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Armor

2021-08-19T21:47:01Z

2607:FB90:6E76:C29E:78FC:766E:3FF3:2D49: /* Anatomy of armor */

'''''Armor''''' (also spelled Armour) is a protective layer of material used to protect something from damage. Some types of armor includes armor for buildings, armor for vehicles and armor for personnel (generally referred to as body armor). Putting armor on people or putting them in [[Rhino|metal boxes]] to keep them safe is important because we can be [[Rip and Tear|killed]] by sharp rocks or branches or basically anything else at all except grass and leaves. In fact not [[Wikipedia:Bamboo#Weapons|even]] [[Wikipedia:Toxicodendron_radicans|those]]. This is because because our skin is not armor and it [[FAIL|sucks]]. This article will focus mostly on body armor.

[[File:ERA man.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Here you see a highly advanced tactical soldier well equipped for battle with the latest in ERA technology]]

== Types of Body Armor ==
Numerous forms of body armor have been developed over the millennia by civilizations with various levels of technology and resources on hand. Every single one of these died out in Europe by the 18th century, not, contrary to popular belief, because they were useless - forged iron or steel plate armour was still very effective at deflecting bullets, as shown by the armour European Cuirassiers wore well into the 19th century; in fact they were proof marked by a single dimp in the plate itself, made by firing a flintlock pistol at point blank at them - but equipping the increasing numbers of soldiers of the standing armies that became the norm after the Thirty Year War and the reforms undertaken during the long reign of Louis XIV. of France was simply too costly; the levied and mercenary forces prior to and during this war bought their equipment out of their own pockets. Efforts to make personal armor for the lowly Infantryman cheap and efficient enough never really stopped, but were almost met with failure, either because the results proved to be too heavy, too unreliable or too expensive, most of the times all three. Modern body armor works different insofar as they dissipate the force of a bullet hitting them like a big pillow, (spreading the kinetic energy over a relatively large area instead of outright making the bullet bounce off, also causing the bullet to get stuck in vest instead of going -plink!-) but some of the force will still get through and, as many military and policemen (and women) can attest, the sensation of getting hit while wearing a Kevlar vest is not very pleasant, to put it mildly; the remaining force is still sufficient to break bones or cause internal damage if you're unlucky. Still, a treatable, if painful, wound is of course still preferrable over a lethal one.

*'''Leather armor''' - not just any leather would do; soft leather offers no protection against blades. You need specially treated leather to be effective. Another name for this is "cuir bouilli" or "cuirbouille". The exact method of creating is unclear, as simply boiling leather in water (as the French name implies) will result in leather that’s hard but highly brittle (like diamond) to the point it can be snapped with one's bare hands. The best guesses are that animal glue and/or oil were involved. The high biodegradability (and, to many vermin, tastiness) of leather, especially with period natural treatment, has created a near total lack of historical examples surviving. Whatever it is, what is for certain is that this was the result was not flexible like a modern leather jacket, but would have a fairly solid shape (one possible method of creating it resulted in leather sturdy enough it could actually be used to ''chop wood''). The general consensus is that it had less presence in Europe (though there are surviving inventory accounts that confirm it existed). Meanwhile, in the East (both middle and far) it did exist (with inventories and accounts confirming Chu and Zhou armories using rhino or water buffalo hide), it wasn't that much widespread either and disappeared once other materials were obtainable. These circumstances became more prevalent as metalworking became more accessible. On the Central Asian steppes or in areas with large amounts of livestock, the leather was more widespread as lamellar or scale armor. This was likely a matter of resource availability as the nomadic tribes had little access to metal outside of trading and would prioritize using it for tools, swords, speartips, and arrowheads instead. Regarding the tribes in the Americas (some examples include the Tlingit, Chukchi, and Yupik or the Plain Indian's hair-pipe breastplates) as well as the Polynesian and Austronesian islands, where metalworking was noticeably diminished or not present, leather armor was relatively common while bone, shell, and coins were used as external reinforcing elements. Some examples include the Baju/Baru tribal war garb (made from hide, turtle shell, &/or crocodile skin) in the Nusantara Archipelago in Austronesia. On the other hand, all these regions gradually phased out leather once they gained reliable supplies of crafted metal or firearms via trading or learning metalsmithing. While phased out as as a primary form of protection, Buff coats were still made of leather and retained to act as cushioning underneath metal breastplates. It also served as slashing protection for exposed joints or in cases where wearing metal armor was inconvenient.
** Real-life note: while sometimes seen on TV and in video games, there is no such thing as studded leather armor as mentioned below in Brigandine's section. Think about it. How does adding a metal studs cause a significant increase to the armor's effectiveness? You will see this mistake in many RPGs. This idea probably came from people misunderstanding some of the other kinds of armor that use cloth as a binding agent on the outside.
*'''Padded cloth armor''' - Cloth bundled in sufficient thickness was one of the first forms of armor, since bronze armors tended to be too expensive or too heavy to be widely used. Cloth continued to be used mostly as padding underneath metal armor, to help absorb blows and all through the middle ages continued to be the go to protection for men-at-arms in lieu of expensive metal plate or mail. Despite what you might think it (obviously) provided one of the best protection against percussive strikes, second only to full plate (which have padded cloth integrated into it), surprisingly high level of protection against slashes and swings, unless the blade is razor sharp (most historical blades weren't that sharp) and while it barely ever provides full protection against piercing weapon heavier than a shortbow arrow, it does lower the depth of penetration, often turning instantly lethal wounds from glancing stabs or slashes to survivable if debilitating, or even surface damage, with an added bonus of often catching enemy weapon (although given in most times where blades get stuck in padded cloth after stabbing through, they pierce deep enough to kill so it's more to the benefit of your companions than yours). Sometimes confused with Brigandine armor (which externally appeared to be made of cloth with metal studs but also contained overlapping metal pieces). Besides the Gambeson and some Austronesian Baju/Baru war jackets woven from hardy fibrous plants, some other historical examples include:
** The distinctive ancient Greek armor called "Linothorax" (literally meaning linen torso): believed to be made out of quilted linen with glue laminate and is presumed to fall under this category, though historians can't be entirely sure as no full examples survived the centuries. Lighter versions known as "Spola" were worn by the Greeks and Macedonians.
** A gambeson is unlike most “soft” armor in that we actually have a fairly good understanding of its construction due to some 15th century writing detailing how to make it (deer skin with a ~30 layers of linen).
*** Aketon is roughly equivilent to a gamebeson, being made of raw cotton (which is not the soft, smooth, fluffy stuff the clothes you're wearing are made out of) rather than linen. Generally assumed to be a corruption of the arabic word for cotton.
** A hard, quilted, and 2 inch-thick form of cotton armor was used by the Mesoamericans such as the Aztecs, Toltecs, and the Tlaxcalans. Called ”Ichcahuipilli” in the Nahuatl, it was often hardened with resin-like substances like brine salt. In combat, it was effective against obsidian-edged Macuahuitl/Macana sword-clubs and arrows. They were also effective enough that Spanish Conquistadors sometimes adopted them for use in the summer to avoid being baked alive in their steel cuirasses. Other related armor include decorated sets called "Tlahuiztli." Similar thickly padded cotton tunics were worn by Incan nobles and Muisca warriors in South America (with the former using small wooden planks to reinforce the back).
** An early bulletproof form of cotton armor worn by the 19th century Joseon Koreans called “Myeonje baegab.” It was invented when they confronting Western armies at the same time the Western powers began probing expeditions into Qing China and Tokugawa Japan (pre-Meiji Reformation). While effective against low velocity bullets from black powder firearms, it was prone to being burned from incendiary hazards like explosions or red-hot shrapnel.
** Various early forms of pistol-proof armor were documented that were made from layers of silk but were usually expensive and restricted to wealthy politicians or nobles (for example, [[The World Wars|Franz Ferdinand]] ironically was believed to have owned one but wasn't wearing it on his fateful final day, though as he was shot in the neck it wouldn't have made a difference).
*'''Paper armor''' - this one sounds crazy, but apparently it was actually a thing in 10th Century China. The Mythbusters tested it out and it might have been actually effective... at least, so long as it does not get wet, a bit of of an issue considering human beings tend to sweat when under the stress of matters of life-and-death. Indeed citizen, this is testable by you! Obtain a notebook and ensure it is tightly closed. Then, stab it with a knife as hard as possible. Apparently, it was also used by some ethnic tribes in China as late at the 19th century while interlayered with cotton and was good against smoothbore muskets and bayonets but not breech-loading rifles.
*'''Wooden armor''' - either based on wooden planks held together or overlapped with fibre in a manner similar to mirror armor, brigandine, and lamellar, or alternatively composed of woody rods interwoven like a thick basket (similar to rattan shields in Asia) into the form of cuirasses and shields called rod armor, these types of armor were known to be used in pre-colonial natives in Austronesia (such as the Kiribati) and the Americas (such as among the Inca, Haida, Iroqouis, & Tlingit tribes). Like leather armor or cotton armor, there are very few preserved copies due to wood’s tendency to rot away when exposed to wet climates with most accounts coming from written records by colonial explorers. While effective against the wood, bone, and stone based weaponry used indigenously in the region, it inevitably disappeared once metal weapons or firearms were introduced by Western explorers.
**”Bamboo armor” - basically wooden armor, but with the advantage in that you can shape bamboo more easily. Bamboo is also notable in the sense that it has a high strength weight ratio. It also is rather weather resistant.
*'''Scale armor''' - An early form of armour, sporting overlapping metal (cuirbouille and lacquered leather were also used) plates arranged in a similar fashion to roofing tiles, which were riveted/sewn onto a backing cloth or leather and oftentimes loosely laced together in rows. One of the earliest examples of armour, used predominantly in Eastern cultures most distinctly used to deck out their early heavy cavalrymen and horses both in this. These "Cataphracts" were said to be able [[Awesome|to get showered in arrows without getting hit]]. Used by Rome as the lorica squamata, apparently simultaneously with mail. The art of ''Grandes Chroniques de France'' shows (at least) helmets with such an appearance existed in Europe as lower class armor in or before 1270. Made a small, unsuccessful comeback in Dragon Skin
*'''Mirror armor''' - an early form of plate, this was a small round bronze plate attached to the torso. Besides physical protection, it was also believed to ward off the supernatural. The plate itself was frequently a supplement over a suit of mail, but plenty of poor warriors throughout ancient history made due with hoping that no one would hit them around the single non-encompassing plate they strapped to their chest (beats having no armor..).
*'''[[Mail]]''' - the iconic armor made of interlocking rings. One of the most common and effective type of armor from the ancient world to the middle ages. Flexible and easy (though time-consuming) to make, it was widely used by many cultures. It was also significantly easier to repair, as a break could easily be mended by replacing a few rings, whereas a hole in plate armor might require a complete replacement. While fairly effective against foot soldiers, the crossbow and the lance charge required knights to wear extra armor over mail for additional protection. In the modern era, they are used for non-combative roles, such as shark suits, butcher's gloves, animal control, and dealing with high-power electrical wiring (because electrons "slide" along the mesh rather than penetrate", admittedly the mesh must be very tightly made). Some nations still use mail armor to supplement riot gear. Note that it MUST be backed with leather or something stiff, otherwise knives will drive it into the body. Just for the love of god: don't get shot. The British tested this in WW1 and the bullets ends up dragging the links into the body with it. They did wind up using it to protect crew inside a tank from spalling that was reliably created from even non-penetrating hits against its armor (early tank armor just wasn't very thick, and the issue lessened by the time of World War II's technological advances in tanks).
*'''Plated Mail''' - Also known as Mail and Plate armor or splinted mail, this is not what some sourcebooks refer to as platemail, which is basically just plate armor worn over a mail hauberk. Plated mail integrates metal plates into the rest of the mail pattern, ranging from large rectangular plates on areas like the chest, to small plates arranged like fish scales on areas that require more dexterity, such as near the shoulders and back. A form of transitional armor in Europe alongside brigandine as knights gradually shifted from full mail to plate armor, it was popular with medieval Slavs, Eastern Europeans, Persians, Indians, and other Asian kingdoms.
*'''Laminar armor''' - armor made from overlapping bands of metal. A predecessor to full-body plate armor, most famous example is the ancient Roman [[wikipedia:Lorica_segmentata|Lorica Segmentata]], though it was less prevalent among the Romans than is usually portrayed and mail remained in use among the Romans' frontline infantry, even in the Segmentata's heyday. Other examples existed such as the Dendra armour from Mycenaean Greece, some Warring State Period samurai armor once muskets were in use, or Renaissance Polish Hussars but the latter was held together by sliding rivets rather than leather strips and laces used in Greek and Roman versions of the armor.
*'''Lamellar armor''' - <s>Essentially scale armor sewn together</s> Not exactly. armor made from overlapping pieces of leather, ivory/bone, or metal, each piece being laced side-by-side to create semi-rigid rows, which then are laced together to form a complete suit of armour. This form differs from other "overlapping plates" types of armour in that it is self-contained and does not rely on backing material to keep the all the pieces together (unlike Scale or Brigandine). Again it is one of the oldest types of armour (being found in places as widespread as Mesopotamia, Europe, the Central Asian Steppes, and even Pre-Columbian North America) and was still in use as recently as 1930s.
*'''[[Samurai]] armor''' - depending on the period, it could be lamellar, laminar, or even western plate (but not wood. That has no basis in history). The helmet (kabuto) had a distinct shape that often featured ornaments and even a removable facemask (Darth Vader's helmet is said to be a hybrid of a kabuto and a German stahlhelm).
**'''Ashigaru armor''' - Worn by conscripts, it featured the same kinds of breastplates, a lesser helmet (which was sometimes made of wood) and some minor stuff but was overall less complete than samurai armor.
*'''Brigandine''' - a.k.a "Corazzina,” “Coat-of-plates,” and “Jack of Plate” armor. Brigandine is a "poor man's plate" and was quite popular in medieval Europe as part of "transitional" armor alongside plated mail (when knights began transitioning from full mail to plate armor), when worn in combination with mail and metal splints covering the limbs. While it may not provide as sturdy protection compared to full plate, it was very easy to make and repair. Also, while not as flexible as mail, it had more rigid protection against blunt force trauma. In essence, it was a compromise between the two while also being cheaper. Even after nobles and knights began using full plate armor, it was still kept as a form of armor for all rank-and-file men-at-arms; even seeing use in the New World by colonists against the natives’ arrows. It was also widespread across all of Eurasia with evidence of its existence seen as far out as as Turkey, India, Russia, China, and even Japan. Often confused with "studded leather armour" or the padded cloth gambeson. In modern day warfare, ballistic vests with trauma plate inserts made from metal or ceramic on the front, back, and sides of the body are spiritual successors to this form of armor. <s>Construction-wise, it’s essentially an inverted suit of scale armor with the backing cloth on the outside</s> Not quite. Underneath the cloth and over the padding, a "brig" is built from overlapping plates of various sizes and shapes, riveted onto a leather or cloth "jacket", but it differs from other "overlapping plates" armours in that:
** A) the plates are *usually* bigger and shaped according to where they go on the armour (scale and lamellar mostly use same-sized, same-shape plates),
** B) they are riveted (or sewn in the Jack-of-Plate’s case) inside the leather/cloth and not on the outside and
** C) the plates are '''not''' linked together in any fashion and fully rely on their fastening to the backing to keep them where they're supposed to be.
*'''[[Plate armor]]''' - armor made from single, solid pieces of metal. Bronze plate armor had been used in ancient times, but was limited to helmets and sometimes breastplates due to the weight of the armor. Full suits of plate armor were not possible until improvements in smithing allowed for large bars of steel to be hammered out into single pieces. A popular misconception about full plate is that it's very hard to move in, to a point it's exclusive to cavalry. While this is true for a '''tourney plate''' specifically designed for maximum protection in jousting tournaments, an actual battle plate was designed with maximum mobility in mind, and it was not uncommon for a knight (or later an officer) to do a somersault or dance with his lady while testing his new plate armor. Technically speaking, modern body armor for many nations use are in sense partially plate armor, with a carrier holding a solid plate.
*'''Jack Chains''' - if you were too poor to afford proper plate armor, you could at least add some metal reinforcements to your gambeson called Jack Chains. These were essentially gauntlets, elbow plates, and shoulder guards linked together by chains and attached to the arms so that one could, at bare minimum, block slashes to their sides without getting cut, or use it as a improv shield against incoming sword attacks.
*'''Makeshift Armor''' - Not really a set of armor in the traditional sense, generally makeshift armor is what ever one could scrounge up to make a protective wear. In the modern day, this is a protestor (think 2014 Ukraine Revolution) go to for long term engagement. Generally, motorcycle and safety helmets alongside heavy thick jackets, protective sports gear, or motorcycle gear would be the go to, as well as whatever one can strap to themselves. Don't be wearing something that might shatter easily though if you expect to be shot at, because that might manage to injure you even worse with the flying bits.
*'''Flak Jackets''' - The first standard-issue modern body armor to be developed, Flak Jackets were developed in WWII out of high-strength nylon to protect aircrews from fragments fired from flak cannons in conjuncture with manganese steel plates. While good against shrapnel and pistol rounds, it was still ineffective against rifle bullets. Before the invention of Kevlar and ballistic vests, this was the only kind of body armor available to modern soldiers expected to walk.
*'''Early 20th century armor''' - in WW1 and 2 many nations began experimenting with various forms of body armor to deal with shrapnel. This included steel breastplates, lamellar and steel plates in canvas carriers. This was more experimental than anything else. The biggest users of body armor in WW2 were the soviets who issued "steel bibs" to their soldiers. These could stop shrapnel fire and pistol bullets (a big deal given that Sub Machine Guns were a common infantry arm for urban combat) but were on the heavy side and were restricted to urban warfare or motorized infantry.
*'''Ceramic armor''' - Originally descended from the ceramic “Chicken plate” armor worn by helicopter gunship crews, it is typically, high-strength ceramic plates (typically made from boron carbide) are used as an energy-absorbing component in some ballistic vests (otherwise the wearer would suffer blunt trauma and internal bleeding from a bullet impacting the vest). A common myth is that Ceramic trauma plates shatter after only a 1-2 hits. This somewhat of an exaggeration, although generally plates are certified to take one well aimed steel-cored 7.62x63/53 mm rifle round (in layman's terms, a armor piercing sniper bullet) straight in and anything more you get out of it is pushing your luck. These are some of the best plates for infantry.
*'''Ballistic vests''' - "bulletproof" armor vests able to stop bullets of varying sizes and speeds. For "soft" armor, the use of high-strength fibers that "catch" the projectile, thereby slowing them down enough to prevent them from penetrating, are used, typically for security guards, low-intensity combat areas jobs, and cops. For "hard" armor, ceramic/metal/ultra-high-strength plastic/combination-of-the-previous may be used in the form of solid plates. Body armor may come in as either a standalone vest (i.e. "soft" kevlar vest) or a carrier (which can further more simply be a holder for a solid plate or a combination of "soft" and "hard" armor). Options of groin, neck, and shoulder protection may be included with the vests but aren't used unless you're in a SWAT team or fighting in close quarters in a building.
**'''Ballistic Visor''' - A visor of transparent, bulletproof, plastic. Despite its weight, bulk and making it impossible to use a standard rifle properly, it's only really suitable against low powered handgun rounds and thus it sees little use outside of European SWAT counterparts.
*'''Blast suits''' - full-body armors capable of absorbing the heat and shrapnel of a bomb blast. The only part that isn't protected are the hands, since wearing thick gloves is detrimental to manual dexterity. So if a bomb goes off, you may be maimed and lose parts of your hands - but at least you're not dead or torn to ribbons by shrapnel! May also include a closed air supply in the case of biological or chemical bombs. Commonly worn by EOD technicians.
*'''[[Power Armor]]''' - As of current, we already have prototype exoskeletons, but they're one of the many inventions that isn't in common use purely because of current limits on battery power (all current examples are plugged into a power source). There isn't as much a need for such strength in direct combat like in fiction, as it's designed more for load-bearing in mind, allowing for bigger, heavier guns and/or more ammo. However, that could include allowing the user to wear heavier armor as well. Generally speaking, the servos and external components are rather exposed. Think STALKER's exoskeleton for modern military exoskeleton prototypes. Frankly, you're more likely to find these systems being used by workers in a vehicle factory than on the battlefield, and that will likely remain the case until the power situation is figured out.

== Modern Body Armor ==
With modern technology and all it's amenities, a large choices of body armor exists on the market (the NIJ level approved list for body armor products consumes 212 pages on a PDF file, and that's just stuff the manufacturer has paid the considerable expense to have tested by the NIJ instead of in-house). That said it is good to know what levels of protection for both ballistic and melee threats are. The advent of modern style body armour came at the beginning of the Cold War, when military equipment became ever more complicated to handle and expensive to make. These two factors put an incentive in place for the military leaders of the world to invest more resources into the training of its Soldiers, but also to protect this training and money invested into it (as of writing this passage, the cost of the training alone is estimated by the Pentagon to range between 20-40.000 US-Dollars ''per soldier for just basic training''), as well as the outrageously expensive equipment they are carrying. Compare this to previous wars like World War 2, where 90 days were deemed sufficient enough to teach some basic tactics and the workings of an M1 Garand and whatever specialty gear the individual soldier was issued. Point being: The advancements in weapon lethality also made Soldiers much less expendable (ironically enough) than their previous incarnations.

[[image:NIJ Ballistic Protection Rating.JPG|thumb|250px|right|NIJ Ballistic Standard]]
[[image:UL 752 Bullet Resistance Chart.PNG|thumb|250px|right|UL 752 Ballistic Standard]]

*'''Ballistic threats''' Aka bullets most of the time. Soft body armor (aka Kevlar, UHMW Polyethylene, Dyneema, etc) that is rather flexible, but also vulnerable to high velocity threats. Thus most body armor of that class is relegated between II to IIIA. From there on out, it's hard body armor, which usually consists of some sort of metallic (usually steel, but titanium and high-strength aluminum are options too), ceramics, and composites. NIJ Standard III to IV stop those threats. Technically, though only rated up to 30-06 AP rounds (IV), some plates of body armor offer higher than IV. Some have even shown to stop a .50 BMG round, though the likelihood of one surviving such a shot from the sheer force of it hitting them even without going into them is still in question. Standard helmets only go up to level III
** Since some common threats are ''just'' above certain ratings, like 55 grain 5.56 from a 20 inch barrel penetrating level III or 5.7 pistols beating most soft armor, the NIJ system is currently undergoing an overhaul. While most western countries use NIJ rating standards, at least as a secondary, Russia has its own, completely unconnected, system for rating armor.

*'''Stab threats''' Protects against low energy stabbing objects (aka knives and maybe some small swords). Stab and piercing vest should not be trusted for higher level threats such a two handed weapons such as an pickaxe, sledgehammer, axe, spear, and even affixed bayonets. Even a knife in the hands of someone who can put an unusually high amount of force into stabbing can defeat a stab vest. However it is still great for stuff people would likely to conceal where rapid quick jabbing is likely to occur. Of course there is probably protective gear such as riot gear that could be more withstanding of heavier two handed threats, but it's likely best to not take a pickaxe to the chest in the first place.

Overlap between the two categories is minimal. Metal ballistic plates will stop knifes, though said plate covers minimal body area and is typically heavy. Soft armor is one or the other, though one could be worn over the other at the cost of bulk.

[[image:NIJ Stab level.PNG|thumb|200px|right|NIJ Stab standard]]

== Modern Materials ==
For soft armor vests, the original materials used to make the dozens of layers that catch bullets and absorb their energy were either silk, cotton, or nylon. Ultimately, they were replaced with high strength synthetic polymer fibers with Kevlar being the first invented in the the 1970's. It's been competing ever since with over a dozen rival polymer formulas.
The standard hard armor trifecta of UHMWPE (essentially dense polymers ratched up to 11), Steel/titanium, and Ceramic usually places Ceramic at the top. As ceramic is not vulnerable to steel-core or fast-moving threats, it does not fold to M855 and M193 at the NIJ III level like UHMWPE and Steel do, respectively. What makes metals and UHMWPE appealing for plate inserts over ceramic is cost reduction and (assuming the plates haven't been penetrated yet) reusability. On the other hand, metal plate inserts need to be coated with high strength resins and polymer covers to prevent metal fragments from ricochets and spalling from hitting soldiers in the face or limbs.

== Yurop and Russia ==
Outside of the US, there are standards like VPAM and GOST, HOSDB and SK. Of these, the HOSDB is the only one not designed for military and civil use, while the rest are comprehensives intended for both military and civil protection.

==Anatomy of armor==
[[File:HenryVIIIArmor.jpg|right|thumb|300px|You thought we were joking about the dick armor?]]
Basic terminology of the different parts of armor. Unless you were very wealthy, such as a knight, not everyone had every part of their body covered in armor.

*[[Helmet]] - protects the head, one of the most common pieces of armor.
*Gambeson - padded cloth armor suit worn underneath metal armor to absorb blunt force and protect the wearer from the armor itself (metal and boiled leather aren't nice to unprotected humans skin, especially under extreme temperatures). Later variants often reinforced with sown-in mail in places actual metal armor above it have gaps and joints.
*Cuirass - protects the torso. If its made from a single piece of metal, it is a breastplate. Most breastplate are associated with full-body steel plate armor, but ancient Greeks had a bronze version called the "heroic Cuirass", or the Roman "Lorica Musculata", often molded with fake muscles and various decorations.
:*Plackart - lower torso reinforcement that would overlap with a breastplate for extra protection, and connected to the faulds. The reason for this reinforcement is to act as a cushion for blows to the chest, as there is enough space between the plackart and curiass that it acts as additional padding to prevent soft tissue damage underneath.
:*Faulds - a metal skirt attached to the breastplate, allowing some leg protection while offering mobility. Alternately, if the Faulds are in two pieces (one for each leg), they're known as Tassets. If a separate piece protects the ass, it's called a culet.
:*Lance Rest - the lone offensive feature of armor (aside from the rare spikes), enables holding using a lance with less energy wasted on sliding around. Makes the energy transfer so efficent that lances can actually break when used.
*Gorget - protects the neck and nape. With certain helmets, such as the Sallet, the gorget protected the lower head where the helmet did not.
**Bevor - a related piece of neck armor. Unlike the Gorget, these did not surround the entire neck but covered the front of the neck at the throat and chin. If segmented by folding laminate plates, it was called a Falling Buffe.
*[[Pauldrons]] - protects the shoulders. The real life versions are nowhere near as big as those on space marines.
**Spaulder - Armor used to protect the upper arm between the vambrace and the pauldron. Later replaced by the simpler Rebrace (also called an Upper Cannon).
*Gauntlets - protects the hands.
*Bracers (also call vambraces or braces) - protects the forearms and wrists.
**Manica - Armor that covers an arm, used primarily by the Romans. Typically used to protect the sword arm when it leaves the safety of a shield, but gladiators are known to have worn just it and the attached pauldron.
**Couter (also called Cowter or Elbow Cop) - essentially a metal elbow guard.
*Greaves - similar to modern shin guards, they protects the legs.
**Poleyn (alternatively called Genouillere) - basically a metal knee guard.
*Sabatons - protects the feet (you don't want some smartass spearman stabbing at your unarmored feet now, would you?)
*Codpiece - Yes, believe it or not, you could get dick armor too. Ordinarily this was just to armor the [[Slaanesh|groin area]] like an athletic cup, but some people like King Henry VIII made [[Kaldor Draigo|massive codpieces]] to show off how well-endowed they were.
*Tabard - Technically not armor, but was the decorative sleeveless coat that would drape over the armor of knights. Besides being used as an identifier through the knight's [[Imperial Knight|heraldry]], it also shielded armor from the desert sun so that the knight wouldn't boil in their own armor.
**Sashimono - Japanese equivalent. Essentially a way for armor to hold a small flag. Associated more with ashigaru armor than samurai, but samurai did wear them as well.

== Warhammer 40k ==
*[[Flak Armor]]: This is actually a ballistic vest, not Flak armor. Think an ESAPI (or the new XSAPI) plate modeled off of a cuirass. It can withstand stubber fire all across, up to rifle caliber, so consider most modern rifle ammo utterly pointless and it can take a modest beating from lasguns. The problem is, it starts getting shaky at the 12.7mm level, which... Unfortunately for the Imperial Guard, a ''lot'' of stuff can be considered "higher" than said level.
*[[Carapace Armor]]: Better flak armor (the 40K kind which is a ballistic vest) but with much more coverage and better quality materials. Basically the equivalent to full-plated armor made of ceramite and plasteel, it's generally [[Neckbeard|heavier and cumbersome]], but only issued really to those more capable of making the most use out of it.
*[[Power Armour|Powered armor]]: Space marine general issue, as well as several powerful Imperial organizations. Comes with both long term and short term necessities, with high-grade ceramite and admantium for protection, stabilizing and targeting gear to assist, and general life support if the being inside doesn't already have some. Very fancy. Honestly, it has its own article for a reason and this list section would do it no justice.

== Armor in Fiction ==

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Musclecuirass.JPG| Greek bronze Muscle Cuirass
Image:Linothorax.jpg| Greek Linothorax, a bronze-reinforced linen armor
Image:Roman Soldier mail.jpg|Roman Mail
Image:LoricaSegmentata.jpg|Roman Lorica Segmentata, a type of Laminar
Image:MirrorArmor.JPG|Mirror armor over a mail shirt
Image:ScaleArmor.JPG|Indian Scale armor
Image:Plated mail.jpg|Indian Plated Mail
Image:Bechter.jpg|Close-up of Eastern-European plated-mail pattern
Image:Koryak.jpg|Koryak warriors wearing traditional lamellar armour
Image:Lamellar.JPG|Japanese Lamellar
Image:Samurai armor.jpg|Japanese Laminar
Image:Gambeson.jpg| European Gambeson, a padded cloth armor used by both commoners and knights
Image:Brigandine.jpg|European Brigandine
Image:visby.jpg|Inside view of some DIYfag's homemade "Visby-pattern" brigandine
Image:Plate armor.jpg|European Plate
Image:FlakJacket.png| Flak Jacket
Image:BallisticVest.JPG|Ballistic Vest
Image:Bombsuit.jpg|Bombsuit
Image:IOTV_(OCP_variant).jpg|Improved Outer Tactical Vest
Image:SPS_(Soldier_Protection_System).jpg|Soldier Protection System, set to replace the IOTV in 2019. Designed with both mobility and protection in mind.
</gallery>

== See also ==

* [[Fantasy Armor]] for one of the usual flame wars involved in "armor".
* [[Armor Save]]

[[Category: History]]

[[Category: Weapons]]

[[Category: Medieval Weaponry]]

[[Category: Armour]]

{{MedievalWeaponry}}

ComStar

2021-08-19T16:05:15Z

2607:FB90:6E76:C29E:78FC:766E:3FF3:2D49: /* Military */

'''ComStar''' was <s>The Friendly Neighborhood Phone Company</s> a faction in the [[BattleTech]] universe.
== Origins ==
In the early 27th century, Star League scientists developed the Hyper Pulse Generator (HPG). First deployed in 2630, HPGs could send messages faster than the speed of light. Just like the introduction of the Telegraph or Radio back on old earth this was a big deal, even if a network of relays was required due to range limitations and the high cost of building and repairing these complex mechanisms. The Star League Department of Communications managed this big infrastructure project and everything was dandy, until the Ameris Civil War.

Surprisingly much of the HGP network survived the conflict and when the ashes cleared of the Civil War and among the most prominent civilian Star League figures left alive was Jerome Blake, a Department of Communications pencil pusher and basically the last man standing of Star League's civil service. While Star League was basically dead at this point, all of the five great houses still wanted the HGP network running and none of them wanted it in the pocket of the other four, either as a whole or carved up. Combined with some behind the curtains dealings with Kerensky to let Operation Exodus happen without a hitch, Blake was able to get things basically back into order on that front. Rebranded ComStar, they held control of Terra and officially declared their neutrality. Blake struck a deal with Alexander Kerensky to let him coordinate [[The Clans|Operation Exodus]] on the sly in return for some political backing, most notably letting those ex-SLDF soldiers who did not want to go into the unknown but would rather serve some remnant of Star League.

ComStar's neutrality, monopoly on FTL communications and solid security forces basically let it not only endure unscathed through four brutal succession wars but thrive. They soon branched out into banking and issued their own currency, the C-Bill, which could be redeemed for data transmission based on file size and how far you wanted to send it. C-Bills soon became the currency of international exchange.

== Organization and Ideology ==
Unusually for a Battletech power, there was no dominant dynasty in ComStar, because Cable companies do better when you don't know who's running them. The head of ComStar was the Primus along with the First Circuit as a legislature/board of directors. A Primus could name their successor, but the First Circuit had to confirm it.

ComStar generally avoided direct conflict whenever possible, given that it was both badly outnumbered, held little territory of it's own, and it's influence came from being useful to the bigger powers providing services they could not do themselves and by being a proxy for those occasions where they did not want to blow each other up. This did not meant that ComStar was a passive party who ignored the rest of the galaxy so long as they were left alone. Having a monopoly on FTL communication as well as banking gave them considerable influence; their own minted money in C-Bills was and still is considered the Battletech universe's universal currency, and their ability to allow you to use their services was just as dangerous as their ability to turn it off on you. The last thing you wanted was for ComStar to suspend services so that the Draconis Combine could invade your frontier, with word arriving at your court weeks after the dropships began unloading their mechs while the Coordinator could better Coordinate his forces which he could fund with low interest loans. And all of that is before the fact that the ComStar guys were reading your mail months ahead of time.

Of course...that's all the typical ultracorp, surface level stuff. A major, secretive part of ComStar's end-goals came from a secret directive from Blake himself, which slowly got warped over and over and over again until ComStar for much of it's time as a major power not only as your ISP, but also a secretive religion; believing that ComStar had a holy duty to save Humanity from itself by taking control of all knowledge, and therefor all power. This meant that they often "rediscovered" centuries old technology and only introduced it back into society when they believed it was "ready" for it, and this level of religious zeal became the bat that ComStar used to keep hitting the beehives of the Inner Sphere into further Succession Wars, all of which finally came to a head with an [[Word of Blake|internal schism]], and ultimately their dissolution afterwards.

Compare this to say, another wargame's [[Adeptus Mechanicus|leading "tech-first" faction]]. The Mechanicus are also a beating heart of humanity's technological achievement with a deeply religious bent with a penchant for hording life changing tech for greedy reasons, but there is a big difference between the Mechanicus does and what ComStar does; The Mechanicus will only ever horde stuff they deem especially interesting or valuable to ''them''. If the Mechanicus finds some form of large agricultural vehicle, they will ensure that it isn't chaos tainted, make sure they can produce it, and then fart it out onto any Agri-world they can. ComStar in the same situation would still horde that agricultural vehicle because, according to them, only ''they'' get to decide when Farmers from Frog Nuts get to do large-scale agriculture.

== Military ==
This is not to say that ComStar could not throw down when it needed to. It maintained it's own standing army and navy known as the ComGuard. All told it was not a big force, but it was powerful. While the Successor States were busy nuking themselves back into the bronze age, ComStar Squirreled away a fair deal of SLDF technology in remote areas. When nobody else in the Inner Sphere had FTL equipped WarShips ComStar did. The most notable military action of ComStar was the Battle of Tukayyid, in which they managed to defeat the best forces of The Clans.

Where they were ''really'' spooky was in their super-CIA level intelligence network known as ROM. ROM were the ones who monitored all communications made across the HPG, and was by far their most dangerous player for ComStar, fielding several covert units that stoked discord throughout the Inner Sphere and were the biggest contributors in the collection of technology for ComStar's sinister purposes.

In the aftermath of the Blakist Jihad, what was left of Comstar’s military was folded into the Republic of the Sphere’s new forces and was permanently separated to avoid giving Comstar (& any potential Blakists in deep cover) too much power. Comstar also suffered a drastic drop in fortune once the HPG network was sabotaged on Grey Monday and was subjected to an aggressive buy out by Clan Sea Fox.
{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

Word of Blake

2021-08-19T16:02:23Z

2607:FB90:6E76:C29E:78FC:766E:3FF3:2D49: /* The End of the Word of Blake */

[[file:B7-Logo.jpg|thumb|right|It never ends well for Blakes in space.]]
The Word of Blake was a religious faction/organization in [[Battletech]] that split off from the interstellar communications company [[ComStar]], and has the dubious honor of being the actual bad guys of the notoriously grey vs. grey universe of Battletech, being considered the dark secret, downfall, and demon of one of it's biggest factions.

Seriously, '''FUCK''' these guys.

== History ==
=== The Dark Secret of ComStar ===
While ComStar was a corporation first and foremost, an aspect of ComStar which few knew about for quite some time was a secret edict created from before the time of the Succession Wars; It's founder, Jerome Blake, didn't trust the Successor States for a second, and needed to ensure that none of them would try to overtake the HPG network and doom humanity. His protege and number one, Conrad Toyama, felt the same way, and when Blake died and he was named Primus of ComStar, he massively restructured the entire company from a mere corporation into a more esoteric, mystic organization that had genuinely positive ideals at the start; in order to make people take the HPG maintenance and security seriously, they treated it as a holy duty and a holy mission, and that only they had both the know-how and the responsibility to uphold them. After years of ROM agents ensuring that people kept to this doctrine, whether through gentle reminders, threats, or open force, this doctrine began to take on a life of it's own, and previously precepts who were only going along with what they were told began to give way to true believers, who would give their life to protect the HPGs and the information stored there.

Eventually however, this began to mutate into a belief that ''any'' technology that was not jealously guarded by ComStar was considered dangerous and liable to end up in the hands of the Great Houses, and so they began furiously gathering up as much [[LosTech|Lostech]] from the Star League era as they could while simultaneously baiting the Great houses into open warfare in a bid to weaken them, so that ComStar could finally come in and save the day, and most notably they began to believe in a prophecy that they would take control of the Inner Sphere during the rebirth of the Star League. And they even actually got their chance to do so during the Clan Invasion! The Star League came back! All they had to do was hold the Clans back on the planet of Tukayyid (that they may or may not have invited the Clans to in the first place)! They were finally going to be able to set the Inner Sphere straight! Intergalactic peace was inevitable!

...Or so they thought.

=== The Schism ===
See, the Clans had often only gotten as far as they had because in secret, the Primus at the time was feeding them information, and that didn't sit well with a lot of ComStar's First Circuit, even the religious ones. A majority then opted to place a new Primus in the big chair, one who was more interested in just making money and getting rid of the more religious aspects of themselves. The Religious types, understandably, hated this, and a Preceptor named Demona Aziz decided to split away from ComStar, using the HPG network to rally followers to her more traditional viewpoint of Jerome Blake's work, and convinced Thomas Marik of the [[Free Worlds League]] to grant them amnesty in their space.

It is here, from the move to the planet Gibson to the secret dealings with Thomas Marik, that the Word Of Blake was truly formed.

=== The Brewing Storms ===
From there, the Word of Blake aggressively transplanted any loyal ComStar Precepts from the League's HPG network, followed by those of the [[Capellan Confederation]]. All the while they spent the considerable time and affluence they gained from the HPG network to train soldiers and build resources to begin building for more legitimacy, finally beginning a bold plan to overtake Terra itself, a feat they managed to accomplish thanks to trickery and through a genuine amount of sympathy that had been brewing among the Terran populace at the time. Because Terra was and had been primarily just a figurehead planet for ComStar, it was a major blow to their former comrades, and they wouldn't stop there, going deep into the Chaos Marches, a place well known for their inability to remain conquered, and conquered them.

Finally, the time for the second [[Star League]] would come. They would finally do what ComStar didn't. And they would save humanity from itself. And the second Star League even recognized them as a state! Everything was working out!

=== The Grandest Hissy Fit of them All ===
See, what the Word of Blake hadn't counted on was that the Second Star League had only ever been born so that the Inner Sphere could stop the Clanners from invading further into their space, and just as soon as it was established, it was pretty quickly on it's way to fracturing. Further, their decision to incorporate as an official state; the Word of Blake Protectorate, was pretty harshly opposed by Jaime Wolf, the leader of Wolf's Dragoons. This led the Word of Blake into a pretty awkward position; they were only really recognized as an entity by a fracturing Star League that they needed for their prophecy to come true, and if they didn't have that, they weren't going to have a prophecy. And if they didn't have that, well...Wolf's Dragoons probably would be given free reign to put them down.

So naturally, they did the only reasonable thing they could think of; they threw an interstellar tantrum in the form of having WarShips pop up all over major capitals across the Inner Sphere and some places within the Periphery to threaten them into staying with the Star League, and when that didn't work because what the fuck were they going to do, they began a massive orbital bombardment campaign right then and there, deciding if the Star League wouldn't come together willingly, then they would purposefully make their own by way of open force.

=== The Jihad ===
The Jihad actually began a little bit before the open decision to just hatefuck the Inner Sphere into submission by the Word of Blake openly declaring war on Wolf's Dragoons, slamming their capital world with nuclear assaults, poisoning the surface for good and setting their longtime rival merc group after them, ending in the deaths of several major Dragoon leaders. After that, the Jihad started over Federated Sun space and then ballooned into a multi-front war in which every major power suddenly found themselves having to face off against an army that often would "white out" the HPG network, and was able to procure or reinforce all of their battalions with far more than their foes were often expecting, usually with a nuclear arsenal attached to the end of it. Even deep into the periphery did the Blakists reach, causing all sorts of unexpected problems for the periphery powers.

It was in effect, utter fucking chaos; almost nobody, including the Clans, had a hard answer for all of the suped up 'Mechs and nuclear devastation being kicked around, as well as plenty of the usual grab-ass and proxy wars that Inner Sphere politics demands in order to stay stable. Certainly nobody could've predicted that the patriarch of a Great House, Thomas Marik, had ended up the Master of the Word of Blake, and that meant they effectively had unlimited money, and even their own in-house mechs. Even the Elementals and Veteran Battle Armor infantry struggled with the Word of Blake's horrific cyborg ''Manei Domini'', who tore through foes with ferociousness and speed. While everyone agreed something needed to be done, the Inner Sphere's politics had all but ensured they'd be a problem for years to come. Someone had to step up and take them out for good. Someone needed to show real, honest leadership against this dauntless foe.

That someone was Devlin Stone.

=== The End of the Word of Blake <s>as far as we know</s>===
Whoever Devlin Stone was prior to the Jihad, nobody really knows. What is known is that he had ended up in WoB hands on the planet Kittery, as a PoW. While there, he ended up meeting some dork by the name of David Lear, who turned out to be a member of House Liao. They escaped the prison camp and the planet together, and from there, Devlin Stone plotted vengeance for having his world flip-turned-upside-down by the Word. He began to form his coalition using David's nobility as the opening platform, meeting leaders from across the Inner Sphere. He'd get in touch with them, get to know them, usually impress them, and finally began to receive full-throated and actual material support to just fucking end these guys already; culminating in the largest coalition of military forces in human history up to that point; millions strong and all with one purpose; blow up Thomas Marik and reclaim earth. As it turns out, advanced tech isn't exactly going to do a whole lot when the enemy can ram thousands of Assault lances down your throat, and at long last, in 3080, the coalition found and vaporized the Word of Blake headquarters on earth, leading to it's liberation. And just to make sure, he then found Thomas Marik on the planet of Circinus, and ordered the same level of orbital bombardment right down on their heads just like Marik had before.

The Word of Blake as an intergalactic power was dead. And in their place, the Republic of the Sphere was formed. However, with the advent of Grey Monday with the Inner Sphere’s HPG network being sabotaged with bombings and viruses from units bearing unidentified insigna, it’s been rumored that some parts of their organization survived in deep cover before sabotaging the comms infrastructure.

== Sub-Factions ==
Because the Word of Blake was more of a religious organization rather than a unified front, there were plenty of splinter groups that made keeping track of them a major headache for the major powers; since it meant the Blakists could go from normalish people to crazed zealots within a year depending on who would take charge of the local cell.

* '''Toyamas''': The most openly radical and zealotous group, eventually drowning out all others or even assaulting them for HERESY. Pretty much all the bad shit the Word of Blake did was done by these maniacs.
* '''Counter-Reformists''': While often just as religious as Toyamas, the Counter-Reformists often merely preferred the religious doctrine of the WoB re-written so that it was no longer as "corrupted" as it had been. Understandably, this did not win them many fans among their own.
* '''True Believers''': The bizarre reasonable faction of the Word of Blake, trying to be the middle man between all the other ones. While they didn't start any shit, they definitely didn't take any either, and any attempted betrayals or power plays often ended violently and almost never in the favor of the not-True Believers. They figured there were too many fractured parts of the WoB and that uniting under one vision was a better idea in the long run.
* '''Expatriates''': A bunch of ComStar officers who felt betrayed by Comstars reforms, and joined the Word of Blake as a result. Often sided with the True Believers, but then got blown the fuck out once many of their highest ranking leaders were revealed to just be ComStar agents.
* '''Shunners''': The doomsday preppers/cult. They figured the Jihad was the beginning of the end of human civilization in the Inner Sphere, and so they felt now was time to hole up and wait it out in a refuge on Venus, which then had most of them get incinerated when another faction (probably the Toyamas) decided they needed to go and sabotaged the refuge's atmosphere controls.

== Military ==
The Word of Blake typically built their armies like they used to in ComGuard, with a base-six combined-arms force designed to put more attention on infantry so that the Battlemech in question could draw fire, though how they actually ''fought'' differed considerably. In battle, the Word of Blake's general goal was to lure opponents in by "greying out" the HPG network, and then surprise them with greater-than-expected numbers, nuclear weapons, or both. Indeed, when the Word of Blake wasn't engaging in guerilla wars at the infantry level, they were often known to dump dropship after dropship of Star League era designs or entirely unheard of mechs, power armor, and tank on the unsuspecting heads of their enemies.

They combined this particularly fun tactic with the work from their Shadow Divisions, which were almost always made up of the ''Manei Domini''; cyborg warriors who were fanatically loyal, exceptionally brutal and usually kept in reserve until it their opponent had no way out, in which their maniac army of crazed cyborg men tore opposing armies to shreds. And that was if they won, they were the ones who were often charged with wiping a planet clean of life using biological weapons, nukes, and chemical agents as well as orbital bombardments if things weren't going their way.

==== The Celestial Series, and other Notable Mechs ====
While they had plenty of special 'Mech variants, by far the most notable of the Blakist BattleMechs were the Celestial Series; an unholy amalgam of OmniMech versatility and Inner Sphere engine and armor technology, ranging the entire weight class system from Light to Assault. While all of them received a different weapon suite depending on their weight class, all of them received improved sensors, and an Extendable Blade as a personal calling card from the Blakists and as a coup de grace/last ditch effort close combat weapon.
* '''''Malak''''' - The lightest of the series, designed as a long range scout. Most unnecessary weight was pulled out of it to allow it to carry a dizzying array of weapons; a Light PPC, an ER Medium Laser, an SRM-2, and a Flamer as a starting point.
* '''''Preta''''' - The Celestial Medium Mech, designed for close-combat and close combat alone. It packed a light PPC and a Snub-nose PPC as it's starting weapons, with an anti-missile defense system installed to keep it from getting picked off. Almost all variants either played up it's mobility or it's short-range damage output.
* '''''Grigori''''' - The ''Grigori'' is the first Heavy 'Mech in the Celestial series, with an emphasis on being a missile platform. While it carried out that particular job admirably, it had the unfortunate build decision of cramming all of it's ammo into the right-side torso, meaning that even if it was protected by the CASE system, getting through it meant the ''Grigori'' was going to create a pretty impressive crater.
* '''''Deva''''' - The other Heavy Mech in the Celestial Series, slightly larger than the ''Grigori''. It boasted direct-fire support capabilities, packing a gauss rifle as well as three Light-PPCs, though it ran out of ammo fairly quickly, and the Retractable Blade was honestly a bit of a confusing choice on a mech that was almost never going to see close-combat action.
* '''''Seraph''''' - The Celestial Series "light" Assault Mech, designed as a hit and run specialist, but ultimately failed to do so given that it's Myomer was intended to give it a speed boost when it overheated, but it's (admittedly impressive) weaponry, starting with an Ultra AC/10, SRM-6, and Snub-Nose PPC were never going to get it hot enough to do that, and so it's a bit slower than other Assault Mechs. That does not however, mean that you should be anywhere near it.
* '''''Archangel''''' - The Celestial signature Assault Mech, topping out at 100 tons. It was built as the bedrock on which many Word of Blake forces would operate, and given the sheer amount of firepower and armor it could bring to the table; starting with a Heavy PPC and a Plasma Rifle, it more than lived up to it's billing. Oh, and it also had Jump Jets, meaning it was fully capable of chasing your ass down if it came to it.
* '''''Omega''''' - An unholy lovechild between King Crab and the Stone Rhino, Omega is the first truly functional Superheavy/Colossal combat mech of 150 tons. Most of that extra tonnage went to armor and CASE II in each weapon, making this mech an extremely tough nut to crack, even if it comes at the cost of it being a slightly mobile pillbox. By comparison the weapons themselves are probably the least impressive thing about it, even if no one would scoff at three torso-mounted Gauss Rifles and LB 10-X Autocannons in each hand, all supported by the C3i computers. With obvious weaknesses in bigger, more target-able profile and an agility of a turtle, this big boy was never deployed without extensive support.

{{Battletech Factions}}
[[Category: BattleTech]]

Word of Blake

2021-08-19T16:01:20Z

2607:FB90:6E76:C29E:78FC:766E:3FF3:2D49: /* The End of the Word of Blake */

[[file:B7-Logo.jpg|thumb|right|It never ends well for Blakes in space.]]
The Word of Blake was a religious faction/organization in [[Battletech]] that split off from the interstellar communications company [[ComStar]], and has the dubious honor of being the actual bad guys of the notoriously grey vs. grey universe of Battletech, being considered the dark secret, downfall, and demon of one of it's biggest factions.

Seriously, '''FUCK''' these guys.

== History ==
=== The Dark Secret of ComStar ===
While ComStar was a corporation first and foremost, an aspect of ComStar which few knew about for quite some time was a secret edict created from before the time of the Succession Wars; It's founder, Jerome Blake, didn't trust the Successor States for a second, and needed to ensure that none of them would try to overtake the HPG network and doom humanity. His protege and number one, Conrad Toyama, felt the same way, and when Blake died and he was named Primus of ComStar, he massively restructured the entire company from a mere corporation into a more esoteric, mystic organization that had genuinely positive ideals at the start; in order to make people take the HPG maintenance and security seriously, they treated it as a holy duty and a holy mission, and that only they had both the know-how and the responsibility to uphold them. After years of ROM agents ensuring that people kept to this doctrine, whether through gentle reminders, threats, or open force, this doctrine began to take on a life of it's own, and previously precepts who were only going along with what they were told began to give way to true believers, who would give their life to protect the HPGs and the information stored there.

Eventually however, this began to mutate into a belief that ''any'' technology that was not jealously guarded by ComStar was considered dangerous and liable to end up in the hands of the Great Houses, and so they began furiously gathering up as much [[LosTech|Lostech]] from the Star League era as they could while simultaneously baiting the Great houses into open warfare in a bid to weaken them, so that ComStar could finally come in and save the day, and most notably they began to believe in a prophecy that they would take control of the Inner Sphere during the rebirth of the Star League. And they even actually got their chance to do so during the Clan Invasion! The Star League came back! All they had to do was hold the Clans back on the planet of Tukayyid (that they may or may not have invited the Clans to in the first place)! They were finally going to be able to set the Inner Sphere straight! Intergalactic peace was inevitable!

...Or so they thought.

=== The Schism ===
See, the Clans had often only gotten as far as they had because in secret, the Primus at the time was feeding them information, and that didn't sit well with a lot of ComStar's First Circuit, even the religious ones. A majority then opted to place a new Primus in the big chair, one who was more interested in just making money and getting rid of the more religious aspects of themselves. The Religious types, understandably, hated this, and a Preceptor named Demona Aziz decided to split away from ComStar, using the HPG network to rally followers to her more traditional viewpoint of Jerome Blake's work, and convinced Thomas Marik of the [[Free Worlds League]] to grant them amnesty in their space.

It is here, from the move to the planet Gibson to the secret dealings with Thomas Marik, that the Word Of Blake was truly formed.

=== The Brewing Storms ===
From there, the Word of Blake aggressively transplanted any loyal ComStar Precepts from the League's HPG network, followed by those of the [[Capellan Confederation]]. All the while they spent the considerable time and affluence they gained from the HPG network to train soldiers and build resources to begin building for more legitimacy, finally beginning a bold plan to overtake Terra itself, a feat they managed to accomplish thanks to trickery and through a genuine amount of sympathy that had been brewing among the Terran populace at the time. Because Terra was and had been primarily just a figurehead planet for ComStar, it was a major blow to their former comrades, and they wouldn't stop there, going deep into the Chaos Marches, a place well known for their inability to remain conquered, and conquered them.

Finally, the time for the second [[Star League]] would come. They would finally do what ComStar didn't. And they would save humanity from itself. And the second Star League even recognized them as a state! Everything was working out!

=== The Grandest Hissy Fit of them All ===
See, what the Word of Blake hadn't counted on was that the Second Star League had only ever been born so that the Inner Sphere could stop the Clanners from invading further into their space, and just as soon as it was established, it was pretty quickly on it's way to fracturing. Further, their decision to incorporate as an official state; the Word of Blake Protectorate, was pretty harshly opposed by Jaime Wolf, the leader of Wolf's Dragoons. This led the Word of Blake into a pretty awkward position; they were only really recognized as an entity by a fracturing Star League that they needed for their prophecy to come true, and if they didn't have that, they weren't going to have a prophecy. And if they didn't have that, well...Wolf's Dragoons probably would be given free reign to put them down.

So naturally, they did the only reasonable thing they could think of; they threw an interstellar tantrum in the form of having WarShips pop up all over major capitals across the Inner Sphere and some places within the Periphery to threaten them into staying with the Star League, and when that didn't work because what the fuck were they going to do, they began a massive orbital bombardment campaign right then and there, deciding if the Star League wouldn't come together willingly, then they would purposefully make their own by way of open force.

=== The Jihad ===
The Jihad actually began a little bit before the open decision to just hatefuck the Inner Sphere into submission by the Word of Blake openly declaring war on Wolf's Dragoons, slamming their capital world with nuclear assaults, poisoning the surface for good and setting their longtime rival merc group after them, ending in the deaths of several major Dragoon leaders. After that, the Jihad started over Federated Sun space and then ballooned into a multi-front war in which every major power suddenly found themselves having to face off against an army that often would "white out" the HPG network, and was able to procure or reinforce all of their battalions with far more than their foes were often expecting, usually with a nuclear arsenal attached to the end of it. Even deep into the periphery did the Blakists reach, causing all sorts of unexpected problems for the periphery powers.

It was in effect, utter fucking chaos; almost nobody, including the Clans, had a hard answer for all of the suped up 'Mechs and nuclear devastation being kicked around, as well as plenty of the usual grab-ass and proxy wars that Inner Sphere politics demands in order to stay stable. Certainly nobody could've predicted that the patriarch of a Great House, Thomas Marik, had ended up the Master of the Word of Blake, and that meant they effectively had unlimited money, and even their own in-house mechs. Even the Elementals and Veteran Battle Armor infantry struggled with the Word of Blake's horrific cyborg ''Manei Domini'', who tore through foes with ferociousness and speed. While everyone agreed something needed to be done, the Inner Sphere's politics had all but ensured they'd be a problem for years to come. Someone had to step up and take them out for good. Someone needed to show real, honest leadership against this dauntless foe.

That someone was Devlin Stone.

=== The End of the Word of Blake ===
Whoever Devlin Stone was prior to the Jihad, nobody really knows. What is known is that he had ended up in WoB hands on the planet Kittery, as a PoW. While there, he ended up meeting some dork by the name of David Lear, who turned out to be a member of House Liao. They escaped the prison camp and the planet together, and from there, Devlin Stone plotted vengeance for having his world flip-turned-upside-down by the Word. He began to form his coalition using David's nobility as the opening platform, meeting leaders from across the Inner Sphere. He'd get in touch with them, get to know them, usually impress them, and finally began to receive full-throated and actual material support to just fucking end these guys already; culminating in the largest coalition of military forces in human history up to that point; millions strong and all with one purpose; blow up Thomas Marik and reclaim earth. As it turns out, advanced tech isn't exactly going to do a whole lot when the enemy can ram thousands of Assault lances down your throat, and at long last, in 3080, the coalition found and vaporized the Word of Blake headquarters on earth, leading to it's liberation. And just to make sure, he then found Thomas Marik on the planet of Circinus, and ordered the same level of orbital bombardment right down on their heads just like Marik had before.

The Word of Blake as an intergalactic power was dead. And in their place, the Republic of the Sphere was formed. However, with the advent of Grey Monday with the Inner Sphere’s HPG network being sabotaged with bombings and viruses from units bearing unidentified insigna, it’s been rumored that some parts of their organization survived in deep cover before sabotaging the comms infrastructure.

== Sub-Factions ==
Because the Word of Blake was more of a religious organization rather than a unified front, there were plenty of splinter groups that made keeping track of them a major headache for the major powers; since it meant the Blakists could go from normalish people to crazed zealots within a year depending on who would take charge of the local cell.

* '''Toyamas''': The most openly radical and zealotous group, eventually drowning out all others or even assaulting them for HERESY. Pretty much all the bad shit the Word of Blake did was done by these maniacs.
* '''Counter-Reformists''': While often just as religious as Toyamas, the Counter-Reformists often merely preferred the religious doctrine of the WoB re-written so that it was no longer as "corrupted" as it had been. Understandably, this did not win them many fans among their own.
* '''True Believers''': The bizarre reasonable faction of the Word of Blake, trying to be the middle man between all the other ones. While they didn't start any shit, they definitely didn't take any either, and any attempted betrayals or power plays often ended violently and almost never in the favor of the not-True Believers. They figured there were too many fractured parts of the WoB and that uniting under one vision was a better idea in the long run.
* '''Expatriates''': A bunch of ComStar officers who felt betrayed by Comstars reforms, and joined the Word of Blake as a result. Often sided with the True Believers, but then got blown the fuck out once many of their highest ranking leaders were revealed to just be ComStar agents.
* '''Shunners''': The doomsday preppers/cult. They figured the Jihad was the beginning of the end of human civilization in the Inner Sphere, and so they felt now was time to hole up and wait it out in a refuge on Venus, which then had most of them get incinerated when another faction (probably the Toyamas) decided they needed to go and sabotaged the refuge's atmosphere controls.

== Military ==
The Word of Blake typically built their armies like they used to in ComGuard, with a base-six combined-arms force designed to put more attention on infantry so that the Battlemech in question could draw fire, though how they actually ''fought'' differed considerably. In battle, the Word of Blake's general goal was to lure opponents in by "greying out" the HPG network, and then surprise them with greater-than-expected numbers, nuclear weapons, or both. Indeed, when the Word of Blake wasn't engaging in guerilla wars at the infantry level, they were often known to dump dropship after dropship of Star League era designs or entirely unheard of mechs, power armor, and tank on the unsuspecting heads of their enemies.

They combined this particularly fun tactic with the work from their Shadow Divisions, which were almost always made up of the ''Manei Domini''; cyborg warriors who were fanatically loyal, exceptionally brutal and usually kept in reserve until it their opponent had no way out, in which their maniac army of crazed cyborg men tore opposing armies to shreds. And that was if they won, they were the ones who were often charged with wiping a planet clean of life using biological weapons, nukes, and chemical agents as well as orbital bombardments if things weren't going their way.

==== The Celestial Series, and other Notable Mechs ====
While they had plenty of special 'Mech variants, by far the most notable of the Blakist BattleMechs were the Celestial Series; an unholy amalgam of OmniMech versatility and Inner Sphere engine and armor technology, ranging the entire weight class system from Light to Assault. While all of them received a different weapon suite depending on their weight class, all of them received improved sensors, and an Extendable Blade as a personal calling card from the Blakists and as a coup de grace/last ditch effort close combat weapon.
* '''''Malak''''' - The lightest of the series, designed as a long range scout. Most unnecessary weight was pulled out of it to allow it to carry a dizzying array of weapons; a Light PPC, an ER Medium Laser, an SRM-2, and a Flamer as a starting point.
* '''''Preta''''' - The Celestial Medium Mech, designed for close-combat and close combat alone. It packed a light PPC and a Snub-nose PPC as it's starting weapons, with an anti-missile defense system installed to keep it from getting picked off. Almost all variants either played up it's mobility or it's short-range damage output.
* '''''Grigori''''' - The ''Grigori'' is the first Heavy 'Mech in the Celestial series, with an emphasis on being a missile platform. While it carried out that particular job admirably, it had the unfortunate build decision of cramming all of it's ammo into the right-side torso, meaning that even if it was protected by the CASE system, getting through it meant the ''Grigori'' was going to create a pretty impressive crater.
* '''''Deva''''' - The other Heavy Mech in the Celestial Series, slightly larger than the ''Grigori''. It boasted direct-fire support capabilities, packing a gauss rifle as well as three Light-PPCs, though it ran out of ammo fairly quickly, and the Retractable Blade was honestly a bit of a confusing choice on a mech that was almost never going to see close-combat action.
* '''''Seraph''''' - The Celestial Series "light" Assault Mech, designed as a hit and run specialist, but ultimately failed to do so given that it's Myomer was intended to give it a speed boost when it overheated, but it's (admittedly impressive) weaponry, starting with an Ultra AC/10, SRM-6, and Snub-Nose PPC were never going to get it hot enough to do that, and so it's a bit slower than other Assault Mechs. That does not however, mean that you should be anywhere near it.
* '''''Archangel''''' - The Celestial signature Assault Mech, topping out at 100 tons. It was built as the bedrock on which many Word of Blake forces would operate, and given the sheer amount of firepower and armor it could bring to the table; starting with a Heavy PPC and a Plasma Rifle, it more than lived up to it's billing. Oh, and it also had Jump Jets, meaning it was fully capable of chasing your ass down if it came to it.
* '''''Omega''''' - An unholy lovechild between King Crab and the Stone Rhino, Omega is the first truly functional Superheavy/Colossal combat mech of 150 tons. Most of that extra tonnage went to armor and CASE II in each weapon, making this mech an extremely tough nut to crack, even if it comes at the cost of it being a slightly mobile pillbox. By comparison the weapons themselves are probably the least impressive thing about it, even if no one would scoff at three torso-mounted Gauss Rifles and LB 10-X Autocannons in each hand, all supported by the C3i computers. With obvious weaknesses in bigger, more target-able profile and an agility of a turtle, this big boy was never deployed without extensive support.

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