Because I never found an answer anywhere I have to ask here:
What kind of Trials can be refused on what grounds? For example I know that a Trial of Refusal cannot be refuse, at least I think I read about that somewhere ???. But what about a Trial of Possession? Or the others?
With the right justification, pretty much any trial can be refused. For example, the Great Refusal, in which the Inner Sphere refused the invasion, was itself refused/overturned by unanimous vote in the Grand Council.
What happens when the bidding for a trial simply stalls because one side doesn't go lower, cut down or not, under any circumstances? Let's say when Clan Steel Viper announced a trial for the possession of the agri dome on Hellgate against Clan Snow Raven and the Snow Ravens think "****** these ******" bet a whole Naval Star, knowing the Vipers have only a jumpship and a naval point, and don't go lower because the agri dome on that planet is that important ...
Honour. Your example shows an extreme lack of honour that would not be accepted by Clan society, and get the offending Clan (Snow Ravens in this case) censured. The whole concept of the trial system is to make fights as even as possible. That's why things became so chaotic during the Wars of Reaving, trials were thrown out the window.
How do production rights work? Or patents in that case? Clan Wolf for example defended their production right of the Dire Wolf ferociously after it was stolen by the SJ. And as far as I know there was something similar with the Timber Wolf. So what would happen if Clan X started to produce Clan Y mech after they reverse engineered it? I mean the TW 2, 3 and 4 where produced by DS and not Wolf ...
In sneaky Diamond Shark/Sea Fox fashion ;) The Timber Wolf 2, 3, 4 are NOT the Timber Wolf 1. Production rights can be varied. They can be exclusive to a Clan, that Clan can lose total or limited rights in a trial, or trade them away for something else they want.
A good example is the elemental. The Wolves and Horses fought a trial over the elemental suit in the early days of the Clans. They Horses, who wanted the suit, gained some to work with. The Wolves, who wanted the Horses infantry phenotype (later the Elemental) also got what they wanted. Trade disguised as combat.
AuntyEdit: And how the hell do you declare a Bloodname exclusive? Does that mean that Bloodname can't be competed for by other Clans? Can't be the goal of a Trial of Possession by other Clans?
Each Clan originally controlled 40 bloodnames exclusively, these were the founding lines. Over time some were eliminated (annihilated), determined to be underperforming (reaved), or in such demand that they were fought over by other Clans. Exclusive control means one Clan controls who can use the 25 bloodrights allowed per bloodname: who wins them and who gets to breed them.
Bloodrights and 'spawn' can be fought for as the object of a trial. Clans often fight for limited use of another Clans genetic material to refresh their own genepool. In such a case, the captured genes are used as genefather. Bloodnames are tracked via genemother. So a Mattlov (genefather)/Roshak (genemother) warrior can ONLY compete for a Roshak bloodname.
Then, Clans can fight for the 'spawn' of a warrior or line, which grants them the right to use those genes as genemother. Assuming one or more of those children grow to become warriors, they can then fight in a bloodname trial for the name they have rights to. Chances are they'd have to win a grand melee, because they wouldn't be sponsored by a bloodnamed warrior of an opposing Clan. Assuming they were to win both the grand melee, and the five rounds of competition in the bloodname trial, they have now won their bloodname. This in theory makes the bloodname non-exclusive (controlled by more than one Clan) but it usually takes several generations of this before it sticks.
Hope that helps! And don't worry, others will chime in soon enough.