BattleTech Lore & History - Third Succession War: Traitors & Turncoats (MechWarrior Lore)

[@jotarofatso5743]

LYLE, LYLE, TURN TV ON, THEY HIT THE HESPERUS.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

*Sigh* Again?!

[@Albatrossgolf91]

Turn on the news, doesn’t matter what channel

[@Deridus]

They'll get it right next time, I'm sure.

[@bthsr7113]

DCMS: 9 time's the charm! Whooo! Hesperus main complex: I'm still alive, just injured! DCMS... still counts. WHOOOO!

[@derekburge5294]

Absolutely beautiful work, Sven. You've really established yourself as a pillar in the Battletech historian circle.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thanks, Derek. Will be very happy when I finally reach 3025. Having a complete history of those first thousand years for anyone new to series will be a great milestone to reach.

[@jessielorah7616]

@@SvenVanDerPlank after this how about Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars & Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath or Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 & Uprising?

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thought I'd get one more premiere in before I head off on holiday tomorrow. Apologies for the slightly unfavourable premiere time. I noticed a mistake this morning I'd made in reference to the Eighth Battle of Hesperus. Twice in the video I refer to it being in 2857, but it was actually 2853. You'd think having made a 20 minute video on it during the Second Succession War series I'd remember those details. I'll make sure it's corrected before I upload the compilation vid. As I mentioned last time, the maps haven't been updated since 2866, so they don't accurately reflect the frontline at this time. Once I have the entire conflict mapped out, I'll force myself to go back and create 150 years of changes 😢

[@Diarmuhnd]

Enjoy your vacation ^^

[@marsar1775]

enjoy your vacation!

[@bull614]

Enjoy man. We will be here when you get back.

[@mbp1652]

All good. Thank you

[@kurteibell2885]

Bon Voyage!

[@Doomrider47]

"Oh the 3rd Succession War, I'll just be doing a few 20 minute videos to cover the big things..." Several Hour long videos later... Love the content Sven, both your thoroughness and smooth vocals are always appreciated regardless of the length of time.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

I had no idea what I was getting into with this 3rdSW. Genuinely thought the first 150 years would take about 90 minutes to cover.

[@NotThereJustGone]

​@@SvenVanDerPlankFan fact: neither did the Inner Sphere.

[@level98bearhuntingarmor]

As an FWL fanboy the death rate of Mariks in these conflicts is staggering

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

They're definitely the great house with the highest number of KIA. Liao comes close for Chancellors dying prematurely, often under mysterious circumstances.

[@NotThereJustGone]

​@@SvenVanDerPlankI'm shocked they bother giving new Mariks names rather than just assigning them a number and a burial plot.

[@randomnetsurfer]

So much stuff I had no idea about! The ComStar warship fleet was certainly an eye-opener.

[@ComfortsSpecter]

@@randomnetsurfer “Do not pay attention to the Frighteningly Dangerous fleet of Space Boats behind the curtain!” “Stop peaking!”

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's a small piece of the lore that didn't get added until I believe the late Clan Invasion era, or perhaps even during the Civil War era. Certainly in the original Housebooks there was no mention of any existing WarShips.

[@ZontarDow]

To out the expense of building or bringing a warship back into service into perspective, the Combine and Concordate both openly have one floating around as a glorified museum piece due to the cost of bringing them back into operations being so high it would brankrup them amd leave them wide open to a FedSuns attack. ComStar building a half dozen amd bringing back even more into operations, especially without intentions of using them, was definitely an expense they couldn't justify that was likely crippling them, and explains why they broke the Taurian's one when it was first discovered and operational rather then capturing it.

[@iller3]

That's just Ships in general. They're money sinks whether they're floating in Salt water or Salty-Spess

[@DarthGarak]

I can't wait for the longform version of the whole thing. I enjoy listening to the others.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Hopefully we'll get this finished by year's end.

[@NomicFin]

I believe the First Circuit would have been aware of the hidden shipyards on Ross and Luyten. The Hidden Five (Jardine, Gabriel, Mayadi, Obeedah, and Taussen) were specifically noted as being worlds even the First Circuit was unaware of, as the knowledge of their existence was shared by a small cabal on a need to know basis, which would imply they probably would have been aware of ComStar's other hidden bases.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

That might not be correct. In the short story at the start of the 2ndSW series, Blake's dying words to Toyama were to whisper to him about the Ruins of Gabriel, which unless I'm mistaken, isn't one of the hidden worlds. Toyama had been on the First Circuit throughout ComStar's entire existence by that point but remained unaware of it until that moment, and that installation is of less significance than Luyten and Ross.

[@NomicFin]

@@SvenVanDerPlank The Five are kind of a special case, even if they're not necessarily the most important strategically any more (heck, Mayadi is uninhabitable due to a bioweapon experience gone wrong sometime in the early 3rd Succession War). They were originally created as a secret fallback plan in case the Houses turned on ComStar and invaded Terra, so they kept them as secret as possible so that if Terra fell the odds of the Houses being able to find about their existence would be minimized since even if they captured and interrogated members of the First Circuit they wouldn't know about their location. Later on the worlds gained a special religious significance (which is something Luyten and Ross never had), which made keeping them a secret from all but the anointed few important even once their actual strategic significance had been lessened with none of the Houses showing any inclination of attacking Terra.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Nah, I understand that. I'm just saying that I think it was more than just those five that the First Circuit remained oblivious too. I'm sure I'll find a definitive answer in the sourcebooks once I reach the Jihad era.

[@Threelazybastards]

I found your channel through a friend. And after he showed me some of the early Terran Alliance stuff, I binged as much of your videos on Battletech as possible. I wasn’t too interested in the setting before this, but your videos have definitely dragged me deep into the rabbit hole of the lore lol.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Glad you've been enjoying them. I'm always pleased to hear that I've helped introduce the setting to someone new.

[@tahhotep]

if you like this look up "tex talk battletech" on the black pants legion YT channel hes what got me into the lore of battletech or the opening video of the Battletech video game its about 5 minutes.

[@brunovalente17]

Loved the warship part, very glad you added it, didn't know about the original purpose of the Faslane class! 😊

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

The history given for the Faslane contradicts some of the established lore. Apparently they built it for the Explorer Corps, but that branch of ComStar didn't come into existence until after the whole WarShip program had been halted.

[@robertbyerlay5040]

Just threatened the Kuritan homeworld. Felt need for 5 regiments of battlemechs and restart combat aerospace industry. Purely unrelated! Surely precautionary measures. Vandenberg ghosts anyone?

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Haha, when you point it out like that, it definitely looks like York got scared that Kurita would come after him.

[@Rellana1]

So were new aerospace fighter designs being deployed with the restart or just old stuff from The Star League?

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

I don't actually know if ComStar produced anything new during the Succession Wars apart from their WarShips. My assumption is that it was just all old Star League tech they had mothballed, but I've never checked.

[@mcinnisboy]

I can not fathom what sort of terms the Bandersnatches were promised to take on that contract. Wouldn't catch Brion's Legion taking on that mission. Great work as always.

[@Bluehairedgirl89]

Thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into this video, it’s hugely appreciated and I enjoyed it a lot! You’re doing an incredibly good job of covering the long period of the third succession war as the houses raid and strike at each other with whatever they have left. It created a pretty clear picture of a string of events spread over a long period of time and what must be a ton of source books. Yeah, the Necess Kurita thing felt a bit weird overall. I’ll admit it’s perfectly on brand for House Kurita to pick a fight with Comstar despite knowing the risk of a HPG Blackout. Although the whole time I was expecting her to either be killed while trying to extract her or to be killed in the palace rather than hand her back over to Comstar, that just feels very Kurita. The whole we’re going to drop an entire regiment of mercenaries on the palace felt a bit weird but weird things happen in this messed up universe. I love Battletech but I genuinely dislike how much the creators hate warships, which I think are so cool! I got so excited when I heard Comstar was running up the shipyards and building new warships, only to have that hope crushed within ten minutes. It’s so freaking dumb that warships basically get written out of the universe. That is one of my few very serious gripes about the setting.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you as ever for the support. I'm with you 100% on the WarShips. Unfortunately, we're still trapped in the part of the timeline where there have to be none in service at the time the Clans emerge in 3050. The rare few examples secreted away weren't added to the lore until decades later and have to remain hidden so as to not contradict anything that came earlier.

[@Bluehairedgirl89]

@@SvenVanDerPlank Of course, thank you so much for responding. I do absolutely understand that and I’m glad you found some way to at least talk about them a little bit. It’s just a gripe I have with the setting, one of the few I have so I figured I’d figured I’d voice it.

[@strategoslevel3456]

Those ComStar facilities later become the hidden worlds of the Word of Blake

[@billrich9722]

Oh, shit. It's the weekend already. Another long one. I love these lengthy listens. Thank you again for keeping these going for us. As far as I'm concerned, you're at the head of the BattleTech resurgence among the fans. I mean... I have no idea if that's functionally true but we need more professional quality presentations like this. And, CR needs to get back to doing campaign readings.

[@ComfortsSpecter]

@@billrich9722 I’d cite Tex and WH40K Immigrants and whole lotta various group efforts But this Guy Nondeniably has the best serious lore expositions Out of (You would assume) any franchise He’s just… Too Good

[@Deridus]

Between Red, Tex, and Sven, I'd say we're getting spoiled, and they're just the best ones but by no means the only.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Cheers guys. Glad you're all enjoying the videos. I'm glad to have a chance to share my love of the franchise with an audience.

[@YalelingOz]

Great episode as always Sven. Enjoy your time off. (Sure I'm looking forward to the next video, but no need to rush back to working on ii on our account. We'll be here when you're here.)

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thanks, will do.

[@jasonfarley9025]

Keep loving your work mate And I, for one, am glad you covered the warships

[@Deridus]

The idea of ComStar flitting about and scooping up spacejunk fills me with dread, especialy in the wake of what I'm learning of the Blakist era.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Haven't seen anyone criticise my inclusion of them, so seems I made the right choice. ComStar constructing a secret fleet wasn't the only subtle reference to the Word of Blake in this chapter either. We may still be in the 2900s, but I'm already setting up the Jihad.

[@MysteryMastery69]

Amazing as always! Looking forward to being able to catch these live again. Enjoy your holiday!

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Cheers. Should be back to weekend premieres in October.

[@iller3]

"Not since Silver Shield had comstar openly undertaken a military action" _....that was widely known of, right?_

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

They went and told everybody exactly what they had done after and told them not to seize Earth.

[@thomasrose4523]

Wooo! We're slowly but surely getting to the 31st century, and I'm here for it. And seriously, the Mariks had a crap hand one after another.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Less than 100 years to go now until we reach the "start." It's been a long time coming.

[@MLCrisis1790]

Hmmm...I think our Narrator may be a refugee from a certain phone company's Intel branch. If he talks about the White Wings of Vandenburg I'm calling it a lock!

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Ha, I have asked myself how whoever is supposed to be presenting this info knows so much, including private conversations.

[@strategoslevel3456]

Looking forward to the Marik civil war and theWolf’s Dragoons! Will we get a Misery episode?

[@oriffel]

poor warships can never catch a break.

[@Bluehairedgirl89]

Seriously!!!

[@freeagent9511]

im about to start playing battletech rpg in near future, looked for some bt lore, found your channel, finished watching everything now i cannot wait for modern times! thanks for your great job!

[@plainsfox]

From FM: Comstar, Waterly changed the name of the CSG&M to the ComGuards before they were split from ROM, so 3030-3035ish.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you very much for that. I have mistakenly referred to them as the ComGuards in the rest of the 3rdSW scripts, so I'll go back and change that now.

[@K3flyn]

As a lover of the middle eras of Battletech, I hope you take on those eras someday too! Great work!

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Not sure what you mean by middle eras, but it is my intention to cover the entire timeline eventually. Just going to keep going linearly, but I'll jump back to cover Clan history after the invasion.

[@K3flyn]

@@SvenVanDerPlank I’m really happy you’re planning on doing later eras than 3025! Specifically, I was referring to the period between 3025 and 3081 (?) or the 4th succession War, clan invasion, FedCom Civil War and Jihad eras. Thanks for replying!

[@Kaiju-Driver]

I love this. Such great work.

[@mal_dun]

Great video! Although I miss the old way of moving the camera to the location of the map you did in the previous videos here. It really helps with getting a sense of the where what is sometimes harder to follow if one only sees a map snippet. I know that just using the faction logo eases things up for you and in the end it is a matter of taste but I genuinely missed that feature.

[@Deridus]

Yeah, you've got a point. There are some systems that I'm rather more familiar with, and having just a sliver of space doesn't help much. Sometimes I think he's got the map turned 180* because of how jarring ti can be, especially when raids and invasions are deeper into other territories.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thanks for the feedback. I might go back to it in the future. Because of how unclear everything is in the 3rdSW, I didn't want to do the extra work of making a whole other set of darker maps for the transitions when I know the borders aren't going to be accurate anyway.

[@Deridus]

@@SvenVanDerPlank Fair enough.

[@ComfortsSpecter]

Just finished five Hours of the first Crime Against Everything War audiobook Still on Dos Gonna take a Second My Man but I swear I Will be watching this

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

No worries, there's no rush. Glad you've been enjoying the videos lately.

[@ComfortsSpecter]

@@SvenVanDerPlank Your work is just a little too Good

[@ebla83]

Excellent work Sven! I got to this a day late, but as always this was fantastic. Have a good holiday.

[@Spackentim]

This it this moment in time my favorite lore series.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thank you, I'm pleased to hear you've been enjoying it so much.

[@CraigSteinhoff]

Great job! Love these

[@ChrisMerwin]

Brilliant work as always, Sven!

[@nukenuked5749]

sweet more to come cant wait mate

[@kurteibell2885]

War Steiner approves this video. 😁

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thanks, glad to hear it.

[@jefferynelson]

leaving a comment to support this content creator

[@nodu9303]

So good to see your clicks and views go up! ❤

[@lorefox201]

in this episode the Davion plot armour is so thick not even photons pass through it must be very dark in Avalon most of the year

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

It's not their fault that they're the bestest best faction that's the best. Maybe if those other factions didn't have such inscrutable foreign ways, they'd do better.

[@loreman2803]

​@@SvenVanDerPlankone day Kurita will be less cartoonish

[@lorefox201]

@@loreman2803 mission: impossible

[@Deridus]

Between Davion's plot armor and Liao, only Wolf's got better because they're the bestest betterer boys who are obviously the best because ilClan.

[@JacatackLP]

@@loreman2803I mean they are in the Ilclan and dark age

[@franksmedley8619]

Hello Sven. I am uncertain about the timing on this, but perhaps the Coordinator was 'held in check' by the build-up of Comm Star forces. The later named Comm Guards. I have no doubts that Kurita would see any action on his part leading to the deployment of the Comm Guards, and an Interdiction of his nation. I might be wrong about this, but it is possible. In any case. Please keep making this videos. They are both entertaining, and informative. Even to an 'old salt', like myself. Actually hearing, and being led through the detailed history of the Inner Sphere puts a lot of things into perspective that one just ignored when playing the game as it was released. That, being the period of the 4th Succession War. Both just before it occurred, and when it was raging.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

You could be right, Frank. The ComGuards formed 2-3 years after the events on Luthien. Even if Hugai had been planning something, their existence probably would have dissuaded him from going through with the attack. Perhaps he even believed he needed to hold his strength in reserve to counter an imminent ComStar invasion. Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you've been enjoying the videos.

[@Korraganitar]

My hatred for Comstar continues to grow. I'm not typically a fan of Kurita, but I would have preferred of they succeeded. Frankly, im a little shocked that Hugai didnt immediately begin planning something thoroughly nasty.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Hugai was a pretty weak Coordinator. Barely achieved anything of note during his reign. Many of his predecessors would have crushed ComStar for the insult, no matter the cost.

[@matthewnash9181]

Love this

[@M0rtunodos]

Amazing installment! Thanks!

[@lexington476]

Oh that story about the acolyte. I was half expecting the mercenaries to make a hot contested combat drop right on top of the Imperial Palace 😎. I've never heard of that episode. what's the source of that?

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Either Kurita Housebook of ComStar sourcebook.

[@MrTotalAhole]

I think it was Kurita. I'll try and remember to check for you tomorrow.

[@negatronnortagen8037]

Thanks boss

[@MagNight]

Weirdly specific knowledge from someone ostensibly presenting from a position in-setting? I can't believe Sven was Precentor Van Zandt this whole time.

[@richardsampson9716]

well an episode focus on the arrival of the Wolf's Dragoons??

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

They'll pop up in Ep6, with a greater focus during Anton's Revolt.

[@Deridus]

I had to watch this twice because there was so. Much. Detail. Man alive, I despise ComStar. Edit: not a criticism, but a compliment. I love works like Sven's that has re-watch potential.

[@kodeshikou464]

I used to like ComStar for all they did during the Clan invasion, but damn all this dirty laundry…I thought the Word of Blake was bad, damn

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

I've come to the realisation that Word of Blake *IS* ComStar. One of my key aims for this series is to shine a light on that fact. WoB wasn't some fanatical splinter faction, they were true to the original cause. Focht/Mori's secular offshoot was the imposter.

[@derekburge5294]

Yeah, Comstar really had a hand in every dirty dealing in the Inner Sphere.

[@wandilismus8726]

The Fox and The Hound are close

[@case-1846]

Hey Sven, will you looking to start on anything regarding the SLDF exodus in october/november or start on the 4th succession war? I think with the release of MW5 Clans now on October 17th, videos regarding the formation of the clans, even the early part of the Exodus would be good timing for then. I know you mentioned you would get there eventually.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

So, what you're suggesting makes perfect sense. Cash in on the renewed interest on the Clan Invasion that'll inevitably come about as a byproduct of new folks jumping into the series through MW5C. Unfortunately, I'm illogically choosing not to do that. I just want to continue working linearly through the timeline. We'll get to 3050 eventually, and after Tukayyid I'll go back and cover the founding of the clans.

[@case-1846]

@@SvenVanDerPlank It would be good timing, figured I would ask and see if you had something lined up around that time. But you continue as you see fit. Your videos are amazing.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Cheers, glad you like them.

[@Athlon2736]

Prince imperial? That's a new title?

[@RobtheStampede]

It's been around since the House Davion sourcebook, just means "designated heir"

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Yeah, it's from the Davion Housebook that released 1988, but the term just pops out of nowhere in the 3rdSW without prior use, so I've never known it existed to include in any of my earlier videos.

[@Athlon2736]

@SvenVanDerPlank understood. Also, I will say I do miss the maps updating as systems are taken... we gonna get a fully updated map soon?

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Thanks for the feedback. Once I reach the penultimate episode, I'll be confident enough to tackle the task of creating a sequence of maps that cover the whole conflict. It'll be included in the compilation video at the end of the year. There's just so much unknown in the 3rdSW that I'd inevitably introduce errors if I tried now.

[@Athlon2736]

@SvenVanDerPlank okay sweet. I do look forward to that and seeing the end of this series. You gonna do 4th then war of 3039? Or gonna do clan stuff? after

[@Cheetahmk2]

Comment for the algorithm

[@shimazutakuma1031]

Commstar not having qualified technicians to maintain the SL era warships is their own doing, they killed the scientists and mechanics with knowhow to maintain and manufacture them instead of taking the information before doing so, or even recruiting them to their side 😂 karma at its best...

[@sanguiniusonvacation1803]

Quickly running out of timeline that your narrator character knows about.

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Don't worry, he's not locked in time. We'll defo go past 3025.

[@sanguiniusonvacation1803]

​@@SvenVanDerPlankcan't wait to see what happens when you get to the invasion era

[@mbp1652]

Let's go