Concept Art: Mutated Claire

(Update: I just shared this design on public platforms, but here still has more lore details and an extra art.)

You might remember the previous Scornful Encounter comic where it was reveal that Claire, my lone wanderer, is one of Noelle's final antagonists post FNV. I was inspired by the Nuclear Anomaly perk in Broken Steel DLC and wanted Claire to have special radiation themed abilities. We have been figuring out her mutated design for a while and I'm quite happy with this one we landed on.

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Claire's mutation was created by a mixture of different factors, with the main key being the radiation from Project Purity at the end of Fallout 3. After the BoS saved her, she didn't show any unusual sign and continued on with her life as a wasteland doctor. Later she started to experience partial ghoulification on the right part of her body but it was more like that of a glowing one than typical ghouls. Green glowing patches started to appear on her skin and she began constantly emitting mild radiation. Claire became reclusive and eventually left the Capital Wasteland with Charon, hopelessly looking for a cure. And that's how she met Noelle around 2283.

Similar to other ghouls, Claire would not age anymore or would only decay at an extremely slower rate. The mutation does spread throughout her whole body even though the changes are only visible on certain spots. I imagine kinda like parts of her skin cracked but then stopped after the transformation was complete. Those parts are also where the radiation seeps out of her body.

Claire can release strong radiation waves when threatened (just like the glowing ones) which she tries to control and utilize in combat. She is also completely immune and able to absorb radiation for healing. She can even heal Charon with her waves, essentially making them a terrifying pair to fight against, and a worthy opponent as one of the final bosses in Noelle's story.

All the cool atomic magical abilities aside, the transformation did make Claire miserable. She is constantly paranoid of herself and other people. She is afraid that the excessive radiation would turn her or Charon feral and made them hurt each other. (I'm not letting that happen. Don't worry.)

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Claire is a character that I intend to keep around long term and be sort of a bridge to other Fallout titles. She would stay around the Mojave for a while and once I get a chance to play Fallout 4 I want to find a way to send her to the Commonwealth to mess with her nemesis, RJ MacCready. There is still a possibility that her design might be altered slightly in the future, but overall I think we are set with the idea of the glowing skin patches and her right eye being the main indicator of mutation.

I hope you enjoy Claire's side of the content as well! She is super fun to write with, especially because she has different personally from Noelle. And her ship with Charon still brings me so much comfort to this day. ♡