[meta] Just Some More BoS Thoughts

[nukawhit]

It's Friday night and YES I am writing about how the Brotherhood of Steel obviously gained huge delusions of grandeur after defeating the Enclave to evolve from the Secret Bunker Babes in Lost Hills to announcing their arrival in the Commonwealth, over speaker phone, in HUGE FUCKING AIRSHIP. 

Like. I am writing fic, but I also have Thoughts. A mess of thoughts bc I am tried and incoherent, but Thoughts all the same.

I am forever thinking about what the Capital Wasteland is like in 2287. How do the Brotherhood handle control of the Purifier? Do they give water in exchange for allegiance to the Brotherhood? Do they conscript settlers to build their numbers? Do they threaten settlements for resources like they do in FO4?

We know they savaged the Pitt -- known as the 'Scourge', and that ranking officers in the Brotherhood were taken from there:

...Owyn Lyons led the Scourge, a large-scale military action that wiped out nearly the entire population of The Pitt. In a single night, the Brotherhood swept through the city, eliminating any resident who put up a fight. Although the intent of the Scourge remains unclear, several unmutated children were taken from The Pitt easily by the Brotherhood and placed into initiate training...

Also what the fuck that is so bad.
 

I see so reason why all that behavior wouldn't continue as the Brotherhood became even more expansionist after defeating the Enclave. (We only know about the detachments sent to the Commonwealth, after all. There could be many more.) 

My question: Do the people of the Capital Wasteland accept it? Do they rebel? Would the Brotherhood stamp out a rebellion? Where would that rebellion organize?

It's implied that Rivet City... doesn't exist anymore... so. I think they might have already. There's an entry on the Prydwyn that says the BoS extracted a fusion reactor from 'an old aircraft carrier', and how many aircraft carriers are referenced in FO3?

One.

Just one.

Rivet City.

Rivet City, a settlement with a large community of scientists, and home to a nuclear engineer that fixed Liberty Prime for the Brotherhood, but also just fled the Brotherhood after being threatened if she didn't continue to comply with their demands.

(Read: Dr. Madison Li built a nuclear reactor large enough to endlessly sustain the Institute, she fixed Liberty Prime for the Brotherhood -- a nuclear-bomb throwing murderbot that had been busted for over 200 years -- and she fixed it in a fit of rage, so yeah, I think there was some juicy stuff in RC that a tech-hungry faction like the Brotherhood of Steel wanted a piece of.)

And Rivet would've been the biggest rival to the BoS in terms of resources.

And that fusion reactor came from somewhere.

So, consider: Rivet City is gone, or at the very least, completely crippled without its reactor in working order, which gave Rivet City security and independence in the Capital Wasteland anyway, and inadvertently gave them independence from the Brotherhood of Steel, too. There were tensions in Broken Steel between the BoS and RC when it came to the Purifier. Rivet City was such apparently such a threat that the Enclave had a fucking orbital satellite missile POINTED AT IT. Without Rivet City, the Brotherhood would be completely unmatched in terms of technological prowess, with the added bonus of having more salvage to pick through. And it's not like they haven't wiped out a city before. 

So. Yeah.

That's horrible.

(Personal aside: I think the BoS wanted any and all of Madison's work after she left for the Institute, so with Liberty Prime destroyed, they needed anything and everything they could get their hands on that she ever worked with, Rivet City Reactor included, for any chance of fixing Liberty Prime.

And when that wasn't enough, they go North, and hunt for her personally. Anyway.)

Lyons appeared to be carrying the humanitarian line in the Capital Wasteland chapter of the BoS *cough* apart from the whole Scourge thing *cough* with the Outcasts and other BoS types calling you 'local', 'tribal', and generally looking down on you. I thought for the longest time that Lyons was so struck with what he saw in DC he just wanted to help everybody. But now? I can't help but think that Lyons just knew how to finesse a naive kid from Vault 101, a Father who was just as naive, a woman completely devastated after watching all her colleagues be ruthlessly murdered -- and managed to secure control over the only source of clean water in the Capital Wasteland in the process. And that he did it for Good.

Because that's how they all see Wastelanders -- they need to be saved from themselves, right? That's why the BoS steals -- preserves -- technology and hoards it all.

The Brotherhood, and only the Brotherhood, knows best. 

I can imagine the ideology was there all along, but now they've finally puffed their chests enough to declare it all across the Wasteland, instead of being cooped up in their bunker. 

That's why the righteous crusade Maxson's BoS goes on in Fo4 is not surprising. They find a city, exterminate it if they need to, and pick it clean. Rinse, repeat. And they call it saving humanity from itself. Destroying the Institute is no different. The Institute is creating people. They are making people immortal. Of course they want what's in there for themselves, like they always have. They just know to do it under the guise of a humanitarian/ethics issue to get you on their side. And Elder Lyons appears to be the focal point for that change in tactics.

(god. fuck the BoS.)

(also i want to post this to tumblr but i don't want to get eaten alive by the the maxson/danse fandom so.)

 

Comments

[chocochipbiscuit]

HOLY SHIT SO MANY GOOD POINTS I LOVE THIS

also like...not to be all "but what about the menz!" but I think a lot about the fact that Danse originally came from Rivet City (or at least has memories from Rivet City, depending on at what point you believe that he was rescued or replaced by a synth) and the kind of compartmentalization and double think he'd have to do to so fully embrace the Brotherhood. Like...he was an orphan even before joining the BoS, but once he joined up he effectively lost any chance of leaving.

(Also lulz imagine the BoS party line on 'deserters.')

Also also makes me want an epic longfic about Sarah Lyons left for dead during a Brotherhood coup and traveling to the Commonwealth to have a Talk with Maxson. I just don't want to WRITE it. :(

[nukawhit]

GOD yes I also think about this a lot and these are such good thoughts. I think they'd treat deserters the same as way they treat anyone that leaves. They're a traitor, the enemy, etc.

Danse's relationship with the BoS is just so complicated. Sometimes I think that he was an "old" synth that settled in Rivet after being wiped by the RR, rather than being replaced during FO4 (which is also really creepy to think about...)

Rivet City was also something of a refuge for synths in the Capital Wastes and honestly, I can see the BoS catching wind of 'synthetic men' in Rivet City and that being yet another reason to attack them. Scientific hubris and all that. And the irony in recruiting a synth to their cause who is SO loyal that they will put the Brotherhood before everything, even themselves when they're told they are a synth.

It also makes me think about Paladin Cross, too? What happened to her? She is not mentioned in FO4 whatsoever. And is also a cyborg. It just makes me think in order to galvanize support in the Wastelanders, the BoS had to rally the 'humans' against the Ghouls, the Super Mutants, and any other 'non-humans'. GOD Cross would've been so interesting to have in Fo4!!! Sarah... :( I need that fic too and I need her with Paladin Cross!!! Give her an eyepatch!! Battlescars!! Damn you Bethesda!!

[anneapocalypse]

Fuck the Brotherhood indeed.

God, the implications for Rivet City make me furious. It's one of my favorite Fallout 3 locations, was one of the most successfully settlements in the Capital Wasteland, and has, imo, some of the best worldbuilding in that game. The idea that the Brotherhood destroyed it to power their murderblimp is just beyond the pale to me.

(And it really makes me want to write the sequel to "Cast Your Bread Upon the Water" that's been knocking around in my head for a while...)

[nukawhit]

Totally agree with Rivet. I loved the worldbuilding, the culture in the boat -- Upper Deckers, Lower Deckers, emulating pre-war fashion/hair etc. The power structure of the Council. It was just so interesting! Finding the little secluded communities in 3 was so great. And I hold a special candle for RC because Dr. Li made that place with her team, with fresh food and water, and I imagine she wanted it to sustain itself for decades.

And the Brotherhood destroyed it. To get to her work. 😠

(ANNE!! Cast Your Bread Upon The Water is incredible and my heart sings for more. Cross is so underrated and I loved the relationship you built with her and Madison.)

[anneapocalypse]

I'm so glad you enjoy that story. <3 It is still one close to my heart, and some time ago I jotted down some basic notes for stories that could follow in that universe--centering around Joanie, Sarah, and Cross and addressing (and uh, maybe fixing just a little) those events that happen between Fallout 3 and 4 as the Brotherhood's course shifts, and how they would affect those characters. Since Madison went north, she sadly wouldn't be around for most of it but, well. We might see her again. :)