72 replies to this topic

[Rhayn]

Hey, could someone link me to the lore behind as to why all different factions are at war please, and why the clans invaded. I've tried searching for this material but it just brings up IS vs Clan balancing topics

[ScarecrowES]

http://www.sarna.net...i/Clan_Invasion

Though really, if you really want to understand the Clan Invasion Era of Battletech, you're going to have to do a LOT of reading. Battletech is rife with lore, and this is perhaps the most dense period in Battletech.

Edited by ScarecrowES, 14 July 2016 - 05:51 PM.

[Tyler Valentine]

Blood of Kerensky trilogy by Michael Stackpole is a great place to start... if you don't want to go ALL the way back to the beginning.

[SpiralFace]

Tyler Valentine, on 14 July 2016 - 06:26 PM, said:

Blood of Kerensky trilogy by Michael Stackpole is a great place to start... if you don't want to go ALL the way back to the beginning.

But if you don't start there you will miss out on many of the plot points that resolve in the Kerensky trilogy, or get huge reveals that will fall on deaf ears if you don't know what came before.

If your looking to get into the Lore, Warrior trilogy, Wolves on the Boarder, Heir to the Dragon, and then Blood of Kerensky is what I always recommend. As the Kerensky trilogy pull characters and plot points from all of those books. (I know people love the Grey death saga, but not many of their stories really cross over into the main line.)

[MischiefSC]

Short version:

Big war at the end of the Star League. Usurper Cameron had sized power over the Inner Sphere.

Aleksandr Kerensky, general of the army, sees a civil war brewing. Rather than stay and try to hold order he collects the bulk of the Star League and runs away, wanting to preserve the League ideals of freedom, peace, best of humanity stuff.

Inner Sphere turns into the first of 4 Succession Wars for control. First two involve wide spread nuking of manufacturing and badly damage infrastructure.

ComStar actively suppresses advancements in technology and weakens rate of recovery and development and tries to keep all the houses divided and at war.

Army with Kerensky flee to Pentagon Cluster of worlds. Immediately falls apart and his kid helps make the survivors the exact opposite of the Star League ideals. Clans adopt Facism, strict Caste system, slavery, eugenics, adopt war as diplomacy. They plot to invade Inner Sphere and turn it into a sick parody of the original Star League. Without ComStar sabotaging tech development they advance in military tech.

Some Clans are slightly less insane but still want to enslave IS "for their own good".

Clans invade, kill civilians on unprecedented scale since first Succession war. Enslave everyone not killed. Orbital bombardment of cities, executing random civilian populations on huge scale as punishment for resistance, etc. Pretty much every sick cliche villain behavior.

Inner Sphere organizes to deal with invasion.

Present day.

Edited by MischiefSC, 14 July 2016 - 06:57 PM.

[Mechwarrior1441491]

Why they invaded is covered over many volumes of game and literature. It's actually very in depth. Game of thrones type politics.

[ScarecrowES]

MischiefSC, on 14 July 2016 - 06:55 PM, said:

Short version:

Big war at the end of the Star League. Usurper Cameron had sized power over the Inner Sphere.

Aleksandr Kerensky, general of the army, sees a civil war brewing. Rather than stay and try to hold order he collects the bulk of the Star League and runs away, wanting to preserve the League ideals of freedom, peace, best of humanity stuff.

Inner Sphere turns into the first of 4 Succession Wars for control. First two involve wide spread nuking of manufacturing and badly damage infrastructure.

ComStar actively suppresses advancements in technology and weakens rate of recovery and development and tries to keep all the houses divided and at war.

Army with Kerensky flee to Pentagon Cluster of worlds. Immediately falls apart and his kid helps make the survivors the exact opposite of the Star League ideals. Clans adopt Facism, strict Caste system, slavery, eugenics, adopt war as diplomacy. They plot to invade Inner Sphere and turn it into a sick parody of the original Star League. Without ComStar sabotaging tech development they advance in military tech.

Some Clans are slightly less insane but still want to enslave IS "for their own good".

Clans invade, kill civilians on unprecedented scale since first Succession war. Enslave everyone not killed. Orbital bombardment of cities, executing random civilian populations on huge scale as punishment for resistance, etc. Pretty much every sick cliche villain behavior.

Inner Sphere organizes to deal with invasion.

Present day.

Spoken like a spheroid .

[Hit the Deck]

This is an example why PGI should flesh out the lore aspect in the game (or in the website/forum).

[ScarecrowES]

Hit the Deck, on 14 July 2016 - 07:21 PM, said:

This is an example why PGI should flesh out the lore aspect in the game (or in the website/forum).

Remember how, back in the day, there was going to be regular news postings for what was going on in the Sphere at that time... running day and date with the timeline?

[MischiefSC]

ScarecrowES, on 14 July 2016 - 07:18 PM, said:

Spoken like a spheroid .

Hey, that's the truth. Facist slavery who practice eugenics and use war for diplomacy. They want to conquer and enslave the IS population "for their own good", kill everyone who resists and call that "the new Star League".

They are exactly what Aleksandr Kerensky wanted to avoid. That's part of the irony.

[Hit the Deck]

ScarecrowES, on 14 July 2016 - 07:26 PM, said:

Remember how, back in the day, there was going to be regular news postings for what was going on in the Sphere at that time... running day and date with the timeline?

Sadly I wasn't there at that moment (only began to play near the end of 2014), but that reminds me of myself playing MW2: Mercenaries. IIRC there were constant news feed as you play and progress in the campaign.

[ScarecrowES]

MischiefSC, on 14 July 2016 - 07:31 PM, said:

Hey, that's the truth. Facist slavery who practice eugenics and use war for diplomacy. They want to conquer and enslave the IS population "for their own good", kill everyone who resists and call that "the new Star League".

They are exactly what Aleksandr Kerensky wanted to avoid. That's part of the irony.

Different Clans, different cultures.

Remember that there was a marked difference in behavior between the Wardens and the Crusaders, and this played out very clearly during the Invasion. Best not to lump all "Clans" into the same category.

Even your particular descriptions have a very Sphere-biased bent.

Warden Clans were rarely anything resembling fascist. "Slavery" does not translate well to what happened in the Clans. And remember that the Clan style of diplomancy/warfare limited the scope of fighting and eliminated wars almost altogether.

Edited by ScarecrowES, 14 July 2016 - 07:41 PM.

[Tavious Grimm]

Mischief, slightly wrong. It was Stefan Amaris that killed Richard Cameron, that prompted Kerensky to go to war against the Usurper. After winning he took 2/3 of the SLDF out of the Inner Sphere to keep them from the 5 Great Houses who demanded he swear personal fealty to them. After that your spot on. ������

Edited by Tavious Grimm, 14 July 2016 - 07:48 PM.

[FalconerGray]

MischiefSC, on 14 July 2016 - 07:31 PM, said:

Hey, that's the truth. Facist slavery who practice eugenics and use war for diplomacy. They want to conquer and enslave the IS population "for their own good", kill everyone who resists and call that "the new Star League".

They are exactly what Aleksandr Kerensky wanted to avoid. That's part of the irony.

One of my favourite parts about the BT universe is that all sides / factions have positives and negatives to them. There isn't really a true "good" or "bad" guy, because it all depends on the perspective that you take. I'm a Clan loyalist, disgusted by the constant infighting, bickering, backstabbing and obstruction of progress that is commonplace in the IS, but I can totally see how from the perspective of a Spheroid, that the way of the Clans would be an unappealing concept. That's why it's all so brilliant.

[MischiefSC]

ScarecrowES, on 14 July 2016 - 07:36 PM, said:

Different Clans, different cultures.

Remember that there was a marked difference in behavior between the Wardens and the Crusaders, and this played out very clearly during the Invasion. Best not to lump all "Clans" into the same category.

Even your particular descriptions have a very Sphere-biased bent.

Warden Clans were rarely anything resembling fascist. "Slavery" does not translate well to what happened in the Clans. And remember that the Clan style of diplomancy/warfare limited the scope of fighting and eliminated wars almost altogether.

Slavery was the nature of all Clan culture. You belonged to the warrior class. Who voted? It was always absolute authority in the hand of the Warrior caste, Warden or Crusader. While there was a bit of variety in how brutally they subjugated the other castes they were absolutely subjugated. They also have the same goal - conquer and enslave the Inner Sphere. Kill everyone who resists. They vary on how aggressively they want that to happen but the end goal is the same. The only reason they use war as diplomacy is that they view each others populations as property to trade, to be bought and sold aside from warriors to who are killed or taken as Bondsmen.

The Inner Sphere is full of villains as well. Treason, betrayal, wars and counter-wars. Very typical human. The point of the Clans is that they are caricatures of sociopathic vat-grown eugenically modified killers lacking a lot of fundamental positive human traits. You couldn't really make a society as bat-**** insane as the Clans. However they have OP tech in canon and a population that just puts up with it.

Which is offset by flat out silly plot armor for the US to address it.

Lore for IS/Clans is actually pretty terrible.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

The following comes from sarna.net:

On July 8th of the year 2784, General Kerensky gave his famous order - "Exodus" - and the huge force assembled at New Earth and fifty other star systems made the jump. The ships made a beeline for the Draconis Combine, stopping only in star systems with a sizable SLDF base to strip them of supplies and cryptically replying when asked as to their mission that they were "out on extended maneuvers." Along the way the convoys also picked up civilians, many having suffered greatly during the civil war and disposed to leave everything behind, while others were "invited" to join for their skill set. Records kept by the Clans would later hint some may have been less-than-willing participants.

In Operation Exodus six million men, women, and children followed General Aleksandr Kerensky into the Deep Periphery towards an unknown destination and future. This act effectively completed the collapse of the dying Star League. It was his dream that he and his followers, or most likely their children, would eventually return to rescue a devastated Inner Sphere and reunite it under a new Star League.

Aleksandr Kerensky said:

To all citizens of the Inner Sphere do I, Aleksandr Kerensky, send greetings.
Know that I have taken the remnant of the Star League Defense Force which has remained true to its purpose beyond the boundaries of the Inner Sphere, beyond the Periphery. I have done this, neither out of disappointment with those whom we leave behind, nor out of spite or disdain, as some will say. No, we have left the Inner Sphere because we love it too much to see it destroyed. In the wake of the Usurper's coup, and the long, bitter fighting that came with it, I fear that my forces would do incalculable, possibly irreparable, harm to our society. We are sworn to ward the Star League and its subjects, not destroy it.

Thus, we have left the only homes we have ever known to place the destructive capability of this armada beyond the reach of those who would use it, not for defense, but for conquest. Perhaps, with the might of our 'Mechs and ships out of reach, the leaders who now grapple with one another will relinquish their dreams of subjugating their neighbors and learn to live in peace with them.

Perhaps, one day, should mankind step back from the brink of the abyss, we, our children, or our children's children will return, to once more serve and protect and guide the Star League in mankind's quest for the stars.

Farewell.

This was the birth of the clans...

Edited by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky, 14 July 2016 - 10:33 PM.

[Thorn Hallis]

Shortest version: 80% of the army do the brexit and return 300 years later because Kerensky ale sucks.

Edited by Thorn Hallis, 14 July 2016 - 10:41 PM.

[Ryllen Kriel]

Shorter-est Version: People unhappy, war!

[Belacose]

Great thread!

Thanks for the spoon feeding!

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Thorn Hallis, on 14 July 2016 - 10:30 PM, said:

Shortest version: 80% of the army do the brexit and return 300 years later because Kerensky ale sucks.

But but... How was I supposed to know it would turn out like this?!?

I just used this excuse to make a harem... But after the move... Everyone wanted to reproduce scientifically...

Damn science...