INN-Chronicles

A Time Line of the Inner Sphere and the Republic

2108
The Terran Alliance Ship (TAS) Pathfinder uses the Kearny-Fuchida drive system to make the first hyper-spatial jump. For the first time, humans are able to travel almost instantaneously from the Sol System to the Tau Ceti System, 3.46-parsecs away. Massive interstellar space colonization begins.

2271
The Treaty of Marik is signed, signaling the formation of the Free Worlds League and declaring its independence from Terra. The League is the first of the Great Houses, each of which will ultimately control hundreds of worlds. Within a century, four other powerful planetary alliances will also declare independence from Terra and the Terran Hegemony government. These states will become the star empires known as the Draconis Combine, Federated Suns, Capellan Confederation and Lyran Commonwealth.

2398
The Age of War begins when a territorial dispute between the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League erupts into a shooting war, touching off bloody conflicts across the Inner Sphere. Attempting to contain the escalating violence, the House leaders create the Ares Conventions, which legislate the conduct of warfare and turn it from mass destruction into a strategic and controlled exchange of stylized feints and counterfeints. Ironically, this controlled and surgical approach to conflict allows war to become a means of resolving even minor disputes.

2439
The Terran Hegemony unveils the BattleMech, irrevocably changing the face of war. Derived from mining IndustrialMechs, BattleMechs demonstrate exceptional mobility and adaptability to diverse environments as compared to conventional armored vehicles. Their ability to mount a full array of conventional and energy weapons along with the latest defensive armaments further enhances their battlefield capabilities. Within thirty years, the rest of the Houses have stolen Hegemony schematics to build their own. The BattleMech becomes the undisputed king of the Battlefield.

2571�2751
Ian Cameron, ruler of the Terran Hegemony, culminates decades of tireless efforts�including brilliant diplomacy and carrot-and-stick tactics�with the creation of the Star League, a political and military alliance between all of the Great Houses and the Hegemony. Star League armed forces immediately begin the twenty-two-year era of hostilities known as the Reunification War, bringing the recalcitrant Periphery realms into the Star League fold by force.

For the next two centuries, humanity experiences a golden age, an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity, where technology�both civilian and military�flourish. It also saw the creation of the greatest military army that humanity had ever seen. The League eventually falls to internal strife, with nearly every subsequent war being fought in an effort to re-establish the Star League.

2766�2785
In 2766, Stefan Amaris of the Rim Worlds Republic launches a coup, declaring himself First Lord of the Star League after murdering the entire Cameron family. General Aleksandr Kerensky, commander of the Star League Defense Forces, starts a thirteen-year war to unseat the usurper. Kerensky succeeds, but the rulers of the Great Houses cannot agree on a new leader. The Star League High Council is dissolved in 2781.

Rather than watch the Star League for which he fought so hard crumble, Kerensky departs known space with eighty percent of the SLDF in 2784. The event is later known as the Exodus�an apparent attempt to salvage the heart and spirit of the Star League. Within the year, the Great Houses savagely attack one another in the first of the Succession Wars. These conflicts will last for over 200 years.

3028
The marriage of First Prince Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns to Archon-Designate Melissa Steiner of the Lyran Commonwealth unifies the two largest states in the Inner Sphere. The newborn Federated Commonwealth immediately launches the Fourth Succession War, conquering more worlds in two years than in all the wars of the previous two centuries.

3050
A mysterious invading force strikes the coreward region of the Inner Sphere, attacking the Federated Commonwealth, Free Rasalhague Republic and Draconis Combine. The invaders, called the Clans, are the descendants of Kerensky�s SLDF troops, forged into a warrior society dedicated to becoming the greatest fighting force in history; their goal is to capture Terra and re-establish the Star League. With vastly superior technology and warriors, the Clans conquer world after world until troops belonging to ComStar�the quasi-religious organization that controls all communication within the Inner Sphere�halts their advance in the pivotal Battle of Tukayyid. The truce signed after that conflict stops the Clan advance for fifteen years.

3059
To better fight the Clans, the leaders of the Inner Sphere create a new Star League. Apparently united once again after centuries of warfare, the members of this fragile union attempt to end the Clan threat once and for all. The new Star League Defense Force targets the most aggressive Clan�Smoke Jaguar�for destruction, pushing them out of their Inner Sphere occupation zone and following them to their Clan homeworld, where they are utterly destroyed. Having proven their martial prowess to the Clans, the SLDF troops meet the Clans on their own capitol world of Strana Mechty and challenge them to a Trial of Refusal (a Clan ritual that uses a military engagement to repeal and/or abrogate a previous decision or action) against their very invasion of the Inner Sphere. The Clans lose.

3063
With the threat of the Clans diminished, the Houses of the Inner Sphere once again look to one another as ancient enmities flare anew. The Capellan Confederation conquers its errant Commonality, the St. Ives Compact, while allying with the two largest Periphery realms�the Magistracy of Canopus and Taurian Concordat, a turn of events that lead to the Confederation becoming notably strong for the first time in centuries. An errant Combine unit attacks Clan Ghost Bear, igniting a war between the Bears and the Draconis Combine. At the same time, the fabulously powerful Federated Commonwealth (FedCom) shatters under the weight of greed and aggression; a full-fledged civil war begins between the Lyran Alliance and Federated Suns across more then eight hundred worlds and a thousand light years.

3067
At the end of the FedCom Civil War, the various leaders of the Inner Sphere realize and admit that their new Star League was simply a political maneuver to be used against the Clans. They dissolve the League. Almost immediately the Word of Blake zealots�a reactionary splinter group from ComStar�unleash a jihad against the entire Inner Sphere.

3071-3081
Devlin Stone escapes from a Word of Blake Re-education Camp and slowly builds an army to push back against the Word of Blake. The battles are fierce, and Stone�s forces win victory after victory. With each new success more warriors flock to his banner, speeding victory and final triumph. The honor and respect accorded Stone among the general populace across the Inner Sphere is unprecedented.

With a new vision of how the Inner Sphere can rebuild itself�and a huge following of military and civilian personnel from every faction in the universe�Devlin Stone asks for and receives control over all worlds within a 120 light-year radius of Terra, whether by treaty or by force. Splinter groups within the Capellan Confederation reject the ceding of worlds to the Republic, and for several years engage in skirmishes aimed at retrieving ancestral planets. Peace otherwise begins its reign.

3081-3129
Under the guidance of Devlin Stone, the Republic of The Sphere is born. The hatreds and contentions of centuries are subsumed into the greater good, as key elements of populations on a number of worlds are resettled in an attempt to end the factionalism of the past. Decades pass, and a new generation is indoctrinated into this new philosophy�a whole generation that knows only peace and is insulated from the rest of the Inner Sphere.

One of the prime tenets of the new society is the decommissioning of the majority of BattleMechs and a retooling of the wartime economy. People are motivated to turn in their BattleMechs and other machines of war through programs including financial and federal incentives including the receipt of Republic citizenship. As the Republic�s prosperity booms, the rest of the Great Houses follow suit until BattleMechs have become exceptionally rare except among the military or the propertied nobility. Given the limited demand, the ability to build their specialized fusion engines becomes limited as well.

3130
Devlin Stone announces his withdrawal from public life. He swears that he will return if ever the Republic, or the rest of the Inner Sphere, needs him�then he vanishes.

3132
Hyperpulse Generator Alpha Stations around the Republic and throughout the Inner Sphere suffer attack from without and sabotage from within, effectively ending interstellar communications for 80% of all populated worlds. No group takes responsibility; no clues point to a single perpetrator. Tensions heighten between political and social factions, each suspecting the others of responsibility for the communications breakdown. Fighting breaks out where social pressures reach critical mass. To compensate for the rarity of military-grade BattleMechs, many groups and governments mount IndustrialMechs with weaponry and use these machines in combat. A new battle for control begins, threatening the very existence of the Republic of the Sphere.