The Dead Lands

The Dead Lands is the collective name given to the five cities that were hit particularly badly in the Great War. The ruins of Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach created the desolate wasteland that the wastelanders of the Virginia Wasteland fear. The area is extremely irradiated, with those who dare to go in rarely coming back out.

Norfolk (City)
Norfolk was one of the first to be hit during the Great War, and is the safest section of the Dead Lands. This is the first place that travelers and caravans typically go into, if ever. Despite being the safest part, however, Norfolk is far from safe. Most of the city is overrun by deathclaws, feral ghouls, radroaches, molerats, and other mutants who lurk in the city streets. Despite the creatures, however, a few factions have created residence inside it.

Norfolk Point
Norfolk Point was bustling with panic when the Great War occurred. Riots broke out as some tried to sail away in boats, thinking it would spare them from the nuclear apocalypse. The port was destroyed even before the bombs fell, the riots turning one of the few exits of Norfolk into a ruin. Now, mirelurks and feral ghouls wander the port mindlessly.

Norfolk Navy Station
The Norfolk Navy Station is little more than a crater due to a direct nuclear hit during the Great War. The area is extremely irradiated, though the radiation has retreated closer to the crater since the war, making the area around it still irradiated but safer than inside the navy base. Despite the efforts of numerous scavengers, no one has managed to survive inside the navy base for more than a few minutes.

USS Wisconsin
The USS Wisconsin was a museum before the war, meant to show off the battleships made by the U.S. military. However, when the bombs fell the stability of the USS Wisconsin was compromised and broke in half, sinking into the Elizabeth River. Since the Great War, mirelurks made their nest inside the interior of the flooded battleship, barring any access to any scavengers trying to get some of the technology inside. The danger of the mirelurk threat is so great that not even the Newport Raiders or the Navals have been able to defeat the creatures.

Portsmouth (City)
Portsmouth was once a grand city, though due to a direct hit of a nuclear warhead during the Great War, it was razed to the ground. Little is left of Portsmouth beyond the toppled ruins of skyscrapers and buildings that had managed to stand against the wave of fire during the Great War.

Helious' Sanctuary
Helious' Sanctuary is the home to one of the few remaining intelligent deathclaws, Helious. From the ruins of Portsmouth Bank he created his own personal faction, containing the deathclaws he managed to train and communicate with, as well as the humans he took as company, either from Nick Naitel's caravans or just finding them wandering the Dead Lands. From his sanctuary he trades the deathclaw eggs from the females he has control over with Nick Naitel.

Heart of Atom
The Heart of Atom is the name given to the crater of the nuclear strike that hit Eastern Portsmouth. The Children of Atom occupied the area once they found the crater, worshiping it as a holy shrine. From their outpost in the point zero of the blast, they monitor the area and patrol the I-664 and other routes.

Chesapeake (City)
Chesapeake is in the center of the Dead Lands, and is the most irradiated city of them all. It was the last one to be hit when the bombs fell, meaning that all the refugees from Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Suffolk fled there. The refugees started riots as they were not guaranteed their safety, thus turning Chesapeake into the most dangerous city before the bombs even dropped. Once the bombs fell, however, the entire city and the refugees were decimated, the city turned into an extremely irradiated pile of rubble and broken towers. The only creatures brave enough to venture into the area are deathclaws, who mutate further due to the radiation.

Glowing Beach
The Glowing Beach is what is left of what used to be the long stretch of sand called Virginia Beach. When the bombs fell, the city lining the beach was decimated. After the war, however, the beach became extremely irradiated, and the sand is rumored to glow, thus the name. The radioactive ocean nearby floods the beach and city regularly, often taking parts of the ruins into the sea. Every day new mutated sea creatures are washed up on the beach, either dying immediately or crawling further into the Dead Lands to torture anyone who dares to venture inside.

Oceana Naval Station
The Oceana Naval Air Station was subjected to a direct nuclear hit in the Great War, and thus it was utterly destroyed, with little of anything left behind. Despite this, however, scavengers have tried to go inside and get something out of the radioactive ruins, though none ever return.

Suffolk (City)
Suffolk was the second city to be hit in the Dead Lands during the Great War. Two hundred years after the war, Suffolk was flooded by the advance of the Great Dismal Swamp and inhabited by mirelurks. Now, it is so dangerous due to mirelurks and the irradiated water that few go inside.

Smithfield
Smithfield was a town in Northern Suffolk, and years later it was taken over by the Newport Raiders and turned into the highest populated settlement in the Dead Lands.

Great Dismal Swamp
The Great Dismal Swamp is one of the most dangerous areas in the Dead Lands. Before the war, the wildlife was monitored by the authorities, but after the war the swamp did well without them. The swamp took over new land, spreading into Suffolk and flooding much of the city. The varied wildlife that inhabited the swamp which were previously endangered were mutated heavily after the war, becoming disturbed and terrifying creatures who dwell in the tall grasses and forests of the swamp. The creatures can be compared to those found in Point Lookout and Far Harbor. Yao Guai also developed here, much like their counterparts in other parts of the wasteland. Mirelurks inhabited the area and adapted to the swamp climate and environment. As well as the wildlife, the plants mutated as well. Some merely grew in size and radioactivity, as did many of the plants of the wastes, though others took a deadly twist and grew a taste for the animals that wander the swamp, as well as humans. Many of the trees managed to survive through the radiation, even feeding off of it and creating mutated versions of themselves, becoming taller, twisted and unstable. The Great Dismal Swamp is a maze of tall trees, irradiated water, deadly plants, and even deadlier wildlife. Any who dare to venture inside the Great Dismal Swamp never come back out, dying from either radiation poisoning, or being consumed, by the wildlife or the plants.

Treacherous 13
The Treacherous 13 is the remains of Highway 13, which collapsed into Chesapeake Bay when the bombs fell. Now, the treacherous landscape of the collapsed road has given the name to the highway, and it is one of the few uncontrolled entry points into the Dead Lands. Much of it is flooded, but those who are skilled and carrying a light load and are exceptionally agile can traverse the landscape. Few ever take this path, since not only is it extremely unstable, but it is also inhabited by various mutant sea creatures, mainly mirelurks. Even those manage to make it across are met by a long stretch of super mutant controlled land, which is where most give up hope of going back.

Dead Lands Bridge
The Dead Lands Bridge is the safest way into the Dead Lands, and even then it isn't safe. It is made along the I-64, the road cluttered by burnt out husks of cars. The road is unstable, with tremors frequently shaking off parts of the highway, along with the cars on top of it, dumping both into the irradiated water beneath. Mirelurks nest in hidden alcoves all around the Dead Lands Bridge, waiting for the foolish travelers to walk across before they leap out and surround their prey. It isn't controlled by any faction, which makes it an ideal path for most caravans.

I-664
The I-664 is one of the few paths into the Dead Lands. It is controlled by the Children of Atom, who patrol the highway from their outpost in the Heart of Atom. They refuse entry to any, and are conflicting with the Newport Raiders over access of the bridge.

Highway 17
Highway 17 is one of the few intact roads that lead to the Dead Lands. Compared to the I-664, the Dead Lands Bridge and the Treacherous 13 it is the safest route, though it is also controlled by the Newport Raiders, who kill any who manage to get that far into their territory. The Newport Raiders use it as a crossing point between Newport News and the Dead Lands, which aids them in their conquest of the Virginia Wasteland.