Pre-War ghouls

Pre-War ghouls are people who became ghouls before the Great War.
==Desmond Lockheart==
By 2077, global leaders and members of the intelligence community were in a race to unnaturally extend their lives through experimental means, hoping to survive the global devastation they believed to be coming. One such figure, international intelligence agent Desmond Lockheart, foresaw the War and may have been involved in the events that catalyzed it. In preparation, he became a ghoul through controlled exposure to doses of radiation that would be lethal under normal circumstances.Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition p.69: "Desmond the Ghoul:Before the bombs dropped, Desmond was a player in international intelligence at the highest levels. Desmond's motives and obsessions have been scarcely affected by the apocalyptic devastation of the planet. Desmond and those he would consider his peers knew for some time that the Great War was inevitable. Desmond himself could have been directly involved in the actions leading up to the nuclear exchange. Facing the nuclear holocaust, global leaders and members of the intelligence community made their personal bids for survival in the new world. F.E.V., cryogenic stasis, AI consciousness, even—in Desmond's case—controlled exposure to normally lethal doses of radiation were among the wildly risky and experimental techniques pursued in the name of survival in a world without modern infrastructure. Old rivalries and vendettas were not forgotten in the ashes of nuclear winter. Those who managed to survive quickly set about doing what the bombs had not—wiping out any remnants of the Old World that may be a threat to personal and political agendas. Now, even so long after they should all have died naturally, these scattered figures seek power and jealously guard their secrets. Desmond's mission has long since ceased to be political or ideological. He knew—as experience has proven tenfold—that as long as any of his colleagues lived, he would be hunted. His purpose is simple: kill or be killed."
Having abandoned ideological motives long ago, Desmond sees eternal life as a never-ending power struggle, and his fellow pre-War elite as competition. As of 2277, he is locked in a bitter conflict with the psychic brain of Professor Calvert.Professor Calvert: "No, not "astral knowledge" you simpleton! Psychic domination! And that still won't be possible until you destroy Desmond's jamming device."(Professor Calvert's dialogue)
==Eddie Winter==
Similarly, Eddie Winter became a ghoul in October 2077 with the assistance of a male physician in East Boston.To Claire Eddie purported to his girlfriend, Claire Pozinski, that this doctor had a "theory" pertaining to "the right kind of radiation exposure, at the right amounts" being able to mutate human cells.
Alerted to civilization's imminent nuclear destruction by a well-paid associate in the world of military intelligence, Eddie enacted a scheme to make himself immortal. He coerced Tim and Blake Flynn into giving him nuclear materials smuggled from their shipping company. Three Wicked Shipping trucks hauling radioactive materials never arrived at their intended destinations.Wicked Shipping Fleet Lockup terminal entries Happy with his new form, Eddie then entered a secure bunker he had commissioned in secret, and remained there for the next 210 years. He anticipated outliving Claire in safety before returning to the surface.
==Peters, the control subject==
In February of 2077, a scientist in Boston willingly underwent radiation exposure in hopes of developing a radiation treatment, "serum sample 42-BA-7," devised by a Dr. Roberts. In accordance with the directions of her experiment, Peters was to absorb six Sieverts (approx. 600 rads), and then self-administer the serum. However, as she was in the trial's control group, the serum was a placebo, and her request to leave the experiment was either denied or ignored.
She began to record a farewell message to her parents, but quickly succumbed to the radiation. She can be heard begging Dr. Roberts to deliver the holotape to her parents. These holotapes can be found throughout an abandoned house, which contains little else of note, except for a feral glowing one imprisoned in a locked closet on the third floor.
==Dunwich ritual==
In October of 2077, six employees of the Dunwich Borers mine were bound and arranged in a semi-circle in a strange religious chamber with a shaft at the center. A man stood at a pulpit opposite them and spoke while holding a knife.Visions experienced during gameplay What transpired next is not known, but when the Sole Survivor disturbed this chamber in 2287, all had become feral ghouls.
There are four named feral ghouls here, the project managers of stations 1 through 4: Bob Stanson, Bradley Ramone, John Hatfield, and Tim Shoots, the last of whom conspired with Dunwich management to entrap the others.
There was once fine architecture in this chamber, but in modern times, it lies in utter ruin. Further, a large shaft has been dug in the middle of the room. The shaft exposes the eye of a massive buried statue. An altar was constructed at the bottom of the shaft, where Kremvh's Tooth is displayed between two vertically oriented mini-nukes.
==RobCo experiments in the Commonwealth==
In the Commonwealth, there is a hidden robotics research facility, which was operated by General Atomics International and the US Army Robotics Division underneath the RobCo Sales & Service Center before the Great War. Transhumanist medical experiments were being performed on prisoners at this facility, for the production and development of robobrains. The facility was under draconian security measures. Workers frequently disappeared, and there were protocols in place relating to the destruction of evidence on short notice.RobCo Sales & Service Center terminal entries
In a brig behind twenty-one mechanically sealed doors and multiple security checkpoints, feral ghouls can be found dead, dormant or standing in locked jail cells. The ceilings of their cells are glass. In the observation room above, data on the prisoners can be found on a terminal. 
Several of the dead feral ghouls are strapped to gurneys, linked into tracks in the floor, which lead to the laboratories and incinerator. There is a row of decontamination arches at a mandatory checkpoint along this track. Outside of the cells, human remains can be found, distinct from the ghoul remains, which generally remain restrained or imprisoned. 
In a small room, externally demarcated "Robobrain R&D," unmoving feral ghouls can be seen suspended in a tank. X-rays of deathclaws are displayed in the same room.
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== RobCo experiments in Appalachia ==
At the RobCo Research Center in Cranberry Bog, a feral ghoul can be found in a sealed observation chamber underground.
== Notes ==
* Hancock and Thaddeus each became ghouls after taking some sort of drug or serum which induced ghoulification.
* Dean Domino was a wealthy and well-connected pre-War man who ultimately became a long-lived ghoul. From the context of his lore, he seems to have been insulated from the bombs and most environmental radiation (though the water at the Sierra Madre is mildly irradiated). The circumstances of his ghoulification are open to speculation.
==References==
Non-game
Category:Ghouls