The Divide

	For the location in Fallout 76, see Savage Divide.

“The way ahead and below - leads to the heart of the Divide. And there... you and I, we'll have an ending to things.”— Ulysses, Lonesome Road

The Divide is a common term for a stretch of devastated land in the northwestern Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas. It is located near the California/Nevada border, with Big MT situated to the south.^[1]^[2] It is the setting of Lonesome Road.

Background[edit]

Pre-War[edit]

Before its destruction, the region consisted of two towns, Hopeville and Ashton. The two towns were situated above an extensive network of Nuclear Weapon silos managed by the Commonwealth Defense Administration Ballistic Defense Division. The complex was established in a geologically unstable region, where earthquakes occur.^[3] Meanwhile, the Army chose the Hopeville as the location for Big MT's weather control research.^[1]^[4]

The region had a contingent of political dissidents who protested the ongoing Resource Wars. General Wellesley, Chief Liaison Officer to Big MT, was instructed to arrest them and ship them to the research complex.^[5]^[6] During the Great War, the nuclear missiles stored in the missile silos were not launched.

Post-War[edit]

After the war, the settlements grew in part by the efforts of a courier who was willing to deliver packages to the community. The courier traveled the road repeatedly, giving those who lived there a connection to the outside.^[7] The community was named the Divide, not as a reference to the land formations, but as a description of the road from the west into the Mojave which served as a supply line.^[8]^[9]

The New California Republic traveled through the area, one of two land routes used to supply those stationed in the Mojave.^[10] Caesar attempted to cut the supply line in order to deny the ability for the NCR to bring supplies to the Mojave.^[11] Before the first Battle of Hoover Dam, one of the packages delivered by the courier contained a detonator that activated the bombs underground.^[2]^[12] This triggered an earthquake that ripped the land open and resulted in ongoing dust storms.^[13] Members of both the Legion and the NCR were killed or maimed, turned into "Marked Men" who are devoid of skin and healed by radiation.^[14]^[15]^[16] Ulysses was the only survivor, saved by the machines in the area who saw the flag on his jacket and associated it with America.^[17]

The destruction of the Divide was a benefit to the Legion, who could have suffered more losses at the Hoover Dam if the NCR was able to utilize the route during the conflict.^[2]^[18] In addition, the NCR was no longer about to rely on the 127 north route to reinforce the Mojave and the dam.^[11]^[19]^[20]

Layout[edit]

Located northwest of the Mojave Wasteland near the 127, the Divide is a region that was once the home of Hopeville, a community built around and over a ballistic missile silo complex, and Ashton, a city that was situated at a major highway junction. After the detonations, both towns were destroyed and are blanketed in constant dust storms.

Locations[edit]

Image	Name	Cell Name
	Ashton	NVDLC04Silo02 (silo) NVDLC04Road02silo (control station)
	Ashton Missile Silo	NVDLC04Silo02 (silo) NVDLC04Silo02Elevator (elevator)
	Ashton Silo Control Station	NVDLC04Road02silo
	Boxwood Hotel Roof	NVDLC04DivideWestStart
	Cave of the Abaddon	NVDLC04DivideCave (cave) NVDLC04DivideCaveBldg (buried buildings)
	Collapsed Overpass Tunnel Entrance	NVDLC04RoadTunnel
	High Road	NVDLC04Road02
	High Road Entrance	NVDLC04Road02
	Hopeville	NVDLC04RoadHQ (M. Base HQ) NVDLC04Road01Start (Load. St.) NVDLC04Road01 (M. Silo Bunker)
	Hopeville Armory	NVDLC04SLArmory01 (interior)
	Hopeville Men's Barracks	NVDLC04SLHopevilleMensBarracks (interior)
	Hopeville Missile Base	NVDLC04Road01World (east entr)
	Hopeville Missile Base Headquarters	NVDLC04RoadHQ (interior)
	Hopeville Missile Base Loading Station	NVDLC04Road01Start
	Hopeville Missile Silo Bunker	NVDLC04Road01 (exterior) NVDLC04Silo01 (interior)
	Hopeville Silo Bunker Entrance	NVDLC04DivideVistaWorld
	Hopeville Women's Barracks	NVDLC04SLHopeVilleWomensBarracks
	Junction 7 Rest Stop	Wilderness (4, -1)
	Marked Men Base	NVDLC04Road01MMBossCamp
	Marked Men Camp	NVDLC04Road01MM01Camp
	Marked Men Guard Outpost	NVDLC04SLBasement (basement)
	Marked Men Supply Outpost	NVDLC04SLBasement (basement)
	Municipal Sewers	NVDLC04DivideSLSewers
	Pass to Canyon Wreckage	CanyonWreckage NVDLC04DivideVistaWorld
	Path to the Courier's Mile	NVDLC04GroundZero NVDLC04GroundZeroStart
	Ruined Highway Interchange	NVDLC04Road02
	Saturnite Building
	Slide Show Theater Room	NVDLC04SlideShow
	Smitty's	FreesideCentral
	Sunstone Tower Roof	NVDLC04DivideEastStart (Sunstone Tower Roof) NVDLC04DivideStartBldg (Sunstone Tower)
	The Courier's Mile	NVDLC04GroundZero NVDLC04GroundZeroStart
	The Crow's Nest	Wilderness (2, 1)
	Third Street Municipal Building	NVDLC04DivideSLSewers
	Ulysses' Temple	NVDLC04DivideTempleEntrance (exterior) NVDLC04DivideUlyssesTemple (interior) NVDLC04DivideTempleMaint (maintenance and storage)
	Waste Disposal Station	NVDLC04DivideSLWasteDisposal
	Wastewater Treatment Plant	NVDLC04DivideSLWaterPlant

Related Quests[edit]

Name	Location	Given By	Reward	Form ID
The Apocalypse	Ulysses' Temple	Pip-Boy	5000 XP Bitter Drink Recipe (optional) Courier Duster Old Glory Red Glare Snakebite Tourniquet Ulysses' Duster Ulysses' final message Ulysses' Mask +1 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point Access to the Long 15 and/or Dry Wells Boomers and Powder Gangers fame (both targets only) NCR fame and Legion infamy (targeted Legion) Legion fame and NCR infamy (targeted NCR) NCR and Legion infamy (targeted both) Completion of Lonesome Road add-on	xx00BF03
The Courier	Ulysses' Temple	Pip-Boy	2200 XP Old Glory (optional) Ulysses' Duster (optional) Ulysses' Mask (optional)	xx003616
The Divide	Ashton Silo Control Station Sunstone Tower Roof Third Street Municipal Building	Pip-Boy	4400 XP	xx003610
The End	Ulysses' Temple	Pip-Boy	5000 XP Bitter Drink Recipe (optional) Courier Duster Old Glory Red Glare Snakebite Tourniquet Ulysses' Duster Ulysses' final message Ulysses' Mask +1 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point Brotherhood of Steel and Followers of the Apocalypse fame Completion of Lonesome Road add-on	xx003615
The Job	Hopeville Missile Silo Bunker Hopeville Missile Base	Ulysses	2310 XP 2 Red Glares	xx00360F
The Launch	High Road	Ulysses	4400 XP Access to the Courier's Mile	xx0039E3
The Reunion	Canyon Wreckage		10 XP	xx003603
The Silo	Hopeville Silo Bunker Entrance	Pip-Boy	2200 XP ED-E as a companion	xx003617
The Tunnelers	Cave of the Abaddon	ED-E	2200 XP	xx003613

Notes[edit]

It takes three in-game days to travel between the Mojave Wasteland and the Divide.
Exiting and entering the Divide resets water, food and sleep counters to 0 in Hardcore Mode.
Cass mentions the Divide in her dialogue, mentioning that twisters from there can block off paths which require explosives to clear.^[21]

Appearances[edit]

The Divide appears in the add-on Lonesome Road and on a map in Old World Blues. It is also mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and the DLCs: Dead Money, Honest Hearts, and Old World Blues.

Behind the Scenes[edit]

Before the release of Lonesome Road, Chris Avellone shared his goals with the design of the Divide, the limitations the team faced, and relationship to the story lines of the other add-ons.^{[Dev 1]}
Chris Avellone describes that the package carried by the Courier was from the NCR following their destruction of Navarro.^{[Dev 2]}
The early high concept for Lonesome Road described the Divide as the Courier's hometown.^{[Doc 1]}

Gallery[edit]

Cave of the Abaddon
The Divide map shown in Big MT
Ulysses, the sentinel of the Divide
Ulysses watching over the Divide at night
The Divide map
MTG Card

References[edit]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Y-0 Research Center Terminal Entries; Terminal, Dispenser Funding Update: "Got the funding from Sinclair. Near as I can tell, he's willing to not only bankrupt himself for these devices, he's struck a deal with the Big MT executives, letting the Villa become a lab for the supposedly-harmless prototype tech here. I've seen the Big MT execs do this with other isolated towns (Hopeville Meteorological research up north), and the whole process, it's not what I signed up for."
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Joshua Graham: "I can say that we were both lucky that NCR's supply lines and land routes north of Mojave Outpost were destroyed before the Battle of Hoover Dam. Something bad happened near Death Valley, at a place called the Divide. NCR couldn't cut across anymore and it slowed down their reinforcements. Terrible storms ripped entire companies apart before they even got to Nevada soil. The aftermath of Hoover Dam could have been even worse for Caesar."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue)
↑ Jackie's terminal; Jackie's Computer, Earthquakes
↑ Ulysses log Y-17.16
↑ Third Street Municipal Building Terminal Entries; Office of the Treasurer Terminal, Inter-Office Email
↑ Third Street Municipal building terminal entries; Office of the Treasurer Terminal, Memo from Commander Devlin
↑ Ulysses: "Never would have known the Divide had it not been for you. The road you made with your tracks, again and again. You were the only one willing to make the journey to and from here... a hard road. Kept the land before the Divide alive through seasons, storms... can't have been just a job. Was something more to you. Don't feel for a place that hard unless it's home."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "This road leads nowhere. There's nothing in the Divide."
Ulysses: "Many in the Mojave think the Divide's nothing but canyon and storm. Wasn't always. There was life, a town, farther West... not talking about an Old World town like Hopeville... more recent. Something you saw in your lifetime. It had the name "the Divide," too. But rather than cracks in the earth, it was a road from the West into the Mojave, a supply line. Took a Courier to make that road. You. Back then, you saw the road with eyes facing East. This time... the Divide's in the other direction. And if your eyes try to make sense of it when you reach it... home's not what it was."
Courier: "If you blame me for what happened here at the Divide - why do you care?"
Ulysses: "The community that was once here... and the package you brought... both had markings of the Divide. Markings of America. You've seen the marks, the symbol. As early as the Hopeville silo, maybe. Carried it etched on your weapons. The Divide, its buildings, its people, were built around those same markings, surrounded them here... ...markings like the flag on my back. When I followed your road to the Divide those years ago, I saw the symbol I wore all around me. An Old World symbol. Strong, to survive here - its people, strong. Outlast the Bear, outlast the Bull. Promise of something better. Caesar was right to want it dead. NCR was right to want to rake their claws in it. Seeing it... changed me, just as seeing Hoover Dam changed Caesar and the NCR. Seeing it end changed me, too."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "So you believed in this place. What it once was."
Ulysses: "There was hope here, another chance. A new nation, stirring to life. You gave life to this place. I followed your road here, saw the Divide. You led me here, so that I could see. Then, you brought it to an end."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "On the High Road, you mentioned NCR and Legion fought here... before and after the Divide?"
Ulysses: The two-headed Bear made its claim, dug its claws into the trail you made. For once, it seemed like it might succeed - cut a route to the Mojave. Couldn't let NCR stay in the Divide. Trade route, road the military could use... can't have two roads into the Mojave. Not after the work we'd done to cut off New Canaan, other routes, killing caravans... all we'd done to make the West bleed."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ ^11.0 ^11.1 Courier: "NCR would have needed this supply line open to reinforce the Mojave - and Hoover Dam."
Ulysses: "The Dam. That Old World Wall. The Bear, NCR, couldn't be allowed to reach it easily. Long 15... Canaan... both bad enough. Kimball, Caesar, House... you'd think their whole world was that wall, cutting the Colorado. If I'd never laid eyes on it, never spoke of it... but once found, it was all Caesar could see. That, and the flag beyond it, another symbol, big enough to challenge him. And the Divide, one of the roads to it - Legion was tasked with cutting that artery. If you can't kill the Bear in one stroke, bleed it, starve it. That kind of murder... it's what any of the Legion would have done. Now... the Divide belongs to history."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "What happened here?"
Ulysses: "You delivered a package. Had markings that matched those in the Divide. Not all... but enough. Military markings, from someplace the Bear had savaged in the West. Maybe seeing those markings on it reminded you of home... made you carry it."
Courier: "You said I brought it from the West?"
Ulysses: "It was a device, a detonator. One I'd never seen before - or heard before. You carried that thing to the Divide. I know because I followed you as you walked the road, watched you do it. You brought it here, to the community you built. And you are responsible for what happened after - when the device opened, started to speak. When it did, the Divide answered back. Those missiles you've seen, buried in their silos. They exploded beneath the ground, cracked the landscape. Sand, ash... the dead... the Divide skies became a graveyard."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "What was strange about it?"
Johnson Nash: "That cowboy robot had us hire six couriers. Each was carrying something a little different. A pair of dice, a chess piece, that kind of stuff. Last word I had from the office, it looked like payment had been received for the other five jobs. Guess it was just your chip that didn't make it. First deadbeat we hired to do the job canceled. Hope a storm from the Divide skins him alive. Well, that's where you came in."
(Johnson Nash's dialogue)
↑ Courier: "Radiation may keep them alive in areas so physically punishing, it would kill others - even ghouls."
Courier: "If they've become ghouls, the radiation would strengthen them. Heal their wounds - not the scars."
Ulysses: "There's truth in your words, in what I've seen of their tactics, movements - recovery. Those wounds - they couldn't live otherwise. The Divide winds have torn the skin from many of them - may be the radiation is the only thing keeping them walking. Make camp near silos... warheads. No way to cleanse the radiation - makes them hard to kill there, have to draw them out."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "Those bodies in the silo were NCR soldiers... some special forces."
Ulysses: "Might have been. Once. To the Divide they came... in the Divide, they rest."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "The dead in the silo, some were Legion Frumentarii, scouts. Assassins."
Ulysses: "Might have been. Once. To the Divide they came... in the Divide, they rest."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "If you saw this happen, then how did you survive?"
Ulysses: "Should've died there... but now that I know you live...the machines here...saved me. I was the only survivor, or thought I was. Your package, the message inside, awoke medical machines... close to the one that shadows you... began to build themselves, then others. They only take what parts they find in the Divide, never roam beyond it - can't even leave the silos without a human to shadow, like hounds. Maybe they saw the flag on my jacket, thought I was of America. If so, history saved me. A sign."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)
↑ Courier: "What's at the Divide?"
Joshua Graham: "I don't know for certain, and I don't think NCR knows, either. Whatever happened at the Divide was too much for them to handle. Our frumentarii told us what they saw. Only fools and madmen would march into a place like that. All roads wind down to the same spot, the grave. They said all that's left there is a gaping wound cut into the Earth, cursed and damned. No place for God-fearing folk."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue)
↑ NCR Ranger Action Report: "I don't think this will be a suitable route for bringing troops to Hoover Dam. The terrain is a nightmare, we've seen evidence of hostile indigenous life, and the Geiger counters are ticking like a grandfather clock on turbo. Full report when the advance scouts come back at 2300, but as of now I'm recommending we abandon this mission."
↑ Courier: "The Divide blocked all of their northern land routes?"
Joshua Graham: "Not all of them. But they couldn't take 127 north to get around the mountains. As if Death Valley weren't enough, they had the Divide and Big Empty to deal with. From what the Legion's explorers reported, the Big Empty may as well have been a wall to any living thing approaching it."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue)
↑ Courier: "You've used explosives?"
Cass:"Dynamite's for when you don't have enough bullets, want to clear a pass, or scare off Geckos from a caravan. Some of the twisters out of the Divide can block off a pass in no time, so you learn how to handle powder so you don't get trapped somewhere. Any event, I prefer shooting if it comes down to an argument. Don't worry, I'll carry my weight if a disagreement arises. "

Design Documents

↑ Fallout: New Vegas DLC Design Document#Transcript

Developer Statements

↑ Fallout: New Vegas and DLC Post-mortem Interview, Part Two - Archived
↑ User: "Why did NCR ask the player/Courier to bring the package to the Divide?"
Chris Avellone: "NCR sacks Navarro in the West, recovers a bunch of tech they don't understand, as history has proven. They do, however, recognize the symbols (American flag, silo stencils, etc.) and recognize it might be tied to the same symbols and markings the NCR found at the Divide.NCR hires a Courier to take the item there. They don't for a second think that anything bad will happen as a result, and neither does the player. Player delivers package, leaves. The package is a detonator that contains missile launch codes that just needs to get within range and start chatting with launch computers. So it does. As Ulysses says, package "wakes up," sends the detonation signal to missiles locked in silo, earthquakes and storms result. Post-apoc wasteland because even more post-apoc. Fragments of package (along with everything else in Divide) scatter, are scavenged and rebuilt, package ends up in a new frame. History repeats."
(Fallout: New Vegas Developer Statements/Lonesome Road; Chris Avellone: The Package, 2011 October 18)

Fallout: New Vegas Add-On Locations

Dead Money		Abandoned BoS Bunker · Campanas del Sol · Cantina Madrid · Dead Money Locations · Executive Suites · Medical District · Puesta del Sol · Puesta del Sol Switching Station · Residential District · Ruined Building · Ruined Cafe · Ruined Store · Salida del Sol · Salida del Sol Courtyard · Service Route · Sierra Madre · Sierra Madre Casino · Sierra Madre Lobby · Sierra Madre Vault · Tampico · Villa · Villa Clinic · Villa Police Station

Honest Hearts		Angel Cave · Ant Burrow · Bighorn Bluff · Burial Mounds · Caterpillar's Mound · Clear Water Docks · Court Fork Overlook · Crashed Scout Bus · Crossroad Cavern · Cueva Guarache · Dagger's Point · Dead Horses Camp · East Fork Bridge · Eastern Virgin · Fallen Rock Cave · Ghost Den · Glass Chime Cave · Half Mouse Cave · Honest Hearts Locations · Morning Glory Cave · North Fork Bridge · North Fork Campground · Northern Passage · Old Rockville Bridge · Patriarchs' Campground · Pine Creek Tunnel · Ranger Substation Eagle · Ranger Substation Osprey · Ranger Substation Peregrine · Red Rapids Docks · Route 9 · Sorrows Camp · Sorrows Fork Campground · Southern Passage · Stalkers' Camp · Stone Bones Cave · Sun Sentinels · Survivalist's Cache · Sweet Flower Cave · The Aerie · The Bend Bridge · The Narrows · The Red Gate · The Spine · Three Marys · Two Skies Cave · Vault 22 Dwellers' Guard Camp · Virgin Fork Campground · Virgin River · White Bird's Cave · Wind Wall Docks · Yao Guai Cave · Zion Canyon · Zion Fishing Lodge · Zion General Store · Zion Ranger Station · Zion Valley Welcome Booth

Lonesome Road		Ashton · Ashton Missile Silo · Ashton Silo Control Station · Boat to Dry Wells · Boxwood Hotel Roof · Canyon Wreckage · Cave of the Abaddon · Collapsed Overpass Tunnel Entrance · Detroit Street · Dry Wells · Gate to Long 15 · High Road · High Road Entrance · Hope Street · Hopeville · Hopeville Armory · Hopeville Men's Barracks · Hopeville Missile Base · Hopeville Missile Base Headquarters · Hopeville Missile Base Loading Station · Hopeville Missile Silo Bunker · Hopeville Silo Bunker Entrance · Hopeville Women's Barracks · Junction 7 Rest Stop · Lonesome Road Locations · Long 15 · Marked Men Base · Marked Men Camp · Marked Men Guard Outpost · Marked Men Supply Outpost · Municipal Sewers · Pass to Canyon Wreckage · Path to the Courier's Mile · Pinefalls Drive · Ruined Highway Interchange · Saturnite Building · Slide Show Theater Room · Smitty's · Sunstone Tower Roof · The Courier's Mile · The Crow's Nest · The Divide · Third Street Municipal Building · Ulysses' Temple · Waste Disposal Station · Wastewater Treatment Plant

Old World Blues		Big MT · Big MT East Tunnel · Big MT North Tunnel · Big MT West Tunnel · Construction Site · Elijah's Watch · Forbidden Zone Dome Entrance · Hazmat Testing Ground · Higgs Village · Little Yangtze · Loading Station · Magnetohydraulics Complex · Mojave Drive-in · Mysterious Cave · Old World Blues Locations · Saturnite Alloy Research Facility · Securitron De-Construction Plant · Signal Hills Transmitter · The Cuckoo's Nest · The Sink · The Think Tank · Ulysses' Point · VR Simulation Room · Waste Disintegration Platform · X-12 Research Center · X-13 Research Facility · X-17 Meteorological Station · X-22 Botanical Garden · X-2 Transmitter Antenna Array · X-66 Hexcrete Archipelago · X-7a "Left Field" Artillery Launch · X-7b "Boom Town" Target Zone · X-8 Research Center · Y-0 Research Center · Y-17 Medical Facility · Z-14 Pepsinae DNA Splicing Lab · Z-38 Lightwave Dynamics Research · Z-43 Innovative Toxins Plant · Z-9 Crotalus DNA Preservation Lab

[BigMTLOC-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Y-0 Research Center Terminal Entries; Terminal, Dispenser Funding Update: "Got the funding from Sinclair. Near as I can tell, he's willing to not only bankrupt himself for these devices, he's struck a deal with the Big MT executives, letting the Villa become a lab for the supposedly-harmless prototype tech here. I've seen the Big MT execs do this with other isolated towns (Hopeville Meteorological research up north), and the whole process, it's not what I signed up for."

[reinforce2-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Joshua Graham: "I can say that we were both lucky that NCR's supply lines and land routes north of Mojave Outpost were destroyed before the Battle of Hoover Dam. Something bad happened near Death Valley, at a place called the Divide. NCR couldn't cut across anymore and it slowed down their reinforcements. Terrible storms ripped entire companies apart before they even got to Nevada soil. The aftermath of Hoover Dam could have been even worse for Caesar."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue)

[3] Jackie's terminal; Jackie's Computer, Earthquakes

[4] Ulysses log Y-17.16

[5] Third Street Municipal Building Terminal Entries; Office of the Treasurer Terminal, Inter-Office Email

[6] Third Street Municipal building terminal entries; Office of the Treasurer Terminal, Memo from Commander Devlin

[7] Ulysses: "Never would have known the Divide had it not been for you. The road you made with your tracks, again and again. You were the only one willing to make the journey to and from here... a hard road. Kept the land before the Divide alive through seasons, storms... can't have been just a job. Was something more to you. Don't feel for a place that hard unless it's home."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[8] Courier: "This road leads nowhere. There's nothing in the Divide."
Ulysses: "Many in the Mojave think the Divide's nothing but canyon and storm. Wasn't always. There was life, a town, farther West... not talking about an Old World town like Hopeville... more recent. Something you saw in your lifetime. It had the name "the Divide," too. But rather than cracks in the earth, it was a road from the West into the Mojave, a supply line. Took a Courier to make that road. You. Back then, you saw the road with eyes facing East. This time... the Divide's in the other direction. And if your eyes try to make sense of it when you reach it... home's not what it was."
Courier: "If you blame me for what happened here at the Divide - why do you care?"
Ulysses: "The community that was once here... and the package you brought... both had markings of the Divide. Markings of America. You've seen the marks, the symbol. As early as the Hopeville silo, maybe. Carried it etched on your weapons. The Divide, its buildings, its people, were built around those same markings, surrounded them here... ...markings like the flag on my back. When I followed your road to the Divide those years ago, I saw the symbol I wore all around me. An Old World symbol. Strong, to survive here - its people, strong. Outlast the Bear, outlast the Bull. Promise of something better. Caesar was right to want it dead. NCR was right to want to rake their claws in it. Seeing it... changed me, just as seeing Hoover Dam changed Caesar and the NCR. Seeing it end changed me, too."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[9] Courier: "So you believed in this place. What it once was."
Ulysses: "There was hope here, another chance. A new nation, stirring to life. You gave life to this place. I followed your road here, saw the Divide. You led me here, so that I could see. Then, you brought it to an end."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[10] Courier: "On the High Road, you mentioned NCR and Legion fought here... before and after the Divide?"
Ulysses: The two-headed Bear made its claim, dug its claws into the trail you made. For once, it seemed like it might succeed - cut a route to the Mojave. Couldn't let NCR stay in the Divide. Trade route, road the military could use... can't have two roads into the Mojave. Not after the work we'd done to cut off New Canaan, other routes, killing caravans... all we'd done to make the West bleed."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[reinforce-11] 11.0 ^11.1 Courier: "NCR would have needed this supply line open to reinforce the Mojave - and Hoover Dam."
Ulysses: "The Dam. That Old World Wall. The Bear, NCR, couldn't be allowed to reach it easily. Long 15... Canaan... both bad enough. Kimball, Caesar, House... you'd think their whole world was that wall, cutting the Colorado. If I'd never laid eyes on it, never spoke of it... but once found, it was all Caesar could see. That, and the flag beyond it, another symbol, big enough to challenge him. And the Divide, one of the roads to it - Legion was tasked with cutting that artery. If you can't kill the Bear in one stroke, bleed it, starve it. That kind of murder... it's what any of the Legion would have done. Now... the Divide belongs to history."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[12] Courier: "What happened here?"
Ulysses: "You delivered a package. Had markings that matched those in the Divide. Not all... but enough. Military markings, from someplace the Bear had savaged in the West. Maybe seeing those markings on it reminded you of home... made you carry it."
Courier: "You said I brought it from the West?"
Ulysses: "It was a device, a detonator. One I'd never seen before - or heard before. You carried that thing to the Divide. I know because I followed you as you walked the road, watched you do it. You brought it here, to the community you built. And you are responsible for what happened after - when the device opened, started to speak. When it did, the Divide answered back. Those missiles you've seen, buried in their silos. They exploded beneath the ground, cracked the landscape. Sand, ash... the dead... the Divide skies became a graveyard."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[13] Courier: "What was strange about it?"
Johnson Nash: "That cowboy robot had us hire six couriers. Each was carrying something a little different. A pair of dice, a chess piece, that kind of stuff. Last word I had from the office, it looked like payment had been received for the other five jobs. Guess it was just your chip that didn't make it. First deadbeat we hired to do the job canceled. Hope a storm from the Divide skins him alive. Well, that's where you came in."
(Johnson Nash's dialogue)

[SurvMed-14] Courier: "Radiation may keep them alive in areas so physically punishing, it would kill others - even ghouls."
Courier: "If they've become ghouls, the radiation would strengthen them. Heal their wounds - not the scars."
Ulysses: "There's truth in your words, in what I've seen of their tactics, movements - recovery. Those wounds - they couldn't live otherwise. The Divide winds have torn the skin from many of them - may be the radiation is the only thing keeping them walking. Make camp near silos... warheads. No way to cleanse the radiation - makes them hard to kill there, have to draw them out."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[15] Courier: "Those bodies in the silo were NCR soldiers... some special forces."
Ulysses: "Might have been. Once. To the Divide they came... in the Divide, they rest."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[16] Courier: "The dead in the silo, some were Legion Frumentarii, scouts. Assassins."
Ulysses: "Might have been. Once. To the Divide they came... in the Divide, they rest."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[17] Courier: "If you saw this happen, then how did you survive?"
Ulysses: "Should've died there... but now that I know you live...the machines here...saved me. I was the only survivor, or thought I was. Your package, the message inside, awoke medical machines... close to the one that shadows you... began to build themselves, then others. They only take what parts they find in the Divide, never roam beyond it - can't even leave the silos without a human to shadow, like hounds. Maybe they saw the flag on my jacket, thought I was of America. If so, history saved me. A sign."
(Ulysses/Dialogue)

[18] Courier: "What's at the Divide?"
Joshua Graham: "I don't know for certain, and I don't think NCR knows, either. Whatever happened at the Divide was too much for them to handle. Our frumentarii told us what they saw. Only fools and madmen would march into a place like that. All roads wind down to the same spot, the grave. They said all that's left there is a gaping wound cut into the Earth, cursed and damned. No place for God-fearing folk."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue)

[19] NCR Ranger Action Report: "I don't think this will be a suitable route for bringing troops to Hoover Dam. The terrain is a nightmare, we've seen evidence of hostile indigenous life, and the Geiger counters are ticking like a grandfather clock on turbo. Full report when the advance scouts come back at 2300, but as of now I'm recommending we abandon this mission."

[20] Courier: "The Divide blocked all of their northern land routes?"
Joshua Graham: "Not all of them. But they couldn't take 127 north to get around the mountains. As if Death Valley weren't enough, they had the Divide and Big Empty to deal with. From what the Legion's explorers reported, the Big Empty may as well have been a wall to any living thing approaching it."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue)

[21] Courier: "You've used explosives?"
Cass:"Dynamite's for when you don't have enough bullets, want to clear a pass, or scare off Geckos from a caravan. Some of the twisters out of the Divide can block off a pass in no time, so you learn how to handle powder so you don't get trapped somewhere. Any event, I prefer shooting if it comes down to an argument. Don't worry, I'll carry my weight if a disagreement arises. "

[24] Fallout: New Vegas DLC Design Document#Transcript

[22] Fallout: New Vegas and DLC Post-mortem Interview, Part Two - Archived

[23] User: "Why did NCR ask the player/Courier to bring the package to the Divide?"
Chris Avellone: "NCR sacks Navarro in the West, recovers a bunch of tech they don't understand, as history has proven. They do, however, recognize the symbols (American flag, silo stencils, etc.) and recognize it might be tied to the same symbols and markings the NCR found at the Divide.NCR hires a Courier to take the item there. They don't for a second think that anything bad will happen as a result, and neither does the player. Player delivers package, leaves. The package is a detonator that contains missile launch codes that just needs to get within range and start chatting with launch computers. So it does. As Ulysses says, package "wakes up," sends the detonation signal to missiles locked in silo, earthquakes and storms result. Post-apoc wasteland because even more post-apoc. Fragments of package (along with everything else in Divide) scatter, are scavenged and rebuilt, package ends up in a new frame. History repeats."
(Fallout: New Vegas Developer Statements/Lonesome Road; Chris Avellone: The Package, 2011 October 18)

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