The Brotherhood of Steel is a favorite faction that was debuted back in 1997 with the very first Fallout. The faction is a mixture of being the remnants of America’s military and hoarders of pre-war technology as they perceive the people of the wastes to be too uncivilized to be trusted with them. The faction has been in every Fallout game, from the four main entries and having two spinoff titles that revolve around them completely. The faction has slowly morphed over time, from their isolationist attitude to opening up to the outside in the two spinoff titles that focused on stranded chapters in the American midwest, to being philanthropists, in Fallout 3, to human supremacists in Fallout 4. With the Steel Dawn update, the Brotherhood is coming to Fallout’s MMO title Fallout 76.
The inclusion of the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 76 will likely cause issues with the portion of the community that enjoys deep diving into Fallout’s extensive lore as this would conflict with the timeline with the first Fallout, who has the Brotherhood still in the southwest and Californian wasteland. Although it’s unlikely that this portion of the community has stuck around with Fallout 76, the game has been very loose with the lore, from reenvisioning the origins of the super mutant enemy, which was the core of the second act in Fallout, to the changing of the origins of the Enclave, a faction similar and often clashes with the Brotherhood of Steel who was established in Fallout 2.
Details of the Steel Dawn update haven’t been released yet nor has a launch date been given out. With the current set up of Fallout 76’s game world, the Brotherhood will be a major player for sure, being the most advanced and organized faction that will be in this portion of the wasteland. What role they’ll play and how they will affect the game world, we’ll have to wait and see.