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Succession Wars

2021-10-23T01:00:01Z

2607:FB90:6E6A:58FE:DC87:9A8B:8B9F:8BA5: /* First Succession War */

The '''Succession Wars''' were a series of conflicts between the powers of the Inner Sphere from the late 28th to early 31st centuries in the [[Battletech]] Universe. With the eradication of House Cameron by Stefan Amaris and the Rim Worlds Republic' [[Just as Planned|secret long-term]] infiltration into the Star League's trust as a poster child Periphery State, there was no one left to take over as First Lord of the Star League. To make matters worse, each of the Great Houses distrusted Alexander Kerensy. Outside of appointing Jerome Blake as head of Comstar to keep the HPG network running, their last action as a unified body was to strip Kerensky of his title as head of the SLDF. While the SLDF was still the biggest military in human history, they were decimated from their [[Iron Warriors|grinding attritional war]] while fighting back from the Periphery to Terra. That, alongside Kerensky's antipathy to politics, made him convinced the best way to save the Star League was to take it's entire fighting force into exile in hopes the threat of retatiation would make the Great Houses compromise. Once he had gone into exile, the Succession Wars began among the Successor States to establish who'd replace House Cameron as the head honcho of the Inner Sphere after the fall of [[Star League]], they were utterly devastating.
== History ==

=== First Succession War ===
Almost from the minute Kerensky and the SLDF fucked off into the Deep Periphery, all the Successor States braced for what they knew was inevitable conflict. Knowing that becoming First Lord would inevitably mean they could run their opponents off the map forever, all five Successor States waited with baited breath at the opportunity to actively begin the violence, and wouldn't you know it, the [[Draconis Combine]] started the whole damn thing as Minoru Kurita decided to kick things off. Openly declaring the Draconis Coordinator to have claim to the seat of the First Lord, he also asserted that any refusal to recognize the claim would be met with total war.

What happened next is that the Inner Sphere basically warcrime'd itself for 34 uninterrupted years. Biological, Nuclear, and Chemical warfare were rampant, and billions of lives were lost in senseless battles to claim long disputed systems and further territory over what was ultimately petty grudges; to the point that worlds that could produce clean drinking water were as valuable as they were when they were first discovered. It got so bad at one point that the [[Mercenaries (Battletech)|Mercs]], who were already a huge part of everybody's battleplans, basically had to start reigning in the violence themselves by forcefully refusing any contract that involved a breaking of "[[Ares Conventions|The Conventions]]" that was offered to them, usually by doing just as much damage for the other side the old fashioned way as they might've for the offer. By the end of the war, grand full-scale invasions and warcrime-laden battlefields gave way to simple skirmishes and raids to stop each other from producing more Mechs and other vital military equipment.

This is also where the Kentares Massacre happened; wherein Minor Kurita got his brain ventilated by a sniper, and his deeply unstable child Jinjiro basically decided that everyone on that planet had to die as quickly and painfully as possible as penance for this action. To make matters worse, any Draconis Combine soldier who protested was killed alongside the civilians themselves; often with a katana as Jinjiro figured it would waste less ammo. The local ComStar representatives, deeply concerned by Jinjiro's openly genocidal nature, broadcast the whole thing to the entire Inner Sphere. They got killed ny Jinjiro too, but made sure that even if everybody was picking a fight with everyone else, they definitely had an undisputed "bad guy" now. After a series of FedSun counterattacks to liberate worlds picked up early on by the Combine, pretty much everybody was exhausted and now very resource-poor, and eventually most fronts just ceased being fronts at all, with everybody deciding to call it quits and come back when they were ready for next time.

=== Second Succession War ===
The Second Succession War occurred shortly after the first when the [[Clan Wolverine|Minnesota Tribe]] showed up in Draconis Combine space to raid for supplies and fresh civilians from prison camps before disappearing. Fearing the SLDF would show up at any minute with his back against the wall, Jinjiro kicked off the Second Successio War to distract his country’s civilians from agitating in favor of the SLDF’s apparently return…

=== Third Succession War ===

=== Forth Succession War ===

== Consequences ==
As a consequence of the Succession Wars, all of the Great Houses expended the bulk of the Inner Sphere's riches and advanced technology while making life go back centuries in terms of living quality for civilians. While the discovery of the Helm Memory Core by the Grey Death Legion would partially bring back the Inner Sphere's technological development and the newly formed Federated Commonwealth seemed the most likely hegemon to come, all that came crashing down once the [[Clan Invasion]] began with the [[The_Clans|descendants]] of Kerensky's followers would return after 300 years of isolation due to [[ComStar|probing expeditions from the Inner Sphere]].

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[[Category: BattleTech]]

Clan Wolverine

2021-10-23T00:31:48Z

2607:FB90:6E6A:58FE:DC87:9A8B:8B9F:8BA5: /* Minnesota Tribe */

{{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, the truth is more complex.
== 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. Things would continue on 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 did have less rigid hierarchies and enabled modest caste transfers, Warriors still remained firmly in control. As such, he had them 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 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. Officially, Clan Wolverine detonated nuclear weapons on pro-Kerensky civilians out of spite in their capital before launching nukes at Clan Snow Raven. 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 loaded fighter being hit while targeting the Wolverines in the chaos in retaliation for the apparent nuking of civilians. Clan Wolverine was blamed and Nicky was forced to escalate the Absorption into a Trial of Annihilation against them. Fighting was brutal, 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 Kerensky’s tacit approval 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 mostly a mythologized account of betrayal of the Clans and everything they stood for, seeking to fall back into the ways which laid waste to the Inner Sphere and Star-League-In-Exile. 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 BattleMechs (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 Wolverine 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).

== 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]]. These were remnants of Clan Wolverine (this has been confirmed by the creators), 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]].

=== 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 Dolyist 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]] (Unlikely, 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 from POW camps 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 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).
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[[Category: BattleTech]]
{{Battletech Factions}}

Succession Wars

2021-10-23T00:31:07Z

2607:FB90:6E6A:58FE:DC87:9A8B:8B9F:8BA5: /* Second Succession War */

The '''Succession Wars''' were a series of conflicts between the powers of the Inner Sphere from the late 28th to early 31st centuries in the [[Battletech]] Universe. With the eradication of House Cameron by Stefan Amaris and the Rim Worlds Republic' [[Just as Planned|secret long-term]] infiltration into the Star League's trust as a poster child Periphery State, there was no one left to take over as First Lord of the Star League. To make matters worse, each of the Great Houses distrusted Alexander Kerensy. Outside of appointing Jerome Blake as head of Comstar to keep the HPG network running, their last action as a unified body was to strip Kerensky of his title as head of the SLDF. While the SLDF was still the biggest military in human history, they were decimated from their [[Iron Warriors|grinding attritional war]] while fighting back from the Periphery to Terra. That, alongside Kerensky's antipathy to politics, made him convinced the best way to save the Star League was to take it's entire fighting force into exile in hopes the threat of retatiation would make the Great Houses compromise. Once he had gone into exile, the Succession Wars began among the Successor States to establish who'd replace House Cameron as the head honcho of the Inner Sphere after the fall of [[Star League]], they were utterly devastating.
== History ==

=== First Succession War ===
Almost from the minute Kerensky and the SLDF fucked off into the Deep Periphery, all the Successor States braced for what they knew was inevitable conflict. Knowing that becoming First Lord would inevitably mean they could run their opponents off the map forever, all five Successor States waited with baited breath at the opportunity to actively begin the violence, and wouldn't you know it, the [[Draconis Combine]] started the whole damn thing as Minoru Kurita decided to kick things off.

What happened next is that the Inner Sphere basically warcrime'd itself for 34 uninterrupted years. Biological, Nuclear, and Chemical warfare were rampant, and billions of lives were lost in senseless battles to claim long disputed systems and further territory over what was ultimately petty grudges; to the point that worlds that could produce clean drinking water were as valuable as they were when they were first discovered. It got so bad at one point that the [[Mercenaries (Battletech)|Mercs]], who were already a huge part of everybody's battleplans, basically had to start reigning in the violence themselves by forcefully refusing any contract that involved a breaking of "[[Ares Conventions|The Conventions]]" that was offered to them, usually by doing just as much damage for the other side the old fashioned way as they might've for the offer. By the end of the war, grand full-scale invasions and warcrime-laden battlefields gave way to simple skirmishes and raids to stop each other from producing more Mechs and other vital military equipment.

This is also where the Kentares Massacre happened; wherein Minor Kurita got his brain ventilated by a sniper, and his deeply unstable child Jinjiro basically decided that everyone on that planet had to die as quickly and painfully as possible as penance for this action. To make matters worse, any Draconis Combine soldier who protested was killed alongside the civilians themselves; often with a katana as Jinjiro figured it would waste less ammo. The local ComStar representatives, deeply concerned by Jinjiro's openly genocidal nature, broadcast the whole thing to the entire Inner Sphere. They got killed ny Jinjiro too, but made sure that even if everybody was picking a fight with everyone else, they definitely had an undisputed "bad guy" now. After a series of FedSun counterattacks to liberate worlds picked up early on by the Combine, pretty much everybody was exhausted and now very resource-poor, and eventually most fronts just ceased being fronts at all, with everybody deciding to call it quits and come back when they were ready for next time.

=== Second Succession War ===
The Second Succession War occurred shortly after the first when the [[Clan Wolverine|Minnesota Tribe]] showed up in Draconis Combine space to raid for supplies and fresh civilians from prison camps before disappearing. Fearing the SLDF would show up at any minute with his back against the wall, Jinjiro kicked off the Second Successio War to distract his country’s civilians from agitating in favor of the SLDF’s apparently return…

=== Third Succession War ===

=== Forth Succession War ===

== Consequences ==
As a consequence of the Succession Wars, all of the Great Houses expended the bulk of the Inner Sphere's riches and advanced technology while making life go back centuries in terms of living quality for civilians. While the discovery of the Helm Memory Core by the Grey Death Legion would partially bring back the Inner Sphere's technological development and the newly formed Federated Commonwealth seemed the most likely hegemon to come, all that came crashing down once the [[Clan Invasion]] began with the [[The_Clans|descendants]] of Kerensky's followers would return after 300 years of isolation due to [[ComStar|probing expeditions from the Inner Sphere]].

{{stub}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

Succession Wars

2021-10-23T00:27:33Z

2607:FB90:6E6A:58FE:DC87:9A8B:8B9F:8BA5: /* First Succession War */

The '''Succession Wars''' were a series of conflicts between the powers of the Inner Sphere from the late 28th to early 31st centuries in the [[Battletech]] Universe. With the eradication of House Cameron by Stefan Amaris and the Rim Worlds Republic' [[Just as Planned|secret long-term]] infiltration into the Star League's trust as a poster child Periphery State, there was no one left to take over as First Lord of the Star League. To make matters worse, each of the Great Houses distrusted Alexander Kerensy. Outside of appointing Jerome Blake as head of Comstar to keep the HPG network running, their last action as a unified body was to strip Kerensky of his title as head of the SLDF. While the SLDF was still the biggest military in human history, they were decimated from their [[Iron Warriors|grinding attritional war]] while fighting back from the Periphery to Terra. That, alongside Kerensky's antipathy to politics, made him convinced the best way to save the Star League was to take it's entire fighting force into exile in hopes the threat of retatiation would make the Great Houses compromise. Once he had gone into exile, the Succession Wars began among the Successor States to establish who'd replace House Cameron as the head honcho of the Inner Sphere after the fall of [[Star League]], they were utterly devastating.
== History ==

=== First Succession War ===
Almost from the minute Kerensky and the SLDF fucked off into the Deep Periphery, all the Successor States braced for what they knew was inevitable conflict. Knowing that becoming First Lord would inevitably mean they could run their opponents off the map forever, all five Successor States waited with baited breath at the opportunity to actively begin the violence, and wouldn't you know it, the [[Draconis Combine]] started the whole damn thing as Minoru Kurita decided to kick things off.

What happened next is that the Inner Sphere basically warcrime'd itself for 34 uninterrupted years. Biological, Nuclear, and Chemical warfare were rampant, and billions of lives were lost in senseless battles to claim long disputed systems and further territory over what was ultimately petty grudges; to the point that worlds that could produce clean drinking water were as valuable as they were when they were first discovered. It got so bad at one point that the [[Mercenaries (Battletech)|Mercs]], who were already a huge part of everybody's battleplans, basically had to start reigning in the violence themselves by forcefully refusing any contract that involved a breaking of "[[Ares Conventions|The Conventions]]" that was offered to them, usually by doing just as much damage for the other side the old fashioned way as they might've for the offer. By the end of the war, grand full-scale invasions and warcrime-laden battlefields gave way to simple skirmishes and raids to stop each other from producing more Mechs and other vital military equipment.

This is also where the Kentares Massacre happened; wherein Minor Kurita got his brain ventilated by a sniper, and his deeply unstable child Jinjiro basically decided that everyone on that planet had to die as quickly and painfully as possible as penance for this action. To make matters worse, any Draconis Combine soldier who protested was killed alongside the civilians themselves; often with a katana as Jinjiro figured it would waste less ammo. The local ComStar representatives, deeply concerned by Jinjiro's openly genocidal nature, broadcast the whole thing to the entire Inner Sphere. They got killed ny Jinjiro too, but made sure that even if everybody was picking a fight with everyone else, they definitely had an undisputed "bad guy" now. After a series of FedSun counterattacks to liberate worlds picked up early on by the Combine, pretty much everybody was exhausted and now very resource-poor, and eventually most fronts just ceased being fronts at all, with everybody deciding to call it quits and come back when they were ready for next time.

=== Second Succession War ===

=== Third Succession War ===

=== Forth Succession War ===

== Consequences ==
As a consequence of the Succession Wars, all of the Great Houses expended the bulk of the Inner Sphere's riches and advanced technology while making life go back centuries in terms of living quality for civilians. While the discovery of the Helm Memory Core by the Grey Death Legion would partially bring back the Inner Sphere's technological development and the newly formed Federated Commonwealth seemed the most likely hegemon to come, all that came crashing down once the [[Clan Invasion]] began with the [[The_Clans|descendants]] of Kerensky's followers would return after 300 years of isolation due to [[ComStar|probing expeditions from the Inner Sphere]].

{{stub}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

The Clans

2021-10-22T23:27:10Z

2607:FB90:6E6A:58FE:DC87:9A8B:8B9F:8BA5: /* Society */

{{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 petty morality. Where the able would not be ruled by the incompetent. 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.
== History ==
In 2766 a guy named Stefan Amaris (ruler of the Rim World's Republic) launched a coup d'état after killing all known members of the Terran Hegemony's House Cameron while the majority of the SLDF was out fighting rebellions in the periphery, killing the young First Lord and seizing control of the Terran Hegemony. This started a fourteen year long 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 Alexandr 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 Alex's wife Katyusha and two sons Andery and Nicholas) and some folks with valuable skills left the inner sphere for greener pastures.

After a long voyage through the unknown they found some uninhabited worlds beyond the Periphery known as the Pentagon Worlds. They set up shop, discharged most of their soldiers and began rebuilding to try to build a bastion of the Star League in Exile. For about 15 years, it seemed to work. Unfortunately some of the demobilized guys decided that they'd be better off forming their own petty kingdoms and soon enough there was a big shit fight in 2800. Aleksandr (already more than 100 years old) died heartbroken, leaving everything in utter dissaray. 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 a number of refugees brought in later. 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. In 2820 the Clans returned to the Pentagon Worlds during Operation KLONDIKE, reconquering them and imposing Clan culture onto the populations of these planets.

After Nicolas's death, the system chugged along quite well with the occasional hiccup in what was known as the Golden Century, their population rapidly expanding and new worlds being colonized. 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.|Alexander 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 Ameris Coup and Civil War, the Death of Star League and the Exodus, the Exodus 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. 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, but the aim was to start clean.

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. On the downside, while material and technological matters were better preserved (if not improved upon with OmniMechs and Battle Armor), 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.

[[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)]]
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 Society. Motivated by the Clan Home-worlds being harsher and less abundant in resources, wastefulness is discouraged while nonproductive activities such as entertainment or leisure were normally seen as incentives to get people working or in extreme cases outright banned. 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. 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.
**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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Dark Caste: Not an official caste but a bunch of outcasts which live on the edges of Clan society which makes for convenient target practice for clan warriors.

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 to be used to produce the next batch of Warriors while they can participate in Clan Council. Really accomplished scientists can be awarded a Labname like "Einstein" or "Darwin", but non-Scientists rarely use them.

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, 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. Alexander 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. This too is another motivation for warriors to do their best in combat or competing to rise up the ranks and earn a Bloodname; the more they stand out positively, the more likely their genes will be added into the gene pool for scientists to add to the exo-wombs to spawn more sibkos and the more likely their name will be recorded in the Clan Remembrance with honor. 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. In general they try to cultivate an air of mystery. 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.

== 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. Besides the others mentioned on the Battletech page, the most relevant ones are the ones below.
[[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.
* '''Clan Jade Falcon''': The other "Mary Sue" Clan as when you think of honor-crazed warrior cultures that went full murder-hobo. 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. 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 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 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 sent away from Clan Space after the Wars of Reaving, but still survive to this day, though far more ruthless in their aims.
* '''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 it's 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 Goliath Scorpion:''' The Drugtaking Clan. 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, and eventually just fucked off to the [[Deep Periphery]] to go fight the Hanseatic League and start their own empire.
* '''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 rather than 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.
* '''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 Wolverine]]''': The Not-Named Clan whom all the other Clans hate with a burning passion.

== 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. 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
* 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.
* Binary: 2 Stars. The point at which Combined Arms becomes feasible.
* Trinary: 3 Stars
* Cluster: 3-5 Binaries
* Galaxy: 3-5 Clusters, plus an extra Trinary for Command. Generally a logistical designation because the process of Clan warfare bidding down typically ensures that Galaxies will only ever be deployed rarely.

===== 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:

* [[Timber Wolf|Timberwolf/Mad Cat]]: The Clanner's 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/Vulture: The Clan's OTHER most famous mech. Basically the Timberwolf'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/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/Daishi: The last word in mech-to-mech encounters. Where the Summoner is happy being a schoolyard bully and the Hellbringer is minmaxxed 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/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 10-15 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/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.

== 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 on Clan History]

{{Battletech Factions}}