Volume XXXII: Warrior-Merchants—The Sea Fox Clan Today

Fact Sheet: Clan Sea Fox
Founding Year: 2810 (initial), 3068 (modern)
Capital (City, World): ilKhanate ArcShip Poseidon, no home system
National Symbol: A silver-blue sea fox, bowing as it rises from the water
Location (Terra relative): Various worlds and spaceborne colonies scattered across the Inner Sphere
Total (Inhabited) Systems: 3 total control; 14 world enclaves
Estimated Population (3130): 428,670,000
Government: Clan (Caste-driven, warrior/merchant-dominant hierarchy)
Ruler: Khan Mori Hawker
Dominant Language(s): English (official)
Dominant Religion(s): Atheism
Unit of Currency: Fox-Credit (1 fox credit = 1 C-Bill)

Long, slender, looking for all the world like silver pens with four humps like grasping fingers on the haft, hanging in the inky blackness of space from reflective parasols, two Monolith-class JumpShips await their complement of DropShips on the world below; the four humps are permanently attached DropShips, heavily modified into collective living quarters for thousands. Emblazoned on the solar sails of each is the rising sea fox insignia, portrayed in its customary bow of respect and honor. On the nose domes of each vessel the insignias repeat, but overlap a large red letter A, under which appears the silhouette of a diamond shark, curved as if swimming around this curious logo. The nose dome insignia at once identifies these vessels as those of Clan Sea Fox’s Alpha Aimag, of the Tiburon Khanate, and today these JumpShips bring deals on everything from high-resolution holovids to the news from Tharkad to the isolated Lyran world of Kaumberg. For over two weeks, Alpha Aimag has lingered in the Kaumberg system, exchanging the goods and services of the Sea Fox Clan with those of one of the Lyran Commonwealth’s largest exporters of timber and classic furniture. Three days from now, when all the Aimag’s DropShips return from their journey of profit and deal-making, the Aimag’s sails will be retracted and both JumpShips will return to nearby Costinbrod, where the Titanic, a massively modified Potemkin-class ArcShip, awaits a rendezvous with the other Aimags of Tiburon Khanate.

The Sea Fox Clan today is a curious mix of the original Clan society and the modern corporate merchant fleet. The warrior caste still maintains its dominance over all others, with a Khan claiming ultimate authority over the Clan’s direction, and saKhans directing where to send their Khanates and Aimags in accordance with that direction. When battle is mandated—either for training purposes or to resolve a dispute between warriors, Aimags, and even against other Clans—the appropriate Trials and rituals are invoked. Bloodnames are still revered, and the honors of the batchall (battle challenge), zellbrigen (dueling rules), safcon and hegira (safe arrival and departure from a combat zone, respectively) are still respected. These are all hallmarks of the Clan system, as set down by Nicholas Kerensky so many centuries ago.

Yet in other ways, the Foxes are vastly different from their more traditional brethren. Their merchant caste, far more numerous than the warriors, has its own conclaves, where they discuss and identify the markets their Khanates should exploit, their voice carrying great weight even if they truly have no authority to dictate terms to their leaders. Indeed, many in the merchant caste hail originally from the ranks of the warriors, having voluntarily stepped down to take up the important duty of seeing to the Clan’s profit margins; in several cases, the saKhans themselves, while still actively warriors, are almost more of the merchant caste than not. In addition to these dedicated advisors, the Sea Fox warriors know they also have the support and cooperation of other lower-caste councils. The laborers coordinate their manufacturing efforts, making the most efficient use of the facilities on the Clan’s few ‘clearing-house worlds’ scattered throughout the Inner Sphere, as well as those on board each ArcShip and CaroShip, with the technician and scientist councils overseeing the needs of the Clan’s equipment and technological needs.

Representatives from each of these caste conclaves reside on every DropShip and JumpShip of the Clan, always coordinating their far-flung fleets, to avoid doubling up on the Clan’s needs, while at the same time encouraged to maintain the smooth operations of their own Aimags. Amazingly enough, though few of these Aimags ever truly gather in one place at any one time, the cultural values of these scattered spaceborne sub-Clans remain largely synchronized; how long this can continue without such separations causing divisions is unknown. Profit and the art of the deal still motivate the majority of these warrior-merchants beyond all other glories, but battle, while not sought out, is never, ever shied away from.

It is a common enough mistake to presume that the fragmentation of the Sea Fox indicates a breakdown of cooperation and coordination within the Clan, especially after examples like the fractured Clan Fire Mandrill, which spent centuries warring with itself to the point of its own near collapse. But in the case of the Foxes, the fragmentation did not occur from the usual internal stresses. There was no major difference of opinion that drove the Khanates apart, but the necessities of war and the ongoing search for newer and better markets. This segregation was arrived at through a mutual understanding, offering a level of independence that allowed a greater flexibility within its ranks, yet still bound by the goals of the Clan itself. The Bloodname Houses remained open to all Khanates, and periodic Clanwide Trials kept them united by their common culture and traditions, even while each Khanate was permitted its own degree of self-determination, with glory defined as much by battlefield conquests as by securing a profitable deal. But because the Clans themselves were formed in a similar way—with Kerensky assigning a unifying system of values on the whole, then splitting them into twenty groups left to find their own ways through the centuries—it is perhaps only natural that the Clans would be the first to mistake the Sea Fox’s Khanate system for a breakdown, a weakness if you will. In the most striking example, a Wolf Clan attack force attempted to capture the Beta Aimag of the Sea Fox’s Swimmer Khanate in 3097. Thinking the mere Cluster of Beta’s troops to be an easy mark, especially while escorting their fleet through the Wolf Clan system of Feltre, the Wolves dispatched an aerospace-heavy force to overwhelm the merchant flotilla. Not only did the Wolves fail to secure the two JumpShips and attached DropShips when the Foxes proved most adept at defending themselves and jumping out, but they also received a swift reply from no less than two full Khanates, which assaulted Feltre with a Galaxy of assault troops later that year. Fortunately for the Wolves, the Foxes were uninterested in total conquest, but the loss of two Wolf Clusters in that incident, as well as the sudden 200-percent increase in Sea Fox prices that affected all other Wolf Clan merchant dealings, proved that the Foxes were anything but an uncoordinated band of nomads. . . . —Sean Lasko, PhD, Professor of Clan Society and Politics, University of Thorin

The Sea Fox Clan has come a long way since its foundations, nearly four centuries ago. United under the principles of the Kerenskys, yet divided into roaming sub-Clans and a handful of clearinghouse enclaves, they swim the deep black seas of space, rarely knowing the luxury of unrefined air or the warmth of natural sunlight for more than a week or two. They hold less than a handful of worlds they might call home, and even those planets dominated by a Sea Fox government merely see to the needs of their own people, while encouraging outsiders—and even native peoples, in many cases—to settle alongside them as a kind of permanent market for the Clan’s goods and currency. This has kept the Clan small, yet pure, and free to move about at will. Indeed, millions of Foxes know only the artificial confines of DropShip and JumpShip bulkheads as their true sanctuary. And yet they remain united by common bonds, and the common, never-ending goal to survive, to expand, to evolve, and to always come away with the upper hand in any deal.

Another sure sign of their success are their CargoShips and ArcShips. Not only do they move freely across every House and Clan OZ, but the time and financial stability needed to create these vessels is a testament to the Foxes prosperity. Following the word of Blake Jihad and the destruction of so many WarShips, the Foxes took note of the writing on the wall and began a massive revamping program that continues to this day. Taking their own WarShips—and salvaging discarded hulks where they can—the Foxes stripped away weapon systems, and armor, expanded the internal bays and quarters to accommodate freight and passengers, for long-term voyages. These dedicated CargoShips became roving, long-term habitats and mobile supply stations that formed the backbone of the new Khanates, while the more heavily-modified, ultra-massive ArcShips became societal points of congress and core governmental structures for the entire Clan. These “harmless” vessels, then, have allowed the Foxes to gain access to almost every world with in the Inner Sphere and even the Periphery; a marketing edge that they’ve used with brutal efficiency.

In the end, the legacy of the Sea Foxes, the Clan of Nagasawa, is its phenomenal ability to adapt to its times, challenging every precept of Clan and Inner Sphere life alike in the name of enhancement. Seeking bargains, not conquest, yet ruled as ever by a warrior caste, they challenge the ideals of the Clan way, yet never the laws handed down from the Father of the Clans. And though they may slowly drift apart as the Aimags and Khanates spread themselves out among the stars, who can say that even this may be just another part of a noble Clan’s quest to evolve and adapt to a changing universe?

Join us next time for a special six-part series as our tour of the stars brings us back into the Inner Sphere one more time, for a look at the realm once known as the Free Worlds League. I’m Bertram Habeas.