Forum:Caesar's Legion

First off, this is not a discussion of the Legion's morality. It is a silly argument.

Anyway, in my recent playthrough of FONV, I made the decision to interact with the Legion through other means than shooting them. I don't speak a lick of Latin, but I was poking around the web about some of the words used and it struck me as odd. So, why the hell do they say "Vale", when it would almost make more sense for a military person to just say "Ave" again. Why do they even greet the courier as such? He's not part of the Legion, and "Ave" is more of a salute. The context makes the Latin seem pretty token. Then again, maybe that was intentional. 17:27, November 17, 2010 (UTC)

Well the same agument can be made about the NCR calling you "sir" instead of something like, "dude". LOL--Radiated Raider 01:19, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

Just a sign of formality, I guess. Or them being able to say that with the complete confidence that they are more than capable of burying your ass if you take advantage? --Viper720666 02:37, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

Exactly, raider. That actually really caught me off guard the first time the NCR mayor called me "sir" after having a conversation with me. Wait, did he just call me...? 05:53, November 25, 2010 (UTC)

Easy enough. For the NCR, the use of "sir" or "ma'am" is simply used in lieu of an actual name or title. It's polite, yet not familiar. Lots of professions will simply refer to those they interact with as "sir" if they don't know the person's name. As for the Legion, my Latin's a bit rusty, but I seem to remember 'Ave' being the equivalent of 'hello,' while 'Vale' is 'goodbye'. They might by the formal conjugations, but again, formal is almost always safer than familiar. There are quite a few cultures where using the familiar form of a verb with someone you're buddies with is actually an insult. --Char-Nobyl 12:52, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

I don't know much about the Latin language or the Roman Empire, but it's possible that Caesar's Legion is getting some of the details wrong. It's been established in-universe that some people who are dedicated to learning about history manage to get details regarding more recent eras wrong, so even with any mistakes the Legion might be making in 2281 it's an impressive reenactment by wasteland standards.--OvaltinePatrol 08:42, November 30, 2010 (UTC)