[Abe Sargent]

Now, if I were to extrapolate what would happen in the next chapter, the Jihad chapter, if we had one, what do I think would be the natural changes that would follow from what we did?

Well we have a few major changes – an allied small nation in the ex-Chaos March that has allied, strongly, with Word of Blake. How would that change things?

Ummm…

I think one of the best places to find out information about the Jihad and Word of Blake is in the Jihad Secrets: Blake Documents book. In virtually every Jihad book, the Jihad is told from the various real world documents that reflect biases – from letters written to speeches to press conferences and news articles to recorded conversations. It’s very hard to figure out exactly what was happening. But of much of the Secrets book, that sort of writing has been set aside (it’ll pick it up again in later chapters, don’t worry). It gives the non-biased, rational account of what happened, and doesn’t pin the blame fully on Blake.

Word of Blake expected the 4th Whitting Conference to be the 3rd and Final Transfer of Power. They were becoming full members, and expected to nominate Thomas Marik as the new First Lord. They were going to give gifts to the Lyran Alliance and Federated Suns as ways to help them rebuild. They arrived at Tharkad in the Invincible and with some other WarShips. They found and salvaged the Invincible, a Tharkad class WarShip and once the pride of the Lyran navy, from the Ruins of Gabriel. They painted it in Star League parade colors, and brought it to Tharkad. Most of the envoys arrived in WarShips, including Victor Steiner-Davion, who has just led a campaign that savaged the Alliance and Tharkad. And here he is, showing up in a ComStar Warship – many did, so Blake having the Invincible, and some of their own, was totally normal. They also had a naval flotilla in New Avalon, and both were full of supplies, including a lot of military supplies, to help get those two realms back on their feet.

Meanwhile, Word of Blake’s massive armament campaign was geared towards building a large enough military to invade, and take out the clan homeworlds. They created the Manei Domini, a group of elite, cybernetically enhanced warriors, as a way to counter the clan advantage. They added nukes to their arsenal to counter the numerical advantage the clans had, they added massive numbers of mechs and WarShips to give them a chance at taking out the home clans, under the aegis of the Star League, after the 3rd transfer of power.


When the Star League collapsed, and the Word of Blake was left, hanging, and all of their prophecies were lost, they were just floored. Their immediate reaction was to launch warning shots in Tharkad, and later New Avalon, and try to force the League back together. That didn’t work.

So the jihad began. But it was not this planned, thought out, attack against the Inner Sphere. It was a visceral reaction from a body that was still divided, and not sure of itself. There are atrocities where planets are given biological diseases and such, and killed, by the Word of Blake. There are lots of nuclear attacks by Blake. But it is important to understand that this is the fear of a group that has just lost it’s mission, and it won’t be for a long time before Blake begins to fight with a plan and a purpose.

Even then, Blake is full of true believers, who are pushing for the right. For example, take Precentor Apollyon, leader of the Manei Domini, and one of the most powerful, and nasty, enemies you’ll face. Even he is described as without vice, totally honorable, dedicated, and not a thug or somesuch. In fact, there is a conversation recorded between him and one of his followers in the Hot Spots 3076 book where he is asked why he isn’t destroying a world of resistance and he responds that there are 5 billion on that world who never made the wrong decision, only their leaders did, so their leaders are just punished.


So, with this understanding of the Word of Blake’s actions, character, and desires, how would they have reacted to the Coalition? How does its existence play into things?