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.

Inconsistencies
Quite obviously, the above is horribly false in context of previous entries in the Fallout series. Eighty years after the war, on the West Coast, the Brotherhood of Steel already had the ability to machine weapons, ammunition and replicate technology (although not as advanced as the power armor) on a scale large enough to serve as their primary source of income to buy food and water from the Hub, which in turn was a city which was the primary source of food and water for the region, buying most of the technology from other communities. Furthermore, Adytum was a major supplier of ammunition for the region, in addition to the Boneyard Gun Runners manufacturing weapons.

Ashur's sentiments make even less sense in the context of Fallout 2, where the Enclave operates a freshly built military base at Navarro, clearly has the ability to manufacture energy weapons (to sell to the Salvatores) and is an obvious industrial powerhouse, being able to develop and mass produce the Advanced Power Armor, a post-war technology. NCR is an even more explicit example, as is Vault City, since both have developed industry and the ability to manufacture weapons on a large scale.

However, Ashur may be referring only to the intellectually challenged population of the East Coast, which is unable to create something even remotely similar to the New California Republic.

It is also possible that this faction, since it has lost contact with the west coast brotherhood, was unaware of much of the tech the Enclave introduced in Fallout 2, as they were probably already on their way to the east coast and not informed of the conflicts the brotherhood was facing on the west, at least not until they arrived at the Citadel, since the brotherhood stationed at the Citadel seem to know what Enclave are. While Ashur seems to be unaware of Super Mutants and possibly even the Enclave.

Character
Much like his nemesis Werhner, he cannot be judged as simply "good" or "evil". 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 this area is so heavily irradiated, children are born horribly mutated and almost always change into Trogs within 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 his last phrase a few times before leaving.

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