Martians

**Martians**, known also as *Dusters*, are born and raised on Mars, the Red Planet. Amidst barren wastes of sand and rocky canyons, those descended from the best, brightest, and most ambitious colonists Earth had to offer, or settlers who made the trip with nothing to lose, strive to turn a rock into a garden. Terraforming the planet goes slowly, but not a soul lives on Mars that does not work towards that dream in some way, shape, or form.

Martian culture is often considered lacking compared to Earth, due simply to the relatively short period of time that the colony has existed for. Unlike Belters, their ethnicities are often less diverse, as the majority of original settlers came from the North American and European trade zones. Natural selection and a lessened gravity mean Martians frequently have less muscle mass and bone density compared to Earthers, leaving them slender and taller than Earth norms, though not unusually so (in contrast to Belters). Hormone treatments for better health in lower gravity are widely available to most on Mars.

## Origin Variants

### Colonist

From the expansive Mariner Valley and the maze-like underground city built along the sides of its canyons stretching for kilometres, to the scattered towns and military bases on the slopes of Olympus Mons, to the sprawling metropolises of Londres Nova and Dhanbad Nova, most Martians live in the great cities of the Red Planet, most of which were founded early on by the original settlers. These cities are fed by farms which grow crops in soil carefully cultured from dirt and organisms drawn from Earth, either naturally selected over hundreds of years or otherwise meticulously crafted in planetside laboratories. They’re watered by melted water from deep under the surface or piped in from the polar ice caps, but this is a paltry harvest compared to the fare on Earth or even on Ganymede. Few Martians eat fresh food, but despite this, they enjoy restaurants with some regularity, gorging themselves on a dizzyingly ethnic palate from their old Terran cultures from a planet many have never seen and many more despise.

City-dwelling Martians spend their entire lives inside domed cities and tunnels underneath the surface of Mars, not experiencing the vastness of space the way that Belters do, or the open sky like Earthers do. Generations spent in the underground cities and tunnels of Mars means many such Martians suffer from agoraphobia, an overwhelming fear of open spaces.

* *Origin Bonus: +1 TECH, +1 INT*

### Duster

Though "Duster" is considered by some as a derogatory term, those Martians who live outside the main city clusters embrace the term fully. These people are usually descendants of the later generations of colonists, those who fled the Third World War, or those who simply tried to find a new life in a planet that could take them. Unlike many of the original settlers, these people were not scientists or academics, but they were hardy and resilient nonetheless. They found their place in the wastes of Mars and learnt to carve out a life in the extraordinarily harsh environments they call home.

Like the lands they inhabit, Dusters are stubborn and tough. They find no use in the comfortable life of an underground city, and instead live in portable homes travelling across the sand and rocks, bartering and trading with other Dusters as they go. Their main sources of income come from mining metal on the slopes of Olympus Mons and beyond, usually via portable drills on their mobile bases.

* *Origin Bonus: +1 BODY, +1 WILL*