From The Vault

The Outcasts are a group of former members of the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel that believed that by abandoning the Brotherhood of Steel’s primary mission of acquiring new technologies, Elder Owyn Lyons had abandoned the very values that defined the order itself. They left the Citadel, and have re-dedicated their lives to what they consider the Brotherhood of Steel’s only mission – the acquisition of new technologies.

[edit] History

Some time after the destruction of the Enclave, the Brotherhood of Steel ruling council, based in the Lost Hills bunker in South California, decided to send a contingent of soldiers to the East Coast, to recover any and all advanced technology from Washington, DC and to investigate the reports of super mutant activity in the area. When the group reached the East Coast, they found the Pentagon largely destroyed, but they found there a technological marvel that, if restored, could help the Brotherhood rebuild a strength and reputation that had been declining steadily for years. After the discovery, Paladin Owyn Lyons, the leader of the expedition, was promoted to Elder. A permanent base known as the Citadel was built into and beneath the ruins of the Pentagon. Lyons and his soldiers also found the super mutants in the urban ruins of downtown D.C. and helped stop the mutant tide from overtaking the entire region, by at least keeping them at bay.

Eventually, Lyons decided to make protection of innocent inhabitants of Capital Wasteland from super mutants his main priority. In response, the Lost Hills elders cut off all support to the East Coast faction, while still recognizing him as a leader of the Brotherhood of Steel, and the Citadel as their D.C. headquarters. Most of Elder Lyons’ soldiers supported his dedication to the people of the Capital Wasteland, and were proud of their leader’s commitment to honor and heroism. But there were those who voiced their opposition – loudly, and aggressively. They believed that by abandoning the Brotherhood of Steel’s primary mission of acquiring new technologies, Elder Lyons had abandoned the very values that defined the order itself.

One night, the dissenters departed from the Citadel, absconding with weapons, Power Armor, and other pieces of technology and equipment. This was, without question, Owyn Lyons’ darkest hour. He had become a man of compassion and understanding, and couldn’t help but sympathize with those who had left: he had abandoned the Brotherhood’s primary mission. He recognized that, and took full responsibility. Some of the Knights and Paladins who left had been his battle brothers for years. Together, they had shared victory and loss, pain and elation. But to those soldiers loyal to Elder Lyons, this dereliction of duty and theft of technology was an act of cowardice and treason. Lyons was left with little choice: he branded the dissenters “Outcasts,” traitors to the Brotherhood of Steel – it was a name they would ultimately wear like a badge of honor, proud of the distance it put between themselves and Lyons’ “soldier sycophants.”