Stanislaus Braun

Stanislaus Braun was a brilliant Vault-Tec scientist before the war and the creator of the GECK. Amazingly, he is alive 200 years after the Great War, due to an advanced stasis chamber, and he holds James hostage in the Tranquility Lane virtual reality simulation. He is the overseer of Vault 112.

Biography
Dr. Braun is the Director for Vault-Tec's Societal Preservation Program, and notes from other Vaults suggest that he was an outside point of contact for Overseers during the Vault Experiment, either as administrative authority or scientific expert adviser. Though early correspondence showed him taking a larger role in activation and assignment of the Vaults, much of his responsibility has lapsed as he has become more immersed in, and obsessed with, the sole administration of Vault 112's Virtual Reality experiment; an experiment that was, in fact, merely a means for him to indulge his darkest fantasies to his heart's content.

For the past two centuries, Braun has been repeatedly brainwashing, tormenting, and even brutally murdering the other Vault residents in every way he could imagine. This was planned well before the Vault was populated; records on the simulation's fail-safe terminal clearly state that Braun commissioned the Chinese Invasion Failsafe - a means of permanently murdering every other inhabitant of Vault 112 - as part of the Vault's initial resources. When James approaches him for assistance in retrieving the one usable G.E.C.K. in the Capital Wasteland, Braun eagerly traps him in the simulation as a new game for his amusement.

In the current simulation world of pre-war Tranquility Lane, Braun has taken up the identity of a little girl named Betty. In this world, he sends the player on evil quests that range from making a child cry, to killing every resident. Killing the residents is apparently not permanent, as Braun is able to reset the simulation, the residents, and their memories at will to do it all over again.

Previously Braun had been using other simulated worlds such as a "tropical paradise" and a "snow resort", but quickly grew bored with them after exploring all the variables each presented for him to torture his fellow residents; however, he has yet to tire of "Tranquility Lane", as it provides his victims with a false sense of security that makes his predations all the more horrific.

His identity as "Betty" is explained simply as him being bored with his true form--in the simulator he can be anything he wishes to be, and he happens to feel like trying out the form of a young girl. As "Betty," Braun speaks in the perfectly simulated voice of a real little girl but once he is revealed, he tends to alternate between the "Betty" voice and his real voice. Most of the brainwashed residents of Tranquility Lane are unaware of Betty's true nature, though a few are vaguely aware she's important and one child says "she's mean."

It is possible to see the sleeping body of the real Braun in a separate chamber in his office. It cannot be damaged or disabled. Even if the player decides to run the fail-safe and permanently kill the other residents of the Vault, thereby freeing them from his eternal torment, Braun notes that Vault-Tec failsafes prevent him from dying, perhaps forever.

Appearances
Stanislaus Braun appears in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes
The name "Stanislaus Braun" is most likely a composite of Stanisław Ulam (co-creator of the Teller-Ulam nuclear weapon design) and German rocket scientist Werner von Braun. In the 1930s, von Braun was the central figure in Germany's rocket development program, responsible for the design and realization of the Nazi V-2 rocket during World War II. After the war, he and his team of scientist were brought to the United States to work on the US space program. Braun is known as the chief architect of the Saturn V rocket, and is generally regarded as the father of the US space program and the preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th Century. Others have suggested that this name might also be a nod to science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, and German Physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun (who won the Nobel prize in 1909 with Gugleilmo Marconi). Stanislaus Braun stated that he spent his childhood in Kronach, Southern Germany.

Betty: According to a recent interview in 1UP Emil Pagliarulo revealed that Betty was partially inspired by the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life," in which a small, willful child named Anthony (Bill Mumy), who was born with godlike powers, annihilates the entire human race except for the adults in his small Ohio town, whom he keeps as his own personal playthings, tormenting, torturing, and killing them at will. The wish to be called Betty may be a reference to the film "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist", in which the villain changes his name to Betty.

Related quests

 * Tranquility Lane