BattleTech: The Rim Worlds Republic - A Short History: Part 1

Today we tackle the rather substantive history of the Rim Worlds Republic. Of all the periphery states, none have had a bigger impact on the history of humanity. Let's dive in.
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Videos and some images obtained from Pixabay

[@SvenVanDerPlank]

Fantastic introduction to one of BattleTech's most infamous factions. Like most of the major periphery states, they endured through a period of turbulence and showed incredible promise for the future. The League robbed them of that future. Like you said in the video, although it's never explicitly stated, it's heavily implied that Terens Amaris and Heather Durant were lovers. That makes her one of the very few LGBT characters from that era of the franchise.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Thank you. It means a lot.

[@zantman1000]

Awesome tidbit, thanks for sharing :)

[@weaselwolf]

Origin story for most periphery nations "We should be free from the oppressors!" "YEAH!" "Let's start a new culture based on the glorious ideals of the past!" "Yeah." "With freedom!" "Yeah!" "And elaborate historical affectations of a culture we never belonged to!" "...Yeah." "And slavery!" "I...uh..." "Not for us though. We're gonna own the slaves." "What about freedom?" "Uh, yeah... Freedom to own slaves, dummy." "Okay, I guess... What could go wrong?"

[@MechanicalFrog]

Things sort of go off the rails a bit...

[@lorefox201]

i mean and listen to me here. you make the trip to a piece of crap planet nobody has colonized yet, far away from everything and everyone of any consequence and importance. your crew is made of malcontents, guys with a criminal past, uncle Steve who you quickly learned to keep away from the kids quarters on the colony ship, a few ex mercenaries with war crimes allegations on their back, at least a few religious zealots for colour, oftentimes multiple groups of zealots of different religions because you'd do anything to escape boredom, besides just escaping justice and bureaocracy. So far so good. You now have the daunting task to take all these colourful people and with only scraps of resources, will to power and stiff upper lip, make them into a civilization, because if you fail you all starve and die. Is it any wonder if most people default to LARPing as someone who was actually cool and had his stuff together, as an exercise of active "fake it untill you make it" social engineering? And who's going to till the soil exactly? The zealots? if they set up agricultural communes by their own perhaps. The mercenaries? they are accostumed to taking more that making if you catch my drift. Uncle Steve? let's be honest you probably arranged for him to have a fatal accident in the latrines before you even got to the planet. There's a real need for purpose and manpower is what I'm saying. under such circumstances, getting up from your chair screaming "YOU KNOW WHAT I READ ATLAS SHRUGGED WHEN I WAS A KID I DONT REMRMBER HALF OF IT BUT I THINK ITS GOOD ENOUGHT" would be a big temptation.

[@azuaraikrezeul1677]

Is this the marian hegemony?

[@MechanicalFrog]

@@azuaraikrezeul1677 No but they share some similiarities.

[@iller3]

**dons lobster bib**

[@MechanicalFrog]

Operation Ocean Bugs is go!

[@robrib2682]

It seems another wants to test the infinite nature of infinite breadsticks

[@michaelkimberling7307]

It’s interesting how lore channels for Battletech tend to be like something that could be reasonably found on the history channel.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Trying to class this place up a bit with production value.

[@bthsr7113]

No need to insult them by associating them with the ancient aliens kooks.

[@RecklessFables]

@@bthsr7113 Right?!?! I was about to say this stuff is more reasonable...

[@richardfendt1166]

Yah better than modern history channel for sure

[@Lemonhead209]

Starleague fans can say what they want, The Rim Worlds Republic brought down the greatest Realm in Battletech, Tex can hark on about Bagpipes and the Black Watch , the 4th Amaris pulled back and Called in an Airstrike….. A Black day for the Black Watch

[@MechanicalFrog]

We can say with some measure of certainty that it's not a case of good vs. evil in the centuries leading up to Stefan Amaris.

[@Doomer1984]

The best thing about Starleague is that they were the genesis of the superior form of humanity. The clans! 😀

[@Brofisticus]

Thanks for covering this. Its nice to see the logical progression of the characters and story that brought the Inner Sphere to cataclysm. It makes the setting feel more alive.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Glad I could do it. I feel like I'm learning along with you all.

[@TheSixthWorld]

"Things start to snowball quickly." Understatement of the year there, lol

[@MechanicalFrog]

I'm knee deep in the part two script and... it's getting a bit... testy.

[@TheSixthWorld]

@@MechanicalFrog I believe one of their rulers had a slight quibble with General Kerensky at one point.

[@MechanicalFrog]

A little tiff. No big deal.

[@yecnay25]

The formation of this State and the Marians convinces me that amateur Historians shouldn’t be allowed to make Stellar Nations based off of ancient Mediterranean cultures lol. Come to think of it the Draconis Combine did the same damn thing. Amateur Historians who ignore why their favorite civilizations aren’t around anymore are a critical threat to Mankind!😂

[@MechanicalFrog]

Well, it's difficult to find an ancient civilization that didn't practice slavery in one form or another...

[@yecnay25]

@@MechanicalFrog we call them interns around here

[@beskar66]

Alexander Kerensky and SLDF: BURN BABY BURN

[@MechanicalFrog]

#Soon

[@michaelkimberling7307]

🎶DISCO INFERNO🎶

[@negawan]

Yes, one of my favorite factions simply because they really shook things up in BT's history.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Indeed... shook up quite a bit.

[@bthsr7113]

Live by the sword die by the sword. The Shark was born of vengeance, and to its own vengeance, it would lose everything.

[@wraith7989]

I love these lore videos. It’s amazing how much I’ve missed over the years.

[@MechanicalFrog]

More to come!

[@davidflores3319]

What a fascinating universe Battletech is! Thank you for your informative and entertaining video!

[@MechanicalFrog]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@adiuntesserande6893]

I love that Battletech's writing team was writing a polyamourous triad in *1988*. (One of the early Republic leaders was in a triad.)

[@MechanicalFrog]

Pretty progressive for the time. Or just thirsty nerds.

[@MM22966]

I think they were just looking for ways to showcase the Rimmers moral degeneracy. That fancy term you used is not an acceptable form of social interaction for majority of the planet Earth, and certainly not in the Western world of the 1980's.

[@BruceEverett]

I didn't know about the Platonism in the history of the Rim Worlds Republic. Was working on further fleshing out the history of an ages-old-shipping-company-turned-mercenary-group-in-3025 that we started playing in 1990; had already worked out that during the Star League Era they'd have concluded that Bertrand Russell wouldn't have much liked the Rim Worlds Republic. Glad to find out that was on the money. :P

[@MechanicalFrog]

I think we need more Rim Worlds Republic lore.

[@BruceEverett]

@@MechanicalFrogif it happens, I hope it's after I've managed to rid myself of a brainworm that keeps auto-correcting the name to "Rimj*b Republic". Oh gawd. Now even the censorious asterisk is mocking me.

[@defiantmechwarrior2397]

I really enjoyed it thank you. Lots of background information brought in.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@kierdalemodels]

One can only assume this ‘Amaris’ person (and no doubt their progeny) took the RWR from strength to strength. Fantastic. End of story…no?🧐 😄 VERY interesting to hear the RWR’s pre-Amaris history. Thank you for making this. I can’t wait for part 2!

[@MechanicalFrog]

Good times had by all. Happily ever after...

[@IKMojito]

Glad to see the good guys get the spotlight Emperor Amaris for life, baby

[@MechanicalFrog]

Heh!

[@MM22966]

You have a very odd view on things.

[@davidcashin1894]

Immediate Street Cred based on Technical Readout 3025 prominently displayed on the page.

[@harvestblades]

Some good background info as I am largely unfamiliar with the Rim World Alliance.

[@MechanicalFrog]

We can always use a little brush up on the lore. :D

[@iBloodxHunter]

I like how Roe was just Goziburo Kaiba except good.

[@MM22966]

There was always something that came through the sourcebooks and the few vignettes about the Rimmers. A coldness, a very...inhuman attitude toward morality. While all of humanity has had its black spots, there was this sense that even the average Amaris follower was perfectly alright with all manner of bloodthirsty atrocity at a fundamental psychological level. Maybe the shark IS a good symbol for them!

[@MechanicalFrog]

Ruthless pragmatism, perhaps.

[@MM22966]

@@MechanicalFrogI felt it went beyond that. The Liao and Kuritas could be rated as both ruthless and pragmatic as a people or in policy, but the Rimmers seemed to actually have something missing when it came to a conscious at a individual.

[@RandyTandyy]

This couldn't possibly end poorly.

[@matthewpena3932]

Great stuff as always. Any chance you can cover the Scorpion Empire? I know it is not fitting the normal group that you are covering in this series but I just got a friend into the game and he is thinking about playing Escorpión Imperio also is there a difference between the two?

[@MechanicalFrog]

I will have to look into that.

[@lorefox201]

EL IMPERIO DEL ESCORPIÓN ES MUY BASADO ES UNA ALLIANCIA ENTRE UN CLAN Y DOS FACCIONES DE LA ESFERA ESTERNA CADA MIEMBRO MAS BASADO DE EL OTRO Y MACHACARON A LA LEGA HANSEATICA QUE GOBERNABA SOBRE COMO 50 PLANETAS GRAN MOMENTOS DE TROLLING TIO also yes they speak Spanish.

[@lorefox201]

the difference between the escorpión imperio and the scorpion empire is purely chronological and logistical, in that you have three phases: 1) deep perifery guys make agrarian catholic Spanish speaking colony, get invaded by "the umayyads" (Muslims coming from we don't know where exactly) after several setbacks manage to mostly repel them. 2) clan Goliath scorpion gets banished from clan space and arrives there btfoing both factions, imposes clan military rule: societies of the natives and of the clan are still separate. That's the "El Escorpión Imperio". 3) they jump the Hanseatic league and gradually it all becomes one new civilization, the scorpion empire. The "Imperio Militar del Escorpión" is basically the Clan remnant, aka the warrior caste, confusingly is also how the state itself was called during phase 2 (when it still wasn't a 'state' per se admittedly but you get what I mean). As of 3151 on, caste barriers have been relaxed a lot and new "castes" to handle logistics local rulership and planetary militia defense have also been extabilished. By all intents and purposes the "castes" are basically glorified unions by then,except for the fact that the warrior caste proper is still made up of ex clanners. Goliath Scorpion had the foresight to incorporate local administration and leadership in their own and made out like bandits by simple virtue of being pretty nice folks to be invaded by overall to the point that neither the neo castillans nor the ummayads are particularly salty about having been invaded anymore already. It is basically a VERY constitutional monarchy, with civil rights elections social mobility between castes and many such reasonable things, made up of at least 4 factions each more badass than the previous and ruled by the zarKhan of the military caste. If there was any justice in the Battletech universe they would end up becoming a middle to major faction, sort of a counterpart to the davions in many ways.

[@matthewpena3932]

@@lorefox201 wow that is an awesome reply and thank you.

[@lorefox201]

@@matthewpena3932 no problem

[@sebastiang.5032]

I love those videos, keep up the great work!

[@MechanicalFrog]

Thank you!

[@TroySeward]

Great video enjoying the periphery history.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Ultramammoth]

Fantastic stuff

[@MechanicalFrog]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@lorefox201]

cool and coolest stuff

[@MechanicalFrog]

Thank ya.

[@TheMurlocmage]

why would a student of history create a helot class, because slave labor is a very tempting poisoned apple for those who need cheap labor.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Perhaps, though a fan of Greek history would know that the Spartans were fatally hobbled by their need to stay near Sparta and prevent revolts.

[@cmdrhatchy9611]

You seem to really enjoy the story of the Rim Worlds Republic.

[@MechanicalFrog]

I'd love to know what Hatchy was up to at the time.

[@cmdrhatchy9611]

@@MechanicalFrog I told Kerensky where he could find Aramis. Gave him the pass codes and the back way in, but no, he said he wanted to kick in the front door because it was more dramatic.

[@MechanicalFrog]

@@cmdrhatchy9611 Well, he was right about the dramatic part.

[@randomcenturion7264]

Rimworld savages ruined everything. Kerensky was right to put them to the torch.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Do you work for a Star League media outlet or something? ;)

[@robertbyerlay5040]

Did Rim worlds join Lyran commonwealth smoothly? Would there be local factions existing in 3025? Like Tamar or Skype?

[@MechanicalFrog]

We will get into it with Part 2 but the short answer is, no, nothing went smoothly. It is all fire and horror and suffering.

[@lukedudley5030]

Great history lesson :-) sadly even though they are quite powerful I just can't get behind a state that gave the inner sphere amaris :-)

[@MechanicalFrog]

That's fair.

[@rho1581]

Rho Roe Row your boat 😂

[@bthsr7113]

Stop bringing back systemic forced labor for life! It doesn't work! Neither does indentured servitude!

[@MechanicalFrog]

It stretches my suspension of disbelief that it would still exist and be seen as a good idea a thousand years from now.

[@bthsr7113]

@@MechanicalFrog Well I could see corporations today salivating over the prospect of indentured servitude, but sane and reasonable governments would block it. No question.

[@1000niggawatt]

RimWorld republic, lmao. Oh youtube.

[@MechanicalFrog]

Sorry what?

[@1000niggawatt]

@@MechanicalFrog It says "RimWorld - Gaming" on the video. You know, dwarf fortress clone. KZbin just cyberbullying bt nerds. Sad!

[@MechanicalFrog]

@@1000niggawatt Life is full of little challenges.