Fallout New Vegas DLC Mysteries: Update

Speculation and Rumor abound Online

The information revealed in the blogging accident combined with the hints appearing from multiple sources in the game have triggered widespread speculation as to the ultimate details for the upcoming DLC, from how many there are to what they will likely cover, and recently discovered graphical resources in the game have cemented together much of what was, until recently, wholly unsubstantiated rumor.

Ulysses and the Burned Man are at the center of recent speculation, with some groups declaring that they are one and the same man, while others have put forth the theory that Ulysses is in reality the father of the Lonesome Drifter (the guitar playing singer we hired as part of our side-quest to provide new talent for the casino shows on the New Vegas Strip).

When the Drifter tells us his life story he mentions the father that disappeared, revealing details that can be made to fit the identity of Ulysses, a character who was originally placed in the game as the Legion Companion for Courier 6, but was later removed from the game for unstated reasons.

While Ulysses was removed, based upon the clues that appear in the game and comments by NPC's it is likely that he will emerge as one of the primary characters in one of the upcoming DLC expansions to the game, so this speculation may be warranted. One thing that is clear however is who Ulysses is not: despite wide speculation to the contrary he cannot be the mysterious other courier, because his age is wrong, making him too old, and his sex is clearly defined as male -- making it unlikely for him to have been a love interest for the courier when they are played as a male, though to be fair, not impossible if he turns out to be gay.

The Burned Man presents as a likely candidate for one or more of the upcoming expansions, especially considering the foreshadowing and extensive inclusion of the lore surrounding him that takes place in and around the Legion Camp, though it is unlikely that he has any direct connection to Courier 6 in the past.

Brotherhood Likely Subject for DLC

The handling of the Brotherhood of Steel in the main story for New Vegas is an issue that has polarized the community, though both sides wonder at how it is that the organization has so weak a presence in the area that happens to be adjacent to the region containing its home base.

Gamers who played Fallout 3 and the Broken Steel DLC from that game will recall that several characters in that story-line shared extensive information about the activities of the organization back on the west coast, including the fact that their primary goal was to acquire and maintain satellite based communications that would allow the major elements of the Brotherhood to remain in contact, and exchange voice and data communication as the first pillar in their plan to restore the old order on the continent.

Events that took place in the story, combined with comments made in the Brotherhood's outpost bunker in the New Vegas Wasteland suggest that they have managed to achieve that goal.

Any expansion that includes the Brotherhood will have to take place in their home region however, as the ending summaries that are already revealed in the game make it unlikely to impossible that the organizations activities could take place in the Mojave Wasteland, as its history has been fully outlined in the epilogues.

A Common Theme of Hints

Hints about the Dead Money DLC can be found in the game world as graffiti, though the trail of graffiti that takes the player from Prim to the canyon (see previous article) is a much more obvious and revealing example. It appears that graffiti-based hints are a theme in the game with respect to the upcoming DLC, as blogger Ausir reveals in a 29 December post to the Fallout Wiki:

"Dead Money was first hinted via in-game graffiti. The textures for these graffiti are in a folder in the game files called "nvdlcgraffiti", and all the textures share the filename "nvgraffitisierra". Interestingly, this folder contains a number of other textures, sharing the filename "nvgraffitihonesthearts". These read:

"Where's New Canaan, anyway?"

"The Burned Man Walks!"

"Joshua Graham Lives!"

"This implies that one of the future add-ons will be titled Honest Hearts and will feature Joshua Graham, Caesar's former right hand, who is also known as the Burned Man, as he was set on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon for his defeat during the First Battle of Hoover Dam. New Canaan is another location that was originally meant to appear in Van Buren - a Mormon town that Graham originally came from."

No End to Speculation

While solid information has become the proverbial needle in the haystack, enough is leaking out to add color to the speculation, but with so wide an area to cover and so many elements to keep track of, this is certain to be an ongoing process. We will keep on top of the situation for you, so remember, GU is your go-to source for New Vegas News!

Despite all of the questions we have been able to answer, and the clues that are slowly building up, there is still a long list of outstanding mysteries that we would love to see solved, such as:

-- Is Veronica the missing and thought to be long-lost lover of Christine?

-- What is actually in the area of Vault 21 that House wanted to conceal so badly that he ordered a demolition team to collapse the corridors that gave access to it and then filled in the stairwells with cement?

-- What is Arcade Gannon's dark secret and will it be revealed?