The Gulper Island Synth Settlement

The Institute (Commonwealth Institute of Technology) - created under the ruins of a university before the war was even over, this spot is where the Synths that flee across the countryside are created. Indistinguishable from normal Humans save for a small chip inserted into their brain which can and does cause memory wipes, bizarre behavior, and occasionally self-destruction, Synths from the Institute have a very poor reputation among most of the Commonwealth. This isn't due to any fault of their own, however. The Institute itself has come recently under control by a displaced Vault dweller by the name of Levi, who is actually the genetic precursor of all living Synths. His takeover comes with a bittersweet event, as it was his own son stolen from him in the Vault, that encouraged the enslavement and sub-humanity of the Synths. Levi believes that all Synths are his 'grandchildren', and thus has attempted to sway the Institute's political leanings, as well as patch relations with the entire Commonwealth's worth of varied settlers and species. Under his rule, eventually, the Commonwealth will become at least as strong as the Mojave Conglomerate out west. Levi is also known as Leviathan Shindaerey, the Outsider. Yes, that Outsider. How he came to be here, inhabiting a fairly 'normal' mortal body, is anyone's guess. But it has led to some very interesting mixing and matching among these groups and the Rookery. Particularly because he tends to watch not only his own home dimension ("the World" and "the Void"), but Carramba, Paragon, and numerous worlds for anything of interest value. He is a very bored immortal indeed. This isn't his original body, as that one still remains in the Void. Honestly it's not clear that he and Aretha had been in the same Vault dimension, but they definitely are now.

Acadia and Far Harbor - found on Vault Earth, along with Wakefield Vault and the Mojave Conglomerate, this northerly location, and the isolation of the Acadia national forest, provided an excellent safe place for Synths escaping from the Institute. It is a haven for such people, though the area itself is still contested by not just the Synth population but by irate local fishermen and longer-term inhabitants, as well as the rather bizarre Children of the Atom cult housed in a land locked nuclear submarine base nearby. A shaky peace has been established on the island, but if the Institute comes calling in force for its Synths to be dragged back, it's pretty clear that there will be a lot of trouble for everyone. After Levi's changes were implemented, it won't be the Institute that would turn on the Synths, but numerous members of each of the semi-peaceful factions would eagerly see them wiped out - the Brotherhood of Steel still sends patrols out around the Commonwealth, knowing that this is an act of war. If too many factions keep this up, they'd turn on one another, obviously... So in this setting they have to deal with not only the rigors of survival in a bad post-apocalyptic wasteland, but other people who literally are out to get them. With Levi and Aretha's clone sisters in charge of the area, the chances of Institute problems drop dramatically, but other concerns still exist.

The observatory at Acadia National Park is still standing, and is where DiMA, the synth prototype 'brother' of Nick Valentine, shelters dozens of escaped Synths. The structure is in need of some fixing up, but that's fine, plenty of hands wait tools and supplies to help out. On the exterior there is an expanding settlement as well, fit with whoever wants the comfort of the hollowed area below the observatory itself, and the height over the Fog that blankets the island. But not everyone wants to live in that specific setup!

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And this is where the Gulper Island Synth Settlement comes in to play. While Far Harbor has its share of established settlements, some eked out before Levi or anyone else got there, trade routes have been established between them all, almost entirely avoiding the inner areas of the Island, since that is still heavily irradiated and dangerous. Not all of the areas shown here have stable populations, but all are visited by Trinity or other dragon riders from Wakefield. The Island isn't fully under her guidance, so they are careful to fly in safer areas which know about dragons or have been introduced, rather than anywhere they please, since weapons do exist in the hands of a number of local enemy sorts, that would grievously injure dragons and their riders. (Plus the animal life, which pose a serious threat to even moderately sized dragons!) It's also likely that some... errant dragons less inclined to be friendly may turn up here, lurking in the radioactive lakes or crouched on the rugged terrain waiting for the Fog to hide their presence.

An experiment in Synth-Dragon bonding relations is going on, up in the foggy and rather chilling Far Harbor area. Rather than try and put dragons right in the middle of the most prominent spot on the island (that being the observatory at Acadia, where the Synth Refuge sits), the group of settlers that have been arriving from both Commonwealth and on-site rescues that decided to come to Far Harbor are being placed in a location known as Gulper Island. Obviously, the island bore its name thanks to the abundance of those dangerous salamander-like creatures, but now they are only there for hunting.

The structure shown below is the main housing and activity center for the day to day workings at Gulper Island. It is a large greenhouse-inspired place, fit to house quite a few people (up to 80 or more!) in semi-private dorms with the eerie fog view from all of them. The central spot has their water purifiers and some amount of water plants for food, as well as their planters and crops on the edges of this pond. More planters are on the first floor and in nooks, everyone likes to tend their own herb planter or mutfruit tree. One long section of the first floor also houses the upkeep tooling and heavier machinery, this area does have a power supply so there is clean running water fed back into the pond, as well as for showers and drinking.and The second story is mainly the dorms and sundries. The third and most light-allowed floor visible on the top is where all the work is done! Shops and maintenance, scavenging stations, and entertainment are all available. (If Levi knows anything, it's that people need to be properly entertained and set up before any settlements get rolling.)

Below, the 'blue glow' is actually real, but the entire area is secured by those walls as well as several guard and turret emplacements to keep the wildlife from visiting. Only the dragons are able to fly overhead, as no Brotherhood vertibirds have ever made it this far into the area without being smacked out of the sky by said dragons. The building is uniquely made though a little confusing to walk through, since yes, all the walls are see-through grids. The structure is quite nearby the main housing villa, but separated by numerous tall trees and it's easy to forget that it's even there, unless you look from the top of the Villa on a clear night, you can see the glowing grid of the walls...

This well-guarded and incredibly isolated settlement has another component to it: it's half-Virtual. There are a bank of Memory Loungers sitting in a protected spot that allow settlers to venture anywhere their heart desires, and that includes into training simulations for dragon riding. They spend about a quarter of their time, usually one week out of four spread across a few days here and there, in these loungers preparing for the influx of dragons to their site. In these simulations as well, are plans for large defenses and camouflaging equipment, the likes of which resemble banks of StealthBoy tech - only without the weird addictive properties as seen in some of the Mojave's Nightkin. There are a couple oddities in this locale, aside from their virtual-looking structure: both Ghouls and Supermutants, along with some other sentient and friendly versions of other creatures often considered enemies or even food, are actual full time residents of the area. They serve similar purposes to those found in the Commonwealth's settlement and that in the Mojave. Yes they have Gulper-sized memory loungers.

The thing is: they're also Synths, even the deathclaws and nukalurks. With agreements from DiMA and Levi, working with the leadership of the friendlier Supermutant and other crews, providing the Institute with experimental DNA means they can produce nearly any creature in the Institute's labs. Melissa does work a bit on these projects, but has little direct contact unless they need specific downloads from existing Rookery riders. With the production line still running at the Institute, these newer Synths can also actively have 'families', even if they were from the era when Synths were made with flaws rendering them infertile. Child-synths are not common but they're hardly unheard of, and here at least, they are present because their Synth parents wanted children. They will 'grow' as they mature, being given a teen or adult body when they ask for it and are deemed 'ready' emotionally. Not every single person here is a Synth, but everyone is on board with dragon practice!

A good number of the Synths residing here have undergone those appearance modifications, sometimes even gender changes, and in a rare few cases memory wipes and reinstalled personalities - all at their request. For Synths who have been reformatted too many times, this is a touchy subject, but many of them simply no longer want to recall their endless days of toil under the Institute's thumb. They finally have something to look forward to: perhaps one day, a dragon to patrol the Island with!