Tell me about... the Fidelis

[Scotty]

With the release of ER:3145 and the emergence of the Fidelis as a full fledged (mini)faction of their own, my interest in them has been sparked.  Unfortunately, I don't know all that much about them (nor that much about the Smoke Jaguars, honestly.  In the middle of rectifying that).  I know that they're not the most numerous in the Sphere, and that they're ostensibly Clan descended, and until recently subservient to the Republic of the Sphere.  That's about where my knowledge ends, however.

Could someone(s) fill me in on them?  What equipment do they use, how do they use it, and in a nutshell who are they?

[Maelwys]

They're basically a super secret, super-duper elite unit that's known only to the Exarch (until they're unleashed), and even the Exarch doesn't seem to know all the details, unless told by a former Exarch.

Like the Clans, they're trained from an early childhood, but unlike the Clans, they're trained in multiple types of units. They start out as Technicians, then go to Infantry, Armored Infantry Vehicles (called Jaegers, IIRC), then MechWarrior. After that they're allowed to use whatever they want when in combat.

Their largest mentioned unit is a Century, which is 100 warriors (or units, I'm not entirely sure on that from SyD) plus training auxiliaries, which is split into 2 Battlegroups, which are split into 3 Umbras. Each Umbra is supposed to be about equivalent to a mixed company.

Their background is so mysterious that they have implants that others can trigger that immediately destroy all traces of DNA so if they fall on the battlefield their genetics can't be traced. But not so super-secret that their icon doesn't have a Smoke Jaguar on it.

They feel that they owe the Republic their Service for Stone's actions during the Jihad, and that's why they fight for them. They're extremely pragmatic, seeing the mission as the end all, be all, so they're perfectly willing to do whatever it takes to succeed in their mission, including blowing up full hospitals to drop them on the enemy. They're also extremely antagonistic to other Clanners, committing warcrimes such as chopping the heads off of ejected pilots with machetes.

Equipment wise they seem to have whatever they want, including a WarShip. Their production facilities are unknown, but they've basically got an island to themselves on New Earth. Due to their elite technical abilities, they have a habit of constantly modifying their gear based on their own fighting style and the needs of the mission.

[Dragon Cat]

Tagged I'm guessing there probably isn't much more until the FM but I'm curious

[Scotty]

Do we know anything about their leadership or culture/customs?  A clan-descended unit that operates in possibly the most anti-Clan way of fighting possible is bound to have something interesting in that respect.

[Jaim Magnus]

Their leader in 3145 is Paul Moon, though he only goes by his title of Custos (my guess is that refers to Custodian). 

They have a war focused culture, but do have families, and they seem to breed naturally for certain traits.  So a variant of the Clan eugenics program is apparently in force.

They haven't seen action since the end of the Jihad, until Redburn taps them for his operations outside the Fortress.
'Service' is used in much the same way 'Unity' is by the Dragoons... as both a curse and exclamation point.

Many of their Clan traditions were apparently abandoned on the 'Road of Pain' (IIRC) and the Custos guards the Unopened Book (the Jaguar Remembrance).

They have a deep and abiding hatred of the Clans... which I attribute to the original Jaguars being angered over the other Clans abandoning them during the Annihilation carried out by Star League 2.0.

[False Son]

Their leader in 3145 is Paul Moon, though he only goes by his title of Custos (my guess is that refers to Custodian). 

Suggests a Loremaster type of position.  And Paul Moon WAS the Custos.  He died.

They haven't seen action since the end of the Jihad, until Redburn taps them for his operations outside the Fortress.

They were hiding on New Earth

Many of their Clan traditions were apparently abandoned on the 'Road of Pain' (IIRC) and the Custos guards the Unopened Book (the Jaguar Remembrance).

They have a deep and abiding hatred of the Clans... which I attribute to the original Jaguars being angered over the other Clans abandoning them during the Annihilation carried out by Star League 2.0.

The Great Betrayal.

[Jaim Magnus]

Suggests a Loremaster type of position.  And Paul Moon WAS the Custos.  He died.

The epilogue for 'Surrender Your Dreams' occurs in 3156... so he's still alive.

They were hiding on New Earth

Yeeeessss.  I don't see how that really applies to how they haven't seen action though.

The Great Betrayal.

Ah, wasn't sure there.

[False Son]

The epilogue for 'Surrender Your Dreams' occurs in 3156... so he's still alive.

Alive during ER3145, but still dead.  Can't recall the new Custos's name... Adama?

Yeeeessss.  I don't see how that really applies to how they haven't seen action though.

Just adding to your comment about them not seeing action.  They were squirreled away for a rainy day.

Ah, wasn't sure there.

I'm making an assumption, just like how we assume the Custos was Paul Moon.  All the clues are there, but it isn't directly stated that they hate the Jade Falcons and Wolves because they turned their backs on the Smoke Jaguars.  We know there was a Grat Betrayal and they hate those responsible.  We also know what they did to the Falcons, which is a bit nasty even by BT standards.

[Jaim Magnus]

Alive during ER3145, but still dead.  Can't recall the new Custos's name... Adama?

Adamans.  The group leader/commander who is working with Redburn outside the Fortress.

[FedSunsBorn]

Didn't the Jags loose a warship awhile back? During Op. Serpent?

I wanna say it was their flagship but I don't really remember much right now....gonna check my books for more info.

Maybe that ship was restyled and renamed as the Fidelis warship?

[SCC]

How was that WarShip they own built? And were is it maintained? Those sort of things are kinda are to/expensive to do in secret unless you're building an entire fleet

[Nerroth]

One thing that's worth noting from the recent BattleChat is this:

Surrender your Dreams:
[18:02] <Nerroth> I appreciate that the post-Dark Age setup is not open for discussion, but there was one thing I wanted to clarify; are the events of the epilogue in Surrender Your Dreams still considered canon, or is that glimpse of things post-3145 no longer valid?
[18:04] <@Habeas2> Nerroth - We are not necessarily considering the epilogue for Surrender Your Dreams valid. It would be too restrictive to upcoming plans.

With that in mind, we may end up seeing the post-3145 side of things go quite differently for the Fidelis than one might have been led to expect when SyD was still considered fully canon.

[Taharqa]

One thing that's worth noting from the recent BattleChat is this:

With that in mind, we may end up seeing the post-3145 side of things go quite differently for the Fidelis than one might have been led to expect when SyD was still considered fully canon.

is that why SyD is the only dark age book that is not available as an e-book?

[Dragon Cat]

Didn't one of the Smoke Jaguar vessels salvaged during Bulldog go missing just before or during the Jihad.

It was either at or on the way to Dieron?

I want to say FireCrest (Congress) but not sure

[Kojak]

Yeah, my working theory has been that the Flatus is the old Congress-class Firecrest, which AFAICT was the only WarShip that "disappeared" during the '50s and '60s that didn't later reappear in the Word of Blake's navy.

[Maelwys]

How was that WarShip they own built? And were is it maintained? Those sort of things are kinda are to/expensive to do in secret unless you're building an entire fleet

Presumably it wasn't built by them, just maintained by them. And IIRC, it was mentioned that it was in mothballs, so that should cut down on required maintenance. But yes. It sort of staggers belief. Even if they all are superduper technicians.

And why are we assuming that the Fidelis' ship is one of the Smoke Jaguars'? Isn't it more likely that its a ship salvaged or captured during the Jihad?

[ANS Kamas P81]

Their background is so mysterious that they have implants that others can trigger that immediately destroy all traces of DNA so if they fall on the battlefield their genetics can't be traced.  They're extremely pragmatic, seeing the mission as the end all, be all, so they're perfectly willing to do whatever it takes to succeed in their mission, including blowing up full hospitals to drop them on the enemy. They're also extremely antagonistic to other Clanners, committing warcrimes such as chopping the heads off of ejected pilots with machetes.  Due to their elite technical abilities, they have a habit of constantly modifying their gear based on their own fighting style and the needs of the mission.

[Alex Keller]

I'm curious, what did the Fidelis do to the Falcons? I didn't see any mention of atrocities in the Era Report.

[Jaim Magnus]

Beheadings, massed fire against ejected warriors, etc.  It's in 'Surrender Your Dreams'.

[Thatguybil]

I'm curious, what did the Fidelis do to the Falcons? I didn't see any mention of atrocities in the Era Report.

ER is told from the RoS perspective so it's not surprising that they did not mention those actions.

[Stormlion1]

My money is on the Fidelis being the descendants of the Smoke Jaguars captured on Huntress and imprisoned in the Inner Sphere. They get a mention of overthrowing there captors in one of the Jihad books, not sure which.
as for the Fidelis themselves, in a word: Pragmatic.

[Nav_Alpha]

is that why SyD is the only dark age book that is not available as an e-book?

How annoying is this?! I own all of the Dark Age novel apart from Surrender Your Dreams and the Liao based one that revolves around Danai and the McCarron's Armored Cav.
I'm desperate to get them, but neither are avaliable on Kindle.
Eventually I'm going to have to cave and pay a ridiclous price to buy them via Amazon

[Taharqa]

My money is on the Fidelis being the descendants of the Smoke Jaguars captured on Huntress and imprisoned in the Inner Sphere. They get a mention of overthrowing there captors in one of the Jihad books, not sure which.
as for the Fidelis themselves, in a word: Pragmatic.

I thought we more or less already knew they were Smoke Jags. At the very least there is a Chaos track from the Jihad book in which the players encounter a bunch of Smoke Jaguar refugees during the invasion of the blake protectorate. That plus Paul Moon...

[Wrangler]

I hope the Fidelis become a bigger staple in era to come. After reading Surrender Your Dreams, i was really drawn to the them.

I'm not exactly happy that epilogue for the book was dropped or altered.

I hope they get around doing short-stories about the Fidelis on BattleCorp.

[Nav_Alpha]

I hope the Fidelis become a bigger staple in era to come. After reading Surrender Your Dreams, i was really drawn to the them.

I'm not exactly happy that epilogue for the book was dropped or altered.

I hope they get around doing short-stories about the Fidelis on BattleCorp.

It's been dropped? Where did this come from?

[Death by Zeus]

There was mention earlier of the epilogue to SyD no longer being fully canon according to Master Nuk'em All.

[Jaim Magnus]

Ah, the slippery slope of decanonization.

[JadeHellbringer]

Ah, the slippery slope of decanonization.

Think of it this way. For over a decade, Battletech has had the future already written. While we looked at the end of the FedCom Civil War, we knew what was coming. The Jihad, the Republic, the Dark Age, it was already there- we didn't know the details of the Jihad or any of that, but we knew the basics, and we had a whole novel line for the Dark Age. And now, finally, Battletech has caught up. The Dark Age era is being fleshed out this year, and then... blank. For the first time in over a decade, we're moving into the truly unknown, and it's pretty glorious, right?

Oh. Except that this book again gave us things set in stone further down the road. By this, we know that as bad as things are going for the Republic in Bonfire of Worlds and ER:45, they survive. Levin survives. The wall eventually came down. Small things, at a glance, but it again puts Herb and his writers on a rail. These things are on paper. They're going to happen.

So... yeah. If they re-do that ending (and I haven't heard a bit about that before), more power to them. The future for Battletech is finally ours again- let's let them tell the story they want to write rather than have one handed to them again.

[Frabby]

Ah, the slippery slope of decanonization.

To add to what JadeHellbringer said above, keep in mind the epilogue wasn't really de-canonized. That's not what Herb said.
What he said is essentially that they reserve the right to throw it out if it is found to be too restricting for the writers down the road. But as of yet there's no canonical info to trump the epilogue. There may be at some point, and then the epilogue would be de-canonized. But so far that hasn't happened, nor do we know that it will it happen for sure.

[mbear]

They're basically a super secret, super-duper elite unit that's known only to the Exarch (until they're unleashed), and even the Exarch doesn't seem to know all the details, unless told by a former Exarch.

Like the Clans, they're trained from an early childhood, but unlike the Clans, they're trained in multiple types of units. They start out as Technicians, then go to Infantry, Armored Infantry Vehicles (called Jaegers, IIRC), then MechWarrior. After that they're allowed to use whatever they want when in combat.

Their largest mentioned unit is a Century, which is 100 warriors (or units, I'm not entirely sure on that from SyD) plus training auxiliaries, which is split into 2 Battlegroups, which are split into 3 Umbras. Each Umbra is supposed to be about equivalent to a mixed company.

Their background is so mysterious that they have implants that others can trigger that immediately destroy all traces of DNA so if they fall on the battlefield their genetics can't be traced. But not so super-secret that their icon doesn't have a Smoke Jaguar on it.

They feel that they owe the Republic their Service for Stone's actions during the Jihad, and that's why they fight for them. They're extremely pragmatic, seeing the mission as the end all, be all, so they're perfectly willing to do whatever it takes to succeed in their mission, including blowing up full hospitals to drop them on the enemy. They're also extremely antagonistic to other Clanners, committing warcrimes such as chopping the heads off of ejected pilots with machetes.

Equipment wise they seem to have whatever they want, including a WarShip. Their production facilities are unknown, but they've basically got an island to themselves on New Earth. Due to their elite technical abilities, they have a habit of constantly modifying their gear based on their own fighting style and the needs of the mission.

It almost sounds like they're a super secret Knights Templar or similar order.

Using New Earth as a baseworld offers a lot of advantages as well:
1. Multiple factories on the world. These were destroyed by the Jihad, but there's probably enough there to put together a production line or two. (J:FR, p. 107)
2. SLDF located Fort Noruff (a staff college) on the world. Possibly this could be used as a headquarters or training facility. (FM:SLDF, p. 22)
3. SLDF had Combat College of New Earth on world. Possible training facility. (FM:SLDF, p. 22)
3. SLDF's Regular Army Command located near Combat College of New Earth. Self-explanatory.  (FM:SLDF, p. 22)
4. SLDF's X Corps HQ located on world. (FM:SLDF, p. 40)