Ishmael Ashur

Ashur is the leader of The Pitt, a raider and slaver town. He is said to have found a cure for mutations. He is first formally introduced during the quest Unsafe Working Conditions, right before the Lone Wanderer goes to fight in The Hole. Ashur can later be met in person after the Lone Wanderer has fought his/her way through The Hole. The meeting is organized by Werhner and Midea to get the Lone Wanderer closer to the cure.

After the Scourge
In a series of holotapes found in his personal safe, he talks to his daughter Marie about the history of The Pitt. Ashur reveals he was a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, and participated in their assault on the Pitt twenty years ago, known as the Scourge. During the fight, Ashur was caught in an explosion and was presumed dead, so the Brotherhood left him within the mill. After being pulled out of the rubble by scavengers trying to steal his armor, Ashur impresses them, some even considering him a god (Some Pitt raiders call him "Lord Ashur" and Midea sarcastically calls him the "God-King"). He then brought together the scavengers in the area, starting the city.

He chose to start the city in The Pitt because he was touched by the tenacious locals, and the fact that it contained the only operational steel mill the Brotherhood had ever run into. So he recruited everyone in the area, killed raider leaders and made the rest follow him. When that wasn't enough, he resorted to using slaves (who he insists on calling "workers"); he admits he hates to do this, but claims "it has to be done" since citizens of The Pitt are unable to have children due to mutation. His ultimate goal is to create the first city that is "producing" once again, since every other post-War community has lived off leftovers and was unable to create things anew.

Even the Enclave has lacked the ability to re-industrialize, due in part to their bigoted views of waste landers as mutants to be exterminated, when in reality they are a valuable work force. The Pitt is achieving what the Brotherhood of Steel won't, or as Ashur says was "too lazy" to, which is to rebuild factories. This makes Ashur likely one of the most powerful leaders in the Northeast. The ability to pump out weapons and ammo from factories, even if it is only one, is a huge advantage over having to scrounge for it or relying on pre-war stockpiles, as the Brotherhood and Enclave do.

Character
Much like his nemesis Werhner, he cannot be judged as simply "good" or "evil". You do receive negative karma if you side with him and kill him, but there is no karma impact if you side against him and kill him. He often makes sacrifices that he claims "have to be done" like buying slaves to work in the steel mill or experiments on his daughter Marie. Although he uses slave labor, he intends to free the slaves once his city's population is able to reproduce again. This implies that once a cure is found, he will administer it to the slaves as well.

Ashur's daughter
The citizens in The Pitt are not sterile (unlike Ghouls or Super Mutants), but because the area is so heavily radiated, children are almost always born horribly mutated and change into Trogs just a few weeks after birth. Ashur's daughter Marie is unique, since she was apparently born with no mutations at all... not even a sixth toe! Marie can't be more than a few months old, since she's still very small and unable to talk, walk, or crawl.

While Marie's parents do not seem to share her total immunity, it is worth noting that Sandra does not have the skin lesions seen on many other Pitt Raiders, and despite twenty years in the Pitt, Ashur also appears to be healthy (if somewhat dirty and sunburned).

Bugs

 * If you shoot Ashur with a Mesmetron He will stand up and fire at his guards. If the guards sucessfully kill Ashur they will not become hostile towards you and act as if nothing happened.


 * Sometimes when you kill Ashur, Pitt Raiders will not become hostile towards you except for the ones in the area you killed Ashur. Also Sandra will still become hostile towards you.


 * Sometimes after the initial meeting dialog with Ashur he will repeat the words "Don't let me keep you" a few times to forever before leaving. This appears to be a bug, supposedly caused by speaking to others in Haven before speaking to Ashur or by skipping through too much of Ashur's dialog.


 * Ashur will sometimes fall down (exactly like Harkness if you turn him into Zimmer) at random moments. You can also loot while he is in this state and guards will not be hostile when gets back up.

Appearances
Ashur appears in The Pitt DLC pack for Fallout 3.