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This article is intended to provide a very brief overview of the fictional world that MWO takes place in, mostly for new players without a lot of previous BattleTech knowledge.
General Setting
MWO takes place in a fictional version of our future. The humans in MWO trace their ancestry back to our Earth and the calendar they use is the Gregorian calendar--currently MWO is taking place in the year 3050 CE.
As is common in science fiction, the world of BattleTech is begins from the current human condition but adds a handful of ‘super-science’ items and extrapolates from these to create a fictional universe.
The first item of super-science is faster than light travel (FTL). In the fictional history, FTL was developed in 2107 and led to a rapid colonization of nearby systems. FTL in the fictional universe operates as a sort of teleportation, where the FTL vessel (called a Jumpship) disappears from its initial position and reappears at the destination. There are a number of significant limitations to this technology. Jumps are short in galactic terms (30 light years is a usual upper limit) and the ship takes an extended period to recharge after each jump. Jumps must take place far from a gravity source, so exit and entry points are usually located far above or below the local star. Because of this, Jumpships generally operate far from planets, acting as tenders for smaller Dropships that fly back and forth between the planets and Jumpships.
Because of these limitations, interstellar travel is very slow, somewhat similar in feel to Earth’s Age of Sail. FTL communication is also possible, though it is also slow, requiring transmission in short hops from planet to planet. (The HPG Manifold map takes place on one of these transmitters, called Hyper Pulse Generators).
The second item of super-science are the BattleMechs which form the core of MWO. Introduced around 2439, ‘Mechs are humanoid robots piloted by elite warriors though a combination of mechanical controls and neural interface helmets. While conventional military forces are common, BattleMechs are the ultimate force on the battlefields of the future.
As far as super-science goes, those are the two big points of divergence. There are some incidental technologies, such as compact fusion reactors, but for the most part the fictional future isn’t that different from what we might imagine to be possible in the next hundred years of actual scientific development.
There are no aliens, no artificial gravity, no A.I.s, no psychic powers. A modern human could be dropped into this fictional future and experience minimal culture shock.
Fictional History
Trying to boil down the vast amount that has been written about the fictional history of the BattleTech universe is a daunting proposition. What follows is a very superficial summary, but it should suffice for an introduction.
As mentioned above, FTL travel was developed in 2107 and the unified Earth government promoted and ruled a diaspora of human colonies resulting from that discovery. Even from this early date the division of human-occupied space into a ‘civilized’ area closer to Earth and a frontier area further out was used--the latter called the Periphery and the former the Inner Sphere.
This first centralized government (the Terran Alliance) didn’t last long. As humanity expanded the difficulties in managing a government, considering the limitations of technology, were too great. This led to the formation of local enclaves of allied systems that eventually conglomerated into large nations in their own right. Around 2300 the political blocs that still define the MWO universe were established.
These blocs would be known in the future as the Successor States (though at this point in the history that would be anachronistic). One of the bits of lore than can be confusing is interchanging the name of one of these states with name of the ruling family--to keep things simple, I’m just going to use the names of the states here: Free Worlds League (Marik), Federated Suns (Davion), Draconis Combine (Kurita), Lyran Commonwealth (Steiner), and the Capellan Confederation (Liao).
In 2398, the states of the Inner Sphere began fighting one another is what is called the Age of War. Lasting until around 2550, the Age of War basically solidified the political divisions of human space: a powerful and independent enclave around Earth and under its rule, surrounded by the future Successor States, and beyond them the Periphery.
As an important aside, during this same period a semi-feudalistic society of rule by hereditary nobles became the norm across human space. How feudal, by which I mean how tightly bound were government and noble families to the operation of the state, varied from time to time and place to place, but it is an important social norm in the time of MWO.
By the time the Age of War ended, Battlemechs had been introduced and the story switches from simple backstory to events the BattleTech game is designed around.
Swiftly following the Age of War, the Terran Hegemony and the future Successor States entered into a political unity called the Star League. Essentially a federation of semi-independent governments, the Star League accomplished a number of great successes in reducing armed conflict, developing and spreading technology, and incorporating the Periphery worlds into the unified government. More often than not, the latter incorporation was accomplished by force using another of the Star League’s accomplishments: the Star League Defense Force (SLDF). This powerful military force acted as a stabilizing agent--exceeding the military power of any single political entity in human space.
The Star League was the high point of human development for most of the fictional history. It was a golden age and, as is always the case, golden ages don’t last.
What happened next is fairly complicated and has a number of historical players involved--put simply, in 2766, while the SLDF and its brilliant leader General Alexander Kerensky were busy putting down unrest in the Periphery (triggered by taxation and exploitation) an usurper took control of the Terran Hegemony and claimed control of the Star League. Kerensky fought his way back to Earth in a difficult campaign, killed the usurper and brought the ruling houses of the Inner Sphere states together to elect a new leader.
Rather than electing a new leader, the leaders of the Inner Sphere states each decided to take control of the Star League for themselves with their state as its political center (a simplification, but one that expresses the result). The outcome was obviously going to be another widespread conflict fought all across human space. Realizing this, Kerensky secretly organized the exodus of loyal members of the SLDF to remove their military might from the hands of the Successor States and hopefully preserve some of the Star League. In 2784, the majority of the SLDF followed Kerensky out of known human space, into the deep Periphery, and out of the history books (at least for a time).
After Kerensky’s exodus, the Successor States engaged in a series of bloody conflicts known as the Succession Wars. The first of these, fought with the wide use of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, was sufficient to undo the gains made during the Star League era and brought humanity to a technology and living standard that was, at best, 21st century equivalent and in some cases much lower. High technology items such as BattleMechs, Jumpships, and HPGs became priceless remnants of a prior era. Rules of combat were established to reduce further erosion, but for the next two centuries constant war followed by brief periods of peace through exhaustion were the norm, preventing human development and eroding the supply of high technology. The Succession Wars lasted until 3030.
For the twenty years following the Fourth and final Succession War, there were continuing conflicts of a more local and lesser nature. The most significant political change this twenty year period was the independance of the Free Rasalhague Republic from the Draconis Combine. Granted in response to a long-simmering cultural schism between the FRR and Combine, as well as a desire by the Combine to create a buffer state between itself and the Lyran Commonwealth, the FFR would see two decades of independence before the coming of the Clans changed the political and military situation of the Inner Sphere forever.
In 3049, a mysterious and vastly powerful force invaded the Periphery from unknown space. Easily defeating the limited military strength of the Periphery’s petty kingdoms, these invaders quickly reached the borders of the Inner Sphere, striking hard against Successor States exhausted by war and unprepared to face a new enemy. The Clan invasion forced the Successor States to work together in a desperate attempt to halt the advance of the Clan war machine. This is the conflict fought in MWO.
While unknown at first, the Inner Sphere would soon discover that the Clans were the descendants of Kerensky’s Exodus fleet. Partly through necessity, but much by design, the refugees had been reformed into a synthetic warrior society by Kerensky’s son, Nicholas. Introducing eugenics, cultural indoctrination and a caste system, Nicholas created a people who, while biologically human, represent a culture alien to that of the Inner Sphere.
A core part of Nicholas’ philosophy was a belief in the necessity of conflict. Rather than creating a unified society, the Clans were established as competing tribes, each unified around a totem animal. When the time was chosen to return to the Inner Sphere and establish a new Star League on Clan ideals, several of these tribes were selected to lead the invasion: Wolf, Jade Falcon, Smoke Jaguar, and Ghost Bear. While united the overall goal of reaching Earth and defeating the forces of the Inner Sphere, each competes with the other for resources, territory, and prestige. This infighting provides a small window of opportunity for the forces of the Inner Sphere to respond to the Clans.
More Information and What Comes After
For a fictional universe based on a wargame, the amount of detail that has been poured into the BattleTech universe is staggering. If you are interested in learning more, a good place to start is sarna.net, a wiki of BattleTech information. Catalyst Game Labs currently owns the license to the BattleTech game and produces rules and supplements as well as making some of the older books available as PDFs.
The game’s fictional history continues on well past the Clan invasion (though the community is somewhat divided in their affection for later additions). The periods of the Civil War, Jihad, and Dark Age follow the Clan Invasion and carry the timeline forward to 3080’s and beyond. Again, Sarna and Catalyst are resources to find out more.
Dates of Earlier MechWarrior Computer Games
A number of MWO players have come to the game as veterans of earlier BattleTech and MechWarrior computer games. The following list is provided to give readers a way to contextualize their earlier game experiences with the MWO timeline.
- BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception (released 1988) - fictional date 3028?, Fourth Succession War
- MechWarrior (1989) - 3029?, Fourth Succession War
- BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks' Revenge (1990) - 3028-3052, Fourth Succession War & Clan Invasion
- MechWarrior 2 (1995) - 3057, Refusal War between Jade Falcon and Wolf
- MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (1996) - 3044-3052, post Fourth Succession War & Clan Invasion
- MechCommander (1998) - 3059, post Clan Invasion
- MechWarrior 3 (1999) - 3060? post Clan Invasion
- MechWarrior 4: Vengeance (2000) - 3062-3067, FedCom Civil War
- MechCommander 2 (2001) - after 3059
- MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries (2002) - 3066-3067, FedCom Civil War
- MechAssault (2002) - after 3065, probably during the Word of Blake Jihad
- MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf (2004) - after 3065, probably during the Word of Blake Jihad
- MechAssault: Phantom War (2006) - after 3065
This is one of a series of articles on concepts in MWO. If you found this article helpful, you may wish to read the other articles listed in this post.
Edited by Gauvan, 12 November 2014 - 03:39 PM.
