Maybe someone here is an obscure knowledge fiend:

Does anybody know the circumstances of the origination of the Clans?
I´m not talking about the in-game explanation, I´m interested in the history of the franchise.

I read somewhere, that the Clans were first supposed to come from rimward, via the Holdings of House Liao. This was changed for what reason?

When and why where the Clans laid out in detail?

The Return of Kerensky/SLDF was pretty much planned from the start, that much I know. But the pre-Stackpole source material definitely isn´t a perfect match to the Clans as they were introduced later.

Am I making sense?

I´d be very grateful to any links to interviews or background discussions on that stuff. Maybe in an old Dragon or somesuch?

The 3050 book and a series of novels was my introduction to the Clan.  My recollection is that they needed to get away from the Robotech "inspired" mech designs and the Clans were all new designs.

And GARBAGE.  Stupid looking and over powered.

God the clans were such a bad idea... they really ruined the Battletech setting.  Blah.

The clans pre-dated the Unseen issue. The 3050 TRO is full of unseens.

AFAIK the lawsuit with Harmony Gold didn´t haveanything to do with the way the Clans were developed.

Tangentially related, but I'm pretty sure I know the first guy who put Marauder arms on a Catapult figure.

Awesome!