The dweller of Vault 77, also feared as the Puppet Man, took shelter in his designated Vault just before the Great War only to discover that he was alone and trapped. Per the parameters of Vault 77's unique experiment, he was isolated with nothing but a government-issue puppet ration.[1] He is the main character of One Man, and a Crate of Puppets, an official promotional comic for Fallout 3 produced by Penny Arcade.
Around 2080 he emerged from his dwelling place and set out wandering the ruins. A friend to the meek folk, the ghouls, and the noble beasts of the wasteland, he alone rose up against the tyrants of the region, and alone he reduced their works to bone and ash.[1] With Vault Boy as his right hand lieutenant, he stood in judgment of the wicked people of the New World.[1] He may have come to control a junk fortress and a supply of water in his lifetime.[2]
Two hundred years later, guilty men speak in hushed tones of a mythical hunter of slavers, and the sight of his number fills their ilk with anxiety and superstition.[3] His legend haunts their oral traditions, as they dread ever more the merciless return of the stranger with no name.[3]
Somewhere in America, a plain, able-bodied man of average build was selected for entry to the local Vault by the Societal Preservation Program. His name and history are lost to time. Shortly before the bombs fell on October 23, 2077, this chosen test subject heeded the instructions of Vault-Tec, and was able to reach his assigned shelter.
At the end of the world, he approached the gaping maw of Vault 77, but nobody came to greet him. The unremarkable man nervously took shelter inside, as the door rolled shut behind him.
The day of the War[]
He called out for the others, and, hearing no response, went to search the Vault for signs of his new neighbors. The strange, barren complex was utterly still, except for him.
In the second hour, he beat his fists against the indifferent Vault door, crying out for it to reopen. "Hey!" he screamed to no-one, "You forgot all the other fucking people!!"
As the bombs fell outside, his pleas filled the chambers of the vacuous bunker, never to be answered.
Isolation and puppet fixation[]
Although the Vault's stockpiles and automated systems made survival effortless, the dweller of Vault 77 endured harrowing depression. For months, he returned to the door to cry. He continued to bang against the hull in a futile display of despair, apparently unable to open it for the time being.
On February 4th, 2079, he opened a crate labelled "P13X U.S. GOVERNMENT ISSUE PUPPET RATION" wherein he discovered hand puppets of a little old woman, a royal king, and a loyal dog. Over the following months, each developed a personality, as he engaged in an extended puppet show to stave off boredom and ease his loneliness.[1]
He came to regard his new neighbors as Grandma, the King, and the good Reverend Hound, local clergyman and sheriff. Later, he heard a voice from inside the crate and discovered a Vault Boy puppet he had originally overlooked.
Implicated in the death of a monarch[]
One day, the lonely man awoke to cries of regicide. The King had been found murdered in a grisly fashion, his head torn from his body. The dweller of Vault 77 called out to the merciful Lord; as before, his cries went unanswered.[1] Losing composure, he roiled in the throes of manic paranoia for some time.[1][4]
The man could not imagine Granny or Reverend Hound to be capable of such a brutal act, leaving the Boy the only possible culprit.[1] Soon thereafter he privately confronted the Boy, who not only confessed to the murder, but accused the man of being complicit.[1]
Knowing it would only be a matter of time before the sheriff-reverend would come for them both, he resolved to flee that very night, with no choice but to work together with the ruthless Machiavellian murderer who had decapitated his master.[1] His initial excursion lasted less than a minute; after opening the Vault door, he encountered a gigantic radscorpion, holding a car in each claw. He re-sealed the Vault and decided to "sleep on it."[1]
Life as a fugitive[]
The man was eventually successful in leaving Vault 77. Having failed to protect the King, he wandered the roads as an unassuming rōnin for some time, developing his abilities.[1] The unforgiving wasteland offered no wild horses to break, so he forged a bond with a giant ant named Mr. Pinch, and rode around on it. He was very optimistic in regards to his journey, and mused to himself that while it was hot out for December, he was never one for snow anyway.[1]
Along his travels, he broke bread with a mysterious one-armed ghoul draped in the tatters of a Vault suit with no identifiable number.[1]
First Puppet Man Incident[]
He was later captured by two slavers. He warned them not to mess with his Vault Boy puppet, as it was crazy and had killed before. One of the men, Bob, contemplated butchering him for food. The unassuming Vault dweller somehow slew Bob, allowing his partner time to flee.
The doomed goon foolishly returned to their headquarters, where he attempted to warn his collaborators, panicked and raving. Before he could communicate his omen, he was interrupted by a sudden, repetitive clanging noise. At this time he cried out that the puppet man had arrived.[1]
But it was too late. With bare hands, save the effigy of Vault Boy's face on his right, the Vault dweller beat each to death. When there were no slavers left to crush, the camp fell quiet, and his rage was quelled.[1] He returned to wandering the ruins, a free man once again.
The fate or location of the dweller of Vault 77 is currently unknown.
Notes[]
The proper noun "Puppet Man" is long-standing fan verbiage; in the comic, he is passingly referred to as "the puppet man" once, and the phrase does not appear elsewhere in official materials. The character has no prescribed proper name.
As the only human resident of Vault 77, he can be considered its overseer by default.
The regional location of Vault 77 and related events is unspecified.
The Puppet Man's illustration from Magic: The Gathering appears to take place at a specific point in time between two scenes of the comic. Based on the placement of the puppets on the dweller's hands and the apparent agency of the Vault Boy puppet, it seems to depict him in the aftermath of the King's assassination, before his confrontation of Vault Boy.
Appearances[]
The Puppet Man appears in the official Fallout 3 webcomic One Man, and a Crate of Puppets. He is alluded to in Fallout 3, as his Vault suit is found in Paradise Falls alongside a holotape mentioning the legend surrounding him.
He also appears in the Magic: The Gathering crossover event, in the illustration for the card "Fraying Sanity."
Behind the scenes[]
The Puppet Man appeared on a Fallout 3 poster displayed at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 2008, which showed him holding a Vault Boy puppet covered with blood.[5]
One of the fan-created perks entered in the Fallout 10th Anniversary Contest was "Puppet Master," which reads, "You have a special little friend, who has followed you through thick and thin, and always has an opinion about things. Gain an extra dialogue option."
People are often afraid to destroy cursed objects, for fear of releasing something bound to the object, or offending the powers it may represent.
“Anyway, when we were working on Fallout 3 I pitched the idea of reaching out to Tycho and Gabe about doing a comic set in the Fallout universe. But unlike some of the other ones they had done around games to that point, we didn’t want to give them any particular requirements. We didn’t want them to create something that was overtly promotional. Mostly, we wanted to see what would happen if Penny Arcade did Fallout. I remember Tycho being pleasantly surprised at that notion.”— Pete Hines
The two raiders discussing the do's and dont's when engaging with the legendary Puppet Man in The Right Hand of The King.
On April 17, 2024, a three-panel follow-up comic titled "The Right Hand of The King" was released on the Penny Arcade website, thereby continuing his mythos. In the strip, two raiders are seen visiting a makeshift building to seek an audience with the man, who sits proudly on a throne within, the Boy reigning at his right hand.
The strip was published just a month after the Magic crossover illustration renewed cultural interest in the Puppet Man.
In the corresponding blog post, writer Tycho Brahe hinted at the possibility of convincing artist John Gabriel to further continue story of the Puppet Man.[6]
↑"With people talking about Fallout now that would never have previously talked about Fallout, it's a great time to direct you to Bethesda's Vault 77 Page, which catalogs the origins of the entity known in the wasteland as The Puppet Man. There's also a lot of other text on the page, what your fifth grade teacher Mrs. Prang might have called a "primary source," which serves to situate the entire affair in that place and time. Bethesda was fully down to clown; it's a canonical vault, with item and holotape support. Seemed like it might be fun to go back. Maybe I can trick Gabe into doing more? I'll try my hand at it. Right now I'm trying to make him finish reading my book but he's obsessed with James Clavell's twelve hundred page, 1975 novel of the late Sengoku period, "Shogun." It's roughly the length of Wikipedia. So I'll check in with him in 2026 or so." (The Right Hand of The King strip)
