Taurian Concordat

Taurian Concordat
Capital	Taurus
Official Languages	Various
Size	56 worlds
Head of State	Protector of the Realm
Governmental Structure	Constitutional Monarchy, with individual worlds practicing Representative Democracy
State Religion/Ideology	Deism
Military Force	Taurian Defense Force

The Taurian Condordat is a major Periphery power in BattleTech, known for two things: being one of the biggest empires out on the Periphery, and fucking HATING the Inner Sphere in general, and the Federated Suns specifically.

Origins

The Concordat starts off with House Calderon, and specifically Samantha Calderon who did not have it good during the time of the Terran Alliance. A rebellion ended in the death of her husband and two daughters, and all the money in the world that she'd inherited had ended up mattering for nothing due to the Marik pirates continuing to assail the world they had landed on. Finally, she could stand no more, and decided that her official stance on this matter was that this whole sector of space could go fuck itself, and bounced from the Inner Sphere altogether in 2250 with around 2500 people in tow. Eventually, they found the Hyades Cluster, which was a series of stars that were naturally linked via a gravitational balance, with one of those worlds being Taurus. From there, Samantha would begin building a new society, one that was free of the Terran Alliance's bullshit. And then...they met their neighbors in the FedSun.

See, the Federation had created a massive slave labor camp on the Concordat side of their borders, and that pissed them off something fierce, so they began quickly building up a defense force in order to combat what they now saw as the barbarians of the Inner Sphere, and when House Davion finally got involved, it was too late; the Taurian Concordat was ready for them, and their first real military test, which they won spectacularly. Ever since, to their detriment and to their credit, they have been fighting to keep themselves as Taurians. This has never been a smooth ride, however, and in the 31st century the Taurian state is in shambles, largely hanging by a thread to the worlds it once held in a death grip thanks to the paranoia of it's less stable protectors of the Realm, and have been largely coddled by the Trinity Alliance, especially that of the Magistracy of Canopus' army.

House Calderon

House Calderon is full of hard people made hard by hard lives. Life in the Periphery isn't a cake walk, and life ruling the Periphery's most belligerent state is even harder than that. They are typically just as xenophobic and mistrustful of Spheroid influence as the next Taurian, though they have the unenviable task of having to be the public face and protector of a society that tries it's damnedest to avoid the Inner Sphere as much as they can help it while also having some of the most tenuous resources in the Periphery. They're usually looking out for the best interest of the Concordat, but many a Calderon has realized just how small their little kingdom really is when things start to get bad. The Taurian Concordat went through a crisis when it seemed that House Calderon had been driven extinct from war and illnesses; culminating in the formation of the Calderon Protectorate from worlds seceding from the Taurian Concordat due to outrage against the other Protectors’ radical policies. Forming a moderate version of Concordat and led by an illegitimately sired Calderon from a secret affair, the two sides eventually reconciled with their heirs in an arranged marriage by 3157.

Society

The Concordat is, humorously, more like their hated foes than they'd ever admit, only with specific and notable differences that the Suns couldn't quite match. The Concordat requires at least four years of government service for their trouble (which doesn't always involve the military, but often does), but after that you get freedom of speech, expression, religion, whatever you feel like, and the Concordat has always been pretty good at actually keeping that together. They also, naturally bicker and argue over every little thing, to the point that arguing could be considered the Taurian sport of choice. Of course, the reason that the Concordat is able to keep a bunch of thick-headed jackasses like their own citizenry from killing each other over every minor disagreement is one tiny little thing they injected into their society that has ultimately kept them together: hate of House Davion.

The Concordat hates the Federated Suns, and more specifically House Davion, with a fucking passion. Ever since they found that slave camp, they've made it official government policy that House Davion is a bunch of hypocritical monsters who deserve nothing but to be shot into the nearest sun. So omnipresent is the xenophobic hatred of the FedSun that even their fucking video games have House Davion as the villains. This also means that their governmental policies are usually done in direct contrast to the Suns, from political to military, entirely to either piss them off, or to show them they're the superior nation.

And yet, in spite of their "Fuck them Spheroids"-stance, the Concordat is actually well-known outside of that particular niche for being a nation of scholars. They know that knowledge is power, as their personal liberties are only ever going to survive if everybody knows what they're there for and why, and their school systems were so good the Capellans and even the Suns themselves began modeling their approach. For this reason, most people are exceptionally literate, with a thriving literature market to the point that publishing authors get tax-exempt income from their works, and presumably more if it's anti-Davion.

Military

The Taurians, intensely paranoid about whatever the FedSuns are doing, has traditionally held one of the largest militaries in the Periphery, having a well-armed, well-organized Army, Navy, Armor, and 'Mech corps. But that's not the real thing that has traditionally allowed them to keep their worlds intact, oh no. That would've been enough to at least keep the Capellans and maybe Canopus out of their front yard, what sets them apart from all the other powers in BattleTech is that they consider any dirty trick of war to be absolutely fair game. Since they never signed the largely-agreed upon rules of engagement for much of the Inner Sphere called the Ares Convention, they do not give a fuck how they beat you, nor will they care about your complaints; as far as they're concerned, you started it, and they will fucking finish it. This includes blasting WarShips/DropShips/JumpShips that just came out of a jump, massive civilian casualties, and nuclear fucking weapons.

Of course, that also means that after being in the Reunification wars against the Star League, they lost tons of territory they previously had, and so now they have the unenviable position of needing every single world they can get their hands on, and so the TDF is basically a massive and paranoid wall o' warcriming with very few strategic reserves left. This also meant that 'Mech regiments, already a bit of a tough sell for a periphery power, have to be as large as possible to maximize the benefits, and they had to be rotated out every so often. Meaning that combined warfare for the Concordat is possible, but it's generally quite unlikely; you're either getting dedicated anti-'Mech infantry, all of the AeroSpace Fighters in the world, or all of the 'Mechs in the world. All of whom are planning on blowing up the Red Cross truck if they see it. So while they are often uneven, the Concordat is wildly unpleasant to fight.

Notable BattleMechs

• Toro - the first 'Mech made in their borders. A light, long-range fighter with LRMs and a PPC, usually launched in staggered formation so that they can make the best of their two tons of ammo. Officially extinct for a long time after the Star League blasted their factories into dust, was revived during the Jihad.

• Black Bessie - Bam ba lam. Black Bessie is a Toro notable only for the fact that it survived the Star League's intervention; surviving the defense of Taurus's capital city, only locking up halfway into the battle and being dragged back into the city to keep it from Spheroid invaders. It was then placed on a 56-story pillar as a monument of the Taurian Struggle.

• Brahma - Getting invaded during the Jihad gave the Concordat a real ugly wakeup call in just how far behind they were in comparison to the high-tech monstrosities the FedSuns were using, and that just wouldn't do. The Brahma, a 60-ton skirmisher, was built to help fix that. It's mostly a standard close-range specialist, using a very light-AC/5 with specialist ammo to soften up the foe, then pound them into dust with SRMs and a pair of medium lasers, with a flamethrower added for flavor.

• Cadaver - A blindingly fast scouting light 'Mech with an MRM and some ER medium lasers, with a flamethrower to keep infantry off it's back. Most notable for having a goofy skull head that makes it look like it's trying to swallow a fish tank. The specific variant offered to the Concordat rips out pretty much every standard weapon in exchange for a PPC, a rocket launcher, an ECM suite, and an ER flamer/ER medium laser combo.