Elijah

"I'll kill them all until it's only me, me alone in a quiet world."

- Elijah

Father Elijah is a former Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel. He desires to "wipe the slate clean" by destroying the New California Republic and Mojave using weapons from the Sierra Madre Casino in order to build a new civilization to his own liking.

Rise to Elder
Elijah was originally educated as a Scribe, where he proved to be a savant with technology. One of the Brotherhood's finest engineers and technologists, he quickly rose through the ranks. He was eventually made Elder, a rarity for scribes, but he was granted an exception to his intellect.

As a leader, Elijah proved to be unpleasant and blunt. He expected his subordinates to carry out his orders to the letter without questioning. He didn't tolerate opposing thoughts or failure. Though usually cold and calculating, Elijah was prone to bursts of anger when something failed to do exactly what he expected them to do. This made him unpopular with the foot soldiers of the Brotherhood.

Elijah also wished to improve upon technology, rather than just collect it and preserve it like the original Brotherhood mission. Elijah had realized the Brotherhood needed to adapt as the wastes advanced, or otherwise they would be left behind. This made him unpopular with the conservates Elders, who sent him east to establish a chapter in the Mojave Wasteland.

The only two happy to accomodate Elijah were his disciples: Jeremiah, who had adopted his ruthlessness and anger, and Veronica, who adopted his progressive nature.

Mojave
Elijah arrived in the Mojave after the NCR, who had already occupied Hoover Dam, perhaps the greatest piece of technology in the Mojave, capable of providing fresh, clean water and huge amounts of energy. Instead, Elijah occupied the bunkers in Hidden Valley, though later he moved the bulk of his forces to Helios One, a large facility dedicated to solar energy. Elijah was trying to get the facility running once again when the NCR-Brotherhood War reached the Mojave. The NCR launched Operation Sunburst, a campaign to take the Helios One facility from Elijah and the Brotherhood. With numbers on their side, the NCR elected to lay siege to the facility and starve the defenders out, rather than rush in where they would face the Brotherhood's training and technological advantage. The paladins, led by Nolan McNamara, advised Elijah to retreat, since in the long run the Brotherhood had little chance at victory. But due to his stubborness, Elijah refused to accept defeat. He was unwilling to admit someone could defeat him. He had also found a weapon within Helios One, an energy-based solar artillery named Archimedes II.

The Brotherhood's defenses began failing and casualties mounted. Elijah was blinded with his obsession to bend the will of the NCR to his own, and ignored his paladins increasingly desperate pleas for retreat. Finally, with the Brotherhood's defenses weakened, the NCR launched a final push to seize the facility. As fierce fighting erupted, the paladins were shocked when they realized Elijah had simply disappeared. McNamara took charge, declared Elijah a traitor and deserter, and organized a retreat from the facility to Hidden Valley.

Elijah's Odyssey
Elijah left when he failed to activate Archimedes II. Elijah blamed the defeat at Helios One on his own subordinates for failing to help activate the weapon. The defeat convinced him only he was capable of achieving his vision, and his vision was now to rebuild the Mojave from the ground up, that way everyone would be what he deemed "rational" and lived as he wanted them to. In short, Elijah had a messiah complex and believed only he was capable of making important decisions. But to wipe the slate of the Mojave clean, Elijah needed a much stronger weapon.

Elijah began searching the wastes for any prewar treasure trove that could provide him with the resources he needed. He traveled to the Divide, lived amongst the Ciphers, even visited the ruins of the old Mariposa Military Base. None provided him with what he wanted. His travels weren't unnoticed however. The Brotherhood of Steel learned of his survival and sent assassin Christine Royce to track him down and kill him if he proved to be a liability to the Brotherhood.

Letting Go
At last, his pawns had finally broken into the Sierra Madre vault, where the Think Tank had installed the controls to the Cloud, along with controls to the Holograms. Interfacing with Red, Elijah planned on sending more pawns down there to ensure the vault was safe for himself. Red, however, convinced Elijah that he needed to come down himself and see it, or he would unleash the Cloud inside the vault, ensuring nobody would ever be able to access it. Elijah relented and headed down for the vault.

Red, meanwhile, headed out back the way he came, hiding as he heard Elijah entering. Unaware of the trap inside the vault, Elijah accessed the vault's personal files, believing the controls were hidden inside. As the ancient trap activated, forcefields surrounded the vault as the world around it collapsed.

As Red fleed to the elevator before it permanently departed, Elijah tried to contact him, discovering that his control over the Sierra Madre's intercom systems now only extended to the vault. Elijah cursed the Courier, rambling incoherently as the thought of his pawn outsmarting him sent him into a blind rage. The last person Elijah would ever see was the Courier's bloodied face as the elevator's doors closed on him and sent him to the surface.

Fate
''Elijah had an obsessive desire to place everything under his control, believing only he himself possessed the knowledge and responsibility necessary for free will. He wanted a quiet world where only he existed, everyone else dead or mere pawns and extensions of himself. It proved to be a fitting end, then, when he was defeated by forces outside of his own control, forever doomed by traps laid by others who, just like him, failed to let go and begin again. Now, Elijah finally has his dream of a world in which only he exists, trapped deep below the Sierra Madre.''

Quotes
""Play stupid, play clever, make the mistake of saying "no?" That collar on your neck'll go off and take your head with it."

- Elijah

"When you die, I'll be waiting here. At the Sierra Madre. Waiting."

- Elijah