Jacoren

Jacoren is the Overseer of Vault 13 in Fallout.

Background
The Overseer of Vault 13 is a distinguished looking man with large eyebrows and deep blue eyes. He genuinely cares about the people under his care, especially the Vault Dweller, whom he sends out to find a replacement water chip. The burden of leading a Vault makes his methods seem unnecessarily paternalistic or even heavy handed. However, it is warranted, as Jacoren also asks the Vault Dweller to remove the mutant threat to the Vault, accurately predicting that they can find Vault 13 and attack it.

Jacoren is vehemently opposed to opening the Vault and letting the dwellers out. He explains this stance as him unwilling to risk the best of a particular generation. However, the truth is a bit more complex. While some accuse him of cowardice, Jacoren is motivated by the Vault Experiment. As Vault 13 is a control group meant to stay closed for two centuries, Jacoren doesn't want to compromise his mission. He was forced to improvise with the Vault Dweller and the water chip breakage.

Fate
Of course, the focus on the experiment has backfired when the Overseer exiled the Vault Dweller from Vault 13. The rebellious dwellers deposed Jacoren and tried him. Jacoren was sentenced to death. The result was that a portion of the Vault population left the Vault and followed the Dweller into the wastes.

Quests

 * Find the Water Chip.: The beginning quest, given at the beginning of the game.
 * Destroy the source of the Mutants. and Destroy the Mutant leader.: Given by the Overseer, these play out in the second part of the game.

Other interactions

 * Jacoren cannot be killed when he is in the control seat.
 * The only instance when the Overseer can be killed is during the endgame, when he meets the player outside the Vault. If the Vault Dweller has the Bloody Mess trait, the Berserker reputation, or low karma, they will shoot the Overseer in the back, triggering an unique death animation. If neither Bloody Mess or Berserker have been acquired, the player can quickly initiate combat after the dialogue, and shoot Jacoren.

Final speech
"You've done it! That's . . . wonderful. Amazing! I'm so proud of what you've accomplished, what you've endured. There's no way the people of the Vault can ever thank you enough for what you've done. You've saved all our lives. Who knows, maybe even saved the human race. That makes the rest of this even harder. Everyone will want to talk to you. Every youngster will look up to you. And want to emulate you. And then what? They'll want to leave. What happens to the Vault if we lose the best of a generation? What if we are the only safe place in the world? You just gave us back all these lives . . . I can't take the chance of losing them. I've made a lot of tough decisions since I took this position. But none of them harder than this one. You saved us, but you'll kill us. I'm sorry. You're a hero . . . and you have to leave."

Behind the scenes
"I always thought of Fallout's story of drawing straws was something the Overseer thought of. "Look, someone has to go outside, and they may die out there, so let's draw straws". Someone, probably not the Overseer since he wouldn't have gone outside no matter what, demanded that EVERYONE draw a straw in order to be truly fair. But to be honest, the vault dwellers were simply terrified of going outside, and terrified people do not always make the wisest decisions. Anyway, when big dumb Larry drew the straw, maybe the Overseer saw a way to rid their limited gene pool of some really bad alleles."

- Tim Cain at DAC forum

Jacoren's Death
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Appearances
Jacoren appears only in Fallout. His name is not stated in-game and comes from concept art. Jacoren would also appear in the canceled Fallout movie, where he was to be revealed as the founder of Vault-Tec Industries and the man who started the Great War.