From the beginning of the Fallout franchise in 1997, to the shiny new Fallout 4, The Brotherhood
of Steel are one of the few constants in the long running series. Love ‘em or hate ‘em,
the faction stands out as one of the most interesting groups you can come across while
wandering the wasteland. With Fallout 4 expanding on the lore of The Brotherhood in significant
ways, there’s never been a better time to take a look back at the hidden history of
one of Fallout’s most unique factions. Initially, The Brotherhood of Steel was designed
to be similar to the hostile Guardians faction in Interplay’s 1988 Fallout predecessor,
Wasteland. According to Fallout creator Tim Cain, however, one book served as the basis
for The Brotherhood of Steel more than anything else: Walter M. Miller’s “A Canticle for
Leibowitz”. Published in 1960 and set in a the southwestern desert in the United States,
the novel follows a group of Catholic monks over the course of a thousand years, as they
try to preserve human technology and knowledge after the nuclear apocalypse. This, of course,
mirrors the goals of The Brotherhood of Steel. The parallels to Fallout don’t stop there,
as mutants are also featured prominently in the book’s story. Many fans speculate that
the franchise’s connection to Miller’s book goes even deeper, since the title “Fallout”
may come from one of the novel’s most well-known passages: “From the curse of the Fallout,
O Lord, deliver us. From the beginning of monsters, O Lord, deliver us. From the curse
of the misborn, O Lord, deliver us…”. Now for a little-known fact about The Citadel
from Fallout 3. Serving as the Brotherhood of Steel’s headquarters in the Capital Wasteland,
The Citadel is a location that had never appeared in the series before Bethesda’s game...except
it was kind of supposed to. You see, in the early design documents for Interplay’s first
Fallout game The Cathedral, the creepy church that houses The Master, was actually called
The Citadel, until it was changed later on in development. This was intended to be a
reference to yet another Citadel, a location in Interplay’s early game Wasteland. An
interesting thing to note here is that the Citadel in Wasteland served as the headquarters
for the Guardians faction...who, of course, were the inspiration behind the creation of
The Brotherhood of Steel in the first place! So Bethesda naming The Brotherhood’s HQ
“The Citadel” may just be a subtle homage to Interplay’s first post-apocalyptic game.
On a previous episode of the show, we talked about the Brotherhood of Steel’s airship,
The Prydwen (which I completely mispronounced, so thanks for that), which takes its name
from a ship in a Welsh poem about King Arthur: “The Spoils of Annwfn” (Which I still
have no idea how to pronounce). At the time we didn’t know the reason for the name,
but now, of course, the game is out! Which, you know, helps a little bit. This revealed
that the ship was named by Arthur Maxson, leader of the Brotherhood. You know, Arthur.
Like King Arthur, who according to legend was also quite young for a ruler, but held
the loyalty of his subjects by sheer determination and purity of spirit. Sure, the Arthur connection
is a bit on-the-nose, but you have to give the guy credit for being so up on his ancient
Welsh poetry. Next up we’re going to give a rare shoutout
to Fallout Tactics! You folk are always complaining that we don’t talk about the deep cuts of
the Fallout Univere enough, so this one’s for you. The Brotherhood of Steel General
Simon Barnaky, a character who only appears in Tactics by the way, gets his name from
a pretty strange place. “General Barnaky” is also the name of the General whose house
Bill Murray and Harold Ramis’ characters break into in the 1981 cult comedy classic
Stripes. It’s also worth mentioning that Barnaky is voiced by one of the most famous
fictional military men ever: R. Lee Ermey, who played the Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in
Full Metal Jacket. Speaking of voice actors, John Maxson, the leader of the Brotherhood
in the very first Fallout game, just happens to be voiced by the legendary Frank Welker.
Even if you’re not familiar with the name, you’ve definitely heard the man’s work.
He’s voiced in games like Starcraft, World of Warcraft as well as being the original
voice of Transformers’ Megatron. Oh and he’s also the voice of Scooby-Doo. Yeah,
that’s right, Scooby-Doo was the first leader of The Brotherhood of Steel in a Fallout game.
Thanks for watching this episode of Fallout Hidden History! Be sure to like, subscribe,
share and all that other great stuff. And please let us know what aspects of the Fallout
universe you’d like to see covered in future episodes! If you want to watch it, we want
to make it. Alright, trivia time. Okay, so last week we asked you what sci-fi spaceship
the sequence “CM-88B 180924609” seen on the back of the flux sensor was a reference
to, and many of you guessed right, it was B. Alien’s Nostromo. This week we have another
Fallout question for you: The Fallout 3 NPC Hannibal Hamlin was named after an American
Vice President that served under what administration?