Brotherhood of Steel symbol
The Brotherhood of Steel (BOS) is a techno-religious organization, with roots in the US military and government-sponsored scientific community from before the war. The BOS is mostly composed of the descendents of those military officers, soldiers, and scientists, but aside from some outlanders among their ranks, the BOS is as close to pure strain humanity (prime normals) as you're going to find outside of a Vault.
The ranks of the BOS is generally recognized as being composed of the best and the brightest... which means the BOS is a relatively small organization, at least compared to NCR. They make up for this with their frightening arsenal of pre-war and post-war technology: They have laser weapons, power armor, surgical enhancements, combat implants, and a squad of Brotherhood Knights have the ability to erase an entire town from a map without a scratch.
The Brotherhood are generally good guys, but they have their faults - (1) they don't care for mutants, (2) they worship technology, and in many cases, put it above human life, and (3) they don't like to share their choicest technological bits, despite the obvious benefits their technology could bring to the wasteland. It’s commonly accepted within the Brotherhood that the people of the wasteland are not responsible enough to use (and maintain) all of the technology the BOS has at their disposal. They are known trade some of their technologies with frontier communities and NCR states, but they keep the more sensitive technologies to themselves
Location
Concept art of the Lost Hills bunker
The HQ of the BOS is the Lost Hills bunker, but 2242, the BOS is spread across the wastes in small bunkers and installations hidden from the eyes of common folk – finding them all and wiping them out would be a difficult and dangerous task. Their installations include bunkers in the Den, San Francisco and Shady Sands, and Maxson's Bunker in the East.
Ranks
A Brotherhood Paladin
The BOS is divided into different ranks: Initiates are trainees who are expected to perform well enough in the training process to be promoted to Senior Initiates, and later to Apprentices. After proving themselves, Apprentices are promoted to Journeyman Knights or Scribes. The next rank is Senior Knight/Scribe, and finally the leader of each of these orders is the Head Knight and Head Scribe.
A Knight, a Paladin and a Scribe
Scribes are responsible for copying the ancient technologies, maintaining the current technology and even experimenting with new weapons and other useful devices. Scribes rarely leave the safety of the BOS bunkers, but they are sometimes called into the field to examine a piece of technology or perform a task beyond the skills of the Brotherhood soldiers.
Knights are responsible for manufacturing the weapons and other pieces of technology. After many years of service and experience, the best Knights are promoted to Paladins - the pinnacle of the Brotherhood military. Paladins are in charge of all security and outside activities. The Paladin ranks are Junior Paladin, Paladin, Senior Paladin, and Head Paladin. As all Paladins are also Knights, the Head Paladin is usually also the Head Knight. Paladins who survive to their later years become Elders, and they number among the Brotherhood ruling council.
Symbol
It is said that the BOS symbol, broken down, represents each of these orders. The sword represents the Paladins, the wings represent the Elders (the "wings" control the movement of the sword), the large gear represents the Knights, and the two smaller gears represent the Scribes and the Apprentices, whose services keep the Knights supplied with the information and the manpower to get their jobs done. No one is sure what the circle means, however.
Another interpretation states that the gears represent their engineering knowledge, the sword is their will to defend themselves and the wings are the uplifting hope.
History
Mariposa
The founder of the Brotherhood was captain Roger Maxson. He was a member of a military team commanded by colonel Robert Spindel, originally sent to the West Tek research facility on January 3, 2076 to monitor the experiments in the interest of national security. On January 7, 2077, all West Tek research was moved to the newly constructed Mariposa Military Base, along with Spindel's team.
On October 10, Maxson and his men dicovered to their horror, that the scientists at Mariposa were using military prisoners as test subjects in their experiments with the Forced Evolutionary Virus. Morale in the base broke down, and Spindel suffered a mental breakdown, eventually commiting a suicide 5 days later. Maxson's men turned to him for leadership.
After interrogating Robert Anderson, the chief scientist, and learning about the extent of their actions, Maxson executed him, and the other scientists soon followed. Maxson, now in control of the entire base, declared himself to be in full desertion from the army via radio on October 20. Strangely, he got no response, as the rest of the army was busy fighting the Chinese threat. Three days later, the bombs were launched, and the Great War ended two hours after it started.
Exodus
The Mariposa Military Base survived, the soldiers within protected from the radiation and FEV flooding the wasteland. Two days later at Mariposa, a scout in Power Armor (Platner) was sent out to get specific readings on the atmosphere. He reported no significant radiation in the area surrounding the facility. After burying the scientists in the wastes outside of Mariposa, the soldiers sealed the military base, then headed out into the desert, taking supplies and weapon schematics with them. Captain Maxson led his men and families to the government bunker at Lost Hills, and this event was later called the Exodus. In November, Maxson and his men, and their families, arrive at the Lost Hills later, suffering many casualties along the way, including Maxson's wife (but not his teenage son). The Lost Hills bunker became the headquarters of the newly formed Brotherhood of Steel.
Early years
Not much is known about the early years of the Brotherhood. Under the leadership of Roger Maxson, the Brotherhood grew in strength, developing their technology, and the orders of Knights, Scribes and Paladins were formed. In 2135, Roger Maxson died of cancer, and his son took over as the High Elder of the Brotherhood.
Growing power
In the 2150s, the Brotherhood established its control over the areas surrounding the bunker, becoming one of the major powers in the region. Around the early 2150s a raider group known as the Vipers began to establish a power base in the badlands to the South of the Lost Hills Bunker). Driven by a religious frenzy (and the need to provide for their much larger numbers of soldiers and disciples), they began raiding more frequently than before, eventually attracting the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel.
In 2155, The Brotherhood sent out a few squads of scouts to track the Vipers down - it is more of a training exercise conducted by the High Elder, as the Brotherhood is convinced that small detachment of troops in Power Armor would be sufficient to deal with a group of raiders, no matter how large. One Brotherhood squad, lead by Maxson, finds the Vipers. Expecting the raiders to break and run, Maxson doesn't take into account the religious ferocity of the Vipers (or their poisoned weapons), and when a single arrow nicks him with his helmet off, he dies within hours. John Maxson, the grandfather of Roger, took up the role of Elder, and Rhombus became the new head of the Paladins.
The Paladins, now led by Rhombus, begin a full scale campaign against the Vipers, tracking them down and wiping out almost all of their members within the span of a month. Some of the Vipers are able to flee north and east into the mountain range.
Decline
 | The following is based on Van Buren design documents and is not canon. |
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After 2242, Brotherhood has become a shadow of its former self. No longer the sole custodian of advanced technology in the wasteland, the Brotherhood is struggling to find a new identity. The current leadership favors a return to power by wresting all advanced tech from the hands of "lesser people" by any means necessary. This attitude hasn't won them any friends, and because many in the Brotherhood disagree with such brutal methods, the whole organization is on the verge of civil war.
Appearances in games
The Brotherhood of Steel appears in all Fallout games, including the Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel spin-offs, although the Brothehood in the spin-offs is radically different from the one in the role-playing games. While in Tactics it is because the BOS portrayed there is a splinter faction, there is no explanation for the differences in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.
Sources
This article is based mostly on the description of the Brotherhood from Chris Avellone's Fallout Bible #6 (which was partly based on Chris Taylor's Fallout Warfare), updates in subsequent issues of the Bible, and information taken from holodisks and dialogues in the games.
Holodisks about the Brotherhood of Steel
- Captain Maxson's Diary
- Maxson Log
- Brotherhood Code
- Ancient Brotherhood Disk