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A scribe of the Brotherhood of Steel, Elijah defied convention and rose to the rank of elder, an
honor usually reserved exclusively for paladins. An exception was granted for him, on the
grounds of him being a genius, able to figure out the workings of a device just by looking at it.[1]
[2] His scientific acumen was matched only by his drive to recover and develop technology. His
approach towards technology, iterating and improving, rather than simply preserving it, was
considered unorthodox by his peers.[3] Elijah often dispatched scribes on tech retrieval missions,
chasing all the leads he found.[4][5] His drive to develop new technologies put him at odds with
the more conservative members of the Brotherhood, particularly other elders. The conflict
developed as Elijah pushed for developing new technologies and new, ethically questionable
weapons. The elders, rather than deal with him, decided to send him away, east, to form a new
chapter of the Brotherhood in the Mojave.[5]
Elijah revealed himself as a brutally pragmatic and altogether unpleasant leader. A pathological
control freak, he would often view the people under him as mere equipment, expecting them to
carry out his orders and requests unquestionably, while dissent or unpredictability on their part
would not just annoy, but even outright infuriate him. By far the only person with whom he had
any kind of working relationship was Scribe Veronica Santangelo, his pupil. Elijah used his
status to end her relationship with Christine Royce, so that she would follow him into the
Mojave. Veronica was kept in the dark about the affair, and her reverence of Elijah only
increased.[6][7]
Elijah had partly been sent east to investigate the Hoover Dam and the possibility of bringing it
back to functionality. However, the Brotherhood was not quick enough and the New California
Republic had claimed it shortly prior. Elijah was furious, likening it to "children playing with a
bomb."[8] Instead of the dam, Elijah turned the Brotherhood's focus onto the HELIOS One solar
power facility. Elijah's obsession with Helios and the need to defend against NCR forces
deploying into the Mojave resulted in the Brotherhood ignoring the expansion of the Van Graff
family into the Mojave, despite them distributing pre-War energy weapons. The elder's orders
were clear.[9]
Desertionedit | edit source
It was not until Operation: Sunburst that Elijah's true nature became apparent to the rest of the
Brotherhood. It was clear that the Brotherhood were on the losing end of the conflict, but Elijah
refused to accept defeat and became obsessed with finding the technology required to defeat the
NCR. Operating from the Brotherhood's HELIOS One base, he sent paladins out on a number of
missions that could be considered tactically questionable in efforts to secure vital technologies he
was adamant would swing things in their favor. He eventually discovered that the secret to
victory lay on his own doorstep, with the ARCHIMEDES II weapon. Though the Brotherhood
position was tactically unsustainable, Elijah felt that if he could just
get ARCHIMEDES functional the NCR could finally be pushed back.[8] He stubbornly refused to
give ground but salvation never came and when NCR finally overran the perimeter, Elijah
simply disappeared into the wastes without a warning to anyone, not even Veronica, and was
assumed to have deserted the Brotherhood. His successor, Nolan McNamara, wasted no time in
gathering up the few that survived the battle at the facility and retreated to Hidden Valley.[10][11]
But Elijah had not truly abandoned the Brotherhood nor his desire to see it dominant, but had in
fact left to find new technologies that would save them; to find what he believed were treasures
of the Old World.[12] For Elijah, the Brotherhood was doomed; they needed to begin again and
he would do whatever was needed, no matter how morally questionable, to ensure that came to
pass. He traveled throughout the wasteland, going as far as the Divide and spending time among
the Ciphers.[13]
Big MTedit | edit source
Eventually, Elijah stumbled across the Big Empty in his travels, where he found an incredible
amount of rare pre-War technology. Captured temporarily by the Think Tank upon his arrival, he
managed to escape in seconds, much to the shock of the brain bots.[14] In the great expanse of
Big MT, Elijah ran into another human, a courier named Ulysses, who spoke to him of the
legend of the Sierra Madre and convinced Elijah to journey there to find what he sought.
[15] Before he could embark upon the Sierra Madre, Elijah had to make a few preparations.
Making his way to Little Yangtze, he experimented on the survivors of the prison camp
with explosive collars while, curiosity getting the better of him, seeking out the radio frequency
until finally tracking down a faint broadcast.[16] Avoiding the local robots and suffering from
migraines through the overuse of Mentats, Elijah fine-tuned both the collars and the radio signal.
[16] Now, with the location of the mythical casino and his collars ready, his grand plan to defeat
the New California Republic was ever so close to fruition.
However, the trail of crimes he had left across the wastes in the years preceding his arrival had
not gone unnoticed, and the internal affairs of the Brotherhood soon dispatched assassins to stop
him, Christine Royce being one of them. As the Think Tank sent robots to contain him and,
catching a glimmer from a sniper scope, Elijah instinctively sensed the worst.[17] Strategically
detonating his subjects' collars to make his getaway as she attempted her assassination, Elijah
defeated Royce. She became a subject for medical experimentation after being dragged away to
the Y-17 medical facility.[18] He then moved on and set up a camp on the roof of the Signal Hills
transmitter and later on the cliffs near the Big MT north tunnel where the uncontrollable broken
and berserk Securitrons provided him defense.[19] Hacking into the Think Tank mainframe as the
Big MT's robots closed in, Elijah fried Doctor 8's voice module and rerouted Doctor 0's
processors to take control of the train network. Via remote control, he directed a train into one of
the tunnels, creating a path for his escape through the wreckage.[14] Leaving his retrofitted LAER
rifles and jury-rigged Tesla cannon behind, he then set off towards the Sierra Madre with
a Gauss rifle and, crucially, the knowledge that could make the Mojave his, and his alone.
To prepare for his expedition, he renovated an abandoned Brotherhood of Steel bunker as a base
of operations in the Mojave, setting it up for when he managed to get his hands on the
technologies it offered. In making round trips around the Sierra Madre to his bunker, he
performed analyses of the Cloud and the Sierra Madre's environment. Once ready to go to the
Sierra Madre, he left a final message for Veronica in the event he did not return.[20]
Sierra Madreedit | edit source
Upon reaching the Sierra Madre, he found everything that he had hoped for and more. The Cloud
had somehow preserved the pristine nature of the casino and prevented it from decaying in all its
centuries of disuse, in addition to serving as a deadly deterrent to potential intruders. He
marveled at the casino's automated security systems: the invulnerable holograms, perfected
versions of the technology he had found at the Big Empty. A single one of these holograms,
deployed in the right place, would become a one-man army, massively powerful and almost
impossible to defeat with conventional weapons.[21] However, the potential of these paled in
comparison to a relatively innocuous technology: the Sierra Madre vending machines.
These machines functioned as a sort of molecular assembler, taking Sierra Madre chips and
using the raw material in their composition to assemble various alcohols and clothes as rewards
for gamblers. The potential for these had already been partially realized before the War, as
medical staff and construction crews had used them to generate medical supplies and explosives;
but Elijah had grander ideas. He could use the vending machines to create everything necessary
for building a new nation: food, supplies, ammunition, collars, even currency. His ultimate plan
was to cleanse the Mojave with the Cloud and create a new world, using the holograms for
defense, the collars to ensure compliance, and the vending machines for resources.[22]
However, Elijah also found that he could not unlock the secrets of the casino's vault alone. He
used his explosive collars to coerce captives into trapping other fortune seekers lured by the
Sierra Madre's signal, forming a chain that eventually grew into teams conscripted to do Elijah's
bidding or die. Eventually, he found a new way of starting the chain in the form of Dog,
a nightkin whose overwhelming need for a master figure allowed Elijah to bend him easily to his
will even without an explosive collar. Human nature got the better of these teams though, and as
soon as they became close to the treasure they all felt they could take it for themselves,
inevitably turning on one another.[23] One team managed to actually get Elijah into the heart of
the casino, but after their deaths, Elijah found himself trapped and alone.[24] In response, he
modified the signals controlling the collars to add an extra condition: if one person died, they all
would die. Unable to communicate with Dog and the outside, Elijah assumed this would be his
end, until Dog, automatically acting on orders given to him long ago, brought to the casino
a prisoner with a Pip-Boy 3000, someone with who Elijah was capable of communicating.
[25] Elijah would be free to go, assuming he could bear to leave behind the casino and all its
secrets.
He guided the Courier and the three remaining collars of the Sierra Madre: Dog, his
unquestioning nightkin servant; Christine Royce, the same Circle of Steel knight that was
dispatched to the Big MT to kill Elijah; and Dean Domino, a ghoulified, pre-War lounge singer
who has been trapped in the Sierra Madre since the War. There, he ordered them to trigger the
Gala Event to reopen the doors of the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort.[26] Once inside, the Courier
managed with Elijah's instruction to arrive in the Sierra Madre vault, where Elijah came out of
hiding and a confrontation ensued.
Interactions with the player characteredit | edit source
Interactions overviewedit | edit source
Find Collar 8: "Dog"
Find Collar 12: Christine
This character starts quests. Find Collar 14: Dean
Domino
Heist of the Centuries
Questsedit | edit source
Find Collar 8: "Dog": Elijah sends the player character out to recruit Dog in the Villa
police station.
Find Collar 12: Christine: Elijah sends the player character out to recruit Christine
Royce in the Villa clinic.
Find Collar 14: Dean Domino: Elijah sends the player character out to recruit Dean
Domino in the Residential District.
Heist of the Centuries: The Courier can either kill, join forces or imprison Elijah inside
the Sierra Madre vault.
Endingsedit | edit source
This section is transcluded from Dead Money endings. To change it, please edit the transcluded
page.
1 In the years that followed, the legend of the Sierra Madre faded, and there were no... new visitors to the city. Y
when a mysterious blood red cloud began to roll across the Mojave, then West toward the Republic, no one kn
had come from. Only that it brought death in its wake. Attempts to find the source of the toxic cloud failed. Th
was cut off. Through the Cloud, lights were seen from HELIOS One. There were stories of ghosts immune to g
struck down anyone they saw with rays of light. The last chapter of the Mojave came when a modified REPCO
struck Hoover Dam, releasing a blood-red cloud, killing all stationed there. All attempts to penetrate the Cloud
the Dam failed, and both the NCR and Legion finally turned away from it, citing the place as cursed. In the yea
followed, communities across the West began to die as traces of the Cloud began to drift over lands held by the
Only two remained alive in the depths of the Cloud, at the Sierra Madre, waiting for their new world to begin a
Notesedit | edit source
Elijah claims to have made more holorifles, but he does not use any, nor are there any
others in Dead Money. However, by listening to his broadcast while in Salida del Sol, the
Courier can overhear him bemoan giving up the holorifle.
If he is trapped in the Sierra Madre vault, he can be heard mumbling to himself on his
radio signal.
If the Courier has exhausted all dialogue about him with Veronica, they can bring her up
in conversation in the vault's chamber.
Speaking to Veronica about Elijah with Dead Money installed, before leaving for the
Sierra Madre, also adds additional dialogue with Elijah.
Elijah is a challenging combatant. Besides his powerful Gauss rifle, he has a high amount
of Hit Points for a human character, more than most companions with the exception
of Dog and God and Lily Bowen.
Elijah has a Pip-Boy himself, despite the fact that he belittles the Courier's use of one on
several occasions. This is best seen with a Stealth Boy and closely looking while inside the
vault. He also uses it to control the force fields in the casino vault.
When talking to Brotherhood paladins in the Hidden Valley bunker they will sometimes
talk about Elijah and how he used to be their elder. Unlike Veronica, however, they cannot
be informed of his fate in the Sierra Madre.
His in-game appearance differs from his holographic representation.
Locations visited by Elijah in Old World Blues can be identified by scattered drained
microfusion cells left in the area.
Elijah appears to have been capable of reprogramming the Sierra Madre vending
machines, and adding new items to their production lists, as evidenced by the machine's
ability to produce holorifle modifications.
Elijah is an exceptionally hardy man; despite a combination of
arthritis, Mentats addiction-induced migraines, drinking, smoking and old age, he is not
only still alive, but mobile and combat-ready, having traveled hundreds of miles in his
quest to restore the Brotherhood and is no pushover when confronted in the Sierra Madre
vault.
Notable quotesedit | edit source
"Finding it, though, that's not the hard part. It's letting go." – Elijah on the Sierra Madre
"Sources of food, supplies, medical assistance, ammo, make more collars, even print
currency! Make a nation. The Cloud allows me to wipe the slate clean. Collars ensure
cooperation. Holograms - defense. The Vending Machines provide everything else. The
Sierra Madre can kill nations and build them, using its technology with the right
applications."
"Attack? No, not attack them. Wipe the slate clean. Make the Mojave like it was meant to
be: undisturbed by man. I'll send the Cloud, the Holograms. Bring ruin in my hands until
only I stand atop the HELIOS One tower again. I'll scour Hoover Dam with the Cloud,
rain its walls with spears from the sun - with an army of Old World ghosts behind me,
Holograms all. I'll kill them until it's only me, me alone in a quiet world. In a world that's
nothing like what happened at HELIOS One."
- in response to the Courier saying "You want to attack NCR? All of NCR?"
"You think you've escaped?! You can't outrun me, you were always under my control! Do
you hear me? Do you hear me?!"
"Play stupid, play clever, make the mistake of saying "no?" That collar on your neck'll go
off and take your head with it."
More
Appearancesedit | edit source
Father Elijah is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road, and
appears in the add-on Dead Money.
Behind the scenesedit | edit source
The following is based on Fallout: New Vegas cut
content .
In the base game, Veronica's responses to the Courier's description of Elijah's fate are disguised
to avoid revealing plot elements of Dead Money before it was released. Dialogue in this
conversation refers to a ghoul named "Abraham" who was presumed dead but healed in "the
Crater" and has now "gone north, into ghoul country," and another ghoul named "Monte" who
the Courier had to either kill or trap in a subway tunnel in order to retrieve an
"accelerator." Dead Money overwrites the Courier's lines with ones about Elijah.
End of information based on Fallout: New Vegas cut
content .
Galleryedit | edit source
Christine and dead Elijah in the cut endings slide