Touman sizes

[Metallgewitter]

Remember, once there were 800 soldiers in Toumen, and that's not counting tankers, VTOL pilots and infantry. Later came Elementals.

Not quiet though: Squad leaders and also tank commanders were counted as warriors. what wasn't counted were the crews / squadmates despite them being trained as warriors or rather auxiliaries. Something that has more or less vanished from Clan toumans except perhaps the Blood Spirits (having their entire population undergo basic military training) and the Horses having a sizeable pool of secondary warriors thanks to their practice of given failed sibko graduates a chance at a lesser position instead of relegation to another caste

[Hellraiser]

PS.  And Viper 2nd Line Clusters which are all a mix of Mechs & Leg Infantry Testdowns.

[cmerwin]

Remember, once there were 800 soldiers in Toumen, and that's not counting tankers, VTOL pilots and infantry. Later came Elementals.

This is an interesting question, but one that seems impossible to answer from the material we have. If Nicholas's number was originally intended to represent the size of a Clan (which I don't think it was, that's just what he had available), then the founding Clans were sitting on roughly 8 Galaxies of warriors, which is not a small number, and which would have grown throughout the Golden and Political Centuries. I'm not certain that a touman and a Clan were analogous at this point in Clan history, but the question is interesting for thinking about the eventual size a touman might grow in to.

[tassa_kay]

This is an interesting question, but one that seems impossible to answer from the material we have. If Nicholas's number was originally intended to represent the size of a Clan (which I don't think it was, that's just what he had available), then the founding Clans were sitting on roughly 8 Galaxies of warriors, which is not a small number, and which would have grown throughout the Golden and Political Centuries. I'm not certain that a touman and a Clan were analogous at this point in Clan history, but the question is interesting for thinking about the eventual size a touma might grow in to.

The only thing Nicholas ever really established regarding Clan size is that he intended them to all remain roughly the same size, to balance each other, which I believe was in Betrayal of Ideals. That's why part of why the Brian Cache issue that ended up being the catalyst for the Wolverine Annihilation was so important.

Notice that the first Absorption of a Clan happened after he died (and ironically, because he died).

[Hellraiser]

Notice that the first Absorption of a Clan happened after he died (and ironically, because he died). 

But IIRC he "intended" the Wolverines to be an Absorption till they revolted more & it evolved into an Annihilation.

[tassa_kay]

But IIRC he "intended" the Wolverines to be an Absorption till they revolted more & it evolved into an Annihilation.

The point still stands regardless.

[Metallgewitter]

There is the theory that the Absorption trials were meant to basically unite the Clans in case the initial unity breaks. As Clanners are drilled to follow orders and maintain unity  within the Clan it stands to reason that Clans that get absorbed become part of a bigger unity. And following that Clans that stray from the way get sorted out. Though of course the theory is more sound then reality shows (the Blood Spirits being notorious for resisting integration and the hardcore Burrcoks silently rebelling against the Adders by maintaining their contacts with the Dark Caste as the rather obvious examples)

[Alan Grant]

It's really not theory, that's fact. Those Trial types exist so that the Clans have a system for handling a group (whether it be an individual, unit, enclave, planet or Clan) that needs to go away or lose their independent autonomy.  After having watched the SLDF-in-Exile splinter and the Exodus Civil War, it's easy to imagine Nicholas and the others foresaw the need to have game-planned out such scenarios.

But I kinda feel like we've veered off the original topic.