Fallout 76: A prequel to the Fallout stories we know?

By now I am sure that any avid RPG gamer has heard the news from Bethesda about Fallout 76. I do not know about the rest of you but this has me truly excited as it has long been speculated that Obsidian may be working on their own Fallout title. Obsidian is, of course, the developers of Fallout: New Vegas, considered by many to be the best title entry in the franchise to date...

Could this be a prequel?

For the true lore aficionados out there, Vault 76 is not a complete mystery to us. We first read about Vault 76 during the events of Fallout 3 in the BOS Citadel on one of the terminals listing all vaults in the DC area. Further, we find out that Vault 76 was one of only seventeen 'control' vaults in which no experiments would be done on the inhabitants. Instead, the control vaults were designed to open at a specific time after the bombs dropped.

In this case, Vault 76 was designed to open 20 years after the bombs dropped. So could this be a prequel? If we go by what we know, and if the vault opens on time, it is reasonable to assume that the vault would have opened before the events of the first fallout game...

What about location?

If you have not seen it yet, here is the trailer that was released...

If the hit song that is playing is any indication, we could be forgiven for thinking that this game takes place in West Virginia. It very well may be but what of it being listed as a DC area vault? Considering the 'The Pitt' DLC in Fallout 3 was in Pittsburg, it is not that hard to imagine any vaults in that area to be considered DC area vaults. By that logic, the West Virginian border is not out of range of the so-called DC area.

We have a date...

During the trailer, we can find a date on what seems to be an old, possibly gen-1, Pip-boy...

We see the date, 21 October 2102, on the Pip-boy which only leads to more questions. The year 2102 is not 20 but 25 years after the bombs dropped, so what may have happened? Why was Reclamation day postponed? These are just some of the fantastic questions we have to look forward to finding the answer to.

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So when are we?

If that date is to be believed, this will be around the time that 'The Master' first discovered and started to experiment with the FEV virus that led to the mutation of the Super Mutants... This date is 8 years before even 'The Institute' was founded so it goes way back in the lore of the Fallout universe. This could mean that we are about to set foot in perhaps the most dangerous Fallout world yet as radiation was still far more abundant at this time.