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 PC goes to fight in The Hole. The PC gets to meet Ashur in person after fighting his way through The Hole. The meeting was organized by Werhner and Midea to get the PC 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. 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.

Good or Evil?
It is very difficult to tell whether Ashur is good or evil, and seems like more of a grey character, much like his nemesis Werhner. You lose Karma when stealing from him, which suggests the game thinks of him as good. 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.

His 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).

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