The Problem with the Clans

 Hey Game Fam, this is an article about Battletech, but it isn’t a product review. It’s more of an essay on where the Clans are, and what they represent in Battletech. Note, this is my opinion, but I have supporting facts taken from a variety of sourcebooks. The Clans are a problematic topic, (although they have one caveat that I think is interesting) for a host of reasons. Let’s dig into those problems point by point. If you’re unfamiliar with the Clans, check out their article on Sarna.net here.  

Problem 1: The Clans are practitioners of Eugenics. 

Yep, they are. The Clans use advanced medical technology to birth classes of warrior cadets from exemplary genetic samples from previous generations. Believing that these warriors are the proof of their warrior aesthetic, the Clans throw resources into gestating warriors and training them to be the absolute best. Natural born children (or freeborns) are second-class citizens. They regard warriors from other cultures with anything from contempt to grudging tolerance because of their birth status, and Clan society has an insult for these children Stravag.  

Problem 2: The Clans use a Caste system

This ties in with problem 1, but they base the Clan society off a tiered caste system. The five castes of Clan Society are: Laborer, Merchant, Scientist, Technician and Warrior. They frown on Inter-caste mobility, and dole strict punishments out for those who try to operate outside their caste’s specific roles. The Clans do not believe in the concept of free expression or most civil rights we take for granted. That’s the way they constructed their society.

Problem 3: Clan Warfare

Clan Warfare at its core is a lot like a UFC fight. Bear with me. The Clans believe that fighting a total war of the past is a foolish waste of resources and have built their military to accomplish the task at hand with the lowest use of resources. When everyone sees this and agrees to fight by those rules, the Clans are understandable. They, however, take a very dim view of those who break these rules of warfare and once the rules break, the Clans do not pull punches.  

Now these three problems taken together are problematic, and it shows in the latest sourcebook, IlClan. IlClan features two Clans, Wolf and Jade Falcon, fighting for control of Terra from the defending Republic of the Sphere. The senior leadership of the two clans does very different things despite their shared problematic elements. Let’s examine.

Malvina Hazen: Khan of Clan Jade Falcon, the Chingis Khan, leader of the Golden Ordun, and one of the two senior clan leaders fighting the Battle for Terra. Malvina is a well-established war criminal in universe, deploying nuclear weapons, orbital bombardment, and showing no regard for civilian populations during battle. She executes and tortures prisoners, and her own subordinates when they fail her. Also allegedly mentally unstable.  

Alaric Ward: Khan of Clan Wolf, and the other senior Clan leader fighting the battle of Terra. Unpredictable tactical and strategic thinker. His battle plan shows a risk-taking strategy, but follows more of a traditional clan strategy of Trial and conquest.  

These two senior officers have built up their clan’s respective fighting forces to match their style of warfare, and the battle itself plays out differently as the two armies try to take the world away from its defenders. Alaric is trying to fight and destroy the Republic’s military assets to assume control of the planet. Malvina wants to destroy the republic, and it’s leader, and doesn’t care who gets hurt along the way.

IlClan then becomes a battle of two very different styles of warfare. Malvina’s Mongol doctrine of high speed, high mobility total warfare vs. Alaric’s traditional clan doctrine. Why does this matter? The Battletech fandom can be very flippant about the use of war crimes as a joke, and this book does feature war crimes on all three sides of this war. The question then becomes the degree and scope of those crimes.  

Malvina is the Grand Prize winner of the War Crimes race. She tortures and executes captives. She also uses orbital bombardment (which is a war crime, according to the Ares conventions) multiple times against the planetary defenders. Her hat trick in this campaign alone involves wholesale destruction and slaughter of civilians in combat theaters because it’s expedient to her goal of winning.

Alaric is also guilty of War Crimes, as we would view them. One of the first events that occurred after their arrival was a partisan attack by republic forces after the Wolves had taken the area. Alaric gave the townsfolk one hour to leave and stated that they would not tolerate cowardly partisan attacks, and anyone supporting or sheltering guerilla fighters would see their communities razed for such actions. (Note, this is perfectly in keeping with the clan style of warfare, as the idea of a warrior hiding amongst the rest is repugnant to the clans). Other than responses like this (including the aforementioned town detonation), Alaric mostly ignored the civilian population. His subordinates also took gentler stances when dealing with the civilian population (until populations engaged in acts of sabotage and were destroyed consequently). He also used questionable tactics during their run in system that led to the destruction of virtually irreplaceable technology.

The Republic forces used some extremely questionable tactics in their defense of their homeworld and also earn a War Crimes prize. Several times throughout the battle, civilian forces under the authority of republic military operatives committed acts of sabotage and attempted assassinations of high-ranking leaders on the other side. The most egregious of these severely injured or incapacitated the entire senior command staff of both Clans and left operational control to the Galaxy Commanders. The breakdown in senior management triggered a fresh burst of violent activity towards the Republic forces (and sometimes the civilian population). I could argue that without these provocations, the Clan Wolf forces would have left the civilians alone.  

So, what’s the point of all of this? No one’s a good guy. The universe of Battletech is too morally grey for the existence of honest white hatted heroes. The best you can hope for is that the shade of grey you wear is brighter than your opponent. War is hell, and at least part of the militaries of all three sides of this conflict tried to minimize the damage done to the civilian populace of Terra in their conquest. 

Looking at Battletech this way (and especially in Clan politics and warfare), we, as outside observers, can look at the situation in IlClan objectively and point out that these people are bad. Who is the least bad, and what does the future they’re building look like? 

In the battle's aftermath, we can see that the world is firmly in control of one power. They can change the way the Clans operate and follow similar initiatives by other clan powers to integrate with their neighbors (Three of the other Inner Sphere clans have done so, the Ghost Bears most successfully). Will they? I do not know; the future is unwritten. Are they still problematic? Absolutely. They’re still Eugenics driven warmongers who have a tightly controlled and regulated society. Will that society survive this new era? Again, it’s a question that’s up in the air, but it’s not called PeaceTech, so I suspect it will be an era of conflict and warfare as these questions are examined and their outcomes determined. 

The IlClan book also shows us a dramatic reaction to the differing styles of warfare, and the potential growth that can occur. Unit after unit surrenders to the Clan Wolf forces, who have treated their opponents fairly in the aftermath, while the Jade Falcons just execute them. The most crystal clear incident of this involves fighting around Greece, and the Clan Wolf commander allowing the defeated Greek soldiers to return to the field to protect the historical treasures of Greece (which had been damaged in the previous liberation of Terra some 70 odd years earlier). The clan Wolf commanders show their willingness to work outside the rigid dogma of Clan Warfare when it suits them. 

Battletech is a morally grey place, but any media property that glorifies warfare and combat is. People get hurt in war, and civilian populations are always threatened in properties like this. War criminals (especially fictional ones) deserve to be prosecuted and destroyed for their actions. Every faction in the Battletech Universe has blood on its hands. Everyone has done something heinous in its past in its history. 

What does this mean for us as fans? That’s complicated. We can hope that the authors continue to push these characters and societies into more progressive and interesting directions. We can push for fresh voices telling different stories in this universe, and as always, vote with your wallet. If you don’t like a product, don’t buy it. If you see a product that you love, buy one. Encourage your friends to buy. Try to open this community to new folks and let them find the fun in Battletech. It’s a complex, multigenerational story of war in the stars. It’s going to have problematic elements, but we can hope that those problematic elements become springboards for growth and change in the universe.