Where did the term "Wars of Reaving" come from?

[Frabby]

Unless I missed something, no actual "War of Reaving" was ever declared under this name. Instead, it seems the name was retroactively coined for the crazy period around Brett Andrews' ilKhan-ship, between the Harvest Trials and the wind-down following the demise of the Steel Vipers.

Who first called it the "Wars of Reaving", and when?

Is there even a clear beginning and end date?

[Kasaga]

From all of the bloodbame reavings as the Clans eradicated several whole blood houses and I believe the Ice Hellions enmass.

[ColBosch]

Unless I missed something, no actual "War of Reaving" was ever declared under this name. Instead, it seems the name was retroactively coined for the crazy period around Brett Andrews' ilKhan-ship, between the Harvest Trials and the wind-down following the demise of the Steel Vipers.

Who first called it the "Wars of Reaving", and when?

Is there even a clear beginning and end date?

That's a damn good question. Is it even known as the Wars of Reaving in-universe?

[roosterboy]

Is it even known as the Wars of Reaving in-universe?

Yes.

“Learn?” Nothing. “I do not know. But I know the universe is falling back to war. War has already started and will only escalate. That regardless of the long decades of Stone’s peace, with the continued loss of rapid interstellar communication and without Stone himself, his cult of personality is fragmenting quicker than the homeworld Clans during the Wars of Reaving.”

“Though no ilKhan has been elected since the days of the Jihad and the Wars of Reaving,”

In the early days, the Clawing required an actual return to Strana Mechty, but with that world lost to us in the War of Reaving, that is no longer possible or, fortunately, necessary.

I will never see Strana Mechty, where our Clan was born. That world was lost to us in the horror that was the War of Reaving.

But the reason we fear civil war, and call it by euphemisms like the Falcons' 'Rending' when we speak of it at all, is that it might draw other Clans into a second War of Reaving. Which could spell the end of our Clan. And maybe of the Clans.”

As for why it was called that...

“During the Jihad a great war broke out among the Clans of the homeworlds,” Senna said. “Over points of philosophy you would find either utterly opaque or utterly ridiculous, if not both. Unless that‟s just me. But the outcome was anything but trivial: a Trial of Reaving, of Annihilation and of Absorption all rolled into one, on a Clan-wide scale.

“The destruction was cataclysmic. Untold Bloodnamed were Reaved. No fewer than five entire Clans were obliterated.”

There was a whole lotta reaving goin' on.

[ColBosch]

Oh, Dark Age novels. *rolls eyes*

...but seriously, thanks for answering my question. I assume the Wars of Reaving covers the conflict started by Andrews when he called for the destruction of the "tainted" Clans and ended with his own Clan's destruction. So stuff like the Spirits' fall is technically post-Wars of Reaving.

[wantec]

Its also sort of mentioned in the INN articles that appeared on the MWDA pages. It can be found under the headline & date of "Narrow Bloodlines: A Look at the Great Reavings, Then and Now, 01/26/3134"

The INN articles are in a pdf on the download page, or you can click here http://bg.battletech.com/download/DarkAge_3132-3134_INN.pdf?x64300

[roosterboy]

Its also sort of mentioned in the INN articles that appeared on the MWDA pages. It can be found under the headline & date of "Narrow Bloodlines: A Look at the Great Reavings, Then and Now, 01/26/3134"

The INN articles are in a pdf on the download page, or you can click here http://bg.battletech.com/download/DarkAge_3132-3134_INN.pdf?x64300

Ah, but that's something different thing from the Wars of Reaving. The so-called "Great Reavings" were voluntary reductions amongst the Inner Sphere Clans implemented in the wake of the Jihad and in response to Stone's reforms, not connected to the wars that happened back in the Homeworlds.

[jimdigris]

To the best of my recollection, whenever a war is in progress, it is simply called "the war" unless it is in multiple regions.  It isn't until after the conflict is over that it gets a proper label.  For example, WW1 was called "the Great War" until WW2.  It was only after the second world war put things into context that it was renamed.

[Frabby]

Yeah, but hence my original question: Who first coined the term "Wars of Reaving", and when?
What's the first quote here?

Re-reading the book I get the impression that the appellation stems from Brett Andrews' call for Reavings on a grand scale (chapter "Reaving"). Calling it "Wars", i.e. a plural term, also suggests that the appellation is about a time period rather than a single conflict, like Brush Wars or the Ronin Wars.

[Kidd]

Might be CDS Loremaster Semi Kalasa, since he is the one charged with collating and producing the report for the six IS Clans, and the WOR book is supposed to resemble the in-universe report.

[JadeHellbringer]

To the best of my recollection, whenever a war is in progress, it is simply called "the war" unless it is in multiple regions.  It isn't until after the conflict is over that it gets a proper label.  For example, WW1 was called "the Great War" until WW2.  It was only after the second world war put things into context that it was renamed.

That's a fair point. Calling something a Six Days War on day three is a bold statement, after all.  ;D

[jimdigris]

 ;D :thumbsup:

[roosterboy]

Might be CDS Loremaster Semi Kalasa, since he is the one charged with collating and producing the report for the six IS Clans, and the WOR book is supposed to resemble the in-universe report.

She, FYI.