Battletech Lore

lifecircle

In wake of me signing up for Mechwarrior Online, i only realize now how insufficient my knowledge of Battletech is, and am extremely confused. Especially with regards to the forums there. It seemed those on are truly veterans of battletech, and i am unable to follow conversations. Ive sought out the wiki, but the amount of information is quite daunting.

My experience in battletech comes from the games mechwarrior 2 through 4, and as a kid i simply treated them at face value: giant robots with lazers. I believe that it would be wise for me to know the lore now in preparation for mechwarrior online.

I know there are a few big fans of battletech on this forum, and the average game enthusiast on this forum probably has a much deeper range of insight than i would. I guess my main questions are mostly about: the basic timeline in general leading up to Mechwarrior online, and what and who the main factions are. I dont think i need to know about the mechs themselves in general as i should be able to learn about them come the game, and i have my memories from the PC games as well.

Victor Frost

Start reading the novels.
Oh, and about the clanners...

The Clans disdain the use of contractions. That is, abbreviating "Can not" to "Can't" and similar practices. They consider the use of such an example of how decadent the Inner Sphere has become. They also have their own dialect, consisting primarily of ritual words and phrases: ;"Aff": "Affirmative" ;"Neg": "Negative" ;"Quiaff": ("Query-Affirmative"?) Used to ask a rhetorical question, with the expectation of an "Aff"irmative answer. ;"Quineg": ("Query-Negative"?) Used to ask a rhetorical question, with the expectation of a "Neg"ative answer. ;"Trueborn": Someone who was born artificially, with their genes tailored towards being a better warrior. Often with a lineage of past warriors. ;"Freeborn": Someone born naturally, of random parents. ;"Freebirth": An epithet or curse. A rude way of saying "Freeborn". ;"Seyla": A word uttered only in the most sacred and respective of manners. The origin is unknown, but it works like "Amen"

Lost_Heretic

I'm pretty pumped for Mechwarrior Online as well. The great thing about it is that it'll essential "reboot" the backstory, so new fans that want to dig into the lore won't have to slog through twenty years of supplements to get the "whole picture."

Since Mechwarrior Online appears to be starting at the time of the clan invasion, novels like the Warrior Trilogy and Wolves on the Border will provide great background. Alternatively, you can just read the various pages on www.sarna.net, the Battletech wiki.