Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel background

The following is transcribed from the Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel manual. The manual is included in the references.

Introduction
p. 2

The Great War
p. 5

The Vaults
p. 6

FEV & The Brotherhood
FEV [Forced Evolutionary Virus] was initially developed in response to the "super plague" that tore through the world population prior to the Great War. Designed to push any biological entity's ability to adapt to harsh circumstances, the substance was found to possess startling abilities as a catalyst.

Early tests created super animals - lab monkeys with greater body mass and higher intelligence. The military immediately saw some possible applications and took control of FEV research. Unfortunately, the initial test subjects quickly regressed into a far less intelligent, aggressive state, showing massive deformities and insanity. FEV was labeled "unstable", but some experimentation still continued.

When the bombs dropped, one of the major military FEV research centers was hit, releasing huge quantities of the substance into the air. The mixture of heavy radiation and a sweeping cloud of mutagenic material turned large numbers of humans into Ghouls, and created Radscorpions, giant rats, and so on from the animals and plants across the U.S.

But the story of FEV doesn't end there. Even after the war, an isolated group of scientists began experimenting on soldiers with an advanced form of the virus [FEV-2]. The results were promising... but the surviving soldiers got wise. They rebelled, killed all of the scientists and locked down the facility. Relocating themselves and some high-tech equipment to a new base of operations, these soldiers took it upon themselves to become the unofficial peacekeeping force of the wasteland... they became the Brotherhood of Steel.