BattleTech 101: The Great Houses of the Inner Sphere

[Laughter] [Music] welcome new mech warriors to the inner sphere where you can keep whatever money you find so long as you live to pay day for our first lesson the great houses slide please so the great houses are the six or four people who can actually calculate projection power on an appreciable strategic scale the four pierce states one remnant and one hermit kingdom that make up the inner sphere no it's not a perfect sphere yes there are things outside of it today we're talking about these [ __ ] these are the great houses of the inner sphere and they're all very different in varying ways but are mostly the same and that they are all occasionally not very nice to each other they also possess vast arsenals of planet-killing weapons and on special occasion will trundle them out for public display if you want to know why these people are fighting over such a vast territory and why they're so committed to erasing portions of their collective industrial base history and civilization well it's complicated my best take on it is a two-parter and most people find that a bit much so let this serve as a basic introduction to your career in the world of mech warriors and a primer on who's most likely to kill you when you inevitably [ __ ] up but firstly a disclaimer i am biased as a mercenary plying his trade in the inner sphere i find concepts such as warfighting ideology largely a position of what you can cover up from the general public mainly because at the end of the day in the inner sphere it's about you and yours and smoking craters tell no tales they make a hell of an auto cannon but to better illustrate my point let's just dive in this map is from 3067 maps from after that are somewhat messed up for a number of reasons and on an unrelated note let's just brush this radioactive ash off here and there we go 3067 don't mind the flickering on the screen i'm told it's mostly harmless mostly let's begin with the great houses themselves i'll be moving clockwise as we go for those of you who understand time and left hand feed for people who understand timing welcome to the wacky weird world of the dracona's combine welcome to a pervasive class system and home to the galaxy's own home-grown no [ __ ] sword-wielding authoritarian samurai ruling class oh yes this place is literally built off pre-space flight terran shogunat era japan it's a monolithic all-encompassing bureaucratic machine run on war and conquest that thinks optimal christmas dinner is by tradition fried chicken they're a fun collection of ideas behold this is their throne room take that in this isn't just for show this is their military these are their uniforms these are their macs they fight like this all the time yes those swords are very real and do brutal work alright so back to the guy in the chair it is frequently a guy in charge of this so this guy is called the coordinator he runs the place there is very little distinction between the coordinator as a person and the draconis combine as a whole when people refer to the dragon in reference to kurita as a house or a nation it's interchangeable between the two entities and no the draconis combine doesn't celebrate the godhood of rulership with divine mandate however the coordinator's word carries essentially the same weight within their sphere of influence so i'd not invite trouble as kurita tends to bury its enemies deep headless and by the million they have no issues with troubleshooting in government as treble should be shot in the dracona's combine and if there is anything to fear from these guys it's that they believe in a manifest destiny which involves house kurita controlling everything the draconis combine started as an agreement between two worlds which was then fed war and conquest through house kurita's leadership kirita has had total control since the beginning aside from that one cadet branch that one time in the family who was wiped out long ago as far as how this thing runs well the five pillars represent the draconis combine the pillar of gold is the government the pillar of steel is the military the pillar of teak is the people the pillar of ivory is religion philosophy's in and all that crap and then there's jade the economy these five pillars of state philosophy are represented in the ministries of state organized through them for instance the pillar of steel encompasses the ministry of war the department of indoctrination the bureau of substitution the assembly of the grand inquisitor the admiralty the physician staff of the dragon and various minor administration authorities speaking of authorities draconia's combined bureaucracy tends to be impenetrable to outsiders impossible to reason with and largely maintains the status quo actual decisions are typically made by people with significant military rank in the form of military governors appointed to oversee civilian authorities when in doubt the decision maker is typically the one with the sword and if you want to see that sword up close and real fast you only need to fail to take its bearer seriously or merely disrespect their presence also they had this whole death to mercenaries thing for a while not my favorite government to work with then again they rarely need mercenaries ever because the constant fighting and insanity of the samurai class means they're pretty much ready to throw down whenever if they lack a cause they'll find one quick the leaders of the draconis military are often peerless warlords equally at home in local shogunal politics or on the battlefields of their neighbors the dracona's combine is the state that war built maintained by bushido psychotic warriors and a shitload of weapons finding kurita forces in your backyard is frequently the precursor to speaking japanese in your near future whether you want to or not next door is ruled by house davion the so-called good kid of the successor houses the noble one the one that likes auto cannons a lot that's these guys technically the state is the federated suns and they're another fun monarchy house deviant is descended from english and french nobility operating as constitutionally bound monarchs and has been since ever trying to reinforce their position as champions of liberty and personal freedom at every annoying turn because of this most people think house deviant and by extension the federated sons are self-righteous [ __ ] and they are not wrong mostly but see the story is a bit funny on that originally the federated sons was a federation in time the founding polities chose delegates to form a high council who would among themselves elect a president to lead them but the political machinations of the davion family were all about having a monarchy so they pushed the presidency into that and since then the deviant family has ruled which is really good for them mostly good for the federated sons and has worked out for the most part however davion's being deviants one had to rule them all so there was an early day beyond civil war the five marches had to decide for themselves who would be the first prince and sharing was apparently not a serious consideration at any point and the winner of that first early deviant civil war alexander davion went on to pass more legislation than any of his predecessors because he had total military support turns out you can make people vote how you want with a bayonet however the story doesn't get any worse really for some time at least tuner credit house deviant was not a despot they encouraged then and still champion free speech individual liberties and personal freedom but in the end it is a monarchy considering the mostly beneficial ruling arrangement some will label devion a father knows best state which has many times but not always been justified in its actions as such it is seen as one of the more stable houses on account of broad public support i will admit this though they can be miserably righteous and annoying they're frequently not evil just smug and yes that is just as bad the armed forces of the federated suns have historically been one of the most professional militaries of the inner sphere originally formed from peacekeepers and always kept as modern as state industries could allow these guys even developed the predecessors to the warhammer on their own dime in the earliest years of battle max even when they're wrong they're almost right davion may not pay you well but they won't bury you for no reason mostly next door are these guys i don't like them as much for a number of reasons the capellan confederation is the youngest kid on the block as successor states go it's a socialistic police state that has almost but not always been under the control of one family house liao the head of the state is the chancellor who is in the compelling confederation one night away from making you disappear to say that it is a police state is not an act of hyperbole but substantiated fact however it wasn't always so what started as a collection of states uniting for common defense and well-being slowly grew over hundreds of years through successive generations of philosophy and leadership from one house into an autocratic state with a centrally controlled economy some would say this is a functional dictatorship but dictators tend toward having some sort of functional agenda or understanding of strategic power but in truth there's actually three forces that run this place at least in theory they are the chancellor the profectorate and the house of scions the chancellor is the cic of the armed forces special forces in the face of the state and matters of foreign policy the chancellor can also make decrees and legislative changes at will it's a powerful position to say the least and has nearly always been a lifetime appointment for house liao the perfectorate is the body of state regional entities and greater nobility the house of science isn't mostly needless to say the chancellor seems to get his or her way more often than not but the other two governmental branches will act to frustrate or block particular agendas what's interesting about the capellan confederation is that its citizens or rather i should say resident aliens born there are not citizens not yet anyways in fact in the confederation citizenship must be earned and the state is the sole measure of that esteem children are legally in every way words of the state under limited provisional supervision granted by the government to their parents or other assigned legal guardians at age 15 each child is thoroughly examined by the government to see if they have a proven commitment to the state those who are deemed worthy gain citizenship those who are not are given a grace period for a second evaluation but failure to measure up as a citizen for any reason results in becoming a non-citizen which are frequently referred to as state servitors by the succession wars this non-citizen class had become an enormous part of the population a population that i must state had no rights and was legally state property this was reversed in 3052 when sun tzu liao became chancellor in abolish servitor slavery not all capellan chancellors are [ __ ] most though well the record speaks for itself the military the confederation armed forces have traditionally been the underdog but have never shied away from a fight they frequently are pushed into doing far too much with far too little and on top of it have to face the catastrophic political and military meddling of a chancellor who may or may not understand the difference between entertainment and war the fact that capellan state has not been conquered outright speaks volumes to the abilities of the ccaf who have demonstrated battlefield insanity as a doctrine for nearly eight centuries the capellan economy is centrally planned and is designed on the principle that sufficient planning can overcome any hardship this has produced mixed results the confederation always endures but at what cost next door is the free world's league i don't say housemaric because well it's complicated also their history isn't terrible as some make it out to be yes the greatest threat to americ is americ but glory tumeric but it wasn't always so the free world's league was actually formed before the terran hegemony born out of the early terran alliance's colonial struggles and then collapsed as an early power your homeworld falling apart in early colonization was well somewhat on the catastrophic end of things so nations which weathered that catastrophe learned self-reliance the free world's league was originally an agreement between three existing nations the meric republic the regulan principality and the federation of oriente amazingly enough the founders of the league owe most of their success to a guy named george humphries who was the negotiator between the three nations and was honored as the first speaker of parliament for five damn sessions they didn't throw their negotiator away when they came together as a nation they threw nobody under the bus instead they championed him that is righteous so how'd it go down you see of the three nations merrick was on top locally and merrick didn't like the idea of a union at all not at first he thought it wouldn't work working with others seemed like a bad idea in fact considering the state of goliatic affairs but humphries wore him down like a good friend does and the only reason i bring this up is because what were him down wasn't politics it wasn't an appeal to power or glory or riches or conquest or the history books it was in fact nerd [ __ ] see dentlev merrick collected historical words and trophies raju salaj prince of regulus collected miniatures figurines mainly in books and paintings and the like and these two guys nerding out about their neat stuff they liked and had collected contributed as much toward the founding of the free worlds league as anything else ostensibly the free world's league is a federal republic with each province granted a grand measure of self-rule and serenity and as you'd expect the free worlds league is a complex creature politically speaking the parliament is technically a supreme federal and legislative authority but there's some caveats to that for one membership of the parliament was for a time determined by the amount of taxes paid into the treasury and then there's the self-rule problem all that self-rule means you have all sorts of people in parliament some nations could be dictatorships others are theocracy others a democracy and yet all under one flag naturally this causes some problems it's why for the most part the free world's league through its history has operated in a near permanent state of martial law under the captain general who is frequently but not always americ historically the power of the parliament has waned with every major conflict crisis or state of emergency whereas the power of the captain general has increased that's right the free world's league drops their issues at merrick's welcome mat rings the doorbell and runs the [ __ ] home i don't envy that job originally intended for military matters on behest of parliament eight centuries of emergency powers later the captain general stands as first among equals and is more or less house merrick's personal lordship of the free worlds league with all of the hazards that entails the free worlds league has defined its economic niche through innovative technologies and free trade which i feel is a response engineered in opposition to the thin crumbling terran alliances blanket of tariffs and protective customs laws the laissez-faire approach to the free world's economic principles has made more friends than enemies however poor risk management analysis has caused problems for instance after conquering the magistracy of canopus during the reunification war the free world's league invested oceans of currency industry and effort into rebuilding the canopen economy canopus returned the favor by out-competing and under-bidding the free world's league economy in the region by mostly using principally cheaper labor and lots of industry they didn't have to pay to build this resulted in a 10-year economic recession for the entire free world's league no good deed goes unpunished since they've learned quite a bit and have managed their economic affairs with care to guard against the systemic mayhem and shock as caused by other states good intentions or not culturally the free world's leak is a mix in fact it is probably the most diverse state there is in the inner sphere the principal language is mostly a derivative of star league english but on any given world you might hear czech arabic or urdu with the sheer number of cultures and political systems present in the free worlds league it must be said that if there was anything that unified them it was not a merrick but more an ideology and that's entrepreneurship a belief in the free market and the idea that anybody could make it if they tried it was from the prosperity of the star league that this philosophy grew i feel the succession wars didn't dampen their spirits either it merely made them appreciate what they had and encouraged them to continue fighting for it and maybe each other from time to time because hey glory to merrick [Music] next door is the one people make fun of and for some of the right reasons welcome to the lyran commonwealth first of all few call it that unless they're declaring war or arranging marriage which if i'm frank might be the same thing in the same afternoon so welcome to the house of steiner the steiners of the ruling family and have been since virtually ever they were founded as a merchant an industrialist conglomerate they never stopped being exactly that they celebrate their vast wealth by having far too many nobles far too many noble titles and historically largely incompetent generals say for the occasional flash in the pan that is however if they're strategically incompetent to the point that the concept of their scouting parties operating vastly excessive tonnage even in modest probing actions means based more on truth than you think then how do they survive you ask well money and industry friends money and industry house steiner's backing is the industrial base in every bank that invested in it they are the military-industrial complex there are many good reasons they can afford to dump truck weapons into a situation operational or not piloted or not and then continue to do so until the enemy leaves while not stupendously famous for we're fighting leadership or tactical brilliance house steiner cannon will bury you with its vast assembly lines led by pretend generals until you give up or they get bored every tragic comedy of their strategic planning is mostly covered by the sheer power of their pervasive economy and vast military industry in its early days the lyron commonwealth was headed by nine archons as patterned off ancient athens of terra because early post terran colonies were like that very uh idyllic then one guy deposed the other eight decided to establish the estates general to run the show and finally hammer out some agreements on what rights meant and it's kinda worked out technically the archon of the lyron commonwealth is an absolute ruler commander-in-chief of all military forces and can unilaterally make most governmental decisions with a modest nod they run the show they even hold the right to grant and remove noble titles in perpetuity titles which hold significant power so they're a ruthless autocrat right not really most archons of house steiner aside from a few notable [ __ ] who need extensive covering and what i will likely label a historical diss track are mostly okay people they delegate most decisions to the bureaucracy the councils of state appointed advisors and the estates general and they typically just keep their heads down or just go to the solaris thing right the solaris thing so there's a bullseye in the inner sphere in the murder for entertainment business and it's right here solaris7 this is pretty much steiner in a nutshell but i'm not an expert in these matters so i'll turn it over to a local he can sum it up better mr fisher take it away solaris 7 is the only place where you can pay money to watch two strangers beat each other to death while also enjoying a corn dog duncan that's not true canopus exists they have corn dogs last i went and a very good outback i think canopus banned trans fats my dude i've only ever seen funnel cake oh and they do a lot of food on a stick who saves napkins less to clean up stick food is really the way of the future i wish we'd thought of it first sticks truly are the yardstick of food i'm duncan fisher i stand by this statement sticks are the future mark my words duncan this is costing me a fortune oh right hpg builds so solaris seven um murder is more or less very legal so long as you do it in the box on tv and everyone has a really great time in fact it's fantastic there's explosions and music and i'm there every night on every screen i tell you all the things i think you need to hear and most of them are very accurate very very accurate anyways this is duncan fisher signing off and this appearance costs professor tex 1485 seabills thank you duncan steiner space is a complex thing not good not evil just very big in fact i think that the lyran commonwealth is much like a cosmic horror some giant blind idiot god just waiting there happily making money in strudel singing merrily to itself until someone comes over and flips the table and then it becomes very very upset [Music] directors [Music] anyways moving to our right because space has that we have to talk about this strip of the inner sphere that's been nothing but hell we're not talking about these a-holes here because they're not from here or rather not recently these are the clans and for those uninitiated they're a strange deep space civilization of state mandated eugenics program warrior cast combat cult weirdos even by our standards they're very weird they also got completely wrecked by the phone company it was a pretty okay time for us that is so here's what remains of the somewhat free rosso hog republic so these guys were a thing briefly until these guys decided they shouldn't be because they were between these guys and tara which is controlled by the phone company who wasn't cool with these guys taking a bite out of everything on their way to the telecoms hq for very odd strangely specific quasi-spiritual reasons which were very different strangely specific quasi-spiritual reasons the phone company decided to murder them guys as it turns out you can make people show up to an ambush by just asking them remember be kind it pays dividends before that unpleasantness razzle hog was a state come from the space between house curita over here and house steiner these cretan buffer worlds were before kurita came along an independently free principality of mostly culturally scandinavian colonists this small state was then overrun by house kurita who had to pry the worlds from them after 30 years of guerrilla warfare they didn't go quietly they were always a somewhat fiercely independent border region who resisted assimilation into the draconis combine over time in some phone company intervention theodore curita was convinced of the benefits of creating a buffer zone between the houses of steiner and kirina by granting russell hogg independence some of curita's guys were so mad at this that they resisted the government and kirita had to fight what was called the ronin war after old man kirita gave his rowdy warriors the belt rosselhog became essentially a neutral buffer between the two superpowers of house kurita and house steiner they were independent for almost two decades before these [ __ ] came in and in the end they weren't anymore this much of them survived as a rump state under the custodianship of comstar until 3070 when clan ghostbear more or less took them in because ghost ghostbear is of a similar cultural background and understands the importance of family good people mostly kinda clingy though for the record rossell hogg was not a paper dragon they collapsed only after fighting bravely in the face of overwhelming odds they gave the clanners a hard fight on every world and in the deep black between stars it was a russell hug pilot who kamikazed theo khan's worship and stopped the invasion for a year rossel hogg is like that they'll smile all day but [ __ ] around and the viking comes out and it doesn't stop until you or they are very very dead next up i have to talk about this this was once the cradle of humanity but it's been a hotbed of a lot of historical issues originally the first circuit of what was called sl comnet was laid out in this chunk of space once called the hegemony then well there was this guy named jerome blake and his fate would have it he'd be the last employee of sl comnet but some [ __ ] in time would think that everything that poured out of his goddamn mouth was the word of [Music] right so i guess next time i have to talk about the periphery then the deep periphery great goat play me out team show these people how we pay our bills see you next time stay safe oh far away from the light of terror the remnants of another era join the crew grab a brew it's a damn periphery we're full of pirates cultists rednecks and opus girls look great and late destroy the crew grab a brew it's a damn periphery we're stuck in the forefree oh no oh yeah ain't too much tech to be found here at least it's not the inner sphere far away far away out in the deeper if we were away our way out in the deep periphery there's randy's knights in abandoned countries vikings murder junkies houses out noble suck get out of periphery just bring your armies bring your treasure we'll drain it all at our own leisure right away far away in the deep periphery you're stuck in the periphery oh no oh no you lost everything you held dear at least you're out near spear far away far away out in the deeper refrain far away far away out in the deep free solo [Music] all right back to the course one more time you're stuck in the periphery oh no oh no you lost everything you held dear at least you're out the inner sphere far away far away out in the deep earth free far away far away out in the deep refree yeah now get the [ __ ] out [Music] [Music] if it were done winter's done and where well it were done quickly if the assassination could tremble up the consequence and catch with his cersei success that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all here but here upon this bank and shoal of time we jump the life to come but in these cases we still have judgment here that we but teach bloody instructions which being taught returned to plague the inventor this even-handed justice commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice to our own lips he's here in double trust first as i am his kinsmen and his subject strong both against the deed then as his host who should against his murderer shut the door not bear the knife myself besides this duncan hath born his faculty so meek hath been so clear in his great office that his virtues will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation of his taking off and pity like a naked newborn babe striding the blast or heavens cherubins horst upon the sightless couriers of the air shall blow the horrid deed in every eye the tears shall drown the wind i have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition which overleaps itself and falls on the other haha shitpost achieved now where's my scotch i know i should probably make a capellan joke about a words in the military but they typically retire people by millimeters before they become politically hazardous by degrees there are now six battle tech jokes

Channel: BlackPantsLegion

Views: 175,542

Keywords: Let's, play, tex talks battletech, battletech lore, battletech primer, battletech for beginners, battletech history, battletech story, battletech setting, battletech plot, battletech great houses, the great houses battletech, battletech the great houses of the inner sphere, mechwarrior setting, mechwarrior lore, mechwarrior history, battletech setting history, battletech deep lore, lore battletech, lore mechwarrior, inner sphere lore, inner sphere battletech, blackpantslegion

Id: HQhzlXcmTzw

Length: 33min 30sec (2010 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/TaskForceD00mer]

EVERY SINGLE TIME

I hear "Steiner" now that music plays in my head.

Every single time I see a damn Dragon in game I hear the "A most excellent mech" voice too lmao.

[u/ofiuco]

This was fun and educational.

[u/OffensiveTitan]

BPL rules!

[u/JadenKorrDevore]

It's great. Love the BPL and Tex does a fantastic job of imparting battletech lore.

[u/BuckyGoldtien]

Tex ,and to some extent baradul, inspired my latest play through! His video on the marauder completely changed my opinion and on that mech, now with the pilot overhaul mod I have everyone up to mastered status on the marauder 1&2 chassis

[u/Chryton]

This is like a Fallout-style lore intro and I'm here for it.

[u/Pctechguy2003]

I love Tex. He makes drier material fun, interesting, and imparts “rewatch” value into his videos with his personality.

[u/GunnyStacker]

Well, this came out of nowhere.

[u/Biggu5Dicku5]

Fantastic video as always, BPL videos are well worth watching...