Aries

Calvin van Lowe, better known as Aries, is an employee of the Blue Ridge Caravan Company at Big Bend Tunnel in 2104. Before changing his identity to Aries and finding Blue Ridge, van Lowe was a cryptid hunter, inventor, and engineer working for the Bysshe Company before the Great War.

Background
A psychological evaluation described van Lowe as having extremely high mental acuity and cognitive skills. However, he was also described as having a dissociative view of the social world and an inability to associate context with stimuli.

Prior to being hired by the Bysshe Company, van Lowe was a member of the Truth Seekers with his friends Scott "Scoot" Conroy and Ray Gary. The Truth Seekers were a group devoted to hunting cryptids spotted in West Virginia but split up when van Lowe began attending Vault-Tec University in August 2072.

Despite knowing deep down that the Sheepsquatch was not real, van Lowe was unable to shake his obsession. Following his graduation from Vault-Tec University, he was hired by the Bysshe Company who looked to exploit this obsession for their own gain and given the code name "Blacksheep." The Bysshe Company organized for van Lowe to move home to Lewisburg to continue his Sheepsquatch-hunting exploits. Living with his sister Shelley in the family home was intended to be a temporary arrangement, but Bysshe invested in building van Lowe a secret basement lab while they were meant to be finding a property of his own. The Bysshe Company also provided him with two Assaultron units to undertake his work. His first attempt was a failure but he did not respond well to Bysshe's attempts to accelerate the process with threats.

At some point, Calvin received one of the "Vigilant Citizen's notes" asking people to distribute a series of discoveries and findings related to the "Treasure of Appalachia." The anonymous sender, in reality Flavia Stabo, recognized Calvin's "less than stellar" reputation, but admired his commitment to finding the truth, no matter what society said.

Just before the Great War, he was presumed killed by a malfunctioning, modified Assaultron unit in his own lab. At the time he was attempting to reprogram the unit with “Sheepsquatch Mating Rituals” but the reprogramming went awry when the unit misinterpreted the word "overwrite" for "override." The Assaultron unit escaped the lab, maiming him in the process. However, Calvin survived the Assaultron's attack and recovered from his injuries, without anyone close knowing his whereabouts.

He was presumed missing by his sister, Shelley, who had no knowledge of the secret basement lab. After the police were too distracted by the beginning of the War to continue investigating Calvin van Lowe's disappearance, Shelley van Lowe posted posters around Appalachia, hoping that someone would be able to bring her some closure with regards to what happened to her brother.

Aries is a possible leader of the caravan leading brahmin through Big Bend Tunnel during the event Riding Shotgun.

Little is known about Aries, even by his employer the Blue Ridge Caravan Company. However he claims to be from "around here" in relation to the Big Bend Tunnel.

He has a dark and eccentric personality, often getting on the nerves of Rudy Fernandez with his cryptic references to violence. He acknowledges the Blue Ridge Caravan Company for playing an essential role in rebuilding Appalachia.

Appearances
Aries appears only in Fallout 76, introduced in the Wastelanders update and expanded upon in the Steel Reign update. Aries was first mentioned in the ''Wild Appalachia update.

Behind the scenes

 * There is a cut NPC intended to be Calvin's corpse in the game files (Editor ID zzz_P01B_Lying_CalvinVanLoweCorpse and Form ID ) named "Colin Van Lowe." There is also a cut key named Colin van Lowe's password.


 * Aries in zodiac astrology is the ram.