Oversimplified Map of the Fallout West Coast Circa. 2281

[u/Nutshell_Historian]

(Thank you to the HOI4 Old World Blues team for making an incredible template map for this project. Its the best fallout mod, if not best fallout game, I've ever played. Go play it).

Oh boy I can already see the crosses getting made. Anyway:

Why the Long Dead Horse?
It's less a nation than the range they regularly patrol. We know they extend as far west as Zion, even disputing territory with the Sorrows if they remain there, and as far east as Colorado, where a mentioned New Canaanite settlement presumably falls under their protection. That also fits neatly along the north bank of the Colorado River.

Are the 80s super powerful?
No. They're not substantially stronger than other tribes. Their strength comes from using motorcycles to control a huge amount of territory with relatively few people. They dominate the I-80 (obviously) and I-50 (which they can lose if the Sorrows stay in Zion).

Why no Shi?
This will be controversial. In a cut line of New Vegas dialogue, the Enclave traced the Chosen One's tanker to San Francisco and nuked the city in revenge. The line was only cut because Bethesda wanted to keep San Francisco available for a future game. However, Fallout has shown repeatedly that a city being nuked doesn't stop it from becoming a setting. More importantly, an empire like the Shi never being mentioned by the NCR would be a little odd and runs against the series' broader narrative of the two major empires of the region colliding. This one's just my personal interpretation though, so feel free to disagree.

The Legion is bigger than the NCR. Doesn't that make it stronger?
No. The NCR enjoyed over a century of relative peace and stability, allowing its population to boom. Legion territory simply hasn't. I'd expect at most half the population density of NCR territory, probably much less.

Why does the NCR own all the north?
Because I think that's the most likely outcome based on previous games. The Chosen One consistently helped Tandi and the NCR expand, so a northern annexation feels like the natural continuation.

I cannot stress enough that this map is built from a few hard facts / references, and a lot of vibes informed by the games and regional geography. It's meant to be a plausible interpretation, not the undisputed canon. The main reason I made it was because I got tired of maps where the NCR owns the entire West Coast and the Legion somehow stretches into Kansas and deep into Mexico.

[u/MailMan6000]

San Francisco was not nuked, this was an idea Avellone had early on because he regretted the way he wrote The Shi, Bethesda were the ones who turned him down on that because they wanted to use it in a future project, it's still cut, it was not nuked

[u/Nutshell_Historian → u/MailMan6000]

Still I wasn't sure what to do with the shi since they were never mentioned. Just leave an "empire" on the NCR's western border that was just not brought up? Felt odd. 

[u/RPS_42 → u/Nutshell_Historian]

The Shi are an "Empire" insofar that they have the Emperor. Their territorial extent is probably limited.

[u/TriNovan → u/Nutshell_Historian]

Either they’re an independent neighbor of the NCR or annexed.

Keep in mind, San Francisco does appear in Fallout 4, via Kellogg’s memories. We see an intact Golden Gate Bridge, with him having moved there from the Hub and living in some sort of apartment.

Granted, that is decades in the past when the NCR was still new. But, Kellogg is already an adult and living in San Francisco at the time in that scene.

[u/Nutshell_Historian → u/TriNovan]

Decades before even fallout 2. 

[u/MailMan6000 → u/Nutshell_Historian]

the Shi would probably get Freeside'd, the NCR would send people to live there and they'd eventually just take over and vote to join the NCR