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The Clans

2023-02-08T18:04:27Z

2600:1006:B170:CF52:7C86:9BB8:1636:CF62: /* Society */

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{{Topquote|We will purge our old ideals and ethics; those belong to the corrupt stars of the Inner Sphere, and will not serve as we begin anew. Now, while our minds are open and yearning for new insight, we must re-mold them, and fill them with the truth of our destiny. For we are destined not only to be different from those we left behind, but also better. My father knew this, and saved us from the holocaust of the Inner Sphere. I accept it as truth, and have returned to lead you, the survivors of this most bitter trial.|Nicholas Kerensky}}

{{Topquote|Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the Capellan, 'it belongs to the poor.' 'No! says the ComGuard, 'it belongs to humanity.' 'No!' says the Kuritan Coordinator, 'it belongs to me!' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... the Clan. A culture where the warrior would not suffer the bureaucrat. Where the scientist would not be bound by the autocrat. Where the able would not be ruled by the incompetant. And by the sweat of your brow, the Clan can become your Clan as well.|Nicholas Kerensky}}

'''The Clans''' are a civilization in the [[Battletech]] Universe. Descended from a remnant of the [[Star League]] Defense Force which fled from the Inner Sphere when the shit hit the fan and spend the next two and a half centuries developing on their own course before [[Clan Invasion|returning back in 3049]] from the [[Deep Periphery]].

From an IRL perspective in a very human focused setting without intelligent extraterrestrials, the Clans were designed to be very alien without actually being Aliens. Most BattleTech factions could be bluntly summed up as [[Draconis Combine|"Space Japan"]], [[Federated Suns|"Space England"]], [[Capellan Confederation|"Space China"]], etc. Being designed to have no parallel equivalent culture in real-life to be compared with beyond VERY loose analogies to the steppe nomads and Barbarian invasions that toppled many historic empires, they're not based on any one historic civilization and have a more Science-Fictiony way of operating.

== History ==
In 2766 a guy named Stefan Amaris (ruler of the Rim World's Republic) launched a coup d'état while the majority of the SLDF was out fighting rebellions in the periphery, killing the young First Lord (along with the rest of the Cameron bloodline) and seizing control of the Terran Hegemony. This started a fourteen year long civil war called the [[Amaris Civil War]] in which the SLDF under the command of Aleksandr Kerensky dismantled his support base and moved to liberate the Terran Hegemony in spite of being cut off from resupply and limited support by the Five Great Houses. But while he did succeed in toppling Amaris' Asshole Regime, the Star League did not survive the fall of House Cameron and fell apart shortly afterwards. In spite of internecine infighting within the Great Houses, all agreed to strip Aleksandr Kerensky of his authority while secretly seeking to subvert the SLDF's individual regiments as recruits for their planned wars to claim the Star League's throne. War was on the horizon between the Great Houses but Kerensky was unwilling to seize power for himself or see his remaining army and fleet used in the looming conflict. As such he got the SLDF leadership together in secret and proposed something to save the Inner Sphere and themselves: leave the Inner Sphere and start up somewhere new. Most agreed and in 2785 a fleet loaded with some six million SLDF troops, their families (including Aleksandr's wife Katyusha and two sons Andery and Nicholas) and some folks with valuable skills left the inner sphere for greener pastures.

After a two year long voyage through the unknown, with crowded ships pushed beyond their intended limits and taking care to cover their tracks, losses due to accidents, and an attempted mutiny they found some uninhabited planets beyond the Periphery known as the Pentagon Worlds. They set up shop, discharged most of their soldiers and began rebuilding their lives and establishing a bastion of the Star League in Exile. For about 15 years, it seemed to work. Ex-SLDF soldiers built homes, farms and towns, started families and businesses, and many of them found a measure of peace after a life of carnage. Unfortunately this was not universal and there were problems. Starting a new colony is a lot of hard work, especially when you were cut off from any resupply; meaning that any form of luxury or creature comfort was in short supply. Similarly, once survival was achieved a fair number of people began to lose their sense of purpose and common identity. Some of the demobilized guys decided that they'd be better off forming their own petty kingdoms (many of which were based on old Inner Sphere loyalties) and soon enough there was a big and brutal shit fight in 2800. The closest equivalent to the [[Succession Wars]] in Clan space before the [[Wars of Reaving]], they’d became known as the Pentagon Civil Wars. Aleksandr (already more than 100 years old) died heartbroken, leaving everything in utter disarray.

In this chaos, his son Nicholas managed to get the support of some loyal troops and most of the SLDF Fleet and made his way to another world nearby called Strana Mechty ("Land of the Dream" in Russian) along with about a million pentagon refugees brought in not long after. Convinced that the current order of things and the Star League ways of thinking were fundamentally broken he decided to not only establish a new colony, but also build a new society from the ground up, dividing his warriors into twenty Clans, and soon assigning civilians to each Clan. To nip a second exodus civil war in the bud, each Clan was made from a mix of people from all over the Inner Sphere. Cities were founded, factories built, ammunition was stockpiled, ships were readied and the warriors were drilled constantly. In 2820 the newly formed Clans returned to the Pentagon Worlds during Operation KLONDIKE, reconquering them over the span of two years. But beyond simply restoring order, Nicholas imposed the new (and still forming) culture onto their population. Given that the name Kerensky skill carried a lot of weight, the end to the chaos of civil war, the fact that the system basically worked and Clan Warriors having all the guns the bulk of the remaining population went along with this. Those that did not were one way or another silenced.

After Nicolas's death, the system chugged along quite well with the occasional hiccup in what was known as the Golden Century. What had been a few million war-ravaged refugees soon grew into a thriving civilization, if one which operated quite differently from that of the inner sphere. The population rapidly expanding and new worlds being colonized. The social structure solidified, technological breakthroughs were made and the individual Clans evolved along their own paths. In contrast, the Inner Sphere was busy self destructing due to blood feuds and the machinations of Space AT&T.

Eventually in the 2900s there was a split between two factions of The Clans: the Wardens (who felt the Clans should keep to themselves and only get involved in the Inner Sphere if it was threatened by someone else) and the Crusaders (who saw it as their duty to conquer the Inner Sphere and restore a new Clan based Star League). Honestly, if they allowed caste mobility and injected some capitalism and used government-enforced stamps for extra luxury items as the carrot, a Clan conquest likely would have gone over pretty well all around. Unfortunately they're master race asshats who effectively enslave everyone who isn't a warrior ''(as opposed to the Inner Sphere, where you're a slave because you aren't rich or have the wrong last name)''.

== Society ==
{{topquote|Return to the Inner Sphere is impossible for us. Our heritage and our convictions are different from those we left behind. The greed of the five Great Houses and the Council Lords is a disease that can only be burned away by the passing of decades, even centuries. And though the fighting may seem to slow, or even cease, it will erupt again as long as there are powerful men to covet one another's wealth. We shall live apart, conserving all the good of the Star League and ridding ourselves of the bad, so that when we return — and return we shall — our shining moral character will be as much our shield as our BattleMechs and fighters.|Aleksandr Kerensky, General Order 137, December 5th, 2785. These words would be the Nucleus of the Hidden Hope Doctrine}}

An important fact about the Clans is that they were born from repeat societal trauma. The Amaris Coup and Civil War, the Death of Star League, the Exodus, the Pentagon Civil War and the Second Exodus; these were harrowing events to live through, but also were seen as total failure of the old order of things even if it had aspired to noble ideals and achieved greatness. As such, Nicholas Kerensky and his followers were convinced that for humanity to survive society needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Nicky did work from his specific interpretation of his father's words and borrowed elements from a lot of different historic cultures (Mongols, Sparta, Maoist China, Tokugawa Japan, pre-modern India, various native cultures and probably more), but the aim was to start clean.

[[File:Clan Spaniel.jpg|thumb|left|The Clans have produced fearsome genetically enhanced warriors, revolutionary BattleMechs and some darn fine cartoons (yes this is totally canon)]]
Even though there is a Grand Council for settling disputes and acting as a whole, each Clan operates mostly independently of its fellows. "Peace" is not really a thing in Clan Society, but war is seldom total. When the Clans are not out conquering others, they're fighting low intensity highly ritualized wars with each other. Yet, what made the Clan Homeworlds spared the Succession Wars level of violence that sent the Inner Sphere back to the stone age was the application of Zellbrigan and the Honor Road, which emphasized individual unit and warrior prowess while minimizing collateral damage. This includes codes for honorable surrender. This would work well if they operated in loose, highly autonomous units like the modern US military. They don’t. On the downside, while material and technological matters were better preserved (if not improved upon with OmniMechs, Battle Armor, and rapid limb replacement with cloned ones or myomer prosthesis), individual human lives weren’t seen as inherently valuable so concepts such as safety gear and personal healthcare were seen as things only worth providing to those who had more worthwhile skills. So while your typical Scientist, Merchant, and Technician castes has average lifespans, most Laborers and Warriors wound up dead in their 40-50’s due to combat or physical burn-out leaving them as “dead weight” if they can’t do anything useful. It’s bad enough that most elderly Warriors would rather die as disposable infantry sent in the first wave of an assault instead of starving in bed while infirm.

Clan Society is militaristic, authoritarian, honor bound and strictly hierarchical. It's mostly built around a rigid caste system in which one's role in society is typically assigned in childhood and social mobility is a rarity. Although this could be due to their skill at screening genetics and testing for competency, as such tests are available for caste mobility and so Clans likely simply get it right on the first try in childhood. The Economies of each of the Clans is largely centrally planned and mostly concerned with producing more mechs, ships, weapons and warriors and more clanners to make and support more of those. Humans are mass produced as much as Mechs are in Clan Society1. Motivated by the Clan Home-worlds being harsher and less abundant in resources, wastefulness is discouraged while recycling is the norm to the point that harvesting organs and tissue from the deceased is expected before the cremated ashes are used for crop nutrition. Meanwhile nonproductive activities such as entertainment or leisure were normally seen as incentives to get people working or in extreme cases outright banned. Hence, while stuff like competitive combat sports and athletics are encouraged, things like literature and theatre are treated as frivolous trivialities at best. Most observers note that outside of agriculture, healthcare (for combat injuries), STEM topics, heavy manufacturing, and military-industrial complexes, most non-military related tech and practices were literally frozen in the Star League era. Overall, "Everything for the Clan", "The Clan Provides" and "The Clan Knows Best" are the overarching attitudes. That said, this still means the Clan civilians’ quality of life is high by Inner Sphere standards and probably blows the modern day out of the water.

One of the quirks of Clan Society is that most people only have a given name. More on that in a bit.

The Castes are as such...

* Warrior Caste: The rulers of Clan society trained the Spartan Way. Most of them are grown in bulk in industrial exowomb factories and raised in sibling companies (sibkos), but a few applicants from the general populace are let in. Many flunk out one way or another and become part of the civilian castes while many others end up dying in brutal training regimens and trials for combat. Those that become Warriors are typically hard as nails and brutal fighters. By far the smallest caste. Those who are nearing retirement age (typically 30-50’s in their hyper competitive society) or forced to retest if they failed graduation in a live fire exercise are usually placed in lackluster duties like police, intelligence services, non-power armored infantry, and armored vehicle formations. They're three main flavors of Clan Warriors...
**[[Clan Elemental|Elementals]]: Battletech's answer to Space Marines, huge guys and gals who wear power armor and act as shock troops.
**Pilots: Small fellows with big eyes and heads who can take a lot of Gs like the T'au's Air Caste.
**Mech Warriors: The most regular warriors, but optimized with improved reflexes and increased neuro-helmet compatibility.
* Scientist Caste: Scientists, inventors, researchers and the like who expand on the Clan's knowledge base and run the eugenics programs. As the Clans have advanced technologically where the inner sphere has regressed, they've been largely successful. The second most powerful caste in Clan society who can actually overrule the warriors on certain matters such as eugenics or technology.
* Technician Caste: Mechanics, engineers, and spacecraft crews who keep the machinery of Clan Society humming along. They work with the Warrior Caste directly more than most which gives them some clout.
* Merchant Caste: Traders as well as managers, artists and a wide variety of other functions required to run the economy of Clan Society. They have a higher status in Clan Diamond Shark, since Diamond Shark Warriors can honorably retire to this caste with reservist status if the Clan requires more manpower.
* Laborer Caste: The proles who do all the grunt work to keep everyone else fed, housed, equipped, armed, pooping in unclogged toilets and so forth. The largest caste, no less due to Battletech's universe using neo-feudalism.
* Dark Caste: Not an official caste but a bunch of outcasts which live on the edges of Clan society in hiding. Makes for convenient target practice for clan warriors. They either survive as pirates, smugglers, or organized criminal syndicates that try to disguise themselves as guilds (which isn't hard as the Free Guilds do exist independently of each clan but are publicly regulated).

In addition each caste has it's own internal hierarchy where merit and competition determines your pecking order. For example the Merchant Caste has retail clerks at the bottom and top negotiators for big inter-clan deals at the top. And while each caste committee is technically subordinate to the Warrior exclusive Clan Council, the council mostly let the civilian castes do what they deem best unless it deals with the Clan’s existential matters or martial affairs. In terms of warriors, the inter-Clan’s competition is not only reflected in rising up the ranks from sib-cadet to Khan but a Desire to win a Bloodname through gaining honorable victory for their clan. Having a BloodName means they get a surname and their genes will be be guaranteed for use to produce the next batch of Warriors while they can participate in Clan Council. Conversely, any disgrace a warrior commits risks anything from demotion at best to outright eliminating their entire Bloodname’s BloodHouse from the Clan’s records and genetic repository. Really accomplished scientists can be awarded a Labname like "Einstein" or "Darwin", but non-Scientists rarely use them.

Two other known divides between members within Clan society depends on their type of birth and their national origin. With the Clan scientist caste’s access to Iron Wombs and eugenic genecraft, Clansmen are classified as either Trueborn or Freeborn. The former are literal designer babies who are grown in an artificial amniotic womb while the latter are naturally born. Due to the Clans’ focus on breeding the best of their warriors for beneficial traits as quickly as possible, Trueborn are generally deemed superior. On the other hand, whether it's due to their superior training regimes or genes is up for debate. Likewise, there's a distinction between those born within a Clan and those who were absorbed as bondsmen captured from other Clans or factions. Their outcome depends on each Clan's attitude and the captured person's origins. Ideally, transplanted outsiders are either treated the same as native clansmen and promoted based on their merit, loyalty, and adaptability to Clan culture. Conversely, captured outsiders could also be subjugated to de-facto second class citizenship from either prejudice against enemies or the natives’ superiority complex.

A big part of Clan Society, especially in the Warrior Caste, is tradition and ritual. On the whole they have a rather "meh" view of religion (partly due to their utilitarian mindset and a big portion of their population being designer babies), but it's role is largely filled by the Hidden Hope Doctrine and a cult of personality mixed with hero worship of the Clan’s original leaders. Aleksandr and Nicholas Kerensky are all but worshiped as "the Founders". Warriors must past through a variety of trials to achieve position and within the Clan's hierarchy. The Clans preserve and teach their history through ''The Remembrance'', a long epic poem that summarizes each Clan’s glory. Bloodnames are part of that. In general they try to cultivate an air of mystery and impart subtle meanings into the various rituals. All of which are conceived to reinforce the ideals of The Clans and Clan identity into future generations on an emotional level. On the same note, Clanners tend to be very conformist with little tolerance for un-Clanlike Behavior at the best of times.

In particular in their mythologized view of history Star League was a bountiful paradise despoiled by the greed and spite by wicked petty power hungry leaders, especially the five Great House (in of itself this is not a bad interpretation of events). As such they view the people of the Inner Sphere having fallen into Barbarism. This is notable because it gives them a standard to define themselves against as well as prejudices their outlooks against others.

Another side effect to Clan culture’s emphasis on conformity and blunt honesty is that they tend to suffer against piracy operations and guerrilla warfare when they invade non-Clanner territories. In contrast to civilians and other Clans accepting new rulers in Clan Space as a fact of life, the Inner Sphere had no compunction against nationalist resistance movements. Hence why the Dark Caste and pirates thrive in the Clan Occupation Zones. While civilian and certain Clan politics are just as two-faced as anyone else, outright breaking agreements without justification or blatant lies unless it’s half-truths and subtle deception is unheard of. Hence, the Clans suffered in intelligence operations before the Blakist Jihad. While later clans were able to adjust in the Inner Sphere with commando raids, headhunting operations, open intelligence gathering, and sleeper agents, outright assassination and espionage were still prohibited as anathema against honorable combat. Otherwise, they just suspend Zellbrigan application to war if they deem their foes dishonorable to permit total war.

1Both by Exowombs and more conventional means. Clan Civilian Society is pronatalist, encouraging large families with various incentives, extensive childcare services and similar to keep up a steady supply of babies and see to them until adulthood. On a similar note, Clanners are as a rule rather casual about sex as long as contraception is employed for casual hook-ups. This is especially the case for Warriors, who think of sex as a fun thing to do with your friends if they're up for it.

== Individual Clans ==
There are originally twenty clans formed by Nicholas Kerensky but over the course of the centuries, many were destroyed or absorbed into other factions.

[[Category: BattleTech]]
* '''[[Clan Wolf]]''': The first "Mary Sue" Clan, having the ilKhan along their ranks kinda marks you for that. Also known for fielding the Timber Wolf which plenty call a poster boy for the series. They actually won their objectives in the battle of Tukayyid. As of a recent novel, they're now ilClan with Jade Falcon as their bodyguard and Smoke Jaguar reconstituted as their special forces. The Wolves' superpower is that they tend to show up with an actual strategy for both winning the war and winning the peace that comes after the war, a rare thing in the highly dogmatic and Trial-obsessive Clan culture. Perhaps due to absorbing some of Clan Wolverine (perhaps even more than “some”), Wolf seems to be more open-minded about caste mobility in the “put someone where they fit best” sense.
* '''[[Clan Jade Falcon]]''': The other "Mary Sue" Clan. Also the Purist Clan, since they are staunch traditionalists which stick with Nicky's vision as tightly as they can. When you think of honor-crazed warrior cultures that went full murder-hobo, you're thinking Jade Falcon. Were the asshats that invaded '''MY HOME PLANET''' in the animated series. They earned themselves a draw on Tukayyid at about the last minute.
* '''[[Clan Smoke Jaguar]]''': The Asshole Clan. Aggressive militarists who value only strength and treat their civilian castes like crap. They make Jade Falcon look nice as the green birb gets that rewarding loyal productivity gets you more of it. They earned getting smoked on Tukayyid, bidding away a vast majority of their forces to get the first deployment and only to have them repeatedly baited into ambush after ambush on Tukayyid by being the most aggressive Clan during the invasion, and ultimately demolished in the Second Star League's counterattack during the Trial of Refusal.
* ''' Clan Blood Spirit:''' The Bitter Keener Clan. One of the smaller of the Clans, Clan Blood Spirit was conceived as the embodiment of the esprit de corps of the Clans by Nicholas Kerensky. Clan Blood Spirit wore military dress uniforms and sent ambassadors to the other Clans for diplomacy and were also the most tradition minded and isolationist of the Clans. Though producing the best warriors individually, the Blood Spirits lacked overall numbers and resources due to their pursuit of perfection. Their bitterness towards the other Clans for abandoning what they saw as Kerensky's vision ensured they had few friends. Got blown the fuck up during Wars of Reaving, and were Annihilated in 3084.
* '''[[Clan Diamond Shark|Clan Diamond Shark/Sea Fox]]''': The Money Clan. Once Clan Sea Fox until they saw a Diamond Shark devour a Sea Fox whole. Fitting that their fighting strength was almost wiped out in Tukayyid due to their inexperience in fighting a actual war as opposed to the dance and diddy that the Clans call a war. Currently going by Clan Sea Fox again, mostly run by merchants after their warrior caste was basically butchered to the last.
* '''Clan Ghost Bear''': The Practical Clan. Moderate fence sitters that actually attempt to do their homework on their foe? My God, it is like they have a brain... At any rate, Ghost Bear are unusual for the Clans in that they actually practice something akin to normal family structures, and were slow to adapt new tactics but moved in a steady pace for effect. The other Clan that got a draw on Tukayyid. They eventually shacked up with the [[Free Rasalhague Republic|Rasalhagues]] to make their own hybrid state.
* '''Clan Nova Cat''': The Mystic Clan. Brought in to help Clan Smoke Jaguar, they ended up joining the Inner Sphere instead. However, they got the shit beaten out of them first by the Ghost Bears and then by their Inner Sphere hosts once they backed the wrong faction in a Kuritan Civil War; killing them off. All that remains are their Spirit Cat descendants in the Free Worlds League and unaccounted refugees.
*'''Clan Steel Viper''': The smug clan. This clan had a rough start since their first Khan was a yandere (for real). They mostly isolated themselves and focused on making super-elite soldiers while dreaming about how they'd rule the Inner Sphere. This got them a spot as back-up for the Jade Falcons, but having super-elite infantry is not a replacement for actually good mechs, and they got kicked out of the Inner Sphere by the Falcons, started the [[Wars of Reaving]], and ultimately got murk'd.
* '''Clan Cloud Cobra''': The Religious Clan. Everything they do is in service to what they call "The Way", a sort of pseudo-religion that generally prefers them to keep their nose out of trouble and honor the sanctity of life. Normally this would mean they were prime real estate to get eaten alive by the others, but The Way does call for war when struck, and many a clan has realized far too late that Cloud Cobra isn't just a bunch of peaceniks, they're sharp as a tack and exceptionally politically devious. Currently the second largest power in the Clan Homeworlds Post-reaving, probably tending their gardens and reading psalms to each other when they aren't crank calling Clan Coyote.
* '''Clan Star Adder''': The Pragmatic Clan. Star Adder had no time for the pseudo-religious trappings of any Kerensky worship, simply seeing Alex and his kid as noteworthy generals in their own right. This lack of interest in the ritualism and especially the politics of the Clans lead to a very close relationship between all caste members equally, and attracting little notice in inter-clan relationships. Eventually ended up the biggest clan among the Homeworlds once Steel Viper had accidentally made it super easy to get rid of them, and are for the most part buddies with Cloud Cobra and Stone Lion, while tolerating Clan Coyote's presence.
* '''Clan Coyote''': The Survivor Clan. Initially did fantastically for themselves as a noble practitioner group of Zellbringen as well as best buddies with Clan Wolf, as well as being the clan directly responsible for the development of OmniMech technology and their Khan was briefly IlKhan for a bit before a Snow Raven plot killed her. Since that point, they've largely been shunned, if not sent away from Clan Space after the Wars of Reaving, but still survive to this day, though far more ruthless in their aims. Their first Khan was the lover of Andery Kerensky (Nicholas' younger brother), and both Clan Wolf and Coyote use their genetic legacies to create sibkos in memory of them every so often.
* '''Clan Snow Raven''': The Sneaky Clan. Due to a series of major military disasters early on in their history, this clan has spent most of its time playing realpolitik against itself and the rest of the Clans, preferring to stay out of open confrontation due to their lackluster forces. Have a lot of naval prowess due to their occasional need to hit the stellar bricks. Eventually shacked up with the [[Outworlds Alliance]] government to become the Raven Alliance.
* '''Clan Burrock:''' The Not-So-Stiff Clan. A Clan named after an insect that burrowed through solid rock with its acidic saliva. Clan Burrock was known for its liberal attitude towards its civilian castes, often to the point where captured Burrocks had difficulties adopting to more strict Clans. They mostly drifted towards Crusader leanings. They were absorbed by Clan Star Adder after the Inner Sphere invasion and the Refusal War for its association with the Dark caste. Ironically right when the current Burrock Khan discovered this link and tried distancing the Clan's association herself. The absorption into Clan Star Adder angered a lot of former Burrocks to the point that Clan remnants committed themselves fully to to the Dark Caste, leading to the former Clan's involvement with The Society during the Wars of Reaving, where the Clan remnants was fully exterminated.
* '''Clan Goliath Scorpion:''' The Stoner Clan with a twist of Indiana Jones treasure hunting. Have a deep preference for extremely precise strikes as opposed to brute forcing their way through things, while also requiring getting absolutely blasted on refined scorpion venom. Deep Warden feelings and an obsession with the past meant they basically kept themselves out of most clanner bullshit unless pressed. They also had a habit of trying to secure bloodlines or artifacts linked the the Star League and actually think they can find them with visions induced by said cocktail of narcotic scorpion venom. Eventually got into trouble for illegally adding bloodlines to their eugenics program from the [[Mercenaries (Battletech)|SLDF descended Eridani Light Horse]] and just fucked off to the [[Deep Periphery]] to go fight the conquer the Castilian Cluster and the Hanseatic League to start their own empire.
* '''Clan Ice Hellion:''' The Speedster Clan. The [[White Scars|White Scars Legion]] of the Clans. Their M.O. can be described as 'attack attack ATTACK! with SPEED! Was a constant thorn in the side of Warden Clans and a major advocate for invading the Inner Sphere, but never amounted to a major player of the invasion. Cut out of the invasion, they lashed out at the other Clans during The Hellion's Fury (ridiculed as the "Hellion Tantrum" by the other Clans). Was mostly wiped out during the Reavings, what survived was absorbed by Clan Goliath Scorpion.
* '''Clan Hell's Horses:''' The Biker Clan, for as much as one can be a Biker in Battletech. Known primarily for their use of combat vehicles <s>rather than</s> alongside Mechs. Hells Horses has the distinction of being an extremely stable Clan, if not the most powerful, due to their personal belief that all within it, including the Freeborn, serve the [[greater good]] of the Clan. Eventually fucked off to the Inner Sphere, with a hardliner contingent remaining behind and becoming a different clan altogether known as Clan Stone Lion.
* '''Clan Fire Mandrill''': The Horde Clan. Set up almost the exact opposite way as Hell's Horses, as it is organized in to dozens of mini-Clans called ''Kindraa'', who often fought amongst themselves just as much as they fought other Clans. Unsurprisingly, they got completely wrecked by the Wars of Reaving.
* '''Clan Mongoose''': The Bitey Clan. Notably for fighting everyone they could all the time for any petty reason. Their antics made them a lot of enemies and eventually they got curb-stomped and absorbed in 2868. Unfortunately they got mopped up by Smoke Jaguar.
* '''[[Clan Wolverine]]''': The Not-Named Clan whom all the other Clans hate with a burning passion. Betrayed by the original founders of the Clans for being better at the Clan thing than Kerensky was. It sounds like sarcasm but sadly it’s literally what happened. Survivors wondering who-knows-where (called the Minnesota Tribe when they stormed through the Inner Sphere away from Clan Space, they seem to call themselves the Clave now), but the main Clan went out as balls-to-the-wall badasses.
*'''Clan Widowmaker:''' A short-lived Clan that is most notably known for having a personal beef with Clan Wolverine and Clan Wolf. They masterminded the downfall of the Not-Named Clan using a false flag attack with a nuke. Karma struck the Widowmakers a decade later, when they went too far in mistreating the civilian castes and wiped out their own Merchants for wanting some respect. Originally sentenced to be Absorbed by Clan Wolf after being deemed unfit to rule, the last Widowmaker Khan, Cal Jorgensson, killed Nicolas Kerensky with a cockpit shot while the IlKhan was supervising the Trial, in the midst of fighting off an illegal intervention of a Widowmaker Star. In an angry outburst at the loss of the Clans' founder, Clan Wolf unofficially Annihilated the clan after killing Jorgensson, burned their worlds of Roche (homeworld) and Ironhold (site of Kerensky's death) to the ground, and later absorbed their Bloodnames. The black widow moniker used by Natasha and Anastasia Kerensky can be traced back to bloodlines absorbed by Clan Wolf, and subsequently used in those individuals' creation.

== Clan Military ==
Each Clan has it's own military collectively called a Touman. They share some common practices and conventions laid out by Nicholas Kerensky, but within said boundaries each Clan is free to set up their forces more or less as they see fit, and usually each does according to their Clan's ouvre. Of course, what makes the Clans so dangerous regardless of their individual affiliation is their [[OmniMech]]s, which were often lightyears ahead in terms of modular design and technological strength of the Inner Sphere's BattleMechs. On top of that, their tendency of using jump-jet equipped power armored infantry piggybacking off of their OmniMechs enabled them to have swarms of MEQ’s either ripping vehicles or bunkers when BattletMech use would be deemed overkill.

But while they hold a technological edge, where the Clans falter greatly is in tactical strength. Most Clan warfare prior to the invasion was limited to the honor-bound, extremely skirmish-heavy battles fought between each other where both sides showed up, told each other what they'd be fighting with, and often fighting only in significant duels. All this was supplemented with a heavy emphasis on Mech warfare (or whatever hat the individual Clan wears), a massive culture-wide bias against intelligence gathering due to it being "dishonorable", and what the Zellbringen code allows; which meant they often plopped only the bare minimum of assets down to complete their missions as a personal dare to win with as little as possible. While in theory this is done to both minimize casualties and keep valuable resources alive and working for the Clan to use, the simple fact of the matter is Clanner warfare is continually hamstrung by itself; The Inner Sphere Successor States are under absolutely no delusions about war being an honorable thing, and were able to effectively fracture their entire society by daring to be cute with their own ideas of warfare, coming to one of the harshest wake-up calls they ever got in the Battle of Tukayyid, and any gains they took from the Inner Sphere from the initial invasion almost immediately began to crumble as their attitudes towards their new subjects ultimately plopped them into a series of guerilla wars, something utterly alien to them. Some Clans wised up and decided to try and learn something from this, others have yet to understand why things happened the way they did and returned to the Periphery.

The Clans tend to organize themselves depending on their culture, but generally speaking have their own military structure. Unlike the Inner Sphere which uses the traditional "chain of command", "grunt to general" approach, the Clans do not necessarily have an officer system by the traditional method. Every Warrior is considered roughly the same until you get to the Point Commander rank, at which point traditional methods kick back in, but even so the relationship is much less formal. In contrast to the Inner Sphere's "Base Four" or ComStar's "Base Six" system, every part of the Clan Touman is organized into a "Base Five" system, which organizes everything into even groups of five.

The Clan Toumans are (typically) organized into:
* Point: 1 Mech, 2 Tanks, 5 Elementals or 25 Regular Infantry. Commanded by a Point Commander/MechWarrior.
* Star: 5 Points. Considered the "base" unit of Clan warfare. Most Stars are all of one combat role, as mixed Stars tend to do poorly. Commanded by a Star Commander.
** Nova: combined arms Stars (between a Star and a Binary in size) that have to be trained extra rigorously to be competitive. Commanded by a Nova Commander.
* Binary: 2 Stars. The point at which Combined Arms becomes feasible. Either they or a Trinary is commanded by a Star Captain.
** Trinary: expanded variant with 3 Stars. If they're the Khan's personal bodyguard unit, they're called a Keshik.
** Super Nova: combined arms Binaries or Trinaries. Commanded by a Nova Captain.
* Cluster: 3-5 Binaries. Commanded by Star Colonels. Among Clan Sea Fox, they’re called Aimags commanded by OvKhans.
* Galaxy: 3-5 Clusters, plus an extra Trinary for Command. Commanded by either Galaxy Commanders, the LoreMaster, or either the Khan or SaKhan. Generally a logistical designation because the process of Clan warfare bidding down typically ensures that Galaxies will only ever be deployed rarely. Among Clan Sea Fox, they’re called Khanates commanded by SaKhans.

===== Notable 'Mechs =====

Due to the fact that they showed up out of nowhere unannounced besides a few Batchalls, Clan Battlemechs have both official names and Inner Sphere code names. The following "original sixteen" are the most common frontline OmniMechs used in the invasion, and found in most Clans' toumans:

* '''''IIC BattleMechs''''' - As the Clans never lost their technology, they continued to develop and evolve the Star League-era 'Mechs into stronger and deadlier versions. Curiously, by the time of the Clan Invasion, these were considered obsolete by Clanners due to them lacking the modularity of OmniMechs, and were not used in the frontlines with a few exceptions like the Hunchback IIC, which was basically a suicide weapon for ''solahma'' (old) and/or ''dezgra'' (disgraced) MechWarriors, and the Conjurer/Hellhound/Wolverine IIC, which is quite versatile for longer battles thanks to its mostly energy arsenal. While less versatile than OmniMechs, they're more than a match for most Spheroid designs; a lesson many Spheroids learned the hard way when they tried raiding Clan territory behind the front lines.
* '''''[[Timber Wolf|Timber Wolf/Mad Cat]]''''' - The Clanners' most famous 'Mech. Actually quite a preposterously expensive thing, but the fact it can blast it's way through Assault 'Mechs makes it a favorite. It's Inner Sphere name comes from their targeting computers being incapable of deciding whether or not it's a ''Marauder'' or a ''Catapult'', and so flashed MAD CAT over and over whenever it showed up. Developed (and produced exclusively) by Clan Wolf, though most other Clans acquired them by trade or salvage during the century leading up to the invasion.
* '''''[[Mad Dog|Mad Dog/Vulture/Hagetaka]]''''' - The Clan's OTHER most famous 'Mech. Basically the Timber Wolf's leaner, scrappy little brother, resembling the Inner Sphere's Archer. Follows the same basic concept of shoulder mounted missiles and arm mounted energy guns, but has a little more pod space in exchange for a lighter chassis and armor. Can hot-swap the LRMs for an absurd number of SRMs, [[What|or its entire loadout for a pair of Gauss Rifles]]. First built by Clan Smoke Jaguar but most popular with the Ghost Bears.
* '''''[[Summoner (BattleTech)|Summoner/Thor]]''''' - The Summoner fills the unusual role of being a heavy 'Mech that sacrifices weaponry for mobility, generally giving up redundancy in its weapons in order to carry jump jets and maintain a flexible loadout with less capacity. The result is a 'Mech that's pretty good at moving in fast and bullying things smaller than itself, but doesn't want to tangle with assault class stuff unless it has weight of numbers; not because it doesn't have the armor (see the Hellbringer and Executioner) but because it doesn't bring [[dakka|enough guns]]. Resembles the Inner Sphere's Thunderbolt. The favorite 'Mech of Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''Hellbringer/Loki''''' - A glass cannon, carrying a versatile array of weaponry at the cost of having laughably weak armor for a heavy 'Mech. Its primary configuration resembles the Inner Sphere's Warhammer, with twin ER PPCs in the arms mated to a targeting computer, backup lasers and anti-infantry weapons. The other favorite mech of Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''[[Dire Wolf (BattleTech)|Dire Wolf/Daishi]]''''' - The last word in mech-to-mech encounters. Where the Summoner is happy being a schoolyard bully and the Hellbringer is minmaxed for DPS, the Dire Wolf is just one huge chungus that simply does not care what the enemy brought. 100 tons, unapologetically slow, with an absurd amount of firepower and armor, this is the ultimate assault mech. Barring a lucky headshot this mech will outlast and crush anything you throw its way; underestimate it at your own peril. This is the mech every Mechwarrior dreams of piloting, and many important figures(Natasha Kerensky, Victor Steiner-Davion, Hohiro Kurita) design their own(even stronger) custom variants. This design was fought over between Clan Wolf and Clan Smoke Jaguar and also produced secretly on Outreach by Wolf's Dragoons.
* '''''Executioner/Gladiator''''' - A strange take on the concept of an Assault Mech. At 95 tons it can mount a lot of equipment, but focuses on mobility through jump jets and MASC. As the downside to this, it has anemic side torso armor, meaning it gets cut in half whenever faced with any real attrition. But as an upside, its speed and good leg armor make it a great Elemental transport, and carrying Elementals can help guard its side torsos... sadly most of its configurations have long range weapons while Elementals need to be brought in close. The stereotypical Ghost Bear omnimech.
* '''''[[Warhawk|Warhawk/Masakari]]''''' - Pure evil, bringing this to a friendly game will turn some heads. Heavily armored, average speed, the classic Warhawk carries [[Rape|FOUR CLAN ER PPCS]] in its arms, mercilessly vaporizing limbs and heads of anyone unfortunate to be caught in its sights. If that isn't enough, every variant carries a massive Targeting Computer, essentially giving the pilot an aimbot. A common variant swaps two ER PPCs for Large Pulse Lasers, allowing it to better manage its heat while firing with even greater accuracy. One of Clan Smoke Jaguar's signature designs.
* '''''Gargoyle/Man o'War''''' - The infamous SpurdoMech is somewhat of an unusual design, an assault mech that moves above its weight class but has (relatively) weak leg armor. Its Prime also has the misfortune of having ballistic weapons yet too many heat sinks, its twin LB5X autocannons forcing it squarely into an anti-vehicle role. Its lack of torso weapons and its speed make it a good Elemental transport and Clan Wolf builds them in large numbers: however overall it is weaker than the lighter Timber Wolf (unless mech quirks are in play). Also somewhat popular with Clan Ghost Bear. (apparently the weird configuration works well under specialized Clan duel rules)
* '''''Stormcrow/Ryoken''''' - The close combat star of the clan mediums, usually packing fists and lasers although sometimes fitted for long range. At 97 km/h it's faster than everything it can't take down. Doesn't get much time in the spotlight compared to its slower, heavier cousin the Mad Dog, but it comes from the same family of flexible second-gen omnimechs. A workhorse design for many Clans but most popular with the Smoke Jaguars.
* '''''Nova/Black Hawk''''' - One of the oldest OmniMech designs still in use, the Nova is uncommon yet universal among the Clans as a medium mech that can (briefly) throw dakka like mechs 20 tons heavier than itself. Infamous for running HOT with TWELVE ER Medium Lasers, the king of alpha strikes. Also has a PPC sniper variant which is quite good, and a couple configurations that try to pack ballistic weapons and missiles despite the fixed heat sinks.
* '''''Ice Ferret/Fenris''''' - A swift yet well armored scout that can do some sniping to boot. Originally built as a harasser to counter the Timber Wolf, Clan Wolf liked it enough to capture a factory and started producing it themselves. Now is a ubiquitous sight in their touman.
* '''''Viper/Dragonfly''''' - A fast jumper, often described (incorrectly) as lacking punch. [[Cheese|Known for being one of the first mechs to combine jumping 8 hexes (extremely hard to be hit) with pulse lasers (extremely easy to hit the enemy).]] A great Elemental transport and infantry killer popular with the Ghost Bears and Wolves.
* '''''[[Adder|Adder/Puma]]''''' - The largest of the Clans' ubiquitous light OmniMechs is a bit of an oddity. While not particularly fast for a light mech, it carries a pair of ER PPCs with a targeting computer, making it a true sniper. As an OmniMech, it can switch to being a gnarly missile boat in an hour or two. Most often found among Clan Wolf (though the Fenris fits the scout role of a light mech better).
* '''''Kit Fox/Uller''''' - Similar to the Adder in most respects, though lighter armored, the Kit Fox tends to carry a more balanced assortment of weapons in its variants, rather than boating one thing in particular. Except for the EW/anti-infantry variant, which happens to have a whopping three anti-missile systems. Recently canonized as having a dedicated Arrow IV variant(read: a guided, auto-loading cruise missile launcher), meaning it can be equipped with [[Exterminatus|nuclear weapons]]. Unsurprising, given that it is produced by Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''Mist Lynx/Koshi''''' - A 25 ton dedicated scout OmniMech packing more weapons than its Inner Sphere equivalents, but nothing special as far as Clan mechs go. [[Derp|Infamous for having one less jump jet than needed to be truly evasive, putting nearly half its torso armor on its rear facing, while fully armoring the head]]. Used by Clan Smoke Jaguar in the rare OOC instance that they attempt reconnaissance.
* '''''Fire Moth/Dasher''''' - [[Meme|GOTTA GO FAST]]. A derpy little machine with arms that stretch high above its head, and speed that far exceeds anything the Inner Sphere thought a BattleMech could be capable of. It still manages to have more guns than Inner Sphere mechs twice its size, too- Clan tech is just that powerful. Surprisingly the light mech of choice for Clan Ghost Bear, which actually makes a lot of sense: the Clan that prefers Elementals and plays American Football loves a mech that runs up and flings the battle armor overhand at the enemy.

== Clan Terminology ==
The Clans speak English. A rather formal variant of it which avoids contractions, but English none-the-less. Even so they have added a few words and terminology specific to their culture.

* '''Abtakha''': A Clan Warrior adopted as a bondsman from another Clan or Faction after being captured and assimilated.
* '''Aff''': Affirmative. Can be combined with Query to form the inquisitive term, Quiaff.
* '''Batchall''': Battle Challenge. Before a fight, you lay out your intent and declare the forces that will fight to achieve them. [[Meme|Refuse at your own peril]].
* '''Bondsman''': A prisoner of war that serves as an indentured labourer. Among Clanners it's Honorable to surrender if you are overwhelmed, but once you do you have to obey your captors. Otherwise you are not only throwing away your Honor but pissing on your Clan's as well. One can conduct Bondsref (Bond Refusal) as ritual suicide before capture. Bondsmen are kept for a number of years before being either returned home or (if they choose) inducted into the Clan.
* '''Canister/Trash Born''': Someone grown in an Exowomb. (insult version among more rebellious civilians).
* '''Dezgra/Chalcas''': Disgrace/Un-Clanlike.
* '''Freeborn''': Someone born the old fashioned way. Less favored source of Warriors.
* '''Freebirth''': Someone born the old fashioned way (insult version).
* '''Giftake''': a sample of a Warrior’s genetic material collected at death. Generally believed to be a more promising source for breeding greater warriors than samples collected when the Warrior is alive.
* '''Hegira''': safe pass of enemy troops granted by defenders out of a war zone if deemed honorable.
* '''ilClan''': The title intended for the Clan that succeeds in capturing Earth/Terra. They will become the permanent leaders of all Clans and their Khan will always be the ilKhan.
* '''ilKhan''': The supreme leader of all Clans and since 3151, the leader of the Star League.
* '''Isorla''': Spoils of war for the Clan, including conquered peoples. Abbreviation for "Individuals, Supplies, OR, LAnd."
* '''Khan''': The leader of a Clan and the commander of their ''touman''.
* '''Kurultai''': From Mongolian terminology. A Clan War council composed of all Bloodnamed Warriors. The Grand Kuraltai or Grand Council is the entirety of all Bloodnamed warriors from all Clans and is needed to elect an IlKhan (or Khan of Khans) if inter-Clan coordination is required.
* '''Neg''': Negative. Can be combined with Query to from the inquisitive term, Quineg.
* '''Not-Named''': Anything/Anyone that has been Abjured/Annihilated and is widely despised by all Clanners. Most often used with Clan Wolverine (The Not-Named Clan) and Ellie Kinnison, the first Steel Viper Khan and the first Warrior Reaved for trying to assassinate Nicholas’ wife (The Not-Named Khan).
* '''Rede''': Oath. Any broken oath considered extremely serious, and is sometimes punishable by death. A variant is Surkairede where a warrior apologizes honorably for being wrong and being honorably pardoned in turn without grudges.
* '''Ristar/Elstar''': Rising Star/Elite Rising Star. Used as a term for rising elite Warriors with lots of potential.
* '''saKhan''': A Khan's second in command. They also carry out the duties their Khan cannot do personally.
* '''SafeCon''': safe passage of enemy troops granted by a defender into a war zone if enemies are honorable.
* '''Seyla''': possibly derived from the Hebrew term, sela, and roughly translated as "So shall it be.” It was the name of Clan Wolf freeborn warrior Seyla, who sacrificed herself to save Khan Jerome Winston during the Clan Widowmaker Absorption Trial of Refusal, in the context of the Clans it can be translated as "Unity".
* '''Sibko''': Sibling Company. Basically communized groups of children called sibcadets who’re raised from infant creches. Those who pass all tests are made Warriors (out of maybe a dozen) while those who fail are made civilians.
* '''Solahma''': elderly warriors who are past their prime. Yearn to earn final glory in combat instead of ignominious death by age.
* '''Stravag''': Another term for Freebirth. Loosely derived from Russian.
* '''Surat''': generic insult based off some rodents used as pets by civilians.
* '''Touman''': A Clan's entire military strength in the form of all Galaxy assets combined. Derived from Mongolian.
* '''Trial''': ritualized warfare used by the Clans. Variants include Abjuration to wipe the target from the history records for unforgivable crimes (with punishment being exile or execution), Position to gain warrior ranking, Bloodright to claim a bloodname, Grievance to settle irreconcilable disputes, Possession/Absorption to claim or merge units or territories into a Clan, Refusal as an appeal against a Clan Council/commander’s controversial decisions that one vehemently objects to, and Annihilation against those who commit war crimes against humanity and are a threat to all Clan society.
** '''Rite''': Hybrid combination versions of Clan Trials. Examples include Adoption to welcome bondsmen into their new Clan or Reaving/Propagation to adjust number of Bloodlines in terms of competence or mediocrity.
*** Note: while Abjuring, Reaving, and Annihilating seem synonymous, the difference is in terms of a sliding scale of severity: starting at exile/execution; then wiping out the name, genes, and records of a warrior or unit; and ending at the extreme of exterminating or sterilizing any trace or relatives of the culprit in question. Additionally, the first two can be reversed with Adoption or Propagation but Annihilation can only be voided if the culprit proves innocence by killing all their accusers in the Trial.
* '''Trueborn''': Someone grown in an Exowomb. More favored source of Warriors.
* '''Wolverine''': Due to the Not-Named Clan, comparing a Clanner with a wolverine is an extremely offensive insult that will make them lose their shit and try to kill the one who said it.
* '''Zellbrigen''': honorable warrior conduct based on the [[Ares Convention]] and one-on-one combat. Akin to Kuritan Bushido.

== Clanners of Note ==
* Nicholas Kerensky: Son of Aleksandr Kerensky, founder of the Clans and the first ilKhan. Often known as the Founding Father.
* Jennifer Winson: Mother of the Clans and Kerensky's wife.
* The first forty Khans: known as the Founders
** Sarah McEvedy: First and only Khan of Clan Wolverine. Supposedly killed during their annihilation, but was instead captured and spared by Kerensky himself. Apparently she led her clan's remnants out of the Kerensky Cluster alongside Trish and their reformation into the Minnesota Tribe.
** Trish Ebon: Third saKhan of Clan Wolverine. Survived the Annihilation and led the remnants of her clan outside Clan space.
** Ellie Kinnison: First Khan of Clan Steel Viper. Infamous for being a crazy yandere that had the hots on Kerensky himself. Ultimately went completely crazy and tried to murder his wife, which led to her death at her own saKhan's hands. After her death, she and her Bloodname were Abjured and wiped from the records by Kerensky. She's now only remembered as the Not-Named Khan.
** Steven Breen: First saKhan of Clan Steel Viper, and its second Khan. Rebelled against Kinnison's madness and killed her to save Winson. His actions saved the Steel Vipers from sharing Kinnison's fate.
* Lincoln Osis: Last Khan of Clan Smoke Jaguar. His extreme bloodlust led to his death and his clan's destruction at the hands of the Second Star League.
* Vladimir Ward: Savior of the Crusader half of Clan Wolf.
* Brett Andrews: The last Khan of Clan Steel Viper. Also known as the Bloody IKhan for starting the [[Wars of Reaving]] that led to the Homeworld Clans' downfall.

== External Links ==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDR_Zpb05uk Part One of Tex's series on Clan History]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B165wbTnHs Part Two of Tex's series on Clan History]

{{Battletech Factions}}

The Clans

2023-02-08T17:51:19Z

2600:1006:B170:CF52:7C86:9BB8:1636:CF62: /* Individual Clans */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
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|image= [[Image:Clan Logo.png|250px|center]]
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{{Topquote|We will purge our old ideals and ethics; those belong to the corrupt stars of the Inner Sphere, and will not serve as we begin anew. Now, while our minds are open and yearning for new insight, we must re-mold them, and fill them with the truth of our destiny. For we are destined not only to be different from those we left behind, but also better. My father knew this, and saved us from the holocaust of the Inner Sphere. I accept it as truth, and have returned to lead you, the survivors of this most bitter trial.|Nicholas Kerensky}}

{{Topquote|Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the Capellan, 'it belongs to the poor.' 'No! says the ComGuard, 'it belongs to humanity.' 'No!' says the Kuritan Coordinator, 'it belongs to me!' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... the Clan. A culture where the warrior would not suffer the bureaucrat. Where the scientist would not be bound by the autocrat. Where the able would not be ruled by the incompetant. And by the sweat of your brow, the Clan can become your Clan as well.|Nicholas Kerensky}}

'''The Clans''' are a civilization in the [[Battletech]] Universe. Descended from a remnant of the [[Star League]] Defense Force which fled from the Inner Sphere when the shit hit the fan and spend the next two and a half centuries developing on their own course before [[Clan Invasion|returning back in 3049]] from the [[Deep Periphery]].

From an IRL perspective in a very human focused setting without intelligent extraterrestrials, the Clans were designed to be very alien without actually being Aliens. Most BattleTech factions could be bluntly summed up as [[Draconis Combine|"Space Japan"]], [[Federated Suns|"Space England"]], [[Capellan Confederation|"Space China"]], etc. Being designed to have no parallel equivalent culture in real-life to be compared with beyond VERY loose analogies to the steppe nomads and Barbarian invasions that toppled many historic empires, they're not based on any one historic civilization and have a more Science-Fictiony way of operating.

== History ==
In 2766 a guy named Stefan Amaris (ruler of the Rim World's Republic) launched a coup d'état while the majority of the SLDF was out fighting rebellions in the periphery, killing the young First Lord (along with the rest of the Cameron bloodline) and seizing control of the Terran Hegemony. This started a fourteen year long civil war called the [[Amaris Civil War]] in which the SLDF under the command of Aleksandr Kerensky dismantled his support base and moved to liberate the Terran Hegemony in spite of being cut off from resupply and limited support by the Five Great Houses. But while he did succeed in toppling Amaris' Asshole Regime, the Star League did not survive the fall of House Cameron and fell apart shortly afterwards. In spite of internecine infighting within the Great Houses, all agreed to strip Aleksandr Kerensky of his authority while secretly seeking to subvert the SLDF's individual regiments as recruits for their planned wars to claim the Star League's throne. War was on the horizon between the Great Houses but Kerensky was unwilling to seize power for himself or see his remaining army and fleet used in the looming conflict. As such he got the SLDF leadership together in secret and proposed something to save the Inner Sphere and themselves: leave the Inner Sphere and start up somewhere new. Most agreed and in 2785 a fleet loaded with some six million SLDF troops, their families (including Aleksandr's wife Katyusha and two sons Andery and Nicholas) and some folks with valuable skills left the inner sphere for greener pastures.

After a two year long voyage through the unknown, with crowded ships pushed beyond their intended limits and taking care to cover their tracks, losses due to accidents, and an attempted mutiny they found some uninhabited planets beyond the Periphery known as the Pentagon Worlds. They set up shop, discharged most of their soldiers and began rebuilding their lives and establishing a bastion of the Star League in Exile. For about 15 years, it seemed to work. Ex-SLDF soldiers built homes, farms and towns, started families and businesses, and many of them found a measure of peace after a life of carnage. Unfortunately this was not universal and there were problems. Starting a new colony is a lot of hard work, especially when you were cut off from any resupply; meaning that any form of luxury or creature comfort was in short supply. Similarly, once survival was achieved a fair number of people began to lose their sense of purpose and common identity. Some of the demobilized guys decided that they'd be better off forming their own petty kingdoms (many of which were based on old Inner Sphere loyalties) and soon enough there was a big and brutal shit fight in 2800. The closest equivalent to the [[Succession Wars]] in Clan space before the [[Wars of Reaving]], they’d became known as the Pentagon Civil Wars. Aleksandr (already more than 100 years old) died heartbroken, leaving everything in utter disarray.

In this chaos, his son Nicholas managed to get the support of some loyal troops and most of the SLDF Fleet and made his way to another world nearby called Strana Mechty ("Land of the Dream" in Russian) along with about a million pentagon refugees brought in not long after. Convinced that the current order of things and the Star League ways of thinking were fundamentally broken he decided to not only establish a new colony, but also build a new society from the ground up, dividing his warriors into twenty Clans, and soon assigning civilians to each Clan. To nip a second exodus civil war in the bud, each Clan was made from a mix of people from all over the Inner Sphere. Cities were founded, factories built, ammunition was stockpiled, ships were readied and the warriors were drilled constantly. In 2820 the newly formed Clans returned to the Pentagon Worlds during Operation KLONDIKE, reconquering them over the span of two years. But beyond simply restoring order, Nicholas imposed the new (and still forming) culture onto their population. Given that the name Kerensky skill carried a lot of weight, the end to the chaos of civil war, the fact that the system basically worked and Clan Warriors having all the guns the bulk of the remaining population went along with this. Those that did not were one way or another silenced.

After Nicolas's death, the system chugged along quite well with the occasional hiccup in what was known as the Golden Century. What had been a few million war-ravaged refugees soon grew into a thriving civilization, if one which operated quite differently from that of the inner sphere. The population rapidly expanding and new worlds being colonized. The social structure solidified, technological breakthroughs were made and the individual Clans evolved along their own paths. In contrast, the Inner Sphere was busy self destructing due to blood feuds and the machinations of Space AT&T.

Eventually in the 2900s there was a split between two factions of The Clans: the Wardens (who felt the Clans should keep to themselves and only get involved in the Inner Sphere if it was threatened by someone else) and the Crusaders (who saw it as their duty to conquer the Inner Sphere and restore a new Clan based Star League). Honestly, if they allowed caste mobility and injected some capitalism and used government-enforced stamps for extra luxury items as the carrot, a Clan conquest likely would have gone over pretty well all around. Unfortunately they're master race asshats who effectively enslave everyone who isn't a warrior ''(as opposed to the Inner Sphere, where you're a slave because you aren't rich or have the wrong last name)''.

== Society ==
{{topquote|Return to the Inner Sphere is impossible for us. Our heritage and our convictions are different from those we left behind. The greed of the five Great Houses and the Council Lords is a disease that can only be burned away by the passing of decades, even centuries. And though the fighting may seem to slow, or even cease, it will erupt again as long as there are powerful men to covet one another's wealth. We shall live apart, conserving all the good of the Star League and ridding ourselves of the bad, so that when we return — and return we shall — our shining moral character will be as much our shield as our BattleMechs and fighters.|Aleksandr Kerensky, General Order 137, December 5th, 2785. These words would be the Nucleus of the Hidden Hope Doctrine}}

An important fact about the Clans is that they were born from repeat societal trauma. The Amaris Coup and Civil War, the Death of Star League, the Exodus, the Pentagon Civil War and the Second Exodus; these were harrowing events to live through, but also were seen as total failure of the old order of things even if it had aspired to noble ideals and achieved greatness. As such, Nicholas Kerensky and his followers were convinced that for humanity to survive society needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Nicky did work from his specific interpretation of his father's words and borrowed elements from a lot of different historic cultures (Mongols, Sparta, Maoist China, Tokugawa Japan, pre-modern India, various native cultures and probably more), but the aim was to start clean.

[[File:Clan Spaniel.jpg|thumb|left|The Clans have produced fearsome genetically enhanced warriors, revolutionary BattleMechs and some darn fine cartoons (yes this is totally canon)]]
Even though there is a Grand Council for settling disputes and acting as a whole, each Clan operates mostly independently of its fellows. "Peace" is not really a thing in Clan Society, but war is seldom total. When the Clans are not out conquering others, they're fighting low intensity highly ritualized wars with each other. Yet, what made the Clan Homeworlds spared the Succession Wars level of violence that sent the Inner Sphere back to the stone age was the application of Zellbrigan and the Honor Road, which emphasized individual unit and warrior prowess while minimizing collateral damage. This includes codes for honorable surrender. On the downside, while material and technological matters were better preserved (if not improved upon with OmniMechs, Battle Armor, and rapid limb replacement with cloned ones or myomer prosthesis), individual human lives weren’t seen as inherently valuable so concepts such as safety gear and personal healthcare were seen as things only worth providing to those who had more worthwhile skills. So while your typical Scientist, Merchant, and Technician castes has average lifespans, most Laborers and Warriors wound up dead in their 40-50’s due to combat or physical burn-out leaving them as “dead weight” if they can’t do anything useful. It’s bad enough that most elderly Warriors would rather die as disposable infantry sent in the first wave of an assault instead of starving in bed while infirm.

Clan Society is militaristic, authoritarian, honor bound and strictly hierarchical. It's mostly built around a rigid caste system in which one's role in society is typically assigned in childhood and social mobility is a rarity. The Economies of each of the Clans is largely centrally planned and mostly concerned with producing more mechs, ships, weapons and warriors and more clanners to make and support more of those. Humans are mass produced as much as Mechs are in Clan Society1. Motivated by the Clan Home-worlds being harsher and less abundant in resources, wastefulness is discouraged while recycling is the norm to the point that harvesting organs and tissue from the deceased is expected before the cremated ashes are used for crop nutrition. Meanwhile nonproductive activities such as entertainment or leisure were normally seen as incentives to get people working or in extreme cases outright banned. Hence, while stuff like competitive combat sports and athletics are encouraged, things like literature and theatre are treated as frivolous trivialities at best. Most observers note that outside of agriculture, healthcare (for combat injuries), STEM topics, heavy manufacturing, and military-industrial complexes, most non-military related tech and practices were literally frozen in the Star League era. Overall, "Everything for the Clan", "The Clan Provides" and "The Clan Knows Best" are the overarching attitudes.

One of the quirks of Clan Society is that most people only have a given name. More on that in a bit.

The Castes are as such...

* Warrior Caste: The rulers of Clan society trained the Spartan Way. Most of them are grown in bulk in industrial exowomb factories and raised in sibling companies (sibkos), but a few applicants from the general populace are let in. Many flunk out one way or another and become part of the civilian castes while many others end up dying in brutal training regimens and trials for combat. Those that become Warriors are typically hard as nails and brutal fighters. By far the smallest caste. Those who are nearing retirement age (typically 30-50’s in their hyper competitive society) or forced to retest if they failed graduation in a live fire exercise are usually placed in lackluster duties like police, intelligence services, non-power armored infantry, and armored vehicle formations. They're three main flavors of Clan Warriors...
**[[Clan Elemental|Elementals]]: Battletech's answer to Space Marines, huge guys and gals who wear power armor and act as shock troops.
**Pilots: Small fellows with big eyes and heads who can take a lot of Gs like the T'au's Air Caste.
**Mech Warriors: The most regular warriors, but optimized with improved reflexes and increased neuro-helmet compatibility.
* Scientist Caste: Scientists, inventors, researchers and the like who expand on the Clan's knowledge base and run the eugenics programs. As the Clans have advanced technologically where the inner sphere has regressed, they've been largely successful. The second most powerful caste in Clan society who can actually overrule the warriors on certain matters such as eugenics or technology.
* Technician Caste: Mechanics, engineers, and spacecraft crews who keep the machinery of Clan Society humming along. They work with the Warrior Caste directly more than most which gives them some clout.
* Merchant Caste: Traders as well as managers, artists and a wide variety of other functions required to run the economy of Clan Society. They have a higher status in Clan Diamond Shark, since Diamond Shark Warriors can honorably retire to this caste with reservist status if the Clan requires more manpower.
* Laborer Caste: The proles who do all the grunt work to keep everyone else fed, housed, equipped, armed, pooping in unclogged toilets and so forth. The largest caste, no less due to Battletech's universe using neo-feudalism.
* Dark Caste: Not an official caste but a bunch of outcasts which live on the edges of Clan society in hiding. Makes for convenient target practice for clan warriors. They either survive as pirates, smugglers, or organized criminal syndicates that try to disguise themselves as guilds (which isn't hard as the Free Guilds do exist independently of each clan but are publicly regulated).

In addition each caste has it's own internal hierarchy where merit and competition determines your pecking order. For example the Merchant Caste has retail clerks at the bottom and top negotiators for big inter-clan deals at the top. And while each caste committee is technically subordinate to the Warrior exclusive Clan Council, the council mostly let the civilian castes do what they deem best unless it deals with the Clan’s existential matters or martial affairs. In terms of warriors, the inter-Clan’s competition is not only reflected in rising up the ranks from sib-cadet to Khan but a Desire to win a Bloodname through gaining honorable victory for their clan. Having a BloodName means they get a surname and their genes will be be guaranteed for use to produce the next batch of Warriors while they can participate in Clan Council. Conversely, any disgrace a warrior commits risks anything from demotion at best to outright eliminating their entire Bloodname’s BloodHouse from the Clan’s records and genetic repository. Really accomplished scientists can be awarded a Labname like "Einstein" or "Darwin", but non-Scientists rarely use them.

Two other known divides between members within Clan society depends on their type of birth and their national origin. With the Clan scientist caste’s access to Iron Wombs and eugenic genecraft, Clansmen are classified as either Trueborn or Freeborn. The former are literal designer babies who are grown in an artificial amniotic womb while the latter are naturally born. Due to the Clans’ focus on breeding the best of their warriors for beneficial traits as quickly as possible, Trueborn are generally deemed superior. On the other hand, whether it's due to their superior training regimes or genes is up for debate. Likewise, there's a distinction between those born within a Clan and those who were absorbed as bondsmen captured from other Clans or factions. Their outcome depends on each Clan's attitude and the captured person's origins. Ideally, transplanted outsiders are either treated the same as native clansmen and promoted based on their merit, loyalty, and adaptability to Clan culture. Conversely, captured outsiders could also be subjugated to de-facto second class citizenship from either prejudice against enemies or the natives’ superiority complex.

A big part of Clan Society, especially in the Warrior Caste, is tradition and ritual. On the whole they have a rather "meh" view of religion (partly due to their utilitarian mindset and a big portion of their population being designer babies), but it's role is largely filled by the Hidden Hope Doctrine and a cult of personality mixed with hero worship of the Clan’s original leaders. Aleksandr and Nicholas Kerensky are all but worshiped as "the Founders". Warriors must past through a variety of trials to achieve position and within the Clan's hierarchy. The Clans preserve and teach their history through ''The Remembrance'', a long epic poem that summarizes each Clan’s glory. Bloodnames are part of that. In general they try to cultivate an air of mystery and impart subtle meanings into the various rituals. All of which are conceived to reinforce the ideals of The Clans and Clan identity into future generations on an emotional level. On the same note, Clanners tend to be very conformist with little tolerance for un-Clanlike Behavior at the best of times.

In particular in their mythologized view of history Star League was a bountiful paradise despoiled by the greed and spite by wicked petty power hungry leaders, especially the five Great House (in of itself this is not a bad interpretation of events). As such they view the people of the Inner Sphere having fallen into Barbarism. This is notable because it gives them a standard to define themselves against as well as prejudices their outlooks against others.

Another side effect to Clan culture’s emphasis on conformity and blunt honesty is that they tend to suffer against piracy operations and guerrilla warfare when they invade non-Clanner territories. In contrast to civilians and other Clans accepting new rulers in Clan Space as a fact of life, the Inner Sphere had no compunction against nationalist resistance movements. Hence why the Dark Caste and pirates thrive in the Clan Occupation Zones. While civilian and certain Clan politics are just as two-faced as anyone else, outright breaking agreements without justification or blatant lies unless it’s half-truths and subtle deception is unheard of. Hence, the Clans suffered in intelligence operations before the Blakist Jihad. While later clans were able to adjust in the Inner Sphere with commando raids, headhunting operations, open intelligence gathering, and sleeper agents, outright assassination and espionage were still prohibited as anathema against honorable combat. Otherwise, they just suspend Zellbrigan application to war if they deem their foes dishonorable to permit total war.

1Both by Exowombs and more conventional means. Clan Civilian Society is pronatalist, encouraging large families with various incentives, extensive childcare services and similar to keep up a steady supply of babies and see to them until adulthood. On a similar note, Clanners are as a rule rather casual about sex as long as contraception is employed for casual hook-ups. This is especially the case for Warriors, who think of sex as a fun thing to do with your friends if they're up for it.

== Individual Clans ==
There are originally twenty clans formed by Nicholas Kerensky but over the course of the centuries, many were destroyed or absorbed into other factions.

[[Category: BattleTech]]
* '''[[Clan Wolf]]''': The first "Mary Sue" Clan, having the ilKhan along their ranks kinda marks you for that. Also known for fielding the Timber Wolf which plenty call a poster boy for the series. They actually won their objectives in the battle of Tukayyid. As of a recent novel, they're now ilClan with Jade Falcon as their bodyguard and Smoke Jaguar reconstituted as their special forces. The Wolves' superpower is that they tend to show up with an actual strategy for both winning the war and winning the peace that comes after the war, a rare thing in the highly dogmatic and Trial-obsessive Clan culture. Perhaps due to absorbing some of Clan Wolverine (perhaps even more than “some”), Wolf seems to be more open-minded about caste mobility in the “put someone where they fit best” sense.
* '''[[Clan Jade Falcon]]''': The other "Mary Sue" Clan. Also the Purist Clan, since they are staunch traditionalists which stick with Nicky's vision as tightly as they can. When you think of honor-crazed warrior cultures that went full murder-hobo, you're thinking Jade Falcon. Were the asshats that invaded '''MY HOME PLANET''' in the animated series. They earned themselves a draw on Tukayyid at about the last minute.
* '''[[Clan Smoke Jaguar]]''': The Asshole Clan. Aggressive militarists who value only strength and treat their civilian castes like crap. They make Jade Falcon look nice as the green birb gets that rewarding loyal productivity gets you more of it. They earned getting smoked on Tukayyid, bidding away a vast majority of their forces to get the first deployment and only to have them repeatedly baited into ambush after ambush on Tukayyid by being the most aggressive Clan during the invasion, and ultimately demolished in the Second Star League's counterattack during the Trial of Refusal.
* ''' Clan Blood Spirit:''' The Bitter Keener Clan. One of the smaller of the Clans, Clan Blood Spirit was conceived as the embodiment of the esprit de corps of the Clans by Nicholas Kerensky. Clan Blood Spirit wore military dress uniforms and sent ambassadors to the other Clans for diplomacy and were also the most tradition minded and isolationist of the Clans. Though producing the best warriors individually, the Blood Spirits lacked overall numbers and resources due to their pursuit of perfection. Their bitterness towards the other Clans for abandoning what they saw as Kerensky's vision ensured they had few friends. Got blown the fuck up during Wars of Reaving, and were Annihilated in 3084.
* '''[[Clan Diamond Shark|Clan Diamond Shark/Sea Fox]]''': The Money Clan. Once Clan Sea Fox until they saw a Diamond Shark devour a Sea Fox whole. Fitting that their fighting strength was almost wiped out in Tukayyid due to their inexperience in fighting a actual war as opposed to the dance and diddy that the Clans call a war. Currently going by Clan Sea Fox again, mostly run by merchants after their warrior caste was basically butchered to the last.
* '''Clan Ghost Bear''': The Practical Clan. Moderate fence sitters that actually attempt to do their homework on their foe? My God, it is like they have a brain... At any rate, Ghost Bear are unusual for the Clans in that they actually practice something akin to normal family structures, and were slow to adapt new tactics but moved in a steady pace for effect. The other Clan that got a draw on Tukayyid. They eventually shacked up with the [[Free Rasalhague Republic|Rasalhagues]] to make their own hybrid state.
* '''Clan Nova Cat''': The Mystic Clan. Brought in to help Clan Smoke Jaguar, they ended up joining the Inner Sphere instead. However, they got the shit beaten out of them first by the Ghost Bears and then by their Inner Sphere hosts once they backed the wrong faction in a Kuritan Civil War; killing them off. All that remains are their Spirit Cat descendants in the Free Worlds League and unaccounted refugees.
*'''Clan Steel Viper''': The smug clan. This clan had a rough start since their first Khan was a yandere (for real). They mostly isolated themselves and focused on making super-elite soldiers while dreaming about how they'd rule the Inner Sphere. This got them a spot as back-up for the Jade Falcons, but having super-elite infantry is not a replacement for actually good mechs, and they got kicked out of the Inner Sphere by the Falcons, started the [[Wars of Reaving]], and ultimately got murk'd.
* '''Clan Cloud Cobra''': The Religious Clan. Everything they do is in service to what they call "The Way", a sort of pseudo-religion that generally prefers them to keep their nose out of trouble and honor the sanctity of life. Normally this would mean they were prime real estate to get eaten alive by the others, but The Way does call for war when struck, and many a clan has realized far too late that Cloud Cobra isn't just a bunch of peaceniks, they're sharp as a tack and exceptionally politically devious. Currently the second largest power in the Clan Homeworlds Post-reaving, probably tending their gardens and reading psalms to each other when they aren't crank calling Clan Coyote.
* '''Clan Star Adder''': The Pragmatic Clan. Star Adder had no time for the pseudo-religious trappings of any Kerensky worship, simply seeing Alex and his kid as noteworthy generals in their own right. This lack of interest in the ritualism and especially the politics of the Clans lead to a very close relationship between all caste members equally, and attracting little notice in inter-clan relationships. Eventually ended up the biggest clan among the Homeworlds once Steel Viper had accidentally made it super easy to get rid of them, and are for the most part buddies with Cloud Cobra and Stone Lion, while tolerating Clan Coyote's presence.
* '''Clan Coyote''': The Survivor Clan. Initially did fantastically for themselves as a noble practitioner group of Zellbringen as well as best buddies with Clan Wolf, as well as being the clan directly responsible for the development of OmniMech technology and their Khan was briefly IlKhan for a bit before a Snow Raven plot killed her. Since that point, they've largely been shunned, if not sent away from Clan Space after the Wars of Reaving, but still survive to this day, though far more ruthless in their aims. Their first Khan was the lover of Andery Kerensky (Nicholas' younger brother), and both Clan Wolf and Coyote use their genetic legacies to create sibkos in memory of them every so often.
* '''Clan Snow Raven''': The Sneaky Clan. Due to a series of major military disasters early on in their history, this clan has spent most of its time playing realpolitik against itself and the rest of the Clans, preferring to stay out of open confrontation due to their lackluster forces. Have a lot of naval prowess due to their occasional need to hit the stellar bricks. Eventually shacked up with the [[Outworlds Alliance]] government to become the Raven Alliance.
* '''Clan Burrock:''' The Not-So-Stiff Clan. A Clan named after an insect that burrowed through solid rock with its acidic saliva. Clan Burrock was known for its liberal attitude towards its civilian castes, often to the point where captured Burrocks had difficulties adopting to more strict Clans. They mostly drifted towards Crusader leanings. They were absorbed by Clan Star Adder after the Inner Sphere invasion and the Refusal War for its association with the Dark caste. Ironically right when the current Burrock Khan discovered this link and tried distancing the Clan's association herself. The absorption into Clan Star Adder angered a lot of former Burrocks to the point that Clan remnants committed themselves fully to to the Dark Caste, leading to the former Clan's involvement with The Society during the Wars of Reaving, where the Clan remnants was fully exterminated.
* '''Clan Goliath Scorpion:''' The Stoner Clan with a twist of Indiana Jones treasure hunting. Have a deep preference for extremely precise strikes as opposed to brute forcing their way through things, while also requiring getting absolutely blasted on refined scorpion venom. Deep Warden feelings and an obsession with the past meant they basically kept themselves out of most clanner bullshit unless pressed. They also had a habit of trying to secure bloodlines or artifacts linked the the Star League and actually think they can find them with visions induced by said cocktail of narcotic scorpion venom. Eventually got into trouble for illegally adding bloodlines to their eugenics program from the [[Mercenaries (Battletech)|SLDF descended Eridani Light Horse]] and just fucked off to the [[Deep Periphery]] to go fight the conquer the Castilian Cluster and the Hanseatic League to start their own empire.
* '''Clan Ice Hellion:''' The Speedster Clan. The [[White Scars|White Scars Legion]] of the Clans. Their M.O. can be described as 'attack attack ATTACK! with SPEED! Was a constant thorn in the side of Warden Clans and a major advocate for invading the Inner Sphere, but never amounted to a major player of the invasion. Cut out of the invasion, they lashed out at the other Clans during The Hellion's Fury (ridiculed as the "Hellion Tantrum" by the other Clans). Was mostly wiped out during the Reavings, what survived was absorbed by Clan Goliath Scorpion.
* '''Clan Hell's Horses:''' The Biker Clan, for as much as one can be a Biker in Battletech. Known primarily for their use of combat vehicles <s>rather than</s> alongside Mechs. Hells Horses has the distinction of being an extremely stable Clan, if not the most powerful, due to their personal belief that all within it, including the Freeborn, serve the [[greater good]] of the Clan. Eventually fucked off to the Inner Sphere, with a hardliner contingent remaining behind and becoming a different clan altogether known as Clan Stone Lion.
* '''Clan Fire Mandrill''': The Horde Clan. Set up almost the exact opposite way as Hell's Horses, as it is organized in to dozens of mini-Clans called ''Kindraa'', who often fought amongst themselves just as much as they fought other Clans. Unsurprisingly, they got completely wrecked by the Wars of Reaving.
* '''Clan Mongoose''': The Bitey Clan. Notably for fighting everyone they could all the time for any petty reason. Their antics made them a lot of enemies and eventually they got curb-stomped and absorbed in 2868. Unfortunately they got mopped up by Smoke Jaguar.
* '''[[Clan Wolverine]]''': The Not-Named Clan whom all the other Clans hate with a burning passion. Betrayed by the original founders of the Clans for being better at the Clan thing than Kerensky was. It sounds like sarcasm but sadly it’s literally what happened. Survivors wondering who-knows-where (called the Minnesota Tribe when they stormed through the Inner Sphere away from Clan Space, they seem to call themselves the Clave now), but the main Clan went out as balls-to-the-wall badasses.
*'''Clan Widowmaker:''' A short-lived Clan that is most notably known for having a personal beef with Clan Wolverine and Clan Wolf. They masterminded the downfall of the Not-Named Clan using a false flag attack with a nuke. Karma struck the Widowmakers a decade later, when they went too far in mistreating the civilian castes and wiped out their own Merchants for wanting some respect. Originally sentenced to be Absorbed by Clan Wolf after being deemed unfit to rule, the last Widowmaker Khan, Cal Jorgensson, killed Nicolas Kerensky with a cockpit shot while the IlKhan was supervising the Trial, in the midst of fighting off an illegal intervention of a Widowmaker Star. In an angry outburst at the loss of the Clans' founder, Clan Wolf unofficially Annihilated the clan after killing Jorgensson, burned their worlds of Roche (homeworld) and Ironhold (site of Kerensky's death) to the ground, and later absorbed their Bloodnames. The black widow moniker used by Natasha and Anastasia Kerensky can be traced back to bloodlines absorbed by Clan Wolf, and subsequently used in those individuals' creation.

== Clan Military ==
Each Clan has it's own military collectively called a Touman. They share some common practices and conventions laid out by Nicholas Kerensky, but within said boundaries each Clan is free to set up their forces more or less as they see fit, and usually each does according to their Clan's ouvre. Of course, what makes the Clans so dangerous regardless of their individual affiliation is their [[OmniMech]]s, which were often lightyears ahead in terms of modular design and technological strength of the Inner Sphere's BattleMechs. On top of that, their tendency of using jump-jet equipped power armored infantry piggybacking off of their OmniMechs enabled them to have swarms of MEQ’s either ripping vehicles or bunkers when BattletMech use would be deemed overkill.

But while they hold a technological edge, where the Clans falter greatly is in tactical strength. Most Clan warfare prior to the invasion was limited to the honor-bound, extremely skirmish-heavy battles fought between each other where both sides showed up, told each other what they'd be fighting with, and often fighting only in significant duels. All this was supplemented with a heavy emphasis on Mech warfare (or whatever hat the individual Clan wears), a massive culture-wide bias against intelligence gathering due to it being "dishonorable", and what the Zellbringen code allows; which meant they often plopped only the bare minimum of assets down to complete their missions as a personal dare to win with as little as possible. While in theory this is done to both minimize casualties and keep valuable resources alive and working for the Clan to use, the simple fact of the matter is Clanner warfare is continually hamstrung by itself; The Inner Sphere Successor States are under absolutely no delusions about war being an honorable thing, and were able to effectively fracture their entire society by daring to be cute with their own ideas of warfare, coming to one of the harshest wake-up calls they ever got in the Battle of Tukayyid, and any gains they took from the Inner Sphere from the initial invasion almost immediately began to crumble as their attitudes towards their new subjects ultimately plopped them into a series of guerilla wars, something utterly alien to them. Some Clans wised up and decided to try and learn something from this, others have yet to understand why things happened the way they did and returned to the Periphery.

The Clans tend to organize themselves depending on their culture, but generally speaking have their own military structure. Unlike the Inner Sphere which uses the traditional "chain of command", "grunt to general" approach, the Clans do not necessarily have an officer system by the traditional method. Every Warrior is considered roughly the same until you get to the Point Commander rank, at which point traditional methods kick back in, but even so the relationship is much less formal. In contrast to the Inner Sphere's "Base Four" or ComStar's "Base Six" system, every part of the Clan Touman is organized into a "Base Five" system, which organizes everything into even groups of five.

The Clan Toumans are (typically) organized into:
* Point: 1 Mech, 2 Tanks, 5 Elementals or 25 Regular Infantry. Commanded by a Point Commander/MechWarrior.
* Star: 5 Points. Considered the "base" unit of Clan warfare. Most Stars are all of one combat role, as mixed Stars tend to do poorly. Commanded by a Star Commander.
** Nova: combined arms Stars (between a Star and a Binary in size) that have to be trained extra rigorously to be competitive. Commanded by a Nova Commander.
* Binary: 2 Stars. The point at which Combined Arms becomes feasible. Either they or a Trinary is commanded by a Star Captain.
** Trinary: expanded variant with 3 Stars. If they're the Khan's personal bodyguard unit, they're called a Keshik.
** Super Nova: combined arms Binaries or Trinaries. Commanded by a Nova Captain.
* Cluster: 3-5 Binaries. Commanded by Star Colonels. Among Clan Sea Fox, they’re called Aimags commanded by OvKhans.
* Galaxy: 3-5 Clusters, plus an extra Trinary for Command. Commanded by either Galaxy Commanders, the LoreMaster, or either the Khan or SaKhan. Generally a logistical designation because the process of Clan warfare bidding down typically ensures that Galaxies will only ever be deployed rarely. Among Clan Sea Fox, they’re called Khanates commanded by SaKhans.

===== Notable 'Mechs =====

Due to the fact that they showed up out of nowhere unannounced besides a few Batchalls, Clan Battlemechs have both official names and Inner Sphere code names. The following "original sixteen" are the most common frontline OmniMechs used in the invasion, and found in most Clans' toumans:

* '''''IIC BattleMechs''''' - As the Clans never lost their technology, they continued to develop and evolve the Star League-era 'Mechs into stronger and deadlier versions. Curiously, by the time of the Clan Invasion, these were considered obsolete by Clanners due to them lacking the modularity of OmniMechs, and were not used in the frontlines with a few exceptions like the Hunchback IIC, which was basically a suicide weapon for ''solahma'' (old) and/or ''dezgra'' (disgraced) MechWarriors, and the Conjurer/Hellhound/Wolverine IIC, which is quite versatile for longer battles thanks to its mostly energy arsenal. While less versatile than OmniMechs, they're more than a match for most Spheroid designs; a lesson many Spheroids learned the hard way when they tried raiding Clan territory behind the front lines.
* '''''[[Timber Wolf|Timber Wolf/Mad Cat]]''''' - The Clanners' most famous 'Mech. Actually quite a preposterously expensive thing, but the fact it can blast it's way through Assault 'Mechs makes it a favorite. It's Inner Sphere name comes from their targeting computers being incapable of deciding whether or not it's a ''Marauder'' or a ''Catapult'', and so flashed MAD CAT over and over whenever it showed up. Developed (and produced exclusively) by Clan Wolf, though most other Clans acquired them by trade or salvage during the century leading up to the invasion.
* '''''[[Mad Dog|Mad Dog/Vulture/Hagetaka]]''''' - The Clan's OTHER most famous 'Mech. Basically the Timber Wolf's leaner, scrappy little brother, resembling the Inner Sphere's Archer. Follows the same basic concept of shoulder mounted missiles and arm mounted energy guns, but has a little more pod space in exchange for a lighter chassis and armor. Can hot-swap the LRMs for an absurd number of SRMs, [[What|or its entire loadout for a pair of Gauss Rifles]]. First built by Clan Smoke Jaguar but most popular with the Ghost Bears.
* '''''[[Summoner (BattleTech)|Summoner/Thor]]''''' - The Summoner fills the unusual role of being a heavy 'Mech that sacrifices weaponry for mobility, generally giving up redundancy in its weapons in order to carry jump jets and maintain a flexible loadout with less capacity. The result is a 'Mech that's pretty good at moving in fast and bullying things smaller than itself, but doesn't want to tangle with assault class stuff unless it has weight of numbers; not because it doesn't have the armor (see the Hellbringer and Executioner) but because it doesn't bring [[dakka|enough guns]]. Resembles the Inner Sphere's Thunderbolt. The favorite 'Mech of Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''Hellbringer/Loki''''' - A glass cannon, carrying a versatile array of weaponry at the cost of having laughably weak armor for a heavy 'Mech. Its primary configuration resembles the Inner Sphere's Warhammer, with twin ER PPCs in the arms mated to a targeting computer, backup lasers and anti-infantry weapons. The other favorite mech of Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''[[Dire Wolf (BattleTech)|Dire Wolf/Daishi]]''''' - The last word in mech-to-mech encounters. Where the Summoner is happy being a schoolyard bully and the Hellbringer is minmaxed for DPS, the Dire Wolf is just one huge chungus that simply does not care what the enemy brought. 100 tons, unapologetically slow, with an absurd amount of firepower and armor, this is the ultimate assault mech. Barring a lucky headshot this mech will outlast and crush anything you throw its way; underestimate it at your own peril. This is the mech every Mechwarrior dreams of piloting, and many important figures(Natasha Kerensky, Victor Steiner-Davion, Hohiro Kurita) design their own(even stronger) custom variants. This design was fought over between Clan Wolf and Clan Smoke Jaguar and also produced secretly on Outreach by Wolf's Dragoons.
* '''''Executioner/Gladiator''''' - A strange take on the concept of an Assault Mech. At 95 tons it can mount a lot of equipment, but focuses on mobility through jump jets and MASC. As the downside to this, it has anemic side torso armor, meaning it gets cut in half whenever faced with any real attrition. But as an upside, its speed and good leg armor make it a great Elemental transport, and carrying Elementals can help guard its side torsos... sadly most of its configurations have long range weapons while Elementals need to be brought in close. The stereotypical Ghost Bear omnimech.
* '''''[[Warhawk|Warhawk/Masakari]]''''' - Pure evil, bringing this to a friendly game will turn some heads. Heavily armored, average speed, the classic Warhawk carries [[Rape|FOUR CLAN ER PPCS]] in its arms, mercilessly vaporizing limbs and heads of anyone unfortunate to be caught in its sights. If that isn't enough, every variant carries a massive Targeting Computer, essentially giving the pilot an aimbot. A common variant swaps two ER PPCs for Large Pulse Lasers, allowing it to better manage its heat while firing with even greater accuracy. One of Clan Smoke Jaguar's signature designs.
* '''''Gargoyle/Man o'War''''' - The infamous SpurdoMech is somewhat of an unusual design, an assault mech that moves above its weight class but has (relatively) weak leg armor. Its Prime also has the misfortune of having ballistic weapons yet too many heat sinks, its twin LB5X autocannons forcing it squarely into an anti-vehicle role. Its lack of torso weapons and its speed make it a good Elemental transport and Clan Wolf builds them in large numbers: however overall it is weaker than the lighter Timber Wolf (unless mech quirks are in play). Also somewhat popular with Clan Ghost Bear. (apparently the weird configuration works well under specialized Clan duel rules)
* '''''Stormcrow/Ryoken''''' - The close combat star of the clan mediums, usually packing fists and lasers although sometimes fitted for long range. At 97 km/h it's faster than everything it can't take down. Doesn't get much time in the spotlight compared to its slower, heavier cousin the Mad Dog, but it comes from the same family of flexible second-gen omnimechs. A workhorse design for many Clans but most popular with the Smoke Jaguars.
* '''''Nova/Black Hawk''''' - One of the oldest OmniMech designs still in use, the Nova is uncommon yet universal among the Clans as a medium mech that can (briefly) throw dakka like mechs 20 tons heavier than itself. Infamous for running HOT with TWELVE ER Medium Lasers, the king of alpha strikes. Also has a PPC sniper variant which is quite good, and a couple configurations that try to pack ballistic weapons and missiles despite the fixed heat sinks.
* '''''Ice Ferret/Fenris''''' - A swift yet well armored scout that can do some sniping to boot. Originally built as a harasser to counter the Timber Wolf, Clan Wolf liked it enough to capture a factory and started producing it themselves. Now is a ubiquitous sight in their touman.
* '''''Viper/Dragonfly''''' - A fast jumper, often described (incorrectly) as lacking punch. [[Cheese|Known for being one of the first mechs to combine jumping 8 hexes (extremely hard to be hit) with pulse lasers (extremely easy to hit the enemy).]] A great Elemental transport and infantry killer popular with the Ghost Bears and Wolves.
* '''''[[Adder|Adder/Puma]]''''' - The largest of the Clans' ubiquitous light OmniMechs is a bit of an oddity. While not particularly fast for a light mech, it carries a pair of ER PPCs with a targeting computer, making it a true sniper. As an OmniMech, it can switch to being a gnarly missile boat in an hour or two. Most often found among Clan Wolf (though the Fenris fits the scout role of a light mech better).
* '''''Kit Fox/Uller''''' - Similar to the Adder in most respects, though lighter armored, the Kit Fox tends to carry a more balanced assortment of weapons in its variants, rather than boating one thing in particular. Except for the EW/anti-infantry variant, which happens to have a whopping three anti-missile systems. Recently canonized as having a dedicated Arrow IV variant(read: a guided, auto-loading cruise missile launcher), meaning it can be equipped with [[Exterminatus|nuclear weapons]]. Unsurprising, given that it is produced by Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''Mist Lynx/Koshi''''' - A 25 ton dedicated scout OmniMech packing more weapons than its Inner Sphere equivalents, but nothing special as far as Clan mechs go. [[Derp|Infamous for having one less jump jet than needed to be truly evasive, putting nearly half its torso armor on its rear facing, while fully armoring the head]]. Used by Clan Smoke Jaguar in the rare OOC instance that they attempt reconnaissance.
* '''''Fire Moth/Dasher''''' - [[Meme|GOTTA GO FAST]]. A derpy little machine with arms that stretch high above its head, and speed that far exceeds anything the Inner Sphere thought a BattleMech could be capable of. It still manages to have more guns than Inner Sphere mechs twice its size, too- Clan tech is just that powerful. Surprisingly the light mech of choice for Clan Ghost Bear, which actually makes a lot of sense: the Clan that prefers Elementals and plays American Football loves a mech that runs up and flings the battle armor overhand at the enemy.

== Clan Terminology ==
The Clans speak English. A rather formal variant of it which avoids contractions, but English none-the-less. Even so they have added a few words and terminology specific to their culture.

* '''Abtakha''': A Clan Warrior adopted as a bondsman from another Clan or Faction after being captured and assimilated.
* '''Aff''': Affirmative. Can be combined with Query to form the inquisitive term, Quiaff.
* '''Batchall''': Battle Challenge. Before a fight, you lay out your intent and declare the forces that will fight to achieve them. [[Meme|Refuse at your own peril]].
* '''Bondsman''': A prisoner of war that serves as an indentured labourer. Among Clanners it's Honorable to surrender if you are overwhelmed, but once you do you have to obey your captors. Otherwise you are not only throwing away your Honor but pissing on your Clan's as well. One can conduct Bondsref (Bond Refusal) as ritual suicide before capture. Bondsmen are kept for a number of years before being either returned home or (if they choose) inducted into the Clan.
* '''Canister/Trash Born''': Someone grown in an Exowomb. (insult version among more rebellious civilians).
* '''Dezgra/Chalcas''': Disgrace/Un-Clanlike.
* '''Freeborn''': Someone born the old fashioned way. Less favored source of Warriors.
* '''Freebirth''': Someone born the old fashioned way (insult version).
* '''Giftake''': a sample of a Warrior’s genetic material collected at death. Generally believed to be a more promising source for breeding greater warriors than samples collected when the Warrior is alive.
* '''Hegira''': safe pass of enemy troops granted by defenders out of a war zone if deemed honorable.
* '''ilClan''': The title intended for the Clan that succeeds in capturing Earth/Terra. They will become the permanent leaders of all Clans and their Khan will always be the ilKhan.
* '''ilKhan''': The supreme leader of all Clans and since 3151, the leader of the Star League.
* '''Isorla''': Spoils of war for the Clan, including conquered peoples. Abbreviation for "Individuals, Supplies, OR, LAnd."
* '''Khan''': The leader of a Clan and the commander of their ''touman''.
* '''Kurultai''': From Mongolian terminology. A Clan War council composed of all Bloodnamed Warriors. The Grand Kuraltai or Grand Council is the entirety of all Bloodnamed warriors from all Clans and is needed to elect an IlKhan (or Khan of Khans) if inter-Clan coordination is required.
* '''Neg''': Negative. Can be combined with Query to from the inquisitive term, Quineg.
* '''Not-Named''': Anything/Anyone that has been Abjured/Annihilated and is widely despised by all Clanners. Most often used with Clan Wolverine (The Not-Named Clan) and Ellie Kinnison, the first Steel Viper Khan and the first Warrior Reaved for trying to assassinate Nicholas’ wife (The Not-Named Khan).
* '''Rede''': Oath. Any broken oath considered extremely serious, and is sometimes punishable by death. A variant is Surkairede where a warrior apologizes honorably for being wrong and being honorably pardoned in turn without grudges.
* '''Ristar/Elstar''': Rising Star/Elite Rising Star. Used as a term for rising elite Warriors with lots of potential.
* '''saKhan''': A Khan's second in command. They also carry out the duties their Khan cannot do personally.
* '''SafeCon''': safe passage of enemy troops granted by a defender into a war zone if enemies are honorable.
* '''Seyla''': possibly derived from the Hebrew term, sela, and roughly translated as "So shall it be.” It was the name of Clan Wolf freeborn warrior Seyla, who sacrificed herself to save Khan Jerome Winston during the Clan Widowmaker Absorption Trial of Refusal, in the context of the Clans it can be translated as "Unity".
* '''Sibko''': Sibling Company. Basically communized groups of children called sibcadets who’re raised from infant creches. Those who pass all tests are made Warriors (out of maybe a dozen) while those who fail are made civilians.
* '''Solahma''': elderly warriors who are past their prime. Yearn to earn final glory in combat instead of ignominious death by age.
* '''Stravag''': Another term for Freebirth. Loosely derived from Russian.
* '''Surat''': generic insult based off some rodents used as pets by civilians.
* '''Touman''': A Clan's entire military strength in the form of all Galaxy assets combined. Derived from Mongolian.
* '''Trial''': ritualized warfare used by the Clans. Variants include Abjuration to wipe the target from the history records for unforgivable crimes (with punishment being exile or execution), Position to gain warrior ranking, Bloodright to claim a bloodname, Grievance to settle irreconcilable disputes, Possession/Absorption to claim or merge units or territories into a Clan, Refusal as an appeal against a Clan Council/commander’s controversial decisions that one vehemently objects to, and Annihilation against those who commit war crimes against humanity and are a threat to all Clan society.
** '''Rite''': Hybrid combination versions of Clan Trials. Examples include Adoption to welcome bondsmen into their new Clan or Reaving/Propagation to adjust number of Bloodlines in terms of competence or mediocrity.
*** Note: while Abjuring, Reaving, and Annihilating seem synonymous, the difference is in terms of a sliding scale of severity: starting at exile/execution; then wiping out the name, genes, and records of a warrior or unit; and ending at the extreme of exterminating or sterilizing any trace or relatives of the culprit in question. Additionally, the first two can be reversed with Adoption or Propagation but Annihilation can only be voided if the culprit proves innocence by killing all their accusers in the Trial.
* '''Trueborn''': Someone grown in an Exowomb. More favored source of Warriors.
* '''Wolverine''': Due to the Not-Named Clan, comparing a Clanner with a wolverine is an extremely offensive insult that will make them lose their shit and try to kill the one who said it.
* '''Zellbrigen''': honorable warrior conduct based on the [[Ares Convention]] and one-on-one combat. Akin to Kuritan Bushido.

== Clanners of Note ==
* Nicholas Kerensky: Son of Aleksandr Kerensky, founder of the Clans and the first ilKhan. Often known as the Founding Father.
* Jennifer Winson: Mother of the Clans and Kerensky's wife.
* The first forty Khans: known as the Founders
** Sarah McEvedy: First and only Khan of Clan Wolverine. Supposedly killed during their annihilation, but was instead captured and spared by Kerensky himself. Apparently she led her clan's remnants out of the Kerensky Cluster alongside Trish and their reformation into the Minnesota Tribe.
** Trish Ebon: Third saKhan of Clan Wolverine. Survived the Annihilation and led the remnants of her clan outside Clan space.
** Ellie Kinnison: First Khan of Clan Steel Viper. Infamous for being a crazy yandere that had the hots on Kerensky himself. Ultimately went completely crazy and tried to murder his wife, which led to her death at her own saKhan's hands. After her death, she and her Bloodname were Abjured and wiped from the records by Kerensky. She's now only remembered as the Not-Named Khan.
** Steven Breen: First saKhan of Clan Steel Viper, and its second Khan. Rebelled against Kinnison's madness and killed her to save Winson. His actions saved the Steel Vipers from sharing Kinnison's fate.
* Lincoln Osis: Last Khan of Clan Smoke Jaguar. His extreme bloodlust led to his death and his clan's destruction at the hands of the Second Star League.
* Vladimir Ward: Savior of the Crusader half of Clan Wolf.
* Brett Andrews: The last Khan of Clan Steel Viper. Also known as the Bloody IKhan for starting the [[Wars of Reaving]] that led to the Homeworld Clans' downfall.

== External Links ==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDR_Zpb05uk Part One of Tex's series on Clan History]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B165wbTnHs Part Two of Tex's series on Clan History]

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Clan Wolverine

2023-02-08T17:03:45Z

2600:1006:B170:CF52:7C86:9BB8:1636:CF62:

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= Clan Wolverine
|image= [[Image:Clan Wolverine.png|250px|center]]
}}
'''Clan Wolverine''' (also known as '''The Not Named Clan''' by Clanners and people among Clanners who don't want an [[Clan Elemental|Elemental]] knuckle sandwich) is one of the big mysteries of the [[BattleTech]] universe. This [[The Clans|Clan]] is notable for being officially disgraced and destroyed early in the history of the Clans for apparently letting arrogance drive them into committing war crimes. In reality, while they were aggressive nonconformists, they were framed as a scapegoat and the truth is much more complex. “Complex” meaning they had common sense and were better at practicing the Clan system than Kerensky was, which gave him butthurt.
== Origins in Clan Space ==
[[File:Sarah-mcevedy.png|thumb|300px|left|McEvedy, McEvedy. There's no one like McEvedy...]]

Like the other Clans, Clan Wolverine was put together in 2807 from those SLDF forces which went with Nicholas Kerensky to Strana Mechty in the Second Exodus instead of engaging in the Pentagon Civil War. In this case, Sarah McEvedy, a reformist, was installed as Khan and who'd develop issues with the way Nicky did things. During Operation KLONDIKE the Wolverines invaded the planet Circe, where she pushed against the limited rules of engagement by taking a flexible and liberal interpretation of Clan combat rules such as artillery barrages and mass targeting to overcome overwhelming enemy numbers over one-on-on dueling. Tensions would continue to grow from there. After the Pentagon Worlds were taken by the Clans, she allowed a greater degree of mobility between the Castes increasing food production in the territory that was portioned out to the Wolverines, which was seen as as a threat to Nicholas' new vision. Additionally, the clan began creating new BattleMech designs that were more competitive than the SLDF vintage that most Clans had; making many of them feel threatened.

It should be noted that McEvedy and the Wolverines were not the only people among the Clans which harbored doubts about the rather extreme course things had taken though she was the most brazen about it. While some Clans, such as the Sea Foxes, did have less rigid hierarchies and enabled modest caste transfers, Warriors still remained firmly in control. The biggest issue as far as Kerensky was concerned would be the Wolverines rallying the dissenters and threatening the society which he was forming. As such, he had the Wolverines singled out for daring to openly challenge his new vision on society and permitted the other Clan Khans to spy on them. This only made matters worse with mutual animosity rising and taking place of the listlessness that most Clansmen faced with no external enemies left in Clan space.

The final straw which broke the camel's back was that a cache of SLDF equipment including Nuclear Weapons was found in Wolverine Territory. McEvedy wanted to keep these for herself while the other Clanners wanted in on them. There was a Trial of Refusal, the Wolverines lost. Never the less, McEvedy refused to give up the nukes and fought to keep them. Knowing that a Trial of Absorption was all but guaranteed with every Clan out to attack them until they were worn ragged, McEvedy began planning contingencies. On October 11th, 2823 she denounced Nicky in the Grand Council, declared independence and stormed off.

=== Annihilation ===
A civil war broke and Clan Snow Raven's capital city was destroyed with a nuclear warhead; damaging their genetic repository. Officially, Clan Wolverine detonated nuclear weapons on pro-Kerensky civilians out of spite in their own capital just as the IlKhan was within range as an observer for the Trial of Absorbtion. They then apparently launched nukes at Clan Snow Raven due to being their closest neighboring Clan. Unofficially, the Clan Widowmaker Khan (who held a personal grudge against the Wolverines since their early days over some personal slight) framed them by detonating a hidden nuke. The Snow Raven disaster was sadly an accident from a warhead-laden aerospace fighter being hit while targeting the Wolverines amidst the chaos in retaliation for the apparent nuking of civilians; resulting in the nuke veering off-target.

Seeing how the apparent nuclear attacks violated the Clan taboo of avoiding collateral damage to useful civilians, an assassination attempt at IlKhan Nicholas himself, and poisoning a Clan’s genes with WMD’s (i.e. a genocide), Clan Wolverine was marked as irredeemable and Nicky was provoked into escalating the Absorption into a Trial of Annihilation against them. Fighting was brutal with both sides engaged in a genocidal total war. No quarter was offered for warriors while Wolverine civilians would be sterilized at best to avoid “tainting the gene-pool.”

They put up a good fight but the Wolverines were outnumbered 19-1 and the rest of the Clans were not holding back. Despite this, the Wolverine's plans were not to stand and fight but rather to flee. Fearing that it would come to this, McEvedy had prepared a fleet for evacuation beforehand and managed to get much of her people, gear, and population off world after a scorched earth campaign in what was called Operation SWITCHBACK. Much of that was destroyed at a world named Babardos. At the end of the battle, the Widowmaker Khan later got secretly executed by the Wolverines SaKhan, Franklin Hallis, with tacit approval from Kerensky (who merely wanted to absorb rather than annihilate the Wolverines as a lesson) in a secluded encirclement by the other Clans' Khans before being executed himself. After the Widowmaker duplicity was exposed to the Clan's top leaders, Kerensky erased the Widowmaker Khan’s genes from their eugenics program and enacted a coverup to avoid something on par with the Wars of Reaving tearing Clan Space apart. But Wolverine survivors managed to regroup and flee towards the Inner Sphere as planned.

=== Aftermath ===
To the Clans, the Wolverines became a cultural anathema. Most records were destroyed and what remained was a mostly mythologized account of the Wolverines’ betrayal of the Clans and everything they stood for; seeking to fall back into the ways which laid waste to both the Inner Sphere and Star-League-In-Exile while willing to burn anyone in their way like the original SLDF’s meltdown in the Pentagon Civil Wars. Calling a Clanner a Wolverine is like calling the great grandchild of a Holocaust Survivor a Nazi, now imagine that said person was also raised to be a warrior in a highly militarized honor culture in which the approved way of solving disputes is trial by combat. When the Clans began building IIC variants of the Wolverine model of BattleMech (a time tested medium design that been in production for more than two centuries prior to the Exodus), they renamed it the Conjurer. Much of what remained of Clan Wolverine was gobbled up by Clan Wolf. Ironically, the less rigid interpretation of caste mobility (with transfers of those tested and deemed competent), some of their economic reforms, and the Wolverine BattleMech designs would also be adopted with some duplicity. In the case of the third point, some of the first OmniMechs, such as the Coyotl and Kingfisher, would be based off of the Clan Wolverine’s Mercury II and Pulverizer. In addition, Clan Wolf and the Clan Council would punish the Widowmakers years later for massacring their protesting merchant caste over a trade dispute (and possibly in revenge for escalating things with the Wolverines) with a Trial of Absorption (that ironically killed Nicholas & drove the Wolves into a frenzy that left barely any Widowmaker warriors alive).

While a costly affair in terms of human lives and materiel, the destruction and subsequent anathemization of the Wolverines would be an important step in the consolidation of the Clans. First and most directly it effectively silenced overt opposition to Nicky's new societal model in the remaining 19 Clans. There were still former Star League Clanners at this stage who disagreed with Nicky, including those in positions of power, but after the most brazen display of defiance was stomped out they soon learned to hold their tongues and worked within the system. Additionally the open secret that survivors escaped served as a cultural boogie-man to keep the average Clanner straightened out and in line. For generations which would be born or decanted in Clan Space, the villainy of the Not-Named-Clan would reinforce the social-structure. The Clans are a culture which is based on Traditionalism and a Mythic Narrative; so having a villain who was of the Clans but broke with their traditions was a prime pillar reinforcing that story. In particular driving home the need to both keep with tradition and clamp down against Unclanike heterodoxy. This focus on conformity to Clan Culture served to be a double edged sword that kept the Clan Homeworlds stable while in isolation up until forced adaptation, petty jealousy, and perceived ideological compromises from exposure to Spheroid tactics during the [[Clan Invasion]] tore the Clans apart during the [[Wars of Reaving]].

== Not Quite Dead ==
Of course, the story of the Wolverines did not end here. While their territory was conquered and most of their top troops were killed, much of their second line troops and a decent number of civies got away from the reach of their former fellows on what was basically a Third Exodus. But here things get hazy.
=== Minnesota Tribe ===
In 2825, some strange guys showed up and began raiding the worlds of the [[Draconis Combine]] with advanced WarShips, Aerospace Fighters and BattleMechs. They did not announce who they were, but they did have the insignia of the SLDF's 331st Royal BattleMech Division (Sarah McEvedy's dad's unit) depicting a map of Minnesota which got them the Inner Sphere designation of "Minnesota Tribe". These mysterious attacks drove Coordinator Jinjiro Kurita up the wall before disappearing but not before making him kick off the [[Succession Wars#Second Succession War|Second Succession War]]. These were remnants of Clan Wolverine1, though their exact aim is unknown. They came in, took resources and political prisoners and then left for parts unknown with unknown aims. Though this series of smash and grabs by strange outsiders one of the mysteries which got [[ComStar]]'s Explorer Corps was made to solve, ultimately leading to the [[Clan Invasion]]. Ironically enough, shortly before the Clan Invasion, the Explorer Corps discovered a BattleMech wreckage-enclosed shrine surrounding the graves of the last Wolverine Khans on Barbados (which has secretly been erased from Clan navigation charts by Nicholas as part of his coverup) that was being occasionally visited by Clan Wolverines’ descendants. While no descendants were encountered, the shrine did give hints to ComStar of the Clans' martial society, their ruthlessness in battle, and the Minnesota Tribe’s origins.

1 ''This has been confirmed by the creators''

=== Where are they now? ===
Exactly what happened to the survivors of Clan Wolverine after the Minnesota incident is unknown, both in universe and real life. Here are some speculations (both Watsonian and Doylist in perspective) on that front...
* They joined up with [[ComStar]] and became the core of the religious elements that would be the [[Word of Blake]] (basically a conspiracy theory with little merit, but this was the excuse used by the Great Houses to get the Clans to fight the Jihad).
* They became a 32nd Century warrior group called the Fidelis. (Wrong, they are the remnants of the Smoke Jaguars).
* They became the Umayyads in the Castillian cluster (this was a red herring from the Homworld Clan’s rumors that made the Goliath Scorpions get into a tizzy when they conquered the Castilian Cluster. This was later disproven when genetic tests and historical documents showed them to be pre-Clan SLDF holdouts who fled the Pentagon Worlds. Specifically from POW camps nowhere near Wolverine space after being imprisoned during Operation KLONDIKE for refusing to assimilate with Clan culture).
* They died out (technically possible but ''deeply'' unsatisfying from a narrative perspective and not likely given their access to Star League terraforming machinery and biotechnology alongside Clan exo-wombs).
* They survived, but fell apart into numerous small groups scattered about the periphery with little remaining of the old identity (possible to some degree, but not likely on a grand scale as the risk of someone spilling the beans on their ancestry grows with the number of bean spillers).
* They settled somewhere in the Deep Periphery after the Minnesota Tribe stint and are laying low, either just trying to live quietly while being left alone or building up and plotting payback (most likely some flavor of this based on novels and short stories).

=== Notable 'Mechs ===
* '''''Bull Shark''''' - So far only seen in the 2018 vidyagaem. An Assault-sized brawler with long-ranged sieging capabilities thanks to its back-mounted [[BLAM|Thumper Artillery Cannon]]. It was found inside the Dobrev, an abandoned Wolverine JumpShip found in the Periphery. The Wolf's Dragoons tried to destroy it, but whether they succeed or not depends on the player.
* '''''Mercury II''''' - A medium-sized successor to the ''Mercury'' recon 'Mech. While it lost nearly a third of the original's speed, it had the best of Star League-era tech, jump jets an extra ER Large Laser. At least one survived the Annihilation and is in the hands of Clan Coyote. Its design served as an inspiration for the first OmniMech, the ''Coyotl''.
* '''''Pulverizer''''' - An assault-sized command 'Mech. Mainly equipped with long-ranged weapons like an Enhanced ER PPC, LRM/10s and 2 Large Lasers. Unlike the other Wolverine designs, this one survived the Annihilation and Clan Snow Raven continued to build them. It was succeeded by the ''Kingfisher'' OmniMech.
* '''''Stag''''' - A redesigned ''Vulcan''. Instead of being anti-infantry, it was a cavalry/scout hybrid. It had quite a bite for its size and could run faster than the Vulcan thanks to its MASC. The''Stag II'' variant had a prototype ER PPC for long-ranged combat and replaced the missiles with an extra laser for long-term combat.
{{Stub}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]
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The Clans

2023-02-08T17:00:18Z

2600:1006:B170:CF52:7C86:9BB8:1636:CF62: /* Individual Clans */

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name=
|image= [[Image:Clan Logo.png|250px|center]]
}}
{{Topquote|We will purge our old ideals and ethics; those belong to the corrupt stars of the Inner Sphere, and will not serve as we begin anew. Now, while our minds are open and yearning for new insight, we must re-mold them, and fill them with the truth of our destiny. For we are destined not only to be different from those we left behind, but also better. My father knew this, and saved us from the holocaust of the Inner Sphere. I accept it as truth, and have returned to lead you, the survivors of this most bitter trial.|Nicholas Kerensky}}

{{Topquote|Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the Capellan, 'it belongs to the poor.' 'No! says the ComGuard, 'it belongs to humanity.' 'No!' says the Kuritan Coordinator, 'it belongs to me!' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... the Clan. A culture where the warrior would not suffer the bureaucrat. Where the scientist would not be bound by the autocrat. Where the able would not be ruled by the incompetant. And by the sweat of your brow, the Clan can become your Clan as well.|Nicholas Kerensky}}

'''The Clans''' are a civilization in the [[Battletech]] Universe. Descended from a remnant of the [[Star League]] Defense Force which fled from the Inner Sphere when the shit hit the fan and spend the next two and a half centuries developing on their own course before [[Clan Invasion|returning back in 3049]] from the [[Deep Periphery]].

From an IRL perspective in a very human focused setting without intelligent extraterrestrials, the Clans were designed to be very alien without actually being Aliens. Most BattleTech factions could be bluntly summed up as [[Draconis Combine|"Space Japan"]], [[Federated Suns|"Space England"]], [[Capellan Confederation|"Space China"]], etc. Being designed to have no parallel equivalent culture in real-life to be compared with beyond VERY loose analogies to the steppe nomads and Barbarian invasions that toppled many historic empires, they're not based on any one historic civilization and have a more Science-Fictiony way of operating.

== History ==
In 2766 a guy named Stefan Amaris (ruler of the Rim World's Republic) launched a coup d'état while the majority of the SLDF was out fighting rebellions in the periphery, killing the young First Lord (along with the rest of the Cameron bloodline) and seizing control of the Terran Hegemony. This started a fourteen year long civil war called the [[Amaris Civil War]] in which the SLDF under the command of Aleksandr Kerensky dismantled his support base and moved to liberate the Terran Hegemony in spite of being cut off from resupply and limited support by the Five Great Houses. But while he did succeed in toppling Amaris' Asshole Regime, the Star League did not survive the fall of House Cameron and fell apart shortly afterwards. In spite of internecine infighting within the Great Houses, all agreed to strip Aleksandr Kerensky of his authority while secretly seeking to subvert the SLDF's individual regiments as recruits for their planned wars to claim the Star League's throne. War was on the horizon between the Great Houses but Kerensky was unwilling to seize power for himself or see his remaining army and fleet used in the looming conflict. As such he got the SLDF leadership together in secret and proposed something to save the Inner Sphere and themselves: leave the Inner Sphere and start up somewhere new. Most agreed and in 2785 a fleet loaded with some six million SLDF troops, their families (including Aleksandr's wife Katyusha and two sons Andery and Nicholas) and some folks with valuable skills left the inner sphere for greener pastures.

After a two year long voyage through the unknown, with crowded ships pushed beyond their intended limits and taking care to cover their tracks, losses due to accidents, and an attempted mutiny they found some uninhabited planets beyond the Periphery known as the Pentagon Worlds. They set up shop, discharged most of their soldiers and began rebuilding their lives and establishing a bastion of the Star League in Exile. For about 15 years, it seemed to work. Ex-SLDF soldiers built homes, farms and towns, started families and businesses, and many of them found a measure of peace after a life of carnage. Unfortunately this was not universal and there were problems. Starting a new colony is a lot of hard work, especially when you were cut off from any resupply; meaning that any form of luxury or creature comfort was in short supply. Similarly, once survival was achieved a fair number of people began to lose their sense of purpose and common identity. Some of the demobilized guys decided that they'd be better off forming their own petty kingdoms (many of which were based on old Inner Sphere loyalties) and soon enough there was a big and brutal shit fight in 2800. The closest equivalent to the [[Succession Wars]] in Clan space before the [[Wars of Reaving]], they’d became known as the Pentagon Civil Wars. Aleksandr (already more than 100 years old) died heartbroken, leaving everything in utter disarray.

In this chaos, his son Nicholas managed to get the support of some loyal troops and most of the SLDF Fleet and made his way to another world nearby called Strana Mechty ("Land of the Dream" in Russian) along with about a million pentagon refugees brought in not long after. Convinced that the current order of things and the Star League ways of thinking were fundamentally broken he decided to not only establish a new colony, but also build a new society from the ground up, dividing his warriors into twenty Clans, and soon assigning civilians to each Clan. To nip a second exodus civil war in the bud, each Clan was made from a mix of people from all over the Inner Sphere. Cities were founded, factories built, ammunition was stockpiled, ships were readied and the warriors were drilled constantly. In 2820 the newly formed Clans returned to the Pentagon Worlds during Operation KLONDIKE, reconquering them over the span of two years. But beyond simply restoring order, Nicholas imposed the new (and still forming) culture onto their population. Given that the name Kerensky skill carried a lot of weight, the end to the chaos of civil war, the fact that the system basically worked and Clan Warriors having all the guns the bulk of the remaining population went along with this. Those that did not were one way or another silenced.

After Nicolas's death, the system chugged along quite well with the occasional hiccup in what was known as the Golden Century. What had been a few million war-ravaged refugees soon grew into a thriving civilization, if one which operated quite differently from that of the inner sphere. The population rapidly expanding and new worlds being colonized. The social structure solidified, technological breakthroughs were made and the individual Clans evolved along their own paths. In contrast, the Inner Sphere was busy self destructing due to blood feuds and the machinations of Space AT&T.

Eventually in the 2900s there was a split between two factions of The Clans: the Wardens (who felt the Clans should keep to themselves and only get involved in the Inner Sphere if it was threatened by someone else) and the Crusaders (who saw it as their duty to conquer the Inner Sphere and restore a new Clan based Star League). Honestly, if they allowed caste mobility and injected some capitalism and used government-enforced stamps for extra luxury items as the carrot, a Clan conquest likely would have gone over pretty well all around. Unfortunately they're master race asshats who effectively enslave everyone who isn't a warrior ''(as opposed to the Inner Sphere, where you're a slave because you aren't rich or have the wrong last name)''.

== Society ==
{{topquote|Return to the Inner Sphere is impossible for us. Our heritage and our convictions are different from those we left behind. The greed of the five Great Houses and the Council Lords is a disease that can only be burned away by the passing of decades, even centuries. And though the fighting may seem to slow, or even cease, it will erupt again as long as there are powerful men to covet one another's wealth. We shall live apart, conserving all the good of the Star League and ridding ourselves of the bad, so that when we return — and return we shall — our shining moral character will be as much our shield as our BattleMechs and fighters.|Aleksandr Kerensky, General Order 137, December 5th, 2785. These words would be the Nucleus of the Hidden Hope Doctrine}}

An important fact about the Clans is that they were born from repeat societal trauma. The Amaris Coup and Civil War, the Death of Star League, the Exodus, the Pentagon Civil War and the Second Exodus; these were harrowing events to live through, but also were seen as total failure of the old order of things even if it had aspired to noble ideals and achieved greatness. As such, Nicholas Kerensky and his followers were convinced that for humanity to survive society needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Nicky did work from his specific interpretation of his father's words and borrowed elements from a lot of different historic cultures (Mongols, Sparta, Maoist China, Tokugawa Japan, pre-modern India, various native cultures and probably more), but the aim was to start clean.

[[File:Clan Spaniel.jpg|thumb|left|The Clans have produced fearsome genetically enhanced warriors, revolutionary BattleMechs and some darn fine cartoons (yes this is totally canon)]]
Even though there is a Grand Council for settling disputes and acting as a whole, each Clan operates mostly independently of its fellows. "Peace" is not really a thing in Clan Society, but war is seldom total. When the Clans are not out conquering others, they're fighting low intensity highly ritualized wars with each other. Yet, what made the Clan Homeworlds spared the Succession Wars level of violence that sent the Inner Sphere back to the stone age was the application of Zellbrigan and the Honor Road, which emphasized individual unit and warrior prowess while minimizing collateral damage. This includes codes for honorable surrender. On the downside, while material and technological matters were better preserved (if not improved upon with OmniMechs, Battle Armor, and rapid limb replacement with cloned ones or myomer prosthesis), individual human lives weren’t seen as inherently valuable so concepts such as safety gear and personal healthcare were seen as things only worth providing to those who had more worthwhile skills. So while your typical Scientist, Merchant, and Technician castes has average lifespans, most Laborers and Warriors wound up dead in their 40-50’s due to combat or physical burn-out leaving them as “dead weight” if they can’t do anything useful. It’s bad enough that most elderly Warriors would rather die as disposable infantry sent in the first wave of an assault instead of starving in bed while infirm.

Clan Society is militaristic, authoritarian, honor bound and strictly hierarchical. It's mostly built around a rigid caste system in which one's role in society is typically assigned in childhood and social mobility is a rarity. The Economies of each of the Clans is largely centrally planned and mostly concerned with producing more mechs, ships, weapons and warriors and more clanners to make and support more of those. Humans are mass produced as much as Mechs are in Clan Society1. Motivated by the Clan Home-worlds being harsher and less abundant in resources, wastefulness is discouraged while recycling is the norm to the point that harvesting organs and tissue from the deceased is expected before the cremated ashes are used for crop nutrition. Meanwhile nonproductive activities such as entertainment or leisure were normally seen as incentives to get people working or in extreme cases outright banned. Hence, while stuff like competitive combat sports and athletics are encouraged, things like literature and theatre are treated as frivolous trivialities at best. Most observers note that outside of agriculture, healthcare (for combat injuries), STEM topics, heavy manufacturing, and military-industrial complexes, most non-military related tech and practices were literally frozen in the Star League era. Overall, "Everything for the Clan", "The Clan Provides" and "The Clan Knows Best" are the overarching attitudes.

One of the quirks of Clan Society is that most people only have a given name. More on that in a bit.

The Castes are as such...

* Warrior Caste: The rulers of Clan society trained the Spartan Way. Most of them are grown in bulk in industrial exowomb factories and raised in sibling companies (sibkos), but a few applicants from the general populace are let in. Many flunk out one way or another and become part of the civilian castes while many others end up dying in brutal training regimens and trials for combat. Those that become Warriors are typically hard as nails and brutal fighters. By far the smallest caste. Those who are nearing retirement age (typically 30-50’s in their hyper competitive society) or forced to retest if they failed graduation in a live fire exercise are usually placed in lackluster duties like police, intelligence services, non-power armored infantry, and armored vehicle formations. They're three main flavors of Clan Warriors...
**[[Clan Elemental|Elementals]]: Battletech's answer to Space Marines, huge guys and gals who wear power armor and act as shock troops.
**Pilots: Small fellows with big eyes and heads who can take a lot of Gs like the T'au's Air Caste.
**Mech Warriors: The most regular warriors, but optimized with improved reflexes and increased neuro-helmet compatibility.
* Scientist Caste: Scientists, inventors, researchers and the like who expand on the Clan's knowledge base and run the eugenics programs. As the Clans have advanced technologically where the inner sphere has regressed, they've been largely successful. The second most powerful caste in Clan society who can actually overrule the warriors on certain matters such as eugenics or technology.
* Technician Caste: Mechanics, engineers, and spacecraft crews who keep the machinery of Clan Society humming along. They work with the Warrior Caste directly more than most which gives them some clout.
* Merchant Caste: Traders as well as managers, artists and a wide variety of other functions required to run the economy of Clan Society. They have a higher status in Clan Diamond Shark, since Diamond Shark Warriors can honorably retire to this caste with reservist status if the Clan requires more manpower.
* Laborer Caste: The proles who do all the grunt work to keep everyone else fed, housed, equipped, armed, pooping in unclogged toilets and so forth. The largest caste, no less due to Battletech's universe using neo-feudalism.
* Dark Caste: Not an official caste but a bunch of outcasts which live on the edges of Clan society in hiding. Makes for convenient target practice for clan warriors. They either survive as pirates, smugglers, or organized criminal syndicates that try to disguise themselves as guilds (which isn't hard as the Free Guilds do exist independently of each clan but are publicly regulated).

In addition each caste has it's own internal hierarchy where merit and competition determines your pecking order. For example the Merchant Caste has retail clerks at the bottom and top negotiators for big inter-clan deals at the top. And while each caste committee is technically subordinate to the Warrior exclusive Clan Council, the council mostly let the civilian castes do what they deem best unless it deals with the Clan’s existential matters or martial affairs. In terms of warriors, the inter-Clan’s competition is not only reflected in rising up the ranks from sib-cadet to Khan but a Desire to win a Bloodname through gaining honorable victory for their clan. Having a BloodName means they get a surname and their genes will be be guaranteed for use to produce the next batch of Warriors while they can participate in Clan Council. Conversely, any disgrace a warrior commits risks anything from demotion at best to outright eliminating their entire Bloodname’s BloodHouse from the Clan’s records and genetic repository. Really accomplished scientists can be awarded a Labname like "Einstein" or "Darwin", but non-Scientists rarely use them.

Two other known divides between members within Clan society depends on their type of birth and their national origin. With the Clan scientist caste’s access to Iron Wombs and eugenic genecraft, Clansmen are classified as either Trueborn or Freeborn. The former are literal designer babies who are grown in an artificial amniotic womb while the latter are naturally born. Due to the Clans’ focus on breeding the best of their warriors for beneficial traits as quickly as possible, Trueborn are generally deemed superior. On the other hand, whether it's due to their superior training regimes or genes is up for debate. Likewise, there's a distinction between those born within a Clan and those who were absorbed as bondsmen captured from other Clans or factions. Their outcome depends on each Clan's attitude and the captured person's origins. Ideally, transplanted outsiders are either treated the same as native clansmen and promoted based on their merit, loyalty, and adaptability to Clan culture. Conversely, captured outsiders could also be subjugated to de-facto second class citizenship from either prejudice against enemies or the natives’ superiority complex.

A big part of Clan Society, especially in the Warrior Caste, is tradition and ritual. On the whole they have a rather "meh" view of religion (partly due to their utilitarian mindset and a big portion of their population being designer babies), but it's role is largely filled by the Hidden Hope Doctrine and a cult of personality mixed with hero worship of the Clan’s original leaders. Aleksandr and Nicholas Kerensky are all but worshiped as "the Founders". Warriors must past through a variety of trials to achieve position and within the Clan's hierarchy. The Clans preserve and teach their history through ''The Remembrance'', a long epic poem that summarizes each Clan’s glory. Bloodnames are part of that. In general they try to cultivate an air of mystery and impart subtle meanings into the various rituals. All of which are conceived to reinforce the ideals of The Clans and Clan identity into future generations on an emotional level. On the same note, Clanners tend to be very conformist with little tolerance for un-Clanlike Behavior at the best of times.

In particular in their mythologized view of history Star League was a bountiful paradise despoiled by the greed and spite by wicked petty power hungry leaders, especially the five Great House (in of itself this is not a bad interpretation of events). As such they view the people of the Inner Sphere having fallen into Barbarism. This is notable because it gives them a standard to define themselves against as well as prejudices their outlooks against others.

Another side effect to Clan culture’s emphasis on conformity and blunt honesty is that they tend to suffer against piracy operations and guerrilla warfare when they invade non-Clanner territories. In contrast to civilians and other Clans accepting new rulers in Clan Space as a fact of life, the Inner Sphere had no compunction against nationalist resistance movements. Hence why the Dark Caste and pirates thrive in the Clan Occupation Zones. While civilian and certain Clan politics are just as two-faced as anyone else, outright breaking agreements without justification or blatant lies unless it’s half-truths and subtle deception is unheard of. Hence, the Clans suffered in intelligence operations before the Blakist Jihad. While later clans were able to adjust in the Inner Sphere with commando raids, headhunting operations, open intelligence gathering, and sleeper agents, outright assassination and espionage were still prohibited as anathema against honorable combat. Otherwise, they just suspend Zellbrigan application to war if they deem their foes dishonorable to permit total war.

1Both by Exowombs and more conventional means. Clan Civilian Society is pronatalist, encouraging large families with various incentives, extensive childcare services and similar to keep up a steady supply of babies and see to them until adulthood. On a similar note, Clanners are as a rule rather casual about sex as long as contraception is employed for casual hook-ups. This is especially the case for Warriors, who think of sex as a fun thing to do with your friends if they're up for it.

== Individual Clans ==
There are originally twenty clans formed by Nicholas Kerensky but over the course of the centuries, many were destroyed or absorbed into other factions.

[[Category: BattleTech]]
* '''[[Clan Wolf]]''': The first "Mary Sue" Clan, having the ilKhan along their ranks kinda marks you for that. Also known for fielding the Timber Wolf which plenty call a poster boy for the series. They actually won their objectives in the battle of Tukayyid. As of a recent novel, they're now ilClan with Jade Falcon as their bodyguard and Smoke Jaguar reconstituted as their special forces. The Wolves' superpower is that they tend to show up with an actual strategy for both winning the war and winning the peace that comes after the war, a rare thing in the highly dogmatic and Trial-obsessive Clan culture.
* '''[[Clan Jade Falcon]]''': The other "Mary Sue" Clan. Also the Purist Clan, since they are staunch traditionalists which stick with Nicky's vision as tightly as they can. When you think of honor-crazed warrior cultures that went full murder-hobo, you're thinking Jade Falcon. Were the asshats that invaded '''MY HOME PLANET''' in the animated series. They earned themselves a draw on Tukayyid at about the last minute.
* '''[[Clan Smoke Jaguar]]''': The Asshole Clan. Aggressive militarists who value only strength and treat their civilian castes like crap. They make Jade Falcon look nice as the green birb gets that rewarding loyal productivity gets you more of it. They earned getting smoked on Tukayyid, bidding away a vast majority of their forces to get the first deployment and only to have them repeatedly baited into ambush after ambush on Tukayyid by being the most aggressive Clan during the invasion, and ultimately demolished in the Second Star League's counterattack during the Trial of Refusal.
* ''' Clan Blood Spirit:''' The Bitter Keener Clan. One of the smaller of the Clans, Clan Blood Spirit was conceived as the embodiment of the esprit de corps of the Clans by Nicholas Kerensky. Clan Blood Spirit wore military dress uniforms and sent ambassadors to the other Clans for diplomacy and were also the most tradition minded and isolationist of the Clans. Though producing the best warriors individually, the Blood Spirits lacked overall numbers and resources due to their pursuit of perfection. Their bitterness towards the other Clans for abandoning what they saw as Kerensky's vision ensured they had few friends. Got blown the fuck up during Wars of Reaving, and were Annihilated in 3084.
* '''[[Clan Diamond Shark|Clan Diamond Shark/Sea Fox]]''': The Money Clan. Once Clan Sea Fox until they saw a Diamond Shark devour a Sea Fox whole. Fitting that their fighting strength was almost wiped out in Tukayyid due to their inexperience in fighting a actual war as opposed to the dance and diddy that the Clans call a war. Currently going by Clan Sea Fox again, mostly run by merchants after their warrior caste was basically butchered to the last.
* '''Clan Ghost Bear''': The Practical Clan. Moderate fence sitters that actually attempt to do their homework on their foe? My God, it is like they have a brain... At any rate, Ghost Bear are unusual for the Clans in that they actually practice something akin to normal family structures, and were slow to adapt new tactics but moved in a steady pace for effect. The other Clan that got a draw on Tukayyid. They eventually shacked up with the [[Free Rasalhague Republic|Rasalhagues]] to make their own hybrid state.
* '''Clan Nova Cat''': The Mystic Clan. Brought in to help Clan Smoke Jaguar, they ended up joining the Inner Sphere instead. However, they got the shit beaten out of them first by the Ghost Bears and then by their Inner Sphere hosts once they backed the wrong faction in a Kuritan Civil War; killing them off. All that remains are their Spirit Cat descendants in the Free Worlds League and unaccounted refugees.
*'''Clan Steel Viper''': The smug clan. This clan had a rough start since their first Khan was a yandere (for real). They mostly isolated themselves and focused on making super-elite soldiers while dreaming about how they'd rule the Inner Sphere. This got them a spot as back-up for the Jade Falcons, but having super-elite infantry is not a replacement for actually good mechs, and they got kicked out of the Inner Sphere by the Falcons, started the [[Wars of Reaving]], and ultimately got murk'd.
* '''Clan Cloud Cobra''': The Religious Clan. Everything they do is in service to what they call "The Way", a sort of pseudo-religion that generally prefers them to keep their nose out of trouble and honor the sanctity of life. Normally this would mean they were prime real estate to get eaten alive by the others, but The Way does call for war when struck, and many a clan has realized far too late that Cloud Cobra isn't just a bunch of peaceniks, they're sharp as a tack and exceptionally politically devious. Currently the second largest power in the Clan Homeworlds Post-reaving, probably tending their gardens and reading psalms to each other when they aren't crank calling Clan Coyote.
* '''Clan Star Adder''': The Pragmatic Clan. Star Adder had no time for the pseudo-religious trappings of any Kerensky worship, simply seeing Alex and his kid as noteworthy generals in their own right. This lack of interest in the ritualism and especially the politics of the Clans lead to a very close relationship between all caste members equally, and attracting little notice in inter-clan relationships. Eventually ended up the biggest clan among the Homeworlds once Steel Viper had accidentally made it super easy to get rid of them, and are for the most part buddies with Cloud Cobra and Stone Lion, while tolerating Clan Coyote's presence.
* '''Clan Coyote''': The Survivor Clan. Initially did fantastically for themselves as a noble practitioner group of Zellbringen as well as best buddies with Clan Wolf, as well as being the clan directly responsible for the development of OmniMech technology and their Khan was briefly IlKhan for a bit before a Snow Raven plot killed her. Since that point, they've largely been shunned, if not sent away from Clan Space after the Wars of Reaving, but still survive to this day, though far more ruthless in their aims. Their first Khan was the lover of Andery Kerensky (Nicholas' younger brother), and both Clan Wolf and Coyote use their genetic legacies to create sibkos in memory of them every so often.
* '''Clan Snow Raven''': The Sneaky Clan. Due to a series of major military disasters early on in their history, this clan has spent most of its time playing realpolitik against itself and the rest of the Clans, preferring to stay out of open confrontation due to their lackluster forces. Have a lot of naval prowess due to their occasional need to hit the stellar bricks. Eventually shacked up with the [[Outworlds Alliance]] government to become the Raven Alliance.
* '''Clan Burrock:''' The Not-So-Stiff Clan. A Clan named after an insect that burrowed through solid rock with its acidic saliva. Clan Burrock was known for its liberal attitude towards its civilian castes, often to the point where captured Burrocks had difficulties adopting to more strict Clans. They mostly drifted towards Crusader leanings. They were absorbed by Clan Star Adder after the Inner Sphere invasion and the Refusal War for its association with the Dark caste. Ironically right when the current Burrock Khan discovered this link and tried distancing the Clan's association herself. The absorption into Clan Star Adder angered a lot of former Burrocks to the point that Clan remnants committed themselves fully to to the Dark Caste, leading to the former Clan's involvement with The Society during the Wars of Reaving, where the Clan remnants was fully exterminated.
* '''Clan Goliath Scorpion:''' The Stoner Clan with a twist of Indiana Jones treasure hunting. Have a deep preference for extremely precise strikes as opposed to brute forcing their way through things, while also requiring getting absolutely blasted on refined scorpion venom. Deep Warden feelings and an obsession with the past meant they basically kept themselves out of most clanner bullshit unless pressed. They also had a habit of trying to secure bloodlines or artifacts linked the the Star League and actually think they can find them with visions induced by said cocktail of narcotic scorpion venom. Eventually got into trouble for illegally adding bloodlines to their eugenics program from the [[Mercenaries (Battletech)|SLDF descended Eridani Light Horse]] and just fucked off to the [[Deep Periphery]] to go fight the conquer the Castilian Cluster and the Hanseatic League to start their own empire.
* '''Clan Ice Hellion:''' The Speedster Clan. The [[White Scars|White Scars Legion]] of the Clans. Their M.O. can be described as 'attack attack ATTACK! with SPEED! Was a constant thorn in the side of Warden Clans and a major advocate for invading the Inner Sphere, but never amounted to a major player of the invasion. Cut out of the invasion, they lashed out at the other Clans during The Hellion's Fury (ridiculed as the "Hellion Tantrum" by the other Clans). Was mostly wiped out during the Reavings, what survived was absorbed by Clan Goliath Scorpion.
* '''Clan Hell's Horses:''' The Biker Clan, for as much as one can be a Biker in Battletech. Known primarily for their use of combat vehicles <s>rather than</s> alongside Mechs. Hells Horses has the distinction of being an extremely stable Clan, if not the most powerful, due to their personal belief that all within it, including the Freeborn, serve the [[greater good]] of the Clan. Eventually fucked off to the Inner Sphere, with a hardliner contingent remaining behind and becoming a different clan altogether known as Clan Stone Lion.
* '''Clan Fire Mandrill''': The Horde Clan. Set up almost the exact opposite way as Hell's Horses, as it is organized in to dozens of mini-Clans called ''Kindraa'', who often fought amongst themselves just as much as they fought other Clans. Unsurprisingly, they got completely wrecked by the Wars of Reaving.
* '''Clan Mongoose''': The Bitey Clan. Notably for fighting everyone they could all the time for any petty reason. Their antics made them a lot of enemies and eventually they got curb-stomped and absorbed in 2868. Unfortunately they got mopped up by Smoke Jaguar.
* '''[[Clan Wolverine]]''': The Not-Named Clan whom all the other Clans hate with a burning passion. Betrayed by the original founders of the Clans for being better at the Clan thing than Kerensky was. It sounds like sarcasm but sadly it’s literally what happened. Survivors wondering who-knows-where (called the Minnesota Tribe when they stormed through the Inner Sphere away from Clan Space, they seem to call themselves the Clave now), but the main Clan went out as balls-to-the-wall badasses.
*'''Clan Widowmaker:''' A short-lived Clan that is most notably known for having a personal beef with Clan Wolverine and Clan Wolf. They masterminded the downfall of the Not-Named Clan using a false flag attack with a nuke. Karma struck the Widowmakers a decade later, when they went too far in mistreating the civilian castes and wiped out their own Merchants for wanting some respect. Originally sentenced to be Absorbed by Clan Wolf after being deemed unfit to rule, the last Widowmaker Khan, Cal Jorgensson, killed Nicolas Kerensky with a cockpit shot while the IlKhan was supervising the Trial, in the midst of fighting off an illegal intervention of a Widowmaker Star. In an angry outburst at the loss of the Clans' founder, Clan Wolf unofficially Annihilated the clan after killing Jorgensson, burned their worlds of Roche (homeworld) and Ironhold (site of Kerensky's death) to the ground, and later absorbed their Bloodnames. The black widow moniker used by Natasha and Anastasia Kerensky can be traced back to bloodlines absorbed by Clan Wolf, and subsequently used in those individuals' creation.

== Clan Military ==
Each Clan has it's own military collectively called a Touman. They share some common practices and conventions laid out by Nicholas Kerensky, but within said boundaries each Clan is free to set up their forces more or less as they see fit, and usually each does according to their Clan's ouvre. Of course, what makes the Clans so dangerous regardless of their individual affiliation is their [[OmniMech]]s, which were often lightyears ahead in terms of modular design and technological strength of the Inner Sphere's BattleMechs. On top of that, their tendency of using jump-jet equipped power armored infantry piggybacking off of their OmniMechs enabled them to have swarms of MEQ’s either ripping vehicles or bunkers when BattletMech use would be deemed overkill.

But while they hold a technological edge, where the Clans falter greatly is in tactical strength. Most Clan warfare prior to the invasion was limited to the honor-bound, extremely skirmish-heavy battles fought between each other where both sides showed up, told each other what they'd be fighting with, and often fighting only in significant duels. All this was supplemented with a heavy emphasis on Mech warfare (or whatever hat the individual Clan wears), a massive culture-wide bias against intelligence gathering due to it being "dishonorable", and what the Zellbringen code allows; which meant they often plopped only the bare minimum of assets down to complete their missions as a personal dare to win with as little as possible. While in theory this is done to both minimize casualties and keep valuable resources alive and working for the Clan to use, the simple fact of the matter is Clanner warfare is continually hamstrung by itself; The Inner Sphere Successor States are under absolutely no delusions about war being an honorable thing, and were able to effectively fracture their entire society by daring to be cute with their own ideas of warfare, coming to one of the harshest wake-up calls they ever got in the Battle of Tukayyid, and any gains they took from the Inner Sphere from the initial invasion almost immediately began to crumble as their attitudes towards their new subjects ultimately plopped them into a series of guerilla wars, something utterly alien to them. Some Clans wised up and decided to try and learn something from this, others have yet to understand why things happened the way they did and returned to the Periphery.

The Clans tend to organize themselves depending on their culture, but generally speaking have their own military structure. Unlike the Inner Sphere which uses the traditional "chain of command", "grunt to general" approach, the Clans do not necessarily have an officer system by the traditional method. Every Warrior is considered roughly the same until you get to the Point Commander rank, at which point traditional methods kick back in, but even so the relationship is much less formal. In contrast to the Inner Sphere's "Base Four" or ComStar's "Base Six" system, every part of the Clan Touman is organized into a "Base Five" system, which organizes everything into even groups of five.

The Clan Toumans are (typically) organized into:
* Point: 1 Mech, 2 Tanks, 5 Elementals or 25 Regular Infantry. Commanded by a Point Commander/MechWarrior.
* Star: 5 Points. Considered the "base" unit of Clan warfare. Most Stars are all of one combat role, as mixed Stars tend to do poorly. Commanded by a Star Commander.
** Nova: combined arms Stars (between a Star and a Binary in size) that have to be trained extra rigorously to be competitive. Commanded by a Nova Commander.
* Binary: 2 Stars. The point at which Combined Arms becomes feasible. Either they or a Trinary is commanded by a Star Captain.
** Trinary: expanded variant with 3 Stars. If they're the Khan's personal bodyguard unit, they're called a Keshik.
** Super Nova: combined arms Binaries or Trinaries. Commanded by a Nova Captain.
* Cluster: 3-5 Binaries. Commanded by Star Colonels. Among Clan Sea Fox, they’re called Aimags commanded by OvKhans.
* Galaxy: 3-5 Clusters, plus an extra Trinary for Command. Commanded by either Galaxy Commanders, the LoreMaster, or either the Khan or SaKhan. Generally a logistical designation because the process of Clan warfare bidding down typically ensures that Galaxies will only ever be deployed rarely. Among Clan Sea Fox, they’re called Khanates commanded by SaKhans.

===== Notable 'Mechs =====

Due to the fact that they showed up out of nowhere unannounced besides a few Batchalls, Clan Battlemechs have both official names and Inner Sphere code names. The following "original sixteen" are the most common frontline OmniMechs used in the invasion, and found in most Clans' toumans:

* '''''IIC BattleMechs''''' - As the Clans never lost their technology, they continued to develop and evolve the Star League-era 'Mechs into stronger and deadlier versions. Curiously, by the time of the Clan Invasion, these were considered obsolete by Clanners due to them lacking the modularity of OmniMechs, and were not used in the frontlines with a few exceptions like the Hunchback IIC, which was basically a suicide weapon for ''solahma'' (old) and/or ''dezgra'' (disgraced) MechWarriors, and the Conjurer/Hellhound/Wolverine IIC, which is quite versatile for longer battles thanks to its mostly energy arsenal. While less versatile than OmniMechs, they're more than a match for most Spheroid designs; a lesson many Spheroids learned the hard way when they tried raiding Clan territory behind the front lines.
* '''''[[Timber Wolf|Timber Wolf/Mad Cat]]''''' - The Clanners' most famous 'Mech. Actually quite a preposterously expensive thing, but the fact it can blast it's way through Assault 'Mechs makes it a favorite. It's Inner Sphere name comes from their targeting computers being incapable of deciding whether or not it's a ''Marauder'' or a ''Catapult'', and so flashed MAD CAT over and over whenever it showed up. Developed (and produced exclusively) by Clan Wolf, though most other Clans acquired them by trade or salvage during the century leading up to the invasion.
* '''''[[Mad Dog|Mad Dog/Vulture/Hagetaka]]''''' - The Clan's OTHER most famous 'Mech. Basically the Timber Wolf's leaner, scrappy little brother, resembling the Inner Sphere's Archer. Follows the same basic concept of shoulder mounted missiles and arm mounted energy guns, but has a little more pod space in exchange for a lighter chassis and armor. Can hot-swap the LRMs for an absurd number of SRMs, [[What|or its entire loadout for a pair of Gauss Rifles]]. First built by Clan Smoke Jaguar but most popular with the Ghost Bears.
* '''''[[Summoner (BattleTech)|Summoner/Thor]]''''' - The Summoner fills the unusual role of being a heavy 'Mech that sacrifices weaponry for mobility, generally giving up redundancy in its weapons in order to carry jump jets and maintain a flexible loadout with less capacity. The result is a 'Mech that's pretty good at moving in fast and bullying things smaller than itself, but doesn't want to tangle with assault class stuff unless it has weight of numbers; not because it doesn't have the armor (see the Hellbringer and Executioner) but because it doesn't bring [[dakka|enough guns]]. Resembles the Inner Sphere's Thunderbolt. The favorite 'Mech of Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''Hellbringer/Loki''''' - A glass cannon, carrying a versatile array of weaponry at the cost of having laughably weak armor for a heavy 'Mech. Its primary configuration resembles the Inner Sphere's Warhammer, with twin ER PPCs in the arms mated to a targeting computer, backup lasers and anti-infantry weapons. The other favorite mech of Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''[[Dire Wolf (BattleTech)|Dire Wolf/Daishi]]''''' - The last word in mech-to-mech encounters. Where the Summoner is happy being a schoolyard bully and the Hellbringer is minmaxed for DPS, the Dire Wolf is just one huge chungus that simply does not care what the enemy brought. 100 tons, unapologetically slow, with an absurd amount of firepower and armor, this is the ultimate assault mech. Barring a lucky headshot this mech will outlast and crush anything you throw its way; underestimate it at your own peril. This is the mech every Mechwarrior dreams of piloting, and many important figures(Natasha Kerensky, Victor Steiner-Davion, Hohiro Kurita) design their own(even stronger) custom variants. This design was fought over between Clan Wolf and Clan Smoke Jaguar and also produced secretly on Outreach by Wolf's Dragoons.
* '''''Executioner/Gladiator''''' - A strange take on the concept of an Assault Mech. At 95 tons it can mount a lot of equipment, but focuses on mobility through jump jets and MASC. As the downside to this, it has anemic side torso armor, meaning it gets cut in half whenever faced with any real attrition. But as an upside, its speed and good leg armor make it a great Elemental transport, and carrying Elementals can help guard its side torsos... sadly most of its configurations have long range weapons while Elementals need to be brought in close. The stereotypical Ghost Bear omnimech.
* '''''[[Warhawk|Warhawk/Masakari]]''''' - Pure evil, bringing this to a friendly game will turn some heads. Heavily armored, average speed, the classic Warhawk carries [[Rape|FOUR CLAN ER PPCS]] in its arms, mercilessly vaporizing limbs and heads of anyone unfortunate to be caught in its sights. If that isn't enough, every variant carries a massive Targeting Computer, essentially giving the pilot an aimbot. A common variant swaps two ER PPCs for Large Pulse Lasers, allowing it to better manage its heat while firing with even greater accuracy. One of Clan Smoke Jaguar's signature designs.
* '''''Gargoyle/Man o'War''''' - The infamous SpurdoMech is somewhat of an unusual design, an assault mech that moves above its weight class but has (relatively) weak leg armor. Its Prime also has the misfortune of having ballistic weapons yet too many heat sinks, its twin LB5X autocannons forcing it squarely into an anti-vehicle role. Its lack of torso weapons and its speed make it a good Elemental transport and Clan Wolf builds them in large numbers: however overall it is weaker than the lighter Timber Wolf (unless mech quirks are in play). Also somewhat popular with Clan Ghost Bear. (apparently the weird configuration works well under specialized Clan duel rules)
* '''''Stormcrow/Ryoken''''' - The close combat star of the clan mediums, usually packing fists and lasers although sometimes fitted for long range. At 97 km/h it's faster than everything it can't take down. Doesn't get much time in the spotlight compared to its slower, heavier cousin the Mad Dog, but it comes from the same family of flexible second-gen omnimechs. A workhorse design for many Clans but most popular with the Smoke Jaguars.
* '''''Nova/Black Hawk''''' - One of the oldest OmniMech designs still in use, the Nova is uncommon yet universal among the Clans as a medium mech that can (briefly) throw dakka like mechs 20 tons heavier than itself. Infamous for running HOT with TWELVE ER Medium Lasers, the king of alpha strikes. Also has a PPC sniper variant which is quite good, and a couple configurations that try to pack ballistic weapons and missiles despite the fixed heat sinks.
* '''''Ice Ferret/Fenris''''' - A swift yet well armored scout that can do some sniping to boot. Originally built as a harasser to counter the Timber Wolf, Clan Wolf liked it enough to capture a factory and started producing it themselves. Now is a ubiquitous sight in their touman.
* '''''Viper/Dragonfly''''' - A fast jumper, often described (incorrectly) as lacking punch. [[Cheese|Known for being one of the first mechs to combine jumping 8 hexes (extremely hard to be hit) with pulse lasers (extremely easy to hit the enemy).]] A great Elemental transport and infantry killer popular with the Ghost Bears and Wolves.
* '''''[[Adder|Adder/Puma]]''''' - The largest of the Clans' ubiquitous light OmniMechs is a bit of an oddity. While not particularly fast for a light mech, it carries a pair of ER PPCs with a targeting computer, making it a true sniper. As an OmniMech, it can switch to being a gnarly missile boat in an hour or two. Most often found among Clan Wolf (though the Fenris fits the scout role of a light mech better).
* '''''Kit Fox/Uller''''' - Similar to the Adder in most respects, though lighter armored, the Kit Fox tends to carry a more balanced assortment of weapons in its variants, rather than boating one thing in particular. Except for the EW/anti-infantry variant, which happens to have a whopping three anti-missile systems. Recently canonized as having a dedicated Arrow IV variant(read: a guided, auto-loading cruise missile launcher), meaning it can be equipped with [[Exterminatus|nuclear weapons]]. Unsurprising, given that it is produced by Clan Jade Falcon.
* '''''Mist Lynx/Koshi''''' - A 25 ton dedicated scout OmniMech packing more weapons than its Inner Sphere equivalents, but nothing special as far as Clan mechs go. [[Derp|Infamous for having one less jump jet than needed to be truly evasive, putting nearly half its torso armor on its rear facing, while fully armoring the head]]. Used by Clan Smoke Jaguar in the rare OOC instance that they attempt reconnaissance.
* '''''Fire Moth/Dasher''''' - [[Meme|GOTTA GO FAST]]. A derpy little machine with arms that stretch high above its head, and speed that far exceeds anything the Inner Sphere thought a BattleMech could be capable of. It still manages to have more guns than Inner Sphere mechs twice its size, too- Clan tech is just that powerful. Surprisingly the light mech of choice for Clan Ghost Bear, which actually makes a lot of sense: the Clan that prefers Elementals and plays American Football loves a mech that runs up and flings the battle armor overhand at the enemy.

== Clan Terminology ==
The Clans speak English. A rather formal variant of it which avoids contractions, but English none-the-less. Even so they have added a few words and terminology specific to their culture.

* '''Abtakha''': A Clan Warrior adopted as a bondsman from another Clan or Faction after being captured and assimilated.
* '''Aff''': Affirmative. Can be combined with Query to form the inquisitive term, Quiaff.
* '''Batchall''': Battle Challenge. Before a fight, you lay out your intent and declare the forces that will fight to achieve them. [[Meme|Refuse at your own peril]].
* '''Bondsman''': A prisoner of war that serves as an indentured labourer. Among Clanners it's Honorable to surrender if you are overwhelmed, but once you do you have to obey your captors. Otherwise you are not only throwing away your Honor but pissing on your Clan's as well. One can conduct Bondsref (Bond Refusal) as ritual suicide before capture. Bondsmen are kept for a number of years before being either returned home or (if they choose) inducted into the Clan.
* '''Canister/Trash Born''': Someone grown in an Exowomb. (insult version among more rebellious civilians).
* '''Dezgra/Chalcas''': Disgrace/Un-Clanlike.
* '''Freeborn''': Someone born the old fashioned way. Less favored source of Warriors.
* '''Freebirth''': Someone born the old fashioned way (insult version).
* '''Giftake''': a sample of a Warrior’s genetic material collected at death. Generally believed to be a more promising source for breeding greater warriors than samples collected when the Warrior is alive.
* '''Hegira''': safe pass of enemy troops granted by defenders out of a war zone if deemed honorable.
* '''ilClan''': The title intended for the Clan that succeeds in capturing Earth/Terra. They will become the permanent leaders of all Clans and their Khan will always be the ilKhan.
* '''ilKhan''': The supreme leader of all Clans and since 3151, the leader of the Star League.
* '''Isorla''': Spoils of war for the Clan, including conquered peoples. Abbreviation for "Individuals, Supplies, OR, LAnd."
* '''Khan''': The leader of a Clan and the commander of their ''touman''.
* '''Kurultai''': From Mongolian terminology. A Clan War council composed of all Bloodnamed Warriors. The Grand Kuraltai or Grand Council is the entirety of all Bloodnamed warriors from all Clans and is needed to elect an IlKhan (or Khan of Khans) if inter-Clan coordination is required.
* '''Neg''': Negative. Can be combined with Query to from the inquisitive term, Quineg.
* '''Not-Named''': Anything/Anyone that has been Abjured/Annihilated and is widely despised by all Clanners. Most often used with Clan Wolverine (The Not-Named Clan) and Ellie Kinnison, the first Steel Viper Khan and the first Warrior Reaved for trying to assassinate Nicholas’ wife (The Not-Named Khan).
* '''Rede''': Oath. Any broken oath considered extremely serious, and is sometimes punishable by death. A variant is Surkairede where a warrior apologizes honorably for being wrong and being honorably pardoned in turn without grudges.
* '''Ristar/Elstar''': Rising Star/Elite Rising Star. Used as a term for rising elite Warriors with lots of potential.
* '''saKhan''': A Khan's second in command. They also carry out the duties their Khan cannot do personally.
* '''SafeCon''': safe passage of enemy troops granted by a defender into a war zone if enemies are honorable.
* '''Seyla''': possibly derived from the Hebrew term, sela, and roughly translated as "So shall it be.” It was the name of Clan Wolf freeborn warrior Seyla, who sacrificed herself to save Khan Jerome Winston during the Clan Widowmaker Absorption Trial of Refusal, in the context of the Clans it can be translated as "Unity".
* '''Sibko''': Sibling Company. Basically communized groups of children called sibcadets who’re raised from infant creches. Those who pass all tests are made Warriors (out of maybe a dozen) while those who fail are made civilians.
* '''Solahma''': elderly warriors who are past their prime. Yearn to earn final glory in combat instead of ignominious death by age.
* '''Stravag''': Another term for Freebirth. Loosely derived from Russian.
* '''Surat''': generic insult based off some rodents used as pets by civilians.
* '''Touman''': A Clan's entire military strength in the form of all Galaxy assets combined. Derived from Mongolian.
* '''Trial''': ritualized warfare used by the Clans. Variants include Abjuration to wipe the target from the history records for unforgivable crimes (with punishment being exile or execution), Position to gain warrior ranking, Bloodright to claim a bloodname, Grievance to settle irreconcilable disputes, Possession/Absorption to claim or merge units or territories into a Clan, Refusal as an appeal against a Clan Council/commander’s controversial decisions that one vehemently objects to, and Annihilation against those who commit war crimes against humanity and are a threat to all Clan society.
** '''Rite''': Hybrid combination versions of Clan Trials. Examples include Adoption to welcome bondsmen into their new Clan or Reaving/Propagation to adjust number of Bloodlines in terms of competence or mediocrity.
*** Note: while Abjuring, Reaving, and Annihilating seem synonymous, the difference is in terms of a sliding scale of severity: starting at exile/execution; then wiping out the name, genes, and records of a warrior or unit; and ending at the extreme of exterminating or sterilizing any trace or relatives of the culprit in question. Additionally, the first two can be reversed with Adoption or Propagation but Annihilation can only be voided if the culprit proves innocence by killing all their accusers in the Trial.
* '''Trueborn''': Someone grown in an Exowomb. More favored source of Warriors.
* '''Wolverine''': Due to the Not-Named Clan, comparing a Clanner with a wolverine is an extremely offensive insult that will make them lose their shit and try to kill the one who said it.
* '''Zellbrigen''': honorable warrior conduct based on the [[Ares Convention]] and one-on-one combat. Akin to Kuritan Bushido.

== Clanners of Note ==
* Nicholas Kerensky: Son of Aleksandr Kerensky, founder of the Clans and the first ilKhan. Often known as the Founding Father.
* Jennifer Winson: Mother of the Clans and Kerensky's wife.
* The first forty Khans: known as the Founders
** Sarah McEvedy: First and only Khan of Clan Wolverine. Supposedly killed during their annihilation, but was instead captured and spared by Kerensky himself. Apparently she led her clan's remnants out of the Kerensky Cluster alongside Trish and their reformation into the Minnesota Tribe.
** Trish Ebon: Third saKhan of Clan Wolverine. Survived the Annihilation and led the remnants of her clan outside Clan space.
** Ellie Kinnison: First Khan of Clan Steel Viper. Infamous for being a crazy yandere that had the hots on Kerensky himself. Ultimately went completely crazy and tried to murder his wife, which led to her death at her own saKhan's hands. After her death, she and her Bloodname were Abjured and wiped from the records by Kerensky. She's now only remembered as the Not-Named Khan.
** Steven Breen: First saKhan of Clan Steel Viper, and its second Khan. Rebelled against Kinnison's madness and killed her to save Winson. His actions saved the Steel Vipers from sharing Kinnison's fate.
* Lincoln Osis: Last Khan of Clan Smoke Jaguar. His extreme bloodlust led to his death and his clan's destruction at the hands of the Second Star League.
* Vladimir Ward: Savior of the Crusader half of Clan Wolf.
* Brett Andrews: The last Khan of Clan Steel Viper. Also known as the Bloody IKhan for starting the [[Wars of Reaving]] that led to the Homeworld Clans' downfall.

== External Links ==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDR_Zpb05uk Part One of Tex's series on Clan History]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B165wbTnHs Part Two of Tex's series on Clan History]

{{Battletech Factions}}

Dinosaur

2023-02-08T16:58:17Z

2600:1006:B170:CF52:7C86:9BB8:1636:CF62:

{{awesome}}
[[Image:Tyrannosaurus.jpg|300px|thumb|right|A ''Tyrannosaurus rex''! (Now inaccurate, the real thing was scaly in light of new research.)]]
{{Topquote| Birds aren't descended from dinosaurs, they are dinosaurs. Which means that the fastest animal alive today is a small carnivorous dinosaur, Falco peregrinus. It preys mainly on other dinosaurs, which it strikes and kills in midair with its claws. This is a good world.|XKCD 1211}}
{{Topquote| Holy fucking shit, it's a dinosaur! Jesus Christ! What the fuck!? Oh my fucking god, fucking dinosaurs, holy shit. What the fuuuuuuck!?|Anthem of the fucking dinosaurs.}}
'''Dinosaurs''' are a category of creatures of the clade Dinosauria, which first emerged around 250 million years ago, in the Triassic period. Assuming some matters regarding carbon dating working on them, some biological material found, and bones that aren’t fossilized doesn’t make you afraid to go into the woods. Generally these creatures have been classified as reptiles, with their name itself meaning "terrible" (deino) "lizard" (sauros), since their discovery and cataloging by modern science.
However due to recent discoveries, [[Skub|it created a large divide in the Paleontology community on whether they should still be classified as inherently reptile or something completely new.]]

Dinosaurs came to be the dominant form of large, scaly (or feathery), land dwelling life forms across all of earth's major continents through the Jurassic and Cretaceous period. Dinosaurs were, and are, the biggest animals ever to live on the planet, [[Skub|however, what counts as THE biggest is often up in debate by the scientific community,]] as this [[RAGE|usually this ends in flamewars between Sauropod-Fanboys and Cetacean-Fanboys]] (yes, they do exist, kind of like the relationship between [[Star Wars]] fanboys and [[Star Trek]] fanboys), but the more neutral agreement is Sauropods=Land and Whales=Ocean.

They are regarded as [[Fist of the North Star|awesome]] for several reasons....
*They appeal to the sensational because they're "monsters", but unlike most, they actually DID exist.
*It's also been postulated that dinosaurs were the inspiration for [[Dragon|dragons]] with people discovering dinosaur bones and making up stories about them, though that is debatable.
*Quite a few of the more massive dinosaurs were larger (as in '''much''' larger) then the biggest living land mammal, the African Elephant. In fact, the ''Paraceratherium orgosensis'' (a relative to the direct ancestor to the modern Rhinoceros) which was the largest land mammal to have ever existed, would be classified as "small-sized" by sauropod standards.
*The largest sauropods are so colossal that they could be classified as [[CoDzilla|"Kaiju-Size"]] and could furthermore cause mini-earthquakes and create sonic booms with their tails.
*A posited idea is that if the asteroid did not hit Earth, then it would be the [[Lizardmen|''Troodontidae'']] (a family of intelligent non-avian dinosaur, which resembled ''Velociraptor'') that would be building civilizations and spaceships rather than humans.
*Not even the [[Angry Marines]] will '''DARE''' fuck with these things. They [[rage]] all the time, but they're not ''that'' stubbornly, angrily boneheaded.
*[[Miniatures]] are easily and cheaply obtained. This is why they got into D&D in the first place (see down).

[[Tl;dr|Tl;dr,]] Dinosaurs are '''NOT''' to be fucked with.
[[Image:Dinosaur.jpg|thumb|right|A modern day dinosaur of the theropod lineage]]
Most lines of dinosaur were extinguished during the Cretaceous–Paleogene Extinction Event some 66 million years ago because of [[Rocks fall, everyone dies|some random space rock]] that came in out of nowhere. Most scientists actually do consider birds the only surviving branch of dinosaurs (that's right, its fair to say that '''all birds everywhere are living dinosaurs'''). The other close surviving relatives of dinosaurs are the crocodiles, a different branch of the archosaur family that carries on its traditions of eating whatever they want and [[Lizardfolk|giving no fucks about mammals]]. Contrary to popular belief, the Komodo dragon, a species of monitor lizard, wasn't descended from dinosaurs. It is, however, somewhat closely related to creatures commonly mistaken for dinosaurs - Mosasaurs.

==Why Dinosaurs are Relevant to /tg/==
* They're completely [[awesome]].
* They've existed as monsters to slay since the early days of [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. The [[Eberron]] setting has them as animal companions for [[Halflings]].
* Dinosaurs are not uncommon in the kind of pulp fantasy Gygax was inspired by, often surviving into the modern day in a "Lost World".
* Cavalry mounts for [[Exodite]] [[Eldar]] in Warhammer 40k.
* Cavalry mounts, battling rams, tanks, lawnmower for [[Lizardmen]] in WHFB. Also the primary native wildlife of Lustria.
** Cavalry mounts for [[Dark Elves|edgy and dark pointy ear fellows]] in WHFB.
* They are literary dragon without wings and the ability to spew flame.
** Ok, some of them can fly, but that's even more awesome.
*[[Tarrasque]]
* In [[Magic: The Gathering]], dinos were originally in the game, but were then retroactively treated as either lizards or beasts depending on the printing until [[Ixalan]] came along and gave us legitimate dinosaurs. Since then, all cards that depict dinosaurs have been errataed to have the Dinosaur creature type.

== Things people think are dinosaurs, but are not: ==
Some people think of dinosaur as any large extinct prehistoric reptile and tend to lump a bunch of non dinosaurs into the dinosaur category. These include...

*Pterosaurs: These flying archosaurs had among their ranks the largest flying creatures that ever lived and were the closest clade to dinosaurs, both of which being descended from the Archosaurs, but they are not actually dinosaurs themselves. And anyone who says different needs to be introduced to the K-T asteroid there and then.
**On a similar note crocodiles are also not dinosaurs despite also being descended from the Archosaurs, in fact Crocodilias form the entire second branch of the Archosaur tree and thus they are the closest living relatives to the dinosaurs, including the birds of all things.
*Marine Reptiles: During the Mesozoic era there were a variety of large marine reptiles, including Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, Pliosaurs, Mosasaurs and various other sea beasties. As these creatures are big, reptillian, and look like dinosaurs, the general public often lumps them in as dinosaurs. In truth these are a number of separate families that took to the sea.
*Synapsids: Before the dinosaurs really took off as the dominant form of life during the late Triassic period, the Synapsids, sometimes known as "mammal-like reptiles" were king. One member of this clade is ''Dimetrodon'' or "that fin-back lizard thing' in the Land Before Time and those sets of dinosaur toys your mom bought you when you were a kid". You can tell they're not dinosaurs (and this is a very loose definition) thanks to an extra opening in the skull behind the eye where jaw muscles attached and later became the Sphenoid bone which sits behind the eyes, specialized teeth including canine teeth, among many other distinguishing traits. As the name suggests these guys became the early mammals which turned into us, in fact put a finger behind your eye and one behind your check bone. If you Squeeze that ridge of bone you feel is your own Sphenoid. It's unknown at what point they began to give birth to live young and lactate, although since fur was an extremely late adaptation its generally thought there was a point where something that looked like a dinosaur had lizard <strike>tits</strike> teats.
*Not Quite Dinosaurs: A bit more obscure, but worth a mention. When dinosaurs showed up on the scene in the Triassic Period, they were not alone. A wide variety of large reptiles emerged and evolved alongside them. Among these were other Archosaurs, which included several close relatives to dinosaurs and creatures more closely related to modern crocodiles such as Postosuchus which had some very dinosaurian features. The Triassic Period ended with an extinction event which did in most of these lineages, leaving the Dinosaurs, Crocodilians and Pterosaurs the last of these big reptiles standing.

<center><gallery>
Image:Hatzi.jpg|Hatzegopteryx, the largest living thing that could ever fly.
Image:Mosasaur.jpg|Mosasaur, a giant predatory monitor lizard from the time when sea monsters were real.
image:Gorgonopsid.jpg|Gorgonopsid, closer to you than a dinosaur but not a relative you'd invite over for tea.
</gallery></center>

==Major groups of dinosaurs==
Prepare for '''SCIENCE.''' The major two types of dinosaur are divided according to the shape of their hip bone.

===Saurischia===
The "lizard-hipped" dinosaurs. Ironically, birds are part of Saurischia.

====Theropoda====
*Easy name: Meat-eaters
*Well known members: ''Tyrannosaurus'', ''Velociraptor'', ''Gallimimus''
*Awesome obscure members: ''Deinocheirus'', ''Yi'', ''Gypaetus'', ''Majungasaurus''

You know them well. The hunters of the prehistoric world. Theropods were likely the first group of dinosaurs to arise, and diversified quite a lot. Also the only group to survive the asteroid impact (and subsequent climate change). The loss of these awe- inspiring hunters was one of the only things to make [[Khorne]] sad. '''EVER'''. Then he [[RAGE]]D because there were no [[Psykers]] around at the time, so he couldn't have sent his [[Daemon]]s to capture the Theropod dinosaurs and make them his servants.

=====Therizinosauria=====
*Easy name: The Weird Ones
*Well known members: ''Therizinosaurus'',
*Awesome obscure members: They're all obscure

Therizinosaurus are to theropods what pandas are to normal bears. They used to be carnivores, now they eat plants, which gives them a weird mish-mash of features. While part of the Theropod clade they are too weird not to be worth a mention all on their own. They are most well known for having massive claws, in fact ''Therizinosaurus'' means ''scythe lizard''. While they could be used to manipulate plants they could also have used for defense, and again they are massive.

=====Avialae=====
*Easy name: Birds/Proto-birds
*Well known members: ''Archaeopteryx'',''Microraptor'', ''Birds''
*Awesome obscure members: ''Rahonavis'',''Scansoriopterygidae'', ''The Terror birds''

At this point it's been basically confirmed that birds=dinosaurs and Avialae are the group that not only became birds, it also includes them. While many of the species that actually lived in the age of dinosaurs were nothing impressive, most being smallish and likely being insectivore, birds never 'forgot' how to be dinosaurs and for a long time large flightless birds were the dominate land predator of South America. These species are known informally as "The Terror Birds".

====Sauropoda====
*Easy name: Long-necks
*Well known members: ''Apatosaurus'', ''Brachiosaurus'', ''Diplodocus''
*Awesome obscure members: ''Amargasaurus'', ''Shunosaurus'', ''Dreadnoughtus''

The other most well-known group. Titans with nothing on their minds other than eating. Notable for having the largest animals in the history of the planet (longer than whales, but not nearly as heavy). Could, though, rear up on their hind legs (if those legs were the longer of the two pairs), and come down HARD to crush the LIVING FUCK out of ANYTHING, '''ANYTHING''' underneath. In theory anyway they could just end up shattering there legs into a thousand pieces, there's a good reason why Elephants can't jump after all. What is not in doubt is that being hit by one of there tails would be like being bitch slapped by Khorne him self, herbivore or not, even a T-Rex feel that in the morning. In fact we have a Allosaurus fossil with a broken jaw that could have come from such an impact, we don't (nor can we ever) know for sure but not impossible.

===Ornithischia===
The "bird-hipped" dinosaurs. Might be weird that birds aren't in this group, but the terms were coined in the 1800s, so what can ya do.

====Thyreophora====
*Easy name: Armored Dudes
*Well known members: ''Stegosaurus'', ''Ankylosaurus'', ''Euoplocephalus''
*Awesome obscure members: ''Kentrosaurus'', ''Polacanthus'', ''Sauropelta'', ''Dacentrurus''

Armor, man. These guys were walking tanks with rows of bony armor, or spikes or plates, with many species having weaponized tails which (among the Stegosauridae family) are known informally as Thagomizers after a Gary Larson Far Side Cartoon. Yes really. There is much skub about whether their armored plates were for defense or thermoregulation (ie, heat sinks). Also notable because some scientists believe that they had [http://i.imgur.com/4KsLhRI.jpg| colossal, sideways dongs.] Seriously, how the hell else could they bone? Can't do normal fucking with those spikes in the way...

====Ornithopoda====
*Easy name: Duck Bills
*Well known members: ''Iguanodon'', ''Parasaurolophus'', ''Edmontosaurus''
*Awesome obscure members: ''Kulindadromeus'', ''Shangtungosaurus'', ''Tsintaosaurus''

Your standard "dino plant-eaters", though some theorize they could have actually been quite aggressive, which considering how many people are killed by plant eating hippos and elephants is quite probable.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBU6zfI1b0U| We also actually know what one type sounded like!]

====Marginocephalia====
*Easy name: Horned Faces
*Well known members: ''Triceratops'', ''Protoceratops'', ''Pachycephalosaurus''
*Awesome obscure members: ''Diabloceratops'', ''Einosaurus'', ''Nasutoceratops''

Probably the last major group to arise. All originally bipedal, but some grew too massive for that. Also had a weird convergent evolution with birds, they had straight-up beaks. Also made fuck-awesome battering rams or goring beasts in battle. Like, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY OR I WILL CRUSH YOU UNDER 9 TONS OF MOVING MUSCLE AND SPEAR YOU LIKE A FISH fuck-awesome.

==/tg/ Dinosaur Trivia==
* [[Gary Gygax]] used a set of cheap "Prehistoric Animals" toys that could commonly be found in supermarkets in the 1970's as monsters during the creation of [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. The [[Owlbear]], [[Rust Monster]], and [[Bulette]] are all based off cheaply made Hong Kong plastic versions of dinosaurs.
* Some dinosaurs had feathers. The only ones who didn't were the oldest, such as Plateosaurus, and as a result didn't survive to see poofy dinos. Whether this is adorably awesome or ruins your childhood is subjective.
* The famous ''Velociraptor'' was the size of a turkey, and likely hunted similarly to wolves. Although some would put anything that looks similar under the name "Velociraptor", the actual family is called Dromaeosauridae, or simply Raptors, of which Velociraptor is only one member (other genera include ''Pyroraptor'', ''Microraptor'', and ''Utahraptor'').
* Some scientists believe that a relative of the ''Velociraptor'' called the ''Troodon'' may have used tools (not too surprising, some animals use tools today; tools as in "some birds, bugs and mammals use sticks and rocks to help them crack open or dig out their food"), and possibly had the intelligence of modern crows (for reference the American Crow is believed to be one somewhere in the top five most intelligent animals on Earth) and as we know: birds are dinosaurs. A small handful of scientists believe that had it not gone extinct likely due to lack of food, it could have evolved to become a [[Lizardmen|human-like species.]]
* As described above, scientists consider birds to be dinosaurs. As a result their Clade, ''Avialae'', are the dinosaurs that survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene Mass Extinction Event. Its a subgroup of Theropods, meaning those tiny bastards that wake you up at 6:00 am and the one who died to become your lunch sandwich are all cousins to the T-REX.
* Jurassic Park style resurrection (discover intact dinosaur DNA, inject into frogs, create hermaphrodite dinosaurs) may not be possible due to actual surviving DNA not being likely to still exist. Unlike mammoths and early humans who died in frozen temperatures and were naturally preserved like a big freezer and not long ago comparatively, dinosaurs went extinct in a hot climate with 66 million years to decay. Technically we don't find dinosaur bones, we find minerals which took the place of bones, remember that DM's if you ever find a necromancer in a natural history museum! However, scientists at Ivy League schools such as Yale and Harvard as well as research funded by the Chinese government have been progressing towards discovering existing ancient DNA in living birds then combining genes to create something that resembles a dinosaur (the process is similar to the creation of Glofish, created by using SCIENCE to hybridize jellyfish and Zebra Fish into an abomination that will probably destroy humanity).
*Dinosaurs lived on this planet for 177 million (1.7*10^8) years. 40k takes place in the 41st millennium. Even in the far, far future humanity has only existed for only about 2.25% as long as the dinosaurs had.
*Despite being real creatures that once existed there is substantial room for '[[Your Dudes]]' when you imagine dinosaurs. You want to imagine Velociraptors building mating structures like bowerbirds? Go for it! Triceratops forming herds like buffalo to fend of T-Rex horns out? Not impossible! Protoceratops in trees? Anatomy suggest otherwise but hay, goats do it, So ya! Dinosaurs using tools? Hell some scientist things that New Caledonian crows, (an actual dinosuar!) may qualify for being in the stone age! We are currently living in the most exciting time for paleontology, as all kinds of old assumptions are being questioned and thrown out. We are a far cry away from the days of the slow lumbering, stupid crystal palace dinosaurs, and Dinosaurs are not just more interesting, they are weirder than they have ever been before.
*A lot of the skills used in the modeling and painting aspects of the wargaming hobby are the same skills used in preparing fossils. These include filling gaps with putty (used to fill gaps/cracks in bone), cleaning mold lines or filing down other unwanted plastic/resin (similar to removing matrix from a bone), and painting (painting casts of bones). If you REALLY love dinosaurs, hone your hobbying skills and volunteer at a museum. /a vertebrate paleontologist

==Gallery==
<gallery>
tyranosaurus monster card.jpg|Tyrannosaur. 1e
triceratops monster card.jpg|Triceratops. 1e
allosaurus MC3.jpg|Allosaur. 2e
anklyosaurus MC3.jpg
brontosaurus MC3.jpg
camptosaurus MC3.jpg
ceratosaurus MC3.jpg
compsognathus MC3.jpg
deinonychus MC3.jpg
dimetrodon MC3.jpg
euparkeria MC3.jpg
gorgosaurus MC3.jpg
iguanodon MC3.jpg
lambeosaurus MC3.jpg
megalosaurus MC3.jpg
monoclonius MC3.jpg
nothosaurus MC3.jpg
pleisiosaurus MC3.jpg
pteranodon MC3.jpg
stegosaurus MC3.jpg
styracosaurus MC3.jpg
tanystropheus MC3.jpg
tennodontosaurus MC3.jpg
trachodon MC3.jpg
triceratops MC3.jpg
tyrannosaurus MC3.jpg
brontosaurus MCAV2.jpg
ceratosaurus MCAV2.jpg
compsognathus MCAV2.jpg
dimetrodon MCAV2.jpg
euparkeria MCAV2.jpg
gorgosaurus MCAV2.jpg
iguanodon MCAV2.jpg
monoclonius MCAV2.jpg
mosasaurus MCAV2.jpg
nothosaurus MCAV2.jpg
plateosaurus MCAV2.jpg
plesiosaurus MCAV2.jpg
struthiomimus MCAV2.jpg
tanystropheus MCAV2.jpg
temnodontosaurus MCAV2.jpg
teratosaurus MCAV2.jpg
trachodon MCAV2.jpg
dinosaur MM 2e.png|Tyrannosaur and Triceratops. 2e
utahraptor Dungeon 54.jpg|Utahraptor. [[Dungeon Magazine]] #54
Dinosaur MCAV2.jpg|Tyrannosaur. 2e
anklyosaurus B1.png|Anklyosaur PF
deinonychus B1.png|Deinonychus PF
stegosaurus B1.png|Stegosaur PF
tyrannosaurus B1.png|Tyrannosaur PF
</gallery>

== See Also ==
*[[Great Knarloc]] - basically [[Kroot]] Dinosaurs.
*[[Squiggoth]] - [[Fungus|fungal]] Dinosaurs bred by [[Feral Orks]].
*[[Lizardmen]]
*[[Cold One]]s Dinosaurs that Dark Elves ride.

[[Category: Monsters]]

[[Category: History]]

Grav-Cutter

2023-02-08T15:29:20Z

2600:1006:B170:CF52:7C86:9BB8:1636:CF62: /* Overview */

[[File:Neotek.jpg|180px|right|thumb|Surfs-up!]]
Grav-Cutters are a type of Imperial hoverboard capable of rapid flight and is essentially the Imperial version of the Hoverboards flown by [[Dark Eldar]] [[Hellions]].
==Overview==
These Grav-Cutters are large <s>surfboards</s> airboards that is used by [[Neotek]]s from House Van Saar in [[Necromunda]], who often favour either [[Heresy|untested or dangerous tech]], of which the Grav-Cutter is one of them.

Again, how the fuck these guys manage to get a hold on these technologies without triggering the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], we have no idea (spoiler alert, they have an STC). Seriously, where the proverbial fuck are these gangsters getting that shit from? Anti-grav technology is already a tough commodity to manufacture even among esteemed [[Forgeworld]]s, let alone a flying surfboard. And this was before [[Roboute Guilliman|Grandpa Smurf]] woke up mind you, without any of [[Belisarius Cawl|Uncle Cawl's]] wacky hijinks. And let's not get into those [[Wat|energy shields.]] Most likely, the Mechanicus already has the tech in question but rarely uses it due to the whole “radiation killing the user” problem this House has with its technology. Keep in mind that the AdMech already builds tiny anti-grav devices (servo-skulls), extremely powerful plasma weapons, and personal energy shields able to shrug off a lascannon in the lore.
{{Clear}}
{{House Van Saar}}
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
[[Category:Skimmers]]
[[Category:Flyers]]