Volume VIII: Clan Wolf Today

Fact Sheet: Clan Wolf Occupation Zone
Founding Year: 3050
Capital (City, World): Vladivostok, Tamar
National Symbol: A brown wolf’s head against a tan rectangular bar with six gold, five-pointed stars
Location (Terra relative): Coreward, between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Rasalhague Dominion
Total (Inhabited) Systems: 56
Estimated Population (3130): 467,000,000
Government: Clan (caste-driven, warrior-dominant hierarchy)
Ruler: Khan Seth Ward
Dominant Language(s): English (official), Russian, German, Swedenese
Dominant Religion(s): None
Unit of Currency: Kerensky (1 kerensky = 5.13 C-Bills)

The Lyran standard still flutters highest over Old Connaught, capital of Arc-Royal, a mere three jumps from the occupation zone claimed by Clan Jade Falcon. But in front of the office of the Grand Duke, hereditary ruler of the planet since the close of the Fourth Succession War, the mailed fist of House Steiner is flanked by two others. On the left, the Arc-Royal planetary flag, crimson and black with a stylized hound’s head in its center, reflects this planet’s link to the famous Kell Hounds mercenary regiments who still call this planet home. On the right, just slightly lower than both, flies the brown wolf’s head standard of Clan Wolf, set against the same black-and-red backdrop.
This is the flag of the Wolf Clan - in-Exile, often referred to as the lost brethren of the Wolf Clan.

Though broken away from the Wolf Clan since 3057, and despite their symbiotic relationship with the Kell Hounds who also claim this world as their home, the Exiled Wolves maintain the same Clan traditions and culture. The warrior caste still claims sole governing rights over their enclaves. The Trials are still waged between fellow warriors. And the eugenics program still selectively breeds hundred-strong companies of troops. Only their politics, colored by the conflict that formed them and the decades since among the “Spheroids,” differ from those of their estranged kin.

The fracturing of the Wolf Clan was the inevitable result of the events that brought the Wolves into the Clan invasion to begin with. Having long championed the Warden stance, believing the Inner Sphere something to be protected and nurtured, rather than conquered and ruled, the Wolves were forced to take part as a final punishment by the Crusader Clans who craved new opportunities in the Inner Sphere. Wedged between other invading Clans, the Wolves were not expected to succeed as spectacularly as they did, and in so doing, they drew only more ire from the other invaders.

In 3051, as part of perhaps another failed effort to force the Wolves into compliance, the Clans voted Ulric Kerensky, Khan of the Wolf Clan, to lead the invasion after ilKhan Leo Showers died at Radstadt. Rather than contain the Wolves, however, Ulric’s position made it possible to negotiate for a potential halt in the invasion: by fighting a proxy battle for Terra – the Clans’ stated objective – against ComStar’s military. Each invading Clan fought for the honor of seizing Terra in what amounted to the largest Trial of Possession ever waged, but after a 10-day battle, only the Wolves could declare a complete victory, not just in the field of battle, but also on the political battleground as well. With the majority of the invading Clans defeated, the invasion was stalled under a new 15-year truce.

What is 15 years? An eye blink, perhaps? To those of the Inner Sphere, perhaps it was. Or more like a loud clock, ticking down the days to Armageddon it made the leaders of the Successor States more nervous with every passing day. House Kurita obsessed about it, as did Victor Steiner-Davion, the man who would one day lead the final battles of the Clan War on Strana Mechty. House Steiner feared it, and all scrambled to prepare for the inevitable sounding of those bells of fate.
But to the Clans, who live in a constant life of battle, 15 years might as well have been eternity. In this eternity, they could hear their enemies laughing, knew the disgrace of having failed, and found themselves surrounded by barbarians, forbidden to strike further toward coveted Terra. In 15 years, almost two full generations of trueborn warriors would pass for the Clans, unable to test themselves in the crucible of war, while the industrial might of the Inner Sphere struggled to match Clan technology. Even the historically Warden Wolves began to chafe under this forced state of peace, and soon found more and more of their ranks embracing the Crusader ideals.
Is it any wonder they never made it even a third of the way through truce time before deciding to spill blood again?
--Dr. Lorenzo Torres, PhD., Professor of History, University of Thorin

In 3057, Ulric Kerensky was branded a traitor to the Clans, charged with genocide by submitting to the Truce of Tukayyid to begin with. In an effort to discredit him, force the election of a Crusader ilKhan, and repudiate the Truce, the Jade Falcon Khans stood as his accusers, and nearly celebrated when the Council voted in their favor. Kerensky countered with a Trial of Refusal, however, naming his entire Clan – Clan Wolf – to his defense.

The resulting Refusal War pitted the Falcons and the Wolves against each other in a brutal campaign that touched nearly a dozen worlds. The war decimated both Clans and left the Wolves sundered along Crusader and Warden lines. The Warden Wolves, under command of Khan Phelan Kell, an Inner Sphere mercenary captured and converted by the Clans early in the Invasion, fled into the Inner Sphere to eventually settle on Arc-Royal, while the Crusaders, under the rule of Khan Vlad Ward, declared them abjured and rebuilt his Clan with an eye toward glorious conquests.

Close communication – even limited cooperation – continued between the fractured halves of the Wolf Clan, particularly through the chaos of the Word of Blake Jihad, when the Clan and Inner Sphere Houses united to face a common foe. Yet a long-hoped-for reconciliation between the “original” Wolves and those in Exile never materialized. Today, there are still two Wolf Clans, the “original” Clan, which claims an occupation zone centered on Tamar, and the Wolves-in-Exile, whose scattered enclaves dot Arc-Royal and other nearby planets.

But what is the modern Wolf, exiled and otherwise? What sets them apart from the average Clans, or are they the standard by which all Clans are judged? Well, as with any culture alive in the Inner Sphere today, there can be no easy answer to those questions.

Perhaps it is merely sufficient to say that the Wolves are what their beliefs and their history have made them. Guided by the philosophies of Nicholas Kerensky, and sworn today to carry on his legacy through times even the Founder himself could never have imagined, they have much to live up to.

Through it all, both Wolf Clans remain true to their founding ideals. The warriors still rule, governing by the rights of the strong, and protecting their own people, right down to the lowliest Laborer, from all who would threaten their sovereignty. Progressive by Clan standards, they respect ability far more than birth status, and even those of the “original” Wolf Clan will recognize the contributions of a freeborn as equal to those of the “trues” (though chances are an Exiled Wolf freeborn will rise in status somewhat faster).

For the warriors who rule, the Bloodname remains the greatest treasure one could wish for, guaranteeing the immortality of the eugenics program. Honor, prized almost as greatly, helps keep them on Kerensky’s path. In battle, the Wolves resolve conflicts and Trials with the same frugality endorsed by the Founder.

Meanwhile, those of the civilian castes do what they do best, serving the Clan as needed, building the cities, starships, and BattleMechs that make their Clan stronger. It is a Spartan culture for a Spartan people, an almost family-like unity bred to survive in the face of certain chaos; everyone contributes, lest the entire machine break down around them. In this, the Wolves are the unity that Kerensky must have sought so many centuries ago, after the horrors of so many wars.

In our next four-part series, our tour through history and cultures of the Inner Sphere will take us to the Federated Suns. Please join us as we continue our tour of the stars! I’m Bertram Habeas.