Caesar

Caesar, born Edward Sallow, is the ruler and co-founder of Caesar's Legion He is revered by legionaries as the self-proclaimed "Son of Mars." He is a former member of the Followers of the Apocalypse, acting an an anthropologist and linguist. He is also a former citizen of the NCR.

Background
Since subjugating the desolate region of the Grand Canyon, he has forged the Legion conquering 87 tribes assimilated from the former Southwestern United States.

The militaristic might Caesar's Legion achieved completely pacified the lands the Legion occupied, but safe roads were only the first step to fully realizing a permanent Legion that could continue after his rule. The next great step was to expand westward and acquire a real "Rome" in the form of New Vegas that could be the base of his new empire. But, before they can continue westward, Caesar and his followers must deal with the New California Republic, a formidable military power that Caesar sees as his first worthy opponent.

Caesar's philosophy is that service to the state is the only virtue. Caesar is critical of NCR society as its leaders care not for the "greater good." This is contrary to Caesar's belief that "an individual has no value beyond his utility to the state, whether as an instrument of war, or production." He views the Great War of 2077 as a chance for humanity to start over and aims to unify humanity under one banner or eliminate them should they refuse. Reading through old world books, Caesar has gained knowledge of the old glory of Imperial Rome and has used the ignorance of his followers to claim that he is Caesar, the son of Mars, the God of War, and not Edward Sallow, former Follower of the Apocalypse.

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.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 desires two things: a Carthage, and a Rome; 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" by destroying the NCR, Caesar's "Carthage" – transforming them from a nomadic army into a true empire; a militaristic, imperialist, autocratic, culturally homogeneous empire whose ruler holds undisputed power - a "Pax Romana" which would prevent humanity from ever fracturing itself again.

Caesar 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 life until her death 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. In the eyes of Caesar, the NCR that came after Tandi's presidency has been blighted with greed and widespread corruption because of the oligarchical control of politicians and brahmin barons looking out for only their interests instead of the greater good and its citizens. Caesar is simply quickening what is the inevitable, logical conclusion of the once virtuous NCR.

Caesar also regards self-sacrifice as a necessary part of rebuilding civilization, as evidenced by the fact that he refuses the very notion of using the Securitrons hidden inside the bunker underneath his camp. Caesar rejects allowing his Legion to advance technologically, believing that life must be kept hard and filled with sacrifice in order to strengthen humanity. He has similarly kept his people ignorant of mankind's former knowledge of medical science, allowing his Legion to get by on primitive healing powders while he himself keeps an Auto-Doc in his tent for both his personal use as well as a "gift" to anyone Caesar favors. Similarly, drugs and alcohol are completely forbidden from being used by legionaries, so most legionaries must make do with previously mentioned healing powder, bitter drink or concocting new remedies like Hydra, all with the caveat that the pain remains.

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.
 * An unused model of Caesar named "NVDLC02CaesarYounger" exists in the game files for Honest Hearts.