prehistory
Humanity, which had formed the Terran Alliance in the 21st century, began to colonize space at the beginning of the 22nd century. The huge distances can be bridged with so-called JumpShips (which create a crack in the space-time-structure and can "jump" up to 30 light-years without loss of time). However, many of these colonies broke away from the Terran Alliance in the 23rd century after a brief battle and became independent while the Alliance sank into chaos. Over time, several states emerged by the middle of the 24th century, some of which merged into larger federations. However, the relative cut-offness of the worlds led to the expression of neo-feudalism. Lords Princes rule on behalf of one of the five great ruling houses (House Steiner / Lyran Commonwealth, House Davion / United Suns, House Kurita / Draconis Combine, House Liao / Capellan Confederation and House Marik / Free Worlds League) over their subjects in the Inner Sphere ", A roughly spherical space region with a radius of 300 light years around Terra. BattleMech pilots in this society are the heroes who fight for their princes like medieval knights.
In addition, the Terran hegemony existed until the 28th century. It was the most technologically advanced state and was founded at the beginning of the 24th century by the remnants of the Terran Alliance by Admiral James McKenna, who conquered several surrounding worlds in a campaign that lasted for years. However, shortly thereafter, the Cameron family came to power, whose members soon invariably held the post of chief of state, the director-general of hegemony (who initially had to be elected). There were repeated battles between these six great powers (Combine Against the Federated Suns, Hegemony or the Commonwealth, the Capellan Confederation against the League, the Federated Suns or the Terran Hegemony), but they only brought smaller marginal shifts. By the middle of the 26th century, on the initiative of the Terran hegemony, all the big houses had joined forces to form the Star League. The peripheral states, which had largely nothing to do with the Star League, were forced into the Bund in the "Union War". The Confederation prospered in the following years. Culturally and technologically, the golden age of humanity began, although there were always tensions between the member states.
The Star League disintegrated when the usurper Stefan Amaris, ruler of the Republic of Rim Worlds, seized power and killed the "First Lord" Richard Cameron, whose close confidant Amaris had been, and his family in December 2766 in a large-scale coup d'état , In the Terran hegemony, which can be described as the "heart and soul" of the Star League, a year-long reign of terror began. Aleksandr Kerensky, the Commander in Chief of the Star League Defense Forces, who was involved in an Amaris-fueled partisan fight against the insurgent border states, then brought down Amaris in a bloody campaign and killed him and his family. House Cameron, however, no longer existed, and the other house princes were more intent on their own benefit, so that the Star League broke. Kerensky then left in 2784 with a large part of his forces the Inner Sphere. The rulers of the states that were united in the Star League claimed in 2786 all, except the Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth, for themselves the title of First Lord. The Terran hegemony was split among the House Princes, as were the remnants of the remaining Star League forces (about 20%) who joined one of the great houses or became mercenaries.
The succession wars
From the inability of the big houses to reach an agreement, finally emerged the so-called succession wars. The centuries of reciprocal wars to gain supremacy - in the early wars also with the help of ABC weapons - across the entire human-inhabited space could not give any of the ruling houses a decisive advantage. The reestablishment of the Star League also appears as ever. The knowledge of many technologies was lost during the endless battles between the rulers (LosTech); even BattleMechs and the irreplaceable JumpShips can only be produced on a few worlds, but the knowledge to build advanced systems such as combat space ships was completely lost. The Ares Convention (adopted as early as the 25th century) provided additional protection for human life and technology, but at the same time played down the horrors of war.
The states that fought (and fight) against each other in these conflicts are referred to as the successor states, though they all existed before the Star League was founded. In their structures and organization, they are reminiscent of the monarchies of bygone days, also comparable to the circumstances of Frank Herbert's Dune. These states emerged from economic alliances that eventually became political. There is no state whose population consists of only one nationality, but there is almost always a nationality that is dominant, seen both in the cultural and quantitative sense of the population (Confederation Capella: mainly Chinese; Draconis Combine: mainly Japanese) United Suns: mainly Anglo-American; Lyran Commonwealth: mainly Germans; Free Worlds League: other peoples and cultures, mainly Scandinavians, Spanish-speaking peoples, Indians).
In the succession wars, however, none of the big houses could gain a real advantage, even if the Confederation Capella or the Commonwealth, for example, had to suffer greater territorial losses. In 3028, however, the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns (who formed an alliance with each other and were soon to merge into the Federated Commonwealth) managed to inflict heavy losses on their opponents in the Fourth Succession War; The Capellan Confederation loses almost half of its worlds. Following this, the discovery of an intact Star League datastore leads to a small technical "renaissance".
At about this historic time, the first BattleTech background stories began.
The clan invasion
In 3050, the clans, descendants of the old Star League army, find themselves in a state of relative balance of power (see below). With far superior technology and pilots, they are wreaking havoc through the peripheral worlds of the successor states with the goal of capturing Terra, the cradle of humanity and home of the quasi-religious organization ComStar, to create a new Star League. ComStar does not want to give up Terra and offers 3052 a decisive battle on the sparsely populated planet Tukayyid. The best troops of all (now seven) invasion clans will compete against the ComGuards, the private army ComStars. The Clans will receive Terra in the event of a victory, and in the event of defeat they will have to comply with a 15-year truce. The ComGuards win in weeks of bloody battles on both sides.
Upon the return of Tukayyid, the commander of the ComGuards learns of the political assassination plans of the leader ComStars and sets them down. ComStar itself is reformed and secularized, but a radical faction, known as Blake's Word, breaks away from the organization and finds refuge in the Free Worlds League. In the ensuing period, however, fighting in the area of the ceasefire line between the clans and units of the Inner Sphere does not break off.
Finally, the big houses re-establish the Star League to defend themselves against the Clans. In order to gain respect for this warrior society, they extinguish the Clan Smoke Jaguar, who has been particularly harsh with insurgent civilians. In the central world of clans, the new Star League Defense Forces, under the command of Victor Steiner-Davion, are competing against the Clans, at the end of which the Inner Sphere can reach the official end of the invasion. However, it is still possible for individual clans to attack areas of the Inner Sphere on their own responsibility. In 3067, however, the Star League is dissolved again due to insurmountable differences.
The harsh policies of Archon Princess Katherine Steiner-Davion lead to civil war in the Federated Commonwealth. Victor Steiner-Davion decides to forcibly remove his sister due to incompetence, flocks around supporters and also participates in the war. He becomes the leader of the resistance. The civil war almost undermines the Federated Commonwealth economically and militarily, until it comes to two simultaneous decisive battles on the two central worlds. Katherine's faction is subject in both battles. It is deposed and the Federated Commonwealth is split back into the Lyran Alliance and the Federated Suns. The new rulers are Peter Steiner-Davion and Yvonne Steiner-Davion. Immediately after the dissolution of the Second Star League in 3067, Jihad sets in as Blake's word ignites a brutal war that also uses weapons of mass destruction and warships, and even destroys entire planets before Blake's word can be slashed. The Free Worlds League shatters, and decades after that, numerous worlds still suffer from the use of ABC weapons during the Jihad.
The harsh policies of Archon Princess Katherine Steiner-Davion lead to civil war in the Federated Commonwealth. Victor Steiner-Davion decides to forcibly remove his sister due to incompetence, flocks around supporters and also participates in the war. He becomes the leader of the resistance. The civil war almost undermines the Federated Commonwealth economically and militarily, until it comes to two simultaneous decisive battles on the two central worlds. Katherine's faction is subject in both battles. It is deposed and the Federated Commonwealth is split back into the Lyran Alliance and the Federated Suns. The new rulers are Peter Steiner-Davion and Yvonne Steiner-Davion. Immediately after the dissolution of the Second Star League in 3067, Jihad sets in as Blake's word ignites a brutal war that also uses weapons of mass destruction and warships, and even destroys entire planets before Blake's word can be slashed. The Free Worlds League shatters, and decades after that, numerous worlds still suffer from the use of ABC weapons during the Jihad.
The Dark Age
In Mechwarrior: Dark Age, the storyline begins in 3132 and focuses on the near-Earth sector of the game, which has turned into a republic-independent republic after jihad - essentially a new Terran hegemony, in populations of all five old successor states and even clans live. The founder of the Republic of the Sphere was a man named Devlin Stone, who successfully organized resistance to the Blakists and eventually initiated a massive disarmament program. But now the interstellar communication of the republic mysteriously collapses, the causer remains unknown. Long suppressed mistrust and the power of different factions break out again and the Republic is facing a civil war, while several of the big houses now want to take the opportunity to take back old member worlds again.
The culture and details of the houses, the clans, individual planets, and small bandit kingdoms have been worked out in great detail, not least because of a series of novels that has since expanded to over sixty volumes, continuing the history of BattleTech. Accompanying it, numerous supplementary volumes provide more information on new technologies, major battles and famous mercenary and home units.
BattleMech
BattleMech (originally developed in the Terran Hegemony in the 25th century) refers to huge, sometimes humanoid, partly avoide and rarely also insecticidal fighting machines in the BattleTech universe, which are also called there only briefly Mech.
BattleMechs are 7 to 15 meters tall and stocked with the 4th millennium arsenal, such as laser cannons, particle projector cannons, rockets, Gauss guns and autocannons. A fusion reactor gives them almost unlimited energy and their appearance gives them excellent freedom of movement on all terrain types, despite their weight of 20 to 100 tonnes. [1] This is also guaranteed by a technique called myomer fibers. These fibers, like human muscle, attach to certain points of the titanium skeleton and have the property of contracting with tremendous force as soon as they are energized. When the power is adjusted, the fiber relaxes again. This technique is so precisely controllable that 'Mechs with fully modeled hands, e.g. the Shadow Hawk, a wooden box or even a human being can raise without causing damage. The only really serious opponent of a BattleMech is an enemy BattleMech - but may also be several armored infantrymen (called "toads" or "elementals"), correspondingly armed tanks and especially air / space fighters, both in the atmosphere of a planet and can fight in space, BattleMechs are dangerous.
BattleMechs can fight on almost any terrain and in most environmental conditions. In arctic temperatures, in extreme heat, under water, and even in the vacuum of space (the latter only happens in very rare emergencies)
However, the heat build-up of these combat machines is a significant weakness. After each shot from an energy weapon, the pilot must keep an eye on the resulting waste heat to avoid possible overheating and automatic emergency shutdown. Coolers, called heat exchangers, try to keep the temperature of the BattleMechs below a certain level. Also, the pilots of the BattleMechs carry cooling vests that are connected to the 'Mech's coolant circuit and ensure that the pilot in the cockpit does not lose consciousness or even die from a heat stroke.
A special feature are the so-called OmniMechs: Clan Kojote developed OmniMechs after the model of the star-cluster model Mercurius, which is not yet counted among the Omnimechs. OmniMechs are individually configurable for use and can be upgraded with other weapons as needed. The Inner Sphere also began to develop its own OmniMechs during the Clan invasion, but were not equal to those of the Clans, as the Clan technology of the Inner Sphere technology is far in advance.
troop types
Some troop types would be:
BattleMech: They are the most important combat vehicle because they are very off-road and versatile. They come in all shapes and sizes, from nimble scouts to weapons- and armor-staring monsters that dominate the battlefield.
Panzer: They are about as heavily armed and armored as' Mechs. They come in three versions: Chain mail is all-terrain, but very slow. Radpanzer are a bit faster, but are dependent on good ground. Hover tanks are extremely fast and can even travel over water, but they are more sensitive to hits.
VTOLs: These are all types of propeller driven vertical launchers. They are extremely fast, but only minimally armored. In battle you have only a supporting role. Either they serve as reconnaissance planes, or they provide fire support through quick stipp attacks, or they transport infantry to the front line.
Conventional infantry: It mainly serves as a gap filler and cannon fodder. Only if the enemy can be forced by tactics or terrain (city, forest ...) to stay in a relatively narrow area, can infantry do something. Due to the slow movement, infantry is only effective against slow units and usually relies on transport vehicles.
Armored infantry: They carry battle armor (Battlearmor), which increases their firepower, armor, and agility. They are no longer necessarily dependent on transport vehicles and have problems only against fast units. This troop type is especially used by the clans.
ProtoMechs: They are a hybrid of 'Mech and battle armor. They are as fast as' Mechs and armored for their size. But they lack the necessary firepower to do something on the battlefield. They are only useful if the enemy is not too fast, or not too heavily armored. Their greatest strength is the psychological effect, as the opposing player can generally underestimate their impact and efficiency.
Fractions and states
Inner sphere
The Federated Suns: They are ruled by the Davion family. The ruler title is Prince, central world is New Avalon. Other important aristocratic families are the Haseks, the Sandovals and the Duvalls. In their culture, they roughly correspond to the US, England and France, although, as in any successor state, there are very different ethnic minorities. Official language is English. The Federated Suns are known for their highly patriotic militarism and are considered the most militarily successful state. Although in fact ruled by a sole ruler, the Federated Suns justify their infrequent preventive military strikes on the Draconis Combine and the Capellan Confederation by upholding the freedom of each individual they do not see as given in the Star States. They have developed (or modified by the Star League) the organizational scheme of the regiment combat groups, which brings great tactical and logistical benefits. Furthermore, in their mission accomplishments, they attach great importance to high mobility and sounding. Thanks in large part to the renowned science institute (located on New Avalon), Davion forces have a mature, well-designed military device. Furthermore, the capable and subtle intelligence of the Federated Suns is respected throughout the Inner Sphere.
The Lyran Commonwealth (later: Lyran Alliance): It is ruled by the Steiner family (before Haus Marsden), the central world is Tharkad (initially Arcturus). The ruler title is Archon. It is dominated by the descendants of German and English settlers. But there are also large Gaelic, Black African and Scandinavian minorities. Official language is German. With the General Assembly, the Lyran Commonwealth is the only successor state to whom democracy can be credited. The Lyrans are considered skilled traders in the Inner Sphere, but are also considered to be less savvy strategists and tacticians in military conflicts, often ascribed to the increased presence of so-called social generals compared to other successor states. The Lyran Army prefers a less subtle warfare with heavy, expensive equipment to compensate for these shortcomings. This is also opposed to their rather defensive military operations over the centuries compared to other successor states, which have mostly been restricted to securing territory or at most counter-attacks instead of pursuing unprovoked conquest or preventive strikes.
The Federated Commonwealth: At times, the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth merged into a political entity through the marriage of Prince Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner. During the wedding address, Hanse Davion announced that he would donate the Capellan Confederation to his bride and began the Fourth Succession War. Both central worlds, official languages, currencies, etc. were equal and used in parallel. The Federated Commonwealth was virtually dissolved in 3057 after the Liao-Marik offensive, when Katherine Steiner declared the Lyran half independent again through an emergency clause in the State Treaty.
The Draconis Combine: It is ruled by the Kurita family, the central world is Luthien. Official language is Japanese. It is dominated by the culture of Japan at the time of samurai warriors and Bushido, but also includes a large Arab and Scandinavian minority. The ruler title is Coordinator. The Draconis Combine is governed by very strict social norms, which have the ultimate goal of sacrificing for the state. The coordinator is not exempt from this: although, like the chancellor of the Capellan Confederation, he is a totalitarian ruler, but ultimately only the form of fulfillment of the superindividual ruling "dragon". If a coordinator dislikes or is incompetent with the will of the dragon (ie the preservation and enrichment of power of the state), there are forces within the Draconis Combine that intend to relieve him from the position of power in favor of a legitimate follower. Warfare is shaped by the Japanese Samurai culture, so the Combine preferred long-dueling 'Mechs (which rarely used reconnaissance and very slow Stormchiks). Negative concomitant effect of the Bushido was too common a use of the Seppuku when capable commanders took their own lives after failed operations or similar perceived loss of honor. For a long time, the Combine also gained notoriety through the ruthless treatment of prisoners of war and civilians. In particular, Lyrans could not hope for mercy, as their rather non-military nature considered them unworthy in the eyes of warrior culture.
The Confederation Capella: It is ruled by the Liao family, central world is Sian (Capella for a short time). The title of ruler is Chancellor. It is dominated by Chinese culture and has a large Russian minority. Official language is Mandarin. There is a caste system in the Confederation, and civil rights must be earned through services to the state and the general public. The Chancellor enjoys here the absolute / totalitarian autocracy
In the Confederation, there are the eight so-called warrior houses, a kind of warrior order with a strict moral code of honor. New members are selected at the age of 12 years. The members of the warrior houses are excellent mech pilots and are therefore constantly supplied by the Confederation with the latest weapon technology. The warrior houses are mainly used for raiding actions. The secret service of the Confederation, which is often enough - as it is eponymous - rather death commands, is highly feared.
The League of Free Worlds: It is ruled by House Marik, Central World is Atreus. The title of ruler is Captain-General. The league was from the beginning a loose association of small and micro states. Only an emergency decree guarantees the political unity of the League "for the duration of the crisis" (the succession wars). The population comes from different population groups: e.g. Germany, India, the Balkan and Mediterranean States and some others. Due to the political fragmentation it comes again and again to internal conflicts civil wars in the league. The official language is Levantine (but a multitude of other languages are spoken). During the Clan invasion, the League has achieved great economic success by selling weapons to the other Successor States; In addition, Blake's word gained in influence.
Furthermore, there are several small states:
The Republic of Rasalhague: It was created by a secession of Scandinavian-populated worlds from the Draconis Combine after the Fourth Succession War. Official language is Swedish, a mixture of Swedish and Japanese. The central world is Rasalhaag.
The St Ives Pact: It was created by a secession of worlds from the Confederation of Capella under the aegis of the designated heir apparent Candace Liao after the Fourth Succession War. The pact is closely allied with the Federated Commonwealth. Central World is St. Ives.
In the years 3060 and '61 the St-Ives pact was reconquered by the Capellan Confederation.
In addition, there are dozens of tiny states and independent worlds in the Chaos brands that emerged as part of the Marik-Liao offensive on the Federated Commonwealth in 3057. None of the three successor states could muster enough forces to secure them, which allowed them to fight for independence. Most worlds of the Chaos stamps once belonged to the Confederation Capella.
All the states of the Inner Sphere are more or less manifestly governed dictatorially (most prominently in the Capellan Confederation and the Draconis Combine) and / or feudal. Larger freedoms are guaranteed, for example, by the states of the Free Worlds League and the Commonwealth.
periphery
There are also smaller states on the periphery. They were patronized economically by the Star League.
The Municipality of Canopus: It is run by House Centrella matriarchalisch and is a very popular holiday destination with its permissive culture and its excellent sanatoriums. Central world is Canopus. The magistrate has been allied since 3058 with the Capellan Confederation. Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao and Crown Princess Naomi Centrella are pleased. The Taurus Concordat: It is ruled by House Calderon. Since the forced entry into the Star League in the Unification Wars, the Concordat has had particularly bad diplomatic relations with the Federated Suns. The central world is Taurus. The Concordat has long been loosely allied with the Magistrate Canopus. Since about 3060 it is also allied with the Confederation Capella. The outside world alliance: It is ruled by House Avellar and must seek a course of strict neutrality between the Draconis Combine and the Federated Suns. The military of the Alliance prefers air / space fighters. In the mid-30s, an expeditionary force, Clan Schneerabes, entered the outside world alliance, but was clearly defeated by alliance hunters. The snow hunts were so impressed that there was a lively exchange with the Alliance. At Dark Age times, both are associated in the Snow Ravens Alliance.
The Marian Hegemony: It is a militaristic state bordering the Free Worlds League. The ruling family is called O'Reilly. The central world is called Alphard and contributed to the wealth of this small state thanks to its large Germanium camps. The Marian hegemony has attacked virtually all neighboring states at least once.
The hegemony is loosely associated with Blake's word.
The Alliance of Rim Worlds: It is an association of six poor worlds on the periphery border of the Lyran territory and is ruled democratically.
The Hanseatic League: It was founded by Lyran refugees and lies deep in the periphery. She is isolationist, but has limited trade relations with some clans. For the clans, the league is too poor and ideologically too insignificant to be conquered.
There are also the pirate kingdoms.
ComStar and Blake's Word
The interstellar communication was initially offered exclusively by Comstar. Later, Blake's word came as a competitor.
ComStar: ComStar, founded by the Star League's last Secretary of Communications, Jerome Blake, monopolized interstellar communications after the Star League ended. Central World is Terra, which Blake was able to secure after the fall of the Star League with the help of former Star League troops. However, after Blake's death, ComStar became a pseudo-religious movement that fanatically revered its founder Blake and his writings and waited for the day when humanity would sink into utter barbarism and then "re-unveil" it. - Especially since ComStar on Terra hoarded many, otherwise long-lost technologies. ComStar is headed by the Precentors. These are the highest authorities responsible for ComStar's concerns on a single planet, or the highest military commander in the ComStar army, the ComGuards. The commander of the ComGuards is entitled Präzentor Martialum. The five Precentors of the Central Worlds of the Successor States are responsible for conducting business negotiations with them. From the ranks of the Precentors, one person is selected as the head of ComStar. The title is Primus / Prima. ComStar also has its own secret service (ROM), which is quite feared, as well as an Explorer Corp that does research work. Blake's Word: In 3052, the schism occurred within ComStar. ComStar has been restructured into a secular business. The religious fanatics within ComStar did not want to accept that and fled to the Free Worlds League. There they founded Blake's Word. Since then, Blake Word delivers a permanent economic and secret service guerrilla warfare with ComStar. While ComStar offers its services almost exclusively in the successor states (except the league), Blake's word has shifted its business to independent planets and the periphery.
The clans
In isolation, scarcity of resources and civil war danger, a new form of human society has developed far out in the periphery: the clans. General Alexander Kerensky did not want the Star League Defense Forces and their annihilating potential to be involved in the gathering wars of the Successor States. That's why he and 80% of the troops went into exile. After a journey of about a year, they reached five planets, the Pentagon worlds, on which they settled. But after only a few months, nationalist conflicts broke out among the soldiers. It formed new factions and warlords. Nicholas Kerensky, the son of Alexander Kerensky, led a small group of followers into another exile, in the star cluster next door. To prevent new nationalist conflicts, Nicholas Kerensky founded the clans. Each clan contained members of various nationalities and races and received a totem animal as a symbol. The head carries the title Khan, his deputy Sa-Khan. The pro-forma head of all clans is titled Il-Khan. The first Il-Khan was of course Nicholas Kerensky. (His successors were elected by the Khans in elections.) But every single member of the clan was a trained soldier. How should such a stable society emerge? Nicholas Kerensky determined that in the future there would be 5 castes (workers, technicians, traders, scientists, warriors) and that only the warriors would have the right to fight. To further limit warfare, a strict code of honor has been developed, including: Battles as a sequence of individual duels enshrines. According to the legends of the clans, Nicholas Kerensky returned with the 800 warriors of all 20 clans to the Pentagon worlds, where he overthrew the warlord. In this short war and its aftermath, the peculiarities of each clan in terms of strategy, social priorities and philosophy formed. For example, the hellhorses rely mainly on armored vehicles, while the snow hunks have specialized in combat spaceships and the diamond sharks in trade.
Here, too, followed a golden age, in which the clans evolved technologically and medically from the level of the Star League technique. However, the everyday technique of the lower castes remained almost the same.
Out of the 800 warriors who accompanied Nicholas Kerensky, were the blood names and bloodlines from which warriors should be cloned in the future. From an initial equality, a two-class society of natural born (freeborn, as a swear word: freebirth) and artificially born (trueborn) has developed. These are the dominant group in the warrior caste. In a strictly regulated process (which also includes duels) they can win a bloodname, which alone guarantees the survival of their genetic heritage.
The clans developed into fascistoid, warlike states, between which war was almost permanent (according to their strict rules). With almost all clans scattered across many of the star's 25 habitable worlds, border skirmishes were constantly occurring.
Due to the scarcity of resources and the hostile environment of the settlement worlds, Terra was transfigured into a mythical place, where there is no need. Terra became the subconscious longing of the clans and the symbol of the lost fortunes of the Star League.
But then everything changed. In the year 3048 an unknown ship was found in the Diana system! Troops Clan Nebelparders opened it and interrogated the crew. The ship belonged to the Explorer Corps Comstars. So the clans learned what had happened in the Inner Sphere over the past 300 years. Fear spread, the successor states could find it. But also anger, and the will to overthrow the Successor States, which had ruined the glorious Star League.
It formed two factions: The Crusaders wanted to conquer the Inner Sphere and rebuilt the Star League by force. The clan that would finally conquer Terra should rule the Il clan above all others. The Keepers, on the other hand, wanted to be available to the Inner Sphere as mentors to help them with their warmongering. In the vote in the Grand Conclave, the Crusaders narrowly won. However, to delay the invasion, the Keepers introduced the Dragoon compromise. A new unit called Wolf's Dragoons was recruited by Clan Wolf of Freeborn and equipped with old 'Mechs. They should fly into the Inner Sphere and collect as much military information as possible as mercenaries. Their mission succeeded: they fought against troops of each successor state; some of them were renegades. However, they were given another assignment afterward: The Wolves' Khan, a Keeper, ordered them to prepare the Inner Sphere as best they could for the Clan attack and to act as counselors. By type of clan, it was determined in duels, which clans would now attack. The clans Jade Falcon, Wolf, Ghost Bear and Smoke Jaguar won. The Il-Khan decreed that the Clans Steel Viper, Novakatze, and Diamond Shark should serve as a reserve in case of emergency. That's how the invasion started. Only the Jade Falcons and the Wolves approached this operation prudently: The Jade Falcons hired additional warships as escorts from the Snow Hunts, and the Wolves took extra ammunition and spare parts. The other clans were still too much attached to their illusory world of limited warfare, which made them less territorial gains. At the end of the timeline of Classic Battletech (3067) the following clans still exist:
Clan Blood Spirit: He is named after the team spirit of the Clans and formerly had ambassadors for all other clans, the so-called Il-Chi. He sees himself as the embodiment of the old clan ideals and is particularly conservative. The Blood Spirits belong to the Crusader faction and have retreated to their homeworld in isolation.
Clan Coyote: Named after the feral Terran coyotes that have been abandoned on all clan worlds. Clan Coyote is also very conservative and once invented the principle of omnimex. Clan Coyote is one of the keepers and is about to make a comeback after a period of decline.
Clan Diamond Shark: This clan was born as a clan sea fox, named after a carnivorous marine iguan. However, Clan Schneerabe bred diamond sharks that nearly exterminated the sea foxes. Clan sea fox applied for a name change before the Grand Conclave and was able to prevail in contradiction tests. Since then Cold War rules between the diamond sharks and the snow hawks. Clan Diamanthai is focused on trade and profit maximization and open to new ideas. He invented the chatter network (a civil communication network spanning all clan homeworlds) and was the first to use the Harjel (a substance that independently seals armor gaps). Clan Diamondhai has established limited trade relations with the Drakonis Combine and is one of the keepers.
Clan Feuermandrill: He is named after the Mandrillen because of their strong cohesion. Even in its early stages, the Bloodshouses competed with each other, which currently divides the clan into six equally-sized factions (called Kindraas). Through the internal fighting, Fire Mandrill Warriors are experienced and hardened. Some kindraas are keepers and some crusaders. Also, the Kindraas have different good relationships with different clans.
Clan Blood Spirit: He is named after the Clan of the Clans and formerly had ambassadors for all other clans, the so-called Il-Chi. He sees himself as the embodiment of the old ideal and is especially conservative. The Blood Spirits belong to the Crusader faction and have retreated to their homeworld in isolation.
Clan Coyote: Named after the Feral Terran coyotes that have been abandoned on all clan worlds. Clan Coyote is therefore very conservative and once invented the principle of omnimex. Clan Coyote is one of the keepers and is about to make a comeback after a period of decline.
Clan Diamond Shark: This clan was born as a clan sea fox, named after a carnivorous marine iguan. However, Clan Snow Bred diamond sharks that nearly exterminated the sea foxes. Clan sea fox applied for a change of name before the Grand Conclave and what can be prevailed in contradiction tests. Since then Cold War rules between the diamond sharks and the snow hawks.
Clan Diamond Shark is focused on trade and profit maximization and open to new ideas. He invented the chatter network (a civil communication network spanning all clan homeworlds) and what the first to use the harjel. Clan Diamondhai has established limited trade relations with the Drakonis Combine and is one of the keepers.
Clan Fire Mandrill: He is named after the Mandrills because of their strong cohesion. Even in its early stages, the Bloodshouses competed with each other, which currently divides the clan into six equally-sized factions (called Kindraas). Through the internal fighting, Fire Mandrill Warriors are experienced and hardened. Some kindraas are keepers and some crusaders. Also, the Kindraas have different good relationships with different clans.
