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For the incarnation of the character in Van Buren, see Joshua Graham (Van Buren). |
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Joshua Graham, also known as the Burned Man and formerly known as the Malpais Legate, is a Mormon missionary from the settlement of New Canaan and a co-founder of Caesar's Legion as well as its first Legate.
Graham led Caesar's troops to a humiliating defeat in the First Battle of Hoover Dam. Afterward, to show that failure was unacceptable regardless of rank, Caesar had Graham executed, ordering him to be coated in pitch, lit on fire and tossed into the Grand Canyon. Graham survived, however, and left Caesar's Legion behind him. He is the acting leader of the Dead Horses and the central character in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts. He is also mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and its add-on Lonesome Road.
Background[]
Early life[]
Born in New Canaan, a Mormon community established in what remained of the city of Ogden, Utah, Joshua Graham grew up in peaceful times, learning the trade of a missionary and an interpreter due to his natural aptitude for languages. In 2246, Graham received the call to partake in his sacred service to spread the good word to the people of the wasteland. By the time he left his home, he was already fluent in several tribal dialects. His aptitude for linguistics made him a natural choice when the Followers of the Apocalypse asked for assistance in their expedition to the Grand Canyon. Graham departed New Canaan, following the Long 15 and 89 south towards Arizona to meet two Followers, Bill Calhoun and Edward Sallow on the way, joining their expedition to provide assistance to the local tribes residing in and around the Grand Canyon, and to make a study of their dialects, with Graham providing translations between both groups.[2]
Around 2247, the Blackfoot tribe were their first stop in the Grand Canyon. Though Joshua proved to be a capable interpreter, the hospitality of their hosts was abruptly replaced with hostility. Whether it was an error in translation that Joshua made, or some unrelated misunderstanding, the Blackfoots switched to holding the entire expedition for ransom.[1][3] In the midst of their captivity, the group learned that the Blackfoots were at war with seven other tribes in the Grand Canyon, and they were on the losing end. Against Calhoun's objections, Sallow decided to take charge of the situation, using his knowledge of history and warfare to teach the tribes how to care for their weapons, make explosives, and learn other tenets of war, with Graham continuing to serve as an interpreter. Graham was indispensable to Sallow's plan to turn the disorganized tribe into a capable fighting force, trained in small unit tactics, weapon use and maintenance, and the manufacture of arms and weapons.[4]
The Malpais Legate[]
The Legate rallies his legionaries
With his teachings and Graham's skills, the Blackfoots prevailed over the other tribes and hailed Sallow as their leader. Graham became a field commander, training the forces of the fledgling army and leading them in battle. His leadership position soon entailed retaliatory raids and terrorizing local tribes. When Sallow cast off his old name and crowned himself Caesar, lord of the Legion, Graham became the first legate, the 'Malpais Legate'.[5][6] For thirty years he helped Caesar conquer the tribes residing in the former American Southwest, taking over large swaths of the former states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, strengthening the Legion with every tribe assimilated. Though Graham admits that he was neither a particularly brilliant strategist nor tactically flexible, his menace and brutality as the Malpais Legate were infamous. The atrocities he committed under Caesar's banner made him feared by friend and foe alike. A dangerous, unpredictable, destructive force above all else, Graham was legendary for being impossible to kill, surviving multiple assassination attempts by First Recon sharpshooters and NCR Rangers.
Despite his infamous reputation, there comes an end to everything eventually. For the Malpais Legate, his end came at the First Battle of Hoover Dam.[7] Caesar's obsession with uniting the wasteland under the banner of his Legion reached its zenith, when he was told by a frumentarius of the existence of the Hoover Dam in Nevada, as well as the flag being flown over it - the two-headed bear of the New California Republic. Around 2277, after a series of skirmishes east of the Colorado, Caesar's united army of 68 tribes[8] attacked the dam, directly clashing against the NCR Army forces. With the nigh-unkillable Malpais Legate leading his legionaires in battle,[9] Caesar saw no reason to fear losing. However, Graham underestimated the enemy while overestimating his own skill as a commander. Against the NCR, he deployed his legionaries in the usual fashion, treating the battle against the Republic like the conquests of the tribes of the east. The Rangers' leader, Chief Hanlon, anticipated this move and accurately predicted Graham's battle strategy, concocting a plan to draw the legionaries into a trap.[10] As General Lee Oliver's soldiers held the Legion's front line at bay, Rangers and First Recon sharpshooters targeted their veteran commanders, sowing chaos among the Legion ranks. When the legate ordered his elite forces to punch through the enemy's defensive line, the sharpshooters made a tactical retreat into Boulder City. Elements of the Army and Rangers kept the Legion engaged long enough to allow the most experienced legionaries to enter the city. When they did, the Republic's forces pulled out as quickly as they could (soldiers and Rangers trapped behind Legion lines had to be abandoned), and then triggered a massive array of explosives packed into the buildings in advance. The exploding buildings acted as giant fragmentation bombs, killing and maiming most of the legionaries and leaving the rest in a state of shock. The Army and Rangers followed the detonation with a counterattack on the Legion's forces, decimating all of those still on the western side of the Colorado River, and forcing the Malpais Legate to retreat from the dam in disgrace. Flanking attacks at Camp Golf and other NCR military locations in the Mojave were similarly repulsed.[11]
Left to carry the shame of his failure at Hoover Dam, the Malpais Legate returned to Caesar back east. But the Son of Mars' anger would not accept the Legion's loss in battle. To demonstrate to the remainder of his army that failure would not be tolerated, even from the highest ranks, Caesar brought Graham back to the Grand Canyon. Caesar ordered his pratoreia to cover the legate in pitch, set him on fire and throw him from the cliff's edge, to be left for dead in the canyon below.[12]
Prodigal son of Canaan[]
The birth of the Burned Man
Despite the clear lethality that such a punishment carried, Graham's legendary toughness allowed him to survive the descent. Waking up the following day, burned and broken, but alive, the fallen legate realized he had nowhere to go but home, back to New Canaan. Under the extreme pain of his injuries, Graham crawled out of the northern edge of the Grand Canyon and began the long trek back. After his fiery descent, Graham's attempts to dull the pain of his burns led him to discover he possessed a natural immunity to wasteland drugs, both positive and negative, leaving him with only replacing the bandages covering his charred skin each day to prevent infection; the process forces him to expose his flesh to the air and he comments that it feels like being burned alive all over again.[13] Day by day he suffered through his journey of over three months and 400 miles until he eventually reunited with his people at New Canaan. To Graham's surprise, despite the horrors and atrocities he committed for Caesar, the New Canaanites welcomed him back like the prodigal son returned.[14] In his eyes, his second baptism at the hands of the Legion and subsequent survival transformed him, rekindled his faith and removed his pride and vanity. The thirty years of separation, atrocities, and shame were irrelevant to his family.[14]
Meanwhile, the terror of the Malpais Legate and the story of his blazing fall into the Grand Canyon coalesced into legends of the fearsome "Burned Man" stalking the wastelands, spreading among the remaining tribes until eventually reaching the ears of Caesar. Realizing that his attempt to punish Graham had failed, Caesar forbade his legionaries from speaking Graham's true name under threat of death (the practice of Damnatio memoriae), but this only served to enhance the menace of the Burned Man.[15] To fully complete Graham's demise, Caesar issued a kill order to his frumentarii: were they to find Graham, Caesar demanded they attempt to seek and destroy him.[16]
For his part, Graham decided to forgive Caesar's actions in their shared history, in keeping with his religious belief that one must hate the sin, but love the sinner.[17] However, he is acutely aware of Caesar's desire to see him dead from the sheer number of frumentarii and Legion assassins that have come looking for him.[18]
The war for Zion[]
Joshua Graham making his way to New Canaan after killing several assassins of Caesar's Legion
By 2281, Graham's bloodstained past finally caught up with him. The White Legs, whipped into a frenzy and equipped by Ulysses on Caesar's orders, staged an attack on New Canaan while Joshua and most of the capable Canaanites was away from the city, in a bid to ingratiate themselves with the Legion by destroying Graham's family tribe, and Graham, along with them. Most of the Mormon tribe was slaughtered and the survivors scattered into the wilderness, with the bulk of them seeking refuge in Zion Canyon. In order to defend them and the tribes that made their home in the canyon, Graham assumed the position of acting war chief among the Dead Horses, a tribe he had interacted with during his time with the Legion, alongside Daniel, another missionary and survivor from New Canaan, who joined up with the Sorrows.[19][20]
When the White Legs pursued them into Zion, Daniel and Graham found themselves in a conflict with each other: while Daniel would rather use peaceful delaying action to allow the Sorrows and Dead Horses to safely evacuate Zion and lose the White Legs in the wilderness, Joshua desired nothing more than to bring God's justice to those who would bring senseless harm to others, and wipe the White Legs from the face of the earth. The impulse to exact vengeance on those who butchered his people, killing all who could not run away fast enough - the elderly, the ill, children, and even those who stopped to help - burns within him alongside his guilt for past sins and desire for true repentance.[21] Graham finds it only fitting that he spills the blood of his enemies in Zion, a natural temple and monument to the glory of his God as penance for what he's done in his past.[22] It's in this state of internal and filial conflict that Joshua Graham is met by the Courier, who comes to Zion with the Happy Trails Caravan Company in 2281.[23]
Personality[]
Joshua Graham inspecting .45 Auto pistols for use against the White Legs
Joshua Graham is at heart a conflicted man. Originally a follower of the Mormon faith, he steadily betrayed everything he held dear in service to Caesar, helping the warlord conquer the tribes of the wasteland.[5] Caught up in maintenance of a brutal, nomadic army of reconditioned tribals, and the long series of conquests east of the Colorado River, Graham slowly became a monster in mind, body, and soul. Small compromises turned increasingly sinister and brutal, with Graham rationalizing them as making the best of a bad situation and doing what needed to be done. In the end, however, he and Caesar had built a society on a foundation of fear and brutality, with his conscience numbed by three decades of warfare and atrocities. Joshua eventually believed his own lies and rationalizations, but after the Legion's defeat at Hoover Dam and his fall into the Grand Canyon, he lost all momentum. Abandoned by Caesar and his people, the fallen Legate was forced to reflect on his life and face the unrecognizable monster that he became. Unlike most, Joshua chose not to blame the influence of Caesar, but himself, and journeyed to seek forgiveness from the people he abandoned three decades prior.[24]
Philosophy[]
Despite his former allegiance to Caesar's Legion and its brutal way of life, the Burned Man does not hold any ill will towards the NCR and its allies. To him, the NCR is still redeemable in his eyes, believing it was the greed of man that led to the Great War, and that only through faith in God and prayer and genuine acts of kindness, can humanity hope to prevent history from repeating itself. Conversely, he has a dim opinion of Mr. House, viewing the lord of New Vegas as another Caesar: a man who brought the tribes to heel and wields his power for the domination of others.
His hatred towards the Legion stems not just from the act of being burned alive by Caesar, but also the combination of Caesar's belief that his will alone is enough to unite the wasteland under the Legion's banner and his refusal to let anything stop him. Ultimately, though, his greatest enmity lies in one person: Joshua Graham - for letting himself get swept up in the bloodshed that heralded Caesar's rise to power, for falling in line as his Legate, and for willfully perpetuating the innumerable atrocities that helped establish the Legion's rule in the wasteland. What he thought was the start of a community of equals under one banner had become the heinous regime of a tyrant, and it was something Joshua earnestly believed he would spend the rest of his life atoning for.
Interactions with the player character[]
Honest Hearts[]
Interactions overview[]
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
  |
This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. | |
  |
This character is a temporary companion. | |
  |
This character starts quests. | |
  |
This character is involved in quests. | |
  |
This character is a merchant. |  1500-2000Sells: ammunition consumables weapons weapon mods |
  |
This character can repair items. | Max Repair condition: 100 |
Effects of player's actions[]
- If Caesar was killed, either independently or during Et Tumor, Brute?, before starting Honest Hearts, a unique dialogue option will appear when talking to Joshua in Angel cave during Arrival at Zion.[25]
- If one throws down frag mines with him as an active companion during the add-on final quest, Joshua will have a few unique responses.[26][27]
Other interactions[]
- A Legion-affiliated Courier will have a unique dialogue option when talking to Joshua.[28]
- Joshua Graham is one of the few named non-player characters in the game that is affected by the Sneering Imperialist perk.
- During Eureka!, if one has completed Honest Hearts and Lonesome Road, during the confrontation with Legate Lanius, a unique dialogue option will be available as part of a Speech check.[29]
Companion[]
- Though one can access the companion wheel with him as an active companion during the add-on final quest, Joshua will refuse to open his inventory or wait and he will neglect requests to talk with him.
- Before starting the add-on final quest, Joshua Graham can repair equipment to 100% condition. This makes him one of five repair vendors in the game that can repair to 100% condition, along with Paladin Sato, Raul Tejada (when he is not an active companion), Major Knight, and the Sink Central Intelligence Unit
.
Endings[]
| # | Slide | Voice-over narration | In-game condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
After a long and troubled life, Joshua Graham finally found rest in Zion. In the end, his unswerving militancy had accomplished what the NCR's finest sharpshooters and Caesar's wrath could not. The New Canaanites took comfort in the belief that their brother's soul would again dwell in Zion at the end of days.  |
Kill Joshua Graham. |
| 2 | |
The threat of the White Legs ended, Joshua Graham helped the Sorrows and Dead Horses tend to their fallen comrades and secure Zion. The Courier's words had stayed Joshua's wrath in his darkest hour, and in sparing Salt-Upon-Wounds, he was changed. While he continued to advocate militant opposition to the enemies of New Canaan, he sometimes showed quarter to those who crossed his family. Eventually this new spirit would diminish the myth of the Burned Man in distant lands - a small price for the peace it brought to Joshua Graham. |
Help Joshua Graham Defend Zion Valley and exterminate the White Legs, then convince Joshua Graham to spare Salt-Upon-Wounds. |
| 3 | |
With the White Legs crushed, Joshua Graham led the Sorrows and Dead Horses in tearing apart and burning the corpses of their enemies. He set about training his army in the "Way of the Canaanite," and soon the New Canaanites and tribes of Zion were feared well into the Mojave. Legends of the Burned Man grew even more depraved, and terrifying. |
Help Joshua Graham crush the White Legs and then allow Joshua Graham to execute Salt-Upon-Wounds. |
| 4 | |
Though the Courier had stopped Joshua Graham from executing Salt-Upon-Wounds, the war chief still fell in battle. The White Legs defeated at Three Marys, Joshua led the Sorrows and Dead Horses in tending to their comrades and burning the corpses of their foes. He continued to advocate militant opposition to the enemies of New Canaan and showed little quarter to those he fought. And yet he was changed. He no longer reveled in the brutality and cruelty for which he had been known in his former life. His inner demons, if not extinguished, were at the least... appeased. |
Help Joshua Graham crush the White Legs and kill Salt-Upon-Wounds yourself. |
Inventory[]
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| Joshua Graham's armor Joshua Graham's headwrap |
A Light Shining in Darkness Joshua's Pistol Whippin' .45 |
Random tribal consumables |
Notes[]
- A carved portrait of Joshua, Edward Sallow, and Bill Calhoun appears on the back of the Legion Denarius.
- Despite claiming that he accepts all forms of currency (in his words, "even Legion coin"), it is not possible to sell Legion Denarii to Joshua.
- The intro slides for Honest Hearts show that Joshua acquired his signature pre-War SWAT vest sometime before the First Battle of Hoover Dam.
- Similar to Father Elijah and his holographic avatar image in Dead Money, Joshua Graham has a slightly different in-game appearance when compared to the Honest Hearts cover art. In the game, he has pale blue eyes instead of bright blue, and his burned skin is grayer around his eyes.
- It is only possible to pickpocket Joshua while he is sleeping in one of the covered beds outside Angel cave or in the Sorrows camp.
- Joshua Graham is the only companion in the game who has Good Karma, while all of the other companions have Neutral Karma.
- Like all NPCs in Honest Hearts, after completing the add-on final quest and returning to the Mojave Wasteland, he will disappear from Zion.
- Joshua's pre-burned face, as seen in the intro slides, is shaped differently than his post-burned face.
- Joshua is one of two characters in the game to possess an irremovable mask (in his case, the bandages over his face) along with Ulysses (his breathing mask).
Notable quotes[]
- "I have been baptized twice, once in water, once in flame. I will carry the fire of the holy spirit inside until I stand before my Lord for judgement."
- "Caesar would never admit this openly, but he knows I'm alive. I've killed enough of his frumentarii and assassins that have come looking."
- "I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other."
- "Die where you stand!"
- "We have made and kept covenants with our Lord, God, to honor his laws. In exchange, we are promised eternal salvation after this life."
- "I survived because the fire inside burned brighter than the fire around me. I fell down into that dark chasm, but the flame burned on and on."
- "In the best of all possible worlds, they would just leave us in peace. But they won't."
- "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."
- "Lastly, waging war against good people is bad for the soul. This may not seem important to you now, but it's the most important thing I've said."
- "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Remember, O Lord, The Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem who said, "Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation." O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed. How happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."– Joshua Graham, reciting the Bible verse Psalm 137:1, 7-9
- "I know Daniel doesn't approve, but destroying the White Legs is the only way to ensure the Sorrows can remain in Zion."
- "Leading in battle became training, punishing, terrorizing. A series of small mistakes before a great fall. And I stayed in that darkness until after Hoover Dam."
- "Stand up and look at what's come for you!"
- "I don't know if you were close to the other members of your group, but you have my sympathy. I pray for the safety of all good people who come to Zion - even gentiles. But we can't expect God to do all the work."
- "Show no quarter to the White Legs we come across. Make no mistake about why we are here. This is an extermination."
- "We should have given you a better welcome on your first visit to Zion, but from what I hear, the White Legs beat us to it."
- "I can always see it in my mind. The warmth and the heat. It will always be a part of me. But not today."
- "You're a good neighbor to us. We all go through periods of darkness. In such times, we can turn to the Lord, but it's good to have friends."
- "We warned you at Syracuse, and you persisted. You took advantage of us at New Canaan to drive us out, and like the dogs of Caesar you are, you followed us to Zion. And now you stand on holy ground, a temple to God's glory on Earth. But the only use for an animal in our temple is sacrifice!"
- "We have more than enough food and medicine to offer. Good news is our most valuable commodity."
- "Make the first shot count. You won't get a second."
- "Ye have sown death and so shall ye reap it!"
Appearances[]
Joshua Graham appears in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts and Fallout: Wasteland Warfare as "The Burned Man" unit. He is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and its add-ons Dead Money[30] and Lonesome Road. He was also intended to appear in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 by Black Isle Studios.
Behind the scenes[]
Character background[]
- Joshua Graham's character was originally written by Joshua Sawyer for Van Buren before later being restored for Honest Hearts. His story is broadly based upon the parable of the Lost Son.[Non-game 2][Non-game 3]
- When asked how old the Burned Man is, Joshua Sawyer stated that "He and Caesar were both young men [...] when they met, so that should give you a rough timeframe." [Non-game 4]
- Despite being the co-founder of the Legion, Joshua is heard pronouncing "Caesar" the Anglicized way (/ˈsiːzər/) because he understands that their use of the Latin pronunciation (/ˈkaizar/) is merely an affectation and he no longer cares to follow along with it.[Non-game 5]
- When talking about New Canaan, Joshua reveals that it is considered a rite of passage in the post-War settlement's culture to learn how to wield and maintain a .45 Auto pistol because the model was created by a member of their tribe nearly four-hundred years ago.[31] The .45 Auto pistol is an approximation of the M1911, which was designed by John Browning, firearms designer and practicing Mormon, who lived in Ogden, Utah where New Canaan was founded after the Great War in the Fallout universe.
Cultural references[]
- Joshua Graham's self-described "baptism by flame" serves as a dual reference to both his "death" at the hands of Caesar, and his symbolic rebirth by way of the laying of hands, which is also known as a "baptism by fire."[Non-game 6] in the religion of the Church of Jesus Christ LDS.
- The inspiration for Joshua Graham's character came from various sources, such as Paul the Apostle, Rodrigo Mendoza from The Mission, and Lawrence of Arabia. The tribal markings on his armor were also a reference to Rodrigo Mendoza.[Non-game 7]
- A malpaís is a landform characterized by eroded rocks of volcanic origin in an arid environment. This describes many areas but is strongly connected to the southwestern United States because of the Spanish settlers that gave the landform its name (malpais means "badland" in Spanish).
- Joshua's class in the GECK editor is given as "Destroying Angel." The Destroying Angels were an alleged militant secret society in the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ LDS who were dedicated to violently removing enemies of the church.[Non-game 8]
Development and voiceover[]
- Within the game files are references to an area above the cliffs of the Colorado River designated "MalpaisLegionCamp," indicating that such a location once existed in an earlier version of Fallout: New Vegas but was later removed. A reference for Benny is found there, related to the outcome where he escapes the Fort alive.
- Seth McCaughey and Joshua Sawyer together created Graham's gun maintenance animations. Sawyer brought in his personal Colt and served as reference for the unloading, inspection, and reloading animations.[Non-game 9]
- Due to technical limitations, Graham's appearance in the game differs from that on the cover of Honest Hearts. A dirty raider texture with an ashen skin color is used to simulate burns visible around his eyes, quite dissimilar to the melted flesh on the cover.
- When hiring for voice work for Honest Hearts, Keith Szarabajka was almost passed over for the role of Joshua Graham, because one of the designers involved in the first round of casting suggested removing him from the pool. According to Joshua Sawyer, Szarabajka's submission was "given on a cell phone on a windy day and he had a cold." However, Sawyer decided to keep Szarabajka in the running for the role of Graham, which he considers one of the best decisions he made on the project.[Non-game 10]
- According to Szarabajka's recollection, Graham's dialogue was recorded over just four to five days. When first recording for Graham, all Szarabajka had to go off of was a basic idea of the story and some sample lines. Szarabajka has said that he was surprised by how much Graham's character resonated with fans, and that he has been asked more about Graham than any other character he has played. Szarabajka speculates that Graham's themes of death and rebirth are reasons for the character's impact with players.[Non-game 11]
- Graham does not appear without his bandages (aside from the pre-burned intro slides) at any point in normal gameplay. If the mask is removed via the G.E.C.K. editor or console commands, there are no severe burn marks and his face is just that of a default raider. According to Joshua Sawyer, Graham (and also Legate Lanius) being unscarred under the mask is not indicative of a lie, but is instead a result of engine-related limitations.[Non-game 12]
Developer quotes[]
After suffering a terrible failure, he was humiliated by his superior and the people he commanded. He was cast out and left for dead. His entire reason for living was gone. When your entire way of life is completely destroyed, it has a profound impact on how you view yourself and your place in the world. Because all momentum is lost, the experience causes you to evaluate and re-evaluate how you have reached this point -- and how to move forward.
There are thousands, if not millions, of examples of soldiers in history who engaged in ruthless -- often cruel -- behavior in times of war only to either return to an "ordinary" civilized life later. Some of them have no problem with what they did, others repress their memories as much as they can, and still others suffer strong crises of conscience that force profound changes in them. As Graham describes, his path to becoming the Malpais Legate was made up of many small compromises that turned increasingly sinister and brutal. At first he thought he was making the best of a bad situation and doing what needed to be done, but in the end he and Caesar had built a society on a foundation of fear and brutality. Caesar had a more grand vision for where the Legion was going, but Joshua Graham was caught up in the day to day maintenance of a tribal army engaged in bleak and often monstrous behavior. It was not until he was removed from that environment that he was able to reflect on his past. He could have chosen to blame Caesar, but in the end he blamed himself. The only people he knew in the world who could possibly accept him were the New Canaanites, so that's where he headed.”— Joshua Sawyer on bethsoft.com forums, May 18, 2011Only slightly. Graham and Caesar were in it together, in different ways. While Caesar never had a radical shift in his approach and ideology, Joshua Graham had a slow slide followed by a dramatic fall and "rebirth". Joshua Graham was inspired by characters like Rodrigo Mendoza from The Mission and T.E. Lawrence.
That said, Honest Hearts has a lot to do with personal motivations and why being honest to yourself about them is important. In many ways, Caesar is dispassionate -- or at least less passionate than someone like Joshua Graham, or even Lanius. Caesar is an odd sort of philosopher; Joshua Graham is a zealot. Caesar is also hypocritical or at least "bends" his own rules when it suits him. Joshua has to lie to himself to rationalize what he does. He can't live with an internal contradiction.
They are also very different types of leaders. Caesar leads by telling people what to do and wowing (or terrorizing) them with the results. Joshua Graham leads by personally doing things that (typically) terrify both his allies and his enemies. As Joshua says himself, he's effectively a war chief of the Dead Horses. He's not the sort of guy you ask for opinions on how to repair a road or develop infrastructure.”— Joshua Sawyer on Formspring December 30, 2011I wanted the player's first encounter with Joshua to be very reductive. In way, I wanted the player to be initially disappointed. They hear legends of this fearsome, terrible, demonic figure and when they first see him, he's doing the equivalent of putting his pants on one leg at a time: sitting at a table maintaining a stack of guns. Even internally, some people complained about his appearance. They wanted him to be huge and monstrous or they wanted his first encounter with the player to involve him brutally gunning down White Legs. I believed that for his character to feel right in the context of the story, he needed to be a man first and the monster later. But that expressed desire on the team made me ask for the graffiti players see on the way to see Joshua: an entire cliff face dominated by the image of Joshua with tiny White Leg corpses falling down below him. In the image, he's like Goya's Saturn, dwarfing and destroying everyone around him.
Presenting the conflict with Daniel posed some challenges because Daniel is not a living legend, i.e. he is even more of a normal man than Joshua is trying to be. Additionally, Mormonism is not a pacifistic religion (and its soteriology does not depend on pacifism), so the conflict could not reasonably by framed around violence vs. non-violence even in the post-apocalyptic version followed by the New Canaanites. Daniel's concern was about larger issues than fighting or not-fighting; he was concerned that Joshua's lapsed nature would cause a whirlwind of warfare that would pull everyone far away New Canaanite traditions to the point where religion was virtually abandoned in favor of a war cult surrounding Joshua.
I had expected that most people would support Joshua, in part because of Joshua as a character but also because of the nature of gameplay in Fallout (i.e., violence is almost always a solution). I did not expect that the Survivalist's logs (written by John Gonzalez) would push so many more people toward supporting Joshua. I think it's an interesting example of players finding their own connections between the two stories and making an emotional connection that pushes them in a particular direction.”— Joshua Sawyer's Formspring answers I knew that Joshua had to be in an unresolved state, moved on from his life with the Legion but in a state of denial about his current motives. Joshua's struggle is about what burns inside him -- light that illuminates or fire that consumes.”— Joshua Sawyer's Formspring answers There were specific instances (such as at New Canaan) where he would specifically avoid conflict and showed some additional depth, but he effectively had no character arc within the story.
Personally, I think the "wow so crazy" type characters aren't particularly interesting or insightful because they only exist in pure fantasy and, as such, can't really be related to. I think it's important for characters who are influencing player opinions to be more-or-less human. If you can't put yourself in the character's shoes, it's hard to empathize with him or her.
Joshua was inspired by a lot of different characters and things. The apostle Paul, Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert DeNiro's character from Roland Joffé's "The Mission"), T.E. Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia, and others. His outfit was designed to feature body armor but look somewhat "old west"/preacher in style -- hence the low-collar white shirt, sleeve garter, and the cut of the ballistic vest. The rattlesnake skin on his belt, shoes, and gun are symbolic but also intended to reflect that "western" feeling. The stitched patterns in his shirt were supposed to be tribal markings from the Dead Horses and were inspired by a scene from The Mission where Mendoza receives patterned body paint from the Guarani. I remembered a white dress from PJ Harvey's White Chalk tour where she had lyrics stitched into the cloth in black thread and I just put the two ideas together.”— Joshua Sawyer, Formspring response from May 27, 2011Gallery[]
Fallout: New Vegas[]
Fallout: Wasteland Warfare[]
References[]
|
Non-game
- ↑ Anonymous: "How old do you reckon the burned man is?"
Joshua Sawyer: "He and Caesar were both young men (Joshua Graham had just started missionary work) when they met, so that should give you a rough timeframe."
Joshua Sawyer's Formspring/Spring.me Archive June 5, 2011 - ↑ WHAT? After all he has been through and all the bad things he has done and Joshua Graham still claims to be a christian? | Formspring:
JESawyer 11 May 11: <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15%3A11-32&version=NIV> - ↑ Fallout: New Vegas 10th Anniversary Charity Stream (reference starts at 2:45:28)
Joshua Sawyer: "I wrote Joshua Graham and Daniel." - ↑ Anonymous: "How old do you reckon the burned man is?"
Joshua Sawyer: "He and Caesar were both young men (Joshua Graham had just started missionary work) when they met, so that should give you a rough timeframe."
Joshua Sawyer's Spring.me Archive June 5, 2011 (Archive) - ↑ Fallout: New Vegas 10th Anniversary Charity Stream (reference starts at 5:11:06)
Joshua Sawyer: "'Is there a reason why Graham pronounces Caesar the Western way or nah?' It's 'cause he realizes it's an affectation and he just doesn't care. [laughter]" - ↑ Fire and the Holy Ghost - Ensign June 1995
- ↑ This is a two parter. 1. Why did you decide to make Joshua Graham a good character instead of an evil character like in Van Buren? 2. Where did the inspiration of the Joshua Graham character come from? Formspring:
JESawyer 27 May 11: I think it's worth noting that in even Van Buren's documents, a lot of the references to the Hanged Man's "evil" refers to past acts. In VB, he was seemingly a man without purpose. While his characterization by others and his tendency to laugh off/ignore attempts by others to control him could have been interesting, it really ended at "nasty guy who says and does creepy stuff and is a badass". There were specific instances (such as at New Canaan) where he would specifically avoid conflict and showed some additional depth, but he effectively had no character arc within the story.
Personally, I think the "wow so crazy" type characters aren't particularly interesting or insightful because they only exist in pure fantasy and, as such, can't really be related to. I think it's important for characters who are influencing player opinions to be more-or-less human. If you can't put yourself in the character's shoes, it's hard to empathize with him or her.
Joshua was inspired by a lot of different characters and things. The apostle Paul, Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert DeNiro's character from Roland Joffé's "The Mission"), T.E. Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia, and others. His outfit was designed to feature body armor but look somewhat "old west"/preacher in style -- hence the low-collar white shirt, sleeve garter, and the cut of the ballistic vest. The rattlesnake skin on his belt, shoes, and gun are symbolic but also intended to reflect that "western" feeling. The stitched patterns in his shirt were supposed to be tribal markings from the Dead Horses and were inspired by a scene from The Mission where Mendoza receives patterned body paint from the Guarani. I remembered a white dress from PJ Harvey's White Chalk tour where she had lyrics stitched into the cloth in black thread and I just put the two ideas together. - ↑ I just read 'Blood of the Prophets', and my mind wandered to Honest Hearts. Was Joshua Graham's dynamic with the Sorrows and Dead Horses at all consciously modeled on Brigham Young's rhetoric about using the 'Lamanites' as the "Battle-axe of the Lord"?
Joshua Sawyer: Yes, but less about Brigham Young specifically and more about how Mormons in Utah interacted with tribes there (like the Paiutes), generally. It was inspired by events like the Utah War/Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Even though this doesn't appear in the game, Joshua Graham's character class in the GECK is "Destroying Angel", which was a nickname for some of the militant/vigilante Mormons/Danites that operated in Utah in the 19th century.
(Joshua Sawyer's Formspring answers) - ↑ Joshua Sawyer, Formspring response from June 27, 2012: "Who did that gun inspection animation for Joshua Graham? That looked awesome and was pretty impressive, a lot of games don't have hand animations that good."
"Seth McCaughey. I brought in my (unloaded, in case it needs to be said) Colt and went through the process with him, then he went buck wild. Seth did a lot of the weapon reload animations in F:NV and the DLCs. He also came up with the idea of the SMMG in Lonesome Road and was the creator of the hidden Gojira." - ↑ Joshua Sawyer on Tumblr
- ↑ Oxhorn Chats with Keith Szarabajka - The Voice of Joshua Graham (15:41)
- ↑ Joshua Sawyer Twitch stream clip
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