In my opinion Blake was basically a good man trying to save humanity, making his way the best he could through dark times. It was Toyama who really corrupted and altered Comstar's purpose to it's self-centered and obsessed goals of being humanities savior.
@@BigRed40TECH Perhaps Blake should've given better instructions then. While Toyama would be the one to do all of that, ultimate blame falls upon Blake himself for giving the idea and pushing it. In the end, he set his friend up to become a monster, as well as the one who would get all of the blame in his place when the Schism occurred, and later the Jihad.
@@foenrik8941 I think Blake's biggest folly in creating the Order of ComStar is that he only shared the intention with so few people. He only informed his closet confidant in Toyama, and the head of his Intelligence Service, Michelle Dupreas, correct? It's not hard to predict that these two, alone, would go full Zealot. But if Michelle's Murderous Solutions were counter-balanced with a... Truer Believer in Blake's mission, ComStar's top tiers may have taken a more secular approach and avoid the catastrophe of Karpov's reign.
Comstar is so unrealistic. The golfers of Hilton Head Island would never allow the construction of a HPG and the administration buildings of Comstar's HQ on their beloved golf courses. Not even ROM agents have that sort of power!
It was kind of funny when I first read the Blood of Kerensky series I didn't think that Hilton Head Island existed, it wasn't actually until years later that I found out it did.
To think a man built it all when he came from nothing, Blake is by far one of the most if not the most influential singular person in the history of Battletech. And the best part of it all... He wasn't perfect, he wasn't entirely good, he was just a man with a vision and the charisma to back it up.
It's not even that he had natural charisma, it's more that he was just competent, and was willing to act. That created a charisma that followed him. It's really interesting, but he's not naturally charismatic.
@@BigRed40TECH not all charisma is verbal. His push for action made people follow him is how I see it, and that's a leader from the front lines of bureaucracy that I can get behind
@@BigRed40TECH I agree. Blake himself said or at least hinted he did not want Comstar to instigate a religious war or the purges which have defined religions histoircally. The fact Toyoma went that way immediately tells me all I need to know.
Don't forget that they eventually strip all the religious zealotry from comstar and the remnants form the Word of Blake and start a Jihad in 3067 with the fall of the SLDF, Part Duex. I swear there were missions for it in the initial release of mw4 mercs, but I may be thinking of Mech Assault 1 or 2 for the original Xbox. Comstar under Mr. Toyota (yes, I intentionally misspelled his name. Because fuck that guy in particular...) was already batshit crazy, but the Blakists really turned that shit up to 12.
@@BigRed40TECH I genuinely don't think there was anything else Toyama could have done. He had to move quickly to secure his position, and Comstar's operational security, or the game would be over. Any of those personnel, any of those board members, anyone who could compromise the network would have meant Comstar's collapse within a couple of generations.
I've watched this one twice already. The parallel between Blake and Kerensky is painful! I know the religion was his idea, but I can't imagine Blake would have supported what Comstar became.
It strikes me, that the 2 surviving organizations of the star league, com star and the clans, are not really all that different. There is certainly technological differences, but narrower than what the IS as a whole saw. Each has their founding martyrs, fanaticism, and even a caste like structure, though less so in comstar. Is it any wonder that the 2 phoenixes of the star league, rose above the ashes of the IS, to clash for dominance?
One worships and idolizes the technology from the Golden age, the other is so wholy reliant upon it that to take it away would cause the collapse of the very structure of their society. I feel like both are good takes on the danger of over-reliance on technology for any one thing and the dark things that can follow if allowed to get out of hand and you decide to ignore human nature for long enough
Imagine of Word of Blake had managed to contact The Society (Clan Scientists) and offered those scientists an exit option. Take all of the Clan scientific knowledge and its future scientific research away, and use the existing Society options to wipe out the Clan Warrior Caste. A new set of Clans where the Scientists are in charge, and the Dark Caste is welcomed back to be under control of the scientists. Or at least, WoB providing enough resources for the Scientists to win, but not that much more. So the Scientists are on top of a rubble pile, and need years/decades to build up their new society. The contact would be made during Task Force Serpent, where WoB forces would provide Jumpships and Dropships full of supplies to help the Task Force. But many of those Jumpships would actually be compact-core Warships, designed to imitate a similarly-sized Jumpship. This extra tonnage would be used to hide extra mass and equipment, to give the WoB forces more flexibility. Getting access to a few of the scientists might let WoB build a "Willow Run" style Mech factory. A factory that builds a Mech every hour, 16 hours a day. Have it produce a basic TrooperMech that is a good generalist, in large quantities. 4 Lances a day, ~100 Mechs a week, over 5000 a year. Imagine that sort of defense provided to the WoB Protectorate. Capturing other worlds just means more Mechs for the remaining worlds, so Stone & friends had to attack Terra.
Well there's a good chance that the Manei Domini of the WoB were a product of Clan Wolverine's survivors if not Clan Wolverine's descendants themselves. And half of the Manei Domini's 4 functional worlds have not been found, AND its theorized that they have much much more at their disposal while being able to coopt so much from comstar and the five houses. So we might see them come back just for a chance to fuck the Ilclan. Seeing how the Manei Domini when vs the Houses were...restrained...at least compared to how over the top they went when the clans were on the field.
@@codyraugh6599 That was lies and slander founded on flimsy evidence simply to snap Clan Ghost Bear out of their berserk frenzy so they could work with the coalition. It's based on the WarShip Sword of Blake *possibly* being the WarShip Zughoffer Weir, which *might* have have been part of the Wolverines' attempt to fleet the Clans until it was somehow captured by ComStar, where it *happened* to eventually side with the Word of Blake in the ComStar schism. It's extremely flimsy, circumstantial evidence, but all the Ghost Bears needed to stop for ten seconds and listen to reason.
One thing history has taught us about any theology: you can't control the zealots. Their existance and their choices. And that they are inevitable. No matter the theology. Sanctioned or otherwise. I like these big projects. I always feel I learn alot from them. Keep up the great work. I look forward to the next one.
To be fair, you'd also want to do something about the "Great" Houses and cripple their warfighting capacity if you personally witnessed the madness of the First Succession War and were helpless to do anything about it because Kerensky had a tantrum and ran off. Where ComStar failed was in execution, but the idea behind things before Karpov came along wasn't actually worse than the Scavenger Lords who just wanted the throne of the Star League at any cost.
I think Jerome wasn't any worse than the House Lords, but I think Toyama was not the man to try his plan. He dialed it to 11, when Blake needed it died to 7.
@@BigRed40TECH I don't even think dialling it to eleven was necessarily a bad idea, though that early was probably dangerous. Saying "Space Jesus says I'm right, and I got 9mm of argument for anyone who says otherwise!" was the real mistake Toyama made.
The story of Blake, Kerensky, the SLDF and Comstar would make a series as great as game of thrones, their stories are a true tragedy of good men with good intentions being subverted by greedy people like the houses.
As someone who worked in communications for quite a long time, Comstar is dear to my heart in a lot of ways. Plus the hilarity that would ensue giving some of those companies any kind of power is what makes it really funny. Good work mate
imagine the communication company you work for is suddenly decided to be UN peace keeping operations administrator, UNESCO, and later replaced Vatican.
@@KoeSeer At least if it was like that, some of the bonkers stuff I've been a part of would have made a lot more sense. People sort of assume its mostly just a lot of flashing alarm lights and fixing broken bits of equipment which is more or less the average day. But there's also the critical security side of the business I did for about 12yrs and got wrapped up in a front row seat to watch out of control stolen armoured personnel carriers, police shootings, counter terrorism surveillance , kidnappings, murders, drug trafficking, arson attacks and spent a lot of time in court giving evidence.
Comstar was a must for me as I work in telecommunications and even use my white 7th army marauder and 7th army's crest for my channel. I can't believe I missed this video great run down of their history. Some of the greatest villains yet also the savior of man kind from the Clans. I'm just sorry both they and WoB are gone.
I've watched this twice. This shit made me tear up. I was a president of a robotics club in high school, so I know the feeling of trying to preserve the knowledge and organization so that it lives long after you are gone. I'm definately taking this far more to heart than I need to, but this really hit me where I live.
Thanks for this piece, which contains much lore scattered across a number of sources, some of which doubtless are PDF scans of yellowing sourcebooks. It tells a good story about the creation of Comstar and sheds some real light on why it does the things it does. It was surprising to see the mission creep occurring even as Blake's body cooled, but these things can happen. I'm still not going to blame him for the Wobbies though; they were responsible for their own misinterpretations, and the orthodox leaders screwed up handling the incipient crisis. (I've always thought the Precentor who framed the Gray Death Legion was a proto-WOB who was happy to put the needs of the knowledgeable few before the needs of the deprived many.)
I agree. I tend to blame Toyama more than Blake, even though it wasn't Toyama's idea. He screwed it up out the gate. Not that it was going to be a marvelous ideal to start with.
I was only passingly interested in Battletech thanks to the MechWarrior video games. I had no idea about the depth of the lore behind it. This video and this entire channel is amazing!
Blake: "we need to make comstar a religion to preserve humanity and the dream of the star league" Toyama: "so you're telling me we need to preform technology subdifuge and plunge the inner sphere into 300 years of a technological dark age!" Blake: "that's not what i meant-" *flat lines*
@@BigRed40TECH The beauty of the BattleTech. Everyone probably can find a faction they will enjoy for one reason or the other. Especially when you step away from the memes and get into the source books. "Hey, these guys are actually really fun!" I wasn't that much into ComStar before playing them for, like, 3 or 4 months in a prolonged Tukayyid campaign, while reading about them. Suddenly I find myself a ComStar apologist xD
Comstar's fantastic. I love them. There are so many rich, and fascinating factions in Battletech. Thank goodness we still have the Blessed Order, in the latter eras.
Great Video, it really gives Comstar and Blake the representation they both deserve! I always thought its kind of tragic when you look at what Comstar was intended to be and what it later turned into.
I think my favourite part is where I got to describe the bonkers meeting between the crazy, jingoistic, revanchist board-members wanting to declare war on the Inner Sphere- and Toyama countering them with a completely insane religious awakening. What a total clusterfuck of a meeting, lol. Just 2 groups of literal crazy people shouting at one another. XD
Another epic production. I am not a fan of Comstar as an organization, but they are have a fascinating history. This was a great video. I never get enough of your presentations.
Toyama's task of creating the Comstar Blake envisioned was herculean I do not think anyone could have expected him to succeed but his failure was far more spectacular than it should have been it is one thing to fail it is quite another to fail on such catastrophic level. He pretty much did precisely what Blake said not to do as if he never listened to Blake.
The sins one commits for a goal are easier to see with hindsight than in the moment. When such sins are intertwined with such an organization’s very founding, the founders will more often than not ponder to their dying breath if such actions to raise their organization will also topple it in time or even worse… twist it into something else
Comstar's alive. Confirmed in Elements of Treason, Opportunity. Well, part of Comstar's still alive... The Blessed Order survived the Republic's wrath, if only barely. :)
Define Irony.... A video about Comstar a massive overbearing telecoms company..... then at One minute thirty five seconds I got a TH-cam questionnaire pop up asking if I was seeing too many ads today.... that was oddly self conscious of the algorithm
Just look what Yamata was doing if you've played the original MW5 campaign. Literally destroying worlds looking for Lostech and otherwise trying to kill those who opposed him.
Unironically my favorite faction. Great video. Your rate and quality of content output is mind boggling. Keep it up! (Maintaining a healthy work life balance of course.)
@@EdmondHiggins For me it wasn't even that. I thought they were cool because they were Inner Sphere, but had decent tech, even if it wasn't as good as the clans. Their story really captured me as a whole once I grew up more.
Comstar surprised me...before I read on, I thought Comstar is this giant MegaCorp, using its wealth and power to control the IS from the shadows, y'know, typical Megacorp Cyberpunk stuff....I didn't expect it to be a religious cult that used its wealth and powers to control the IS from the shadows...
Blake and Kerensky. Two people we might need in the true battles to come. Listen well, fellow Nerds! This is an excellent lesson...also well crafted and presented, both in voice and in tone. Battletech rules with 90t of thermonuclearresistant composite :D
Well done Red! This was a great video. Being someone who stuck with Battletech over the years, due to stompy robots, I very slowly immersed myself into the world of Battletech beyond the battlemech. This was a great linking of what was, to me, something that felt like very separate eras having nothing that linked them together. It helped me understand and broaden my knowledge of the "in-betweens" of the eras and made my muddied picture of the universe a lot clearer! Your involvement of Battletech lore in your battlemech videos makes them that much better and far more interesting to me, so having a video that dives so deep into such a rich and storied lore is what made this a fantastic journey for me. Bravo!
I am loving your content! I've played Battletech since I was a kid, played all the major video games, hell played WizKids' MechWarrior minis (man I miss them!). Your videos are excellent sources of info. I love putting them on in the background, doing other stuff, but I'm always learning new things or relearning things I had forgotten. This video was excellent. I never really looked much into Comstar, but wow, very nice, very informative. Your presentation was excellent. I hope you do more of these, with more history and factions.
Ultimately, religion could never, will never go away, gods, prophets, rules and ideals may come and go, but hope in a path to transcendence will always be present in the mental architecture of our species, and what is faith but hope filling the gaps of ignorance and contradictions present in such a path?
Blake on his deathbed: screw it make me a religion Conrad: ........ sigh ok .... how do I do that? Blake: .............. Conrad: well fuck looks like im gonna have to wing it
This is fantastic! I've been getting into battletech recently because my father kept talking about it. We got the beginner game and Battletech from hbs. Now I'm diving into the lore because it's so dang interesting. ComStar was such a mystery to me, I'm so glad you covered it. Such a shame that Toyama immediately nosedived that aircraft straight into the dirt, ComStar could have been such an amazing beacon if hope to Humanity.
It’s so sad to hear Blake as he reflects on the Innersphere and the losses caused by the first succession war. Is it not the peak of nightmare fuel to work you whole life to build something only to have it destroyed only to have what you build up again turned into something corrupted and so ruthless. I know Blake himself was very much for weakening the great houses and burning away the corruption they presented but I can’t imagine he would’ve approved of what ComStar became. In many ways a mirror version of the dark age Catholic Church or Muslim extremists of ISIS who used this faith as a justification for war and genocide. His idea to turtle up in the heart of the old Star Leagues capital and keep what he could alive was a noble intention but like all things in life it just took one extremist in power to twist it to his will. Like Kerensky, he was a great man with strong beliefs and determination to protect the Star League at all costs. And like Kerensky his beliefs and ideals were corrupted by an underling who’s own personal mental instability spelled doom for millions upon millions as they both took a noble ideal tampered by altruism and logic and took it to its furthest extent. I enjoyed your work very much Red. Looking forward to more and glad to have spotted ya when I did.
Still making my way through your Mech Overview playlist, but I'd truly love to see you do videos like this on other major groups as well. Psyched for this year, quite a few games I'm looking forward to, but getting back into MechWarrior and with your channel, Sven's BattleTech Lore videos, Hired Steel, checking out The Black Pants Legion and others making story themed content with MW5's engine? That's all so great, and of course, the Clan Invasion is on the horizon! Sorry for this being long, I just really appreciate you and everyone keeping BattleTech as big as it was in my childhood.
Said it before and I'll say it again! Your channel is so underrated as a source of BT lore and info (not enough brain dead memes I guess). Nevertheless I am very glad that I stumbled across it.
I can’t blame Blake he was left alone trying to put order on the circus that is the inner sphere at least if kerinsky stayed there would be only one circus but instead he made the clans… I mean both of them were right the great houses tried to nuke the innersphere to kingdoms come until they ran out of tech. In that regard Carlyle could be the third worst thing that happened to the galaxy for releasing the helm core to the circus known as the inner sphere but then the clans… the whole thing is a circle jerk lol I love it
Brought this up, saw the length, decided "after work". Fascinating story and well told. The glitchy effects give the feeling that it has been passed around and copied many times...or that something has tried corrupting or blocking the signal. Excellent work.
Wonderfully told, voice acting wasn't bad especially when you got Blake's pain on his regret of a lost life to his service. Quite powerful stuff, well done.
Another awesome video good sir!! Although I was snickering anytime that Blake’s “voice” was being heard. I’m sorry but I was SO getting Tom Hardy’s BANE vibes from The Dark Knight Rises. Not meant as a picking point or an insult. It’s just how you twisted and demented mind works. It was awesome!
Ahh, Comstar. Proof that you can directly cause the deaths of billions, engineer centuries-long wars, attempt to enslave all of humanity multiple times, and cause more suffering and misery than every other villain in the setting combined, and still get lionized and put on a pedestal for winning one fight against some edgelords back in the 90s.
Average Battletech memer and Tex fanboy: "The Capellans are the worst! It's a police state where if you don't tow the party line you get disappeared and they've held back the progress of humanity! But Comstar is awesome, pay your phonebill fucko, get Focht'd clanners. Haha black ops operation goes brrrrr!"
And that’s why I’m a Taurian. Because at least we’re not full of crap. We’ll commit genocide and admit that we did it and not complain when it happens to us either.
@@Skringly to be fair when ComStar defeated the clans it was lead by a guy that killed the Primus and restored ComStar to what Blake had originally intended to be. Anastasias Focht deserves the praise he gets because he’s exactly what Jerome Blake would’ve wanted to lead ComStar. And yes Focht is a great man because he beat the Clans by being humble enough to know he wasn’t invincible and needed to fight smarter rather than harder to win. He restored Star League better than any Clanner ever could simply because he understood the one thing Clanners never will. That great men aren’t born. They’re made through trials and tribulations. They become monsters and then learn to control it. So I’d say ComStar of the Focht era deserves at least a nod of respect. Regardless of what Tex says. And this is coming from a Taurian fan.
@@Skringly sure it's a biased take-away, but you can't say the BPL folks don't put the time in those videos either. To people who don't have access to all of the books, (or the time), it's going to be passed along in that form instead
Great video as always Red! I think my takeaway from this will forever be to hear the voice of Ye Olde Amish Jerome Blake. Far more memorable than the Kerensky accent.
my dream Mechwarrior game would be set at the formation of Comstar or the clan war, both are time periods of great conflict, unlike the near dead period of Mechwarrior 5. oh sure the Kestrel Lancer campaign was ok, but what I really want is to be thrown deep into those time periods, both either as a clanner fighting against the inner sphere, a Comstar soldier fighting against the Great Houses, or a mercenary that can choose any side, heck that's all I want and dream of.
Let the Foundation reign over science fiction for all time. Let it be the eternal legacy of the torpedo builder who did what he did in the hope that the future he was killing for would be better than the past. That the war he was fighting was merely the growing pains of a mankind that would one day span the stars.
There's been no religious war in human civilization for over 400 years..........but we just ended a huge bloody, cataclysmic civil war that left a ruined, utterly gutted Terran Hegemony and equally ravaged Rim Worlds Republic. The Great Houses......Hold My Beer.
Well done, a good listen. But a small gripe would be the miss pronunciation of hegemony. If it was once or twice no big deal but it was said so many times it pulled me out of the story a few times.
You are all misguided, Toyama took the correct course of action. If he had not done so, then Comstar would have died. Praise Blake. Praise his true vision as ascribed to in his books. Excellent video as always Big Red.
Well this turns out to be a far more interesting formation story than I'd imagined. Heavy shades of Asimov's Foundation - whoever came up with all this originally was clearly a fan - but it's a far less idealistic vision of how such a thing could end up going with a far less happy outcome.
![[FULL] RETROSPECTIVE : Final Fantasy Tactics](/img/n.gif)
In my opinion Blake was basically a good man trying to save humanity, making his way the best he could through dark times. It was Toyama who really corrupted and altered Comstar's purpose to it's self-centered and obsessed goals of being humanities savior.
Blake did a lot of messed up stuff too, but only after he became cynical. Toyama really took it too far from the moment he took power.
@@BigRed40TECH Perhaps Blake should've given better instructions then. While Toyama would be the one to do all of that, ultimate blame falls upon Blake himself for giving the idea and pushing it. In the end, he set his friend up to become a monster, as well as the one who would get all of the blame in his place when the Schism occurred, and later the Jihad.
@@foenrik8941 I think you're right, I forgot Karpov. He gets overlooked by Comstar's two essential founders.
He was a little dying at the time to be fair.
@@foenrik8941 I think Blake's biggest folly in creating the Order of ComStar is that he only shared the intention with so few people.
He only informed his closet confidant in Toyama, and the head of his Intelligence Service, Michelle Dupreas, correct?
It's not hard to predict that these two, alone, would go full Zealot.
But if Michelle's Murderous Solutions were counter-balanced with a... Truer Believer in Blake's mission, ComStar's top tiers may have taken a more secular approach and avoid the catastrophe of Karpov's reign.
Sitting here for an hour to learn about telephone fanatics... I'm not disappointed.
Praise be to Blake! Praise his wisdom!
Comstar is so unrealistic. The golfers of Hilton Head Island would never allow the construction of a HPG and the administration buildings of Comstar's HQ on their beloved golf courses. Not even ROM agents have that sort of power!
Most of those golfers, I suspect, would have been killed by Amaris. Problem solved! lol
It was kind of funny when I first read the Blood of Kerensky series I didn't think that Hilton Head Island existed, it wasn't actually until years later that I found out it did.
Blessed be the Word of Golf.
@@lexington476 I gotta try Old Oyster Factory Restaurant. Old oysters? I'll bring my own stomach pump!
I concur, Amaris likely executed the golfers and Kerensky finished the survivors off… thankfully.
To think a man built it all when he came from nothing, Blake is by far one of the most if not the most influential singular person in the history of Battletech. And the best part of it all... He wasn't perfect, he wasn't entirely good, he was just a man with a vision and the charisma to back it up.
It's not even that he had natural charisma, it's more that he was just competent, and was willing to act. That created a charisma that followed him.
It's really interesting, but he's not naturally charismatic.
@@BigRed40TECH not all charisma is verbal. His push for action made people follow him is how I see it, and that's a leader from the front lines of bureaucracy that I can get behind
I feel sorry for Blake. As so many of us say, one wonders what he would think of what Comstar has become today.
I think he'd have been disappointed. Though I think his plan was destined to fail, Toyama drove it into the ground right away.
@@BigRed40TECH I agree. Blake himself said or at least hinted he did not want Comstar to instigate a religious war or the purges which have defined religions histoircally. The fact Toyoma went that way immediately tells me all I need to know.
Don't forget that they eventually strip all the religious zealotry from comstar and the remnants form the Word of Blake and start a Jihad in 3067 with the fall of the SLDF, Part Duex. I swear there were missions for it in the initial release of mw4 mercs, but I may be thinking of Mech Assault 1 or 2 for the original Xbox. Comstar under Mr. Toyota (yes, I intentionally misspelled his name. Because fuck that guy in particular...) was already batshit crazy, but the Blakists really turned that shit up to 12.
@@BigRed40TECH I genuinely don't think there was anything else Toyama could have done. He had to move quickly to secure his position, and Comstar's operational security, or the game would be over. Any of those personnel, any of those board members, anyone who could compromise the network would have meant Comstar's collapse within a couple of generations.
Blake was a good man at heart.
Same as Kerensky.
Both genuinely wanted what was best for the Star League.
"Is a man not entitled, to the sweat of his brow?..."
I've watched this one twice already. The parallel between Blake and Kerensky is painful! I know the religion was his idea, but I can't imagine Blake would have supported what Comstar became.
It's a sad story, straight up. I like to think I did it justice. :)
It was actually Blake's idea to turn ComStar into a religious cult.
@@robertwilkins3167 Yeah, OP already said "I know the religion was his idea". They know.
Toyama's problem was he went too far off the edge and fell into madness. The inner sphere's problem was Toyama could not keep his madness to himself.
It strikes me, that the 2 surviving organizations of the star league, com star and the clans, are not really all that different. There is certainly technological differences, but narrower than what the IS as a whole saw. Each has their founding martyrs, fanaticism, and even a caste like structure, though less so in comstar. Is it any wonder that the 2 phoenixes of the star league, rose above the ashes of the IS, to clash for dominance?
One worships and idolizes the technology from the Golden age, the other is so wholy reliant upon it that to take it away would cause the collapse of the very structure of their society. I feel like both are good takes on the danger of over-reliance on technology for any one thing and the dark things that can follow if allowed to get out of hand and you decide to ignore human nature for long enough
Imagine of Word of Blake had managed to contact The Society (Clan Scientists) and offered those scientists an exit option. Take all of the Clan scientific knowledge and its future scientific research away, and use the existing Society options to wipe out the Clan Warrior Caste. A new set of Clans where the Scientists are in charge, and the Dark Caste is welcomed back to be under control of the scientists.
Or at least, WoB providing enough resources for the Scientists to win, but not that much more. So the Scientists are on top of a rubble pile, and need years/decades to build up their new society.
The contact would be made during Task Force Serpent, where WoB forces would provide Jumpships and Dropships full of supplies to help the Task Force. But many of those Jumpships would actually be compact-core Warships, designed to imitate a similarly-sized Jumpship. This extra tonnage would be used to hide extra mass and equipment, to give the WoB forces more flexibility.
Getting access to a few of the scientists might let WoB build a "Willow Run" style Mech factory. A factory that builds a Mech every hour, 16 hours a day. Have it produce a basic TrooperMech that is a good generalist, in large quantities. 4 Lances a day, ~100 Mechs a week, over 5000 a year. Imagine that sort of defense provided to the WoB Protectorate. Capturing other worlds just means more Mechs for the remaining worlds, so Stone & friends had to attack Terra.
Well there's a good chance that the Manei Domini of the WoB were a product of Clan Wolverine's survivors if not Clan Wolverine's descendants themselves. And half of the Manei Domini's 4 functional worlds have not been found, AND its theorized that they have much much more at their disposal while being able to coopt so much from comstar and the five houses.
So we might see them come back just for a chance to fuck the Ilclan. Seeing how the Manei Domini when vs the Houses were...restrained...at least compared to how over the top they went when the clans were on the field.
@@codyraugh6599 That was lies and slander founded on flimsy evidence simply to snap Clan Ghost Bear out of their berserk frenzy so they could work with the coalition. It's based on the WarShip Sword of Blake *possibly* being the WarShip Zughoffer Weir, which *might* have have been part of the Wolverines' attempt to fleet the Clans until it was somehow captured by ComStar, where it *happened* to eventually side with the Word of Blake in the ComStar schism. It's extremely flimsy, circumstantial evidence, but all the Ghost Bears needed to stop for ten seconds and listen to reason.
One thing history has taught us about any theology: you can't control the zealots. Their existance and their choices. And that they are inevitable. No matter the theology. Sanctioned or otherwise.
I like these big projects. I always feel I learn alot from them. Keep up the great work. I look forward to the next one.
Thanks! I really put a lot into this one, so I hope people are liking it. :)
To be fair, you'd also want to do something about the "Great" Houses and cripple their warfighting capacity if you personally witnessed the madness of the First Succession War and were helpless to do anything about it because Kerensky had a tantrum and ran off.
Where ComStar failed was in execution, but the idea behind things before Karpov came along wasn't actually worse than the Scavenger Lords who just wanted the throne of the Star League at any cost.
I think Jerome wasn't any worse than the House Lords, but I think Toyama was not the man to try his plan. He dialed it to 11, when Blake needed it died to 7.
@@BigRed40TECH I don't even think dialling it to eleven was necessarily a bad idea, though that early was probably dangerous. Saying "Space Jesus says I'm right, and I got 9mm of argument for anyone who says otherwise!" was the real mistake Toyama made.
The story of Blake, Kerensky, the SLDF and Comstar would make a series as great as game of thrones, their stories are a true tragedy of good men with good intentions being subverted by greedy people like the houses.
As someone who worked in communications for quite a long time, Comstar is dear to my heart in a lot of ways.
Plus the hilarity that would ensue giving some of those companies any kind of power is what makes it really funny. Good work mate
Thank you! :D
imagine the communication company you work for is suddenly decided to be UN peace keeping operations administrator, UNESCO, and later replaced Vatican.
@@KoeSeer At least if it was like that, some of the bonkers stuff I've been a part of would have made a lot more sense. People sort of assume its mostly just a lot of flashing alarm lights and fixing broken bits of equipment which is more or less the average day.
But there's also the critical security side of the business I did for about 12yrs and got wrapped up in a front row seat to watch out of control stolen armoured personnel carriers, police shootings, counter terrorism surveillance , kidnappings, murders, drug trafficking, arson attacks and spent a lot of time in court giving evidence.
Comstar was a must for me as I work in telecommunications and even use my white 7th army marauder and 7th army's crest for my channel. I can't believe I missed this video great run down of their history. Some of the greatest villains yet also the savior of man kind from the Clans. I'm just sorry both they and WoB are gone.
As am I.
Thank you, Brother. May Blakes Wisdom be with you.
May Blake's words bring you peace, brother!
I've watched this twice.
This shit made me tear up.
I was a president of a robotics club in high school, so I know the feeling of trying to preserve the knowledge and organization so that it lives long after you are gone.
I'm definately taking this far more to heart than I need to, but this really hit me where I live.
It was an emotional video to make tbh
Thanks for this piece, which contains much lore scattered across a number of sources, some of which doubtless are PDF scans of yellowing sourcebooks. It tells a good story about the creation of Comstar and sheds some real light on why it does the things it does. It was surprising to see the mission creep occurring even as Blake's body cooled, but these things can happen. I'm still not going to blame him for the Wobbies though; they were responsible for their own misinterpretations, and the orthodox leaders screwed up handling the incipient crisis. (I've always thought the Precentor who framed the Gray Death Legion was a proto-WOB who was happy to put the needs of the knowledgeable few before the needs of the deprived many.)
I agree. I tend to blame Toyama more than Blake, even though it wasn't Toyama's idea. He screwed it up out the gate. Not that it was going to be a marvelous ideal to start with.
I was only passingly interested in Battletech thanks to the MechWarrior video games. I had no idea about the depth of the lore behind it. This video and this entire channel is amazing!
Thank you Alex! :D
Blake: "we need to make comstar a religion to preserve humanity and the dream of the star league"
Toyama: "so you're telling me we need to preform technology subdifuge and plunge the inner sphere into 300 years of a technological dark age!"
Blake: "that's not what i meant-" *flat lines*
Blake wasn't entiretly against extending the wars, or undermining technology, but Toyama just took things to 11.
The artwork at 8:30 makes blake look like gendo Ikari
I was informed about this transmission. We are watching. Signed: Acolyte Epsilon IV Nemamiah.
Watch away, Comstar slave. Those who are truly loyal to Blake and his vision cannot be stopped so easily! :P
@@BigRed40TECH The beauty of the BattleTech. Everyone probably can find a faction they will enjoy for one reason or the other. Especially when you step away from the memes and get into the source books. "Hey, these guys are actually really fun!" I wasn't that much into ComStar before playing them for, like, 3 or 4 months in a prolonged Tukayyid campaign, while reading about them. Suddenly I find myself a ComStar apologist xD
@@nemamiah7832 ROM agents have been alerted to your unauthorized transmission. Please put your head between you legs and kiss your butt goodbye 🤣
Comstar's fantastic. I love them. There are so many rich, and fascinating factions in Battletech.
Thank goodness we still have the Blessed Order, in the latter eras.
@@nemamiah7832 the very reason I love Steiner's and Clan Sea Fox, *Money*
Great Video, it really gives Comstar and Blake the representation they both deserve! I always thought its kind of tragic when you look at what Comstar was intended to be and what it later turned into.
Blake became jaded over time, and then, well... Toyama... :(
Your delivery of that closing section was chilling. The video humanizes Blake and Toyama in a way even the books struggle to.
I think my favourite part is where I got to describe the bonkers meeting between the crazy, jingoistic, revanchist board-members wanting to declare war on the Inner Sphere- and Toyama countering them with a completely insane religious awakening.
What a total clusterfuck of a meeting, lol. Just 2 groups of literal crazy people shouting at one another. XD
Another epic production. I am not a fan of Comstar as an organization, but they are have a fascinating history. This was a great video. I never get enough of your presentations.
Thank you!
Toyama's task of creating the Comstar Blake envisioned was herculean I do not think anyone could have expected him to succeed but his failure was far more spectacular than it should have been it is one thing to fail it is quite another to fail on such catastrophic level.
He pretty much did precisely what Blake said not to do as if he never listened to Blake.
Yep, created the extreme zealots right out the gate.
I'm sure Blake expected some political upheaval and murders, but not like that.
Blake's plan encountered reality,you don't get to keep the pie and eat it too.
The sins one commits for a goal are easier to see with hindsight than in the moment. When such sins are intertwined with such an organization’s very founding, the founders will more often than not ponder to their dying breath if such actions to raise their organization will also topple it in time or even worse… twist it into something else
I agree.
The Jerome Blake/Conrad Toyama duo feels an awful lot like Aleksandr/Nicholas Kerensky duo
Praie Blake! \o/ Let the Light of Blake guide thee.. 🙏
May the light guide them towards a future without strife, or pain.
May Blake's wisdom bring them peace.
Pay your bills or get wrecked! This has been a friendly reminder from ComStar 😁
"Sir, this is a Wendys...also, Comstar's been dead for a few decades now, I dunno what you got from Canopus, but maybe take a break, okay?"
Comstar's alive. Confirmed in Elements of Treason, Opportunity.
Well, part of Comstar's still alive... The Blessed Order survived the Republic's wrath, if only barely. :)
So of these voice-over clips of Blake are making me emotional. Damn well-done mate!
I put a lot of effort into trying to get Blake right. :)
You did really well! Voice-over work is hard and getting the right emotional tone right is often hard and you hit it out of the park!
Thank you! :D
@@BigRed40TECH I just hear Dekard Kane. It does fit though.
Define Irony.... A video about Comstar a massive overbearing telecoms company..... then at One minute thirty five seconds I got a TH-cam questionnaire pop up asking if I was seeing too many ads today.... that was oddly self conscious of the algorithm
It's learning.
Just look what Yamata was doing if you've played the original MW5 campaign. Literally destroying worlds looking for Lostech and otherwise trying to kill those who opposed him.
Unironically my favorite faction.
Great video.
Your rate and quality of content output is mind boggling.
Keep it up! (Maintaining a healthy work life balance of course.)
I really enjoyed making it, I too love Comstar, though it's not currently in my top 5, it's always had a place in my heart. :)
@@BigRed40TECH From the moment I saw the 'van wizards with laser guns' cover of the sourcebook, I knew who I was gonna play.
@@EdmondHiggins For me it wasn't even that. I thought they were cool because they were Inner Sphere, but had decent tech, even if it wasn't as good as the clans.
Their story really captured me as a whole once I grew up more.
Comstar surprised me...before I read on, I thought Comstar is this giant MegaCorp, using its wealth and power to control the IS from the shadows, y'know, typical Megacorp Cyberpunk stuff....I didn't expect it to be a religious cult that used its wealth and powers to control the IS from the shadows...
This is some delicious lore right here boy
Blake and Kerensky. Two people we might need in the true battles to come. Listen well, fellow Nerds! This is an excellent lesson...also well crafted and presented, both in voice and in tone. Battletech rules with 90t of thermonuclearresistant composite :D
A magnificent piece of work! Really very well done indeed!
Well done Red!
This was a great video.
Being someone who stuck with Battletech over the years, due to stompy robots, I very slowly immersed myself into the world of Battletech beyond the battlemech. This was a great linking of what was, to me, something that felt like very separate eras having nothing that linked them together. It helped me understand and broaden my knowledge of the "in-betweens" of the eras and made my muddied picture of the universe a lot clearer!
Your involvement of Battletech lore in your battlemech videos makes them that much better and far more interesting to me, so having a video that dives so deep into such a rich and storied lore is what made this a fantastic journey for me.
Bravo!
Thank you!
I am loving your content! I've played Battletech since I was a kid, played all the major video games, hell played WizKids' MechWarrior minis (man I miss them!). Your videos are excellent sources of info. I love putting them on in the background, doing other stuff, but I'm always learning new things or relearning things I had forgotten.
This video was excellent. I never really looked much into Comstar, but wow, very nice, very informative. Your presentation was excellent. I hope you do more of these, with more history and factions.
TH-cam members voted for me to do it. I always do my best to deliver on these videos when they ask for them. :)
Praise be to Blake!
Bear this is your best work yet, bar none. Enjoy your break, you more than earned it.
If only people watched the video. lol
I do think it's my best video. XD
"Tis a fine barn, but it's no HPG." - Jerome Blake, maybe?
Exceptional work Bear. I'm amazed to learn the religious turn was Blake's own, rather than a pure opportunistic take other by Toyama
Yea, it was Blake. But Toyama screwed up, and Blake's warnings didn't even last 5 minutes :(
he decided to pull an Asimov
@@lorefox201 nah more of a L Ron Hubbard.
@@OmniMontel I was referencing Hari Seldon from the foundation series of book by Asimov and how he planned for the dark ages he saw coming.
Ultimately, religion could never, will never go away, gods, prophets, rules and ideals may come and go, but hope in a path to transcendence will always be present in the mental architecture of our species, and what is faith but hope filling the gaps of ignorance and contradictions present in such a path?
Wonderful job. I loved this
One of my favourite videos on the channel.
@@BigRed40TECH I thoroughly loved it. Been listening to a lot of your long form at work! Keep up the wonderful work!
Blake on his deathbed: screw it make me a religion
Conrad: ........ sigh ok .... how do I do that?
Blake: ..............
Conrad: well fuck looks like im gonna have to wing it
He winged it straight into the trash. Poor Blake. lol
This is fantastic! I've been getting into battletech recently because my father kept talking about it. We got the beginner game and Battletech from hbs. Now I'm diving into the lore because it's so dang interesting. ComStar was such a mystery to me, I'm so glad you covered it. Such a shame that Toyama immediately nosedived that aircraft straight into the dirt, ComStar could have been such an amazing beacon if hope to Humanity.
Blake: Don’t quote me boy, I ain’t sayin’ sh*t
Toyama: Ummmm about that
The voice over somehow sounded like Bane to me and thus Comstar becomes more awesome.
Bane, if he was an old man, dying of a genetic brain-illness. lol
Lol. The Word of Bane.
I got a Daniel day lewis as Abraham Lincoln vibe....
@@BigRed40TECH Blake Bane: "No one cared who I was until I put on the robe..."
It’s so sad to hear Blake as he reflects on the Innersphere and the losses caused by the first succession war. Is it not the peak of nightmare fuel to work you whole life to build something only to have it destroyed only to have what you build up again turned into something corrupted and so ruthless. I know Blake himself was very much for weakening the great houses and burning away the corruption they presented but I can’t imagine he would’ve approved of what ComStar became. In many ways a mirror version of the dark age Catholic Church or Muslim extremists of ISIS who used this faith as a justification for war and genocide. His idea to turtle up in the heart of the old Star Leagues capital and keep what he could alive was a noble intention but like all things in life it just took one extremist in power to twist it to his will. Like Kerensky, he was a great man with strong beliefs and determination to protect the Star League at all costs. And like Kerensky his beliefs and ideals were corrupted by an underling who’s own personal mental instability spelled doom for millions upon millions as they both took a noble ideal tampered by altruism and logic and took it to its furthest extent.
I enjoyed your work very much Red. Looking forward to more and glad to have spotted ya when I did.
Wow great video. Love see more on Comstar.
More to come!
People voted for my next faction video to be the Blessed Order, which is next month, lol.
Pay your bills to Space AT&T boys.
All in all, excellent video. Loved every moment of it.
Glad you enjoyed it :D
Humanizing ComStar is not easy. Good work!
Thank you! :D
Still making my way through your Mech Overview playlist, but I'd truly love to see you do videos like this on other major groups as well. Psyched for this year, quite a few games I'm looking forward to, but getting back into MechWarrior and with your channel, Sven's BattleTech Lore videos, Hired Steel, checking out The Black Pants Legion and others making story themed content with MW5's engine? That's all so great, and of course, the Clan Invasion is on the horizon!
Sorry for this being long, I just really appreciate you and everyone keeping BattleTech as big as it was in my childhood.
Very well done. The respect for the characters you spoke of showed through the entire video.
One of the better origins for the setting, so I definitely had to.
Excellent work! I've only recently gotten into BattleTech and your videos have been very helpful for learning about the setting
Thanks Matt! :D
Said it before and I'll say it again! Your channel is so underrated as a source of BT lore and info (not enough brain dead memes I guess). Nevertheless I am very glad that I stumbled across it.
Thank you Skringly! :D
I'm not saying I ship Blake and Toyama, but boy howdy did that man have a hardcore breakdown when his boyfriend finally died.
I can’t blame Blake he was left alone trying to put order on the circus that is the inner sphere at least if kerinsky stayed there would be only one circus but instead he made the clans… I mean both of them were right the great houses tried to nuke the innersphere to kingdoms come until they ran out of tech. In that regard Carlyle could be the third worst thing that happened to the galaxy for releasing the helm core to the circus known as the inner sphere but then the clans… the whole thing is a circle jerk lol I love it
An interesting treatment of Comstar, one of the most influential entities in the BattleTech universe. Well done.
This? This vid is nothing short of a masterpice....!
Thank you! It was a lot of work :D
@@BigRed40TECH it showes, truly. Thank you again for making this, because this is the lore that i havent read mutch of.
@@Drakenfoul The TH-cam members voted for it, truthfully. I always follow-through if we hit our member goals per month. lol
I saw this in your playlist and was looking forward to getting to it. You did not disappoint.
Excellent listen! I just recently got into BT and stuff likes this is gold.
You good sir are doing Blake’s work. Blessed be Blake
Thank you! :D
Why does Blake look like Rainn Wilson cosplaying Abe Lincoln?
What if he actually is Lincoln???
Brought this up, saw the length, decided "after work".
Fascinating story and well told. The glitchy effects give the feeling that it has been passed around and copied many times...or that something has tried corrupting or blocking the signal.
Excellent work.
The glitching was done on purpose to such a large extent. I'd normally not use it, but I thought that Comstar's involvement justified it.
@@BigRed40TECH - it was a nice touch that I appreciated
The best most perfect telling of a great story. MORE PLEASE
Thank You , I enjoy your style and format .
Thank! :D
Your Best video so far Red. Don't get disapointed by the average returns so far. It sets the level of the channel one step beyond.
Oh I know it is. I just find it funny that it didn't do well compared to some other, easier projects. lol
Great video!! Thank you for the time and dedication to put this one together.
Wonderfully told, voice acting wasn't bad especially when you got Blake's pain on his regret of a lost life to his service.
Quite powerful stuff, well done.
It's one of my favourite videos. :)
Absolutely superb stuff!
I think it's the best video I've put together. Which also makes me kinda sad that it's having a pretty slow start. lol
impressive Level of Details. very well done and narrated.
Thank you! It's one of my favourite videos :D
Thank you for an Amazing video
Really enjoyed it
Thank you Brent! I do my best. :D
Another awesome video good sir!! Although I was snickering anytime that Blake’s “voice” was being heard. I’m sorry but I was SO getting Tom Hardy’s BANE vibes from The Dark Knight Rises.
Not meant as a picking point or an insult. It’s just how you twisted and demented mind works.
It was awesome!
Ahh, Comstar. Proof that you can directly cause the deaths of billions, engineer centuries-long wars, attempt to enslave all of humanity multiple times, and cause more suffering and misery than every other villain in the setting combined, and still get lionized and put on a pedestal for winning one fight against some edgelords back in the 90s.
Yea, I didn't cover Tukayyid. lmao
Average Battletech memer and Tex fanboy: "The Capellans are the worst! It's a police state where if you don't tow the party line you get disappeared and they've held back the progress of humanity! But Comstar is awesome, pay your phonebill fucko, get Focht'd clanners. Haha black ops operation goes brrrrr!"
And that’s why I’m a Taurian. Because at least we’re not full of crap. We’ll commit genocide and admit that we did it and not complain when it happens to us either.
@@Skringly to be fair when ComStar defeated the clans it was lead by a guy that killed the Primus and restored ComStar to what Blake had originally intended to be. Anastasias Focht deserves the praise he gets because he’s exactly what Jerome Blake would’ve wanted to lead ComStar. And yes Focht is a great man because he beat the Clans by being humble enough to know he wasn’t invincible and needed to fight smarter rather than harder to win. He restored Star League better than any Clanner ever could simply because he understood the one thing Clanners never will. That great men aren’t born. They’re made through trials and tribulations. They become monsters and then learn to control it. So I’d say ComStar of the Focht era deserves at least a nod of respect. Regardless of what Tex says. And this is coming from a Taurian fan.
@@Skringly sure it's a biased take-away, but you can't say the BPL folks don't put the time in those videos either. To people who don't have access to all of the books, (or the time), it's going to be passed along in that form instead
Comstar, your only choice in interstellar communications.
Great video as always Red! I think my takeaway from this will forever be to hear the voice of Ye Olde Amish Jerome Blake. Far more memorable than the Kerensky accent.
I think this is your best video yet. Keep it up!
I do too! I really put a lot into it. I based the approach on how I did things for the Clan Wolverine Video. :)
You are the best content creator for Battletech, seriously.
That's too kind to say. I really appreciate it. A lot went into this video. I may not agree, but I sincerely appreciate the sentiment.
my dream Mechwarrior game would be set at the formation of Comstar or the clan war, both are time periods of great conflict, unlike the near dead period of Mechwarrior 5. oh sure the Kestrel Lancer campaign was ok, but what I really want is to be thrown deep into those time periods, both either as a clanner fighting against the inner sphere, a Comstar soldier fighting against the Great Houses, or a mercenary that can choose any side, heck that's all I want and dream of.
I think Mechwarrior 2:Mercenaries would be what your after even if its a bit dated
This made me go out and get some Comstar minis.
TH-cam keeps telling me “No stream Tap to retry” please check you back yard for 500 year old pristine white battlemechs
Really? I wonder what's causing that? The video is live.
Yeah I’m seeing that too
Same here
We’re having similar HPG outages. I hope they got my payment.
Same problem as well.
Great video! Loved learning more about one of my favorite factions.
that was a quick slide down to crazy town
Excellent work! I love hearing about Battletech lore
HOLY HELL LET'S GOOOO AN HOUR LONG COMSTAR VIDEO
Remember to pay your bills on time!
Let the Foundation reign over science fiction for all time. Let it be the eternal legacy of the torpedo builder who did what he did in the hope that the future he was killing for would be better than the past. That the war he was fighting was merely the growing pains of a mankind that would one day span the stars.
There's been no religious war in human civilization for over 400 years..........but we just ended a huge bloody, cataclysmic civil war that left a ruined, utterly gutted Terran Hegemony and equally ravaged Rim Worlds Republic.
The Great Houses......Hold My Beer.
You're Jerome Blake sounds like a Dekard Cain Impression. I dig it. It makes me giggle. Video is great though, great work man
It was meant to be that. lol
All hail the Interstellar Pope of AT&T, Abraham Lincoln Jerome Blake.
The most evil phone company in all of fictional history!
It's deliciously evil, even.
Wose than AT&T. I doubt it.
Thank you for the video it was excellent, only thing I had a hard time with was the way you said “ hegemony”guess people say it differently in the us
People don't like it. I just live with it. :P
Well done, a good listen. But a small gripe would be the miss pronunciation of hegemony. If it was once or twice no big deal but it was said so many times it pulled me out of the story a few times.
You are all misguided, Toyama took the correct course of action. If he had not done so, then Comstar would have died. Praise Blake. Praise his true vision as ascribed to in his books. Excellent video as always Big Red.
Excellent Blake voice.
Well this turns out to be a far more interesting formation story than I'd imagined. Heavy shades of Asimov's Foundation - whoever came up with all this originally was clearly a fan - but it's a far less idealistic vision of how such a thing could end up going with a far less happy outcome.
Good Work, Adept!
Thank you Precentor!
great video, I applaud you for digging into what is probably the most hated faction in the game
Great video? Did it work for you?
The video only just went live a moment ago. lmao
Great work.
Thanks!