Joshua Graham: the Burned Man of Fallout: New Vegas

Joshua Graham is the Burned Man, the former first legate of Caesar's Legion and the central character of the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts. A missionary from the Mormon settlement of New Canaan, he helped Edward Sallow turn a Grand Canyon tribe into the Legion, then led its army for decades. After he lost the First Battle of Hoover Dam in 2277, Caesar had him burned and thrown into the Grand Canyon. He lived, went home, and by 2281 is defending Zion Canyon from the White Legs. (Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

Who is Joshua Graham?#

He grew up in New Canaan, a Mormon community in Utah, and trained as a missionary. He had a gift for languages and already spoke several tribal dialects when he set out. On the road to the Grand Canyon he joined two members of the Followers of the Apocalypse, Edward Sallow and Bill Calhoun, as their interpreter on an expedition to study the tribes. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts; Fallout: New Vegas)

The Blackfoot tribe took all three captive. They were losing a war against other tribes, and Sallow taught them to fight, to maintain guns and to make explosives, with Graham translating. The Blackfoots won, and Sallow became Caesar. Graham stayed with him. (Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

The Malpais Legate#

Graham became Caesar's first legate, called the Malpais Legate, and for decades led the Legion's conquest of tribe after tribe east of the Colorado. He admits now that he was neither a brilliant strategist nor a flexible one. What he was, he says, was brutal, and his reputation for being impossible to kill grew with every battle. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

In 2277 he led the Legion against the New California Republic at Hoover Dam. NCR Rangers picked off his officers, then drew his best troops into Boulder City, which they had packed with explosives. The blast broke the attack and the NCR drove the Legion back across the river. (Fallout: New Vegas)

Caesar made an example of him. His Praetorian Guard covered Graham in pitch, set him on fire and threw him off the edge of the Grand Canyon. (Fallout: New Vegas; Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

The Burned Man#

Graham survived the fall. He woke in the canyon the next day, crawled out, and made the long trek back to New Canaan, where his people took him back. He found he was immune to chems, so nothing dulls the pain of his burns, and he wraps them in fresh bandages every day. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

The story of his fall spread among the tribes as the legend of the Burned Man. Caesar forbade his men to speak Graham's name and sent assassins after him. Graham, for his part, says he has forgiven Caesar, but blames himself above anyone for what he did as legate. His best-known line sums up how he sees his survival: "I survived because the fire inside burned brighter than the fire around me." (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts; Fallout: New Vegas)

He also says Caesar's name the English way, not with the hard Latin C the Legion uses. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

Joshua Graham in Honest Hearts#

In 2281 the White Legs, a tribe hoping to be accepted into the Legion and armed with help from Ulysses, one of Caesar's frumentarii, attacked New Canaan while many of its fighters were away and destroyed it. Survivors fled into Zion Canyon. Graham became war chief of the Dead Horses, a tribe he had known in his Legion years, while another New Canaanite missionary, Daniel, worked with a gentler tribe, the Sorrows. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts; Fallout: New Vegas: Lonesome Road)

The Courier arrives with a caravan that the White Legs ambush, and is caught between the two missionaries. Daniel wants to lead the tribes out of Zion and escape. Graham wants to fight and wipe out the White Legs, seeing it as justice for his people and as penance for his own past. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

How Joshua Graham's story ends#

The ending slides give him four fates. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

• The Courier kills him. He "finally found rest in Zion", and among the Dead Horses his memory turns into worship of a harsh spirit of justice they call Joshua. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)
• He spares Salt-Upon-Wounds. If the Courier talks him out of executing the White Legs' war chief, the mercy changes him. He still opposes New Canaan's enemies, but sometimes shows quarter, and the legend of the Burned Man fades. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)
• He executes Salt-Upon-Wounds. He leads the tribes in burning their enemies' bodies and trains his army in the "Way of the Canaanite", and the legends of the Burned Man grow darker. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)
• The Courier kills Salt-Upon-Wounds. He stays militant and shows little quarter, but no longer enjoys the cruelty he was known for. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

If the Courier helps Daniel lead the tribes out of Zion instead, there is no battle and no slide for Graham. The Dead Horses go home to Dead Horse Point, where it's his legend, not New Canaan's faith, that they keep. (Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts)

Is Joshua Graham in the Fallout TV show?#

No. He isn't named or seen in either season of the Prime Video series, even though season 2 is set in the Mojave in 2296 and features a Legion split after Caesar's death. Amazon hasn't announced him for season 3 either. (Fallout, "The Profligate"; Fallout season 3 announcement)