Here’s how Bethesda has retconned the Brotherhood of Steel into Fallout 76

There’ve been hints that the Brotherhood of Steel would appear in Fallout 76 since the E3 trailers, and a recently-uncovered note in the upcoming game has confirmed that the organization was in West Virginia circa 2102. That’s contrary to how most fans had interpreted existing lore up until now, but Bethesda’s got an explanation. Sort of. In a series of social media posts today, the developers say that in “November 2077, a month after the Great War, army Captain Roger Maxson arrived with survivors at the Californian bunker of Lost Hills. There he formed the Brotherhood of Steel, who used a functioning satellite to extend their reach across America... all the way to Appalachia.” According to existing lore the Brotherhood was founded in 2077 in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear war which wiped out civilization. As far as the Fallout story so far has gone, they had been locked up in a California military shelter since then. Apparently that’s not the case, and the sudden confirmation that the Brotherhood was operating in this part of the timeline had some lore purists reeling, as Eurogamer noted last week.