Courier

The Courier is the player character and main protagonist in Fallout: New Vegas.

Background
Sometime before the events of Fallout: New Vegas, the New California Republic sacked Navarro and recovered unfamiliar technology but with familiar symbols (such as the Old World flag) which they linked to similar ones in the Divide. It was then that they sent the Courier to deliver a package to the Divide; a package which turned out to be a detonator containing missile launch codes. According to Ulysses, the package "woke up" and sent the detonation signal to missiles locked in the silos, resulting in massive earthquakes and powerful storms.

Some time later, being one of six couriers hired by the Mojave Express to deliver strange packages to the New Vegas Strip, the Courier was carrying the parcel containing the platinum chip from Primm. The Courier got the job after Ulysses pulled out when he learned that the Courier's name was next on the list. The Courier was intercepted by Benny, who then shot the Courier in the head and left them for dead, buried alive in a shallow grave in Goodsprings Cemetery. The Courier was dug out by Victor, a friendly Securitron under Mr. House's control sent to make sure the Chip was delivered. The player was then nursed back to health by Doc Mitchell, the resident doctor of Goodsprings.

Other background information
The player can make several suggestions about his or her past through in-game dialogue options. Since these are, as the name suggests, optional, it can be assumed that these are down to player choice and as such, do not form part of the player's background until they have been selected.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of elements of the character's past which can be explicitly expressed by players during gameplay:
 * During a conversation with Bruce Isaac in Novac, the Courier can state that he/she has been to New Reno before.
 * It can be suggested during dialogue with Veronica Santangelo that the Courier does not know where he/she was born.
 * The Courier can tell Cass that he/she does not know what a fish is. Or, on the contrary: an intelligent Courier may test her knowledge about fish, clearly aware of their nature although they are practically non-existent in California or the Mojave Wasteland and may only be found in Lake Mead or Zion Canyon.
 * Before setting off to New Canaan, the Courier can tell Jed Masterson that he/she has not been to Utah in some time, suggesting that they have been there before. This also explains how the Courier knows the Dead Horses' and the Sorrows' languages, which is itself impled by a Dead Horse scout who remarks upon being spoken with, "You know our tongue - smart owslander."
 * Dialogue choices throughout Honest Hearts heavily imply that the Courier has never heard of Christianity.
 * One of the epilogues of Old World Blues states that the Courier knows very little about communism or high schools, though this is an inference from the X-8 computer system.
 * According to Ulysses, the Courier has been to Circle Junction, New Reno, Vault City, Fort Abandon, and on brahmin drives at the Big Circle.
 * When the ED-E from the Divide plays the log from when a child found it, asking it where that occurred will have ED-E respond with Illinois. The Courier knows about Illinois, but doesn't know about Chicago, responding with "What's a Chicago?"
 * An intelligent Courier has at least passing knowledge of snipers and spotters, as Craig Boone can be recruited by simply noting that snipers are supposed to work in pairs.
 * If the player has the Lady Killer perk he can ask if the Lonesome Drifter is 17, implying the Courier impregnated a woman in Montana around 18 years ago.

After Hoover Dam
It is stated in the endings for Old World Blues, that in the years following the Second Battle of Hoover Dam that the Courier returned to Big MT and watched over it, keeping a close eye over the sciences and goings on of the facility while gradually reintroducing sciences both forgotten and new back into the Wasteland as needed.

Appearances
The Courier appears in Fallout: New Vegas and all of its add-ons, and is mentioned in the graphic novel, All Roads.