William Blane
Sarna News
- Bad ‘Mechs - Sentinel
- HEXTECH Review - Wave 3 Brings More Urban Options To Your Battlefield
- Your BattleTech News Round-Up For March, 2024
- Crashing 'Mechs With Jennifer Brozek, Author Of The Rogue Academy Trilogy
- Getting The Word Out With Rem Alternis, Catalyst Community & Marketing Director
- Read more →
 | This article needs to be updated with material from Era Report: 3062, Shadows of Faith, Dawn of the Jihad. Once these titles clear the Moratorium period, or if they already have, please consider revisiting this article and updating it with the new material. |
Property "Update Needed From" (as page type) with input value "Era Report: 3062]], Shadows of Faith, [[Dawn of the Jihad" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.
William Blane (2992[1] - 5 December 3067), the former ComStar Precentor of Gibson, served as the de facto Primus of the Word of Blake following Thomas Marik's resignation as Primus-in-exile. A political moderate within the Word of Blake, Blane also served as the organization's public face prior the the Jihad.
Blane's life-long friendship with the false Thomas Marik all but assured that the Word of Blake would find a home in the Free Worlds League after the Schism.
Gibson
When the nascent Word of Blake settled on Gibson, it fanned the fires of an ongoing civil war on the planet. Blane contacted his friend, Captain-General Thomas Marik (or rather, his double who sent Sir Paul Masters of the Knights of the Inner Sphere back to Gibson with Blane to evaluate the situation in early 3055.
Masters discovered gruesome guerilla fighting going on, and eventually vanished after fighting with the Word of Blake 'Mech lance he had been assigned to. Blane, trusting in the Captain-General and Paul Masters more than in his own troops, immediately reported this to the Captain-General. Shortly afterwards, Assistant Precentor Starling assumed command over the Word of Blake on Gibson and had Blane arrested. In the subsequent chaos, Blane was freed by Masters with the help of local rebels concurrently with the arrival of the Captain-General in person. Order on Gibson was restored by installing Paul Masters as the world's new noble ruler, and the Word of Blake were reminded that they were guests on Gibson, not rulers. It is unknown if Blane was reinstated as Precentor on Gibson.[2]
Blane conceived and planned Operation Odysseus, through which the Word of Blake gained control of Terra in early 3058.
Jihad and Death
While both Blane and Cameron St. Jamais would attend the ill-fated Fourth Whitting Conference,[3] Blane's disappearance after the Word of Blake's initial assault on Tharkad and St. Jamais' increasing prominence raised numerous questions as to his whereabouts. An Interstellar News Network report on 25 October 3068 openly wondered if Cameron St. Jamais had Blane killed to take full control of the Ruling Conclave, an assertion that an unnamed Blakist rejected to claim Blane had merely retired to write his memoirs,[4] while a later INN report on 1 November 3070 raised Blane as a prime candidate to be the Word of Blake's shadowy "Master".[5]
It was ultimately confirmed[6] Cameron St. Jamais had indeed put Blane to death, having him "Spaced over Tharkad" (implied to be on or around 5 December 3067, one of the opening shots of the Jihad).
Portrait Gallery
- William Blane.jpg
At Age of 70
References
- ↑ Shattered Sphere, p. 111 - "William Blane"
- ↑ Ideal War (novel), p. ??[citation needed]
- ↑ Dawn of the Jihad, p. 40 "On the Red Carpet"
- ↑ Dawn of the Jihad, p. 128 "William Blane Missing?"
- ↑ Jihad Hot Spots: 3070', p. 127 "Who is "The Master"?"
- ↑ In an official in-character chat that took place on 10 July 2011, "The Master" answered a question about Blane's fate with the words "Spaced over Tharkad". The veracity of this statement was confirmed in an official chat with Line Developer Herbert A. Beas II on 22 October 2011, who added that "Cameron" (presumably Cameron St. Jamais) had had enough of him. The fact of Blane having been spaced was once more confirmed by Herbert Beas in an official answer on the BattleTech forum, with the added notion that it happened off-camera, i.e. the event was not detailed in any published material so far.