Narrow Bloodlines: A Look at the Great Reavings, Then and Now 1/26/3134
INN - Interstellar News Network
SUDETEN – It is a custom they rarely talk about, once stigmatized for the indication
that perhaps their vaunted, generations-old eugenics program is not everything their
founders hoped it would be, but necessity has ways of forcing even the proudest men
to do what is necessary to survive. Even acknowledging that fact, however, has done
nothing to assure the warriors on the receiving end of the procedure, the Reaving, a
process by which Bloodhouses shrink, their lesser members removed from the
breeding pool.
On Sudeten, the battle lines have been drawn again for a ritual that now is held almost
every year among Jade Falcons, a Trial of Refusal against the Reaving of another
Bloodname—in this case, the Bloodname of Solomon, one of the Falcons’ less
noteworthy lines. Squaring off in a circle of equals, one Star of BattleMechs versus
another, champions of the Solomon Bloodhouse hope to defend against the Reaving,
the reduction in the eligible number of holders of the Solomon surname.
Tradition demands this challenge, even in the face of the obvious decline. In the past
year, the Solomon Bloodhouse’s best warriors—even those with Bloodnames—have
scored lower in the annual combat Trials to retain their warrior status. Over half the
House has lost ranks or stagnated in these Trials, a grave sign of decay among the
Clans, who pursue the ultimate “up or out” policy on warrior careers. A Reaving was
inevitable, and if successful, will reduce the holders of Solomon Bloodnames from its
present nine to eight.
The Reaving tradition was born several generations after the Clans’ eugenics program,
as a regulator—and an ultimate punishment—for poorly performing Bloodnames. To
prevent the very real threat of their line’s prestige through a dilution of mediocre
warriors, Bloodhouses would become the target of a Reaving to reduce the number of
holders by one, though whatever Bloodhouse advanced the call for a Reaving would
find themselves targeted by one, should the challenged house win its Trial of Refusal
against the call. The result of a Reaving effectively raises the standards of a given
Bloodname, with competition for fewer names fiercer than ever. In theory, a line that
then performs well while Reaved may recover its lost Bloodcount over time in a Trial
of Propagation, for the time being, they are reduced not only in number, but in votes
on the Clan’s Council.
After the Jihad, the Clans which had come into the Inner Sphere found themselves cut
off from the homeworlds, where a sizeable potion of their respective genetic
repositories and iron wombs had been kept. The few who saw the danger of the cut-
off prepared for it by moving their valuable breeding samples into the Inner Sphere
with them, but few were entirely successful. Adding insult to injury, all of the Inner
Sphere Clans had been savaged by the fighting of the Jihad, most of their militaries
reduced to sustenance levels only. An astonishing number of warriors had been lost,
but damage to production and infrastructure had left many hard-pressed to replenish
their ranks. At almost the same time, Devlin Stone, the man who had led everyone in
the crusade against the Blakists, initiated his Military Materiel Redemption Program,
reducing the size of his military to win over his new populations and recover
resources for reconstruction.
In his policies, Stone harkened back to the Clan example, effectively making the
remaining warriors the most elite of his new order. As the Clans themselves had
learned at their inception, the reduction in ranks also served to assure that those who
remained were those fit to remain. The lesson struck a chord with the Clans, and so
began the Great Reaving, a means to sharpen each Clan’s talent on a grand scale,
revitalizing it within the bounds of tradition, while allowing a palatable means to turn
its attentions toward making its occupation zone a homeland.
For some Clans, the Great Reaving also produced an opportunity to introduce new
blood in the form of freeborn lines that had performed above and beyond the call of
duty—the Rasalhague Dominion’s Magnusson line and the Exiled Wolves’ Brahes, for
instance—while thinning out the less-effective Trueborn lines. Of course, since the
creation of a Bloodname prerogative originally centered on the ilKhan, this change
could not be accepted without wedding the process to the Clan’s traditions of Trials.
What eventually emerged was a Trial of Founding. When a Khan feels that a freeborn
line has performed above and beyond, he nominates it before the Clan Council. The
Khan can only do so once a year and can only ever propose a bloodline for Founding
once. The entire Clan council votes, with the ratio of yeas to nays determining the
ration of the forces that will fight. The Khan then nominates a warrior from the
prospective bloodline, and the Bloodname of the Council bid amongst themselves,
down to the ratio of the vote; enough traditionalists exist in even the most moderate of
Clans to ensure that the eventual numbers to overcome are fierce, to say the least.
The actual combat then determines whether the bloodline becomes a Bloodname. As a
final harness on these new Bloodnames, and to make sure they are not—at least
initially—on par with those created by the Founder, each Bloodname is only allowed
ten Bloodrights (ten who can hold the Bloodname at any one time); a Trial of
Propagation must be enacted to expand beyond this number.
For other Clans, this time was an opportunity to redistribute some Bloodlines, as Clan
Hell’s Horses did by creatively transforming several mediocre MechWarrior and
Elemental lines into their new TankWarrior Phenotypes. For the Jade Falcons and the
Crusader Wolves, the tradition was merely a way to ensure that only the best would
rule the Clans, while assuring that same “best” hailed from the most exalted Bloodlines
each could field. These new ultra-elites today are literally the best of the best, and
generally could outperform their forebears of just sixty years ago.
The Great Reavings ran through the latter half of the 3090s, reducing almost every
Bloodhouse in the Inner Sphere Clans at one point or another. Ever since, they have
remained an active part of Clan life, another test to prove who the greatest warriors
are in the Clan hierarchy. Today, the Solomon line wins its challenge; tomorrow, the
Thastus Bloodhouse will have to defend itself against the counter-Reaving. If both
survive, the Clan is served through validation of its warriors’ abilities. If one fails, the
Clan is still served by assuring only its greatest remain.
Towne Log
+ You know, I just don’t get these Clanners. They breed their soldiers in vats, train
them to be the best they can be—using live ammo no less!—make them fight for their
right to even pilot a machine, tell them that they can’t reproduce except through the
breeding program, which means they need a Bloodname to see if their legacies can go
on, and then come up with this stupid Reaving tradition to cut down how many
Bloodnames they can have! Isn’t that like shooting yourself in the foot? :- KevvyCone
+ Sort of, but sort of not, KC. The Clans pride themselves on having the sharpest
warriors there are, but anyone who reads the history of the Clan Wars, the FedCom
Civil War, and the Jihad knows that the Inner Sphere was catching up fast, without a
breeding program. Sure, a lot of that is just weapons tech, and the loss of the Clans’
momentum and surprise factor, but to the Clans, they should have done better. So,
this is like another means to sharpen their claws and teeth. :- Chungabunga
+ But doesn’t this also reduce the number of valid candidates for the Bloodname pool?
:- KevvyCone
+ Again, yes and no. Some Clans have used the reduced sizes of their Bloodname
Houses to recruit new ones from the locals. Used to be, only an ilKhan could create a
Bloodname, but it seems that since the Clan Civil Wars (or whatever they were), the
folks in the Inner Sphere have taken a more “creative” look at the practice. Helps to
win hearts and minds of the locals—if they’re good enough for the job, anyway—and
gives them access to millions of new legacies. :- Chungabunga
+ But, I think what KC is trying to say is that it seems that as the number of each
Bloodname goes down, the Clanners are shrinking their own gene pools. Given their
warrior bent, don’t they want more warriors? :- GRibaldi
+ *shrug* My understanding is that the sibkos formed from a Bloodname remain
fairly large, Reaving just assures they don’t waste their time on a mediocre sibko.
Theoretically, they could still pump out as many warriors with fewer Bloodnames
because those warriors are even better than the last—following Clan theory, anyway.
I’m sure in practice their troops strengths are still thinner than they were sixty years
or so ago. :- Chungabunga
+ Hey, these Reavings, as I understand it, don’t create restrictions on the numbers of
warriors in a Clan, only the number of Bloodname warriors. Seems with the shrinking
of their Toumans, they want to make sure their ‘holy’ Bloodnames remain rare.
Course, if they ‘are’ holy, why do you have jump through so many hoops to keep
‘em that way? What ever. :- RyTa
INN - Interstellar News Network
SUDETEN – It is a custom they rarely talk about, once stigmatized for the indication
that perhaps their vaunted, generations-old eugenics program is not everything their
founders hoped it would be, but necessity has ways of forcing even the proudest men
to do what is necessary to survive. Even acknowledging that fact, however, has done
nothing to assure the warriors on the receiving end of the procedure, the Reaving, a
process by which Bloodhouses shrink, their lesser members removed from the
breeding pool.
On Sudeten, the battle lines have been drawn again for a ritual that now is held almost
every year among Jade Falcons, a Trial of Refusal against the Reaving of another
Bloodname—in this case, the Bloodname of Solomon, one of the Falcons’ less
noteworthy lines. Squaring off in a circle of equals, one Star of BattleMechs versus
another, champions of the Solomon Bloodhouse hope to defend against the Reaving,
the reduction in the eligible number of holders of the Solomon surname.
Tradition demands this challenge, even in the face of the obvious decline. In the past
year, the Solomon Bloodhouse’s best warriors—even those with Bloodnames—have
scored lower in the annual combat Trials to retain their warrior status. Over half the
House has lost ranks or stagnated in these Trials, a grave sign of decay among the
Clans, who pursue the ultimate “up or out” policy on warrior careers. A Reaving was
inevitable, and if successful, will reduce the holders of Solomon Bloodnames from its
present nine to eight.
The Reaving tradition was born several generations after the Clans’ eugenics program,
as a regulator—and an ultimate punishment—for poorly performing Bloodnames. To
prevent the very real threat of their line’s prestige through a dilution of mediocre
warriors, Bloodhouses would become the target of a Reaving to reduce the number of
holders by one, though whatever Bloodhouse advanced the call for a Reaving would
find themselves targeted by one, should the challenged house win its Trial of Refusal
against the call. The result of a Reaving effectively raises the standards of a given
Bloodname, with competition for fewer names fiercer than ever. In theory, a line that
then performs well while Reaved may recover its lost Bloodcount over time in a Trial
of Propagation, for the time being, they are reduced not only in number, but in votes
on the Clan’s Council.
After the Jihad, the Clans which had come into the Inner Sphere found themselves cut
off from the homeworlds, where a sizeable potion of their respective genetic
repositories and iron wombs had been kept. The few who saw the danger of the cut-
off prepared for it by moving their valuable breeding samples into the Inner Sphere
with them, but few were entirely successful. Adding insult to injury, all of the Inner
Sphere Clans had been savaged by the fighting of the Jihad, most of their militaries
reduced to sustenance levels only. An astonishing number of warriors had been lost,
but damage to production and infrastructure had left many hard-pressed to replenish
their ranks. At almost the same time, Devlin Stone, the man who had led everyone in
the crusade against the Blakists, initiated his Military Materiel Redemption Program,
reducing the size of his military to win over his new populations and recover
resources for reconstruction.
In his policies, Stone harkened back to the Clan example, effectively making the
remaining warriors the most elite of his new order. As the Clans themselves had
learned at their inception, the reduction in ranks also served to assure that those who
remained were those fit to remain. The lesson struck a chord with the Clans, and so
began the Great Reaving, a means to sharpen each Clan’s talent on a grand scale,
revitalizing it within the bounds of tradition, while allowing a palatable means to turn
its attentions toward making its occupation zone a homeland.
For some Clans, the Great Reaving also produced an opportunity to introduce new
blood in the form of freeborn lines that had performed above and beyond the call of
duty—the Rasalhague Dominion’s Magnusson line and the Exiled Wolves’ Brahes, for
instance—while thinning out the less-effective Trueborn lines. Of course, since the
creation of a Bloodname prerogative originally centered on the ilKhan, this change
could not be accepted without wedding the process to the Clan’s traditions of Trials.
What eventually emerged was a Trial of Founding. When a Khan feels that a freeborn
line has performed above and beyond, he nominates it before the Clan Council. The
Khan can only do so once a year and can only ever propose a bloodline for Founding
once. The entire Clan council votes, with the ratio of yeas to nays determining the
ration of the forces that will fight. The Khan then nominates a warrior from the
prospective bloodline, and the Bloodname of the Council bid amongst themselves,
down to the ratio of the vote; enough traditionalists exist in even the most moderate of
Clans to ensure that the eventual numbers to overcome are fierce, to say the least.
The actual combat then determines whether the bloodline becomes a Bloodname. As a
final harness on these new Bloodnames, and to make sure they are not—at least
initially—on par with those created by the Founder, each Bloodname is only allowed
ten Bloodrights (ten who can hold the Bloodname at any one time); a Trial of
Propagation must be enacted to expand beyond this number.
For other Clans, this time was an opportunity to redistribute some Bloodlines, as Clan
Hell’s Horses did by creatively transforming several mediocre MechWarrior and
Elemental lines into their new TankWarrior Phenotypes. For the Jade Falcons and the
Crusader Wolves, the tradition was merely a way to ensure that only the best would
rule the Clans, while assuring that same “best” hailed from the most exalted Bloodlines
each could field. These new ultra-elites today are literally the best of the best, and
generally could outperform their forebears of just sixty years ago.
The Great Reavings ran through the latter half of the 3090s, reducing almost every
Bloodhouse in the Inner Sphere Clans at one point or another. Ever since, they have
remained an active part of Clan life, another test to prove who the greatest warriors
are in the Clan hierarchy. Today, the Solomon line wins its challenge; tomorrow, the
Thastus Bloodhouse will have to defend itself against the counter-Reaving. If both
survive, the Clan is served through validation of its warriors’ abilities. If one fails, the
Clan is still served by assuring only its greatest remain.
Towne Log
+ You know, I just don’t get these Clanners. They breed their soldiers in vats, train
them to be the best they can be—using live ammo no less!—make them fight for their
right to even pilot a machine, tell them that they can’t reproduce except through the
breeding program, which means they need a Bloodname to see if their legacies can go
on, and then come up with this stupid Reaving tradition to cut down how many
Bloodnames they can have! Isn’t that like shooting yourself in the foot? :- KevvyCone
+ Sort of, but sort of not, KC. The Clans pride themselves on having the sharpest
warriors there are, but anyone who reads the history of the Clan Wars, the FedCom
Civil War, and the Jihad knows that the Inner Sphere was catching up fast, without a
breeding program. Sure, a lot of that is just weapons tech, and the loss of the Clans’
momentum and surprise factor, but to the Clans, they should have done better. So,
this is like another means to sharpen their claws and teeth. :- Chungabunga
+ But doesn’t this also reduce the number of valid candidates for the Bloodname pool?
:- KevvyCone
+ Again, yes and no. Some Clans have used the reduced sizes of their Bloodname
Houses to recruit new ones from the locals. Used to be, only an ilKhan could create a
Bloodname, but it seems that since the Clan Civil Wars (or whatever they were), the
folks in the Inner Sphere have taken a more “creative” look at the practice. Helps to
win hearts and minds of the locals—if they’re good enough for the job, anyway—and
gives them access to millions of new legacies. :- Chungabunga
+ But, I think what KC is trying to say is that it seems that as the number of each
Bloodname goes down, the Clanners are shrinking their own gene pools. Given their
warrior bent, don’t they want more warriors? :- GRibaldi
+ *shrug* My understanding is that the sibkos formed from a Bloodname remain
fairly large, Reaving just assures they don’t waste their time on a mediocre sibko.
Theoretically, they could still pump out as many warriors with fewer Bloodnames
because those warriors are even better than the last—following Clan theory, anyway.
I’m sure in practice their troops strengths are still thinner than they were sixty years
or so ago. :- Chungabunga
+ Hey, these Reavings, as I understand it, don’t create restrictions on the numbers of
warriors in a Clan, only the number of Bloodname warriors. Seems with the shrinking
of their Toumans, they want to make sure their ‘holy’ Bloodnames remain rare.
Course, if they ‘are’ holy, why do you have jump through so many hoops to keep
‘em that way? What ever. :- RyTa
| January 26, 3134 |
