The Top 50 Things You Never Knew About Fallout, Pt. 1

24. Underworld, the city of ghouls stationed in an exhibit of the Museum of History, contains numerous allusions to Hell. The ruined painting on second floor of the Concourse is “Dante and Virgil in Hell” by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

Related to the painting is the name of Underworld’s bar, The Ninth Circle, a reference to Inferno, a section of the Divine Comedy which describes the travels of Dante and Virgil through the nine circles of Hell. Cerberus, a resident, is named for the three headed guard dog of Hades, and the servant Charon is named after the ferryman of the river Styx. Cerberus, who is the Mister Gutsy unit defending Underworld, will comment that he’d rather send the resident ghouls “to Hell” rather than be their “guard dog”. Meanwhile, the medical staff at The Chop Shop are named Graves and Barrows, both references to death and burial.



There are other areas where non-playable characters are named according to a scheme. In Oasis, everyone has the name of a plant or tree.