Fallout: New Vegas is an RPG that has stood the test of time, which is due in large part to Obsidian Entertainment’s amazing writing. Each of the game’s factions is written in ways that make their motivations and actions feel believable, especially as they pertain to the game’s post-apocalyptic setting. The New California Republic, Brotherhood of Steel and New Vegas itself can be explored beyond what players may initially hear about them in-game. Even the game’s darkest faction, Caesar’s Legion, has a much deeper story behind the veneer that seems to point towards their inevitable demise.
Caesar’s Legion is one of the major factions in New Vegas and is heavily involved in the game’s main plot. When the proceedings begin, they are fighting with the NCR over control of the Hoover Dam due to the strategic advantage the location could provide to both factions. The Legion is depicted as an incredibly violent and cruel group modeled after the Roman Empire, and one of the player’s first interactions with them is while some of their members who are crucifying citizens in the town of Nipton after having burnt it to the ground.
Joining Caesar’s Legion gives the player a bit more insight into how they work. They’re actually comprised of several other tribes that were all united under the Legion’s banner, in part by the former Follower of the Apocolypse, Caesar. They follow Caesar’s word as law, though this combined with their immense scale is what likely dooms them to collapse. While they are winning their war against the NCR, this dominance is mostly surface level.
The Legion may be able to assert themselves over the NCR at first, but this is mainly due to the Legion’s ability to keep their troops supplied and in high morale. The NCR has struggled with both because of how far across the Mojave wasteland they were. Caesar describes the Legion as fighting under a common banner — people who know no alternatives to the Legion’s cause. That ends up being a major factor as to why their morale stayed stronger than the NCR’s.
While that morale helped the Legion during their war with the NCR, it’s important to point out that the war was what kept Caesar’s followers going. Without the war, it’s likely that Caesar would either need to find a different battle or a new cause to keep the Legion motivated. If they won the war, they wouldn’t have had much trouble controlling the Mojave. Their biggest problem would be lack of purpose.
This is all assuming, of course, that the man who united the tribes actually survives long enough to keep the Legion together. In New Vegas, players who side with the Legion will quickly learn that Caesar has a brain tumor, which will kill Caesar without the player’s intervention. While Caesar dying doesn’t have a massive impact on the Legion in the game, there are some serious implications as to the faction’s fate without their leader.
Caesar is really the one thing holding his Legion together. Without his leadership, the Legion would collapse back into the smaller tribes that made it whole. The war with the NCR is only part of the cause that keeps the Legion together, with the other major part being Caesar himself. While some may say that Caesar’s go-to military commander Legate Lanius would take control, there are also a number of other Legates who would try to take Caesar’s place.
If the tribes don’t break off from the Legion following Caesar’s death, the many Legates vouching for power will split their massive territory into smaller factions. The idea of the Legion might continue on in a few of those factions, but the truly unified Legion simply does not exist with Caesar. Even if the Courier is able to save Caesar and remove his brain tumor, he will eventually die. He isn’t immortal, and even if he has a successor or an heir, they won’t be Caesar.
Players can talk to Caesar to learn more about his views and why he formed the Legion. Listening to his reasoning, it’s clear that no one will really ever be able to replace the cause he gives to the Legion. He purposely made himself something for the Legion to rally behind. He did too good of a job since he’s now created a faction that’s doomed to collapse when he dies. Caesar and his Legion are far from perfect, but having realistically flawed factions is what makes New Vegas such a timeless classic.
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