OBT Forum

Hey bud, I got plenty of thoughts for ya but not much time to spare.

Commenting on your piecemeal alternate if I may your right in a lot of your assessments. I don't love the super divided Dark Age Sharks roaming the InnerSphere in Arkships either but I've got several ideas for a Stock Split lets say.

They usually revolve around a more conservative element (let's call them Sea Fox) and a more liberal element (let's call them Diamond Shark) going their own way - sort of. Basically to satisfy political extremists the Clan decides to break into two parts but keep channels open for opportunities. Sort of like the Crusader Wolf - Wolf in Exile development these yin and yang of the Clan go their own ways allowing the maximum return on investment.

This taken on several forms which I'd like to keep close to the chest for future story telling but always maintains the core theme. I figure this arrangement would allow the Clan to deal unofficially with less savory elements in whatever form it officially takes. It also limits liability something business and the merchant Clan(s) would love. I suppose many would catch on to this obvious collusion but proving it and holding someone (who?) accountable would be another matter entirely.

However, what I don't see is them wanting to move down there with Scorpions. Usually I have them set up in the old Rim Worlds which ironically was represented by a Shark and lies between the Homeworlds and the InnerSphere. This gives them the best (central) spot to act as go betweens which is soo Diamond Shark. While the Illyrian Palatine is a natural match merchant-wise it and may even welcome liberation I doubt the Clan would devote a home their for either half of itself in my vision.

If you embrace the New Clans role of the Goliath Scorpions out on Circinus why not have a 'New Clan' eventually undertake this endeavor? 

There is a myriad of options really. I don't love the Scorpion canon move to Nueva Castille though cause they didn't get far enough away from the Homeworld aka the Untainted or Pure Clans.

Thoughts?  Got those in plenty.  Answers?  Not so much.  Which is why I would value the input of folks here on fleshing out this idea.

Time is my problem, which I had more of it to develop my ideas. The subdivision is a natural evolution for the Diamond Sharks in my eyes and occurs for me in at least two different forms for BattleTech settings I had dreamed up. Which I will outline for a food for thought here for ya.

One setting I got dreamed up has a reborn nation called the Terran Union come about at the center of the InnerSphere run by mercenaries which include the Wolf Dragoons. Spurred on by their liberation of Earth from the Word of Blake, ComStar recognition, and a growing chaos which consumes the InnerSphere rather than sees the formation of a Second Star League this land grows as a base for mercenaries. Attracted by the lure of the old Hegemony and recognizing the opportunity of establishing a base therein Sigma Galaxy is sent to do so as a mercenary unit called the Sea Foxes. When confronted in the Grand Council the Diamond Sharks say they have every right to conduct intelligence missions for the Clan (see the Wolf Dragoons) and anyone who has a problem with it will have to defeat them in trial. What they are actually is a conduit for business and a connection to the center of the InnerSphere.

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Sigma_Galaxy_(Clan_Diamond_Shark)

Other concepts similarly have the Shark/Foxes split so that one faction maintains ties to the Clans and the other maintains ties to the InnerSphere. Remember this split is business nothing personal although some have their agendas here. Long has there been a split in the warrior caste about the power of the merchants and it is rather easy to see a conservative faction being appreciated by the Homeworld Clans who has perhaps defeated the lesser caste uprising begun so long ago. On an individual level I have seen some warriors like Ian Hawker fight with unmatched skill tactical but strategic vision they lack. It is these reactionaries I see here forming a Clan Sea Fox and going back to or at least towards the Homeworlds to maintain contact there.

However, one must ask is that a valid point here and now or has this story opportunity passed. The Clan division takes place to maintain exclusive commercial ties where none could exist. Yes the risk is great but wouldn't that make the reward even greater? Now with the Pure (Homeworld) Clans who knows if this is even possible as they don't want any contact with the InnerSphere and its Taint. You'd have to decide their direction in your universe and I have a few ideas in my mind even though the post Jihad Dark Age setting ain't my cup of tea. If you see the Bastion/Aggressor factions having a link to the Tainted in order to keep tabs on them as wise then perhaps this is the way to go still. My latest idea for the Star Adder led Pure Clans is to have them search for a new home deeper in the Periphery rather than stay on the Homeworlds which could be a target for the Tainted. Perhaps leaving the decimated Homeworlds to Clan Sea Fox is their rear guard and a similar Diamond Shark group near the InnerSphere would be the ultimate spyglass backwards by the ever pragmatic Adders with double the buffer to keep clear of the Taint. Meanwhile they go in search of the ultimate homeworld the Kerensky was searching for even deeper in the Periphery a paradise far from the InnerSphere where they can develop the perfect society.

But has that time passed Ice? The Sharks as intermediaries between the Homeworlds and the InnerSphere is a thing of the past in a post Reavings setting.

Let's face it the remaining Homeworlders are xenophobic isolationists (Bastion) at best or genocidal extremists (Aggressors) at worst. Neither is interested in an exchange with the Tainted. I could see a move to keep an eye on these corrupted remnants but other than that strict non contact policy.

Setting the Sharks up next to them now seems foolish but if during the Reavings a section of the Clan went back and was cleansed to become Sea Fox perhaps back channel communication is possible.