Venus

**Location:** Milky Way / Île-de-Terre / Sol System /  **Second planet**

**Mars** ***(Magi name: Vse'waha; Oecumenical name: Photar Krro "Cloud Crown-Warriors")*** is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Sol System. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love; it is also referred to as the **Old Enclave**, the **Evening Star**, and the **Terra's Ugly Twin**. Home to billions of humaniods, Venus is the fourth rocky planet ever to support human civilization.

## Colony

### Colony Founded

2087

Venus’s outer surface has only three tectonic plates, that gradually migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. Venus's limited natural resources are mostly used for internal consumption, due to the massive space force of Venus and the ever-delaying terraforming project, the Venusian State turned to aggressive resource extraction, imperialism and risky military adventures to satisfy their needs.

Venus is a giant in matters of war and industry, with a strong R&D-sector made possible by the famed rival universites of Curo City and Spirit City. Since the collapse of the United Venusian States following the Solar Winter, the Venusian economy has become dependent on low-wage seasonal workers from Terra and the Belt.
Most Venusians live in habitations in its skies. A Magnetoshield has vastly improved the life quality of Venusian citizens, by reducing cancer rates. planning to use Venus's L3 point to position their planned Sentinel telescope, which aimed to look back towards Earth's orbit and compile a catalogue of near-Earth asteroids. Venusian Colonies like Mars often play second fiddle to venusian ambitions.
While culutrally similar, the Venusian is more refined, witty and diplomatic than its martian counterpart.

## Homeworld

### Population (L4 and L5 stations)

3 Million

Venusians are general considered to be hard working, level-headed, conservative, austere, dutiful, athletic and orderly. Despite the strong African and Asian heritage of Venusians, they see themselves as the inheritors of the "West" and carriers of "Libertarian Frontierism". More radically minded Venusian "mutants" perceive themselves as a superior kind of humanity and want Earth's legacy for themselves.
Human cultures have developed many views of the planet, including personification as a deity, the only bastion of pure old humanity, and the new step of human civilization.

## **Government and politics**

### Cabinet

**Head of state:** Paramount

**Head of government:** Vice-Paramount

**Foreign advisor:** Minister of Foreign Affairs

**Economic advisor:** Minister of Coin

**Security advisor:** Minister of Defense

#### Pelot-Brussolo's cabinet

Since the Venus Republican–Center–Popular Party won the 3196 election, the cabinet has been as follows:

## Military

### Army

The Venus has the smaller home army than Terra, preferring to focus around a well-trained and professional volunteer force. The army mostly consists of mechanized, air & space cavalry, and the famed espatier divisions. Venus however massively supplies soldiers and starcraft to the Confederal Space Force, as Venus is the single largest portion contributor out of any other confederal member per capita. A popular saying goes that "The Venusian Military is the biggest political institution in the Galaxy".

### Astral Forces

The Venusian Spaceforce is one of the largest in the known galaxy, with constellations stationed in all corners of Human Space. The Homeguard (which protects Venus itself) is small and mostly automated, yet still deadly. Landis

 File:Venus States.png

*Main article: List of states and territories of the UCSS*

Due to the aerial nature of Venusian population centers, the general concept of state is not applicable. Several aerostats are grouped together as **Clusters** and might be interlinked due to economical and cultural reasons, each aerostat has however a great sense of autonomy. The chief administrative officers of the clusters are titled as **General-Administrator**, **Governor** or **Proprietor Elective**. Historcially Venusian administrative offices and states had various titles, most of them were abolished when the planet was united after the Great Collapse.

### **Commanderies and territories of Venus**

#### **Cytherean Revolution & First Encounter War**

> "We are but toys...to an bored toddler... tearing us apart and sewing us back together like some rag doll."
> -*"Scarlet of Mars", Liberation of New Providence Preserve, 2513*
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During the course of the War, Mars was left virtually untouched by the Magi, due to its miniscule population and the high rate of mutation in its population. The Magi had seemed to believe that the hostile nature of Mars, would doom its inhabitants to a slow extinction. This caused the martians to seem themselves as the "Last True Humans" and an "Enclave of Free Humanity". During the course of the war, Martian population grew, as they received refugee populations from Terra. To many earthlings, Mars was seen as a mythical place of freedom, similar to the old wild west, and martians secretly aided the Anti-Starseed resistance. During the **Earther Independence War**, Martians forces joined forces with the myriad anti-starseed forces in small capacities, avoiding detection. Martian Espatiers were persent in the Destruction of the "Mother Brain" Central Node on x. After the War, Martians helped rebuild Terra and were able to use Starseed technology to advance martian society, helping overcome the hostile environment of the Red Planet. The Second Ice Age on Terra, caused by the fall of the Noatun, greatly benefited the Martians.

#### **Solar Winter**

> "Here we bloody hell are, and here we bloody hell stay."
> - *Executive-Commander Sennan Yarborough, Battle of Onogoro Insula, 2732*
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With the rise of Mars and the recovery of Earth after the Second Ice Age, the Space Powers would begin to colonize the rest of the Solar System, driven by their need for resources. Intersolar disputes such as the Titan Crisis, the Ganymede–Titania Act, and Bleeding Pluto soured relations, with espionage and sabotage actions taking the place of traditional warfare, as the vastness of space made full-scale war unattainable. This cold war would temporarily cess during the War of Stick and Stones or the **WWIV**. The Solar Winter would however soon return, despite the now seemingly warm attitudes between the two human powers. The Cybernetic Pogroms of Mars as the response to the robot uprising on Terra had destroyed the martian economy, leaving it unable to combat the natural advantaged and increasingly unifying Earth.

Supreme-Generalissima Elisabeth Jane Clifford, the last leader of an independent Mars and often regarded as a Manchurian candidate for Terran interests, attempted to dismantle the **United States of Mars** and let its non-Martian colonies secede to join the UNS, mirroring the fall of the Soviet Union. However her actions would lead to a civil war with restorationists, this conflict ended, when Supreme-Generalissima Clifford requested a USN humanitarian intervention. After a short-brutal campaign, rouge elements would flee the planet to join up with deserting forces in the Kuiper Belt, setting the stage for the creation of the **Capital Outlaws**. With the martian infrastructure in shambles, its government would join the newly-formed UCSS with the **Treaty of Geneva**, also besmirched as the "***Geneva Betrayal***" or "***Humiliation of Geneva***" by many martian citizens. Offically ending the Solar Winter. Mars would suffer from the effects of Great Emigrations, further degrading mars' power. Mars would attempt to recaptured some of its lost power by becoming the military arm of the UCSS.

### **Religion**

The largest religious denominations by number of adherents as a percentage of the Martian population in 3199 were adherents of the Martian Civic Faith with 26.2 percent; Non-religious Atheist with 17.9 percent; and adherents of various Muslim Fatihs with 10.5 percent, however the collective religions of the Arean Theophany Faiths make up 33.5% of the population, and combined Pilgrim religions make up an additional 33.6%.

The first colonists to come to Mars were mostly secular scientists, engineers, and technicians to aid in the exploration and exploitation of the planet. Many of them held a disposition towards a sort of "Cult of Progress", decried as religious Scientism by skeptics back on Terra.

The Great Migrations to Mars brought many different Terran-based Faiths to Mars, many of them having to adapt to the strange environment and distance from Earth, such as Muslims praying in the direction of the first landing site that brought the first Muslim to Mars. While other newly arrived migrants clung even harder to their faiths, which allowed for the survival of unique traditions that were lost by their Terran counterparts. In general, many martian Earth-based faiths preserved their historic features. This is the reason why many Martians still go on pilgrimages to Terra, despite the common cultural reprehension between the two sister planets. Shinto ritual practices had an over-proportional influence on martian religious culture.

The centuries of isolation following the Great Collapse lead to ubiquitous usage of bio-engineering and cloning, with a general obsession with spreading biological life and controlling the fate of nature itself, further diverging the already distinct societies of Terra and Mars. The Martian Civic Faith is mainly based around Military worship, a twisted form of "Muscular Christianity" the reverence of Martian legends, and a vague sense of a common goal to "tame the red wastes".

### **Demographics**

 East Asian (Mainly Chinese)
 Multiethnic
 African
 South Asian
 European (Mainly Anglo-American)
 Hispanic
 West Asian
 Pacific Islander
 Human
 Mutant/Beltman

Mars has a long history of immigration. Starting from the Late-21th century, terran state and corporate entities began to exploit and explore the martian surface, driven by centuries of curiosity and the naive believe, by some, that the task of colonizing Mars would unite Earth behind a common cause.

The extreme enviroment, isolation from Earth and early scientific nature of Mars' development, lead to a selective immigration process, with only the most mental fortitude and smartest being allowed to live and work on the dangerous and hostile environment of Mars, this phenomenon lead to a widespread longstanding mythos that martians were descended from Terra's "Strongest and Brightest", with the Terrans being "the left-behind simple-minded masses".

While the commonly used Sino-Martian language still uses traditional chinese characters, "Terran Chinese", its terran cousin, is written in a modified version of the Latin Alphabet, other terran languages of South Asian, North American, Middle Eastern and Russian origin, also tend to resemble older forms of said language. This trend is also observed on a general societal level, as the martian mindset is similar to 21th century american and chinese societies.

With minorities from the wealthier upper-middle strata being overrepresented and the heavy focus by the US corporate forces and China to outcompete each other, gave most martians a East Asian or Eurasian background.

After a while Mars became a more hospitable place, thanks to general technological advancements and the construction of large underground complexes, to shield the martian population from dangerous radiation. With continued degradation of Terra's ecosphere, Mars became somewhat of a "dumping ground" for the unwanted "tides of climate refugees", while most stayed on Terra or move to near Orbit, a large amount where "encouraged" to immigrate, to serve as low-wage workers on Mars. The now relaxing immigration laws of Mars, caused by a shifting perspective of Mars as a "New and Better Home" instead of a "Extraterrestrial Laboratory", where further loosened by generous streams of revenue from its colonial overlords.

Many of the new martian immigrants had been survivors of ethnic cleasings, marginalization, economic stagnation and years of involuntary nomadism, causing a cultural component of "bitter resentment" and "longing of seperation" from the perceived self-destructiveness of their fellow terrans to be mixed into the martian "melting pot". During the Xenocracy, Mars became the Home of "Free Humanity" and leader of the Anti-Alien Resistance, which only strengthened these aforementioned tendencies. Due the vital parts that Mars played in the Reconstruction Period, the idea that the rest of humanity "owns" Mars for the percived progression of humanity that was accoring to the Martians, single-handedly achieved by them.

While Martians are often called "Mutants", an ethnophaulisms, which has been re-appropirated as a self-designation, and are almost treated as an distinct category of Humanity, they are, in fact, not a seperate species, although they are taller and skinny/frail in appearance, with larger lungs, smaller joints especially the ankle, knee, and hip, an inreased numbers of red blood cells and more sexually dimorphic than the average terran. The average historic martian family tended to have 4-8 children, but since the end of the Solar Winter, martian families have strunk to 1-3 children per average, causing Mars to rely on seasonal workers from poorer parts of the solar system.

Mars extensive history of "boundary pushing" bio-genetic engineering and coloning, has unexpectedly not diverged the appearance of martians form their terran cousins, as martians easily pass as terrans.

Similar to Terrans, martians have extensive mechanical augmentations, especially the workering population, although they tend to be cutting-edge, slick and more subtle, than the large clunky "Prosthetic Tools" of the terran laborers. Mars practiced cloning to further population growth to catch up to Earth, the practice was however, banned by the last President, Elizabeth Jane Clifford.

The stoic Martians are considered attractive with their raven-black hair, tall, lean and muscluar stature, thanks to a protein-rich diet and "Body culture" that emphazises taking care of ones body. Despire to their widely considered "cool looking military uniforms" a indecent saying states that "martians look even better without their uniforms than with them on".

#### **Aesthetics**

Martians are famed for they militaristic, utilitarian and minimalist style. If not in their tailored uniforms, they wear mainly preserved and revived forms of traditonal chinese clothing. Cheongsam's are commonly worn by female martians, although their style is reminiscent of 20-30s Shanghai, with inspirations taken form the old icons like Oei Hui-lan. More conservative martians wear traditional Hanfu or Kimonos. Martian men usually wear military inspired clothing or simple austere muted button-downs. Dusters a unique local creole culture, are famed for their cowboy-inspired attire. High ranking members of martian society, wear Zhongshan suits with a turtlenecks underneath. On formal occasions, clothes inspired by cantonese opera costumes, are worn.