All kinds of creatures have made Fallout’s irradiated landscape home, but there are more than just twisted monsters and desperate raiders out in the wastes. Calling from deep beneath the earth, otherworldly forces reach out to survivors, luring them in. What awaits is not nuclear hell, but something far worse.
The Dunwich Building started a trend in Fallout that Bethesda seems keen to expand upon further, and a new game would be a perfect opportunity to deepen the mystery. The creepy ambiance lends a new level of horror to the miserable apocalyptic backdrop, and has fueled so many fan theories about the true nature of the game’s universe. So it’s definitely time for Bethesda to dig deeper into the bottomless depths of the Dunwich faction.
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The Dunwich Faction Needs to Make a Repeat Appearance
In the furthest corner of Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland sits an unremarkable, yet eerie building to the south-west. Appearing at first like any other, the Lone Wanderer soon finds out there is more than meets the eye. The radioactive source at the bottom keeps the wildlife away, but a strange resonance captivates unwitting human minds.
Ever since the building appeared, the Dunwich mystery has sparked intense speculation within the Fallout community. It represents a different side to Fallout’s mythology. Where most things can be explained by the apocalypse, radiation, or FEV, the Dunwich mystery remains an enigma. The radiation coming from inside the building is probably not nuclear, but it is certainly an aura of palpable dread.
And it isn’t too surprising that such a place represents a more cosmic horror than is typical for Fallout. The name Dunwich comes directly from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror, where an unseen creature is nurtured with dark magic before terrorizing the locals of Dunwich. Many IPs have made extensive reference to the cosmic creatures that exist in reality and nightmare, with perhaps most famously, Lovecraft inspiring Bloodborne’s Great Ones.
Clearly, Bethesda was greatly inspired by the Cthulhu mythos too, Lovecraft’s universe of cosmic entities, and dug deeper into their own interpretation. The Dunwich Borers is a play on The Dunwich Horror title, and the excavation site in Fallout 4’s Commonwealth makes for one of the strangest Fallout locations to date. A new game should expand more on the activities of the Dunwich Borers, as it has a lot of fascinating history to build upon.
The Dunwich Building’s Beginnings in Fallout 3
In the base game of Fallout 3, the Dunwich Building is a strange oddity, isolated on the map away from every other landmark. The only creatures inside are a group of Feral Ghouls worshipping a strange obelisk underneath the building. The audio logs of one of these Ghouls, Jamie, provide an insight into how they may all have found the obelisk, as following in his father’s footsteps, he gradually loses his mind over a book called the Krivbeknih, and becomes enslaved to the pillar.
Bethesda then expanded upon this with the Point Lookout DLC, showing how the Dunwich Building’s influence extended beyond its corner of the wastes. The entire expansion was focused on the moral question of who should hold the Krivbeknih, which, according to the negative karma a player can receive by returning it to Obadiah Blackhall, firmly establishes the great evil at work. Interestingly, the expansion also involves the Dunwich Building, as a player can go there with the book to destroy it at the pillar, rejecting its life-altering power.
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Fallout 4’s Dunwich Borers Deepened the Mystery
Established in name during Fallout 3, the sole survivor can find the Dunwich Borers quarry in Fallout 4, where raiders are driven mad by the temple at the bottom. The game expanded the involvement of Dunwich Borers LLC across the wasteland, showing their activity across the East Coast, and how even the pre-war activities of the occult mining company left its own mark on the scarred wasteland.
The location is special to many players because of how it gives glimpses of the pre-war, showing flashes of workers excavating the site and the gruesome rituals that were performed unknowingly under their feet. The player can descend to the bottom to retrieve the special melee weapon Kremvh’s Tooth from an altar, coming face to face with an unblinking cyclopean statue.
Though Fallout 4 does not make the connection explicit, many fans have connected the head under Dunwich Borers to the Art Deco face sculptures seen all across the Commonwealth. The resemblance between the two is more than uncanny, as the model seems to be shared with these sculptures, raising all kinds of theories about the wider presence of Lovecraftian themes within Fallout.
Fallout 76 Acknowledged Fan Speculation
Fallout 76’s ever-evolving online world has provided Bethesda with an opportunity to flesh out the series’ universe and respond to fan theories. In a playful move, the studio left a note titled “Urgent message for R. Dunwich and C. Blackhall” as a nod to YouTuber TheEpicNate315’s many videos on the Dunwich mystery. As 76 explores more of the unexplained cryptids of West Virginia, it’s clear the developer wants to spend more time on the more esoteric aspects of Fallout.
How the Dunwich Mystery Could Go Further in Fallout 5
There are so many directions the Dunwich story could go. Perhaps there are more books than just the Krivbeknih, or the Dunwich Borers company even gets its own larger, more fleshed-out expansion. There may be an opportunity for Bethesda to turn it into its own small faction that offers unique role-playing opportunities as a cultist of Ug-Qualtoth.
Fallout's Dunwich mystery is obviously popular among many fans, but whatever Bethesda does, it should tread a fine line expanding it. To remain intriguing, Dunwich needs to remain a mystery, which means not revealing any answers without posing more questions. Still, with Bethesda’s fascination with the horror of the Cthulhu mythos only building, it’s very likely that Dunwich may be back in a larger way in Fallout 5.
Fallout 4
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