Trial of Position
Sarna News
A Trial of Position is one of the Six Trials of Combat and is used to determine career advancement. There are three types of these trials.
Training Trials
A potential warrior's life in their sibko can be regarded as a series of Trials of Position. The students demonstrate their current skills and those who aren’t at the level they should be at that time fail the trial. Failure at any of these trials causes the student to wash-out, leaving their sibko to join another caste.
These trials are usually written exams during early childhood with possibly some practical demonstrations. Later in their development, the trials can be mock battles with sibkin, with instructors or mock battles between sibkos. When somebody mentions a Trial of Position, they rarely mean this type since this is only applicable to schooling/training.
The Blooding
At the completion of military training, cadets must pass a final Trial of Position in order to enter the Warrior Caste called The Blooding. The trial involves a live-fire duel with warriors who will be the cadet’s peers if they defeat their opponent. This practice is done in the Inner Sphere but usually with simulated fire, although some severe factions of the Inner Sphere do this with live but powered-down weapons. The blooding is the only training battle that involves fully-powered weapons. The procedure varies from Clan to Clan; for example, Jade Falcon cadets must get past a training cadre of freeborn warriors in order to reach their 'Mechs, after which the trial continues more traditionally.
The use of live weapons for what is essentially an examination seems barbaric and wasteful of human life to those outside the Clans. An accident can easily cut short a promising career or life. It is one of the best examples of how little regard the Clans have for individual life in their quest for social supremacy. However the clansmen, who believe the cause is worth everything and the individual is worth nothing, see this as an issue of rationalizing waste. This waste is justified since some cadets, though extremely brave throughout their upbringing, may shirk or not be able to think and react well under live-fire. The Clan idea is that it is better to discover this in an artificial battle rather than during a real battle where their comrades' lives may be in jeopardy.
Each trial involves two cadets and six opponents in the one circle of equals. Each cadet faces a set of three opponents, fighting each opponent one at a time in sequence. Defeating an opponent earns an imaginary kill. While an opponent’s cadet is engaged they will stay neutral, fighting only when it is their turn. If a neutral opponent is hit, either directly or accidentally, then all opponents become active and the trial becomes a free-for-all and the assignment of opponents to cadets is waived. Hence the opponents can engage any cadet and a cadet can defeat any opponent for a kill and a cadet can even earn a kill by defeating the other cadet in a free-for-all. There are also some other infractions by the cadets (such as breaking zellbrigen[1]) that can cause a free-for-all. Since the last thing a cadet wants is a free-for-all, cadets will try to ensure nothing happens that causes one and hence the free-for-alls are rare.
If a cadet doesn’t score a kill they are assigned to another caste and in most Clans cannot retry the trial. (The Hell's Horses, Blood Spirits, and Diamond Sharks do allow a cadet to participate in a second Trial of Position to join either a different branch of service or a lower-quality unit.[1])If they score a kill, they are assigned the lowest rank of their sub-caste and for every kill after that they are moved up one rank. The first of their opponents will be a warrior of the lowest rank and lightest mass, and each opponent after that is one rank (and weight class) above the previous, meaning that each opponent is a peer of the rank they are trying to achieve. Each successive opponent is also harder for the cadet to defeat since the cadet will retain the damage sustained from the previous opponent.
The maximum number of kills is four. Excepting a free-for-all, the only way to achieve this is to beat your three opponents and have the other cadet surrender one of their kills to you. This has only been achieved by Natasha Kerensky.[2] In a free-for-all situation however, the Cadets are freely allowed to target each other, at least under Clan Jade Falcon. This action, taken by future Khan Marthe Pryde put her on the fast track to higher ranks, at the cost of her Sibkin Aidan Pryde who invoked a free for all in his own attempt to gain higher ranks, but had his Mech disabled by Marthe before killing even one enemy.
A warrior may be required to repeat this Trial later in their career if their continuing ability to perform is in question, as it was with Natasha Kerensky. In the Clans early history, warriors were supposed to undergo a Trial of Position every year to "re-certify", but in reality this requirement was often waived or actual combat performance was used as the yearly Trial of Position.[1]
Promotion
Most promotions are assigned by a commander without a trial, but sometimes a Trial of Position is held to determine if a warrior is ready for a promotion to a higher rank.
A rarer case of this is that if a commander has endangered their unit unnecessarily through incompetence or otherwise that they are severely unfit for duty, a subordinate can challenge the commander to a Trial of Position. This is similar to a Trial of Grievance except the command of the unit is a prize of the trial. The trial needs some concrete evidence of great ineptitude before a subordinate can make the challenge and is otherwise frowned upon. If the commander wins, he/she is guilt free. If the subordinate wins, the subordinate gains the commander's rank and unit and the commander is investigated. This practice is rare though and only occurs in extreme circumstances.
Origin
Andrey Kerensky was a tutor at a war academy. One day he meddled in a cadet simulator fight, fought against four cadets simultaneously and won. Nicholas Kerensky based the Trial of Position on this incident, but changed a simulator fight to a fight with live ammo to ensure fanatical loyalty of the survivors.