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The White Legs are the main antagonists of the second Fallout: New Vegas expansion, Honest Hearts. They are an evil raider tribe operating in Zion Canyon and originating from Salt Lake City in northern Utah, where they were initially formed by a group of direct survivors of the Great War driven to barbaric scavenging. Their war-chief is the brutal Salt-Upon-Wounds.
History[]
The descendants of citizens of Salt Lake City, Utah who managed to survive the Great War, the tribe's ancestors came from a broad cross-section of Americans of different ethnic backgrounds, including Native American and various European ethnicities, from pre-War tourists trapped in post-nuclear North America. As a way of surviving the various dangers that sprung up from post-war Great Salt Lake, the tribe began painting their bodies, particularly their legs white to camouflage themselves among the dried salt beds of the once-massive lake, earning their tribe's name of White Legs. Unlike most other tribal societies, the White Legs were incapable of basic survival skills such as cooking, food preservation or tanning. Another problem was that due to their ancestors various ethnicities, the White Legs had developed a language that only they spoke, meaning they couldn't even negotiate supplies with those willing to tolerate them. As a result of their ignorance and language barrier, the White Legs turned to scavenging and violent raiding to surviving, becoming one of Utah's most notorious raider tribes.
Despite their raiding, most of Utah generally saw the White Legs as a nuisance, as alongside their lack of proper weapons or tactics, they were kept at bay by the Desert Rangers and the Mormon settlement of New Canaan (formerly the city of Ogden). The White Legs would develop a bitter hatred for New Canaan and would make many attempts to attack the city, but lacking the means to scale or bring down New Canaan's high walls, they would always fail. However, after the Desert Rangers integrated into the NCR and abandoned protecting Utah, the threat of the White Legs grew as they expanded their territory and began harassing neighbouring tribes and caravans. They specifically targeted the caravans on the Interstate 15, with their attacks becoming so violent that the route was completely abandoned, with the White Legs destroying all the bridges across the Virgin River to claim the land for themselves.
Though the White Legs initially celebrated their success from expanded territory, this soon began to become a problem for them, as caravan activity had entirely ceased due to their raids and lacking any agriculture and settlement skills for themselves, they were unable to compensate for this loss. Thanks to their raiding no one in the Utah area wished to associate with them, and due to their language only being spoken by them, they couldn't even try to mend relations (not that they wished to). As a result of all these problems, the White Legs began to suffer a serious decline and would have died out within a generation, if they hadn't caught the attention of Caesar.
Envoy of the Legion[]
At some point, the White Legs were contacted by Ulysses, an envoy and frumentarii of Caesar's Legion, a vast army sweeping across Arizona and Colorado who spoke of Caesar's respect for the White Legs and was giving them a chance to join him, which the White Legs eagerly accepted. Caesar's rite of passage for the White Legs joining the Legion was the complete eradication of New Canaan. Though the White Legs didn't know, this order was due to Caesar learning that his former Legate, Joshua Graham had survived being set on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon after his failure in the First Battle for Hoover Dam, and was now back in his hometown of New Canaan, known as "The Burned Man". Fearing retaliation from Graham and worrying that the Legion would discover his survival and discredit Caesar, he planned to use the White Legs as a blunt instrument to finally kill his former Legate, with New Canaan's destruction merely an added bonus. Unknown to the White Legs, Caesar's Legion grew from the remains of other tribes it either assimilated or destroyed, regardless if they were friend or foe with Caesar himself having a mix of pity and hatred for tribals. Despite this mindset, Caesar had no intention of assimilating the White Legs, even if they succeeded, due their sheer primitive culture and lack of anything useful to contribute to the Legion and that they would be lucky if he merely denied them entry. Unknowing of the fate that awaited them if they failed or succeeded their task, the White Legs began preparing for war.
Knowing of the White Legs' primitive weaponry and ignorance of proper tactics, Caesar had Ulysses teach them Roman ways in waging war, with pure brutality and using any means necessary to destroy their enemies. Along with teaching them how to properly wage war, Ulysses taught the White Legs in wielding modern weaponry, breaking into numerous supply caches and bunkers hidden across Utah, the White Legs would acquire their signature .45 Auto submachine guns, which they would name "storm drums". Ulysses would regale the White Legs with falsehoods of the Legion, how Caesar respected guns and those who used them, and that Caesar would regard the White Legs worthy of the Legion. As a consequence of his mentorship, the White Legs began to venerate Ulysses, instead of the Legion, calling him the "Flag-Bearer" due to his staff, Old Glory. Ulysses would be left uneasy over his deception of the White Legs, viewing it as no different than how Vulpes Inculta indoctrinated his own tribe, the Twisted Hairs before the Legion betrayed and assimilated them.
Eventually in 2281, the White Legs attacked New Canaan. Due to the New Canaanites having spent years repelling the White Legs and not knowing of their new weaponry and improved tactics, they were caught completely off-guard when the White Legs, now skilled in scouting and observing for the right opportunity to strike did so, waiting until Graham and the main defenders were away, attacked the city at night. The citizens were unable to mount a proper defence in time and the few survivors were forced to flee. The White Legs killed anyone who couldn't escape, even the sick, elderly and children and burned entire houses just to kill those trapped inside. To completely destroy New Canaan and to add further insult, the leader and war-chief of the White Legs, Salt-Upon-Wounds, had the entire land of New Canaan covered in salt, ensuring that nothing would ever grow there easily again.
After New Canaan's destruction, the White Legs brought Ulysses to their camp and showed him their appreciation for everything he'd done for them: they'd braided their hair in the same way he did. While the White Legs meant to honor him, Ulysses was secretly disgusted, viewing their braided hair as a mockery of the Twisted Hairs, whose each braid represented something whereas the White Legs' spoke merely of their own savagery and ignorance, as well as recognizing that while this 'tribute' was genuine, it was also a bribe to try and earn Ulysses' patronage. Though he never revealed his true feelings, this was the last straw for Ulysses, officially defecting from the Legion and leaving the White Legs to their own devices, where they still wear their braided hair in his honor to this day.
Despite the destruction of New Canaan, the White Legs were still denied entry into the Legion, as while the city was sacked and most of it's citizens killed, Caesar had learned that Joshua Graham had survived yet again. To make up for this failure, the White Legs tracked a few New Canaan survivors (including Graham) to Zion Valley, where they entered a three-way war against two other tribes, the Dead Horses from the Grand Canyon who had made Graham their war-chief and the Sorrows, a tribe native to Zion led by New Canaanite Daniel. From here the White Legs were caught in a standoff, as despite possessing superior weapons and improved tactics, they were outnumbered and didn't know the layout of Zion. Without any supplies and unable to return or face Caesar's wrath, the White Legs turned back to raiding any caravans that came through Zion to survive. During one such attack, the White Legs wiped out all but one of a Happy Trails Caravan Company expedition, with the sole survivor, a Courier, becoming enrolled in the tribal war, tipping the scales and finally determine the fate of Zion.
- Should Daniel die, the White Legs overrun Zion and drive the other tribes out. Celebrating their victory, they plunder all pre-war buildings for supplies, even ones the Sorrows mark as taboo. By the years end, Zion is left barren, no traces of the Sorrows left.
- Should the Courier help Daniel and the Sorrows evacuate Zion, the White Legs celebrate destroying all trace of the Sorrows' presence and leave Zion a polluted wasteland, they once again appeal to Caesar to join the Legion but he denies them a final time, having taken notice of their failure to kill Joshua Graham once more. Trying to kill Graham, they are driven back by the Dead Horses and forced to retreat. Having finally given up hope of ever joining the Legion and their impending doom due to lack of other survival skills, they break up into smaller raiding bands, trying survive on their own.
- Should the Courier and Joshua Graham lead Zion's tribe against the White Legs but spare Salt-Upon-Wounds, the White Legs' spirit is broken and they retreat to the Great Salt Lake. Once word reaches the 80's, a rival raider tribe of the demoralised White Legs and Salt-Upon-Wounds being a shadow of his former self, they take revenge and attack the White Legs. By the end of the year the few survivors flee into the wasteland while the 80's claim the Great Salt Lake for their own.
- Should the Courier and Joshua Graham lead Zion's tribe against the White Legs and Graham brutally executes Salt-Upon-Wounds, the surviving White Legs are left horrified and retreat back to the Great Salt Lake. Left broken by the defeat and fearing future attacks, they flee north out of Utah and into Wyoming, but lacking the means to survive on their own, the first winter that comes claims half the remaining tribe. By spring, the few who survived break up into smaller bands and leave, leaving their heritage behind.
- Should the Courier and Joshua Graham lead Zion's tribes against the White Legs but the Courier kills Salt-Upon-Wounds themself, the White Legs retain their spirit and still persist in their goal of exterminating the New Canaanites. Tracking other New Canaanites into Colorado, the Mormons ambush and slaughter many of the White Legs and many of the survivors of this gorilla warfare are then hunted down by the Dead Horses before they could retreat back to the Great Salt Lake. When the 80's tribe learn of the White Legs' diminished state, they declare war and by the years end, the entire tribe is wiped out.
No matter what choices the player makes, the White Legs are completely destroyed. As they are either wiped out by other tribes or perish due to their lack of basic agriculture skills as no matter their success, Caesar deems them too primitive and denies them entry into the Legion, which was their only hope for survival. Regardless of how it's done, by years end the threat the White Legs pose to Zion and Utah is ended for good.
Trivia[]
- Though the White Legs want to be assimilated by Caesar's Legion, many White Leg warriors are women. This indicates that they do not know what the are signing up for, similar to the Great Khans. Caesar was also known to betray his allies: the Twisted Hairs formed an alliance with Caesar to serve as his army's scouts in Arizona. Once the Arizona wastes were pacified, the Legion stripped their tribal identity and forced them into slavery. Those who resisted were crucified along the remains of I-40.
- Lonesome Road confirms this ignorance of the Legion, as in one of his logs, Ulysses recollects that due to how primitive their culture was and lack of anything substantial to contribute, Caesar had no intention of assimilating the White Legs.
- The White Legs differ from most other tribes in the sense that they want to be assimilated by Caesar's Legion, most tribes are forcibly absorbed into Caesar's Legion or they, along with the rest of their culture, die.
Gallery[]
.png "Fallout - White Legs Bone Breakers (Render).png (1.03 MB)")
.png "Fallout - White Legs Light Bringers (Render).png (1,023 KB)")
.png "Fallout - White Pain Makers Breakers (Render).png (1.2 MB)")
.png "Fallout - White Legs Storm Drummers (Render).png (1.35 MB)")
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 Villains
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