The Master (Fallout)
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Master is the main antagonist and final boss-like enemy in the original Fallout computer game. It is a mutated creature composed of several other creatures and electronic parts, all apparently melted together. Apart from his appearance, one of his most notable features is his unique way of speaking. His voice is computer-generated and sentences are composed, apparently in real-time, from samples of other people's speech. The Master's "main" voice was provided by voice actor Jim Cummings.
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Origins
The Master was born as Richard Moreau, and was a dweller of Vault 8, later known as Vault City, where he worked as a doctor. In 2092 he was exiled from the city for murder, although the circumstances surrounding the murder are unknown. He changed his name to Richard Grey and headed south. There he became a leader of a team of scientists who mounted an expedition to to the northwest to investigate the source of mutated animals which were attacking the survivors of the nuclear war. Among them was Harold, who became a good friend of Richard Grey during the course of the expedition. They found an old military base in which the U.S. Government had been mass producing and experimenting on the F.E.V. virus. With the exception of Gray and Harold, the party was cut down by the mutated creatures and the base's internal defense systems. Harold barely escaped, and Gray plummeted into a vat of F.E.V. The F.E.V. transformed Gray into the amorphous, blob-like being that would eventually become known as the Master. This entity expanded its biological mass by absorbing other creatures that came near the base. It also began capturing humans that stumbled upon its lair, and exposed them to the F.E.V. In this way the Master created the Super-mutants, a loyal army of followers for the Master to control.
The Cathedral
The Master resides in a place called Cathedral, located just south of the center of Los Angeles, called the Boneyard in Fallout. The place consists of two parts - a church-like building, built in a shape of cathedral and a Vault, located directly beneath the building.
The Cathedral is guarded by ghost-like creatures called Nightkin (Who are actually Super-mutant elite troops equipped with stealthboy technology). The Cathedral is also home to an apparently religious community of human worshippers called Children of the Cathedral, who also have their church in The Hub. The Children of the Cathedral is run by a individual named Morpheus, who reports directly to the Master. In reality, the Children and Morpheus are a front that the Master uses to advance his plan for the future of mankind, "the Unity".
The Unity
The Master is creator and leader of the Super-mutants. He is also the mastermind behind a movement called "The Unity", the aim of which is to turn every possible intelligent creature into a Super-mutant by means of the Forced Evolutionary Virus (usually called the F.E.V.) and exterminate those who oppose or who cannot be mutated (this category would include the ghouls, another race of mutants which the Super-mutants regard as inferior). Arguably, the Unity is for humanity's own good, as Super-mutants are said to be far more adapted to live in a post-nuclear wasteland. Also, according to the Master, turning all living beings into one single race will finally eliminate the differences and the human fallacies that ultimately brought about the nuclear war.
Information found in the game proves that, alas, this scenario is not realistic because the mutants are all sterile. The protagonist of Fallout, later dubbed the Vault Dweller, can help Vree, a scientist of the Brotherhood of Steel, come to this conclusion and later use this information to convince The Master that his endeavour has no chances of success.
Master's Destruction
One of the main objectives in Fallout is to destroy The Master. The Vault Dweller has three options to choose from. He (or she) can either kill the Master in battle or convince him to abandon his plan, in which case the Master commits suicide. Alternatively, the protagonist can bypass the final confrontation entirely by manually setting off a nuclear device, located in one of the floors of the vault in which the Master lives.
Still, any of the above methods result in exactly the same end for the Cathedral. The death of the Master always triggers the countdown in the nuclear device, so whichever way the Vault Dweller chooses, the Cathedral is always blown up. This event is depicted in a spectacular-looking cut-scene, yet the Vault Dweller is not affected by the blast, provided he or she can escape the building before the blast occurs.
The Master's Powers
The Master has extremely powerful psionic abilities, able to project extremely vivid hallucinations that easily break the mind of any enemies who try to approach him. If the Vault Dweller even gets near the Master without some form of mental protection, he will be severely weakened. Besides his psionic abilities, the Master also has incredible natural charisma, having managed to rally an army of cultishly devoted human and Super-mutant followers around him.
The Master is also the most powerful entity in the game in terms of physical combat. He has apparently integrated his body with the Cathedral Vault's Overseer Chair. This gives him access to the chair's twin laser gatlings, providing the Master with devastating firepower that can rip apart anything except for the Brotherhood of Steel's power armor. The Master is also quite tough, he has 500 hit points, can attack twice per round, and is protected by a constantly respawning supply of Super-mutant bodyguards.
