Time for a good conspiracy theory....

Okay, so by now most people have probably heard that in Far Harbor you learn you might be a synth. There's enough proof either way though. But I kind of like the idea that I may be a synth. If you are then that totally changes the story. I'm also going to assume that Dogmeat is a synth dog that Father placed in your path. A random trained unowned dog just seems out of place.

If you are a synth, then all the prewar memories are a lie. For Nora, that's 5 min of home life. For Nate, that's the memory of the battlefield and 5 min of home life. This explains a lot though. Like how a housewife can handle power armor, weapons, and rebuild settlements. For Nate, this applies as well. All indications was that he wasn't high ranking but just a common soldier.

Now what about the "visions" Mama Murphy has? Well, I think Sturgis (he's a synth too) is somehow feeding those to her without knowing it. I don't get the feeling he's a runaway synth but actually placed there to help the survivors reach Sanctuary.

Danse being a synth allows you to get in good with the Brotherhood. My guess is the real Danse came to the Commonwealth but was killed and replaced. Father probably wanted you to see what the Brotherhood was all about and trusting your judgement that you would reject them.

Father wants to make you the leader of the Institute. You're taught how to hunt down synths and trained by a courser. Now, a synth leading the Institute would certainly go a long way to helping synths become more than just a tool. The story seems to naturally push your soft spot for them.

This is just my theory. What's yours?

My pet theory is that Synth you was made after real you was killed early on in the trip, with Dogmeat as a prototype model as a companion. It seems a little too weird that Nate/Nora can perfectly operate high tech weapons and low tech built weapons, and power armor, and all this science stuff without already having that knowledge. Nora, yes, was a lawyer pre war, but lawyers aren't trained to use power armor or laser gatlings or hack terminals. Same with Nate, since infantrymen aren't trained to use power armor or heavy energy weapons. Especially since the timing of leaving Vault 111 is also a little too coincidental with it about to kill you and all.

Now this theory is one I can really get behind, I always questioned how "perfect" everything went for Nate/Nora in fallout I guess it makes more sense with Nate because he has combat experience but even it all seemed so easy.

I love this theory because before Fallout 4 was even announced and people found the concept art of Nate, they assumed he was a synth like Harkness. I remember watching a MrMattyPlays video where he discussed it.

I like it because it gives somewhat more of a better RP experience than being a Pre-War well-preserved ghoul Goody Two Shoes searching for his/her son.

After all, if you chose the BoS ending, you would be the same position as Danse was. A synth who thought he was human, and paid the price. It's sad.

I'm just glad that in Far Harbor they didn't come right out and make you a synth and kinda made it up in the air and down to the player character on what he or she is.

My question for this theory is when did you get switched? Were the Pre-War + Vault memories fabricated? Did they scan your mind, plant what was necessary, then let you loose into the wild?

Overdone wrote:

My question for this theory is when did you get switched? Were the Pre-War + Vault memories fabricated? Did they scan your mind, plant what was necessary, then let you loose into the wild?

Maybe Father knew that if you came out of the cryogenic pod it would kill you or something so he switched you to a synth sometime after the kellogg thing

Overdone wrote:

My question for this theory is when did you get switched? Were the Pre-War + Vault memories fabricated? Did they scan your mind, plant what was necessary, then let you loose into the wild?

If I had to guess, I'd say sometime between the cryogenic systems failing and when the pod actually opened. It seems a little too odd that your pod is the only one that functioned when everyone else had been long dead for some time.

GreyKnight666 wrote:

Overdone wrote:

My question for this theory is when did you get switched? Were the Pre-War + Vault memories fabricated? Did they scan your mind, plant what was necessary, then let you loose into the wild?

If I had to guess, I'd say sometime between the cryogenic systems failing and when the pod actually opened. It seems a little too odd that your pod is the only one that functioned when everyone else had been long dead for some time.

I think the technical lore here is that the institute ended their life support systems, but why would they? What if you and father both didnt work out?

It is honestly up to you the player if your a synth or not.

gav07Gaming wrote:

GreyKnight666 wrote:

Overdone wrote:

My question for this theory is when did you get switched? Were the Pre-War + Vault memories fabricated? Did they scan your mind, plant what was necessary, then let you loose into the wild?

If I had to guess, I'd say sometime between the cryogenic systems failing and when the pod actually opened. It seems a little too odd that your pod is the only one that functioned when everyone else had been long dead for some time.

I think the technical lore here is that the institute ended their life support systems, but why would they? What if you and father both didnt work out?

I think the prewar memories were faked and the real you died in the Vault when your baby was taken. Your body was taken and a double created.

xencosti wrote:

gav07Gaming wrote:

GreyKnight666 wrote:

Overdone wrote:

My question for this theory is when did you get switched? Were the Pre-War + Vault memories fabricated? Did they scan your mind, plant what was necessary, then let you loose into the wild?

If I had to guess, I'd say sometime between the cryogenic systems failing and when the pod actually opened. It seems a little too odd that your pod is the only one that functioned when everyone else had been long dead for some time.

I think the technical lore here is that the institute ended their life support systems, but why would they? What if you and father both didnt work out?

I think the prewar memories were faked and the real you died in the Vault when your baby was taken. Your body was taken and a double created.

Wait do you think the prewar memories were faked or just uploaded into a synth body of yourself?

gav07Gaming wrote:

xencosti wrote:

gav07Gaming wrote:

GreyKnight666 wrote:

Overdone wrote:

My question for this theory is when did you get switched? Were the Pre-War + Vault memories fabricated? Did they scan your mind, plant what was necessary, then let you loose into the wild?

If I had to guess, I'd say sometime between the cryogenic systems failing and when the pod actually opened. It seems a little too odd that your pod is the only one that functioned when everyone else had been long dead for some time.

I think the technical lore here is that the institute ended their life support systems, but why would they? What if you and father both didnt work out?

I think the prewar memories were faked and the real you died in the Vault when your baby was taken. Your body was taken and a double created.

Wait do you think the prewar memories were faked or just uploaded into a synth body of yourself?

Faked. I think the only way to transfer memories from meatbag to meatbag would be with implants like Kelloggs. Plus the earliest memory line with Dima is the war, which strikes me as suspicious since a kid and life and family.

I personally don't think you're a synth. Wouldn't Father have told you so that you would stay in the institute?

erictuong wrote:

I personally don't think you're a synth. Wouldn't Father have told you so that you would stay in the institute?

Doubtful. Nothing he said was ever a lie in the literal sense. Lies by omission, sure, but not a bald lie. Doesn't serve his ends either, since then you wouldn't trust him if you found out.

I'd say that our player character is not a synth in all honest. Just simple memory locked away by memory loss due to years of being frozen up or simply left out for us as the player to decide other parts of the backstory for our own sake, debatable though.

But the reason I'd say our character isn't a synth is because of the mission where we hack into the institute with the Brotherhood and get information on every synth. Danse came up, a pretty important synth I'd say, so why didn't our character? If Danse is mission critical on keeping tabs on the Brotherhood, they wouldn't have him in some list easily hacked. Which leads me to believe that our player character would be on the same list.

This could be debated though as many points are, but this is my own thoughts about it lads.

Personally, I don't think the player character is a Synth. If the Sole Survivor's pre-war memories are fabricated, then why can we find the speech memo referencing Nate at Fraternal Post 115? The Institute didn't begin production of Gen Three synths until just before the Survivor arrives on the scene, so that rules him out as a Synth Pre-war.

Pretty sure DiMA's line is more to make the character want to sympathize with the denizens of Acadia.

@IIHawkerII the Institute started production of Gen Three synths decades before, as Harkness from FO3 is one in 2277 and the Broken Mask incident happened in 2229. Fallout 4 is set in 2287.

As for the Fraternal Post 115 speech memo, the Institute could've easily planted it there as they do pretty much everything else.

As for the theory, I really do think this is plausible. This theory combined with the theory that the Institute has cameras inside the mannequins really does make sense. Reasons why it may be true:
- The SS has their hand held pretty much throughout the story by synths, Nick Valentine, Danse, Sturges, Glory and X6-88, probably keeping a close eye on the Institute's most successful project, you.
- The Institute has cameras outside Concord, Vault 111 and pretty much every location the SS visits in the story.
- X6-88 in Kellogg's memories references synth Shaun as "Shaun", when he references every other synth by their
designation numbers. Meaning this cannot be Synth Shaun.
- Father lured you to kill Kellogg by making him babysit so called Synth Shaun, otherwise the SS would've not found Kellogg.
- Father says himself he never liked Kellogg.
- Kellogg asks himself if "the old man" outsmarted him in the end.
- The SS cannot spare Kellogg.
- Father let his only parent out of the Vault, knowing he/she could die. That doesn't seem completely true.
- The meeting with DiMa in Far Harbor.
- The Institute never created a "true" human. Their synths don't need sleep, food, water. The SS is their legacy. The SS is proof that the Institute created a real human, their greatest project.

In my opinion, the SS could be a Synth, but it's up to interpretation and who you want to roleplay as. The SS is pretty much a tool by the Institute to clear up loose ends and become Father after his death, but that can backfire. The SS can be a slave in the Institute ending, or the abolisher of slavery in every other ending, even the BoS ending.

i don't think so. i mean the institute would never allow a synth to be the leader of the insttitute.
and you are the leader even though bethesda does a lousy job showing that

....No.

"I'm going to make a synth and have it think it's my father, and I'll use it to crush my enemies and eventually take over. But first I must deceive him into believing his son was kidnapped by my group because expediency." Like, there's a million and one holes with that. But just for starters...

*No dialogue in the game beyond three lines in a DLC to support it
*Destroys the entire motivation of Father as viewing Synths as slaves and nothing more (beyond the glaring plothole if you save Shaun and him having some weird death bed change of heart about a singular synth)
*Helluva gamble, why no failsafe if your project should decide to go to war with you if they decide to side with the brotherhood? Every other synth has a failsafe, why wouldn't Father put one in the thing that could potentially kill him?

No twist here folks, just lazy writing.