Fallout 4’s Brotherhood of Steel leader was in Fallout 3

The Brotherhood of Steel’s latest boss didn’t come out of nowhere. He has his roots in another Bethesda game.

Elder Arthur Maxson, the young leader of the Brotherhood, didn’t make his first appearance in Fallout 4. Instead, he was one of the Squires who discussed the militaristic, technology-obsessed organization in Bethesda’s Fallout 3.

Check it out:

You can find Maxson in the Citadel in Fallout 3’s Washington, D.C. He’s only a boy, but he already talks about the expectations that the Brotherhood is placing on him. For example, he’s the only living descendant of Roger Maxson, who founded the group. This leads some Brotherhood members to claim that Arthur Maxson’s soul “was forged from eternal steel.”

Outside of talking with Maxson, you can find out a lot more about him from his computer terminal. That’s where he reveals in a log that he has a romantic interest in Brotherhood of Steel Elder Sarah Lyons. That leader taught Maxson how to kill a man by stabbing them in a kidney, and apparently, that was enough to make him have hearts in his eyes.

By the time we meet Maxson again in Fallout 4, he’s still only 20 years old, but he’s replaced Lyons as the Brotherhood of Steel’s Elder. We learn that he took that rank at age 16 and has gained the respect of his troops by defeating the super mutants’ leader and by reintegrating a rebel band of Brotherhood outcasts.