Fallout: New Vegas/Characters/Lonesome Road

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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.

Ulysses

Voiced By: Roger Cross
"America sleeps. And until it's dead, I carry it. Just like I carried you. More than hope. Belief."

By far the most mysterious character in New Vegas. A courier who "wears an Old World flag on his back", Ulysses was a Frumentarius and was originally intended as a Legion-aligned companion, but was cut from the game during development. His role is foreshadowed in Dead Money and Honest Hearts, heard in holotapes in Old World Blues and is the central figure of Lonesome Road.

The original Courier who was to carry the Platinum Chip and loyalist of the Pre-War United States, he contacts the Courier to give him/her one final assignment: to meet him at The Divide with the promise of explaining why he chose not to deliver the Platinum Chip. He has a connection with the Courier that remains a mystery until Lonesome Road.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

"Who are you, that do not know your history?"

  • The Atoner: If talked down, Ulysses will remain in the Divide, to keep the Marked Men and Tunnelers from invading the Mojave, and to try and help them if he can. He'll also provide a little support to you, in the form of items he's salvaged, general wisdom, and advice on how to deal with Lanius.
  • Badass:

"The day I set my flag down, it'll be over my body or over a nation I believe in."

    • Badass Longcoat: Wears a customized duster.
    • Badass Normal: He's just like you, just an incredibly skilled and resourceful Courier.
      • Although every single one of his SPECIAL scores is 10.
    • Heartbroken Badass: He had considered leaving the Legion to start a new life at the Divide. That is, until the Courier brought that package from Navarro...
  • Being Watched: Observent players have noticed that Ulysses is following the player, being one step ahead along Lonesome Road. Behold! [1]
  • Berserk Button: Just listen to him talking about how the White Legs copied his dreadlocks with no heed for the meaning...
    • In general, he seems to have particular contempt for those who use symbols without understanding their meanings. It's one of the reasons he dislikes the NCR.
  • Big Bad: In Lonesome Road.
    • Bigger Bad: Of the rest of the DLC (and arguably the entire game, given the sheer scale of what his ultimate plans are).
  • Big Damn Heroes: In the Big Empty, he saved Christine from becoming a Lobotomite in the Y-17 Medical Facility.
  • Call Forward/Call Back: Ulysses mentions that Elijah will probably be killed in the Sierra Madre by someone smarter and tougher than he is... guess who? Since the event in question happens in Dead Money, whether it is a reference to a future or a past event is up to the player.
    • Another one is the fact that Ulysses basically created the events of Honest Hearts by teaching the White Legs how to use modern weapons and kill off New Canaan's allies in Utah by starving out their communities. The White Legs then honored Ulysses by taking his dreadlocks and making it part of the tribe. He was not happy about that.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: The earliest we hear about him is as just some random courier who turned down the Platinum Chip delivery. Turns out he played a big part in all the DLC.
  • The Chessmaster: He manipulates the Courier into coming to meet him in the Divide, bringing along the Eyebot that contains the codes he'll need to launch the nuclear missiles. And just in case the Courier managed to defeat them, he arranged for the Marked Men to come in and finish the job.
  • Courier: Just like you.
  • Creepy Monotone: He rarely emotes. It's like it's all been wrung out of him.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy
  • Defeat Means Friendship: If you manage to talk him down at the DLC's climax, post-Lonesome Road, he'll wander around the passage to Hopeville and give you anything of interest that he's scavenged from the Divide. He'll also have rather mellow conversations with you, and teach you how to make Bitter Drink.
    • Even if you do kill him, he leaves you a package with a few gifts, and a final message effectively wishing you luck.
  • Defector From Decadence: Eventually grew disillusioned with the Legion upon seeing the world progress without them.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The Courier unwittingly caused the destruction of the Divide (read: a prosperous but single town), so Ulysses is going to get his revenge by nuking half the Mojave.
  • Dreadlock Courier: Was once part of a tribe named the Twisted Hairs, who all wore their hair in dreadlocks.
    • As noted above, he turned the White Legs into this. He was furious and sickened, as they came to represent what had happened to his own tribe, dreadlocks under the thumb and control of Caesar, setting him down the path he's on now.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: His very first appearance was on a New Vegas themed deck of cards that came with the Collector's Edition, nearly a year before he finally appeared in game.
  • Everything's Better With Explosions: He's responsible for blowing up the top half of the medical facility where Christine was imprisoned. Also, it is part of his philosophy with how to deal with the NCR and Legion. Destroying the Long 15 will stave off the NCR, leaving those in stuck in the Mojave to face the Legion without support. He also destroys the Legion outpost of Dry Wells, his old home and where his tribe was destroyed and absorbed into the Legion.
  • Expy: As a courier wearing a United States flag, he shares a lot of similarities with The Postman.
  • The Faceless: Wears a breathing mask on his face. Justified from both a technical and in-game standpoint. Technical, since the NPC-only version functions as a helmet that gives him his unique facial appearance and hair, albeit also adding a slight Uncanny Valley look; he never blinks, the mask hides his un-moving mouth, and his eyes glow slightly. The in-game justification is that the Divide has cases of residual radiation still in the environment, and the mask protects him from that.
  • Fighting For a Homeland
  • Final Boss: If you choose to fight him, he will not make it easy. He has 10 in every stat, can't be knocked down, a powerful gun, and a lot of health. That's on top of everything below.
  • Flunky Boss: If you choose to fight Ulysses, you also have to deal with respawning eyebots and waves of Marked Men.
    • Justified, after all. The Courier survived a Double Tap then went on a crusade across the Mojave to get his/her package back. Along the way, s/he may have already killed scores of Legion/NCR soldiers, Fiends, Deathclaws, Caesar himself, Mr. House, Benny, Elijah, Joshua Graham, the Think Tank, the Brotherhood of Steel, the Great Khans, the Boomers and anyone else who crosses his/her path. S/he also trekked his/her way through the Divide, killing even more Deathclaws, Tunnelers, and Marked Men. Ulysses knows this. With the Courier, the only kill is overkill.
  • Foil: The Courier's own alignment notwithstanding, Ulysses seems to be incredibly similar yet solidly opposed to him/her.
  • Foreshadowing: His role is foreshadowed in each of the DLCs.
  • Gas Mask Longcoat: Wears a breathing mask and a sleeveless duster.
  • Hero of Another Story: More like antagonist. Ulysses' adventures shaped the formation of the Courier's enemies long before you ever came into conflict with them. Though if the player sides with the Legion, then Ulysses plays the "hero" part straight.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Is only once given a passing mention in the main story, and even then he's never referred to by name. Only in Lonesome Road does he finally make his appearance, and even then only at the very end do you meet him in person.
  • Honor Before Reason: Why didn't he ever kill the Courier? Because Caesar left specific orders not to kill any Couriers.
  • Hypocrite: He's disdainful of explosives in general, viewing them as a cowardly tactic of the NCR, and especially does not like Hanlon in how he used them to defeat the Legion at the first battle for Hoover Dam. Thing is, Ulysses uses explosives extensively himself, first in blowing up the medical facility at Big MT, and in deciding to use nukes to destroy NCR, the Legion and Mojave.
    • He calls the Courier out for causing so much damage through careless actions, most notably for destroying the Divide. However, he indirectly caused the crises of Honest Hearts and Dead Money, teaching the White Legs to use firearms and telling Father Elijah about the Sierra Madre. He also came close to breaking the logic loop of the Think Tank with his Armor-Piercing Question, which would have resulted in them leaving the Big Empty, precisely what the player ends up averting due to the disaster it would be in Old World Blues.
  • Implacable Man: He has over a thousand hit points. More than any human character in the game and more than quite a few monsters too.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
  • Kick the Dog: As a former Frumentarius, he's done this a lot, most notably in sacking New Canaan.
    • If Ulysses knows the Courier cares about ED-E, when he takes control of the robot, he'll not only say he'll strip it down to basic components, but he'll do while while it's activated, just enough to be fully aware of it. However, ED-E is unharmed if you find it; Ulysses may have been trying to psyche the Courier out.
  • Meaningful Name: He named himself after Ulysses S. Grant, a general who turned two flags into one, but lost himself after doing so.
    • And, for those not up on their history, Grant was a great general, but in his later life as a politician (i.e. US President), he was mediocre by comparison, and Ulysses is alluding to how Grant willingly chose to leave a path he was good at walking for one he couldn't.
    • Ulysses is also the Roman name for Odysseus, the legendary Greek hero who spent ten years trying to return to his homeland once more after the end of the Trojan War.
      • It's also worth pointing out that Ulysses himself makes it known that, while he took his name from the historical Ulysses, he does see how someone could see otherwise at this point.
  • Not So Different: He calls out Christine of being this compared to Elijah, as like him, she was incapable of letting go of the past. Thing is, neither is he. He even admits to it. And he even has a similar motivation to "wipe the slate clean".
    • Also, when training the White Legs, he felt that he'd become Not So Different from Vulpes, who did the same for his tribe only to betray them to the Legion.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: He intends to start a series of events that will ultimately destroy civilization in the NCR, Legion or the Mojave. All due to one package and an unsuspecting Courier.
  • One-Man Army: Joshua Graham casually mentions that Ulysses wouldn't have needed a caravan to get to New Canaan, hence the Courier couldn't be him. He essentially alludes that he is this, considering the constant danger of a trip to Utah from the Mojave.
  • Patriotic Fervor: Or so you'd think at first, given all his talk about flags and how America only sleeps. He actually wants to destroy the NCR and the Legion because they appropriate "Old World symbols" (America, in the case of NCR) without any real understanding of the history or meaning behind those symbols.
    • Close examination of his character reveals him to be a rather weird case: he is a fervent patriot, but has no nation to which he wants to pledge his loyalty. He was going to try it with the Divide settlement, but that didn't end the way he'd hoped.
  • Pet the Dog: See his Big Damn Heroes moment above.
  • The Rival: He sees you as this, and in terms of story, he is essentially your counterpart. However for you, he's an Unknown Rival, as you've never met him in person before and have no idea there's another courier out there waiting to kill you.
    • Unknown Rival: Prior to the events of Lonesome Road, the Courier has never met him before.
  • Scary Black Man
  • Screw the Rules, I Have a Nuke: Or several.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He was the original courier six meant to pick up the platinum chip, but when he saw the Courier's name on the list, he bailed.
  • Simple Staff: Not only does he wear the colors of the flag, but he uses a flagpole with an eagle at the tip as his melee weapon. Which is aptly named Old Glory. It even earned him the nickname of "The Flag-Bearer" from the White Legs.
    • Note also that it's a staff tipped with wings: a symbol of the Greek god Hermes, divine messenger of Olympus. Hmm.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps: His leather Badass Longcoat is lacking in the sleeves department.
  • Strange Syntax Speaker: Speaks mostly using sentence fragments, and habitually uses poetic, metaphorical word choices (such as by referring to the NCR and Legion as "the Bear" and "the Bull", respectively).
  • Talking the Monster to Death: In true Fallout fashion, you can do this, either though a speech skill of 90 or by finding his holotapes and using them against him.
  • Tranquil Fury: His oddly calm and stoic demeanor does little to mask the seething contempt and rage boiling within him.
  • True Final Boss: Technically, he is this to the New Vegas DLC. Almost all of the DLC is Foreshadowing towards the confrontation between him and The Courier, which finally happens in Lonesome Road.
  • Unstoppable Mailman: He has a message for you, and you will get it, one way or another.
  • Walking the Earth: He's spent much of his life doing this, both for the Legion and alone.
  • Warrior Poet: He's a powerful fighter, but also very wise and perceptive. His speech patterns are strewn with allegories and metaphors, and the meaning he finds in people and factions by using them.
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: He is described as wearing "the flag of the Old World" on his back.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the worst possible way.
  • You Bastard: The entirety of Lonesome Road is pretty much him hammering this onto you.

Dr. Whitley

Voiced By: Jesse Birch
"At least I've got you to talk to, huh, ED-E?"

An Enclave scientist and the creator of ED-E, Whitley's logs are heard throughout the DLC.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
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