Editing The Clans (section)

== Society ==
{{topquote|Return to the Inner Sphere is impossible for us. Our heritage and our convictions are different from those we left behind. The greed of the five Great Houses and the Council Lords is a disease that can only be burned away by the passing of decades, even centuries. And though the fighting may seem to slow, or even cease, it will erupt again as long as there are powerful men to covet one another's wealth. We shall live apart, conserving all the good of the Star League and ridding ourselves of the bad, so that when we return — and return we shall — our shining moral character will be as much our shield as our BattleMechs and fighters.|Aleksandr Kerensky, General Order 137, December 5th, 2785. These words would be the Nucleus of the Hidden Hope Doctrine}}

An important fact about the Clans is that they were born from repeat societal trauma. The Amaris Coup and Civil War, the Death of Star League, the Exodus, the Pentagon Civil War and the Second Exodus; these were harrowing events to live through, but also were seen as total failure of the old order of things even if it had aspired to noble ideals and achieved greatness. As such, Nicholas Kerensky and his followers were convinced that for humanity to survive society needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Nicky did work from his specific interpretation of his father's words and borrowed elements from a lot of different historic cultures (Mongols, Sparta, Maoist China, Tokugawa Japan, pre-modern India, various native cultures and probably more), but the aim was to start clean.

[[File:Clan Spaniel.jpg|thumb|left|The Clans have produced fearsome genetically enhanced warriors, revolutionary BattleMechs and some darn fine cartoons (yes this is totally canon)]]
Even though there is a Grand Council for settling disputes and acting as a whole, each Clan operates mostly independently of its fellows. "Peace" is not really a thing in Clan Society, but war is seldom total. When the Clans are not out conquering others, they're fighting low intensity highly ritualized wars with each other. Yet, what made the Clan Homeworlds spared the Succession Wars level of violence that sent the Inner Sphere back to the stone age was the application of Zellbrigan and the Honor Road, which emphasized individual unit and warrior prowess while minimizing collateral damage. This includes codes for honorable surrender. This would work well if they operated in loose, highly autonomous units like the modern US military.  They don’t.  On the downside, while material and technological matters were better preserved (if not improved upon with OmniMechs, Battle Armor, and rapid limb replacement with cloned ones or myomer prosthesis), individual human lives weren’t seen as inherently valuable so concepts such as safety gear and personal healthcare were seen as things only worth providing to those who had more worthwhile skills. So while your typical Scientist, Merchant, and Technician castes has average lifespans, most Laborers and Warriors wound up dead in their 40-50’s due to combat or physical burn-out leaving them as “dead weight” if they can’t do anything useful. It’s bad enough that most elderly Warriors would rather die as disposable infantry sent in the first wave of an assault instead of starving in bed while infirm.

Clan Society is militaristic, authoritarian, honor bound and strictly hierarchical. It's mostly built around a rigid caste system in which one's role in society is typically assigned in childhood and social mobility is a rarity. Although this could be due to their skill at screening genetics and testing for competency, as such tests are available for caste mobility and so Clans likely simply get it right on the first try in childhood.  The Economies of each of the Clans is largely centrally planned and mostly concerned with producing more mechs, ships, weapons and warriors and more clanners to make and support more of those. Humans are mass produced as much as Mechs are in Clan Society<sup>1</sup>. Motivated by the Clan Home-worlds  being harsher and less abundant in resources, wastefulness is discouraged while recycling is the norm to the point that harvesting organs and tissue from the deceased is expected before the cremated ashes are used for crop nutrition. Meanwhile nonproductive activities such as entertainment or leisure were normally seen as incentives to get people working or in extreme cases outright banned. Hence, while stuff like competitive combat sports and athletics are encouraged, things like literature and theatre are treated as frivolous trivialities at best. Most observers note that outside of agriculture, healthcare (for combat injuries), STEM topics, heavy manufacturing, and military-industrial complexes, most non-military  related tech and practices were literally frozen in the Star League era. Overall, "Everything for the Clan", "The Clan Provides" and "The Clan Knows Best" are the overarching attitudes.  That said, this still means the Clan civilians’ quality of life is high by Inner Sphere standards and probably blows the modern day out of the water.

One of the quirks of Clan Society is that most people only have a given name. More on that in a bit.

The Castes are as such...

* Warrior Caste: The rulers of Clan society trained the Spartan Way. Most of them are grown in bulk in industrial exowomb factories and raised in sibling companies (sibkos), but a few applicants from the general populace are let in. Many flunk out one way or another and become part of the civilian castes while many others end up dying in brutal training regimens and trials for combat. Those that become Warriors are typically hard as nails and brutal fighters. By far the smallest caste. Those who are nearing retirement age (typically 30-50’s in their hyper competitive society) or forced to retest if they failed graduation in a live fire exercise are usually placed in lackluster duties like police, intelligence services, non-power armored infantry, and armored vehicle formations. There are three main flavors of Clan Warriors:
**[[Clan Elemental|Elementals]]: Battletech's answer to Space Marines, huge guys and gals who wear power armor and act as shock troops.
**Pilots: Small fellows with big eyes and heads who can take a lot of Gs like the T'au's Air Caste.
**Mech Warriors: The most regular warriors, but optimized with improved reflexes and increased neuro-helmet compatibility.
* Scientist Caste: Scientists, inventors, researchers and the like who expand on the Clan's knowledge base and run the eugenics programs. As the Clans have advanced technologically where the inner sphere has regressed, they've been largely successful. The second most powerful caste in Clan society who can actually overrule the warriors on certain matters such as eugenics or technology. 
* Technician Caste: Mechanics, engineers, and spacecraft crews who keep the machinery of Clan Society humming along. They work with the Warrior Caste directly more than most which gives them some clout.
* Merchant Caste: Traders as well as managers, artists and a wide variety of other functions required to run the economy of Clan Society. They have a higher status in Clan Diamond Shark, since Diamond Shark Warriors can honorably retire to this caste with reservist status if the Clan requires more manpower.
* Laborer Caste: The proles who do all the grunt work to keep everyone else fed, housed, equipped, armed, pooping in unclogged toilets and so forth. The largest caste, no less due to Battletech's universe using neo-feudalism.
* Dark Caste: Not an official caste but a bunch of outcasts which live on the edges of Clan society in hiding.  Makes for convenient target practice for clan warriors. They either survive as pirates, smugglers, or organized criminal syndicates that try to disguise themselves as guilds (which isn't hard as the Free Guilds do exist independently of each clan but are publicly regulated).

In addition each caste has it's own internal hierarchy where merit and competition determines your pecking order. For example the Merchant Caste has retail clerks at the bottom and top negotiators for big inter-clan deals at the top. And while each caste committee is technically subordinate to the Warrior exclusive Clan Council, the council mostly let the civilian castes do what they deem best unless it deals with the Clan’s existential matters or martial affairs. In terms of warriors, the inter-Clan’s competition  is not only reflected in rising up the ranks from sib-cadet to Khan but a Desire to win a Bloodname through gaining honorable victory for their clan. Having a BloodName means they get a surname and their genes will be be guaranteed for use to produce the next batch of Warriors while they can participate in Clan Council. Conversely, any disgrace a warrior commits risks anything from demotion at best to outright eliminating their entire Bloodname’s BloodHouse from the Clan’s records and genetic repository. Really accomplished scientists can be awarded a Labname like "Einstein" or "Darwin", but non-Scientists rarely use them.

Two other known divides between members within Clan society depends on their type of birth and their national origin. With the Clan scientist caste’s access to Iron Wombs and eugenic genecraft, Clansmen are classified as either Trueborn or Freeborn. The former are literal designer babies who are grown in an artificial amniotic womb while the latter are naturally born. Due to the Clans’ focus on breeding the best of their warriors for beneficial traits as quickly as possible, Trueborn are generally deemed superior. On the other hand, whether it's due to their superior training regimes or genes is up for debate. Likewise, there's a distinction between those born within a Clan and those who were absorbed as bondsmen captured from other Clans or factions. Their outcome depends on each Clan's attitude and the captured person's origins. Ideally, transplanted outsiders are either treated the same as native clansmen and promoted based on their merit, loyalty, and adaptability to Clan culture. Conversely, captured outsiders could also be subjugated to de-facto second class citizenship from either prejudice against enemies or the natives’ superiority complex.

A big part of Clan Society, especially in the Warrior Caste, is tradition and ritual. On the whole they have a rather "meh" view of religion (partly due to their utilitarian mindset and a big portion of their population being designer babies), but it's role is largely filled by the Hidden Hope Doctrine and a cult of personality mixed with hero worship of the Clan’s original leaders. Aleksandr and Nicholas Kerensky are all but worshiped as "the Founders". Warriors must past through a variety of trials to achieve position and within the Clan's hierarchy. The Clans preserve and teach their history through ''The Remembrance'', a long epic poem that summarizes each Clan’s glory. Bloodnames are part of that. In general they try to cultivate an air of mystery and impart subtle meanings into the various rituals. All of which are conceived to reinforce the ideals of The Clans and Clan identity into future generations on an emotional level. On the same note, Clanners tend to be very conformist with little tolerance for un-Clanlike Behavior at the best of times.

In particular in their mythologized view of history Star League was a bountiful paradise despoiled by the greed and spite by wicked petty power hungry leaders, especially the five Great House (in of itself this is not a bad interpretation of events). As such they view the people of the Inner Sphere having fallen into Barbarism. This is notable because it gives them a standard to define themselves against as well as prejudices their outlooks against others.

Another side effect to Clan culture’s emphasis on conformity and blunt honesty is that they tend to suffer against piracy operations and guerrilla warfare when they invade non-Clanner territories. In contrast to civilians and other Clans accepting new rulers in Clan Space as a fact of life, the Inner Sphere had no compunction against nationalist resistance movements. Hence why the Dark Caste and pirates thrive in the Clan Occupation Zones. While civilian and certain Clan politics are just as two-faced as anyone else, outright breaking agreements without justification or blatant lies unless it’s half-truths and subtle deception is unheard of. Hence, the Clans suffered in intelligence operations before the Blakist Jihad. While later clans were able to adjust in the Inner Sphere with commando raids, headhunting operations, open intelligence gathering, and sleeper agents, outright assassination and espionage were still prohibited as anathema against honorable combat. Otherwise, they just suspend Zellbrigan application to war if they deem their foes dishonorable to permit total war.

<small><sup>1</sup>Both by Exowombs and more conventional means. Clan Civilian Society is pronatalist, encouraging large families with various incentives, extensive childcare services and similar to keep up a steady supply of babies and see to them until adulthood. On a similar note, Clanners are as a rule rather casual about sex as long as contraception is employed for casual hook-ups. This is especially the case for Warriors, who think of sex as a fun thing to do with your friends if they're up for it.</small>