Caesar

Caesar, born Edward Sallow, is the ruler and co-founder of Caesar's Legion

Background
Edward Sallow was born in 2226. His family originated from near the Boneyard in the New California Republic. After his father was killed by raiders, his mother sought protection from the Followers of the Apocalypse when Sallow was two years old. She worked at the Boneyard Library as a cook and cleaner, where he learned how to read and took free courses.

Sallow became an anthropologist and linguist, and was sent east to the Grand Canyon on his first expedition when he was 20 years old. Joined by a physician named Bill Calhoun, he was assigned to learn the dialects of local tribes. They met up with Joshua Graham, a Mormon missionary who already knew several dialects and planned to teach Sallow. Before Graham had the opportunity to do so, the group was captured by the Blackfoot tribe, who intended to hold them for ransom.

Sallow learned that the Blackfoots were at war with seven other tribes, and were outnumbered. Against Calhoun's objections, Sallow taught the Blackfoot new ways to wage war, which he had learned from old books. With Sallow's help, the Blackfoots defeated or assimilated the opposing tribes, and once the group of tribes was large enough, Sallow removed their tribal identities, replaced them with "a monolithic culture, a uniform identity." Sallow crowned himself Caesar and created "a single Great Tribe," known as the Legion. He sent Calhoun back west with the message that he should not be interfered with, and Graham remained, serving as his first Legatus.

Mojave
After having seen the corruption and in fighting within the NCR, Caesar based the new Legion off of Imperial Rome in the hopes that he would be able to emulate it's success, where all citizens work towards the betterment of the greater whole. He believes in his new Pax Romana, where the individual has no value beyond their utility to the state, and that the NCR will fail due to an inability to work towards the "greater good."

Members of the Legion believe Caesar possesses the divine right to rule by being the son of the Mars, and children of those conquered by the Legion are indoctrinated in this manner.Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p. 41: "Caesar's Legion: This horde of cruel, yet highly disciplined slavers has spread across the southwest like an all-consuming flame. Founded by a fallen member of the Followers of the Apocalypse, Caesar's Legion is effectively an enormous, conscripted slave army. As Caesar conquers the peoples of the wasteland, he strips them of their tribal identities and turns their young men into ruthless legionaries and women into breeding stock. Unlike the rag-tag Raiders back east, Caesar's "Legionaries" neither look nor act like haphazard, irregular troops. They are well organized, moving and attacking in large packs, and deliberately commit atrocities to terrorize those who might dare oppose them. ''True, Caesar is the perfect man. But he is not just a man: he is the Son of Mars, ordained by the god of war to conquer all Earth. To prepare the way, Mars razed the Earth, cleansed it with fire, and brought the weak and the wicked low; and now his son has come to deliver the wasteland from chaos and barbarism. To follow Caesar is to obey the will of Mars; to disobey is to condemn oneself to death. As the Son of Mars, Caesar has the divine right to demand servitude from all he encounters. Not everyone believes that Caesar is the product of a god's loins, of course. The most recently captured slaves tend to be pretty skeptical. But they aren't very vocal in their criticisms, and their children are raised not by skeptical parents but by priestesses appointed to that task by virtue of their knowledge of an adherence to the state religion.'' ''Nearly all physically capable, compliant males are compelled to serve in its armed forces. The primary value of pre-menopausal females is to serve as breeding stock (with Caesar or a legate governing how they are assigned to males), though they, like older females and less physically-capable men, are also used to perform a variety of other tasks. The largest unit of organization in Caesar's Legion is the Cohort, numbering about 480 infantrymen. Cohorts are further divided into Centuriae, which contrary to their name numbers about 80 men, and each Centuriae is divided into ten "tent groups" (Contubernia), making this the squad level of organization. Raiding parties are of this size (about eight men) and will be led by a Decanus (a squad leader, basically).'' ''Caesar desires two things: a Carthage, and a Rome. In the NCR he has at last found a grand adversary, against which he can wage a military campaign worthy of history books. And in Vegas, powered and watered by its great dam, he has found a capital worthy of, well, a Caesar. Contrary to the old saw, Rome will be built in a day. All it takes is plentiful slave labor, and Caesar has that in spades."'' (Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide/Faction profiles) Caesar teaches that women are inferior to men, and has decreed that homosexuality be punishable by death. Caesar has likewise outlawed chems and alcohol.

In 2271, the Legion's presence served as a catalyst for the Ranger Unification Treaty. President Kimball recounts during that year, the Desert Rangers of Nevada joined the New California Republic's forces to protect the region against "the tyranny of [Caesar's] regime." The Legion expanded west into the Mojave and established a base of operations on Fortification Hill overlooking Lake Mead and the Colorado River in 2277.

The Legion controls the former states of New Mexico, and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Utah, having conquered or assimiated 87 tribes. Caesar mentions that his territory has cities, but nothing compared to Vegas and that in conquering it, "Finally, my Legion will have its Rome." In doing so, he will have accomplished his plan to transform the Legion from a nomadic army to a more stable standing military, with the ability to better protect it's citizens and his own power.

What stands in the way of this goal are the New California Republic and forces of Mr. House at the Hoover Dam. The Legion's attempt to take the location at the Battle of Hoover Dam was unsuccessful, resulting in Caesar attempting to kill Graham by lighting him on fire and casting him into the Grand Canyon due to the failure. Caesar traveled to the Fort to execute the next attempt himself.

Other

 * His initial reaction towards the Courier depends on their actions:
 * He reacts annoyed if they caused trouble by helping the NCR, by completing the quests Restoring Hope, Birds of a Feather, Eye for an Eye, by completing I Put a Spell on You in the NCR's favor, breaking the alliance with the Khans during Oh My Papa, brokering peace between the Kings and the NCR as part of Kings' Gambit, completing How Little We Know in Cachino's favor, or by killing Dead Sea or Vulpes Inculta.
 * He reacts positively if they assisted the Legion in the past, by completing Cold, Cold Heart, We Are Legion, by unlocking ARCHIMEDES II for themselves in That Lucky Old Sun, or by killing or releasing Silus during Silus Treatment.
 * He notices if the Courier commits hostile actions against the Legion after first speaking with him, and issues a threat during the next conversation. Ignoring his warning and comitting more hostile acts toward the Legion results in him turning hostile upon talking to him the next time.
 * He turns hostile if the Courier tells him that they are done working for him, or that they changed their mind about killing President Kimball during Arizona Killer.

NPC comments

 * Several non-player characters will comment on the event of Caesar's death:
 * Julie Farkas embraces the happy news while also doubting that anything will change for the better.
 * Mr. House, while initially preferring to keep Caesar in power, notes that his death has a "minimal" impact on the outcome for the Second Battle of Hoover Dam.
 * Mr. New Vegas is capable of addressing both a botched brain surgery and an assassination.
 * Craig Boone reacts spiteful if he is present as a companion during Caesar's death.
 * Lily Bowen remarks that Leo thinks there is more violence to come with Caesar dead.
 * Caleb McCaffery greets the Courier with "All hail the slayer of Caesar! It's about time that slavemaster got his!"
 * Chairmen at The Tops and White Gloves in the Ultra-Luxe may comment.
 * NCR troopers may wish that they could have been there when it happened.
 * Francine Garret and her brother James give a free bottle of liquor to celebrate.
 * Sergeant McCredie and Mags both complement the Courier for killing Caesar.
 * Joshua Graham reacts surprised, but thinks his death will do the Mojave good.
 * Ulysses remarks that Caesar's name has died twice to history.

Appearances
Caesar appears in Fallout: New Vegas and is mentioned in its add-ons Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road.

Behind the scenes

 * The character was written by John Gonzalez, with Joshua Sawyer asking "for Caesar to present his rationale in the framework of Hegelian dialectics."
 * When asked about similarities between Kurtz and Caesar, Joshua Sawyer stated that both are educated "men of intelligence" that "traveled from a life of relative comfort, technological wizardry, and 'civilization' into a wilderness full of warring people with relatively low education and a relatively 'primitive' lifestyle."
 * According to Joshua Sawyer, the character was also partially inspired by Charles Taylor of Liberia, whose war crimes make Caesar's cruelty look "moderate" in comparison. Other inspirations were taken from brutal warlords of the past, such as Timur and Simon de Montfort.
 * Sawyer also stated that Caesar's Karma is neutral due to his "unmoored morality," and that "whatever moral framework he had as Edward Sallow" just vanished over time.
 * Metzger, the leader of the slavers guild from the Den in Fallout 2, was initially named Caesar during development.