29 replies to this topic

[Visyac Cephias]

I'm planning on engaging in some 'Creative Writing" about the Home Clans, specifically an examination of them as a society several decades into the future (4050) and could use some idea of where to look for resources on them.

Sarna has only some passing mentions --apparently the Star Adders are really cool-- and I'm having a hard time discerning between the Clans before the invasion, the presumable social change after the civil war, and which Clans are still considered Home Clans.

If anyone could give me an idea of which-Clans-are-which post-jihad outside the Inner-Sphere, and what defines them as a structure from the others I would be very happy.

[Jaroth Corbett]

You need to read the Wars of Reaving & the Supplemental after that for post invasion info as well as the Crusader & Warden Field Manuals. The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky will give you a brief overview of each Clan but more importantly will show you their assets & thus their range of power before the invasion. You can always compare the before & after stats to see who ended up with what.

Basically the Star Adders run the "Home" Clans. They field the largest touman, as well as having the largest power bloc in the Grand Council.

[Joseph Mallan]

Jaroth Winson, on 13 October 2013 - 06:51 AM, said:

Basically the Star Adders run the "Home" Clans. They field the largest touman, as well as having the largest power bloc in the Grand Council.

Those are my boys!

[Visyac Cephias]

Does that mean that the other home clans are all significant orders of magnitude below the Adders? Because I was under the impression there were only four clans that remained in the Kerensky cluster, with all the really cool clans migrating to the inner-sphere, and that they were the most bitterly dogmatic(which cost them in tactics and resources).

Also, are they still publishing books, because I keep thinking that they stopped at some point and have been out of print for the past 50 years.

[Jaroth Corbett]

It depends on how far into the timeline you want to go. The Blood Spirits get annihilated, the Fire Mandrills "disappear" for want of a better word, the Ice Hellions get absorbed by the Goliath Scorpions who then combine with an IS force & become the Escorpión Imperio, the Steel Vipers got annihilated (which is deliciously ironic), a new Clan was created called Stone Lion which is basically Hell's Horses Jr., the Ravens combined with an IS entity called the Outworlds Alliance to create the Raven Alliance & I really am too tired to remember the rest right now.

As far as the books go, check our convo.

[CyclonerM]

Jaroth Winson, on 16 October 2013 - 06:43 PM, said:

It depends on how far into the timeline you want to go. The Blood Spirits get annihilated, the Fire Mandrills "disappear" for want of a better word, the Ice Hellions get absorbed by the Goliath Scorpions who then combine with an IS force & become the Escorpión Imperio, the Steel Vipers got annihilated (which is deliciously ironic), a new Clan was created called Stone Lion which is basically Hell's Horses Jr., the Ravens combined with an IS entity called the Outworlds Alliance to create the Raven Alliance & I really am too tired to remember the rest right now.

As far as the books go, check our convo.

Poor Clans.. One might think the invasion has been a mistake after all

[Naglinator]

Oh the only mistake my friend was to not "Turtle Bay" the whole damn inner sphere and start from scratch.

[CyclonerM]

Naglinator, on 22 October 2013 - 06:42 PM, said:

Oh the only mistake my friend was to not "Turtle Bay" the whole damn inner sphere and start from scratch.

Oh, and what fun there would be, ruling a desolated wasteland?

[Jarl Dane]

CyclonerM, on 23 October 2013 - 08:01 AM, said:

Oh, and what fun there would be, ruling a desolated wasteland?

Someone clearly hasn't played Fallout.

[CyclonerM]

Mech The Dane, on 25 October 2013 - 11:07 AM, said:

Someone clearly hasn't played Fallout.

I admit it. I did not.

[Jarl Dane]

Anywho, it's clear that everything that happens after the Civil War is terrible and should be stricken from the record.

Soo no one gets reaved, all the homeworld clans show up in the year 3100, having learnt a lesson from their previous attempt, they now all work together and take over half the inner-sphere. Including Terra, where to everyone's shocked surprise, clan Wolverine shows up and takes over. Forcing their Khan to become the illKhan for all time.

The end.

Edited by Mech The Dane, 25 October 2013 - 12:23 PM.

[pbiggz]

If you want to create some fan materials that will last longer, you'll have to push way past 3100. The canon currently extends up to 3145 and there is talk that we will soon get a new tech base and a time jump to 3250.

[CyclonerM]

pbiggz, on 25 October 2013 - 12:43 PM, said:

there is talk that we will soon get a new tech base and a time jump to 3250.

Really?

[pbiggz]

Google it, there was some talk but nothing set in stone so don't quote me. One can only hope.

[CyclonerM]

pbiggz, on 25 October 2013 - 01:21 PM, said:

Google it, there was some talk but nothing set in stone so don't quote me. One can only hope.

Not sure if i want it, i never dared getting trough very far in the Dark Age

[Gremlich Johns]

You could instead opt for an alternate reality and start after the Jihad ends. DA should not have been written, frankly.

[ManaValkyrie]

Gremlich Johns, on 24 November 2013 - 09:15 AM, said:

You could instead opt for an alternate reality and start after the Jihad ends. DA should not have been written, frankly.

To be honest the Jihad was just a way to roll into the dark age section by wiping out the factions as they stood, decimating the different famous unit.etc same as the reavings in clan space were designed to neuter the 'home clans' to set up for the Dark Age storyline.

Frankly, it would be nice to just plain deviate from the timeline completely where we are now and forget the Fedcom Civil War, Jihad.etc

[CyclonerM]

ManaValkyrie, on 26 November 2013 - 12:33 PM, said:

Frankly, it would be nice to just plain deviate from the timeline completely where we are now and forget the Fedcom Civil War, Jihad.etc

If the game restarts and keeps the 1:1 timeline, with any luck it will not survive long enough to see neither of them

I have not read the books set in the FedCom civil war, is it that bad? Except for being the theater of the new deeds of the good and nice hero Victor Davion (No, his shorth height is not enough a flaw to make him a fully credible character )

Edited by CyclonerM, 26 November 2013 - 01:02 PM.

[ManaValkyrie]

Some of the side characters like Tancred Sandoval, make the series of books different and enjoyable as standalone books, lets be honest Katherine is a piece of evil work. But, you learn a lot more about Victor, his relationships with his family and peoples and the fact he doesn't even consider power at all at the end of the FedCom war.

Edit: Like his relationship with Theodore Kurita, and Omi Kurita.

Edited by ManaValkyrie, 26 November 2013 - 11:06 PM.

[pbiggz]

Fedcom was cool, and the word of blake jihad was cool IN CONCEPT. The idea of a sudden blitzkreig waged on the entire inner sphere seemingly from nowhere, with soldiers who were both well trained and well armed leading the assault. Thats some cool stuff! HOWEVER, the excecution of the jihad on the writers part was hideous. Were they to rewrite it they should take some ques from the clan invasion. A massive offensive on the entire inner sphere should change the map significantly. Right now the protectorate never gets bigger than this,

but the writing alludes to an attack on the ENTIRE inner sphere! There should have been clear cut fronts, and clear cut villains. It's very easy for us to HATE characters like stefan amaris, jinjiro kurita, romano liao, vandervahn chistu, etc. They are EVIL. But "The Master", thomas marik, isn't scary. He does not inspire fear or hatred in me. Hes just kind of... meh. Apollyon, the precentor of the manei domini was at least going in the right direction, but considering he was fanatically loyal to the master, he was not the orchestrator of the jihad, and therefore was not worth hating.

They should take a queue from the clan invasion, and they should take queues believe it or not, from mech assault 1. Mech Assault 1's depiction of the word of blake as fanatical but heavily militaristic war lords rather than pseudo religious nuclear armed cyborgs is a much more convincing description. I understand that the psuedo-religious factor in comstar and the word of blake is important, but they dont pray to the HPG gods or jerome blake when they're at the controls of a mech.

As for the manei domini, they should have been even more well armed, more mysterious, and more evil. Dozens of important planets all over the inner sphere were reportedly raided by the hands of the master, but they were allegedly supposed to be liberal users of nuclear and biological weaponry, which they actually used like twice in the jihad. There should have been great marches of the inner sphere rendered completely uninhabitable and nearly useless by the successor states, the product of concerted nuclear and biological weapon strikes on unarmed civilians. Outrageous yes, but the number one thing they failed to do was make the word of blake inspire true fear. Come 3081, devlin stone's coalition crushes the blakists, and thats it. It's like they were never there. Sure the militaries of the inner sphere are weakened, and the republic of the sphere replaces the protectorate and largely comstar, but those marches of nuclear scarred worlds are missing. The loss of important characters is missing. The word cut us, but we did not bleed. The wound should hurt more, for everyone. Also it's mentioned that the word of blake is effectively rendered a footnote in history by the dark age. That's absurd! By that logic no one should remember the amaris coup, or the clan invasion!

TLDR: The word of blake jihad was a good idea that was poorly executed. They should have been depicted as well armed zero empathy warlords who systematically kill most of our favourite characters and melt large swathes of the inner sphere into a radioactive mulch before their defeat. It should have been bigger and eviler, and not so easy to forget. The map should have changed in a noticeable way and it should have been like that for a long time.

Edited by pbiggz, 27 November 2013 - 05:33 AM.