Regarding the Canonicity of The Vault Dweller's Memoirs

[Atomic Postman]

Are the Vault Dweller's Memoirs 100% canon? Or is it simply in the manual as a recap for those who haven't played the first game?

I dislike the Memoir's due to how strictly they limit the "legitimacy" of your character's actions in Fo1,if your character doesn't slot in with the memoirs exactly, they aren't canon. I feel it would have been better for the canonicity of the Vault Dweller's actions in the first game become evident by exploring the world of Fallout 2, rather than having them explicitly outlined for you.

Something else I take issue with is that in Fallout 2, the location of Vault 13 is totally unknown to the world, many don't believe it exists, yet in the Memoirs it states that the Dweller told the location of the Vault to the Water Merchants, surely the location of the Vault wouldn't be a total secret anymore as a result of this?

While we're on the topic, has it been confirmed that the Canon Vault Dweller is Albert Cole?

 

[Tagaziel]

The memoirs serve both as a recap and to establish the canonical information that underlies the whole setting and plot of Fallout 2. They're actually fairly limited and define the big picture, leaving the details open to interpretation.

The location of Vault 13 being known to merchant caravans may be a problem, though I don't think it's such a big issue. It was a small caravan run for the water merchants and until it became relevant twenty-thirty years later, with the rise of the NCR, most would have forgotten about it. The scramble to find it later would be a natural result of people forgetting and misplacing documentation. Hardly unlikely for a small caravan route.

Albert Cole has never been confirmed as the canon Vault Dweller. It's inferred he was the one, but since Fallout is no Diablo, it's a stretch to say he was the one. Plus, the canon Dweller dukes it out with the Master using a plasma rifle, something Cole would not do.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Albert Cole has never been confirmed as the canon Vault Dweller. It's inferred he was the one, but since Fallout is no Diablo, it's a stretch to say he was the one. Plus, the canon Dweller dukes it out with the Master using a plasma rifle, something Cole would not do.

I thought it was left deliberately vague as to how the Master was killed? Something like "I entered that place, and by the end of it The Master was done." I also remember the Memoirs saying he snuck in there in robes, I imagine it would be pretty hard to do so with a plasma rifle in hand.

 

[mef]

None could stand in my way. I had a mission. I had a goal. I had a really large gun.

There's a lot of killing people in Vault Dweller's Memoirs, so I doubt that Albert fits as him.

The location of Vault 13 being known to merchant caravans may be a problem, though I don't think it's such a big issue.

It kinda was, since VD was afraid that mutants will achieve this information.

It is here that I realized the mistake I had made with the water-merchants. I had pointed them, and others, in the direction of our home. Without the protection of anonymity, the Vault could easily have been destroyed. The knowledge of the fate of Vault 15 did not help. The Overseer tasked me with a new mission. Find and destroy the danger of the super mutants.

 

[Yamu]

I think it's reasonable that the location of V13 has been all but forgotten by the time of F2; The only people you get the chance to inform of its exact whereabouts in the first game's dialogue (ignoring anything that would get you the "Unity victory" non-canon ending) were the water merchants. Everyone else only got general hints (I come from a vault to the west, I come from a vault up near Shady Sands, etc); enough to foster a legend, but not enough to put the vault in any real danger.

As to the Merchants, as Tagz says, it probably wouldn't have been a huge deal for them. Once the route dried up and communication was cut off-- which undoubtedly would have happened as soon as the water chip was replaced, give The Overseer's overprotectiveness-- the location of 13 would have become useless to the water merchants. I'd even go as far as to say it would have been a liability, given the cutthroat competitiveness of the Merchant Market in the Hub. If another trading house that traded in something the Vault WOULD still trade for got hold of its location, they could gain a big leg up, maybe enough to threaten the Water Merchant's political stranglehold. It would have been better for them to bury it until such time as it became useful again. Then, with the turmoil following the (possible, though not canonically confirmed) assassination of their leader Darren Hightower, as well as the chaos of the mutant remnants passing through on their way East and the political uphaval of the NCR's consolidation (who's to say the Water Merchants weren't superseded, privatized, or disbanded?), it's all too likely it would have just... stayed buried.

There ARE the actual caravan personnel to account for, but to most of them it likely would have been just another job-- those were different times, and not many people would have had use for the location of a vault that wouldn't allow anyone entry. None of the personnel would probably have thought to make independent notes, and given their line of work most of them probably moved on or died before it ever became significant again.

The Dweller was only afraid the Mutants would get the info because they were actively searching, and because they had the capability to actually pose a threat. With them out of the way, the only other top-level players in the wasteland would be the Brotherhood, who were famously uninterested in getting off their armored butts and sticking their heads out of their hole for any tech that didn't go boom.

 

[WittyUsername]

On the particular subject of Albert Cole potentially being the Vault Dweller, I was under the same impression that Cole may not be him due to the fact that Cole is the speech-guy. However, we must remember one aspect of why Vault Dweller was banished in the first place.

As written in the memoir:

Now, my family had kicked me out and said that I could never return. I screamed. I cried. Slowly I came to realize that the Overseer may have been correct. I had changed. Life outside the Vault was different, and now I, too, was different.

If Cole were to be the Vault Dweller, that could mean that as time went on, he became less of a diplomat and more of a warrior, taking more life-threatening risks and becoming more violent. The Overseer may have saw that and, he too, may have saw that after his banishment.

Emulated by the evolution of your skillpoints and perks. I mean, you could tag barter, speech and lockpick, but still have a high energy weapons skill by the team you meet the Master without ever getting that 4th tag perk.

Of course, Overseer Jacoren was also interested in keeping the Vault Experiment for 13 functioning, so there's that, too.