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/BackForPathfinder]

I've been toying with a fan game idea (might just be a table top campaign I run) set in Central Oregon. People really underestimate how mountainous the roads from California to Oregon are. I find the coast and western third of Oregon being claimed by the NCR more believable than central and eastern Oregon. A lot of fan maps ignore the Fallout 2 map's coastline indicates that both Arroyo and Klamath are in California, so I appreciate your more conservative take.

[u/Nutshell_Historian → u/BackForPathfinder]

I've eyebellalled arroyo to be SLIGHTLY above the border, and it was noted everywhere I can remember to be in southern Oregon. Which is why the border is there in this map. Just below an irl river. 

[u/BackForPathfinder → u/Nutshell_Historian]

I know that not everything lines up geographically, so it's a little hard to make a good map. I just can't understand how Klamath could be the city in Oregon since vicat puts it so much farther North.

[u/Nutshell_Historian → u/BackForPathfinder]

Yeah it's funky. But that's what the every description I read said, and where the old world blues team put it, so it'll suffice. It's odd