Steel. Lasers. Xenophobia.
If you’ve spent any time wandering the irradiated ruins of the United States in the Fallout series, you’ve seen them. They stomp around in T-60 power armor like walking tanks, hoarding every toaster and plasma rifle they can find. The Brotherhood of Steel is easily the most recognizable faction in gaming history, but most people—especially newcomers coming over from the Amazon Prime show—don’t realize how weird and inconsistent they actually are. They aren't just "the good guys" in shining armor.
Honestly? They’re tech-cultists.
They were founded by Roger Maxson right after the Great War of 2077. Maxson was a Captain in the United States Army stationed at Mariposa Military Base. He watched the government do horrific things with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). He stayed sane enough to realize that if humanity kept playing with high-level tech without any moral guardrails, they’d just finish the job the nukes started. So, he deserted. He gathered his soldiers, took their families, and trekked to the Lost Hills bunker.
That was the birth of a legend.
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The Brotherhood of Steel and the Hoarding of the Old World
The core philosophy of the Brotherhood is "Preservation." But that's a loaded word. They don't want to preserve the people of the wasteland; they want to preserve the tools. They believe that humanity is a bunch of toddlers playing with loaded hand grenades. Their solution? Take the grenades away.
In Fallout 1, they’re basically a reclusive monastery. They don't care if you're starving or being eaten by radscorpions. They just want to make sure you don't have a laser pistol. This makes them inherently antagonistic to basically every other group trying to rebuild. You’ve got the New California Republic (NCR) trying to create a functioning democracy, and then you’ve got these guys in power armor telling them they aren't "responsible" enough to own technology.
It’s an incredibly arrogant worldview.
This tension eventually led to the NCR-Brotherhood War. It was a disaster for the Brotherhood. Why? Because they’re a tiny group. They don't recruit. They're insular. They care more about their "Codex" than they do about actual survival. You can have the best T-51b power armor in the world, but if you’re outnumbered fifty-to-one by NCR troopers with hunting rifles, you’re eventually going to lose.
What most people get wrong about Lyon’s Pride
If you started with Fallout 3, you probably think the Brotherhood are heroic paladins. You met Elder Owyn Lyons in the Capital Wasteland. He was different. He actually wanted to help people. He diverted the Brotherhood’s resources to fighting Super Mutants and securing "Project Purity" to give the wasteland clean water.
The Western Elders hated him for it.
They saw his "humanitarianism" as a betrayal of their core mission. They cut him off. They sent no reinforcements. This created the "Outcasts," a group of Brotherhood members who left Lyons because they thought helping people was a waste of time. It's a vital piece of lore because it proves that "good" Brotherhood is actually the exception, not the rule.
The Rise of Arthur Maxson and the Return to Roots
By the time Fallout 4 rolls around, the Brotherhood has changed again. Arthur Maxson—the descendant of the founder—took over. He’s young, he’s charismatic, and he’s kind of a zealot. He combined the military efficiency of the Western chapters with the aggressive expansionism of the East.
Suddenly, the Brotherhood of Steel wasn't just hiding in a hole. They were flying a massive airship, the Prydwen, over Boston.
Maxson’s Brotherhood is scary. They aren't just looking for tech; they’re looking for "abominations." To them, that means Synths, Ghouls, and Super Mutants. It doesn’t matter if a Ghoul is sentient and kind, like Hancock. It doesn’t matter if a Synth like Nick Valentine is a hero. To the Brotherhood, they are errors that need to be deleted.
This is where the faction becomes truly polarizing. Are they the only ones strong enough to secure the wasteland? Maybe. But at what cost? When you talk to Scribe Haylen or Paladin Danse, you see the internal struggle. They believe in the mission, but the mission is often cold and heartless.
Why the Brotherhood of Steel matters in the 2024 TV Show
The Fallout TV show on Prime Video introduced the Brotherhood to a massive new audience through the character of Maximus. It showed the grittier, almost religious side of the organization. The squires, the knights, the branding, the physical abuse—it’s not a country club.
It’s a military order built on the ruins of a dead world.
The show accurately portrays them as a faction that can be both heroic and villainous in the same breath. They save people from a Gulper, sure, but they also trample over anyone in their way to get to a cold fusion reactor. They want the power. They think they’re the only ones who deserve it.
In the show’s timeline, which takes place after the games, we see the Brotherhood is still struggling with its identity. They are powerful, but they are fractured. They are searching for a purpose in a world that is slowly starting to move on without them.
Key Ranks and Structure
You can't talk about these guys without mentioning the hierarchy. It's rigid.
- Initiates: Basically the interns who do all the heavy lifting and get yelled at.
- Scribes: The nerds. They handle the research, the tech repairs, and the historical records. Without them, the Knights wouldn't have working armor.
- Knights: The frontline soldiers. They maintain the gear and do most of the fighting.
- Paladins: The elite. These are the veterans who have proven themselves in countless battles.
- Elders: The leaders of a specific chapter. They make the big calls.
How to actually deal with them in the games
If you’re playing the games, your relationship with the Brotherhood of Steel will dictate your entire experience. In New Vegas, you can basically ignore them, or you can blow their bunker sky-high. In Fallout 4, joining them gives you the best gear early on, but it forces you to make some pretty dark moral choices regarding the other factions like the Railroad or the Institute.
They are the ultimate "ends justify the means" faction.
If you want the big guns and the cool armor, join up. Just don't expect them to care about your feelings. They are there to do a job: secure the future by controlling the past.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Players
- For Lore Hunters: Read the terminal entries in Fallout 76 regarding Elizabeth Taggerdy. It provides the best look at how the Brotherhood first expanded outside of California and the tragedy of their early years.
- For Players: If you're looking to maximize your "Brotherhood" experience in Fallout 4, focus on the "Proctor Teagan" missions to see the darker side of how they "requisition" crops from local farmers. It’s a reality check on their "heroic" image.
- For Newcomers: Don't view the Brotherhood as a monolith. The Brotherhood in Fallout 3 is vastly different from the one in Fallout: New Vegas. Always look at who the current Elder is to understand their actual goals.
- Critical Thinking: When choosing a faction, ask yourself if the world is actually safer with one group holding all the high-tech weapons, or if that just sets the stage for the next Great War. The games never give you an easy answer, and that's the point.