Volume XLII: Warriors of Vision—The Nova Cat Clan Today

Fact Sheet: Clan Nova Cat (Irece Prefecture, Draconis Combine)
Founding Year: 2810 (initial Clan founding), 3060 (abjured from Clans, resettled in Irece region)
Capital (City, World): New Barcella, Irece (Draconis Combine)
National Symbol: A snarling, black nova cat, superimposed on a Cameron Star
Location (Terra relative): Central region, Combine border with Rasalhague Dominion, Coreward
Total (Inhabited) Systems: 13
Estimated Population (3130): 12,040,000,000
Government: Clan (Caste-driven, warrior-dominant hierarchy)
Ruler: Khan Jacali Nostra
Dominant Language(s): English (official)
Dominant Religion(s): See Volume XXXIX for an explanation of Nova Cat spirituality, Shinto and Buddhism also supported.
Unit of Currency: Ryu (1 ryu = 0.94 C-Bills)

New Barcella, capital city of the Nova Cat enclaves throughout the Draconis Combine’s Irece Prefecture, is a magnificent metropolis that bears remarkably little resemblance to its origins. When first seized by the Nova Cat Clan in December of 3051, it was a minor township, albeit one with a spaceport to handle traffic from nearby LexaTech Industries (a now-obliterated BattleMech production facility). In the years following the Cats’ occupation, however, the renamed and redeveloped city has become the administrative and spiritual heart of the Nova Cat Clan. At the heart of the city, just north of the hundred-square-kilometer expanse of Rosse Spaceport, stands a high wall that encircles the Ways of Seeing Park. Hallowed ground to the Nova Cats, this Park includes a circular, waist-high hedge that forms a ring two hundred meters in diameter. The grounds are carefully kept, and none may tread upon the lush grasses here, for this is this place that hosts the annual Oathmaster Grand Melee. On the northern end of the park, perhaps the most important structure in all of Nova Cat space rises almost three hundred meters into the pale blue sky. Designed in the style of a neo-Gothic cathedral, and ringed by eleven smaller, house-sized chapels, carved from local limestone, this structure is the home of the Nova Cats’ genetic repository, the very heart of the Clan’s eugenics program. Though damaged during the chaos of the Jihad and again during the Second Combine-Dominion War, this sacred place is the emotional heart of a Clan sundered from its roots. Though the administrative, military, and industrial might of the Nova Cats is also housed within the boundaries of New Barcella, it is what stands within the Ways of Seeing Park that truly identify this Clan.

The Nova Cat Clan endures, no mean feat for perhaps the most downtrodden of Kerensky’s children. Its existence has seen the death of the Wolverine and Smoke Jaguar Clans, the absorption of the Widowmaker and Burrock Clans, and the loss of contact with all others, save perhaps the occasional Sea Fox, Wolf (in-Exile), or even Ghost Bear trading expedition. And through it all, this Clan of honor and spirit continues to survive.

Unlike many of the Clans that now dwell within the Inner Sphere, the Nova Cats claim no worlds unto themselves. Instead, their enclaves are scattered, their civilization surrounded by peoples who still live under the laws and the samurai codes of the Draconis Combine. Once, the Nova Cats were conquerors, but today their fate appears little different than that of the Azami, another unique culture absorbed into the bosom of the Dragon, permitted their own autonomy, but only at the sufferance of their Inner Sphere hosts.

To mistake this arrangement for that of the conqueror becoming the conquered, however, would be foolish indeed. The Combine has no more conquered the Nova Cats than it has the middle-eastern/northern African warrior culture of the Azami. Like those warriors, the Nova Cats earned the respect of the Combine’s samurai culture on the field of battle, demonstrating a tenacity and a zeal that could not be crushed by the will of House Kurita. Though the events of the Second Combine-Dominion War did limit them to their enclave “reservations,” the Nova Cats were never really conquered, as the Principality of Rasalhague once was. Instead, they have merely received sanctuary, in exchange for their courage and strength. Today, like the Azami, the Nova Cats’ way of life is only scarcely challenged, their loyalty to themselves and the needs of the Combine that supports them is unquestioned. Even under the xenophobic precepts of Combine government and society at large, the Nova Cats remain unbowed.

No discussion of the Nova Cat resettlement, I think, would be complete without touching on the Combine-Dominion Wars of the early 3060s and late 3090s. Curiously enough, though both wars could be blamed on the machinations of the Black Dragons Society, an organization dedicated to an imperial Combine, the fighting invariably included, to a major degree, a brutal clash between the Ghost Bears of the Dominion and the Nova Cats of the Combine. In both conflicts, of course, the Nova Cats fought with fanatical fervor, knowing that their very existence depended upon it, and in both wars the Clan earned the respect of its Kuritan hosts. But the subtleties of politics would warp the effects on the Nova Cats themselves between the two wars. Where the first War reaffirmed Kuritan faith in the Cats’ abilities to hold the line against Ghost Bear aggression, the second actually saw the return of Combine troops to the Irece Prefecture, curtailing to an extent the Cats’ autonomy. The first Combine-Dominion War also saw the ascent of Minoru Kurita/Nova Cat as the Clan’s Oathmaster, further strengthening the bond between Kurita and Nova Cat. But the second drove a wedge between the two camps again when Minoru’s brother, Hohiro Kurita, found himself forced to keep Combine troops in place, effectively restoring Kurita supremacy in the Nova Cats’ gifted domains. —Dr. Lorenzo Torres, Professor of History, University of Thorin.

Though Combine forces now stand on the Dominion border throughout the Irece Prefecture, and though some elements of the Draconis Combine may still be hesitant to accept the presence of the Clan culture in their midst, after seventy years the Nova Cats are clearly here to stay, even if they are viewed as a separate, but equal, culture under the Dragon. Indeed, “separate, but equal,” has even applied to the Nova Cat military, which stands guard over the Clan’s scattered enclaves, outposts, factories, and training camps. These troops nominally answer to their Khan, not to the Coordinator, and bear no crest or colors approved by the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery. Their dedication is to the Nova Cat people first, and the Combine second, though because their goals often coincide when it comes to defense, House Kurita has at times been able to persuade some to act in support of their host state. In this way—and perhaps only in this way—the arrangement between the Draconis Combine and the Nova Cat Clan differs from that between the Combine and the Azami. It is a balance of cultures and politics, made possible through mutual respect and strength of will.

And this is how the Nova Cat survives today, still embracing the ways of the Clans, the rites of the Trials, the honor of the Bloodname, the reverence of the Kerenskys. Though their merchants now trade freely with those of the Combine and its neighbors, and though their Touman is but a fraction of its pre-Jihad strength, the Nova Cat survives. The Clan’s story is a testament to faith and spirit, the courage to take chances, and the will to never give up when destiny beckons.

Next time, join us for a special six-part series on the realms beyond the Inner Sphere. The Periphery is the destination for our next tour. Won’t you join us? I’m Bertram Habeas.