A Brief History of The Inner Sphere
By Michael A. Stackpole and Diane Piron-Gelmanr

The creation of the great star empires and the formation of the human society known as the Clans begins with humanity's long-ago first steps into space. Among the ancient nations of Terra, the dissolution of traditional alliances and enmities in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries created an era of unprecedented peace and cooperation, in which all societies turned their energies toward the advancement of the human race. By 2020, the ground-breaking research of two scientists-Thomas Kearny and Takayoshi Fuchida-led to the development of a fusion reactor capable of powering a starship. In 2027, the Alliance starship Columbia, powered by the first Kearny-Fuchida fusion engine, made its historic journey to Mars. With that brief voyage, humanity's migration from Terra began.

In 2102, the scientific community began paying renewed attention to pan-dimensional gravitational mathematics, a theory first advanced by Kearny and Fuchida eighty years earlier. Though twenty-first-century scientists had scoffed at it, twenty-second-century physicists used Kearny and Fuchida's work to develop the first faster-than-light ship in an intensive research effort known as the Deimos Project. Deimos produced the first Kearny-Fuchida drive, which created a space warp around a starship through which the craft could "jump" distances of up to thirty light-years. On 5 December 2108, Terra launched the first so-called JumpShip, the TAS Pathfinder, on its famous round trip between Terra and the Tau Ceti system.

The ability to travel between star systems in the blink of an eye led to an unparalleled expansion to other worlds. The first human colony of New Earth, established on Tau Ceti IV in 2116, paved the way for hundreds of others. Under the banner of the Terran Alliance, humanity spread as quickly as its ancestors had once swarmed over Terra. By the year 2235, an Alliance survey counted more than six hundred human colonies scattered across a sphere roughly eighty light-years in diameter. However, this colonial expansion carried within it the seeds of its own destruction. Self-sufficient colonies far from their founding worlds began agitating for home rule, and in 2236 a group of worlds at the edge of human-explored space declared independence from Terra. The Colonial Marines, dispatched to quell the rebellion, failed miserably. Within six years, the Alliance government had reluctantly granted independence to all colonies farther than thirty light-years from Terra.

RISE OF THE HEGEMONY

Over the next several decades, a combination of political infighting and the economic strain of supporting so many colonies-a burden greatly exacerbated by rampant corruption-ate away at the fabric of the Terran Alliance. Tales of colonists starving to death sparked riots among sympathetic Terrans, while the ranks of the poor, dispossessed and angry grew. In 2314, the unrest erupted into Alliance-wide civil war. The Alliance Global Militia, which had remained uneasily neutral throughout the long years of strife, stepped in at the behest of James McKenna, an admiral in the Alliance Global Navy. Using his newfound authority as the Alliance's savior, McKenna tore down the corrupt Alliance government and established the Terran Hegemony in its place. In 2316, a grateful public elected him the Hegemony's first director-general.

During McKenna's twenty-three years in office, he launched three military campaigns to bring independent colony worlds back under Hegemony control, in the belief that only unity could truly bring peace and prosperity. The first two campaigns, though difficult, were largely successful; the third, launched in 2335, was not. The aging McKenna left control of the final campaign to his son Konrad, whose persistent refusal to follow standard procedure eventually ended in disaster. In 2338, Konrad led his naval convoys blindly into the heavily mined Syrma system, losing all but two of his twenty-nine troopships. This failure gave heart to the worlds opposing the Hegemony, which had begun to ally with one another to protect themselves from the Hegemony's expanding influence.
Konrad's disgrace left McKenna without an heir to take his place. Upon McKenna's death in 2339, the Hegemony's High Council passed the leadership of the Hegemony to his third cousin, Michael Cameron. The new director-general immediately began efforts to cement good relations with the allied colony worlds, which had by this time formed independent nations.

In 2351, Cameron made a decision whose cultural repercussions would echo for centuries. He created the Peer List, establishing the equivalent of a feudal nobility whose members owed their exalted rank to their achievements. Among the first to receive a title was Dr. Gregory Atlas, lauded for his work on refining myomer bundles. These incredibly powerful synthetic muscles were an integral part of early WorkMechs; when powered by a fusion reactor, myomer bundles give a BattleMech its strength and mobility. Though Dr. Atlas would not live to see the first BattleMech used in action on 5 February 2439, his work changed the face of war.

Cameron's Peer List also led to the creation of feudal ruling families in the various independent states surrounding the Hegemony. In the latter half of the twenty-fourth and the early twenty-fifth centuries, tensions between these fiefdoms escalated into open war. Humanity's interstellar nations fought battle after battle, each more savage than the last, culminating in the unspeakable massacre of thousands of civilians on the world of Tintavel in the Capellan Confederation. The Confederation's leader, Chancellor Aleisha Liao, responded to the tragedy by devising the Ares Conventions-a set of rules that, rather than trying to prevent war, legitimized its conduct. On 13 June 2412, the Hegemony and all other nations signed the Ares Conventions, agreeing to limit the use of nuclear weapons and cease assaulting civilian targets. Though hailed as an act of peace, the Ares Conventions in effect made war acceptable. Many of the signatory states wasted little time in abusing the privilege.

THE STAR LEAGUE ERA

The Hegemony engaged in its share of battles over the next century or so, but equally often it served as a mediator between warring parties. Despite the Hegemony's history of military expansion, Terra's presence at its heart gave it a certain credibility as a peacemaker. Ian Cameron, who became director-general in 2549, expanded the Hegemony's peacemaking role and negotiated an end to a number of conflicts. In 2556, Ian persuaded the leaders of the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation to sign the Treaty of Geneva; this famous document laid the groundwork for the formation of the Star League, the interstellar alliance that all too briefly ended wars and advanced the general welfare of humanity. The Lyran Commonwealth signed the treaty in 2558; the Federated Suns, in 2567. With the inclusion of the Draconis Combine in 2569, Ian Cameron achieved his dream of uniting virtually all of humanity under one leader.

Led by the enlightened Cameron dynasty, the Star League gave its citizens peace and prosperity for nearly two hundred years. Though even the Star League could not wipe out the human need for conflict, it kept disputes between its member-states under firm control. After Lord Simon Cameron's tragic death in 2751, the rulers of all the member-states served as regents for Simon's young son, Richard Cameron, but unfortunately abused their positions to jockey for personal power. The lonely Richard turned to Stefan Amaris, ruler of the Rim Worlds Republic in the far-off Periphery, for friendship and advice. Amaris hated the Camerons and used his false friendship with Richard to destroy the Star League from within. On 27 December 2766, Stefan Amaris murdered Richard and took control of the Star League.

Within weeks of this coup d'état, General Aleksandr Kerensky, commander of the Star League Defense Force, launched a bitter, thirteen-year war to liberate the League from the usurper's grasp. On 29 September 2779, Kerensky led the assault against Amaris's last stronghold on Terra. In the face of overwhelming force, Amaris surrendered. Kerensky ordered SLDF troops to summarily execute him, his family and his closest aides for their crimes against humanity.

In late 2780, the power-hungry Council Lords stripped Kerensky of his title as Protector of the Realm and ordered him to disperse all SLDF units to their peacetime locations. Bereft of central leadership, the member-states of the Star League vied with one another for control of the League. Unable to agree on which of them should become the new First Lord, the lords officially dissolved the High Council in August of 2781, left Terra and began to build their own power bases. When the various lords attempted to persuade SLDF units to back their bids for power, General Kerensky took drastic action. On 14 February 2784, Kerensky proposed to his troops that the SLDF should leave the Inner Sphere and found a new society based on the ideals of the now-defunct Star League. In late November 2784, more than 80 percent of the SLDF departed with Kerensky's Operation Exodus. The bewildered people of the Inner Sphere, mourning the loss of their hero, comforted themselves with the belief that Kerensky and his people would return when humanity needed them.

CENTURIES OF WAR

In the resulting power vacuum, the rulers of the realms now called the Successor States fought endless, brutal wars, each seeking to re-establish the Star League under his own leadership. Throughout three hundred years of conflict, the Successor Lords accomplished little save to blast humankind virtually back to the Stone Age. By the end of the third so-called Succession War, humanity had lost nearly every technological advance that the Star League had made possible. Only stringent restrictions on destroying JumpShips and other irreplaceable technologies of war allowed interstellar combat to continue. The fighting ground down to endless border skirmishes in which no combatant could gain a significant advantage.

One of the few technologies that survived was the hyperpulse generators that made interstellar communication possible. These were jealously guarded by the Holy Order of ComStar, founded by Star League Minister of Communications Jerome Blake in order to preserve communications during the coming years of war. The organization gradually evolved into a cult that worshiped Blake's writings and dedicated itself to guarding technology's secrets.

STEPS TOWARD PEACE

By the turn of the thirty-first century, common wisdom among Successor State militaries held that conquest of the Inner Sphere through conventional warfare was impossible. Those who wished to found a second Star League had to find another way. In 3020, Archon Katrina Steiner of the Lyran Commonwealth sent a peace proposal to her fellow Successor Lords, but only Prince Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns showed any interest. In 3022, the Archon and the prince concluded a secret alliance that would bind their realms together through Hanse Davion's marriage to Katrina's daughter and heir, Melissa Steiner. This union joined two families and two nations into a single strong realm, combining the prosperous Lyran Commonwealth with the militarily powerful Federated Suns. It also put the Draconis Combine in an uncomfortable position between two of its greatest enemies and led the smaller Capellan Confederation and Free Worlds League to fear conquest by the emerging Federated Commonwealth.

After months of secret negotiations among the Capellan Confederation, the Draconis Combine and the Free Worlds League, all three signed the Concord of Kapetyn in 3024. Intended as a counter to the Federated Commonwealth, this triple alliance provided for mutual support and defense. It also guaranteed that any renewed war would engulf the entire Inner Sphere.

The first decades of the new century also saw the beginnings of a technological renaissance, set in motion by the unexpected discovery in 3024 of a Star League-era memory core. Copies of the core soon found their way to each Successor State, leading to a boom in industry and the revival of precious, lost technologies in varied fields, from medicine to military hardware. Calm settled over the Inner Sphere, as the constant warfare between its nations shifted to the scientific arena. As usual, however, the peace was only temporary.

FOURTH SUCCESSION WAR

On 20 August 3028, Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner held their wedding on Terra in the presence of their fellow Successor Lords. At the reception following the wedding, as he fed Melissa a piece of wedding cake, Prince Hanse announced, "Wife, in honor of our marriage, in addition to this morsel I give you a vast prize. My love, I give you the Capellan Confederation!" With those words, Hanse Davion launched the Fourth Succession War.

In a series of military "exercises" held between 3026 and 3028, Hanse had moved vast numbers of troops under the guise of training. He had also reorganized his army, regrouping battalions and regiments into Regimental Combat Teams consisting of one or more regiments of BattleMechs plus armor, infantry and artillery support. This organization gave Davion troops overwhelming advantages. Training, traveling and fighting together gave them unusual cohesion in the field, making them a far more effective fighting force than the enemy units they faced. In 3028, the RCTs poured into the Capellan Confederation in seven successive waves, cutting it in half.

Such large-scale mobilization did not come without cost. The vast demand for JumpShips and DropShips to ferry troops across space reduced commerce between worlds to essential items, inflicting economic hardship on many planets. In addition, ComStar opposed Hanse Davion's war and placed the Federated Suns under interdiction, relaying no messages to, from or between Federated Suns worlds. Hampered by the interdiction and satisfied with his conquests, Hanse Davion sued for peace in 3029. The battered Capellan Confederation agreed willingly to the Federated Suns' terms, desperate to free its scant military resources for use against other enemies. Despite the Kapetyn treaty, the Free Worlds League had exploited the Confederation's weakened state, taking more than a few Capellan worlds; if it hoped to survive as a nation, the Confederation could no longer afford war with the Davion realm.

SKIRMISHES AND PLOTS

Between 3029 and 3039, the Successor States jockeyed for power through covert dealings and small skirmishes in lieu of outright war. The Federated Commonwealth completed the integration of its militaries, governments, economies and conquered worlds, forming the largest and most powerful realm in the Inner Sphere. Meanwhile, the Draconis Combine took one lesson from the Fourth Succession War to heart: it overhauled its military. In his role as the Combine's Gunji no Kanrei, or Deputy of Military Affairs, Theodore Kurita took several steps to ensure his nation's safety. He revamped the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery, upgrading training and loosening the command structure to reward personal initiative. In his most controversial act, Theodore signed a compact with ComStar, granting independence to several Combine worlds in exchange for ComStar's Star League-era BattleMechs. Though prepared for storms to follow, Kurita believed the compact was in the Combine's best interests and knew he could justify it militarily if necessary. On 13 March 3034, the affected worlds announced the formation of the independent Free Rasalhague Republic.
Despite Theodore Kurita's support, the declaration of independence touched off a minor rebellion within the Combine, as reactionary commanders refused to pull their military units from the new republic. Theodore declared the reactionaries ronin-lordless-and sent his own units to drive them from Free Rasalhague. Theodore's troops and various mercenary groups joined the Republic's KungsArmé in battle against the ronin, but poor contracts negotiated in haste paid most of the mercenaries too much money for too little fighting. Free Rasalhague won its freedom, but its citizens learned to loathe mercenaries.

In April 3039, Hanse Davion set in motion the second great wave of his war to unite the Inner Sphere under his rule. He launched a two-front attack on the Dieron district of the Draconis Combine. The first assault wave succeeded brilliantly, but before Hanse could launch a second wave, the Combine counterattacked and threw the Commonwealth on the defensive. Aided by the Star League 'Mechs ComStar had provided, Theodore Kurita gambled with the fate of his nation and won. By attacking in the teeth of the Davion onslaught, Theodore made Hanse Davion believe the DCMS was stronger than it actually was. By October 3039, Davion chose to cut his losses and make peace.

The War of 3039 accomplished little, save to remind the Successor States of the severe cost of war. A few worlds changed hands, but the balance of power remained the same. Aside from a skirmish in 3041, in which the Tenth Lyran Guards took the world of Skondia from the Combine, the states of the Inner Sphere seemed content to rebuild their realms in peace. Military readiness and overcharged rhetoric still ruled the day, but the Successor States had-at least temporarily-grown tired of war. The Inner Sphere enjoyed ten years of peace, which ended abruptly on 13 August 3049.

ENEMIES FROM BEYOND

In that year, while hunting pirates in the Periphery near the Free Rasalhague Republic, a detachment of the famed Kell Hounds mercenary unit met and succumbed to a mysterious fighting force on a godforsaken planet known as The Rock. Casualties included Phelan Kell, only son of the Hounds' founder Morgan Kell and cousin to Victor Steiner-Davion, Hanse and Melissa's eldest son. Phelan was listed as missing, presumed killed, but the Inner Sphere did not learn his true fate until several months later. The Kell Hounds' defeat was the first of many battles lost to the Clans, mighty warriors descended from the long-vanished SLDF.

The Warriors of Kerensky

The men and women who had followed Kerensky in order to preserve the ideals of the Star League had made planetfall on five worlds called the Pentagon. Within two decades, they had degenerated into a vicious, fratricidal conflict later known as the Exodus Civil War. Determined to salvage something from the wreckage of his father's dream, Kerensky's son Nicholas led his loyal followers on a second Exodus to a safe haven, where together they forged the eugenics-based warrior society later known as the Clans.

Returning to the Pentagon worlds, the Clans conquered them and began preparing for the day they would return to the Inner Sphere and restore the Star League. In 3005, they sent a unit of Clan Wolf warriors as a vanguard-Wolf's Dragoons, soon to become a famed mercenary unit in the Inner Sphere. The Dragoons fought for each of the Successor States in turn, testing the strength of their militaries and sending intelligence back to the Clans.

Clan Invasion

In March of 3050, the Clans struck in force, hammering the Draconis Combine, the Free Rasalhague Republic and the Lyran side of the Federated Commonwealth. Wave after wave of Clan attacks followed, executed with blinding speed and ruthless efficiency. Using their technologically superior OmniMechs and tenacious armored infantry, known as Elementals, Clan warriors cut down their Inner Sphere opponents like wheat before a scythe. Four Clans rolled across the Inner Sphere in the first wave: Smoke Jaguar, Ghost Bear, Jade Falcon and Wolf. All took their share of planets, but Clan Wolf conquered more worlds than all of its compatriots. Inner Sphere forces launched a few successful counterattacks, but those strikes came too little and too late. The Clan juggernaut thundered on, halted only when an unlikely catastrophe struck.

On 31 October 3050, a Rasalhagian pilot named Tyra Miraborg crashed her Shilone fighter into the Clan flagship Dire Wolf, killing the Clans' war leader. The death of the ilKhan accomplished what six months of desperate fighting had not; the Clans ended their assaults, garrisoned the worlds they had conquered and pulled much of their military strength out of the Inner Sphere. For several months, during what was later dubbed the Year of Peace, the leaders of the Clans debated who should be the new ilKhan. In mid-3051, they chose Khan Ulric Kerensky of Clan Wolf to lead a renewed assault against the Inner Sphere.

During this lull, Colonel Jaime Wolf of Wolf's Dragoons had summoned the leaders of the Successor States to the world of Outreach. There, Wolf revealed that he and his fellow Dragoons were actually Clan warriors-and that, believing Clan conquest of the Inner Sphere would not restore the Star League, they were prepared to aid the Inner Sphere against their own people. The Inner Sphere leaders spent the better part of that year formulating a combined response to the overwhelming Clan threat. Setting aside centuries of mistrust, Hanse Davion and Theodore Kurita sealed a non-aggression pact between the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine. Davion also extracted material aid from the Free Worlds League by promising its leader, Thomas Marik, that he would devote the considerable resources of the New Avalon Institute of Science toward curing Thomas's son Joshua of leukemia.

In November of 3051, the Clans renewed their invasion. In January of 3052, Clans Smoke Jaguar and Nova Cat attacked the Combine capital of Luthien. In an act of unexpected political courage that sealed the loose alliance between the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine, Hanse Davion sent the Kell Hounds and Wolf's Dragoons to help defend his age-old enemy's homeworld. The trust engendered by Davion's action enabled both nations to devote all their efforts to fighting the Clans.

Despite the close cooperation between the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine, the Inner Sphere's unity remained largely an illusion. ComStar had negotiated with the Clans soon after the initial invasion, and upon the Clans' return to the Inner Sphere, the order offered to administrate Clan-conquered worlds. ComStar's leader, Primus Myndo Waterly, intended to use the Clan conquest to bring about the collapse of civilization; ComStar would then step in as humanity's savior, gaining power over all of human-occupied space. However, when Waterly discovered that the Clans intended to conquer Terra, ComStar's homeworld and the cradle of humanity, she abruptly changed her tactics. At the urging of her Precentor Martial, Anastasius Focht, Waterly struck a deal with the invaders and sent the Com Guards to fight Clan forces on the backwater world of Tukayyid. If the Clans won that battle, ComStar would give them Terra. If they lost, the Clans would halt their advance for fifteen years. Unknown to the Precentor Martial, Waterly also set secret plans in motion to strike at the Clans and the Inner Sphere simultaneously while the battle for Tukayyid raged.
The Com Guards defeated the Clans on Tukayyid in May of 3052, in a horrific bloodbath that cost ComStar's forces dearly. While the Com Guards were fighting and dying on Tukayyid to save the Inner Sphere, Primus Waterly gave the go-ahead to her agents. They launched Operation Scorpion, a series of covert attacks on worlds in the Clan Occupation Zones and on communications sites across the Inner Sphere. Waterly hoped to cripple the Inner Sphere and the Clans through this bold gambit, enabling her ComStar loyalists to seize power. The strikes failed; upon Focht's return from Tukayyid, he deposed Waterly and began a massive reform of ComStar.

VICTORY AND CHANGE

The end of the Clan invasion brought other changes in its wake. Hanse Davion died of a massive heart attack at the end of the war. Chancellor Romano Liao of the Capellan Confederation died at the hands of an assassin, leaving her son Sun-Tzu on the Celestial Throne. Sun-Tzu immediately began to build a power base, allying himself to House Marik through an engagement to Thomas Marik's illegitimate daughter, Isis. Within a few short years, Theodore Kurita succeeded his father Takashi as Coordinator of the Draconis Combine. Ryan Steiner, a perennial thorn in the side of the Federated Commonwealth's rulers, began agitating for an independent Isle of Skye. ComStar, meanwhile, split into two factions over Precentor Focht's reforms. The reactionary group, calling itself Word of Blake, emigrated to the Free Worlds League planet of Gibson with Thomas Marik's blessing.

On 19 June 3055, a bomb blast at a charity event on Tharkad killed the Federated Commonwealth's beloved Archon, Melissa Steiner. Authorities failed to apprehend a suspect. Ryan Steiner, riding the crest of anti-Davion sentiment he had spent years cultivating, accused the new Archon, Prince Victor Steiner-Davion, of engineering Melissa's death. Ryan's native Isle of Skye, already seething with secessionist fever, erupted in open rebellion. Victor's sister Katherine tried to mediate between her brother and the rebel faction, with little success.

In April 3056, Victor's aide and Katherine's lover, Galen Cox, fell victim to a bomb attack in a Solaris hotel that narrowly missed Katherine. Four days later, an unknown assassin shot Ryan Steiner dead. Suspicion centered on Sven Newmark, an expatriate Rasalhagian who served as Ryan's aide. Many people, however, suspected that Victor ordered Ryan's death to silence his allegations about Archon Melissa Steiner. In an effort to defuse the Lyran hostilities, Victor declared the Lyran world of Tharkad and the Davion world of New Avalon co-capitals. He then shifted his government to New Avalon and left Tharkad in Katherine's hands, naming his sister as his official regent. This move, coupled with Ryan's death, quelled the rebellion-but the brief peace would not last.

Victor arrived on New Avalon to the disturbing news that Joshua Marik was dying of leukemia, despite the best efforts of the NAIS to save him. The Federated Commonwealth still desperately needed war materiel that only the Free Worlds League could provide, so Victor could not afford to lose the only hold he had over Thomas Marik. After consulting with his senior advisers, Victor replaced the dying child with a double. Marik, however, had his suspicions. A generation ago, the Capellan Confederation had nearly succeeded in replacing Hanse Davion with a double; to ensure the survival of his nation, Marik believed, Victor Davion might attempt the same trick. Marik took steps to confirm Joshua's identity, unaware that Sun-Tzu Liao was doing the same for his own reasons. Liao wanted war with the FedCom in order to take back lost worlds, but he lacked the military strength to succeed on his own. By proving FedCom deception over Marik's heir, he hoped to push Marik into a joint war against the Commonwealth.

In September of 3057, two days after Capellan commandos attempted to kill Joshua's replacement, Thomas Marik claimed positive proof that the Joshua Marik on New Avalon was a duplicate. In retaliation for his real son's death, Marik sent troops into the Commonwealth's Sarna March.
A horrified Katherine publicly denounced Victor's deception, recalled all Lyran troops to her half of the Federated Commonwealth and announced the formation of the Lyran Alliance. She then declared her nation neutral, securing the Free Worlds League border and leaving that nation free to fight the Federated Commonwealth. Taking advantage of Marik's invasion, Sun-Tzu Liao sent Capellan troops into the Sarna March to reconquer worlds his grandfather had lost during the Fourth Succession War. Aided by Katherine's neutrality and united by their hatred for House Davion, Marik and Liao prosecuted their war against the Federated Commonwealth with surprising speed and success.
As the threat of a wider war in the Inner Sphere loomed, political infighting among the Clans intensified. The Clans had long been divided into two camps: the Crusaders, who sought to restore the Star League through conquest, and the Wardens (which included Wolf's Dragoons), who believed their responsibility lay in safeguarding the Inner Sphere until the Great Houses re-established the Star League. Many of the Clans, especially Clan Jade Falcon, chafed under the truce that ilKhan Kerensky had signed and seized any excuse to break it. Opposition to the Truce of Tukayyid soon erupted in the Refusal War, a bitter civil war between Clans Jade Falcon and Wolf. Under orders from ilKhan Kerensky to ensure Clan Wolf's survival, a significant portion of Wolf warriors fled to sanctuary in the Inner Sphere. Phelan Kell-who had not died in action on The Rock, but instead had risen among his Clan captors to become Khan Phelan Ward of Clan Wolf-led this remnant to the Kell Hounds' homeworld of Arc-Royal. The rest of Clan Wolf fought a losing battle against the Jade Falcons.

Both conflicts ended suddenly, in a surprising series of twists. Having taken back from Victor Davion the worlds that had once belonged to the Free Worlds League, Thomas Marik concluded a peace treaty with the Archon prince. Sun-Tzu Liao, unwilling to continue his own campaign without Marik's backing, grudgingly agreed to end hostilities. The Kell Hounds, having refused Katherine Steiner's demand for aid in defending the Lyran Alliance, established an anti-Clan defensive zone centered on Arc-Royal. By this act, the mercenary unit carved its own fiefdom out of Katherine's realm. In the oddest turn of events, the Wolves who had battled the Jade Falcons briefly merged with that Clan and then won freedom from their Jade Falcon conquerors. This new Clan, led by the highly intelligent Khan Vladimir Ward, briefly called itself Clan Jade Wolf until Vlad killed Falcon Khan Elias Crichell. That act gave him the clout to revive his Clan as the "new" Clan Wolf. Intelligence indicates that Khan Vlad will stop at nothing to destroy Khan Phelan, leader of the Wolves in exile.

THE UNIVERSE TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

The first five years after Tukayyid, tumultuous though they were, seemed positively tranquil compared with the explosive events of 3058-3061. Those years saw many of the certainties accepted by both the Clans and the Inner Sphere violently overturned, giving way to a new order fraught with possibilities and perils.

In the wake of House Liao's invasion of the Sarna March, the Word of Blake seized its chance and captured Terra, cradle of humanity and ComStar's stronghold. Troop movements from the Free Worlds League into the so-called Chaos March provided cover for the Word of Blake Militia to move several divisions within striking distance of Terra, just as the high demand for mercenary troops in the March decimated ComStar's forces. Brion's Legion, a mercenary unit that had constituted nearly half the strength of ComStar's Terran Defense Force since the Fourth Succession War, abruptly canceled its contract in favor of a higher-paying Chaos March assignment. Unwilling to relocate Com Guard forces from the Clan border, ComStar's Precentor Martial replaced Brion's Legion with another mercenary unit-the Twenty-First Centauri Lancers. The Lancers, however, never arrived on Terra. Instead, the Word of Blake sent its own troops, which masqueraded as the Lancers for long enough to move the rest of their forces into position.

In late February 3058, the Word of Blake struck. The Com Guards on Terra, taken by surprise and unable to use the planet's formidable defenses because of Blakist sabotage from the inside, fought a bloody but ultimately futile battle across every continent. By early March, the Word of Blake held Terra in an iron grip that has yet to be dislodged. Precentor Martial Focht of ComStar declined to attempt the reconquest of Terra as long as the Clans remained a greater threat to the Inner Sphere.
During those same months, Clan Jade Falcon drove deep into the Lyran Alliance and captured several planets, until Inner Sphere forces halted them on the world of Coventry. Conceived as a show of strength in the aftermath of the Refusal War, the Coventry campaign was to have far more ominous consequences for the Clans than the Falcons could have anticipated. On Coventry, the Falcons met a coalition force from across the Inner Sphere, led by Prince Victor Steiner-Davion of the Federated Commonwealth. The Inner Sphere and Jade Falcon armies were evenly matched; neither side could win Coventry without a protracted and bloody battle, and both commanders realized it. At the same time, Khan Vlad of Clan Wolf was threatening the Falcons with strikes at worlds in the Jade Falcon occupation zone. Prince Victor invoked the Clan rite of safcon to ensure a safe landing for his troops and then offered Falcon Khan Marthe Pryde the only honorable way out-hegira, the traditional right of a defeated enemy to leave the field with forces and honor intact. Under other circumstances, Pryde might have refused, but with the Wolf Khan making clear his intent to attack her Clan's holdings, she could not afford to leave those worlds defended by mere garrison troops. She accepted hegira, and the Jade Falcons left Coventry without another shot being fired.

The success of the coalition force on Coventry taught the Inner Sphere that old enemies could bury their differences in the face of a common enemy. Before the year was out, Prince Victor and other Inner Sphere leaders would act on that lesson, launching the campaign that obliterated a once-mighty Clan and ended the invasion of the Inner Sphere.

THE STAR LEAGUE REBORN

In October 3058, the leaders of the various Inner Sphere powers gathered on the Lyran capital of Tharkad to accomplish peacefully what they had failed to achieve during centuries of war-the rebirth of the Star League. Despite the deep divisions among them, the rulers of the Inner Sphere agreed to join for a single purpose-to end the Clan threat. The new Star League chose to prove its strength by destroying a single Clan: the Smoke Jaguars. Initially, the Star League intended only to drive the Jaguars out of their occupation zone. However, information from a Clan traitor enabled them to strike at the Smoke Jaguars' homeworld as well.

Throughout 3059 and 3060, Clan Smoke Jaguar died at the hands of the Inner Sphere. Their occupation zone overrun, their homeworld in ruins and their warrior caste decimated, the Jaguars essentially ceased to exist. The Inner Sphere force then turned its attention toward the rest of the Clans. Lacking the might to defeat the entire Clan military, Prince Victor Steiner-Davion led his forces to Strana Mechty, in the heart of Clan space. There, they defeated the Crusader Clans in a hard-fought Trial of Refusal. The Crusaders' defeat ended the invasion, leaving them locked in their occupation zones or driven from the Inner Sphere entirely.

Clan Nova Cat, which had sided with the Inner Sphere in obedience to the mystic visions of its leaders, received its own fiefdom in the Draconis Combine. Their fellow Clans abjured them for their "treason" and seized their holdings in Clan space. Clan Ghost Bear, which chose not to fight in the Trial, has also become a permanent presence in the Inner Sphere. They now occupy the Ghost Bear Dominion, part of what was once the Free Rasalhague Republic, from which they guard the Inner Sphere against incursions by Crusader-minded Clans unwilling to accept defeat. What other plans they may have remain anyone's guess.

Clan Steel Viper suffered the most humiliating fate of all the invading Clans, next to the shattered Smoke Jaguars. Thinking to take advantage of Jade Falcon weakness in the aftermath of the Refusal War, the Vipers challenged Falcon dominance of their shared occupation zone. After their campaign of conquest failed, the Vipers left the Inner Sphere rather than be destroyed by the Falcons.
As the man who defeated the most fearsome threat the Inner Sphere had ever known, Victor Steiner-Davion should have been the hero of the hour. In the eyes of many, he was-but his own people were not among them. The prince had left his youngest sister, Yvonne Steiner-Davion, as regent on New Avalon in his absence. He returned to find Yvonne deposed and the Federated Commonwealth in the hands of Katherine Steiner-Davion. Apparently, Katherine had been plotting the takeover for years, as a prelude to becoming the next First Lord of the Star League. Even without a realm, however, Prince Victor remained a political force to be reckoned with. At the Second Whitting Conference, Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht of ComStar announced his retirement and named Victor as his successor. The new Precentor Martial used his position to vote Coordinator Theodore Kurita, rather than his sister, into the post of First Lord.

The newborn Star League remains calm, but tensions are simmering beneath the surface. Prince Victor has so far made no attempt to regain his lost throne, unwilling to inflict a civil war on his people. The fact remains, however, that Precentor Martial Steiner-Davion has a crack military force at his disposal, and increasing numbers in the Federated Commonwealth are beginning to view him as a hero for his defeat of the Clans. Archon Katherine sits uneasily on the throne of New Avalon and may yet be provoked into rash action. Meanwhile, Clans Jade Falcon and Wolf remain committed to renewing the invasion. Clan Wolf formally repudiated the results of the Strana Mechty Trial, and Clan Jade Falcon is unlikely to abide by an outcome so offensive to its pride. Neither Clan has the strength to move in force yet, but each is rebuilding at a swift pace. The Capellan Confederation has begun military action against the independent St. Ives Compact, intent on recapturing it. And in the Draconis Combine, the presence of the Nova Cats and the stresses of reabsorbing Jaguar-held worlds have breathed new life into reactionary movements opposed to the Coordinator's liberalization of Combine society. For the moment, his position remains strong, but no one can say how long that will last.

Once again, the Inner Sphere is poised precariously between peace and war. At any moment, the balance of power may shift, setting BattleMechs on the march and worlds ablaze.