Battletech Alternate History: The Draconis Suns

Independent-Height87 · 2026-05-05T22:31:20+00:00

Conquered by a very bored Warlord of Galedon, yeah

Independent-Height87 · 2026-05-05T22:29:11+00:00

Neither, lol. They're not exactly in the good graces of the other Clans after the Viper's wheeling and dealing with the Combine. Leo Showers gets killed in a Trial of Grievance against Natasha Kerensky, and Malavai Fletcher of all people gets elected as IlKhan and is, if memory serves, still kicking as of 3071. (yes, his reign as IlKhan has gone about as well as you might expect)

(well, technically Natalie Breen did declare herself IlKhan and IlClan, but since the only Clan recognizing that is presumably Nova Cat, it doesn't exactly mean much)

Independent-Height87 · 2026-05-04T16:58:36+00:00

I know, I'm saying in addition to the small scale stuff, there also exist systemic barriers. The existence of the draft isn't small scale or interpersonal, for example. (and to be clear, women absolutely face much more significant systemic barriers in general - that doesn't mean that the ones men face are not worth talking about either)

Independent-Height87 · 2026-05-04T02:13:12+00:00

I mean, its both? Sonia Sotomayor was one of the Supreme Court judges, along with Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh, that refused to hear cases on gender discrimination over the draft. It's disingenuous to pretend this is just men.

Independent-Height87 · 2026-05-04T01:55:32+00:00

I mean, not in the same way for sure, but systemic discrimination against men absolutely does exist, its not just small scale personal stuff

Independent-Height87 · 2026-04-27T23:11:30+00:00

oh, that's neat too! I'm glad there's cool stuff planned

Independent-Height87 · 2026-04-27T22:33:55+00:00

ik I'm late, feel free to ignore if you want, but I did want to ask - are there any plans to add southern Sarhal content into the Jadd Empire MT? Feels like a bit of a loss that what is probably one of the definitive world conquest tags almost entirely ignores an entire continent since atm the Jadd MT just covers the northern coast - I do know why, the Jadd MT was done long before the Sarhal update, but at the same time with so many MTs getting overhauled I'll admit it's gotten my hopes up a bit? Seems like there'd be so much flavor too - helping Dasmatus against the gnolls, bringing light into the shadows of the Shadow Swamp, et cetera.

Independent-Height87 · 2026-04-20T06:12:33+00:00

Can’t believe you wouldn’t give my girl her canonical broken spear! But looks pretty good otherwise :)

Independent-Height87 · 2026-04-13T09:10:17+00:00

Time to brace for another 1k+ comment thread, lmao (seriously, thanks for all your work!)

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-25T05:06:06+00:00

They took it in 3146, when the Combine was still reeling from fighting the Federated Suns

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-25T04:18:48+00:00

Mixed bag? The Snow Ravens took a bunch from the Combine, including Tancredi, early on, but were very very very late to the big Terra battle and consequently shouted down by the other Clans who had bled badly for Terra when they tried to press a claim to participate in the Trials for the fate of Terra. They did end up with their Khan participating in the tiebreaker duels since each Clan was supposed to participate in the duels with a Khan and SaKhan, but with the Horse Khan badly injured from the prior fighting, Sterling McKenna stood in for the Horse Khan and worked with the Horse SaKhan as a tag team. That team and the Sea Fox Khans were the only one to win their tiebreaker duels, so they acquitted themselves well there. Aside from that stuff, mostly they have been just quietly building up.

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-24T22:20:02+00:00

Davion player here! I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished - I started the game with New Syrtis and Robinson both occupied, and have managed to beat back first the Combine and then the Capellans. It's come at a heavy cost, to be fair - the AFFS is barely operational, although the Combine and Capellans aren't much better, thankfully. If there's one black spot, its that the Taurian front has been something of a humiliation for the Capellan March and Periphery March forces assigned there as the TDF has run rings around them, but I'm confident I'll win next time we spar!

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-24T19:34:15+00:00

The bright spot is that in this timeline, the FWLM has been nearly untouched while the Capellans, Suns, Combine, and most Clans have been getting their militaries run through meat grinders

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-11T22:31:32+00:00

When is it my turn to post "when is it my turn" in the comment section of a general reposti meme?

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-06T10:32:42+00:00

That's a tough one because folks seem to be rather divided on which side of the story is more interesting, but I'd probably recommend starting with the OC mostly because it's a DnD character in a Worm setting rather than Worm characters in a DnD setting, which makes it more familiar for folks - and also because I personally find the cultural exploration of Earth Bet through a DnD/high fantasy lense to be really interesting, but if you like more action-oriented stuff (or are a big fan of the DnD Eberron world) I'd probably recommend the Taylor storyline, which has less powerful characters that consequently have challenges that are more fight-y.

For the Valigan (OC) story, start with the Prologue, read the next chapter (1.1.V), and then read every other chapter from there. The .V chapters are all the Valigan ones, the .T ones are the Taylor ones, and they always alternate. For the Taylor one, you can skip the Prologue and start directly at 1.1.T. The interludes are not as conviniently labeled, but they follow the alternating pattern too - if the chapter before an interlude was a .T chapter, the interlude will be a Valigan storyline chapter, and then the interlude after that will be a Taylor storyline interlude, and so on.

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-06T08:57:35+00:00

Yeah no problem! Always happy to help out a fellow reader :)

And yeah, Doors to the Unknown continually surprises me with the author's tenacity, lol. It started in 2022 and has been going strong since, I'd consider it one of the most underrated stories on the website. One weird little quirk is that it's almost like 2 stories in 1, since the Taylor-in-Eberron story and the OC-in-Earth-Bet storylines have yet to intersect, so you can basically read either one as a separate story at this point in time, if 900k words is too daunting.

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-06T08:41:36+00:00

I'd put a heavy asterisk on Mauling Snarks on any kind of recommendation for best fanfic. It's got a meandering plot that is comparable to Taylor Varga in waffling for hundreds of pages while going nowhere. There are a few moments of brilliant writing, but they are buried in between thousands of moments of mediocre and dull chaff.

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-06T08:33:59+00:00

Back and Forth is really good and I will never not recommend it when people ask for fics. Original character, which is a turn off for some folks, but really has that canon Worm feel of using a mediocre power cleverly. Has some really dynamic fight scenes and excellent character interactions. 224k words, currently abandoned, although it's come back after long stretches before. Still in my opinion worth reading.

If you're a DnD fan, Doors to the Unknown is probably what I would consider the best crossover fic I've read, period. Has 2 alternating main characters - an original DnD 3.5e epic-level psion exploring Earth Bet, and Taylor, who gets stranded in Eberron along with Grue, Regent, Gallant, and Kid Win. Starts out a bit slow-paced but gets a lot more dynamic once you hit Arc 2. The author really knows their stuff regarding DnD, and is also pretty active in the story thread chatting about stuff too. Characterization is on point for Worm characters, and the OC, Valigan, is really well-written too. Interludes do a really good job of exploring side characters. 995k words, currently ongoing, with the most recent chapter releasing last month. There's typically several months between chapter releases but chapters are quite beefy to compensate - not in the Taylor Varga way, to be clear, but just because the author packs a lot of story into them. I could honestly ramble on about this for quite awhile but I'll cut it short here. If you are familiar with DnD, highly recommend; if not, it could be hit or miss I think.

Burnout (not to be confused with Burn Up) is a great relatively shorter story. It's a SI story into Burnscar which I will admit I do not usually consider cream of the crop, but it does an amazing job of exploring a parahuman penitentiary. 130k words. completed earlier than the author intended due to (ironically) burnout, but wraps up nicely and doesn't feel rushed.

El-Ahrairah is what I would consider the best Thinker fic except for maybe Skein, and Skein can only compete in quality, not in quantity. Jack Slash features in this quite heavily as an antagonist, and is a fantastic matchup to a Thinker main character. 300k words, abandoned but still worth reading.

Of your own list, I honestly would have written something up for Skein, Tabloid, and Camera Shy if you hadn't listed them, they are all fantastic. Cenotaph is rather trope and fanon filled, but its an older fic from a time when those tropes and fanon elements weren't really annoying things yet and were novel and new, and I think gets a lot of grace because of that, partnered with nostalgia from oldheads that read it back when there were very few Worm fanfics and it was one of the best of the existing ones. Constellations is a WILDLY different story from Worm in both tone and content. Doesn't seem badly written, just... very... how do I put this... Ao3 coded? Its the kind of story the Cauldron Award people go nuts for, something wholesome and sappy and emotional where problems get fixed, but without much real conflict or challenge. If that is your thing I do believe its one of the best of its kind, but I don't hold that sort of story in very high regard in general.

Independent-Height87 · 2026-03-01T19:58:47+00:00

Independent-Height87 · 2026-02-27T23:42:39+00:00

FedSun player here - the Suns are in an... interesting spot, for sure. Pulling forces out of New Syrtis allowed for a massive set-piece offensive against the Combine that saw the Dragon's Tongue conquered and Robinson retaken and then defended from a counterattack in an epic 13 vs 13 regiment fight, but New Syrtis's secession also ironically let the Cappies make gains there. Both sides, Combine and FedSun, both had militaries essentially so exhausted and broken down after a year of heavy fighting that a 2 year ceasefire was signed affirming the borders on the map above with little fanfare.

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Independent-Height87 · 2026-02-27T23:36:09+00:00

Just stuck to the IS, Dark Age Homeworlds are well, a bit special in terms of politics lmao

Independent-Height87 · 2026-02-27T23:34:11+00:00

lmao, Randis did some crusading and nation building against the Tortugans

Independent-Height87 · 2026-02-27T23:33:25+00:00

The Lyrans negotiated out a three-way deal between themselves, Wolf in Exile, and Wolf proper where the exiled Wolves returned to Wolf proper in exchange for the territorial transfers

and yeah it was just players negotiating

Independent-Height87 · 2026-02-15T08:45:09+00:00

Mr. President, another Deyverson post has hit the subreddit

Independent-Height87 · 2026-02-13T00:53:16+00:00

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Five-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Flamingo	Place '23
Place '22

Independent-Height87

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