Clan Smoke Jaguar

Clan Smoke Jaguar is a Clan in the Battletech universe, notable for being a bunch of assholes.

History

Clan Smoke Jaguar was created in 2807 and fell under the command of Franklin Osis, a man of Federated Suns background who had been caught up in a Davion/Liao expat conflict before going to Strata Mechty. This and the death of his Brother had left the guy serious anger management issues. During Operation KLONDIKE they invaded Eden and were brutal in their suppression of the civilian populations. Never the less, he did push his Clan to feats of Martial excellence.

Afterwards, they established the planet Huntress as their Homeworld and sought to make their name through combat whenever possible. Smoke Jaguar Absorbed Clan Mongoose in 2868 after they got into one fight too many. Where other Clans might use diplomacy and trade to get something they wanted, Smoke Jaguar's first option was always to throw down.

An infamous incident happened on the Smoke Jaguar held planet of Londerholm in 2912 when a blight wiped out much of the root crop which made up the bulk of the diet for much of the civilian castes. In response, the Smoke Jaguar Clan Council had much of the rest reserved for warrior consumption and kept up food exports. Famine broke out and when various groups resisted, the Smoke Jaguar Warriors came down hard wiping out a good chunk of their civilians for daring to want food when they were starving. In the aftermath the rights of the civilian castes were largely stripped. Numerous other Clans called out the Smoke Jaguars over this pointless dickery in the Grand Council. Smoke Jaguar Khan Ian Moon replied that this was a strictly internal matter and that intervention would set a precedent which would threaten their autonomy. This was enough to get the Grand Council to not intervene, though they were not happy aobut it.

Culture

More than any other Clan, Smoke Jaguar believes firmly in the principle that Might Makes Right. The Warriors dominate and the rest obey. At least, in theory, anyway.

In reality, Clan Smoke Jaguar were just unilateral assholes. Assholes from the top all the way to the bottom due to their sheer ferocity and fury, which is instilled early. Those in the Warrior Caste were not just given extremely preferential treatment, but also impossibly high standards for their Warriors, especially their "trueborn" Warriors, to the point that they actively drummed "Freeborn" Warriors straight out of their Toumans. Those assholes would then take out their aggression on pretty much any civilian caste for any perceived transgressions, real or imagined. This would then create resentment among their Civilian castes to the point that active rebellion has been a major part of Smoke Jaguar's culture, which would only create a further deepening spiral between the Warriors and Non-Warrior classes.

Smoke Jaguars were not just built on war, their only real propelling force in life was war. When Smoke Jaguar wasn't in some form of pissing contest, it was usually on it's way towards collapse. It shouldn't be terribly surprising then that Smoke Jaguar was not just the catalyst, but the leading force in the Crusader school of thought in Clan politics, and got the incredible stroke of luck in finding the ComStar exploratory group that would allow them to facilitate the beginning of the Clan Invasion. Had they known just what would happen to them afterwards...well, they probably still would've done it.

Really, the biggest failing of Smoke Jaguar's entire culture was not only that they believed the Clan way of life to be the superior way of doing things, but that Smoke Jaguar's particular brand of jackassery alone held the key to Clanner success. While not a unique position among the Clans to think one's own clan was the best, Smoke Jaguar took it a step further by alienating even other Crusader clans due to their pathological need to prove their warriors were the best, and only ever had alliances of convenience in the best of times and held deep generational grudges across multiple clans at worst, which ultimately led to their complete annihilation when they had relatively little skill in politiking their way out of the Trial of Refusal.