I haven't actually played the tabletop game, but I have done a lot of reading, both from sourcebooks and sarna.net, so keep that in mind if I get anything wrong.
Basic premise:
BattleTech takes place in the 31st century (pushing on 32nd, now) in the
Inner Sphere, the area of space that has been colonized and settled by humanity. For the past 300 years, the entire Inner Sphere has been in a state of constant warfare, blasting humanity into another dark age in which much advanced tech has been lost. The main factions in the Inner Sphere are five feudal style Great Houses, and later on, the militaristic clans. One notable thing about the
BattleTech universe is that it has no intelligent alien races. All the atrocities and horrors are carried out by humans.
BattleTech History 101:
Humanity starts expanding into what would become the Inner Sphere in the 22nd century. Soon afterwards, the colonies gain independence and start forming their own nations. By the 24th century, there are ten major states in the Inner Sphere, including the five Great Houses and the
Terran Hegemony. In the 26th century,
Ian Cameron, ruler of the Terran Hegemony uses his diplomatic savvy to achieve his dream of a united humanity and convinces the Great Houses to join the Hegemony and form the
Star League.
For 200 years, humanity enjoys a golden age under the Star League. This all ends in the late 28th century when a power hungry ruler from the
Periphery (on the outskirts of the Inner Sphere) named
Stefan Amaris assassinates the young First Lord of the Star League along with all his heirs and takes power for himself. General
Alexander Kerensky of the Star League Defense Forces leads a bloody war against Amaris and ousts him.
By now, however, the damage has already been done. The five Great Houses, (now known as the Successor States) unable to decide on who should take over for House Cameron (the rulers of the Terran Hegemony and the Star League), decide to disband the Star League. Horrified, General Kerensky gathers the majority of the SLDF and go on a
self-imposed exile, leaving the Inner Sphere behind.
For the next two and a half centuries, the Inner Sphere tears itself apart in four
Succession Wars, destroying much of humanity's technological base and losing a lot of technology (lost technology is referred to as
LosTech). The
BattleTech tabletop game started during this era, between the Third and Fourth Succession Wars (I think). The first
MechWarrior game,
MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries and
MechWarrior Online take place during this time. The most important thing to happen during this era is the union of the
Federated Suns and the
Lyran Commonwealth through a marraige between their ruling families (Houses Davion and Steiner). What results is the
Federated Commonwealth.
During all this time, the SLDF have reformed themselves into a group of 20
Clans with a society based around honor and martial might. While the Successor States were busy blowing each other up in the Inner Sphere, the Clans were producing the perfect warrior society through genetic engineering. In 3050, the
Clans invade the Inner Sphere, seeking to restore the Star League by force. Ironically, this invasion forces the Inner Sphere to unite and reform the Star League, and they take advantage of the Clans' strict adherence to their system of honor. The pseudo-religious communications network
ComStar negotiates a
battle on the planet Tukayyid with the Clans. If the Clans win, they get control of Terra. If ComStar wins, the Clans have to halt their invasion for fifteen years. ComStar wins.
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat takes place in the aftermath of this battle, with two Clans fighting a
Refusal War over the legality of this truce.
Before the Clans get a chance to dispute this outcome, the Inner Sphere launches a counterattack codenamed
Operation Bulldog. Concentrated on a single Clan,
Clan Smoke Jaguar, combined forces of the Inner Sphere manage to not only drive the Jaguars out of their occupied territories, but back to their homeworld, where they are wiped out once and for all. And so the Clan Invasion ends.
MechWarrior 3 deals with the invasion of a single planet during this conflict.
After the Clan Invasion ends, the Star League disintegrates again and the wars of the Inner Sphere continues. Through a series of assassinations on her own family, Federated Commonwealth ruler
Katrina Steiner-Davion plunges the state into the
FedCom Civil War, which results in the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth splitting apart again.
MechWarrior 4: Vengeance and its expansions take place during this time.
After this, ComStar decides to secularize its formerly religious elements. This angers a sect within the organization which splinters off and forms the
Word of Blake. The Blakists proceed to launch a
Jihad upon the rest of the Inner Sphere in order to reestablish the Star League (or something like that, I haven't gotten this far in the fluff yet). In the process they violate the 600 year old
Ares Conventions by indiscriminately using weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations. This manages to tick off every other faction in the Inner Sphere, Successor State and Clan alike, and they all join forces to nuke the Blakists into oblivion. I believe the
MechAssault games deal with this period.
In the aftermath of the Jihad, a charismatic leader named
Devlin Stone rises to prominance and forms the
Republic of the Sphere around Terra. Peace happens and all the factions in the Inner Sphere start disarming, until the
communications network throughout the Inner Sphere suddenly gets blacked out, starting another
Dark Age.
Factions:
Federated Suns (ruled by House Davion) - The largest and most powerful of the Successor States. They value freedom and are generally seen as being the "good guys" of the setting. As such they are also the most popular faction.
Lyran Commonwealth (ruled by House Steiner) - A state inspired by Germany, with the most powerful economy in the Inner Sphere.
Draconis Combine (ruled by House Kurita) - Based on feudal Japan. A powerful and militaristic state. Also very oppresive to its people.
Free Worlds League (ruled by House Marik) - Based on the USA, France, and perhaps South America (not sure about that last one), the only real democratic Successor State. Of course, it's plagued by infighting, and has been under the rule of the Mariks for the past few centuries with "emergency powers" (although to be fair, the Inner Sphere really has been in a state of emergency for that long).
Capellan Confedeation (ruled by House Liao) - Based on communist China. The Liao's have a genetic predisposition towards being
completely insaneand their rule reflects that. They are the smallest of the Successor States, presumably because their insane leaders are unable to properly defend the Confederation from invasion.
ComStar - Combination of church, phone company and Issac Asimov's Foundation. They are the remnants of the Star League's communications department.
The Clans - Twenty caste-based warrior societies. At the top are genetically engineered super soldiers. Their obsession with honor gets in the way of their otherwise superior military, though, as their war against the much more pragmatic Inner Sphere has shown.
Mercenaries - They're mercenaries... what more can I say?
Edited by RL Nice, 07 May 2012 - 07:33 PM.
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