Lone Wanderer and Companions | Brotherhood of Steel | Megaton | Vault 101 | Rivet City | Tenpenny Tower
Brotherhood of Steel, East Coast Chapter
- Elder Lyons: "When I came here, I realized for the first time that the Brotherhood's technology could truly save the survivors in this Wasteland. I chose to help them, even if it meant putting the Brotherhood's interests at risk. Some of my soldiers called me a hero. Others called me a traitor."
30 years ago, the main branch of the Brotherhood on the West Coast sent a force of soldiers to scout Washington for supplies and bring the Midwestern branch of the Brotherhood (from Tactics) back into the fold. After failing to find the Midwestern Brotherhood they continued on to Washington. Finding the area overrun with slavers, raiders and mutants, and finding a large store of pre-war technology in the ruins of the Pentagon, the group set down permanent roots, forming a base called The Citadel (in the ruins of the Pentagon), and began efforts to scour the region of hostiles and protect the civilians.
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Brotherhood in general
- Defector from Decadence:
- Lyons decided that it was more important to follow the intent of the Brotherhood Codex (use technology to help rebuild society) rather than the letter (acquire technology no matter who gets hurt in the process).
- This conflict is treated in an interesting way by the Elders of the West Coast headquarters; unable to come to a consensus on whether his actions were what their Codex intended, they don't actually punish him. They let him keep his title and status in the Order. But they also cut off any reinforcements to the Capital Wasteland. By the time Lyons' Brotherhood is encountered by the Lone Wanderer, their organization is severely underpowered and under-supplied.
- Fallout 4 reveals however that following the death of Elder Lyons, both Owen and Sarah, the East Coast Brotherhood, under the new Elder Arthur Maxson, went back to being much like their West Coast brethren in gathering technology to guard it against 'the wrong hands', though still held onto some of Lyons' ideals like recruiting wastelanders to supplement their ranks.
- Elite Mooks: Lyons' Pride, Sarah's personal handpicked squad.
- Fantastic Slurs: "Zombies" for the ghouls and "uglies" and "frankensteins" for the Super Mutants.
- Gas Mask Mooks: As usual with the Brotherhood.
- Karmic Jackpot: Lyons and his branch were often criticized by the main branch for deviating from their original mission and accepted Brotherhood dogma. However, by the end of the game, they've not only recovered vast amounts of advanced Enclave technology just like the original mission intended, but have also developed new pieces of technology like the Tesla Cannon. Furthermore, they've also participated in two major engineering projects (Project Purity and Liberty Prime) and, with the help of the Lone Wanderer, defeated the last major remnant of the Enclave. They manage to do all this while carrying out their self-imposed duty of protecting the wasteland population. Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, the main branch is all but wiped out after a war with the NCR, most of it forced into hiding. By the time of Fallout 4, said Jackpot allowed the East Coast Brotherhood to construct their own mobile fortress in the form of the Prydwen and carry on their mission to the Commonwealth, for better and worse...
- Power Armor: Wouldn't be the Brotherhood without them.
- Pragmatic Hero: While they're mostly morally upstanding Paladins, they have a shoot-on-sight policy when dealing with Ghouls, tarnishing their general image. This is only slightly lessened by the time of Fallout 4, where they try a little better not to shoot the non-feral Ghouls they encounter right away.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: A heroic example, in that they've chosen to abandon the Brotherhood's dogma of obtaining technology above all else for serving as the protector of the Capital Wasteland. Once Elder Maxson took charge following Lyon's death however, the Brotherhood brought some of said dogma. Come Fallout 4, this has been largely reversed, though some of Lyons' ideals are embedded in the Eldership of Arthur Maxson.
- We Have Reserves:
- Played With, while they have an almost endless supply of wastelanders willing to be recruited, as Sarah Lyons states, the quality of recruit is highly questionable, as they are often too young or too old, not very good shots, have problems following orders, and too eager to charge into battle that they are still stretched too thin against both the Mutants and the Enclave.
- On the other hand, given how Lyons is willing to recruit Wastelanders into the Brotherhood (part of why the Outcasts bailed), he will eventually be able to play this trope straight, assuming time and resources are merciful enough. Having the Lone Wanderer in their ranks, even if only as a type of specialist, allows them greater operational flexibility as well. This is one of Lyons's policies that were retained after his death, and resulted in them growing much stronger between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, by which time the Brotherhood can potentially gain another OMA in the Sole Survivor through the same policy.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Arthur is the only established member of the East Coast Brotherhood that reappears in Fallout 4 as the new Elder. While some are justified since Owen Lyons passed away and Sarah Lyons was killed in battle, the rest of the named Brotherhood members in the Capital Wasteland are neither seen nor mentioned. Potentially handwaved as them being left to keep watch over Washington and the Citadel while the main body of the Brotherhood relocates to the Commonwealth to fight the Institute.
Leader
Owyn Lyons
Elder Owyn Lyons
Voiced by: William Bassett (English)note
Owyn Lyons is the Elder in charge of the Columbia chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. Sent out nearly three decades ago to investigate the area, he trekked across the entire continent with his contingent from Lost Hills to the DC region. While originally sent there to collect and store all the technology he could, his chapter of the Brotherhood eventually turned their focus to protecting the people of the Capital Wasteland and eradicating the Super Mutants. Recently, due to his deviation from the mission, the Brotherhood has stopped sending extra troops and many of his best soldiers have revolted and become the Outcasts. This has overstretched his forces, and forced him to look to recruiting from the wasteland.
- Big Good: Leader of the major heroic faction of the game.
- Character Death: Has already died from old age by the time Fallout 4 gets going. Unfortunately, without him around the Brotherhood has regressed back into its West-coast based doctrine.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: What arguably has put him at odds with the tenets of the Brotherhood.
Developers have said that they liken him to the Vault Dweller in that they were sent out on a specific mission, but after being released from the constant values feedback and insular society, he began to think autonomously and developed compassion. - Doomed Moral Victor: Fallout 4 reveals him to be this, his efforts to reform the Brotherhood seemingly for nought as it becomes more like its West Coast counterparts. Though Arthur has not forgotten all of his reforms, and has fused aspects of both the West and East Coasts together.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He died of old age soon after Fallout 3, which led to Arthur Maxson taking over as Elder and undoing many of his policies.
- The Extremist Was Right: If you destroy the Enclave Mobile Base in Broken Steel, Lyons' faction of the Brotherhood will be sitting on top of a huge pile of Enclave spoils (not the least of which are Vertibirds), have a brand-new compact high-power fusion reactor tech thanks to Dr. Li's help with perfecting LIBERTY PRIME's powerplant, will have a mass water purifier, and the adulation of the Capital Wasteland.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: In-universe, after Maxson took over and took the Brotherhood back to basics, Lyons was demonized as a foolish heretic who led the Brotherhood astray and his rule was openly derided for it's wastefulness and deviance from their true purpose.
- Honor Before Reason: In Broken Steel, Lyons opts to distribute the purified water from Project Purity freely to the people of the Wasteland, instead of selling it for caps. He also refuses to sell the water to Raiders and Slavers, despite them having an abundance of caps to buy it with. These decisions drive the very cynical Scribe put in charge of coordinating the water distribution quite crazy.
- Then again, it's good PR (let's be honest, you have to get recruits from somewhere), plus... to hell with the Raiders.
- Laser-Guided Karma: His radical (for the Brotherhood) egalitarianism and desire to do what's right may have caused them hardship and a major schism in his ranks, but by the end of the game, he was right, as shown above. Doubly so, if the Brotherhood who abandoned his ideals ultimately meet their doom at the hands of the Commonwealth Minutemen In Fallout 4 which is a very similar organization to what Lyons envisioned the Brotherhood to be.
- Life Will Kill You: Despite living in a Crapsack World with Everything Trying to Kill You, what finally gets this skilled badass in the end was the simple fact that he was very old and couldn't keep going forever.
- Retired Badass: He was a Paladin before he was an Elder, and by all accounts was exceptionally badass even by Paladin standards.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Lyons was willing to disregard the technicalities of the Brotherhood Codex in order to follow the Codex's spirit of protecting humanity, such as by committing his forces to protecting Wastelanders, as well as recruiting from among their ranks. This works out in the end, as his actions end up building the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood into being the dominant power in the region, while the Brotherhood chapters back west who remained faithful to the Codex's xenophobic laws are now on the brink of extinction.
Brotherhood Military
Lyons Pride
Sarah Lyons
Sentinel Sarah Lyons
Voiced by: Heather Marie Marsden (English)note
Sentinel Sarah Lyons is the daughter of Owyn Lyons, who made the trek across the continent when she was a toddler. She is now one of the best combatants under Elder Lyons' command.
- Action Girl: She's one of the best in this chapter of the Brotherhood.
- Bus Crash: It is revealed in Fallout 4 that she was killed in battle at some point during the 10 years between 3 and 4. It's suggested this happened very shortly after her father's own death, and Arthur was put in charge after multiple ineffectual elders.
- Cutting Off the Branches: According to Fallout 4, she dies in battle, meaning that she wasn't sent into the purifier.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: She's rather annoyed at having you tag along when you encounter her on the way to Galaxy News Radio. She softens up after you help her troop take out a Behemoth.
- Justified as at first you are just a random civilian in her eyes, who blindly ran into their fight with the super mutants. Once you prove yourself worthy in combat situations, she softens up.
- Dude Magnet: Her father notes the way the men look at and Arthur has a crush on her.
- Family Business: And the business is the Brotherhood of Steel. Par for the course for those born into it, but it seems that her father is grooming her to take over the chapter after he passes away.
- Final Boss: Of Broken Steel and the main quest if you destroy the Citadel.
- Heroic Sacrifice: If you're too cowardly to sacrifice yourself to save everyone, and you don't have a radiation-immune companion with you in Broken Steel, Sarah does it herself. Doesn't get better in Broken Steel either. As revealed in Fallout 4, it wasn't her that entered the chamber, though being killed in battle in the intervening years between Broken Steel and 4, and leaving the Brotherhood to basically abandon all the good work her father strived for doesn't make it better either.
- One of the Boys: Apparently she's a fighter first, and a woman a distant second. Her father is somewhat concerned.Elder Lyons' Personal Journal Entry: Sarah may have forgotten she's a woman, but I haven't, and neither have the rest of the Brothers, judging by the looks they give her.
- Ship Tease: Appears to develop feelings for the Lone Wanderer as the game goes on.
- You Are in Command Now: As joining the Brotherhood in Fallout 4 helps reveal, after her father's death, she served a short stint as the Elder until her own death in battle, which put the young Arthur Maxson in charge.
Vargas
Paladin Vargas
Voiced by: Pete Papageorge (English)note
"No offense, but I'm a little busy saving your ass right now."
Paladin Vargas is the second in command of the Lyons Pride and Sarah Lyons right hand man.
- A Father to His Men: He tries to keep Initiate Reddin alive and is saddened when she is killed by the super mutant behemoth outside the GNR building.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is rude to the player and constantly lectures Reddin, but he is just trying to do his job and fend off the attacking super mutants without anyone getting killed.
- Mauve Shirt: He typically dies on the bridge during the "Take It Back" quest and will disappear from the game even if he survives, suggesting that this is his canonical death.
Irving Gallows
Knight Captain Irving Gallows
Voiced by: Pete Papageorge (English)note
Irving Gallows is a scout and Knight Captain for the Lyons' Pride, he is not very talkative and isn't looking to make friends. Others in the Pride have even started a betting pool to try and guess his real name.
- Good is Not Nice: Has good karma and is trying to make D.C a better place by eradicating the Super Mutants but he can be rude and anti-social.
- The Faceless: Is never seen without his helmet unless you look into the G.E.C.K..
- The Quiet One: He doesn't say much. If the Lone Wanderer stays silent during their first meeting he'll respond favorably.
Glade
Paladin Glade
Voiced by: Gus Travers (English)note
"Me? Heavy weapons. Miniguns, missile launchers... if it's bigger than a human and goes boom, I'm all over it."
Paladin Glade is Lyons Pride's resident heavy weapons expert. In combat he wields the rare and powerful gatling laser with deadly efficiency.
- The Big Guy: Best described in his above quote. He claims to use everything from miniguns to missile launchers, yet is only ever seen with his gatling laser. (Not that he needs any other weapons...) He also has Big Guns as one of his tag skills.
- Dumb Muscle: He's very good at what he does and has a very high Strength stat, but his Intelligence is very low.
Brotherhood Scholars
Reginald Rothchild
Senior Scribe Reginald Rothchild
Voiced by: Duncan Hood (English)note
"I'm here for two reasons. One, Lyons needs me. He always has, just as much as I need him. We've been through a lot together, he and I. Two... Take a look around you. Access to this kind of technology, and the benefits it could provide to the Brotherhood, is immeasurable."
The head scribe of the Brotherhood, thus in charge of their technological and scientific endeavors.
- Jerkass: Comes across as this sometimes, most notable example is when you ask him if he could repair your gear, he outright tells you "Could I? Yes. Will I? No. Ask Bowditch."
- Mission Control: In several missions the player reports to him to receive their objectives.
- The Good Chancellor: He is the one who knows about the nitty gritty details of fighting the Enclave.
- The Smart Guy: As the head of the Brotherhood scribes, he's the one to talk to for scientific pursuits.
- We Can Rebuild Him: After Liberty Prime was destroyed by the Enclave Orbital Strike, Rothchild plans on rebuilding him but of course that will take a very long time. About 10 years, to be more specific.
Bigsley
Scribe Bigsley
Voiced by: Wes Johnson (English)note
Appears in the Broken Steel add-on content: once the water's available, Elder Lyons orders that it be distributed to the good people of the Wasteland. Unfortunately, that order trickles down without anybody realizing just how much paperwork "distribute this water" involves. Anybody, that is, except Scribe Bigsley.
- Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Elder Lyons - fully occupied with this Enclave business - has entrusted administration of the whole program to Bigsley, and it's overwhelming him.
- Deadpan Snarker: In a 'sardonic despair' sort of way.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Initially he is fairly rude and impatient when speaking to you, but checking his private terminal reveals that he does truly appreciate what you've done for the Wasteland. It's clear his rudeness is more a result of being overworked and incredibly stressed than of anything else.
- Sarcastic Devotee: He's loyal to the Brotherhood, but he hates his current assignment wholeheartedly.
Other Brotherhood Members
Liberty Prime
Liberty Prime
EMBRACE DEMOCRACY, OR YOU WILL BE ERADICATED!
Liberty Prime is a 40 foot tall pre-war robot constructed by the United States government, originally intended to be deployed to Alaska as a super weapon to fight the Chinese. The project was scrapped due to the massive power it took to run it, but the Prime-prototype was eventually recovered by Elder Lyons and the Brotherhood Of Steel, who are working on restoring it to working order. They eventually solve the power issues, and Prime becomes their secret weapon against the Enclave. In Fallout 4, Liberty Prime once again plays a major role in the Brotherhood storyline. Now upgraded and improved, Prime is reactivated and is used to spearhead the assault on the base of the Institute.
- American Robot: Very, very American.AMERICA WILL NEVER FALL TO COMMUNIST INVASION!
- Awesome, but Impractical: In universe. Prime is nigh-unstoppable, but it requires a lot of energy to power. And as a one-of-a-kind weapon, Prime can't cover much ground.
- Bigger Stick: With their superior numbers, equipment, and air power, the Enclave-Brotherhood war is very one-sided. Then the Brotherhood gets Prime working, and in two weeks Prime single-handedly turns the tide and sends the Enclave running. Unfortunately, this pushes the Enclave to pulling out the biggest stick of all: Their orbital missile satellite.
- Bus Crash: In the Brotherhood ending of Fallout 4, Liberty Prime is used much like he was in 3, mowing down Institute forces and blasting a hole into the Elaborate Underground Base they have. In the Institute ending, Prime is hacked to destroy the Prydwen. But Prime doesn't make any major appearances in the Minutemen questline, just sitting in his moorings.
- If Prime is used to destroy the Institute, he will spend the postgame patrolling Boston Airport. Should the Sole Survivor destroy the Prydwen Prime will survive the falling debris and continue to remain in the area, hostile to the player and completely invulnerable.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: His battle with the Enclave at Project Purity. The Enclave was throwing Vertibird gunships and entire platoons of plasma-rifle-toting power armor troops at Prime, and they may as well have been throwing tomatoes.
- In 4, the Institute and their army of Synths don't fare much better. In fact, it's possible for Liberty Prime to run into a Super Mutant Behemoth on his way there, and the Behemoth only reaches up to his knee. Prime simply picks the monstrosity up and crushes it in his hands until it goes limp.
- Eagle Land: One massive walking lampoon of Type 1. Even the footpads are this, with the Statue of Liberty embossment on each.
- Escort Mission: A reversal, and a welcome one at that. Technically speaking, your mission is to escort Liberty Prime to the purifier, but in practice it's the other way around. Prime pretty much mows his way through whatever the Enclave throws at him, while you follow behind and mop up whatever he missed.
- Eye Beams: Prime's primary weapon is a rapid-recharge Tesla cannon mounted in its head.
- Godzilla Threshold: Pushes the Enclave to it. With one of their last bases under attack, they unleash an orbital bombardment from a missile satellite. For obvious reasons, they can only ever do this twice; that they pull it on Prime is proof of how big a threat he is and how desperate they are to destroy him.
- Humongous Mecha: Natch. It's essentially the Fallout equivalent to Gigantor minus the flight capabilities.
- Hypocritical Humor: Some of his quotes.Prime: DEMOCRACY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE!Prime: EMBRACE DEMOCRACY OR YOU WILL BE ERADICATED!
- On a more meta level, the Enclave claims to be the 'legitimate' government of the United States, so the use of Liberty 'Commie-Smasher' Prime against them is a nice bit of irony.
- Implacable Man: No matter what obstruction is in the way, Liberty Prime will find a way to either get through it or around it, whether that be using his own body to short-circuit a force field, boring a hole through 5 meters of dirt and rock with his head laser and a mini-nuke, or subverting Broken Bridge by walking underwater across the riverbed.
- Incoming Ham: LIBERTY PRIME IS ONLINE. ALL SYSTEMS: NOMINAL. WEAPONS: HOT. MISSION: THE DESTRUCTION OF ANY AND ALL CHINESE COMMUNISTS! Justified by the fact that his original programming made him hammy to help boost morale of the United States troops accompanying him. Like most other robots in the game, Prime's programming doesn't take the nuclear holocaust or the intervening 200 years into account.
- Irony: A super patriotic American robot is used in the fight against the descendants of the U.S. government.
- The Juggernaut: He is the current source for the trope's quote. Liberty Prime's usual response to any obstacle the Enclave tries to throw at him (be it troops, Vertibirds, or barriers) is to simply crush it and carry on. It took the Enclave a danger-close orbital strike to finally take Prime out of the picture.
- Large Ham: An enormous war machine brimming with jingoism. Probability of hilarity: one hundred percent!
- Lightning Gun: A tesla cannon, as indicated by your cobbling together a man-portable slower-reloading version in Broken Steel, is the most generally applicable weapon in his arsenal.
- Made of Iron: Made of something far tougher! Energy weapons, artillery, and missiles don't even scratch him. All the manpower the Enclave throw at him amounts only to more time spent hosing the gore off the soles of his giant metal feet. In the add-on, the Enclave finally bring him down with an orbital nuke.
- Megaton Punch: Besieged Enclave building all sealed up? Make your own entry point for intrusion... by punching the concrete wall open.
- No-Sell: All but the most powerful "Photonic Resonance Barriers" (read: forcefield blockades) have a probability of mission hindrance of ZERO PERCENT against him. They're dispersed simply by him walking through them. Even the final, most powerful one just causes him to double over for a second before he gets back up and resumes his rampage.
- Nuke 'em: in addition to his eye mounted Tesla cannons, LIBERTY PRIME also has a backpack filled with Mini-nukes that he'll chuck at enemies like a football.note
- One-Man Army: The characters talk as if the mission to assault the purifier will be Lyon's Pride and the player character attacking the Enclave with Prime as support. This is a complete lie — the reality is that Prime will attack the Enclave, the Pride will watch, and the player will follow them looting the tiny gobbeted remains of Enclave soldiers that Prime leaves behind.
- This happens again in Fallout 4, if the Sole Survivor sides with the Brotherhood against the Institute.
- Pun: He throws literal Nuclear Footballs
- Shout-Out: Averted, actually, or at least unintentional. Despite a couple of similar lines between them, as well as the impossible-to-miss name and voice, Word of God says he wasn't intended to be a homage to Optimus Prime. However, it's been admitted the parallels may have been done subconsciously.
- Many have also noticed the similarities between Prime and Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still.
- In-house, Prime is an homage to the Numidium from The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. In fact, a Humongous Mecha (or other towering Eldritch Abomination) tends to appear in most games produced by Bethesda.
- Shown Their Work: One of Liberty Prime's quotes is "The last domino falls here!" This is a reference to the Domino Theory, a political belief held by the U.S. throughout the Cold War.
- Story-Breaker Power: If it wasn't for the Lone Wanderer wiping out both of the Enclave's largest bases and Prime wiping out their armies alone, the Enclave would've curbstomped the Brotherhood with very little effort.
- The Plot Reaper: He gets nuked at the beginning of Broken Steel, though the Brotherhood recovered what remained of him and by the time Broken Steel ends, they're repairing him. Joining the Brotherhood in Fallout 4 opens a questline to finish the repairs.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Woe unto whatever gets in his Tesla eye-beam cannon's sights. It gibs power-armored Enclave goons in one shot, and it can crank out between two and three beams a second.
- Wham Line: "Warning! Warning! Red Chinese Orbital Strike Imminent! All personnel should reach minimum safe distance immediately!" Before this line, there was no hint the Enclave had access to such a thing, and now that you know they do and are willing to use it, the war against them reaches a new level of urgency.
- Not to mention that this is the only time Liberty Prime ever sounds worried about something, so you know shit's getting real.
