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The Citadel is the heavily defended headquarters of the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel, built into and beneath the ruins of the Pentagon in present-day Arlington, Virginia.
- Not to be confused with "The Cathedral"
History
The ruling council of the Brotherhood of Steel, based in the Lost Hills bunker in South California, decided to send a contingent of soldiers to the East Coast, to recover any and all advanced technology from Washington, DC and to investigate the reports of super mutant activity in the area.
A Paladin patrols outside the Citadel.
The Pentagon, as they had feared, was largely destroyed. But its sub-levels remained intact, and contained enough pre-war technology and weaponry to keep Brotherhood forces going indefinitely (once the defense robots were destroyed). But there was something else, as well… They found Liberty Prime, a technological marvel that, if restored, could help the Brotherhood rebuild a strength and reputation that had been declining steadily for years.
The discovery was significant enough to earn Paladin Owyn Lyons a battlefield promotion to Elder, and a new directive from his superiors – to establish a new, permanent Brotherhood base in the Capital Wasteland, and continue the search for any other advanced technology hidden in the capital’s ruins.
Lyons accepted his new post gladly, and founded the Citadel, built into and beneath the ruins of the Pentagon. It was a fortress the Brotherhood of Steel desperately needed, and one they rushed to fortify, thanks to their other great discovery – Super Mutants.
Location
The Citadel can be found on the west end of Arlington Memorial Bridge, northeast of Arlington Library.
The entrance is on the northeast corner of the building and guarded by three Brotherhood of Steel sentries.
Entry
The Citadel is inaccessible until you complete The Waters of Life segment of the main quest. Entry is scripted as part of the completion of this quest. Before then, The guard commander Paladin Bael will gruffly deny you entry.
It is possible to enter the Citadel by glitching into a pile of rubble to the northwest of the Citadel (YouTube video). This is an effective way to unlock the Power Armor Training at an early point in the game. Although various NPC's in the Citadel, when talked to, will tell you events that might not have happened yet due to the PC not completing the main quest segment The Waters of Life. As seen in the video, leaving the Citadel after using this glitch will result in completion of the quest The Waters of Life, even if it was never begun or known about, along with all quests in the main quest arc prior to it that the player did not complete. It seems that using Fast Travel in the courtyard avoids this glitch, which means that the main quest line can still be completed normally.
Appearances
The Citadel appears in Fallout 3. In the pc verson it is possible to get into the citadel by typing tcl into console and going through the gate that 2 paladins and a sentry bot guard
Behind the scenes
Citadel concept art
The Citadel was the original name of the Cathedral in early design documents (like the Vault 13: A GURPS Post-Nuclear Adventure timeline).
Notable Loot
- A Duck and Cover! book in a crate in one of the stalls in the bathroom of the Citadel Laboratory.
- A Guns and Bullets book under Paladin Vargas' bed (the rightmost one) in The Den in A-Ring.
- A captured Enclave Plasma Rifle can be found on Scribe Peabody's workbench in the Laboratory area. However, it is at fairly low condition.
- Power Armor sits on Scribe Bowditch's desk in the lab.
- Elder Lyon's unique AEP7 Laser Pistol, Smuggler's End, can be found in his safe inside his personal quarters in The Solar area of B-Ring. You won't lose karma for opening the safe or taking its contents.
Map
In the Laboratory there is a digital wall display of a map that shows the locations of Vault-Tec Vaults in the Capital Wasteland. If you study this map you will be able to extrapolate the locations of most of the remaining Vaults. Or, once you speak to Scribe Rothchild about finding a G.E.C.K., he will use the map to show you the locations of the other Vaults in the Capital Wasteland. Once this dialog is complete the locations are marked on your Pip-Boy 3000 map.
Notes
- Oddly enough, many of the items, containers, doors, and terminals in the Citadel are all marked 'green' for the player. You may take/steal all of these items and hack or lockpick doors and terminals without penalty, such as the Armory's Cell door. You may also loot all the items on the Armory shelf right next to the quartermaster, you may trade with Captain Durga but she will tell you to go get permissions from Elder Lyons first.
- The Armory behind Durga contains 3 Chinese Assault Rifles, 2 Assault Rifles, 3 10mm Submachine Guns, 3 10mm Pistols, 7 10mm Rounds, 1 Missile Launcher, 1 Hunting Rifle, 1 Scoped .44 Magnum, 2 Plasma Grenades, 1 Laser Pistol, 27 Energy Cells, 1 Blood Pack, 1 Stimpack, 9 .308 Caliber Rounds, 209 Bottle Caps, 1 Chinese Pistol, 1 Pre-war Money, 8 Plasma Mines, and 16 Microfusion Cells. Durga also has a supply key, which can only be taken after killing her, that unlocks the Citadel Lab Armament Locker, which contains everything that Durga was just selling. Everything you find in the Armory can then be sold back directly to Durga in exchange for ammo, caps, or anything else she has to offer.
- If you go behind the dummy there will be a barrel that says "Activate Target". If you interact with it nothing seems to happen.
- After getting special permission from Elder Lyons you can receive Power Armor Training to wear any class of Power Armor by talking to Paladin Gunny.
- for some reason it is possible to see a enclave vertibird taking off from the middle of the courtyard this is currently unexplained as no enclave soldiers were found in the area and all brotherhood npcs remained.
Bugs
- During the quest "The Waters of Life" Dr. Li will not talk through the intercom and the gate to The Citadel will not open. There are currently no known solutions for this problem. This has since been fixed by the Fallout 3 patch 1.1
- Killing a Brotherhood Initiate whilst he/she is sleeping causes the body to remain on the bed, following this, Brotherhood initiates sleeping in the same bed result in a highly humorous spectacle known as "spooning".
- There are at least two Brotherhood of Steel Initiates using the firing range, and one is firing a Laser Rifle. You will not be attacked if you shoot the Laser Rifle out of his hands, and he will start throwing Frag Grenades at the target. Many of his throws will either be off target or ricochet in various directions, causing numerous casualties among the nearby Brotherhood of Steel, and allowing you to search the bodies. (This editor can corroborate this. It's really rather humorous to watch. He killed Paladin Gunny and several others.)
- Going and punching any of the targets at the firing range with a power fist(can be found in personal footlockers) causes a spurt of blood to come out as if you were to punch a dead body.(only works with powerfist or unique powerfist)(360)
Sources
Template:FO3 locations