Canon Character

[Gitgud]

Hi guys Are nate and nora the canon lore names for the sole survivor?Someone says this to me.If this is the case i don't understand why we could create a character if there are canon versions of the characters.Lg sry for my english

[sdack]

It's a vanity thing but also meant to help players to get into the game by allowing them to create a character of their own liking and not forcing everyone to play with the exact same character.

[DrNewcenstein]

Nate and Nora are not found outside of Fallout 4. Given that they were trying a new way of switching between male and female during the character creation sequence, they had to give them something besides "Player Male" and "Player Female". It also makes it a bit more like a movie in that sense, at least until you change their name.

However, when discussing Fallout 4 and speaking implicitly of the 2 choices, it would be proper to refer to them as Nate and Nora, as opposed to "Sole Survivor Dude" and "Sole Survivor Chick". Referring to them as what you've named them will lead to confusion.

In Fallout 3 you were known far and wide as the Vault Dweller, and in New Vegas you were the Courier, despite being able to name your character.

However, it is incorrect to refer to the player as Sole Survivor in Fallout 4, as there were others who survived. Yes, they're Ghouls, and yes, they count.

[Gitgud]

I think it would be better if you could name both because you create both characters^^Ok than the first time in a fallout game they have a canon name....I don't like it but its not much a big deal.I hope for the next game they get back to the roots

[Yhwach]

Originally posted by Chris:

I think it would be better if you could name both because you create both characters^^Ok than the first time in a fallout game they have a canon name....I don't like it but its not much a big deal.I hope for the next game they get back to the roots

Your name doesn't even show up anywhere besides menus, so it wouldn't even matter, plus your spouse is dealt with early so that's another reason why it wouldn't matter.

[DouglasGrave]

As far as I'm aware, there's no official answer on any canon names for the Sole Survivor; Nate and Nora are the default names, but even there, it's obviously impossible for both of them to be the Sole Survivor. Similarly, there were preset characters with names in Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics, but none of them is the one true canon character for their game.

This is part of the reason for having a term like "Sole Survivor" for each different game; the character's real identity is typically left as an unknown, because it's different for almost everyone who plays.

Originally posted by D-Dog🐺 ༼Trading Keys༽:

Your name doesn't even show up anywhere besides menus, so it wouldn't even matter, plus your spouse is dealt with early so that's another reason why it wouldn't matter.

That's not the only place the name can be used; there's a substantial list of preset names[fallout.wikia.com] included in the game that Codsworth will recognize and sometimes use.

[Incunabulum]

Originally posted by Chris:

Hi guys Are nate and nora the canon lore names for the sole survivor?Someone says this to me.If this is the case i don't understand why we could create a character if there are canon versions of the characters.Lg sry for my english

Not exactly. Your character's 'canon' name is whatever you named him or her. The canon name *of the spouse* is Nate or Nora, as appropriate.

[Gitgud]

Yeah the preset characters are for people which don't want to create a character and prefer a quick start.In every fallout game you make your own character canon.In falllout 4 i first thought nate and nora are not the sole survivor because both *spoiler* die and if the name screen appears there is no default name either.

[Incunabulum]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Nate and Nora are not found outside of Fallout 4. Given that they were trying a new way of switching between male and female during the character creation sequence, they had to give them something besides "Player Male" and "Player Female". It also makes it a bit more like a movie in that sense, at least until you change their name.

However, when discussing Fallout 4 and speaking implicitly of the 2 choices, it would be proper to refer to them as Nate and Nora, as opposed to "Sole Survivor Dude" and "Sole Survivor Chick". Referring to them as what you've named them will lead to confusion.

In Fallout 3 you were known far and wide as the Vault Dweller, and in New Vegas you were the Courier, despite being able to name your character.

However, it is incorrect to refer to the player as Sole Survivor in Fallout 4, as there were others who survived. Yes, they're Ghouls, and yes, they count.

There were no ghouls who survived being entombed in V111. There were some who were nearby - but they don't count as they were never in the vault.

Of course, SHAUN! survived, which dumps the whole SS conceit anyway.

[Jangalang]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Nate and Nora are not found outside of Fallout 4. Given that they were trying a new way of switching between male and female during the character creation sequence, they had to give them something besides "Player Male" and "Player Female". It also makes it a bit more like a movie in that sense, at least until you change their name.

However, when discussing Fallout 4 and speaking implicitly of the 2 choices, it would be proper to refer to them as Nate and Nora, as opposed to "Sole Survivor Dude" and "Sole Survivor Chick". Referring to them as what you've named them will lead to confusion.

In Fallout 3 you were known far and wide as the Vault Dweller, and in New Vegas you were the Courier, despite being able to name your character.

However, it is incorrect to refer to the player as Sole Survivor in Fallout 4, as there were others who survived. Yes, they're Ghouls, and yes, they count.

Nate / Nora is the SOLE SURVIVOR of vault 111. They are not the "SOLE SURVIVOR" of the war. Calling them the SOLE SURVIVOR is exactly the same as calling yourself "THE COURIER." You're not the only courier; there's more context to it than just the dictionary definitions of the word.

[Jangalang]

Originally posted by Incunabulum:

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Nate and Nora are not found outside of Fallout 4. Given that they were trying a new way of switching between male and female during the character creation sequence, they had to give them something besides "Player Male" and "Player Female". It also makes it a bit more like a movie in that sense, at least until you change their name.

However, when discussing Fallout 4 and speaking implicitly of the 2 choices, it would be proper to refer to them as Nate and Nora, as opposed to "Sole Survivor Dude" and "Sole Survivor Chick". Referring to them as what you've named them will lead to confusion.

In Fallout 3 you were known far and wide as the Vault Dweller, and in New Vegas you were the Courier, despite being able to name your character.

However, it is incorrect to refer to the player as Sole Survivor in Fallout 4, as there were others who survived. Yes, they're Ghouls, and yes, they count.

There were no ghouls who survived being entombed in V111. There were some who were nearby - but they don't count as they were never in the vault.

Of course, SHAUN! survived, which dumps the whole SS conceit anyway.

Shaun doesn't count because he was removed from Vault 111. The incident that removed him is what killed everyone else when there was an issue in life support and the refreezing process. That is the incident that you are the SOLE SURVIVOR of.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

I actually think it would've been better to name them jane and john like jane doe and john doe which would be a military term for people MIA or gone rogue. It would've made more sense since the husband is military and the wife is a lawyer (for what no one knows but we can sorta make out that she's probably a military attorney and it'd add further to the lore as to how they both met seeing as the guy was drafted into a war).

But as others have said the name is a placeholder for your real character name. Tbh 4 is one of the only fallouts that characters actually address your name (at least codsworth does anyhow). All other ones go by hey you're that guy / girl or the courier or vault dweller or lone wanderer etc.

[Tiresias - The Blind Lucario]

It's not their canon names (as there is no canon name for any of the Fallout Protags aside from their titles), but Nate and Nora are their default names for when they're not the chosen character, and as such are the closest thing the Sole Survivor(s) has (have?) to an official name.

Regardless, the only character who actually refers to the Sole Survivor as the name you punch in (most of the time) is Codsworth. So in all honesty, the names are just a placeholder, just like in previous games.

Good for character building and roleplaying runs though.

[Llynethil]

Nate is the canon name for the male, as you can find a terminal at fraternity post 115 that mentions how the male protagonist was supposed to give a talk there before the bombs hit, and it says his name is Nate on it, so it's 100% canon.

Nora's name should be on the lawyer diploma too, but the writing might be too small to be readable.

[Solomon Hawk]

In all my games at the beginning, I created my character based upon the "Nate" as seen with the exception of changing his appearance to something more of my liking. (the same with Nora by switching bodies during character creation and changing her appearance for the sake of appearances. Then switching bodies again back to Nate)
But instead of keeping with the name, Nate, I chose to incorporate his name into my own character name which is and has always been "James Nathan Stillwell".
So in this case, "Nate" is a nickname.

[Von Faustien]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Nate and Nora are not found outside of Fallout 4. Given that they were trying a new way of switching between male and female during the character creation sequence, they had to give them something besides "Player Male" and "Player Female". It also makes it a bit more like a movie in that sense, at least until you change their name.

However, when discussing Fallout 4 and speaking implicitly of the 2 choices, it would be proper to refer to them as Nate and Nora, as opposed to "Sole Survivor Dude" and "Sole Survivor Chick". Referring to them as what you've named them will lead to confusion.

In Fallout 3 you were known far and wide as the Vault Dweller, and in New Vegas you were the Courier, despite being able to name your character.

However, it is incorrect to refer to the player as Sole Survivor in Fallout 4, as there were others who survived. Yes, they're Ghouls, and yes, they count.

Vault dweller is fallout 1. fallout 3 was the lone wanderer.