Volume VII: Kerensky’s Chosen – The Rise of the Wolf Clan

“We will not ‘do what we must to win.’ We will simply do what we must.”
--Nicholas Kerensky, 6 February 2802

Nicholas Kerensky’s vision for a bold new society created what has evolved into the modern Clans. He accomplished this by breaking the bonds of family and patriotism as we know them and reassembling them into a new culture. The Clans are driven by harsh laws and rigid guidelines, dominated by warriors who settle disputes both minor and grand through ritual combat – often to the death. The very heart of Clan society boils down to that simplest principle of evolution: survival of the fittest. Though stressing an almost totalitarian unity, Kerensky still went on to separate his Clans into 20 factions. He even encouraged each to battle one another for control of the limited resources in Clan space, a tiny region of some 40 stars a full thousand light-years beyond the Inner Sphere. While to some, such a concept seems bizarre at the very least, these divisions within unity further encouraged the Clans to evolve and grow stronger, continuously testing their strength against their only opponents: one another.

Sharpened by almost 20 years of training, the Clans returned to reclaim the Pentagon worlds they had left behind with Kerensky’s Second Exodus. Operation Klondike, as it was called, assigned four Clans to each world, to crush the warlords they left behind and establish Clan domination with ruthless efficiency. The bitter fighting would last almost a year before the final resistance ended, and would be followed by many more months of brutal, humiliating punishments on the surviving warlords captured during the operation. The shock of millions dead at the hands of the warlords and the public punishments by the Clan “liberators” ultimately helped bring war-weary populations into the Clans’ fold, but it would not be long before the Clans faced their ultimate tests.

It was in this period, shortly after the reclamation of the Pentagon, that ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky bestowed upon the Wolf Clan the ultimate honor: He and his wife joined with the Clan, allowing the Wolves alone control of the Founder’s bloodline thenceforth. The momentous occasion was cause for celebration for the Wolves, but left all the other Clans –particularly Clan Jade Falcon – with the bitter taste of jealousy. But the feud between the Falcons and Wolves that would one day result in a great conflict of its own would take a backseat to one of the most defining moments for not only Clan Wolf, but also for all Clans.

“Those who break faith with the Unity shall go down into darkness.”
--ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky, 11 October 2823

These days it’s common practice, I think, to ascribe a sinister intent to [Nicholas Kerensky] for declaring the Wolverines worthy of annihilation, but as the old saying goes, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” Nicholas had already seen the worst of mankind on Terra, during the first Exodus, and through the Pentagon Civil Wars. His father, a guiding light for the Star League - in-Exile, was dead, and Nicholas had to lead a second Exodus and forge a completely new society in the hope of averting more such holocausts. When the Wolverines started to break ranks – their Khan going so far as to declare Kerensky a megalomaniac in front of the other Khans – well, he saw the storms of fate for what they were. A mushroom cloud later and there had to be no doubt in his mind what had to happen next if he were to avoid another age of no-holds-barred fighting.
So, coming at it from that point of view, I would ask anyone what their own heroes would do. What would Victor Steiner-Davion have done? Or Theodore Kurita? Or even Devlin Stone?
--Dr. Lanz Rettig, PhD., Professor of Inner Sphere History, University of Academia, Kessel

Even as the Wolves led the campaign to annihilate the Wolverines for the sake of all Clan-kind, it became evident that the cracks in Nicholas’ unity were forming along inter-Clan lines. A rivalry between the Widowmaker Clan and the Wolves began even as the two battled for the right to annihilate the Wolverines. The Ghost Bears, slighted at being overlooked for the honor of the kill, allegedly allowed some Wolverines to escape, creating a rift that even today remains unhealed between them.

Shortly after the Wolverines were exterminated, their civilian survivors sterilized, and their names forever eliminated from the Clan eugenics program, a Trial fought between the Wolf and the Widowmaker Clans culminated in the unexpected death of ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky himself in 2834. The death so shocked the Wolves that the Clan flew into a near-insane rage and triggered an inter-Clan war directed solely against the Widowmakers. Only a handful of the Wolves’ rivals lived to be absorbed into the triumphant Wolf Clan. Yet for all the death and destruction, and despite the loss of their founding father, the fall of the Widowmakers heralded a century of prosperity – if not true peace – for the Clans.

The Golden Century is what truly defined the Clans. Not only did they survive the death of their visionary Founder, but the 18 surviving Clans also even prospered, their individual strengths and influences developing each to their own gifts. Some, like the Jade Falcons and the Sea Foxes, became prominent merchant powers. Others, like the Smoke Jaguars, honed their fighting capabilities. Still others explored aspects of their social unity, like the Ghost Bear and Hell’s Horses Clans. Through it all, of course, were the innovations that affected them all: the refining of the eugenics program, the first Elementals (and Elemental Armor), and advanced BattleMechs that rendered even the Star League - era machines then dying out in the Inner Sphere completely obsolete.
But I think what most people tend to forget is that gold always tarnishes in the end . . . .
--Dr. Lanz Rettig, PhD., Professor of Inner Sphere History, University of Academia, Kessel

As the Clans prospered, internal pressures began to rise among their growing populations. Trials gave way to feuds as the Clans grew further apart. By the closing years of the Golden Century, these pressures took on a strange new form as Clansmen – warrior and civilian alike – turned longing eyes back toward the Inner Sphere. Many Clans gradually began to believe that the Successor States teemed with bountiful worlds now in the hands of “barbarians.” As decades passed, some grew to advocate a return to those worlds, to conquer and “save” the Inner Sphere from itself.

For the Wolves, however, any return to the Inner Sphere, per their interpretation of Kerensky’s Hidden Hope Doctrine, would be for the express purpose of guiding it after centuries of Succession Wars, or to protect the Inner Sphere from an external threat that was never named. This political viewpoint formed the heart of the Warden philosophy, and colored the debates that raged in the Clan Grand Council throughout the 30th century and the early half of the 31st century, but it was a debate the Wolves, and other Warden Clans, were eventually destined to lose.

In 3048, spurred by a chance encounter with a ComStar explorer ship in Clan space, the Crusaders, championed by the Jade Falcons and the Smoke Jaguars – both rivals of the staunchly Warden Wolves – won their fateful vote to launch Operation Revival: the invasion of the Inner Sphere. Ostensibly in honor of the Founders’ legacy within their Clan – but more, some say, as a punishment for their political views – the Wolves were given a place in the Invasion force. By 3049, the Wolves spearheaded a drive straight through the heart of the Free Rasalhague Republic, flanked by six other Crusader Clans who had to fight for their right to take part (Diamond Shark, Ghost Bear, Jade Falcon, Nova Cat, Smoke Jaguar, and Steel Viper). Despite their Warden leanings, the Wolves were ferocious in battle, making gains the other invading Clans could only dream of, until just three years later they claimed an occupation zone that included over 80 inhabited systems, forever changing the face of the Inner Sphere.

In part four of our four-part series on this remarkable warrior society, we will look at the Wolves today in an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Please join us as we continue our tour of the stars! I’m Bertram Habeas.