76 replies to this topic

[Joshua McEvedy]

One last piece here--the guy on this Battletech forum thread put it all together in this post here, and I think he's got it:

http://bg.battletech...,27831.180.html

Date: September 9, 2824

Location: SLS Bismark – Deep Periphery (Gamma 1551 AV)

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: As the pitiful remnant of Wolverine survivors resumes their trek towards the Inner Sphere, by astounding coincidence they are joined by the SLS Yukon, crewed by the Wolverine sibko that the Ghost Bear sentry allowed to escape. Trish Ebon welcomes them and declares that the Wolverine family is finally complete, and that they can now move forward on their mission.

Notes: Gamma 1551 AV must be a well-known waypoint on the Exodus Road, or else the chances of the Yukon just randomly stumbling upon the Bismark’s flotilla amidst the countless millions of stars in the vicinity would require an infinite improbability drive (preferably one powered by a really hot cup of tea) rather than a mundane Kearny-Fuchida model. However, if the Yukon was using the Exodus Road, how did it avoid running smack into the victorious Grand Fleet as it returned to the Kerensky Cluster?

Trish’s comment about the Wolverine remnants being complete ignores the issue of the missing Zughoffer Weir and its two escorts, as well as the missing third scout detachment. Since Trish's Wolverines are described as having done a complete survey of the wreckage and identified all the destroyed ships, they should be well aware that the Zughoffer Weir got away.

There’s an extended section of Jihad Secrets – The Blake Documents (ISP2) that purports to be a series of journal entries chronicling the Wolverine exodus to the Inner Sphere. However, the log differs from Betrayal of Ideals in a number of respects. It says that the Wolverines fought their way across Clan space for nine months before breaking contact with the pursuing forces (implying that the whole survivor fleet was let go by sympathetic Ghost Bears), that only 20% of the Wolverines managed to escape Clan space (rather than the 66% noted in this series), and lacking any mention of the catastrophe at Barbados.

If we accept “Betrayal of Ideals” as the true account, I would therefore discount the journals as a clever forgery, though possibly one created by someone with some knowledge of the actual events trying to muddy the waters by putting out disinformation that the Wolverine descendants were living secretly on Mars, rather than having built a substantial baseworld out by the Magistracy of Canopus. The ISP2 in-universe analyst reviewing the log entries notes a number of discrepancies in dates (most notably in connection with the supposed Wolverine scouting mission to Nueva Castille).

Granted, the mention of the survival of the Zughoffer Weir seems to indicate that the journals’ author had some knowledge of what really happened, but the general level of inconsistencies indicates, to me, that the claims that the Wolverines formed a secret cabal at the heart of ComStar are as inaccurate as other Interstellar Players claims about the Genecaste, the Tanite Illuminati, and Blakist bases in hyperspace. (For one thing, later sources on the ComStar cabal and their hidden worlds indicate that they hit upon the plan early in the First Succession War, and the Wolverines wouldn’t have returned to the Inner Sphere until after the First Succession War was over.) There’s certainly circumstantial evidence that some Wolverines allied with ComStar’s inner cabal at some point, but I would not treat the journal entries as canon fact. It seems more to be a clever forgery written by someone that had access to the same sort of classified reports that comprise the sourcebooks we’ve been reading. The “Starling” guy who keeps dropping info-bombs on things like the Hidden Five into various sourcebooks, for example.

My personal theory is that the McKenna-class Zughoffer Weir and the two ships that joined it managed to elude the Steel Vipers and became the group that contacted ComStar and resettled either on Mars or Jardine, depending on which account/rumor you believe. Meanwhile, the Texas-class Bismark, Yukon and other Wolverine picket ships become the Minnesota Tribe, raid the Combine, then work their way around past the Outworlds Alliance and Taurian Concordat before reaching McEvedy’s Folly. The descendants of the Zughoffer Weir fleet would have been the ones that warned Primus Sims about the Clans and orchestrated the Outbound Light mission, while the Bismark fleet ended up on the world from Interstellar Expeditions and/or McEvedy’s Folly, and may have entered into some sort of relationship with the Magistracy of Canopus (explaining the “Ebon Magistrate” via Trish Ebon’s descendants, and the mysterious source of weaponry from “beyond the Periphery” referenced in MechWarrior 2nd Edition). This raises a lot of questions about the extent of contact between the Wolverine survivors and what sort of relations they had. [In truth, there may be as many as three Wolverine survivor bands – the Zughofferites (ComStar), the Bismarckites (Minnesota Tribe), and the scouts (Umayyads).]

________________________________________________________________________________________

Betrayal of Ideals is the true account of what happened. It is written as (omniscient) "Story fiction" which expressly trumps the inherently unreliable "Sourcebook fiction" that is just in-universe knowledge/opinion.

The Magistracy's strange source of unspecified technology was only discovered around 3025. If it was related to the Wolverines then the Succession Wars era Magistracy must have stumbled upon a Wolverine cache, or a long-dead Wolverine colony. (Or a secret cabal within the Magistracy pulled the stings.) In any case, the Wolverines didn't straight out provide the Magistracy with new technology back in the 2800s.

Personally, I subscribe to the "three groups of survivors going their separate ways" theory. Good writeup and analysis here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

I agree that they didn't start helping in the 2800s - more likely it was around 3025. My thought is that perhaps the Magistracy's access to Wolverine resources is a direct result of whatever took out the base discovered by IE in 3090. If there was a Cabal/Minnesota Tribe dustup towards the tail end of the Third Succession War, perhaps the surviving Minnesotans (who still wouldn't be in contention for "most Exoduses," thanks to the Stewarts) fled to the sheltering bosom of the Magistracy and made a deal. Covert Ops says that the Magistracy Intelligence Ministry didn't start getting crazy skilled until the 3040s, which wouldn't be explained by having found a cache or dead colony, but could be explained by getting both Wolverine tech and Wolverine Watch training.

Edited by Joshua McEvedy, 23 March 2014 - 07:07 AM.

[Jaroth Corbett]

Craig Steele, on 23 March 2014 - 02:58 AM, said:

Yeah, so says Clan Wolf. But there's other scenarios that are just as likely.

There is not a lot of canon about it and what we have is one sided.

So it remains a bit of a mystery

Actually no it is not. The same series of events were documented in Era Report: Golden Century, so the matter is settled. That is how it happened.

[Craig Steele]

Jaroth Corbett, on 23 March 2014 - 10:23 AM, said:

Actually no it is not. The same series of events were documented in Era Report: Golden Century, so the matter is settled. That is how it happened.

That Era report also quotes it as Clan Wolf sources doesn't it?

So are you saying we just accept Nicholas the god warrior and founder of the Clans put his brains in neutral and thought he could stop a trial he was refereeing by clunking their heads together?

And that in a crazy fire fight it is automatically a Widowmakers gun that did the damage because even though no one was shooting at him, the Widowmakers were clearly loopy so it must have been them?

[Jaroth Corbett]

Craig Steele, on 23 March 2014 - 03:42 PM, said:

That Era report also quotes it as Clan Wolf sources doesn't it?

So are you saying we just accept Nicholas the god warrior and founder of the Clans put his brains in neutral and thought he could stop a trial he was refereeing by clunking their heads together?

And that in a crazy fire fight it is automatically a Widowmakers gun that did the damage because even though no one was shooting at him, the Widowmakers were clearly loopy so it must have been them?

No it does not quote Clan Wolf as its source. There is an objective account of the events. The matter is closed. You can choose to keep arguing the point if you wish.

Joshua McEvedy, on 23 March 2014 - 05:45 AM, said:

At the end of Betrayal of Ideals, a Wolverine scientist absorbed by the Ghost Bears deliberately taints their warrior DNA with Wolverine DNA. Once it is discovered what he did, the Ghost Bear Khan has to order an entire generation of his warriors (with the Wolverine DNA) to commit suicide to avoid a Trial of Annilihilation from the other Clans.

Correct. Our Oathmaster, Coffinail, posted the entire series of events on our forums.

Edited by Jaroth Corbett, 23 March 2014 - 08:14 PM.

[Craig Steele]

Jaroth Corbett, on 23 March 2014 - 08:06 PM, said:

No it does not quote Clan Wolf as its source. There is an objective account of the events. The matter is closed. You can choose to keep arguing the point if you wish.



Correct. Our Oathmaster, Coffinail, posted the entire series of events on our forums.

LOL, One post is arguing now?

Righto then.

[Jaroth Corbett]

I meant that if you wish continue addressing that particular point in the future, that is up to you. For me, the matter is closed.

Edited by Jaroth Corbett, 24 March 2014 - 01:15 AM.

[Craig Steele]

Joshua McEvedy, on 23 March 2014 - 05:45 AM, said:

At the end of Betrayal of Ideals, a Wolverine scientist absorbed by the Ghost Bears deliberately taints their warrior DNA with Wolverine DNA. Once it is discovered what he did, the Ghost Bear Khan has to order an entire generation of his warriors (with the Wolverine DNA) to commit suicide to avoid a Trial of Annilihilation from the other Clans.

I have a question?

If Clan Wolverine was annihilated, how did a member of the scientist caste survive to sabotage the warrior seeding?

I mean they were supposedly exterminated, every man woman and child? So how did Ghost Bear take him in?

[CoffiNail]

Craig Steele, on 25 March 2014 - 04:05 AM, said:

I have a question?

If Clan Wolverine was annihilated, how did a member of the scientist caste survive to sabotage the warrior seeding?

I mean they were supposedly exterminated, every man woman and child? So how did Ghost Bear take him in?

He was isorla from before the annihilation, the taint to the genes were done before the Not-Named were removed from existence. I would assume the scientist was executed as well, but his tinkering was not noticed until a number of years later.

[Jaroth Corbett]

Marack Drock, on 25 March 2014 - 10:37 AM, said:

What if Ghost Bear saved a few? That would be an interesting twist for the series. Would also explain why Ghost Bear wanted to get into Jihad like that and test every body they found. Just a theory. But what if they were saving Wolverines for something else?

We did not. We had an entire batch of young troops kill themselves. The reason we could not keep them even though we did not do this deliberately is that after every battle, scientists check the DNA of the deceased to see if they have any ties to the Not-Named. Had they been found in our warriors, the entire Clan may have been considered tainted & a Trial of Annihilation may be called on us. We take no chances with our future.

[Craig Steele]

CoffiNail, on 25 March 2014 - 12:50 PM, said:

He was isorla from before the annihilation, the taint to the genes were done before the Not-Named were removed from existence. I would assume the scientist was executed as well, but his tinkering was not noticed until a number of years later.

That makes sense, thanks