Aradesh

“
We are a very protective community. As Dharma said, 'Many sticks can be broken. A bundle cannot.'

”— Aradesh
**Aradesh** is the leader of Shady Sands in *Fallout*.

He is also the founder and first President of the New California Republic.

## Background

### Vault 15

Aradesh was born as the son of an inhabitant of Vault 15, a sister vault of Vault 13. His multicultural accent and appearance are attributed to being descended from Vault 15 dwellers, which housed the social experiment of incorporating people of diverse cultural backgrounds. By 2162, he was the head of Shady Sands, founded by his ancestor in 2122.

He led the community with a steady, guiding hand, maintaining the isolationist attitudes of the townsfolk, aiming to make it a completely self-sufficient community, and keep it that way. Initially, he greeted the Vault Dweller with reserve, but after he removed the radscorpion threat and later saved his daughter from the Khans, he welcomed him openly in the community. Broad horizons were opening up for the small town.

### Founding NCR

Aradesh (along with Seth and Tandi), would later start laying the foundations for the New California Republic, with him being elected as its first president. Soon after, inspired by the Vault Dweller's legacy, Aradesh and Seth began searching for Vault 13. However, during one of their expeditions, all traces of them were lost, and they were presumed dead. Afterwards, his daughter took her father's position of President, guiding the NCR to a brighter, safer future.

## Interactions with the player character

### Quests

* Rescue Tandi from the Raiders.: Aradesh's daughter was kidnapped by some Khans. He wants you to rescue her.
* Stop the Radscorpions.: Aradesh tells you that there is a nearby cave that's filled with radscorpions and he's wary that they could cause some damage.

### Other interactions

* He is likely to be among the first non-player characters with a talking head that the player will encounter. It will be learned quickly that he does not tolerate being lied to. Should the player act rash, refuse to answer questions, or lie about their origins in Vault 13 (excusing the fact that characters with high Speech can lie their way in), Aradesh won't hesitate to lead them to the town borders. This has no real effect on further interactions in the town, as one can walk back in and re-initiate dialogue with Aradesh without negative repercussions.

## Notes

* If you select the "Tell Me About" option and type Shady Sands, Aradesh will say that he has never heard about it even though he runs the town.
* In *Fallout: New Vegas*, Aradesh's face appears on the NCR five dollar bill.

## Appearances

Aradesh appears in *Fallout* as a talking head and is mentioned in *Fallout 2*, *Fallout Bible*, *Fallout: New Vegas*, and *Fallout 4*.

## Gallery

* "Wanderer, I shall believe you . . . for now. You may enter Shady Sands, but be warned your every move will be watched."
* "Ummm, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Please talk to Razlo. He possesses far more information on these creatures than I."
* "As Dharma said, 'Caution is life in troubled times.' Your origin is not the issue. Your intent is."

* $5 bill from 2281

## References

1. ↑ The Chosen One: *"{116}{}{President Tandi?}"*
Dusty: *"{118}{}{Daughter of President Aradesh, the guy who founded NCR. She's been president for years. Does a good job too.}"*
(Scdusty.msg)
2. ↑ Fallout Bible 0: "Vault 15 *Intended to stay closed for 50 years and include people of radically diverse ideologies. Gathered from what you hear from Aradesh in Fallout 1, he has quite a bit of multi-cultural flavoring to his speech."*
3. ↑ Fallout Bible 0: "2142 Spring *Shady Sands founded, wall erected against the raiders."*
**Note:** The date provided is incorrect and not consistent with in-game sources. 2122 is the more likely one, given the dates of formation of the raiders. It's also consistent with the Vault Experiment.
4. ↑ TheVault Dweller: *"{107}{}{I'm from a Vault to the west. My people are dying of thirst and I need to find a water purifier chip for them to survive.}"*
Aradesh: *"{143}{Ara\_13}{Wanderer, I shall believe you . . . for now. You may enter Shady Sands, but be warned your every move will be watched.}"*
(ARADESH.MSG)
5. ↑ Aradesh: *"{210}{Ara\_32}{You are truly a hero! Know that the people of Shady Sands are most grateful.}"*
(ARADESH.MSG)
6. ↑ The Chosen One: *"{182}{}{Statue?}"*
Tandi: *"{183}{tand14a}{That's right. For scaring off the raiders. They kept clear of Shady Sands afterwards we got time to get ourselves set up. We made him a hero... even if we didn't believe a word about him coming from Vault 13.}"*
Tandi: *"{315}{tand14b}{My dad and Seth searched for years trying to find Vault 13. They died looking - always said it was west of here. If somebody were to find Vault 13, that'd do us even better than 15.}"*
(Shtandi.msg)