Interlude: Galactic Knight Houses (not to be confused with the Jedi Knights)

I'll admit, I know almost nothing about Battletech, I just started reading about the Great Houses, and I'm gonna be incorporating them more and more into SH50k. I'll be changing things though, to make the Mechwarriors fit into my fanfiction crossover.

NOTE: This is an Encyclopedia Chapter, which means it is dedicated to describing the mixed lore of the Starhammer 50k Multiverse.

Actual stories are only present within Episode Chapters.

This lore guide may also (possibly) contain spoilers for Book 1 of the Wingfeather Saga and has little details from the Great Houses of Battletech.

LORE STARTS HERE

The 6 Great Knight Houses are one of the many, many different military forces that can be called upon by the Galactic Republic's government during times of crisis.

They are miniature empires of their own, bound by contracts that demand they serve the cause of democracy in exchange for a supply of advanced technology and vital imports of natural resources.

Each Great House commands an entire solar system as well as its nearby neighbors, and together, they wield some of the most devastating weaponry in the Milky Way Galaxy.

From youngest to oldest in the SH50k timeline, they are:

House Anniera of the Shining Beacon. Known for possessing more firepower and more 'Mechs than all the other Great Houses put together, and for testing dangerous experimental weapons and equipment, under the designation "Jewels of Anniera." They put this innovation in battlefield technology to good use against the Flood outbreak on Kashyyyk, saving the Wookiee Kingdom from certain annihilation.

House Liao of the Capellan Confederation. Extremely wealthy because of their proximity to various industrial and agricultural worlds, uses their 'Mechs to protect civilians more so than the other Houses. They don't need the Republic's shipments of natural resources, but are still part of the contracts, because they are a strong democratic ally that has inflicted defeats on both the Daleks and the Orks.

House Kurita of the Draconis Combine. Obsessed with dragons and fire, uses a lot of flamers, phosphor guns, volkite weapons, and electrical arc weapons, also rides actual dragons into battle. They are one of the Republic's biggest consumers of fuels and combustible materials.

House Davion of the Federated Suns. Took a lot of casualties in the battle against the Mind Flayer, and got pounded by the Covenant. Still in the fight though, as they were aided by reinforcements from the Jedi Order and the warriors of Planescape.

House Steiner of the Lyran Alliance. Responsible for protecting the colossal space shipyards of Kronos Alpha, the largest gas giant planet in the Milky Way, which has rings 200 times bigger than Saturn's, and is more than 20 times the size of Jupiter. Kronos Alpha is responsible for an enormous amount of naval war material and civilian spacecraft types, making House Steiner's duty especially important.

House Marik of the Free Worlds League. Has more leeway than the other Great Houses, as they can act independently from the Republic and pursue their own interests, often trading with certain marginalized alien species and fantasy races that face prejudice in the Milky Way's dominant superpower. They still aid the Republic in its war effort, however.

The defining attribute of the Great Houses are the various versatile legged war machines that both its soldiers and politicians ride to war: Imperial Knights, Battlemechs, Gundam Battlesuits, and Autobot Regiments. As mentioned before, they possess what could be the most advanced weapons ever developed by the Republic, which can be divided into diverse categories:

Bolt weapons: Firing rocket propelled explosive shells at a high speed

Volkite weapons: Bolts of superheated or supercooled gas, harvested from gas giant planets

Blaster and laser weapons: Focusing an intense beam of light or tight particle beam to deal damage

Gravity weapons: Using the target's weight against it, flinging heavy things around, or crushing things with sheer force

Flamers: Various types of flamethrowers, each more deadly than the last

Auto weapons: Basically 20th century automatic firearms, but more efficient, with more ammo capacity, and with higher velocity

Missile and rocket launchers: Projectiles much larger than bolt shells that explode, and may or may not have a homing guidance system

Kinetic destroyers: Bombards targets with pure kinetic energy, causing atomic bonds to break up

Melta weapons: Microwave radiation taken to extremes, which becomes hot enough to vaporize metal

Plasma weapons: Fires bolts of solar fusion energy, compromising any type of armor

Sonic weapons: Vibrations so violent and noises so loud they shatter solid rockcrete and durasteel

Phosphor weapons: Like flamethrowers, but with solid shot fireballs made of white phosphorus, marking targets out

Phosphex weapons: A cursed radioactive inferno that burns bright green and deep red, which cannot be extinguished by water, extreme cold, or even the vacuum of space

Rad weapons: Radioactive bullets and shells that cause intense poison damage

Darkfire cannons: Uses pure dark matter to obliterate a target on a subatomic level

Conversion beamers: Converts anything it hits into an explosive plastic substance, which then detonates with subsequent hits

Adrathic weapons: Uses the essence of the Big Bang itself to transmit teratons of energy into an incredibly small area, more than enough power to destroy a planet used on a single, human sized target

Helfrost weapons: Splashes liquid nitrogen and frozen methane gas all over the enemy, freezing them so hard they shatter like glass

Galvanic weapons: Solid shot projectile weapons that run on a powerful battery instead of gunpowder

Railguns and coilguns: Uses a power station or reactor to generate immense amounts of energy, in order to create sufficient electromagnetic force to hurl a massive solid projectile at ridiculous speeds (up to 4 percent of the speed of light)

So needless to say, there are some pretty absurd armaments in the Great Houses' arsenals, which are seen NOWHERE ELSE.

As for the inhabitants of these semi-independent states, most of the people living in Mechwarrior space are humans, but there are significant populations of other sentient species within their borders too.

Wookiees, Twi'leks, Sangheili, Unggoy, Tau, Eldar, Githyanki, and Minotaurs are the most dominant aliens here.

Aliens rarely have a chance to pilot a 'Mech into battle, as they often face prejudice within Great House society, (with the exception of House Marik,) but many of them are at least lucky enough to serve as squires, advisors and assistants for Mechwarriors.

Alien species often make up considerable portions of the Great Houses' footsoldiers, too.

Lastly, the cultures of the Great Houses, just like in Battletech canon, are inspired by real-world nations.

House Liao is Space China, House Anniera is Space USA, House Davion is Space British Isles, House Kurita is Space Japan, House Steiner is Space Scandinavia, Belgium, and Germany, and House Marik takes elements from Yugoslavia, Austria-Hungary, AND the USA.