Clan Ashen Corsac

Clan Ashen Corsac is a relatively new clan formed roughly a decade and a half after the initial Clan Invasions around a core of weary Inner Sphere MechWarriors and Intelligence operatives. It is named for the Ashen Corsac, a genetically engineered animal introduced to Tiegel as a symbol of the Clan's own identity and place in the Galactic scene. It is a largely traditionalist Clan which views honorable conduct and the minimizing of waste of life and resource in conflict as its paramount tenets. They are the leading force behind the Neo-Crusader ideology and consider Clan Jade Falcon their main ally.

The Ashen Corsacs carved out a corner of the peiphery adjacent to both Clan Jade Falcon and the Lyran Commonwealth, acquiring 6 worlds in a scant 2 years with limited resources and defending them from a number of immediate counter-attacks. This would be but the first phase of what the Corsacs called the Restoration Wars, a successive serie of operations which aimed to reclaim and reunify many of the scattered, forgotten and pirate-ridden worlds of the former Rim Worlds Republic. Elements of the Corsacs would go on to be caught in the crossfire of the Wars of Reaving before mobilizing to assist against the World of Blake Jihad, after which they turned their focus back inward, towards the Restoration Wars and the spread of the Neo-Crusader ideal.

## History

### Origins

What would eventually go on to form the Core of Clan Ashen Corsac began as the Muspelheim's Vigil, a group of Lyran intelligence operatives operating as black ops deniable assets under the guise of a mercenary unit. As a branch of the LIC, the Vigil was part of Heimdall, an unofficial department within the Lyran secret servies that served as a safety net and internal affairs purge group. Heimdall's purpose was to prevent unnecessary collateral damage and other nefarious outcomes coming from the operation of over-zealous members of the other intelligence branches. In that purpose, the Vigil was the nuclear option to be sent whenever something -or someone - needed to be stopped and required overt use of potent military power.

When not immediately need to be on standby for one such operation, the Vigil roamed the Inner Sphere to get up-to-date information about the state of readiness and capabilities of various other actors and nations. This came to an end with the 3050 Clan Invasions, where the Vigil was recalled and put up to the task of gathering as much information as humanly possible from this new, frightful and extremely dangerous threat. In many ways, the Vigil would be the reverse of the mirror from the Wolf's Dragoons, being sent to learn on the enemy, and learning just a little bit too much in the process.

Scores of Clan prisoners taken by the Vigil throughout the 3050s would be integrated into the unit as Abtakha, and the Vigil's captain Hannah Faust would become fascinated by the Remembrance and the Clan ways. The ideal of a society that was focused on honor not out of some self-aggrandizing sense of superiority - though they would later find that corruption prevalent elsewhere - but out of the desire to minimize as much as possible wastes of life and materiel from warfare was an alluring one. Not only had the members of the Vigil spent countless years trying to curb these exact sorts of excesses, but many of them still remembered the distant horror stories of the Succession Wars where the Great Houses decimated one another with weapons of mass destruction until a general societal and technological regression occured.

Over the second half of the 3050s, the Vigil became to increasingly deviate from its intended mission and authority, as the increasing numbers of 'converts' and Abtakhas among its ranks outweighed the 'loyalists', and because Heimdall was an unofficial branch of an already secretive organization, there were little to no safeguards in place against such an unexpected, major upset. When the FedCom civil war erupted and the nation most of its operatives had grown up in and sword to protect essentially collapsed and began to destroy itself, the Vigil effectively went AWOL and ceased to respond to hails, refusing to take part in the conflict.

### Restoration Wars: Phase One

#### Trial of Khanship

The official founding of Clan Ashen Corsac coincides with both the final Trial of Position of its first Khan Hannah Faust, and the first part of the Phase One of the Restoration Wars. In order for the Clan to have any legitimacy, it needed a Homeworld. For a Clan to acquire a homeworld, it needed to conquer it from worthy opponents. No other alternatives was even so much as considered. To this effect, the bulk of the Vigil jumped in September 3064 to the Tiegel system, which had been selected for this purpose.

Tiegel IV was a volcanic world that was both nearly as hostile as the planets of the Pentagon Worlds which had given Aleksander Kerensky's Exodus fleet such a challenging and trying welcome. It was also a world rich in natural resources and heavily industrialized, which would prove utterly critical in keeping a fledgling Clan's Touman well armed and supplied. Other reasons also factored in towards making Tiegel IV the ideal candidate, but these were the biggest ones, and it was at the time held by a Cluster of First-line Regulars of Clan Jade Falcon.

After a heated exchange where insults where met with philosophy and serenity, bidding reluctantly took place, and Star Colonel Adel Helmer agreed to a challenged he believed could not be lost, with a 'free' jumpship as collateral for his foregone victory. In the end, Faust - who had also introduced herself as Star Colonel at this juncture - managed to defeat no less than five veteran Clan Warriors in sequenced combat on Tiegel's Fractured Plains in a Trial of Possession for the whole planet, which doubled as her own Trial of Position to Khanship.

Though the Falcons were enraged at the perceived dishonor in their loss, it was mitigated somewhat by the generous conditions and unconditional Hegira granted, as well as the behavior of the Corsacs themselves in general. After a decade and a half, the Invading Clans had been met with such treacherous and disgraceful conduct - and sometimes even from their own fellow Clans, not just Inner Sphere scum - that most were some degree of disillusioned, or at the very least soured, on their own codes and tenets. To see a nominally Inner Sphere unit abide by their very own codes and tradition more strictly and diligently than some of their own, was a shock, yet a pleasant and spiritually re-invigorating one. Their teachings had not been totally wasted on deaf ears.

Before the Falcons were even off-world, a combined force of Lyran RCT, ComGuards and mercenaries jumped in-system, intent on reconquering Tiegel IV in retaliation for the Falcon assaults and raids elsewhere. They cared little for the change of leadership, and attacked both Clans indiscriminately, prompting the two - whom had taken almost no damage from the incredibly small-scaled Trial of Possession - to tentatively join forces to repel and annihilate the Dezgra attacker. This would be only the first of many instances of future Corsac/Falcon cooperation in the coming decades

#### Operation VELVET

Technically, Operation Velvet began several years before the official founding of Clan Ashen Corsac, but it is in 3065 that it would reach its own critical phase. For many years, future Khan Faust had assessed the entire region of space and kept eyes on various worlds of interest which may be rapidly integrated into the projected Corsac sphere of influence. The first and most important of these worlds was Grenze, a jungle world made up of a single super-continent with an important aerospace industry and orbital facilities, yet had somehow fallen into obscurity during the Succession Wars and remain dubiously independent.. Its assets, both industrial, strategic and population, would prove as critical as Tiegel IV for the short-term survival of the new Clan.

Operation VELVET was overseen by Loremaster-to-be Lukas Dresner. Unlike the previous takeover, this one was to be more subtle, partially because Grenze was defended by an old WarShip, which the Corsacs had no means of defeating in straight combat. Dresner took advantage of already extant widespread frustration and dissatisfaction against the effective corpocracy that was ruling Grenze behind a thin veneer of puppetered Democracy with controlled candidates and opposition and exploited its people. He diverted funds and provided covert military protection and overt 'guidance' to the members of an up-and-coming 'Workers' party' in the Grenze elections. This allowed them to by-pass the gatekeeping monetary restrictions on candidates imposed by the corpocracy from Vanguard Industries, fund their campaign, and protect themselves from the various hit and run and assassination attempts.

By 3065, when Grenze's election cycle came, it seemed as if the preferred corp-backed puppet had won despite popular acclaim to the Worker's party. Leaked evidence that the vote-tallying machines had been rigged flooded the local net and massive popular uprising and violence demanded a manual recounting with physical voted only. The result of the recounting revealed a landslide victory for the Worker's Party, at which point a triad of high-ranked executives within Vanguard Industries decided to use their private security forces - a private army really - to kill the members of the offending party, disperse the riots and end the charade of fake elections by taking direct control.

In response, the 1st Corsac Preatorians, who had covertly jumped in-system via a Pirate jump-point very close to Grenze, enacted a hot drop across the capital, with Khan Faust's command nova of mechs and elementals landing practically on top of the parliament and defending the Workers' Party - at that point itself a puppet of the Corsacs - from the onslaught of Corp forces and mercenaries. In the aftermath of their in-extremis 'rescue' at the hand of Praetorians, the newly elected Workers' Party rapidly began to enact a number of reforms and requested the protectorateship of the Corsacs. Meanwhile, Gerhard Hummel, CEO of Vanguard Industries who had sensed the tide shift, officially denounced the triad of his fellow executives and delivered them to the wolves to save his own position.

#### Operation PROVING GROUND

By Mid-3066, the Corsacs had raised considerable new forces, from Tiegel natives and hopefuls who had joined the Vigil prior to its official transformation into the Clan. From these, the 1st Corsac Regulars cluster was raised, and it was SaKhan Kadenza Schtern's first major task at the title to take these unblooded new Warriors and to consolidate the area immediately surrounding Grenze by taking four independent worlds of moderate value by force. These were also former territories of the Rim Worlds Republic who had fallen to obscurity after the collapse of the Republic, and which had suffered to lesser or greater extents of devastation during the Amaris Coup.

Over the course of just two months in late 3066, SaKhan Schtern would accomplish her objective, with elements of the 1st Corsac Reiters as reserves (which would not see combat) and the 1st Star Rangers to engage in anti-insurgency and pacification operations after the conquest propers. By the end of the year, the worlds of Beitun, Zhuhai, Ravenstein and Ladenburg had all fallen under Corsac occupation and were engaged in hybrid pacification campaigns, rewarding cooperating civilians with off-world technology and luxury goods, while publicly executing subversives, often in very abrupt and gruesome manners at the flamers or battle claws of Salamander Battle Armor.

## Culture

### Governance

Due to the very low number of Bloodnamed Warriors among the Clan, the traditional structure of government is somewhat different, but the Corsacs still maintain a Clan Council, no matter how small. Its numbers are beefed up to still small but more reasonable amount by the admission of Freeborns who were recognized as worthy of Honornames through repeated valor in battle and deeds. As a result, the Clan Council of the Corsacs is far more united and rarely prone to the political in-fighting between Blood Houses relatively commonly found in other Clans.

Each world under Corsac control is overseen by a Representative, generally from the local population and with a role somewhat analogous to a governor. In practice, the Representative is the link between the overall Clan Council and the given planet's Caste Councils. Their role is to give the greater Clan Council an accurate picture of what is going on on each world, including any potential problems such as a major grievance within the population or a threat of resource shortages. On the other hand, the Representatives are also tasked with bringing back the Clan Council's word and directives back to the local councils and to see to it that they are put into application.

As is common among the Clans, the greater Council mostly concerns itself with broad lines, major issues and matters of warfare and security, while planetary caste councils have a broad degree of leeway and freedom in the ways in which they decide to achieve their given goals and quotas. So long as these are met, the Warriors do not micro-manage or intrude into the affairs of civilians.

### Civilian Conditions

Though the Warrior Caste maintains a first among equals position, the other Castes enjoy good standards of living and fairly high freedoms by Clan standards. This is done partially out of a pragmatic need to instill loyalty and avoid wasting resources and time on rebellions, and partially because the Corsacs see themselves as liberators, and to blatantly oppress conquered populations would fly in the face of that stated goal.

Most notable is the widespread adoption of the Chatterweb developed by Clan Diamond Shark. Where other Clans tightly control communications and scrub anything deemed 'un-clan-like', the Corsac Chatterweb is among the most free and un-moderated, at least on the surface. People are free to do and say as they wish, so long as they do not veer into sedition. While in appearance free, it is effectively a honeypot covertly combed clean by intelligence services, and it is not uncommon for individuals who make questionable statements on the Chatterweb to suddenly return from work only to find a police agent waiting in their home to politely ask for 'clarifications', but no real punishment is handed out if there was no harm done or intended. The most egregious, blatantly subversive elements tend to simply disappear without a trace if evidence of their treachery is overwhelming enough.

Nevertheless, the civilian castes are fairly well respected. Even the most humble laborer is critical to keeping the populations from starving and the war industry going. It is especially noteworthy that while the Homeworld Clans demand for youths to start working at a young age and provide effectively no social security for the old and the disabled, these practices are not observed in Corsac territory. Youths are allowed to study and train, with Scientist, Merchant and Technician caste youths having a wide variety of fields they can study in, and Laborers seeing their basic education supplemented by intensive physical training which will help them lead healthy lives and complete their work more easily as adults. Social security exists for the old and disabled, but incentives are given for those people to continue working in less demanding, often part-time small jobs they are still capable of doing.

### Economy

The currency on Corsac worlds is somewhat mixed, especially newly-conquered ones, which all had their previous currency and monetary system prior to being integrated into the clan. While whatever legal tender was already in circulation at the time, these are progressively and steadily replaced by the Kerensky (KE) issued by the Corsac central bank on Grenze. Old bills are removed from circulation and sold back on the galactic market as they are used to pay, and new paychecks are emitted in KE. These Kerenskies are almost always emitted electronically as a digital currency, though it is not uncommon for members of the Merchant Caste to use physical denominations. Each citizen of the Clan is issued their personal gold-hued card which is matched with their biometric information and fitted with a GPS tracker. This way, one can simply pay with a fingerprint or eye scan, and any lost or stolen card is effectively impossible to fraud, and easy to find back.

The Corsac economy is rather varied, producing a broad range of raw materials, processed materials and simple or complex manufactured goods. It seeks to fulfill current self-sustainment needs, stockpile for emergencies or future growth, then sell all surplus on export markets or trade them for other Clans' own high-tech products. Speculation and insider trading are strictly banned and severely punished as they are considered a threat to economic stability and to rob a majority for the benefits of an individual. The Corsac central bank does not charge any interests on its loans, but the approval process is much tighter as a result and it falls to the demander to prove that the loan is either critical to allow them to continue contributing to society (ie, replacing a car that was lost in an accident) or will benefit the Clan as a whole.

### Eugenics

Setting up an eugenic program was considerably difficult for the Corsacs due to the comparatively very small pool of Trueborn warriors among their ranks. All being Abtakha, their bloodheritage had to be subsequently won for each and every one as well. This leads in turn to a small number of Trueborn sibkos, which yet in turn greatly increases the pressure to get more viable warriors out of any given one. As a result, they are more closely watched and even more spartanly trained than even the Clan average, with an extremely intensive program of simulator training. Though they have nothing to envy skill-wise to their counterparts from other Clans, they are nonetheless often treated condescendingly by those who seem them as 'coddled' and 'hand-held' due to the less harsh nature of their sibkos.

It is also important that it is a major part of Ashen Corsac eugenics mentality that the pool needs to be and will be expanded with time, from a mix of the inclusion of new Abtakhas captured from other Clans, but also from creating new Bloodnames for the most gallant and capable from among their founding core of Freeborn Warriors. To this endeavor, it is generally considered that earning a Honorname is a preliminary requirement to be considered for addition into the program, and anyone seeing to be granted a true Bloodname see it as a stepping stone. Khan Hannah Faust would herself be the first officially acknowledged exclusive Bloodname of Clan Ashen Corsac in 3070 in the wake of her participation in the counter-attack against Clan Wolf at the Kerensky Blood Chapel on Strana Mechty, but the genetic records stored there would be lost in the chaos of the Wars of Reaving.

When it comes to the civilian castes of subjugated worlds there is a night and day difference. The Eugenics program there is mostly focused on general advancement with the pairing of positive traits and the elimination of hereditary weaknesses or diseases. There are no mandatory marriages, and anyone can marry so to speak, but procreation is subject to review, which is generally a formality to ensure healthy and capable off-springs in general. It is possible for couples with undesirable genetic traits barring natural procreation to volunteer as surrogate family, essentially pre-adopting a child that will be conceived through high value pairings between individuals who might themselves not want to get together.

### Society and Education

With the family unit being a cornerstone of the subjugated populations that make Corsac territory, to try and sweep it asides would have been ill-advised in the utmost. In order to break down tribalistic mentalities around the family unit however, a number of communal institutions were created, including communal crèches, kitchens and gardens. Members of a single large apartment block or closely-clustered neighborhood were granted public meeting spaces where they can come together as a community, help look over one another's young children, tend gardens that yield local fruits and spices, and organize large communal meals and events. By chipping some KEs from all participating community members, it is relatively easy for the group to acquire large appliances or machines or to organize a small show from local musicians, comedians or artists.

Outside of Trueborn Warriors, members of the Corsacs are not born into Castes, regardless of those of their genetic parents, they test into them. Children see an education curriculum that is similar to those seen across the Inner Sphere, but more intensive, with fewer free play time and much more physical education periods. They go through elementary school without a care, until which upon graduation they undergo a preliminary round of testing. This serves to give a rough idea of the child's aptitudes and talents at this point and to discover those who have above-average intelligence or skill, earning them extra options and courses or accelerated courses through basic education. The next step is middle school from ages 11 through 16, after which a secondary round of testing is undertaken to confirm or correct the results made during the first round of tests. Those with aptitudes will then go on to learn complex trades in high school and further, while those who demonstrate none get to pick a from a variety of simple manual labor technical training, since even modern farming and mining involves specialized machinery, equipment and knowledge.

After their second testing, individuals may apply for a military career, provided they demonstrate the required aptitudes but also attitude. Those selected will start with a two-years boot camp on their home world which will provide all basic training and competency check, including serious physical training, handling of small-arms and various support equipment, basic hand-to-hand combat training, and general discipline and drill. At this point they may serve in their homeworld's security forces or receive further training. This includes training to handle one type of combat vehicles such as tanks, riverine boats or VTOL aircrafts, or intelligence training. The most prestigious option however is to go to the Tiegel Academy of War, which is where aspirants can train to become Mechwarrior or ASF pilots in the Corsac's regular frontline Clusters.

### Entertainment

Due to the strong emphasis on physical training in general education and for the Laborer Caste, the average civilian is considered very fit, and it is not uncommon for them to continue training and practicing sports after completing their education. As a result, traditional team sports are a very common form of entertainment, with football, rugby, hockey and basketball being among the most popular. General athletics are also popular and encouraged, including marathons, hiking, climbing and swimming.

Various forms of decentralized, amateur entertainment are also present through the Corsac Chatterweb, where individuals can record and broadcast just about anything from amateur musical performances and cooking recipes to prank or challenge videos. This makes digital entertainment very diverse, very localized, and also somewhat difficult to control, but it contributes to Corsac civilians' boast of greater freedoms than average. The 'Establishment' itself also holds its own Chatterweb channels, though they tend to be largely educative, teaching people various DIY methods and tips and providing information about the events ongoing elsewhere in the Inner Sphere.

## Military

* *Main Article: Clan Ashen Corsac Touman*

Above all else, the Ashen Corsac Touman is characterized by its large quantity of Freeborn, and the considerably less disparity in equipment and training between Freeborn and Trueborn Warriors. In its first two decades of existence, the Clan's Touman was made up overwhelmingly so from Freeborn troops, with its Trueborn being exclusively Abtakha from other Clans. In order to mitigate this divide, Freeborn Warriors underwent a two-stage training far more intense than that of the Inner Sphere regular militaries, with every Freeborn in a First-line Corsac Cluster having gone through what would qualify as several years of Special Forces level training in House Armies.

The Corsacs make extensive use of simulators to pit their prospective pilots - and even infantrymen, to a lesser extent - into virtual battlefield after virtual battlefield, challenging them with difficult missions and scenarios which would be impossible to re-enact in live training - or even raids - due to the sheer waste of precious war material this would incur. This reluctance to waste material and lives - of which they have precious few - is one of the main reasons why the Ashen Corsacs observe, whenever possible, a very strict conduct of Zellbrigen. In that aspect, they are very staunch traditionalists and take its tenets very seriously. Not only is it important to achieve victory through acceptable means, but it is important to achieve them with a minimum of losses, and sometimes a retreat is better than a Pyrrhic victory. Glorious as such a last stand might be, the loss of warriors and machines leave the Clan as a whole much more vulnerable to further attacks and eventual annihilation.

The observation of Zellbrigen and the Honor Road by the Corsacs is such that it is customary to offer a chance of surrender to forces generally considered not worthy, such as militias of conventional infantry or vehicles, or even pirates and bandits. These offers are only rarely accepted however, and often taken advantage of. This is seen as a necessary evil, and that a chance must always be given if they are to retain their moral and spiritual high ground. However, when all pretense of honorable combat have been discarded by an uncaring enemy, the Corsacs switch gear to an extremely methodical and ruthless dismemberment of the enemy's entire power structure. In this role, they take advantage of their highly developed intelligence and special forces services to systematically suss out and exploit a Dezgra enemy's weak points, often enacting communication blackouts before engaging in overwhelming TAG-guided missile and artillery bombardments to destroy enemy concentrations and hacking into their satellites and TacNets to confuse their own orders and itineraries.

The Touman itself originally had roughly equal parts of Mechs and Aerospace Fighters due to the integration of Vanguard Aerospace, if not slightly more fighters, resulting in the formation of highly mobile combined arms Clusters of Mechs, ASFs and Battle Armor in the early years. As the Corsacs began to develop their naval forces and defenses however, there was ever greater need for ASFs to be stationed on defense stations, small pocket WarShips, and even the battle-carrier conversions of the few full-scale WarShips that the Corsacs were able to scavenge, win, or buy. To fill this need, ASF Trinaries were withdrawn from Clusters in large numbers and Reiter clusters were disbanded and reformed as more Mech-Heavy formations. Combined Arms remains an important part of the Touman, with -some- Aerospace cover being generally present and with Mech-Elemental Novas being Common. These combined arms Novas function much like old Terran formations that used conventional infantry to screen for tanks, with the lighter, smaller Battle Armors scouting ahead and destroying enemy scouts, ambushes and Mech-Hunter infantry units.

## Bloodnames

* **Indicates a Founding Bloodname**
* *Indicates a Bloodname that is Exclusive via either Foundation or Absorption of an Annihilated Clan*

## Inter-Clan Relations

Relations circa 3068
 Diamond Shark
 Snow Raven
 Wolf-in-Exile