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The Battletech-verse, thanks to the heavy devolution of centralized power following the fall of Star League, contains a number of powerful institutions and organizations not explicitly associated with the Successor States, or the invading Clans. Chief amongst these are ComStar, the remnants of Star League's Ministry of Communication who hold a near-monopoly on FTL-communication, and its many mercenary orders who fill wild-card roles, fighting for whichever cause is willing to pay them.

ComStar

In General

Emblem of ComStar

Your friendly neighborhood phone company. Operates all of the Inner Sphere's Subspace Ansible stations. Not a cult.

An NGO Super Power, ComStar was established around the time of the First Succession War and used a fleet of mercenaries to take over Planet Terra. Originally set up as a trans-national corporation intended to maintain the Hyperpulse Generator network to prevent a total breakdown in communication, it soon morphed into a pseudo-religious and extremely secretive organization.

Secularization after the Clan Invasion caused a schism, resulting in the religious elements breaking off and forming the radical Word of Blake. The organization continued to limp along as an affiliate of the Republic of the Sphere in the aftermath of the Jihad, slowly slipping into irrelevance until it was forcibly nationalized by the Republic in the aftermath of the Gray Monday HPG blackout.

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• Break Out the Museum Piece: Part of their Superweapon Surprise - ComStar never lost the knowledge to make and maintain Star League-era weapons and Mechs, and had enormous amounts of Mechs, AeroSpace Fighters, and even WarShips stashed away. When the time came to go all-out at Tukayyid, they were using Mechs that hadn't been seen in centuries and were thought to be extinct. To the Clans, though, they were still museum pieces, as even ComStar didn't develop new technology, merely maintained the old standard.
• Cargo Cult: Averted; ComStar wanted to become the sole proprietors of technology through the Inner Sphere, but the reality was that no one running the Successor States had any doubt that they were just playing at being mystics to control the fact that they controlled the most valuable communications technology in the Inner Sphere. Centuries in, there were quite a few high-ranking members (especially on the First Circuit) who truly believed that they had some sort of sacred duty and arguing otherwise was "heresy."
• Church Militant: ComStar secretly possessed one of the largest, most technologically advanced armies in the Inner Sphere during the Succession Wars, though few outside the order knew it. That all changed during the epic Battle of Tukayyid.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Marked white on maps (though rarely, because their sphere of actual territorial control is the Sol system), uses an allover white livery for their combat units.
• Cult of Personality: Formed one to its founder Jerome Blake after his death. Under Blake ComStar was mostly run in a corporate style organization, but later followers turned it into a pseudo-cult like order with him being its revered founder and a prophet.
• Fictional Currency: ComStar produces their own currency, the ComStar Letter of Credit, which eventually evolved into the C-Bill. The other Successor States also produce their own currency, but their value can waver based on that House's fortunes. The C-Bill is considered a reliable secondary currency and is preferred by many mercenary units due to its stability and ease of use across borders.
• Godzilla Threshold: Finding out that the final target of the Clan Invasion was Terra, ComStar's homeworld, was enough to bring them out of the shadows and fight openly in defense of the Inner Sphere.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: All throughout the Succession Wars, ComStar served as shadowy power brokers, manipulating things behind the scenes to ensure the Successor States remained dependent on them to provide support for advanced technology. The Battle of Tukayyid is often held up as their high water mark, but their actual influence had already started to slip with the rediscovery and spread of LosTech memory caches decades before, and the Word of Blake Jihad irrevocably shattered both the organization itself and its credibility in the eyes of the rest of the Inner Sphere. By the 32nd century, ComStar is a broken shell of its former self
• Impartial Purpose-Driven Faction: The public face ComStar presented to the rest of the Inner Sphere was one of an impartial service provider, guaranteeing equal access to HPG services to anyone who could pay. In secret, however, they most definitely abused their monopoly on FTL communications to serve their own ends, manipulating the Successor States into constant warfare and ruthlessly seeking to eliminate anyone who oculd threaten their stranglehold on advanced technology.
• Impeded Communication: ComStar can refuse to provide HPG services to anyone who pisses them off whether it's an individual, town, planet, or nation. This is called an Interdiction. As they had the monopoly on all interstellar communications, this provided them an enormous amount of leverage. They have also done this more surreptitiously for their own ends with specific messages, blaming it on techical difficulties.
• The Inquisitor General: ComStar created the Mercenary Review Board, an organization that vets and regulates the many mercenary units in the Inner Sphere and Periphery. The organization was dissolved after ComStar's collaboration with the Clans was exposed and was reformed as the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission, which was overseen by representatives of ComStar, the major Inner Sphere nations, and the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary company.
• Les Collaborateurs: ComStar was secretly working with the Clans during Operation REVIVAL, supplying information on Inner Sphere defenses, blacking out communications from planets under assault, and helping administrate conquered planets in exchange for the Clans leaving them alone. The Clans actually respected ComStar as a relic of the old Star League. It was only when Ulric Kerensky let slip that the Clans were aiming for Terra that ComStar realized that they were on the target list too.
• Lost Technology: ComStar spent most of the Succession Wars helping to perpetrate technological decline - murdering scientists, sabotaging factories, and stealing blueprints - to ensure that they would be the only holders of advanced technology, in anticipation of the Successor States coming to ComStar and asking them to lead the Inner Sphere that the NGO would unite. It didn't exactly work out that way, as all the Successor States were more than happy to keep punching each other to death while ComStar watched.
• Man Behind the Man: How ComStar and its secret intelligence agency ROM in particular preferred to operate during the Succession Wars, manipulating other Houses or hiring mercenaries to do their dirty work. The entire Third Succession War (which ran for over one hundred and fifty years) started almost solely because of their manipulations, because they felt things were getting too cozy in the Inner Sphere after a mere three years of effective peace. The few times they were forced to act openly, they made sure to conceal the identity of their troops so the Successor States never knew who attacked them.
• N.G.O. Superpower: Nominally controls a single solar system, but like the Papal States in feudal Europe, held ultimate political sway; one order from the ComStar Primus could shut down every HPG station in a Successor State, leaving their government effectively blind, deaf, and dumb. As they run all the HPG stations, they also read everything that goes through it, meaning they ostensibly have everyone's communications tapped, and can pass critical information to other parties if it suits their purposes.
• Properly Paranoid: From its inception, ComStar was always wary that the descendants of the SLDF Exodus fleet or another remnant of the Star League would return and challenge their plans for the Inner Sphere. ComStar rightly suspected both the Minnesota Tribe and the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary unit of being vanguards for the returning SLDF, suspicions that were confirmed when the Clans launched their invasion in 3049.
• Recycled In Space: When the setting was more blatantly futuristic medieval, ComStar was basically the Roman Catholic Church in space: the one organization with the power to yank the choke-chain on the feuding nation-states if they got too far out of line. Like the Church provided literate civil servants and political legitimacy, ComStar provides a necessity in the form of FTL communication, and it will use and abuse this advantage as necessary against the Successor States. ComStar also has its own agenda, which frequently conflicts with that of one or more (or all) of the Great Houses.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Primus Adrienne Sims had horrible nightmares of beasts from beyond the Periphery coming to attack the Inner Sphere, and her successor founded the Explorer Corps, which both looked for lost Star League caches and tried to figure out where the massive Exodus Fleet had gone. They found out...and the SLDF, now the Clans, used that to justify an invasion of the Inner Sphere from beyond the Periphery.
• Space Jews: While they're mostly based on the Medieval Roman Catholic Church, they have many parallels to modern Israel, most notably their comparatively small but disproportionately well funded and technologically advanced military. Then again, there's a considerable amount of overlap, considering the two entities play similar roles in the relationship between the Western nations and the Muslim world, albeit for slightly different reasons.
• State Sec: ROM, ostensibly ComStar's intelligence branch, functioned as this when they transitioned from their secular, corporate structure to a machine-worshiping cult.
• Subspace Ansible: Their effective monopoly on the Hyperpulse Generator Network established by the Star League is their primary power in the politics of the Inner Sphere.
• Superweapon Surprise: When they realized that the Clans intended to capture Terra as their ultimate objective in the Clan Invasion of 3050, ComStar realized they could no longer stand on the sidelines of the war and had to act. They responded by calling the Clans out with a batchall (battle challenge) with the fate of Terra on the line. The Clans answered, and ComStar brought out twelve armies^note 'Army' being a ComStar formation of 1,200 aircraft, BattleMechs, tanks or infantry platoons working in concert; this put the ComGuard on the size order of any Successor State's military or several Invading Clans at once, most armed with tech that the Inner Sphere hadn't seen in hundreds of years. Even though the ComStar armies had a lot of unseasoned soldiers, and even though the resulting Battle of Tukayyid resulting in 30% fatalities (and worse casualties) for the ComGuard, the Clans were savaged so badly that they were never able to invade the Inner Sphere in force again. And the rest of the Inner Sphere got the message: don't fuck with ComStar.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: The ComGuard was long held a secret from the Inner Sphere, who generally didn't know ComStar even had a military, never mind that it was on the size order of the Combine or FedSun military. As a result of this secrecy, the ComGuard was generally inexperienced in actual combat, which led to events like the "Jolly Roger" affair, where a band of pirates inflicted 3-to-1 casualties against a Com Guard unit sent in to clean up after a False Flag Operation gone bad, and later to the Com Guard suffering almost 40% fatalities against the Clans at Tukayyid despite holding defensive terrain and a at least a two-to-one numerical advantage. That things like the Jolly Roger Affair are exceptions, and Tukayyid actually played out better for ComStar than almost anyone projected, shows that their training was very, very good. Notably, their training and professionalism improved sharply after Anastasius Focht took command of the Com Guard and brought his skills and experience to the organization.
• Wrongfully Attributed: Invoked. ComStar credit a lot of suitably wise quotes or statements from various historical works or figures to Jerome Blake to make him seem more of a paragon of wisdom. The Word of Blake got in on it even more.

Jerome Blake

Doesn't look like the founder of a crazy Cargo Cult, does he?

Era(s): Star League, Succession Wars

Minister of Communications for the Star League and Founder of ComStar

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• Badass Bookworm: He's just a technician, not a warrior, general, or politician. However, he managed to conquer Terra and manipulate all the Successor States into recognizing its neutrality, protecting the HPG network. Without him, the Crapsack World of the Inner Sphere would've been even worse.
• Batman Gambit: Part of Operation Silver Shield involved getting the Great Houses to agree to respect ComStar neutrality with the Communications Protocol of 2787. His tactic of getting them to agree was outright lying to each one that the other House Lords had already all agreed to his terms, knowing that they'd never discuss it with one another. Another large part of it was seizing the Sol system and (although they didn't manage to do it) as much of the former Terran Hegemony as possible, relying on the Successor States being too busy fighting each other to attack ComStar.
• Cult of Personality: Done to him by both ComStar and the Word of Blake.
• Dead Guy on Display: Done to his body after his death, despite his wish to be cremated. At least against his public wishes. He actually requested that Conrad Toyama put his body on display as a "relic" to help cement the transformation of ComStar from a business conglomerate/planetary government into a quasi-religion.
• Despair Event Horizon: The fall of Star League, the Exodus by General Kerensky and the First Succession War took their toll on him. Blake desperatly wanted to witness another Star League in his lifetime only to be bitterly dissappointed time and time again.
• Dramatic Irony: In Intentions, while discussing his plans for the future of ComStar with Conrad Toyama, he warns Toyama about the risk of creating fanatical zealots and ending up with a religious war. By the time the short story was published, the Jihad arc - where the titular war was waged by a Renegade Splinter Faction of ComStar composed of said zealots - had already concluded.
• Expy: To Hari Seldon, a brilliant scientist who seeks to preserve scientific knowledge in a barbaric galaxy by turning it into a religion.
• Married to the Job: He survived the Amaris Coup because he was taking his first vacation in three years. He had no family so, when he died, his will discussed only the future of ComStar.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He bears a (presumably accidental) striking resemblance to Michael Swaim.
• Secret-Keeper: He was one of the few people outside of the SLDF to be told about Kerensky's Exodus plan in advance, as the General needed Blake and his people in the Ministry of Communications to help coordinate the operation, and to keep chatter about it from reaching the House Lords until the fleet was ready to depart. Blake did so, and as a reward Kerensky "gifted" him command of several SLDF divisions that did not want to leave the Inner Sphere, as well as the surplus BattleMechs and weaponry they would need to seize control of Terra, and protect it from the ravages of the looming Succession Wars.
• Parting-Words Regret: He admitted to Toyama that he exchanged harsh, angry words with General Kerensky - a man he was good friends with - before he went on to lead the SLDF into self-imposed exile. Blake argued that the Star League could still rise again in their lifetime but Kerensky called him a dreamer. It was only years later that Blake realized his friend was right to act as he did and that nothing could have saved the Star League at the time.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His decision to turn ComStar into a religion eventually led to the creation of the Word of Blake, a psychotic cult that devastated the Inner Sphere.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He accused Aleksandr Kerensky of abandoning his duty to protect the Star League by taking the bulk of the SLDF into uncharted space at the end of the Amaris Civil War. However, Blake reluctantly agreed to keep the operation secret from the rest of the Inner Sphere when he realized the General couldn't be convinced to stay.

Conrad Toyama

He doesn't, either.

Era(s): Star League, Succession Wars

Blake's successor as head of ComStar.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Toyama was the last person to visit Jerome Blake on his deathbed. All microphones and cameras were deactivated. When Toyama left, Blake was dead and Toyama had a statement naming him Blake's successor. It is unclear if this statement is authentic or if Toyama had anything to do with Blake's death.
  • In "Intentions" it is clearly shown that Blake did in fact name Toyama his successor and that it was his idea to set ComStar on a religious path in order to insure the survival of their mission. Toyama was at first adamantly against it but was persuaded by Blake.
• Friend in the Black Market: He was ComStar's in his youth.
• Meaningful Rename: He suggested the name ComStar after Blake turned the Department of Communications into an independent corporation. It is a combination of Communications Enterprises Inc., and Starlight Broadcasting Ltd., two of the Department's biggest contractors. He claims he got the idea after being electrocuted while working on an HPG generator and the ghost of Richard Cameron whispering it in his ear.
• The Purge: When he took over, he did this to many of his rivals and anyone who objected to the quasi-religious direction he was taking ComStar in. This resulted in twenty percent of ComStar employees dead or in prison. Some of them were a proto-Word of Blake group that wanted to conquer the Inner Sphere while Toyama wanted to preserve Blake's doctrine of neutrality, so this might not have been such a bad thing.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Calling him a tyrant is quite unkind and inaccurate, but he is the one primarily responsible for turning ComStar from a secular corporation to a quasi-religious cult and purging any employees who objected. Mind you, he was originally against the idea and did in fact remove self-serving opportunists so as to prevent this trope and ComStar's mission being abused.
• True Companions: He was Blake's closest friend and confidant.

Myndo Waterly

Bad Primus, or the worst Primus?

Era(s): Succession Wars, Clan Invasion

Primus of ComStar at the start of the Clan Invasion.

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• Boom, Headshot!: Anastasius Focht blew her brains out with a needle pistol.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • Focht told her the fable of the Scorpion and the Toad, which teaches that some people cannot resist hurting others even when it is not in their own interests, in a sort of warning that playing both sides in the invasion and being poisonous to both would cost ComStar dearly. Waterly apparently didn't notice that the scorpion drowns along with the toad at the end of the fable, and named Operation Scorpion after it.
  • As Waterly gets deeper into her intricate scheme to play the Clans against the Inner Sphere for the benefit of ComStar, Focht asks her if she remembers the surprise of House Davion developing Triple Strength Myomer in the Fourth Succession War, and how they turned that against the Capellans (by basically giving the Capellans the technology, then equipping their forces with its Kryptonite Factor). Myndo thinks this is a purely tactical exercise, that the FedCom might use TSM against the Clans, and instructs Focht to inform the Clans about TSM and the gas that dissolves it. Focht states he's done so, but that's not the point. His real point is that the TSM project is over ten years old, and ComStar has no idea about the current state of its research (and indeed, Kai Allard-Liao's Yen-lo-Wang has been fitted with an improved version). Focht tries to expalain that if ComStar can't get up-to-date intelligence on a research project from over a decade ago, they cannot expect to anticipate everything the Houses have up their sleeves, against either the Clans or ComStar. Waterly fails to heed this warning.
• Epic Fail: Operation Scorpion. The Clans dealt with it because even Clan second-line units were able to stand up to ComStar insurgents when the entirety of the ComGuards is busy kicking Clan ass on Tukayyid. Not only did the Clans have more than adequate forces to take the few troops ComStar could spare trying to seize control in their territory, they had their own HPGs, so ComStar's plan was doomed from the start. The Inner Sphere dealt with it because Theodore Kurita had a spy in the First Circuit, and passed the intel on to Hanse Davion, so two-thirds of the Inner Sphere were prepared to stop the ComStar coup before it even began. And the ordinary citizens weren't pleased with ComStar suddenly refusing communication service for no good reason. Even if most of the Great Houses hadn't known about the plan in advance, moving messages around "Pony Express" style via JumpShip had worked in the past, and once the Great Houses figured out what was going on, ComStar would have been in a great deal of trouble with every Successor State coming after them while virtually all of their forces were tied up on Tukayyid. And the warning that Theodore Kurita sent to Hanse Davion? It was sent through a secret alternative Subspace Ansible technology completely outside ComStar's influence. As it was, Operation Scorpion burned pretty much all the goodwill ComStar earned from the Battle of Tukayyid and more besides, to the point Waterly's successor as Primus had to work pretty hard to keep ComStar relevant.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: She's pretty much this trope as applied to a medieval Space Pope.
• It's All About Me: She's a raving egotistical bitch.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Everything she does during the Clan invasion. Blacking out communications from Clan-conquered worlds so the Successor States have a hard time getting reliable intelligence on the Clans, or even what worlds they've hit. Providing accurate intelligence to the Clans on the worlds they plan to take. Administering the populations of conquered worlds, to ease the burden on the Clans, indoctrinate the populace into ComStar's ideology, and become an indispensable crutch for the Clans so ComStar can eventually supplant them. She even tried to steer the Clans toward taking the Lyran capital of Tharkad, if only to destabilize the Federated Commonwealth further. Once it becomes clear the Clans are set on taking Terra, she uses the Battle of Tukayyid as a distraction to launch Operation Scorpion, an attempt to simultaneously cripple and seize control from all the Successor States and Clans in an ill-fated plot called Operation Scorpion. It severely tarnishes ComStar's reputation, which is only salvaged by Focht's concurrent victory at Tukayyid, and her plotting is put to a decisive end when Focht pragmatically assassinates her himself.
• Shiny New Australia: Shiny New Lyran Commonwealth, actually. Still under the impression that Operation Scorpion is going off without a hitch (it isn't), she reveals her plans to Focht and says he'll be the ComStar administrator for the Lyran Commonwealth. She's rather shocked when he tells her flat-out that not only is he not interested in politics, but that Operation Scorpion has been a dismal failure.
• Smug Snake: She genuinely believes that she's the wiliest person in the Inner Sphere. She's not.
  • Even before the Clan invasion, the ComStar False Flag Operation raid on the New Avalon Institute of Science not only failed to destroy the copy of the Helm Memory Core that was there, but also tipped off Hanse Davion to how much ComStar was screwing around with the Inner Sphere behind the scenes. This led to a decades-long shadow war between him and ComStar.
  • Her Operation Rosebud sponsored the creation of the Free Rasalhague Republic, giving the Draconis Combine 'Mechs and other concessions in exchange for Theodore Kurita recognizing the independence of a number of Kuritan-controlled worlds. Waterly's hope was that it would encourage the Lyran Skye province to secede and cut the Federated Commonwealth in half, and planned to shaft Theodore by having the LosTech stripped from the 'Mechs. Except the Combine still received a great deal of LosTech-equipped 'Mechs due to a "clerical error", Theodore retained control of some twenty planets and justified it by her not abiding by the terms of their deal, and while the operation did result in a brief rebellion in Skye and the "new" 'Mechs the Combine had did sandbag Hanse Davion's plans in the War of 3039, it didn't accomplish half of what she was sure it would. Furthermore, Theodore also became suspicious enough of ComStar to plant a mole in its ranks. A mole who would become Waterly's trusted protege.
  • Waterly was convinced that ComStar could help the Clans take over the Inner Sphere and then somehow supplant them, playing both sides during the invasion. She scoffed at Focht's planning on how to fight the Clans and believed that she had the Clans eating out of her hand, trying to steer Ulric Kerensky toward conquering Tharkad next, and was caught utterly flat-footed when Kerensky casually told her that Terra was their ultimate objective. She also failed to realize that there was no way the Clans could or would become reliant on ComStar the way the Inner Sphere had, as not only did the Clans have their own HP Gs, most of the invading Clans had no problem using their own methods and forces to administrate the worlds they'd captured, especially if ComStar became a problem.
  • She also was completely convinced that Operation Scorpion would have resulted in the Inner Sphere and the Clans submitting to ComStar rule, rather than them simply blowing ComStar off the map. She was so convinced of her success she didn't even follow up to make sure it had gone off without a hitch.
  • Her handpicked successor - the only member of the First Circuit she warned about Operation Scorpion - was a spy for the Draconis Combine.
  • Despite Focht telling her repeatedly and clearly that he had zero interest in rulership or conquering the Inner Sphere, she casually tried to leave to have him replaced after all her plans crumbled around her. She got shot in the back of the head as a result.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Officially, Primus Waterly decided to step down and retire after the Battle of Tukayyid, and sadly died of a cerebral hemorrhage 4 days later. Unofficially, when Waterly revealed the details of Operation Scorpion^note An attempt to force all the Successor States to bend the knee and accept ComStar rule by forcing an uprising on Clan-held worlds and shutting off Hyperpulse communications everywhere until the States agreed to "administrative rule", Operation Scorpion failed when 1) the Draconis Combine found out about it in advance via a high-placed mole and secretly warned the Federated Commonwealth, letting both States prepare and take over the HPG devices when the blackout began, 2) a number of ComStar controllers decided not to actually do anything, 3) the other Successor States, annoyed that their HPG communication was cut off, decided to unilaterally seize the buildings, and 4) the regular citizens, who saw no reason behind the blackout, rioted and took over the buildings themselves. The result of Operation Scorpion was, rather than increasing ComStar's power, a marked decline in ComStar due to the loss of control of their HPG devices to Focht, Focht called Waterly an idiot, revealed that the plan had failed, and then shot Waterly in the back of the head with a needler pistol when she turned her back on Focht in a brazen insult.

Anastasius Focht

Precentor Martial of ComStar

Era(s): Clan Invasion, Jihad

Precentor-Martial Anastasius Focht was the commander in chief of the once-secret ComStar army known as the Com Guard. He is the architect of the Battle of Tukayyid, an arranged proxy battle over the ownership of Terra between ComStar and the Clans, where the Clan invasion in the early 3050s was temporarily halted for 15 years if the Com Guard won. Since achieving victory on Tukayyid he became increasingly prominent in the affairs of the Inner Sphere as a whole. Also responsible for thwarting a power grab by Primus Myndo Waterly. Being more secular and moderate, his actions within ComStar politics would result in the schism that created the Word of Blake splinter faction.

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• A Father to His Men: Toyed with. Focht didn't hesitate to throw virtually everything the Com Guards had into the meat grinder on Tukayyid, because the stakes were so high and there wouldn't be a chance for a second try. But the novels show him troubled by the staggering casualties ComStar took in the fighting and utterly disgusted that Myndo Waterly had tried to seize power in the Inner Sphere while "his boys" were dying on Tukayyid. It's also how he joined ComStar, as he, back when he bore the name Frederick Steiner, thought of the well-being of his unit, the 10th Lyran Guards, over his own. Whether be it resigning and facing execution at the hands of his cousin and Archon Katrina Steiner to toiling in a Draconis Combine prison cell after she ordered him to challenge the Combine with just the 10th Lyran Guards to make up for being involved with those who tried to have her killed, Frederick was not one to choose himself over his subordinates and this continued after he joined ComStar.
• Ambadassador: He was ComStar's envoy to the Clans, and he was Precentor-Martial for a reason. As Frederick Steiner, it's mentioned he could have leaned more towards "Ass" in Ambassador, as he was regarded as essentially incapable of subtlety, first and foremost a soldier. He cooled down after his "rebirth," but he was still first and foremost a soldier - which, coincidentally, made him ideal as a representative to the Clans. However, almost none of the Clanners knew he was a properly-trained soldier, and regarded him as a non-threat.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Tukayyid. He offered the Clans what he knew they couldn't resist - a glorious battle that would be sung of for generations, the greatest challenge of the era, what would be their finest hour, started with a direct challenge to the Clan sense of honor that played directly into their societal expectations - a proper batchall offering them everything they wanted in a reasonable (to Clanners) manner that played by their rules. Defeat seemed impossible, and they actually couldn't refuse such a direct challenge without a severe loss of honor. And Focht handed them their asses, with the Clans' only (pyrrhic) tactical victories in the campaign happening when they didn't fight by the inflexible Clan battle rules.
• Character Tic: Frequently adjusts his Eyepatch of Power.
• The Chessmaster: Excels at outmaneuvering his opponents in warfare. He is the architect of the Battle of Tukayyid, a proxy battle for Terra, where he exploited the Crusader Clans' Blood Knight propensities to have them drop woefully unprepared for battle with what they considered inferior foes.
• Crazy-Prepared: He spent a good two years preparing for the Clan invasion he knew would be coming. He did everything from study the Clan mentality to run multiple simulations and war games to test strategies to drastically overhaul the ComGuards' organization and training. All his efforts paid off with the spectacular success of Tukayyid.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Unknown configurations of Battlemechs using technologies far beyond the Inner Sphere's seen invading the Periphery? Clearly, these are shape-shifting aliens who eat humans to assimilate their forms, had already eaten the SLDF exiles and were now tracing them back to the source. Although entirely wrong on this part, Focht did extrapolate a number of things about how these 'aliens' would act and try to fit in with humanity that proved eerily prescient.
• Eyepatch of Power: Lost an eye as part of his mysterious past.
• Eye Scream: Lost his eye by surviving a point-blank Boom, Headshot!
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Seemingly an armchair general since he had no strategic feats to his name (or at least his current name), his victory the Battle of Tukayyid then made him a foremost expert on strategy against the Clan threat.
• Frontline General: Subverted. He led from the front in his past life as Frederick Steiner, and on Tukayyid he had an Atlas II outside his command bunker just in case any Clanners figured out where he was and decided to go headhunting, but there's no evidence he ever took part in combat himself as Precentor Martial.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Fully intended to die in one as Frederick Steiner, taking his unit on a one-way trip to stop what would be a devastating blow from an enemy force on the sole condition that a jumpship linger to pick up the survivors. He even gave the assurance that he wouldn't be one of them. He then doubled down after being captured, offering his own life in exchange for his men being allowed to retreat.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Thanks to Myndo Waterly's schemes, all the goodwill ComStar could have picked up after Tukayyid was immediately shot, and that would follow him even after he officially retired. Focht's reputation was tainted further when the Blakists spilled the beans on a lot of ComStar secrets including his previous identity, which caused many to question his motives and integrity even though he never showed favoritism to his nation of origin.
• Meaningful Name: In conjunction with Meaningful Rename. "Anastasius" is Latin for "reborn," "Focht" is German for "(he who) Fought." Ulric Kerensky notes that a man capable of choosing such a name for himself is a very dangerous man. Also his nickname in his old life, "The Hammer," as he was known for preferring to hit targets with concentrated, precise, overwhelming force.
• Meaningful Rename: In another life, he was Fredrick Steiner, a member of the royal house that leads the Lyran Commonwealth.
• Mysterious Past: Before he became Precentor Martial, there are no records or information available about Anastasius' Focht's life. Because "Anastasius Focht" didn't exist before he was named Precentor Martial.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Shooting Myndo Waterly in the head may have stopped her insanity, but proceeding to rapidly secularize ComStar with her successor resulted in the World of Blake splintering away from ComStar, and refusing to do anything about the loonier ones banding together led to the Jihad.
• Old Soldier: He was still considered combat-ready in 3052 on Tukayyid, when he would have been 80 years old. Focht was still training even into his nineties and organized multiple military operations even if he didn't see direct combat himself.
• Passing the Torch: A downplayed bit with Victor Steiner-Davion. He mentors Victor after Tukayyid, accompanies him on Operation Bulldog and eventually into Clan space for the Great Refusal (even revealing his past identity to Victor as a warning), and eventually Victor takes up the position of Precentor Martial from him. They even commanded the same military unit at points in their lives, the 10th Lyran Guards.
• Sadistic Choice: Faced one between handling a Jade Falcon incursion into Lyran space, or the Word of Blake invading Terra. He chose to address the Clan threat and let the Blakists have Terraa. Nobody would come to regret this.
• Secular Hero: Though ardently ComStar, Focht has a more secular belief in the importance of ComStar's mission, not buying much into the pseudomysticism. His actions to that end catalyzed the schism of the more zealous elements of ComStar into the splinter Word of Blake.
• Shocking Defeat Legacy: The inflictor of this trope upon the Clans, with his masterstroke victory at the Battle of Tukayyid. The experience left the Clans so scarred that a version of Focht is the Big Bad of The Adventures of Clan Spaniel, a cartoon used to teach Warrior Caste children the Clan's virtues - Focht is effectively used as the Boogeyman by the Clans.
• Taught by Experience: After he found out a little more as the personal envoy to the Clans in 3050, he promptly began running simulations and war-games to figure out how to fight the Clans with the Com Guards despite ComStar being allegedly neutral but more or less assisting the Clans, because he knew a rabidly aggressive warrior culture descended from the Star League Defense Force wouldn't be satisfied with simply taking territory in the Inner Sphere, they would eventually come after Terra. This annoyed Primus Waterly who — at the time — anticipated no possible conflict between ComStar and the Clans. Armed with first-hand observations of the Clan leadership, strategy, and tactics, combined with countless examples of engagements across the Inner Sphere, Focht carefully constructed his plans for two years.
• That Man Is Dead: Considers himself a completely new person after his conversion to ComStar, even counting himself as nearly a quarter of his chronological age because of his "rebirth." He was a devious, strategically shrewd, and covetous man in his previous life, infamous for his attempt to usurp the throne of the Lyran Commonwealth from his cousin Katrina Steiner. Afterwards, he is still a strategic and tactical master, but follows a more noble and altruistic cause as a protector of all the Inner Sphere. He was so divorced from his past that he resigned his position as Precentor Martial rather than get involved in politics.
• Underestimating Badassery: Everyone. Most dismiss Focht as little more than a bureaucrat with delusions of warriorhood, since there are no records of him ever attending any of the Inner Sphere's assorted military academies, or even receiving any formal military training at all. What these people don't know is that Anastasius Focht isn't his original name; in a past life, he was Frederick Steiner, one of the top military minds the Lyran Commonwealth ever produced (and despite the Commonwealth's reputation for military ineptitude, he's on par with any Inner Sphere legendary commander you care to name) after he studied at not one but two of the Inner Sphere's finest military academies, and a rival to Katrina Steiner for the Archonship. Even Myndo Waterly, well aware of Focht's past, underestimates how much he has changed, how little Anastasius Focht has in common with Frederick Steiner, and this miscalculation ultimately costs her her life. The only one to suspect something about Focht's Mysterious Past, to look into it and learn to respect both the man Focht used to be and the man he is now, is Ulric Kerensky, and even he underestimated just how hard Focht and his ComGuards were willing to fight (not that Ulric minded, he had plans for the aftermath of a potential defeat at Tukayyid.)
  Tex Talks Battletech: The Clanners made the worst mistake possible you can make when looking at an opponent: they dismissed (Focht) as a joke, and failed to respect him... and for that, he fucking broke them.
• White Sheep: Of sorts. House Steiner was infamous for the number of "social generals" plaguing its military. Most of these social generals were Upper Class Twits who gained their positions through connections or money rather than merit. Focht was not only one of the members of House Steiner who was actually good at his job, he was probably one of the smartest military minds in the whole Inner Sphere.
• Xanatos Gambit: Again, Tukayyid. The "official" plan was to stop the Clans cold at Tukayyid, win the battle there and gain a fifteen-year truce to allow the Inner Sphere to rebuild shattered units, upgrade their equipment, and prepare to strike back. However, Focht hit the the Invading Clans with such overwhelming force that they were too badly mangled to continue the incursion even if they had won, and even then the Inner Sphere would have had some time to bring up fresh troops and there's no indication ComStar would have held up their end of the bargain. Either way, ComStar bought time for the Inner Sphere to regroup. And that's before the secret plans to plant ComStar spies in the Clans via Clan warriors' propensity to claim defeated foes as bondsmen bore fruit. It even had ripples Focht couldn't have predicted. Clan Wolf being the only to achieve a victory and Clans Jade Falcon and Ghost Bear only taking a draw while the rest lost outright turned the Clans against each other, encouraging infighting when they were already spread thin. The Refusal War tore the two strongest Clans apart and forced them to spend precious time rebuilding, and later the Wars of Reaving fractured the Clans permanently and burned most of their strength fighting one another. And the spy dispersal plans ended up yielding ComStar the Exodus Road, the navigational route the Clans used to find their home star clusters in the deep coreward Periphery. From that, the annihilation of Clan Smoke Jaguar and the Great Refusal ensued. All because of Tukayyid.

Word of Blake

In General

Emblem of the Word of Blake

A breakaway sect of ComStar that formed in opposition to Anastasius Focht and Primus Sharilar Mori's secularist reforms.

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• Berserk Button: Watching the dissolution of the Second Star League happen right before the Word of Blake Protectorate would have earned a seat on the High Council caused them to launch their Jihad against the entire Inner Sphere.
• Colony Drop: The Erinyes, a "heavily modified Newgrange-class yardship" was apparently capable of firing asteroids at planets with enough force to render them entirely uninhabitable. It was used on multiple inhabited planets and its ultimate fate was unknown.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the Clans. Both were descendants of Star League with designs on the Inner Sphere. However, even the most ruthless Clanner is still a stickler for honor and tradition, doing things fairly and honorably. To the Clans, winning isn't as important to them as how you won, and their people's lives aren't cheap. For the Blakists, they are demonstrably insane fanatics adherent only to their belief that they are destined for victory, and that means they will do whatever it takes to win. They also contrast the Clans in one other way: Clanners are all about genetic engineering, while the Blakists are enthusiastic, to say the least, about cybernetics. This contrast adds to the irony when the Clans join the coalition against the Word of Blake.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Their Manei Domini troops were fanatics even for Blakists, and were modified with cybernetics to a nightmarish degree so they could fight Clan Elementals on equal footing.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The Blakists believed that their accession to the Second Star League would mark the culmination of a supposed prophecy telling of their ascendancy. When the Second Star League instead fell apart, rather than do some soul-searching or seek revenge on those who actually caused the League's dissolution (Davion, Steiner, etc.), they decided the best course of action was to wage an apocalyptic holy war against the entire Inner Sphere, in which the two choices for their opponents were to submit or die.
• Enemy Mine: Eventually forced nearly every major faction of known space into this in order to finally stop them, as Devlin Stone's coalition would see forces from ComStar, the Successor States, the Clans, and several mercenary groups band together to liberate Terra and put down the Jihad.
• Evil Reactionary: Formed as an objection to the secularization and wanted ComStar to return to their original religious dogma.
• Hate Sink: Even in a universe that prides itself on Gray-and-Gray Morality, the Word of Blake is as close to pure evil as you're likely to see. Violent hyper-religious fanatics who scoured hundreds of worlds across the Inner Sphere in the name of the fallen Star League, throwing countless people into "re-education camps", tossing around nuclear weapons and biological agents like they were going out of style... Mind you, this did not stop them from having allies, but they were few and far between.
• Hidden Elf Village: In the centuries of warfare prior to the Clan Invasion, ComStar had managed to hide a handful of entire planets through renaming, surreptitious removal from star charts, or hiding outposts on "dead" planets. Known as "the Five," these were initially meant to be hold-out locations for ComStar in case the Successor States stopped respecting their neutrality, but they became research outposts or manufacturing and training sites. When the Clans invaded they were meant to be secret fortress worlds, one in each Successor State's territory, but when the Word of Blake fractured off from ComStar they took all knowledge of the worlds with them. Three have been located, but two are still unknown...
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: They start out as a splinter faction of ComStar that protests the secularization movement, taking control of some of the HPG stations. Then they start the Jihad and start nuking and bombarding places from orbit. Why? They had a prophecy that said they would come to power through the Star League, which was now gone again.
• Let's You and Him Fight: What made the Word of Blake so effective despite being a fraction of the size of the Great Houses and the Clans. They didn't actually need to fight many of their enemies directly, instead provoking military incidents and reigniting old conflicts which would gradually grind their enemies down and let them sweep in to take over. Combine that with them disrupting all faster-than-light communications, their insane technological advantage, complete fanaticism deprived of morality, and some well-placed surgical strikes with weapons of mass destruction, and suddenly the Word of Blake goes from just another space wizard cult like the old Com Star to the most dangerous force in the known galaxy.
• Machine Worship: The Word wished to preserve this while ComStar sought to move away from it.
• Nuke 'em: Got a bit trigger happy with assorted weapons of mass destruction during the Jihad. They came to regret it as just about every faction in the setting came down on them, hard.
• Private Military Contractors: Before they started getting particularly crazy, they hired a fair amount of under-employed mercenaries - that is, the outfits who couldn't afford to not take shady contracts.
• The Remnant: At least a few pockets of the Word of Blake are thought to have survived the Jihad and fled out into the deep periphery or taken refuge on one of the Hidden Worlds that ComStar kept off the star maps for centuries. Devlin Stone alludes that they'll be back someday.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: To ComStar.
• Superweapon Surprise: On multiple levels, many of which were designed for a genocidal campaign against the Clan Homeworlds which never came to pass.
  • Their Manei Domini and Shadow Division forces were initially raised in secret to match Clan Elementals, but when the second Star League broke up, they turned on the Inner Sphere.
  • Everyone was surprised when they showed up with tons of Mechs (including previously unseen OmniMech designs and the first functional superheavies), troops, and WarShips, all funded by money they had been skimming from the economy of the Free Worlds League.
  • Their free and liberal use of weapons of mass destruction and Orbital Bombardment shocked everyone in the Inner Sphere and the Clans who fought back.
  • Case White ran into one when they found out that the Blakists had reverse-engineered the old SDS systems in the Terran system, bringing drone fighters online for the first time since the Amaris Civil War, which wrecked the invasion force.
• The Unfettered: Noted to have ignored practically every surviving law and custom of war in pursuit of their dogma. This saw them all but eradicated when the rest of the Inner Sphere responded in kind.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: What the Word of Blake ultimately believed. They knew full well all the lines they were crossing during the Jihad; they simply did not care. The way they saw it, any price was worth paying for the civilization they hoped to build on the ashes of the worlds they conquered.

The Master/The Real Thomas Marik

The Master, redefining Obviously Evil

Era(s): Succession Wars, Jihad

The Man Behind the Man for the horrible events during the Jihad was once the real heir to the throne to the Free Worlds League. A bomb from a relative seeking the throne (something common in the family) killed his father and one of his brothers as well as almost killing him too. However, he was resuscitated by ComStar but he was horribly scared and required cybernetic implants to save him. The League has a heavy anti-cybernetic stance so a body double was put in his place by ComStar. Said double would go on to be the best leader the Free Worlds League ever had while the real Thomas would become the fanatical mastermind and bank-roller of the Word of Blake and the planner behind the Jihad.

Killed at the end of the Jihad when the planet he was on is scoured by nukes to ensure no Word Of Blake members escape.

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• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: After the bombing attempt on his life, he needed cybernetic implants to survive. His role as Captain-General of the Free Worlds League was taken by a double, while he went on to become the leader of the Word of Blake and lead them in starting the Jihad.
• Evil Is Hammy: How could this be anything other than high-grade Prosciutto?◊
• Expy: Could not be more like Emperor Palpatine if he tried.
• Eye Scream: The bomb described above apparently destroyed the real Thomas Marik's right eye. In its place is a cybernetic replacement.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The bomb also heavily scarred his face and body and he's one of the biggest villains the Inner Sphere had faced since Stefan Amaris.
• Karmic Death: He and the Word of Blake nuked dozens of worlds into submission, and in the end he was nuked on the planet he was hiding. Ominously, he took this rather well.
• Knight Templar: His doppelganger that he sent to pose as him to lead the Free Worlds League said that he made Myndo Waterley (who probably would have found the Word of Blake appealing had she lived) look like a "bleeding heart liberal" in comparison.
• The Man Behind the Man: The real leader of Word Of Blake being both the person who masterminded the Jihad and who was giving them their funding in the early years of the Word Of Blake existence after their split from ComStar.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Thomas Marik was a beloved figure in the Free Worlds League even before he was Captain-General and he played at least a part after his disfigurement in leading House Marik to glory from the shadows. However, corrupted by the philosophies of Conrad Toyama and armed with the vast resources and logistics developed by Com Star and inherited by the Word of Blake, he ignited the deadliest conflict in human history and died unrepentant.
• Thanatos Gambit: His last words and later Devlin Stone's seem to imply that the Dark Age was his final posthumous revenge.

Apollyon

Era(s): Jihad

The leader of the cybernetic warriors known as the Manei Domini who served as overall field commander of the Word of Blake's military efforts during the Jihad.

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• Break Them by Talking: His most infamous ability. Colonel Fritz Donner of the Black Warriors, angered at his government's collaboration with the Word of Blake, was captured and subjected to extensive physical and psychological torture. He did not break. Then Apollyon took over personally and quickly crushed the man's spirit without ever lifting a finger, eventually using Donner as a suicide bomber to assassinate a number of key dignitaries at a conference on Arc-Royal, including Maeve Wolf of the Wolf's Dragoons and Khan Bjorn Jorgensson of Clan Ghost Bear.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Apollyon is an interesting example of this. He (and the other Manei Domini) are fully aware that cybernetics eat away at their humanity and in fact they acknowledge it in their oath of allegiance. However, they do not care, as they view it as a necessary sacrifice to order for the vision of the Master to come to pass.
• The Dragon: Right-hand man of the Master.
• Expy: Design wise at least, he's a dead ringer for Marvel's Deathlok.
• Knight Templar: Second only to his boss in terms of fanatical brutality. Unlike the Master, however, Apollyon served on the front lines of the war as the face of the Word of Blake's savage campaign against the Inner Sphere.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Apollyon, Latin for the Hebrew name Abaddon, which means "destroyer" and is one of the prophesied creatures of the End Times. Also applies to his nickname, the Prince of Scars.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Apollyon engineered the Donner Bombing in an attempt to cripple any chances of a coordinated military response to the Word of Blake Jihad. While it did disorient the powers of the Inner Sphere briefly, it also proved to be a critical mistake as the death of Clan Ghost Bear's Khan was deemed so dishonorable that it provoked Clan Ghost Bear into declaring total war on the Word of Blake, laying the groundwork for the alliance between the Clans and the Inner Sphere against the Word of Blake which would ultimately be their downfall.
• Never Found the Body: Apollyon vanishes from the record when the Principality of Regulus, whose hatred of the Word of Blake would become the stuff of legend, suddenly assaulted the Hidden World of Gibson and gave the Word a taste of their own medicine, bathing the planet in nuclear hellfire before landing in the middle of a global nuclear winter with every mech at their disposal, just to wipe out any and all survivors. Nevertheless, Apollyon's ultimate fate remains unknown, as no mention is made of his death or subsequent whereabouts.
• Red Baron: The Prince of Scars.
• Scary Black Man: Or mixed-race in this case as while he has predominantly African features, his skin color is more an even tan, probably owed to the extensive genetic and cultural mixing of the Battle Tech setting. Nevertheless, he fits the bill, as he is the very last person anyone wants to run into during the Jihad.

Mercenaries

In General

Logo for the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission

At the end of the Third Succession War, roughly half of all military forces in the Inner Sphere belonged to mercenary units, large and small, and the number has remained stubbornly stable ever since. Mercenaries come from all stripes and walks of life, but generally come either from house or former SLDF units who have gone rogue over lack of wages from their overlords, nobles who have assembled their own units around themselves with their personal wealth or influence, or from the occasional fortune seeker who has been able to work their way upwards from being a mechwarrior to being a commander of mechwarriors.

Inner Sphere mercenaries are certified and hired through the Mercenary Review Board, an organization formed and certified by ComStar shortly before the First Succession War. The Board serves as an impartial arbiter between client and mercenary who reviews all contracts and holds the client's payment in escrow, to ensure compliance between both parties. Following the failure of Operation SCORPION, ComStar was forced to give up control of the MRB and the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission was created in its place, controlled by Wolf's Dragoons with input from most Inner Sphere nations and major mercenary outfits.

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• Brave Scot: The Northwind Highlanders, a mercenary unit made up of survivors of Star League's Black Watch unit. They emphasised their Scottish roots and recruited solely from those with roots and bloodlines from the old Earth nation.
• Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards: Successful mercs can on occasion score exclusive contracts with a nation, and possibly even be integrated into that nation's military. MacCarron's Armoured Cavalry spent much of its history with an exclusive contract with the Capellan Confederation, essentially serving as this to the Capellan state at a whole. They were eventually fully integrated and its upper echelon were ennobled after the Fourth Succession War.
• Consummate Professional: Most successful mercenary outfits will cultivate this image and try to stick to it as best as possible (at least for as long as it is feasible). After all, a reputation for reliability and honouring your contracts is important for clients.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him:
  • Done quite by accident with the Black Thorns. Fact-checkers when someone wanted to write a Black Thorns short story realized the unit had last been seen on Galedon V, but during the Jihad Galedon V had been hit with a bioweapon that required sterilizing the planet with nukes. Whether the Thorns died to plague or nuclear fire is up for debate, but they are dead.
  • Done deliberately to the Eridani Light Horse. They were created by the developers of the game, then a fanfic writer wrote a backstory for them, then another writer accidentally canonized that backstory, lawsuits were involved, and with the Unseen debacle still fresh in everyone's minds, the Light Horse were killed off in the 3060s, and for a while were officially Out of Focus and off limits outside of a few mentions in faction books. By 2020, this had changed and the Light Horse are the stars of a cycle of novellas.
• Egocentric Team Naming: The stereotypical Inner Sphere merc unit name is commonly the founder's or current commander's name plus some kind of cool name for a unit: Wolf's Dragoons, Kell Hounds, MacCarron's Armoured Cavalry, the Gray Death Legion, Waco's Rangers, Markham's Marauders... The list goes on.
• Former Regime Personnel: A lot of mercenaries used to be members of the House militaries and a lot of mercenary units started as SLDF or House units that either went mercenary after the fall of the Star League or went rogue over lack of pay. Some wind up going the other direction and had their units folded into the militaries of the Great Houses (or just went under "permanent contract" to them) or became units of the Second Star League.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: Among the less scrupulous sorts, the line between "Mercenary" and "Space Pirate" can get rather thin indeed. Some outlaw groups originated from merc outfits that turned to plundering after running out of luck and money. Some are willing to take on legally dubious "off the books" assignments for equally shady employers who don't want to go through the official public bonding system for one reason or another. Even among sanctioned mercenary companies, you can sometimes find outfits like Snord's Irregulars whose contracts are loose enough to give them essentially the 'Mech equivalent of a Privateer's roving commission, letting them loot targets of opportunity as long as they can provide some tenuous claim of military necessity.
• Knight Errant: During the early Battletech line, when the 'feudal' in the Feudal Future was emphasised and mechwarriors were equivalent to knights, mercenaries were given this aesthetic; essentially hedge knights who served different masters at different times. As the universe became increasingly more Military Science Fiction, this aesthetic was mostly lost, though so-called 'errants' still appear in the lore from time to time, often as the self-appointed protectors of Periphery worlds.
• High Turnover Rate: Merc units at a whole tend to come and go. On average, less than 60% of newly minted merc units last six months. Less than 40% of those who do last the full year. Even among stable outfits, a steady churn of casualties and replacements is the norm, and no one is immune from "one bad day" or a contract going south without warning.
• Mildly Military: Being such a diverse bunch, the professionalism levels of various mercenary companies ranges all the way across the scale. On one hand, you have the genuine ex-military types who still function like the disciplined professionals they are, only now they're selling their skills on the open market and paying for their own gear. On the other hand, you have thrill-seeking 'Mech jockey wannabes for whom the very ideas of discipline and professionalism are foreign concepts and who see for-profit violence as an easy way to gain money or fame. Most mercs who stay in business do tend to have some level of discipline because the nature of the work means the actual idiots die quickly, but most outfits tend to have more than a few 'Mech pilots who wouldn't fit in with a House military for one reason or another.
• The Mutiny: One of the most common origins of mercenary companies are former House units who revolted over lack of pay or from being ordered to commit war crimes. Two of the merc companies in the original boxset — Hansen's Roughriders and the Centauri Lancers — were originally Davion and Liao units respectively.
• N.G.O. Superpower: The biggest mercenary units control their own worlds and can deploy regiments worth of 'mechs, making them the equals of a mid-size Periphery nation. Wolf's Dragoons took this to extremes, but the Big Mac and the Northwind Highlanders were other notable examples of how big and successful a merc unit could possibly become.
  • Between the Clan Invasion and the FedCom Civil War, Katherine Steiner decided to use military protection against Clan Jade Falcon as a "carrot-and-stick" to convince worlds on the border of the Occupation Zone to accept her (largely illegitimate) rule. In response, the Kell Hounds, several of their "seed team" merc companies, many other small mercenary units, and Clan Wolf-In-Exile formed the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon, seceding from Katherine's Lyran Alliance in all but name and basically daring her to do a damn thing about it.
• Private Military Contractors: It goes without saying that every mercenary in the Inner Sphere, from one-man outfits to large-scale operations like the Dragoons, fall under this banner.
• The Remnant: Mercenary units like the Eridani Light Horse and Northwind Highlanders are directly linked back to storied and elite Star League Defense Force units, the 3rd Regimental Combat Team and the Royal Black Watch Regiment respectively. Both pretty much consider their mercenary work to be marking time until the Star League rises again and they can rejoin the Star League Defense Force, carrying on the traditions and discipline of the SLDF.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Mercenary units tend to come in two broad flavors: Ones who will do anything and everything for money, and the ones who can afford not to. The latter group tend to be more successful and highly-regarded by the denizens of the Inner Sphere. Units like the Eridani Light Horse, Wolf's Dragoons, and Kell Hounds will consider being ordered to commit or support war crimes to be a breach of contract and pull out rather than comply (and exact terrible vengeance if their employers attempt to force the issue). Other commands are desperate or amoral enough that they'll do anything asked of them if the price is right.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: The Eridani Light Horse, one of the oldest and most prestigious mercenary outfits in the Inner Sphere, has a legacy that stretches back all the way to their time as a line unit in the original Star League Defense Force and never really stopped thinking of themselves as such even as the Star League itself collapsed into irrelevance. During the Succession Wars, their headquarters always kept their regimental colors at half-staff to mourn the long-lost Star League, while a second flagpole was kept bare for the moment when they could raise the Star League's national banner once more. They would indeed go on to form the core of a new SLDF for the briefly-revived Star League during the latter stages of the Clan Invasion.

Wolf's Dragoons

Jaime Wolf

Founder and Commander of Wolf's Dragoons

Era(s): Late Succession Wars, Clan Invasion, Jihad

The Commander of the Wolf's Dragoons. No mere mercenary, Jaime is actually a Clan warrior, though freeborn, and his Dragoons were an intelligence gathering force deployed to the Inner Sphere in preparation for an invasion. Being Wardens, they had no interest in actually helping the invasion succeed.

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• Deep Cover Agent: The entire Dragoon force was meant to be a deep-cover unit spying on the Inner Sphere. They didn't quite go native, but only one named character who's part of the Dragoons returns to the Clans when they invade, and the Dragoons go so far as to train the heirs to the Inner Sphere's Great Houses in anti-Clan tactics and fight against the Clans on more than one occasion.
• Defector from Decadence: Along with most of Wolf's Dragoons, Jaime ignored the recall order given by Clan Wolf at the start of the invasion, and stopped sending back intelligence reports well before that. In reality, he and the Dragoons were following orders from Ulric Kerensky's predecessor as Khan, to prepare the Inner Sphere to fight off the Clans.
• The Dreaded: Jaime in particular, and the Wolf's Dragoons in general, quickly earned a reputation as the last mercenary outfit in the Inner Sphere you want to get on the bad side of. Both House Kurita and House Marik learned this lesson the hard way, to their misery.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Being mercenaries, they'll work for whoever pays them without hesitation, so after their contract is up they may very well end up attacking them in the future (or, having attacked a state's holdings, may wind up working for them later with no hard feelings). The terms of their contract with each new Successor State stipulated that they wouldn't be used to attack their former employer. That is, until the Draconis Combine tried to force them into becoming part of their regular military and cost them over half of their personnel. Then they signed up with the Federated Suns and explicitly requested to be deployed against the Combine.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Despite the Dragoons almost immediately establishing themselves as the best mercenary outfit in the Inner Sphere in terms of professionalism, efficiency, and sheer size, it is revealed in the novel Wolf Pack that they not only still had access to Clan equipment even after cutting ties with the Clans, but also extra cached gear, vessels, and even WarShips from when they arrived in the Inner Sphere.
• It's Personal:
  • Jaime did not take the honor-driven seppuku of Minobu Tetsuhara well, going so far as to call out Takashi Kurita to his face in front of the other House Lords on Terra and then declare war on the Draconis Combine, an interstellar empire. The Dragoons fighting against several times their number of Combine forces tied up parts of the Combine military that really should have been fighting the Lyran Commonwealth forces that were actively invading the Combine at the time.
  • Jaime was the subject of this from Wayne Waco, whose son was crushed by a Dragoon Mech (possibly accidentally) after ejecting. Wolf didn't take the feud too seriously until Waco accepted a contract from the Word of Blake and attacked Outreach. Their duel ended in a Mutual Kill.
• Mysterious Past: Him, and the Dragoons as a whole, at least until the Clan Invasion reveals where they came from. They show up from nowhere with five regiments of pristine Mechs, some of which were rare (or only on the design board or completely unheard of) to begin with even before the Succession Wars, when most reasonably successful mercenary units that have been around a while can scrape together maybe two or three battalions of salvaged Mechs (and most starting merc units have a company, if they're lucky, sometimes starting with a lance or less). They have the resources to contract corporations to design new Mechs for them in the age of lostech. They also set the gold standard for professionalism and expertise in the mercenary business, despite the fact that virtually none of their people have any records in the Inner Sphere. After they take severe losses on more than one occasion, they mysteriously vanish into the Periphery (actually returning to Clan space) and reappear at full strength later. Most people who bother to think about it simply reason that they found an SLDF cache and are using the equipment there. Those people are not entirely wrong. ComStar repeatedly tried to infiltrate the unit and find out what the deal was, only to be caught out every time. Which, naturally, only made them more curious. Things only got weirder (for the Inner Sphere) in the 3030s when they started using a base-five organization system instead of the standard base-four used in the Inner Sphere. It started to make sense when the Clans showed up.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Jamie Wolf often is modelled after Sean Connery physically. For instance, this depiction seems to come straight from The Hunt for Red October.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: From the Clans' point of view, Wolf's Dragoons consisted of wash-outs, renegades and freebirths equipped with old outdated 'mechs they had assumed would not look out of place. In the Inner Sphere, they became a second-tier power able to shift the balance of power during the Third Succession War repeatedly.
• Opposite-Sex Clone: Jaime never donated to the Dragoons' breeding program, having children only the old-fashioned way. His communications officer later found out that Maeve Wolf was a direct clone of him, with only the Y chromosome removed.
• Outdated Outfit: Not his clothes, but his equipment. The Dragoons were sent into the Inner Sphere with equipment and Mechs that would have been commonplace and inconspicuous during the Star League era. They soon realized that the constant war in the Inner Sphere had caused their technological progress to revert and their tech was now considered highly advanced.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Jaime lost two of his three children from his first marriage to the betrayal from House Marik, and his son Mackenzie died under suspicious circumstances years later. He remarried and had three more kids before his death. He even outlives his grand-offspring - Mackenzie's son Alpin Wolf is manipulated into trying to usurp control of the Dragoons, which results in an internal civil war that ends in Alpin's death.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Alaric Wolf manages to talk the 3150s Dragoons into siding with him during his conquest of Terra, only to pull them back and have "real warriors" fight the important battle, before giving them thirty pieces of silver and reminding them that they were still traitors despite their origins and participation. The Dragoons left in disgust and promised revenge.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the debacle with Marik that cost the Dragoons Joshua and twenty-seven other members, they laid out a contingency plan in the event that they're betrayed by an employer to evacuate their noncombatants while their troops draw off the attacking force.
• Secret Test of Character: It was presumably discontinued as his face became better-known, but relatively early on in the Dragoons' career they had a habit of greeting new liaison officers by not supplying photos of the officers, then putting the entire command staff (all Colonels with the same insignia) together in a room and seeing who the officer assumed was Jaime. Minobu Tetsuhara gets it right. His replacement, Jerry Akuma, did not.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • To Takashi Kurita. After Hanse Davion's death, Takashi said "The Fox is dead. All I have left is The Wolf."
  • He seemed to look on the Kell Hounds as a potential instance of this trope - the two forces never wound up on opposite sides, but when they met on Terra Wolf mentioned to Morgan Kell that he would have liked to pit the Hounds against one of the Dragoon's regiments.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Not them, but multiple House Lords try to rope them into becoming part of their regular military at one point or another. It never works.

Natasha Kerensky, The Black Widow

For The Black Widow's writeup, please see her entry in the Clan character page.

Other Mercenaries

Morgan Kell

Founder of the Kell Hounds

Era(s): Succession Wars, Clan Invasion

Founder of the Kell Hounds.

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• Ace Custom: Toyed with. Morgan's typical ride was a red-and-black Archer, which was noted to be a stock -2R model (albeit excellently maintained) throughout the Succesion Wars. During the Clan invasion, Morgan had it upgraded with Clan and Star League technology, adding armor, ammunition, missile guidance and storage, and an Active Probe.
• Achilles in His Tent: After the fight on Mallory's World, he reduces the Hounds to a third of their strength, then abruptly retires to a monastery without explanation. Most of his former subordinates come back to the unit when he comes out of exile, but the ones who stuck around were not entirely happy about his leaving in the first place, calling it "The Defection."
• An Arm and a Leg: Loses an arm in the same bomb blast that kills his cousin Melissa and his wife Salome.
• Boring, but Practical: Kell was able to build his organization not through initially hiring the best MechWarriors, but the best technicians he could afford. Thereby making the unit's top-shelf logistical support an attractive inducement to the top-quality MechWarriors he wanted to hire.
• The Cameo: In the 2018 Battletech game. His former lover Tempest is kidnapped by a disgruntled former member of the Hounds, and he secretly comes out of exile temporarily to ask for the player's help.
• Colonel Badass: Later in life he technically has higher ranks as he rules a planet, but his official rank as the leader of the Kell Hounds was Colonel.
• Defector from Decadence: Well, "defector" is a bit strong, but he essentially took over several worlds along the Lyran-Clan border to guard against Clan aggression while Katherine was busy with political maneuvering. He signs up with Victor's side in the FedCom Civil War because he knows Katherine killed Melissa.
• Determinator: Once he clashes swords once with "Viper" Volmer and Haskell Blizzard on Galatea (and especially when Haskell threatens harm to Patrick Kell), he decides he's going to move heaven and earth to demolish both of them. And makes good on his promise.
• Good Is Not Soft: Although he and Patrick form the Kell Hounds out of altruistic motives (as a way to prevent war by becoming such a strong unit that hiring them would be seen as a Godzilla Threshold), if you piss him off, you are over. When the unit was forming on Galatea, Haskell Blizzard made the big mistake of threatening Morgan's friends and loved ones. His henchman, General "Viper" Volmer also decided to make life miserable for the nascent Hounds. In retaliation, Morgan financially ruined Blizzard^note by falsely promising that Patrick would throw a mech-gladiator match against Volmer's grandson (and Bilzzard's son-in-law), causing Blizzard to bet the house on his son-in-law. Then, Morgan got people to bump up the odds by betting heavily on Patrick. In a Gambit Pileup, Blizzard tried to cheat by gaming the rules to put Titan Volmer into a mech that far outclassed the Blackjack Patrick was originally going to pilot — technically legal, but very shady. Patrick won anyway, thanks to gaining the use of Viper's JagerMech], and defeated Titan Volmer, winning the match and financially ruining Blizard — who had tried to make off-world bets on Patrick to recoup some money in the case of a double-cross... but ... things occurred. and got Viper cashiered from the LCAF ^note  He deduced that Viper was "loaning" 'Mechs to Blizzard for use in the galdiatorial fights, then getting them repaired and repainted before his superiors in the LCAF could catch on to what was happening. To try and stop Kell reporting him he had instructed a compliant ComStar Precentor to embargo any outgoing messages involving him or the Kell Hounds. However Viper was Hoist by His Own Petard, he hadn't said anything about embargoing incoming messages, such as a order from the Archon cashiering Volmer for misuse of Lyran Commonwealth property. This also bit Blizzard in the ass. Remember those bets from the previous note? Since they involved the Kells, they were embargoed by ComStar....
• He's Back!: He comes out of exile after his brother is killed fighting Yorinaga Kurita. Ironically, he thought Dan Allard was coming to the monastery where he was staying to tell him that Yorinaga had come out of exile. Instead, Dan tells him his brother was killed in action, then gives him a serious What the Hell, Hero? for basically firing two-thirds of the Hounds and then bailing on them.
• Macross Missile Massacre: He was a noted Archer pilot.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Morgan's "Phantom Mech" ability, which is shared by a select few other elite MechWarriors, and which makes his 'mech intermittently vanish from sensors, making the 'mech well-nigh impossible to hit. It has never been (and probably will never be) explained in detail, though numerous in-universe theories exist including being a magical or psionic ability (though Word of God is that psionics do not exist, and they have a higher liklihood of ever existing in the BattleTech Universe than magic...).
• Neck Snap: He casually lays one down on a ComStar mook who's trying to kill Yorinaga Kurita's son for finding out about ComStar's hidden stash of Mechs.
• Only I Can Kill Him / The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The Kell brothers and Yorinaga Kurita all exhibit the legendary and highly contentious Phantom Mech ability, which makes them basically impossible to target. The end effect is that the only one who can land a hit on either Kell is Yorinaga, and the only one who can take Yorinaga is Morgan. Yorinaga even enforces it - when a Panther pilot objected to Yorinaga walking away after their first fight, Yorinaga destroyed the Panther in a single salvo.
• Sheathe Your Sword: He does this to Yorinaga both on their first fight and when they have their final showdown, using Yorinaga's own code of bushido against him and acknowledging him as the better warrior.
• The Strategist: He's no slouch in a tactical fight, but he helped plan the campaigns for Victor's side in the FedCom Civil War and took over as allied commander when Victor was in his Heroic BSoD after Omiko's murder.

Grayson Death Carlyle

Founder of the Gray Death Legion

Era(s): Succession Wars, Clan Invasion

Founder of the Gray Death Legion

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• Can't Stop the Signal: When he finds out why his unit got framed for war crimes - a Star League memory core on the planet his unit was supposed to be given - he downloads it, makes a bunch of copies, and gives them to anyone who will take them because ComStar proved they weren't to be trusted. The Helm Memory Core was basically the key to reversing the Lost Technology trend that was killing the Inner Sphere, turning a lot of old factories and equipment from barely if at all understood and maintained mostly by hope and luck to properly understood.
• Career-Ending Injury: In his last combat action on Caledonia, he loses his left arm, his left eye, and his ability to pilot a Mech after his Victor is sabotaged.
• Combat Pragmatist: Pioneered the use of trained anti-mech infantry teams that would emerge from cover when a 'mech approached, sling satchel charges at exposed joints and other weak spots and then run away again, a tactic he himself employed a few times. He was noted to use unconventional tactics - combined-arms warfare, pit traps, and the like - and exploit weaknesses in enemy units down to the individual Mechwarrior level.
• Enemy Mine: Teams up with Duke Ricol on Helm after the Legion is framed for mass murder.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Goes from having little experience in a Mech at all and zero combat experience to retaking a planet.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Legion wound up framed for over twelve million deaths on one occasion and over the years gained a reputation for turning on their employers. Usually it's because they're trying to stop rebellions or bring down rogue generals, but being mercenaries they don't get paid to do the right thing, but the profitable thing.
• It's Personal: Carlyle knew how to hold a grudge. After discovering the Helm Memory Core, the Legion under his command wouldn't take contracts from houses Kurita (the Combine was responsible for his father's death), Marik (the League had them wrongly declared outlaws), or Liao (House Marik had sent them on a long series of campaigns against the Confederation). Keep in mind that rules out roughly sixty percent of available Great House employers.
• Magnetic Hero: Carlyle starts out with virtually no experience but quickly assembles a tightly-knit cadre of soldiers and pilots that he forges into the Gray Death Legion.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Also a very frightening name.
• Summon Bigger Fish: The Legion manages to free an entire planet from Kuritan control by getting House Steiner involved.
• The Women Are Safe with Us: A source document notes that Carlyle summarily shot rapists and murderers in his command, and on Verthandi, went to extraordinary lengths to trap and wipe out a Kuritan mercenary company that had exterminated whole villages and sold the few survivors into slavery.
  • During his first real combat alongside the scattered remains of the Trellwan Militia, he was able to force a Locust to surrender by threatening the pilot with an Inferno launcher. When the MechWarrior dismouinted, it was revealed that she was a very attractive blonde dressed in the usual scanty manner of MechWarriors, due to the extreme heat inside a cockpit. When militiamen began making lewd jeers, and Gray feared they may act out on the remarks, he grabbed a militiaman's gun, fired it into the air, and said the first person to touch the woman in an inappropriate manner would be the first to die. He then ordered that a blanke be brought, both to shield her from the cold but also to protect her modesty. The woman turned out to be Lori Kalmar, one of the first recruits to the Gray Death Legion and Carlyle's eventual wife.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: The Legion was contracted to train some locals in resistance tactics (but not to fight, the locals couldn't afford that) against Kurita oppressors. Things go off the rails and the Legion winds up basically liberating the planet themselves out of necessity.
• Vehicular Turnabout: The first few Mechs he ever piloted or commanded were either stolen by him or stolen back by him after being stolen from him in the first place.
• You Killed My Father: Held a massive grudge against the Draconis Combine in general and Duke Hassid Ricol in particular for their involvement in the sneak attack that killed his father on Trellwan. Decision at Thunder Rift, the novel that introduces Carlyle is essentially a one-man Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Ricol and his agent Harimandir Singh. Ultimately defied in the third Gray Death Legion novel, as the Gray Death and Duke Ricol part on friendly terms and Grayson himself acknowledges that the sneak attack on Trellwan, had it worked as intended, would have been a relatively bloodless takeover with minimal impact on the civilian population.

Isobel "Bel" Carlyle

Era(s): IlClan

Great-grandaughter of Grayson Carlyle, and along with her older brother Ronan, one of the two re-founders of the Gray Death Legion

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• Affectionate Nickname: Her friends call her 'Bel.'
• Down in the Dumps: Bel’s Hatchetman was scavenged from an old junkyard that Ronan happened to inherit. The same junkyard provided quite a bit of the Legion's starter equipment.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has a quip for every occasion and is rarely afraid to let loose with them. It gets to the point where Ronan has to actively shush her so she doesn't risk an instance of Open Mouth, Insert Foot, and on at least one occasion, he revels in the fact that she is not around when there was a prime snarking opportunity.
• Enemy Mine: "Enemy" may be stretching it a little, but Bel goes along with Ronan when he takes on the Tamar Pact, the same interstellar entity that had declared them traitors and exiled them, as the newly-reconstituted Gray Death Legion's first client.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Bel is the foolish to Ronan's responsible. While definitely all business when in combat and not an idiot, Bel can be seen as somewhat flighty, even a little immature at times, and lacking in military courtesy. She has to be constantly reminded by Ronan that even in the mercenary Legion, they are not Mildly Military.
  Bel (to Ronan): You look like shit.
  Ronan: "Sir."
  Bel: You look like shit, sir.
  Ronan: Better.
• Height Angst: Downplayed. Bel, who is described as being of slightly less than average height, doesn't so much angst over her height as she kvetches about it, especially when she can't see because someone taller is in front of her or when others reflexively try to protect her because of her size.
• Heroic Lineage: Is the great-granddaughter of Grayson Death Carlyle, and the granddaughter of Alexander Carlyle, both leaders of the original Gray Death Legion.
• Hero Worship: Bel avidly read anything she could get her hands on concerning her famous ancestors as a child. She applied to a MechWarrior academy (against her parents' wishes) expressly so she could follow in Gray and Alex's footsteps. She even requested (and was allowed) to be assigned a Shadow Hawk, as that was a 'mech closely associated with her great-grandmother, Lori Kalmar-Carlyle, while serving in the Arcturan Guards. She named it "Tyche", which surprised Ronan, as he was sure she was going to call it "Boss Lady", the name of Lori's Shadow Hawk. Later on, she pilots a salvaged Hatchetman... until the battle on Pandora results in salvage, including a Shadow Hawk. Bel called "dibs" on it almost immediately, and had it fixed up to become her ride. Almost squeeing with delight, she then tells Ronan that she already had the 'mech's name painted on as part of the repair process... "Boss Lady II".
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Ronan is considerably taller than Bel, and she also shares significant scenes with MechWarrior Curtain, who likewise is described as towering over the petite Bel.
• Magnetic Hero: Bel seems to have picked up this trait from her great-grandfather. In both of the novellas that she's figured in, she seems to be able to make fast friends and has recruited a fair few people to the unit, including MechWarrior Curtain.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Her loyalty to the Lyran Commonwealth forced Isobel and her brother Ronan to leave the 26th Arcturan Guards and return to the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, they were both cashiered out of the LCAF anyway, a decision that eventually lead to the siblings to resurrect the Gray Death Legion using salvaged LCAF mechs and equipment.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: As a full member and Sergeant in the LCAF, Bel has had all the requisite military training. But the stories so far show that she has not yet experienced much in the way of combat, especially combat up close. During the fight for the Star League Fort on Condor, she comes close to vomiting upon seeing their opposition reduced to close to Ludicrous Gibs, something that, as a MechWarrior, she hasn't had to see personally. She also has not had much experience in command (being a junior NCO, she was probably in the process of learning the ropes of commanding others when she and Ronan were cashiered from the LCAF), and in one scene where she has to take command in a crisis is seen to be mildly struggling with hitting the right tone at first.

Other

The Bounty Hunter

The Bounty Hunter III in his signature armour.

Era(s): Succession Wars (I, II), Clan Invasion (II, III), Jihad (III, IV), Dark Age (V, VI)

The most famous freelancing mercenary of the Inner Sphere, The Bounty Hunter is famous for two things: Their secret identity, and having been present for every known era of the Battletech-verse. Being a legacy character who passes on their 'mech and reputation to a chosen successor, each new Bounty Hunter's former identity becomes mostly obscured whenever they don the mantle, and each incarnation dons the signature green, identity-hiding armour that has been passed down through every incarnation of the character so far.

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• Ace Pilot: All incarnations of the Bounty Hunter have, without fail, been extremely skilled MechWarriors. The first Bounty Hunter made a rival out of Natasha Kerensky and battled her on several occasions, and the third Bounty Hunter is one of very few people to have ever gotten the better of Kai-Allard Liao in a 'mech duel.
• Black Knight: Well, green, but because of the Knight Errant or Rōnin aestetic of MechWarriors in early editions, the original Bounty Hunter had many trappings of this trope, being a skilled mystery knight clad in body-covering armour.
• Bounty Hunter: Natch. Due to working only alone or with a small set of companions, those who hire The Bounty Hunter do so to take out specific targets of their choosing, not to turn the tide of battles like with mercenary companies.
• Captain Ersatz: Of Boba Fett. Entertainingly, the Bounty Hunter being a Legacy Character pre-dated Jango Fett's existence by a decade. The in-universe holovision show The Bounty Hunters resembles The A-Team, complete with giving the teams an identical backstory.
• Challenge Seeker: Seemingly a secondary motivation for the Bounty Hunter - money of course is the primary goal, but the Bounty Hunter has a history of taking and completign seemingly impossible contracts to enhance the legend.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": While some Bounty Hunters have had names before taking up the position, while they are the Bounty Hunter they are only ever referred to as such and anyone who knows their former identity (including the former Bounty Hunter and their companions) are sworn to secrecy. The first Bounty Hunter never had another name, in-universe or outside.
• The Faceless: Due to their armour.
• Legacy Character: Six people have been known to have been the Bounty Hunter so far, though not all of those successions are known in-universe.
• Living Legend: Aided in part by having their own in-universe drama series called The Bounty Hunters, a heavily fictionalized account of their career.
• Mysterious Past: Holovid show aside, the origins of the first Bounty Hunter is unknown.
• Only in It for the Money: With the exception of the second Bounty Hunter (whose career was fairly brief), every incarnation has worked as a merc-for-hire for whoever is willing to pay. The first couple of figures to bear the title still typically brought their targets in dead, but around the 2990s the Bounty Hunter and their crew began taking contracts on anyone who someone would pay to have killed, not just high-value MechWarrior targets.
• Powered Armor: The Bounty Hunter's armour is modelled off the Star League-era "Nighthawk" powered armour, though whether it is actually powered or not is unknown.
• The Rival: The original Bounty Hunter had a long-standing blood feud with Natasha Kerensky, and was a good enough MechWarrior to keep the feud going for a decade and change with neither being able to kill the other.
• Secret Identity: The original Bounty Hunter's identity was never revealed, in-universe or out of it.

Gray Noton

The undefeated champion of Solaris VII

Era(s): Succession Wars

A mercenary, Solaris VII gladiator and later information broker and Capellan agent, Gray Noton was famous for his unprecedented seven years as Grand Champion of the Solaris VII arenas, riding his "Legend-Killer" into victory against multiple, much heavier, 'mechs before retiring of his own volition.

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• Ace Pilot: Seven years of Solaris VII victories at Class Five in a stock Rifleman doesn't just make you a good MechWarrior, it makes you the equivalent of a boxing Middleweight with a bad back winning the Heavyweight World Championship and then defending it for six years. Though it's questionable how good he was in normal battle conditions, in Solaris 'mech duels Noton died unequalled and undefeated.
• Big Bad: To the extent that Allard's half of Warrior: En Guarde has a main villain, Noton is it.
• Cruel Mercy: Inverted; when Noton learned he had crippled the Valkyrie pilot who had ambushed him for life and made him unable to pilot a 'mech ever again, he reflects that it would had been better to kill him. Allard, of course, refused to stay down and the two would eventually meet again.
• Iconic Item: Gray Noton's public image was heavily tied to his "Legend-Killer", the 'mech he rode into seven Solaris VII victories. Legend-Killer became almost as Shrouded in Myth as Noton himself, with multiple theories arising to explain Noton's incredible win-streak in it. Given the public nature of Solaris VII matches, and the high density of 'mech experts on the planet who would be able to tell otherwise, every indication points towards "Legend-Killer" being a stock RFL-3N. The mystery, however, endures.
• Knowledge Broker: After retiring he made this his primary occupation, using his fame and contacts to dip into the information flow of Solaris VII.
• Neck Snap: How he finally met his end, courtesy of Justin Allard ambushing him in his office.
• Riddle for the Ages: Exactly what "Legend-Killer" was has remained an eternal mystery. Some sources describe it as a stock Rifleman, others as a Rifleman with LosTech components, and yet others that it was an SLDF royal Rifleman II Noton recovered in the Deep Periphery. A wildcat theory even deems it a FrankenMech with the lower body of a Warhammer or Longbow. When Justin Allard drove Legend-Killer briefly, he didn't note anything different about the 'Mech from a standard RFL-3N, but another story featuring Noton's internal monologue mentions his "other Rifleman," meaning any or all of these theories could be accurate.
• Shrouded in Myth: Noton encouraged secrecy about himself, making his full history and the truth behind "Legend-Killer" unknown. He apparently started his career as a Gladiator in his mid-teens before being hired as a mercenary somewhere in the Periphery, returning with "Legend-Killer" to start his meteoric rise to fame.
• Signature Move: Flipping his Rifleman's guns over to point backwards (extremely difficult in the awkward Rifleman) to attack enemies behind him. Justin Allard figures out Noton was the one who defeated and crippled him from watching a recording of him doing it in the arena.
• Worthy Opponent: Viewed Justin Allard this way. Allard didn't reciprocate.

Duncan Fisher

Era(s): Late Succession Wars, FedCom Civil War, Jihad

A bombastic, whiskey-sodden color commentator for the Solaris Broadcasting Company.

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• The Alcoholic: His love of the brown stuff is legendary, and judging by the volume of community service PSA work he's done over the years, it seems to have gotten him in no small amount of trouble. May be a form of self-medication due to the injuries he suffered in his days as a Solaris Gladiator.
• Breakout Character: Started out as a simple announcer voice (provided by the inimitable George Ledoux) in the Solaris arena levels for MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, he has become far more since then, largely thanks to the popular Tex Talks Battletech YouTube series. In addition to this, he returned for MechWarrior Online during its "Solaris 7" duel mode before it was removed, and is the focus of the Solaris Showdown expansion for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. In all instances, his voice actor, George Ledoux, has reprised the role consistently.
• Canon Immigrant: Specifically, the kind of immigrant who hides under a pile of potato sacks in the back of El Coyote's pickup truck. While he's never appeared in any completely official first party material, a few authors who have written for official sources have done short stories filling out Fisher's Back Story.
• Combat Commentator: Easily the most prominent Solaris 7 announcer, at least with the fandom.
• Dented Iron: Like many real-world ringside commentators, he was a former fighter himself until forced into retirement by a spinal injury.
• Expy: An aging celebrity who appears in numerous different films, TV shows and advertisements and maintains an unflappably positive demeanor despite a troubled personal life, including severe alcoholism? You may remember this character archetype from such long-running American multimedia franchises beginning in the 1980s as The Simpsons' Troy McClure.
• Falling Into The Commentator's Seat: Becoming a commentator was a stroke of luck for Duncan. Previously a middling Mechwarrior relying on Jake Mason to do the heavy lifting, he was out of action for the FedCom Unification tournament and was present in the commentary box when the despondent Terry Zee mysteriously choked on his alcohol and died. Duncan stepped in, and has remained commentating Solaris matches to this day.
• Long-Runners: According to the MechWarrior 5 DLC Solaris Showdown: The Ballad of Duncan Fisher he got his start as a Gladiator in the 3040s and he's still working as a commentator well into the Word of Blake Jihad.
• New Jobs As The Plot Demands: While their canonicity is dubious at best, he's appeared in various third-party videos not only as a sportscaster, but also acting in Public Service Announcements, community theatre productions, various advertisements and even playing the lead role in a detective drama.
• Plucky Comic Relief: He's part of why Solaris is entertaining. Instinctively plays the Wise Guy to the hilt with his partner (usually Nik's Cavaliers commander Jake Mason) as the long-suffering Straight Man.
• Pungeon Master: Almost every line he throws out is a pun based on the action taking place, especially in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries.
• RPGs Equal Combat: Duncan Fisher certainly thinks so, as his appearances in the Actual Play series Celebrity Tabletop consist entirely of randomly attacking things with fireballs and/or hand grenades.

Devlin Stone

Founder of the Republic of the Sphere

Era(s): Jihad, Dark Age

The main hero of the Jihad. Nothing is really known about him besides wild rumors. He became leader of the Republic of the Sphere, essentially a new Terran Hegemony, at the conclusion of the Jihad. Then, 20 years later, he vanished and the Dark Age set in. When he returned, he found there wasn't much to return to, and what little he had didn't last long.

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• All for Nothing: The Dark Ages plotline is this for him; everything he did from the establishment of The Republic of the Sphere on comes apart before his eyes, and every attempt to save what he'd built is for nothing. He's forced to dissolve the Republic as part of his surrender to the Wolf Empire, and Stone himself dies mere days after his Republic.
• Create Your Own Hero: According to Stone, this trope not only happened, but it was exceedingly literal. The Word of Blake made him and may even have wanted him to win. Of course, we only have Stone's word for this.
• Deathbed Confession: Gives one to the gathered leadership of the ilClan days after his defeat in which he claims he was created by the Word of Blake. It then transitions to him railing against Alaric Ward in a final fit of hate before Chance Vickers puts him out of his misery.
• Defiant to the End: He chose to Die Laughing at the man who beat him, taunting him all the way.
• Depending on the Writer: For various reasons, there aren't a lot of novels set during the Jihad or the Dark Age, so Stone didn't have much characterization to begin with. As such, there isn’t a clear idea on how he should be portrayed, and thus it varies.
• General Failure: Played with. He was brilliant during the Jihad. His track record after waking up was not great, to the point that the Wolf Empire takes Terra from him. However, it’s not as cut and dry as that. His actual plans were logical and likely would have worked had he not underestimated Alaric Ward. While Stone is far from the only person to have done that, he was the one who paid most dearly for it.
• Human Popsicle: Apparently put himself in cryogenic stasis after he vanished, expecting to be thawed out fifty years later, not fifteen.
• King in the Mountain: He steps down as Exarch of the Republic of the Sphere, promises to return if needed, and then vanishes. Two years later, the HPG network goes down, all hell breaks loose, and he's nowhere to be found. He does return when needed, albeit against his will, only for everything he worked for to fall apart anyway.
• Long-Lasting Last Words: So long in fact that the Clanners got sick of hearing him talk and took matters into their own hands.
• Manchurian Agent: Claimed on his deathbed to have been "created" by the Blakists for unknown reasons, starting as a Federated Suns grunt who had all he needed to know about military and political strategy and tactics imprinted into his brain, a procedure that almost drove him mad, before being dumped in the prison camp where he met David Lear.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He knew that the Republic would only survive if it defeated the three armies on their doorstep, those being the Liaos, the Wolves, and the Falcons, and decided to lure them to Terra one at a time to take them on, starting with the Wolves, who he knew were the most dangerous enemy of the three. This probably would have worked if not for the fact that Alaric Ward proceeded to do the unthinkable and invited Jade Falcon to join the assault, dooming the Republic of the Sphere.
• Unreliable Narrator: He tells the Clanners a lot on his deathbed. They can't be sure any of it was true, but it's enough to disturb the usually level-headed Alaric.
• Vorpal Pillow: As he taunts and insults the victorious Alaric Ward, his second-in-command finally has enough of it and suffocates him. He still manages to Die Laughing.
• Wild Mass Guessing: In-Universe there are all kinds of rumors on his actual origins, ranging from the mundane guesses of being a former member of one of the more moderate (read: not nuke em all happy) WoB factions to outlandish ideas of actually being Arthur Steiner-Davion, who was supposedly killed a few years before the Jihad. According to him, the truth is much stranger.
• Young Conqueror: From a minor rebel leader to Sphere-wide Coalition leader to the ruler of the de-facto reborn Terran Hegemony.

The Minnesota Tribe

Just before the second succession war, a highly skilled, totally anonymous warband using Star League tactics conducted a series of raids on four worlds of the Draconis Combine^note At the time. All four are now in what is considered Rasalhague space., stole tons of resources, and then left the Inner Sphere forever, never to be seen again.

Their only identifying marks were regular army colors, and an insignia of the US State of Minnesota. The same one used by the Star League's 331st Royal BattleMech Division, and later Clan Wolverine's 331st Battle Cluster, leading to all sorts of questions in-universe.

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• Better to Die than Be Killed: Any MechWarrior who was in imminent capture during the Trondheim raid took their own life rather than be captured by the Combine forces.
• Combat Pragmatist: Their longest fight was on Trondheim when the Combine was actually able to muster a response. When they made their way to the planet of Jarrett, they didn't even give the Combine a chance to land on the planet by filling the atmosphere around their target with AeroSpace Fighters.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: They only got their name after the second of their four attacks.
• Foreshadowing: Though no one in the Inner Sphere realised it at the time, they had just gotten their first preview of the inevitable Clan Invasion that would occur over 200 years later; an army of highly skilled, well equipped warriors showing up without warning from beyond the Periphery and attacking the Inner Sphere.
• The Ghost: The Tribe stands out for this; Much of BattleTech's history is generally very well-documented, down to lots of little granular details, so imagine the kind of mystery these guys who are only known by the logo on their equipment must conjure.
• The Remnant: Word of God has confirmed they are members of Clan Wolverine who survived the Trial of Annihilation in 2823. However, it's not known if the Tribe represented all of the exiled Wolverines, or just one fraction.
• Riddle for the Ages: They are the in-universe's greatest: Just who were the Minnesota Tribe? Why did they attack just the Combine? And where did they go once they left? Unlike a lot of BattleTech's history, this one group and their history remains almost completely a mystery; all we know for sure is that they probably have something to do with Clan Wolverine refugees. Maybe.
• Small Role, Big Impact: By all accounts, the Tribe raided four worlds and then disappeared, but they spooked pretty much everybody involved.
  • In general, it was the first time in years that, if the rumors are true, Clan-adjacent warfare terrorized the Inner Sphere, and they were by and large not ready for it.
  • Jinjiro Kurita was horrified by what he thought was Kerensky's inevitable return and shifted troops away from where they probably should've been to await a possible invasion force, and depending on how you look at it may have had a hand in him finally going over the edge.
  • ComStar was also very unnerved by their existence, as the idea of Kerensky's forces returning meant that ComStar's place as inevitable savior of humanity was doomed if he was coming back. According to a Canon Rumor, the Word of Blake, hundreds of years after the fact, even funded an expedition that found concrete proof of a link between them and the Not-Named clan, and they promptly glassed it with a nuclear device once it was confirmed.^note The rumor is partly true, in that a ComStar Explorer Corps team did find the memorials for Khans McEvedy and Hallis on Barbados, as well as evidence that someone else was actively maintaining the site. Rather than glassing the planet, though, the expedition did everything they could to stay under the radar and leave no evidence of their own presence for future visitors.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: The dead MechWarrior on Richmond was piloting a Lancelot BattleMech painted in SLDF Regular Army colors. His flight suit had two patches: one featured the Terran state of Minnesota with the numbers "331" (which ComStar identified as belonging to the 331st Royal BattleMech Division, an SLDF unit that left the Inner Sphere during Kerensky's Exodus), the other was an image of a Wolverine, though no one in the Inner Sphere would understand the significance of it until after the Clan Invasion.

Pope Leo XXI

Born "Leonard Goodnight", he was appointed Pope of the New Avalon Catholic Church after the Pope and the College of Cardinals were executed by Draconis Combine invaders. This character was created as part of the 2019 Clan Invasion crowdfunding campaign by a backer.

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• Badass Preacher: He's a Pope, a veteran of the Knights Defensor, and a MechWarrior. He often personally leads missions to liberate Christian settlements from the Kuritans.
• Bling of War: His Battlemech, a Regent named Justicar, is painted gold.

Religious Organizations

Religious leaders examining the Unfinished Book

The Battletech universe is home to several religious organizations of varying size and influence.

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• Christianity is Catholic: The Catholic Church of the Battletech timeline is highly developed, with multiple branches and orders, both military and civilian. Other sects of Christianity receive less focus.
• Church Militant: Several of these religious groups are militarized.
  • The Roman Catholic Church has the Pontifical Swiss Guard while the New Avalon Catholic Church has the Knights Defensor.
  • The Brotherhood of Randis practices its own version of Christianity and is a knighthood dedicated to the protection of Randis IV.
• Colbert Bump: In-Universe example. Hanse Davion was sworn into office on a copy of the "Unfinished Book" rather than the typical Bible, causing it to explode in popularity.
• Fantastic Catholicism: The Catholic Church has split into two branches. There's the "Old Roman" Catholic Church and the New Avalon Catholic Church based in the Federated Suns. The latter church was created in the chaos of the Amaris coup when a misunderstood message caused a Cardinal to think he had been appointed the new Pope. The two Churches have had both violent and nonviolent clashes over the years.
• Giant Animal Worship: The Worm Cult, a Buddhism-inspired cult in the Capellan Confederation, worships the giant Niomede Worms that live underground in Niomede-4. The Renegade Splinter Faction Ash Witch Cult also worship these worms, though their worship centers on the charred, comatose body of a Capellan national hero.^note These groups only appear in German language novels and are not considered canon.
• The Hashshashin: A Fantasy Counterpart Culture version. The Azami, a Muslim community within the Draconis Combine, have their own intelligence agency called the Saurimat. They specialize in "Quick Death" assassination techniques.
• A Hero to His Hometown: The Brotherhood of Randis is well-liked on Randis IV due to their successful defense against pirates. However, they are less successful in off-world missions.
• Illegal Religion: The Draconis Combine favours eastern religions (Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Shinto) and uses the Ivory Pillar to enforce them as the only permitted religions. Others are usually harshly supressed, though the Rasalhagues have an Orthodox Church they're allowed to keep (because supressing it would be too much work) and a significant Shia minority practice Islam privately (while using the real-life practice of taqyia to pretend to be pious Combine citizens in public).
• Interfaith Smoothie: Several of these organizations are mixes of real-world, present day religions.
  • The Unfinished Book Movement was founded by Father Jasper Ovidon, who brought together leaders from multiple religions into the Federated Interfaith Congress and formed the "Unfinished Book", integrating excerpts from the scriptures of several religions.
  • Clan Cloud Cobra's religion, the Way, is made up of several Cloisters based on various Earth religions. Even members of other Clans are allowed to join. Their first Khan was a SLDF military chaplain who was focused on smoothing over cultural and religious differences among his troops.
  • The "Great Reconciliation". Some novels state that in the 21st century, the majority of Jews assimilated into the Roman Catholic Church in protest of a tyranical Orthodox regime in the nation of Israel. This contradicts earlier works, which only mention an interfaith meeting between the two religions, and has been ignored in later works.
  • The Ivory Pillar practices and enforces a mixture of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Shinto, though instead of freely mixing and matching dogma they instead promote specific religious practices to specific social classes to maintain social harmony (nobles can practice Taoism or Confucianism, soldiers Zen Buddhism or Confucianism, the middle class practice Confucianism exclusively and the serfs and unproductives practice Shinto).
• Messianic Archetype:
  • The One Star Faith was founded on the belief that Aleksandr Kerensky had discovered a paradisical "One Star" and the SLDF's descendants were guarding it for the faithful. They got a rude awakening when the Clan Invasion happened.
  • The Nesbit Foundation was created to analyze the prophecies of Star League-era psychic Frank Nesbit, including the leader ushering in a new Golden Age. That leader is hinted to be Devlin Stone.
• The Missionary: Lots of these organizations engage in missionary work. The Brotherhood of Randis' missionaries are often invited to planets since these missions are protected by MechWarriors
• Religion of Evil: The Thuggee of the 31st Century worship Romano and Kali Liao. They were behind the Black May terrorist attack in the St. Ives Compact.
• Typhoid Mary: The Azami Brotherhood is a Muslim community in the Draconis Combine. Their North African ancestors were the victims of a plague that fatally congealed their blood. The modern Azami continued to carry this dormant disease in their blood, though they suffered no symptoms. The Draconis Combine was unable to conquer Azami worlds due to this disease. This allowed the Azami to negotiate more peaceful integration with the Combine while maintaining some sovereignty for themselves.