Clan Wolf

Clan Wolf of the fictional universe of BattleTech is one of the most important Clans.

History
Clan Wolf was founded by Jerome Winsonin 2810, brother-in-law of the Founder of all clans, Nicholas Kerensky, who also became a member of this clan. The chosen Clan of Kerensky, the Wolves had been a dominant force in the Clans since their beginning. Kerensky named the clan after the Strana Mechty wolf, the creature he saw as the ultimate warrior. This was not the last of the blessings the Founder gave to this clan - he became their leader, and gave the Kerensky bloodname and genetic lineage to them. This greatly shocked the Clan Jade Falcon, and ever since that day there's been tension, rivalry and even occasional wars between the two clans.

Clan Wolf have proved themselves expert warriors: they annihilated the Clan Wolverine and absorbed the Clan Widowmaker, long before their successes in the invasion of the Inner Sphere. They also perfected the Elemental body armor. They led the Wardens in the Grand Council and were the only Invading Clan to oppose the Clan Invasion in 3050. Clan Wolf proposed sending a reconnaissance force to gather intelligence before the Invasion, a force that eventually became known as the Wolf's Dragoons, arguably the best mercenary unit in the Inner Sphere, and crucial in stopping the Clan's invasion.

Operation Klondike
During Operation Klondike Clan Wolf was assigned in retaking Eden alongside the Clans of Hell's Horses, Jade Falcon and Smoke Jaguar. There clan wolf proved the mettle and reliability of its warriors. Only clan Jade Falcon proved to be as realiable. However Clan Burrock, Goliath Scorpion, Fire Mandril and Widowmaker faced significant setbacks in the planet Dagda. Immediately Nicholas kerensky Shifted Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon to Dagda. This move proved fruitfull and the planets defences were overcome as planned. The root of the animosity between the Jade Falcons and Clan Wolf lies in the aftermath of operation Klondike. Nicholas Kerensky chose Clan Wolf to be the bearers of his Genetic Legacy due to their performance. This infuriated many Jade Falcon Warriors who (rightly) though they performed just as good as Clan Wolf. Eventually this led to another significant event in clan History known as "The Culling".

Chosen of Kerensky
Being the clan that was chosen to carry the genetic legacy of Nicholas the Wolves also acted as the Ilkhans right arm. They were actually the force that Nicholas used to imposed his will upon the rest of the clans. There are two Such events that highlight this: The annihilation of clan Wolverine and the absorption of Clan Widowmaker.

Annihilation of clan Wolverine
The years after the pacification of the Pentagon worlds tensions had started to run high among the clans. Many of them were not happy with Nicholas rule. First and foremost among them was Clan Widowmaker and their Khan Sarah McEvedy. In 2823 she eneered into a heated debate with Nicholas about a disputed Brian Cache. Kerensky attempted to censor McEvedy before the rest of the council. This infuriated her and in turn she announced that from that point forward clan Wolverine became an independent power, that no longer recognised Kerensky's authority. In turn Kerensky announced a trial of annihilation against clan Wolverine.

According to clan rules and rituals the remaining 19 clans bid in order to win the honour of annihilating the wolverines. The two clans that made it to the final stages of the bidding were Clan Wolf and Clan Widowmaker. The Wolves did win at the end but they were forced to reduce the number of forces they were going to use greatly. Clan Wolf forces landed on the Wolverine holdings of planet Circe on January 22 2824. After beating an innicial wolverine counterattack on their landing zone the Wolves fought and defeated them in land, air and space within two days. When the wolverines attempted to leave clan space a large running space battle began which lasted for another 19 days and was again victorious for the Wolves.

During the next two months Clan Wolf destroyed all of the Wolverines holdings, demolished their buildings and forcibly sterylised their civilian castes. All sibkos that contained wolverine Genes were terminated. Nevertheless McEvedy managed to escape Clan space with a warship, a few second line warriors and some battlemechs. She made a few stops in the Inner sphere grabbing what supplies she needed and disappeared again in the deep periphery. These remnants of the Wolverines became known in the Inner Sphere as the mysterious " Minnesota tribe"

Absorption of Clan Widowmaker
In the year 2834 Clan Widowmaker faced an internal problem: Their merchant caste blamed the military arm of their clan for the loss of several metal ore mines to clan wolf. The response of the Widowmaker Khan was brutal. He ordered mass arrests and executions of many of the merchant caste members. This shocked the rest of the clans to their core to such an extend that the Khan Jerome Winson of the Wolves proposed that the Widowmakers were unfit to govern. He passed a motion, that was unanimously accepted from the rest of the khans, for the absorption of Clan Widowmaker. Clan wolf won the right to absorb Clan Widowmaker.

The battle for the trial of absorption took place in a neutral world that of Ironhold that belonged to clan Jade Falcon. The forces that took part in the battle were 10 Widowmaker stars against 11 Clan Wolf starts. Because this was the second major incident in clan history Nicholas Kerensky and the rest of the clan Khans acted as umpires. The battle started savagely but eventually every combatant was reduced to a spectator to the dual that was taking place between Khan Jorgensson and Khan Winson. However at the moment that Khan Winson was about to defeat his opponent five Widowmaker Mechs breached the duel, protecting their khan and attacking Khan Winson. With clan rules of engagement so clearly violated Kerensky and the rest of the khans entered the fight to defended Winson. At that moment Khan Jorgensson was dazed from the ferocity of winsons attacks. As soon as he regained some clarity and realised what was going on he fired at the mech he perceived to be the greatest threat. In this case it was an Atlas Battlemech. Nicholas Kerensky's Battlemech. The mechs cockpit was destroyed almost instantly. The founder and first Ilkhan of the clans was dead before his mech hit the ground.

Nicholas death sent clan wolf warriors to a frenzy. They virtually annihilated Clan Widowmaker. Only a handful of Widowmaker warriors survived to be absorbed to clan wolf, along with Widowmaker genetic legacies and civilian castes. Ironically though the death of Nicholas Kerensky marked the beginning of the Clan Golden Age.

Golden Age
The period that immediately followed Nicholas Kerensky's death became known as the golden age. This is the time that clans truly flourished fully developing their societies. During that time Clan Wolf remained at the forefront by means of martial prowess, faithful allies and carefully choosing its enemies and battles. As expected the most serious rivalry that clan wolf had was with clan Jade Falcon.

The Wolf and the Falcon
The first major conflict between Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon took place on the planet Dagda. The Wolves had an enclave there since operation Klondike to which the holdings of the absorbed Clan Widowmaker were added. Likewise the Falcons had an enclave there since operation Klondike and were able to harrass the Clan Wolf forces on the planet.

The second act was played on the planet Glory. Both clans claimed parts of the planet simultaneously. They challenged each other constantly and kept each other at check. The Falcons were always too rigid with the interpretation of clan laws and so they did not allow their civilian castes to take full advantage of the planets resources. This prevented full scale colonisation from them and eventually they were forced to dismantle their colonies and look for more profitable ventures. This conflict caused them to lose many resources and they were unable to challenge clan Wolf when the latter colonised the planets of Paxton and Tiber. There Clan wolf build huge industrial complexes that furthered their martial prowess and economical well being.

The third act was the omnimech technology. Clan Coyote developed this technology in 2854. The Wolves greatly desired the designs but they did not wish to alienate Clan Coyote who has been their greatest and closest ally. But then things took an unexpected turn. The Jad Falcons challenged and won from clan Coyte the said technology. The Coyotes were only to happy to share with the Wolves the information about the Falcon unit that issued the challenge. The Wolves intercepted the Falcons and won the omnimech technology from them in a battle of possession.

Rise of the Elemental Warrior
One of the most serious advances in the way the clans wage war was the development of the elemental battlesuit and the elemental soldier. Clan wolf evolved the Elemental battlesuit design from a deep sea mining exoskeleton and fielded the first specimens in 2868. Clan Diamond Shark (then still clan Sea Fox) refined the suit by the addition of Harjel patching systems. The fist true test for the suit was when two starts of elemental infantly engaged and defeated a light start of Nova Cat omnimechs.

Upon seeing the effectiveness of the new infantry suit the Hells Horses Khan issued three trials of Possession against clan Wolf. The Hells horses stake at the trial were the protocols for breeding physically superior infantry (the well known elemental). The wolves won two of the battles and the Horses one. Both clans were very happy about their gains until... the Jade Falcons intervened. The Falcons raided the planet tiber that the trial took place and won from the Wolves both the suit and the genetic protocols for the breeding programmes. (and thus the forth part of the Wolf/Falcon drama was concluded)

Other clans gained the battlesuit indirectly or through other means. For example the Wolves shared everything they had with they Coyotes as an act of appreciation for the role they played when clan wolf needed to obdain the ominimech technology. Clan Diamond Shark gained the technology in exchange for Hargel and Hargel patching systems technology.

Clan Smoke Jaguar Attempted to gain the suit by an extensive and lengthy campaign, even though they could have taken it from easyer targets such as Clan Coyote. The Jaguars were defeated in every turn of the campaign. Near the end the Wolves offered teh jaguars a trial of possession they could not refuse. The suit in exchange for resourcds and a portion of the Jaguar enclave in the planet tranquil. The odds were heavily in favour of the Smoke Jaguars. The Wolves though used for the first time the omnimech technology and one of the most venerated designs: The timberwolf omnimech. The Jaguars lost and they eventually gained the battlesuit from trials against clan Diamond Shark. This caused great resentment towards clan wolf which later evolved into bitter feud. Nothing that even resembled the Wolf/Falcon antagonism though.

Pre-Invasion Years
The golden age of the clans continued well into the 31st century. This is where the first divisions between crusaders and wardens started to appear. The clans found that the limited resources of the worlds they colonised were reducing their expansion. Some others felt that this was the proper time to return, conquer and bring a renaissance to the inner sphere, which they assumed must have collapsed beyond all redemption by now. These were the crusaders. The wardens on the other hand believed that the clans should stay where they are and return only when it is needed to protect the Inner Sphere. Clan wolf was had both crusader and warden within its ranks so it remained neutral in this issue. Finally when pressed to take a position Clan Wolf chose the warden Cause. As the years went by the crusader cause attaracted more and more clanners. The clans regarded as wardens clans were Clan Coyote, Sea Fox, Steel Viper, Goliath Scorpion, Mongoose while clan wolf was regarded the Defact leader of teh wardens.. Clans on the crusader camp were Clan Smoke Jaguar, Ghost Bear, Star Adder, Fire Mandril, Nova Cat, Hells Horses, Blood Spirit and Ice Hellion with the Jade Falcons as leaders. Clans that had both elements equally (but regarded as nominally warden) were clan Snow Raven, Cloud Cobra and Clan Burrock.

Dragoon compromise
By the year 3000 the crusader cause was attarcting more and more clan warriors. The great debate on wether to invade or not has been going on for 20 years. Then the ghost Ghost Bear Khan Nadia Winson (An adopted mechwarrior from Clan Wolf) brought the issue before the grand council again.

Khan Kerlin Ward of Clan Wolf feared that the proposal would pass and the clans would invade the Inner Sphere. He then argued before Clan grand council that it is militarily unsound to attack an enemy without having any information on them. It would be better to send a recon force to pose as mercenaries to evaluate the situation that the Inner Sphere was. With the help of Clan Goliath Scorpion the rest of the Khans seen the wisdom in Kerlin Wards Idea and so they agreed. The motion to invade was defeated temporarily. Clan wolf was selected to send in that force.

Clan Nova Cat and Clan Smoke Jaguar argued that a spying mission was unfit for real warriors. Using this argument they forced clan wolf to staff the recon unit mostly with recon warriors. Two brothers were chosen to lead this mission: Jaimie and Joshua. They were given the surename Wolf and teh promise that with the copletion of their mission this would become a proper bloodname and their genes would be added to teh clan breeding programme. The leadership of Wolf's Dragoons was complimented by the only one trueborn and Bloodnamed warrior: The infamous and famous Natasha Kerensky. Back then Natasha was a troublemaker even among clanners but she was one of the best mechwarriors around. She jumped to teh chance she was given as a way for her to gain glory.

The unit was innitially outfited with whatever ancient equipment clan wolf could find in its ranks. Nevertheless clan tactics were far different by those of the Inner Sphere and the dragoons knew that. The dragoons spend the next few years training with the "Historians" of the clans, Clan Goliath Scorpion. The Cluster that they trained with was the 1st Cateran Cluster "Heartvenom". The two units became so close that that many Goliath Scorpions chose to become members of Wolf's dragoons just before their departure for the Inner Sphere. Many of these warriors became part of Natasha Kerensky's command on what would be known as the "black widow company" The Dragoons were deemed ready for their mission in 3004.

By 3005 the dragoons had reached their destination following a large circular route. However before making their first appearance they send forward a small scouting party. This party confirmed that the inner sphere was in a much worse condition than they originally thought. The dragoons decided to mothball all of their warships and many of their mechs and store them in the uninhabited and uncharted periphery world of Bristol.

Then they procceded to appear in the inner sphere. Even with much of their equipment mothballed their appearance caused quite a stirr. The wolf dragoons were 5 regiments strong and all theire equipment were in pristine condition. Such a thing was unheard of back then. The Dragoons then gained a contract with the Federated Suns. In 3009 their contract ended and they went back to the clans to report on the situation. They were ordered to return to Inner Sphere and get more detailed data for the rest of the inner sphere houses. The Dragoons then gained a contract with the Cappelan Confederation and then in 3014 with the Free Worlds League. In 3019 their contract ended so they returned for another report and also to be refitted.

There Khan Kerlin Ward gave them new orders. He believed that the clan invasion could nto be stalled anymore. He gave them the mission of preparingthe inner sphere for the clan invasion. In addition to that he gave them the blueprints of the omnimech technology. The dragoons put these blueprints to good use when they were awarded the planet outreach at the end of the fourth succession war. Furthermore from that time onward the dragoons were not to answer to any Clan Khan except the Khan of Clan Wolf, and they were to consider themselves as part of the Inner Sphere. In this meeting the future Khan of clan wolf was present Star Colonel Ulric kerensky.

The call for Invasion
In the 27th of September 3048 a COMSTAR jumpship appeared over the Clan Smoke Jaguar capital world of Huntress. The ship was exploring the deep periphery for new habitable worlds and it was also looking for possible clues for the whereabouts of the remnants of Alexander Kerensky's Star League Defence Force. Initially they did not consider huntress to be populated and they came too close. When the jaguars realised that this was not a clan ship they immediatelly dispatched an armed warship and they captured the COMSTAR ship wich was captured with all hands.

The Jaguars and the Falcons interogated their prisoners. They found out that two of the greatest Inner Sphere, Steiner of the Lyran Alliance and Davion of the Federated Suns, united and formed a large and stable state. This along with other factors proved that the inner sphere was in the way of being revitalised and eventually forming a new Star League without the clans. This was simply not acceptable for the crusaders. Clan Jade falcon then presented their Findings before the clan Grand Council. All the clans voted for invasion except clan wolf. When the motion was passed clan wolf issued a trial of refusal. The unit that fought this trial was the 3rd Wolf Guards Battle cluster an elite unit of Clan Wolf. Bidding among the clans that voted for invasion reduced the odds from 16:1 to 4:1. The Wolf Guards fought valiantly against the Smoke Jaguars and almost won the trial. In the end their numerical disadvantage vanquaished them.

Clan Wolf was to receive punishment and compansate the rest of the clans for opposing such a unanimous decision(isorla). This punishment came in the form of clan wolf being among the four invading clans. The three other clans that participated were clan Smoke Jaguar, Clan Ghost Bear and Clan Jade Falcon. Clans Nova Cat, Steel Viper, Hells Horses and Diamond Shark would be placed in reserve.

The invasion:Operation Revival
Although they lost a Trial of Refusal against the motion to invade the Inner Sphere and were selected for the invasion force as punishment for voting against the pro-invasion majority, the Wolves decided to beat the Crusaders at their own game. They participated in it nonetheless and soon outdid all other Clans in seizing more worlds and at a faster pace than any other Clan. Their holdings were mostly taken from the Free Rasalhague Republic and the Lyran half of the Federated Commonwealth. Their capture of Rasalhague cemented their leadership in the Invasion and the Wolf Khan, Ulric Kerensky, became the leader of the Clans, an ilKhan, after their successes (and the death in battle of the previous ilKhan, Leo Showers). Ulric negotiated with ComStar and some of the Inner Sphere leaders, negotiations which resulted in the proxy battle for Terra (Clan's goal) on Tukayyid in 3052. During the battle of Tukayyid the Clan Wolf was one of only two Clans to prevail against the defending ComStar forces, the other victor being Clan Ghost Bear who were awarded a "marginal" victory. Nevertheless, the Wolves were the ones who helped convince the other clans to adhere to the terms when the Trial was lost, leading to the treaty that halted the invasion with a 15-year truce.

Post-Tukayyid
In 3057, the Clan Jade Falcon sought to remove Ulric and continue the invasion. When the Council tried Ulric for treason and voted him out of office Clan Wolf all but destroyed itself in preventing the Jade Falcons from breaking the truce by instigating a Trial of Refusal on a scale never before seen outside of a Trial of Annihilation against an entire Clan. This particular Trial of Refusal would be forever referred to as the "Refusal War" against the Jade Falcons.

To ensure the Clan's survival, Ulric ordered Wolf saKhan Phelan Ward (also known as Phelan Kell) to take a contingent of warriors and a cross-section of the other castes to the Inner Sphere while he and Natasha Kerensky sought to break the Falcons (knowing that if Clan Wolf lost the Trial of Refusal, Phelan would be stripped of rank and bloodname). Ulric thus used his power as ilKhan to create the bloodname of Kell and bestowed it onto Phelan before his exodus from Clan space. Eventually the Falcon were victorious, but they could not touch the part of the clan that left Clan controlled space and went into self-imposed exile to the Inner Shere. Phelan's Warden Wolves settled on planet Arc-Royal in the Lyran Alliance and created the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon to defend against any Clan incursions, mainly the Jade Falcons.

Absorption and Rebirth
An initially successful Jade Falcon attempt to absorb the remaining Wolves that was effectively made moot with the creation of the Clan Jade Wolf by Vladimir Ward, an offshoot of Clan Jade Falcon made up of captured Wolf warriors who were "absorbed" into the Jade Falcons. The Jade Wolves later changed their name by dropping the "Jade" part and simply going by "Wolf", effectively usurping the name of the original or pre-Refusal War Clan Wolf. These Wolves (also known as Crusader Wolves) rebuilt their strength and have declared themselves the only Crusader Clan not bound by the Crusader's defeat during the Great Refusal, due to their abstaining vote to participate in the Refusal and the resulting battle against the St. Ives' Lancers, led by Kai Allard-Liao, which resulted in a draw.

Ever since then, the two halves of what was once a single Wolf Clan have lived separate lives. The Crusader Wolves sought to regain their strength, raiding the Clan Smoke Jaguar. Vlad Ward entered into a short-term alliance with Falcon Khan Marthe Pryde to ensure the survival of both Clans.

As with the original incarnation of Clan Wolf, the Crusader Wolves consider the planet Tamar as their capital. It was the scouring of Tamar that made the Clans realize that they too would come under attack by the Word of Blake fanatics and had to fight back. During the Word of Blake Jihad the Wolves leapt across Jade Falcon borders to assist worlds under attack.

Society
While Clan Wolf values the typical goals and values of the Clans, individual members of the Clan place much less value on conformance to the Clan mindset. As with other Clans, the Warrior caste is in control, a military chain of command is in place, and everyone is expected to do their part for the further good of the Clan; however, the society allows a great degree of personal freedom of opinion, religion and self-expression than it is typical with other clans. Since the founding of the Crusader Wolf clan, the Warrior caste has grown further in prominence, however.

Clan Wolf emblem is a red wolf head, on top of a red plaque with six golden stars. The five stars symbolize the clans (number five is a recurring motif in all Clan artwork and many things in Clans are in multiples of fives), and the sixth star symbolizes their founder, Kerensky.

Quotes

 * Here, with the Strana Mechty wolf, we see what may be the epitome of a warrior, cunning matched with instinct and stealth, joined with a final, terrifying attack. For this mighty creature, I name you. You are Clan Wolf. Nicholas Kerensky, 2810

Online

 * Clan Wolf official entry on ClassicBatteTech page
 * Clan Wolf Today, Wizkids Games. Accessed November 9, 2007.

Novels

 * Michael A. Stackpole, Lethal Heritage. FASA/ROC: 1989/1995.
 * Michael A. Stackpole, Blood Legacy. FASA/ROC: 1990/1995.
 * Michael A. Stackpole, Lost Destiny. FASA/ROC: 1991/1995.
 * Michael A. Stackpole, Natural Selection. ROC: 1992.
 * Michael A. Stackpole, Malicious Intent. ROC: 1996.
 * Michael A. Stackpole, ''Grave Covenant]'. ROC: 1997.
 * Michael A. Stackpole, Prince of Havoc. ROC: 1998.
 * Blaine Lee Pardoe, Roar of Honor. ROC: 1999.
 * Michael A. Stackpole, Ghost War. ROC: 2002.
 * Jason M. Hardy, The Scorpion Jar. ROC: 2004.
 * Michael A. Stackpole, Masters of War. ROC: 2007.
 * Blaine Lee Pardoe, Fire at Will. ROC: 2007.

Game sourcebooks

 * Boy F. Peterson Jr., Blaine Lee Pardoe, Sam Lewis, Wolf Clan Sourcebook. FASA: 1991 (ISBN 1-55560-136-7).
 * Various, The Falcon and The Wolf. FASA: 1995
 * Various, Field Manual: Crusader Clans. FASA: 1998.
 * Various, Mechwarrior's Guide to the Clans. FASA: 2001
 * Various, Field Manual: Update. FanPro: 2003.
 * Various, Jihad Hot Spots: 3070. FanPro: 2005.