Editing Brotherhood of Steel (section)

== History ==
Since their founder, '''<s>Captain</s> HIGH ELDER Roger Maxson''' created them, the Brotherhoods goal was to protect and preserve technology from those who would misuse it, to prevent a nuclear war from ever happening again. They are a group of survivalist soldier-engineers who salvage and protect technology from irresponsible users, (i.e. everyone else besides them) and honoring restraint regarding technology and development. I guess this means no [[Ecclesiarchy|flying babies with vox-speaker mouths]]. 

Witnessing how people around him slowly succumbed to depression, Captain Maxson formulated a new ideology for the survivors. It took him years to create it, replacing the tarnished Stars and Stripes with new symbols, new ranks, and new ideas to replace the ones scorched in nuclear fire. They would provide meaning for people before they became lost in the depths of despair after losing their friends, family, their entire world. Although some under his command, particularly Lieutenant Taggerdy, were skeptical of his plans, Maxson believed that the way forward lay in new traditions and a new mythology, free of the burden of the past. He also believed that it would prevent any surviving politicians from exercising their authority over former American soldiers, especially those with an agenda that involved burning Americans on the funeral pyre of the regime. By June 20, 2082, all members under his command switched over to using Brotherhood ranks and practices. 

While this all sounds like the Brotherhood were [[Leagues of Votann|forward-thinking science-y types]] that [[Adeptus Mechanicus|safeguarded humanity]] from the dangers of [[Men of Iron|rampant tech]], the OG Brotherhood and those close to them were very close-minded, preferring to retrieve any and all forms of technology above toaster-level at (las)gunpoint. See, Maxson wrote everything down in the '''[[Codex Astartes|CODEX <s> ASTARTES</s>]]''', a [[Spiritual Liege|pseudo-religious framework]] that the Brotherhood takes very seriously; unlike the Codex Astartes, ''this book was meant to be taken literally'', prioritizing the confiscation of technology and the safeguarding of pre-War science over the general welfare of the Wasteland and large, or even the Chapter itself. Entire civil wars have happened within Chapters whose Elders dared to [[Noblebright|make helping outsiders a priority]]. 

Like the SPESS MEHREENS, the Brotherhood is separated into Chapters, with each chapter being pretty much independent from the original chapter on the West Coast. In fact, most chapters East of California, including the nearby Mojave Chapter, were started by Elders who were sent east so that their "radical ideas" wouldn't be a detriment to their home chapter. 

The Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 3 and Fallout Tactics (which '''IS''' canon) were much more goody-two-shoes, friendly, underdog super-heroes who fought alongside gross Super-Mutants and undead Ghouls to kill off the epic Enclave, the legitimate remnants of the United States Government (to be fair, they were being lead by an Abominable Intelligence) However after the death of their Boomer leader Elder Lyons, and the effective, but short-lived rule of his daughter who perished in battle, Roger Maxson's last surviving descendant '''Elder Arthur Maxson''' reformed the East Coast Brotherhood to be more <s>[[Imperium of Man|fascist]]</s> human-centered and focused. Putting the dominant species of <s>Holy Terra</s> AMERICA FIRST. Operations to wipe out mutated life such as Ghouls and Super Mutants, making things more safe for the people of the Capital Wasteland (once known as the <s>State of Washington</s> Washington D.C.) turning it into a militarized city-state.
[[File:Fo4 Prydwen over Boston Airport.jpg|thumb|"People of the Commonwealth, do not interfere. Our intentions are peaceful. We are the Brotherhood of Steel"]]
After receiving reports of a disturbing misuse of technology in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (synthetic life, teleportation, and more, courtesy of the survivors of M.I.T.), Elder Maxson had a great airship constructed known as the Prydwen, which became the West Coast chapter's mobile base of operations.  Taking his best fighters and a fleet of post-war built <s>Valkyrie</s> Vertibirds shipped off to the Commonwealth to personally deal with this disturbing abusers of technology, known as the Institute. The Institute had managed to create synthetic life that mimicked real humans perfectly (because they were, for better or worse, built with synthetic flesh, and the only machine identifier being a component in their brain), and were used as workers and spies. A high-ranking Paladin of the East Coast Brotherhood  was even revealed to have been a Synth, though it was unclear to everyone whether he was replaced while on reconnaissance in Massachusetts (unlikely), or that he was an escaped synth, whose mind was wiped by the Underground Railroad so that he could live a free life and make his own decisions. 

[[GRIMDARK|Of course, being an abominable machine, Elder Maxson orders you to kill him.]]

[[File:Fo4 Liberty Prime.jpg|thumb|The Brotherhood: "Nukes and Technology Bad" *uses a giant robot that lobs nukes indiscriminately and fries people with its eyes*]]


There are other endings, like supporting the [[Planetary Defence Force|Minutemen]] or the [[SJW|Underground Raildroad]] in their quest to free Boston from [[Adeptus Mechanicus|tech hoarders]] and a bunch of nerds, or join said nerds/pseudo-Space Marines. Siding with the Brotherhood means powering up Liberty Prime, a giant robot that lobs Nukes like footballs and and shoots lasers out his eyes. Liberty Prime then smashfucks his way through the ruins of MIT, "infiltrating" through the use of his deadly eye-laser and drilling down underground for the Brotherhood to exterminate the cancer underneath the Commonwealth at its source, halting Synth production when a Nuke was placed inside the Institute, destroying the Institute Scientists and saving the Commonwealth from their experiments. Once he's done with his job, he'll then spend the rest of the game Liberty Prime walking in a circle around the Boston Airport, [[Great Crusade|instead of being used to easily cleanse the entire wasteland of Mutants]] because Bethesda did their very best to ensure that the plot [[Advancing the Storyline|stays at the bare minimum]].