#BETTERKNIGHT. indie / private / selective roleplay for the character MAXIMUS from Amazon Prime's FALLOUT. written by MEL (they/them, 31yrs, timezone PST.)
LOW ACTIVITY / SLOW REPLY.
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MOBILE-BOUND. My laptop is dead and I currently rely on a 9th-Gen Apple iPad & a Samsung A03 to do all my roleplay from. Your patience and accommodation is much appreciated!
TEMPORARY RULES PAGE. MUSIC. PINTEREST.
HEADCANONS. MEMES. META. VERSES. (MASTERLIST)
SPOILERS: This blog will contain heavy spoilers for Fallout on Amazon Prime! I will be tagging ALL Season 2 content as "#fallout spoilers" "#fallout season 2 spoilers" & "#fallout s2 spoilers" until June 1st, 2026. Season 1 content will not be tagged.
What do you mean I haven't posted in 2 weeks I was literally just here yesterday?? Oh.
Yeah so, Spring has Sprung here and let's just say a LOT has happened.
My grandpa on my mom's side of the family passed away in his sleep one night but if you're thinking of saying 'sorry for your loss' hold on for just a moment. My grandpa, whom we called Pop, was an abusive alcoholic and he was codependent in his relationship with my grandma, Doc. Most of my mom and her sisters' experience living with him as their father was pretty horrific from what she's told me. And so most of us are...not all that sorry about Pop's passing, personally. At the same time, he was kind of a local legend in our town and loved by many people who did not know this stuff about his personal life so that's been kind of a thing too. I spend quite a bit of mental fortitude trying very hard not to tell those people "no, not really." when they say "Oh, you folks must be absolutely heartbroken."
But since he passed away, almost everyone else at the ranch seems a lot less stressed, meaning I've personally felt a lot safer and happier going with my mom to help her do ranch chores (feeding/watering, mucking stalls, etc.) without as much fear of emotional transference in the process. I'm less anxious, and since I'm less anxious it's easier to find moments of mental stillness and quiet to work with some of the horses. Doesn't leave a whole lot of time or motivation to get on Tumblr, unfortunately. But I don't think I'm leaving, and I'm certainly not dropping anything. I'll get to things as I get to them, and I hope that my friends here are cool with that, otherwise this might be where you'll want to part ways and that's fine too. 💙
So I was bored one day and I couldn't write anything for Fallout no matter what I tried. So I decided to edit something together and it happened to be what I'm calling Fallout: Maximus.
Fallout has it's many plot lines, and we as fans we get to see all these plot lines. But our characters don't. So this is what Fallout: Maximus is, how Maximus sees and what he knows during season one of Fallout.
This little side project happened to coincide with Maximus Week set up by @gimmethatsweetroll. Who was very nice and allowed me to add this to the collection of wonderful Maximus Week.
Fallout: Maximus run time is 2 hours and 8 minutes.
Fallout has it's many plot lines, and we as fans we get to see all these plot lines. But our characters don't. So this is what Fallout: Maxi
I hope you enjoy! Thank you again to the host of Maximus Week, it has been amazing seeing all the art and works being shown off for Max who always seems overshadowed.
Maximus is a Roman family name derived from the Latin maximus, meaning "greatest." One of the most notable namesakes, historically, was Saint Maximus the Confessor, a 7th century monk, also sometimes known as Maximus of Constantinople. In his early life, Maximus the Confessor was a civil servant and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, though he turned away from the political sphere and entered a monastic life, taking his vows at Philippicus, a monastery located in the ancient city of Chrysopolis. There he became a theologian, studying diverse schools of philosophy including the Platonic dialogues, the works of Aristotle, and Plato and Aristotle commentators such as Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus.
When a friend and fellow scholar of Maximus proposed the Christological position known as monothelitism, Maximus contested his colleague's teachings by supporting a Chalcedonian position, believing that rather than Jesus Christ being born of one will debated to be either human or divine in nature, he was born of both human and divine wills combined in a single form. These theories were supported by the Third Council of Constantinople, who favored of Maximus due to his former service to the emperor. However, for his involvement in the controversy and the overwhelming favor of monothelitism, Maximus was tried and branded a heretic. His tongue and right hand were mutilated as punishment, and he was forced to live out the rest of his days in exile. Though never martyred directly by the church, he was posthumously venerated as a saint.
In the Fallout universe, our Maximus is first introduced as an aspirant, a low-ranking recruit in a Brotherhood of Steel chapter known as the Knights of San Fernando Valley. This chapter is led by Elder Cleric Quintus, and is noted to feature significantly more clerics than other chapters by other characters in Season 2, such as Paladin Xander Harkness from the Boston Commonwealth Chapter and Elder McRae from the neighboring Yosemite Chapter, who points out that she doesn't adhere to the devout religious tenets of the order as Quintus does.
Upon first exposure to Maximus, his name and the title card that bears it appear almost a misnomer. He routinely gets beat up by other aspirants in fights, struggles to determine the difference between important pre-war technology components such as rotors and circuits, and his most consistent success seems to be tied to latrine duty. Not much to suggest Max has ever been the greatest at anything related to the Brotherhood's values.
Maximus was originally born in Shady Sands, noted as the first capital of the New California Republic. When Shady Sands was destroyed by Hank MacLean in a nuclear weapon detonation circa 2282 or 2283, Max was one of few people to survive the incident, saved by his parents' choice to hide him inside of a refrigerator moments before the bomb blew up. He emerged from the fridge afterwards and was quickly discovered by a Brotherhood of Steel knight believed to be Elder Quintus in the aftermath of the destruction. Quintus took pity on such a poor lost child and brought him into the Brotherhood, becoming a surrogate father-figure to young Maximus from then on.
Roman family names have not typically been associated with the Brotherhood of Steel in previous Fallout titles, and most notably, the one faction we know of that adhered to a distinct Roman theme traditionally was Caesar's Legion, leading to the popular fan theory that Elder Quintus may be a Legion remnant, a defector or exile who took over a Brotherhood chapter after Caesar's death led to the fracturing of the Legion, or that his chapter of the Brotherhood's leadership may be comprised of Legion defectors, alongside more typical wastelander members such as Maximus, Dane, and Thaddeus.
When events transpire resulting in Max's only friend Dane being chosen for annoinment as a squire to serve Knight Titus, Dane is injured and Max is brought before Quintus for interrogation as the primary suspect. Quintus claims "we have given you a name," context suggesting that the Brotherhood's order gifted Maximus with his name when he first joined their ranks. (However, a Season 2 Episode 2 flashback to Shady Sands, as well as another later shown in the Season 2 Episode 8 finale, both imply that Max's name has always been Max, and that Maximus may have been a minor adjustment to better conform to the San Fernando chapter's naming conventions.)
Because of Dane's injury rendering them unfit to travel into the Wilds, Max is assigned as replacement Squire to Knight Titus. Titus hazes and bullies Maximus, treating him as expendable and using Max's loyalty against him, until Maximus decides that he deserves better than this, and chooses not to render aid to Knight Titus when he is badly wounded in a fight against a bear. After Titus succumbs to his injuries and dies through Max's passive intervention, Max claims his jumpsuit and power armor for himself and begins his journey to true knighthood.
By the end of Season 1, Maximus is given false credit by Dane for killing Lee Moldaver, the leader of the NCR presence in the ruins of Los Angeles. He is hailed as Knight Maximus and following his promotion, he quickly becomes the highest ranking knight in his chapter. Although, when we catch back up to him in Season 2's present, it's clear his heart's not really in it anymore. He claims that his place is with the Brotherhood. He has finally gained the acceptance and respect from the order that he was looking for at the start of his arc in Season 1, but he's not particularly happy about it, it isn't worth what he had to give up to get here.
While he demonstrates devotion and loyalty to the Brotherhood and its members, it's after Quintus shuns him for suggesting he could kill Paladin Xander Harkness to prevent the Commonwealth from acquiring the cold fusion diode and then later for Max admitting he killed Harkness to protect a crowd of ghoulified children that he fully understands that he will never find the sense of belonging and purpose he seeks with the Brotherhood of Steel. Quintus labels Max a heretic, not unlike his historical namesake, and Maximus is more or less exiled from the Brotherhood of Steel.
"I'm um sorry for shooting at you" Janey apologised to maximus as she patched his arm up after their misunderstanding and near shootout "is that any better?" The young woman asked
"Yeah, loads." Max looked at the bandage she had finished wrapped around his arm and tested the limb's mobility, rotating it as much as he could manage without more than a minor sting from the injury. Not perfect, but the Brotherhood's codex had a motto for such things; Flesh is weak, but steel endures. Any residual pain would fade soon enough. "Take it you thought I was someone else?"
INBOX CALL. mutuals feel free to LIKE or REPLY to this post and I will go through your meme tag (if applicable) and send 1–3 prompts for you to do with as you please.
