Mars

**Mars**, also known as "The Red Planet," is the first and greatest colony of the Holy Psdonia Empire located in the Wiki Universe. Mars is also the homeworld of the Sorcerer Guild and the birthplace of the Warped Pera subspecies.

## History

Mars is the twin planet of Earth. Psdonia would claim Mars, becoming the first planet to be terraformed and colonized. The colony thrived for a time, and it soon developed into a center of culture and scientific advancement.

## Geography

Before being terraformed, Mars in primordial time was all desert, absent of surface water and breathable oxygen. Now it has a fully terraformed atmosphere and ecosystems very similar to that of Earth including jungles, deserts and swamps.

## Flora and Fauna

There was no life native to the planet when the Psdonian settlers arrived, but now it teems with life both botanical and zoological, all introduced to the environment. A number of them are leftovers from the time of Sezonian rule, descendants of genetically engineered dinosaurs such as the Velighterraptor, a theropod with acidic saliva that was the major predator on the planet, and the Trilightertops, a herbivorous ceratopsid which could shoot beams of light out of their horns. Some new variants have been produced, having diverged from the rest through natural selection and adaptation. The arboreal Jungle Lurker and desert-dwelling Sandrunner are prime examples of this process. The mutating influence of the Warp has produced its share of bizarre creatures and anomalies.

### Martian Flora

* **Martian Melon**: A type of bittersweet-tasting melon that can be commonly found growing in the jungle.
* **Dinonip**: Herbaceous plant that is named for as the intense attraction saurian animals have towards it.
* **Martian Jaw Snapper**: A large carnivorous plant that has evolved sharpened spikes for teeth.
* **Dinospike**: An imposing plant similar to a fern that while harmless by itself, with the right ingredients can be turned into a fatal poison.
* **Pearl’s Jewel**: Named after the ruler of Mars, a flowering bush that produces sweet fruit that prefers rain abundant areas.
* **Martian Swamp Blossom**: A water-loving pink flower that grows in the damp soil of Mars' wetlands.

### Martian Fauna

* **Toothjaw**: A surly jungle-dwelling crocodilian predator and scavenger, well-adapted to life prowling leaf litter-chocked forest floor.
* **Jungle Lurker**: Quadruped, carnivorous reptiles that are agile arboreal predators that can bound from one branch to another, they sometimes cover several miles without touching the ground.
* **Feathered Devil**: A large feathered raptor-like theropod, ferocious hunters that have sharp claws, talons and razor sharp teeth used to shred their prey to pieces.
* **Greenback Top**: A highly specialized descendant of the Trilightertops, that has entered into a symbiotic relationship with flora of the jungle. Patches of moss, small nurseries of trees and other vegetation grow across its back.
* **Isyadon**: Medium sized theropod dinosaur with a pair of retractable frills that line either side of its head, which are bright and vividly colorful in appearance and is used to disorient both predators and prey.
* **Mountain Top**: Tough, mountain-dwelling ceratop that eats subalpine vegetation but avoids the thick forest.
* **Sandrunner**: A lithe omnivorous theropod that is at home in the arid deserts, extremely fast and nimble.
* **Venom Tooth**: Tiny, carnivorous dinosaur that hunts in packs and employ venomous bites that weaken their victims.
* **Nasaldon**: Large predatory theropod with a complex nasal glands which allows them to track down prey for hundreds of miles.
* **Martian Swamp Mamba**: A large breed of snake native to wetlands. It is able to bring down even the largest prey with a single bite.
* **Red Dune Viper**: Venomous, nocturnal serpent that is endemic to the deserts.
* **Scarlet Deathstinger**: A scarlet-colored desert dwelling scorpion that is extremely deadly.
* **Salamandon**: Predatory, amphibious reptile that lurks within the swamplands of the Martian jungles. They have a unique means of catching their prey: spitting a burst of highly corrosive and flammable liquid from their stomach that burns prey alive, before devouring them.
* **Plateosaur**: A species of heavily armored herbivorous dinosaur that is covered with a near impregnable hide that protects this ankylosaur-like creature from most carnivores.
* **Inax**: Massive, dangerous amphibian that is a ambush predator that lurks in weed-choked swamps, taking anything small enough to fit into its mouth.
* **Fishaus**: A small wading theropod that has developed into a specialized fisher native to wetlands.
* **Opillcos**: Slender eel-like fish with long fan like tendrils that it uses to lure morsels in.
* **Jumping Fin**: A common freshwater fish that jumps out of the water to catch insects.
* **Great Piranha**: Large flesh-eating freshwater fish with a mouth full of teeth.
* **Javefin**: Fish with the appearance of a gar yet is strictly herbivorous, eating only aquatic plants.
* **Egg Tooth**: A nest-raider that lived in the jungles, this theropod dinosaur specializes in stealing the eggs of others.
* **Swift Top**: An agile, graceful, long-legged ceratop, the smallest of all the Trilightertops' descendants that traverses mountains, eating low plants that stud the rocky slopes in small herds.
* **Chameletor**: A medium-sized theropod predator with the ability to camouflage itself similar to a chameleon, believed to be a mutation brought on by the Warp.
* **Emerald Beetle**: A small emerald-colored beetle that dwells in the undergrowth of Mars' jungles.
* **Mire Fin**: A fish native to wetlands, their coloring and appearance match the weed choked water.
* **Blood-gnat**: A species of gnat that is similar to the common mosquito.
* **Gloomweb Stalker**: A unusual creature that combined traits of both arachnids and reptiles, an experiment created by order of Princess Pearl to replace older cyborg spider models, they have since been released and have multiplied.
* **Martian Carrion Beetle**: A carrion-eating beetle. It lays its young on the carcasses of dead animals.
* **Bug Assassin Wasp**: A wasp-like insect that hunts other insects and paralyzes them with its venom, before slowly consuming them while they are still alive.
* **Marsh Pincer**: A omnivorous crab that is native to the wetlands of Mars.
* **Martian Night Spider**: A species of vicious nocturnal arachnid with large mandibles.
* **Great Green Jungle Forager**: Large, green, herbivorous reptile that is a ground forager of the deep jungle.
* **Martian Vine Viper**: A snake that gets its name from its habit of mimicking a hanging vine, catching unwary prey from below.
* **Martian Bull Rat**: A hardy species of dark-colored rodent that is a common prey item for many predators.
* **Taruba**: A carnivorous fish which waited concealed in the riverbed murk before striking at prey swimming overhead.
* **Swordius**: Large, sword-headed fish that can pierce thick armor if endangered.
* **Gargboa**: An immense sinuous beast from the undersea depths, closely resembling a great sea serpent with a mouth full of cruel looking fangs and teeth.
* **Grey Shell Lobster**: A dark grey shelled herbivorous lobster with delicate claws, which it used to harvest algae from the rocks in the splash zones of coastal regions.
* **Needlefang**: Vicious gar-like hunter found throughout streams and tributaries.
* **Rhomtar**: Aggressive, horned fish that fights to the death defending its eggs.
* **Shredder Fin**: A carnivorous fish similar to a barracuda but much larger in size that can shred entire strips of flesh from prey within seconds.
* **Hydralur**: Grotesquely deformed reptilian monstrosity, a creature of the Warp with an aura that is so inimical to life that it taints the very ground it walks upon.
* **Unitop**: A rare species of ceratop that closely resembles the Trilightertop, but instead of three horns it only had one, above its snout.
* **Martian Sea Viper**: Large sea serpent with a very venomous bite.
* **Ocean Tyrant:** Gigantic marine predator with flippers instead of legs and a long, fish-like tail. However, they are able to move clumsily on land if necessary.
* **Murder Crab**: An aggressive breed of meat-eating crab with strong, claws that grips prey before voraciously stripping flesh from bone.
* **Reaver Shark**: A shark-like predator that lives in small packs and fiercely defends its hunting grounds.
* **Bleeder Eel**: A parasitic organism that resembles a sea lamprey.
* **Bone Crusher**: A fearsome predator of the sea with tough armor and a voracious hunger.
* **Flyer Snatcher**: A plesiosaur-like carnivore that is able to snatch flying prey from the air, with its elongated neck.
* **Urkor**: Leathery-skinned reptilian quadrupeds.
* **Stingeater**: A green anteater-like lizard that preys primarily on social insects.
* **Ocean Spector**: Territorial leviathans of the deep ocean, that when young are carnivorous but turn into filter feeders as adults.
* **Martian Sea Devil**: Large vicious fish with the temperament of a devil.
* **Sewer Skitter**: A small spider like scavenger that is commonly found infesting sewer systems, feeding on the grim and filth.
* **Martian Fiend Rat**: Large and aggressive rodent endemic to sewers, likely mutated by the Warp energies or the environmental conditions.
* **Martian Hydra**: Multi-headed carnivorous reptile that hunts in the jungle.
* **Giant Martian Snapper**: A large and voracious turtle native to the Martian wetlands.
* **Martian Tree Rat Howler**: A species of monkey and rat hybrid that live among the jungle canopy, eating fruit, nuts, flower buds and insects.
* **Pteroharpy**: An airborne predator of the sky that combines both harpy and pterodactyl together.

## Notable Places and Regions

### Mars Colony

The capital and the only city on Mars, originally a simple settlement that would later evolve into an advanced megalopolis.

### Hunting Thicket

Formerly the exclusive hunting reserve of a noble family that held grand hunts where exotic game and even sometimes sentient beings were imported from all across the empire as quarry to please the desires of the wealthy elite who were invited to participate in hunting games. With the economic decline, the nobles were forced to abandon their reserve. The exotic and often dangerous imported species of game and predators left behind now roamed wild and established themselves in their new environment.

### Mushmere Basin

A huge, swampy drainage basin in the middle of the jungle surrounded on all sides by high plateaus and had several lakes where its waters gathered all together. Swampland formed in the middle and was thick with foliage. It is a favored breeding ground for many kinds of dinosaurs, fish and swarms of biting insects.

### Ashen Death Jungle

Stepped in mystery, base rumors surround this poorly explored region of the jungle with some saying that there lies a hidden tomb of a once prominent lord within the dense jungles, with the more outlandish ones concerning that of a lost city. All attempts to undercover the mystery have ended in utter failure, with few returning alive. Those who survive are driven completely mad, raving of an "ashen death" stalking them, or simply ending their lives to escape this mysterious horror.

### The Fetid Lake

Covered in scum, the lake is inhabited by a secretive creature that lives at center of the lake and rarely surfaces, though when it does, its always to snatch what unfortunate victim that has strayed too close to the water's edge from the shores of the lake.

### Scalefang River

A major river that flows through the jungle. The river is known for its herds of aggressively territorial dinosaurs and huge, killer crocodilians.

### The Cauldron

Far into the the northern jungles, is a geological depression that spans several hundred miles around the surrounding area. A heavily fortified complex pierces through the jungle's canopy, visible for all to see. The complex was built by Princess Pearl for the purpose of conducting her more ambitious projects and schemes. Terrible experiments were preformed. Genetic splicing and crossbreeding, produced all sorts of horrors. Spiders and dinosaurs bio-fused together. Animal physiology twisted in new and horrific ways. Warp sorcery was even employed thorough dreadful rituals to create nightmarish creations.

During the Voltzian-Trucian invasion of the planet, the complex and its personal were cut off from the rest of the Psdonian command. Disaster occurred when Project G, envisioned as Pearl's greatest creation and the ultimate life-form was able to escape from its containment cell. Chaos erupted throughout the complex and the remaining experiments were able to become free as well. The whole region would become its own private hell, cut off from the rest of the world where nature and science has run amok.

### Lake Pearlas

Named in honor of Princess Pearl, a large freshwater body of water at the center of hundreds of miles of rough terrain and thick jungle with all sorts of deadly predators.

### The Vorgot Vale

A valley that achieved some notoriety as the home of a mysterious beast called the Vorgot. A terrifying and baleful monster that claimed the whole valley as its own. Slaves told tales of the creature attacking their cruel oppressors, while sparing them. In truth, the Vorgot killed indiscriminately, and cared not if its victims were Psdonian or not. No one has ever been able to discover who or what precisely the creature actually is.

### Peaks of the Redrock Mountains

The great mountain chain known as the Redrock Mountains by the Psdonians of Mars is crowned by several great peaks. They are familiar landmarks for the locals and the hunting grounds for all manner of ravenous beasts.

* **Aerie of Warpsoul Melody**: A plateau that was once the holy site of an now-extinct cult of Warp-worshipers. The rituals which took place here has corrupted the local animals, poisoning their minds and bodies.
* **Mountain of the Screaming Jungle**: A jungle-chocked peak that is alive with the howls and shrieks of the beasts that hunt here.
* **Harpy's Perch**: A steep peak situated southwest of Mountain of the Screaming Jungle, home to a flock of murderous harpies who lay claim over the mountain top and viciously attack trespassers.
* **Direpeak**: The northernmost of the Redrock Mountains' great peaks.
* **Horror Rock**: Located northwest of Direpeak, the infamous Horror of the Rock lurks here.
* **Bleak Summit**: A peak of windswept barren rock.
* **Scuttle Pinnacle**: Lying west of the Bleak Summit, named for the colony of Warp Pstriders that resides there.
* **Great Spire**: A towering mountain thrusting skyward, as if created by some terrible upheaval.

#### Ancestors' Ascent

A site honored by the Cult of the Elevated Ancestors from which they use to hold communion with their honored ancestors. Sited on a relatively stable spur of rock, this towering peak was mounted with several stone pillars and an altar where offerings are made.

#### Cavern of the Sacred Ancestors

A vast labyrinth of narrow tunnels, pits, crevices, dead ends, and chasms running beneath the Redrock Mountains. These caves once served as repository for the treasures of a powerful noble house, until their fall from grace. Since then Elevated Ancestors cultists have moved in, converting the labyrinth into a place of worship.

### Jungles of Doom

A region of deep rainforests where the jungle is particularly dense and impenetrable, though there are rumored to be great caches of treasure hidden in its depths. Many have tried to find their fortunes here, but all who dare venture fourth into the jungle's interior have perished or vanished, never to return.

### Widow's Grotto

Through the Martian wilds, there lies a small entrance to a grotto tucked away by dense vine growth, it is here dwells the Widow Witch, a matriarch and high priestess of the Warpweavers. Within this web-choked cave complex the Widow Witch is accompanied by Pstriders and her other arachnid servitors who scuttle through the dark nesting tunnels, guarding their mistress.

At the central chamber, the Widow Witch carries out her duties, tending to clutches of eggs, conducing gruesome ceremonies and experiencing vivid walking visions fueled by hallucinogenic spider venom as a means to commune with and serve as the mortal conduit for the will of the Great Motherstrider.

### The Fenlands

A great morass of dismal marshland and stinking bogs known as the Fenlands. The mist and sucking mud make it quite dangerous. This fetid quagmire is made worse by the hostile locals, poisonous snakes, and the many deadly beasts that lurk at the water's edge waiting for unsuspecting prey.

### The Badlands

Far to the south of the Mars Colony, pass the wall and beyond the jungle, it gives way to the Badlands. An endless sweep of arid plains, desert and rocky scrub. Littering the wastes are slagheaps and ruins of past mining operations infested with foul monsters. To venture into the Badlands is put your life on the line. The harsh landscape makes it so, that only the most deadliest and ruthless survive here.

Here in these wastes are lawless tribes and gangs that fight among themselves for what little resources that can be found here. Most are barbaric, while a few use highly advanced weaponry, but all are extremely dangerous and most often hostile.

#### Scrap Mount

The remains of a massive space vessel, one of the many to crash during the infamous slave rebellion and is the largest of them. Rising high into the sky is a jagged metallic peak honeycombed with countless chambers and littered by debris. The knowledge and technology that remains still attracts scavengers and fortune hunters who are often preyed upon by beasts and bandits.

#### The Foundry

An old factory and fortress constructed years ago by the Psdonian nobility of Mars. They dedicated it entirely pursuit of metallurgy, engineering, and mass production of machinery. Taking advantage of the surplus of slave labor and the availability of local ore deposits. During the planetary revolt led by King Flan, the foundry fell.

Since then it has become the home of a small cult, the Forgemakers who operate the foundry for their own purposes and trade their wares to local raider gangs and tribes.

#### Spider's Vale

A small, valley of wind scarred stone that is generally avoided by all, even the most savage gangs refuse to enter here. Within the valley is the remains of a massive steel arachnid. A remnant from the slave rebellions, the spider was one of the attack cyborg units that were unleashed to crush the revolt by Princess Pearl. One such unit was damaged and eventually became lost in the badlands, where it was left to rust.

#### The Scrap Land

A vast machinery graveyard, the Scrap Land was in fact the main dumping ground for ruined machines and vehicles by Psdonians, later for waste material. It is dominated by huge, heavily irradiated piles of discarded junk and rusty debris. Scavenger gangs and looters scour throughout all over the area, looking for the next score.

#### Facility One

Built in pursuit of Princess Pearl's ambitions, with most of its programs concerned with advanced experimental weaponry - particularly those that might outdo the UVF. Early projects included advancements in cybernetics, creating improvements in the cyborg spider models, new designs for energy based weapons reverse-engineered from captured Voltzian tech, total pacification batons, even developing new anti-Ipsen weaponry and other countermeasures.

The achievements were groundbreaking, yet the costs, efficiency and other issues took their toile. After falling victim to attacks from escaped slaves and following cuts to the budget, it was over. The personal were forced to abandon their work, future projects were shelved and the facility was shut closed.

#### Facility Two

Like Facility One, Facility Two was built as the beset of the Psdonians. However, it differed substantially in purpose, having been established to focus on biological research, primarily biological warfare. Viruses, toxins and mutagens were all produced here to engineer super-soldiers for the Psdonian forces. It was quickly gained a notorious reputation, in part due to the vast numbers of test-subjects spent over the course of various experiments, thousands of disobedient slaves, political prisoners and even a few volunteers were shipped to the facility as guinea pigs.

Over time, testing continued and apart from numerous nightmare-inducting results, the experiments created stable mutations, however the super soldier project proved a failure. Though the subjects possessed of all the physical strengths they'd hoped for, the drawbacks were immediately obvious. The super soldiers were left hideously distorted by the experiments, their muscles swelled to grotesque proportions, burden with substantial growth of claws and teeth. Worse still, they were often extremely violent and incapable of rational thought. The researchers were forced to rely on inhibitors to keep them under control.

Princess Pearl gradually lost interest in the program. The end of the program came when, an experiment broke out, surviving personal were forced to evacuate and abandon the facility. For a time, it stood abandoned. Until a branch of the Elevated Ancestors cult, set themselves up within the old facility, repurposing it in producing ever-more twisted mutant horrors for their masters.

#### The Zoo

A sub installation of Facility Two. It was quickly nicknamed "the Zoo" by the staff, in part due to being where most of the more stable and successful test subjects were housed. Specimens were further tested for their potential use. Personal forced the creatures to fight each other, documenting which were stronger, further mutations were induced upon them and other extreme methods were conducted.

Eventually, things spiraled out of control and somehow all of the subjects broke free from their cells, rampaging and killing everyone all throughout the Zoo. What remained was left to be swallowed up by the badlands and forgotten. Over time, it slowly fell into disrepair, and now something lurks within it, drawing in unsuspecting prey and victims.

#### The Bone Palace

The giant, curving ribcage of some large beast rises from the sand in the southeastern deserts in the badlands. Travelers often stop and take shelter among the bones here from the harsh elements of the wastelands.

#### The Sludge Pit

A crater that once was the former manufacturing site for cyborg production, it encountered a revolt by its workers. The aristocracy responded in kind by demolishing it by bombing it. A pool of bubbling black sludge had settled in the bottom of the crater, caused by the experiments with chemical weapons carried out here.

#### The Excavator Colossus

A massive ore excavation platform that was once used for mining operations by the greedy Psdonians in service to their princess. When the slave rebellion occurred, acts of sabotage and major malfunctions took their toil on the machine, crippling it and was abandoned when it was seized by revolting slaves. Now it rests silent, still surrounded by the conflagration created by the extensive strip-mining.

#### The Devourer's Feast

In an isolated, desolate stretch on the eastern fringes of the badlands. Resting atop a black metal altar and surrounded on all sides by a field of bones, some weathered others more recent, is a monstrous being with rows of sharpened teeth and enlarged and heavily muscled jaws. Its body is covered in tusks, horns, and various other corneous protrusions. A fanatical sect of Thirsting Warp cultists have gathered together to venerate the creature as an avatar of the Warp's very hunger itself.

#### Korovth Crater

Travelers speak of a hidden oasis within the Badlands. Through miles of barren and waterless plains, lies a vast crater. Within its interior is a verdant paradise of unspoiled jungle, a savage one at best. Monstrous dinosaurs, giant insects, primates and carnivorous plants are among the creatures that live here.

Of all the foolish explorers, scavengers and warlords to have attempted, none of those who have ventured into the crater to explore its steaming jungles could hack their way more than a few miles into the thick web of towering trees, coiling vines and tangle of undergrowth without becoming hopelessly lost.

The crater is the home of the Tzaigites, horrendous hybrids of bird and man believed to be descended from escaped Sezonian slaves who managed to flee and find refugee in the crater. Over the years, they have become mutated and their devotion to the Light has given gave way to the dark worship of the Warp.

### The Great Ocean

The planet's single global ocean, called the "Great Ocean" by the natives, and it is on that vast, blue ocean dwell many deadly creatures, scaly aquatic behemoths that are as large as small islands. Others are long and serpentine, with near impenetrable scales.

Both treacherous and deadly, constant and violent weather fluctuations such as thunder storms and hurricanes are common experiences and are daily reminders of the harsh reality of ocean life.

#### Pszilla's Rest

A single rocky spur marks the location of the site that serves as the great graveyard for the deadly Pszillas that stalk these waters. Under the surface of the waves, scattered across the seafloor are the bones of countless Pszillas who have come here for their final resting place.

#### Temple of Octaogh

Not too far off from the spur, lies a small island that is also the location of a temple that is marked with the likeness of inhuman beings, cyclopean-eyed and all tentacled carved into its stonework. Even stranger is the presence of the dormant forms of the mysterious Obeliskators, that seem to litter the ground, some even appear to becoming part of it. The followers of Octaogh lay claim to the island and are the ones who built the temple to honor their strange deity.