“No good deed goes unpunished.” On Fallout, Lucy MacLean might be about to find out why. In season two’s second episode, she went out of her way to help an injured woman, both despite The Ghoul’s warnings and despite his injuries. She even left behind her more experienced, more cynical, more ruthless traveling companion to escort that injured stranger home. And that could get Lucy killed. Or worse. The woman she helped in Fallout season two, episode two, is a slave of Caesar’s Legion, a major faction introduced in Fallout: New Vegas. The fascist organization, identified by its golden bull on a red flag and based on Ancient Rome, isn’t “nice” like Lucy. Especially not to strangers or to women.
Fortunately for her, the Legion doesn’t appear to be as strong as it once was. Here’s everything you need to know about Caesar’s Legion from the Fallout: New Vegas video game, along with everything we know about it from Fallout season two so far.
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What Is Caesar’s Legion in Fallout: New Vegas? The Game Faction, Explained
In Fallout: New Vegas, three forces—Mr. House, the New California Republic (NCR), and Caesar’s Legion—vie for control of the Hoover Dam, the Mojave Desert, and New Vegas itself. Prime Video’s Fallout made the NCR a major part of its first season, and we’re touching on it again in the series’ second chapter. In Fallout season two, episode two, we see how Hank MacLean and (seemingly) Robert House conspired to blow up the flourishing NCR capital city of Shady Sands. But this episode also brought the third group from Fallout: New Vegas to the Fallout series, Caesar’s Legion.
In the Fallout games, Edward Sallow, a citizen of the NCR and one of three missionaries sent to study tribal languages to the east, founded Caesar’s Legion in 2247. He named himself Caesar and based his militaristic dictatorship around the ideals of Ancient Rome. (Or at least the ones he liked most.) In Fallout: New Vegas, we learn that Caesar’s Legion grew in power over time, as it conquered surrounding tribes, which it forcefully assimilated into its brutal regime.
What Does Caesar’s Legion Believe in Fallout: New Vegas?
Not everyone hated Caesar’s Legion in Fallout’s world. It did provide a level of structure and safety to a previously wild and dangerous area. But it did so with an iron fist. It either killed or enslaved its many conquered foes, though those allowed to live were allowed to live as it liked under the Legion’s rule…so long as it never questioned Caesar’s orders or delayed in following them.
Caesar’s Legion also marked slaves in Fallout: New Vegas, who wore cheap rags, with a red “X” like the one that adorns the tunic on the woman Lucy saved in Fallout season two. The Legion, which was mostly a military force rather than a society, did not bestow any form of citizenship on its own members, all of whom lived simply to serve and ultimately die for Caesar. Unlike in Ancient Rome, not even the highest members of Caesar’s Legion could ever hope to attain any real rewards for their service.
Only men could serve as soldiers, as Caesar forced strict gender norms in the Legion. Women could only fill traditional sexist roles. They were also seen primarily as breeders, as the Legion needed to grow its ranks. Caesar’s Legion uses women in vile ways, which Fallout’s show alluded to when the women Lucy saved warned her about avoiding New Vegas.
Caesar’s Legion Is a Faction That Turns Away From Technology
The Legion does have a religion. It worships Mars, the Roman god of war. But it (mostly, despite what its leader wears on his wrist) does not employ or allow any technology, certainly not robots. It also eschews modern medicine. Caesar outlawed stimpacks in Fallout: New Vegas, which is exactly what Lucy used to save the Legion’s woman slave in Fallout season two, episode two.
The Flag of Caesar’s Legion
In Fallout: New Vegas, we learn the Legion’s flag contains a golden bull on a red background. It hangs down like a banner instead of hanging sideways like a normal flag. Joshua Sawyer, the developer of Fallout: New Vegas, revealed that the flag of Caesar’s Legion was based on the standard of Legio X Equestris, Julius Caesar’s favorite legion. Sometimes, Caesar’s Legion can be referred to as “bulls” in the Fallout world. It seems the flag, and the bull on it, represent Caesar’s Legion’s devotion to Caesar and to the idea of “masculine strength.”
Caesar’s Legion vs. The New California Republic in Fallout: New Vegas
In 2277, three decades after its founding, Caesar’s Legion was powerful and strong enough to challenge the New California Republic. The two forces had been slowly moving towards one another, as the NCR pushed east and the Legion pushed west. That year, they fought for the Hoover Dam and the power that came with it. The NCR won. Barely. And not by enough to wipe out the Legion.
Sallow regrouped and overtook more tribes, and by the time of Fallout: New Vegas in 2282, he and Caesar’s Legion were ready to try to take the Hoover Dam again. That game features four possible endings, with each also having variations. In one of the four Fallout: New Vegas endings, Caesar’s Legion wins, as New Vegas falls to a fascist dictatorship. In one variation of that ending, though, Sallow dies, and his second in command takes command.
Caesar’s Legion in Fallout Season 2 Is Weaker Than It Was
Prime Video’s Fallout, set 15 years after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, is not treating any New Vegas ending as canon. The show’s creators are using a “fog of war” approach, in which no one really remembers exactly what happened. That means every ending from the game both happened and didn’t. We’ve already seen evidence of that, as the NCR doesn’t seem as powerful as it was 15 years prior. New Vegas itself also seems to have experienced a terrible battle that turned the once bustling entertainment center (it was mostly spared during the Great War) into a memorial of brutal battle. It seems Caesar’s Legion is just as weakened as its two former New Vegas enemies in Fallout season two.
The Ghoul was surprised to see anyone in a “tunic” that far west. His surprise suggests enemies pushed Caesar’s Legion back east. It’s also impossible that the original Caesar Sallow is still alive, as that would mean many Fallout: New Vegas endings would be left incomplete. Since the entire Legion revolved around him, his death (at any point) could have very well led to a power vacuum no one ever truly filled. The fact that the Ghoul never warned Lucy about Caesar’s Legion before they entered that building also shows how little the Ghoul was concerned about this faction. Caesar’s Legion is just not what it was in Fallout season 2.
Caesar’s Legion Is Still a Dangerous Fallout Faction in the Prime Video Series
But this Fallout faction doesn’t have to still be as strong as it once was to be dangerous to Lucy. She’s a woman (who used a stimpack) to save a woman slave, the type of noble, heroic act Caesar’s Legion won’t care about at all. It also views outsiders like Lucy as “profligates,” the term her temporary traveling partner used to describe her. The Legion considers anyone not a part of its domain to be profligates, a group worse than slaves. “Captures” like Lucy are either elevated to slaves or killed.
The Ghoul tried to warn Lucy against helping the woman she saved. Now, Lucy might need him to save her from Caesar’s Legion on Fallout season two. He might be able to do exactly that. The group does appear to be a lot weaker than it once was. But even a weak Caesar’s Legion is dangerous.
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