Olivia Rivers

"[I]t doesn't matter how many we kill. There will always be more. This is a world of raiders now. People take what they need to survive. What good is heroism on an empty stomach?"

- Olivia, reacting to Clarissa's death

Olivia Rivers was a member of the Order of Mysteries.

Background
Olivia Rivers was the daughter of famous actress Shannon Rivers and noted Appalachian inventor Frederick Rivers. A child of immense talent, she was groomed by her parents and provided with the finest tutors to help bring that talent to fruition. However, the high expectations combined with the stress of Shannon's career - particularly in 2077, as the effort to put the Silver Shroud on the silver screen ramped up - caught up with her. Olivia, a young woman struggling under the responsibility, grew sullen and withdrawn. She felt neglected, with her mother's acting career taking precedence over her needs. The cancellation of their traditional camping trip to Seneca Rocks in June earlier in the year, due to her mother's packed schedule, weighed on her heavily. These trips were the only chance where she and her parents could simply be together, without her having to play the part of the perfect daughter or flawless student. Now all she had to look forward was college.

The Great War put everything in perspective.

The Rivers family survived for months, using their supplies and then foraging from the area, using the Mistress base as a bunker. The routine they established lasted until July 8, 2078, when the family made for Charleston to replenish supplies. On the way back, they were accosted by the nascent raiders. Frederick tried to pay them off with fresh water and now-worthless money. They laughed: They wanted something else. When they put their hands on Olivia, Shannon reacted instantly. Months of constant drilling and exercise with Frederick's hired trainers gave her a tremendous advantage over the attackers. They didn't expect her attack and were laid low in under a minute with no hesitation, several dead.

Olivia was instantly taken by her mother's heroic defense and asked her for training. Although Shannon was hesitant at first, her daughter's insistence and Frederick's calm rationale that the world changed and their daughter needs to defend herself worked. Shannon decided to fight - and pick up the mantle of the Mistress again. A month later, she started to venture out regularly, donning the regalia created by Frederick, comprising a fully functional set of combat gear. The costume disguised her well and allowed her to fall back on her training. Her first major success was when she saved a caravan of refugees near Lewisburg from a raider attack. Shannon wouldn't know what to do. The Mistress did. An added benefit was that the training helped Shannon bond with her daughter.

However, that was a band-aid on a bigger problem. The Mistress couldn't be everywhere or help the countless orphans filling Appalachia. In November 2078, she started taking in orphaned girl, starting with three: Clarissa, Eve, and Amy, found rifling through the garbage in the Rivers' garage. Together, they survived the winter, but the situation only worsened. Olivia was resentful of her mother's stance, as much due to her doubts as to whether they can survive the winter in a larger group, as by the fact that she sent a single boy, Brody Torrance, away. The arbitrary decision was galling to her.

By 2079, caravans passed outside the house constantly, with a few coming up to the manor. Shannon decided to keep taking orphans in, focusing on the most vulnerable: Girls. Together with Olivia and Frederick, they converted the Manor into an orphanage. However, something more was needed.

Order of Mysteries
The Order was born around 2079, as Shannon, Frederick, and Olivia took girls in, gave them food, shelter, and training. They decided to also give them something more, an idea to fight for. The girls would become heroes Appalachia needed. The Order of Mysteries was founded as a sisterhood dedicated to upholding the virtues exemplified by the Mistress of Mystery: courage, cunning, and compassion. Under Headmistress Shannon Rivers, the Order would fight in the shadows to protect themselves, one another, and the people of Appalachia from any threat to their lives or liberty.

The new Order prospered and training intensified over the next several years, with Olivia becoming the finest assassin trained by Shannon by far. When David Thorpe's gang blew up the Charleston dam on Christmas Eve 2082 and flooded the city, nearly wiping the Responders out, the Headmistress decided that the raiders were more of a threat than anyone suspected and decided to focus the Order on extirpating them from the Divide.

After realizing that she couldn't go at it alone, Shannon let the Mistresses she was training take to the field. The training regimen established by Olivia and Frederick, coupled with the secrecy of the organization, allowed the Order to strike hard and fast, then disappear into the shadows. By September 2084, the campaign was in full swing, with Olivia commonly displaying immense talent for combat - and hubris. She regularly went above and beyond the call of duty. In one instance in September alone, she performed a flawless raid against the Garrahan Outpost, then went on to clear four sniper nests, a half-dozen beast dens, and a derelict military bunker before finally returning three days late. She dragged her Initiate, Rachel West, along for the ride to boot, on her first time in the field. Shannon found herself unable to deal with her ornery personality, mirroring her own. For her part, Olivia was sick of having to continue playing the role of good little girl, the perfect, obedient little soldier and role model for the rest of the Order. She didn't mind the Order at first. But after six years, she was sick and tired of her mother's schemes, as well intentioned as they were.

Defection
The campaign continued and the Order had a flawless performance record for nearly three years, until the first death. Clarissa, a Mistress, was found dead on February 7, 2086. Her death had a profound impact on the organization, leading some of the members to question the total secrecy and isolation that the Headmistress mandated. Although an alliance seemed wise, Rivers ruled any such action out to keep the Order invisible. Revealing its existence risked giving away the location of the Riverside Manor and opening the Order to attacks. In the Headmistress' words, "The Mistress of Mystery's greatest strength was always the element of surprise. A lone woman can do anything, because no one expects her to be a threat. If we were exposed, if the raiders knew we existed, they could fight back. They can't fight a shadow." Olivia was particularly shaken, seeking no sense in her death. Just a life, pointlessly lost in service to her mother's perceived madness.

However, soon the Headmistress made a fatal mistake. In May, she appointed a new Mistress of Novices, and rather than choose her own daughter, she selected Eve Devoir. Dependable and organized, she was the perfect fit for the position to handle training and mission assignments. Olivia did not take the decision well, treating it as a slight - an insult - by her very own mother. Denied a position of power, she decided to abandon the Order and join the raiders instead, to join a faction that she believed could make an impact, rather than cower in the shadows. She buried herself in work, taking far more than her share of missions and staying away from the Manor for most of the time. The Headmistress believed it to be an excuse to avoid her, rather than dedication to her work. At any rate, Olivia's missions combined with the success of the Battle of Huntersville by the Responders and the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel suppressed raiders in the mountains. All seemed to be going well.

That was merely the calm before the storm. Olivia was actually using the missions to track the raiders and find an opening into the organization. When she tracked down a checkpoint manned by Brody Torrance, of all people, she knew she found one. She attacked them on June 8, effortlessly taking out everyone but Brody, sparing him, save for a nick to the leg. The two agreed to meet again at a remote cottage at the Whitespring, meeting every couple of weeks. By July 12, they had a plan ready. As Thorpe was dithering, Olivia offered him a token of her trustworthiness: Intel on the location of Allison Long. Although he had difficulty convincing the raider warlord, Thorpe ultimately relented with an ultimatum: He better bring the Mistress' head or be relieved of his own.

Sure enough, on July 24 Allison was killed at Summersville, and by Olivia to boot. As a veteran Mistress on a supply run, she was too much for the raiders to handle, breaking the ambush and nearly killing Brody. Allison intervened to save Torrance and with him, her opening into the organization. Brody brought back her head to Thorpe, while Olivia brought Allison's headless body all the way back to the Manor. To secure the inroads, she traded intel on Order operations to the raiders. The Siphon holotape she recovered from Sugar Grove during the very first mission she ran allowed her to put the entire Cryptos mainframe on a single holotape, which she handed over to the raiders at a meet on September 20, 2086.

The casualties suddenly started mounting. In three years between March 2083 and July 2086, the Order lost three Mistresses. Olivia's intel caused the Order to lose seven in just three months, between July and October. Raiders were waiting for the Mistresses at every mission site, killing them with ease. Shannon ordered Eve to accelerate the training program and automate the promotions, but it was too late. The raiders had the upper hand. With Cryptos and the experience gained in the previous three months, they could ambush the Order in any location they wished. The Headmistress locked down the manor as a last resort, limiting excursions to only the four most senior mistresses: Herself, Eve, Amy, and Olivia.

It didn't help. The data from Cryptos contained all the missions for the next two months, allowing raiders to pick them off one by one. Olivia just watched, waiting. The raiders were preparing for the final battle, rallying at Summersville, but instead of their attack, the death blow came from the least expected direction. Around November 13, the Mistress of Novices and Seeker Rachel West caught up with Olivia's plan. Backed into a corner, Olivia fought back. As the greatest of the Order's assassins, she slaughtered her way through the ranks of the Order - killing even her father, Frederick Rivers - before finally leaving her mother a parting message, inviting her to one last meeting in the Savage Divide, in their special place. After leaving a final message to any survivors, Shannon Rivers buried the bodies and departed for the last meeting with her fallen daughter.

Confronting her atop the Appalachians, the two assassins squared off, fighting each other in an epic battle on November 16. In the end, all of Shannon's training and equipment put her a single step behind her daughter, decades her junior. Although the Headmistress received a mortal wound, she, too, managed to wound her daughter. Her mother passed from her wounds, but Olivia did not enjoy the victory for long. Her raider ally turned on her the moment he realized her state, gunning her down in the Divide, ending the Order. In her last moments, she'd embrace her mother's dead body, the two Mistresses finding a semblance of peace in their final moments.

Appearances
Olivia Rivers appears only in Fallout 76.