Jared

Jared is a ghoul bounty hunter in the Virginia Wasteland.

Before The War
Jared is a human from before the Great War. Nothing is known of Jared's childhood other than the fact that he was born on July 7th, 2051. He lived in the town of Staunton, which was miles away from Richmond. He owned a Mr. Handy by the name of Wadsworth, who had been bought five months prior to the day the bombs dropped. A day before the Great War, Jared was prompted into signing up for entry into Vault 102 by a Vault-Tec Representative, yet he refused, as he had a long history of hating the company due to his knowledge of their shady business. However, the day after the Great War occurred, and Jared watched the world burn. From his small town he was able to witness the mushroom cloud near Richmond, followed by countless more, which soon covered Staunton in radioactive dust. Jared was ghoulified, though the name for it was unknown at the time. His first weapon was a laser rifle from the corpse of a pre-war soldier, who had died due to radiation poisoning. Afterwards, Jared was forced to kill Wadsworth, as the robot didn't recognize Jared and thought him to be an intruder. It revealed to him what the new world was like in just a few minutes, and thus he ventured out to find other survivors.

Post-War
The first location he traveled to was Charlottesville, which was Southeast of Staunton. There, he found that it hadn't been spared the nuclear devastation either, with much of the town decimated just like Staunton. Jared did, however, find the entrance of Vault 102, which was sealed moments before the nukes fell. When he couldn't find a way to open it, he took shelter inside the University of Virginia as the radiation poisoning took effect and fully transformed him into a ghoul. A week after the destruction, black rain started falling on October 30th. Jared hid from the toxic rain inside the University, and watched as the plants and animals that had managed to survive the nuclear apocalypse withered and died. Jared only survived through the deadly downpour because of preserves food stockpiles around Charlottesville in stores, and the trips between the shelters and the stores were dangerous.

Once the rain finally ceased to fall, he traveled further East, towards Richmond. He met little resistance along the way, as the raider groups and mutants hadn't yet developed. When he didn't find anything but corpses in Richmond, he headed further South, eventually making his way through Newport News, passing by Vault 99. However, he was unable to enter Norfolk, which would later become a part the Dead Lands, due to its extreme amounts of radiation, which had the potential to turn him feral, or possibly even kill him. He continued to wander the wasteland alone for some time until he started to see signs of new civilization, in the desolate ruins of the Virginia Wasteland.

Great Winter
During the Great Winter of 2130, Jared was forced into hiding, as well as almost everyone else in the wasteland. He took shelter inside an old warehouse district North of Richmond, something that would become Nick Naitel's Fortress in a century. There he was able to find plenty of preserved water and food stored away, and the warehouses provided ample protection from the cold. However, he was forced to turn to robbery to get other supplies he needed, and thus he began one of the darker periods of his life where he ambushed those trying to travel through the deep snow. He never enjoyed it, though it was necessary to survive, as he told himself over and over again. The Great Winter is one of the main reasons Jared is so opposed to being a raider and killing those who are just trying to survive.

Civilization
Once the Great Winter ended, the world could continue rebuilding civilization. After another century of wandering the wasteland and aiding struggling groups of survivors to make up for his acts during the Great Winter, Jared ventured North into the Capital Wasteland in 2254 and witnessed the Brotherhood of Steel for the first time. They were just starting to settle into the area, which was even more dangerous than Virginia thanks to the numerous nuclear strikes that hit D.C. and the super mutants that had emerged from Vault 87. From a distance he watched the Brotherhood migrate to the Pentagon, taking up residence inside the ruins of the government building. Jared soon left the Capital Wasteland after an encounter with the super mutants, creatures who were unknown to him in Virginia. He returned to Richmond after a year of being in the Capital Wasteland, in 2255. While he was gone, the people who had managed to survive the Great Winter had united in common interest of safety and set up home inside Richmond, naming it Richmond City.

It was tiny at the time, consisting of a single street reinforced with scrap metal walls, though as more and more traders and merchants started to pop up around the wasteland with the brahmin, a creature who had never been used as work animals in Virginia before, Richmond City grew more attention as a trading city, and thus was able to expand with the new resources and people. Jared aided in the efforts, helping the city to take territory from the growing raider groups all around Virginia, pushing them back and eventually out of Richmond, allowing them to expand over the area, eventually creating borders on the highways of Richmond. The James River was a natural barrier that stopped them. As the trade grew in Richmond City, markets grew along every road and building, crowding the city with shouting merchants. In 2261, the super mutants from the Capital Wasteland moved South in an attempt to gain more territory, and they did in the form of Gambles Hill Park. The super mutants attacked the city for years from their sanctuary, growing in strength over the area, eventually taking some of Richmond City by force, killing any who got in their way. Jared defended the city against them for years, gaining a profit from guard work by the people who had been announced the leaders of the growing city.

When the Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel came into Virginia from the Capital Wasteland after 2277, it changed Richmond City drastically. New factions had been building up, such as the Newport Raiders, the Navals, and New Roanoke, which caused an increase in conflict. During this time, in 2278, Jared took up bounty hunting as his career, as the influx of people wanting others dead grew with the threat of the Enclave and new raider groups. He was one of the first, with only a few popping up before him, most of which were guards of the city looking for new work, just like him. On April 17th, 2278, Jared took his first bounty, and completed it with ease, leading him to the life he now knows.