The Super Mutants are a fairly well-known species from Fallout. The large number of them in the Wasteland is mainly due to a creature known by the ominous name “The Master.”
Who is the Master? Long before he became known by this name in the Wasteland, a man named Richard Moreau lived in Vault 8 during the Great War in 2077. This way, he survived the destruction that caused chaos on the surface.
However, in 2092, he was thrown out of the safe bunker as he was suspected of murder – what exactly happened in the Vault at that time is not known. Moreau had to go to the surface and headed south. He took on a new name and called himself Richard Grey – among other things, to start a new life.
In the so-called “Hub,” a place where many traders met, he met Harold. This trader had spent the war in Vault 29 and shared some experiences with Richard. The two teamed up and, along with a few others, headed towards the Mariposa military base.
The reason: Not only were there many criminals and robots lurking there, but also mutated creatures. The goal of the expedition was to find the root of the mutation. However, things went wrong, and something similar happened to Richard as occurred to the Joker from Batman.
A Abomination is Born
What happened at the military base? Upon arrival, the group encountered resistance. Robots and mutated beings killed most of the explorers. Harold managed to escape, but Richard was not so lucky: He was pushed by a crane into a tank full of FEV.
FEV stands for “Forced Evolutionary Virus” and is a substance that alters DNA and causes mutation. Just like the Joker, Richard fell into the toxic sludge. Instead of drowning or dissolving in it, he managed to get out of the tank and crawled in pain to the control room of the base.
There, Richard’s mind and body changed. His skin turned green and cracked, and after a while, the pain subsided. Richard became a new, mutated being that fed for a long time on small animals like rats. He did this by merging with them and literally absorbing them.
In this way, the being grew stronger and became significantly more intelligent than Richard had ever been as a human. He, “the Master,” even believed he could feel his own brain and began to grapple with profound philosophical questions. Thus, his will to create a great unity in the Wasteland was born.
The Dream of His Own Army
What did the Master want to achieve? His claim was to achieve harmony and cohesion. He began this endeavor by conducting experiments on rats. Instead of simply consuming them, he also immersed them in FEV and let them mutate.
The results were, however, sobering, which is why the Master had to look for better “test subjects.” The few humans who came to the military base were the first choice, but even these experiments were not particularly successful.
Meanwhile, the Master was able to connect his own nervous system with the computers in the base and became even more intelligent – similar to Mr. House from Fallout. He understood that it only took a small amount of the virus to breed effective mutants.
The result of further attempts with humans was eventually the super mutants, who had intelligence. Such beings had already emerged in the Wasteland before. The smartest specimen among them was a mutant simply dubbed “Lieutenant.” He became the leader of the small but steadily growing army of the Master. The super mutants left the base to abduct more humans. However, the conversion success rate was only 15-20%.
Eventually, the Master came to a decision: he wanted to leave the base and move to a safe place. At the same time, he founded his own movement, aided by a cult.
The Children of the Cathedral
Where did the Master find his new home? South of Los Angeles, he found a Vault that served as a new base. The Master also gathered a cult around himself who called themselves the “Children of the Cathedral.” They served the Master as spies, without becoming victims of his experiments themselves.
The Master himself withdrew into the Vault. There was a lot of information about other bunkers and thus data on the locations of humans who would be suitable for the conversions. These specimens that had so far been spared from radiation became very intelligent super mutants who called themselves “Night People” and mostly operated in secrecy. They were in direct contact with the Master and received instructions through his telepathic powers.
Gradually, the “Unity,” the Master’s movement, grew and became known in the Wasteland. The streak of success could have continued indefinitely, and the influence of the Unity could have grown increasingly. However, the god-like behavior of the Master came to a sudden end when in 2162 a Vault dweller appeared. This individual was the player character from Fallout 1, who left the Vault to retrieve a water chip.
The Vault dweller invaded the Cathedral and destroyed it in a massive explosion, of which the Master himself also fell victim. Thus, he died, and his movement fragmented without his leadership. The super mutants that the Master had created continued to wander through the Wasteland. A variant of these mutated beings is considered particularly dangerous: Today, a giant meatball wanders through the world of Fallout, which was supposed to be the better version of Captain America.
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