Clans (BattleTech)

Revision as of 07:03, 22 August 2018

The Clans are a species that feature in BattleTech.

History

Origin

The Clans were a warrior-based civilization founded by the self-exiled remnants of the Star League Defense Force, who were led by their founder General Aleksandr Kerensky into the Deep Periphery to flee the collapse of the Star League. The Star League was described as an utopian civilization spanning thousands of human-colonized star systems that dissolved as a result of the assassination of its hereditary ruler, First Lord Richard Cameron, and a subsequent coup d'état. The resulting war left the military arm of the Star League, the Star League Defense Force ("SLDF"), caught between the various noble houses of the Inner Sphere vying for control of the disintegrated Star League. Instead of participating in these conflicts, SLDF General Aleksandr Kerensky chose to depart from the Inner Sphere and known space in year 2784 of the BattleTech timeline, leading most of the Star League Defense Force and their families beyond the borders of the Periphery The long journey of Kerensky and his followers is termed "the Exodus" and ends with the discovery of five marginally habitable worlds depicted as being located deep within the Milky Way galaxy, termed "the Pentagon Worlds". However, the former-SLDF quickly found itself ill-suited to the task of colonization. With too many soldiers and too few support personnel, General Kerensky decided to discharge most of his military personnel from service. In order to determine who would be discharged and who would remain under arms, General Kerensky set up a series of challenges and war-games. The top performers were kept on as professional military personnel and the rest were discharged as civilians.

Nevertheless, the society of the Pentagon Worlds is depicted as falling prey to the same infighting that had torn apart the Star League, forcing Aleksandr's son Nicholas Kerensky to conduct a "Second Exodus" in 2801 to a nearby star cluster with a handful of military personnel and dedicated followers. Nicholas' followers eventually settled on a planet that his mother, Katya Kerensky, named Strana Mechty (described in-universe as Russian for "Land of Dreams"). Nicholas is depicted as having used this planet as a base to build up an invasion force to retake the Pentagon Worlds and, in so doing, completely rebuilt his followers' society to create "the Clans". The actual formation of the Clans is described as resulting from the distribution of 800 warriors still loyal to the Kerenskys and 600 civilian families evenly among 20 newly founded Clans. Notably, Nicholas is described as instituting a eugenics program, whereby each warrior became the progenitor of a "bloodname" and "bloodline", thereby contributing his or her genes to a Clan-wide artificial breeding program. The products of this system form the backbone of the Clan military. Additionally, the Clans are depicted as having developed a caste-system with these genetically-enhanced soldiers placed at the top, and beneath them various scientist, merchant, technician and laborer castes. In the BattleTech lore, Nicholas spent years training his warriors and then returned to the Pentagon Worlds with his Clans and retook them from their inhabitants, who in that time had been reduced to banditry, cultism, and savagery. After the successful reconquest of the Pentagon Worlds in 2822, known as Operation Klondike, they once again formed the core of the Clan Homeworlds, but Strana Mechty remained the capital planet.

Over the next two centuries following the Exodus era (2784-2822), the Clans are described as gradually increasing in strength, colonizing new worlds, and developing new technologies. Clan history after this point generally divides into two eras, each lasting roughly a century: the "Golden Century" from 2822 to 2947, when Clan colonization, industrialization, and technological innovation grew by leaps and bounds, and the "Political Century" from 2947 to 3049, by which time the Clans had colonized the Kerensky Cluster to its saturation point and they began to heavily compete with each other over the limited resources of the area. Their environment of the Clan Homeworlds was and remains a harsh one. The "Kerensky Cluster", which formed the core of their space, is many jumps worth of jump drive travel from the Inner Sphere, and is represented as being totally cut off from it. The borders of the Inner Sphere (the former maximum extent of the old Star League) are roughly a 500 light-year radius around Terra, yet the Kerensky Cluster is stated to be 1300 light years distant from Terra (thus 800 light years away from the borders of known space). Even the ships of the original Exodus, using peak Star League technology, took over a year to travel between the Inner Sphere and what would become the Clan Homeworlds.

Depicted as a means to reduce collateral damage to their fragile and limited infrastructure, soon after their founding the Clans developed rules of ritualized combat and warfare to avoid damaging vital resources and harming civilians. These rules are a key feature of BattleTech lore. The most important aspect of Clan combat doctrine is that they prefer to fight one-on-one duels, and actually disdain attacking numerically inferior enemies as dishonorable. Indeed, important political debates within the Clans are often settled by formal duels between two champions. Political conflicts which in the Inner Sphere would be settled with open warfare are typically decided among the Clans by selecting two champions to represent each army, like two knights serving as champions on an ancient battlefield. During the Political century leading up to the first Clan Invasion of the Inner Sphere in 3049, a great debate arose within the Clans about how to approach their conquests. The faction known as Crusaders felt that they should conquer the constantly squabbling Inner Sphere for the good of the Clans, while the faction known as Wardens wanted to uphold Kerensky's original vision of conquering the Successor States of the Inner Sphere so that they might reunify them, for the good of all humanity, into a new Star League. These were not two rival groups of Clans, however, as a single Clan might be internally divided between Crusaders and Wardens. Certain Clans, however, were noted as heavily skewing towards one or the other, such as the Crusader-dominated Jade Falcons and the Warden-dominated Wolves.

First Clan Invasion

In year 3049 of the BattleTech timeline, the Clans finally returned to conquer the Inner Sphere after two and a half centuries of expansion, preparation, and planning. The Clan codename for the assault was Operation Revival.

Unfortunately, when the Clans attempted to invade the Inner Sphere centuries after their exodus, these rules of engagement had become so thoroughly pervasive in their culture and so heavily indoctrinated into their warriors that they continued to apply them against the Successor States - who felt no compunction to reciprocate. While the first Clan invasion was devastating, the Successor States eventually rallied when they realized that Clan mech pilots are extremely inexperienced with fighting multiple enemies at once. While the Clans often possessed more advanced technology and better-trained warriors than the Successor States, concentrated attacks using disproportionately massed numbers of technically inferior units proved effective at overwhelming them. Essentially, the Clans approached large-scale warfare with the same mentality of a large-scale duel, with each unit only attacking a single enemy at a time. Moreover, the Clans had little experience with total war tactics, such as destroying the enemy's heavy infrastructure and technology centers. Infrastructure was so fragile and scarce in the Kerensky Cluster that it was forbidden to directly attack it - instead major factories or mines were awarded as prizes to the victors of a conflict. The Successor States began to employ Scorched earth tactics to great effect, destroying heavy infrastructure on frontline planets instead of letting it fall into the hands of the Clans. In time, they employed a full Fabian strategy to bring the Clan invasion to a crawl, sending lightning raids against worlds in the Clan invasion corridor to destroy their infrastructure before withdrawing, as well as harassing Clan supply lines - another tactic the Clans had rarely relied on, as supply lines were not a viable target in their battle doctrine. As the Clans' hoped-for interstellar duel turned into attrition warfare, their offensives ground to a halt and the front lines of the Clan invasion corridor largely stabilized. After three years, the stage was set for the climax of the first Clan invasion at the Battle of Tukayyid in May 3052. The resulting Truce of Tukayyid established a fifteen year armistice between the invading Clans and the Successor States,

The defeat of the first Clan invasion demonstrated a serious disparity between ritualized Clan battle doctrine and the realities of total war in the Inner Sphere. That is not to say it completely invalidated Clan martial abilities: these rules, paired with the Clan breeding program, and a ruthless level of martial training, resulted in both an extremely warlike culture and superbly capable warriors. Individual Clan warriors can utterly dominate any forces fielded by the Successor States in one-on-one engagements. Their defeat did not change that, as the Successor States simply switched to using asymmetric warfare tactics. Nonetheless this started a major debate within the Clans, between those factions which felt they should adapt to warfare in the Successor States, and those who were determined to rigidly uphold their battle doctrine.

In the two centuries between Operation Klondike and Operation Revival, the number of Clans had declined from 20 to 17. This was due to the Annihilation of Clan Wolverine in 2823, the Absorption of Clan Widowmaker by Clan Wolf in 2834, and the Absorption of Clan Mongoose in 2868.

When the decision to return to the Inner Sphere was first made, the Clans staged a round of Trials (duels) to determine which Clans would have the honor of taking part in the assault. The four Clans which won the right to take part in the invasion were Wolf, Jade Falcon, Ghost Bear, and Smoke Jaguar. However, three additional Clans were subsequently also added to the invasion as reserve forces - Steel Viper, Nova Cat, and Diamond Shark - bringing the number of invading Clans up to seven. This led to an increasing split between the seven "Invader Clans" and the ten "Home Clans" who had stayed behind in the Kerensky Cluster. The Home Clans became increasingly jealous not only of the glory the Invader Clans were reaping from their conquests, but the very real danger of the growing power of the Invaders from their conquests. The Clan Homeworlds are only marginally habitable, while the worlds of the Inner Sphere are rich (benefiting from many more centuries of terraforming), with dense concentrations of population and infrastructure. The result was that even the conquest of a small fraction of the Inner Sphere, in the Clan Occupation Zone, gave the Invader Clans enough resources from their new powerbases to rival all of the Home Clans combined. For a time, the Invader Clans began to heavily dominate overall Clan politics, alienating the Home Clans even further.

Refusal War (3057-3058)

The Refusal War of 3057 began when Clan Jade Falcon fought Clan Wolf in a Trial of Refusal to determine if they should break the Truce of Tukayyid and renew the Clans' offensives against the Inner Sphere, which the Warden-dominated Wolves opposed. The Jade Falcons were at least partially motivated to break the truce due to the opportunity presented by the secession of the Lyran Alliance from the Federated Commonwealth that same year. The conflict seriously damaged the Clans' military strength in the Inner Sphere, practically exhausting both sides and resulting in only a pyrrhic victory for the Jade Falcons (and a short-lived one at that). The Refusal War also resulted in the deaths of major Wolf leaders Ulric and Natasha Kerensky at the hands of the Jade Falcons.

The Jade Falcons were able to defeat the Wolves and then attempted to purge it of all Warden warriors, leaving only a Jade Falcon puppet-state of the surviving minority of Crusader Wolves, which they shaped into their own image as "Clan Jade Wolf". However, a small but significant number of the Warden-wolves escaped destruction and fled to the Lyran Alliance, uniting against their shared Jade Falcon enemies. The Warden-wolves formally split off from the Jade Falcon-dominated Wolves and officially declared themselves to be a new Clan, "Wolf-in-Exile", and the legitimate successors of the original Clan Wolf. The Lyrans granted them joint rule of one-half of the planet Arc-Royal: a far cry from the large invasion corridor they once controlled), but enough to inspire resistance against the Jade Falcons. The Jade Falcons' success was indeed short-lived: barely 19 days after the creation of "Clan Jade Wolf", its leader Vlad Ward assassinated the ruling (and Jade Falcon-backed) ilKhan of the Clans in January 3058, overthrew Jade Falcon domination, and declared his faction to be "Clan Wolf" once again. The new "Clan Wolf", while removed from Jade Falcon influence, was still dominated mostly by the surviving Crusader Wolves. A shadow of its former self, it still controlled most of the original Clan Wolf population and territory. In contrast, the Warden-dominated Clan Wolf-in-Exile (despite only controlling half of one planet) still maintained that it, and not Ward's faction, was the true successor to the original Clan Wolf. Technically Clan Wolf-in-Exile was Abjured by the other Clans at the time, but its continued existence created a complicated political situation.

Great Refusal (3060)

Ironically, given that the goal of the Wardens was to rebuild the Star League, the renewed Clan aggression directly led to the creation of the Second Star League in 3058. The Successor States put aside their differences to focus on presented a united front against the threat of the Clans - even the Lyran Alliance and Federated Suns put their internal conflicts on hold, despite the fact that the Lyrans were attempting to secede from the joint Lyran/Federation Suns alliance known as the Federated Commonwealth. Clan Nova Cat saw the creation of a new Star League as the fulfillment of the Clans' destiny and stated mission, and actively sided with it in opposition to the other Invader Clans. In response, the other Clans officially Abjured the Nova Cats, formally throwing them out of the Clans, but they took up residence within the Draconis Combine.

The Second Star League then declared that they would force the Clans into a "Trial of Refusal" of their own (referencing the Clan custom of dueling over a political prize), a "Great Refusal" whereby they would defeat the champions of the Crusader Clans in the Inner Sphere, thus shocking the rest of the Clans into submission. The new Star League decided that the best way to do this was to target and destroy an entire invading Clan, and they singled out the Smoke Jaguars for destruction, in a campaign known as Operation Bulldog. The Warden Clans attempted to sit out the Great Refusal: their logic being that they came to the Inner Sphere to foster the creation of a new Star League, not destroy one when it appeared. The Wardens did not give up on the ultimate progress of the invasion, as they correctly anticipated that the Second Star League, formed by the unstable and mutually loathing Successor States, would soon simply collapse on its own. Thus the threat of the new Star League was met by the Crusader Clans. Unlike the other Warden Clans, however, the Nova Cats actively fought for the Second Star League against the Smoke Jaguars, who ultimately were completely destroyed in the assault. Afterwards the other Clans declared the Smoke Jaguars officially Annihilated and it formally ceased to exist.

At the end of the Great Refusal, forces of the Successor States launched a last-ditch mission aimed at Strana Mechty itself, and on arrival engaged in Trial-based duels, with the possibility of a new full-scale invasion hanging in the balance. They emerged victorious, however, forcing the Clans to agree to uphold the Truce and abandon the renewed invasion that the Jade Falcons had hoped for. At any rate, so many men and resources had been wasted in the Refusal War that the Jade Falcons and Wolves were in no condition for renewed offensives. The losses suffered from the Great Refusal in 3060 threw the Clans into Chaos. Clan Smoke Jaguar had been destroyed and Clan Nova Cat was Abjured, resulting in a major power vacuum back on the Clan Homeworlds as Trials of Possession began over their former territories. Moreover, Clan Ghost Bear had begun transporting the entirety of its population from the Kerensky Cluster to the Inner Sphere, and after the defeat of the Great Refusal it formally merged with the planets in its occupation zone which had formerly constituted the Free Rasalhague Republic to form the Ghost Bear Dominion. The Home Clans Abjured it in response, which led to another round of Trials of Possession for the Ghost Bear territories in the homeworlds. The massive power vacuum created by the removal of three major Clans, as well as the significant losses taken by the other Invader Clans, would ultimately instigate the Clan Civil War in 3075.

FedCom Civil War (3062-3067) and Word of Blake Jihad (3067-3081)

While the Lyran Alliance had seceded from the Federated Commonwealth (FedCom) in 3057, any potential conflict was put on hold in the face of renewed aggression from Clan Jade Falcon. Once the external threat had abated, a full-scale civil war broke out in 3062 which lasted until 3067. The Federated Commonwealth itself had only existed de facto for two years from 3055 to 3057, when a marriage-alliance united the Lyran Commonwealth with the Federated Suns. The civil war was not really an attempt at Lyran independence, so much as it was Katherine Steiner-Davion attempting to use the Lyran Alliance as a powerbase in order to overthrow her brother Victor, and one day rule the entire Federated Commonwealth herself. Unfortunately the war ended in exhaustion: both Katherine and Victor abdicated and were succeeded by their younger siblings, who formally agreed to a peaceful secession by the Lyran Alliance and dissolution of FedCom in April 3067. By late 3067 both Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth withdrew from the Second Star League, which had been formed between the Successor States in 3058 to unite against the Clan Invasions, citing that they needed to focus on rebuilding their shattered core territories. The Capellan Confederation also withdrew from the League at this time for its own reasons. The Word of Blake, a fanatical religious fringe-movement within ComStar, was emboldened by the destabilization of two of the five great Successor States of the Inner Sphere and launched a Jihad to conquer known space six months later in October 3067. By late November 3067, after a vote of no-confidence by its few remaining members the Second Star League officially ceased to exist.

The Blakist forces concentrated around Terra, in the center of the Inner Sphere and five Successor States, established the "Word of Blake Protectorate" and began expanding outward from the center of inhabited space, in a Jihad lasting from 3067 to 3081. Due to this geography, the Blakist Protectorate mostly took territory away from the Draconis Combine, Free Worlds League, and Lyran Alliance. The collapse of the Second Star League only led to another round of warfare between the five Successor States, even as they were pressed by the Word of Blake Jihad: Federated Suns was attacked by both the Draconis Combine and Capellan Confederation, while the Lyran Alliance was attacked by the Free Worlds League. While the Invader Clans had been exhausted after the Refusal War ended in 3060, the exhaustion of the Inner Sphere due to the FedCom Civil War, Word of Blake Jihad, and new round of petty fighting between the other Successor States emboldened the Clans to launch new offensives. The Jade Falcons launched a successful round of new conquests against the exhausted Lyran Alliance, while Clan Snow Raven arrived from the Kerensky Cluster to launch attacks of its own. Clan Ghost Bear also launched an offensive against the Draconis Combine in 3062 but were repulsed by the Combine, assisted by the Abjured Clan Nova Cat. The power vacuum among the Home Clans after the Great Refusal in 3060 also encouraged two of the Home Clans to join the Invaders and carve out territory of their own. Clan Snow Raven chose not to attack the Inner Sphere directly but the bordering Periphery states - ultimately it joined forces with the Periphery state known as the Outworlds Alliance to launch offensives against the Draconis Combine. Clan Hell's Horses also attempted to invade the Ghost Bear Dominion, but were repulsed.

Two years after the Jihad ended, in 3083 the Snow Ravens formally merged with the Outworlds Alliance to form the new "Raven Alliance" - similar to the merger between Clan and Inner Sphere states which resulted in the creation of the Ghost Bear Dominion in 3060. Later, in 3103 the Ghost Bear Dominion peacefully united with the small rump state of the old Free Rasalhague Republic to form the Rasalhague Dominion. Both the Snow Ravens and Ghost Bears were Abjured from the rest of the Clans as a result. Clan Nova Cat remained Abjured and continued to reside within the Draconis Combine, but did not formally merge with it.

Wars of Reaving (3067-c.3100)

The power vacuum which began after the Great Refusal of 3060 resulted in major infighting between the Clans, which only worsened. With the Nova Cats and Ghost Bears removed to the Inner Sphere and the Smoke Jaguars destroyed, several other Clans tried to seize upon the opportunity to acquire new territory. Clan Snow Raven tried to use the distraction to carve out territory in the Periphery but then merged with the Outworlds Alliance (becoming Raven Alliance in 3083). Clan Hell's Horses attacked the Ghost Bear Dominion but were repulsed. Meanwhile, sensing weakness the Steel Vipers turned on the Jade Falcons in 3061, who nonetheless managed to crush the Steel Vipers and outright drive them from the Inner Sphere and back to the Clan Homeworlds. Clan Hell's Horses then returned to the Inner Sphere in 3071, this time to invade the already weakened Jade Falcon and Wolf occupation zones. At the same time, Clan Ice Hellions also decided to simultaneously attempt to invade the Jade Falcon occupation zone, to take advantage of the chaos. The Ice Hellions were not formally allied with the Hell's Horses nor did they formally coordinate major offensives, but there was tacit agreement to invade different regions of Jade Falcon territory so that they didn't get in each other's way. As a testament to the supremacy of the Jade Falcons, as well as the sheer amount of resources that a long-established Invader Clan could bring against newly arrived Home Clans, the Jade Falcons actually managed to once again repulse the assaults. The Hell's Horses did manage to opportunistically snatch up several worlds and maintained a foothold in the Inner Sphere, but the Ice Hellions were practically annihilated. Only a small fraction of their forces limped back to the Clan Homeworlds, but their numbers were too low to be sustainable, so they were voluntarily Absorbed by Clan Goliath Scorpion. The post-Great Refusal incursions, coupled with driving the Steel Vipers and Ice Hellions back to the Inner Sphere, ultimately precipitated the Clan Civil War.

The Home Clans became so disgusted with the Invader Clans, as well as jealous of their powerful conquests, that they actively turned against them, formally declaring all Invader Clans Abjured in 3075 - many had already been individually Abjured by that time, but now even the Jade Falcons and Wolves were Abjured. Clan Star Adder destroyed the meager remnants of Clan Steel Viper that had been driven back to Clan space, and it was declared officially Annihilated. Meanwhile, the Home Clans invaded any territory still held by the forces of the Invader Clans in the Homeworlds, until they were driven completely from the Kerensky Cluster. Further, the Home Clans used this as an opportunity to clean house and settle old grudges. Known as the "Wars of Reaving", these internal conflicts explain why the Home Clans did not simply combine with the Invader Clans to conquer the entire Inner Sphere during the Successor States' time of extreme weakness during the Word of Blake Jihad. This period saw the rise to dominance of Clan Star Adder, which Absorbed one other Clan and Annihilated two others. Clan Burrock had long been feuding with Clan Blood Spirit, but when they realized that the Blood Spirits were on the verge of crushing them, they were voluntarily Absorbed by Clan Star Adder in 3059. This instantly gave the Star Adders the resources of two full Clans, which they used to Annihilate the Steel Viper remnants; they proceeded to fulfill their promise to the Burrocks and destroy the Blood Spirits in 3084. Clan Coyote, longtime rivals of Clan Star Adder, were badly crushed and subjected to decimations, but after the dust had settled they were at least allowed to continue to exist as a full Clan by the Star Adders. Clan Goliath Scorpion, which had absorbed the few Ice Hellion remnants, decided to remove itself from the Clan Homeworlds themselves and conquered the nearby Periphery state of Nueva Castille (located between Clan space and the Lyran Alliance), renaming it La Escorpion del Imperio (The Scorpion Empire). Nonetheless the Goliath Scorpions remain on civil terms with the other Home Clans and are still considered one of their number - they just felt that it was better to expand into new territory than fight over diminishing returns in the war-ravaged Pentagon Worlds. Lastly, while Clan Hell's Horses had been Abjured, this only applied to its forces which had actively traveled to the Inner Sphere to carve out a foothold from Jade Falcon territory. Clan Hell's Horses had actually been deeply divided over whether to invade the Inner Sphere or not, and the side composed of conservative Home Clan-minded members stayed in the Clan Homeworlds. As a result, for the second time, a new Clan was created by splitting an old one in two. The original Hell's Horses were considered Abjured, but the Home Clan-aligned faction back in the Kerensky Cluster was reformed into the new "Clan Stone Lion".

Clan Diamond Shark was among the Invader Clans that the Home Clans Abjured, despite the fact that it was only a reserve force that took part in minor actions in the Clan Ghost Bear invasion corridor. In 3100 it changed its name to Clan Sea Fox, which had actually been its original name during the Golden Century in the Kerensky Cluster. Of the original 20 Clans only 12 still remained, though 2 new Clans had been created by splitting off from others, which brought the number up to 14 Clans. Four had been Annihilated: Wolverine, Smoke Jaguar, Steel Viper, and Blood Spirit. Four had been Absorbed by other Clans: Widowmaker, Mongoose, Burrock, and Ice Hellion. The remaining Clans were divided between the Home and Invader factions. The Invader Clans outright formed their own new Clan council, and declared that it was the Home Clans who should be considered Abjured. The Invader Clans consisted of Jade Falcon, Wolf, Diamond Shark (renamed Sea Fox), Ghost Bear (as the Rasalhague Dominion), Snow Raven (as the Raven Alliance), and the Hell's Horses. The Home Clans consisted of Star Adder, Coyote, Cloud Cobra, Goliath Scorpion, Fire Mandrill, and Stone Lion (formed from the Home-aligned faction of Hell's Horses). Meanwhile, both the Home Clans and the Invader Clans still considered Wolf-in-Exile and Nova Cat to be Abjured, because they were officially Abjured from Clan society prior to the Wars of Reaving. The difference to the Invader Clans is that even those of them that merged with Inner Sphere states - the Ghost Bears and Snow Ravens - are technically dominant or at least fully integrated with the Inner Sphere states which they control. In contrast, the Nova Cats and Wolf-in-Exile do not "control" anything (unless granted), but are actively working for and subject to individual Successor States.

Overview

Members

•  :

Notes

In other media

Television

• In BattleTech: The Animated Series, the Clan appeared in the setting of the 1990s animated television series.

Appearances

• BattleTech:

External Link

• Mech Wiki Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.