The Battletech Universe - SpringMCLegacy/SpringMCLegacy GitHub Wiki
The Battletech Universe
The Battletech Universe is a very rich, vibrant and deep creation that has been constantly growing and evolving for over 30 years. It revolves around the plight of humanity in around the 31st century, the vagaries of space diplomacy, the rise and fall of empires and everything in between.
The Battletech Universe comprises the part of the galaxy surrounding humanity's homeworld after nearly 1000 years of space exploration, colonization and the expanding of civilization. At the heart of it is Terra, birthplace of the human race, surrounded by the empires of the Great Houses - powerful families of Nobles who have come to dominate life and politics, who have carved out great expanses of territory that they constantly bicker and wage war over. Left to pick up the scraps on the edges of known space are the Periphery realms, small fiefdoms, bandit states and idealistic enclaves carved out of the chaos of life on the fringes of lawlessness whose existence depends heavily on the larger Factions being uninterested in conquering them. And far, far away from Terra are the most secluded and forlorn pockets of humanity, including the Clan homeworlds.
History
The history of the Battletech Universe spans the next thousand years of human history. Much of this isn't very thoroughly fleshed out, but to summarize, the 2300s saw the rise of the Terran Hegemony and the Great Houses, as humanity experienced a golden age of technological advances and space exploration. With the Hegemony reigning supreme around Terra and the center of human civilization, the Great Houses, powerful families that styled themselves as Nobles, carved out their own fiefdoms and domains around the Hegemony. Though small-scale conflicts were commonplace, the peace was more or less maintained by the dominance of the Hegemony for most of this period.
By the 2500s however the other nation-states had advanced to a point that they threatened the economic, political and military supremacy of the Terran Hegemony. This prompted Ian Cameron, head of the Terran Hegemony, to found the Star League in 2571.
Star League
The Star League was comprised of most of the major states in existence at the time of its founding in 2571. Though it did not represent a full political merging, it did signify a central ruling authority that superseded that of each of its member states. And though those member states kept a large portion of their autonomy, including their own standing armies and economies, the Star League would come to dominate human politics for the next 200 years, though not without its problems.
The 2750s saw the beginning of the end of the Star League. Stefan Amaris, leader of the Rim Worlds Republic, a member-state of the Star League, used his position to grow close to the head of the Star League, while also instigating a rebellion from the Republic against the Star League and the Terran Hegemony. As Star League Defense Force (SLDF) military forces moved en masse to put down the widespread uprising, Amaris murdered the head of the Star League and proclaimed himself Emperor.
This kicked off 13 years of bloodshed known as the Amaris Civil War, where Star League Loyalists led by General Aleksandr Kerensky, Commander-in-Chief of the SLDF, waged a brutal campaign to oust Amaris from Terra. By the end of it the status quo of the Inner Sphere was in shambled. Though Amaris was defeated, he had used his position to entice and manipulate the Great Houses, and the damage he caused to the Star League ensured that it would die with him. With it's member states unwilling to continue supporting the Star League, the institution was formally dissolved in 2780. Despite being celebrated as the man who freed them from the rule of Stefan Amaris, the Great Lords, head of the Great House families, turned on Kerensky, officially stripping him of his titles and leaving him a political non-player as the Inner Sphere looked to rebuild.
Eventually Kerensky would decide to absolve himself of the responsibility of protecting the Inner Sphere and decided to leave, quite literally. In one of the largest mass mobilizations in history, Kerensky called upon the remnants of the Star League Defense Force to join him in a great exodus from the Inner Sphere. The vast majority, around 80 percent, of SLDF personnel, including their families, joined Kerensky as he left the Inner Sphere to its own devices in a campaign known as Operation EXODUS. It would be nearly 300 years before the Inner Sphere would learn their fates.
Succession Wars
As the SLDF left the Inner Sphere so too did any hope of maintaining a singular, coherent political system. Almost immediately, the Great Houses rekindled their age-old grievances as they fought over the remnants of the now-destroyed Terran Hegemony and Star League. This period lasted for nearly 300 years as human civilization descended into chaos, with many technological advances being lost to nuclear bombs, genocide and forced migrations. Quality of life among the populations of the Inner Sphere plunged as each House and their domain, now coined Successor States (as they were the successors of the Star League) fought wars over the prizes thought trivial before. Entire invasions were launched to seize intact military assets of the former Star League, hundreds of planets were turned into wastelands as efficient technology dissolved.
Despite this tumultuous period, the political borders of the Inner Sphere remained largely unchanged, as the Houses reached a near-stalemate, unable to sustain a prolonged conflict with one another. But by the 31st century, things had begun turning around; technologies long thought lost were rediscovered, the state of constant warfare ebbed, and political turmoil at its lowest point in centuries. For once, things seemed to be looking up.
Then, in 3048, a deep-space exploration ship called the Outbound Flight happened upon a pecular star system two years into its exploratory mission of unknown space. That system was called Huntress, and it was inhabited by the descendants of Kerensky's Star League Defense Force.
Operation REVIVAL
In 3049 the Inner Sphere would finally learn what had happened to Kerensky's SLDF after it left the Inner Sphere and headed into the vastness of unexplored space, as a full-scale invasion tore its way into the Inner Sphere. Triggered by the sudden appearance of an Inner Sphere exploration ship over one of their worlds, the great debate about whether to return was ended.
In the 300 years since their exodus, the SLDF had evolved into the Clans - a society of soldiers that had spent most of the intervening years not wallowing in turmoil and degredation like the Inner Sphere, but in a golden age of prosperity. Though it had taken over 250 years, Clan society had developed from a rag-tag group of disgruntled military personnel and refugees into a powerful military-dominated civilization that had decreed itself the lawful and righteous inheritors of the Inner Sphere. They had come to rebuild the Star League on the ashes of the Great Houses and their bickering, greedy domains.
The invasion came as a shock to the Great Houses. World after world in the invasion corridors fell, almost effortlessly, to the Clans. They boasted technology far more advanced than the Great Houses, as they had never experienced a 'dark age'; even the technology of the Star League, long since degraged and lost in the Inner Sphere, paled in comparison to the Clans.
Despite this advantage however, the one thing the Clans lacked was the sheer manpower of the Great Houses, whose populations dwarfed that of the Clan Homeworlds. Still for nearly 2 years the Clan Invasion proceeded with little trouble, eventually destroying the Free Rasalhague Republic - the first state to fall.
Comstar & The Battle of Tukayyid
During this invasion period, an observer watched from the sidelines, keen to maintain neutrality in the conflict. ComStar was an organization that had its roots in the Star League; it was the department that maintained the vast communications networks across known space that made space-faring civilization possible. When the Star League collapsed at the end of the Amaris Civil War, the Great Houses entrusted - though they had little choice - this organization to rebuild and maintain the communications networks as a neutral 3rd party to the political affairs of the Inner Sphere. They were also given authoritative control over Terra and the core of the former Terran Hegemony.
But over the years since the collapse of the Star League, ComStar had evolved into a multi-faceted organization that operated in the shadows of Inner Sphere politics. It had adopted a secret decree that its secondary function would be to collect and maintain, in secret, technology quickly becoming lost to the ravages of the Succession Wars, and stockpiled a huge assortment of Star League-era technology. It also began to interfere, subtly, in the affairs of the Successor States, even going so far as to inhibit the communications networks of the Federated Suns in an effort to curtail their growing domination over its neighbours.
As the Clan invasion wore on, ComStar was satisfied with remaining a neutral observer; they believed that the Clans would simply replace the Great Houses as political lords, while they continued maintaining the communications networks. However in 3051 ComStar learned that the Clan's invasion goal was Terra, and that ComStar itself would eventually be sidelined, if not entirely eradicated. It was then that ComStar activated its secret defense forces, the ComGuard.
Rather than deploy its forces to the front lines, ComStar negotiated with the Clans to hold a proxy battle on a planet inside the invasion corridor. The Clans, who had evolved a keen sense of duty and honour as well as traditions and philosophy that embraced such competitive dealings, agreed; the Clans would battle ComGuard over the planet Tukayyid. If the Clans won, ComStar would surrender Terra to the invadors without a fight. If ComStar won, the Clans agreed to halt their invasion for no less than 15 years.
In the end, ComGuard surprised everyone by defeating the Clans on Tukayyid, ensuring at least several years of peace in the process. And that is where we are today, in our game, which takes place roughly around 3062, on the eve of the FedCom Civil War.
Factions
As of the first writing of this page, there are 10 factions present in MCL. These include 5 Inner Sphere Successor States and 5 invading Clans.
Map of the Inner Sphere roughly around the time our game takes place.
Inner Sphere Successor States
Federated Suns
The Federated Suns, also known as the Federated Commonwealth, are perhaps the most "conventional" of each of the Great Houses, as well as the most powerful, and in many ways draws comparisons to the USA. It is the largest and most technologically advanced state by the time of the Clan invasion, boasting hundreds of worlds. In all respects the Federated Suns represents the status quo of Inner Sphere states, against which all others are measured. The Commonwealth came into being after a union of the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth in a process that began in 3020 and was formalized in 3055, including marriage between the two Great Houses of each, House Davion of the Federated Suns and House Steiner of the Lyran Commonwealth. In 3057, the Lyran half of the Commonwealth seceded from the union, creating the Lyran Alliance and sparking off years of violence known as the FedCom Civil War, but the state kept the name Federated Commonwealth for another 10 years before officially returning its name to the Federated Suns.
Though once a partner and ally of the Lyran Commonwealth, the Lyran succession has led to open warfare between these states. The Suns also hold a bitter rivalry with the Draconis Combine and especially Capellan Confederation, the latter of whom bore the brunt of the newfound Federated Commonwealth's imperial aspirations.
Lyran Alliance
The Lyran Alliance was born out of the former House Steiner holdings of the Lyran Commonwealth, after seceding from the Federated Suns/Lyran Commonwealth union. The Lyran state represents a typically German-dominated European nation, including its close relationship with the Federated Suns (the USA). Like the Federated Suns, the Lyran Alliance is one of the most highly advanced Successor State and enjoys relatively high technological levels.
Though once a close ally with the Federated Suns, the Alliance is now at a state of open war with them. Historically they have often been enemies of the Draconis Combine and Free Worlds League.
Draconis Combine
A traditionally Japanese and east-Asian culture, the Combine is ruled by House Kurita, a Japanese noble family. They are a very warrior-minded people who have embraced many of the samurai traditions of ancient Japanese history, and were greatly respected by the Clan invaders. They successfully held back a full-scale invasion of their homeworld of Luthien during the Clan invasion, further cementing their military prowess.
House Kurita is one of the more antagonistic in the Inner Sphere and has rarely shied away from openly stating their belief that the Draconis Combine should dominate the Inner Sphere. Their only historic allies are ComStar, and even then the relationship was more of mutual benefit. Otherwise the Combine is happy to hold others at arms length.
Capellan Confederation
The Confederation is very Chinese traditionally, though also contains large numbers of Indian and Muslim descendants. House Liao maintains dominance over the Confederation, and like Kuritans, have an honour and warrior-minded philosophy, though it is not not as widespread as in the Draconis Combine. The Confederation is the smallest of the Successor States, a fact which has in part forced them to adopt a more militaristic philosophy.
The Confederation enjoys a good relationship with their neighbours the Free Worlds League, and has formed an alliance, called the Trinity Alliance, with two neighbouring periphery realms. This has elevated House Liao's status greatly, and though technologically trailing behind the other states, their military might is almost equal. Joining the Free Worlds League on an attack against the Federated Commonwealth in 3057, the Capellans were largely responsible for the ensuing Lyran succession and resulting FedCom Civil War.
Free Worlds League
The domain of House Marik, the Free Worlds League is the oldest successor state in the Inner Sphere. Despite this, they are relatively under-developed, thanks in part to a series of conflicts in the decades before the Clan invasion, and their more open political nature. However the invasion proved beneficial to the League; far from the invasion corridor, their economy grew immensely as they helped the other states maintain and rebuild their forces as they sat back in relative peace and security.
The Free Worlds League prides itself for maintaining the spirit and legacy of the Star League, and is one of the more ethical states. Frequently at odds with the Lyran Commonwealth and their Federated Suns former allies, they maintain a strong relationship with the Capellan Confederation, with whom they launched a coordinated attack against the Federated Commonwealth in 3057. The assault paved the way for the Lyran succession and resulting FedCom Civil War.
The Clans
Clan Wolf
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Clan Jade Falcon
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Clan Smoke Jaguar
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Clan Ghost Bear
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Clan Hell's Horses
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