Bill Calhoun was a physician of the Followers of the Apocalypse, mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas.
Background[]
In 2246, Bill Calhoun was sent east by the Followers to study the dialects of the tribes found in the region in and around the Grand Canyon, where he was partnered with fellow Follower Edward Sallow. On their journey, they met a Mormon missionary named Joshua Graham from New Canaan who displayed his prior knowledge of the tribal languages and agreed to be their translator. The three men together embarked on a journey to the region known formerly as Arizona.[1]
At some point in 2247 after reaching the Grand Canyon, Graham, Calhoun, and Sallow were having peaceful discussions with the Blackfoot tribe, until, as he alleges, Graham made a mistranslation, inciting the Blackfoots and resulting in them being captured and held for ransom. At the time the tribe was at war with seven other tribes, a war they were inevitably going to lose. Unwilling to be destroyed along with them, and against the wishes of his companions, Sallow chose to use his knowledge and education under the Followers to train the underdog tribe in the art of warfare after witnessing their lack of knowledge firsthand. He quickly impressed them enough to the point where he was made their leader, going on to conquer other nearby tribes.[2]
After uniting or destroying the majority of the Canyon's tribes, Sallow, utilizing his knowledge of history, crowned himself as "Caesar" and began expanding the forces of his Legion to the rest of Arizona; Joshua Graham decided to join him as his right-hand man, becoming the "Malpais Legate." Instead of being killed for protesting his colleague's campaign of violence against the tribes, Caesar let Calhoun live, but sent him back to the Followers to inform them of the events, and warn them not to interfere in the expansion of his new empire.[3]
Notes[]
Calhoun has no in-game model and the only depiction of him is a vaguely detailed portrait on one side of the Legion's silver denarius coinage.
Appearances[]
Bill Calhoun is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and his full name is given in the add-on Honest Hearts.[4]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Courier: "What changed you from a Follower to dictator?"
Caesar: "When I was 20, the Followers sent me East to Grand Canyon. It was my first expedition, just me and a physician named Calhoun. As an anthropologist and linguist, my assignment was to learn the dialects of the Grand Canyon tribes. What a fucking waste of time!"
(Caesar's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Why would learning dialects be a waste of time?"
Caesar: "If you think it's worthwhile to make smart people learn how to talk like backward savages, you're a Follower of the Apocalypse... or an idiot. Anyway, we met up with a Mormon missionary who already knew a bunch of dialects - Joshua Graham. He was supposed to teach me. But before that went too far, the Blackfoot tribe captured us, to hold us for ransom. They were a backward bunch. But the real problem was, they didn't know how to fight."
The Courier: "What was wrong with the Blackfoot?"
Caesar: "The Blackfoot were at war with seven other tribes, each just as pissant as they were. But outnumbered like that, they weren't going to last long. It's one thing to be taken hostage, another to be lashed to a sinking ship. So over Calhoun's objections, I decided to take certain steps."
The Courier: "What steps did you take?"
Caesar: "I taught them how to use the guns they already had - how to strip and clean them, how to breathe when pulling a trigger, how to reload ammunition. They looked at me like I was some kind of a sorcerer. So I taught them how to make explosives, and started drilling them on small unit tactics. If there's anything I learned as a Follower of the Apocalypse, it's that there's a lot of good information in old books."
The Courier: "What happened after you trained the Blackfoot?"
Caesar: "Divide et impera - divide and conquer. I led the Blackfoot against the Ridgers, their weakest enemy. When they refused to surrender, I ordered every man, woman, and child killed. When next we surrounded the Kaibabs and they likewise refused... I took one of their envoys to the Ridgers' village and showed him the corpse piles. This was new for the tribes, you see. They played at war, raiding each other, a little rape and pillage here, a little ransoming there. I showed them total warfare. Like I said, there's a lot you can learn from old books."
(Caesar's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "What happened to the tribes?"
Caesar: "The Kaibabs joined me, and the Fredonians after that - all the pissant tribes, with names that should be forgotten. I knew from the start I'd need to eradicate this plague of tribal identities, replacing them with a monolithic culture, a uniform identity. So that's what I did, once my confederation of tribes was large enough. I crowned myself Caesar and created a single Great Tribe - my Legion. I sent Calhoun, the Follower captured with me, back West with a message that I should not be interfered with. Joshua Graham, the Mormon interpreter, stayed with me and served as my first Legatus."
(Caesar's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Were you always with the New Canaanites?"
Joshua Graham: "I was born in Ogden, what people came to call New Canaan. Things were more peaceful when I was growing up. When I was a young man, I went out into the world to do missionary work as all New Canaanites do. I traveled along the Long 15 and followed 89 south into Arizona. Along the way, I met two men from a group called the Followers of the Apocalypse. Edward Sallow and Bill Calhoun. They came to teach the tribes. Calhoun was a good man. Edward was the one who got us into trouble down the road."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue)