Atlas der Inneren Sphäre

Note: The title of this book is uncertain as it remains unclear whether the "3031 A.D." suffix is part of the title. This article was named after the most common reference to this book.

The BattleTech sourcebook Atlas der Inneren Sphäre (German, "Atlas of the Inner Sphere"), suffix: 3031 A.D. is an original German publication by Fantasy Productions (FanPro), the publisher of German BattleTech products and license holder of the BattleTech brand. It was never translated into or published in another language, although much of its content is taken from previous (english) publications.

Content

The book is essentially a compilation of planet and system data. It names the following publications as its primary sources:

• House Steiner
• House Kurita
• House Davion
• House Liao
• House Marik
• The Star League
• The Periphery
• Objective Raids
• Hot Spots
• Decision at Thunder Rift

The Atlas, presented as a ComStar document, provides complete map coverage for the entire Inner Sphere and some parts of the Periphery on 6 single-sided and 22 double-sided fold-out maps that overlap at the edges. It is organized by dividing the map into 28 sectors labelled A through Z2 (including M1, M2, Y1, Y2, Z1 and Z2) that form a clockwise outwards spiral from Sector A which is centered on Terra. Sector B is coreward of Sector A and Sector Z2 covers the outer (coreward) fringes of the Free Rasalhague Republic and the Draconis Combine's Albiero, Bjarred and Qandahar prefectures.

The maps are credited as original work by German author Reinhold Mai, based on data from the aforementioned sources. They include political boundaries as of 3031 and capital worlds are marked differently. Small icons denote production facilities for BattleMechs and Aerospace Fighters (also indicating wether light, medium, heavy or assault class units are built), DropShips, JumpShips, vehicles or other generic industry.

The maps are not always accurate. They omit several systems which were not yet written into the BattleTech universe and accordingly were not covered by the primary sources when the maps were drawn; in-universe it can be assumed that ComStar overlooked or deliberately omitted them. Similarly, the placement of industry icons is somewhat arbitrary. Terra, for example, has no industry icons at all attached to it in the atlas.

Where planetary information was available from the primary sources it has been translated and reproduced in the atlas. The introduction explicitly notes that only colonized worlds are included

As a German publication, the Atlas uses the German names for the worlds in cases where the original (english) name was translated into German. Confusingly, not all names were translated in the German edition though and some retained their english names. Other names were changed without translating them in the process; these include:

• correcting the spellling of Gotterdammerung to "Götterdämmerung"
• changing the presumably mistaken but canonical spelling of Heiligendreuz to "Heiligenkreuz"
• renaming the Capellan Confederation world Sakhalin to "Sachalin" (while leaving the Lyran Commonwealth world of the same name unchanged)

The last eight pages contain a rundown of all worlds, sorted alphabetically, complete with their political affiliation, map sector, and X and Y coordinates relative to Terra.

Canonicity

Although an official product that was made under a valid license, the book does not meet the criteria for canon because it was never published in English. As a consequence, it does not contribute canon even where it provides original information. It should be noted, however, that most information contained within the book was taken from primary sources which are themselves canonical.