Western Commonwealth
This region consists of foothills to the west descending into the suburban neighborhoods of the greater Boston area to the east. Mostly wilderness, even before the war, it is dominated by the desolate remains of the Fort Hagen township to the west. Once flowing directly northeast is the Charles River, along a deep natural navigational channel that was devastated by the cataclysmic destruction of the southern Commonwealth.
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Along its riverfront lies the ruins of several townships and developments that have since been flooded by the change in water flow. Despite this, the region is not without successful settlements. Greygarden was founded shortly before the war, and Oberland station, a farmstead built on the remains of a rail station, lies on the crest of the hillside east of the river. To the east is Vault 81, constructed near Chestnut Hillock Reservoir.
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GREYGARDEN
The Greygarden facility was built a scant few days before the Great War under the wishes of Doctor Edward Gray, a rather eccentric senior engineer of RobCo Industries. The facility was designed to be completely self sufficient, utilizing worker robots watched over by supervisor robots with superior cognition processes. For over two centuries, Greygarden managed to continue to operate thanks to the efforts of these robots, though in 2287 the plant began to face problems with which they required the assistance of a passing drifter. In return for helping fix the problem, the drifter encouraged them to open up their settlement to those of a less mechanical biology, and as such, Greygarden has slowly begin to have a small human populace grow up around it.
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OBERLAND STATION
Based alongside the old railway, the settlement is made up of a railway check station building and an assortment of abandoned train carriages, sourced from along the railway itself and placed both next to and on top of one another to create a surprisingly cozy settlement. However, it suffers frequent attacks from both raiders and super mutants due to its placement, and as such is made up of increasingly hardy settlers.
VAULT 81
Vault 81 is an active, functioning vault. This success is largely thanks to the original overseer actively sabotaging Vault-Tec's original mandate by refusing to conduct the experiments meant to take place within the vault. While the settlement allows the inhabitants of the Commonwealth to pass through and trade, permanent residence is reserved for those who have been born and grown up within the vault, though these vault dwellers are free to leave and return as they wish.