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IP one and two were tabloid fiction in the BattleTech universe - hyperspace leviathans eating JumpShips, secret Blakist bases in hyperspace, hyperspace aliens invading our minds (a trend becomes evident here...), the Illuminati, the genecaste, the Wolverine journal, etc. Interstellar Expeditions was much more a regular sourcebook, fleshing out places of interest in the Deep Periphery, and doesn’t fit the “canon rumor” moniker like the previous two volumes. (You want “rumor” for the Deep Periphery, try the California Nebula)
As for the Wolverine mystery, I’ve been nigh obsessively collecting and reading the fiction for decades, and it is fun to connect the dots on the clues dropped here and there by various authors over the years, knowing that these tidbits are aimed at people like me, rather than casual readers who lack the context to make the connections. If you want the Wolverines to be non-entities in your version of the universe, more power to you. You are free to excise any elements that detract from your enjoyment of the game. (Some people, I’m sure, liked the lack of resolution in X-Files and Lost)
As for ComStar’s ability to keep secrets, they kept the Hidden Five secret for centuries, and kept the ComGuard secret for about 50 years. With secret assets controlled by a Cabal within ComStar, outsiders like Mori, Focht, and Victor could have been easily kept in the dark, along with the vast majority of the rank and file.
Quite the opposite actually. Suggest you read it again.
By the established standards, the intro fiction piece is omniscient perspective fiction, fully canonical and fully accurate and reliable.
Mendrugo and Frabby are pretty much two of the most authorative figures on BTU lore as you will find within the community outside of the authors (FYI Frabby is actually the author of a couple of the BattleCorps stories), if these two say the dots point this way I am inclined to believe them.
This rather heated discussion is exactly why I dislike the unreliable sourcebook fad. The fact that intelligent people who have interest in this subject and have spent at least a minimum of effort can't agree leads me to belive the system fails. And with all due respect, we shouldn't need "experts" or people with the inside line to interpret what's going on.
Mendrugo and Frabby are pretty much two of the most authorative figures on BTU lore as you will find within the community outside of the authors (FYI Frabby is actually the author of a couple of the BattleCorps stories), if these two say the dots point this way I am inclined to believe them.
Thanks for the flowers, but - speaking for myself - I am not an "authoritative figure on BTU lore". I don't get to decide over canon. I did, however, bug Herb and every other Line Developer or Assistant Line Developer about the nooks and crannies of canon in BattleTech, which gave me what I believe is a fairly good insight into what the authoritative figures consider canonical fact for the BattleTech universe.
And I have to grant Tnarien that the BattleTech way of writing sourcebooks as mostly in-character documents deliberately obfuscates the matter to a degree, as there is a measure of ingrained unreliability here. The "from our current understanding of the situation" reporting style that narrated the Jihad era, and the publication of clearly marked in-universe rumors and conspiracies, didn't exactly help.
But still, most of what we "know" about the BattleTech universe is reliable information. And based on what's reliable and what may not actually be, CGL likes to leave a breadcrumbs trail of information snippets - often across several publications - for players to piece together some mysteries and some side stories. I like this connecting-the-dots game. It's how Mendrugo could "prove" that Jason Youngblood was a Clanner. (And I like to imagine the confused look on the face of the actual authors and Line Developers as they respond to such fan theories with disbelief, consternation and denial.)
Just going to say, in my experience, in ANY fandom, it's usually a fan who knows more about the setting than anyone else. This is especially true in multi-creator universes like Battletech. But even in single creator ones like, say, Harry Potter it's true. Because there's super fans who remember ridiculously minor details the author never intended to be a big thing.
Now, mind you, knowing it as things currently exist doesn't change the fact a creator can go ahead and change things. It's happened many times! Often to Super Fan chagrin. But it does mean that there's plenty of fans with ridiculous amounts of trivia in their heads that even the creators wouldn't remember.
There's a reason almost every "New Star Trek Series" wishlist thread I'd ever read includes "Hire some super fans to fact check every script!"
It's also why Superfans often end up hired. And then put their personal touch on a setting.
Just going to say, in my experience, in ANY fandom, it's usually a fan who knows more about the setting than anyone else. This is especially true in multi-creator universes like Battletech. But even in single creator ones like, say, Harry Potter it's true. Because there's super fans who remember ridiculously minor details the author never intended to be a big thing.
Now, mind you, knowing it as things currently exist doesn't change the fact a creator can go ahead and change things. It's happened many times! Often to Super Fan chagrin. But it does mean that there's plenty of fans with ridiculous amounts of trivia in their heads that even the creators wouldn't remember.
There's a reason almost every "New Star Trek Series" wishlist thread I'd ever read includes "Hire some super fans to fact check every script!"
It's also why Superfans often end up hired. And then put their personal touch on a setting.
On this point, George RR Martin has publicly stated he consultes the online fan-compiled databases of A Song of Ice and Fire, to the point I believe the 'curators' of the leading one are listed as co-authors of A World of Ice and Fire.
And that’s why I have great respect for the editors at Sarna.net - the ultimate BattleTech wiki and a great resource for checking a reference without having to pore through ten sourcebooks.
I’m working on a Clan-style “Great Work” - to do a deep dive on every bit of BattleTech lore (both canon and apocryphal, but excluding fanfic) and spark discussions of the “connect the dots” moments that emerge. You can see the list of topics in the blog section on this site (sorted by era), and follow the links to the ones that have been discussed. We’re currently up to October 3027, having covered the Age of War through the Third Succession War.
The goal is to create a resource so that anyone can go full on superfan without having to track down back issues of Scrye, Games Unplugged, BattleTechnology, and the Blackthorne comics.
And that’s why I have great respect for the editors at Sarna.net - the ultimate BattleTech wiki and a great resource for checking a reference without having to pore through ten sourcebooks.
I’m working on a Clan-style “Great Work” - to do a deep dive on every bit of BattleTech lore (both canon and apocryphal, but excluding fanfic) and spark discussions of the “connect the dots” moments that emerge. You can see the list of topics in the blog section on this site (sorted by era), and follow the links to the ones that have been discussed. We’re currently up to October 3027, having covered the Age of War through the Third Succession War.
The goal is to create a resource so that anyone can go full on superfan without having to track down back issues of Scrye, Games Unplugged, BattleTechnology, and the Blackthorne comics.
And this is exactly the purpose of a wiki to my mind. As an editor on a wiki it is my job to find all the dots. Find enough and you might get a picture.
"As for the Wolverine mystery, I’ve been nigh obsessively collecting and reading the fiction for decades, and it is fun to connect the dots on the clues dropped here and there by various authors over the years, knowing that these tidbits are aimed at people like me, rather than casual readers who lack the context to make the connections. If you want the Wolverines to be non-entities in your version of the universe, more power to you. You are free to excise any elements that detract from your enjoyment of the game. (Some people, I’m sure, liked the lack of resolution in X-Files and Lost)"
You're making a direct appeal to authority, that somehow because you have better sources (which by the by, you don't), and are better able to analyze those sources, your version of events is more authoritative.
(Mod edit: please post topically towards discussion and not personally at others).
Mendrugo and Frabby are pretty much two of the most authorative figures on BTU lore as you will find within the community outside of the authors (FYI Frabby is actually the author of a couple of the BattleCorps stories), if these two say the dots point this way I am inclined to believe them.
See above. This has nothing to do with dots pointing to things. It has everything to do with the fact that, in this specific context, the dots are by definition unreliable, and in all likelihood inaccurate.
This rather heated discussion is exactly why I dislike the unreliable sourcebook fad. The fact that intelligent people who have interest in this subject and have spent at least a minimum of effort can't agree leads me to belive the system fails. And with all due respect, we shouldn't need "experts" or people with the inside line to interpret what's going on.
Indeed. Which is why my position on anything within the canon rumor books is quite simple: until it's corroborated by other sources it's by definition unsubstantiated bunkum.
We know for a fact that the Wolverines became the Minnesota tribe. Everything else is just wild speculation and ravings.
And I have to grant Tnarien that the BattleTech way of writing sourcebooks as mostly in-character documents deliberately obfuscates the matter to a degree, as there is a measure of ingrained unreliability here. The "from our current understanding of the situation" reporting style that narrated the Jihad era, and the publication of clearly marked in-universe rumors and conspiracies, didn't exactly help.
This is my major problem with the entire "canon rumor" presentation. A great deal of the information has been shown to be complete fabrication. Even if some of the other items are, to some degree, accurate, the pedigree of appearing in the same publication as something that is by definition lies casts lethal doubt on that accuracy.
As I've said other places, I don't deal in what might be, I deal in what is. These books don't even rise to the level of "might".
But still, most of what we "know" about the BattleTech universe is reliable information. And based on what's reliable and what may not actually be, CGL likes to leave a breadcrumbs trail of information snippets - often across several publications - for players to piece together some mysteries and some side stories.
There's a fundamental difference between "colored by personal perspective" and "complete lies". I don't have a problem with the former. I have serious problems with the latter.
Please post topically towards discussion and not personally at others.
Posts not doing so will experience Jump Drive malfunctions to the Far Country to be used as nesting materials by the locals, imminently.
Edit: Forum staff don't and can't be performing excessive edits . Please be responsible for your own words. If a long informed and useful wall of text is intermittently punctuated by disrespect forum staff have little alternate but to unfortunately address the entire post.
In the interests of clearing the air, I present...the dots. Take them as you will.
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Source: "Shades and Spirits" (Interstellar Players 3 - Interstellar Expeditions)
In 3095, IE archaeologist Wade Laurence Beauregard finds the abandoned Minnesota Tribe base 22.7 LY coreward from McEvedy's Folly. They find ragged uniforms bearing the Minnesota patch of the 331st Royal BattleMech Division and the Terran wolverine emblem. Oleg Spector, the mole in the dig team tells Wade that "you've found something the Word [of Blake] has paid good money to stay buried."
Canonicity: Fully canon as omniscient perspective "sourcebook fiction." For example, Handbook House Davion is an in-universe report on the Federated Suns, and may suffer from bias or omission, but the opening fiction, "Animals," is omniscient and canon sourcebook fiction.
Implications: The Minnesota Tribe circled around the Inner Sphere and settled on this world near the Magistracy of Canopus, then later abandoned it. The Word of Blake wants this hushed up circa 3095.
--------------------
Source: "Who We Are and Where We Came From" (ISP 3, IE):
"IE MFT Farhome Mission II confirmed that, though in the general direction of the Minnesota Tribe's trail, [Farhome] had apparently never been a destination." And from the Gamemaster's section: "Of intrinsic interest to dig gypsies, the planet's location along the axis of the Minnesota Tribe's disappearance will create a lot of attention amongst attendees of the Grand Tours"
Canonicity: Optional for gamemasters and players to include in Classic BattleTech games. The "Grand Tour" is, however, referenced in "Shades and Spirits" as being an expedition that was tracing the Minnesota Tribe's path around the Periphery.
Implications: The course of the Minnesota Tribe went past Farhome (past the Taurian Concordat) en route to their final destination. The canon BattleCorps story "Biendieu" notes that the world, which was settled by naturalists before the invention of BattleMechs - who then regressed to primitivism - has cave paintings of BattleMechs, suggesting they were visited by people with 'Mechs at some point before the Explorer Corps discovered them in the 2900s. Pirates? Tribe? Taurian Freedom Army?
--------------------
Source: Masters and Minions - The StarCorps Dossiers - Reiner Wooden profile.
"Wooden refocused IE on their core objective - the long-lost Minnesota Tribe - and saw immediate gains with a few key discoveries in the late '40s."
Canonicity: Its credibility depends on how accurate you believe StarCorps' research is. Generally accepted as canon, but could be contradicted.
Implications: Suggests that IE found traces of the Minnesota Tribe beyond what ComStar reported in the House Kurita sourcebook in 3025, lending credence to the "Grand Tour" findings of a Minnesota Tribe course around the Inner Sphere.
--------------------
Source: Through the Looking Glass, Jihad Secrets, the Blake Documents.
SLS Zughoffer Weir identified as having been brought by the Word of Blake to Titan Shipyards for refit. ComStar ROM determined it was recovered rimward of the Outworlds Alliance.
Canonicity: This section is described by Peter Abdulsattah as gleaned from Victoria Pardeau's files, but that he finds them to be "the rantings of a madwoman" where it would be a stretch for even a quarter of it to be true. The Wolverine Journal elements are not consistent with the canon "Betrayal of Ideals" storyline.
Implication: The Wolverines aboard the Zughoffer Weir made it at least to the region rimward of the Outworlds Alliance. This is the same course followed by the Minnesota Tribe, according to IE's "Grand Tour" findings. It's possible that WoB found it and recovered it in 3061, or it's possible they mothballed it in the 2800s, like dozens of other derelicts that they reactivated for the Jihad. Could be nothing.
--------------------
Source: The Not Named, Jihad Secrets, the Blake Documents
The following statements are contradicted by Betrayal of Ideals
- "The Ravens, badly bloodied in the fighting [KLONDIKE], wanted revenge [against the Wolverines]. This made the Ravens natural catspaws." (The Widowmakers and Jade Falcons were the ringleaders of the anti-Wolverine scheme, prodded by Nicholas)
- "A Snow Raven task force attacked the Wolverine enclave on Circe and was driven back. The Wolverines took the war back to their rivals and sacked the city of Dehra Dun, the Ravens' capital on Circe, then used a nuke to destroy the Ravens' secondary genetic repository." (The Ravens nuked their own city with a poorly aimed nuke during an orbital battle against the Wolverines, and not until after the Wolverine capital was nuked by the Widowmakers.)
- "the Wolves struck, securing a landing zone despite a spirited Wolverine counteroffensive" (The Wolverines fought the Steel Vipers and Widowmakers. Their capital was nuked by Widowmaker suicide agents while Zeta Galaxy was serving as the rear-guard for the Third Exodus)
- "the result [of the 'Third Exodus'] was a running battle as the Wolverines fought their way across Clan space. After 19 days, the Wolves declared victory. Officially, none of the Wolverines survived." (The Wolverines fleeing from other enclaves made it to the rendezvous unhindered, mostly, and didn't engage the other Clans in combat until the fight at Barbados.")
- "saKhan Hallis died at Nicholas' hands in a brutal duel on Circe, but of McEvedy no trace was ever found." (Hallis died on Barbados. McEvedy was marooned on Barbados, but recovered by Trish Ebon's fleet.")
- August 7, 2824 Log - The Ghost Bears chose not to block the Wolverines' escape, letting their remaining fleet pass unhindered. (A Ghost Bear Star Captain lets a company of Wolverine sibcadets escape from Arcadia's moon, Liny.)
- August 29, 2824 Log - A Clan ship tracks the Wolverine fleet, which scatters to evade pursuit. (The Wolverines successfully shook pursuit, letting it go past them.)
- September 20, 2824 Log - 2,000 Wolverine survivors fail to rendevous after scattering. (The Wolverines reached their rendezvous in November 2823, and started down the Exodus Road in January 2824, reaching Barbados in June)
- January 17 - March 3, 2825 Logs - A foraging mission led by "Veranov" reports finding a signal from a small cluster of Spanish speaking worlds two jumps from the fleet's path. He fails to return. The commentary suggests that this may have been Nueva Castille, making Veranov's foragers the Umayyads. (The Wolverines backtracked along the original Exodus Road, which never came closer than 1,000 light years from Nueva Castille. Besides which, the journal makes no mention of the battle of Barbados in mid-2824.)
- October 29, 2825 - January 21, 2825 Logs - The Wolverines hit the Combine worlds along the same timeline as the Minnesota Tribe raids. (The Zughoffer Weir is still with the Wolverines, according to the author's journal, but it went off on its own during the fight at Barbados.)
- May 11, 2826 Log - "We're executing Plan Delta and scattering, putting as many DropShips as possible on the LF-equipped vessels that escaped Barbados." (Even if the whole Log is a sham - which it pretty much is, this effectively proves that whoever wrote it had knowledge of the true story. How else would they know about the "escaped Barbados" part of the story? Thus, the implication is that either the Weir met up with ComStar and their crew passed on enough of the true story for the author to sprinkle truth amongst the lies, or that someone from the Tribe wrote it and passed it to Peter Abdelsuttah. If no Wolverines ever came in contact with the Inner Sphere, how would anyone be able to include a reference to Barbados? The Clans purged all records of the incident, and Nicholas' directive, so it didn't come from them.)
August 11, 2826 Log - After meeting up with ComStar, the Minnesota Tribe mothballs their ships in the Periphery and agree to settle at a cantonment on Mars. (The Minnesota Tribe was tracked by IE Grand Tours past the Outworlds Alliance, past Farhome, and eventually lost the trail past the Magistracy of Canopus - since those who found the actual base got whacked by the Blakists.)
Canonicity: At a 90 degree tangent from the established canon in "Betrayal of Ideals" at many, many points. And yet, there are some nuggets there that suggest the author must have had access to the true story from someone who lived it. While the author could have come up with the Zughoffer Weir connection based on known ships that went with the Exodus and then reappeared in Blakist hands, and could have tied the mysterious appearance of the Umayyads in Nueva Castille to the timing of the Third Exodus - though that's off a bit - there's no way that someone making it up out of whole cloth could have referenced Barbados. So, the journal is a fake, but some Wolverines either did find refuge with ComStar, or somehow put elements of the true story in Uncle Chandy's hands.
Implications: The journal was a fake to get the Clans think the Blakists were closet Wolverines and declare a Trial of Annihilation against them (as in the MW2E adventure "Bloodright"). However, whoever wrote it knew some of the real story, which had to come from a Wolverine (or Wolverines) that came in from the cold.
------------------------
The Book of the Exiles, Jihad Secrets, Blake Documents
- Toyama murdered Jerome Blake and was guided by the Wolverine Marillier into trying to force the Inner Sphere into a ComStar dominated Dark Age. (Jerome Blake died of natural causes and charged Toyama with keeping ComStar on its mission to preserve mankind's knowledge by embedding it in religious-style rituals.)
- Vesar Kristoffur was a Wolverine agent ("of the Blood") who intentionally killed Joshua Wolf to break the Dragoons' spirit. (Joshua Wolf was shot by Kristoffur while he was trying to escape. It wasn't pre-planned.)
- The rest of it basically recaps the historical section of the ComStar sourcebook, implying that the Wolverine cabal hidden on Mars and the Five were behind a lot of ComStar's shenanigans.
Canonicity: The claim that Toyama murdered Blake was disproven in the opening sourcebook fiction of the Second Succession War sourcebook. If they're lying about that, the rest of it is probably bunkum too.
Implication: Could be some truth to there being a group of Wolverine descendants living on one or more of The Five and/or Mars. Somebody had to provide the details that gave Primus Adrienne Sims "nightmares" about monstrous beasts from beyond the Periphery coming to devour Terra (emerald bird, hellacious horse, great bear, etc.) and prompt the creation of the Explorer Corps. But, you won't find any hard proof of that here.
---------------
Jihad Conspiracies, "Minor Players"
- Ivan Lier, a Loki agent, claims that the Wolverines made a complete circuit of the Inner Sphere, eventually settling in a former RWR system that had been erased from the maps. One of the hidden industrial worlds set up by Stefan Amaris. They built a clone army equipped with advanced technology. They sent an expedition back to Clan space and linked up with the Dark Caste in the Tanite worlds. They are working to take over the Clans from the inside with replicants. (He also claims that the "Clan defector" was a Loki cover story, and that they had located the Pentagon worlds by 3050.)
Canonicity: Woof. It's telling that "Lier" sounds very close to "Liar." Off the charts fake.
Implication: As has been pointed out, some of the Wolverine rumors are crazed ravings. However, some of the information comes from qualitatively better sources than this. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
----------------
ISP1 - Interstellar Expeditions profile
"as widely reported in the interstellar media, IE is actively searching for clues to the so-called Minnesota Tribe. Though never officially confirmed by the organization, this particular search is considered an open secret." - IE profile
"Reports concerning IE indicate that some entity (or entities) is actively interfering with IE organizational goals and operations. Entity unknown. Identity and background of entity’s agents unknown, but some suspected within IE organization. Entity has agents operating in governmental bureaucracies throughout Inner Sphere; these agents have blocked IE from undertaking several self-originated expeditions. Most of these blocked expeditions focused on determining the origins and fate of the Minnesota Tribe." - SLIC report
"In 3045 I had the opportunity to participate in IE’s “Grand Tour,” where they retrace the Minnesota Tribe’s every step through the Inner Sphere. We started in an uninhabited system some 50 light-years coreward of the Elysian Fields and continued on, jumping from system to system—some inhabited, some not—around the outer reaches of the Draconis Combine and into the deep Periphery between the Tortuga Dominions and the Mica Majority. We landed on every world that the Tribe did, and explored every ruin and site they did. IE people do this every ten years, and you can’t believe how interesting and educational it is. Every one of these “Grand Tours” finds new evidence of the Tribe because new star systems are surveyed and fresh eyes comb over what we already know. Many still think the Tribe continued on around the FedSuns and is now in the Rimward Periphery, but other than the recently discovered world of McEvedy’s Folly, where possible evidence of the Tribe has been uncovered, the trail is long cold." - chat forum entry - Trajan Riis, a dig gypsy
Gamemaster section, Minnesota Tribe, Known Facts
- IE is sure the Minnesota Tribe is Clan Wolverine
- They have found evidence the Tribe has visited Knutstad, Naikongzu, Michtal, Beligorra, Hergazil, Mackolla, Cooperland, and Bye's Ship. The trail gets "lost" rimward of the Taurian Concordat.
- There is some evidence that settlements on McEvedy's Folly may have been founded by the Tribe, but the current inhabitants have no cultural recollection of such a founding.
Canonicity: This content is explicitly "optional" for GMs and players. However, much of it has been referenced in non-optional sources, like "The Hunt for Jardine" (BattleCorps), "Shades and Spirits" (ISP 3 sourcebook fiction), and Masters and Minions, the StarCorps Dossiers, so this is a clear reminder that "optional" doesn't mean "automatically untrue". The "blocked expeditions" bit fits perfectly with the Word of Blake attacking the searchers. (And the Blakists' motivations for doing so are unknown...but having a cabal of Wolverine survivors associated with ComStar would give them clear motivation.) The statement by Trajan Riis matches what is in the Gamemaster section and lines up with "Shades and Spirits". Riis didn't make crazed claims like Ivan Lier, and he comes across as being far more credible.
Implications: The Combine's efforts to track the Tribe failed, but IE was much better at it, and loses the trail around McEvedy's Folly. This sets up "Shades and Spirits" exactly. If you accept that sourcebook fiction as canon (which I do), then the path of the Tribe seems to be validated, and the accuracy of the various IE-related reports on the Tribe is also bolstered. (Note - the Wolverine Journal is not an IE report.)
One abberant bit is that the "Touring the Stars: McEvedy's Folly" states that the population circa 3070 is 3,500 (5 years after being rediscovered by Canopians, who claimed sovereignty in 3067), and that they are descended from research subjects who fled a mad scientist's genetic experimentation during the Star League civil war, when the research settlement there was forgotten by the Hegemony, which had other things to deal with at the time. So that link is a dead end, but the credibility of the IE sections is maintained by the fact that they heavily caveated that claim as a big maybe.
------------------
Darkness (Randall N. Bills - 2007 Iron Writer)
On an icy outpost at the edge of the Periphery, an agent of the Magistracy's Ebon Directorate walks naked across frozen tundra to greet a towering DropShip, mentally reviewing a checklist to ensure that all security protocols are in place. She hands over MoC intelligence on factions across the Inner Sphere on a data cube. The recipient tells her "We have reached an accordance. Bargained well," and hands her a data cube containing advanced medical data.
Canonicity: This didn't go through fact checking, and was written in one hour at GenCon. Explicitly non-canon for that reason. On the other hand, it was written by Line Developer Randall N. Bills, so this at least tells us that this is how the Magistracy is getting its "mysterious resources from beyond the Periphery" in his head canon. It didn't go through fact checking, but Randall is pretty much the final authority on BattleTech facts, so I like to treat this story as at least apocryphal, if not semi-canon.
Implications: The intense security and the use of the phrase "Bargained well," along with the provision of advanced medical knowledge, strongly suggest that the trading partners have Clan origins and a strong desire to hide. Given the location of the abandoned Wolverine base, they're also close enough to the Magistracy to trade conveniently.
-----------------
A Guide to Covert Ops
"It was [following the 3040 coup] that the MIM received a long-overdue overhaul. The creation of the shadowy, ultra-elite Ebon Magistrate, has not been as easy to track. [They] show a level of ability that cannot be attributed to simple reorganization. I have discovered a number of factors that may have played a part in the MIM's marked improvement over the past decades. The first is a vague reference to extremely resource-rich worlds located "beyond explored space" that Magestrix Kyalla first alluded to during her secret meetings with the Anduriens in the 3020s. No data on the nature or location of these resources has been uncovered. The Canopians seem to have valuable resources that somehow remain hidden from bandits and ComStar explorers alike.
The timing of the reform corresponds roughly with the end of the 4th Succession War and the Dragoons' postwar acquisition of Outreach. The theory suggests the Dragoons might have experienced a defection or opted to establish roots in a Periphery realm as a means of watching the rim for possible Clan incursions, which resulted in Wolfnet operatives joining the Canopians' MIM.
There is evidence to suggest that the Word of Blake ROM has been desperately trying to infiltrate the agency as well, a development that suggests the Blakists are worried about something here.
The Ebon Magistrate is an ultra-elite covert operations unit staffed by warriors who have no close friends or family and are well versed in all manner of the martial arts. Recruits are drawn from all over the Magistracy and operate in autonomous cells. These agents may even receive "personal modifications" (advanced prosthetics or elective implants).
Canonicity: Standard sourcebook canonicity. An in-universe Maskirovka report on the Magistracy. Accepted as canon, but the framing allows its claims to be contradicted by other sources down the road. The claims about the Dragoons are not supported by anything...but perhaps another Clan-origin faction did do something like that?
Implications: The Ebon Magistrate got cyborg tech from somehwere. Perhaps a data cube on a frozen world. Since Magistracy 'borgs are definitely a thing during the Jihad (backed up by "With Carrion Men" from BattleCorps), that would seem to further pull "Darkness" into the realm of canon sources (though, again, BattleCorps' editor explicitly stated all Iron Writer stories were non-canon due to the lack of fact-checking).
Further - the story in "Darkness" had to have happened at least a few years before 3067 (the date of Covert Ops) but after 3050 (the Ebon Magistrate agent knows about the Clans and their advanced tech). Yet the trading in Darkness seems to have been going on for a while, which fits with Kyalla mentioning her "secret resources from beyond the Periphery" in the 3020s. The MIM upgrade is said to have happened after the 4th Succession War. By then, the Dragoons knew the Clans were going to come. Perhaps there was some intel sharing between the Dragoons and Tribe. It's unlikely that, as speculated here, Wolfnet defectors embedded themselves in the MIM. But what about Wolverine Watch agents? With autonomous cells, they could compartmentalize their existence and use the Ebon Magistrate to facilitate the trading - using the MIM to gather intel about what's going on in the Inner Sphere while the Tribe stays safely hidden.
The Blakist obsession with the MIM ties in fully with the claims that the Word of Blake interfered with IE efforts to track the Tribe and with them destroying the Grand Tour team in "Shades and Spirits." We still don't know if the Blakists were trying to keep the Tribe hidden, or trying to find and destroy them, while keeping anyone else from knowing about them. If there were a Cabal of Zughoffer survivors in ComStar (and, later, in the Word), that might speak to Blakist knowledge and to their motivation, but there's no substantive evidence, beyond the Wolverine Journal, which I'd doubt if it claimed the sun would rise tomorrow.
Of note, the head of the Wolverine Watch (intelligence gathering agency) in Betrayal of Ideals was Trish Ebon. One might suspect that the naming of the Ebon Directorate was a clue. It's not like it was out in the open - the Maskirovka agent had to dig for quite a while before he even turned up the name of the organization and any proof that it existed at all.
Further supplementing "Darkness," another (canon) story from Randall Bills is "Left Side of Sanity,"
which is set in "Unknown, Rimward of the Magistracy of Canopus" in 3065, where Geoff Hawk undergoes an operation to become a cyborg super soldier agent of the Ebon Magistrate. Might "Unknown" be the world on which "Darkness" is set? Or might it be on the world where "Shades and Spirits" is set? It's certainly set post-"Darkness," since the tech on that cube has evidently been parlayed into cyborg combat implant tech.
In Jason Schmetzer's "Boom,"
Ebon Magistrate agents take out Word of Blake soldiers on Marantha in 3071, operating on the "Kill them all" mission parameter. If the Ebon Magistrate and Blakists are fighting each other, then the Blakists probably aren't trying to protect the Tribe (assuming the Tribe is the source of the tech).
Necromo Nightmare - an RPG module by Herb Beas - set in 3072, says
"The Ebon Magistrate is an elite branch of the MIM, with unknown facilities possibly located beyond
Canopian space, and hidden agendas and methods that remain a mystery even to the Maskirovka, the Ebon Magistrate is an amazingly versatile and well-funded organization known to employ its own cyber-enhanced operatives." By comparison, the Periphery sourcebook indicated that, circa 3026, the MAF training manuals were written at the 5th grade level and were going to have to be revised downwards as the Magistracy's educational capabilities deteriorated. Seems like canon confirmation that the MIM got an infusion of whup-arse circa 3040.
Phaedra Weldon's "With Carrion Men"
showcases the Ebon Magistrate fighting the Manei Domini - on Fanardir in 3072. The Manei Domini run head games on Aris Sung to trick him into thinking they are Ebon Directorate troops, in what may have been an attempt to infiltrate the Directorate.
XTRO Periphery indicates that,
circa 3082, the Ebon Magistrate has access to a secret shipyard (beyond the Periphery) used to refit a Vengeance as a pocket warship. The report notes that the Magistracy lacks any yards capable of doing such work. Implication - the Magistrate has access to a yard that either the Magistracy built in secret, or they're using one that an allied faction controls, somewhere nobody is looking.
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So, those are my "dots." I make no claims of "superior intelligence" to make the connections I've laid out, just that 15 separate sources have information that, when taken together, supports the idea that the Wolverines/Minnesota Tribe set up shop in the Deep Periphery beyond the Magistracy, started trading tech for intel in the 3020s, helped establish the Ebon Magistrate in the 3040s, and continued to support the Ebon Magistrate at least through 3080. One of their bases was found abandoned and guarded by Blakists in 3095, and the Blakists were worried about the MIM and Magistrate pre-Jihad, and actively fighting them during the Jihad. Wolverine-descendant influence in the Word of Blake would make sense, but the sources pointing in that direction are compromised, despite containing some elements of truth.
@Mendrugo
I'm not sure cyborg tech itself qualifies as anything of note seeing as various enhancements have always been present in the setting. In fact, one of the few bits of fluff for the FWL in the old days was that a lot of the citizens were bigoted against people who had such augmentations.
Likewise, I think your note about the MAF's old training manuals being written at a 5th grade level and contrasting that with the elite Ebon Magistrate is a bit misleading, because while the baseline level of education in the MOC was pretty poor early on, the higher levels were not so bad off -- for example, the MOC's medical industry is the best outside the Clans or ComStar/WoB, and while you might use that as evidence of dealing with the Wolverines, the fact that they were able to produce educated professionals to staff that industry as early as the 3rd Succession War indicates that the MOC is fully capable of producing highly capable individuals when the effort is made, with those 5th grade manuals simply having been for the rank-and-file for whom a basic education was lacking. So, I don't think the competence of the EM is necessarily evidence of anything.
I will say this though: "mad scientist's genetic experimentation during the Star League civil war" could easily be the result of a 200+ year game of telephone where people were trying to describe the origin of the Clans without any ability to factcheck.
The various references to the Ebon Magistrate go out of their way to indicate that EM prosthetics are on the same level as Manei Domini, which is far beyond the civilian prosthetics showcased in TRO: 3026. Even the Great Houses weren’t so advanced circa 3070 (though the Maskirovka had advanced myomer limbs for their agents, and the Thuggees got Manei Domini level tech from he Blakists.). Given the hostilities between the EM and WoB, it is safe to say they didn’t get their tech from the Word.
The Maskirovka report indicates the Capellans are surprised at the rapid skill boost and emergence of the EM from nowhere. The name is suggestive of Trish Ebon and the use of high tech facilities beyond the Periphery (Left Side of Sanity and XTRO Periphery) would certainly fit “Shades and Spirits,” but those ties aren’t definitive.
Canopian med tech is good, no argument. But “Darkness” explicitly calls the traded data better medtech than the Clans (which includes budding new organs and EI implants, as well as myomer prostheses).
The Touring the Stars series is basically a mini sourcebook, and the mad scientist on McEvedy’s Folly is certified as a Star League era Department of Mega Engineering researcher who went whacko long before the First Exodus, let alone the Third. IE was chasing the possible link to Sarah McEvedy, and saw what they wanted to see.
showcases the Ebon Magistrate fighting the Manei Domini - on Fanandir in 3072. The cell has enough tech to give Aris Sung a new heart after he's been stabbed through the chest.
Your reference to "With Carrion Men" is mistaken, I believe.
Aris Sung is led to believe he is with a EM cell, but it fact it's a WoB/Manei Domini operation who make him believe he's working with the resistance.
Also, you didn't mention the (apocryphal) Tibolt mystery which seems to explain the MoC's resource boost, and may or may not be connected to Clan Wolverine.
(And I like to imagine the confused look on the face of the actual authors and Line Developers as they respond to such fan theories with disbelief, consternation and denial.)
