Catherine (Fallout 3)

Catherine was a resident of Washington, DC in 2258. She was the wife of James and mother of the child later known to Capital Wasteland residents as the Lone Wanderer. Catherine was a scientist on Project Purity. She was apparently quite religious, as her favorite quote was Revelation 21:6.

Background
In the mid--2250's, as a member of the science team involved in Project Purity, Catherine befriended and fell in love with the project lead James. In late 2257, the two lovers conceived a child. Nine months later, on July 13, 2258, Catherine gave birth to a child. After seeing her child, Catherine suffered from cardiac arrest and, despite attempts at saving her life by James, she apparently died. Her death affected James deeply who abandoned Project Purity soon after and traveled with his child to Vault 101.

Catherine was given the opportunity to see what her child would look like when fully grown. If the player character's gender was male, she described the adult version of him as "strapping", and if female, Catherine described her as "beautiful".

Relationships
She is the mother to the Lone Wanderer and late wife of James.

Appearances
Catherine died in the prologue of the game. She appeared during a cutscene that showed the player character's birth, but the player only saw her legs and could hear her voice. A holotape recording of James flirting with her called "Better Days" could be located in the Jefferson Memorial's lower levels. It is implied through genetics that the Player's eye and hair color are inherited from her, as James' do not change in relation to the player.

In Point Lookout, while you're high on the punga, you will find one of the many giant bobbleheads on a medical examination table with a skeleton marked "Mom", balloons, and a party hat. Activating the bobblehead will say "Blech. If my kid looked like that, I’d abandon it too." It's your mother, Catherine, reflecting the lack of maternal presence in the Lone Wanderer's life. Furthermore, the last bobblehead in the vision says, "Dead mother, life in a post-nuclear Wasteland and not a friend in it. Yeah,you aren't exactly blessed." reflecting the Lone Wanderer's sense of loneliness in the Wasteland; whilst not alone, the Lone Wanderer doesn't feel truly understood and that the only people who could have understood, James and Catherine, are both dead, dooming the character to be eternally lonely.

One may note, that during the Lone Wanderer's birth, when he/she looks to the right, he/she can see Catherines legs, and they are white, thought this could be answered by how the babys vision is only set to grey (natural for a new born baby) if Cathrine was African/American, her legs would surely be a darker shade, rather then the same colour as James or Dr. Li.

Behind the scenes
Using the console commands (tfc and teofis), the player could see that Catherine's character model was, an older African American with a "No Nonsense" hairstyle, and James was Caucasian with a "Smooth Wave" hairstyle, regardless of what race or tone is used. If the player enters the console command tfc without going into third person view first, they could get a good look at Catherine up close just as the first cutscene ends. However, the aspect of her being African-American is likely to get an improved color contrast in the scene, which has heavy image space modification, and is of dubious canonicity.

Gallery
Кэтрин