We began on Terra,
millions of years ago. Today, mankind stretches throughout the Milky
Way, touching worlds as far from our home as Clan space, more than
two thousand light-years distant. Yet who are we, really? What have
we become in our relentless push outward and onward? I’m Bertram
Habeas, and tonight, we’ll find the answers to these and many other
fascinating questions together, as we tour the stars!
Volume III: The Dragon’s Crucible
As any historian in
the galaxy will tell you, the 31st century was a time of tremendous
change and growth across the Inner Sphere. Besides watershed events
such as the Clan Invasion, the rise and fall of the Federated
Commonwealth, and the Word of Blake Jihad, this era was important to
the Draconis Combine for other reasons. Among them, the formation of
the Free Rasalhague Republic, the War of 3039, the integration of
the abjured Nova Cat Clan, and even the rise and fiery fall of the
infamous Black Dragon Society. In its centuries-old, rigidly
stratified state, few would have expected the Draconis Combine to
survive these tremendous and rapid upheavals. Indeed, but for one
man, it very likely might have shattered.
Even before he became the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine,
Theodore Kurita was perhaps the most visionary leader of his time.
Even the ambitious, forward-thinking Katrina Steiner, Archon of the
Lyran Commonwealth, with her monumental Peace Proposal of 3020,
could not compete with the man who challenged the core of his
nation’s culture and beliefs for the better.
But for all his vision, one must wonder how much of his success
had to do with the basic, and personal, differences between father
and son. Theodore’s father, Takashi Kurita, was a brutally rigid
traditionalist, much like Shiro Kurita or Urizen II, with unbending
rules about honor and a penchant for swearing blood oaths against
enemies both real and imagined. Theodore strove to be everything but
another Takashi. His more progressive views and actions included
elevating the yakuza and other so-called undesirables to fight for
the Dragon, supporting the release of Rasalhaguians from centuries
of oppression, and generally lifting a lot of the harsher standards
that held down the Combine people for so long. These steps flew in
the face of everything his father held dear.
Of course, it was a miracle that, given the deadly methods of
past Kuritan rulers, Theodore wasn’t put to the sword by his own
father. In that, one may suggest that the equally strong, and
completely basic, feelings a father has for his son – even one so
rebellious – spared the young Kurita’s life.
--Armando
Sanchez, PhD., History and Psychology Professor at Greiger Institute
of Modern History, Terra
Whether Theodore Kurita’s penchant for reform was the result of
childhood rebellion against his father, or the implementation of
strategic necessity, the changes he wrought in the Combine were
profound. Yet in enacting his bold new plans, Theodore walked a
treacherous tightrope, balancing the survival of his realm against
the passions of its peoples. Success often vindicated him during
this time under his father’s reign, even when he personally
orchestrated the creation of the Free Rasalhague Republic. This
action formed an instant buffer zone between the Combine and the
Lyran half of the now-united Federated Commonwealth, while a side
deal negotiated with ComStar gave the Combine access to Star League
technology, including new BattleMechs for its war-ravaged army.
Together with his new Ghost Regiments – staffed by yakuza and other
“undesirables” formally recognized to serve the Combine’s interests
– Theodore saw to it that his realm survived the Steiner-Davion’s
efforts to destroy it in the War of 3039. No one, not even Takashi
Kurita himself, could deny Theodore’s success, and very few in the
Combine did more than verbally criticize his departure from
tradition.
The Clan Invasion spurred another wave of reform, especially
after Theodore claimed the throne. Many Combine citizens relaxed
cultural restrictions within the Combine, while others helped open
the realm to its neighbors. Historical enemies became valued allies
– and, in some personal cases, even friends of a sort. Though the
Japanese cultural identity and national pride remained strong – as
it does today – it became possible once more for long-suppressed
cultures, such as the Muslim Azami, to celebrate their own strength
of character. Unfortunately, in the years that followed the Battle
of Tukayyid, in which ComStar won a 15-year respite from the
invaders on behalf of all Inner Sphere powers, the reforms that
allowed the Dragon to survive its most devastating wars in recent
memory nearly tore the realm apart from within.
The Black Dragons, the Kokuryu-kai, were a curious mix,
to say the least. Allegedly an ancient group that always acted in
the Dragon’s best interests, they made their presence felt only from
the mid-3050s through the 3070s. Ironically, what made it possible
for them to exist and function as well as they did were the very
liberal reforms they wanted to stop. In that respect, they were a
group dedicated to cutting off their own nose to spite their face.
In practice, the Black Dragons were an Asian version of the
fabled Illuminati Society, a loose alliance of like-minded criminal,
business, military, and political leaders who met in dark rooms and
plotted the downfall of their government with the pretense of saving
it. The question, however, was who were they saving it for? Was it
for them? Doubtful, as the reforms they acted against actually
helped most of them accumulate wealth and power. Was it for the
people, then? Absolutely not! Indeed, historians of the last century
have argued that the Society actually worked – perhaps unwittingly –
for only one man or a handful of men, who merely wanted their own
shot at the throne.
Alas, who the Dragons actually worked for, and what their
ultimate goals really were, may never be known, as the Society was
all but annihilated during the Jihad. Their activities and goals,
however, fit in nicely with those of the Word of Blake fanatics, so
perhaps there is some credence to theories that the Dragons were
never interested in the Combine’s well being at all. Rather than a
misguided group of traditionalists, what if the Black Dragons were
actually a carefully grown dissident group that actually – and
unknowingly – served the Word of Blake itself?
--John
Kerrigan, author of Who’s Really in Charge? Avalon Press,
3129
For the Draconis Combine, the triple threat of the Federated
Commonwealth, the Clans, and the Black Dragons reached its apex in
the mid-3060s, when all three groups dragged the nation into a war
on every front. Coordinator Theodore, hoping to isolate his realm
from the fighting, was thwarted when the Black Dragons successfully
instigated a war with the neighboring Ghost Bear Clan. Renegade
troops on the borders of the FedCom realms then attacked. Forced to
assume a posture of aggressive defense, Theodore launched heavy
counterassaults on every front, eventually securing each one, though
at a severe cost to the Combine military. When the Dragon emerged
whole from these crucibles, it became clear that House Kurita would
persevere no matter the odds.
So it was believed, until the Word of Blake Jihad.
Their military already broken from the fighting on both former
FedCom fronts, and by the slugfest on the Ghost Bear border, the
Combine was only beginning to recover from the ravages of war in the
months leading up to the Blakist holy war. Predations by the newly
arrived Snow Raven Clan in the nearby periphery forced the
Coordinator to deploy troops all around his nation, thinning them
out to cover every possible avenue of invasion. In that weakened
state, the realm was almost overwhelmed in the first days of the
fighting that erupted almost everywhere at once.
Compared to the recent conflicts, the Jihad presented the most
hellish years of warfare known since the Second Succession War.
Nuclear weapons were thrown about faster than a ’Mech army could be
assembled, and the Combine command structure was all but smashed
when Luthien and other key worlds were bombarded by a blitzkrieg of
WarShips and ’Mech regiments. At the height of all this, the tragic
loss of Theodore Kurita, perhaps the best Coordinator since Shiro
himself, left a demoralized realm to battle an enemy that would stop
at nothing to bring ruin to all those it touched.
It is a testament, once more, to the iron will of the Kurita
clan, that the Combine managed to survive at all, but it is a
monument to Theodore and his progeny that the realm actually managed
to turn the tide alongside Devlin Stone and his liberating armies.
In our final installment on the Draconis Combine, we’ll take a
look at how it exists today. Please join us as we continue our tour
of the stars! I’m Bertram Habeas.