Alright so the one thing that's got me thinking, is what happened to Vault 111. Obviously we won't know for sure until Fallout 4 is released but from what we've gathered is that every single vault dweller is either dead or missing and your character has been frozen in cryo sleep for the past 200 years. I personally think there was virus that ravaged the vault, and the cryo chamber protected your character the whole time, but that's just my theory! What do you guys think? Let's hear everyone's theories on what happened to Vault 111!

Nice idea for a discussion.  I was just thinking about this myself.

Todd Howard emphasized that we're the "sole survivor" of Vault 111, and the player character is visibly shaken when he's talking to Codsworth (or whatever the robot is named, can't remember).  So I'm definitely of the mind that something awful happens.

Maybe its FEV-related, or just a containment failure of some kind.  Finding out what the event is, that's actually one of the most-anticipated aspects of the game for me.

I'm really curious how it plays out.

A thread I had seen on reddit a while back theorycrafted that it could've been either the Enclave sending a master signal to the Vault to cause it to open, (a la Vault 13) which a fierce fight occurred, leaving you as a survivor. (They missed you or some shit)

Another one I had seen was the experiment for Vault 111 was literally "luck." You were the lucky one who survived.

I don't like either of them, to be honest. What I think is that life support systems suffered a major malfunction and the vault started to shut down the cryopods, attempting to keep essential/useful personnel alive. The Sole Survivor is essential because he (or she) is considered a veteran, and because of the knowledge of the new power armour in FO4, would most likely have been part of the power armour Calvary unit and could put their training to use in the new world.

That's all speculation on mine and reddit's part though. I'm curious to see what the actual story is.

i would not be surprised if its primarily Vault Tech fault seeing all there little secret tests , then again maybe the cyro sleep was very early development and they hoped to test it on the dwellers of 111 when a freak accident occurs or maybe in Vault tech fashion they sabotaged the cyro sleep to stop working after x threshold was reached

I'm just gonna guess everyone else in the Cryo chambers had already died or left.

One thing we should also put into consideration is that vault 111's inhabitants have been dead for a very long time. If you refer back to the E3 demo, when the main character picks up the Pip-Boy, he grabs if it off a scientist's skeleton. It takes about 8 to 12 years for a human body to fully decompose to a skeleton. So my question is also, how long has everyone been dead? It's certainly been long enough for the bodies to decompose fully. The only thing, is that (from what I could tell) there were no signs of trauma or blood on the skeleton and its clothes. So I'm personally gonna rule out invaders. From what Skarus said, a life support system malfunction would actually seem like a probable cause.

@Vexillarious
Very good point, I forgot about the skeleton.

Im thinking the Vault 111 experience is letting people in the vault wake up from cryo sleep at different times. Some wake up after 100 days, some 1 year and 10 years etc and the PC happens to be the last person to wake up.

I just got to thinking, if their life support was failing, or if something went wrong why wouldn't they just leave the vault? The vault door and elevator to the surface work perfectly fine as we saw, because the main character leaves. That's why I'm thinking it was a virus. Think of it this way, the vault's scientists are doing experiments, putting certain species, foods, etc into cryostasis to test it's effects. Something goes horribly wrong, and a virus they were trying to freeze breaks out. The vault goes into quarantine and prevents the vault door from being opened to contain the incident. The vault inhabitants die off and the virus runs out of food, for lack of a better term. Then hundreds of years go by and the virus finally dies off as well. The quarantine ends, and the lone survivor awakens to find everyone dead.

but the protagonist as live in vault 111?

Vexillarious wrote:

I just got to thinking, if their life support was failing, or if something went wrong why wouldn't they just leave the vault? The vault door and elevator to the surface work perfectly fine as we saw, because the main character leaves. That's why I'm thinking it was a virus. Think of it this way, the vault's scientists are doing experiments, putting certain species, foods, etc into cryostasis to test it's effects. Something goes horribly wrong, and a virus they were trying to freeze breaks out. The vault goes into quarantine and prevents the vault door from being opened to contain the incident. The vault inhabitants die off and the virus runs out of food, for lack of a better term. Then hundreds of years go by and the virus finally dies off as well. The quarantine ends, and the lone survivor awakens to find everyone dead.

Ah, good 'ol fashion 12 monkeys. That is plausible. As we've seen thus far anyways, I believe the only people awake were maintenance staff/scientists, as where you grab your pipboy from. Anything can go at this rate. I've even seen threads of people saying you're an android.

What if it's just that Vault-Tec is testing out cryostasis itself? I mean, didn't someone say that all cryostasis attempts up to that point had resulted in people turning to mush? Could be that the PC is the one that got the "cryopod" (or whatever it is) that happened to work? Everyone else would obviously be dead. It would explain why they wouldn't have left the vault, too.

Skarus wrote:

I've even seen threads of people saying you're an android.

I don't think there's much (if any) weight to that.

For starters you have a baby, and since tech was created to make sure it looks like you regardless of how you make your character and their spouse look, it stands to reason that it is genuinely your child. Also the character has been shown to bleed red/normal blood in the combat demos.

I won't lie... it would be a cool twist if we were. But most everything we've seen indicates otherwise.

Not an android, that's for sure. It would make no sense for character if he ate meals or cured himself if he was one. He might be a clone with a stored memory of the original, yet the cryo sleep sounds way more realistic.

Didn't know you were the Sole Survivor of Vault 111, but what about your spouse and child, aren't they alive?

I would have loved to see a vault full of people and still working like 101.

It would definitely be an awesome twist if we actually were an android. If Bethesda were to go that route, I feel like the big twist would be similar to what they did in Terminator: Salvation, where they put a human consciousness into the robot body. The main character would think and feel as if he is human but in reality he's secretly synthetic. It's an interesting thought.

Skarus wrote:

Vexillarious wrote:

I just got to thinking, if their life support was failing, or if something went wrong why wouldn't they just leave the vault? The vault door and elevator to the surface work perfectly fine as we saw, because the main character leaves. That's why I'm thinking it was a virus. Think of it this way, the vault's scientists are doing experiments, putting certain species, foods, etc into cryostasis to test it's effects. Something goes horribly wrong, and a virus they were trying to freeze breaks out. The vault goes into quarantine and prevents the vault door from being opened to contain the incident. The vault inhabitants die off and the virus runs out of food, for lack of a better term. Then hundreds of years go by and the virus finally dies off as well. The quarantine ends, and the lone survivor awakens to find everyone dead.

Ah, good 'ol fashion 12 monkeys.  That is plausible.  As we've seen thus far anyways, I believe the only people awake were maintenance staff/scientists, as where you grab your pipboy from.  Anything can go at this rate.  I've even seen threads of people saying you're an android.

I am 99% sure you aren't an Android, it wouldn't make sense. Considering what we already know I have no idea people are still speculating that?

Andrees92 wrote:

Didn't know you were the Sole Survivor of Vault 111, but what about your spouse and child, aren't they alive?

I would have loved to see a vault full of people and still working like 101.

They don't survive, no.

Maybe something happens that kills everyone who was in cryo in Vault 111, but by some miracle, your tube wasn't affected.

Maybe there's a reason WHY you're the Sole Survivor...

Pretty sure that the kid might survive and become a ghoul. Todd Howard-level of drama.

Spoiler: