This home, opposite the Sole Survivor's, has also been modified since the pre-war introduction to add a wall to the garage area.

A green duffle bag can be found on the roof of the house with the root cellar bunker. This can be accessed by climbing up the tree trunk leaning against the building at the back.

Further exploration will lead to a house towards the end of the neighborhood, which Codsworth will head into when looking for Shaun. This is one of the houses still standing and, curiously, has what is clearly a makeshift barricade in the main living area. Tables, chairs, barrels and concrete blocks are arranged facing the door, leading to theories that this was the lost settlement's last stand before the end.

This certainly seems plausible, as venturing out of the fortified house and directly across the street is a collapsed house that offers more clues. Once scrapped, the house will reveal a doghouse in the backyard as well as two graves as discovered by Reddit alecisntblue. Obviously, these people would have to have been buried there after the bombs, again pointing to Sanctuary still having residents and contradicting Codsworth.

The collapsed buildings themselves also offer more clues about the existence of a lost settlement and its potential fate. As Grey Gaming points out, all the houses in Sanctuary are what’s known as prefab builds, which were very common in both the US and UK after the Second World War. They were essentially standardized houses that could be quickly and easily assembled to create suburbs of near-identical homes. Given the Resources War of the Fallout universe, having these types of neighborhoods makes perfect sense as they not only would have saved time, but also cost and, crucially, resources.

This means that all the houses in Sanctuary Hills were built around the same time, and yet by the time the Sole Survivor arrives back home, some have collapsed but not others. Grey Gaming and others have theorized that this points to a battle, most likely between raiders and the settlers, where explosives damaged the houses to the point of collapse. This is a far more likely scenario than the nuclear blast, which would have damaged all houses, and s for how the debris is scattered.

Who Sanctuary's First Settlers Could Have Been

What Might Have Happened & Why Might Codsworth Lie?

The theory of an original Sanctuary settlement leaves the mystery of whom the suburb's previous settlers were. The most likely candidates are the people who already lived there. As the Sole Survivor and their spouse rush to Vault 111, plenty of their neighbors can be seen at the gate, prevented from entering as their names weren’t on the list. It makes sense that if the damage to their homes wasn’t too significant, they’d simply go home and try to rebuild from there.

This could also explain why the settlement was eventually abandoned, as one of Fallout 4’s many random encounters are the feral ghoul versions of the Sanctuary Hills residents. After returning home and starting to rebuild after the bombs, the neighbors started to change into ghouls, with some of them unfortunately turning feral. That would certainly be a reason for others to fight back or barricade themselves in one home.

Transformation into a ghoul can take anywhere from hours to weeks, and even as much as a year. This can be seen with Moira Brown if Megaton is nuked in Fallout 3 and the NCR troopers at Camp Searchlight in Fallout: New Vegas, while the Lone Wanderer can speak with Carol in Underworld and learn about how she and others transformed. And while some ghouls become slowly feral over time, others can succumb very quickly or even instantly, as seen in Camp Searchlight.

When he is met again in the Hotel Rexford, the Vault-Tec Rep will also talk about his time living in Sanctuary Hills after the bombs. While he doesn’t say how long he was there initially, he will comment on only staying for a year, during which time it was just him and Codsworth. The Rep will specifically say that Codsworth was the only one still alive to talk to, which eventually drove the Rep mad.

The Rep’s comments about Codsworth might also explain why the loyal Mr. Handy acts so strangely when first met, and doesn’t mention anything about former residents. While some speculate that Codsworth is lying to spare the Sole Survivor’s feelings, another theory is that after 210 years and watching Sanctuary Hill’s residents perish, Codsworth might have lost touch with reality. This theory is ed by his behavior when the Sole Survivor tells him about their spouse’s fate and Shaun’s kidnapping.

Codsworth’s reaction after hearing the terrible news is to go into complete denial. He attempts to distract the Sole Survivor with mentions of food and games. Even when told that the Sole Survivor’s partner is dead, Codsworth will still say that they might have Shaun and have gone to arrange a play date at a neighbor’s house. Codsworth knows the neighbors he’s talking about are feral ghouls, as both Mr. and Mrs. Parker are part of the pack that can be encountered, but speaks as though they are still home.

Eventually, Codsworth will lead the Sole Survivor on a fruitless search of the settlement before finally accepting the truth. This detachment from reality may be because the memories are too painful for him to , having no doubt watched the fall of Sanctuary’s first settlement. Ultimately, the true story behind Sanctuary Hills after the bombs will never fully be known, but is a great example of the little details and lore that can still be found in Fallout 4 even after almost a decade.

Sources: Grey Gaming/YouTube, alecisntblue/Reddit