Vault Dweller

In a general sense, a vault dweller is just someone who lives in one of the Vault-Tec Vaults.

When capitalized, the Vault Dweller is the main character of Fallout, born in Vault 13, famous for defeating the Master and his super mutant army, being exiled from Vault 13, founding the small village of Arroyo and fathering the Village Elder who would be bear a child; the Chosen One. Similar to prophets and messiah figures in Judeo-Christian and Islamic beliefs, the Vault Dweller disappeared in his twilight years and was never seen again.

The quest
The Vault Dweller was sent out by the Vault 13 Overseer on a mission to find a replacement for the Vault's broken water chip. In the course of his adventure, he ended up defeating the mutant threat (by blowing up an abandoned military base overrun by the super mutants and housing massive FEV stockpiles) and assassinating the Master, and the leader of his cult, the Children of the Cathedral's Morpheus.

The exile
In May 2162, the Vault Dweller returned to Vault 13 after defeating the Master and his army and was exiled from the Vault by the Overseer (as it was thought that his contact with the outside world would cause disruption within the vault). He wandered the desert, but never moved far from the mountains that shielded the Vault from the rest of the world. Some other members of the Vault, upon hearing of what happened to him, decided to leave the Vault and join his side, following him soon afterwards. The Vault Dweller eventually found and rejoined this small group of former vault-dwellers. They knew little of the outside world, and would almost certainly have died, had he not been there to assist them. At this time, the Vault Dweller removed his vault suit and never wore it again.

The tribe
Two months later, Vault Dweller headed North, to the great canyons, with a small group of Vault-dwellers and wastelanders and founded the small village of Arroyo. Slowly, he taught them what experience had taught him. And together they learned to thrive. Over time, their ragtag group turned into a tribe. The Vault Dweller fell in love with one of them, named Pat, and they raised a family, like all of their tribespeople. The construction of Arroyo was completed on August 18, 2167.

Initially, they would send scouts back towards the Vault, to help others who thought like themselves, but that slowly came to an end. The Vault Dweller taught the others the skills they would need to survive and grow strong. Hunting, farming and other skills to feed them. Engineering and science to build their homes. Fighting to protect what was theirs.

The Vault Dweller and Pat led the village and the Tribe. The Tribe grew, and grew strong with their help. In 2188, their daughter, who later became the Elder, was born. Eventually, she and the other children became the leaders of the community.

The departure
On January 16, 2208, several years after Pat's death, the Vault Dweller wrote his memoirs. Soon after that, he vanished from Arroyo and was presumed dead. The Vault Dweller left the Vault Suit behind, folded on the bed. Some say the Vault Dweller was taken by the sky spirits, others say that the Vault Dweller felt it was time to move on and leave the Elders to guide Arroyo to its destiny. After the One-Moon (Month) Cycle of mourning for the Vault Dweller ended, activity in Arroyo began to return to normal. Years later, Vault Dweller's grandchild, later called the Chosen One, was born.

The are rumors that after the Vault Dweller left Arroyo, he, despite his age, returned to adventuring. The only place he was spotted so far is the town of Carbon. Here, he helped some of the people to hide from raiders. It is believed that he helped the Initiate who was tracing the remnants of Master's army and some Brotherhood of Steel paladins, to locate them, directing him to Los. The Initiate traded him something from his past: a Vault 13 flask, which somehow ended up stashed in the raider base, Carbon Mill.

Legacy
Besides Arroyo and the Chosen One, the Vault Dweller's deeds lived on to the extent that he was revered by a fair portion of the people in the Wasteland. His statue is prominently displayed in the NCR.

Most notably, he was remembered under two names, the Vault Dweller (used by those who believed or outright knew he came from Vault 13) and The Stranger (used by those who while believing in his greatness, doubt he ever came from a Vault.) Children who heard of the story would often play at finding Vault 13, some of these children even growing into adults obsessed with proving the Vault Dweller's former home existed. For a time, President Tandi would sponsor such adventurers but after many years of failure, stopped seeing such people let alone sponsoring them.

Quotes

 * I always thought of Fallout's story of drawing straws was something the Overseer thought of. "Look, someone has to go outside, and they may die out there, so let's draw straws". Someone, probably not the Overseer since he wouldn't have gone outside no matter what, demanded that EVERYONE draw a straw in order to be truly fair. But to be honest, the vault dwellers were simply terrified of going outside, and terrified people do not always make the wisest decisions. Anyway, when big dumb Larry drew the straw, maybe the Overseer saw a way to rid their limited gene pool of some really bad alleles. - Tim Cain at DAC forum

Appearances in games
The Vault Dweller is the player character in the first Fallout. He does appear in Fallout 2, and is mentioned in every Fallout game to date, including Fallout 3 where he is mentioned in the Citadel of the Brotherhood of Steel, on the Maxson family history terminal located in the Archives as an ally of John Maxson. An elder Vault Dweller also makes a cameo in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, is an unlockable player character and is portrayed as the strongest character in the game despite his advanced age.

The Vault Dweller is also mentioned in Fallout 3, by Butch DeLoria during childhood, during a discussion about what to name their gang. Paul Hannon Jr. suggests the name "Vault Dwellers", to which Butch replies "Who'd wanna go around all day being called a 'Vault Dweller'?" undefined

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