David Thorpe

 is a character "appearing" in Fallout 76.

Background
A cunning, cynical man rich enough to frequent the Pleasant Valley Ski Resort together with his mistress, Rosalynn Jeffries, David was already cold before the Great War. After falling in love with Rosalynn, he planned to divorce his wife and formalize his relationship with Jeffries (at least, that's what he promised her). The nuclear holocaust intervened and trapped the two along with scores of other resort guests in the mountains. Thorpe wasn't their first choice for leader, that was Harland McClintock. The survivors tried to connect with the responders at Charleston in November, to ask for help and supplies. Overwhelmed with the influx of refugees from all the areas west of the Rockies, the city's leaders had to turn them away. The failure to gather meaningful supplies weakened Harland McClintock. However, what really twisted the arrogant rich into atrocious raiders was the winter of 2078. Blocked by snowfall and radiation, the food supplies dwindled until they almost completely disappeared and the survivors turned on each other. When the Responders finally sent up an expedition up into the mountains in August 2078, they discovered what was left of the survivors, which terrified even those who witnessed the immediate aftermath of the Great War.

David Thorpe rose to power because he offered a way forward that Harland didn't, even if it meant stepping on necks to get what they wanted. When the McClintocks tried to hold a trial and exile him for killing two survivors who came to help, they were already in a losing position. After ensuring Harland was out of the way, Thorpe shaped those people into something terrible. They took what they wanted by force and killed anyone that stood in their way. At the same time, Thorpe led with a degree of professionalism others couldn't match, helping them pretend they weren't bloodied savages preying on others.

Rose stood by his side and an affair became something far deeper after the bomb, with the two becoming effectively the husband and wife at the top of the pecking order, leading the Cutthroats to control over Appalachia. Under Thorpe's leadership, the raiders slowly developed into one of the largest organized factions in Appalachia. The raiders preyed primarily on unaffiliated traders and travelers, traveling through the Savage Divide, and cautiously stealing items they could not obtain by force, for example, from the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel. By 2082, their sporadic clashes and tepid expansion into The Forest brought them into conflict with Responders in Charleston. On Christmas Eve, Rosalynn led a raiding party into the city, apparently to obtain some sort of gift for David. She overestimated her raiders - or underestimated the Responders - and was captured in a brutal clash south of the city. Placed in custody and interrogated, Jeffries could not contact Thorpe. David thought that she was killed in the attack. Driven mad by the apparent loss, the bereaved Thorpe ordered an attack on the Summersville Dam, where he used mini nukes stolen by the Blackwater Bandits from the Brotherhood to blow up the dam and flood Charleston on Christmas Eve. In so doing, he also killed Rosalynn, trapped in the jail cells of the Capitol Building.

To cope with the loss, David had his tech expert craft Rose and recreate as much of her human personality within a custom Ms. Nanny chassis. She provided companionship the raider warlord craved. Despite that, he grew steadily more distant and ruthless, which only made him more fearsome and powerful among the raiders. Despite the guerrilla campaign waged by the Order of Mysteries, Thorpe remained in control, attracting more and more recruits. The campaign lasted for years, until Olivia Rivers, bitter and resentful of her mother's leadership, decided to defect by using Brody Torrance. She spared her former friend after a checkpoint raid in June 2086. As Brody was the sole survivor of Mack Frazier's veteran crew, Thorpe was skeptical at first. However, without any other leads, he played along and allowed the boy to continue working with Olivia. His trust did not seem to pay off at first, as on July 1, nearly a month later, Torrance was 200 caps behind on his quota and Thorpe was still losing men to the Order's attacks.

When Torrance forwarded Olivia's proposition of a deal - a blank check for anything she wanted in return for the Order - Thorpe's patience was an at end. He was ready to have Torrance killed, but decided to give him one last chance. Olivia was ready to show her commitment by feeding one of the Order's Mistresses to the raiders, so Thorpe assigned Torrance five men and sent him to Summersville. The choices were simple: The raiders were to return with either his head or the Mistress'. Against all expectations, Torrance delivered her head. Thorpe knew when to reward and when to reprimand his subordinates. Torrance was immediately promoted to lieutenant, provided with seven raiders of his own choosing, and quarters in the Black Diamond lodge, where only the most trusted raiders were quartered. Torrance's only purpose was the elimination of the Order.

Torrance continued to work with Olivia and Thorpe was satisfied. By mid-September, they successfully ambushed three Mistresses all over Appalachia, confirming that they were indeed of the Order. Thorpe agreed to Olivia's offer: In exchange for Cryptos, he would grant her - and Torrance - anything that was in his power to grant. A week later, on September 20, Olivia delivered Cryptos on a Project Siphon holotape, loaded with all the mainframe data and all the Order's planned mission assignments for the next two months. Thorpe recognized the opportunity and immediately assigned Rose and Torrance to map out ambushes to reduce the Order's numbers until the Manor could be safely attacked. He also had his tech crew start trawling the data for other leads.

Thorpe was elated to see the Order finally crumble before his very eyes. However, circumstances beyond his control denied him the ability to be the one to deliver the final blow to the Order: Olivia's cover was blown and she was forced to slaughter her way through the Order's ranks, killing her own father. When she notified Brody, he immediately informed Thorpe of the development. Although he was slightly disappointed, he recognized his good fortune and ordered Torrance to meet Olivia, ensure there are no loose ends, then return to him. Torrance did not fail: He shot Olivia and left her for dead after she eliminated her mother, bringing the Order and Thorpe's headaches to an end in November 2086.

It seemed that Thorpe's position was unassailable for a time, however, the Enclave's machinations set him up for the fall. By 2087, with Harpers Ferry fallen to the scorchbeasts and the scorched and the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel shielding the southern reaches of the Appalachians, the monsters started pushing into the Savage Divide through The Mire. The Palace of the Winding Path was the first to disappear, however, Thorpe made a fatal mistake when he failed to recognize the threat, continuing his parasitic operations. His last mistake was when he decided to imprison Hank Madigan and try to extort the Responders and the Free States for the SDS uplink in late 2096. He would pay the ultimate price for his mistake, becoming one of the scorched when they finally purged the Divide of the raiders, scattering them to the winds.

Quests

 * Key to the Past: David holds the last part of the key.

Appearances
appears only in Fallout 76.