Fallout: New Vegas/Characters/Honest Hearts

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This is a partial character sheet for the Video Game Fallout: New Vegas. Visit here for the main character index. Subjective trope and audience reactions should go on the YMMV page.

Randall Dean Clark

"It wasn't choice. I chose to die again and again. Just never did. Body had its own drive."

A Pre-War soldier who became a Crazy Survivalist, hiding out in Zion National Park to escape the nuclear apocalypse. Despite having died more than a century ago, he has a lot more to do with the current state of affairs in Zion than you may think.

  • Ace Custom: The Survivalist's Rifle, his custom AR-15/Service Rifle chambered in 12.7mm in a manner similar to real-life .50 Beowulf rifles. Easily one of the better unique guns in the game, right up there with This Machine.
  • Armies Are Evil/Sociopathic Soldier: Played with. He was in Canada at some point, meaning he partook in quite a lot of atrocities the US Army committed during the annexation. He makes his disgust quite clear.
  • Benevolent Precursors: Somewhat averted because as much as helped the children who later became the Sorrows, he made them afraid of the caves because of the traps he set.
  • Children Are Innocent: After tending to the child refugees and seeing them , this allows him to die happy.
  • Crazy Prepared: Mines, rigged shotguns, electrified doors, bear traps, and LOTS of explosives and ammo.
  • Crazy Survivalist: He's even called "The Survivalist". Also has numerous hidden supply caches around Zion.
  • Doomed Hometown: Unfortunately, Salt Lake City did not survive the bombing.
  • God Guise: What he is now to the Sorrows, now know as The Father in the Cave.
  • A Good Way to Die: His health worsening from cancer and age, he spent his last strength to climb up a high ridge overlooking Zion Valley to watch the sun rise. His holotape recording has him mention that it seems an "appropriate" way to go.
  • Heartbroken Badass: See next entry.
  • Heroic Blue Screen of Death: He has several, due to the fact nearly everyone he cared about died, including his original family, the Mexican refugees and his second Vault 22 "family".
  • A Match Made in Stockholm: He met his second "wife" when she got caught in a bear trap he set.
  • Old Soldier: Not when he started, but by the end of the life, he was a veritable Badass Grandpa and One-Man Army.
  • One-Man Army: Kills numerous feral ghouls, spore carriers and 2 thirds of a Vault Expedition using only traps and his handy rifle.
  • Shrouded in Myth: He became known as an evil spirit to the Vault 22 expedition, after killing more than two thirds of them. Later, he became known as god figure called The Father in the Cave to the Sorrows. When Daniel and the other New Canaanites arrive in Zion and preach their faith, the misinterpret that God and the spirit in the cave are the same entity.
  • Survivor Guilt: As expected and complete with failed suicide attempts.

Follows-Chalk

Voiced by: Christian Lanz
"So I finally get to explore all those taboo places without the other scouts yelling at me? Can't wait!"

A scout-in-training for the Dead Horses with a wanderlust for life outside of Zion.

  • Badass Native: Or as close to native as the Fallout universe can get.
  • Double Tap: He knows to make sure that White Leg he kills when you first meet him stays dead.
  • Handgun: Uses a .45 Auto Pistol as his main weapon, like many other Dead Horse warriors.
  • Hero Worshipper: He idolizes Graham as a mighty warrior who protects his tribe. Graham however finds this disturbing as he sees himself as a poor role model.
  • Man Child: He certainly has shades of this. He looks up to Graham as a role model and his comments while traveling with the courier make him sound like an excited kid eager to explore his own backyard (which Zion kinda is...).
    • His random chatter also indicate he has a very naive understanding of "civilisation": he is baffled by the idea that the Legion and Ennseearr tribes would fight over something as insignificant as a small river dam or that people would give away their money just to see someone flip over paper squares. At the same time, he's curious and amazed about a world where someone (referring to the Lonesome Drifter, a wandering guitarist whom he once met) can make a living just from playing music without having to hunt and work.
  • Nice Hat: A baseball cap decorated with feathers.

Waking Cloud

Voiced by: Misi Lecube

A midwife for the Sorrows worried about her husband.

  • Badass Native
  • Bald Women: Her and the rest of the Sorrows shave their heads.
  • Combat Medic: Not in the same vein as Arcade. She's the tribe's midwife.
  • Disappearing Husband: Her husband died getting the tribe's children to safety. She initially doesn't know because Daniel was keeping quiet about it. Whether she finds out or not is up to you.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: Trained in hand-to-hand combat and uses a Yao-Guai gauntlet as her main weapon.
  • Mama Bear: Again, the tribe midwife, but she also has three children of her own. She has volunteered to be part of the tribals who will help fend off the White Legs.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Gender inversion: if you decide to tell her about her husband's death, she gets over it and takes a new one. At her beckoning, he stays home.

Joshua Graham

Voiced by: Keith Szarabajka
"I have been baptized twice. Once in water and once in flame."

Caesar's former Legate and co-founder of the Legion. He was previously a Mormon missionary and tribal expert from Utah, where, decades ago, he helped a young Caesar by translating for him and the Blackfoot tribe the Follower was trying to help. When Caesar took his title, Graham became his first Legate. During the conquest of the other Utah tribes, Graham had a penchant for surviving seemingly mortal wounds; NCR snipers and assassins reported him killed in combat on many occasions, but he would always turn up alive afterwards. After the Legion suffered their worst defeat in history during the First Battle of Hoover Dam, Graham was set on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon. Rumors persist among slaves that Graham once again managed to survive, and lives on as the Burned Man.

He appears in the Honest Hearts DLC as a temporary companion for the Courier.

  • Ace Custom: His personal .45 Auto pistol, A Light Shining In Darkness. A less common 3-inch .45 Auto with a custom hammer, guttersnipe sight, snakeskin grip, (scratched up) chrome plating, biblical quotes in Greek on the sides of the slide, and six rapidly-fired shots of paaaaaaain, which can be an enhanced holdout gun once you acquire it.
  • Aerith and Bob: Never bothered to change his name after becoming Legate.
  • Anti-Hero: Throughout the DLC, he is a type IV. After the DLC, however, depending on the decisions you made, he can regress back to a Type V, stay a type IV, or find peace with himself and become a type III.
  • The Atoner: Played with. He now sides with the Mormons and the surviving tribals in their struggle to civilize the Zion park. However, his plans to counter the threat are rather questionable.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Several Legionaries remark he was a better warrior than Lanius himself. He continues to kick ass after he becomes the leader of the Dead Horses as well.
  • Badass: In many, many ways. First and formost, he survived been thrown into the Grand Canyon on fire!

"Make your first shot count, you won't get a second."

    • Badass Grandpa: Assuming he's around Caesar's (who was around 21 during the founding of the Legion) age, Graham would be roughly in his mid-fifties.
    • Badass Normal: For all we know, he's just a Mormon missionary who also happens to be incredibly adept in combat and amazingly difficult to kill.
    • Badass Preacher: He is a missionary, after all, and often quotes bible passages. He also uses .45 autos, pistols invented by a fellow Mormon John M. Browning.
    • Badass Shaman: He used to translate for Caesar and still does exercise his lingual skills among the tribes. He is also an expert with repairing firearms and armor.
    • Cultured Badass: He's a very calm and patient man who periodically quotes Bible verses and poetry.
    • Four-Star Badass: As the Malpais Legate.
    • Heartbroken Badass: Gets pretty disheartened when the White Legs slaughter his friends and family in New Canaan, which causes his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Bandage Mummy: And it is damn painful for him to even change his bandages.
  • Be All My Sins Remembered: Considers himself irredeemable for his past, though he also believes that means he should simply try harder to atone.
    • Which leads to this beautiful exchange where he tells the Courier what living life as a follower of Christ entails:

Joshua Graham: Every day we move one step closer to our judgment. We must do our best to walk in the footsteps of our Lord and teach others to do the same. For many of us, the road is a difficult one, but the path is always there for us to follow, no matter how many times we may fall.
Courier: Do you ever "fall"?
Joshua Graham: Every day. Some days... are harder than others.

  • Big Good: Basically serves this role in Honest Hearts, being the acting leader of the Dead Horses.
  • Blue Eyes
  • Bulletproof Vest: He wears a Salt Lake City PD vest as his main armor.
  • Determinator: Most people would give up after being lit on fire and thrown off the Grand Canyon. Joshua on other other hand just got up and walked all the way to Utah while killing the best assassins Caesar sent after him on the way. Double points because he likely didn't even have bandages for most of this time, so he was in constant pain.
  • The Dragon: Used to be this to Caesar. The Courier can become his dragon as well. Sort of.
  • Easily Forgiven: Despite being the Malpais Legate, he was accepted and forgiven by the Mormons as if he'd done nothing wrong - when questioned on this, his writer pointed to the parable of the Prodigal Son. This surprised no one more than Graham himself.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Not a played trope, but that's what the biblical quote (in Greek) on his unique handgun's slide alludes to.
    • Also refers to Graham, seeing as how he sees himself as a force for God, but does not see the wrong in what he is doing.
  • The Faceless: He wears bandages at all times to cover his burned skin. Though in the small slideshow before the DLC begins, you can see him pre-execution.
  • Fallen Angel: In-game, he's given the title of "Destroying Angel", similar to how Lanius is the Legionary Badass. Graham's class references a nickname often given to more militant Mormons or groups thereof during the 1800s.
  • Foreshadowing: The Burned Man walks!
    • He also alludes to the Big Empty and Ulysses upon seeing the Courier.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Started off as a Mormon missionary and became one of the most legendary Complete Monsters of the Legion.
  • General Failure: Described as neither a particularly brilliant tactician or strategist, which led to his defeat at the first battle of Hoover Dam.
  • General Ripper: He was reknowned for his brutality. This is in a civilization where entire towns are crucified and the current Legate slaughters anything too slow to get out of his way. Unfortunately, he maintains his brutality even after his Heel Face Turn.
  • Good Is Not Nice: While he was willing to have a change of heart and is fighting for an arguably noble purpose, he still retains the same brutality and Kill'Em All mindset from his days in the Legion.
  • Guest Star Party Member: You only get him as a companion at the final battle of the Honest Hearts add-on. He'd completely break the game if you were allowed to take him anywhere else.
  • Hand Cannon: His unique pistol, A Light Shining In The Darkness, is already extremely powerful, but when he uses it, it automatically does fifty damage. For reference, the sniper rifle does forty-five damage. Unlike most handcannons, it's also fast, semi-automatic, small and light.
  • Handgun: Graham only carries a pistol into battle, but he's extraordinarily skilled with it.
  • Heel Faith Turn: Becoming one of the most ruthless and cruel men in the Legion, he later rekindled his faith after his baptism by fire and now seeks to atone for his past.
  • Heel Realization: If you choose to crush the White Legs and persuade Joshua to spare the White Leg Chieftain, he realizes that his desire for vengeance against the White Legs and Caesar has consumed him and twisted his faith, and decides to let go of his rage.
    • And of course, he went through this during his execution. As J.E. Sawyer puts it:

"He could have chosen to blame Caesar, but in the end he blamed himself."

  • He Who Fights Monsters: If you allow him to take his revenge on Salt-Upon-Wounds, then he will more or less revert back to his old ways when he was with the Legion. The player can call him out on this when he is about to execute Salt-Upon-Wounds who surrendered, leading to his Heel Realization.
  • Hidden Depths: If you talk him out of executing Salt-Upon-Wounds, he'll reveal that he's been using his faith as an excuse for his actions, and that he's trying to convince himself that God is behind him more than trying to convince you.

Joshua Graham: I want to have my revenge. Against him. Against Caesar. I want to call it my own, to make my anger God's anger. To justify the things I've done.

  • Hot-Blooded: Though stoic and calm, he still is rather militant, recommending utter destruction of the enemy even after becoming The Atoner.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: See One-Man Army below.
  • Immune to Drugs: According to Graham, chems simply don't work on him for some reason.
  • Implacable Man: Even before his execution, Graham was extraordinary hard to kill, with his death at the hands of 1st Recon sharpshooters being reported no less then five times. He was also able to fight his way through dozens of the Legion's best assassins and walk all the way to Utah not only covered in burns, but completely alone. In game he has a Damage Threshold of 50, which is more than the Courier can get without specific modifications and bonuses from Old World Blues.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: "Graham, did you just One-Hit Kill a White Leg standing on a hill from 200 yards away with your pistol?" You bet he did!
  • Kill'Em All: Graham's solution to the White Legs tribe in Zion is to simply eliminate them all.
  • Kill It with Fire: He was set on fire first before getting thrown into the Grand Canyon. Wasn't enough.
  • Knight Templar: A rare genuinely positive example, which goes further by Graham being the only companion with a good karma level.
  • Made of Iron: He has insane DT, even though his main armor is a Bulletproof Vest. No explanation is ever given, aside from Graham himself crediting a combination of Heroic Resolve and sheer faith. There are some very scanty hints, such as that chems have no effect on him. JE Sawyer has declined comment.
    • Well, it is noted that the NCR Sniper divisions on several occasions fired upon him and went so far as to report to their commanders that he was dead, and it still didn't kill him. Given the nature of the things he accomplishes, it doesn't seem all that unlikely that God really is on his side.
  • Meaningful Name: He shares his first name with the Iraelite leader who lead the conquest of Canaan.
  • Memetic Badass: An in-universe example.
  • Mr. Fixit: He's a surprisingly good repairman. He states that New Canaanites are all competent gunsmiths; learning to build and maintain their signature weapons is a rite of passage in their mission.
  • Never Found the Body: And unfortunately, it seems that Caesar has found him.
  • Not Quite Dead: He's said to have survived multiple attempts on his life, both from Caesar's assassins and the NCR.
  • One-Man Army: In the final battle of Honest Hearts, he becomes your companion so he can help you take on the White Legs. While helping him is all well and good, you can easily just sit and do nothing, since he effortlessly blasts his way through all the enemy forces without breaking a sweat.
  • Papa Wolf: He has this to say to you if you consider beating Daniel for information.

"If you harm Daniel or any of the Sorrows or Dead Horses, I will find you. Make no mistake. God willing, you will not leave this valley."

Joshua Graham: I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other.

  • Pistol-Whipping: He can do this for some reason, though the player can't.
    • Technically Joshua can't either: what you see is a melee weapon item that uses a modified model of his unique pistol. It's a sleight of hand on part of the developers.
  • Rasputinian Death: And how! And it still didn't kill him.
  • Red Baron: The Malpais Legate or more infamously, The Burned Man.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Daniel's blue.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: To the White Legs after they destroyed New Canaan.
  • The Scourge of God
  • Shout-Out: Some of the dialogue on the subject of Joshua Graham from Daniel and Joshua himself refer to him "burning" figuratively on the inside and being burned literally on the outside... which might be a reference to the Planescape Torment character Ignus.
  • The Stoic: Most of the time.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: It seems the mighty Caesar really, really wanted to make sure Graham wouldn't come back to haunt him. He failed.
  • Tranquil Fury: He is calm and polite, with a soft voice and a penchant for poetic or philosophical turns of phrase. He never shouts, screams, swears, or even seems to become more than somewhat agitated... which simply makes the glimpses into the seething rage inside him all the more freaking terrifying.
  • Unperson: To the Legion. He's simply The Burned Man to them, a boogeyman that some of the more superstitious underlings talk about. Caesar forbid anyone from speaking his name or title after his execution, specifically to prevent Graham becoming legendary, but to his considerable annoyance it happened anyway.
  • Weapon of Choice: He loves the Browning M1911 (or .45 Auto Pistol), and carries a unique one as his weapon.
  • You Have Failed Me...: Caesar ordered him to be publicly killed in a very dramatic manner because the Legion suffered their first major military defeat at the guns of the NCR during the First Battle of Hoover Dam. Graham was directly responsible for the loss because of his failure to adapt and change his tactics fast enough to realize that he was marching his men into a trap.
    • Word of God also implies that because Graham was the only other member of the Legion from a well-educated background rather than a former tribal/raider, possessed knowledge about subjects that Caesar was unfamiliar with and generally kept a sense of independence (keeping his rather un-Roman name for one), Caesar probably saw him as a political threat of some sort.

Daniel

Voiced by: Rick Pasqualone
"Maybe there is no place left in this world for mercy. But even if it tramples me into the dust, I will never accept it. And I will never condone it."

A Mormon missionary originally sent from New Canaan to convert willing Tribals. He decided to stay to help and teach the Sorrows his medical expertise and some modern technologies. He also thought it was his responsibility to protect them since the New Canaanites are the cause of the White Legs entering Zion.

  • The Atoner: Believed that Joshua and The New Canaanites are the main reason of the White Legs invading Zion, and and wished to ensure the survival of the Sorrows.
  • Badass Preacher/Badass Pacifist: Being good with guns is standard for New Canaanites. If the player talks about shaking information out of Daniel to Graham, one of the reasons he notes that's a bad idea (aside from dealing with Graham himself) is that just because Daniel's a missionary doesn't mean he's incapable or unwilling to defend himself. He has companion level health, a high guns skill, and carries a powerful .45 Auto Submachine gun as his main weapon.
  • Being Good Sucks: Like Gannon, he will never get a Golden Ending. If he survives to the end of the story, he either will spend the rest his life regretfully wondering if evacuating the Sorrows really was the right choice or haunted by his failure to preserve the innocence of the tribals.
  • Combat Medic: He's trained as a medic and can function as a doctor in-game. He also helped deliver Waking Cloud's children.
  • The Fettered
  • Good Shepherd
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Flawed, but well-meaning.
  • Nice Hat
  • Not Quite the Right Thing: His ending in which you help the Sorrows escape is bittersweet, at best. Yes, you've saved an entire people from the horrors of war, but you've also handed Zion over to the White Legs. Graham's ending (even the best one) is similarly bittersweet, though in the long term the cost of 'tainting' the Sorrows leaves Zion still standing and helps secure peace in the entire region.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: He is the blue to Joshua Graham's red.
  • Technical Pacifist: Though closer to Actual Pacifist if not for his willingness to fight the White Legs should they invade the Sorrows' encampment. He says he's killed before though, which may disqualify him from this.
  • Was It Really Worth It?: If The Sorrows escape to the Grand Staircase, he spends his life thinking whether or not he made the right choice.
  • Weapon of Choice: Uses a Thompson as his main weapon.

Salt-Upon-Wounds

Voiced by: Adam G

Chief of the White Legs. Infamous for his cruelty and "Salt the earth" policy when dealing with their enemies. He always take part in his tribe's cruelty to show his prowess in hand to hand combat.

  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Several characters in Zion remark that Salt leads from the front, and has personally killed hundreds of the White Legs' enemies with his custom power fist. Depending on player level, he has about 600-700 hit points, which makes him nearly as durable as Legate Lanius himself. Graham can still curbstomp him effortlessly, though.
  • Barbarian Tribe: He runs one, the White Legs. Very dangerous, particularly to the tribals of the region, due to how numerous they are and their access to automatic weapons and other high end military equipment, due to raiding an armory at Spanish Fork.
  • Big Bad: Of the Honest Hearts DLC. Sort of. He's really more like Caesar's pawn, but acts as the main antagonist for the course of the DLC, since Caesar's too busy with the matters of the Mojave to care what the warlord is doing.
  • Cruel Mercy: If you can convince Joshua Graham to spare him. If you don't, then Joshua will proceed to Kick the Son of a Bitch.
  • Cutscene Boss: Objectively, Salt-Upon-Wounds is a worthy boss in his own right. In context, you might as well not bother fighting. Depending on your choice in dealing with him, he may simply be executed by Joshua Graham or run away in fear. Even if you actually start combat, Graham can easily curbstomp Salt-Upon-Wounds and his mooks with no help.
  • Dirty Coward: He was plenty willing to slaughter the citizens of New Canaan (including the sick, elderly and children), but when Joshua Graham comes back, slaughters his warriors, and holds him at gunpoint, he will beg for mercy.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Whatever you to choose to do with him or the White Legs, they don't last a year after the add-on ends.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: His weapon can hurt like that.
  • Nice Hat: His badass-looking skull yao-guai-jawbone helmet thingy. The stat boosts and defense it offers are better then most other headwear in the game.
  • Power Fist: He has his own custom power fist that has a damage-over-time effect, appropriately called "Salt Upon Wound's Power Fist".
  • Unwitting Pawn: Lonesome Road reveals that he and the rest of the White Legs were ultimately pawns for Ulysses. Ulysses, then a Frumentarius, convinced the tribe that they would be allowed to join the Legion if they sacked New Canaan. He never intended to follow through on that.
  • You No Take Candle
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