All speculation ahead, so make of it what you will.

We know that the Brotherhood of Steel is capable of making airships. The Brotherhood members who would make up the midwest chapter who left the west coast after the fall of the Master by constructing airships to head east. Despite their best intentions however, they were unable to make the journey completely east as the main ship separated from the rest due to a horrible storm which could've likely destroyed or disabled the entire fleet...

Or so we think.

The Prydwen could very well be a remnant airship from that expedition. We know that more than one airship was constructed, so perhaps after the loss of the main airship, the storm likely scattered and destroyed the other airships. One such airship and its crew, the Prydwen, likely arrived at Boston at some point in time after the separation and since has been flying around the Boston area searching for technology or helping keep the peace, or perhaps evolving its ideology like the Midwestern brotherhood before it. This could beg a couple of questions.

-Does the Prydwen have the ability to travel to the Capitol Wasteland? If so, has the Brotherhood there and the Brotherhood in Boston have some sort of communication established?
- The Prydwen crew must be ancestors of the original crew if we are to believe that the crews left after the fall of the Master and before the arrival of the Enclave.
-The Prydwen crew could very well be some Brotherhood members who came east with Lyons and seperated, and upon discovering the Boston area, found the means to build an airship, which wouldn't be out of their reach as an organization.

Thoughts/Comments?

Personally I don't rule out a BoS cell we simply haven't heard of, pretty much all info we have on the Brotherhood is mouth to ear in game, so it would not be to far fetched.

I like the idea of those who didn't crash in Chi Town making it to the east coast.
Nothing is ever said about what happened to them, so they are ripe for the picking, and what's more, since they are previously established, it mitigates muddling up other canon.

I'm fairly certain all of them crashed in the Midwest.

some immediately after the storm, some made it to places like Osceola, and then the main airship made it to Chicago.

I'm still putting money on the theory that since Prydwen was the name of King Arthur's ship. The airship Prydwen is going to be the personal flagship of Arthur Maxson, now Elder leader of the Eastern Brotherhood following Elder Lyons death. And was likely built by reverse engineering advanced Enclave technology.

But who knows.

cant find anything that supports that, but if you've got a link I'd dig seeing it.

That is impossible, as the game takes place a few months after the end of Fallout 3, so Arthur is still an inexperienced youth and Lyons would still likely be alive.

I could be wrong on that as the fate of a lot of those eastern bound airships is up in the air (kek) and while I did beat Tactics, I don't recall dialogue or text suggesting the others crashed somewhere in the Midwest... What makes you certain that all the ships in the fleet crashed in the Midwest?

Because nothing anywhere suggests any airship made it further then the main one, which was badly damaged, and landed in Chicago.

If the MwBoS had made it to Boston, Lyons would have learned about it in the 20 years he has been in D.C., which has trade routes to Boston, and someone would have mentioned it in Fallout 3.

I'm taking Pete Hines tweet with a massive grain of salt.

Anything is on the table until we've actually played the game and know, exactly and indisputably, what the start date is.

The intro says the rest of the ships were separated from the main ship, so if nothing else is said about them, they are open for use.

Lyons didn't even know where super mutants came from, so him not knowing about another location doesn't say much, to me

No one did, that super massive radioactive field of death kinda prevented anyone from learning that.

That's not really the same as a major settled region with at least semi-frequent trade.

But nothing suggests or proves that those airships crashed or burned either so to assume they all crashed after the fall of the main ship is still just speculation. The great storm which downed the main, larger ship could easily have pushed smaller airships off course and destroyed them as you said, but a skilled crew could possibly weather the storm and with no communications with other ships or brotherhood chapters, the lost ships would simply carry on with its mission of retrieving lost technology and gaining intel on other areas around post-apocalyptic America.

You are correct about the Lyons though, if the Prydwen has been in Boston all this time doing whatever they're doing, then they must've had contact with somebody from the Capitol chapter. Of course, that's implying they've even been in Boston for a long time, for all we know the airship Prydwen could be a newcomer in Boston-area like the Sole Survivor. They could've been exploring the Northern Wastelands *Canada maybe?* due to being pushed off course by the storm or elsewhere, but again that's just speculation.

Occam's razor would dictate that the fact all the other known airships crashed in the Midwest, and none others are known to have survived, implies all the others did as well.

I'd rather see the Midwestern Brotherhood in a game set in the midwest, all about them. Rather than have them transplanted over to the east coast, where there's already a Brotherhood of Steel that's gone maverick.

And why else would the Brotherhood name an airship Prydwen, if it wasn't for Arthur Maxson himself?

Indeed. I'm going to be pretty disappointed if THIS is how we're introduced to the MWBOS. Not in their home territory, but as a ill conceived plot device to bring yet another chapter of the Brotherhood to the East Coast. And apparently with a fleet of Vertibirds for some reason.

What we know fits so well with the Eastern BoS that any narrative they come up with is almost certainly going to seem awkward. Since the Eastern BoS makes so much more sense and is already in position to be present in Fallout 4. I'm not sure how Bethesda can justify bringing a completely different chapter up when Lyons would arguably be far better as a plot point. Both continuity-wise, and lore-wise.

they've only been battling them for 20 years, what could they possibly gain by trying to find their origins?

They HAVE tried to find the source, but, again, the massive field of radiation prevented them from doing that.

Yes, But Occam's razor isn't absolute though and shouldn't be treated as such, as it doesn't account for strange and random acts, individual circumstances and skills, or amazing luck (all aspects which can occur in altering an event) but rather focuses on what is most sensible and easy to explain, which isn't always correct. By the official view, they (the BoS) could just assume that all ships were destroyed in that great storm, but the official view by the BoS may not be what actually occurred due to lack of information regarding the totality of the event.

Either way, as long as there is no official explanation in Tactics via dialogue, discovery in texts or computers, information or beyond that of what happened to the rest of the airships then the chance still stands that some may be still flying around today, or crashed in other areas of the wasteland and it's also possible that the Prydwen is one of those ships.

Well, if the ship didn't crash then it wouldn't be apart of the Midwestern BoS then, they developed into their own chapter and culture after the crash, as far as we know, the Prydwen is still loyal to Maxson's dogma or possibly a different interpretation based on their experiences flying the skies. The name Prydwen could also suggest the more storied aspects of it's legend rather then the individual it carried.

how does the lone wanderer find his way in? From info he gets from the BoS. I'm just saying, if you cant find your main opponents base in your own hack yard, maybe you don't know everything about a settlement a few hundred miles away.

But didn't the LW find the muties home base on accident while looking for the geck?

The BoS suspects there might be a cave down that one can use to enter the Vault, but they have no concrete evidence there is, and they aren't going to bully some kids to get in there based on a hunch.

There is a big difference between a random cave in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a plethora, ungodly amount of radiation where mutants can sneak out in the dead of night vs a much more populated area where traders travel constantly and can see a large flying machine with the BoS Insignia flying gaudily around. Plus, where as the manpower and resources for a more concrete look at the caves is unavailable to the Capitol BoS due to their other goals, a communication mission would be a heck of a lot easier to manage and would cost a heck of a lot less resources.

The whole reason they decide to stay in the CW is because of the Muties.
They have been there for 20 years. Let that sink in- 20 years. In all that time, they never followed any muties back to their home base, nor had any scouts tell them the direction they were migrating to the DC ruins from.
But again, this is the the entire reason that Lyons is at odds with the WC.


This is all pretty far removed from the point at this time. So I will say in closing, just because something isn't mentioned in F3 doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I agree, the topic has drifted from the original idea, which is theories about the Prydwen and who exactly the BoS folks in this ship are, so I implore everyone to give their thoughts on this subject. I still think Possum has a good point on this matter as it would be odd for him to not know of the Prydwen if it's been in Boston for years... but Lyons could've simply chosen not to mention the existence of the Prydwen to the LW simply because he didn't see the need to even mention it. Unless somebody can think of an instance where he could've/should've and it doesn't explain why the Prydwen didn't come to the aid of the Capitol BoS during their clean-up operation in regards to the Enclave.

Unless again, if the Prydwen is a remnant of that lost air fleet they would probably be just showing up or been around for a short time before or when the Sole Survivor awoke.

I'd just rather it be a completely different chapter of BoS. It's fun learning about new factions and how they coexist with others.