Battletech Lore - The Word of Blake, Who are They?

[@jamesricker3997]

The leader of the Word of Blake was Thomas Marik, the real Thomas Marik. Thomas Marik was horribly injured in a bombing and required extensive cybernetic implants. Comstar put a body double on the throne of the FWL and ruled from the shadows

[@liljenborg2517]

No one expects the Blakist Inquisition! I wasn't a big fan of the Jihad era when it first showed up. The attempt to shoehorn in an analogy of the Protestant reformation and the wars of religion into the Battletech universe just didn't work for me. Part of that was the "history" of it, ComStar suddenly fragmenting into a host of ideological "denominations" didn't fit how I thought ComStar really worked (that's a head canon thing, so it's personal opinion). But it had more to do with how it was really trying to re-set the Battletech universe. When I first started playing Battletech, (back in the mid 80s) the 3020 Human Sphere was a broken place. (Yes, before Mechwarrior moved the universe to 3025). Your mechs were held together with chewing gum, duct tape, and bailing wire. You had to scavenge for every laser you could. But by 3055 life in the Human Sphere was improving. Between the Helm Memory Core and the influx of tech from the Clans (and the discovery of how much ComStar had played all sides against the middle entirely to keep them weak and leave them open to some sort of eventual ComStar takeover) . . . things were actually looking up. New technologies were being developed. New factories were being built. Battlefield salvage was no longer the resource it had once been because newly produced stuff was actually better and cheaper than old stuff for the first time since the Star League fell. The return of the capacity to build warships meant Mech combat would no longer be the central aspect of warfare. So the Game Devs decided that they had to re-set the universe; technologically cripple the inner sphere again; return things to a divided, scavenger dependent, war-torn subsistence economy. So they thought, let's take the 16th century and the fragmentation of the church and the ensuing "wars of religion", and instead of imagining it pushing the renaissance into the Enlightenment, we'll have these Christian analogs act more like Muslim analogs and drag civilization back into the Dark Ages. We can't let the things players have had their characters fighting for all those years actually change (or fix) the universe! We need to return to and eternally maintain the status quo! We don't just want the universe to be broken; we want it to stay unfixably broken (and we have these wacko religious fundamentalists who control the space internet we can always use to keep it that way)! I almost would have preferred the idea (utterly heretical in Battletech, I know) of humanity discovering alien races.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Thanks for the input either way :)

[@liljenborg2517]

​@@GrimDarkNarrator Thanks for doing the video on it, GDN. I've never read up on the Jihad Era much. The Jihad was "after my time", so to speak. I hadn't played Battletech tabletop since 1995 when I was in grad school. When we finally had a game shop open up close enough to visit with my kids about a decade ago (and my kids got huge into MTG and D&D) and I discovered what had become of Battletech as it was bought and sold by different companies who tried to deal with the tangle of IP rights by rebooting the universe (twice - both using radical ComStar factions as the way to do it). It just turned me off. I liked a lot of the tech they introduced. I just wasn't a big fan of the story they developed. I can see what the devs were trying to do with it, I can understand why they did it. I just don't think they pulled it off very well.

[@EmperorSigismund]

I agree, The jihad era doesn't feel like it fits in with the rest of battletech. It feels like they were just retreading old ground by doing the clans again but with a crazy cultist theme. If the truly wanted to go with a reformation theme it should have been the fundamentalist Comstar core who were forced to reveal devious plans for a new, totalitarian Star League by Comstar seperatists who want to put the HPG system into the hands of the people. There was good opportunity there to dig both into reformation history and 20th c science fiction. Comstar, having raised several hundred years of generations in position of luxury and isolation, watched the chaos outside and decides to build a brave new world to tame the barbaric tribes of the IS. That feels much more compelling to me that than starting a 'jihad' because they already did a 'crusade' for their last holy war arc.

[@Angel7black]

The Irony is during the actual Middle ages/dark ages, it was the Muslim world and East in general that kept advancing and kept most of the records old world at the time while western europe and much of central and eastern europe kept destroying themselves up until the renaissance and even more so The Enlightenment

[@liljenborg2517]

@@Angel7black This isn't very accurate a historical analysis. The "dark ages" were only labeled the "dark ages" by guys like Voltaire who wanted to make the time when the primary sociopolitical force in Europe was the Roman Catholic church because they had an anti-church axe to grind. Yes, the centuries between 400 and 600 were pretty violent as the Hun invasions caused a migratory domino effect. (and that was BEFORE Islam started) And when things started to calm down around 700 the Muslims showed up and conquered their way across Roman North Africa, Spain, and well into Byzantine lands. And when that finally calmed down around 800 the Vikings started attacking everyone. But throughout the millennium between the fall of Rome and the renaissance Europe developed the windmill and water wheel and the mechanical clock. They built the gothic cathedrals. They founded universities all across the continent from Oxford to Prague (and with the universities the foundations of modern sciences and medicine). And that was before the Black Death showed up in the 1200s.

[@Angel7black]

Always felt like Comstar/Word of Blake were the actual big bad guys and in Battletech, which is why to me Tukkiyad was a complex group of varying morality factions losing the an overall way more shady, more screwed up in the head and more fundamentally BAD faction. The IS didnt beat the Clans, the IS got for the most part was getting bopped till their secret oppressors came out once they realized their own asses and ambitions of controlling the IS were in jeopardy. On top of that ideologically they were just completely beyond rationality and reason. the IS just went from the frying pan into the nuclear fire when comstar stopped the clan invasion for them. Ive said for a while the perfect ending to battletech is an ending where the great houses and clans have to address their own issues and differences and humanity in order to stop a returning super advanced and full off the deep end Word of Blake/Comstar from taking out the whole known battletech universe and forming the true and lasting Star League that Alexander Kerensky dreamt of. Battletech doesnt have to end on a note of “humanity was stupid and thus stayed stupid”

[@AfroChef]

You used parts from the Heavy Mechs. To fix the Scout Mechs? (Mechassault 1 & 2 got me into this lore)

[@tristanbackup2536]

Since I use to play Mech-assault 1 & 2 alot when I was a kid, only the last few years had realised it was part of the Battletech universe trying to figure out where on the timeline does those two games take place, now I know it's alot later than I thought.

[@philips.5563]

I like that they are positioned in the fiction as both manipulators and tools of the regional powers. It's an odd dose of realism. Further, having worked in the telecommunications field, I think that a future merge of roles between communications and intelligence (Verizon + CIA) could easily result in such a parallel society developing.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

That sounds like a match made in heaven.

[@combativeThinker]

Could result? We’re already there. All mainstream media repeats propaganda of the same ideological bent, often times word-for-word with other outlets.

[@Spectre-wd9dl]

They already have backdoors to any router sold in the US and deals with all of the major isps. I laugh at people that think their vpn is keeping them secure from the government.

[@toddkes5890]

Comstar also served as interstellar banking, and had access to the most industrial and high-tech world in the Inner Sphere (Terra). So you have communications, intelligence, finance, industry, and technology on the same side

[@avsbes98]

@@toddkes5890 So basically every single thing you need to run a post-Renaissance-Age Society.

[@gregdomenico1891]

One slight correction; Operation Scorpion was to put the Innersphere and the world's in the occupation zone under Comstar rule, not Clan. Poor Blake catches too much hell, Since it was Toyama who screwed upped Comstar, and who was responsible for the Second and Third Succession wars. And of course, trying their hardest to keep the IS tech regression going.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Thanks for the correction :)

[@foenrik8941]

Well, the Second Sucession War Sourcebook reveals that Blake actually gave Toyama the idea (though he did warn him against going too far.) Toyama thought it was crap and wouldn't work at first, but went with it, and everything went downhill after that (especially after Karpov replaced him and took things even further).

[@Canoby]

There's just something about an interstellar phone company inspiring not just one religion but several radical sects that feels like something they'd put into a Doctor Who episode, either modern era or the Tom Baker years

[@666kingdrummer]

I always found the Word of Blake fascinating. All of the factions in Battletech have always been written with certain degree of Grey Morality, in other words, no side can ever be considered "The Good Guys". This was obviously done on purpose by the creators, so that players could choose a faction and get attached to it. However, the Word of Blake was unique in that it was the first faction, aside from some Periphery Pirates, that everyone in the setting could agree on, was pure evil.

[@SwordlordRoy]

I'm always a sucker for Techno-religious factions. Peace of Blake be with you!

[@rayanderson5797]

Ave Omnissiah?

[@douglasbaker4562]

Another very informative video from GDN! I did not know even half of this, as I tend to stick to 3025-3058 era. Good job! And remember to pay your bills, ***ko!

[@georgesulea]

Thank you for this; I had not read much about Word of Blake.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

To be honest, neither did I till this video :)

[@rayanderson5797]

Look up the book "Ideal War". It's really good and it involves the Word of Blake on Gibson.

[@lordalpharius5928]

More Ragnarok assault mechs please! Only few good things from WoB!

[@cronoros]

Word of Blake are why pulse lasers go wob-wob-wob

[@richardoconnor8715]

Thanks GDN! The later eras and technology seem very interesting.

[@roguedexx938]

The unrepentant/Uredeemable villains that BT needs ..I personally wanted MORE!!

[@shagakhan9442]

Thanks for the video. Peace of Blake be with you!

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Likewise.

[@smokestriker1258]

Correction, Operation SCORPION was a failed attempt during the Clan Invasion to put the entire Inner Sphere, including Clan occupied territory, under ComStar control. Not Clan control.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Thanks.

[@miss_bec]

I love quasi-religious fanaticism in science fiction, gotta be one of my favourite genders

[@jasonulysess3652]

Hello KZbin algorithm. The real question is are there 7 of them?

[@christianholzschuh6853]

Operation Scorpion was not ment to hand over the inner sphere to the clans. Why would Comstar fight the clans if they wanted to surrender? And they also attacked the clans - on Alynia Kai Allard-Liao allied himself with some elementals to bring down the Comstar-troops. They wanted to take over the inner sphere for Comstar.

[@Dariushellstrome]

Great Vid, the lore is good but the Innersphere should always avoid space AT&T

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Sounds like sound advice.

[@Panax07]

The Master and the Sixth of June. The two most important aspects of WOB

[@paralykeet-]

:P That, and being tricked into fucking with Regulus. Because Battletech's lore doesn't start with Terrans fucking with Regulans ending poorly... Or successive stories of the entire sphere backsliding in technological advancements, while Regulan armies still had Star League era gear, well maintanenced clean through the succession wars and clan invasion. Or that planet they helped a Marik murder to make the Cappellans eat shit- and inspired the Ares Conventions. Regulus- the planet even Comstar can't play "Fuck Around and Find Out" with.

[@scientistx5717]

Super jump drive and Super HPG

[@karimblix4378]

Best Battletech faction

[@mortizthejackal2256]

"Foster, Zealots don't quit. They just come back Twice as mean, and Four Times as Crazy." -Major Natalya of Wolf's Dragoons. MechAssault II: Lone Wolf Amen... word of Blake were Terrorists. So many people that use old ways like the Word of Blake did, only became increasingly radicalized. Myself being a modern day Warrior who studied the japanese system of strategy, or "Book of five rings - Miyamoto Musashi" I discovered that Wars cannot be won fairly, or honorably by use of treachery. Everything has to be done Honorably, or the Tricksters May one day face Severe Karma. Surely no one can escape their own Karma, whether good Karma, or bad Karma. (My theory) Good Karma is when you learn a Valuable lesson after doing something bad that almost cost you everything in your life, yet you were forgiven. Sadly, Bad Karma may be given to those who don't learn from their own mistakes. They might put it off until it's too late to fix the problem. Learning from one's own mistakes is something I just don't see the Word Of Blake doing. There's way too many things they have obtained by using Treachery, Including the Planetary System of Terra.

[@l.everetttalbottjr.275]

I had to deal with the word of Blake in Mechassault years ago. These guys are religious nutballs!

[@driton4titon557]

👍 love the relaxing music feels good.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Glad to hear it.

[@ZexyObserver]

In Ideal War, the Word of Blake characters are so annoying. There's one guy who goes into an absolute reddit-tier diatribe.

[@kiepyon1]

Arent that is also same message that the clan originally have?

[@genaroblake319]

good job on terra guys

[@Motoskichimo1974]

Excuse me, but the picture at 8:16 is clearly warhammer 40k Cult mechanicus cosplayers... jk Lol, but they definitely seem inspired by them. At least in appearance.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

They some rather suspicious elements in common.

[@DanielMartinez316]

I like all of comstar.

[@harvestblades]

While I dislike ComStar/Blakists they are a phenomenal creepy bad guy & the universe is less with CGL killing them off & statingbthere are no plans for a return of their ideology. It is very, very hard to kill an ideology especially one as zealous as the Blakists were so I find this rather odd & dissapointing. My heart goes out to the ComStar/Blakists players.

[@mortizthejackal2256]

But I do agree that not all of the Word of Blake were evil at first. Setting the time of the BattleTech Universe when the Wolf's Dragoons had to stop them, the Word of Blake used a lot of communism, because they have been forcing people to work for them in labor camps with very little food or drink if they had stepped out of line. Many times in those camps they had constant recordings that would play back saying "You must give your soul and heart to the Word of Blake. Only through hard labor will you be free. Through Attempting to find your own Freedom you will be Chained." But it was ridiculous... they were forcing them to work without much food or drink. It's just not right to deprive people of their own freedom.

[@ScythianLancer]

I FOUND U AGAIN

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Yay?

[@tyreecebaker6600]

👍

[@qwertyman4]

not really a fan of the org itself, but I really dig the manei domini and the celestial series of mechs

[@stinkymccheese8010]

Bird, bird is tha word.

[@Inignot12]

Algorithm go brrrrr

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

If only :D

[@floridaman3823]

FIRST! FLORIDA MAN! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Da5hau]

The religious fanatics of the setting ;(

[@docvaliant721]

I hated the jihad. Anything after the treaty between the clans and IS I view as not canon.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Kinda like Game of Thrones season 8 :D

[@snarflcat6187]

I is not a fan of the Word Of Brake!!. 😅

[@Peter_Morris]

I gotta he honest, I’ve never understood how techno-primitivism or techno-religion is supposed to work. The idea that engineers and mechanics can become so dumb over time that they only know how to “go through the motions” sounds like something an English major who’s never turned a wrench came up with. When you work on something, take it apart, and put it back together, you by necessity learn how it works. The idea to at somebody “religionified” the HPG network is, to me, one of the dumber concepts in Battletech that ruins the verisimilitude. It just doesn’t ring true to any grease monkey. Same goes for that weird hunchback in that Mad Max video game. Utterly preposterous.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

That's probably a more realistic approach but you gotta forsake it for some dystopian settings, I guess.

[@Paltse]

How about myomers and the fact that tracked vehicles are better than wobbly walky thingies as a combat platform anywhere other than difficult cliff terrain?

[@edgardosanchez521]

Some suspention of disbelief is of course required but in the setting it is simething like this. Humanity has lost the know how in how more complex elements are made they have just enough knowledge to mainatin some of it but not how to manufacture or replace. During the exodus a lot of the more brilliant minds left the IS. Imagine in our world everyone who knows how to make a cellphone and other such equipment left Earth. Most people will know how use, charge and make some basic repairs but nobody or very few would be able to make a new one. Any phone lost cannot be replaced. As they become rarer and rarer this valuable technology becomes almost magical and so essential that a few generations down the road it is not farfetched to see some people treat it with some sort of mysticism. A crude and far from perfect example but hopefully it gets the point across. But again some suspention of disbelief is required as you start introducing more variables into this simple equation.

[@rayanderson5797]

I really don't like these guys. After reading "Ideal War" and the shit they got up to on Gibson it's hard to sympathize.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

I don't think you're supposed to like them.

[@rayanderson5797]

@@GrimDarkNarrator It's a touch more nuanced all said. Presentor Blane is decent, and Presentor Martial Arian turns out to have some honor in the end.