Civilized Man's Burden

Civilized Man's Burden is a side quest in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts.

Detailed walkthrough
After completing the quest Tourist Trap, a new dialogue option opens up with Follows-Chalk regarding his interest in seeing civilization. If asked, Follows-Chalk says that one day a "man with a big mustache and guitar" came to the Dead Horses camp. If the quest Talent Pool has been completed, the Courier can remark that they know that man, the Lonesome Drifter and that they got him a job, thus confirming his identity. Follows-Chalk goes on to say that he was intrigued by the man's professed occupation; traveling the wasteland as a wandering entertainer, being paid simply to make music.

Follows-Chalk then confesses that he is afraid to ask Joshua Graham for advice about whether or not he should see civilization for himself, and asks the Courier to speak with Joshua on his behalf. When asked, Joshua states that he does not wish to interfere further in Follows-Chalk's decisions, leaving it to the Courier to provide guidance one way or the other. The Courier can then either lie to Follows-Chalk about what Joshua said, or tell the truth and provide their own opinion of whether Follows-Chalk should stay in Zion for his family's sake, or see more of the world. Regardless of using the lie or truth Speech options, the outcomes are the same for Follows-Chalk based on the implied "go" or "stay" option given.

If Follows-Chalk is advised to explore civilization, his ending involves returning to Dead Horse Point, then quarreling with his family and other tribe members about his ambitions. "One morning, they awoke to discover that Follows-Chalk had set off alone, westward, into the wilderness. He was never seen again."

If Follows-Chalk stays with his tribe, his ending involves his life after remaining in Zion. "Though he sometimes dreamed of distant lands, he continued to support his family at Dead Horse Point, and eventually his wanderlust faded."

Behind the scenes
The name of this quest references Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden," which was written by him to encourage the American people to assume colonial control of the Filipino people and their country. As a poet of imperialism, Kipling exhorted the reader and listener to take up the enterprise of empire, yet warns about the personal costs faced, endured, and paid in building an empire. Nonetheless, American imperialists understood the phrase "The white man's burden" to justify imperial conquest as a mission-of-civilisation that is ideologically related to the continental-expansion philosophy of Manifest Destiny of the early 19th century. The name of the quest was altered, likely because the Courier has the potential to be non-white.

Bürde des zivilisierten Menschen Carga del hombre civilizado Бремя цивилизации Тягар цивілізації