Brotherhood of Steel

The Brotherhood of Steel (BoS) is a techno-religious organization, with roots in the American military and government-sponsored scientific community from before the Great War.

Structure
The Brotherhood is mostly composed of the descendants of those military officers, soldiers, and scientists, but aside from some outsiders among their ranks, the Brotherhood is as close to pure-strain humanity (prime normals) that may be found outside of a Vault or the Enclave.

The ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel are generally recognized as being composed of the best and the brightest remaining to humanity, which means the BoS is a relatively small organization, at least compared to the New California Republic. They make up for this with their frightening arsenal of pre-and-post-Great War technology: they have laser weapons, Power Armor, surgical cybernetic enhancements, combat implants, and Brotherhood Paladins have the ability to erase an entire town from the map without a scratch. The vast majority of BoS members are born into the Brotherhood - they very rarely accept outsiders into their ranks. While not an official policy, many members believe that in order to survive, all members are obligated to procreate. This results in a lack of tolerance for same-sex relationships, at least when the proponents of the aforementioned stance are concerned[1]. Those born in the Brotherhood that want to be neither Scribes, Knights nor Paladins are free to leave - the Brotherhood does not believe in forcing anyone to serve them against their will[2].

While they have great reverence for technology, most of the Brotherhood members have little regard for non-technical fields of knowledge (and even for non-combat-related technology). Even most of the Scribes do not care about history, and some Brotherhood of Steel Initiates do not even know who Roger Maxson, the founder of the Brotherhood, was[3].

Relations with the outside
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 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. It is safe to say, however, that if a group of Brotherhood Paladins appears to be helping outsiders, their motives are not altruistic.



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 BoS 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.

Attitude towards mutants
The Brotherhood's attitude towards mutants ranges from dislike (e.g. in the case of ghouls) to outright hostility (in the case of super mutants). Early contact with the Master's super mutants was mostly hostile, and the BoS helped drive the majority of the mutant armies away from California. The BoS grew angry when various salvaging operations began in the Glow, a location which the Brotherhood came to regard highly both for their fallen comrades and the pre-Great War technology located there, with Dayglow ghouls at the forefront. Most Brotherhood members see ghouls as filthy scavengers. In the years after the Master's defeat in the Core Region, many super mutants settled peacefully among humans and the Brotherhood was no longer hostile to them.

Divisions and locations


The headquarters of the Brotherhood 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 bunkers in the Den, San Francisco, and Shady Sands (capital of the New California Republic). 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 town of Maxson, which, while named after the founder of the Brotherhood, is officially outside Brotherhood rule and is a member of the New California Republic.

A Brotherhood bunker is located in the Hidden Valley, directly east of Goodsprings. It is surrounded by powerful underground fans that blow up dust everywhere, creating artificial sandstorms which allow the inhabitants to get in and out with less chance of detection. Mr. House's calculations painted the Brotherhood insurgency to be the greatest threat to House's reign in the Mojave Wasteland in the long-term. Depending on the player's actions, they can sign a temporary treaty with the NCR to own New Vegas and the Mojave Wasteland; or their base in the Hidden Valley may be destroyed, and with it the Mojave Chapter.



Maxson Bunker is a Brotherhood of Steel outpost in the Arizona area, commanded by General Andrea Brixley. The bunker was intended to be used as a staging area for exploration teams scouting the east. However, once the war broke out with the New California Republic (NCR), the bunker became a forward base of operations against Hoover Dam, an NCR outpost. The war effort has gone poorly for both sides. The BoS has superior technology, but the NCR has superior numbers of troops. As a result, the war has been at a stalemate for years. Morale on both sides has plummeted but the BoS has been severely affected. In the wake of these troubles, a covert group of former Brotherhood operatives has come into existence. Calling themselves the Circle of Steel, this group raids caravans and villages, confiscates any advanced technology they may have, and does so in the name of salvaging mankind from itself.



Much further east there lay the territories of the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel, a splinter faction which lost contact with the Brotherhood leadership at Lost Hills and has been an independent organization since the 2160's, when the airships of its founders crashed near Chicago. Unlike the original, isolationist Brotherhood, this faction rules over a large part of the area between the former states of Illinois and Kansas and drafts tribals from villages under Brotherhood protection into its ranks. While more open to the outside world, this faction of the Brotherhood is by no means altruistic - the villagers under Brotherhood rule, while protected from raiders and mutants, live in fear of the infamous Brotherhood Inquisitors. The Midwestern Brotherhood main bases were bunkers that were probably pre-Great War military bunkers that were found, taken, and rebuilt. They are called Bunker Alpha, Bunker Beta, Bunker Gamma, Bunker Delta and Bunker Epsilon. The Midwestern Brotherhood power armor is very similar to the Advanced Power Armor MK II, and may be a variant of it.



On the East Coast, a faction known as the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel established a base called the Citadel, built into and beneath the ruins of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. This faction is 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 is officially recognized by the ruling council at Lost Hills as the leader of a Brotherhood faction, because of his changed priorities he receives no support from California and his faction, for all intents and purposes, is independent. Without reinforcements from the West Coast, Lyons has been forced to recruit locally, but most new wastelander conscripts are overeager, unskilled, or both, and as a result their survival rate is atrocious. Elder Lyons’ daughter Sarah commands 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.

However, there are members of Lyons' expeditionary force to the East Coast who preferred to stay faithful to the Brotherhood's original goals. These members of the Brotherhood left the Citadel and became known as the Brotherhood Outcasts.



After the death of John Maxson, Rhombus, the head of the Brotherhood's Paladins, became the new High Elder. After the death of the Master, the Brotherhood of Steel helped the other human outposts of the Core Region drive the mutant armies away with minimal loss of life on both sides of the conflict. However, a super mutant faction under the leadership of Attis moved east and attempted to recreate the mutant army in Texas using the Secret Vault. Rhombus, despite some criticism from the ruling council of the West Coast Brotherhood of Steel, started a crusade against the still existent threat of the super mutant army, now led by Attis. They traveled eastward to Texas. There, he discovered a prototype Vault which was abandoned and installed the Brotherhood's main base of operation in this area. Their principal mission was to eradicate the menace of all super mutants. For this reason, they created a new Texas Brotherhood icon, which featured a pair of wings, topped by dual pistols, all of a red color.

Ranks
The Brotherhood of Steel is divided into different ranks: Initiates are trainees who are expected to perform well enough in the training process to be promoted to Senior Initiates, and later to Apprentices. After proving themselves, Apprentices are promoted to the rank of Journeyman Knights or Scribes. The next rank is Knight Sergeant/Senior Scribe, Knight Captian, and finally the leader of each of these orders is the Head Knight and the Head Scribe.

Brotherhood Scribes are responsible for investigating and reverse-engineering the ancient technologies, maintaining the current technology of the Brotherhood and even experimenting with new weapons and other useful devices. Scribes rarely leave the safety of the Brotherhood's bunkers and outposts, but they are sometimes called into the field to examine a piece of technology or perform a task beyond the skills of the Brotherhood's soldiers.

Brotherhood Knights are responsible for manufacturing the weapons and other pieces of technology used by the Brotherhood, although they also take part in combat activities. After many years of service and experience, the best Knights are promoted to Paladins - the pinnacle rank of the Brotherhood military. Paladins are in charge of all security and outside activities. The Paladin ranks are Junior Paladin, Paladin, Senior Paladin, Star Paladin and Head Paladin. Paladins who survive to their later years become Elders, and they make up the Brotherhood's ruling council. Among the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel an additional rank, Sentinel, exists between Paladin and Elder. The leader of the council and the Brotherhood itself is the High Elder, usually descended from the Maxson family.

Symbolism of the insignia
In the Brotherhood symbol, the gears represent their engineering knowledge, the sword is their will to defend themselves, the wings represent the uplifting hope that the acquisition of lost technology represents for mankind's salvation following the devastation of the Great War, and the circle represents the fraternal unity that makes the organization a true brotherhood.

Another interpretation is that the Brotherhood's symbol represents each of the organizations different orders. The sword represents the Paladins, the wings represent the Elders (the "wings" control the movement of the sword), the large gear represents the Knights, and the two smaller gears represent the Scribes and the Initiates, whose services keep the Knights supplied with the information and the manpower required to get their jobs done.

While both the original Brotherhood of Steel in the Core Region and the Capital Wasteland faction of the Brotherhood use different colors for different elements of the symbol (blue for the wings, gray for the sword and black for the gears), the Midwestern Brotherhood uses several mono color variations. A blue version is used by the Midwestern Brotherhood's Knights and Paladins, a black one by the Scribes and an orange one by the Elders. The golden/yellow variant seems to symbolize the Midwestern Brotherhood as a whole. The Midwestern version of the Brotherhood symbol is also reversed horizontally - the large gear is to the right of the smaller ones, not to the left as in the original.

Technology
Technology is the Brotherhood's main priority, scooping up as much tech as they possibly can. They'd even kill and go to war with other groups to get their hands on applied science.

Not as advanced as the Enclave, the Brotherhood soldiers carry Energy Weapons and are suited with Powered Infantry armor that consists of T-51b and T-45d suits. Under their fierce armor they wear Recon Armor which allows the wearer to mobilize around in the bulky suits.

The Brotherhood have access to advanced computers which they have found in varies military bases and Vault-Tec Vaults such as the Lost Hills bunker, the ruins of the Pentagon, Bunker Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Hidden Valley and the Vault Prototype.

They are also in possession of heavy duty robots to assist them like the intimidating Sentry bots, the handy Mister Handies and even a 40 foot Communist hating metal giant in the hands of the Capital Wasteland detachment.

Members

 * List of Brotherhood of Steel members

Development
The Brotherhood of Steel were based off a completely hostile faction known as the Guardians in the 1987 game Wasteland which is known to be the predecessor to Fallout.

Appearances
The Brotherhood of Steel appears in all Fallout games to date.

Holodisks about the Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout Fallout Tactics
 * Captain Maxson's Diary
 * Maxson Log
 * Ancient Brotherhood Disk
 * Sophia Tape
 * Brotherhood Code (non-canon)
 * Journal of Sir Latham
 * General's holodisk to wife Maria