Keith Cooper

Keith Cooper was the raider leader of the Coop.

Background[]

Prior to the Great War, Keith Cooper served as the CEO of Granite Wolf Insurance, where he mastered his ability to manipulate people into doing what he wanted.^[1]

After the Great War, Keith left a group of survivors he was with who "served [him] no more benefits" and instead joined a group of nomads led by Chris. He went on a hunting trip with Chris and killed him, returning to declare himself the leader of the group.^[1] He was later caught seducing the wives of Terry and James, two members of his group. Terry came in and "started causing a scene," which in turn caused the rest of the group to investigate. Using manipulative speech, Keith convinced the crowd that Terry was at fault, and the mob literally tore Terry limb from limb.^[2]

After watching the mob follow him unwaveringly, Keith decided to eliminate anyone causing him trouble - convincing his mob to shoot or even burn alive those who went against him. Soon, he managed to establish his new order - the men would do all physical labor, while the women would "help [him] out with [his] requests." However, he did sometimes spare those useful to him - Biff was too useful to murder as he was a "big strong guy" who could intimidate people, saving Keith the trouble of having to kill them. Biff had decided that he was unhappy with how Keith had been "taking advantage" of others. Keith then had to remind Biff that at any time Keith could stir up the mob to kill Biff's family, and so Biff backed down.^[3]

Keith eventually got bored with his group, and told them to find more people to join his "thriving family." He told the group that if anyone they found refused to join, then "clearly" that person wanted to destroy them, and so that person should be killed.^[4] His group's scouts would later discover the Crater Raiders, and Keith decided to negotiate with them to try to become their leader, but found it difficult to usurp Meg Groberg's position,^[5] despite formally joining them.^[6]

Keith was later murdered and his group retaliated, though in the ensuing chaos, the murderer may have gotten away.^[7]

Notes can be found around the camp from the group talking about how lost they feel without Keith, and of how wonderful he was. A Life Without Keith describes him as "incredible, talented, brave, smart, [and] funny" which may or may not have been exaggerated due to the manipulation. Doomed, although just as overly dramatic about the loss, almost hints at a realization of the manipulation, but it's brushed off: "Granted I couldn't do anything to benefit myself, but to benefit Keith was to help us all!". Dicer will also go on to explain how horrible and pointless life is without Keith. In comparison to all this, Keith makes it clear in his terminal just how dumb and worthless (unless useful to him) his followers are.

Appearances[]

Keith Cooper is mentioned only in Fallout 76, introduced in the Expeditions: Atlantic City update part one, Boardwalk Paradise.

Behind the scenes[]

Level designer Ryan Johnson wrote the terminal entries of Keith Cooper, found at the Coop. Originally, Johnson planned for Keith to have been killed in the story by a Vault 76 dweller, fresh out of the Vault, but this was changed to be more open-ended for the final release.^{[Non-game 1]}

References[]

Non-game