The Brotherhood of Steel are a massive power
in the wasteland. As most of you will know,
the organization is spread across the continent,
from West to East. The West Coast Brotherhood
of Steel, which we encountered in Fallout:
New Vegas, seems more traditional in their
views. They haven’t deviated much from the
Brotherhood's original vision, and they treat
outsiders with great suspicion. In stark contrast,
the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel has deviated
greatly from tradition. They interact with
other inhabitants of the Wasteland regularly,
and even induct them into their ranks.
My question is this, is the East Coast chapter
of the Brotherhood of steel right in their
decision to abandon some of the Brotherhood's
oldest traditions?
Back in 2254 the Brotherhood's ruling council,
based in the Lost Hills bunker in the Southern
regions of California, decided to send a contingent
to the East Coast, with one primary objective:
recover any and all advanced technology from
East Coast cities and Pre-War military bases.
The Brotherhood's greed for cool loot from
the pre-war era was only part of it though,
they also eyed up the East Coast for another
reason. Washington DC. The old capital of
Pre-War America. The Brotherhood of Steel
saw themselves as the true claimant to the
wasteland- as the new government in a way,
so they also believed liberating the Capital
wasteland would be of great use to their cause.
Owyn Lyons who was a Head Paladin for this
contingent, lead a group of fellow brothers
towards the East Coast in order to complete
this objective. During the journey they passed
through an area which was originally Pittsburgh.
The brotherhood obliterated any possible enemy
who dare stood in their way. As they made
their way through the city they had essentially
cleansed it of thugs, BUT it was here Lyons
and the gang looked past the brotherhood's
tradition for the first notable time.
The Brotherhood's recruitment process is pretty
thorough. Like so thorough that if you are
recruited, you should feel extremely special.
You could probably count on one hand how many
times they actually recruited outsiders to
their cause. Most of the brotherhood is built
upon their predecessors, they only really
allow their offspring to become members.
Through the rubble of a once great city, they
found a group of survivors- children, and
presumably orphans. So just to make sure you’re
on the same page as me here, THESE KIDS HAVE
NOT BEEN BORN INTO THE BROTHERHOOD!!! But
Lyons let them all in with open arms. They
were mostly all trained up like any other
brotherhood squire and initiates too. This
is a blatant disregard of Brotherhood tradition.
But I’m gonna come back to this.
A little while after pittsburgh, lyons finally
arrived with his posse in the capital wasteland
of Washington DC. They established their objectives
swiftly and hunkered down in the old pentagon
building. To start with, they were fairly
successful with their goal to harvest technology,
but when they came to the roadblock that was
the super mutant infestation in the DC ruins,
they started to sway in a different direction.
With the war against the super mutants raging
on. The Brotherhood East Coast Chapter made
the decision to put helping the people of
the capital wasteland on their to-do list
alongside gathering technology.
That’s strike number two for the East Coast
Brotherhood, in case you’ve lost count.
This obviously hurt the butts of the hardcore
brotherhood members, who broke off to continue
with JUST the original objective of their
mission. These were the Outcasts as most of
you will know.
The East Coast Brotherhood later along the
line began aiding a scientific project that
Fallout 3 players will know of only all too
well- Project Purity. This is VERY UNCONVENTIONAL
for the Brotherhood, because let's face it,
the Brotherhood are traditionally self-serving
assholes! Like, they are in it for themselves
and only care about others if they can help
the brotherhood's cause and WILL most likely
leave them for dead at the drop of a hat.
So the fact that Elder Lyons and his chapter
are actually helping people to an extent is
almost unheard of.
Oh and the Brotherhood Policy, the chains
that bind…Don’t even get me started on
this..
Well if you venture into fallout new vegas’
Brotherhood chapter of the mojave, you can
locate information on the chains that bind.
The policy reads
“ Orders are to flow from on high down through
the ranks. An order from a superior must always
be obeyed, that their wisdom may be carried
out without hesitation.”
“Orders are to observe the flow and not
skip ranks.” Remember this
“ A superior may only give orders to his
direct subordinates, and not to those beneath
them. In this way harmony of intent and cohesion
of thought is maintained.”
Sure, the art direction was slightly different
between games as Obsidian entertainment developed
New Vegas and they obviously can’t be consistent
with absolutely everything lore-wise. However
this is a big part for one of the biggest
and most renown factions in the fallout franchise,
it IS their whole philosophy as it was put
in new vegas.
An example of the policy being put to good
use in the lore is when elder Kenneth Jones
disobeys the concept, and is forced to step
down as the chapters elder. He was then replaced
by the Head paladin of that chapter, Paladin
Lindquist.
.... the supposed “CORNERSTONE” of the
brotherhood of steel is pretty much forgotten
on the East Coast during fallout 3 and 4.
Basically this policy requires all members
of the Brotherhood to obey a superior's orders,
completing the order to the best of that ranks
ability. But this cuts both ways. What do
I mean by that? Well, a member of the brotherhood
who is not directly above another members
rank is not allowed to directly command them.
It is shown on numerous occasions during fallout
4 where Elder Maxson gives you, the player
orders, and receives no disciplinary action
in any form, never mind the standard loss
of his rank. Back to the man of the hour,
Owyn Lyons. He started this trend. In the
main questline of Fallout 3, he tasks you
with the quest ‘Picking up the Trail’
where he asks you to retrieve the Garden of
Eden Creation Kit from Vault 87. Following
this he does not stand down from his position
as Elder or is challenged in any way. So either
nobody ACTUALLY noticed he was unbinding these
chains or the East Coast just don’t care
about this policy anymore.
So these are a few ways that the East Coast
have sorta disregarded the tradition of the
brotherhood. But let's return to my original
query. Were they right in doing this?
Well yeah. I believe so at least. The format
the Brotherhood have with the expansion of
their faction is pretty limited as is. Sure
the wasteland has some nutters, that you probably
don’t want to be in your elite team of technology
tanks. But keeping it to a few select members
of the outside world and your own offspring
is probably not the best idea. I mean the
enclave are inbred as fuck, you don’t want
to become like them do you?
Allowing some poor folk in, who have an interest
in the safety of others, would give them an
opportunity to help truly make the wasteland
a better place. It could be treated as one
of these programs to get rough kids of the
streets and making good use of their potential
and talents for something other than becoming
a drug mule for some raiders.
There will be an abundance of people who would
want to join the brotherhood, not just to
be able to help others if possible, but also
for the safety and security of having brothers
to trust.
Oh and the whole project purity thing, well
giving A WHOLE FUCKING WASTELAND CLEAN, DRINKABLE
WATER is a pretty goddamn good thing. Sure
I reckon controlling that could come in handy
when trying to instigate some new government
but would also raise some eyebrows at the
same time. This is essentially the first proper
step into undoing the wrongs done to the capital
wasteland, and I think Lyons would be proud
to have helped the team on project purity
make this happen.
And the whole super mutant war thing, it definitely
benefitted the brotherhood. Clearing out some
areas of the mutated creatures would make
it easier to locate the tech for their original
objective along with making it a much safer
place for less trained civilians when they
are looking for some breakfast. Sure they
lost some members in the process, but as they
say it only gets worse before it gets better.
Overall, they have given the brotherhood a
good name, in the eyes of a lot of the east-
coast at least. Maybe it’ll redeem some
of the bad traits from the chapters back in
the west.
We see in New Vegas, the Mojave chapter following
their brothers in california as well as they
can, but they are struggling. They are struggling
to make ends meet and they’re isolated from
the outside world.
They’re getting their asses handed to them
on a plate, alongside a 3 course meal by the
NCR, which they’ll actually need cause they’ll
be getting pretty hungry after rationing for
soo long.
Whereas the boys over in the eastside are
kicking ass, coming into boston with a fucking
airship, like their the cool kids of town.
They ain’t taking shit from nobody. They’ve
got the tech, they’ve got the resources
and they’ve got a decent amount of success.
Deviating from some traditions seems to have
worked well for them.
The chains that bind, its pretty stupid to
be honest. I understand its overall reasoning
but some of the policy just doesn't make any
logical sense.
Like:
An elder says to an initiate: “Yo, go get
me a coffee and a sweet roll son”
The initiate would simply have to answer:
“No can do, you are disobeying the chains
that bind”
The order would have to literally be passed
down the chain of command, which is just ridiculous.
If the man wants a coffee, let him order any
lower member to get him a damn coffee.
Oh but what do i know. I’m just a lonely
fool on the internet who doesn't understand
the meaning of tradition and how it over rules
the goodness that could be in the world.
