Elijah

Father Elijah is a former elder of the Brotherhood of Steel in 2281. He serves as the primary antagonist and optionally the secondary protagonist of Dead Money.
==Background==
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.The Courier: Tell me about your last Elder."Edgar Hardin: "Elijah was a strange one. His even becoming Elder was highly questionable, seeing as how he was a Scribe. Typically, only Paladins are eligible. But an exception was made in his case, on account of him being a genius. Unfortunately, whatever scientific acumen he had didn't extend to tactics. Trying to defend HELIOS was a blunder of the worst kind, and many brothers lost their lives because of it. Many of the senior paladins, myself included, advised him to fight a retreating action, but he refused to budge. Said he almost "had it working". We never did find out exactly what he was talking about. When the perimeter was finally overrun, the Elder had simply vanished."(Edgar Hardin's dialogue)The Courier: "What did you learn from him?"Veronica: "Elijah could look at an old device and immediately understand what made it work. And he could see its potential. Where it fit with other technology. It's not something you can teach, but he tried with me. But that's what he taught me. You asked what I from him."The Courier: "How is that different? What did you learn from him?"Veronica Santangelo: "I learned what I don't want to become. In the end, there was just him and his vision. Nothing and no one else."(Veronica Santangelo's dialogue) 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.The Courier: "Who is Elijah?"Ramos: "Who Elijah, more like. He was our Elder before McNamara. Bright guy, but just between you and me he was a little off. Our mission is to recover and preserve the technology of the past, but Elijah wanted more. He sought ways to improve upon technology, make it better. When we found HELIOS One, he was like a kid in a candy store. He kept talking about the potential, and a "grand design, never realized." He even insisted we set up our base there, against the objection of nearly every paladin. What followed is a whole other story."(Ramos' dialogue) Elijah often dispatched scribes on tech retrieval missions, chasing all the leads he found.The Courier: "Father Elijah?"Veronica Santangelo: "Our Elder before McNamara. He had a nose for recovering lost technology. He'd send Scribes out into the desert chasing whatever leads he found. There were a few he only trusted me with. I can think of at least one that'd prove my point, if it still exists. There's a comm terminal not too far from here I'd use to access messages from him. If we go there I can pull up his research on it."(Veronica Santangelo's dialogue)The Courier: "Who is Father Elijah?"Veronica: "He was our Elder when we came East. A wizard with technology, really. His mind just worked that way naturally. Learned a lot from him. But he started having disagreements with the other Elders. The Brotherhood's interest is in old technology. He wanted to explore developing new tech. And there were other ways he wanted to push. Other weapons. Ones with ethics questions attached. Rather than deal with him, they sent him East."(Veronica Santangelo's dialogue) 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.
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. Elijah also detested face-to-face interaction, preferring to keep his human interaction via terminal screens and would predominantly use terminal messages to send scribes on missions into the Mojave on tech leads. By far the only person with whom he had any kind of working relationship (but still largely terminal communicated) was Scribe Veronica Santangelo, his pupil. Elijah might have 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.The Courier: "Ever been in love?"Veronica: " "The Courier: "What happened?"Veronica: "She left the Brotherhood. Wanted to put some distance between herself and her parents. Since our membership isn't open to outsiders, some members think that obligates all of us to procreate. You can guess which camp her parents belonged to."The Courier: "You didn't go with her?"Veronica Santangelo: "No. Couldn't bring myself to leave everyone else behind. Couldn't convince her to stay, either. I'd hoped love would be enough to influence her decision, but it wasn't. We were both too stubborn. I don't know where she is now, but I'm sure she's moved on. I still think about her, though. Once in a while."(Veronica Santangelo's dialogue)The Courier: "You were looking for someone?"Christine Royce: [She nods and raises a finger.]The Courier: "A robot?"Christine Royce: [She shakes her head and pumps her fist near her chest.]The Courier: "Man?"Christine Royce: [She nods. She makes a motion with her hands around her chin, drawing it down, and then she raises her hands and clenches them at the sky.]The Courier: "Or a woman?"Christine Royce: [She shakes her head... then stops mid-way, frowns... then tilts her head, as if thinking. She seems lost in thought for a moment.] [She glances at you, as if caught, then she smiles slightly, but there's an edge to it. Then she shakes her head, slowly, once.](Christine Royce's dialogue)
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."The Courier: "What changed?"Veronica: " did. For years, he fought with the Council. Taught me to question our direction. Meanwhile he'd become more out-of-touch than all of them. On our way East he demanded we stop at HELIOS One to examine it. While we were there, we received word that the NCR had taken the Dam. He was furious. Called it "children playing with a bomb." But he was mad because we'd lost its power. What we'd use it for... he didn't even care."(Veronica Santangelo's dialogue) 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.The Courier: "Yes, what is the task?"Edgar Hardin: "Back when we were stationed at HELIOS, our scouts reported that a group was establishing itself in the area as a distributor of Pre-War weapons. Our Elder at the time, Elijah, was too concerned with getting HELIOS running and fending off the NCR, so he ordered us to leave them alone. It's time that we correct that oversight, and show this region that the Brotherhood is still a force to be reckoned with. I want you to visit these weapons dealers, this Van Graff family, and make an example of them. Leave no one alive. When the job is done, report back and I'll arrange for a team to clean up the site and retrieve the weapons."(Edgar Hardin's dialogue)
===Desertion===
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's position was tactically unsustainable, Elijah felt that if he could just get ARCHIMEDES functional the NCR could finally be pushed back. He stubbornly refused to give ground but salvation never came and when the 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 his men to launch a counter attack to break out, those that had survived the battle at the facility were able to retreat to Hidden Valley.The Courier: "Where is he now?"Veronica Santangelo: "I don't know. Last time anyone saw him was in the battle at HELIOS One. I wasn't there. He gave orders to hold the plant until it could be reactivated. But he ran out of time. The NCR overran it. Everyone thought he was dead. But I got a note from him at a comm station. That's... how he liked to talk, even to me. He wasn't good at face-to-face."(Veronica Santangelo's dialogue)The Courier: "Tell me about what happened at HELIOS."Nolan McNamara: "We were overrun, plain and simple. My Brothers fought with great courage, but in the end the enemy was just too many. When the tide of the battle turned for the worse, our Elder was nowhere to be found, and everything was chaos. Fully half of our forces had already fallen. I gathered up those I could find and we fought our way here. This place had been briefly discussed as a fallback point, though at the time none really believed that could possibly become necessary. That's it, really. There was nothing glorious about the battle, just a nightmare of screams, blood, and death."(Nolan McNamara's dialogue) 
Following the loss, the Brotherhood analyzed their defeat at HELIOS One. They came to the conclusion that ex-Elder Elijah was largely responsible, considering that his actions and choices leading up to the battle had endangered the his fellow brethren and caused the defeat. They further concluded that his unwillingness to leave the facility despite pleads from his subordinates left Brotherhood positions non-defensible. This was clear to many other members of the Brotherhood. By 2281, the now-Head Paladin Edgar Hardin stated:
Paladin Ramos, another survivor of the conflict, shared this opinion, noting that:
Additionally, for abandoning his chapter during Operation: Sunburst and going rogue, Elijah was marked for execution by the Brotherhood and their special operations and internal affairs branch, known as the Circle of Steel. However, Elijah had not truly abandoned the Brotherhood nor his desire to see it dominant. He had in fact left to find new technologies that would save them; to find what he believed were treasures of the Old World.The Courier: "I've never heard of the place you're talking about."Elijah: " The Holorifle, the Saturnite alloy... the hologram technology, hibernation chambers, Securitrons, the collars... ...even the suits attached to those things stalking the Villa... that's only the surface of what's there. "(Elijah's dialogue) For Elijah, the Brotherhood without change 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.The Courier: "What happened next?"Elijah: "After that... I wandered, alone. Saw the storms of the Divide, walked among the Ciphers of the West. to the Big Empty. "(Elijah's dialogue)
===Big MT===
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.The Courier: "I heard you and 8 were attacked by previous visitors."Doctor 0: "*I don't like to talk about it. 8... he can't talk about it, they fried his voice module something good.* *It wasn't all the visitors, though - only one of them got out of control. He's the one that took control of Little Yangtze, our old human farm.*"The Courier: "Tell me what happened."0: "*This human... I can't believe it... he broke out of the Think Tank. In seconds.* *Then he went for Yangtze, got bomb collars, and started practicing on the subjects that were still there until he got the right frequency.* *We were sending robots to stop him and he was slicing and cutting through their shells with some suped-up laser gun like they were cheese... paper.* *When he hacked into the mainframe, 8 tried to stop him and got fried. Me? He rerouted my processors to take control of the train network here.* *If you see the tunnels with the trains plowed into them, you can thank our visitor for that. He wrecked the whole place.* *While we were trying to keep containment on the surface, turns out he used one train to punch out a tunnel and escape... sealed now, but...*"(Doctor 0's dialogue) 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.Patient log: Y-17.9 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.Little Yangtze terminals; Little Yangtze Log Terminal, Elijah's Journal Avoiding the local robots and suffering from migraines through the overuse of Mentats, Elijah fine-tuned both the collars and the radio signal. 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.Little Yangtze terminals; Little Yangtze Log Terminal, Elijah's Journal - Day 4 - Addendum 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.Patient log: Y-17.0 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.Elijah's Watch journal 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. 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 the abandoned Bunker 13, a former Brotherhood 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.Elijah's holomessage
===Sierra Madre===
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.The Courier: "I don't understand how an Old World casino helps you do any of that."Elijah: "The Cloud is unique in my travels. Its proximity to the Sierra Madre isn't a coincidence. And as much as I've researched hologram technology, the Big Empty facility was clear - only the Sierra Madre got Holograms working... properly.The Courier: "Properly? Are you kidding me?"Elijah: "The Holograms here kill trespassers. That's what I want. Dump one of those emitters in the middle of battle, there's no defense. "(Elijah's dialogue) However, the potential of these paled in comparison to a relatively innocuous technology: the Sierra Madre vending machines.
These machines utilized Sierra Madre chips and used the raw material in their composition to assemble various items, such as alcohols or clothes. 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.The Courier: "If you secure that, that's all you want?"Elijah: "No, there is one last thing I want from the Sierra Madre. Its bounty. The machines that fill its streets, its corridors. They provide, provide almost anything. Perhaps in the Pre-War era, they were commonplace, things to dismiss. Now, they are far more valuable. You know it. The Courier: "I can't argue that."Elijah: "Sources of food, supplies... medical assistance, ammo... make more collars, even print currency. 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."(Elijah's dialogue)
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.The Courier: "Why would you do that?"Elijah: " The Villa is filled with corpses. Some killed by the dangers here, some by me. Others... turned on each other. Once they realized the Sierra Madre could be theirs, they cared nothing for their freedom... their survival... or each other."The Courier: "Are they all dead?"Elijah: Some tried to help... left supplies and healing for others who came. Their reward? They were tracked down, killed by others with baser instincts. Some of these murderers went as far as to leave traps behind them... turning markers for help into deathtraps for anyone following them. It killed some of them when they forgot where the traps lay... or when they desperately needed the assistance they had cut others off from."(Elijah's dialogue) One team managed to actually get Elijah into the heart of the casino, but after their deaths, Elijah found himself trapped and alone.The Courier: "Still hiding behind images and screens, I see."Elijah: " "(Elijah's dialogue) 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.The Courier: "If Dog put a collar on me, why didn't he say so?"Elijah: "Dog? Hnh. Appropriate. It's what I called him. met him. You know why he forgot - his brain was ruined by FEV, his memory, wreckage. He may know the way back, somewhere, deep down. I doubt it. He tracks by smell and instinct. Still, he could be trained."(Elijah's dialogue) 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.The Courier: "What do you need me to do now?"Elijah: "Gather the three others needed for this job, return them here. After that, I'll have more instructions for you. Take the others to their positions to trigger the Gala Event. After that, the doors of the Sierra Madre should open."(Elijah's dialogue) 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 character==
===Interactions overview===
===Quests===
* 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.
===Other interactions===
* If the Courier has exhausted all dialogue about him with Veronica before starting Dead Money, they can bring her up in conversation in the vault's chamber.
===Effects of player's actions===
* If he is trapped in the Sierra Madre vault, he can be heard mumbling to himself on his radio signal.
===Endings===
; Elijah is killed fighting the Courier
: Elijah meets his end abruptly in the vault, where he fights the Courier and falls in single combat. His corpse, along with that of Frederick Sinclair, lies in the now totally inaccessible vault forever.
; Elijah is locked in the vault
: Elijah, lured by the promise of the Sierra Madre, cannot escape. Once inside the vault, the casino does not let go. When Elijah finally passes away, the casino creates a new hologram to walk with the other ghosts that fill its casino. It is a pre-programmed homage intended for another. It assumes a new meaning in the likeness of Elijah. A means of allowing even the dead to begin again.
==Inventory==
: * 
==Notes==
* 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. 
* 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.
* 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's line "Ask! You still have time," spoken in dialogue with the Courier once the latter has opened the Sierra Madre's vault, is spoken as if Elijah is standing next to the Courier, without the added sound effect of conversing over radio/intercom/terminal speakers.
==Notable quotes==
==Appearances==
Father Elijah is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road, and appears in the add-on Dead Money.
==Behind the scenes==
* 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.
* Elijah and Helios One is similar to the the biblical story of the Prophet Elijah, who called down a "column of flame" from the heavens.
==Gallery==
Nvdlc01 eg christinekilledelijah.jpg|Christine and dead Elijah in the cut endings slide
Cash Out.png|As depicted in Cash Out
Nvdlc01 elijah-projector.png
Chris Avellone GDC 2012 Elijah concept art.png|Concept art from Chris Avellone's GDC 2012 Fallout DLC presentation
==References==
Category:Fallout: New Vegas mentioned-only characters
Category:Dead Money human characters
Category:Old World Blues mentioned-only characters
Category:Lonesome Road mentioned-only characters
Category:Fallout: New Vegas Brotherhood of Steel characters
Category:Slavers
Category:Antagonists
de:Vater Elijah
es:Elijah
fi:Father Elijah
pl:Elijah
ru:Отец Элайджа
uk:Батько Елайджа
zh:伊利亞