ComStar (sourcebook)

ComStar (sourcebook).jpg
ComStar
Product information
Type Sourcebook
Author Blaine Pardoe
Development Mike Nystul,
Donna Ippolito (Senior Editor),
Sharon Turner Mulvihill (Assistant Editor),
Diane Piron (Editorial Assistant)
Pages 112
Cover Artwork Tony Szczudlo (Cover art)
Dana Knutson (Back cover art)
Interior Artwork Jeff Laubenstein,
Scott Rosema,
Nick Smith,
Takehiko Itoh,
Take Kasakura
Illustrations Allen Nunis,
Mike Jackson,
Earl Geier,
Dana Knutson
Rick Harris
Publication information
Publisher FASA
Product code 1655
First published 1992
ISBN-10 1555601030
ISBN-13 978-1555601034
MSRP $15.00
Content
Era Succession Wars era;
Clan Invasion era
Agency ComStar (with Word of Blake annotations)
Universe Date 26 May 3055


Description[edit]

Purporting to be an internal ComStar document with Word of Blake comments later inserted in the text, this sourcebook provides the history of ComStar through 3055, some of the technologies it preserved (and how) and the reason for the schism that led to the creation of the Word of Blake.

The military information from this book was updated in Field Manual: ComStar.

From the back cover[edit]

As the Star League was dying on the eve of the Succession Wars, the House Lords agreed on one final action. At the suggestion of General Kerensky they appointed Jerome Blake as Minister of Communications and charged him with repairing the damaged HPG network. This would prove a momentous decision.

Within a few short years after Kerensky's Exodus, Blake and his followers had seized control of Terra and declared themselves neutral in the coming conflicts. The newly named ComStar evolved into a quasi-religious organization, with Blake as its divine founder, that positioned itself as the keeper of technology and the preserver of humanity's future.

For nearly 300 years, ComStar watched as the Succession Wars ripped apart the Inner Sphere and technology was lost, waiting for the day when they would step in to save humanity from a new dark age. But the 31st century changed all of that.

This sourcebook presents the history and inner workings of ComStar, including the devastating schism that struck the sect in the days following their victory over the Clans at Tukayyid.

Contents[edit]

  • The ComStar Order
    • Introduction
  • New Orders
    • New ComStar
      • Reformation
      • United We Stand
      • Organization
        • Rank Structure
        • The First Circuit
        • Reformation-Era ROM
        • Com Guards in the Reformation
      • Com Guards—Deployment As of 3055
      • The Sol System
      • Relations with the Inner Sphere
      • ComStar Personalities
    • Word of Blake
  • Game Supplement
    • Comstar Archetypes

Notes[edit]

  • The level of in-universe "accuracy" of ComStar varies as the book features frequent interjections from the Word of Blake supposedly to correct the "heretics' lies." For example, page 4's last paragraph has an italicized callout presented in a different voice, stating ComStar no longer represents Jerome Blake's vision, and that this version of the report will have corrections similarly interjected by the Word of Blake. The report's authors, Adepts Nonda Toolippi, Norash Murrilvellthiun, and Adien M'Ripon, on the same page, warn readers to report any such tampering by the Word. Later real-world sources and timelines (both in- and out-of-character) confirm that ComStar's version of events, while likely omitting details, is closer to what actually happened than the Blakist version, but some events play out as the Word of Blake, not as secular ComStar, indicate:
    • The opening fiction of the Second Succession War, Intentions, reveals that Toyama's deathbed meeting with Blake and the reception from him of "the Word" actually occurs as the Blakists indicate, not as the secular ComStar states. Towards the end of "Intentions", Toyama even comments on the rise of myths and rumors around Blake's death and his ascension that line-up match up with the secular ComStar background, indicating that secular ComStar either intentionally used these rumors to demonize Toyama or that they perhaps did not know the real truth of the meeting.
    • Repeated Blakist interjections are made downplaying Toyama's actions and playing up Jeannette Marik's role in the manipulations that led to the ComStar War, that Charles sent her to steal ComStar intelligence and that mind control drugs weren't used. The Second Succession War and the Intelligence Operations Handbook relate the ComStar version, including the use of mind-control drug dilcostat, as accurate.
    • One of the Blakist commentators interjects in the "Black December" Incident that the evidence of Marteen and ROM's involvement in the bombing as false, where Intelligence Operations Handbook[1] and Jihad Hot Spots: Terra[2] back up the secular version.
    • The Word of Blake interjections refute that the ComStar Civil War even occurred, insisting that it was peaceful transfer of power, where the Intelligence Operations Handbook relates violent event occurred after all.[1]
  • The named authors of the ComStar report are Adepts Nonda Toolippi, Norash Murrilvellthiun and Adien M'Ripon, anagrams for Donna Ippolito, Sharon Turner-Mulvihill, and Diane Piron.
  • Wolf's Dragoons had obtained this in-universe document, prior to the alterations made by Word of Blake, on 5 June 3055 a mere ten days after its publication.[3]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Intelligence Operations Handbook, pp. 104-105: "Witch Hunts"
  2. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, pp. 154–155: "Terra under ComStar"
  3. Intelligence Operations Handbook, p. 85: "Field Agent Report CS 34562A"