Children of the Cathedral

The Children of the Cathedral (commonly abbreviated CoC) were a widespread religious cult that the Master established as a cover for his activities and to spread his philosophy.

Official
Publically, the Children were a post-doomsday cult that preached peace and unity. They worshipped the Holy Flame that destroyed all the world's evil (the nuclear fire that destroyed civilization in the Great War) and talked of their Master who would lead them to a better existence. Children doctrine stated that human beings were flawed and needed to be purified by the trials of war to become something more. Devout Children spoke of "peace forged by war and hardship". The Children of the Cathedral would seem to be evangelical and eager for converts based on their involvement throughout the wastes, but many representatives of the CoC encountered by the Vault Dweller are reluctant to discuss their faith.

The Hidden Face
The Children of the Cathedral was more than a creepy but altruistic cult. The entire religion was elaborated by the Master to cultivate a pool of normal human operatives in the wastes and to prepare the world for his coming. In 2151 Morpheus, a leader of a doomsday cult and a former members of the Rippers, a familiar gang of inbreds, was found by the Master's spies, and pledged his followers to him, forming the future core of the Children. Every person the CoC converted to their faith was one more person who could willingly be dipped in FEV. The CoC doctrine largely echoed the Master's own thoughts on humanity, specifically in mankind's inadequacy to live in civilization and the urgent need for drastic evolution. All Children eagerly awaited their chance to be baptised in the great baptismal font to the north--the vats of FEV in the Military Base.

The Cathedral was defended by nightkin, elite super mutants equipped with Stealth Boys to make them semi-invisible. Underneath the Cathedral was the seat of the Master's power: the Los Angeles Vault. A vault with no number, the LA vault was meant to serve as a demonstration of the Vault technology by the Vault-Tec company. It was used during the war but evacuated soon after, leading to the formation of Adytum and the other Boneyard communities. The Master eventually discovered the abandoned Vault and moved in. From there, he plotted his grand scheme for the evolution of humanity through FEV until the Vault Dweller destroyed him in 2162. With the loss of the Cathedral, the Master and the Military Base (also destroyed that same year by the Vault Dweller), the Children disbanded.

Hierarchy
The Children of the Cathedral were led by a man called Morpheus, who was one of the first men converted by the Master to his ideology. A devout, intelligent and loyal man, Morpheus was tasked with overseeing the Children's operations and ensuring the indoctrination. He answered directly to Richard Moreau.

Lower ranking members of the higher echelons of the Children, called Elders, included Lasher, who disciplined the members of the cult and Jain, who was the head of field operations of the Children in Hub.

Locations
In order to The Children ran a number of hospitals in various places around the wastes. The largest was in the Water Merchants' section of the Hub where young children handed out flowers to visitors and free medical care was availible to anyone who was wounded. Jain, an important Child of the Cathedral, resided in the Children's Hub hospital.

The Children also maintained a small, ragged clinic in the ghoul city of Necropolis where two Children provided medicine in exchange for money until they were forced to leave when the Vault Dweller eliminated the super mutant garrison at the water shed. Finally, in Junktown, a doctor from the Children would move into one of the buildings after 80 days from the start of the game.

The main Children of the Cathedral operation, though, was in the actual Cathedral. Located somewhere in the Boneyard, the ruins of Los Angeles and a few miles south of Adytum, the Cathedral was home to High Priest Lasher, a sadistic priest, and High Priest Morpheus, the human leader of the Children. According to Morpheus, there were thirteen such High Priests in charge of delivering the Master's gospel to the Children. Dozens if not hundreds of worshippers could be found in and around the Cathedral, either on some pilgrimage or just preaching the word of the Holy Flame.

Appearances in games
The Children only appeared in Fallout and were destroyed and disbanded over the course of that game's events. They have not appeared in any other Fallout game to date and are unlikely to.

Reference to Mormonism
The abbreviation used in the game for the Children of the Cathedral, CoC, is identical to that used by the Community of Christ, a real-world sect of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.