Changes: Brotherhood of Steel

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	For the location titled "Brotherhood" in Fallout, see Lost Hills. For the game, see Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

	For the location titled "Brotherhood" in Fallout, see Lost Hills. For the game, see Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

The Brotherhood of Steel (commonly abbreviated to BoS) is a post-War techno-religious paramilitary organization with chapters operating across the ruins of America.^{[Non-canon 1]} The group has its roots in the United States Armed Forces, founded by a United States Army security team stationed at Mariposa Military Base before the Great War. While the goals of the Brotherhood vary from chapter to chapter, they share a core mission centered on seizing and regulating pre-War technology throughout the wasteland.^[4][5] Though small, the Brotherhood has been an influential group in the history of the wasteland, first as a survivalist group, then a major research and development house, then finally as an enemy of the New California Republic, fighting a bitter war for control of technology in New California. Having suffered defeats in the West, the Brotherhood would be strengthened on the Eastern reaches of the continent, under Elder Arthur Maxson.^[6]

The faction has been featured in every Fallout game, in one form or another. This article focuses exclusively on an overview of the Brotherhood as it appears throughout the series. For information on specific Brotherhood chapters, see: Brotherhood of Steel chapters

Background

The Mariposa Rebellion

In 2076, the NBC division of West Tek achieved breakthrough results in the Pan-Immunity Virion Project. The United States Defense Department, fearing international espionage, moved a military team under the command of Colonel Robert Spindel and Captain Roger Maxson onto the site to secure and oversee the project, now dubbed the FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) project.^[7] On January 7, 2077, all FEV research was moved to the newly constructed Mariposa Military Base to commence testing of the virus on human subjects.^[8][9] The security team was transferred to the newly constructed base as well, to provide protection for the research going on within the facility. They were not informed of the nature of the research.^[10]

The situation unraveled shortly before October 10, 2077. The soldiers stationed at Mariposa discovered the fact that the scientists under their care were performing experiments with the Forced Evolutionary Virus on military prisoners. The revelation prompted a nervous breakdown in Colonel Spindel, who locked himself in his office. Captain Maxson was the only officer left to handle the deteriorating situation. Soldiers were screaming for blood and the whole situation was at risk of devolving into a bloodbath. On October 12, when Maxson had to step in to prevent one of his subordinates from killing a member of the science team, he ordered interrogations of the science team under his authority as acting commander. He hoped to prevent a full mutiny by offering his troops a semblance of justice.^[10]

The first scientist was brought before Maxson a day later, on October 13. Chief Researcher Robert Anderson explained that human experiments at the facility were sanctioned by the government. He outlined the program to the captain, emphasizing the fact that it was the government that ordered it. When Maxson refused to believe him, the scientist lost his nerve and started screaming how he was just following orders and that he was a military man just like Maxson. The captain shot him in response. He rationalized it as trying to prevent a full-scale mutiny, but even he did not believe it.^[10]

The killing of Robert Anderson effectively established Maxson as the leader of the rebellion. His position was further reinforced just two days later on October 15, when he attempted to speak to Colonel Spindel through the door of his office. It soon became clear that the colonel had lost touch with reality, so Maxson and several of his men broke down the door just in time to hear the colonel apologize and shoot himself. Subsequent scientist interrogations invariably ended in executions. Erin Shellman held out the longest by October 18, finally convincing the captain that the experiments were really ordered by the government with her detailed account.^[10] On October 20, 2077, Captain Maxson declared his unit in full secession from the United States over the radio, attempting to force the government to respond to the situation at Mariposa. No response came. A day later, he ordered the families of soldiers under his command to take shelter within the facility.^[10]

On October 23, 2077, the Great War struck. As Maxson was halfway through prying the story from Head Researcher Leon Von Felden, the facility lost contact with the outside world as nuclear weapons started to drop. Spared the nuclear devastation, Mariposa protected the inhabitants from nuclear fallout flooding the wasteland. Fearing that China would soon make up for the oversight, on October 24, Maxson ordered his soldiers and their families to prepare to vacate the base the next day.^[11]

On October 25, Sergeant Platner volunteered to take atmospheric readings outside the base. Reporting no significant amounts of radiation in the atmosphere, final preparations for the Exodus were undertaken. On October 26, Maxson ordered the remains of the scientists to be buried in the wastes outside the base. A day later, on October 27, former US servicemen and their families left the base under the lead of Captain Roger Maxson, heading for the Lost Hills government bunker in the south.^[10]

The Exodus

In November, a few weeks later, war refugees arrived at the bunker. The people suffered casualties along the way, as while the soldiers were protected by T-51 power armor, their families had no armor to speak of. Marauders that attacked the caravan quickly learned to target the unprotected civilians. Though the attackers paid with two lives for every one they took, many were lost, including Roger Maxson's wife but not his teenage son.^{[Non-game 1][12]}

Several soldiers broke off during the Exodus as well, led by Sergeant Dennis Allen.^[13] Ignoring warnings from Captain Maxson and defying the group's will, Allen's faction separated from the convoy in order to excavate the remains of the West Tek Research Facility using their power armor. They were never heard from again.^[12] Around 2151, the Brotherhood sent out knights to seek out Allen's group or its remains. All they found were desolate ruins.^{[Non-game 2][14]}

The Exodus survivors claimed the Lost Hills bunker as their own. The refugees expanded and adapted it to fit their own needs, becoming a bastion of technology in a world that has lost centuries of technological development overnight.^[12]

Foundation of the Brotherhood and expansion in Appalachia (Fallout 76)

Using surviving satellite connections, Maxson reached out across the continent, broadcasting a request for contact.^[15] By chance, Maxson found an old friend in Appalachia, Lieutenant Elizabeth Taggerdy of the US Army Rangers. Although initially hesitant to trust him, due to the public declaration of secession, she gambled and left the channel open.^[16] As Maxson revealed the depth of atrocities perpetrated by the United States government, Taggerdy's faith in the system was shaken, then dismantled. Following the winter spent at Camp Venture, she joined Maxson's banner.^[17]

Witnessing how people around him slowly succumbed to depression, Captain Maxson formulated a new ideology for the survivors. It took him years to create it, replacing the tarnished Stars and Stripes with new symbols, new ranks, and new ideas to replace the ones scorched in nuclear fire. They would provide meaning for people before they became lost in the depths of despair after losing their friends, family, and their entire world. Although some under his command, particularly Lieutenant Taggerdy, were skeptical of his plans, Maxson believed that the way forward lay in new traditions and a new mythology, free of the burden of the past. He also believed that it would prevent any surviving politicians from exercising their authority over former American soldiers, especially those with an agenda that involved burning Americans on the funeral pyre of the regime.^[18][19][20] By June 20, 2082, all members under his command switched over to using Brotherhood ranks and practices.^[1][21]

The Brotherhood kept growing in New California, welcoming into its ranks a National Guard unit that was formerly stationed near Mariposa.^[22] They acquired several bunkers^[23] and sent expeditions as far as the Mojave Wasteland, gathering intelligence and new recruits.^[24] As the Brotherhood in New California developed, so did its sister organization in Appalachia under Paladin Taggerdy. Although she showed a bias towards candidates with a military background while building up the ranks, she eventually understood Roger Maxson's vision and continued to expand and develop the organization using Camp Venture as a training outpost. Despite initial resistance to the new rank system by the rest in her outfit, the new ideas offered by Maxson eventually took root and were accepted.

In Appalachia, the Brotherhood's insistence on acquiring munitions for their fighting against mutants led to ruffled feathers, especially with the Responders prior to the Christmas Flood in December 2082. However, they eventually found a common tongue, standing together during the Battle of Huntersville against super mutants in May 2086. Although the Brotherhood sustained losses, it prevailed. This coincided with the announcement of a new mandate by Roger Maxson at Lost Hills: to gather, record, and save the collective knowledge of mankind for future generations, to act as a catalyst for the rebirth of civilization in time.^[25] Some in Appalachia responded to this new policy with enthusiasm, others with grudging acceptance, and yet others, like Hank Madigan, left the Brotherhood to join the Responders.

The new mission quickly took a backseat, however, as the Appalachian Brotherhood encountered the scorchbeasts and the Scorched in the Cranberry Bog. Conferring with Maxson's ace researcher at Lost Hills, Scribe Hailey Takano, the Brotherhood in Appalachia quickly calculated that the scorchbeasts represented a potential extinction event for humanity. Lost Hills supplied a number of designs and weapon schematics to help stem the tide, including a sonic generator and an automated research program. Taggerdy pleaded with Maxson to grant her team permission to use nuclear weapons against the scorchbeasts but was forbidden by him because he found the concept of using nuclear weapons, even to help fight the scorchbeasts, to be too morally abhorrent after their world was destroyed by nukes.

By the 2090s, communication between Lost Hills and Appalachia was on steady decline due to failing Old World communication infrastructure. Before being cut off, Maxson ordered Taggerdy to hold the tide, and proscribed the use of nuclear weapons.^[26][20] Eventually, the communications failed entirely, separating Lost Hills from Appalachia. The chapter in Appalachia fought on, trying to destroy the scorchbeasts through attrition, but by 2093, their numbers dwindled to the point where they were forced to close down Camp Venture, their first base, and focus their remaining forces at Fort Defiance and Thunder Mountain Power Plant. Declining support from the Responders and the constant fighting just to stem the tide of the Scorched and their masters took their toll, preventing the Brotherhood from completing the automated research program at Vault-Tec University, supplied to them by Takano.

Eventually, the Brotherhood launched Operation Touchdown. This last ditch effort was launched in January 2095 and briefly stemmed the tide at the cost of the entire strike force, which included Knight Moreno and Paladin Taggerdy. Ultimately, the Brotherhood in Appalachia was wiped out in their last stand at Fort Defiance and Thunder Mountain on August 18-19, 2095, marking the end of the original Brotherhood in Appalachia with Vernon Dodge as the only survivor.^[20]

Reinforcements arrive in Appalachia (Fallout 76)

However, by 2103, a small group of reinforcements arrived on their way from Lost Hills to examine various centers of technology across the country, expand the Brotherhood across the East Coast, and find out what happened to Taggerdy. Known as the Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force, they were led by Leila Rahmani and Daniel Shin and were to set up base in Fort Atlas in Appalachia. The team also had a scribe named Odessa Valdez. While Maxson's motive was sincere, wishing to find out what happened to his friend Taggerdy, Rahmani became certain the Council of Elders had an ulterior motive: to remove her influence and meddling as she would often argue over their ways.

Along their hike across the country, the expedition found a town under threat by raiders. Wanting to assist them, Rahmani and Shin agreed to providing the townsfolk with weapons to help defend them. Unfortunately, the raiders were able to steal the guns and kill the townsfolk. During the assault, the Brotherhood lost one of their valued members, Alan Connors, and obtained two young refugee siblings who lost their parents, Marcia and Maximo Leone. This incident would set off a division between Rahmani and Shin, with Shin wanting himself and Rahmani to stand trial with the Council of Elders.

Upon arriving in Appalachia, the group was dismayed to discover that Taggerdy's Brotherhood was wiped out by the scorchbeasts, with Vernon Dodge being the only known survivor. Rahmani decided that in order to establish the Brotherhood's presence in the region, the organization needed to cooperate with Appalachia's other factions, particularly the settlement of Foundation. Shin became skeptical of Rahmani's choices, particularly her desire to delay the re-establishment of contact with the elders in Lost Hills. Rahmani and Shin dealt with numerous conflicts including trying to assist the Retreat from a cruel woman named Dagger, negotiating with Meg Groberg's raiders, trying to reclaim property taken by Foundation, and investigating a missing caravan.

During a mission to explore an Enclave research facility, Rahmani, feeling that the elders from Lost Hills were a hindrance in her ideals of establishing the Brotherhood as a peacekeeping force, destroyed the radio transmitter, which infuriated Shin. As a result, there is no confirmation of the Brotherhood in Appalachia re-establishing contact with the Brotherhood in California, as well as their status post-2105. Despite the internal conflict between Rahmani and Shin, the Brotherhood was able to repel an uprise of super mutants. They also stopped a plan to infect the water cycle with FEV orchestrated by a driven scientist. However, it is also unclear if Rahmani remained the Appalachian Brotherhood's leader or if Shin usurped her.

The Brotherhood kept a degree of expansion and surveillance over the years, with members tightly patrolling Appalachia in order to ensure safety. For example, Nicole Gaines would investigate and erect Forward Station Tango. A mechanic working for Valdez, Del Lawson, worked to supply equipment for any Brotherhood field operations.

Conflict with the Vipers

In 2135, Roger Maxson died of cancer. Already a legendary figure to the Brotherhood, he was essentially deified as the Founder and Deliverer. His son, Maxson II, replaced him as the high elder, while his grandson, John Maxson, joined the paladin caste, showing great promise.^{[Non-game 3][12]} Around 2141, the Brotherhood ceased admitting new members from the outside, relying solely on their natural growth for increasing their numbers.^[27]

The Brotherhood was a major power in the region at this point, firmly exercising their control on the lands surrounding their bunker and forming trade relations with the neighboring towns, especially the Hub. However, the focus on hard sciences gave in to the detriment of humanities, history in particular. This decline in soft sciences eventually led to some initiates of the youngest generations having no idea who Roger Maxson was.^[28] In 2150, they clashed with the newly reformed Vipers.^{[Non-game 4]} The battles intensified in subsequent years, culminating in the death of High Elder Maxson II in 2155. John Maxson's father expected the raiders to break formation and flee when faced with Brotherhood warriors clad in powered armor, but did not account for their religious ferocity. A poisoned arrow nicked him when his helmet was off, and he died within hours.^{[Non-game 5]} John Maxson was promoted to the elder council, while Rhombus was tasked with conducting a campaign of extermination against the Vipers. The paladins tracked down and wiped out almost all of their members within the span of a month. A handful of Vipers were able to flee north and east into the mountain range; while small groups continued to exist and raid in New California, they never regained their full power. Both Rhombus and John Maxson would eventually ascend to leadership roles, with John Maxson becoming the high elder in 2159 and promoting Rhombus to the role of head paladin.^{[Non-game 4]}

During the campaign, the Brotherhood sent a few scouts and emissaries to the Hub to track down Vipers members, and from these beginnings, the Hub and the Brotherhood began full trade relations. Caravans had delivered to the Brotherhood before, but not long after the destruction of the Vipers, caravan trains ran directly from the Hub to the Brotherhood on a regular basis.^{[Non-game 4]} While the situation remained peaceful and prosperous, issues would develop between the Hub and the Brotherhood from time to time. In the late 2150s, the water merchants of the Hub attempted to barter a large quantity of water for a weapons stockpile. Although the Brotherhood turned down the offer, the merchants attempted to take the weapons regardless. The thieves were caught, but the Brotherhood elders voted down a retaliatory expedition.^[29]

The emergence of the Unity (Fallout)

In 2161, the Brotherhood discovered the presence of a new enemy. In October, a group of knights on a patrol in the badlands discovered a dead super mutant. After examining the creature, Head Scribe Vree determined that it was sterile, but also notes that there must have been a central location that created these mutants.^{[Non-game 6][30]} The elder council, fearing a potential invasion, enacted several security decrees, including a moratorium on training new recruits until the threat passed.^[31]

The elders also sent out several scouts north and east into the badlands. Only one returned from the east, reporting an encounter with twenty super mutants,^[32] and none at all returned from the north. The council could not reach an agreement on how to act. Even as Hub merchant caravans started disappearing in the northern wastes, the elders refused to act until they were fully certain that there was an army massing in the northern mountains.^[33]

The impasse was broken by the arrival of the Vault Dweller. Having rescued a Brotherhood initiate from bandits in the Hub,^[34] the Vault Dweller visited the Brotherhood and accepted the mission to the Glow, to recover the disk belonging to Sergeant Dennis Allen to learn the fate of the splinter faction from the Mariposa Rebellion. The Vault Dweller surprised everyone by surviving and returning with the artifact. They became the first outsider to join the Brotherhood in nearly twenty years.^[27][35]

The Brotherhood shared what knowledge they had and some of their advanced technology with the Vault Dweller, allowing them to seek out the Master and destroy him in the Boneyard.^[35] Following the death of the super mutant leader, the Brotherhood further aided the Vault Dweller's quest, sending a team of crack assault paladins to storm Mariposa.^[36]

Apex of power, stagnation, and recovery (Fallout 2)

Following the destruction of the Unity, the Brotherhood aided other human settlements to drive the mutants away with minimal loss of life on both sides of the conflict. The Brotherhood remained out of the power structure for a time, becoming a major research and development house by reintroducing advanced technology into New California at a slow pace. The wise guidance of Rhombus arguably brought the Brotherhood to the zenith of its power.^[37] The Brotherhood had good relations with the developing New California Republic, to the point that one of the states of the federation was named after the founder of the Brotherhood: Maxson. However, Lost Hills was never incorporated into the NCR.^{[Non-game 7]}

Over the years, the Brotherhood grew confident in its status as the sole source of advanced technology left to mankind, and allowed its prominence and influence to wane, growing stagnant.^[38] This stagnancy made them unable to deal with the technologically superior Enclave, when the Brotherhood learned of their existence circa 2240.^[39][40] In order to learn more about them, the Brotherhood reactivated a network of outposts in Northern California to observe Enclave activity. Thanks to their low profile, they achieved practical anonymity, even in the populous San Francisco.^[41]

The Brotherhood heads East (Fallout 3)

Once the Enclave was apparently destroyed by the Chosen One, the Brotherhood was without a foe to face. In an effort to end the stagnation, the Brotherhood expanded eastward (including the formation of the Mojave chapter under Elder Elijah) and sent out expeditions to recover technology, going as far as the Capital Wasteland in 2255, with the expedition under Senior Paladin Owyn Lyons.^[42][43] A secondary goal was to re-establish contact with other wayward Brotherhood chapters. One of John Maxson's descendants, Arthur Maxson, was sent on this expedition both to protect him from internal conflict in the Western Brotherhood and as a means of receiving training from Lyons, who was then in favor with the Western elders.^[44] On October 23, 2077, the Great War struck. As Maxson was halfway through prying the story from Head Researcher Leon Von Felden, the facility lost contact with the outside world as nuclear weapons started to drop. Spared the nuclear devastation, Mariposa protected the inhabitants from nuclear fallout flooding the wasteland. Fearing that China would soon make up for the oversight, on October 24, Maxson ordered his soldiers and their families to prepare to vacate the base the next day.^[45]

On October 25, Sergeant Platner volunteered to take atmospheric readings outside the base. Reporting no significant amounts of radiation in the atmosphere, final preparations for the Exodus were undertaken. On October 26, Maxson ordered the remains of the scientists to be buried in the wastes outside the base. A day later, on October 27, former US servicemen and their families left the base under the lead of Captain Roger Maxson, heading for the Lost Hills government bunker in the south.^[10]

Appalachia (Fallout 76)

Elizabeth Taggerdy was a military leader of Taggerdy's Thunder in Appalachia. Maxson contacted her via a radio communicator and offered to make her organization a part of the Brotherhood. Although Taggerdy was hesitant to accept a completely new system of ranks and ideas, believing that the military training and loyalty to commanding officers was enough to carry the day, she did not object, at first treating it as an order like any other.^[46] Although Taggerdy was skeptical, Maxson outlined his plan to give her and her men a new identity as members of the Brotherhood, as a way to return meaning to their lives, combat the overwhelming depression that threatened to take what few survivors made it through the nuclear fire, and to immunize them to the authority of any politicians that might emerge from the vaults (or in Appalachia's case, the Whitespring Congressional Bunker) and set fire to the world again. Taggerdy accepted the new orders without believing in them at first, but soon grew into her role.^[47]

Although the Thunder technically ceased to exist with their adoption of the new ranks, Taggerdy always preferred her own men and those who made the cut at Camp Venture.^[48] They cooperated with the Responders and helped them fight super mutants during the Battle of Huntersville. However, as time went on, the Brotherhood began straining its relationship with the Responders when they began demanding for supplies.

The new Appalachian Brotherhood had difficulties with fighting the scorchbeasts. Taggerdy pleaded with Maxson to grant her team permission to use nuclear weapons against the scorchbeasts but was forbidden by him because he found the concept of using nuclear weapons, even to help fight the scorchbeasts, to be too morally abhorrent after their world was destroyed by nukes. In the end, Taggerdy and her crew were slaughtered by the monsters, with Maxson not knowing because their communicator became cut off. Taggerdy died in early 2095 during Operation Touchdown.

In an attempt to find out what happened to the Appalachian Brotherhood, Maxson sent the Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force, led by Leila Rahmani and Daniel Shin. They arrived in West Virginia by 2103 and were dismayed to discover that Taggerdy's Brotherhood were wiped out by the scorchbeasts. Rahmani decided that in order to establish the Brotherhood's presence in the region, the organization needed to cooperate with Appalachia's other factions. Shin became skeptical of Rahmani's choices, particularly her desire to delay the re-establishement of contact with Elders. Rahmani and Shin dealt with numerous conflicts, including Meg Groberg's raiders, battles against super mutants, and a plan to infect the water cycle with FEV orchestrated by a driven scientist.

Capital Wasteland (Fallout 3)

In 2277, the Brotherhood was established in the Capital Wasteland with their headquarters at the The Citadel in Washington D.C. It was led by Elder Owyn Lyons. The Enclave, however, wanted to control Project Purity for themselves, leading to a conflict between the Brotherhood and the Enclave. The Brotherhood were able to prevent the Enclave's assault using a giant fighting robot called Liberty Prime.

Mojave Desert and NCR Brotherhood War (New Vegas)

The rampant expansionism of the NCR would eventually lead to a collision course with the Brotherhood. As the NCR's power grew, the Brotherhood adopted a policy of reclaiming technology from people outside the order, energy weapons most of all.^{[Non-game 8]} The disagreements over the way technology should be handled eventually resulted in full out war with the New California Republic. The Brotherhood was eventually forced into a retreat.^[49] At least six Brotherhood bunkers were lost to the Republic, four of them destroyed by the Brotherhood themselves in a last ditch attempt to deny them to the enemy.^[50]

The most well-known known confrontation occurred during the NCRA's Operation: Sunburst in 2276. Under Elder Elijah's leadership, the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel was operating out of the solar power plant of HELIOS One when the NCR launched an attack. The NCR's numerical superiority over the Brotherhood, coupled with Elder Elijah's immense reluctance to leave Helios, allowed the NCR to overwhelm the defenders, leading to the loss of over half the chapter.^[51] The Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood was considered effectively neutralized.^{[Non-game 9]} The Mojave chapter went under lockdown following their defeat at HELIOS One and the retreat to Hidden Valley.^{[Non-game 10]}

Despite their crushing victory over the Brotherhood, the NCR took severe losses, with economy being the greatest. The Republic's gold reserves were completely destroyed by Brotherhood raids: New gold coins could not be minted and paper money could not be properly backed with gold. The ensuing panic among NCR citizens and bank rush greatly devalued the NCR dollar and damaged faith in the Republic's currency. The subsequent abandonment of the gold standard allowed the Hub's merchant consortiums to reintroduce the bottle cap as an alternative currency, backed with water, increasing their power at the expense of the government.^{[Non-game 11][Non-game 12][Non-game 13][Non-game 14]}

Conflict with the Institute (Fallout 4)

After discovering advanced signals originating from the Institute, the Prydwen traveled to the Commonwealth. The Brotherhood established its headquarters at Boston Airport. The vessel serves multiple roles for the Brotherhood, including those of aircraft carrier, command center, clinic, personnel quarters, equipment maintenance bay and research facility.^[52] In plotting a course to find, access and destroy the Institute, Elder Maxson determined the first initiative to be repairing Liberty Prime back to working order.^{[Non-game 15]}

Society

Brotherhood banners

The Brotherhood is a military order with a strictly enforced hierarchy and chain of command. At the foundation of the hierarchy lies the Chain That Binds doctrine. It mandates obedience to one's superiors and forbids circumventing ranks when giving orders. Superiors may only give orders to their direct subordinates, but not their subordinate's subordinates. Although intended to ensure the cohesion of command, the doctrine has been generally interpreted as a simple mandate of obedience within the order, with the order flow requirements ignored, abandoned, or altered in practice. However, it does provide a technicality that can be invoked to relieve members of their rank - up to and including elders.^[53][54]

Roger Maxson's goals in inventing a new tradition and mythology for the Brotherhood were two-fold. First, they would ensure that members of the Brotherhood would be stripped of their ties to the pre-War military and government, ensuring that any surviving general or politician would not be able to invoke their oaths and use them to unleash nuclear devastation on the world again (as was the case with Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Eckhart in Appalachia). Second, it would give the survivors an idea to believe in, something they could dedicate themselves to, and finding meaning in their lives after the nuclear war. The inspiration came from the fall of the western Roman Empire when knights and scribes kept the fire of civilization going after the empire imploded.^[55]

Property and trade

As a rule, most Brotherhood chapters do not have an internal economy and allocate resources based on need, including weapons, armor, and even augmentations. Outside recruits are a special case: While they will receive basic equipment (such as Brotherhood armor and weekly allotment of ammunition),^[56] and an allotment of rations to maintain their health.^[57] they must serve for ten years before the Brotherhood will provide its most advanced services without charge.^[58] Higher ranking members may bypass this requirement and allocate equipment at their discretion, for example, to reward services rendered to the Brotherhood^[59] or provide tools necessary for a mission.^[60] All equipment beyond personal items is issued by the Brotherhood and carefully tracked by serial number, especially weapons.^[61]

Equipment such as rations may be used for bets,^[57] and some chapters have implemented limited internal trade, keeping superior gear in reserve for higher ranks to purchase.^[62] Some chapters of the Brotherhood have even implemented a currency (scrip) for internal trade,^{[Non-canon 2]} Restrictions exist: The Mojave chapter will not sell any equipment to any outsider unless permitted by the elder.^[63]

Social structure

The Brotherhood has several distinct classes that define a member's standing in the Brotherhood social structure, with a strict hierarchy distinguishing each member's position.

The Brotherhood is egalitarian in nature, with male and female members both being able to rise up to any rank. At the Brotherhood's foundation, however, the women of the Brotherhood were also called "Brothers" instead of "Sisters",^[64] which would not carry over to the East Coast chapter.^[65]

Belief system

Origins

The beliefs of the Brotherhood were shaped by the experiences of Roger Maxson at Mariposa Military Base and in the aftermath of the Great War. At first, the Brotherhood focused on aiding survivors to the best of its ability, acting as an armed fighting force, rather than the military order it would become. The change came with the realization that the collective knowledge of humanity was in danger of being lost for generations to come. To keep the secrets of the past alive, Maxson decided to dedicate the Brotherhood to the preservation of technology and human knowledge, collecting it in order that the Brotherhood might become the catalyst for humanity's rebirth. As the guardians of civilization, the Brotherhood would focus on the big picture, with direct aid considered a secondary concern.^[66]

While scribes were originally considered second-rate members, tools to protect knights and maintain the Brotherhood's bases, this change in priorities placed them on equal footing with soldiers of the Brotherhood, tasked with preserving and developing technologies recovered from the field by the knights.^[66] Notably, Maxson's ultimate intention was to establish the Brotherhood as an organization that works closely with people outside of the Brotherhood, as guardians of civilizations, not its gatekeepers. His idea of an open Brotherhood put him at odds with isolationist members of the Brotherhood, including his own son and Paladin Elizabeth Taggerdy, head of the Appalachian chapter. Although nobody confronted him openly on the issue, out of respect for his role as founder, Roger Maxson was in the minority.^[67]

Preservationists

In 2135, Roger Maxson died of cancer. Although referred to as the Founder and Deliverer, the Brotherhood changed under his son, Maxson II. The most noticeable effect of the change in leadership was the cessation of outside recruitment by 2141, relying solely on natural growth. The Brotherhood creatively interpreted Maxson's words and its role as steward of humanity and its salvation. Their power armor would remain a symbol of hope, the harbinger of restoration, but the Brotherhood would quietly wait for the right moment to restore the battered Earth to humanity, rather than actively collaborate withoutside people.^[68] Until then, it would preserve knowledge and control it, so that it could not destroy humanity again^[69] by preserving knowledge and its practical applications for future generations, as Maxson intended. While the mandate was to recover, restore, and record whatever the Brotherhood could find, it emphasized hard sciences and the tangible, resulting in a tacit disregard for non-technical, softer fields of knowledge such as history or sociology. By the late 23rd century, many Brotherhood initiates did not know who Roger Maxson was or what he had done for the order,^[70] and scribes captured by the Legion could not account for the group's origins a few centuries after its foundation.^[71]

The Brotherhood continued to research theoretical and practical aspects of science, including biology, physics, and chemistry. Practical applications were particularly emphasized, as weapons, ammunition, medical supplies, and so on were exported in exchange for food, water, and other necessities.^[72] Exports were limited to conventional technologies, with restricted, advanced items strictly controlled and only provided to those deemed responsible enough to use them.

Regardless of its disregard for soft sciences, the Brotherhood's policies allowed it to reach a position of influence. Its stockpiles of technology and combined knowledge allowed it to emerge as a major research and development house in New California, slowly reintroducing advanced technologies while wisely remaining outside the power structure. Its advantageous position would ultimately lead it to its downfall, as the Brotherhood grew confident in its unchallenged role as quasi technology police, stagnating.

Reactionaries

The refusal to adapt and evolve led to a decline in the Brotherhood's standing and influence, as the New California Republic emerged as a major power player in the wasteland. Facing a changed wasteland with no plan in place, corruption of the Brotherhood's lofty ideals was a matter of time.^[73] The increasingly strict adherence to the organization's principles evolved into religious dogmatism. This mindset eventually dominated its leadership. The Codex became sacred,^[74][75] with Roger Maxson effectively deified.^[76] Religious influences trickled into everyday expressions, with "By Steel" becoming an intensifier and an oath, invoking an undefined higher entity.^[77]

The definition of technology became very selective. The Brotherhood started to focus almost exclusively on combat technologies such as energy weapons or power armor, zealously restricting its use to its own ranks. Basic, useful technologies like genetic modification of crops or civil engineering were largely ignored, as irrelevant to the pursuit of narrowly-understood power.^{[Non-game 10]} Sharing of Brotherhood secrets, even for a greater purpose, is seen as treason warranting summary execution.^[78]

The drive to protect the people from the ravages of technology was replaced by hoarding. The Brotherhood became aggressive in their efforts to control technology. No outsiders were permitted to join their ranks. Rather than restoring the Earth, the Brotherhood wanted to outlive and inherit the Earth after other rivals have died out.^[79] The Codex itself was either rewritten or reinterpreted to emphasize the world view.^[80][81]

Not all Brotherhood chapters were dedicated to this reactionary policy. Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel diverged when Elder Owyn Lyons turned his chapter into a purely charitable organization, aiding the wasteland without compensation and opening its ranks to outside recruitment. His insistence on charity, rather than equitable exchange, led to a steady decline and loss of territory over a period of twenty years of their presence in the Capital Wasteland. While the Purifier Conflict with the remnants of the Enclave provided an influx of new technologies and resources, the chapter was crumbling under Lyons' leadership, devoted to his failed policies of containment and attrition of threats in the Wasteland.^[82] Particularly severe was the fact that Lost Hills completely shut off communications with Lyons' chapter and denied them any reinforcements.^[83][84]

Restorers

Major changes were introduced under Elder Arthur Maxson in the 2280s. Like the Brotherhood of the 22nd century, the Eastern division (re)dedicated itself to the advancement of humanity. Beyond taking an active role in wasteland politics, the Brotherhood embraced Elder Lyons' policies of eradicating abominations, combining them with a new approach to controlling technology. Abominations of nature brought about by mankind's meddling are viewed as a scourge that needs to be destroyed in order for humanity to prosper. The list typically involves super mutants and feral ghouls, although the Brotherhood also eliminates raiders and other threats as a matter of course.^[85][86]

Control of technology is seen as a means to an end. While the crumbling western Brotherhood attempted to control technology in an attempt to stave off its destruction, Maxson's Brotherhood returned to the original mission of containment: Protecting mankind from technologies that cannot be fully controlled and thus represent a threat to its long-term welfare and even survival. As a result, the Brotherhood seeks to understand the nature of technology, its power and meaning to humans, and fights those who would abuse said power for their own ends, endangering mankind in the process.^[87] The most noticeable way in which this policy is implemented is the collection of technology from pre-War sites, to prevent its abuse.^[88]

The Brotherhood rejects technological development for the sake of technological development, drawing on the lessons of the Great War. The Brotherhood holds that it was a result of technological progress outpacing man's restraint and moral progress. Consumerism and greed became the driving forces of progress, new technologies exploited by megacorporations for their own gain, pocketing the cash and ignoring the collateral damage to society and environment.^[89] Though miracle advancements in medicine and welfare were made, the unchecked development spurred by the war with China led to widespread abuse of technology's potential. Bio-engineered plagues, FEV, and ever more destructive nuclear weapons were but a handful of horrors created by pre-War mankind.^[90] The Great War was a natural result of putting the implements of Apocalypse in the hands of mad men.^[91]

Gen 3 synths, which are indistinguishable from humans, are a perfect example of science run amok - a technology that cannot be fully controlled by humans.^[92] The combination of their superior physique and the capacity to think for themselves renders them a threat to mankind,^[93] while the way in which they are created - assembled in a laboratory and programmed like a robot - is anathema to the Brotherhood, which holds human life to be sacred.^[91][94][95]

Notably, while the Brotherhood's new rhetoric has religious overtones, Elder Maxson rejects the notion of being worshiped as divine. The eradication of Maxson cults in the Western Brotherhood is consistent with his desire to be nothing more and nothing less than human: aided and perfected by technology, but not controlled or enslaved by it.^[2]

He also approved a request by Senior Scribe Neriah to develop a more effective alternative to the pre-War RadAway, showing that he has also carried on Lyons' efforts of improving technology as opposed to simply hoarding it, which remains the West Coast's goal, as can be seen through a conversation between Nolan McNamara and Veronica Santangelo in Fallout: New Vegas.

Insignia

The iconography of the Brotherhood of Steel is built around its emblem: gears, sword and wings. It is used widely to decorate their facilities, tag armor and equipment, and as part of markers identifying their territory, and overall building up a distinct visual identity. The order marks virtually every piece of equipment it possesses with its sigil.

The Brotherhood insignia has evolved throughout the years and while it has retained its general appearance, the number of cogs on the gears, their facing, and basic color scheme have varied between iterations. Other modifications have also been implemented, such as replacing the gears with a lion rampant, altering the number of teeth on the elements, or changing coloration.

Divisions and locations

Founding chapter

The headquarters of the Brotherhood and its first chapter is the Lost Hills bunker in California, the seat of the Brotherhood's High Elder, and its ruling council, and the place where the organization was founded. It is also the center of their research and military activities. However, by 2242, the Brotherhood was spread across the wastes of California in small bunkers and installations hidden from the eyes of common folk, and finding them all and wiping them out would be a difficult and dangerous task.

Their installations include small observation bunkers (for example, in the Den, San Francisco, and Shady Sands), as well as major outposts and subterranean facilities, like Hidden Valley. Apart from Hidden Valley, at least six other larger bunkers are confirmed to exist, though four of them were destroyed by the Brotherhood and two fell to the NCR. All Brotherhood outposts are formally subject to the Lost Hills' ruling council's authority, even if they sometimes tend to act independently, especially if they are located far from California, and contact with the headquarters is rare. The Lost Hills bunker is surrounded by the state of Maxson, which, while named after the founder of the Brotherhood, is officially outside Brotherhood rule and is a state of the New California Republic. The later conflict between the Republic and the Brotherhood most likely resulted in the destruction of many of the Brotherhood's bunkers in New California.^[50]

Appalachia

The Appalachian branch of the Brotherhood of Steel was founded when Roger Maxson contacted Lt. Elizabeth Taggerdy via satellite. The chance meeting led to the earliest branch of the Brotherhood being established in the remote region. Based out of Camp Venture and later Fort Defiance, the chapter focused on recovery and aiding the local population in its early years, before focusing entirely on the destruction of the scorchbeasts and the Scorched as an existential threat to humanity. The chapter failed in its attempt to contain the threat, becoming extinct in August 2095, less than twenty years after their foundation.^[20]

However, in the year 2103, the Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force arrived in Appalachia and set up at Fort Atlas, previously called the ATLAS Observatory, reestablishing a Brotherhood presence in the region.^[96]

Mojave Chapter

The Brotherhood's bunker is located in Hidden Valley, directly east of the settlement of Goodsprings in the Mojave Wasteland. It is surrounded by powerful underground fans that serve as a high-tech defense system, creating artificial sandstorms that allow the inhabitants to travel to and from the bunker undercover. It also serves as a kind of electronic disturbance to any and all outside factions' targeting sensors, therefore rendering the bunker safe from detection.^[97]

Prior to 2276 the Mojave Brotherhood had been very active in the region before their crippling defeat at HELIOS One by NCR Forces and were forced underground on the orders of their new leader Elder McNamara. Due to a complete lockdown ordered to preserve what remaining soldiers he had, McNamara relies solely on teams that were trapped outside of the bunker for intel and trusted undercover operatives to bring food and supplies back to those trapped inside.^[97]

Despite their seclusion from the outside world they still are regarded as a powerful faction in the region, this is shown in Mr. House's calculations as they painted the Brotherhood insurgency to be the greatest threat to his reign in the Mojave Wasteland in the long-term.^[97]

East Coast Brotherhood

On the East Coast, the East Coast division of the Brotherhood established the Citadel, built into and beneath the ruins of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. This faction was led by the idealistic Elder Owyn Lyons who decided to make the protection of the human inhabitants of the Capital Wasteland from super mutants and other threats his top priority, instead of the acquisition and preservation of technology. While Lyons was officially recognized by the ruling council at Lost Hills as the leader of a Brotherhood faction, because of his changed priorities he received no support from California, and his faction, for all intents and purposes, was independent. Without reinforcements from the West Coast, Lyons was forced to recruit locally, but, as most new wastelander conscripts are overeager, unskilled, or both, the survival rate of these local members was atrocious. Elder Lyons’ daughter Sarah commanded her own elite squad, Lyons' Pride. These soldiers help preserve the Capital Wasteland by holding back the super mutants, who tend to remain in the urban ruins of Washington, D.C.^{[82][Non-game 16]}

Members of Lyons' expeditionary force who preferred to stay faithful to the Brotherhood's original goals of locating and preserving technology and knowledge eventually abandoned him in 2276, after Lyons outright refused to permit them to excavate Fort Independence. Under the lead of Paladin Henry Casdin, they left the Citadel to take up residence in the fort and styled themselves as the Brotherhood Outcasts. In addition to carrying out Lyons' original orders, the Outcasts attempted to re-establish contact with the western elders and have Lyons placed in front of a firing squad.^[98]

As the war with the super mutants intensified, the Enclave returned in the flesh after fleeing New California several years prior. Their radio broadcasts had been heard for years on Wasteland radios. In a bold first move, they seized the Jefferson Memorial's "Project Purity" (a project intended to provide clean water to the wasteland), and subsequently consolidated their power throughout the Capital Wasteland. At first favoring caution, Elder Lyons soon changed his mind, engaging the Enclave in a full-scale battle after the Enclave acquired possession of Vault 87's G.E.C.K. and nearly activated Project Purity. With the aid of Liberty Prime, the Enclave was ousted from the Jefferson Memorial and into uncertain disarray. Despite the subsequent loss of Liberty Prime, Lyons' chapter started its recovery to dwarf their fellow chapters back west in power, especially after the devastation of the NCR-Brotherhood War.^[82]

Following both Lyons' deaths circa 2278, the chapter was managed by a string of largely ineffectual elders, only to come under the leadership of Elder Arthur Maxson in 2283, who reunited the chapter with the Brotherhood Outcasts. Together with the Prydwen, a large airship whose creation started in the twilight years of Lyons' reign, and their victory against the Enclave in 2277, the chapter achieved its goal. As of 2287, the chapter is able to field large quantities of Vertibirds and T-60 power armor, manufacture replacement parts, and use standardized energy weapons. Their newly acquired power allowed them to send long-range recon teams to scout regions and recover technologies. One of these, Recon Squad Gladius, was sent to the Commonwealth to investigate the region after the disappearance of Recon Squad Artemis. Their findings prompted the Brotherhood to deploy in the Commonwealth aboard the Prydwen and strike against the Institute. Once they arrived, the Brotherhood conducted an air assault on the feral ghouls occupying Boston Airport and established their main base of operations there. They are capable of and frequently conduct air assault operations, especially when inserting patrol teams and assaulting objectives such as Bunker Hill.^[99]

Montana Chapter

	The following is based on bugged content.

A bunker exists in Montana and is at some point the home of Elder Patrocolus.^[100]

	End of information based on bugged content

Chicago detachment

The Brotherhood of Steel sent a detachment of troops east by airship to track super mutants. After crash landing in Chicago they have clashed with them in the city. By 2254 they have been classified as a rogue unit and fell off of the radar of the organization's other chapters.^[101]

Foreign relations

While they are generally not hostile to others without a good reason, members of the Brotherhood are not interested in justice for the obviously weaker and less fortunate wastelanders (or mutants) around them. They largely focus on keeping their secrecy and preserving and developing technology, which they often put above human life since technology is irreplaceable in the post-nuclear wastelands—lives are not. Their motives are often unclear, and Brotherhood members are not people to be trifled with.^{[Non-canon 1]}

The Brotherhood does not like to share their choicest technological bits with others, despite the obvious benefits their technology could bring to the Wasteland. It is a commonly accepted truth within the Brotherhood that the people of the Wasteland are not responsible enough to use (and maintain) all of the technology the Brotherhood has at their disposal. They are known for trading some of their technologies with frontier communities and the states of the New California Republic in exchange for food and other resources, but they keep the more sensitive and advanced technologies to themselves.^{[Non-canon 1]}

By 2281, the Brotherhood fought against the NCR in the devastating Brotherhood War. One of the most devastating campaigns of the war played out in the Mojave wasteland: in the course of Operation: Sunburst more than half the chapter perished, forcing Elder McNamara to declare lockdown: sealing the chapter underground, with only high security patrols and supply runners allowed outside. All brothers left outside the bunker are cut loose if this protocol is enacted.^[102] The Brotherhood has also enacted a scorched earth policy: if a bunker is invaded, the crew is obligated to initiate self-destruct. In four out of six instances of successful invasion by NCR forces, this was carried out.^[50][103]

Outside recruitment

For most of its existence, the Brotherhood did not recruit outsiders as a general rule. When it did, they required the recruits to be very young, so that the proper relationship with technology could be cultivated. Adults have an approach that the Brotherhood considers perverted.^[104] However, exceptional individuals may conditionally join the Brotherhood.^[105][106]

Circa 2287, the policy changed radically. As Elder Arthur Maxson became the leader of the Brotherhood's Eastern branch, he retained Elder Owyn Lyons' practice of recruiting wastelanders^[107] sponsored by existing Brotherhood members^[108] and expanded it. As it was under Lyons, the sponsor would travel with their charges and teach them the ideals of the Brotherhood and train them in combat.^[109] To this end, active members can field promote recruits to Initiate rank, but the rank and subsequent promotions have to be confirmed by the Elder at the earliest possible opportunity.^[110][111] However, while the member can retract their sponsorship,^[112] once the rank is confirmed by the Elder, only the Elder can dismiss the sponsored party from the organization.^[113]

Attitude towards mutants

The Brotherhood's attitude towards mutants ranges from dislike to outright hostility. When it comes to the ghouls, the Brotherhood dislikes them due to their ideology. As the Brotherhood hoards and preserves technology, tinkering ghouls that dismantle or sometimes damage old technology are abhorrent. Their dislike was amplified by salvaging operation in the Glow, a location regarded by the Brotherhood as close to the holy ground due to the deaths of their comrades there and high technology within. Most Brotherhood members came to see ghouls as filthy scavengers. Thankfully, contact between them is limited.^{[Non-canon 3]}

Their hostility towards super mutants was derived from the location of Lost Hills. The proximity of their bunker to Mariposa and the desolate Central Valley put them in the paths of many bloodthirsty mutants. That made them an easy choice for an external enemy to focus members of the chapter on.^{[Non-canon 3]} However, the Brotherhood drove away super mutants with minimal loss of life on both sides of the conflict after the fall of the Master and wasn't hostile towards super mutants that settled down peacefully.^[114]

By 2287, the Brotherhood has radicalized its policy towards mutants, with standing orders to exterminate any post-War abominations.^[115] In practice, the Brotherhood usually doesn't shoot on sight unless targets are confirmed as hostile - even if they are a synth in a critical location.^[116]

Technology

Weapons

Military technology is the Brotherhood's main priority, and their efforts over the centuries have equipped them with a powerful array of power armor, energy weapons, defense turrets, combat implants, and computers. Their focus allowed them to amass sizable stockpiles of power armor (T-60, T-51 and T-45 variants, though they lack the ability to manufacture new units) and energy weapons. Apart from applied combat technologies, the Brotherhood also has access to advanced medical technologies such as cybernetics, combat implants^[117] and virtual reality training systems, which allow personnel to maintain their combat prowess even under lockdown.^[118]

Some chapters have also supplemented their combat force with recovered robots, like robobrains, sentry bots, and even a prototype combat robot.^[119] Due to their lack of manpower, and the fact that they did not recruit outsiders, the Brotherhood splinter group known as the Outcasts relied heavily on reprogrammed robots in order to augment their smaller pool of human soldiers.

Vehicles

The Brotherhood does not possess working ground vehicles, at least not in the mid-2100s.^[120] The Brotherhood did have access to an entire fleet of airships in the mid-22nd century, used for exploration and recon. However, over the years the fleet was either destroyed or dismantled for spare parts. By the 23rd century, none of the airships remained, with one notable vessel crashing in the Midwest on a long-range exploration mission. It was not until the acquisition of Pride One, a captured Enclave Vertibird, at the end of the Brotherhood-Enclave War, that the Brotherhood returned to the skies. Eight years later the Brotherhood built a new, more advanced, airship at Adams Air Force Base which they christened The Prydwen.^{[121][Non-game 17]} The Prydwen's construction was carried out alongside a brand new Vertibird fleet. This fleet would be made up of captured and restored Enclave Vertibirds, as well as brand new ones built from scratch. By 2287, the size of this new air force was so significant that the Brotherhood created an entirely new caste, known as lancers, in order to pilot them.

Research and manufacturing

While the overall devotion to research has decayed over the course of centuries, the Brotherhood was once at the forefront of research in the wasteland. In the 22nd century, for example, research topics ranged from redeveloping laser weapons,^[122] through physics,^{[123][124][125][126]} to astronomy^[127][128] and theories on time travel.^[129]

In terms of manufacturing capacity, the west coast Brotherhood relies on items hand-made by the Knights. Although limited supplies pose a challenge,^[130] the real problems come from the actual manufacturing and prototyping process,^[131] especially when the reality doesn't seem to match the Knights' expectations.^[132] Regardless, the Brotherhood was able to maintain a high enough output of technology (primarily weapons and ammunition) to support themselves and trade the surplus for water, food, and other necessary supplies.^{[Non-canon 1]} However, hand manufacturing and the high degree of sophistication of their primary weapons mean that the Brotherhood has limited strategic flexibility: It cannot compete with nation-states like the New California Republic, with their reserves of manpower, industrial output and the mass use of inexpensive weapons.^[133]

Notes

	Cleanup (Issue: Integrate notes into the main body of the article) To meet Nukapedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. Please help by improving the article.

• Despite being relatively small in numbers (compared to groups such as the NCR), the Brotherhood is the most widely spread faction in post-war America.
• Most members of the Brotherhood are usually gruff in dealing with outsiders and usually extremely rude towards mutated creatures such as ghouls or super mutants.
• As of 2103, Leila Rahmani believes the elders of the Brotherhood to be comprised of "fearful conservatism," remarking that she had tried to steer them away from this ideal.^[134]
• The Brotherhood is extremely territorial when it comes to technology and will defend it to the death. In Fallout: New Vegas it is mentioned that an elder was severely punished for destroying a piece of unknown technology.^[135]
• According to the Citadel terminal entries, the Brotherhood in Lost Hills began protecting the NCR state of Maxson by 2277 at the latest.^[136] It also mentions an internal conflict, possibly a civil war, in the Brotherhood of Steel on the West Coast. This conflict forced Arthur Maxson to live in the Citadel.^[137]

Appearances

The Brotherhood of Steel has appeared in all Fallout games to date.

Behind the scenes

• A Montana chapter is part of Owyn Lyons' dialogue, but bugged and does not play in-game.^{[Non-canon 4]}
• The flag with the sword, gears, wings, and stripes was first used in Fallout 3, as a low resolution asset flown over the Citadel. When extracted, the texture can be recreated to produce the flag on the right. This interpretation is supported by the official merchandise (where a full size flag uses the red-and-white version) and Fallout 76's Nuclear Winter mode, where the Brotherhood of Steel minigun paint has a decal depicting this version of the flag.
• However, the flag used for these is an erroneous recreation that was first posted on this wiki shortly after the game's release. The sigil was oversized (terminating on the last, rather than penultimate stripe) and placed in a round field, whereas the sigil on the Citadel flag was placed with a stroke blending effect applied that gave it a rounded appearance. The original asset is based on a thirteen stripe design, with a burlap filter applied and the sigil placed over the filter with a stroke effect applied, masking part of the burlap filter. This version was subsequently used as the basis for the Brotherhood of Steel flag in official Bethesda merchandise.
• See also Brotherhood of Steel on Wikipedia

Developer quotes

• The Brotherhood of Steel was originally planned to double as a religious organization centered around the worship of pre-war technology.^{[Non-canon 5][Non-canon 1]} This ideology was directly influenced by A Canticle for Leibowiz, which dealt with how a group of Christian monks who task themselves with preserving all scientific and technological knowledge of mankind until the human race is ready for it again.^{[Non-canon 6]}
• Valve Software's multiplayer FPS Team Fortress 2 pays homage to the Brotherhood with an achievement in the game's 'Mann vs. Machine' game mode.
• Joshua Sawyer described the impact of the Brotherhood raids on the NCR's gold reserves, as new gold coins could not be minted and paper money could not be properly backed with gold. NCR citizens panicked and rushed to reclaim the listed face value of currency from NCR's remaining gold reserves. Since the NCR was unable to realize these withdrawals, particularly towards the frontier, faith in their currency considerably dropped. To protect against actual economic collapse, the NCR government abandoned the gold standard. Since then many wastelanders lost faith in it as a medium of worth, both as a result of it not being backed by anything but the government's word and the inevitable inflation. In response to the loss of faith, merchant consortiums of the Hub established their own currency, the veritable bottle cap, backing it with a standardized measure of water.^{[Non-canon 7][Non-canon 8][Non-canon 9][Non-canon 10]}
• Sawyer also commented on the Brotherhood's conflict with the NCR, in that at the same time the Republic's power grew, the Brotherhood adopted a policy of reclaiming technology from people outside the order, which caused conflict in the Mojave.^{[Non-canon 11]}

Creation Club

These stenciled Brotherhood decals are seen in the "Brotherhood of Steel, Institute, Railroad, Minutemen Weapon Paint Job" and "Brotherhood of Steel, Institute, Railroad, Minutemen Armor Paint Job" bundles on Fallout 4 's Creation Club storefront, created for Bethesda by the modder Skibadaa. The orientation of the cogs on these symbols alternates between uses. Some of the skins included in these bundles were later repurposed as Overseer rank rewards in Fallout 76's Nuclear Winter game mode.

Insignia	Use	Notes	Seen
	Brotherhood of Steel (Fallout 76) [138]	This decal is used on Miniguns, Assault Rifles, and infantry armor painted in Brotherhood colors.	Creation Club (2017) Nuclear Winter (2019)
	Brotherhood of Steel	This decal is used on various weapons painted in Brotherhood colors, including laser weapons and 10mm Pistols.	Creation Club (2017)
	Brotherhood of Steel	This decal is used on various weapons painted in Brotherhood colors, including Gatling Lasers, Missile Launchers, Sniper Rifles, and captured Institute weapons.	Creation Club (2017)
	Brotherhood of Steel	This decal is used on Combat Rifles and Combat Shotguns painted in Brotherhood colors.	Creation Club (2017)

Gallery

BoS power armor concept art

Brotherhood of Steel Paladin in T-51b power armor

Brotherhood of Steel patrol in the Mojave Wasteland

Fawkes standing before a Brotherhood of Steel vertibird

Brotherhood soldiers leaving a vertibird

Brotherhood soldier in Appalachia

Appalachia

Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force

Brotherhood interior

Lost Hills

Fo1 Losthills Entrance .png

Lost Hills

Lost Hills

Citadel

Nifskope render

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References

Non-canon

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