Clan Honor

(Excerpt from First Strike)

When Nicholas Kerensky created the society known as the Clans more than 200 years ago, he faced an interesting problem: how to turn an army of Star League military refugees into a functioning society while maintaining their fighting edge in preparation for their eventual return to the Inner Sphere. The Clan homeworlds' remoteness and general lack of resources added to the problem; though they needed copious amounts of military hardware to remain a viable fighting force, Kerensky and his newborn Clans could not afford to waste anything.

Kerensky's solution was as ingenious as it was bizarre. He created a caste-based society with the warrior caste at the top of the heap. Warriors had the greatest power and also the greatest responsibility of all the Clan castes. Furthermore, not just anyone could be a warrior. Through rigorous training and grueling tests, only the very finest fighters and tacticians could earn that coveted title. Those who failed to make the cut were relegated to the lower scientist, technician and laborer castes-stations vital to Clan society but without the power and prestige of warriors.

To reduce the waste associated with war while guaranteeing that each generation would keep honing its combat edge, Kerensky codified the practice of warfare into a series of combat trials, each associated with a particular goal. The Trial of Possession is the most basic trial, in which one warrior or Clan aims to possess something that belongs to another. Other trials include Trials of Grievance, Refusal, Bloodright and Annihilation.

In any trial, the two sides fight a ritualized battle-sometimes hand-to-hand combat, sometimes full-scale BattleMech combat. Trials are fought in a clearly defined area known as the Circle of Equals, usually located away from populated areas so as to inflict as few civilian casualties and as little collateral damage as possible.

The prospective combatants then further reduce the scale of battle by bidding. Every conflict begins with the batchall, in which the defending force is clearly announced to the attacker. The commanders among the attacking force then proceed to bid with each other for the right to attack the target. The commander who bids the smallest and least powerful force is awarded the honor of making the attack. By ensuring that the smallest possible attacking force will be used to take the objective, the bidding process limits the loss of warriors and materiel.

Once battle is joined, the warriors begin the ritual of zellbrigen, or dueling. Each warrior challenges a single opposing warrior to a duel, and the two fight each other one-on-one. No other combatants on the field will join in such a battle; doing so is a serious breach of honor. In fact, if one side in a battle outnumbers the other, the excess warriors will stand by without interfering; they will enter the fray only when one of their comrades falls. In rare circumstances a breach of Clan honor may touch off a melee, where all units on the field may freely fire on the opposing side. However, the Clans usually reserve this barbaric practice for opponents they consider dishonorable, such as pirates and mercenaries.

When the Clans came to the Inner Sphere, they were set in their strange ways. At first, the Clans' odd tactics went without notice as their powerful OmniMechs plowed through rank after rank of Inner Sphere BattleMechs. However, a perceptive Inner Sphere commander can spot the weaknesses in Clan fighting strategy and exploit them to his advantage, thereby narrowing the gap created by the Clans' advanced weapons and training. Such was the case at the famous battles of Twycross, Wolcott and Tukayyid, in which massive Clan offensives were blunted by the crafty strategic thinking of Inner Sphere commanders.