Fallout: New Vegas is an expansive role-playing sandbox. It offers over 100 variations in ending cutscenes, though the game centers on four major faction conclusions. One of these branching narratives ends with Caesar’s Legion taking control of the New Vegas Strip after driving the New California Republic (NCR) from the Mojave Wasteland.
introduces this imperialist faction when Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) accidentally stumbles into their encampment while escorting a female survivor. This is a notable turn, as Caesar’s Legion leads to one of New Vegas’ harshest endings—they bring brutality and chaos no matter your choices.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Fallout Season 2, Episode 3.
When Lucy is taken to the Legion camp, we learn Caesar is dead. Unaware his successor’s name is written on a paper in his pocket, his men have split into opposing factions with self-appointed Caesars. Neither group is better—all of the Legion believes in totalitarian dictatorship, drawing values from the Roman Empire’s worst traits. Macaulay Culkin’s unnamed Legion centurion nails Lucy to a cross, and she’s saved only after the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) makes a deal with one of the Caesars.
In New Vegas, the player-controlled Courier can choose to work for Caesar by completing the “Render Unto Caesar” quest, which unlocks various Legion-related storylines based on your decisions. Caesar opposes the NCR because he thinks the faction ignores “the greater good,” yet his own barbaric policies are rooted in autocracy. What’s more, Caesar preys on his men’s ignorance by claiming to be Mars’ son and executing anyone who doubts him. His second-in-command, Legate Lanius, is even worse. Known as the Terror of the East, Lanius leads bloody conquests without remorse, loyal only to Caesar and caring little for the Legion’s hundreds of members.
Pursuing the Legion ending means facing two major outcomes. In “Et Tumor, Brute?,” we discover Caesar has a fatal brain tumor and needs immediate surgery or a cure. There are several ways to handle this: travel to the ghoul-infested, irradiated Vault 34 for an Auto-Doc, or perform the surgery yourself. If you save Caesar and finish the Legion’s endgame quest, New Vegas ends with Caesar pushing the NCR out of their Mojave outpost and enslaving a large portion of the population. Every major location falls under Legion rule, and the Wasteland gains political stability—but at a terrible cost.
Given how bleak Caesar’s victory is, his death can’t be worse, right? Well, New Vegas frames Caesar as the lesser of two evils. If you let Legate Lanius become his successor, Lanius leads a horrific occupation of major areas. He murders indiscriminately, with no regard for diplomacy. For example, Caesar keeps Arcade Gannon (a scientist and possible Courier companion) as a doctor, but Lanius crucifies him the moment he takes charge. The NCR Rangers get the same treatment under Lanius’ rule, as do the Followers of the Apocalypse—instead of being allowed to leave, they’re exterminated.
It’s too early to tell how the Fallout series will tackle the Legion, but the faction will almost certainly play a key role in an unavoidable civil struggle. By the end of Episode 3, the Ghoul double-crosses the Legion: he pretends to give them the location of the last NCR holdout in the area, then sets off explosives to spark a fight between the two Caesar factions—creating the perfect diversion to escape an impossible situation. We don’t know much about Culkin’s character yet, but he could be Lanius (we might see him in Legate armor later), Vulpes (a devout follower of Caesar’s dogma), or a totally new character.
How Fallout chooses to develop the Legion remains to be seen, but right now, the Wasteland has bigger problems. Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan) is on the brink of perfecting mind control chips, and Maximus (Aaron Moten) has unwittingly dragged the Brotherhood of Steel into all-out war. No matter what happens in Vegas, the future looks grim.
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