The Dark Phoenix is one of the Inner Sphere's most confusing enigmas. It has forged alliances with Clans and Successor States alike, and has fought with each. The attitudes of the Dark Phoenix people towards outsiders border on psychosis one minute and then fade to congeniality. For this and its amazing technological prowess, the Dark Phoenix is feared not only by its enemies, but by its allies as well.

Allies

The Dark Phoenix has made written alliances with the Federated Commonwealth, Clan Wolfwere, and Clan Wolf in Exile. It also has good relations with what is left of the Free Rasalhague Republic, Clan Night Hawk, Clan Diamond Shark, as well as the reformed ComStar.
The most prominent Dark Phoenix ally is the Draconis Combine, and indeed the Dark Phoenix ninja society hearkens most to the Japanese culture of the Combine. It is thought that Rijyn Stevens, forebearer to Rod Stevens (the founder of the Dark Phoenix), was from the Combine before Kerensky's Exodus. Rumor within the Inner Sphere intelligence community is that the Combine actually gave the deserted planet of Hell to the Dark Phoenix and Clan Wolfwere as part of their mutual defense agreement.

Enemies

The Dark Phoenix, in its short history, is renowned for making mortal enemies in an unbelievably short time. Although their realm lies hundreds of light-years away, the Shoguns have managed to cause the Free Worlds League, the Lyran Alliance, and the Capellan Confederation to hate their very existence. Reports that the Combine and the Federated Commonwealth have allowed Phoenix line units through their space for no other reason than to harass those states can not be tossed aside lightly.
The enemies that they have made in the Inner Sphere pale in comparison to those they have offended in Clan space. With their "Failure is the Ultimate Dishonor" doctrine, they have made enemies with Clans Smoke Jaguar, Steel Viper, and Ghost Bear, who see the Dark Phoenix as nothing more than a group of bandits, albeit well-supplied bandits. Repeated attempts by these Clans to defeat the Dark Phoenix in battle have failed miserably, usually because the Clans have sent solhama units to do battle, not wanting to waste front-line troops on the Phoenix. As a result, the ill-supplied Clan units repeatedly suffer hideous embarrassment and loss of face to their comrades, which breeds even more contempt. On many occasions Dark Phoenix units have been pushed back simply because of the fact that their hatred of the Clans does not match their enemies' hatred of them. It should be noted, however, that the hatred the Dark Phoenix has for the Clans is extreme.
The Phoenix's most mortal enemy, however, is Clan Jade Falcon. As a trusted and unwavering ally of Clan Wolf, the Phoenix leadership sees the Jade Falcons as weak cowards, bound by a useless and outdated honor system and under the leadership of fools. They viewed the Refusal War as proof that for all their pretenses of honor, the Jade Falcons are nothing more than untrustworthy schemers (ironically, this is the same view that the Jade Falcons have of the Dark Phoenix). Battles between the Dark Phoenix and Clan Jade Falcon are always unusually violent and bloody, with fewer than thirty percent survivors and ten percent materiel. As a result, the Jade Falcons and the Dark Phoenix go at it only when given no other choice.

The Dark Phoenix was founded in 3007 by Rod Stevens, formerly Khan Rod Stevens of Clan Night Hawk. With over half of Clan Night Hawk's warriors, scientists, and technicians, Rod Stevens left Clan space with disgust at everything the Clans represented. He spoke of a new society like that which his ancestors lived in (It is thought that Rod Stevens is descended from an DEST trooper named Rijyn Stevens who fled the Inner Sphere with Aleksandr Kerensky in the Exodus). Within a year of his arrival in the Periphery, his forces had captured four practically deserted worlds; New Eutaria, Stein, Madrid, and Phelan. Today New Eutaria has a population of three billion, and the Dark Phoenix controls a total of nine systems in the Periphery.
Dark Phoenix society still had many of the Clans' stratifications, but the prejudice against freeborn warriors was not nearly as strong as it is within the Clans. All citizens were equals, serving the Shogun and his elite warriors, who ensured their safety with their sometimes excessively sneaky tactics. In the years immediately following the Dark Phoenix's creation, their tactics were almost dangerous, taking the dishonest route even if an easier, more honorable alternative existed. The warriors, now unbound by Clan rules which had always chafed them, often took their liberation to the extreme, and led to many unnecessary losses. Victory against Periphery pirate kings and bandits was almost a given every time, however.

In the years preceding the Clan invasion, Dark Phoenix agents within Clan Night Hawk informed the new Shogun, Regg Stevens, of the impending Operation Revival. The Shogun immediately upsized his military to eighteen regiments, eager to finally be able to do battle with the Dark Phoenix's mortal enemies. To his warriors' disappointment however, Regg kept his forces from interfering with the invasion, waiting instead for the time when Inner Sphere forces would surely turn the tables on the Clans. To help ensure this end, Regg sent emissaries to Prince Victor Steiner-Davion and Gunji-no Kanrei Theodore Kurita to offer technical and tactical advice to their forces (it is believed that the anger felt by the Lyran portion of the Commonwealth stems from the Dark Phoenix's refusal to help them in their time of need).
Once the Invasion was halted at Tukayyid, the Dark Phoenix hit the Clans hard, the Phoenix Guards pummeling Clan garrisons again and again. Clan Night Hawk, with whom the Dark Phoenix had severed ties forty years earlier, offered an alliance to stop the Clans from conquering the whole of the Inner Sphere, and with the agreement of Clan Wolfwere, they formed a defense council intent on stopping the Clans at all costs.

Today the Dark Phoenix controls nine planets and has over five billion citizens. Its military, the Dark phoenix Combined Militia (DPCM), is the best of all the Clans or the Successor States, with the best equipment and the best pilots. It still is intent on keeping the Clans from overtaking the Inner Sphere, but many skeptics suggest that the only reason for this is that the Shogun wants to take over first. Evidence of this theory is difficult to find, as the DPCM is more than capable of defeating almost any force arrayed against it if it wanted to. Most scholars suggest that the Dark Phoenix and Clan Night Hawk will soon re-merge, with their mission to remain to defeat the Clans or any other enemies, real or perceived, at all costs. It is thought that with the combined strength of Clan Night Hawk and the Dark Phoenix, the new combined unit will be a valuable ally and a feared enemy.