The Blood of Kerensky trilogy is probably not the best source book for Clan Wolf or any other clan. A lot of what passes for Clan behavoir, traditions and law in the original FASA books was retconned later on in the Roc books as the clans where more developed. I'm not sure that this was Stackpole really being wrong, but rather that at the time the outlines for those novels where laid out Clan society wasn't fully mapped out. At best he was a little sloppy with regard to keeping Clan characters 'in character'.
As for freeborn vs trueborn it is not really broken down between Crusader and Warden as much as you think and neither does the severity of the caste system fall along those lines.
First the Clans overall have the idea that Trueborns are superior warriors. This concept does not have to be inherentially prejusticed as some clans interpret the idea. First it is a fact that Trueborns are genetically engineered to have better sight, strength, reflexes and possibly intelligence then a
normal human. Even temperment is genetically controlled as evidenced when Falcon scientists secretly mixed in Wolf genetic material, creating a generation of less impulsive, more contemplative warriors.
When it comes to choosing who can become a warrior and what resources will be invested in them the Trueborns always come first - this is not immediately because of prejustice but because of rational thought. To arbitrarily use a less physically fit candidate is both strategically unsound and puts the candidate and their fellow soldiers at deadly risk. Today's armies already do the same thing so for example if you need thick glasses you will
never fly in the US Air Force. Militaries today and in the 31st century can't afford to be politically correct when it comes to the physical abilties of their soldiers. A Clan mechwarrior will fight one on one with another Clan mechwarrior and so he or she must be on the same level of physical ability (Clans generally don't practice Soviet/PLA human wave attacks or victory through mass attrition, with the possible exception of Solahma units and the Jade Falcon strategy during the Refusal War). In some clans Freeborn are not allowed to serve as warriors, however the arguments for this are very similar to the arguments in todays militaries about women serving on combat roles.
The second common practice of the Clans is the caste system. Nicholas Kerensky correctly identified that when other methods have failed it always falls to the warriors to resolve disputes. Rather then suffer wasteful warfare by allowing politicians to constantly create disputes because they don't have to suffer the consequences, he put the warriors at the top. In this system the people who bear responsiblity for creating disputes are also the ones who must shoulder the burden of resolving them, either by diplomacy or combat.
While the rigid caste system, where a person's caste is for life, is typically viewed as a kind of glass ceiling against those born into lower castes it is really meant to work the other way around. When Aleksandr Kerensky first settled the Pentagon Worlds he had to demobilize a large portion of the military, since you can't support a society made up almost entirely of soldiers. This caused extreme conflict as these warriors did not like being farmers and laborers and sought to force their way back into their old positions. Nicholas Kerensky identified this and so he created the rigid caste system - once a person tested into a caste they stayed there. His target in elimating arbitary social mobility was to enforce the idea that each member of Clan society must make themselves happy in the role that they tested into, rather they creating waste and discord trying to change their role.
This puts us in a good position to tackle the next myth about Clan society, that warriors are Trueborn and the lower castes are reserved for Freeborn. While in some clans the warriors are exclusively Trueborn (we will get into that later), the lower castes are made up of a mix of Trueborn and Freeborn members. A batch of Trueborn's created together (a Sibko) number around 100 and will spend the first 20 years of their lives training to be warriors. However many of those Trueborns will wash out (some will also die in accidents due to the Clan's belief in real risk) and when their Trial of Position comes to become a warrior only 2 to 6 of the Sibko will be left, and not all of them pass the trial.
Think about those numbers. For every 3 or 4 Trueborns entering the warrior caste there will be something like 80 or 90 Trueborns entering a lower caste (many Mechwarrior and Aerospace engineered Trueborn will test into a matching position in the Technician caste due to their extensive training with the equipment, a few will test into the Scientist caste and the rest will test into lower castes. Elementals who wash out get the short end of the stick, most wind up in the Laborer caste since they where trained for pure physical performance). And those numbers are before you factor in the much shorter lifespan in the warrior caste, where most are dead by 40.
So you can see that maybe only 1% of Trueborns in the Clan are actually serving in the Warrior caste - the rigidity of the caste system ensures those Trueborns who test out accept their place serving in a lower caste despite spending up to two decades of their life to become a warrior (unless your name is Aidan).
Further while they may be 'lower' castes they are not without a say in Clan society. Each caste has it's own hiercharchy and at the top of each caste is a leader. While the overall leadership of the clan always falls to a warrior elected Khan (remember that part about who resolves disputes) each caste's leader: the Scientist-General, Merchant Factor, Master Technician and Senior Laborer can be seen as something between a congressman and a minister, making decisions internal to their caste and then reporting to, advising and petitioning the Khan (like a President) regarding issues outside their caste. For example the Merchant Factor might petition the Khan asking the warrior caste to fight a Trial of Possession for a textile factory controlled by another clan. If the Khan agrees he will order the warrior caste to fight that battle and if they win the factory becomes the property of the merchant caste.
Many in the lower castes are happy with this arrangement - the warriors live short and brutal lives and take all the risks for the clan, while the lower castemen reap the rewards in exchange for being one step down on the totem. How large a gap in power there is depends on the clan, and if the gap is too large the clan will break.
This happened notably in the case of Clan Widowmaker. Their warrior caste ignored the wishes of the lower castes and treated them like subjects, leading to a major dispute with the Merchant caste. As with any continuously escalated dispute (Clan or otherwise) it was eventually resolved in a military manner with the death of many in the Merchant caste. The Clan Grand Council demanded an explanation and the Widowmakers tried to blame their rivals, the Wolfs, for giving more say in Clan affairs to their own merchant caste and thus upsetting the Widowmaker merchants. However the Grand Council rejected that explanation and decided that the Widowmaker warriors had failed as leaders. They voted for a Trial of Absorption which due to circumstances (the death of Nicholas Kerensky at the hands of the Widowmakers) resulted in the entire Widowmaker warrior caste being killed off. The other Widowmaker castes, not being warriors and thus not having to bear the risks of warfare, where peacefully absorbed, mostly into Clan Wolf who had won the bid.
On the other end of the spectrum for that incident might be Clan Nova Cat. While visions of a reborn Star League helped it was their own merchant caste, who had so much power they had their own warships, who where the real cause behind the Nova Cats vote to invade the Inner Sphere and act as a Crusader clan. The merchant caste wanted to open more markets and saw an invasion of the Inner Sphere, and thus addition of those worlds to the Clans, as a means to that end. Their Merchant Factor used his power in Nova Cat politics to steer the alignment of the entire clan in the great debate.
But back to Freeborn vs Trueborn. As I've already explained most of the Trueborn clansmen actually serve in the lower castes. I've also explained that the preference for Trueborn in the warrior caste is originally out of practical concern because of their typically superior physical ability.
However each Clan has their own opinion of how big a gulf there is between Trueborns and Freeborns. Clan Jade Falcon, in many ways the leading Crusader Clan, is at the same time accepting of Freeborns into the warrior caste so long as they pass the same tests. Under Falcon Khan Marthe Pryde they broke many barriers in how Freeborns might serve, including a Trinary composed of and led by a Freeborn and a Freeborn winning a bloodname (though under normal circumstances a Freeborn would not be able to compete for a bloodname, since they would not have a direct lineage to that bloodnames founder).
By comparison the Steel Viper's (which despite being a Crusader Clan has many Wardens, in the same way that the Warden Wolf Clan has many Crusaders) are strongly opposed and do not allow any Freeborn warriors, which lead to a feud with the Jade Falcons. Their viewpoint on Freeborns is in many ways similar to the view point of one of todays conservatives regarding women serving in the military
Other Clans have more elaborate views. The Hell's Horses place a lot of weight on personal performance, leading to a situation where members of any caste, manner of birth or age are respected so long as they are good at what they do. Even the Khan of the Hell's Horses would consider it a shame against himself and the clan if he disrespected a laborer who performed well.
And then there are a few clan warriors who really are jerks with a power complex, namely the Smoke Jaguars whose warrior caste over the years became more and more self sure about their own superiority. They would not allow Freeborns to serve, treated the lower castes with disrespect and killed enemy civilians. This attitude ultimately poisoned their warrior caste - this predestined for glory view created a situation where warriors did not act honorably, rising using politics and by pushing down other warriors with lies. Ultimately a Jaguar warrior had enough and defected to the Inner Sphere with the intent of euthanizing the warrior caste which he believed had strayed too far from Kerensky's vision. He provided the information for Task Force Serpant which, thanks in part to even more corruption and delusions of grandeur hindering their defenses, lead to the destruction of the entire Jaguar military caste.
Of course the Wolfs are lenient towards Freeborn warriors, though this comes more out of their pragmatic thinking as well as the liberal attitude toward change and adaption of Ulric Kerensky then any direct opinion on Freeborn worthyness. The FASA novels perhaps overstate just how lenient the Wolf Clan is as a whole. The later novels show that after his death the remaining Wolfs in Clan space, while still remaining just as pragmatic, show the more traditional view of Freeborns being less fit for combat then Trueborns. They still serve in the Wolf ranks but in lesser numbers and only to bolster their forces as needed rather then in the political correct equal opportunity of Ulric and the FASA novels.
Edited by ArcDemon, 01 May 2013 - 12:49 PM.
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