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“These new inhabitants... not natives... most of them. Came with duty, purpose... ready to kill each other. The Divide was stronger. Left marks on them, too. Not Bear, not Bull - now... radiation's marked them, made them equal in history's eyes.”— Ulysses
The marked men are an enemy type found in the Divide in 2281.
Before they were the marked men, they were members of the New California Republic armed forces, special forces and Legionfrumentarii and legionnaires stationed in the area that would become the Divide.[1] When the Courier's delivery of the Navarro package caused underground nuclear warheads to detonate and cause massive devastation, it created a veil of perpetual storms that kick up winds so strong the flesh was torn from their bodies, exposing the raw muscle, while the intense radiation caused them to undergo a type of ghoulification. Unable to die to radiation, it instead kept them alive, trapped in a state of constant, excruciating pain from the winds flaying them of their skin.[2][3] Rumors of the marked men and the hellish place they call home spread throughout the West Coast similar to the legends of the Sierra Madre, the Burned Man, and the Big Empty.[4]
Driven mad by the pain they experienced, the marked men lashed out at anyone other than themselves, having found a common enemy in the Divide. Though they sometimes attacked and killed one another, apparently for sport, their shared pain had overpowered any animosity between the NCR and the Legion.[2][5][6][7] They were known to make camps near silos and warheads to take advantage of the healing effects of radiation.[3]
Those of the marked men who once followed Caesar have cobbled together several different, crude versions of Legate Lanius' helmet, thought to be an attempt to anchor their identities and remember some of their past.[8] The former NCR soldiers, on the other hand, stuck to their guns and explosives; even as ghouls, they cannot forget the lessons instilled in them by their army training.[9] Whatever remains of the armor they wore on the day they were turned,[10] over time, the marked men have tried to patch it together with pieces of the Divide like road signs, license plates and other scrap metal.
Characteristics[]
Biology[]
A marked man is identified as a unique subtype of ghoul with a fiery red tone due to their brutal environment; ghoulification made their flesh weak and fragile, but it was the storms that stripped their skin off, leaving behind only the raw muscle underneath. It's speculated that the radiation of the Divide may be the only thing keeping them alive.[3] They congregate in squads and small camps of around four marked men, often led by particularly strong cases who have taken on a new name to exemplify their strength.
Gameplay attributes[]
Marked men level with the player character, have a high amount of health for humanoid opponents, and are moderately protected by the tattered armor they wear (albeit far less compared to the properly maintained regular versions of their armor). In terms of health and armor, the marked men are evenly matched to the White Legs tribals of Zion Canyon and the lobotomites of the Big MT.
They carry a variety of powerful melee and ranged weapons, and at higher levels (above level 40) have the unique attribute of being the only faction that almost universally uses non-standard ammunition for their weapons (i.e. slugs and armor-piercing rounds), increasing their combat proficiency against well-protected targets. Additionally, many marked men make simultaneous use of both firearms and grenades. At times, they can be found using Stealth Boys, making them harder to detect.
When near sources of radiation, they regenerate health rapidly, even more so than ordinary ghouls. However, they tend to be few in numbers, and it is rare to find more than a dozen in any particular location, though a high-level Courier will still face a challenge.
Most of them are found wearing ruined NCR trooper armor (now known as the marked trooper armor), while some of them may be wearing Legion armor (called the marked scout armor).
Irradiated heavy troopers are the ghoulified remnants of NCR heavy troopers stationed at the Long 15 outpost. After the Courier launched the nuclear missiles from the Divide at the outpost, the radiation left behind turned them into ghouls, leaving them hostile to all others. They look like regular NCR heavy troopers with the added ability of regenerating health while irradiated.
Bonesaw - a former legionary wearing a nearly recreated Legate helmet, wielding a chainsaw, found in a makeshift camp slightly southeast of the Ashton silo control station.
It is established that the marked men of the Divide only became what they are due to the strong winds peeling their skin off coupled with the intense radiation, but if Dry Wells and/or the Long 15 are destroyed during Lonesome Road, the marked men there appear exactly the same despite lacking the former environmental factor.
An unused variant of the irradiated heavy trooper with the Editor ID NVDLC04NukeNCRColonel exists within the game files of Lonesome Road. Also called "irradiated heavy trooper", this version differs primarily in that it uses the default SPECIAL statistics for NCR troopers - 5 for all statistics. It also is equipped with a Minigun loaded with 5mm AP rounds, rather than the random weapon selection found in the standard version.
↑The Courier: "[NCR] Those bodies in the silo were NCR soldiers... some special forces." Ulysses: "Might have been. Once. To the Divide they came... in the Divide, they rest." The Courier: "[Legion] The dead in the silo, some were Legion Frumentarii, scouts. Assassins." Ulysses: "Might have been. Once. To the Divide they came... in the Divide, they rest." (Ulysses' dialogue)
↑ 2.02.1The Courier: "I've never seen corpses mutilated like that." Ulysses: "Even as the fires here burned them from within... the winds of the Divide tore their skin, exposed them... screaming... to the sky. And just as the Divide tears at them, so they tear at each other, for sport - like some tribal scarification. Falling back to their history, maybe.No matter what they suffer...the radiation, fire of the Divide, sustains them. Makes them stronger." (Ulysses' dialogue)
↑ 3.03.13.2The Courier: "[Survival 35] Radiation may keep them alive in areas so physically punishing, it would kill others - even ghouls." The Courier: "[Medicine 35] If they've become ghouls, the radiation would strengthen them. Heal their wounds - not the scars." Ulysses: "[SUCCEEDED] There's truth in your words, in what I've seen of their tactics, movements - recovery. Those wounds - they couldn't live otherwise. The Divide winds have torn the skin from many of them - may be the radiation is the only thing keeping them walking. Make camp near silos... warheads. No way to cleanse the radiation - makes them hard to kill there, have to draw them out." (Ulysses' dialogue)
↑Dead Money loading screens: "The Sierra Madre is a legend, like the Big Empty, the Burned Man, and the rumors of survivors from the Divide."
↑The Courier: "The rads in this place seem like they would do more damage to them." Ulysses: [FAILED] "They're more beasts than men now. They clutch at their pain as they clutch at their weapons... anchors them." (Ulysses' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "Some of the flayed Hopeville soldiers looked like NCR... but fought beside others in Legion armor." Ulysses: "Pain makes for strange allies... the hate the Bear and Bull shared across the battlefield, now turned against the Divide. Few survived... intact. Many NCR were already here when the destruction happened. Keeping the route East open, in fear of Caesar. Fear of the Legion." (Ulysses' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "Inhabitants? It doesn't look like anyone's alive down there." Ulysses: "These new inhabitants... not natives... most of them. Came with duty, purpose... ready to kill each other. The Divide was stronger.Left marks on them, too. Not Bear, not Bull - now... radiation's marked them, made them equal in history's eyes. As vicious as the storms are, these shadows of Legion, of NCR - silhouettes of things to come." (Ulysses' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "Those Marked Men in Hopeville - some had strange masks and blades I'd never seen before." Ulysses: "They bear false versions of Legate Lanius' mask, the one Caesar fashioned for him. Thought it was an insult at first.... know better now. It's shaped from Divide metal, not with care and strength, but with hate. Keeps them anchored. Crude, effective - like the blades they carry, distant mirrors of their Legate. A symbol they can hold on to - while the Divide tears at them." (Ulysses' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "Other Marked Men had NCR gear - and they weren't carrying masks or blades." Ulysses: "For the two-headed Bear... NCR... they don't have symbols in the same way Legion does. They revere their mines and explosives, guns... that is their religion - death from afar, take pride in it." (Ulysses' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "[NCR] Those soldiers in Hopeville... were once NCR, I'm sure of it. Why were they with the Legion?" Ulysses: "You see true. Not scavengers... it's what they wore before this all happened." (Ulysses' dialogue)