Marmaduke Peck

Marmaduke's story begins long before he entered the family. His "parents", Greggor and Valleria Peck, then-owners of the Peck Brahmin Barony, were struggling to conceive a legitimate heir. This was a problem for them, as the family (Greggor's parents, specifically) had monopolized the entire Ozark animal husbandry and meat-packing industry. Thus, unless they had a child, control of the industry would go to someone else. Not wanting this to happen, Greggor and Valleria took increasingly drastic measures. Drugs were used first, but when that didn't work, they allegedly began to attempt to conceive with other people. This did not work either, and affected their public image negatively, when their affairs were discovered and both were excommunicated from the Atomic Baptist Church.

Desperate, Greggor and Valleria commissioned some couriers to travel to the East Coast and investigate the rumors they had heard about artificial humans. One of these couriers found the Railroad and promised to deliver one of their newly-wiped synths to a better place; of course, delivering them back to the Pecks. They would name him Marmaduke, but they would keep him relatively hidden, since he had already looked to be in his fifties. They only revealed his existence a couple of years before they died, and left everything to him.

On some level, Marmaduke always understood he was a synth, even after arriving at the Jericho mansion. For one, his memories were spotty and inconsistent, and no one in his life could give satisfactory answers to fill in the gaps. For two, Marmaduke appeared to be the same age as his parents (who were also in their fifties), so at the very least he knew he was not biologically related to them. Once he had free reign of Jericho, he investigated the old paperwork his parents kept, and found correspondence related to synth creation, and to couriers tasks with finding them one. One would think that Marmaduke would be disturbed at the realization that he wasn't a person, but he was oddly fine with this fact of life. He believed it made him better than other wastelanders, and knew he could enjoy the fruits of his family's labor without fear of natural death. Still, he keeps this fact somewhat secret, only telling close allies and those he can directly control, such as those he's enslaved.