For the character, see Brotherhood Outcast. |
The Brotherhood Outcasts[3] were a splinter faction of Brotherhood of Steel members that opposed Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel in the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3.
Background[]
Division[]
In 2276, the chapter of the Brotherhood that occupied the Citadel in the former state of Washington, D.C., led by their elder, Owyn Lyons, suffered from internal conflicts, resulting in a distinct contingent of them separating and leaving into the wasteland.[2] The group that became the Outcasts attributed their departure to their belief that Elder Lyons had lost sight of the Brotherhood's true mission, and the reason for their presence in the Capital Wasteland; the discovery and acquisition of advanced pre-War technology was being ignored, in their eyes, in favor of "delusions of heroism" by fighting against super mutants in defense of wasteland communities,[4] as well as defying the organization's secondary objective of keeping dangerous technologies out of the hands of raiders, tribals, and everyone else without the aptitude necessary to safely utilize them.[5]
The dissenting group did not plan on separating from Lyons' chapter originally; their founders were merely dissatisfied with his altruistic approach, seeing it as an ineffectual waste of men and resources that would ultimately derail and destroy the Brotherhood and their mission. The situation gradually worsened to a tipping point when Elder Lyons ignored their repeated requests to recover tech from Fort Independence, a pre-War military research facility.[6] A paladin, Henry Casdin served as the group's voice due to his history working with Lyons,[7] but once Casdin realized there was no swaying the elder's mind, he and the rest of the dissenters abandoned Lyons' command and left the Citadel, taking a significant portion of its weapons and equipment stockpiles with them and starting the Brotherhood Civil War, also known as the Schism. Lyons objectively lost more men to their mass desertion than he ever did fighting the mutant threat, and the elder reacted by forbidding any mention of the splinter group between his remaining people.[8][9] However, the significant loss of men and materiel had a negative impact on the effectiveness of Lyons' chapter over the following year, greatly reducing its ability to project their power and force in the Capital Wasteland.[7]
A new Brotherhood[]
Under Casdin's command, the splinter group went ahead with their mission and seized Fort Independence, where they pushed back the indigenous raider groups and adapted the former military base for use as their headquarters. Labelled as "Outcasts" by their angered former Brothers and Sisters, the renegade soldiers instead adopted the name as a badge of honor,[10][11][12] as well as adding red and black paint to their appropriated suits of power armor to distinguish themselves from the organization they no longer served. The Outcasts also reorganized their rank system, abandoning such titles as "Knight" and "Paladin" that implied a hierarchy of authority, and decentralized their operations, to make tech retrieval and guard patrols easier to organize.[13]
Despite the antagonism between the two, both Lyons' Brotherhood and the Outcasts chose to largely ignore the presence of the other, never actively attempting to interfere with the missions of the other side. However, the ultimate goal of the Outcasts remained to re-establish contact with the Lost Hills chapter on the West Coast and to court-martial Elder Lyons for his alleged breach of Brotherhood code.
A year after the split, in 2277, the Outcasts had organized a system of regular patrols, scouring the wasteland for technology, and began to excavate locations in the Capital Wasteland including the Virtual Strategic Simulations facility in order to fulfill the original mission objectives of the West Coast Brotherhood. Their focus on retrieving technology meant they had a number of collective obsessions, including procurement of highly advanced weaponry that is of alien origin, from crashed UFOs and pre-war government installations.[Non-game 1] In addition to stockpiling viable/dangerous technology salvaged from the ruins of the Capital Wasteland, the Outcasts sought to analyze and reverse-engineer their findings, leaving work logs throughout their headquarters.
In their eyes, they remained the true Brotherhood of Steel,[Non-game 1] and considered Lyons guilty of abandoning the principles the Brotherhood stands for. Ultimately, they planned to leave the Capital Wasteland and regroup with loyalist chapters in the West to rejoin the Brotherhood as they saw it, but ultimately remained stuck protecting Fort Independence and their considerable stockpile of powerful technology from attacks by raiders and super mutants.[14] While Lyons would strike their names from the Codex, the Outcasts believed that their actions would be vindicated when they regrouped with the West Coast Brotherhood, and that their dedication to the original mission would lead to this act being reversed.[10]
Reunification[]
Sometime before 2287, Arthur Maxson, a descendant of the Brotherhood's founder Roger Maxson and formerly a squire of Lyons' Brotherhood in 2277, was recognized by the Lost Hills elders on the West Coast for several feats including protecting an entire patrol from a raider attack at age 12, slaying a deathclaw singlehandedly at age 13, and at age 15, defeating Shepherd who was attempting to re-organize the super mutant population in the Capital Wasteland following the deaths of Owyn and Sarah Lyons and a series of ineffectual elders taking their place. In order to cement his position as the next elder of the East Coast Brotherhood, Maxson, at age 16, was tasked with restoring contact between the Outcasts and the larger Brotherhood. Through skillful diplomacy, Maxson convinced the Outcasts to reunite with the organization they had sworn off years before.
Accomplishing this took the form of combining elements of both the doctrines of Lyons' Brotherhood and the Outcasts: under the new Elder Maxson, the Brotherhood still practiced open recruitment of wastelanders (albeit now requiring sponsorship from a current member) and they would continue to engage with local settlements and distribute clean water created from the restored Project Purity for free, but they would largely be rededicated to the reclamation of advanced technology. These reforms were controversial amongst some Lyons loyalists who resigned in protest, but most welcomed the changes. Consequently, the Outcast view of Lyons as an idealistic deviant that nearly led the Brotherhood astray became commonplace within the new East Coast Brotherhood, despite the previous victories against the Enclave under his leadership in 2277.
The peaceful return of the Outcasts saw the Brotherhood's power increase immensely to the degree that they were able to take a significant portion of their forces and migrate to the Commonwealth aboard the Prydwen in 2287 and still have enough manpower left to hold the Citadel.[1]
Organization[]
The Brotherhood Outcasts are distinguished from members of Lyons' Brotherhood by their wearing of repainted T-45d power armor, a deliberate choice to identify themselves as the "true" Brotherhood. To compensate for their limited numbers, the Outcasts have supplemented their forces with a number of reprogrammed Robobrains, sentry bots, and Protectrons, all similarly adorned with the Outcasts' colors.
Based out of Fort Independence, the Outcasts maintain at least one other outpost in the Washington, D.C. area. While Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel patrols the central ruins of D.C., Outcast patrols are commonly encountered throughout the greater Capital Wasteland. Each patrol typically involves three Brotherhood Outcasts (often comprised of one armed with a ranged weapon, one armed with a melee weapon, and one armed with a heavy weapon) or, more commonly, one or two Outcasts and an Outcast-aligned Protectron or Robobrain. The "rank" of an Outcast when encountered appears to be level-dependent, with higher-level Outcasts possessing greater HP and better weapons. Typically, Outcast patrols are neutral, if not very friendly towards the player character and will opt to fight against hostile enemies such as raiders, Enclave patrols, hostile creatures, and rogue robots instead.
While few of the Outcasts regret the decision to abandon Lyons' Brotherhood, some can openly be heard to miss living in the Citadel. However, it's shown that expression of these thoughts, as well as plans to further desert the Outcasts are considered treasonous offenses, sometimes punishable by execution.[15]
Outcast patrols[]
Most Outcast patrols can be found near vaults or high value military assets. They are always located where one would expect to recover valuable pre-War technology or useful salvage materials. Outcast patrols will spawn near the listed locations at preset spawn points and are not random encounters. The locations include Forts Bannister, Constantine and Independence, Wheaton Armory, the National Guard depot, the scrapyard, Smith Casey's Garage, SatCom Array NN-03d and Vaults 92, 87, 101, and 108.
Ranks[]
When the Outcasts were formed, they eschewed the traditional Brotherhood ranking system and instead creating a new hierarchy with differently named ranks. The known ranks are:
- Defender - the most common rank that is encountered. Defenders appear to be the rank-and-file soldiers of the Outcasts.
- Protector - the leadership or upper echelon officers of the Outcasts. The only known Protectors are McGraw and Henry Casdin.
- Specialist - the scientists and engineers of the Outcasts, essentially the Outcast counterpart of a Brotherhood scribe.
Iconography[]
Despite claiming to be the true and loyal version of the Brotherhood of Steel, the Outcasts show a much greater break from traditional Brotherhood aesthetics than the Lyons Brotherhood. They took the name Outcasts as a badge of honor after being labeled as such by Elder Lyons.
The Outcasts use a distinctive black and red color-scheme on their power armor and on their reprogrammed robots that support them. Rather than the cogs and wings symbol used by most Brotherhood Chapters, the Outcasts use a red downturned sword in front of a large cog.
Like the Lyons Brotherhood they primarily use T-45d Power Armor. Following reunification under Arthur Maxson, most of the Outcasts integrated well into the combined Eastern Chapter abandoning their old symbols. However their old T-45d suits in their old colors would still be used in some limited missions.
Interactions[]
Relations with the outside[]
The Outcasts have a low opinion of the inhabitants of the Capital Wasteland, typically resulting in them mocking outsiders and refusing to allow them to join, intentionally the opposite of Lyons' approach to wastelanders,[16] but they are not directly hostile to anyone as long as they remain peaceful to the Outcasts in turn. They will, however, engage any and all threats to themselves and others. Furthermore, they are known to offer mutually beneficial deals to wastelanders, exchanging technology for valuable supplies like ammunition and explosives.[17]
While Elder Lyons professes that he both understands and accepts the reasons for the Outcasts' desertion, this view is not shared by many of his loyal soldiers and as such, the Outcasts are considered enemies by Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel, and vice versa.[18] Encounters between both organizations will typically begin and end in violence and bloodshed.
Interactions with the player character[]
Initially, the Outcasts treat the Lone Wanderer like any other local, mocking them as an intellectual inferior but never being directly hostile. However, the player character can express interest in participating in a tech exchange as an outcast collection agent. Should one deliver enough tech to them, the Outcasts will consider them an ally and permit them to roam the interior of Fort Independence freely, although the locked-off sections are not included and they are not given a key - the door to the Fort needs to be picked open or opened with an appropriate key.
Technology[]
The Outcasts typically use technology comparable to that of Lyons' Brotherhood, relying on stockpiles of equipment they confiscated when they abandoned the Citadel.[8]
Brotherhood Outcast soldiers are formidable opponents. They have superior protection, weaponry, and skills to virtually every faction encountered in the Capital Wasteland, including raiders, Talon Company mercs, and most indigenous fauna the Wasteland has to offer. Outcasts generally, though not always, operate in patrols. A typical patrol consists of three soldiers, or two soldiers and one robot (a Protectron, sentry bot, or Robobrain). Outcast patrols are generally weaker than their Enclave counterparts, however, and frequently lose to them in direct combat unless the Outcast squad is making use of heavy weapons.
Equipment[]
Outcast patrols use the following weapons:
In addition to having human members, the Outcasts make extensive use of Protectrons, sentry bots and Robobrains to round-out their small numbers. Some of the sentry bots are particularly powerful, equipped with Gatling lasers. All of the above can be easily spotted by their red-and-black-flecked paint job, mimicking the armor of their Outcast masters.
The following is based on Creation Club content. |
At some point, the Outcasts had also made use of Sentinel control systems integrated into suits of their repainted power armor, though they apparently never saw deployment during the Brotherhood Civil War and were eventually reabsorbed into the Brotherhood along with the Outcasts after Arther Maxson's reunification.
End of information based on Creation Club content |
Notes[]
- Killing Outcast patrols does not incur Karma loss but may turn their whole faction hostile to the Lone Wanderer.
- All Brotherhood Outcast patrols are considered evil. This means that they will incur no Karma penalty when killed and will potentially drop a finger for those with the Lawbringer perk.
- The player does lose Karma for destroying Outcast robots, or killing named Outcast members, like Henry Casdin, unless they attack first.
- All Brotherhood of Steel soldiers are hostile to Brotherhood Outcasts, and it is possible for them to meet and fight, especially at Vault 101 and Fort Bannister with the Broken Steel add-on.
- While textures for an Outcast Mister Gutsy and Eyebot exist, they are unused, and Mister Gutsy and Eyebot units will never spawn with Outcast patrols. Similarly, all Outcast sentry bots will spawn with the Gatling laser arm, despite there being textures for the minigun arm. Outcasts were also intended to have their own variant of recon armor, but the individual texture for it is unused and no Outcasts spawn with recon armor.
- It is possible to gain access into the Fort by pickpocketing Casdin. Be forewarned, though: once in, all the Outcast members inside are hostile to the player character.
- Brotherhood outcasts are featured as a potential player character origin in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game supplement Wanderer's Guide Book; however, this is not referring specifically to Casdin's ex-Brotherhood faction but instead to the overall category of Brotherhood of Steel members who have since left the organization, such as the Scribe.
- If the player character is wearing full Outcast power armor (both the armor and helmet) Defender Morrill and the other Outcasts outside the Outcast outpost will assume that they are an Outcast sent as reinforcements. However, Protector McGraw and other Outcasts inside the outpost will see through the disguise.
Appearances[]
Brotherhood Outcasts appear in Fallout 3, its add-on Operation: Anchorage, and the Fallout 4 Creation Club quest Malevolent Malfunction. They are mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and the Fallout 76 update Nuclear Winter.[19]
Bugs[]
- After delivering enough technology to Protector Casdin the player will be granted "trusted" status and added to the OutcastAllyFaction faction. Although Casdin indicates this will put the player on friendly terms with most members of the Outcasts, the optional "friendly" dialogue is set to check if the player is a member of the OutcastFaction Faction, rather than the OutcastAllyFaction Faction. This results in most "friendly" Outcast greetings and dialogue not being heard. [verified]
- Sometimes, when finding a patrol, the sound of a Gatling gun being fired is heard but is never actually being used.[verified]
Gallery[]
See also[]
- Brotherhood Civil War
- Brotherhood of Steel (East Coast)
- Fort Independence
- Brotherhood Outcast (character)
References[]
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Non-game
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition pp.41-42: "Brotherhood Outcasts"
"The Brotherhood Outcasts are a contingent of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers who split from Elder Lyons' group at the Citadel (stealing technology and weapons in the process). The reason for the split? They felt like Elder Lyons had "gone native," and concerned himself too much with the need of the locals. Yes, he was supposed to discover the breeding ground of the Super Mutants, but not to the exclusion of the original, "greater" mission—the acquisition of technology. In their eyes, Lyons is a joke, possibly even a traitor. He hasn't even bothered to get his giant robot working, let alone continue the search for technology.
In their eyes, they are the true Brotherhood of Steel, carrying on the mission of the main West Coast contingent. They proudly wear the name "Outcast"; anything to further dissociation them from Lyons. It's also important to note that the Brotherhood's concentration on acquiring advanced technology means they have their obsessions—including the procurement of alien weapons from anywhere in the Capital Wasteland, including possible crashed U.F.O. and pre-war government installations."
(Fallout 3 Official Game Guide faction profiles)
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