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SHADOW LORDS:
House Amaris Sourcebook
WOLFNET CLASSIFIED REPORT: OMEGA LEVEL CLEARANCE
From: Lieutenant Sheila Dumont, Wolfnet Analysis Department, Outreach
To: Commander Jaime Wolf
Date: 1 December, 3067
My sincerest apologies for the lateness of this report. When I had shown the
uncompleted first draft to General Maeve Wolf back in October of this year, she
immediately ordered me not to submit the report to you until it was completed
and we had confirmed the information. Although the report is now pretty much
complete, I am afraid that we have been unable to corroborate or confirm the
revelations that are listed herein. Much of the information about the history of this
dreaded faction had apparently come into our hands as a matter of chance:
earlier during this year a man who was on his way to Temptown in Wolf City was
accidentally struck by a speeding motorist. His injuries were severe and he
ultimately died on his way to the hospital. When our local law enforcement units
attempted to identify him they went up against a stone wall. The man had
absolutely no positive identification; biometric analysis and subsequent filing of
his records were sent to ComStars universal personal directory database but to
no avail, there were apparently no prior records of this man as far his identity
went. Suspecting that the deceased might have been an intelligence agent for a
foreign power, I immediately authorized the dissemination of his belongings. The
deceased clearly had forged identification papers as well as a few other personal
items of no importance.
One particular piece of evidence on the other hand, presented a chilling
revelation that prompted me to investigate further. It was a datadisk that
contained passages from a book titled Vicissitudes by a certain writer named
Meridian. Although the name of the author is unknown to us, I have included a
brief bio from the ComStar archives in regards to the Amaris Civil War on a
certain MechWarrior who bears the same callsign. I am personally convinced that
there is a connection here.
The other sources that we have accessed and compiled this report on are our
intercepted and decoded HPG transcripts from Word Of Blake. As you well know,
ever since we have begun forming a coalition against these former ComStar
fanatics in the Sarna March, Wolfnet has also stepped up surveillance tenfold.
When we had archived all the intercepted transmissions from them, I had then
run a pinpoint search with a number of keywords and phrases and that is how I

was able to retrieve a chilling analysis on this factions military and technical
hardware. Quite a lot of these HPG transmissions also comes from Clan sources
in regards to their newfound problems with the Dark or Bandit castes. I must
further add that it seems that this new power is either in league or may even be
controlling the Blakist cause due to their technical and military assistance with
them. Although this last revelation has not been confirmed, it represents a
terrifying prospect not just for our anti-Blakist coalition, but for the former
member-states of the Star League as well.
I pray to our beloved founders that I am not too late in submitting this report to
you.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
In order to see what lies in the future, one must return to the past. The past is
the key to our ultimate destiny and one must study it carefully in order to see
clearly what lies ahead. The past serves not only to anchor us in the present, but
it is an oracle for what must be done in the future. The destiny of our people and
our cause is now at a juncture, we must remember what has been wronged in
order to fight for what is right. One must return to the beginning if one is to see
the end.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian

THE RIM WORLDS REPUBLIC

Although most of the information regarding this
Periphery nation was lost because of the complete
destruction of the Hegemony Central Library
during the SLDF retaking of Terra in 2779, bits
and fragments remain to present a partial
knowledge of this once great power.
What is known is that the Rim Worlds Republic
was once a Periphery nation located at the
borders of the Lyran Alliance. Early records tell us
that the most influential planet of the Republic was
Apollo. First settled in 2250 by Hector Worthington
Rowe and his band of misfits and malcontents,
Rowe was a romantic who had a warped vision of
ancient Greek myths and philosophy. A number of
historians even state that Rowe might have been
mentally deranged to the point of being psychotic,

based on these case files, it might very well be true. In accordance with his ideal
of a utopian society, women were forced to choose either marriage with his
henchmen or demoted to the status of slaves. One exception that Rowe did allow
was that anyone with technical skills would be exempted from mundane, hard
labor in order to concentrate on more important duties such as the construction
and maintenance of heavy industry.
During Shiro Kuritas formation of the
Draconis Combine in 2330, many refugees,
mostly artisans and technicians, began to
colonize the worlds in the Rim Worlds
region of space. With their technical
expertise and exemption from hard labor,
these future Rim Worlders opened the first
University in the Periphery just four years
later. A further wave of refugees from the
Rasalhague district also added into the
melting pot. The rulers of the Combine
assumed that these refugees just vanished
from the Inner-Sphere due to the fact that
no one outside of Rim Worlds space knew
that the Republic existed; the Rowe dynasty
virtually controlled all JumpShip transports
with an iron fist and forbade any contact
with the outside.
Although lacking in
natural resources, the worlds along the Rim
were blessed with an abundance of
refugees with advanced technical skills and
knowledge. This in turn made it easy for the
first cities to develop and thrive. Within a
few decades, the Rim Worlds economy
grew in leaps and bounds as advances in
biotechnology and heavy industry created
several large cities, mostly in the world of
Apollo. But beneath the faade of
prosperity, there was enormous social
unrest, especially among the Helots, who
were treated as virtual slaves. In late 2338,
the Rim Worlds Republic accidentally
revealed itself to the Tamar Pact, which
was on its way in forming part of the Lyran
Commonwealth. All this time the Rim
Worlds existence was in virtual secrecy but
it had ultimately grown too large for it to be
hidden away forever. Within several
months, the hereditary ruler of the Republic,

Maxwell Rowe, made his first political visit to the Tamar Pact and signed a treaty
of non-aggression and neutrality. Although he had managed to diffuse a
potentially volatile situation, Maxwell Rowe did not realize that his actions would
spell the end of his ancestors vision of a far-off utopia.
In 2340, a massive social upheaval began when Maxwell Rowes daughter
Arabella Rowe started a revolt to free the Helots that were kept in thrall for nearly
one hundred years. Once deposed, Maxwell Rowe fled Apollo with a handful of
his followers and disappeared into the unknown. Arabella Rowe then declared
herself First Consul of the newly democratized Rim Worlds Republic and freed
the Helots. Under the new leadership of First Consul Arabella Rowe, a new
period of exploration and colonization began as the Republic tried to expand as
close as possible to its predetermined borders with the newly formed Lyran
Commonwealth. The reasons for this change in foreign policy were unclear but it
might have been perhaps prudent for Rowe to desire a buffer zone between her
realm and the massive Lyran state. A string of new colonies under the Rim
Worlds banner would have added benefits in the long term.
With the passing of Arabella Rowe in 2376, her son, Michael Durant became
the new hereditary First Consul of the Republic. By this time the Rim Worlds
consisted of 23 inhabited star systems, over 12 billion citizens and 2 million
soldiers. The Durant family then ruled the Republic in a generally peaceful,
unbroken succession until 2459, when Heather Durant, the last of the Durant
dynasty, decided to pass on the reigns of succession to Lady Terens Amaris.
THE AMARIS DYNASTY
Once just nothing more than a minor family of nobles hailing from the Terran
Hegemony, the first recorded mention of the Amaris family occurred when Lady
Terens Amaris, a rising star in the diplomatic corps, was placed in charge of an
investigation of a failed assassination against First Lord Jacob Cameron. Based
on her background, Lady Terens Amaris was a former operative in the
Hegemony Central Intelligence Bureau and she therefore had experience in
covert, clandestine operations. Nothing conclusive came out of this incident but it
does spread to light about the conspiracy theories in relation to the Amaris
family. In 2463, a scant four years after proclaiming Lady Amaris as her
successor for First Consul in the Rim Worlds Republic, Heather Durant died of an
undiagnosed heart condition. Almost immediately, Lady Amaris began to
consolidate her power, using everything from blackmail to bribery in order to
entrench her family firmly in power. A number of delegates from the Republic
Senate complained but mysteriously became sick and died or else met with
horrific accidents that virtually crippled them and forced them to retire within the
next few years. By 2488, the Republic had ceased to function as a democratic
society and instead become a de-facto fiefdom of House Amaris.

A number of disturbing questions began to arise in 2499, when an unarmed

exploration vessel was attacked and destroyed by what seemed to be a Rim
Worlds WarShip in Lyran space. Onboard that ship was a future First Lord of the
Star League, John Cameron. It wasnt common knowledge for foreign powers to
know the composition of crewmen in the SLDF fleet and yet a number of
historians point out that Lady Amaris already began to organize one of the most
ruthless and efficient spy networks ever created to the point that she could have
easily learnt whether a member of the Cameron family was either part of a ships
crew or their general whereabouts. Did the Republican WarShip act on her direct
orders? This is a question that has not yet been answered.
Both a shrewd politician and a charming hostess
when the situation demanded it, Lady Terens Amaris
was an enigma. Not much is known about her past
prior to her becoming a celebrated officer in the
Hegemonys Central Intelligence Bureau. Possessed
of great intellect and character, Lady Amaris could
alternately charm or cow anyone into submission. Her
ambitions, to say the least, were no less than to see
her familys power and influence eclipse even that of
the lofty dynasties of the Camerons and McKennas.
Was this aspiration borne of jealousy or just pure
greed? A number of other historians point out her
failed attempt to win the heart of Jacob Cameron as
the turning point in her otherwise uneventful life, that
she had developed an intense hatred for the Cameron
line after the future First Lord of the Star League
spurned her. Whether any of this was ever true may
probably be never known. All traces of the Amaris
familys histories, including their most intimate
records, were personally destroyed by General
Aleksandr Kerensky just before the SLDF exodus.
-Thelos Auburn, The Rise and Fall of House Amaris
Lady Terens Amaris son and successor Gregory Amaris, nearly undid what her
ambitious mother had worked so hard to gain. Unlike his mother, Gregory Amaris
was not a crafty negotiator, in fact many complained about his gruff, tyrannical
attitude towards his own citizens. As a politician, Gregory was prone to outbursts
of temper and habitually miscalculated every time he tried to push forward an
unpopular law. Whereas his mother would have used subtle political
maneuvering to achieve her goals, Gregory Amaris used open threats to his
opponents families and would stubbornly refuse to compromise on anything. All
these matters came to a head in 2573, when Gregory Amaris (without any prior
consultation from his advisers) unilaterally enacted the Universal Act of Loyalty, a
law that required all Rim Worlders to swear loyalty to House Amaris and the Star
League. The people of the Republic were marked by strong streaks of

individualism and a healthy contempt for authority and the attempted

enforcement of this law was all too much. In response, many Rim Worlders
supported the creation of an underground Rim Republican Army, dedicated to
overthrowing the Amaris dynasty and restoring democracy across the Republic.
In 2575, the Rim Provisional Government,
the political wing of the outlawed Rim
Republican Army, openly revolted against
House Amaris during a strike at the Diplass
BattleMech manufacturing facility on Apollo.
Gregory Amaris then attempted to suppress
the revolt using his personal House troops
but was rapidly overwhelmed by superior
numbers when some of his own troops sided
with
the
demonstrators.
With
his
inexperienced (and largely under-equipped)
units in full retreat, Gregory then evacuated
Apollo with his remaining troops and
immediately called on the Star League to
intervene on his side. In asking the Star
League for help, Gregory Amaris used the
trump card that he was cultivating all this
time. Many analysts believed that this was
the one thing that Gregory Amaris did right, in
the past several years he was courting
influential politicians and generals within the
Star League should his own citizens ever turn
against him. Now that his worst fears were
realized, Gregory used his ace in the hole to
regain his mothers empire.

The Reunification War was a bloody affair not just for the Rim Worlds Republic
but also for the other Periphery States who rebelled against the might of the Star
League. Although the Rim Provisional government sparked the Periphery-wide
revolt, the other Periphery powers had bided their time and built up their
respective militaries to try and resist the SLDF and joined together in a loose
coalition to wrest control of the Periphery from the Star League forever. The
outcome, however, was never in doubt as the Periphery states each fell one by
one and the war ended in their defeat in 2597. As the Rim Worlds Republic
became a Territorial State of the Star League, Gregory Amaris returned to Apollo
and had every member of the Rim Provisional Government executed.
Just two years later however, Gregory Amaris was unceremoniously
assassinated by a military junta from his own core of loyal troops. His son
Richard Amaris succeeded him as President; apparently the junta felt that they
could use the seemingly timid Richard as a figurehead in their new government
in order to maintain a semblance of political stability. For the next five years,
Richard Amaris ruled quietly until 2604, when his personal bodyguards made a
coup of their own, deposing the junta and executing their leaders. Richard then
once again ruled uneventfully until his death in 2619. His daughter Amanda
Amaris ruled for just one year before being assassinated in a botched coup
attempt. Amadas brother Jeffrey briefly stepped in as President but soon
abdicated in favor of his niece Selanta Amaris. Selanta then reigned for close to

two decades until she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer for which she
underwent treatment in 2649. During that time she chose her cousin Tadeo
Amaris to serve as Regent of the Republic during her absence.
Unlike Richard and Selanta, Tadeo Amaris possessed an ambition that
bordered close to that of his ancestor, Lady Terens Amaris. During his brief time
as regent, Tadeos most important contribution was the reorganization of the
House Amaris military. Tadeo had correctly come to the conclusion that his
House troops were woefully under-equipped and was full of incompetent
commanders who held onto their positions more from political influence to the
Amaris clan than from having any real aptitude for warfare; morale in the
Republican military
was
low
and
corruption was rife.
Having served in
both the Amaris
military as a young
officer as well as
having
been
exposed
to
the
SLDF
command
structure
and
doctrines
under
their
Officer
Exchange Program,
Tadeo Amaris was
a man perfectly
suited to rearming the woefully under-equipped and ill-trained Rim Worlds
military. With the absolute authority given to him by Selanta, Tadeo Amaris
began purging the officer corps of the Rim Worlds military, weeding out
incompetent commanders and promoted young, innovative officers into
command positions. With his past experience as an observer in the SLDF, Tadeo
also instituted a new doctrine for the Republican military, one suited to
harnessing combined arms warfare. Within six months of his reforms, a special
(and secret) military academy began construction in Apollo and was in operation
a year later. After realizing that the majority of the citizens of the Republic were
either apathetic or even antagonistic towards his family, Tadeo Amaris also
began to woo disaffected members from the Great House militaries, even going
to the point of attempting to recruit retired SLDF personnel to serve as advisors
in his military reforms. Because of this, not only did the quality of his troops
increase, but also the militarys loyalty to his family improved as well.
Not content with the status quo, Tadeo Amaris also began secret negotiations
with the Draconis Combine to grant him shipments of advanced military hardware
in exchange for other goods. The leaders of the Combine, feeling that they
needed a future ally that could strike along the rear of their Lyran enemies,

agreed and began to covertly ship war materiel as well as providing military
advisors to the Republic in 2650. However, all did not go Tadeos way. In that
very same year, Star League intelligence found out about the illegal shipments
and First Lord of the Star League Michael Cameron ordered the immediate halt
to these weapons shipments. It was at this moment that Tadeos weakness
became apparent: he was not a shrewd politician but rather a military man.
Instead of trying to diffuse the situation, Tadeo replied that he had done nothing
wrong and would continue. In response, Lord Cameron ordered five SLDF
regiments on maneuvers just outside Rim Worlds space in 2651. A panicked
Tadeo Amaris then sent the bulk of his newly reformed regiments along the
Lyran border. The situation remained tense until Tadeo seemingly complied with
Camerons demands. In reality, Tadeo Amaris was still secretly receiving the
arms shipments, but in a more covert way. He had learned an expensive lesson.
Just four years later, Selanta Amaris returned as President of the Republic.
Recognizing her cousins contributions to the revitalization of the Republic
military, Selanta retained Tadeo as a trusted advisor so that he could continue
his military reforms in secret. Tadeo gratefully accepted and continued his
military improvement programs until his death in 2676. In 2687, Selanta Amaris
died of the cancer that had seemingly returned. Selantas son and successor
Bertram was then immediately assassinated by Gregor Siever, a distant relative
whose ancestor was once Selantas Regent when she was an infant. Gregors
brother Carl in turn killed him and then became the new President of the
Republic. Carl Siever ruled as President until his guilty feelings over his bloody
rise to power made him abdicate the position in deference to Selantas
granddaughter Cynthia Amaris in 2692. Just as when the power of the Amaris
family was ready to wane, a rapid turn of events thrust them into destinys stage
once more.
STEFAN AMARIS
Like Shiva, he was both our creator and destroyer. He was our leader, our
Fuhrer, our god. He carried within him both the seeds of our ascendancy and of
our destruction. He could be both caring and malevolent. Was he but a
manifestation of our Messianic complex or was he truly the one that we had lived
our lives to be? A cruel enigma, one that will make us question till the day we die.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian
A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the
fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot
defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and
a lion to frighten wolves.
-Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
The Amaris succession was by no means assured when Cynthia Amaris
became President of the Rim Worlds Republic in 2692. Quiet and aloof, Cynthia

seemed to be rather cold to the opposite sex and she stayed unmarried for
almost a quarter-century. Although a lot of suitors made their way to the Republic
during that time, all were rebuffed by her ice-cold demeanor and single-minded
devotion to the state. Although she was not as shrewd a politician like her
grandmother Selanta, Cynthia did possess an outward, charming beauty and
innocence that endeared her to most of the citizens of the Republic. The
Republic Ministry of Information made frequent holovids of her charismatic looks
and unassuming demeanor that were shown regularly across the Republic.
Cynthia also instituted several reforms such as partial freedom of the press that
made her more popular than ever.

However, a number of people within the Republic worried about the potential
right to succession since Cynthia was by now in her middle-age and she had yet
to marry and bear a child to ultimately succeed her. Would there be once again a
bloody war of succession within the Republic? Quite a few members of the royal
court in Apollo even speculated that she would name a total outsider as heirdesignate, just like Lady Durant did hundreds of years before. In 2716 all these
fears were laid to rest when the matriarch of the Republic met a wealthy
industrialist named Stefan Gorienko. Cynthia Amaris, her cold demeanor
snapped by what looked to be love at first sight, was instantly smitten by the

super-rich Gorienko, who offered her the largest diamond ring in exchange for
her hand in marriage. The courtship was swift and before long, the citizens of the
Republic were overjoyed when Cynthia Amaris gave birth to a healthy baby boy a
year later.
Stefan Amaris was born in 2717 and became the couples only child. His mother
Cynthia had birth complications due to her age and was unable to bear any more
children. Named after his father, Stefan was an intense, quiet child who did not
grow up with other children his age. Rather, he was attended to by a succession
of nannies and tutors who became his only companions. The marriage between
Stefan Gorienko and Cynthia Amaris soured after the birth of their only child and
Gorienko soon left the family to engage in a number of exploratory ventures in
the Deep Periphery. Stefan Gorienkos survey vessel disappeared during a jump
in 2721 and was presumed lost due to drive failure. When informed of the
tragedy, Cynthia Amaris merely shrugged and went back to what she was doing,
it seemed that she no longer had any feelings for her former husband. Her son
Stefan did not learn of his fathers fate until he was sixteen and showed no
emotions when he did.
Based on the scant records that I had obtained on Stefan Amaris childhood,
there is one incident that seemed to be a portent for the things to come. When
Stefan was but eight years of age, he had managed to outrun his attendants and
sneaked into the guards barracks located in the outskirts of the Amaris Palace in
Apollo. The boy was quickly set upon by a guard dog that managed to wound the
child in the leg before the dogs handler was able to intervene. The boy showed
no emotion whatsoever as his wound was treated and he was returned to the
Palace. Several weeks later, all the dogs in that particular guard barracks were
found dead, apparently having been fed rodent poison which was administered to
their feed. The dog-handler that had saved Stefan Amaris was also poisoned via
his own meals but managed to recover, although medical complications from the
ingested toxin ravaged his body to the point that he had to be discharged from
the military due to health reasons.
-Thelos Auburn, The Rise and Fall of House Amaris
Records and testimonies that shed light to Stefan Amaris in his early years point
out to several conclusions. Although the boy did not show any physical aptitudes
in regards to sports or the military arts, he was an excellent speaker and was
advanced in both languages and literature for his age. An avid reader, Stefan
devoured books on military history and philosophy. While other children his age
were into knights, dragons and larger-than-life heroes, Stefans favorite works of
literature included Sun-Tzu and Machiavelli. His particular favorite was The
Prince, a treatise on how to acquire and maintain power by any means possible.
When Stefan was presented an antique edition of this book on his twelfth
birthday, it was the only recorded time that the lad had showed any emotions as
tears of joy fell down his cheeks and he thanked his mother for giving him the
greatest gift a boy could have. It was also the only time that he had ever shown

any affection to his mother. Cynthia Amaris viewed the boy as the symbol of her
failed marriage to Stefan Gorienko and she treated her son with detachment and
cold indifference. When Stefan Amaris became the de-facto ruler of the Republic
upon her death many years later, he refused to call for a state funeral as befitted
someone of her stature, even forbidding the utterance of her name whenever he
was around.
-The following is an excerpt from a recently unearthed Tri-Vid recording of
Stefan Amaris annual psychological interviews. This particular incident
occurred when the boy was ten years of age.
INTERVIEWER: So, Stefan, what is your favorite animal?
STEFAN: You are to address me as Lord.
INTERVIEWER: Excuse me?
STEFAN: Address me by my proper title.
INTERVIEWER (laughs): Im sorry. Lord Amaris, what is your favorite animal?
STEFAN: I like spiders.
INTERVIEWER: Spiders? Why do you like spiders? Is it because they can spin
beautiful webs?
STEFAN: No.
INTERVIEWER: Why then?
STEFAN: I like spiders because they kill the weaker bugs.
INTERVIEWER: Is it because these other bugs bother you?
STEFAN: No, they dont bother me. I like spiders because they are strong. My
mother told me that I must be strong if I am to be ruler someday. So I look at
spiders and I wish I could be one.
INTERVIEWER: So you feel that a spider represents strength, then?
STEFAN: Not just that. Spiders are also strong in their heart.
INTERVIEWER: What do you mean?

STEFAN: Spiders are not just strong with their poisons and fangs, they are
strong because they do not show any mercy and they are never scared. I wanna
be just like a spider.
Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Stefan Amaris was enrolled in the Tadeo
Amaris Military Academy on Apollo in 2735. Academic records show that while
he was only an average student in regards to MechWarrior training, he scored
superbly in grammar, literature and became the captain of the schools debate
team. Subjects like technical engineering and mathematics bored him and it was
only through the influence of the government that his instructors relented to give
him passing marks in those areas.
It is curious to note that even during his formative
years as a young adult, Stefan Amaris was
already beginning to make an impression on
people around him. Cultivating an image of himself
as a charming intellectual, Stefan Amaris was able
to win a number of influential people on his side.
On the other hand, Stefan also had a demonic
side to his seemingly charismatic personality;
anyone who would dare go up against him in any
sort of competition or would openly defy him
usually ended up severely crippled in a freak
accident or would come down with an ailment that
precluded them from finishing their term at the
academy and so consequently had to drop out.
One of his few close friends during these years
was the youthful Baron Gunthar Von Strang, the
future commander of the reviled Eighteenth
Amaris Chasseurs. The two young men had
similar outlooks in that both were predators to an
acute degree, viewing other people not as human
beings but rather as either assets to be used and discarded or obstacles to be
overcome.
Quite a number of his casual acquaintances with the opposite sex occurred
during this period as well. In the aftermath of the Republics destruction some fifty
years later, a number of women who were his companions during that time were
interviewed as part of a case study about his personality. Most of the female
witnesses said that Stefan had a very affable personality that endeared him to
many of them yet at the same time he still nurtured adolescent fantasies that,
unlike most young men his age, he never outgrew. On occasion, he would
confide his inner-feelings to his female companions, complaining that he was
nothing more than a bastard prince of a poor kingdom in the far-off, insignificant
Periphery and how he wished to have been born a Cameron so that he could
rule over mankinds farthest-reaches. He had heard infuriating accounts of his

ancestor Lady Terens Amaris and of her failed attempts to win over the First
Lords love but was spurned because of her insignificant lineage. He would tell
his former girlfriends of how he would become the greatest conqueror and king of
all humankind since Alexander the Great. Even during this time he was the
second-most powerful person in the Republic and so therefore no one dared to
tell him that these childish fantasies should cease; instead, Stefan continued to
inwardly nurture his innermost desires until it ultimately made him embark on a
course of extreme tragedy for everyone in the Inner-Sphere.
History is not made by masses of faceless people, but rather by a few, farsighted individuals willing to risk all for everyone elses sake.
-From the graduation speech of Stefan Amaris at the Tadeo Amaris Military
Academy, 2739.
A few years after graduation from the academy, Stefan met his future wife Eva
Von Strang in 2741, after being introduced via her elder brother Gunthar Von
Strang. The Von Strangs were a wealthy family of nobles with sizable holdings
across the Republic and having a vast family fortune in the mining of precious
gems. Although many within the Republic viewed the Von Strang clan as
potential competitors to House Amaris for the ultimate supremacy of the
Republic, the Von Strangs retained their loyalty to the Amaris family through thick
and thin. Even though it may have been viewed on the outside as a marriage of
political convenience, Eva Amaris became a devoted wife, loyal to her husband
even at the bitter end several decades later. During this time the aging President
Cynthia Amaris began to delegate more and more responsibility for the Republic
over to her son Stefan. With his charms and unabashed ambitions, Stefan rapidly
learned the ways of politics as he began to cement his influence onto the
Republic.
In the winter of 2741, after great fanfare and ceremony, Stefan Amaris officially
married Eva Von Strang. Although many nobles from across the Inner-Sphere
attended the grand observance, not a single member of the Cameron nobility
came. It was said that several days after the marriage, Stefan Amaris was
overheard vowing to make the Camerons pay for the insult with every last drop
of their accursed blood. First Lady Eva Amaris gave birth to her first son
Roderick in 2742 and her second child Anais was born in 2744. Roderick Amaris
ultimately graduated from the Tadeo Amaris Military Academy with high honors
two decades later and went on to become a high-ranking officer in the vaunted
Fourth Amaris Dragoons while still in his early twenties. Anais Amaris specialized
in philosophy and sociology as an exchange student with the Hegemony in
Terras Cambridge University. Whereas Roderick would ultimately die fighting
during the tumultuous last days of his fathers ill-fated bid for empire, Anais would
apparently survive and sow the seeds for the future return of the Amaris legacy.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF WAR

It is with ambition that ultimately decides our respective destinies. It is not talent
but will that changes the course of history. How many have dreamt to forge their
immortality across the bridge of time yet fail through a lack of resolve? A little
patience, preparation and utter tenacity creates a near-unbeatable combination.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian.
A prince should therefore have
no other aim or thought, nor
take up any other thing for his
study, but war and its
organization and discipline, for
that is the only art that is
necessary
to
one
who
commands.
-Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
In spring of 2742, Cynthia
Amaris suffered a stroke that
would leave her near paralyzed.
Although still holding the title of
President of the Republic,
Cynthia had already delegated
most of her authority to her son
Stefan and he was the de-facto
ruler of the Rim Worlds at this
point. As he continued to
consolidate his grip on power,
Stefan began to appoint men
and
women
who
were
personally loyal only to him in
the Rim Worlds military as well
as in the Republic senate. Opposition leaders were harassed and any who
openly defied him would mysteriously be victimized by freak accidents or strange
illnesses that would force them from their positions. Stefan then appointed
someone with better loyalties to himself into that vacated position.
One of Stefans first projects that he personally involved himself into was the
revitalization of the Republic intelligence agencies. During the time of his
ancestor, Lady Terens Amaris, the Republic internal security bureaus were the
most ruthless and efficient intelligence organizations ever to be devised. The
succeeding leaders of the Republic after Lady Amaris however, had slowly
stripped away its power and allowed its various spy networks to decline to the
point of being shadows of their former selves. Making an abrupt about-face with
these policies, Stefan Amaris quadrupled the Intelligence budget for these

agencies every year starting in 2740 as well as completely reorganizing the

myriad command structure to make the various agencies more supportive with
each other. As the Republican spy network both improved in quality and quantity,
the intelligence agencies felt more indebted to him and so placed their complete
trust and loyalty to the future President of the Rim Worlds Republic. Within two
years, Stefan Amaris then charged the newly revamped espionage agencies with
two new missions, the first was to begin gathering military intelligence on the
major Inner-Sphere powers, especially the mighty Terran Hegemony, second, to
attempt any form of industrial espionage to increase the technical quality of the
Republics military.

In response to several devastating pirate attacks within its territory, a Lyran unit
raided the desolate Periphery world of Butte Hold in late 2742. There, the Lyrans
discovered that the Draconis Combine had been illegally supplying various
powers in the Periphery with advanced BattleMechs. Recriminations were swift
and the Lyran Commonwealth threatened to go on a war footing against the
Combine. The Rim Worlds Republic went largely unscathed from this scandal
due to the fact that their excellent intelligence units were able to cover up the trail
of transports leading to them. This incident aroused Stefans curiosity in regards
to the shipments of military weapons that had been started by his ancestor,
Tadeo Amaris. In early 2743, Stefan Amaris embarked on a fact-finding tour to
assess the Rim Worlds military machine.

When his flagship, Worm Ouroboros, reached the hidden Rim Worlds military
bases in the desolate Chainelane Isles several months later, Stefan Amaris was
pleasantly surprised and amazed at the wisdom of his ancestor, Tadeo. His great
grand uncle had foreseen the possibility of war against the Inner-Sphere powers
and so had decided to place the bulk of the Republics military industry in hidden
bases within the Deep Periphery, away from the indefensible core worlds. The
Chainelane Isles served as perfect cover: a desolate region of space, unclaimed
by any major power and was home to pirates and assorted riff-raff. The largest
Republican military base, hidden within a foreboding asteroid field and
codenamed Knossos, had both weapons factories and shipyards. In fact, four
Necronomicon-class pocket battleships were already near completion when
Stefan made his first official visit there. These new pocket-battleships were
constructed illegally, in violation of the arms limitation treaties that held in check
the size of the Republics military. Massive warehouses of stockpiled
BattleMechs and nuclear processing plants for the production of weapons-grade
plutonium were also running at peak production. Needless to say, Stefan Amaris
was extremely pleased and ordered the expansion of these facilities. Rather than
using manpower intensive labor that would have required constant supply and
eventual word of mouth that might have compromised the covert nature of these
bases, Stefan Amaris used part of his deceased fathers massive inheritance to
fund and deploy automated manufacturing technologies, thereby allowing only a

handful of trusted personnel to inhabit and know about the exact location of these
hidden bases while still being able to manufacture military materiel at peak
capacity. This doctrine allowed only a small, trusted core of people within the
Republican military to know the exact locations of these bases, a factor that
would prove monumental when the SLDF declared war and began to
systematically destroy the Republic several decades later.
TO: Stefan Amaris, Commander-in-chief, Rim Worlds Republic military
FROM: Dr. Harold Rohrs, Knossos Shipyards
DATE: 18 May, 2743
RE: Your Query on WarShip Production Status
It is with great pleasure that I announce to you the introduction of our new state
of the art Necronomicon-class pocket battleships. As I heard you are an avid
reader of history, we have decided to classify these new WarShips based on a
designation used by the Nazi Empire in Terras distant past. The term pocket
battleship essentially applies to a WarShip that can outgun any cruiser it comes
up against as well as being able to outrun anything larger than itself. These new
WarShips will serve our beloved Republican military well and can even stand up
against the vaunted Star League naval fleet, should it ever come to that. With a
displacement of nearly 900,000 tons, this fearsome class of ships bristles with
naval lasers, PPCs, autocannons and has also eight missile launchers for
Barracuda and Killer Whale missile systems, not to mention numerous smaller
weapon pods for anti-fighter defense. These capital ships can also withstand a
tremendous amount of damage because of their ferro-carbide construction and
maximum armor allocation, giving them unprecedented life in the deadly
battlefield of space. For emergencies, each ship is also equipped with a lithiumfusion battery for any unforeseen situation. It may surprise you that we already
have two ships of this class in service; both the Lovecraft and the Derleth are
currently undergoing covert shakedown cruises and should be completely
operational by next month. Four other ships of this type are in their final stages of
construction and should be deployed within six months. It would be my pleasure
to offer you a personal, guided tour of our facilities if you have the time. Also, My
most sincere thanks for the increase in our manufacturing budget as well as the
implementation of the automation project that has been able to increase our
production ten-fold. Hail Amaris!

In late 2743, Cynthia Amaris had finally succumbed to the ravages of sickness
and age. Upon his ascension to the Presidency, Stefan Amaris made a short
speech in which he highlighted the need for unity and cooperation with the InnerSphere powers, especially the Star League. This made many news pundits
proclaim that he was the friendliest Periphery ruler to the Star League since his
ancestor Gregory, yet he had retained the loyalty of his own citizens. This
calculated move widened diplomatic and economic relations with the Terran
Hegemony and resulted in an economic boom for the Republic. As his rule
progressed many citizens of the Republic became curious because Stefan
tended to shy away from the publicity that his mother reveled in. President Stefan
Amaris preferred to work incognito and surrounded himself with military people,
although he displayed his
trademark charm at the few
public functions that he was
seen in.
Inwardly, Stefan Amaris
was grooming himself to be
a distinct ruler of the
Republic, one who could be
recognized anywhere. An
avid student of history,
Amaris carefully studied the
techniques of the 20th
century Nazi dictator Adolf
Hitler, who had altered his
stance and shaved his
moustache in such a way
as to make him stand out
from a crowd. To that end,
Amaris stopped any sort of
physical
exercise
and
allowed his body to gain
weight. His chin in particular
sagged and gave him the
appearance
of
being
grossly overweight, despite
the fact that he was only
slightly obese. Amaris also
decided to shave his head
and wear his moustache in
the style of the ancient
Mongol conquerors like
Genghis Khan. Although
this made his overall
appearance
somewhat

grotesque, his charming smile and seemingly affable manner still managed to
overcome most peoples fear and shock at his outer appearance.
In 2744 Republican intelligence operatives scored a major coup, as they were
able to acquire classified technical schematics and samples of the Star Leagues
most advanced weapons. Black market shipments of extended-range lasers and
PPCs, LB-X and ULTRA autocannons, gauss rifles, double-heat sinks and even
a stolen extra-light fusion engine was delivered to the newly created research
and development base in the Chainelane Isles. There, the best Republican
scientists as well as highly paid freelance technicians began the long, arduous
process of reverse-engineering these new military innovations so that the
Republic could mass-produce them rather than depending on the high-risk and
costly trade on the black market. By 2750, the bulk of the Republican military
were being issued field kits with which to upgrade their BattleMechs with these
new weapons and equipment. Rather than having to build brand new Mechs
from the ground up that were equipped with this new technology, Stefan Amaris
decreed that it would be less costly to upgrade existing Mechs in the militarys
inventory. Not only would this be cheaper, but also it would not arouse any
suspicion that the Rim Worlds military was fielding advanced equipment available
only to the Star League Defense Forces.
PORTENTS OF DOOM
It is an infallible rule that a prince who is not wise himself cannot be well
advised, unless by chance he leaves himself entirely in the hands of one man
who rules him in everything, and happens to be a very prudent man.
-Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
In any study of Stefan Amaris, a number of questions immediately comes to
mind. Did he have any feelings whatsoever for the young First Lord Richard
Cameron when the boy looked to him as his only trusted friend or was his
friendship with the future last Emperor of the Star League just a sham? More
importantly, did Amaris himself have an intense, personal hatred for the Cameron
bloodline in general? Judging from his angry outburst upon learning that the
Camerons snubbed him on his wedding day or that he felt that the Star League
had always regarded the Periphery nations as virtual slave states to be exploited
would have given him enough motivations to do so. But based on his
psychological profile and complete lack of empathy for other human beings, were
the Camerons then just possibly nothing more than obstacles to be disposed of
in his ultimate goal of absolute power?
-Thelos Auburn, The Rise and Fall of House Amaris
As mankind began to colonize distant planets across the stars, science had
replaced religion and mysticism as the primary faith in human endeavors. But
despite all the advances that science did make upon human life in general, there
were still many unanswered questions about prophecies and whether there were

any preordained destinies that could be foretold prior to their occurrence. In

2742, a gunner in the SLDF Seventieth Infantry Division was struck deaf, dumb
and blind from a bolt of lightning. After being hospitalized for five days, she
seemingly regained her senses after doctors predicted that she might never be
able to regain her mental faculties again. After babbling incoherently for several
hours, she then confided to witnesses and stated that First Lord Simon Cameron
would meet his death at the hands of an assassins digging machine. Three
years prior to that, Lieutenant Saul Robstein of the 191st Royal BattleMech
Division was also struck deaf and blind, then regained his senses and foretold
that he had a vision that a ghost told him that Jocasta Cameron, the sister of
former First Lord Jonathan Cameron, would die three years later. What was
curious was that during the exact time that the unnamed gunner who foretold
Lord Simon Camerons death was deprived of her senses was the very day that
Jocasta Cameron died. Were these incidents just strange coincidences that
ultimately colluded with history or was there a greater power at work? To this
day, these questions have yet to be answered. The gunners name was not
entered into the official records and so there was absolutely no follow-up
research on these claims after the Amaris Civil War.
Despite official claims that these times were the Good Years, a number of
hidden wars and conflicts began during the 2750s. Numerous border incidents
occurred between the Great Houses who chafed under the arms limitation
restrictions imposed to them by the Star League. The Periphery Territories also
resented the increasing taxation by the member-states that several underground
movements dedicated to overthrowing the Star League yoke began to get
organized once again. The Inner-Sphere seemed like a powder keg just waiting
to explode. First Lord Simon Cameron, the current ruler of the Star League,
seemed to realize that things were beginning to get out of hand and so made
plans to embark on a grand tour across the entire Star League. His advisors felt
that this was a needed move in order to shore up political support at a time when
confidence in a united humanity was at a low.
It was not known as to when the exact date and time that Stefan Amaris
decided to plan and execute his bid for absolute power by taking over the Star
League, but the timing of Lord Camerons announcement of a grand tour was
an opportune moment for him. The Republics armed forces had been expanding
steadily in secret due to its hidden bases in the Chainelane Isles to the point
where it was already the equal to the Great Houses in terms of both numbers
and technological quality as its existing units were quietly being refitted with
advanced Star League weaponry and many more units were formed and
deployed in hidden bases within the Deep Periphery. Using the Republics
efficient intelligence agencies to eliminate enemy spies and feeding false
information to other foreign powers, Stefan Amaris now had the instrument with
which to realize his long-held ambitions.

From a recent analysis of declassified files taken from the Rim Worlds Republic
during its subsequent occupation and dismemberment by the SLDF years later, it
seems clear now that the Republican intelligence community was able to crack
several secret military codes, most notably the Star League military encrypted
transmissions and the Taurian Defense Forces codes, these were now wideopen to monitoring by Republican intelligence analysts. This gave Amaris an
early warning system should his enemies have ever found out about his true
intentions as well as being able to know exactly where the First Lord would be
making his tour as well as the composition of his security forces.

Although there have been no clear confirmations as to the events leading up to

what happened when Lord Simon Cameron made a visit to the asteroid mining
facilities on New Silesia in early 2751, a number of assumptions could be made.
First, that Stefan Amaris knew before anyone outside of the SLDF High
Command that Lord Cameron would be visiting the mining facilities there as well
as to what his exact itinerary was. Secondly, with that prior knowledge, Amaris
could have deployed a team of undercover operatives to possibly sabotage one
of the digging machines in preparation for Lord Camerons visit. Thirdly, that
Amaris could have sold the information about the First Lords itinerary and
security arrangements to a third-party that was hostile to the Star League, such
as the Taurians. Whatever the cause, Lord Simon Cameron was indeed killed in
a freak industrial accident during an inspection of the mining facilities, confirming
the unnamed SLDF gunners prophetic vision. A subsequent investigation
concluded that there was no evidence of foul play and the case was closed.
Although a number of conspiracy theories exist to this day, so far, unless new

evidence comes to light, the mystery behind the shocking death of Lord Simon
Cameron may never be solved.
As news of Simon Camerons death reverberated across the Inner-Sphere, a
crisis of succession began as to who would be the next First Lord. Simons heir
was his son Richard, who was only eight years old at that time. On the third of
April of that year, the Star League council members confirmed the young boy as
First Lord and then appointed General Aleksandr Kerensky, the supreme
commander of the SLDF, as Regent and Lord Protector of the Realm until
Richard reached his eighteenth
birthday. Although these acts seemed
to stabilize the League politically once
more, the Great Houses began to take
immediate advantage of the Star
Leagues weakness by enacting a law
to double the size of their respective
militaries the very next year. The only
council member who voted against the
new edict was Stefan Amaris.
Although lauded by many as a
peacemaker and high moralist, Amaris
was in fact, a wolf in sheeps clothing.
Several years before he had already
more than doubled the size of his
realms military in secret and so he
was way ahead of the game. This act
merely gained him political points
among the powerless nobles and
people of the Star League.
In the year after that, in 2753, the
Council convened once again in Terra
and then passed another edict to
increase taxation among the Periphery
states in order to help fund the massive increases in their military budgets
despite vehement opposition by both General Kerensky and Stefan Amaris.
Without a powerful First Lord to keep them in check, the Council Lords continued
to undermine the unity of the Star League while trying to drastically increase their
military might. Lacking any political experience and constantly being
outmaneuvered by the more seasoned council lords, an exasperated General
Kerensky decided to stay with his troops rather than trying to control a pack of
cutthroats. Kerensky was a military man and he was sick and disgusted by the
political chaos around him and so allowed the Council Lords almost free reign.
Only Stefan Amaris opposed the machinations of the Great Houses in public as
he was constantly outvoted. Inwardly, it really did not matter much to him for
Amaris had already prepared for this eventuality. In fact, Stefan Amaris was

already gaining massive political clout among the disaffected, leaderless Star
League nobility as they began to depend more on him to carry their message
across.
As the Periphery States began to seethe with discontent, Amaris continued to
woo disaffected opposition leaders to his side. A number of Periphery nobles
began to depend heavily on him to try to repeal the harsh tax laws but to no avail.
Even though he did raise an occasional tinge of public protest to the other
Council Lords, Amaris continued to play both sides as his political prestige
continued to soar. The citizens of the Rim Worlds Republic glorified him as a
great leader and peacemaker, counting themselves lucky to have a ruler as
benevolent as him. Almost overnight, the already-weak local opposition against
Amaris virtually disappeared as his people (and many others in the Periphery
States) followed him blindly forward to a seemingly prosperous and peaceful
future. The only person to resist his political machinations and personal charm
was General Aleksandr Kerensky, who seemed to be able to see through
Stefans cunning faade and remained coldly indifferent to him.
The first and subsequent meetings between Stefan Amaris and General
Aleksandr Kerensky did not achieve the purpose that the leader of the Rim
Worlds Republic had hoped for. Amaris thought that he could use his charms to
bring General Kerensky under his influence but the General sensed something
that was not right behind those steely, cold gray eyes. It was almost as if
Kerensky could tell that Amaris was hiding something with every gesture, every
word and could therefore not be trusted. Stefan Amaris would try numerous times
to break the chasm between them but was constantly rebuffed with an icy,
professional courtesy. After a half-dozen attempts, Amaris finally gave up and
instead began to woo the one person within the Star League who was most
vulnerable to his machinations, Richard Cameron.
-Thelos Auburn, The Rise and Fall of House Amaris
Stefan Amaris first met the young Richard Cameron in the late summer of 2753,
when the boy was ten years old. Due to security precautions, the forlorn
youngster was not allowed any other playmates his age and had to grow up with
adult attendants as his only companions as well as being restricted within Palace
grounds. Lonely and sad, Richard Cameron nearly shed a tear when Amaris
presented him with a small gift during their first meeting. Sensing a kindred spirit,
Stefan Amaris postponed his other duties with the council and spent the next few
days with Richard Cameron, talking and playing and generally having fun.
Whereas his other adult companions would treat him as a child, Amaris treated
Richard as an equal and so charmed the boy. As the years went by, Stefan
Amaris would never fail to pay the young boy a visit and Richard would
reciprocate by regularly corresponding with Amaris via HPG when they were
separated by distance. Totally taken in by the Rim Worlds ruler, Richard would
confide in him that Uncle Stefan was his only friend and when he became a man,
Richard Cameron would appoint Amaris as his personal protector. The nobility of

the Star League noticed Amaris growing influence on the young boy and so they
began to court him with trade deals and business proposals. Amaris gleefully
accepted every offer as his realms economy and military might continued to
grow.
In 2755, 12-year old Richard Cameron attended the annual Star League council
meeting for the first time. The Council Lords were surprised when Stefan Amaris
sat at the young First Lords right side but rapidly regained their composure as
they resumed their political dialogues. Richard Cameron was both shocked and
hurt when the Council Lords virtually ignored him and was ready to cry and bolt
from the room had it not been for the reassuring hand of Stefan Amaris. During
the meeting, Lord Minoru Kurita proposed another doubling of all House militaries
and pushed forward a new defense tax to be levied against the territorial
Periphery States. Ignoring Richard Camerons protests, the Council Lords
pushed it through. Finally allowed to have the final say in the meeting, Richard
Cameron declared Stefan Amaris a Knight of the Star League and stated that he
would immediately order General Kerensky to withdraw all remaining Star
League troops out of Rim Worlds Republic territory. The young First Lord then
left the room along with a smiling Amaris and left the other Council Lords in utter
shock and disbelief.
The portents of doom had one more prophecy to be fulfilled. Several days after
the death of Simon Cameron, Sergeant Heinz Mann of the SLDF 290th
Mechanized Infantry Division fell into a coma for eight days. Upon his
subsequent recovery, he reported visions of dozens of dead Cameron family
members, lying in pools of their own blood.

MERIDIAN
Every tyrant in every age could not
have succeeded without the help of a
trusted enforcer who did most of the
devils work for them. Lenin had Stalin
and Trotsky, Capone had Nitti, Hitler had
Roehm and then Himmler, and now
Amaris has Meridian.
-General Aaron DeChevilier during the
SLDF liberation of Terra, 2779
Meridian was one of the great what ifs
of history. Although he is now universally
despised as a traitor of no equal that
helped to bring down the Star League, it
was a series of tragedies that had
occurred in his life that ultimately
motivated him to do what he did. Had
the events of that fateful night not
happened, would history have turned out
very differently?
-Thelos Aubrun, The Rise and Fall of
House Amaris
The man who would be called Meridian
was
born
Christopher
Fokker.
Graduating with honors from Sandhurst
Military Academy in Terra as well as
successfully completing the SLDF
ACMS
(Advanced
Combat
and
Maneuvering Skills) Project, Fokker was
one of the brightest young officers that
the SLDF had to offer. Having served
with the 146th Royal BattleMech
Division, Fokker was then chosen to
become one of the few training officers
for the SLDFs GUNSLINGER Program.
The GUNSLINGER program was a
covert training unit that was formed in
response to the Hidden Wars when the
private armies of the Council Lords

would secretly challenge the SLDF soldiers to private duels to the death. After
being consistently beaten by Urizen Kuritas ronin (these were actually highly
trained DEST commandos), the GUNSLINGER program was to submit carefully
selected SLDF MechWarriors to intensive training using the most advanced
simulators and the best instructors the SLDF could offer. As expected, Fokker
excelled at this program and was made head instructor for the unit and it was at
that program where he got the callsign of Meridian. It was near certain that
Fokker was being groomed for a top slot in the SLDF High Command. A personal
event however, would drastically alter the destiny of his life.
It also was in the GUNSLINGER program that Major Fokker met a young
MechWarrior named Tanya Kerensky, who happened to be a niece of the
commanding general of the SLDF, Aleksandr Kerensky. The two fell in love,
much to the chagrin of Tanyas father, Colonel Oleg Kerensky. Colonel Kerensky
did not approve of the young mans peasant background and one night caught
the young couple kissing in his house. Quickly drawing his dagger, the enraged
Colonel Oleg charged at Christopher Fokker, who used his martial arts training to
throw the Colonel to the floor. However, Olegs hand had slipped beneath his
body and his own dagger thrust into his heart. Christopher Fokker had
accidentally killed Tanyas father. The young SLDF officer was then quickly
placed on court-martial for murder and the trial was presided over by General
Aleksandr Kerensky himself.
After pleading that it was an accident, Fokkers hopes turned to shock when the
court found him guilty of killing a superior officer and sentenced to life
imprisonment. That General Kerensky himself confirmed the sentence only
added to his grief. During his third month in the prison, Fokker learned that Tanya
had committed suicide while being three months pregnant with their child. As the
months turned into years, Fokkers anguish turned to rage at both General
Kerensky and the Star League. He swore vengeance and would make them all
pay for destroying his life and his family.
In 2749, Christopher Fokker and a few accomplices engineered an amazing
escape from the SLDF military prison in Terra. By 2751, he had made his way to
the Rim Worlds Republic. Stefan Amaris himself welcomed the renegade SLDF
officer and offered him a commission in his own military. Within two years,
Fokker had gathered the best of the Republican officers and men and formed an
elite commando unit, the Thirteenth Amaris Special Forces Group. Using the
same training techniques he used for the GUNSLINGER and ACMS programs,
Meridian (as Fokker was now called) turned a group of rag tag, inexperienced
house soldiers into a unit that could rival the best of the SLDF. After being
attached as a personal advisor to Stefan Amaris command staff, Meridian also
began to implement new, updated doctrines and provided critical information in
regards to SLDF tactics and weaknesses that the Republican military could use
to its advantage should it ever go to war against the Star League.

2762 was a tumultuous year for the Star League. That year signified the end of
General Kerenskys Regency as Richard Cameron had at last turned eighteen
and was fully vested in the powers of the First Lord of the Star League. When he
then presided over the first Grand Council meeting of that year, Richard
Cameron revealed Executive Order 156 to the Council Lords, ordering them to
disband all House armies. Almost immediately there were howls of protest and
derisions that he had not expected. Taken aback, the young First Lord was
forced to rescind the order in humiliation. Only Stefan Amaris supported the
initiative, as usual. As a final act of defiance, First Lord Cameron then decided to
disband the High Council and rule only by decree. As the bitter parties went their
separate ways, Richard realized that the Great Houses had grown too strong
militarily even for the Star League to tackle alone.
After learning of a secret Taurian Freedom Army build-up in 2763 because the
Republican intelligence services had broken the Taurians codes, Stefan Amaris
once again met General Aleksandr Kerensky in the Periphery and gave him the
exact locations with which to find them. The resulting operation netted the SLDF
nearly the entire leadership of the Taurian Freedom Army. Although General
Kerensky still resented Amaris, First Lord Richard Cameron was now convinced
that only the Rim Worlds Republic could be a trustworthy ally. The Taurians were
not amused and labeled Amaris as a traitor who cared nothing for the Peripherys
causes.
Meanwhile, things began to deteriorate even further among the other Periphery
States as the forced taxations began to arouse anger and armed protests began
to flare up. Through the advice of Amaris, Richard Cameron ordered General
Kerensky to reinforce the SLDF troops in the Periphery and told the General to
take charge personally. Kerensky then protested, saying that to reinforce the
troops in the Periphery meant using up all of their reserves in the Hegemony.
When Richard once again ordered him to proceed, Kerensky swallowed his pride
and left for the Periphery, he was a professional soldier and he was tired of
hanging around politicians. In the meantime, Amaris suggested to the trusting
First Lord that his own Republican troops could help reinforce the Hegemony
territories in case of further conflicts. Richard wholeheartedly agreed and in 2764,
ordered shipments of advanced military equipment including the SLDFs state of
the art BattleMechs to be delivered to the Rim Worlds Republic as well as
providing advisors with which to train the Republican forces in advanced military
tactics. Already, the Republican military had been involved in several joint, largescale military exercises alongside SLDF forces.

Despite their previous setbacks a few years before, the Taurians were more
determined than ever to liberate their worlds from the Star League yoke. In 2765,
they regrouped their resistance forces and openly seceded from the Star League.
Within weeks, save for the Rim Worlds Republic, the entire Periphery rose up in
armed revolt, throwing the SLDF garrisons on the defensive. First Lord Richard
Cameron made an appeal to the Great Houses to help his forces put down the
rebellion but was refused. As the battles raged, Lord Cameron ordered the bulk
of the SLDF into action to subdue the Periphery rebels and then asked Stefan
Amaris to garrison the Hegemony worlds with Republican troops in case of
trouble with the Great Houses.
This was the moment that Stefan Amaris had hoped for. Already, the Thirteenth
Amaris SFG was covertly deployed on Terra.
BRIEF EMPIRE
That day had at last arrived. It was a bloody day, full of wickedness and ire. We
tempted fate and she was kind to us that day. But in the end, the cause was
already lost, we just didnt realize it.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian
If Stefan Amaris wanted to fulfill his lifelong ambition of being the greatest
conqueror man had ever seen, providence had at last given him that chance in
late 2766. That year was a culmination of all his patience and preparations. It
was his one moment of glory for all of his assets were now in place. It was

possible that he felt that he would probably not get another chance if he didnt
take it. The prize was there, all he had to do was to extend his hand and grasp
the reins of power. And he did.
-Thelos Auburn, The Rise and Fall of House Amaris

In early 2766, the elite Fourth Amaris Dragoons had been transferred to Terra.
There, the units of Stefan Amaris took up garrison positions with the First Lords
equally vaunted Royal Black Watch Regiment at the Court of the Star League.
With most of the Terran Hegemonys twenty-five Divisions engaged in offensive
operations across the far-flung Periphery, only eight Divisions remained in
Hegemony space and only two of these were BattleMech Divisions. By winter of
that year, sixteen divisions of the Republican military had positioned themselves
in the key planets of the Hegemony. Covert Rim Worlds intelligence operatives
had also begun to infiltrate the Star Leagues early warning control centers and
the newly built automated Space Defense Systems. On the 26th of December,
Stefan Amaris returned to Terra and issued his final orders. He named
Mohammed Selim as his Regent in the Rim Worlds Republic territory and
commanded his remaining troops there to go on a war footing. It was possible
that Stefan Amaris may have foreseen a chance that he would fail as he
instructed his oldest daughter Anais to gather her possessions and join his
departing flagship. Anais Amaris protested but her father insisted, saying that she
would be needed there. As the Republic WarShip Worm Ouroboros made the
jump, some witnesses said that there were tears in Stefan Amaris eyes as he bid
his daughter farewell.
The very next day, the Amaris Coup began when the Republic military made
surprise attacks on the Star League garrisons all across Hegemony space. In

Terra, most of the Royal Black Watch Regiment was destroyed when a nuclear
device (most probably placed there by operatives of the Thirteenth Amaris SFG)
detonated in their staging areas near the Court of the Star League. As the Fourth
Amaris Dragoons began to engage the 191st Royal BattleMech Division and
reserve units, Stefan Amaris accompanied the Thirteenth Amaris SFG in a daring
assault on the First Lords Palace. There were still over a companys worth of
Royal Black Watch troops guarding the immediate vicinity of the First Lord but
the special forces units commanded by Meridian made short work of them. A few
hours later, the totally surprised First Lord Richard Cameron was personally
assassinated by Stefan Amaris as he began to round up all members of the
Cameron family and proceeded to execute them in the Throne Room. That day,
ninety-five of the Terran Hegemonys 103 worlds fell to the Republican forces. It
was a textbook example of victory by complete surprise.
Stefan Amaris immediately began to consolidate his position. His military and
intelligence operatives began to take control of the HPG stations as well as the
Space Defense Systems all over the Hegemony. The dark prophecies of
numerous dead Camerons lying in pools of their own blood became fulfilled. All
was not lost however, as the future Jade Falcon Elizabeth Hazen survived along
with a handful of survivors from the Royal Black Watch Regiment and formed a
guerilla unit that managed to survive until the liberation of Terra in 2779. Also, a
number of Cameron family members were able to escape Stefan Amaris
genocidal purge of their bloodline by having the good fortune to be members of
the SLDF units that were in the Periphery. But by the beginning of 2767, all
Hegemony worlds had fallen to the Rim Worlds Republic military.
In February of that year, as General Aleksandr Kerensky completed the
conquest of New Vandenburg in the Taurian Concordat, he received an HPG
message from Stefan Amaris proclaiming himself First Lord of the newly-styled
Amaris Empire and requested the Generals allegiance. Much like how the
Japanese viewed the Americans in World War II, Amaris apparently thought that
at the very least, he could get away with a grudging acceptance from Kerensky
that it would be very costly to invade the heavily fortified worlds of the former
Hegemony, thus maintaining an uneasy peace between them and allowing
Amaris to keep his conquests. In that regards, he had severely miscalculated the
Generals tenacity and desire for justice. Kerensky immediately declared war
against the Usurper and proceeded to assemble his troops for an invasion of the
Rim Worlds Republic. With the failure to secure the loyalty of the SLDF, Amaris
made a one last bid to the leaders of the Great Houses to help him in his
resistance against the oncoming storm. Amaris had hoped that if at least one
Great House would support him then he could form an alliance that would allow
him to continue on as First Lord. All that came to no avail however, as each
House Lord denied his requests for assistance. It was at that moment that
Amaris thought that perhaps he now was truly alone. All he could do now was to
fortify and defend his newly conquered holdings and hoped to survive the
onslaught. If his Republican forces could inflict enough casualties upon the

invading SLDF, then perhaps, Kerensky might be inclined to give up the struggle.
But in this regards, he once again underestimated the enemys desire to see
things through.

In August of that year, the combined SLDF flotilla made its way to the outskirts
of the Rim Worlds Republic and offered the scant Republican troops stationed
there a chance for surrender. Loyal to the last, Regent Mohammed Selim
refused. In 2770, the last defenders of Apollo fell and the Rim Worlds Republic
was officially no more. The campaign to liberate the Hegemony began in 2772
and Terra itself fell to the SLDF in 2779. The fighting was intense and bloody as
the SLDF took horrific losses but in the end, the outcome was never in doubt.
After nearly coming close to personally killing General Kerensky, Meridian was
felled by General Aaron DeChevilier. Baron Gunthar Von Strang died with his
unit when it was destroyed by incoming SLDF forces as it tried to flee. Stefan
Amaris himself, along with his family, was caught and executed by the vengeful
General Kerensky. In the purges that followed, Kerensky ordered the SLDF to
hunt down and kill anyone with even a taint of Amaris blood.
In the aftermath of the Amaris Civil War, as the survivors began to pick up the
pieces, it seemed that the name Amaris had passed on to history.

CHILDREN OF THE LOST

And yet-had God not bowed us down,
Not laid us low in dust,
None would have sung of us or told our wrongs
In stories men will listen to forever.
-Euripides, The Trojan Women
It was then that our long dark road lay
ahead of us. The children of the lost cried
out to their absent mothers and dead
fathers. But the only response was silence.
The stars stared back in the empty night,
their indifferent shimmering a beacon of
gloom. We were all alone, standing in but a
small island, drifting across the seas of
infinity.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian
In 2769, the Worm Ouroboros made its
last supply run to Knossos Base. In addition
to the cargo that was being unloaded, a
number of dependents from the Rim Worlds
nobility were also sent to the hidden Amaris
base in the Chainelane Isles. Among them
was Anais Amaris, Regent Mohammed
Selims teenaged daughter Fatima and 10year old Matthias Von Strang, the youngest
son of Baron Gunthar Von Strang. Although
the dependents had begged to stay with
their families, Rim Worlds Republic Regent
Mohammed Selim felt that they would be
safer in Knossos rather than take their
chances as the invading SLDF forces
began their attacks on the Republic. Just
before taking his own life as the vengeful
SLDF units began their final assault on
Apollo in 2070, Mohammed Selim was able
to destroy all records pertaining to the
existence and location of Knossos Base.
The last orders from the Republic High
Command was that all personnel in
Knossos must cease in any attempt to
contact the Republic and neither should
they attempt to venture out of the
Chainelane Isles lest they give away their

location. The final sentence in the written orders to the Knossos Base
commander was that they should try to survive and wait until a ship from the
Republic would come and return them home. When the Worm Ouroboros began
its final jump sequence to try to link up with the Republican forces in Terra, there
was still a tinge of hope that perhaps the SLDF would give up its campaign to
take back the Hegemony worlds and a peace deal could somehow be arraigned.
As the flagship of the Republic finally disappeared into the starry void, there was
silence once again.
Since the military at this time was completely loyal to the Amaris family, Anais
Amaris was quickly elevated as commander of all Republican forces in the
Chainelane Isles. Theorizing that the rescue ships might be delayed for a while,
Anais decreed that the first issue was survival. There were three major hidden
bases, the largest, Knossos held the shipyards and weapons factories; two
smaller bases were codenamed Phaestos and Mallia, these smaller fortifications
were supply depots that warehoused weapons and raw materials. With several
thousand personnel and with the addition of several thousand more dependents,
the issue of food and maintenance of life-support systems was now acute.
Fortunately, a large majority of the base personnel were scientists and
technicians and so projects to find ways to create edible foodstuffs became
underway. Led by the brilliant geneticist Dr. Ivo Wong, a breakthrough in the
creation of edible lichen and fungus that could grow in specially designed
underground greenhouses that were drilled into the interiors of the surrounding
asteroids began to come to fruition in 2774.

In 2780, the Knossos watch stations were alerted to an incoming JumpShip. As

the base personnel scrambled into defensive positions, wistfully hoping that it
was a Republican ship, their hopes were temporarily raised as the ship gave an

affirmative ID code when asked to relay the security protocols. As the people of
the base cheered, the dawn of reality began to lower their expectations as the
JumpShip loomed closer in their surveillance monitors. It was a Star Lord-class
JumpShip belonging to the Republican navy and it bore horrendous damage all
along its hull. Two heavily damaged Overlord DropShips hung limply on its
hardpoints. As the staggered survivors were brought to the interior of the base
and were debriefed, the full tragedy of Stefan Amaris empire began to unfold.
Not only had the entire Rim Worlds Republic fallen to the might of the SLDF but
all the Hegemony worlds were retaken and the Amaris family was slaughtered to
the last child.
As the grief and humiliation tore through all the survivors and the base
population as well, several hundred civilians and soldiers committed suicide.
Some of the more pragmatic men and women looked to Anais Amaris for
leadership but the last surviving daughter of Stefan Amaris was too grief-stricken
to command them. As she could barely keep her emotions in check, Anais ran
into one of the laboratories in the inner-part of the base and ingested a harmful
fungus that was deemed inedible. Almost immediately the young woman
collapsed and fell into a deep coma. The medical personnel who examined her
predicted that she would not last one week. For the next few days, utter
confusion reigned across the base as people would shuffle about aimlessly on
what to do next.
As everyones shock and grief turned into despair, a large minority of the entire
base population advocated a return to the Inner-Sphere and to take their
chances there. As more confusion reigned across the three bases, Matthias Von
Strang and Fatima Selim formed a coalition dedicated to obeying the last orders
of the Republic High Command, the two young people argued that they must
remain hidden from the rest of humanity and regroup. As hopelessness turned to
desperation, conflicts began to arise between the two sides as the returners
tried to commandeer the damaged JumpShip but were stopped by the others. As
the petty conflicts began to turn violent, Matthias and Fatima personally stayed
near the comatose Anais Amaris and vowed to protect her with their lives. For
the next two weeks, armed enforcers from both sides began to claim even more
powerful weapons from the cargo stores until the situation finally deteriorated into
open warfare.
The fighting in the three bases became bloody internal sieges as both sides
turned into wild animals that would slaughter men, women and children in an
orgy of blood and carnage. As the battles raged in a relentless war of attrition,
Matthias and Fatima rallied their forces and led them ruthlessly until only a few
hundred of the enemy returners survived and were captured. As the survivors
surveyed the carnage, they realized just what horrors they had heaped upon
themselves as both smaller bases had taken tremendous damage. Phaestos was
virtually uninhabitable as someone sabotaged the life-support system and
exposed everyone there to the deadly vacuum of space while Mallias fusion

reactor went into meltdown, irradiating the entire base with lethal radiation and
destroying half of the precious underground fungi greenhouses. Knossos
shipyards, including the Star-Lord Jumpship, were heavily damaged and could
not be repaired with existing inventories. The conflict between those wanting to
return and those wanting to stay had nearly annihilated them all.
After taking stock of what they had, the future looked bleak. Of the ones who
wished to return to the Periphery and the Inner-Sphere, there were only a few
hundred left. Fatima and Matthias coalition numbered barely a thousand men,
women and children. As a feeling of gloom began to permeate across Knossos,
Fatima Selim would spend her days staying by the still-comatose Anais Amaris,
kneeling and praying feverishly while Matthias Von Strang and his core group of
former military personnel would keep watch over the prisoners. As the situation
deteriorated to the point where everyone was surviving on subsistence levels,
grumbling began even among the most loyal followers of Fatima and Matthias.
As the weeks began to turn into months, a few began to openly question their
command. As the voices of opposition grew louder, Fatima got up from her vigil
and told them that she was merely waiting for the sleeping Anais Amaris to
awaken and lead them, all they had to do was be patient. When one of Matthias
lieutenants asked how long they had to wait, Fatima told them that length of time
was a test of their loyalty. The longer it took, she said, the more powerful Anais
would be when she awoke.
In the morning of the fourth month after the inner-conflict between them started,
Fatima Selim woke up to find the bed that Anais had been confined in was
empty. As she hurriedly ran towards the door, it opened and in stepped the wideawake Anais Amaris, wearing only her hospital gown, pale as a ghost and gaunt
from a lack of nutrition. It was at that moment that Matthias Von Strang entered
the room from a side door and was instantly floored by what he saw. Although
she had been in a coma for nearly six months, Anais Amaris was able to stand
on her own two feet and could walk stiffly. Awed by this seeming miracle, both
Matthias and Fatima fell down on the floor, kneeling and prostrating in
supplication. Anais sat on the side of the bed as her two most loyal followers told
her of the near catastrophic inner-war that had occurred.
Within an hour, Anais Amaris, flanked by Matthias and Fatima, walked over to
where the general population of the base was and addressed both the prisoners
and her loyal subjects. She claimed that while she was asleep, her fathers spirit
had told her that she must lead what was left of their people to continue the fight
against both the Star League and the Inner-Sphere. The exact words of the
speech had not been recorded but it was said that everyone was so moved by
her words and her miraculous recovery that they all dropped to their knees as
their leader had finally returned to show them the way.

BIRTH OF THE HIDDEN SOCIETY

Mother Anais, our matriarch, had returned to us. As the sleeper had awakened
from the land of dreams and prophecy so had she returned with a vision. Her
lucidity gave her power, her malediction gave her will. It was all but a test for us
and we were determined to pass it, no matter what the cost. So she then decreed
that we must abandon our former lives, and live a new one, one that held greater
promise and the hope for a lasting peace among all mankind.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian
Once the political situation became stabilized,
Mother Anais (as she was now called) began to
form a completely new civilization. First, she laid
out the social doctrines in a speech called The
Vow of the Rose. In it, she stated that it would not
be possible for them to return to the Periphery and
the Inner-Sphere but rather, to stay were they
were and to regain their strength so that they may
one day return with enough power and military
might to bring down the corrupt Great Houses
once and for all. It is ironic that the Vow of the
Rose was eerily similar in tone and content as
General Kerenskys Hidden Hope Doctrine that the
coincidences are simply staggering. Like the
Exodus survivors that eventually became the
Clans, the survivors of House Amaris also began
to refashion themselves into a new society. The
surviving population of Knossos was so desperate
for new leadership after months of fratricidal
conflict that nearly led to their annihilation, that
they immediately embraced her new reforms
completely as she began to restructure their society into something totally and
utterly alien.
Like you, I too grieve for my loved ones who were lost. My father, the father to
us all, was everything to me. Now he is gone and I shall miss him terribly. But I
will remember his deeds and his cause will not be forgotten. We cannot return to
either the Inner-Sphere or the Periphery. If our enemies discover who we are,
they will hunt us down and murder us like dogs. We must live in the shadows.
We must stay hidden and never reveal ourselves to anyone. Our symbol must be
that of the rose, for in ancient times, the rose was a symbol of silence and
secrecy. As in Greek mythology, when the god of love once offered a rose to the
god of silence, to keep that god from disclosing the weaknesses of the other
gods, so let it be that only if we live in our hidden society shall we be able to
regain our strength, replenish our power. For there will be a day when we shall at
last reveal ourselves and avenge those who had fallen. It will be a bright and

glorious day when we finally bring down the tyrannical soldiers of the Star
League as well as the corrupt Houses of the Sphere and finally allow all of
humanity to bask in a new society, one in which there will be no more war, no
more conflict and no more tyranny.
-Anais Amaris, The Vow of the Rose
As the first step in the creation of her new society,
Anais Amaris reinstituted a class of people that had
not existed since the days when the Rim Worlds
Republic was first founded by the psychotic Hector
Rowe. Anais decreed that all hard labor and mundane
tasks be relegated to the newly created Helot
subclass. The Helots would have the status of mere
slaves as they would bear the brunt of the physical
hardships in this new society. The former prisoners
who were advocating a return to the Inner-Sphere
became the backbone of these new Helots. It was at
that point that the large majority of the new society
would be Helots as each new child that would be born
from the age-old union of man and woman would be
born a Helot. These slaves had some certain rights
but were completely subservient to the other castes;
the Helots had no voting power other than being able
to choose leaders within their subgroup. Helots also
did not have any individualized human names; rather,
each Helot was given a set of numbers and letters
(For example: XHT-8311) to be used for individual
identification rather than human names.
In order to preserve the essential technical skills and
knowledge that would enable her society to survive in
this new, harsh reality, Mother Anais formed the
Guilds. The Guilds were essentially storehouses of
knowledge and would function as both schools to train
new apprentices as well as organizations that could
be harnessed as part of the foundations of the new
Hidden Society. These Guilds were eerily reminiscent of the specialized castebased system of the Clans but differed in that people were not born into these
Guilds, rather the Guilds had the option to recruit from the masses of Helots,
thereby giving a chance for even the lowest strata of the Hidden Society a means
to elevate themselves from virtual serfdom. This gave the most talented and
ambitious Helots a chance to change their social status by becoming members of
the Guilds. When a Helot became a member of a particular Guild, they would be
allowed to choose a human name for themselves. Hence, becoming a Guild
member held great prestige. The Guilds however, imposed a rigorous testing
system and only accepted those worthy enough to learn their specialties.

The numerous Guilds each had their own specialty and were organized in those
terms. The largest and most influential Guilds included the Scientists Guild, the
Technicians Guild, the Merchants Guild, the Artisans Guild and of course, the
Warriors Guild. The powerful Warriors Guild in particular, had the responsibility of
training apprentices for the new Amaris military and was subdivided into
numerous smaller sub-guilds according to their respective specialties. Warrior
sub-Guilds included MechWarrior, Land-Air MechWarrior, Infantry/Battlesuit,
Aerospace, Armor/Vehicle, Transport, JumpShip/DropShip and WarShip subGuilds. Needless to say, these Warrior Guilds held great power and prestige
among the others due to their influence over the military.

Two other organizations were created to keep the population both loyal and
politically stable. The first was the new Amaris military. Named the Shadow
Corps, this new army would be the foundation for the eventual return of House
Amaris to the Inner-Sphere and so would be built up slowly until it would reach its
peak. Having the
option to recruit from
all
the
Guilds,
especially the Warrior
Guilds
for
its
personnel,
the
Shadow Corps would
begin to grow in leaps
and bounds over the
next two centuries.
As the Inner-Sphere
went into the endless
cycles
of
the
Succession Wars that
eventually weakened
them militarily, the
Shadow Corps would
begin to grow both in
strength
and
technical quality.
The
second
institution was called
the
Inquisition.
Equally feared and
respected as much
as
the
Shadow
Corps, the Inquisition
was tasked to ensure
both internal stability
within the Hidden
Society by eliminating potential threats to it as well as gathering intelligence from
external sources to pave the way for House Amaris return to the Inner-Sphere.
Structured by a handful of former Republican Intelligence operatives that had
survived and remained personally loyal to Anais Amaris, this clandestine
organization would surpass even that of ROM in sheer ruthlessness and
efficiency in the centuries to come.
At the apex of this newly formed society stood the Shadow Lords, the overseers
of the Hidden People. Their rule would be veiled in secrecy and enforced by both
the Shadow Corps and the Inquisition. It is known that the first Shadow Lords

were Fatima Selim and Matthias Von Strang, Anais most loyal lieutenants. In
time, the exact order would be so secretive that not even the general population
would know who the actual rulers were. It is highly probable that the successors
to these first Shadow Lords chose their eventual replacements from the Shadow
Corps or the Inquisition because these two institutions served as training ground
for future leaders.

THE JARNFOLK AND CLAN WOLVERINE

At last, at long last, the framework had been laid out. We now had the plans and
the means to begin the creation of a perfect society. All we had to do now was to
implement it.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian
As the internal situation stabilized, Mother Anais commissioned several projects
to begin in order to both repair and expand the secretive bases in the Chainelane
Isles. As clean-up operations began to restore life support systems to the two
lesser bases, Anais ordered the insignia of the Rim Worlds Republic to be
removed from the Star Lord-class JumpShip. Once the ship was repaired, it
would be used to venture out of the Chainelane Isles for intelligence gathering.
Although the long road to recovery had started, there were still serious
deficiencies in raw materials to be self-sufficient. A solution however, came from
a most unlikely source.

The JarnFolk had been a semi-nomadic people that traveled regularly across
the Deep Periphery for hundreds of years. Extremely secretive and insular to
outsiders, the JarnFolk were in a sense, gypsies that would travel the stars and
trade occasionally with other Periphery cultures. In 2785, As General Kerensky
issued his Hidden Hope Doctrine to the Exodus fleet and the Succession Wars in
the Inner-Sphere began, a JarnFolk JumpShip ventured within the asteroid fields
in close proximity to Knossos Base and began to repair its damaged jump sail.
Curiously, this wasnt the first time that a JarnFolk vessel had strayed close to

the hidden Amaris bases, there were numerous incidents of close calls when the
people of Knossos nearly intercepted these space gypsies but patience
ultimately prevailed over the years. On the other hand, this was the first time that
a JarnFolk vessel actually stayed for more than a few hours as it was clearly in
need of repairs.
After consulting with her closest advisors, Mother Anais decreed that it would be
beneficial in the long run to try to initiate contact with these JarnFolk. To that end,
the partially repaired (and repainted) Overlord-class DropShips left Knossos and
proceeded to head directly for the JarnFolk vessel while emitting friendly
messages. After a tense standoff, the JarnFolk reluctantly welcomed these
unexpected inhabitants of the asteroid field. After helping in the repair of the
JarnFolk vessel, the people of Knossos were overjoyed when the JarnFolk
concluded a trade agreement with them. In exchange for weapons and the use of
the shipyards, the JarnFolk would provide them with other raw materials with
which to rebuild their damaged bases. A clause in the trading agreement also
stipulated that neither side would reveal each others existence to any outsiders.
Within a year after concluding the trade agreement, JarnFolk vessels would
regularly make scheduled stops at the shipyards of Knossos for trade and
maintenance work on their ships. The asteroid fields also contained a high
concentration of Germanium; an essential component for the K-F jump drives. As
mining operations began, the JarnFolk began to depend more and more on
Knossos for their supply. Although the Hidden Society never told the JarnFolk
about their true origins, it was quite possible that these gypsies of space knew
who they were due to the fact that the coincidence of repairing their JumpShip so
close to Knossos seemed a little too good to be true.
By the 29th Century, the three hidden bases in the Chainelane Isles had already
begun to thrive. The power of the Amaris bloodline had been preserved and all
were content within this new, united society (Of course, any dissenters were
quickly identified and promptly eliminated by the Inquisition.). In 2811, Mother
Anais decreed that the Hidden Society would start to make their first forays back
to the Inner-Sphere in order to gather intelligence. Several new JumpShips that
were disguised as Periphery merchant vessels had already been constructed
and would serve to ferry agents of the Inquisition as well as to trade with the
Inner-Sphere for more materiel anonymously. Several years later, intelligence
operatives of the Inquisition honed their skills and began to report back on the
numerous wars that had engulfed the Inner-Sphere, much to the glee of the
Hidden Society. If the Great Houses could destroy themselves, so much the
better. Mother Anais also wondered about the eventual fate of the SLDF Exodus.
Did these Star League exiles meet an untimely end or would they return to
resurrect the Star League sometime in the future? That was a question that
would plague her mind until the encounter with a lone, lost JumpShip decades
later.

If the Hidden Society wanted

something of value from the
other cultures, they either
traded
for
them
(without
revealing who they were) or
simply took them. In 2818,
several
corvette-class
WarShips were constructed at
the Knossos shipyards. These
small WarShips were then used
as raiding vessels with which
the Hidden Society could take
anything they want. The only
restrictions placed on the
raiders was to avoid any conflict
with their JarnFolk allies,
everything else was fair game.
Within several years, these
WarShips were able to capture
several merchant JumpShips
and enslaved the captured
crewmen, thereby increasing
the Helot population. Despite
occasional raids into the
Periphery with which to kidnap
men, women and children in
order to integrate them into the
Helot subclass, the population
of the Hidden Society was still
critically short of manpower.
In order to alleviate the manpower shortages, Mother Anais then decreed that a
eugenics program be created. Eerily similar to what the Clans would be doing as
well, the Hidden Societys eugenics program would differ in that there would be
two types of genetically engineered humans that were to be developed. The first
type was to use spliced DNA from the best host samples to create soldiers while
the second breed was to be cloned directly from human hosts that had proven
themselves to be extraordinary in either skills or loyalty to House Amaris. The
aging Dr. Ivo Wong immediately volunteered to head this project; decades
before, his grandfather had pioneered advanced cloning technology in the Star
League but was banned from further research there; now with the absolute
power vested him, Dr. Wong now proceeded with his lifelong dream of creating
perfect clones. Within a few years, a breakthrough had occurred as the Hidden
Society pioneered its own artificial womb technology and began to create
humans scientifically. The first category of humans was labeled Splicers from the
term gene-splicing while the second breed was labeled Replicants. The latter

were identical clones made from their original hosts but with slight modifications
to prevent genetic degradation.
As time went on, three distinct
types of human beings began to
exist within the Hidden Society.
The first were called the Naturals,
these humans were the product
of the age-old union of man and
woman; every human that was
born a Natural would always start
life as a Helot. The second breed
were called Splicers, their
characteristics were very similar
to that of Clan Trueborns, having
been the product of spliced
genes as well as being birthed
artificially. The third class of
humans was called Replicants,
direct copies of their original
human hosts; these identical
clones were given memory
implants that gave them the skills
and talents from their former lives
and were mentally conditioned for
absolute loyalty to the Amaris
cause. Unlike the Naturals, the
Splicers and Replicants were bioengineered to be used as
soldiers and assassins: those
that failed their harsh training
regimens were promptly disposed
of- there were no living failures
among them.
It was also during this time that
the scouts of the Hidden Society
found a previously uncharted,
rogue planetoid floating in the
vast
gulfs
between
the
Chainelane Isles and Nueva
Castile in the Deep Periphery.
Rogue planets were strange
anomalies
that
defied
conventional scientific thinking.
While most planets would be

born and confined within the range of nearby stars, rogue planets would drift
across the vast emptiness of space almost undetected. It was by sheer luck that
an Amaris JumpShip was able to spot it. After marking its location and probable
stellar drift in their star charts, the JumpShip crew immediately returned to
Knossos and relayed the discovery to the Shadow Lords. Within several weeks,
a planetary expedition was organized by the Hidden Society and dispatched to
find this rogue planet. The resulting information from this expedition yielded that
the planetoid had a thin atmosphere and was practically lifeless. There were
however, large concentrations of useable minerals that could be mined from the
solid bedrock. It was then decreed that huge, underground cities would be
constructed to house the growing Helot population and the Guilds would build
mining facilities and factories for heavy industry there. By 2822, the first
underground city was established on the newly christened world of Sanctuary.
Due to the low level of cosmic radiation because of the lack of nearby stars, it
would take months for JumpShips to recharge their batteries whenever they
would make the journey to Sanctuary. By 2841 however, the Hidden Society was
able to set up automated recharge stations located in nearby uncharted star
systems to lower transit time to Sanctuary; these recharge stations were
disguised as asteroids so that any passing ship would not take notice of them. As
time passed, the population of the Hidden Society grew.

The children of Amaris had their first realization of the fate of the SLDF Exodus
when one of their raider corvettes intercepted and disabled a fleeing JumpShip
that was hopelessly off-course in late 2823. As the crew of the JumpShip were
taken prisoner and interrogated, the full magnitude of Amaris legacy was
revealed. Not only did General Aleksandr Kerensky and his followers abandon
the Inner-Sphere to war with itself, but his son Nicholas formed a completely
alien society, one that was not too far removed from Mother Anais own creation.
As the Inquisition searched through the JumpShip and the attached DropShips,

they were able to retrieve a number of carefully hidden memory cores that
contained schematics on everything from BattleMech construction to new Terraforming techniques. The captured group included scientists, technicians and
merchants from a certain Clan Wolverine; these prisoners were immediately
subjected to a number of mental brainwashing techniques to make them totally
subservient to the Amaris cause so that as much cultural and technical
knowledge could be accessed from them. Although most of these prisoners later
died, a number of important technological discoveries were gleamed from their
minds as well as from the successful retrieval of their JumpShips memory core.
After having served her people for over five decades, Mother Anais Amaris died
peacefully in her sleep in 2826. She had pledged her celibacy when she became
the leader of the Hidden Society and decreed that she would be the last Amaris
that would be born through natural means. Henceforth, she prophesized, all
future leaders of the cause would be born as either Splicers or Replicants. As the
people of the Hidden Society wept upon hearing the news of her passing, her
coffin was paraded across the bases until it was finally delivered to an
underground tomb in Sanctuary. There, the people could see a half-dozen
hooded individuals who referred to themselves as the Shadow Lords proclaim
that their war against the children of the Star League and the corrupt Great
Houses would begin in earnest.
FEELERS
If these Clans of Kerensky consider themselves to be like the Mongol hordes,
an unstoppable army of warriors, then we shall be the embodiment of the ninjasilent, swift and deadly.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian
Dangerous is wrath concealed. Hatred proclaimed doth lose its chance of
wrecking vengeance.
-Seneca
As the Clans began what they termed their Golden Century, The Hidden
Society was busy as well. The concealed, underground cities of Sanctuary had
grown into a half-dozen thriving metropolises while Knossos base was now
running at peak capacity in the production of war materiel. Using the navigational
records from the captured Clan Wolverine JumpShip, the agents of the
Inquisition were able to locate the relative area of the Clan homeworlds. Although
the children of Amaris wanted so much to destroy their age-old adversaries, they
knew that they lacked the military strength to do so. A strategy had to be created
in order to learn more about their enemy without revealing themselves. The
solution was soon to be found and it lay within Clan society itself.

The Clans of Kerensky were a caste-based society that was dominated by

warriors. In this rigid culture there were invariably a number of dissidents that
could not fit into the strict caste rules or were in violation of their principles. Within
the next few decades of the Clans Golden Century, a subculture of outcasts
began to develop. These were known as the Dark or Bandit castes and these
misfits of Clan society were hunted down mercilessly by their former Clans.
Forced into exile and preyed upon by warriors from all Clans for sheer sport, the
Dark caste would flee in stolen DropShips and JumpShips and would try to seek
refuge within the Caliban Nebula, a massive, gaseous veil that shielded Clan
space from the prying eyes of the Inner-Sphere. With their aims amounting to
nothing more than sheer survival, these Bandit castes would in turn engage in
piracy and would raid Clan enclaves in order to obtain bare essentials. At first,
the Shadow Lords had contemplated in wiping out the Bandit castes that hid in
the Caliban Nebula as a means of training for the expanding Shadow Corps but
then realized that they could very well turn this facet of Clan society into their
advantage.
After trapping and eliminating one particular Dark caste unit, the Shadow Corps
then mimicked that very unit that they had destroyed in order to learn more about
these Clan outcasts. To that end, the fake Dark caste unit made contact with
other Clan bandits in the area and claimed that they had managed to salvage
useful war and transportation materiel. In exchange for supplying the various
other Clan bandit units, they would be given any new technology that the Dark
castes were able to steal from their occasional raids against the Clan enclaves.
Not knowing any better, the other Dark caste units agreed and began to form a
loose alliance among themselves, little knowing that they were playing into the
hands of their ancient enemies. This strategy became so successful throughout
the next century that it became a virtual rite of passage for new Amaris military
recruits to disguise themselves as Dark caste bandits and engage in hit and run
raids to capture Clan war materiel as well as the abduction of Clan scientists and
technicians. By 2887, the first Amaris OmniMech prototypes rolled off the newly
retooled Mech assembly lines in Knossos. As time passed, both the Scientist
and Technician Guilds were able to reverse-engineer nearly all of the most
advanced Clan military technology available.

While the Shadow Corps began to grow in terms

of experience and technological quality, the
Inquisition was equally busy. In 2811, the first
undercover operatives of the Inquisition had
already begun to report on the chaos that had
engulfed the Inner-Sphere as the Great Houses
fought endless wars against one another in an
apparent bid for dominance. Despite their delight
at hearing that the corrupt Houses had turned on
each other like jackals, the Shadow Lords were
even more intrigued as their intelligence
operatives reported on the birth of a new,
technological-based faction called ComStar.
Organized by former Star League technicians,
ComStar was pledged to protect the InnerSpheres HPG stations as well as to preserve
technological
knowledge
that
was
fast
disappearing as the Successor States battled
each other towards oblivion. As ComStar began to
organize their own intelligence bureau called
ROM, the Inquisition was able to place key
operatives in the highest levels of ROMs
hierarchy, thus enabling the Hidden Society to
have complete access to the intelligence
operations of ComStar but it also allowed them to
operate using an extra layer of cover and
anonymity that was to prove strategically decisive
in the years to come.
Because of the Inquisitions infiltration of ROM
and a number of coincidences involving Blakes
successor Conrad Toyama, a number of
interesting but unconfirmed hypothesis have since arisen. What is known is that
Jerome Blake, the legendary founder of ComStar, fell ill in early 2819 and
ultimately died later in that year. Conrad Toyama was the last person to see
Blake alive and it was he who ultimately succeeded Blake as the Prime
Administrator of ComStar. Upon his ascension, Toyama then immediately began
to transform ComStar into a quasi-religious order based on the literal worship of
technology. Given the influence of the Amaris Inquisition over ROM, it is highly
plausible that the Shadow Lords may have helped Toyama in becoming Blakes
successor and in a way, heavily influenced ComStars transformation into an
order of fanatics. Although this theory is somewhat far-fetched, strange
coincidences in future events concerning the eventual schism of the order and
the creation of the Word of Blake reactionaries would give it some credence.

One of the many innovations that made the Inquisition so effective was a new
process of infiltration called Supersedure. It basically meant that a specific target
could be eliminated and replaced by an identical double, one who could pass
off as the targeted victim and carry on with their lives as if nothing had happened.
This doppelganger would be in fact, an agent of the Inquisition and could operate
as a clandestine intelligence source and could even influence the decision
making process of the organizations that they belonged to and in addition, would
be virtually immune from suspicion of any kind. With advanced biometric
modifications that could fool even the most reliable detection tests, the Inquisition
had a practically foolproof way of inserting
their operatives into the highest levels of
their enemies organizations. While it was
never confirmed that Toyama was an agent
of the Inquisition, his successor, Raymond
Karpov, had a high probability of having
been at the receiving end of the
Inquisitions Supersedure program. Upon
Toyamas death and his assumption as the
new Primus of ComStar in 2837, Karpov
immediately issued orders for ROM to
begin assassinations of Inner-Sphere
scientists that were making any progress in
recovering technology that was lost during
the fall of the first Star League. Could this
have been a long-term strategy dictated by
the Shadow Lords so that the Inner-Sphere
could remain technologically backward so
that a possible future invasion by House
Amaris would be made easier? Up to the
time of this writing, this question has yet to
be answered.
And, as in all cultures, the Hidden Society
began to develop their own myths and
legends surrounding the creation of their
society as symbols of hope for the future.
While Stefan Amaris was despised as the
Usurper in Inner-Sphere history books, the
poets and artists of the Hidden Society
began to literally portray him as a
benevolent leader that tried his best to free
the oppressed but because of corruption
and ignorance by the Inner-Sphere, he was
betrayed and killed. To his people, he was
not a tyrant but rather a freedom fighter, one who gave up his life to free the
people of the Inner-Sphere from the bloody tyranny of the Star League. The

Hidden Society believed that the image of Amaris as a brutal dictator who wanted
everything for himself was false and his mystique became that of a martyr who
was ultimately put to death for defying the fascistic Star League. In time, both
Stefan Amaris and his daughter Anais were soon elevated to the status of
demigods in the culture of the Hidden Society. Songs and poetry were composed
in praise of their achievements. Religious movements began to spring up among
the Helot population that Stefan Amaris would come back from the dead and lead
them all back to a triumphant return to the Inner-Sphere. As they revered Amaris
name, so too did the Hidden Society begin to foster their hatreds at the Great
Houses, for it was their greed and corruption that allowed the brutal SLDF to win
against the Rim Worlds Republic. A special enmity was reserved for the Clans,
the Hidden Society envisioned the Clans as the very descendants of the hated
General Kerensky himself and his children would be all banished to the lake of
boiling fire.
WAR OF THE ASSASSINS
If you prick us do we not bleed?
If you tickle us do we not laugh?
If you poison us do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
-William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
The day of reckoning was almost upon us. How even the mighty would tremble
should they realize that we had not just returned, but we were already here.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian
Despite its many successes, the Inquisitions spy network within ComStar
nearly unraveled in 2901. In that year, the First Primus of ComStar was killed in a
hoverlimo accident and his successor, Dwight Kurstin, may have had something
to do with his death. As the Inquisition reeled from the loss of its main impostor in
ComStar, Primus Kurstin attempted to dissolve the First Circuit and hired
mercenary troops to hunt down its members. Only his timely assassination by an
agent of the Inquisition saved the Hidden Society from being compromised to the
Inner-Sphere because Kurstin had managed to uncover a vast conspiracy within
ComStar and was on the verge of revealing it.

Another near run-in with bad luck occurred in 2947, When Primus York
attempted to dissolve ROM and replace its functions with that of the ComGuards.
Only a timely assassination of the Primus by another inquisitor prevented the
Hidden Societys spy network from dissolving. With this bit of success, the
Inquisition also managed to infiltrate the newly created Explorer Corps in order to
prevent ComStar from locating its hidden bases in the Chainelane Isles. By
influencing the Explorer Corps to search in other areas, the Hidden Society
managed to continue its clandestine existence. In 3001, the Inquisition was also
able to influence ComStars First Circuit to fund and arm pirate groups in the
Periphery. Soon, the bandit kingdoms began to gather strength in what was

once the territory of the now-defunct Rim Worlds Republic in order to harass and
raid the nearby worlds of the Successor States, much to the Hidden Societys
satisfaction.
In another strange twist to its manipulation of both Inner-Sphere and Clan
societies, the Shadow Lords were able to leak the DNA and biological
characteristics of the aquasaurid, a marine predator native to Apollo that served
as a basis for the Rim Worlds Republic insignia, to the Clan chatterweb. Clan
Snow Raven scientists used the information to create a superior species of shark
which their Khan unleashed to decimate the sea fox, Clan Sea Foxs totem
animal. Hoping that the Sea Foxes would be absorbed by the other Clans, the
Shadow Lords were shocked when the plan backfired as Clan Sea Fox
successfully changed their name to Clan Diamond Shark in 2985. As Wolfs
Dragoons began to make its way to the Inner-Sphere to serve as a scout unit for
the Clans in 3005, the Inquisition suffered another setback when its agents failed
to infiltrate the unit. Despite many tries, the operatives of the Hidden Society
failed to penetrate the inner-workings of the Dragoons and their insular
organization. Irked by what seemed to be repeated failures in trying to infiltrate
the secret Clan unit, the Inquisition decided to activate their sleeper agent Vesar
Kristofur and use his influence over Anton Marik, the brother of the Free Worlds
League Captain-General Janos Marik, to stage a revolt and use Wolfs Dragoons
as the lynchpin in his bid for power. Kristofur thought that at the very least, the
Dragoons would be destroyed and he would be able to reveal the truth about
their origins. The Dragoons however, refused to fold even when the rebellion
began to lose steam and killed Anton Marik when he abducted and executed
several Dragoon dependents (including Commander Jaime Wolfs brother
Joshua). As Vesar Kristofur was sent to a ComStar reeducation camp for his
failure, he never did reveal his own origins as that of an agent for the Inquisition,
much to the Hidden Societys relief.
As the Clans prepared to invade the Inner-Sphere in 3049, the Hidden Society
was already well aware of Operation Revival through its contacts in the
Inquisition. The Shadow Lords decreed that the Hidden Society should not
intervene militarily and would only monitor the situation using its assets in
ComStars ROM. During the Jade Falcon invasion of Von Strangs World in the
Lyran border, the Shadow Corps openly agitated for an immediate intervention
but was ordered to desist by the Shadow Lords. Although it deeply pained the
Hidden Society to resist the urge of helping their distant brethren who were still
loyal to the Amaris cause, the Shadow Lords realized that to reveal themselves
then while the Clans were rampaging across the Inner-Sphere was to invite
disaster and wisely stayed on the sidelines. In the climactic battle of Tukayyid in
3052, the Inquisition was allowed to leak vital military intelligence to ROM in
order to help bring about a ComStar victory. During the resulting schism of
ComStar, the Inquisition began to focus its resources on the newly formed Word
of Blake when ComStar started to reform itself to a more secular institution. It is
highly probable that Primus Myndo Waterly may have been an agent of the

Inquisition for it seemed that she was attempting to initiate a plan that could bring
the thoroughly infiltrated ComStar complete control over the Inner-Sphere but
was stopped by her own Precentor-Martial, Anastasius Focht. Was Operation
Scorpion an attempt by the Shadow Lords to seize control of the Inner-Sphere
through ComStar once the Clans were defeated? Based on these assumptions, it
is to assume that the possibility was highly likely.

But probably the Inquisitions greatest achievement was the successful

infiltration of a doppelganger who became the de-facto ruler of the Free Worlds
League. In 3035, a bomb by an unknown assassin killed the Captain-General of
the Free Worlds League, Janos Marik. Although it was assumed that his son
Thomas was killed as well, Janos son reappeared one year later and
successfully claimed the title of supreme leader of the Free Worlds League.
Although the FWL was considered a weak state due to its constant internal strife,
Thomas Marik immediately enacted a number of reforms and managed to
achieve both an economic and military turnaround that bordered on the
miraculous. As FWL factories began to churn up massive amounts of war
materiel for the other Successor States during the Clan Invasion, CaptainGeneral Marik also began to woo the newly formed Word of Blake reactionaries
to use the territory of the FWL as a safe haven against their former organization
ComStar when the quasi-religious order suffered a schism. With the promise of
sanctuary while their ComStar enemies were too preoccupied with the Clan

threat, the Blakists were able to consolidate their forces and launched a
successful invasion of Terra in 3058. A number of disturbing questions once
again arises as to the true nature of Thomas Marik: if the current CaptainGeneral of the FWL is indeed a fake, then what happened to the real Thomas
Marik? Was it a reactionary element within ComStar that approved of the fake
double to supplant the leadership of the FWL or was it the Shadow Lords
themselves who masterminded it? Most importantly, what is the true purpose and
goals of the group that initiated the insertion of the doppelganger? It is extremely
important that we need to find out what the true purpose of this whole affair
before it is too late.
In June of 3055, an explosive device detonated at a charity event in Tharkad
and claimed the life of the Federated Commonwealths beloved Archon Melissa
Steiner-Davion and seriously wounded Grand Duke Morgan Kell. A year after
that, Ryan Steiner, leader of the Skye separatist movement, was shot dead by an
unknown assassin. These pivotal killings marked the beginning of the end for the
once-mighty Federated Commonwealth, the grand alliance between the Lyran
Commonwealth and the Federated Suns. Not soon after that, both realms
separated and ultimately went to war against each other as Melissas offspring
Victor and Katrina each tried to vie for supreme power. The powers behind the
killings that ultimately sparked the FedCom Civil War were never exposed and a
number of conspiracy theories exist to this day, mostly centered on either the
exiled Katrina Steiner-Davion or her brother Victor as the culprits. But with these
new findings, it is quite possible that the Shadow Lords may have had a role to
play due to the fact that a powerful realm like the Federated Commonwealth
would have ultimately re-united humanity by sheer force of arms under the
control of the Steiner-Davion family and it was quite obvious that the Hidden
Society would never allow that to happen. Unfortunately, because of the lack of
any evidence, perhaps the final answer as to who was responsible for those
murders might never be exposed.
Although the Hidden Society had a hands-off policy in regards to hampering the
Clan forces during their invasion of the Inner-Sphere, they increased combat
support to the Bandit castes that continued to raid the Clan homeworlds. Many
Clan second-line forces were actually stunned when they came under attack by
well-equipped Dark caste units. One of the Clans, the Burrocks, was successfully
infiltrated by doppelgangers of the Inquisition to the point that the Burrocks
themselves were feeding intelligence to the Dark castes on other Clans as well
as funneling military equipment in an apparent attempt to use the Clan Bandits
as their pawns. Unbeknownst to the Burrocks, they were playing right into the
hands of the Shadow Lords as the operatives of the Inquisition leaked their
contacts with the Bandit castes to the other Clans which ultimately led to the
Burrocks absorption by Clan Star Adder in 3059. Although the Burrocks touman
was captured largely intact and absorbed into the Star Adders, the Inquisition
was able to secretly capture large segments of the Burrock labor, scientist and
technician castes that were overlooked during the absorption. The Shadow

Corps had also staged numerous successful raids, most notably against the Ice
Hellions (an operation in which they managed to kill Khan Stephen Tyler and
seriously wound saKhan Danielle Lienet) that gained their shadow units an
enormous amount of combat experience.

Although these successes seemed to serve as enthusiasm that theirs was a

superior society, the Shadow Lords were clearly angered when the Second Star
League was formed in 3058. Of all their enemies, none was more hated than the
very symbol of the eight-pointed Cameron star. Despite the scant consolation
that the Clans were still mostly hostile to this new Star League, the pain of House
Amaris past defeats clearly made their blood boil. As they seethed with
indignation, it was quite obvious that the rulers of the new House Amaris began
to plan for ways to ultimately bring down their most hated adversary in the
bloodiest ways possible.
THE UNSEEN ENEMY
Of all the emotions that one consumes at the buffet of life, none is more
succulent or tasty as that of revenge. Whether served ice cold or burning hot, the
satisfaction of achieving vengeance is so utterly delectable.
-From Vicissitudes, by Meridian

If an injury has to be done to a

man it should be so severe that
his vengeance need not be
feared.
-Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
In October of 3067, the Jade
Falcon garrison on the planet
Winfield was instantly alerted by
an HPG message from an
apparent unit of the Wolf Clan
that challenged them for the
possession of the remaining
dependents of the defunct Lyran
unit Winfields Regiment. In 3050,
the Jade Falcons attacked
Winfield but were nearly defeated
by Leftenant General Davis
Winfield and his elite unit. After
giving them a tough fight,
Winfields Regiment evacuated
the planet only to be caught in a
second strike that destroyed the
regiment several weeks later on
the planet Butler. Most of
Winfields
Regiment
were
relegated to the status of
bondsmen and became manual
laborers as the planet itself
became part of the Jade Falcon Occupation Zone.

The Jade Falcons Eighth Talon Cluster was originally surprised at how these
Wolf Clan raiders were able to penetrate the Falcon early-warning aerospace net
without detection but were able to recover and bid themselves down to a trinary
that would meet the invaders near the Jade Falcon base. As the Falcons stood
by for several hours while awaiting their enemy, they soon lost contact with their
aerospace support as well as the local HPG station. Because the Jade Falcons
hesitated, their base came under immediate attack by unknown aerospace
fighters a few minutes later. While the Flacons began to man their anti-aircraft
defenses, the entire base was consumed in a nuclear fireball that obliterated
most of the Eighth Talon Cluster along with their support units. The remaining
Jade Falcons were instantly attacked by what seemed to be a new generation of
Land-Air Mechs equipped with Clan technology. Within minutes, the battle was
over as the remaining Falcons were massacred. Several days later, Jade Falcon

reinforcements made planetfall and took stock of the situation while their units
prepared for an all-out war against the Wolf Clan. The subsequent investigation
however, revealed that the raiders could not have been from the Wolves after all.
It was known that the Falcons did not detect any Wolf Clan ships near the star
system nor would the Wolves even resort to the dishonorable use of nuclear
weapons. But what ultimately made the Falcons conclude that the raiders were
not from any Clan nor any Inner-Sphere unit was the raiders use of highly
advanced Land-Air Mechs, of a type never before seen. The Jade Falcons then
tried their best to suppress the entire incident as they quietly began to rebuild the
destroyed Eighth Talon Cluster while continuing their investigations. As of this
writing it is still unknown whether the Falcons have made any progress in
identifying and/or locating those mysterious raiders.
What is known is that Winfields Regiment were in fact, the direct descendants
of a Rim Worlds Republic unit that had fought in the Amaris Civil War. They were
then known as the Twenty-Third Republic Light Lancers. Nicknamed the
Stealths, the Lancers survived the battles for the Terran Hegemony relatively
intact and became mercenaries that worked for House Steiner during the
Succession Wars. With their superb expertise in hit-and-run attacks, the Stealths
became so revered among the Lyrans that they were eventually retired with full
honors and the Winfield family (The hereditary commanders of the Stealths) was
granted their own planet that was renamed in their honor. After the incident with
the raiders, it was clear that the surviving dependents of Winfields Regiment had
apparently been evacuated and that their eventual fate remains a mystery to this
day. Based on the previous evidence, it is safe to assume that the Shadow Lords
apparently had some need to retrieve these survivors. What those reasons are
we still do not know as of this time.
Another disturbing piece of evidence about this faction comes from a recently
declassified Explorer Corps report that was leaked to Wolfnet in late 3066. In
3064, while charting the outer borders of the Chainelane Isles in the Deep
Periphery, the Star Seeker, a Magellan-Class explorer ship, stumbled upon what
seemed to be a massive fleet of unknown vessels. As the Explorer Corps ship
tried to flee it came under attack by never-before seen aerospace fighters as well
as a class of WarShips thought to be extinct since the Amaris Civil War. Within
minutes, the Star Seeker was destroyed although a single DropShip was able to
detach itself from the stricken Explorer Corps vessel before it exploded and
managed to hide in a nearby asteroid field. After a harrowing ordeal lasting
several months, the survivors were chanced upon by a Rim Collection merchant
JumpShip and brought back to Lyran space.

The subsequent debriefing by

both Lyran military and ComStar
personnel
revealed
an
unconfirmed
nightmare
of
gigantic proportions. The stunned
survivors
described
seeing
almost fifty WarShips followed by
about forty JumpShips and being
screened
by
hundreds
of
aerospace fighters. Subsequent
analysis of the enemy ship types
that were recorded by the
survivors revealed that the
enemy WarShips clearly had
Clan naval weapons and their
hull types was consistent with
that
of
the
vaunted
Necronomicon class of ships that
were once deployed with the now
vanished Rim World Republic
during the Amaris Civil War.
Although both the Lyrans and
ComStar tried to hide the
information from the general
public, some of the survivors
went public with their experiences
although the subsequent tracking
of these individuals for a followup analysis revealed that each
survivor of that expedition later
died in various accidents months
later. Wolfnet operatives tried to
track down copies of the
purported vidtapes that recorded
these phantom ships but were
unable to locate them in the ComStar archives. Where all the evidence ended up
in is now a complete mystery to us.
FROM: General Maeve Wolf
TO: Commander Jaime Wolf
Date: December 1, 3067.
Based on the scant information that we received, this is the extent of the
historical knowledge that we have about this secret society. The rest of this
report deals with new military hardware that we have crosschecked from a

number of other sources such as ComStar and the Clans as well as analysis of
the organizations that comprise this dreaded faction. Because of the lack of
concrete evidence, most of this information is based purely on theory and
conjecture and some parts may be inaccurate or even false. The only sure way
we can truly prove these allegations is that we mount a heavily armed expedition
to search the Chainelane Isles for the purported hidden base there.
Unfortunately, because the Second Star League has dissolved itself, we cannot
expect any support from the former member-states and neither can we shift our
military assets from the Sarna March to deal with this possible new threat.
Already the Word of Blake is blocking our efforts in that region and if we transfer
any of our intelligence units for the Deep Periphery, we will be weakened
considerably on that front. A disturbing consequence of this report is that if this
so called Hidden Society is either in league with or possibly controlling the Blakist
faction then that would present a truly horrific possibility for us. Already we have
been hearing reports of a clandestine WOB project called Erinyes in the area of
the Chainelane Isles, the very location of that supposed base but due to the
present circumstances, we are unable to deal with it. I would adamantly request
that we hold a high-level meeting with Precentor-Martial Victor Steiner-Davion
about this as soon as possible. There is a feeling at the back of my mind that we
may already be too late but we cannot give up hope.

SOCIOPOLITICAL AND MILITARY STRUCTURE

THE HELOTS
I fear- I brave, I see- I dream, I learn- I grow, I feel- I act, I want- I make.
-From a Helot Childs Book of Verses.
Based on the previous reports, one might think that the life of a Helot is full of
nothing more than decades of toil in the service of a most harsh empire but
based on a number of personal accounts, it seems that most view their lives with
a quiet contentment and an optimism for the future. Part of this social satisfaction
seems to stem from a mystical/religious belief that all members of the Hidden
Society will be richly rewarded when House
Amaris makes its triumphant return back to
reclaim the worlds of the former Terran
Hegemony. Another factor that keeps the
Helots from openly revolting is that there is a
chance for even the lowliest members of the
Hidden Society to better themselves by
becoming members of the Guilds. It is a
common saying among the Helots that if one is
not content to living the life of a slave, one
must therefore prepare oneself for the great
Testing in order to be accepted into the Guilds,
if one fails the test and stays a Helot, then it is
the fault of the individual and that person will
have no one to blame but him/herself. Since
every Natural is born a Helot, that child is
considered to be born among equals and can
then better themselves upon admission to the
Guilds. Helot parents who have had a child
accepted into any of the Guilds are afforded
great prestige among their own and are looked
upon as a source of pride. Once a Natural is
born, that child is tested to see if there are any
defects. If a defect is found, then the child is
quietly put to death and is forgotten. If the child
passes the test then he/she is assigned a
name composed of letters and numbers and is
then accepted as part of the family. Parents
who wish to see their child accepted into the
Guilds often hire tutors to give them that extra edge once the great Testing
begins.

Once a Helot reaches a certain age, that person is afforded the title of elder and
is considered a representative of all the Helots. The elders usually are contracted
by the Guilds to organize the many Helot sub-specialists into specific tasks for
heavy labor. The Helots are mostly free to govern themselves though no one is
allowed to own possessions, every item in a Helot household is the property of
the Hidden Society as a whole. The punishments for petty crimes among
themselves are usually meted out by a council of elders who then decide on the
appropriate means of justice. High crimes such as murder and sedition are
usually handled by either the Shadow Corps or the Inquisition and if the accused
is found guilty, then the sentence is almost always death. Abuses by the Guilds
or the military that are committed upon the Helot class are usually arbitrated by
Helot elders who sometimes plead for justice to the Shadow Lords. Although no
one in the Helot subclass has ever claimed to have seen a Shadow Lord in
person, these enigmatic rulers of the Hidden Society are praised and worshipped
as demigods. Prayers are regularly invoked to these mysterious rulers and a
number of festivals commemorating their reign occur several times in the year.
Rumors that the Shadow Lords disguise themselves and actually walk among the
Helots are rife. Helot mothers would regularly tell their children that if they
misbehave, then the feared Inquisitor will take them away forever but if they are
good, then they will be blessed by a benevolent Shadow Lord and possibly
granted immortality.
It is quite curious to note that the Helots have somewhat embraced the worship
of the Shadow Lords as a form of religion unto itself. With the eugenics program,
a Helot can actually aspire to become immortal through a process of selection as
he/she learns new skills when they are accepted to the Guilds and then possibly
move on to the military or the Inquisition. Once that is achieved, a soldier or
inquisitor that has done tremendous deeds for the benefit of the Hidden Society
might very well be bestowed with the ultimate reward for loyal service:
replication. Replicants are revered as immortal beings that have the ability to be
reborn into countless new lives; hence, they could live forever. Naturals and
Splicers both aspire to become Replicants for it is believed that these exact
clones are almost always Shadow Lords.
THE GUILDS
In your first lesson as an Apprentice, know this: knowledge is infinite, but your
mind has limits. You must learn your own boundaries in order to know where
your true strength is. Work on bettering your weaknesses and you shall become
whole. Look to adversity as an opportunity rather than failure. Channel your will
and no obstacle shall stand in your way.
-The Guild Handbook
The Guilds form the core of the Hidden Societys industry and economy.
Essentially great storehouses of technical and scientific knowledge, the Guilds
manufacture the goods that the Hidden Society uses. Once a Helot passes a

series of rigorous tests, he/she is then assigned to a specific Guild, depending on

where his/her skills and talents lie. New recruits are ranked as Apprentices and
are allowed to choose their own names and can discard their previous
identification numbers. Although the prestige is great, life as a Guildsman can be
hard due to the constant pressures and competition. Guild membership bestows
a number of advantages, namely being allowed to have an individual name as
well as having the right to own possessions.
Although each Guild considers itself as equals to one another, there are a
number of very prestigious guilds that tend to have more power over the others.
The Scientists Guild holds
great sway over the many
lesser sub-guilds due to
influence over the discovery
and advancement of new
technologies, especially for
the military. Scientists of the
Hidden Society tend to be
experts in the art of reverse
engineering captured enemy
technology as well as being
master geneticists and most
tend to specialize within these
two general types. However, a
number of breakthroughs in
the research on dark matter
as well as electromagnetic
energy fields have been
hinted at. The Technicians
Guild also holds great sway
as they work closely with the
Scientists to both repair and
maintain current technological
levels within both the military
and the Hidden Society in
general.
Despite the fact that the
Hidden Society seems to
have
access
to
every
technological innovation from
both the Clans and the InnerSphere
powers,
their
production lines are limited
and so they must therefore
concentrate on only a few

core industries, most notably military. This may explain why the House Amaris
military deploys only a few standard BattleMech types and make heavy use of
OmniMechs. Their weapon component lines also seem somewhat limited in that
their Mech variants almost always pack the same combination of weapons.
Therefore, their few types of war-machines are designed for maximum versatility
and built to withstand the rigors of heavy battle; needless to say, this design
philosophy gives their military a lethal edge in combat.
What is known is that the Guilds produce very little in way of consumer goods,
preferring instead to concentrate their limited heavy industry in the production of
military components. The few civilian commodities that they do manufacture are
primarily for basic survival such as foodstuff, clothing and environmental
adaptations. The Hidden Society has therefore very few luxury goods available to
its citizens and those few that are produced are highly cherished. The Guilds in a
way, try to alleviate the lack of luxury goods by trading some of their high
technology to unsuspecting powers in the Periphery, most notably with the
JarnFolk, to gain these valued goods.
THE INQUISITION
By way of deception thou
shall make war.
-Motto of the Israeli
Mossad, 20th Century.
The primary tasks of the
Inquisition are varied and
by no means easy; these
goals
include:
safeguarding
the
clandestine existence of
the Hidden Society from
the rest of humanity,
intelligence gathering on
all other factions in
Periphery, Clan and InnerSphere space, and the
elimination of all potential
enemies through nonconventional means. Even
the much-vaunted military
is subservient to these
tasks and the agents of
the
Inquisition
have
command
precedence

pertaining over those matters. The Inquisition follows a number of simple

precepts in achieving these goals: infiltration, misinformation, and assassination.
Like the military, it is known that the Inquisition recruits from all subclasses in
the Hidden Society, possibly even from the Shadow Lords. This allows the
agents of the Inquisition a tremendous amount of flexibility in achieving their
mission parameters. But what is probably the Inquisitions biggest advantage is
their anonymity: ones enemies cannot expect to mount a defense against you if
they are unaware of your existence. This very fact, coupled with intense training,
experience and fanaticism, makes the Inquisition a most efficient and deadly
organization, one that has the potential to sow chaos across known space. But
even this advantage carries a price: the Inquisitions total manpower is small,
being only able to influence a few enemy factions at any given time. From an
analysis of their history, it seems apparent that the Inquisition has focused their
assets on two major factions: ComStar and the Clan Bandit Castes. Since
ComStars schism, the Inquisition has now apparently shifted its resources to
infiltrating the Blakist faction of ROM while maintaining a minimal level of
interference among the other major factions. The Inquisitions anonymity allows
them to maintain a large support network composed of paid informants and
independent mercenaries without fear of discovery and subsequent annihilation.
It is highly probable that allies such as Word of Blakes ROM as well as hired
mercenaries may not even be aware as to who actually controls them.
Infiltration techniques such as Supersedure and the use of Replicants allows
the Inquisition to place their operatives at will in any enemy organization. The
Helots themselves live in perpetual fear and tell stories of traitorous mothers who
met their deaths when their own children were supersedured with young agents
from the Inquisition and who ultimately exposed them. While the Helots revered
the mysterious Shadow Lords, they equally feared the reach of the powerful
Inquisition. There has never been a recorded instance of renegades that were
able to flee from the Hidden Society; all disloyal people were apparently killed
before they could make good their escape. It is known that the Inquisition works
closely with the military in matters of internal security: every JumpShip and
DropShip that the Hidden Society uses has at least one inquisitor and a small
contingent of military troops to ensure that no one will ever or could ever defect
to an enemy faction.
SHADOW CORPS
The exact numbers of the House Amaris military machine is not known but if
one bases an estimate from the total population of the Hidden Society itself, the
probable numbers may thankfully be small. On the flipside however, it is rumored
that this new military is extremely lethal due to their advanced technology and
fanatical cause.

What is known is that although the Shadow Corps has a distinctive rank
structure, their organizational hierarchy can mutate depending upon the situation.
It is rumored that the soldiers of the Shadow Corps can base their military
structure on either the Clan five point-based or the Inner Spheres four-three
system or even ComStar/WOBs six-point structure. This factor allows for
unprecedented flexibility but also limits their numbers somewhat due to the
intense training required. It is highly probable that during WOBs successful
invasion of Terra in 3058, Shadow Corps advisors may have either trained the
Blakist Militias to mimic the Twenty-First Centauri Lancers and/or participated
with the Shadow Lancers in Operation Odysseus. If these intelligence reports
were ever confirmed, then the terrifying possibility of being attacked by units that
are not what they seem would be a very dangerous possibility to anyone in the
future.

Another strange report is the conflicting evidence that the Shadow Corps
themselves have their own, unique organizational structure that they use if they
feel a need to reveal themselves. What is known is that the smallest unit is called

a Cell; each Cell comprises either three or four BattleMechs. Three or Four Cells
then comprise a Coven, it was reported on the Talos Campaign that these
mysterious raiders operated in groups of twelve Mechs, sometimes
supplemented by a thirteenth Mech. Several Covens then comprise a Cabal, the
overall numbers of a Cabal are unknown but it may either be equal to an InnerSphere regiment or a Clan Galaxy.

Even more troubling is the size of the Shadow Corps WarShip fleet. Several
unconfirmed reports based on the sightings of previously unknown WarShip
types are beginning to abound in the Deep Periphery. If the rumored alliance
between this faction and the Blakists are confirmed, then this combined force
may have a WarShip fleet superior in size and quality to any Inner-Sphere or
Clan faction. If this faction does in fact exist, then they would have had over two
hundred years of uninterrupted technological advancement and military
production and this build-up of units may be the next logical step.

Rumors of the House Amaris military having access to advanced BattleArmor

may also be true due to the fact that Republican Intelligence agents were able to
get access to the blueprints and plans for the First Star Leagues Nighthawk

BattleArmor during the Amaris Coup. A redesigned power suit based on the
latest Clan weaponry and Inner-Sphere stealth technology may very well be a
frightening possibility.

UNCONFIRMED MILITARY HARDWARE

DATE: 17 October 3067
TO: Precentor Martial Victor Steiner-Davion
FROM: Adept Dennis Surban
RE: Rumored New Faction BattleMechs, WarShips and BattleArmor
Based on our intelligence reports from the ill-fated Talos expedition and recent
intercepted intelligence from both the Blakists and the Clans, we have compiled a
small but important technical readout in regards to this unconfirmed faction. I
regret to inform you that due to the constant defections and full-scale intelligence
operations against the Blakist reactionaries, we are so far unable to confirm or
deny the existence of this dangerous new power. My immediate suggestion is to
forward this report to our allies, most notably Commander Wolfs Wolfnet intel
service, and perhaps find a way to corroborate these assorted rumors and
hearsay. Only through determined cooperation with our remaining allies can we
stem the tide against the upcoming chaos that may very well engulf us all.
Given the sophistication and lethality of these machines, we can only assume
that this faction has got some significant manufacturing capability and has
access to the most advance technologies that are in possession of every other
faction known to exist; how it has been able to acquire these advantages is a
complete mystery to us. What is most worrying is that this unknown power has
been supplying both the Clan Bandit Castes and Word of Blake reactionaries to
the point where the threat has now become acute. But as to their true goals, we
have absolutely no clue at this point.
Gravedigger Omni-Mech
65-Tons (Clan Technology)
Chassis: Unknown
Power Plant: Unknown 390 XL (Clan)
Cruising Speed: 64.5
Maximum Speed: 96.75
Jump Jets: none
Jump Capacity: none
Armor: Unknown
Armament:
8 ER Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown with Guardian ECM Suite
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown with Beagle Active Probe, Special
Targeting Computer

Overview:
Like its sister Omni-Mech, the Inquisitor, the Gravedigger was first reported
to the Inner-Sphere intelligence community during the failed SLDF expedition to
the distant Periphery world of Talos in late 3066. The second most numerous
'Mech belonging to several new and mysterious units, the Gravedigger is also as
much an enigma as the units that it belongs to. To date, no one has captured an
intact Gravedigger or Inquisitor. It seems that there is apparently a self-destruct
mechanism of some sort that resides in these strange new BattleMechs. Intel
reports seem to show that the moment the 'Mech was disabled (either by losing a
leg, destruction of the cockpit or an engine breach) there was an immediate,
secondary lull before the 'Mech itself went into a catastrophic self-implosion
which destroyed its engine core and subsequently caused a minor nuclear
shockwave. Although the forensic reports state that the technology used to
manufacture these 'Mechs were Clan-based, nothing else of any significance has
been gleamed from the after-battle reports. To this day, we still do not know what
organization deploys these 'Mechs, where they are manufactured, the pilots that
operate them, and for what strategic purpose they are for other than for sheer
destruction.
Recent Clan reports also corroborate our assessment that there is an
apparent connection with several Dark Caste units that are equipped with these
new BattleMechs. What is strange is that the Dark Caste raiders who have
targeted several Clan homeworlds including the catastrophic theft of genetic
materiel from the Strana Mechty codex depository in early 3064 is that the
raiders themselves have become extremely well-equipped. Recent declassified
Clan intel reports state that the raiders not only had aerospace support from a
new, previously unknown Omni-Fighter that uses a Clan-version of the newlydeveloped Capellan stealth armor technology but they also had extensive
WarShip support. In fact, the Clan flagship (A McKenna-class battleship) had to
retreat because of extensive battle damage from that engagement. Two possible
conclusions are as follows: first, that the Dark Caste has somehow not only
acquired WarShip capabilities, but they may have also begun to produce OmniMechs at some unknown location or secondly, that a power exists, unknown to
the best intel reports from both the Inner-Sphere and the Clans, and this third
force has begun to make its presence felt. Only time will tell if these rumors are
indeed true.
With excellent speed for its weight class but having somewhat less weapons,
the Gravedigger is baffling to our Blessed Order because of its unknown
operational purpose. The primary variant seems to be modeled after the Clan
Black Hawk, with eight ER medium lasers and the heat-sinks to use them. Both
the Primary and A variants are equipped with a targeting computer giving it
unmatched accuracy. The A variant seems to be designed more for long-range
support and the Primary is apparently for medium to close ranges. Both variants
are also equipped with numerous electronic systems suggesting that it may be a

recon vehicle of some sort. The B variant is clearly a fire-support version with its
dual ATM pods while a C variant seems to provide highly accurate medium to
short-ranged firepower. A recent Clan analysis report which was recently
unearthed by ROM seems to imply that this 'Mech is strictly used as a support
role. One Clan theory has surmised that it is designed as a "hunter-killer" for
lighter enemy 'Mechs while it leaves the bigger prey to its more capable sister
'Mech, the Inquisitor. Whatever the case, all four configurations have been
spotted together in every unit, implying the fact that each variant is used together
to achieve its mission parameters.

Gravedigger (Primary)
65-Tons (Clan Technology)
Technology Base: - Mixed (Clan Chassis) - Level 3 (Omni-Mech)
Equipment
Mass
Internal Structure: - (C) EndoSteel
3.5
Engine:
390 XL (Clan)
23
Walking MP:
6
Running MP:
9
Jumping MP:
0
Heat Sinks:
18(36) - (C) Double
8
Gyro:
4
Cockpit:
3
Armor Factor:
211 - (C) Ferro-Fibrous
11

Internal
Structure
Head
3
Center Torso
21
Center Torso(rear)
R/L Torso
15
R/L Torso(rear)
R/L Arm
10
R/L Leg
15
Weapons and Ammo
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
Targeting Computer
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ECM Suite
(C) [Pod] Light TAG
(C) [Pod] Active Probe

Armor
Value
9
32
10
23
7
20
30
Location Critical Tonnage
LA
1
1
LA
1
1
LA
1
1
LA
1
1
RT
2
2
RA
1
1
RA
1
1
RA
1
1
RA
1
1
CT
1
1
CT
1
0.5
H
1
1

Gravedigger (A-Variant)
65-Tons
Technology Base: - Mixed (Clan Chassis) - Level 3 (Omni-Mech)
Equipment
Mass
Internal Structure: - (C) EndoSteel
3.5
Engine:
390 XL (Clan)
23
Walking MP:
6
Running MP:
9
Jumping MP:
0
Heat Sinks:
17(34) - (C) Double
7
Gyro:
4
Cockpit:
3
Armor Factor:
211 - (C) Ferro-Fibrous
11
Internal
Structure
Head
3
Center Torso
21
Center Torso(rear)
R/L Torso
15
R/L Torso(rear)
R/L Arm
10

Armor
Value
9
32
10
23
7
20

R/L Leg

15

30

Weapons and Ammo

(C) [Pod] ER Large Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
Targeting Computer
(C) [Pod] ER Large Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ECM Suite
(C) [Pod] Light Active Probe

Location Critical Tonnage

LA
1
4
LA
1
1
RT
2
2
RA
1
4
RA
1
1
CT
1
1
H
1
0.5

Gravedigger (B-Variant)
65-Tons
Technology Base: - Mixed (Clan Chassis) - Level 3 (Omni-Mech)
Equipment
Mass
Internal Structure: - (C) EndoSteel
3.5
Engine:
390 XL (Clan)
23
Walking MP:
6
Running MP:
9
Jumping MP:
0
Heat Sinks:
11(22) - (C) Double
1
Gyro:
4
Cockpit:
3
Armor Factor:
211 - (C) Ferro-Fibrous
11

Head
Center Torso
Center Torso(rear)
R/L Torso
R/L Torso(rear)
R/L Arm
R/L Leg

Internal
Structure
3
21
15
10
15

Weapons and Ammo

(C) [Pod] ATM-9
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ATM-9 ER Ammo
(C) [Pod] ATM-9 HE Ammo
(C) [Pod] ATM-9 ER Ammo
(C) [Pod] ATM-9 HE Ammo
(C) [Pod] ATM-9
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ECM Suite
(C) [Pod] Light TAG

Armor
Value
9
32
10
23
7
20
30
Location Critical Tonnage
LA
4
5
LA
1
1
LT
2
2
LT
1
1
RT
1
1
RT
2
2
RA
4
5
RA
1
1
CT
1
1
H
1
0.5

Gravedigger (C-Variant)
65-Tons
Technology Base: - Mixed (Clan Chassis) - Level 3 (Omni-Mech)
Equipment
Mass
Internal Structure: - (C) EndoSteel
3.5
Engine:
390 XL (Clan)
23
Walking MP:
6
Running MP:
9
Jumping MP:
0
Heat Sinks:
12(24) - (C) Double
2
Gyro:
4
Cockpit:
3
Armor Factor:
211 - (C) Ferro-Fibrous
11
Internal
Structure
Head
3
Center Torso
21
Center Torso(rear)
R/L Torso
15
R/L Torso(rear)
R/L Arm
10
R/L Leg
15
Weapons and Ammo
(C) [Pod] Large Pulse Laser
Targeting Computer
(C) [Pod] Large Pulse Laser
(C) [Pod] ECM Suite
(C) [Pod] Medium Pulse Laser
(C) [Pod] Light Active Probe

Armor
Value
9
32
10
23
7
20
30
Location Critical Tonnage
LA
2
6
RT
3
3
RA
2
6
CT
1
1
CT
1
2
H
1
0.5

Inquisitor (Primary)
85-Ton Omni-Mech
Chassis: Unknown
Power Plant: Unknown 340 XL (Clan)
Cruising Speed: 43
Maximum Speed: 64.5
Jump Jets: none
Jump Capacity: none
Armor: Unknown with CASE
Armament:
2 ER PPCs
1 Gauss Rifle
2 ER Medium Lasers

2 Medium Pulse Lasers

Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown with Special Targeting Computer
Overview:
In late 3066, a Star League task force comprised of the newly formed SLDF
Third Royal BattleMech Division and Stilicho's Stilettos, a Periphery-based
mercenary unit, was dispatched to a distant world located past the outer edge of
the Lyran Alliance in order to investigate recent anomalous readings on the
planet's surface as well as receiving reports that it was used as a staging area by
unknown raiders. Not long after landing the bulk of their units, the task force's
aerospace and JumpShip contingent came under attack by what seemed to be
Caspar Drone Warships and annihilated. Not long after that, unknown 'Mechs of
several types immediately attacked the ground forces and obliterated them. Only
a handful of survivors lived and were evacuated several weeks later. Needless to
say, this was the Inner-Sphere's first brush with a 'Mech called the Inquisitor.
What is even more curious is that Clan records actually point out to many
similar incidents involving the Dark or Bandit castes. Virtually shunned and
persecuted by the Clans, the Dark castes were seemingly able to hold their own
when it came to some recent confrontations due to the fact that these Clan
renegades were supported by previously unknown units equipped with Clan
technology. A number of other incidents, including the apparent capture of a
large batch of Smoke Jaguar scientists on Huntress by these similarly equipped
units after that Clan was destroyed has raised even more questions than
answers.
The few concrete facts that are known is that these new BattleMechs have
Clan-based technology yet there have been instances that a number of InnerSphere technological innovations have also been used such as the newly
developed stealth armor. The only conclusion that our Blessed Order can
surmise is that whatever power produces and deploys these deadly new OmniMechs has got both access to Clan and Inner-Sphere technology. What is even
more disturbing is that the unknown units that deploy these new Omni-Mechs
have the old insignia of the defunct Rim Worlds Republic painted on them. The
only theories that we have surmised is that either a small, well-equipped pirate
gang has appropriated the ancient symbol of House Amaris as part of a sick joke
or that remnants of the Rim Worlds Republic did in fact survive the Amaris Civil
War and have now returned with a vengeance. If the latter theory proves to be
true, it will be dark days ahead for both the Clans and the Great Houses of the
Inner-Sphere.
Based on compiled battle records, this new Omni-Mech, dubbed the
"Inquisitor", is a fearsome machine and is also the most numerous type of 'Mech

that has been deployed with these mysterious units. It is apparent that a lot of
work has been done in its outward appearance to make it look as intimidating as
possible. With good mobility for its weight class and an impressive arsenal of
weapons tied into a state-of-the-art targeting computer, the Inquisitor can destroy
anything in comes up against with apparent ease. An close-range A variant has
been observed that carries a frightening Inner-Sphere melee weapon: the mace.
there were a few recorded incidents that opposing 'Mechs were bludgeoned to
death by these ferocious machines after being outmaneuvered and cornered. A
B variant has also been observed; equipped with an arsenal of ATMs, this variant
probably serves as an indirect-missile support for the Primary and A variants.

Inquisitor Omni-Mech
85-Tons
Technology Base: - Mixed (Clan Chassis) - Level 3 (Omni-Mech)
Equipment
Mass
Internal Structure: - (C) EndoSteel
4.5
Engine:
340 XL (Clan)
13.5
Walking MP:
4

Running MP:
Jumping MP:
Heat Sinks:
Gyro:
Cockpit:
Armor Factor:

6
0
18(36) - (C) Double
263 - (C) Ferro-Fibrous

Internal
Structure
Head
3
Center Torso
27
Center Torso(rear)
R/L Torso
18
R/L Torso(rear)
R/L Arm
14
R/L Leg
18

8
4
3
14

Armor
Value
9
41
13
27
9
28
36

Weapons and Ammo

(C) [Pod] ER PPC
(C) [Pod] ER PPC
Targeting Computer
(C) [Pod] Medium Pulse Laser
(C) [Pod] Gauss Rifle
(C) [Pod] Gauss Rifle Ammo
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] ER Medium Laser
(C) [Pod] Medium Pulse Laser

Location Critical Tonnage

LA
2
6
LA
2
6
LT
6
6
RT
1
2
RA
6
12
RA
2
2
CT
1
1
CT
1
1
H
1
2

Inquisitor (A-Variant)
85-Tons
Technology Base: - Mixed (Clan Chassis) - Level 3 (Omni-Mech)
Equipment
Mass
Internal Structure: - (C) EndoSteel
4.5
Engine:
340 XL (Clan)
13.5
Walking MP:
4
Running MP:
6
Jumping MP:
4
Heat Sinks:
17(34) - (C) Double
7
Gyro:
4
Cockpit:
3
Armor Factor:
263 - (C) Ferro-Fibrous
14
Internal
Structure
Head
3
Center Torso
27

Armor
Value
9
41

Center Torso(rear)
R/L Torso
18
R/L Torso(rear)
R/L Arm
14
R/L Leg
18

13
27
9
28
36

Weapons and Ammo

(C) [Pod] Large Pulse Laser
(C) [Pod] Large Pulse Laser
(C) [Pod] Large Pulse Laser
Targeting Computer
Jump Jet
Jump Jet
(C) [Pod] Large Pulse Laser
Mace

Location Critical Tonnage

LA
2
6
LA
2
6
LT
2
6
LT
5
5
LL
2
1
RL
2
1
RT
2
6
RA
6
6

Inquisitor (B-Variant)
85-Ton
Technology Base: - Mixed (Clan Chassis) - Level 3 (Omni-Mech)
Equipment
Mass
Internal Structure: - (C) EndoSteel
4.5
Engine:
340 XL (Clan)
13.5
Walking MP:
4
Running MP:
6
Jumping MP:
0
Heat Sinks:
17(34) - (C) Double
7
Gyro:
4
Cockpit:
3
Armor Factor:
263 - (C) Ferro-Fibrous
14
Internal
Structure
Head
3
Center Torso
27
Center Torso(rear)
R/L Torso
18
R/L Torso(rear)
R/L Arm
14
R/L Leg
18

Armor
Value
9
41
13
27
9
28
36

Weapons and Ammo

(C) [Pod] ATM-12
(C) [Pod] ER PPC
(C) [Pod] ATM-12 ER Ammo
(C) [Pod] ATM-12 HE Ammo
(C) [Pod] ATM-12

Location Critical Tonnage

LA
5
7
LA
2
6
LT
3
3
LT
3
3
RT
5
7

(C) [Pod] ATM-12

(C) [Pod] ER PPC

RA
RA

5
2

7
6

Nephilim LAM
55-Ton Land-Air Mech
Chassis: Unknown
Power Plant: Unknown 275 XL (Clan)
Cruising Speed: 53.75
Maximum Speed: 86
Jump Jets: Unknown
Jump Capacity: 150 meters
Armor: Unknown
Armament:
2 ER Large Lasers
2 ER Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown with Guardian ECM Suite
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown with Special Targeting Computer
Overview:
This deadly new Land-Air 'Mech is apparently the product of a
technologically advanced faction previously unknown to either the Inner-Sphere
or the Clans. What is apparent to our Blessed Order is that the power that fields
this versatile machine apparently has access to both the best of Clan and InnerSphere tech. The LAM has practically disappeared from today's battlefield with
the exception of a few, poorly-maintained museum pieces but with the recent
sightings of this powerful new type, the playing field of war has been turned on its
head once again.
With an array of Clan energy weapons as its main arsenal, the Nephilim
seems perfectly suited as a raider par excellence, its ability to transform into an
Aerospace fighter allows it to outmaneuver heavier opponents that could be sent
against it. Although it neither excels as a pure BattleMech nor is it truly effective
when compared with Clan OmniFighters, the Nephilim's versatility gives it an
added dimension in the present day battlefield. With a LAM's mobility combined
with stealth armor, the Nephilim could arrive in-system virtually undetected,
cause maximum havoc and then leave without a trace.
Since most Inner-Sphere militaries and practically every Clan warrior has had
insufficient training with which to counter any attacks made by Land-Air Mechs
much less one that is equipped with the latest state-of-the-art technology, The
Nephilim could very well become a serious threat due to its previously mentioned
versatility and adaptability.

Nephilim LAM
55-Ton Land-Air Mech
Technology Base: - Mixed (Clan Chassis) - Level 3 (Land-Air Mech)
Equipment
Mass
Internal Structure: - (C) EndoSteel
3
Engine:
275 XL (Clan)
8
Walking MP:
5
Running MP:
8
Jumping MP:
5
Heat Sinks:
15(30) - (C) Double
5
Gyro:
3
Cockpit:
3
Armor Factor:
185 - Stealth
12

Head
Center Torso
Center Torso(rear)
R/L Torso
R/L Torso(rear)
R/L Arm
R/L Leg

Internal
Structure
3
18
13
9
13

Armor
Value
9
27
9
20
6
18
26

Weapons and Ammo

(C) ER Medium Laser
(C) ER Large Laser
Jump Jet
Targeting Computer
(C) ER Large Laser
Jump Jet
(C) ER Medium Laser
(C) ECM Suite
Jump Jet

Location Critical Tonnage

LA
1
1
LT
1
4
LT
2
0.5
LT
2
2
RT
1
4
RT
2
0.5
RA
1
1
CT
1
1
CT
1
0.5

Necronomicon-Class Pocket Battleship (RWR)

Tech:
Inner Sphere / 2680
Vessel Type:
WarShip
Rules:
Level 2, Custom design
Rules Set:
AeroTech2
Mass:
890,000 tons
K-F Drive System: (Unknown)
Power Plant:
Standard
Safe Thrust:
4
Maximum Thrust:
6
Armor Type:
Lamellor Ferro-carbide
Armament:
4 Killer Whale
80 Large Laser
12 NAC/30
4 Barracuda
12 NL45
16 AMS
16 NAC/25
4 NAC/35
Overview:
When the SLDF declared war against the Rim Worlds Republic in August of
2767, the SLDF High Command believed that taking the Republican worlds
would be an easy feat due to their overwhelming numbers and firepower. As the
Rim Worlds Invasion began, the SLDF naval flotillas were stunned when a new
class of WarShip, previously unknown to Star League Intelligence, began to
wreck havoc and managed to destroy several important convoys that were
destined for the invasion of the Rim Worlds Republic.
The so called Necronomicon-Class Pocket Battleships had actually been built in
secret (in violation of the arms control treaties at that time) and were designed

purely to take on the might of the vaunted SLDF Navy using stolen technology
from the Star League itself. Although there were only less than a dozen of these
ships that were ever encountered by the SLDF forces during the campaign, these
pocket battleships scored an impressive array of kills against every Star League
naval vessel they went up against and was the biggest factor in prolonging the
Rim Worlds invasion. Heavily armored and designed to outrun the massive SLDF
battleships that were sent against them, the Necronomicons could easily outgun
anything smaller. In the first few months of the campaign, the SLDF took
horrendous losses and had to rely on massive convoys with escort ships to
safeguard their lines of supply. SLDF analysts had predicted a Republican
collapse in their core worlds within three months of the start of the campaign but
because of the lethal Necronomicons, the operation took three long years to
complete. Ultimately, sheer numbers prevailed and the last of these deadly
pocket battleships were reportedly destroyed during the final push on the Rim
Worlds capital planet of Apollo in 2770.
Just as this powerful class of ship seemed to fade into history, an incident that
occurred within the Deep Periphery in 3064 has indicated otherwise. A handful of
survivors (who then met mysterious deaths several years later) recorded an
encounter with a fleet of unknown WarShips with an uncannily similar hull design
that destroyed their Explorer Corps JumpShip with apparent ease. The survivors
all insisted that it was the exact same type of ship albeit refitted with Clan
technology and there were dozens of them. Based on their IFF transponder
signals, the survivors dubbed the new type of vessel the "Demonicon". Although
our Blessed Order has been searching for the existing copies of their recordings
and subsequent debriefing reports in the last few months, our archives have
curiously turned up empty. It is possible that WOB operatives within our Order
may have either stolen or destroyed the vidtapes and since all the surviving
witnesses are now deceased, we may never know the full story. Nevertheless, all
Explorer Corps vessels have been instructed to follow up on any possible leads
of this sort, should they arise.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Class/Model/Name: Necronomicon-Class Pocket Batleship(RWR)

Mass:
890,000 tons
Equipment:
Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control:
213,600.00
Thrust: Safe Thrust:
4
Maximum Thrust:
6
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive: Compact (Integrity = 18)
402,725.00
Lithium Fusion Battery
8,900.00
Jump Sail (Detachable): (Integrity = 5)
74.00
Structural Integrity: 70
62,300.00
Total Heat Sinks: 2,328 Double
1,630.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:
5,100.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:
2,225.00
Fire Control Computers:
.00
Food & Water: (90 days supply)
171.50
Armor Type: Lamellor Ferro-carbide (1,288 total armor pts) 1,246.00
Capital Scale Armor Pts
Location:
L/R
Fore:
239
Fore-Left/Right:
214/214
Aft-Left/Right:
214/214
Aft:
193
DropShip Capacity: 8 Docking Hardpoints
Grav Decks #1 - 2: (150-meter diameter)
Life Boats: 64 (7 tons each)

8,000.00
200.00
448.00

Crew and Passengers:

63 Officers (63 minimum)
250 Crew (160 minimum)
68 Gunners (68 minimum)

630.00
1,750.00
476.00

Weapons and Equipment Loc

SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------4 Killer Whale(40 msls)
Nose
16 16 16 16
80 2,600.00
10 Large Laser
Nose
8(80) 8(80) -- -80
50.00
2 NAC/30(20 rounds)
Nose
60 60
60 -200 7,016.00
2 NAC/30(20 rounds)
Nose
60 60
60 -- 200 7,016.00
2 NAC/30(20 rounds)
FL/R
60 60
60 -- 400 14,032.00
1 Barracuda(10 msls)
FL/R
2
2
2
2
20
780.00
3 NL45
FL/R
14 14
14 14 420 5,400.00
10 Large Laser
FL/R 8(80) 8(80) --160
100.00
4 AMS(144 rounds)
FL/R
-- ---8
28.00
2 NAC/25(20 rounds)
L/RBS
50 50
50
-340 12,024.00
2 NAC/25(20 rounds)
L/RBS
50 50
50
-340 12,024.00
2 NAC/25(20 rounds)
L/RBS
50 50
50
-340 12,024.00
2 NAC/25(20 rounds)
L/RBS
50 50
50
-340 12,024.00
10 Large Laser
L/RBS 8(80) 8(80) --160
100.00
2 NAC/30(20 rounds)
AL/R
60 60
60
-400 14,032.00
1 Barracuda(10 msls)
AL/R
2
2
2
2
20
780.00
3 NL45
AL/R
14 14
14
14 420 5,400.00
10 Large Laser
AL/R 8(80) 8(80) --160
100.00
4 AMS(144 rounds)
AL/R
-- ---8
28.00
10 Large Laser
Aft
8(80) 8(80) --80
50.00
2 NAC/35(20 rounds)
Aft
70
70
--- 240 8,020.00
2 NAC/35(20 rounds)
Aft
70
70
--- 240 8,020.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (5.00%)
44,500.00
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------TOTALS:
Heat: 4,656 875,623.50
Tons Left:
14,376.50
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:
24,960,230,000 C-Bills
Battle Value:
250,653
Cost per BV:
99,580.81
Weapon Value: 110,913 (Ratio = .44)
Damage Factors: SRV = 9,602; MRV = 9,434; LRV = 7,079; ERV = 2,358
Maintenance:
Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 591,453
(69,311 Structure, 272,922 Life Support, 249,220 Weapons)
Support Points (SP) = 434,859 (74% of MPV)
BattleForce2:
Not applicable

MECHWARRIOR SECTION

The House Amaris Sourcebook is designed to give players and gamemasters a

wealth of new possibilities in the Classic BattleTech universe. Since the
sourcebook covers the history of the Rim Worlds Republic from its founding all
the way to the beginnings of the Blakist Jihad, role-playing groups are free to use
any aspect of the timeline to create unforgettable adventures. Since the minute
details of the RWR are very scant, the GM is free to create any material not
covered in the sourcebook. Alternatively, the GM may alter or delete any source
material after the Amaris Civil War if he/she prefers to go by historical canon. The
choice is yours!
CAMPAIGN OPTIONS:
HISTORICAL GAME
The House Amaris Sourcebook covers the entire existence of the Rim Worlds
Republic from 2250 to 2779 and allows players virtual free reign as far as reliving

campaigns from this time period. With over 500 years of history, players can
recreate everything from the founding of the Republic by Hector Rowe and his
band of psychotics to becoming part of the SLDF as they retake the worlds of the
Terran Hegemony from the clutches of Stefan the Usurper. Players can be part
of the Rim Worlds military as they fight off incessant pirate raids during its early
years to becoming one of Stefan Amaris loyal soldiers as they try to stave off the
onslaught of General Kerensky and attempt to change history. Gamemasters
may even allow players to participate as a unit belonging to one of the Great
Houses that fought on the side of the Star League during the brutal Reunification
War, or the other way around! Since very little is known of this era, the
gamemaster is free to create long lost Mechs, vehicles and equipment as part of
the once-mighty Rim Worlds military machine. Although some players may balk
at playing the doomed soldiers of the Rim Worlds, there is a certain romantic
poignancy in playing a lost faction. Of course, if the players secretly harbor a
desire to get back at the dastardly Stefan Amaris, being part of the vaunted
SLDF during the Amaris Civil War will surely allow them to vent their frustrations
on one of the most hated personalities of the BattleTech universe.
In high-level campaigns of this sort, the main question that the gamemaster
must establish early on will be whether history is immutable: will the players, if
they garner enough prestige, be able to alter the course of history? This type of
campaign will require a gamemaster that has a thorough knowledge of pivotal
events that take place during the time of the setting and be able to apply them in
a dramatic fashion on a personal level. Being able to see both the big picture as
they relate to the more intimate scenes will be a must. If done well, endless
variations of this sort may be replayed over and over again- and with different
results each time!
PLAYERS AS PART OF THE HIDDEN SOCIETY
If the group so chooses, the players could even be part of the reborn House
Amaris as they begin their campaign of revenge against both the Inner-Sphere
powers as well as the Clans. The campaign flavor will be one of intense intrigue
as the players could be either part of the sinister Inquisition or the small but
highly lethal Shadow Corps as they wage their war of deception against virtually
every other faction. Players may very well enjoy being part of a secret society
that no one is aware of until it is too late. If the players want to try the role of the
bad guy, this would be a perfect campaign setting.
This setting requires a gamemaster with plenty of versatility, being able to
visualize a strange culture very similar to that of Platos Republic: a class-based
system of the ruling intelligentsia, warriors, commoners and slaves. Will the
players be loyal members of the Hidden Society, rooting out traitors and
renegades while trying to maintain their anonymity as they travel across the
Inner-Sphere or will they be rebels who hope to transform the secret society into
something more benevolent?

SHADOW LORDS AS VILLAINS

Probably one of the most entertaining campaigns that a gamemaster could
devise is one in which the players would be fighting an unknown and very
powerful enemy; imagine the shock on their faces when they realize that House
Amaris was not destroyed after all, rather they had indeed survived and now plan
a horrific revenge against the descendants of their ancient enemies! This
sourcebook allows the gamemaster to tailor-fit House Amaris as the ultimate
villains of the BattleTech universe. The Hidden Society could be used as a
convenient plot device on any sort of conspiracy theories that the official
BattleTech timeline has not addressed. From the mystery of the fate of Clan
Wolverine to the actual identity of the Bounty Hunter, the Shadow Lords would
make excellent plug-ins. Players could start out as any faction from a Clan unit
tasked to solve the riddle of the always elusive Bandit Castes to an Inner-Sphere
House unit whose mission is to solve a murder of a prominent noble or even as
devil may care mercenaries who stumble upon a vast conspiracy.
With the Shadow Lords able to clone prominent men and women from across
the pages of history and using them as assassins, the players will be hardpressed to find the truth even as their very lives are in danger from the ruthless
spy network of the Inquisition. A campaign such as this one requires meticulous
planning on the part of the gamemaster for the entire structure of the campaign
would resemble that of an onion; as the players unravel each layer, more hidden
truths would be revealed at every stage. Although the gamemaster must work
hard to parcel out the revelations of House Amaris bit by bit, the players will
definitely get a kick out of the realization of their true enemy at the climax of the
campaign.