Steel Wolves, Trueborn or Nah?

[BlakesBestBoi]

  Question about the Steel Wovles, specifically during the days of the Early Dark Age, when various Splinter Factions and Secessionist Movements sprang up following the collapse of the HPG network. I adore the Dark Age and am currently painting up a small force for the three factions I like the most, the Dragon's Fury, the Stormhammers and the Steel Wolves. But my friend is painting up a Jade Falcon army for our Dark Age games.
  So that brings me to the question, are the Steel Wolves "real" Clanners? By that, I mean are they born in Iron Wombs and thus considered trueborn? I've never considered this before and now I'm just curious. I get that Kal Radick built the Steel Wolves from those warriors who were willing to fight the Republic stationed on Arc-Royal and from the Crusader factions of Clan Wolf. Kal was a trueborn but I'm not quite sure if the rest of his group would be trueborn?
I imagine the core of his force, the elite, would likely be trueborn right?

[Stormlion1]

If I remember correctly yes the core was Trueborns but the bulk were Freeborns. Most were descendants of Wolves that settled in the Republic and there were no scientists or Iron Wombs in the Republic.

[BlakesBestBoi]

Good to know, thanks :)

[truetanker]

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:Steel_Wolves_Commands

Try this Thread...

TT

[BlakesBestBoi]

Already checked that, it wasn't much help. I can't find much info on this in the sourcebooks I have and was hoping it may have been mentioned in one of the novels or something.

[nckestrel]

From the Sarna descriptions,
The Wolf Lancers are specifically freeborn and are noted as such specifically. Implying it's notable amongst the Steel Wolves.
The Wolf Trap Cluster/Crusaders Cluster doesn't say it's exclusively trueborn, but every CO and aide not only is trueborn but has a bloodname.  Anastasia Kerensky, Jigme Connors, Maurice Radick.
And there's Kal Raddick, Varnoff Fetladral as bloodnameed trueborn.  Katya Kerensky, Colten Fetladral, and Theuderic Carns.
With that number of known bloodnamed, there has to be a sizable number of trueborn without bloodnames yet?
Xera was not bloodnamed, but noted as being trueborn.

[Jaim Magnus]

And lets not forget Nikola Demos, the Star Colonel in charge of tanks who spun off the Steel Wolf Corps.
They had a former Ghost Bear in their numbers as well, Geoff Bekker I believe?

[Arkansas Warrior]

Core and leadership generally trueborn, but the bulk of their membership was freeborn, IIRC.  Though I just checked and Shrapnel Issue 12, which has a write-up on the Steel Wolves (albeit focusing on their later mercenary era), talks about how Anastasia’s reformation of the unit as the Wolf Hunters “was deeply unpopular among many Trueborn Wolves within their ranks, resulting in mass desertions.” Which implies a substantial number of trueborns, since you can’t have “mass” anything without a lot of them.

[tassa_kay]

and there were no scientists or Iron Wombs in the Republic.

There definitely were both in the Republic. Geoff Bekker and several of the actual born-as-Wolves Steel Wolves are specifically noted as coming from the iron wombs, and the Steel Wolves flat-out don't allow freebirths to claim Bloodnames (per page 18 of Era Digest: Dark Age) so we know with certainty that every single Bloodnamed warrior in their ranks (and there are a lot of 'em) is a Trueborn.

I'm inclined to agree with nckestrel here. I think the majority of the Steel Wolves, minus the Lancers, were Trueborn Clanners instead of the inverse.

[BlakesBestBoi]

Thanks for the replies guys, all really helpful :)
It seems that a lot of 'em were trueborn and a decent number were Bloodnamed as well. Appreciate the help.

[wantec]

When Devlin Stone's coalition formed the Republic, certain units were gifted from the Clans to the Republic. Pg 167 of FM 3085 lists the following units as gifted to the Republic at its forming:
CGB Tenth Provisional Garrison Cluster
CGB Thirtieth Provisional Garrison Cluster
CGB Thirty-third Provisional Garrison Cluster
CGB Forty-second Provisional Garrison Cluster
CJF Alpha Galaxy
CNC Alpha Galaxy
CNC Delta Galaxy
CNC Tau Galaxy
CWF Delta Galaxy
While not listed there we know there was a cluster of Hell's Horses gifted as well, I just don't remember the unit. I want to say they were in a Sharpnel story in the last handful of issues. Even without the Horse Cluster, that's 6 Galaxies-worth of Clan units that joined the Republic.

Many of those clan units were formed into militias which were allowed to form Clan-style enclaves with iron wombs, clan-style sibkos, trials, etc. Under the Republic Standing Gurad section of FM3085, pg 185, first paragraph on the page briefly mentions these Clan-style units & enclaves. This is all discussed in more detail in the WizKids Dark Age materials, but has been brought over to the Catalyst-side in bits & pieces.

[tassa_kay]

While not listed there we know there was a cluster of Hell's Horses gifted as well, I just don't remember the unit. I want to say they were in a Sharpnel story in the last handful of issues. Even without the Horse Cluster, that's 6 Galaxies-worth of Clan units that joined the Republic.

The Horses did not gift a Cluster. Some individuals did decide to stay behind, where they likely formed the sole Horse enclave in the Republic on Ruchbah, but the only Cluster the Horses ever had in the Coalition (the 11th Mechanized Cavalry Cluster) returned with the Horses and was still on the rolls in FM3085, posted on Csesztreg.

[Colt Ward]

As others have said, quite a few trueborns among the Wolf, Cat, Bear, and Horse enclaves.

[wantec]

The Horses did not gift a Cluster. Some individuals did decide to stay behind, where they likely formed the sole Horse enclave in the Republic on Ruchbah, but the only Cluster the Horses ever had in the Coalition (the 11th Mechanized Cavalry Cluster) returned with the Horses and was still on the rolls in FM3085, posted on Csesztreg.

I mixed things up in my head.

The MWDA dossier card for Dominic Voeller, Highlander's unique Cygnus, says in the description of the 'Mech, "after the Jihad, the Horses gifted a portion of their troops to the newborn Republic..." I must have mixed that up to think it was the whole cluster.

[truetanker]

If there was, hypothetical, 300 Horse in a Cluster and 298 died, wouldn't that also be the Cluster, considered that only 2 survived to join?

TT

[tassa_kay]

If there was, hypothetical, 300 Horse in a Cluster and 298 died, wouldn't that also be the Cluster, considered that only 2 survived to join?

I don’t see CGL being that pedantic.

[Spirit Cat Refugee]

If I remember correctly yes the core was Trueborns but the bulk were Freeborns. Most were descendants of Wolves that settled in the Republic and there were no scientists or Iron Wombs in the Republic.

As Wantec mentioned, Clans that donated forces were allowed to set up Clan enclaves in the Republic with all the Clan ways of life present.

I know there was a Wolf enclave on Sheratan, one on Tigress, and probably one in Prefecture IX.