Paladin Erik

Paladin Erik is the super mutant leader of the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel's Brimstone Squad and the personal protector and foster parent of Elder Eliza Graham.

Background
Before he was a super mutant, Paladin Erik was Erik Fultz, dweller of Vault 17. In 2154, the vault was raided by the Master's Army and its inhabitants were turned into super mutants. After the Master's defeat, Erik and a small group of mutants travelled east and for a long time, Erik and the others lived a purposeless, solitary existence in caves in the Rocky Mountains. After nearly 50 years of isolation, the group came across a Midwestern Brotherhood patrol. The patrol had a super mutant guide and they treated Erik's group with respect and comradery, not fear like they came to expect from humans, nor hatred that they expected from the Brotherhood of Steel. The Midwestern Brotherhood offered Erik's group recruitment into their ranks; the super mutants happily accepted.

The next few decades were mostly unnoteworthy for Erik, with the exception of the Battle of Four Fathers. Erik's squad was sent to treat with a super mutant group bent on attacking a tribal village. When a fight broke out on Mt. Rushmore, Erik was injured and was saved by two of his squad mates. Erik pledged his lifelong protection of the two who saved him. The pair later married and had a child, Eliza Graham. A couple years later, Eliza's parents died on a routine patrol mission. Erik was not there to protect them, in his mind he failed them, so he pledged his service to their daughter, a toddler at the time, and more or less adopted her.

Raising Eliza was the happiest time of Erik's life. Erik felt things he hadn't felt since he was a human, things he had forgotten how to feel. He taught her his 100 years of accumulated wisdom. His human life, his service in the Master's Army, his isolation, and his time with the Brotherhood of Steel. And he regaled her with tales of her parents and their deeds and of other heroes of the Brotherhood. They say super mutants of the Master's Army are gifted with intelligence beyond human compare but young Eliza kept up with his lessons with ease. In time, she graduated from the Brotherhood Academy and went on to lead a squad of her own. Erik happily served under her. The student had become the master.

In the chaotic years following the Brotherhood of Steel's loss of the Calculator, many super mutants in the group deserted. They had been on the losing side when they were the Master's Army, and later Gammorin's Army, and they did not wish to be part of a doomed cause again. More so, super mutants once respected strength of the Brotherhood but the group was now shattered. Instead the super mutants chose to leave with whatever weapons they could carry and start their own kingdoms in Brotherhood territory, routinely battling with their former comrades. However Paladin Erik chose to stay with the Brotherhood, his family. Erik received a deal of criticism by those leaving for refusing to go, instead choosing to serve under a weak human. But likewise, Eliza received recognition from the super mutants who stayed, due to Erik sticking by her side. Those that knew their story, that Erik had raised Eliza, and had seen her command style or ferocity in battle thought her part-mutant herself or at least something between human and super mutant, possibly something more than either could be. When Eliza entered her name as Elder, Erik and the rest of the mutants stood behind her, swaying even the most reluctant doubters.

Erik now serves as the leader of Brimstone Squad, the eight Paladins dedicated to protecting the Brotherhood leadership. A proven tactician, he personally commands the guard of Elder Eliza Graham. A short time ago, a crazed gunman killed Head Scribe Goodweather and her assigned guardian and almost killed Eliza as well. Since then, Erik has been overly strict about her safety and tries to keep her within the confines of Fort Wayne as much as possible. Eliza understands and appreciates the concern, but does not believe it a healthy message to send to the locals whom she's gotten to know quite well in their time in Detroit. The two are at constant odds on this topic. To Erik, he refuses to fail Eliza as he did her parents.