Stanislaus Braun

Stanislaus Braun was a brilliant Vault-Tec scientist before the war and the creator of the GECK. Amazingly, he is alive 200 years after the Great War, due to an advanced stasis chamber, and he holds James hostage in Tranquility Lane. He is the overseer of Vault 112.

Biography
Dr. Braun is the Director for Vault-Tec's Societal Preservation Program, and notes from other Vaults suggest that he was an outside point of contact for Overseers during the Vault Experiment, either as administrative authority or scientific expert adviser. Though early correspondence showed him taking a larger role in activation and assignment of the Vaults, much of his responsibility has lapsed as he has become more immersed in, and obsessed with, the sole administration of Vault 112's Virtual Reality experiment.

Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the doctor. Either his existing shrewd nature or his idle centuries in false reality has turned him into a sociopath. Possibly the most disturbing part of the Tranquility Lane story is that Dr. Braun's degeneration is not fully explained, and might simply be an effect of living for such a long time in boredom and near-isolation. At some point, he gave up on the pre-programmed utopias provided in his vault, and began brainwashing, tormenting, and even brutally murdering the other Vault residents after he had realized that his only wish, in his own words, was "to watch people suffer" (repeatedly, as the deaths and other forms of torment were simulated). There have become few limits to his depravity and lack of empathy. When James approaches him for assistance in retrieving the one usable G.E.C.K. in the Capital Wasteland, Braun eagerly traps him in the simulation as a new game for his amusement.

In the current simulation world of pre-war Tranquility Lane, Braun has taken up the identity of a little girl named Betty. In this world, he sends the player on evil quests that range from making a child cry, to killing every resident. Killing the residents is apparently not permanent, as Braun is able to reset the simulation, the residents, and their memories at will to do it all over again.

Previously Braun had been using other simulated worlds such as a "tropical paradise", but quickly grew bored with them as they lacked sufficient variables for him to play with; he never grew bored of "Tranquility Lane" however, as it provided unlimited opportunities to torment people for his amusement.

His identity as "Betty" is explained simply as him being bored with his true form--in the simulator he can be anything he wishes to be, and he happens to feel like trying out the form of a young girl. As "Betty," Braun speaks in the perfectly simulated voice of a real little girl but once he is revealed, he tends to alternate between the "Betty" voice and his real voice. Most of the brainwashed residents of Tranquility Lane are unaware of Betty's true nature, though a few are vaguely aware she's important and one child says "she's mean."

It is possible to see the sleeping body of the real Braun in a separate chamber in his office. It cannot be damaged or disabled. Even if the player decides to kill the other residents of the Vault (through the Chinese Invasion Failsafe), thereby freeing them from his eternal torment, Braun notes that Vault-Tec failsafes prevent him from dying, perhaps forever.

Appearances
Stanislaus Braun appears in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes
Stanislaus Braun's name is most likely a composite of and reference to both Polish mathematician and nuclear-device (Teller-Ulam design) co-creator Stanisław Ulam (or Polish science-fiction writer Stanisław Lem, possibly both) and German rocketeer and scientist Wernher von Braun. Braun stated that he spent his childhood in Kronach (Northern Germany) in the Failsafe Terminal. Braun may or may not be reference to Karl Fitzgerald Braun, also a German physicist. According to a recent interview in 1UP Emil Pagliarulo revealed that Betty was inspired partially by the Billy Mumy character in the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life," in which this little kid with godlike powers terrorizes the inhabitants of a town, and "wishes" them into the cornfield when they're bad.

Related quests

 * Tranquility Lane