Elizabeth Taggerdy

Paladin Elizabeth "Lizzy" Taggerdy was the leader of the Brotherhood of Steel in Appalachia.

Background
Before the Great War, Elizabeth Taggerdy was a lieutenant in the United States Army Rangers and a veteran of the Sino-American War, known for her aggressive and unconventional tactics. During her service, she commanded a US Army Ranger unit called Taggerdy's Thunder, serving under Captain Roger Maxson, with whom she eventually became close friends.

In October 2077, the Thunder was sent to Appalachia to participate in war games, leading the Thunder against two units of United States Marines posing as hostile Chinese forces. She and her squad were looking forward to the exercise as well as the two-week furlough which would follow. However, they were surprised by the beginning of the Great War. After first dismissing the attacks as part of the simulation, the news of nuclear warheads striking multiple sites in the United States made it clear that the emergency was real.

With the chain of command in tatters and nothing but static on the radio, the Thunder attempted to raise any kind of ranking officer to receive new orders and move forward. Taggerdy was surprised to find Roger Maxson on the radio bands, trying to contact someone in Appalachia. Although she was hesitant about speaking to a confessed traitor, their previous friendship made her decide to give Maxson a chance. Together with her unit, Taggerdy moved to Camp Venture, an old survival training camp, where they spent the winter of 2077. Soon after, she ordered the camp reactivated to fill out the ranks of the Thunder. Eventually, recruits started appearing at the camp in numbers, primarily former soldiers looking for a way out.

Brotherhood of Steel
Maxson eventually involved Taggerdy and her men in the foundation of the Brotherhood of Steel, promising them a new beginning. Although Taggerdy was skeptical, Maxson outlined his plan to give her and her men a new identity as members of the Brotherhood, both as a way to return meaning to their lives and 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 bunker) and begin the cycle of destruction again. Even though she did not initially believe in the cause, Taggerdy accepted the new orders.

Taggerdy became known as Paladin Taggerdy, the head of the Appalachian chapter of the Brotherhood. Under her leadership, the Brotherhood worked closely with the Responders to rebuild civilization in Appalachia; their cooperation culminating in the Battle of Huntersville where Taggerdy delivered her seminal speech to the assembled troops of the Brotherhood and the Responders in May 2086. Taggerdy's leadership, though strained due to her preference and bias towards soldiers and people with a military background, carried the battle and confirmed Maxson's view that the Brotherhood could be the catalyst for something greater than the pre-War world.

The Scorched
When the Scorched Plague led to the rise of Scorched and scorchbeasts, Taggerdy's troops found themselves locked in a war with no end in sight. She considered the use of nuclear weapons to take out the scorchbeasts, believing it to be a necessary step but was forbidden to do so by Elder Maxson. Although Lost Hills attempted to sustain them with their scientific expertise, providing automated research programs and weapon schematics to set up kill-zones, they were unable to stem the tide of enemies. Eventually, the satellites failed and Lost Hills went silent, leaving Taggerdy alone to deal with the situation.

Rather than cooperate with the Responders or the Free States, Taggerdy tightened the ranks and planned to win the war with the scorchbeasts using those she could rely on - her soldiers. However, Taggerdy's policy proved to be short-sighted. With no way to replace losses in the war, she was forced to abandon outlying outposts. Camp Venture was officially abandoned on July 20, 2093, as the Brotherhood called all remaining troops to focus their fire at Fort Defiance and Thunder Mountain power plant. Although the remaining squires completed their training, no new candidates were accepted. The Brotherhood focused entirely on fighting the scorchbeasts, tapping all available sources of supplies. By January 2094, Taggerdy authorized routine requisitions of food, missiles, fusion cores, and hundreds of rounds of conventional ammunition from all available sources.

In a desperate attempt to end the Scorched threat once and for all, the Brotherhood launched Operation Touchdown January 29, 2095, with Paladin Taggerdy taking the most well-trained troops of the Brotherhood in order to confront the scorchbeasts in their lair and destroy them. The operation claimed the life of Taggerdy and her men and she was declared dead by Senior Knight Wilson on February 2, 2095.

Appearances
Elizabeth Taggerdy appears only in Fallout 76.

Behind the Scenes
An alternate and contradictory version of the Christmas Flood event originally planned by designer Ferret Baudoin would have had David Thorpe order former Taggerdy's Thunder recruit and deserter E. Fisher, a demolitions specialist, to rig a device of several mini nukes stolen from the Brotherhood of Steel. Taggerdy was aware of Fisher's involvement in this atrocity. This, combined with the desertion of Hank Madigan to the civilian faction, the Responders, would have better explained Taggerdy's reservations about trusting civilians. Though Ferret stated he was "pretty sure it's in the lore," this version of events never made it into the storyline. As Ferret would state later in the same interview, "the primal source of lore is what you see in the games," and anything not contained within the game is "just headcanon for a writer."