Vault 31

	For the location in Fallout Shelter, see Fallout Shelter locations.

Vault 31 is a location near Los Angeles in the Fallout TV series.

Background

As part of the Three Vaults, Vault 31 is directly connected to two other Vaults, Vault 32 and Vault 33, forming a tripartite society. Outwardly, this society is divided into three Vaults to serve as a buffer against threats in case one Vault is compromised while still being able to support one another through times of crisis. The residents of the other Vaults are told that Vault 31 is just like them and only differs in having higher-quality resources, education, and food.^[2][3]

In reality, the Three Vaults themselves are the focus of a social experiment entitled "Bud's Buds," devised by pre-War Vault-Tec sales executive Bud Askins. Bud sought to use the three Vaults to breed a population of loyal Vault-Tec employees who would then go on to establish a monopoly over the wastes after everyone on the surface had perished from nuclear war, accomplished by populating Vault 31 with a hand-picked group of junior Vault-Tec executives whom he trained who would then be cryonically frozen in the Vault. In contrast, the other two Vaults were populated with people with traits he found genetically desirable who would live normal lives within the fallout shelters.^[4]

Per Bud's design, when the time came, his junior executives would then be sent out into the other two Vaults to become their overseers and breed with each new generation of residents to create a lineage of "super managers" loyal to Vault-Tec, guiding their post-War society towards Vault-Tec's mission to "inherit the Earth after [wiping] the surface clean."^[4] Bud himself would act as Vault 31's overseer, living well into the post-nuclear era by having his brain preserved in a rudimentary robotic shell described as a "Brain-in-a-Roomba."^[3]

Ostensibly, the three Vaults regularly conduct intermarriage and inter-Vault trade every three years in a ceremony known as the Triennial Trade, but for the "residents" of Vault 31, this is a ruse concocted to provide them with any necessary items and to enable the individuals cryogenically frozen in Vault 31 to join the other Vaults and accomplish Bud's directive without garnering suspicion. By the 2290s, all the overseers of Vaults 32 and 33 have been members of Bud's Buds, including George Yaffe, Betty Pearson, and Hank MacLean. To ensure their placement in the overseer's seat, the populated Vaults often experience crisis situations that the candidate from 31 successfully solves to boost their campaign prospects; this trend is so well-known that both of the Vaults have adopted an electoral slogan celebrating candidates from Vault 31.^[2]

In the TV series

As Norm MacLean and Chet discovered during their investigation into the destruction of the original residents of Vault 32, they were not killed by the raiders Moldaver led when she kidnapped Norm's father Hank in 2296. Instead, a few years before the raiders' invasion, the residents killed themselves upon devolving into warring factions after killing Overseer Ian Jackson and his staff, also taking the time to mark the walls of the Vault in blood with the words "WE KNOW THE TRUTH" and "DEATH TO MANAGEMENT," indicating they had uncovered the existence of "Bud's Buds," though the means by which this occurred are unclear.^[5]

Later, after Betty Pearson is elected as the new Vault 33 overseer in Hank's absence, she arranged for a select number of 33's residents to immigrate to Vault 32, which was cleaned up and all traces of its destruction removed, all done supposedly on the recommendation of the elite residents of Vault 31. After the reassignments went through, Steph Harper, another transplant from Vault 31, became the overseer of Vault 32 and its new residents. Eventually, Norm's suspicions drove him to hijack Betty's overseer access and communicate with the staff in Vault 31, tricking its overseer into thinking he's Betty and that "the mission" had failed. Norm alone entered Vault 31 and met its overseer, the disembodied Bud Askins.^[6]

Avoiding Bud's attempts to stop him, Norm ventured into Vault 31 and uncovered its true nature as a repository of pre-War Vault-Tec executives, including his father and Steph, listening to the Brain-in-a-Roomba's explanation of how "Bud's Buds" were going to reshape the wasteland for the betterment of mankind and of Vault-Tec. In spite of Norm's attempts to escape and warn his fellow Vault dwellers, Bud sealed him inside of the Vault and threatened to let him starve to death unless he took the option of entering his father's cryo-pod.^[7]

Known residents

This list is divided between dwellers who have been reactivated (defrozen and released into other Vaults), and dwellers who are still dormant (cryonically frozen). The overseer is Bud Askins.

Reactivated

Eighteen Vault 31 dwellers were thawed and sent into the neighboring Vaults. Eight are not accounted for.^[1]

Dormant

The Vault held at least 126 preserved executives in the beginning. These include:^[1]

Gallery

A partial manifest of Vault 31 residents

Betty Pearson and Hank MacLean's empty cryo pods

Entrance hallway

Norm and Roomba Bud

References