Din Steiner presided over Clan Cloud Cobra during Operation REVIVAL and was unwilling to join in the invasion of the Inner Sphere. After the Truce of Tukayyid, Din Steiner became one of the fiercest supporters of ilKhan Lynn McKenna. His change in politics and religion led to what would later be known as the Cobra Civil War. He is also known as a conciliant religious leader wanting better understanding between the faiths.

Early Life

Din was decanted in 3003 as part of a Tongo-affiliated sibko and quickly rose to the top due to a combination of his skill and religious devotion. He was regarded as a potential future ecKhan early on while also being the ristar of his sibko. During his late teens, Din did suffer a challenge to his faith as Khan N’Buta at the time used the Tongo faith as a hammer to weaken other Cloisters in the Clan. This was not enough to change Din’s outlook and future, but it led him to be a bit more pragmatic than dogmatic compared to some of the other members of his sibko.

Din qualified as a Star Captain during his Blooding, with the other cadet forcing a melee during his Trial of Position. Carefully taking heed of the situation, Din picked out the weakest targets of the lot and finally defeated the other cadet. Din Cloud Cobra was sent to serve under Beta Galaxy as part of the 97^th Cobra Guards.

Military Career

Ascension and Glory

Din Cloud Cobra caught the attention of then Khan Terrel N’Buta in 3025 as he led his trinary into a combined arms action against Clan Coyote. This victory was guaranteed that Din would participate in the upcoming Trial of Bloodright for the Steiner bloodname, with the Khan manipulating the Cloisters to allow this to happen. After his victory, Din Steiner was given command of the 97^th Cobra Guards and also serve as executive officer under saKhan Tova N’Buta.

As a member of the Tongo Cloister, Din Steiner was coached into the more refined arts of politics. While not as adept as an Ulric Kerensky, Elias Critchell or Leo Showers, Din Steiner showed great potential as an orator and especially as a supporter, rallying the “lower rungs” to his ideals through both actions and words. Terrel N’Buta died in 3027, leaving Tova N’Buta as Khan of the Cloud Cobra, and he chose the young Star Colonel Steiner as his saKhan.

Leading the Clan

Tova N’Buta was not as skilled at politics as his predecessor, and there was some resentment towards him due to his Star Adder bloodname (even though he was always a member of the Cloud Cobras) and his Tongo affiliation. In 3037, Khan N’Buta was challenged to a Trial of Grievance by a leading member of the Josian Cloister over statements against the future invasion of the Inner Sphere. Against all odds, the Khan was killed in combat, leading Din Steiner to take the lead of the Clan. He named the victor of the fight, Leighton Kathib, as his saKhan to calm down the Josian Cloister and their allies.

During the Outbound Light incident, Clan Cloud Cobra’s Cloisters were generally in agreement that an invasion of the Inner Sphere was a bad idea. Only the more aggressive Josian Cloister was a leading Crusader voice but even with their position as saKhan, the could not overrule the Khan’s own decisions. Khan Steiner made act of presence during the placement Trials, putting the Josian on the front line of their first bid. However, with the poor results at the time and the lack of popularity of the whole invasion, Din Steiner withdrew his Clan from contention during the second round of bidding.

First bit of internal strife

The Quarani Cloister was unhappy nonetheless with the result of placement trials after “further examination”. As one of the largest Cloister in the Clan, they put pressure on both the Khan and saKhan after the invasion had begun to “at least participate in some manner”. Khan Steiner controlled the situation best he could, but in 3051, the saKhan was involved in a Trial of Grievance against the leading Quarani voice, in which Mullah Mohammed Quong was killed. The Quarani Cloister openly revolted, with the masses of the lower caste revolting against the death of a “beloved leader”. Din Steiner was forced to act and suppress the uprising, which further angered the Quarani delegation, which challenged the Khan directly with a Trial of Position, which Leighton Khatib decided to prosecute in the place of his Khan. While Khatib was successful in the defense of the title, he died a few days later from wounds he suffered in his aerospace fighter during the fight.

The Quarani and Tongo Cloisters both believed Din Steiner would select one of their own as the next saKhan in response. Din Steiner, however, decided to support the candidature of the Anasaz ecKhan, Kieran Telinov. His reasoning was that the Cloisters needed to be set apart and tensions needed to be lowered between the groups. While it did help quell the Quarani sentiment, the leaders of the Tongo Cloisters denounced Din Steiner, further alienating the Khan from his own Cloister.

Election of an ilKhan

Generally more Warden minded, Clan Cloud Cobra had been approached by Clan Wolf to arrange the election of a Warden ilKhan after the Truce of Tukayyid, Din Steiner approached Sullivan Koga of the Coyotes to discuss the situation when the two were approached by Lynn McKenna of the Snow Ravens. In a meeting on Tamaron, the three Clans agreed to set aside their differences to force changes in the Clan according to the principles of the three clans, with religious undertones being pushed by the Coyotes and Cloud Cobra.

Originally, the plan was for the three Clans to force a vote between all three of them, but they figured out quickly that a Crusader Clan would likely be working against them in the vote. Koga Sullivan knew his close association with Ulric Kerensky would bolster his chances, so it was narrowed down to supporting both the Snow Raven and Coyote bid at ilKhanship at first.

From there, as the Invader Clans were flying back to Strana Mechty, Din Steiner worked on establishing a political powerbase amongst the remaining Clans. There was some discussions being put forward by the likes of Clan Star Adder which wanted originally to support the Jade Falcon’s bid, but when the Snow Ravens were put forward as a viable candidate, they agreed to the scheme. Khan Steiner was the most active of the political players at the time, travelling between all the Clan worlds to build support for either the Coyotes or Snow Ravens. This is also when Din Steiner started embracing the Josian Cloister as opposed to his old Tonga allegiance, which some find weird as the Josian were generally viewed as a more Crusader leaning Cloister.

As the election time came, Din Steiner was active during the debates and directly opposed both Lincoln Osis and Elias Crichell’s bids to become ilKhan. The yelling match between Steiner and Vandervahn Chistu was expected to end with a Trial Grievances, but the support Din Steiner had convinced the Jade Falcon’s saKhan to not press his luck. Khan Steiner never pushed for his own clan to take the leadership of the Clans as a whole, always supporting both the Coyotes and Snow Raven.

Leadership Challenges

Din Steiner’s next step was to reinforce his touman based on ilKhan Lynn McKenna’s new edicts. While the Cloud Cobras had a strong aerospace force, their ‘mech forces had been weakened over the years, and he ordered the production of new OmniMechs along with the acquisitions of new designs from the other Clans. What Khan Steiner did not expect was opposition to come from inside his own Clan, as the Tongo Cloister which he had left began challenging his leadership, along with the Quarani Cloister who were unhappy that Din Steiner had chosen “the wrong version” of the Abrahamic faith to follow.

While not an “open war”, the internal struggle between the Cloisters of the Cloud Cobra caused some worries. The Tongo and Quarani could not agree and work together to oust Din Steiner, who in turn rallied many of the other Cloisters to his side. The Ka’an and Star of the Magi Cloister undermined the Quarani’s positions to improve on their position with the Khan, while the Anasaz Cloister (represented by saKhan Kieran Telinov) challenged the Tongo Cloister. 7 challenges for the position of Khan came to Din Steiner, who survived each of them thanks to his new OmniMech design he had commissioned.

Fighting the Mandrill Spirits

When the Fire Mandrill destroyed the Star Adder’s WarShip that had come to investigate their actions, the Cloud Cobras were activated in retaliation against the Blood Spirits and Fire Mandrill. This calmed down the religious infighting of the Cloud Cobra as Din Steiner forcused the attention of the touman towards a new enemy. Steiner used the conflict to test his new ground forces and various new ‘mech variants and configurations for the ilKhan. This also put him firmly in charge of the Clan, showing that his tactical acumen matched his political skills.

Din Steiner also managed to improve his standing by becoming friends with Khan Cassius N’buta of Clan Star Adder. Even though he was mostly a Crusader, N’Buta agreed with Din Steiner and Lynn McKenna’s desire to improve the Clan’s culture and national identity to let them properly invade the Inner Sphere. By strengthening his position with external allies, Khan Steiner quashed some of the lower-level dissent in his Clan as he proved he was a competent leader.

Cobra Civil War

While things had improved, the Tongo Cloister remained the most powerful political entity within the Cloud Cobra while the Quarani were the largest group in terms of population. Even with a victory under his belt in the Mandrill Spirits War, Din Steiner faced strong opposition at home. In 3063, the leader of the Tongo Cloister, Jamill Zeira, challenged Din Steiner for the title of Khan in a Trial of Position. As the Circle of Equals was created, Zeira plotted for his and the Quarani in the group to open fire against the others and kill Din Steiner in the melee. As the melee broke out, Steiner was heard yelling in latin and rallied his men to defeat the renegade Cloisters forces.

This was the opening salvo of the Cobra Civil War, which would last until the end of the Truce period. At first, Clan Cloud Cobra kept everything “on the down low”, with engagements between factions being reclassified as trials and “exercises” after the fact. Things would progress “as normal” with Din Steiner claiming Gunzburg as the Cloud Cobra capital in the Inner Sphere and him planning the Small Diet on the planet to try and get the various Cloisters to stop fighting. While most of the Cloisters attented, the Tongo, Quarani and Tsalagi Cloister refused to attend and pulled more troops into their ranks.

The conflict became widely known after the Tongo Cloister captured a Fire Mandrill supply ship in 3061. When asked about the situation, Khan Steiner had to admit that things were going a little bit worse than first let on. Called in to meet with the ilKhan, Din Steiner was expecting to be removed from command, but Lynn McKenna crafted a plan to use the ongoing internal struggle of the Cobras to strengthen her position. The rebel Cloisters were allowed to recruit and hire from the Dark Caste and other “malcontents” within Clan space, which the Cloud Cobra and their allies would then crush, removing unwanted elements from the Clan structure.

The Early Diets

As there was now a “plan” put down for the civil war, Din Steiner moved forward with some of his other priorities. The 3063 “First Diet” invited all Clan religious and spiritual leaders to Gunzburg to discuss The Way and religion within Clan society. The meeting was sponsored by the ilKhan as well as a means for all the Clans to openly discuss non-military topics with each other. The rebel Cloisters were too far to disrupt the proceeding at the time, but they still sent a representative to the Diet. While there was nothing “settled” at the Diet, the various leaders present “agreed to disagree” on multiple points which were contentious and could have caused further trouble.

The following year, Din Steiner convoked the First Grand Diet, inviting both Clan religious leaders and Inner Sphere religious leaders and figures for similar discussions. Even amid the Fifth Succession War, a lot of religious leaders in the Inner Sphere decided to attend. Peace talks and negotiations were also scheduled on Gunzburg between many of the parties, with Clan Cloud Cobra officially guaranteeing protection for all involved. This was one of the first major meeting between the Pope of New Avalon, the Roman Pope and the Grand Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, while it also brought multiple imam and mullah from various “modern groups” together. The Azami people were represented heavily and brought with them anti-combine rhetoric which was opposed by the various Buddhist and Shinto monks loyal to the Combine. Even New Age religions were represented, with the One Star Faith being over-represented by both the Star of the Magi Cloister of the Cloud Cobra and various local Inner Sphere Branches. The most unusual presence at the Diet was Kali Liao, representing the Cult of Kali and representing herself as the Avatar of Kali.

A more difficult Diet

The First Grand Diet was considered a major success by all those involved, and it was convened that a Second Grand Diet would take place in 3066, but this time involving more “rank and file” members of the clergy and religious members. As people gathered for the Diet, things went sideways when a fleet under the control of the rebel Cloisters appeared at the Gunzburg jump point.

This would be the final real battle of the Cobra Civil War, as the Tongo and Quarani gathered their forces to shame Din Steiner. Unknown to them, however, their actions had been expected by the ilKhan, which had dispatched Clan Steel Viper and Clan Star Adder’s forces to intercept them. In an attempt not to lose face, Khan Steiner also had his own Galaxy ready to fight the rebels directly on Gunzburg. The allied forces defeated the rebels while the Diet and its members suffered some casualties. Clan Cloud Cobra apologized for the situation and provided restitutions to those involved. The reputational damage caused by this slowed the setting up of future religious meeting on Gunzburg.

Personal Life

Din Steiner was a fervent member of the Tongo Cloister, but after the Clan Invasion was stuck in a crisis of faith and joined the Josian Cloister as it moved to support ilKhan McKenna. Members of the Tongo Cloister saw this as a betrayal and attempted to depose Steiner over this, as noted above. Khan Steiner has not forced the Josian way on any of the other members of the Clan, but it became more popular after his conversion.

A deeply spiritual man, Din Steiner spends a lot of his free time studying religious texts from Old Terra. During the Clan Invasion, he asked the Invading Clan to provide him copies of new texts which they found during their conquest, to which the Jade Falcon, Nova Cats and Wolves agreed to. Steiner’s work off the battlefield is to find an appropriately “inclusive” reading of The Way to reduce the divisiveness of the Cloisters over his Clan.

Din Steiner’s BattleMech

Din Steiner piloted a Nova OmniMech at the start of his career, but he started piloting an Augustine OmniMech after they started being built by his clan.