Throughout the Courier's travels through the Mojave in Fallout: New Vegas, players can't help but notice that there's someone who knows who they are shadowing their every move. In the base game, this person is first referenced by Johnson Nash in Primm, who explains that they were originally meant to carry the package that nearly got the Courier killed. In every major DLC afterwards, he's mentioned until finally, during the events of Lonesome Road, he reveals himself as Ulysses.
While Ulysses' true identity is unknown, he chose his name in honor of the General and President Ulysses S. Grant from centuries ago. New Vegas' Ulysses was once a member of the Twisted Hairs, a powerful tribe in Arizona. They forged an alliance with the fledgling Caesar's Legion in 2247. However, once the Legion's campaign ended, Caesar broke the alliance and betrayed the tribe. The Twisted Hairs were conquered and enslaved just as he had done to the other tribes of Arizona, erasing their identities and crucifying those who resisted along the I-40 highway.
While mourning the loss of his tribe, Ulysses stayed loyal to the Legion, acting as a Frumentarii agent to trick more tribes into eventually being assimilated like his. He often took the role of an unnoticeable courier to spy on towns and tribes outside Legion territory. Caesar told him to kill no other couriers since, in fact, many couriers were spies for the Legion as well. He was also one of the first Legion members to discover Hoover Dam, New Vegas and the arriving armies of the New California Republic.
Ulysses would continue to explore the wastes as a scout for Caesar, until he came across a community called the Divide sometime before 2277. Making up the nearby towns of Ashton and Hopeville, this community was seen as a potential new nation with all of the best aspects of the Legion and NCR. Ulysses believed this place could be a new homeland to settle in. Unfortunately, the NCR annexed the territory. This drew Caesar's attention, who sent in a small army to deny the town and trade route.
Despite Ulysses efforts to save the community from both armies, disaster struck when the Courier delivered a package from the former Enclave base of Navarro to the Divide for the NCR. The package contained a device with launch codes for the nuclear missiles that lay dormant in the nearby underground silos. The device was somehow activated, and the missiles detonated, causing massive earthquakes and nuclear firestorms.
The Divide was destroyed and most within were killed. Ulysses managed to survive thanks to several medical eyebots. He blamed the Courier for the destruction of what could have been his new home, but was also inspired by the belief that even a single person could make or break a nation.
After returning to Caesar and learning of the Legion's defeat of the first battle for Hoover Dam, Ulysses was sent north as an emissary to the White Legs tribe. There, he taught the tribe to use modern weapons and Legion tactics to eventually destroy the town of New Canaan. He was horrified when the White Legs braided their hair like his former tribe, the Twisted Hairs once did, as a way to honor him. Ulysses saw it as a hollow gesture that mocked his tribe's memory.
After New Canaan was destroyed, Ulysses ended his service to Caesar and the Legion, becoming a rancher at Wolfhorn Ranch while traveling the Wastes and taking on occasional courier work. During his travels, he found the Big MT research facility, where he came across the rogue Elder, Father Elijah, directing him to the Sierra Madre Casino, predicting that it would lead to his death.
Ulysses also rescued Knight Royce from a medical facility, nursing her back to health while discussing the philosophies of the Brotherhood of Steel. Finally, he spoke with the Think Tank who ran Big Mountain, learning the Divide was once one of their testing grounds. He also learned that there were still plenty of nuclear warheads remaining in their silos, and that the device needed to activate them was still there.
In 2281, right before the events of New Vegas began, Ulysses was hired by the Securitron Victor to deliver the Platinum Chip to Mr. House in New Vegas. However, upon seeing the Courier on the list and learning they were still alive, Ulysses declined the job so that the Courier would carry it. He did this to honor the Legion's old rule not to kill fellow couriers -- while hoping that some party in the Mojave would kill them for the package. This nearly happened when Benny took the Chip, shot the Courier and theft them for dead.
Ultimately, the Courier would survive thanks to Victor and Doc Mitchel in Goodsprings. From there, they would set out on their journey through the Mojave and beyond. Along the way, they'd hear of this mysterious rival courier whose actions set the events of Dead Money, Honest Hearts and Old World Blues into motion. Eventually, Ulysses would contact the Courier, challenging them to come to the Divide and find him for a long-awaited confrontation.
Whether the Courier could convince Ulysses to support a nation or if he perished firm in his beliefs is lost to wasteland legend. Ulysses doesn't view the Legion, the NCR ot Mr. House as acceptable nations to unite the wastelands. He sees the NCR as too much like the former United States that led to the apocalypse in the first place, with laws that hinder its citizens livelihoods, and an army stretched too thin to defend its borders.
On the other hand, Ulysses recognizes that Caesar is the only thing keeping the Legion together, and that once he's gone, his empire will regress back into warring tribes. As for an independent New Vegas, Ulysses points out that Mr. House knew the Great War was coming but selfishly protected only Vegas while letting the rest of the world burn. He views also House's efforts to recreate a prewar Vegas as an unwillingness to let go of many old-world values that should have been left behind.
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