“No... no, the world's always got another cage, waiting, keeping everything you want... just out of reach.”— God
Dog is a psychologically disturbed nightkin who helps Father Elijah by capturing "assistants" for him and fitting them with explosive collars in 2281. His alternate identity, God (referred to by the former as simply "the voice"), is trying to break Dog free of Elijah's grasp.
The "Dog" identity can be triggered by the sound of Father Elijah's voice, and the "God" identity is triggered by the sound of his own voice (via holotape or radio). When one is dominant, the other is said to be in "the cage" or "the basement." The two are never given a collective name, only referred to as their two names collectively.
Dog is the subservient identity who follows Elijah to give him orders like the Master did in his previous life, and God is the independent and intelligent identity that seeks to move on and be free from Elijah's exploitation of Dog's obedience.
Background[]
What little is known about the person who would become Dog/God is that he was a member of the Master's elite nightkin. Like the rest of the mutant army, he was psychically linked to the Master and conditioned to slavishly serve him until death. With the destruction of the Mariposa Military Base, then the Cathedral,[1] and the subsequent loss of connection to the commanders, his grip on reality broke as the two identities emerged.[2][3]
The first identity the player meets is Dog, a slavish, childlike character of pure instinct, built from the conditioning the Master bred its army with. The other, God, is the subconscious voice of reason. As the years went by, Dog would constantly get into trouble, wandering, eating, and listening to those he should not. His ravenous hunger can only be described as gluttonous. Once he starts to feed, anyone and anything that Dog hunts will be crushed, mangled and twisted until he is satiated in an act of uncontrolled greed. He knows what he does is wrong, but simply can't help himself.[4] Eventually the voice of reason couldn't stand the constant self imperilment, nor the cannibalism, and began to emerge to counter Dog. Dog, in response, began self mutilation, eventually going so far as to carve the name Elijah gave him on his chest to remind himself who he is, the pain serving to stifle the "other voice."[5][6] However, as time passed, the other voice became stronger and stronger, and consequently it took more and more pain to stifle the God identity.[3]
Dog's hunger would always drive him to the surface, but when the hunger was satiated and/or fatigue set in, God would emerge. Dog is unaware that the God identity is actually a part of him. He refers to the other identity as climbing into his head and constantly being mean to him in a misinterpretation of God's attempt at protecting them both from harm by locking Dog away. Despite this, God continues to try to protect Dog, seeing him as his younger sibling. Both would grow to resent the suppression of the other being in control, each referring to the other putting them in the cage, or the basement.[3][7] While in the cage, each identity would only perceive glimpses of the other's actions. This has had the effect of allowing them to keep secrets from each other. This, however, is both a "gift" and a curse, for while it helps keep strategic ignorance, it only exacerbates the animosity between the two.
Although God likes to think he was the original, he is completely unsure. While he is in control, he refers to the body as a "shell" and states that it is hard to fight in. This may be a consequence of God being the culmination of the self preservation and reasoning instincts. Calm, articulate and controlling, God seeks to eliminate Elijah to free himself from the need for a master and to eliminate his greedy ravenous hunger.[8][6][9] In contrast, Dog seeks to eliminate the God personality so that he may become pure instinct, and gorge to his contentment on his master's affection and food. As a result, God has developed a hatred for greed, although neither could hide its bloodlust, whether Elijah's, Dean Domino's or the Courier's.[5][10]
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Section needed (Dog/God's time working for Elijah at the Madre, then his time with the Courier)
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Interactions with the player character[]
Interactions overview[]
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
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This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. Put the Beast Down | |
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This character is a permanent companion. They grant the Ravenous Hunger (as Dog) or In My Footsteps (as God) perk. | |
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This character is involved in quests. | |
Quests[]
- Find Collar 8: "Dog": The Courier has to travel to the Villa police station and recruit Dog or God.
- Fires in the Sky: The Courier has to escort Dog or God to Salida del Sol South to Trigger the Gala Event and hunt down some ghost people for Dog or God to eat.
- Put the Beast Down: The Courier must confront Dog or God in the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort.
Other interactions[]
- After recruiting Dog and watching him kill and consume one of the ghost people, the Courier can talk to Dog and, after going through a few speech options, receive the Ghost Hunter perk from him. However, if they have the Cannibal perk, it is possible to get the Ghost Hunter perk from him without fighting.
- He has unique idle dialogue for locations around the Sierra Madre;
| Dog and God's comments | |
|---|---|
| Location and personality | Comment |
| God—Villa clinic, the makeshift mortuary | It looks like someone was experimenting... although they were doing so after the collars went off. |
| Dog—Villa clinic, the makeshift mortuary | People missing heads... make mistake coming here. Make Dog hungry. |
| God–The Sierra Madre vending machine in the Villa | Those machines feed on Sierra Madre Chips. There's codes that unlock other things, too. |
| Dog–The Sierra Madre vending machine in the Villa | Pretty circle on machine, all glowing. |
Effects of player's actions[]
If the Courier has the Wild Wasteland trait, Dog will say "OM NOM NOM" the first time he eats a ghost person. This is a reference to Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.- Should Dog/God be killed in the Cantina Madrid and if the area is revisited, his corpse will be shown to have exploded into bloody chunks, due to the fact he ate his collar.
Companion interactions[]
- God will engage Dean Domino in conversation while they are both dismissed to the Villa fountain by the Courier. He is apparently familiar with Dean and expresses contempt for the ghoul for not leaving the Sierra Madre when he had the opportunity.
- Similarly, if Dog is a companion, he will engage Dean Domino in a short conversation if they meet at the Villa fountain. Dog will refer to Dean as if he was some kind of food, Dean's reply being "you stay in your corner while I stay in mine." Then, Dean will talk quietly with the Courier, asking them to "keep him away from this thing."
Endings[]
This section is transcluded from Dead Money endings. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.
| # | Slide | Voice-over narration | In-game condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
When Dog fell in the Sierra Madre casino, two died as one. Dog died hungry, alone, frightened. The voice in his head died with him. Screaming. Furious. Enraged. But the voice was gone, and Dog was grateful. At least Dog was dead and the voice needed to watch over him no more. In the moment before their lives ended, the wall between the two personalities fell. The two became silent as they saw the chain between them. Hunger and control are twin greeds, something Dog and his shadow had never realized. |
Dog is dead. |
| 2 | |
Dog forgot himself, as did the voice that raged within him. After their passing, a new voice spoke within the mutant's shell. It was difficult for the voice to remember the two it once was... there was the beast, Dog consumed by hunger... ...and the other in reverse... the one consumed by control. Both were driven by need for the other. The Courier brought them together, somehow, joined the two into one. All that happened at the Sierra Madre, was a faint memory to the new personality... like a flickering light in the clouds of the mind. The new voice did not think of the Courier again until the battle at the Divide reached his ears. The battle between the two couriers, beneath the torn skies and the Old World flag... each bearing a message for the other. And the mutant prayed the Courier that had saved him... had been saved in return. |
Dog is alive, God is alive. |
| 3 | |
Dog, free of the voice inside his head and no longer waiting on the voice of the Master, wandered back West. His hunger never ended. Often, small communities would suddenly vanish. They were assumed to have been hit by Wasteland creatures and dragged away... dogs, brahmin, and humans alike. |
Only Dog is alive. |
| 4 | |
Freed of both Dog and the one who held Dog's leash, the other voice resumed control. First the mind, then finally, the mutant's shell. His first act was to tend to the scars on the body with careful hands, slowly healing all the scars except the ragged name torn on his chest. He briefly thought of remaining at the Sierra Madre. But it was a monument built by humans, representing something he no longer needed. He began walking west, in search of others like him. As he did, he spoke of the courier who had set him free and allowed his life to begin again. |
Only God is alive. |
Inventory[]
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items | On death |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | Rebar club* | - | - |
* Dog and God will have a rebar club added to their inventory only for the kitchen sequence in the Sierra Madre.
Much like Lily Bowen, Dog and God are limited in the weapons they can use. These weapons are:
- Assault carbine
- Assault carbine (GRA)
- Baseball bat (GRA)
- Bumper sword
- Frag grenade
- Gatling laser
- Sprtel-Wood 9700
- Mercy
- Light machine gun
- Lily's assault carbine
- Lily's Vertibird blade
- Lily's gauntlet
- Minigun
- CZ57 Avenger
- Nail board
- Plasma grenade
- Rebar club
- Nuka-Breaker
- Sledgehammer
- Super sledge
- Mean super sledge
- Oh, Baby!
Since Dog/God cannot equip any weapons unique to Dead Money and outside weapons cannot be brought into the Sierra Madre, Dog/God are effectively restricted to Unarmed fighting, frag grenades and the sledgehammer.
Notes[]
- Dog's and God's names are a semordnilap, a word that spells a different word in reverse.[11]
- Dog is set to level as the Courier does, and will reach a maximum level of 45 depending on the order in which each add-on is completed (Dead Money being completed last/close to last). God also levels with the protagonist, but has no maximum allowed level, and also has no minimum level either. Because of this, God/Dog has an extremely high amount of Hit Points at very high levels, in his God incarnation more than any other enemy in the game save for the legendary bloatfly or X-42 giant robo-scorpion. This, combined with his inside 30% DR, can make him a very powerful opponent if the Courier is forced to fight him towards the end of Dead Money.
- Dog is actually smaller than God, set to a scale of 0.9, whereas God is a normal scale of 1. Like Lily Bowen, Dog and God are both shorter than a normal super mutant, although they still stand a head taller than a normal human, in order to traverse narrow terrain as human-sized followers do.
- Dog and God have different combat-related personal perks. Dog has the typical nightkin's 30% DR, while God's health regenerates over time.
- When Dog is dominant, he will occasionally refer to the Mariposa Military Base and the Cathedral in idle dialogue, stating that he misses the base and the church.[1]
- While Dog/God are in fact a mentally disturbed nightkin with dissociative identity disorder, or a similar mental condition (something that likely started developing when the Master died in Fallout), Elijah seems to be under the impression that he is merely a normal second-generation FEV mutant. God has given him this impression by cleverly not speaking aloud whenever Elijah is listening, exposing him only to Dog's personality, who acts like any second-generation mutant.[12][citation needed]
- When God is asked about Elijah, it becomes apparent that he knows about HELIOS One and Elijah's failing there.[13]
- Dog/God has a unique face, a unique body appearance and a unique voice compared to other nightkin.
- If the Courier's collar explodes while having Dog or God as a companion, his subsequent death will count towards the Super Mutant Massacre challenge.
- If Dog/God has throwable explosives (e.g. frag grenades) in his inventory, he will use one initially in combat against ghost people, but is then unable to attack when they get close enough to melee.
- God has no associated game script, which can have a dramatic impact on gameplay. This means he does not automatically heal after combat, and can even die outright without triggering the detonation of the player's collar directly.
- When asked who he was expecting to meet instead of the player, God says that he wished to see the old man for a chat, hoping that he would come for him physically. It's possible that he turned the old radios back on in the station to block Elijah's communication with him.[14]
Notable quotes[]
Dog[]
- "Where is Master? Did he go away? Dog will be good this time."
- "You look like food, smell like food. Dog - hungry."
- "Don't like this place. Want to go back, back to the base. Or the Church, miss the Church."
- "Don't like this place. Want to go back, back to the base. Or the Church, miss the Church."
God[]
- "I'll prop your broken body in view of the Sierra Madre so you can see what you came to steal... forever out of reach as you die."
- "That Pip-Boy... maybe I'll tear it off your arm, wear it on my neck."
- "Wish I had a Stealth Boy instead of this bear trap."
- "No... no, the world's always got another cage, waiting, keeping everything you want... just out of reach."
- "Almost got away... then the idiot's hunger screws it up."
Appearances[]
Dog and God appear only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money.
Behind the scenes[]
- According to Chris Avellone, Dog and God's writing took inspiration from the depiction of Mr. Hyde in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.[Non-game 1]
- Within the game files exists an unused character named Dog Script Test Dude. It is a generic super mutant used to test some scripts related to Dog/God.
Bugs[]
- The dialogue options "Who's this old man that brought us here?", "So you're the one that knows how I got to the villa," "You Brought Me Here to the villa" and "I want to know more about the man who brought us here" remain highlighted even if you have selected them. [verified]
- Sometimes, when clearing out Salida del Sol North with Dog/God, he will fall through the floor and be suspended underneath it.
- Sometimes Dog/God may be unable to heal when idle or given stimpaks. [verified]
- Sometimes when he is ordered to wait, Dog/God will attack the first ghost person he can find before waiting. [verified]
- There is an exploitable bug where you can obtain God's perk without him following you. By having God as a companion, use Elijah's voice to summon Dog's persona. This is only temporary, however; as soon as you dismiss him at his post for Fires in the Sky, this perk will be lost. [verified]
- Dog/God is prone to getting stuck in walls around the villa and may be unable to follow the player in the same cell. [verified]
- Sometimes Dog will bug and repeat the phrase "Let Dog out. Hungry, hate being in here" after you have brought him to the fountain. This is because the game still thinks Dog is in the cage at the police station due to the result of buggy dialogue options when you are convincing him to leave the cage. [verified]
- FIX: If updating the game or returning to a previous save is not an option, the console is the only solution. Go to Dog and open the console, then click him. Remember the first two digits of the number at the top then type set xx000FBF.bDogFreed to 1. Replace XX with the two digits from before.
Gallery[]
References[]
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Non-game
- ↑ Chris Avellone on Twitter: "Yeah. Hyde from the (comic) League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a big inspiration, but I couldn't write as well as Mr. Moore."
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