Narrative Design: Characters

The Overseer - (White, Male, Late-50's Appearance)

• He is obsessed with immortality and handpicked the chemist who was making strides in prolonging human life, as well as other controversial academics.

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Botanist - (Chinese, Female, Late-30’s Appearance)

• Current: One of the only people in the community who chose to live near the cave’s surface. She has a roof deck with plants to determine the impact of real sunlight vs. artificial. The community was unhappy with the botanist during the recent water shortage because she uses the most water. She fears for her life - The community has killed others for much less.

• Experiments: While her experiments were considered standard and straightforward, her claims during her academic career. Her peers weren’t sure if she was crazy or a perpetual liar. She published uncited papers, making outlandish claims, including that some plants originating on other planets.

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Literary Critic - (Black, Male, Mid-50’s Appearance)

• Experiments: He was well-known in pre-Vault days for buying an island (with a bank loan he never paid off) and convincing parents to send their young children away for camp. He recreated a Lord of the Flies scenario on the island with 30 children, ranging in age from 6-12 while watching the situation unfold via hunting cameras from a tower on the island. Many of the children died, and he spent 20 years in jail, until the Overseer cut a deal to free him for admittance into the Vault.

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Historian - (White, Male, Early-40’s Appearance)

• Experiments: Before the Vault, he pushed the bounds of recreating a Nazi environment in his classrooms, to the point where students were tortured by other students and killed. He was thrilled when the Overseer transitioned into the 3rd phase of experimentation, where he built up a Hitler-esque persona. The historian was pivotal in carrying out the Overseer’s initiatives and helping them take root.

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Philosopher - Dr. Lixue Xu (Chinese, Female, Mid-30’s Appearance)

• Experiments: Before the Vault, Dr. Lixue Xu was well-known in academia for her controversial experiments on students, involving work with a fellow psychologist to push people to their emotional limits and draw philosophical conclusions from people’s reactions.

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Scientist - (Female, Late-40’s Appearance) - Last Inhabitant of the Vault

• Current: She remains trapped in one room of the Vault and lives off the infected plants growing in the cracks. When the community left the Vault, she was given a choice - immediate death, or life in the Vault. The community was afraid she would cross a line and experiment on them due to her history…

• Experiments: She worked heavily on mind control experiments, based off of Dr. José Delgado’s research (a real life physiology professor at Yale who performed mind control experiments). She bargained with the Overseer during the public execution phase of his experiments to use those people for her experiments. The creatures that now infest the Vault are the result of her failed mind control experiments.

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Assistant Scientist - (Male) - Deceased (in Vault)

• Experiments: He assisted the scientist in her mind control experiments and was killed in a public execution by the Overseer.

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Chemist - (Male) - Deceased (in Cave)

• Experiments: He was the only person in the Vault who arguably didn’t perform overtly disturbing experiments. He was selected because of the Overseer’s obsession with a prolonged life and his progress in extending the lives of lab rats. Years after life in the Vault, the Overseer granted permission for him to experiment on a human. The architect volunteered but died after a year because the chemist hadn’t accounted for balancing out the life prolonging injection with other chemicals. Future human test subjects survived, although side effects make life more difficult for the community, including insomnia, limb spasms and excruciating pains throughout the body. He was unable to tolerate the psychological and physical impact of potentially eternal life and committed suicide.

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Artist - (Male) - Deceased (in Cave)

• Experiments: He used human remains in art (skeletons, excrement). The community saw him as a liability because he ventured out into the world (in the name of “his art”) and decided to eliminate him.

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Architect - Deceased (in Vault)

• Experiments: She experimented with unconventional materials in the design of her buildings, including living matter. (Decomposition created stronger mortar.) She volunteered for the chemist’s first attempt to prolong human life, under the condition that if she died, the artist would use her skeleton in his art and decomposing body to construct her large-scale model of a building. She was depressed that she may never be able see her buildings be built in the world and decided that either outcome would be better than her current life - In death, she would become a part of her artistic vision, and in eternal life, she might someday see her building created.