Master

The Master (born Richard Moreau and also known as Richard Grey) is the horribly mutated brain behind the Mutant Army that roamed California in 2161. He was worshiped by the Children of the Cathedral and served as the primary antagonist throughout the game. He is eventually defeated by the Vault Dweller.

At times, the Master was referred to as the "Dark God," especially by those opposed to the Children of the Cathedral. By his Children, he was referred to as the "New God," "the Holy Flame," and "Father Hope." A hideous FEV-mutated creature that has somehow hybridized with not only other human mutants, but also computers, turning him into a rather strange monster who speaks in multiple voices. Apart from his appearance, one of his most notable features is his unique way of speaking. His voice is computer-generated and sentences are composed, apparently in real-time, from samples of several people's speech.

Origins
Richard Moreau was a resident of Vault 8, later known as Vault City, where he worked as a doctor. In 2092, he was exiled from the city for murder, although the circumstances surrounding the murder are unknown. He changed his name to "Richard Grey" and headed south, eventually settling in the Hub, where he met Harold, a prominent trader. Following ever increasing attacks on Harold's caravans by mutated creatures, the pair teamed up on May 22, 2102, and led a team of scientists who mounted an expedition to the northwest to investigate the source of the mutated animals, which were attacking the survivors of the nuclear war. On June 23, 2102, Grey and his party stumbled upon the Mariposa Military Base, in which the U.S. government had been mass producing and experimenting with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV).

With the exception of Grey, Harold, and Mark, the party was cut down by the mutated creatures and the base's internal defense systems. Grey and Harold made it to the central core, a room full of vats. Grey was plunged into a vat of FEV by a robotic arm. Floating in the vats for almost a month, the FEV transformed Grey into the amorphous, blob-like being that would eventually become known as the Master. This entity expanded its biological mass by absorbing other creatures and people that came near the base, and bionically merging itself with computer equipment from the base. The ones he consumed also became part of his multiple personalities. It also began capturing humans that stumbled upon its lair, and intentionally exposing them to the FEV. These initial mutated humans were incredibly flawed, and the newly named Master consumed them rather than letting them live.

As he began to feel stronger and more capable than ever before, he came up with the idea to "unify" the wasteland, to make it as perfect as he believed himself to be. In January of 2103, the Master perfected his method of infecting, or "dipping" humans, and began creating the super mutants, who followed the Master's every command. Unfortunately for him, as he began to dip others in the vats he found the resulting creatures were not like himself: most often, they mutated into brutish soldiers, losing much of their brain function. It became apparent that only those with low total radiation count would not suffer this fate.

In 2130, the Great Winter occured, causing a scarcity of human subjects for dipping, making it difficult to expand his army further. From 2131 to 2135, the Master started to abduct caravans for human subjects. Most of the caravan disappearances are blamed on desert monsters, steering away suspicion. Starting in 2137, the Master began to mass produce super mutants with 1 in 6 being successful super mutants. Only half of these successful super mutants became soldiers of the Unity.

The Cathedral
In 2152, as the influence of the Master's army began to spread throughout the wastes, the Master came into contact with a group of human Doomsday cultists, led by a man named Morpheus. Realizing the benefits of retaining unaltered humans in his service to act as spies throughout the region, the Master recruited Morpheus's cult into his service, thereby expanding his power.

In 2155, the Master discovered the location of an unnumbered experimental Vault-Tec vault prototype, located just south of the center of the ruins of Los Angeles, California, now called the Boneyard. Seeing great opportunity there, the Master relocated to the vault with his human cult followers and a portion of his ever-growing super mutant army, and oversaw the building of a large cathedral on the surface above the vault the following year. The cult became known as the Children of the Cathedral, and continued to be led by Morpheus, who reported directly to the Master. The cathedral was guarded by the nightkin, which were super mutant elite troops equipped with Stealth Boy technology.

While the Children appeared to be a fervent religious order - and, in fact, some of the low ranking members may not even have been privy to the more sinister reason behind the cult's existence - in reality, the Children and Morpheus were simply a front that the Master uses to advance his plan for the future of mankind: "The Unity."

In 2162, a human from Vault 13 known as the Vault Dweller destroyed the mutant army by defeating the Master and destroying the Cathedral, and then later causing an explosion in the FEV vats at Mariposa.

The Unity
The Master is the creator and leader of the super mutants. He is also the mastermind behind a movement called "The Unity," the aim of which is to turn every human into a super mutant by means of the FEV, by force if necessary. He claims that those who cannot be mutated by the virus, as well as those that choose not to, will be allowed to live -- provided they submit themselves to sterilization. Those that resist the Unity outright will be executed for trying to stand in the way of the Master's "progress." In theory, the Unity is for humanity's own good, as super mutants are better adapted to live in a post-nuclear wasteland. Also, according to the Master, turning all living beings into one single race would finally eliminate the differences and the human fallacies that ultimately brought about nuclear war.

However, the Master's plan is odd as all super mutants are sterile. The Vault Dweller can help Vree, a scientist of the Brotherhood of Steel, come to this conclusion, and later use this information to convince the Master that his endeavor has no chance of success. Or if they decide to join the Unity, the ending will show the Vault Dweller being turned into a super mutant, then show the Vault 13 residents being killed by the super mutants. This ending is non-canon however, as it would undo and prevent the events of Fallout 2.

The Master's Destruction
One of the main objectives in Fallout is to destroy the Master. The Vault Dweller has three options to choose from. They can either kill the Master through combat (an extremely difficult task), convince him to abandon his plan (in which case the Master commits suicide), or bypass the Master entirely by manually setting off a nuclear device, located on the fourth floor of the vault in which the Master lives. If the dweller encounters the Master, he also has the option of joining forces with the Master instead, giving a non-canonical ending.

Unless the Vault Dweller joins the Master, the end result remains the same. The Master's death would trigger the nuclear device anyway, resulting in the destruction of the Cathedral.

Returning to the Cathedral after the Nuclear Device is detonated, the Vault Dweller simply sees a gaping black crater.

Legacy
Several mutants led the armies after the fall of the Master. Remnants of the Master's army, such as those led by Tabitha, were found to relocate to inhospitable regions such as Black Mountain. However, despite their lacking numbers and remote locale, they were still found to pose a threat to the populace of the Mojave Wasteland due to frequent and brutal attacks carried out against travelers.

In his attempt to become master of all humanity, the Master tried to create guardians through gene splicing, but was stopped by the Vault Dweller before he could complete his plans. However, some of his creations have outlived him and continue to roam the wasteland. These abominations include centaurs and floaters, which are often found together as though they feel some sort of kinship for one another.

The Master's Powers and Abilities
The Master has extremely powerful psionic abilities, able to project extremely vivid hallucinations that easily break the mind of any enemy without some form of mental protection. Besides his psionic abilities, the Master also has a genius-level intellect and incredible natural charisma, having rallied an army of sycophantically devoted human and super-mutant followers around him. He has mastered genetic engineering through his experiments with the Forced Evolutionary Virus.

The Master is also hard to kill in combat without specializing in such, due to the Master's bio-electrical integration with the Cathedral Vault's Overseer Chair, giving him access to its twin gatling lasers, providing the Master with considerable firepower, though the real danger in the fight comes from the repeatedly spawning super mutants.

If, on the other hand, with the proper equipment, such as a turbo plasma rifle, hardened power armor or Tesla armor, a few stims and high stats in Energy Weapons, Endurance, etc., then the Master is fairly easy to defeat. Aiming for the eyes while going back to cover improves the chances of success.

Because the Master is integrated into the Vault Overseer's chair, he counts as a robotic enemy and is highly vulnerable to pulse grenades (which are a viable way for non-combat oriented characters to still defeat the Master in a straight fight).

The psychic nullifier (which is possibly based on alien technology) can dampen the Master's psychic attacks.

Quests

 * Destroy the Mutant leader: The Master is the mutant leader; as such, he needs to be destroyed.

Death animation

 * Killing the Master will trigger a unique death animation:

Appearances
The Master appears only in Fallout as a talking head. His "male" voices are provided by Jim Cummings, and his "female" voice by Kath Soucie.

However, although he appears only in the first game of the series, the Master is mentioned in most Fallout games (with the exception of Fallout 4).
 * In Fallout 2, it was revealed that he was previously called Richard Moreau and was exiled from Vault City. He is also mentioned by several characters like Marcus, Leanne, Harold and Fung.
 * In Fallout 3, Harold states that he remembers a friend who fell into the FEV vats at Mariposa, but does not explicitly state any names.
 * In Fallout: New Vegas, the Master is frequently mentioned by several characters:
 * Tabitha and Rhonda, the two hosts of Black Mountain Radio.
 * Lily Bowen, Marcus, along with some of his fellow super mutants and nightkin in Jacobstown.
 * Davison, leader of a small band of nightkin in the Mojave Wasteland.
 * Dog and God, Dean Domino and Elijah reference him in the Sierra Madre.
 * Klamath Bob also mentions that Mean Sonofabitch is from the Master's Army.
 * The Lonesome Drifter mentions the Master and the Unity in his song Home on the Wastes.
 * In Fallout Tactics, Toccomatta mentions his name before dying in Osceolla and Latham references him in one of his holodisks also in Osceolla. He is also mentioned by Joe Grimm in a special encounter.
 * In Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Attis references him during one of his dialogues in the Secret Vault.
 * In the Project V13 web-page introduction, the phrase "The Master Lives" is scratched into the desk.

Behind the scenes
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 * The Master was going to be the main antagonist in the canceled Fallout movie. He would have taken the place of the Lieutenant, torturing the Vault Dweller, leading the attack on Vault 13, and killing the Overseer personally. In the end he was killed by the Vault Dweller, as he attempts to infect Max with the Forced Evolutionary Virus.
 * In Fallout 2, the Master's true name is revealed to be Richard Moreau. This is possibly a nod to the 1896 novel "The Island of Doctor Moreau"; a science fiction novel about a scientist who conducts bizarre and cruel experiments on animals he has imported in an attempt to create sentient beings out of them.