Levi
An older man who needs glasses. High Intelligence, High Charisma, low Strength and Endurance — a diplomacy and science build. A man who believes in the power of reason over brute force. The wasteland is a rude awakening to someone still living in a pre-war university mindset. Sent out to find the Water Chip and save Vault 13. Unable to face the wasteland head-on, he talked his way through. He'd align ideologically with the Followers of the Apocalypse; companions, he travels with out of necessity rather than camaraderie.
[The rest of this file has not been written yet.]
Karov
A very young man with a strong build and bright red hair, the result of a random mutation. High Strength, High Charisma, low Intelligence. A classic Fallout 2 "himbo" build. Karov is Levi's descendent, and, unlike that old man, is a charismatic, good-natured, simple-minded warrior who solves problems with his fists or his smile or maybe even his bulging... muscles. Often blunders his way into heroic outcomes. He got along with almost anyone friendly enough to travel with him — Sulik, Vic, Cassidy. Post-game, he wandered the wasteland, fathering many children. One of them carries this file forward — see LIBERTY, below.
Eden
Appearance
A short, pale woman of Asian descent with short, poofy black hair and bright blue eyes. Often wears a utility jumpsuit or Talon Company combat armor.
Background
An alienated nihilist who hated the vault, hated the wasteland, and hated her father most of all. She hated James because he was always so focused on the project and completely missed that she was getting bullied in the vault, that there was nothing she could do about it, and that she didn't even have the clout Amata had as the Overseer's daughter. The G.O.A.T. gave her the one job she didn't want. She never forgave Vault 101 for that. Never. When Butch asked her to save his mother, she stood there for a loooooong time, and only stepped in at the very last second. He deserved it.
Eden liked that one of the first things she heard in the Wasteland was her own name coming out of an eyebot's speakers. President John Henry Eden's broadcasts offered a sense of purpose, and she joined up with the Enclave. Partly conviction. Mostly because her father annoyed her.
Record
Bombed Megaton because it was ugly, the nuke looked awesome, and the Tenpenny suite was nicer. She's not evil, per se, she's just been abandoned by her dad and decided to abandon the world in response — which is cold comfort to Megaton.
She had a GREAT time in Tranquility Lane. I headcanon she was in there longer than we are in game, so she got to have her little domestic bliss time, and then torment the residents, and then go back to pretending everything was fine — and this was basically heaven for her. Except that she still didn't have a dad to be nice to her there, so Timmy ALWAYS got his day ruined (Braun was greatly amused). First you ruin his lemonade stand, then tell him he's going to military school, then cause his parents' divorce, then kill his mom, then his dad, then both… and you keep trying variations of the one that gets the reaction you like best. A part of her wished she could stay longer. And then your stupid fucking dad has the nerve to be bitchy about it when you get out, and start going on about "rumors he's heard about Megaton." Fuck do you care? Go stare at your water again.
AUTHORITY — A father cannot afford to lose the respect of his children. Losing respect means losing control. He is no longer the head of the family.
Sold Flak into slavery specifically because she resented that he and Shrapnel had a happy relationship. Sold a few other people into slavery because, hey, why not? Helped Moira with the Wasteland Survival Guide because she thought it was funny that Moira was a ghoul and still thought her life had value. Killed the ghouls in Tenpenny Tower, because she's a NIMBY. Robbed her human neighbors anyway. And at the purifier, she made Sarah go in — since she's SUCH a good fucking person.
Her preferred companions are the neutrals: Dogmeat and Sergeant RL-3.
Hack
Appearance
A pale woman of average height with short dark brown hair and a prominent lobotomite scar on her forehead. Low Strength, low Endurance, low Charisma; high Perception, high Intelligence, high Luck. A glass cannon.
Background
A lobotomite from Big MT, raised by robots. As a child born in the Big MT (to lobotomites? Man, that's dark. Possibly born to scavengers who were like, I DON'T THINK THE BIG EMPTY IS EMPTY!!!! And learned. They learned.), she would often hide in the auto-docs, because auto-docs couldn't properly recognise people that weren't an adult size. Once she got a little too tall, however, an auto-doc reactivated and decided to "fix" her minor brain damage. By, you know, using a whole new brain — that of a much older, pre-war Enclave officer who had died years and years before Hack was even born. Like. She was doomed from the start. Because she was always going to grow up.
What's left is a mind that's a total mess: two incompatible life stories, with Hack filling in the gaps of her inconsistent and nonsensical memories herself. She is obsessed with America and the Enclave. She believes she is the child of Enclave personnel from Navarro who took refuge and died in Big MT, and that she is a secret service agent on a special mission to recover the Platinum Chip and secure New Vegas as True American Territory.
Hack isn't even, like, her name. "Hack" was just what the security systems of the Sink would identify her as when she interfaced with them (I can see the machines there screaming HACK!!! I'M BEING HACKED!!!), and she began interpreting that as her name. She can't remember her birth name, or the name of the Enclave officer she believes she is. She also realises, eventually, that she can't reconcile her obvious youth with the fact that she remembers being an officer in their 50s. Which is, uh. Really good for her. She just gets really, really distressed, and then forgets it. The brain protecting itself. "Hey. Arcade. Stop making me do these cognitive tests, you're actually really upsetting me — I mean, jeopardizing the mission."
SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] — Do not question her story again. She is two questions away from falling apart.
Companions
Prefers machines over humans. She travels exclusively with ED-E, as he is literal Enclave technology that validates her delusion. The one tolerated human is Arcade Gannon, due to his intelligence. Arcade begins traveling with Hack after he leaves Coyote over the Legion thing — feeling burned that he hadn't realised Coyote was a frumentarius who'd never really left the Legion behind, he tries to do good by helping a clearly delusional young woman. Hack lays out all her crazy immediately: yes, she IS in the secret service. No, she has never actually contacted the Enclave. But she's the west coast representative by elimination, so she gets to put herself in the secret service. Arcade feels like what he sees with her is exactly what he gets.
When ED-E gets damaged, she KNOWS there are parts to fix him in Big MT, so she goes BACK, despite hating that place so much. She would never admit it, though — she just tells Arcade that she doesn't want to leave a valuable resource for the US government unattended. Arcade comes along because he's Curious about all the shit there. And he starts noticing that the tunnels Hack takes him through have a bunch of graffiti and little kids' drawings on the walls. "Aw, Hack, are these yours?" — "NO, AND I DON'T KNOW THE MISCREANT WHO HAS DEFACED GOVERNMENT PROPERTY."
Liberty / Courier One
Born as Limit in the Cipher tribe — a tribal society that memorizes pre-war schematics as religious texts without fully understanding the science. She is the daughter of Karov, the Chosen One, and inherited his bright red hair, worn in a long ponytail, plus freckles. High Strength, High Endurance, High Luck, low Intelligence: tough but dumb (traits: Wild Wasteland, Good Natured). Prefers lightweight leather armor.
It was widely expected she would one day leave, and she did. Flighty, good-hearted, and driven by wanderlust, an outcast for her desire to find NEW old-world tech rather than just maintain the old, she left the tribe and adopted the coolest, most old-world name she could think of: Liberty. She took the courier job simply for the adventure and to learn more about life outside her tribe; the longer dream is to find new, functional old-world technology and turn her tribe's faith into reality. She gets along extremely well with Veronica Santangelo (whom she recognizes on sight as a fellow tech-priestess), and forms strong bonds with other good-hearted companions: Boone, Cass, Lily.
Coyote / Courier Six
Names
He has had four. ALKURT — his birth name, the favored son of the Greydog tribe, born on the first full moon after a long famine with a third nipple, a sign of coming luck and good harvests. ANTONIUS — the designation the Legion gave him at thirteen, a name indicating value, per the Decanus who gave it. Alkurt disliked it. ANTONIUS MERCURIALIS — his full Frumentarius name, granted to reflect his role as messenger and courier. And COYOTE — the name he chose for himself in Goodsprings, after Benny put a bullet in his head and the Legion wrote him off as dead.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] — Alkurt. Turkish for "red wolf". Red wolves, incidentally, are coyote-like wolves. Some people even think they're coyote mixes. The more you know.
Appearance
Lean build, with a long, thin nose and sunken eyes. Often wears a tattered pre-war suit over light armor. Bears scars on his head from the gunshot and on his throat from an explosive collar.
Background
Born into the brutal, cannibalistic Greydog tribe, his worldview is defined by survival of the fittest. He resents Caesar's Legion not for its ideology — which he supports — but for its inefficiency, and for destroying his tribe. The long-gone Greydogs that Coyote idolises so much were, in fact, incredibly brutal and unforgiving: children deemed "too weak" were abandoned, the tribe practiced ritual cannibalism tied to full moon rituals, and attacked other tribes to take prisoners for ritual sacrifice. Coyote remembers it all with very rose-tinted glasses.
When the Legion conquered the Greydogs, thirteen-year-old Alkurt saw that the men were killed and the boys taken, and attempted to disguise himself as a girl so he could stay behind with his mother and sister. He was quickly found out and forced to join the other boys. What followed was brutal Legion training, and a growing realisation that he was attracted to other boys — the first time he was sent as a spy into NCR territory, he was startled when a man flirted with him. His suspected homosexuality is almost certainly what kept him from being a truly respected Frumentarius: Antonius is difficult, overly prone to "profligacy," and got whipped often as a result. Deployed to the Mojave, he took more pleasure in his false identity as a courier than in his true one as a Legion spy, and developed the habit of "indulging" himself whenever he was out of the Legion's eyeshot.
Then he got ambushed delivering the Platinum Chip, shot in the head, and woke up under Doc Mitchell's care. The prequel arc of Nemo Iudex opens with him going "oh well, back to Frumentarius duties as usual" — and then realising that, dude, the Legion thinks he's dead. He can do a lot and not get caught. Dead Money happens, and he comes out of it going: I'm aiming way too low with this "become Caesar's favorite so he lets me fuck dudes and gamble and do my tribal shit while he looks the other way" plan. I should just kill Caesar.
HALF LIGHT — Absolutely! We should all just kill Caesar!
Personality
The only thing Coyote fears is "not being able to do whatever I feel like doing."
To Coyote, slavery is not a bug but a feature. He genuinely believes that if someone hates being a slave, they should be strong enough to kill their master and take their place. This extends to all societal roles. The hilarious thing about Coyote's focus on the Legion PROPERLY using its resources is that he ALSO believes he's leading the Legion to eventually consume the NCR and become a Proper Society — because look, man, he's still Legion, and thus just as prone to being Fucking Delusional. He's like, yes, yes, the slavery and rape will turn into a well-functioning society if we just add a little technology in there. Coyote: women are people… sometimes. He lasts about two years after taking over before going, hey guys. If women are so cringe. We should make fucking men okay. Think about it. He's not mad at Caesar for bigotry — he's mad because Caesar is wasting perfectly good resources because he is a STUPID OLD MAN. If we could stop babies from dying so much, we could allocate a few women to becoming men so they can be SPIES. Come on now. (And besides: the NCR would NEVER expect women to be spying for the Legion.)
Okay wait, I thought of a better way to explain him. Coyote thinks there was exactly one problem with what happened at Nipton: they should have saved time by using flamethrowers.
RHETORIC — It's very simple. He's a social Darwinist. The worst part is that he thinks he's the rational one. Might makes right is what animals live by, and our Coyote is living up to his name.
PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT — Don't listen to that pansy, son. Might does make right! Anyone will agree if you hit them hard enough.
COYOTE — "Arcade, you have no reason to be worried. A learned man like you would be wasted on slavery. The point is to create a world where men like you can thrive, supported by the… less erudite. Come on, you don't really believe a simple raider deserves the same rights you do, do you?"
ARCADE — "I hate you so fucking much."
Vulpes Inculta
Your tribe leaves you to DIE. Some fuckass six-year-old decides it would be funny to help feed and cover you with blankets while you are left to DIE. And then your surviving brothers die and you "miraculously" survive, so they're like, oh well, might as well take the runt back. But they don't give you a name… you're the pale runt. And then the Legion comes, and you're a BOY now. This opens up the world to you. And you get to Flagstaff, and the Legion renames you, and the name you get is: Albinus. Pale. You are alive because a LITERAL CHILD wanted to play a little god. It must feel soooo fucking good to outrank him.
Vulpes and Antonius developed a particular animosity as both realised they were each other's competition — recognised for their cunning, trained as Frumentarii. Their conflicts are explosive. They fight physically, in public and in secret. Vulpes was a young prodigy with unquestionable loyalty, so he outranks the difficult Antonius, nearly a decade his senior — and it's Antonius who grows irritated watching Vulpes judge him for sleeping with men while undercover. ("Vulpes" is a title passed down from head Frumentarius to head Frumentarius. His original Legion name was Albinus — he only became Vulpes Inculta when he earned the post. This is also why Vulpes is white-haired and old on the playing card but dark-haired and younger in-game: different Vulpes.)
When Caesar's brain tumor handed Coyote the ultimate political weapon, his first move was to secretly meet Vulpes and ask him to join. He knew exactly which levers to pull: Hey Vulpes, reminder that Lanius is Caesar's successor. Hey Vulpes, reminder that he thinks you being a "woman" is hilarious. Hey Vulpes, reminder that the Chosen of Mars made you a man, and he could make you a woman, too. Goodness — it seems like the brain tumor made Caesar choose a bad successor. Not his fault. The tumor. (Vulpes would totally go to Caesar like, my lord, I know you are busy, but I was wondering what happens to my manhood if you die? And the question sounds so stupid that Caesar laughs in his face.)
Vulpes thinks about the pitch. He owes Caesar his status as a man — and that means everything to him. Vulpes doesn't consider himself "transgender." He is not a girl that was made a man. He is a man, fully and completely, and has been from the moment Mars's Chosen proclaimed it so. But he can't shake the feeling that he may be disposable. He's as good a spy as he is because he's capable of playing the role of a woman — nobody ever expects a female to be a Legion spy. But suppose Caesar turned his daughters into sons? And suppose Caesar did die, and Lanius succeeded him… was there any truth to the Courier's jab about Vulpes becoming Lanius's wife?
Their final confrontation, when Coyote takes power, has them speaking as though they are estranged brothers — which, Vulpes supposes, they are. When Vulpes enters Caesar's tent in the morning, he brings the Platinum Chip with him: he'd withheld it from a dying Caesar, and felt like a traitor every day he did. Antonius commends him on not handing it over while Caesar was alive — then cheerfully asks Vulpes why he should preserve the life of someone who had three chances to join him, and refused each time. Antonius rubs salt in the wound, asking whether Vulpes would accept Antonius unmaking him into a woman just as easily as he accepted Caesar making him a man. Vulpes pushes back: his manhood is as certain as the rest of what Caesar built — the Fort and the Legion that Antonius is so happy to take control of.
And it's literally going to be a sic semper tyrannis situation, where eventually Coyote ALSO gets assassinated by someone thinking they can do a better job. Could be decades. But it'll happen.
COYOTE — "Et tu, Vulpes?"
VULPES — "YOU KNEW THIS WAS COMING FOR TWENTY FUCKING YEARS."
Arcade Gannon
Arcade first meets the Courier at the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside. The Courier is incredibly charming, and paints himself as someone working against both the Legion and the NCR for an independent Vegas. Arcade has heard of the Courier's brutality in combat, but this seems at odds with the man he actually meets — the Courier helps the Followers of the Apocalypse, pets stray dogs, and helps children find missing puppies. However, Arcade has also heard about how the Courier emerged from Nipton unscathed, massacred both the Powder Gangers and NCR on his way up from Primm, and is rumored to leave behind half-eaten corpses.
Coyote's sexuality helps him manipulate Arcade at first. Like boiling the frog, he eventually "trusts Arcade enough to share more of the story" — implying he was a Legion slave that ran away, then letting that turn into him being a Legionary that ran away ("After all, Arcade, those boys are slaves of another sort"), then finally sharing the Frumentarius part once he thinks he's got Arcade on the hook. Part of how he gets Arcade on the hook in the first place is by playing into Arcade's own concerns about homophobia in the Legion — Arcade never has to ask why Coyote left, since Coyote is perfectly happy to imply it's his sexuality. And Arcade's time with Coyote is kind of a naive moment, where Coyote keeps talking about missing his TRIBE and how Caesar killed his TRIBE, and Arcade is very sympathetic — and never asks about the tribe enough to realise that those guys were capturing prisoners from rival tribes to eat them in full moon rituals.
As Coyote grows more angry and continues defending the Greydogs, Arcade realises that Coyote's issue with the Legion lies only in the ways the Legion treated him, personally, badly. Arcade asks Coyote if he's against Caesar. Coyote says that he is. When Arcade asks if he's against the Legion, however, Coyote is silent. He defends himself: the Legion can be fixed, if only Caesar weren't around — they could start using actual medicine and technology, exceptional women would get the chance to prove themselves worthy of joining the ranks of men, and the Legion could bring the law and order that the NCR or an independent Vegas simply couldn't achieve. Arcade sees this defense for what it is: a defense of a system that still runs on slavery and conquest.
After their friendship inevitably implodes, Arcade travels with Hack (see above). As the battle for the Dam grows closer, he hears through the grapevine that Caesar has died and a mysterious man has taken his place. Some of the rumors say the mysterious man is the Courier from Nipton. Arcade knows, with a sickening certainty, that those rumors are true. Later, Arcade recognises Vulpes spying in Freeside and asks him directly. Vulpes confirms it — then criticises Arcade for travelling with the Courier all that time and never thinking to ask about the tribe the Courier seemed so eager to resurrect. Vulpes mocks Arcade for his bleeding heart, and reveals why he himself rejected the Greydogs so violently all those years ago. "Oh yeah. He told you about the tribe, huh? Well, did he mention that we ATE PEOPLE??"
Dr. Richard Batters
Imagine being a doctor in the wasteland, and this random fuck is, like, REALLY into you, so you're like, heyyy, okay, this is flattering. Maybe I'll chill with him. Maybe I'll sleep with him. And then he tells you that he thinks You've Got What It Takes to give the local warlord brain surgery. And you agree, because, well, you've been sleeping with him and getting lovebombed… and then you fuck up the surgery (you're 90% sure it's because this guy fucked with your tools), and when you get crucified, bro acts like he's never even spoken to you, let alone sucked your dick.
For the record: Coyote sought out Arcade first, hoping to convince him to perform the surgery and "accidentally" kill Caesar. Failing that, he found Batters — a doctor barely better than a wartime medic — and seduced him into attempting the doomed surgery. Caesar died on the table. When the Legion called for the surgeon's head, the surgeon expected Antonius to defend him. Instead, Antonius was the first to help string him up on the cross.
The Coup
Lanius is too far away to immediately take Caesar's place at the Fort, so the Courier steps in: de facto leader of the Legion, poised to take Hoover Dam, forcing Vulpes into submission, planning a Triumvirate. Coyote mirrors Brutus. Literally. He thinks Caesar is too obsessed with himself to truly work for the good of the Legion, goes to Caesar's most trusted guys like, guys, we need to get rid of him so we can continue the Legion as a HEALTHY Caesar would have wanted. And then he wants to create a Triumvirate??? Bro?? Dude, this literally means Coyote is recreating the leadup to a HUGE civil war all over again, because the fucker has never actually read about the real Rome. This is how Coyote can still lose.
Post-Arcade, he only travels with companions who are either too cynical to object to his methods (Raul) or incapable of moral judgment (Rex). Other records: helped Goodsprings… then privately killed Chet and Easy Pete (both of whom refused to help) and got the hell out of dodge. Killed the Nipton lottery winner and took his ticket, because he thought it might have actual value. Crucified Benny, which ROCKED.
PLAYER COMMENTARY
Coyote was based on my first playthrough of FONV in middle school — except that when Arcade turned on me and left after I teamed up with the Legion, I got so mad that I reloaded a save and gave him to Caesar as a slave before he could ever leave.
In the prequel, Nipton is very much Vulpes going WHAT THE FUCK. WHY ARE YOU STILL WALKI— I mean. Hello. We've been expecting you. Naturally. (Vulpes had watched Benny pop a cap in Coyote's head, pumped his fists in the air, and went to go celebrate.)
Legion courier Coyote talking to Arcade about his upbringing is like: omg yeah, the legion was horrific and was a monument to Caesar's ego (should be mine), and I hate them all more than anything (which is why I'm going to take it over), and I had to leave by any means (so I can come back to stage a coup). YESSS, HE HATES CAESAR'S LEGION… BECAUSE HE HATES CAESAR. THE LEGION PART IS ACTUALLY FINE.
I hate Caesar so much it's wild. I don't hate most Legionaries, because the ones we see were raised into this, and were tribals before. Caesar was an EDUCATED-ASS MAN. CHOOSING TO DO THIS. He chose to create an army of miseducated boys. He refused to teach them the history they're aping. He denies them technology. He wins wars through throwing hordes of men — no, not men, BOYS — at the problem. He came from the Followers and CHOSE. CHOSE. CHOSE. to create a society where the sexual slavery of women is just a fact of life. And the massive slave class can be ignored, because some of the women in Legion territory are doing fine? Take Vulpes: he cannot leave his post, cannot take a different job if he pleases. Because he was taken as a boy from a defeated tribe, he is a slave. A slave that gets to mistreat the other slaves, but one nonetheless. Caesar is actually such a vile fucking person he drives me insane. And that is how you know I'm a true Legion fan.
Coyote's view on women depends on my interpretation of Vulpes being a "special case," where a female can be raised as a man If Caesar Deems It. This is also how I explain a female Legion courier being accepted, if that ever happens: Caesar goes, hey guys, so Mars spoke to me, and she is Actually a man. I'm sorry, but a female Legion courier makes NO SENSE if you can't imagine Caesar having made an exception before in, what, THIRTY-FOUR years?
Trans Vulpes is fun to think about, because he is also the guy most plastered to Caesar's dick — and imagine if it's because he knows Caesar made an EXCEPTION to declare him a man. My god. That's gotta be like crack. Caesar can do no wrong.
Model-age trivia: someone determined that Vulpes's age in the GECK is set to 20, but according to in-game events he should be, like, 50 — except he's also CALLED a young man. So I split the difference and make him late 20s in my head, with Coyote 7-8 years older. So, 28 and 35, maybe.
PLAYER COMMENTARY
Eden's concept was: "what would make daddy hate me most, in such a way that it's obvious he's responsible for what he hates?"
She quickly regretted the Megaton thing, because it made fast travel inconvenient.