Harold

Harold is a unique denizen of the wasteland. He survived the Great War in a vault and has witnessed many pivotal events and met a multiplicity of influential people throughout his travels across the former United States.

Rising to prominence as a caravan master in the formative years of the Hub, he would meet the future Master, travel to Mariposa Military Base, undergo a change into a ghoul-like mutant through exposure to FEV, lose everything, then become a wasteland traveler. His journey then took him to the town of Gecko, enjoyed a new life for a period of time, but eventually becoming an unwilling deity for the Treeminders in the Capital Wasteland, on the opposite end of the continent of where he began.

Harold is a kind-hearted soul with a comical personality. He made many friends throughout his travels, potentially including the Vault Dweller, the Chosen One, and the Lone Wanderer. He is kind to children and treats his branching appendance with respect. Despite his afflictions, Harold remains light-hearted and will chat with the player character about various past and present wasteland happenings.

Early life
Born in 2072, Harold was only five years old when the war started and he entered Vault 29. He still remembers the sirens on that day and the terrible days that followed, living in an overcrowded Vault with not enough food and water to go around. The reason was that his shelter, Vault 29, was populated with young children separated from their parents, and placed under the care of Diana, a human scientist immortalized by merging her human brain with a supercomputer controlling the Vault and the Nursery, a repository of seeds and genetic records preserved in case of a global thermonuclear war. Diana would control the unrest by periodically releasing young dwellers to scout the surface and report whether it was safe to settle. They never returned, as Diana would take them to the Nursery, where they'd either be able to join her or leave, after being conditioned to be unable to speak of the Nursery or the Vault. Harold was selected by Diana and initially agreed to stay, before escaping. He kept the Nursery a secret, believing it his duty to protect it from those who would exploit it.

He left in 2090, at eighteen, and began to make his fortune as a trader, making the circuit between survivalist communities that emerged throughout New California. Over the next twelve years, he made a tidy profit, rising to prominence in the Hub. However, all things come at a cost and Harold's success ran up a hefty bill due to attacks by gangers, scavengers and mutant creatures that made it necessary to employ entire armies of guards just to keep them at bay. This was all the more apparent to him since he became the head of his own caravan outfit in 2096.

Eventually, he had enough and on May 22, 2102, financed one of the first adventuring parties in New California together with Richard Grey, a mysterious scientist and doctor from the Hub. the expedition set out from the Hub and tracked the mutants to the northwest, deep into the Californian Central Valley. After fighting through what seemed like an endless stream of mutants, they finally reached Mariposa Military Base on June 23. Penetrating the base's defenses proved no small feat and eventually, the entire group was whittled down to just Harold and Richard Grey. Francine was wounded and Mark was sent to the surface, never to be heard from again. The two of them penetrated all the way into the base's central core, where the vats of FEV were located. The expedition was finally routed when the robotic crane crashed into them, sending Grey into a vat of FEV and badly injuring Harold. He passed out, only to wake up in the wasteland days later, in the throes of change due to exposure to FEV, when he handled a contaminated item in the base. The Vault Dweller: "{128}{}{Where were the mutants coming from?}" Harold: "{133}{HROLD10}{Everywhere! Hell, seemed like you couldn't fart without hitting one. But mostly in the northwest.}" The Vault Dweller: "{134}{}{Did you explore that area?}" Harold: "{138}{HROLD11}{We mounted an expedition. God, Richard. Richard Grey. Led a small group of us up there.}" The Vault Dweller: "{139}{}{Richard Grey?}" Harold: "{146}{HROLD14}{Richard Grey was a doctor. Little older than me, and friend was he smart. He found the source.}" The Vault Dweller: "{147}{}{And what was that?}" Harold: "{160}{HROLD18}{Some sort of old military base. We lost a lotta folks getting in there.}" The Vault Dweller: "{161}{}{How did you know this base was the cause?}" Harold: "{165}{HROLD20}{Because it was like someone went bargain shopping at mutantland! Geez! Cheaper by the dozens! Can't figure any other reason except that being the factory.}" The Vault Dweller: "{166}{}{Did you examine the base closely?}" Harold: "{167}{HROLD21}{We got pretty far inside. Wasn't a lot of us left by then. Grey, me and couple of others.}" The Vault Dweller: "{168}{}{And then?}" Harold: "{169}{HROLD22}{One of them robots got Francine. Mark was wounded, sent him back to the surface. Then it was just me and Grey.}" The Vault Dweller: "{170}{}{What ever happened to Mark?}" Harold: "{172}{HROLD23}{To this day, I don't know. He never made it back here, and...well I...couldn't face the wasteland again, so I...I never looked.}" The Vault Dweller: "{173}{}{What about you and Grey?}" "Harold: {174}{HROLD24}{We made it to some sort of central core, like a plant of some sort. That's when it happened.}" The Vault Dweller: "{175}{}{What?}" Harold: "{176}{HROLD25}{A robot crane crashed into us. Last I saw of Grey, he was flying through the air in-into some sort of acid bath. I was in bad shape and...well I passed out.}" The Vault Dweller: "{177}{}{How did you survive?}" Harold: "{181}{HROLD26}{Well, I have no idea. Woke up in the wasteland, barely hanging on. Got lucky and some traders I knew found me days later. Good thing, since I was already changing. They brought me here, and here I've been since.}" The Vault Dweller: "{182}{}{How did you mutate?}" Harold: "{190}{HROLD28}{All's I know, is it was something inside that base.}" The Vault Dweller: "{191}{}{Do you think it could have been radiation?}" Harold: "{193}{HROLD29}{How the hell should I know? Grey would've known if anybody could. [sigh] Anyway, that's how the deal went down.}" (Harold's dialogue) He was found by traders four days later, on June 27, and taken back to the Hub. His horrifying transformation caused him to lose his business, as employees and partners turned away from him. Soon, he was left a beggar, living in a derelict ruin in the Old Town.

The Hub
His resolve and hardiness allowed him to survive despite poverty. By the time he met the Vault Dweller around 2161, he was the oldest person alive in the whole wide Hub, known for his stories and knowledge, not just about days long past, but also contemporary events. For example, he knew how to find the deathclaw suspected of attacking caravans and was aware of the fact that Decker's men captured Brother Jonathan of the Brotherhood of Steel recently, and would happily share that knowledge for a modest amount of bottle caps to keep himself afloat.

Harold left sometime after 2162, having managed to bring a measure of equality between the impoverished population of Hub's Old Town and the rest of the city. He traveled north, accompanied by a sapling (Bob) that took root in his head. By 2238, he arrived in Gecko and noticing that the careless way the power plant was managed, he decided to stick around and do his best to help the ghouls with the running of the facility, becoming the de facto mayor and leader of the local community. He would be one of the key players in the struggle between the ghouls and the bigoted inhabitants of Vault City to solve the Gecko powerplant problem. Afterward, he set out once more. The tree growing out of his head continued to grow larger and bear fruit. Its remarkably tough seeds are able to withstand even the toughest environments and thrive.

Texas
After the destruction of the Master's Army, Harold left the Hub and became a traveler who visited various places around the wasteland. It's known that he traveled in Texas to Carbon where he had a sexual encounter with Carbon's prostitute, Ruby, and the ghoul-city of Los around 2208. He wanted to have a good time in Los after leaving Carbon but the arrival of super mutants and the loss of his hand, his toe, and his eye in the city changed the deal. The Initiate helped Harold to recover his parts so he could leave the city before its destruction. Harold's travels ended in Gecko in 2238.

Leader of Gecko
In 2241, Harold is a very old but still spry-looking ghoul. The Chosen One runs into Harold in Gecko, the ghoul town not far from Vault City. After the destruction of the Necropolis, most of the ghoul population of the town migrated far to the north to form a settlement around an old nuclear power plant built by Poseidon Oil before the Great War.

When Harold arrived, the plant was being run dangerously and ineffectively. Harold quickly took over and fixed the reactor. When the Chosen One arrives in Gecko, Harold asks them to help solve the subsequent powerplant problem.

Nursery
By the 2250s, Harold was ill. The tree in his head developed an unknown disease and was dying. Much to his surprise, Harold found himself affected as well. He didn't think he was going to die, but he just didn't feel right in the head.

So, he set out on a quest for a cure. Naturally, he didn't have an easy time of it either. People just didn't seem to want a mutant around anymore, but Harold didn't let that stop him. He persisted in his quest until he came upon the Twin Mothers tribe, which originated from his home, Vault 29.

Much to his surprise, the tribe took him in and accepted him as he was. He explained his quest to the tribal leaders and was told that they would consult their goddess. Days later, Harold was approached by the tribal shaman and given a potion to drink. It was a foul concoction, but it worked. Bob, the tree, got better and was happy again.

Harold couldn't let such a good deed go unrewarded, so he offered to help the tribe in any way that he could. They smiled at him, and thanked him, but declined his help. "The goddess will provide," they always said. Harold said that he would like to pay his respects to the goddess, and was taken to the tribal shrine to be granted a private audience. He wasn't really surprised when the projected image of a woman appeared before him, but he was taken aback when she told him where he could find her. His return to the Nursery was a moment of joy for Diana and "new experience" to him, as much of his early memories faded with age.

Harold traveled to the Nursery and spent considerable time there. He even considered settling down and spending the remainder of his day in the tranquility of the gardens. Eventually, he left and traveled even further east. If the Prisoner gives Diana the information on the FEV and the New Plague from the Boulder ZAX, Diana will be able to create a cure to the New Plague virus in the form of small fruit, by genetically engineering it from Harold's tree.

Capital Wasteland
Harold's tireless legs eventually carried him all the way to the opposite end of the continent, to the Capital Wasteland. Overwhelmed by Bob, he stopped to rest, only to realize that he was unable to move anymore, rooted to the ground by his companion. He became part of the tree, sustained by its photosynthesis and nutrients taken from the ground. He took root in the northern Capital Wasteland and was found by a wanderer in the late 2250s. This wanderer, later taking the name Birch, beheld the glory of Harold and knew other wanderers would seek to do the Great One harm. He founded the Treeminders, a group of pure-hearted individuals that would protect the Great One as his last line of defense. Once Harold and Bob truly became a part of the environment, a verdant vale of growth spread from the tree, washing the barren hillside over with life and greenery, and enticing animal life to inhabit the area.

With the Treeminders' care and attention, Bob started to take root further; over time, his root system carried away Harold's internal organs far throughout the cave system below, making it plain that short of a merciful death, Harold would remain forever in one spot. Harold used his ability to spread Herbert's seeds to attract wanderers, at first to amuse himself, and then to find a solution to the problem he was in. The key issue was that the purification ceremony necessary for outsiders to gain access to Harold involved drinking hallucinogenic sap derived from Bob, resulting in psychosis and other severe mental problems in most who came to the Oasis.

He kept trying, hoping to attract someone capable of helping him through his ordeal. Finally, in 2277, he managed to attract the Lone Wanderer. Upon their acceptance into the cult, Harold requested that they kill him, to spare him the agony of being rooted in one spot for all eternity. Suffering from depression, he pleaded with the Lone Wanderer to end his life, something the Treeminders could not do. His requests for them to end his life wound up interpreted as tests of their moral and spiritual aptitude, rather than genuine pleas for mercy.

He and Bob genuinely only enjoyed the company of Yew, the youngest of the group, who listened to him without reservation. Others, treating him as a god, always looked for hidden meanings or had their own designs for him. Tree Father Birch and Leaf Mother Laurel held two opposing views of what should happen: Birch wished to contain Bob's spread to protect Oasis and Harold, while Laurel desired to share their god's gift with everyone. One can decide to fulfill Harold's wish and euthanize him or persuade him to live on and either have Bob spread out or be contained.

Mutation
To the untrained eye, Harold appears to be an ordinary ghoul. Ghouls are the result of significant and/or long-term radiation damage to a human body but Harold is a product of the Forced Evolutionary Virus. Unlike most people who are exposed to FEV, Harold did not become a super mutant, but is the result of a unique combination of radiation damage from constant low-level environmental exposure and contact with FEV, resulting in a hybrid type of species. Tim Cain notes that "Harold is special" and explains that he had only minor exposure to the virus, resulting in becoming a different mutant than the Master's subjects. Fallout Bible 5: "27. I disagree with making Harold not a ghoul. During Fallout 1 the name "ghoul" was not yet as widely used as in F2. Harold could have disagreed with calling his mutant kind with such a name (which is not very nice). When you ask him about the ghouls he says: {1102}{hrold302}{Mutants. Doesn't matter what they call themselves.} I think it doesn't necessarily mean that he's not a ghoul. It just means that he doesn't want to be called a 'ghoul'. He says, that the ghouls are mutants, just like him, and it doesn't matter how they call themselves. ''I think the name 'ghouls' was either created for them by the Necropolis ghouls themselves, or by people who considered them monsters. As he looks like a ghoul, i think he would be considered one by both. Ghouls are not like supermutants, they are not all the same. It's only a name for people twisted by radiation or FEV (or both). There may be ghouls created only by radiation, and ghouls created only by FEV.'' I also think, though Harold was mutated in the Vats, that if you say that all the ghouls were created by the FEV, then there isn't much difference between Harold and other ghouls. Chris Taylor wrote: "Actually, a dip in FEV has a chance of modifying Intelligence, but it doesn't always increase it. Some people do gain increased intelligence, a larger majority lose intelligence and most people remain the same. It also depends if people have enough radiation damage to be turned into ghouls or super mutants. If so, then people dipped in the Vats can become ghouls instead of supermutants, if they are radiated. I think that easily matches Harold's case... Fallout 2: {100}{}{You see a particularly leathery-looking Ghoul.} {101}{}{You see Harold.} {102}{}{You see a very old but still spry-looking ghoul.} {172}{}{Put a sock in it ya smelly old ghoul. Goodbye.} Loxley (F1): {244}{LOX_69}{Harold? He's a good enough sort, for being a ghoul an all. Lives on the south side.} As you can see, Harold is called a ghoul in the game. Butch (F1): ''{233}{BUTCH46}{Alright, so it wasn't the Death Claw. But what would the mutants in Old Town want with our caravans? Unless it's some kind of conspiracy.}'' ''As you can see, there are more muties in the Hub Old town, not only Harold (though we don't see them in the game). And they are all called both 'mutants' and 'ghouls'.'' ''I think the point is that you call 'ghouls' only the ones that were exposed to 'wild' FEV in the air and radiation, and not the ones that were screwed-up results of dipping (like Harold and Talius). I think both kinds should be called 'ghouls', because, though they were created with different methods, the result is identical, and they were both result of radiation and FEV (ghouls of Necropolis are radiated people that were exposed to mutated FEV in the air, and Harold and Talius are result of dipping people with radiation damage - think this is what Chris Taylor meant)." "All good points - Tim Cain and Chris Taylor agree with you, and they say Harold's a ghoul. To quote statements within the past week:'' ''Chris Taylor: Ghouls are a type of mutant. Harold is a ghoul. He's also a little special. Super Mutants are humans with no or minimal radiation damage who have been exposed to FEV. Ghouls are humans with significant radiation damage exposed to FEV. Harold is, well, Harold.'' ''Tim Cain: I know we treated him as a ghoul, but not a Necropolis one. He may have been irradiated before or after. All I remember was that he went in there with the guy whose name I forget (the one who fell into the vat and became the Master), and only Harold came out. Harold's memory is totally whacked, btw. ...most people don't know when they get irradiated, so he [Harold] just may not know what happened to him. I do know that radiation and FEV do not mix. Mutants are immune to radiation effects, but an irradiate human is killed by exposure to FEV. So one thing is sure: Harold is not a mix of radiation and FEV. He's got to be one or the other, and I think he's a ghoul.'' According to Chris, ghouls are irradiated humans exposed to FEV. According to Tim, ghouls are due solely to radiation. ''Both agree Harold is special. And I don't mean handicapped.'' ''Officially: Ghouls are a mix of FEV and radiation. Harold is a mutant who resembles a ghoul. Harold may have had some radiation damage before he was exposed to FEV, but his mutation (outside of his surface appearance) makes him different than a ghoul. Most ghouls are the result of extreme radiation + FEV exposure, but Harold's change was due primarily to FEV exposure (again, he could have sucked up a few rads in the wastes without him knowing, especially considering how long he ran caravans in the wastes).'' He is hideously mutated enough so that he looks like a ghoul, but he's not technically one, and this is the mistake that Loxley makes (Loxley only judges a book by its cover, and he knows nothing about genetics or anything beyond a surface appearance). You can call him a ghoul if you want, but the official answer is: ''"Harold is Harold." Harold's special.'' ''BTW, glowing ghouls are ghouls that suck up too many rads after they have become ghouls. We originally wanted Lenny in F2 to be able to turn into a glowing ghoul when he drinks too much radioactive liquor, but we didn't put it in."''

Bob
The tree growing out of, and eventually overwhelming Harold, is named Bob. Bob sprouted from Harold's head sometime after his exposure to FEV at the Mariposa Military Base. In the beginning, Bob was a small sprig but its growth accelerated, turning into a full-sized tree, overtaking Harold, and rooting itself to the ground in the Capital Wasteland region. As of 2277, the two have been rooted to the location for over two decades.

Harold considers Bob his friend and speaks to him as if he was thinking aloud. Harold will sometimes jokingly refer to Bob as Herbert and makes several comments regarding the literal and figurative closeness of their relationship. When the Lone Wanderer approaches Bob and Harold for the first time, Harold will share that he was able to see their approach through the leaves of other trees, and although impressive, makes Bob jealous.

Behind the scenes
"Ghouls are a type of mutant.

Harold is a ghoul. He's also a little special.

Super Mutants are humans with no or minimal radiation damage who have been exposed to FEV.

Ghouls are humans with significant radiation damage exposed to FEV.

Harold is, well, Harold."

- Chris Taylor, Fallout Bible 5

"I know we treated him as a ghoul, but not a Necropolis one. He may have been irradiated before or after. All I remember was that he went in there with the guy whose name I forget (the one who fell into the vat and became the Master), and only Harold came out. Harold's memory is totally whacked, btw.

...most people don't know when they get irradiated, so he [Harold] just may not know what happened to him. I do know that radiation and FEV do not mix. Mutants are immune to radiation effects, but an irradiate human is killed by exposure to FEV. So one thing is sure: Harold is not a mix of radiation and FEV. He's got to be one or the other, and I think he's a ghoul."

- Tim Cain, Fallout Bible 5

Appearances
Harold appears in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and the Fallout: The Board Game add-on Fallout: New California.