Caesar

Caesar, born Edward Sallow, is the charismatic leader and founder of Caesar's Legion. He is the self-proclaimed "Son of Mars" and a former Follower of the Apocalypse and citizen of the NCR. He serves as the central antagonist in all but one storyline in Fallout: New Vegas.

Origins
Edward Sallow was born in 2226. His family once lived near the Boneyard until his father was killed by raiders when he was two years old, forcing him and his mother to flee ―eventually finding sanctuary with the Followers of the Apocalypse in 2231. He received a free education from the Followers and eventually became a scribe specializing in anthropology and linguistics. While he was intelligent and charismatic, he was never very popular among his peers, due to his narcissism and petulance. He did not feel like he belonged among the Followers and, in hindsight, considers their goals to be utterly naive.

In 2246, at the age of 20, Sallow and Calhoun, a fellow Follower, were sent to the east to study tribal dialects. He was instructed to meet with Joshua Graham, a Mormon missionary from New Canaan, who was a tribal specialist. They embarked on a journey to the region known formerly as Arizona as part of a nine-person expedition. Disgusted by the primitive conditions in which the tribals lived, he looked down upon them as inferior and immoral. During this expedition, they also discovered a cache of books about ancient Rome. While he had known some basic facts about ancient history, these books shed new light on some of the details. Reading first The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and then Julius Caesar's own Commentarii, personal accounts of his military conquests, changed his life and was the starting point of his grand plan.

Rise to Power
At some point in 2247, Sallow, Graham, and Calhoun became hostages of the Blackfoot tribe - while Sallow believed the tribe did this for ransom, Graham would later attribute the change in the tribe's relationship with the party to a mistranslation. At the time the tribe was at war with seven other tribes; they were heavily outnumbered and Sallow recognized their defeat and subsequent demise was only a matter of time. Unwilling to be destroyed along with them, Sallow chose, (against the wishes of his companions), to use his knowledge to train the Blackfoot tribe in the art of warfare after witnessing their lack of knowledge first hand. He showed them how to clean and maintain guns, operate with small unit tactics, manufacture explosives and to strike at their weakest enemies first; divide et impera - divide and conquer. He quickly impressed them enough to the point where he was made their leader - taking on himself the name Caesar. This would be classified as grandiose delusions which also attribute to his belief that he is the same as the original Caesar.

Caesar introduced the tribe to the concept of total war against the tribes around them. Sallow knew that, even though the tribes had always fought each other via occasional skirmishes, he considered them to only be "playing at war", having never seen warfare at its most destructive and barbaric state. They defeated the weakest of their enemies first and enslaved many of the able-bodied survivors; but Sallow had the rest, including women and children, killed to the last, leaving their remains piled high. When Sallow surrounded the next of the Blackfoot tribe's foes, they refused to surrender. Sallow brought an emissary of the tribe back to witness the fate of the first tribe - the tribe surrendered, rather than suffer the same fate. The concept of total war was an entirely new and terrifying type of conflict that the tribes had never encountered before. Such brutality would form the core of the Legion's tactics and philosophy.

Surprisingly, Joshua Graham decided to join Sallow as his right-hand man, in time becoming known as the Malpais Legate. While Calhoun was sent back to the Followers to inform them of what he was doing, the other six members of the expedition were murdered on the self-proclaimed Emperor's orders. The newly-christened Caesar formed his Legion out of the tribes that had either been conquered or had chosen to capitulate to avoid total destruction. He used the Commentarii as a blueprint―after all, which illiterate tribal would know that he was not the original Caesar, and his "Rome" was merely a copy of a civilization long gone? Caesar chose the concept of the Roman Empire to model the Legion after because of its parallels to what he considered the "status-quo" of the post-apocalyptic world - he believed the concept of individualism to have no place facing the challenges of the wasteland. Ideologically, the Roman Empire also appealed to him for its ability to assimilate those it conquered, with the destruction of "tribal" identities a key part of the Legion's long-term strategy of unification. He intended to erase their individual identities and replace them all with a single, monolithic culture - the Legion - where individuals have no value outside of what they offer the greater whole.

By 2250, Caesar had declared himself the son of Mars, Roman god of war, and five years later he established his first capital in the ruins of Flagstaff. By 2274, he had conquered most of the tribes of northern Arizona, southwestern Colorado, western New Mexico and eastern Utah, and became known as the "Conqueror of the 86 Tribes", whose Legion had never met any serious defeat until their confrontation with the NCR at the First Battle of Hoover Dam.

War with the NCR
The Republic has the dubious distinction of being recognized by Caesar as a worthy adversary. He views his campaign against NCR as similar to that of his namesake Julius Caesar who eventually seized power for himself after crossing the river Rubicon and capturing Rome; going on to take control of the Republic after years of campaigning against the tribes of Gaul more than two thousand years earlier. Likewise, the new Caesar has campaigned against the myriad tribes of the East and will now cross the Colorado river and begin his unstoppable conquest of the West and the NCR.

After succeeding in destroying one of their major fortifications, Fort Aradesh, Legion forces under the command of the Malpais Legate marched against the NCR garrison at Hoover Dam, in an attempt to take the strategic asset and river crossing. In what became known as the First Battle of Hoover Dam, the Malpais Legate initially had the upper hand, able to push the NCR defenders back and lead his forces over the dam. Lead elements of the NCR, including members of the 1st Recon Battalion and NCR Rangers, executed a tactical retreat west across the dam and into Boulder City, all the while using their prowess in marksmanship to kill the Legion officers (primarily Centurions and Decanii). The Legate, unable to adapt to new strategies in combat, chose to order his Legionaries to push the rangers, not knowing the NCR had booby-trapped Boulder City, laying explosives along their line of retreat, drawing the Legion into a trap. When the Legion forces entered the city, the NCR detonated the explosives and inflicted severe casualties among the Legion forces, crippling their offensive. The NCR forces then counter-attacked, pushing back and eventually routing the Legion forces who fled back east over the Dam. Caesar, angered at the failure of his Legate, made an example of him. The Praetorian Guard covered the Malpais Legate in pitch, set him on fire, and cast him into the Grand Canyon.

Today, Caesar makes his camp at Fortification Hill, poised to take the Dam and subsequently New Vegas as his new capital. Caesar is playing his cards more cautiously this time, and will not give the order for Lanius to attack the Dam until he can unearth the contents of the vault sealed beneath his base in the Mojave. Caesar also needs to neutralize House, attempt to forge an alliance with the Boomers and the White Glove Society, destroy the Brotherhood of Steel, deal with his brain tumor and attempt to assassinate President Kimball.

Philosophy
Aside from military defeat, Caesar's greatest fear is being exposed as a fraud. Most members of the Legion, excluding some of the most trusted ones, are oblivious to the fact that the Legion's culture is based on books about ancient Rome - they believe that all of the customs enforced by Caesar were dictated to him by Mars himself. Those who claim otherwise are viewed as ultimate blasphemers. While some of the newly captured slaves are skeptical, they don't tend to be vocal about it, and their children are taken away from their parents to be raised by Caesar's priestesses. Secretly, Caesar still doesn't feel like a real Emperor of Rome - with his loose nation of savages, he still thinks of himself as merely a barbaric king of the Gauls. By seizing New Vegas Caesar felt that he would finally be able to elevate his Legion into a legitimate nation by giving it its own "Rome" - transforming them from a nomadic army into a true empire; a militaristic, patriarchal, imperialist, autocratic, culturally homogeneous empire whose ruler holds undisputed power - a "Pax Romana" which would prevent humanity from ever fracturing itself again. And in the NCR he found his Carthage.

He regards the NCR as only an extension of the corruption that existed during the Old World and that it is ultimately doomed to repeat the same mistakes. He sees in it similar attributes associated with the Roman Republic before Julius Caesar seized power; extensive bureaucracy, corruption, senatorial infighting and filled with a people driven solely by greed and personal gain. It exists as the antithesis to the Legion and as a catalyst for change that only a confrontation with it can bring; a clash he sees as an inevitable product of Hegelian dialectics. The conflict is a vital one, not only for the future of his Legion strategically, but also philosophically; the NCR is the first of his enemies to which he is truly ideologically opposed and the first that can truly test the strength of his Legion, as well as his philosophy.

In his view, the NCR does not have a long-term solution to the problems of the Wasteland - the bombs had reset humanity's progress and he believed the time had come to rebuild it into something new. He argues that NCR is weakened by its democracy, and that it was at its strongest when under the dominating rule of its second president - Tandi - whose popularity was such she remained leader of the NCR for most of her lifetime as the senate would never dare oppose her. He was taught to venerate her as a child and observes that she was ultimately more of a Queen than an elected official and that it is similar centralized power that a new civilization needs.

Quests

 * Render Unto Caesar: From here on out, the player can choose to work for Caesar and thus the Legion.
 * Et Tumor, Brute?: Caesar has a lethal brain tumor that he desperately needs fixed.
 * The House Always Wins, Wild Card: You and What Army?: When the player comes to The Fort, Caesar believes he has another pawn to use. He orders you to go to the underground weather monitoring station and destroy the Securitron vault. When Mr. House or Yes Man contacts you from within the bunker and tells you to activate all the Securitrons, you can.  The resultant shaking of the ground fools Caesar into thinking you destroyed whatever was there.
 * Return to Sender: If Caesar has been killed, the player can complete the quest without Hanlon killing himself.

Killing Caesar
If you manage to kill Caesar the effects on the game are fairly minor, (although the Legion ending is massively changed), due to the fact that Caesar, as the leader of the Legion, no longer directly participates in combat.
 * Julie Farkas exclaims "So, the great Caesar is dead ..." and goes on saying that she doubts that it will have much effect on the imminent attack.
 * If you kill Caesar while working with Mr. House on the various "The House Always Wins" quests, you can return to Mr. House and tell him that Caesar is dead. Mr. House simply notes that this has a "minimal" impact on the battle for Hoover Dam, and offers no reward or punishment for the action.
 * If you kill Caesar, Mr. New Vegas will say "it is still unknown how the assassin managed to evade security", even if you killed Caesar in a frontal assault on The Fort (i.e., didn't evade security).
 * If Caesar is killed with Boone as a companion, Boone will smugly say "Thumbs down, you son of a bitch!", a reference to the gesture that is commonly thought to have called for the execution of a failed gladiator in ancient Rome, interestingly though, thumb inside the fist actually meant "mercy" or "weapons down". He will subsequently have further dialogue options when selecting the "Talk" option. He will also talk about the death of Caesar having little effect on the attack on Hoover Dam, but admits, on prompting from the Courier, that he still enjoyed it immensely.
 * There is a speech dialogue, if speaking with the Legate at the end of the game, stating "So, Caesar giving orders from beyond the grave?" - an indication that Mr. House is right, and Caesar's death was no more than a minimal setback. However, House will also note that Lanius is a poor leader compared to Caesar, and predicts that within a year of his death the Legion will be torn apart by infighting.
 * Caleb McCaffery greets you with "All hail the slayer of Caesar!"
 * Marcus remarks that the Legion follow Caesar, not Caesar's ideals, and that when Caesar dies the Legion will fall apart -- though perhaps not immediately.
 * Most NCR troopers will say: "Wish I could have been there to see Caesar die. What an asshole."
 * Chairmen at the Tops will state "That's the guy/gal who killed Caesar!"
 * Francine Garret states "here's one on the house for taking down Caesar, serves him right for treating women like livestock," and gives you a free bottle of liquor.
 * James Garret will also give you a free bottle of liquor, like his sister.
 * Some travelers on the Strip will comment, "Now that you've killed that Caesar bastard, the Strip's really going to bloom."
 * If Caesar is killed, Sergeant McCredie at Camp Golf will compliment the Courier on a great job, and Mags will say "I hear Caesar's dead, and we have you to thank for it...nice work."
 * In Honest Hearts you are able to tell Joshua Graham that you saw Caesar die. He will not react much to the news but he will admit that he thought he would die before Caesar. He also remarks that Caesar's death is good news for the Mojave, and states that without Caesar's leadership the Legion will eventually fall apart.
 * If the player speaks to Lily, she will remark that Leo thinks there with be more people to chop up and that the player should be careful.

Notable quotes

 * "Yet we are at the throat of the Great Bear. Victory is at hand."
 * "I was taught it was my responsibility to bring the torch of knowledge to the wastes. I may have taken the torch part more literally than they intended."
 * "As an anthropologist and linguist, my assignment was to learn the dialects of the Grand Canyon tribes. What a fucking waste of time!"
 * "If you think it's worthwhile to make smart people learn how to talk like backward savages, you're a Follower of the Apocalypse... or an idiot."
 * "I showed them total warfare. Like I said, there's a lot you can learn from old books."
 * "So that's what I did, once my confederation of tribes was large enough. I crowned myself Caesar and created a single Great Tribe - my legion."
 * "We have cities of our own, but nothing compared to Vegas. Finally, my legion will have its Rome."
 * "Thesis and antithesis. The Colorado River is my Rubicon. The NCR council will be eradicated, but the new synthesis will change the Legion as well... from a basically nomadic army to a standing military force that protects its citizens, and the power of its dictator."

Appearances
Caesar appears only in Fallout: New Vegas and is mentioned in the add-on Honest Hearts, and was going to appear in Black Isle's canceled Fallout 3 Van Buren.

Behind the scenes

 * John Gonzalez wrote Caesar and J.E. Sawyer asked for Caesar to present his rationale in the framework of Hegelian dialectics.
 * Metzger, the leader of the Slavers Guild from the Den, was initially named Caesar.
 * Caesar, unsurprisingly, possesses a number of parallels to his historical counterpart. For example, the historical Caesar actually suffered from a condition similar to the one depicted in-game. He had headaches, blackouts, and sometimes even seizures. In terms of appearance, Caesar is balding and has an Aquiline nose, a sign of nobility in ancient Rome. One thing of note is that Caesar is 55 years old in 2281, and the historical Julius Caesar died at the age of 56 on March 15, 44 B.C.
 * Caesar's background appears to be heavily inspired by the character Kurtz from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.