Mars

Planet View

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

**Mars** ***(Magi name: Mah'lahu; Oecumenical name: Tesisa Worra "Red Waste")*** is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Sol System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war; it is also referred to as the **Midway Point**, the **Red Rock**, and the **Oldest Newest Frontier**. Home to millions of humaniods, Mars is the third rocky planet ever to support human civilization.

## Colony

### Colony Founded

2081

Mars is a dry planet with only small domed parts of its surface covered with water. Mars is a terrestrial planet with an atmosphere much thinner than Earth’s, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth. The first humans began heavily exploring Mars in the early 2040s (248-255 Terran Calender) after decades of robotic exploration; the first research colonies sprang up on the surface by the middle of the decade, and in **2240 (448 Terran Calender)** humans fist tried to terraform Mars into a habitable world, using Sabatier reactors run by nuclear fusion. Since then, humans have slightly altered the atmosphere and other abiotic conditions on the planet, enabling the proliferation of small organisms, also causing a thin layer of snow to blanket the dunes of the Red Planet. The Gregorian calendar is still in use by Mars. While Mars was considered a "second home" in fictional works, in reality Mars proved to hostile for long term habitation. It was Mars' position as the midway point between the resource-rich Belt and Terra, that lead to its continued importance. Venus had long held control over the Martian Civilization.

Mars was considered a prospect for terraforming and colonization, the discovery of faster than light travel turned Mars into a quiet backwater, however with a strong R&D-sector made possible by the famed rival universites of Curo City and Spirit City, Mars has been punching above its weight. In recent times, Mars' "***Gambling mecca***" Mars City, which offers all manner of vice to low & middle income consumers, in combination with the surrounding near-lawless "Free Zone", has made Mars a tourist honeypot.

Mars is a significant Trade Node with its Mons Olympus & Phobos Space Elevator, among others, export vast quanities of manufactured goods. Mars is often considered a "company colony" of **Exomine**, as Exomine had its former headquaters located there and has a long-winded history with this planet. Exomine currently controls 75% of the Martian Economy.
Most martians live in habitations build into vast network of lava tubes beneath mountains and ground.

Martians are general considered to be hard working, level-headed, conservative, austere, dutiful, athletic and orderly. Despite the strong African and Asian heritage of Martians, they see themselves as the inheritors of the "West" and carriers of "Libertarian Frontierism", product of Venusian Cultural influence. More radically minded martian "mutants" perceive themselves as a superior kind of humanity and want Earth's legacy for themselves.

## **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

## Military

### Army

The martian army mostly consists of mechanized units, and the famed venusian-inspired espatier divisions, the "Martian Bats".

### Astral Forces

The Martian Spaceforce is small and mostly automated. Mars is protected by the Solar Guard, as a midway point between The Belt and Terra, Mars is an important hub for smugglers. It has often been the target of Pirates, such as during the attacks by the Capital Outlaws.

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

Martian states are usually known as **Commandery**, named after the jùn, a historical administrative division of China from the Eastern Zhou (c. 7th century BCE) until the early Tang dynasty (c. 7th century CE). The chief administrative officers of the areas are titled as **General-Administrator**, **Governor** or **Proprietor Elective**. Historcially martian administrative offices and states had various titles, most of them were abolished when the planet was "reunified" after the Great Collapse.

## Society

### **History**

#### **Exploration of Mars**

> "We are all ... children of this universe. Not just Earth, or Mars, or this system, but the whole grand fireworks. And if we are interested in Mars at all, it is only because we wonder over our past and worry terribly about our possible future." - *Ray Douglas Bradbury, American Writer*
>
>

Dozens of unmanned spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, had been sent to Mars over the course of the early space age by the Soviet Union, the United commanderys, Western Europe, India, China, and Japan to study the planet's surface, climate, and geology. Early notable exploration missions were the *"Marsnik"*, *Mariner*, *Viking, MER, Hope, Tianwen-1* and *MOM 2* programs.

Because the common scientific consensus was that Mars was not viable for long-term human accommodation and that orbital habititation would make a preferable and more accessible option, the early development of Mars was primarily scientific. It was often assumed that Mars would never be another Earth, despite naive & eccentric woolgathering of bored terran billionaires.

The failure of SpaceEx to land Humans on the red planet in **2023** and the great economic depressions that haunted the Dollar and Euro Blocs, caused massive cuts to their respective space programs, although american corperations would eventually resume the exploration of Mars. Due the more partical appraoch of **CNSA**, **Roscosmos** and **others** to focus on near Earth-Moon space for industrial development, Most of **2020s** to **2040s** were henceforth dominated by robotic-only exploration of Mars.

#### **Settlement of Mars**

> "Years of science fiction have produced a mindset that it is human destiny to expand from Earth, to the Moon, to Mars, to the stars." - *Bernard M. Oliver "Barney Oliver", American Computer Scientist*
>
>

##### American colonization of Mars

With collapsing conditions of the United States of America, and the resulting near disbandment of NASA, the main drivers of American Expansionism into Space were its wealthy Megacorporations, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Amazon, Walmart, and a myriad of other less significant companies, that managed to survive and even prosper in the rapidly failing nations of the West. The enormous task of developing extraterrestrial spaces was too costly for a single MegaCorp alone, so in the year **2032**, a consortium of the wealthiest people in the former USA founded the **Open Futures Exploration Corporation** or simply known as "**OF-ExCo**", one of its first was to buy and "upgrade" the derelict Lunar Gateway from NASA, along with its top-shelf equipment & personnel. While the first two decades of its existence were primarily spent building small bases on the Moon and probing asteroids, the Chinese near-monopoly on Near Earth Space proved to be almost unable to break, a further blow to OF-ExCo's space ambitions came, when in **2037** the Chinese manned mission to Mars successfully brought the first humans onto the martian surface. While the development of the first civilian colony of Armstrong in Luna, had given good-enough returns, it was a matter of new prospects and latent American nationalism that shifted focus on Mars. With the manned mission following soon and the construction of the Oglethorpe Base in the Arcadia Planitia officially began the bid to claim the red dustball for once self. Bases in the Maraldi Crater and Lockyer crater and the creation of the Heinlein Base, Liberty Base, and Jefferson Base as well as Operations in the Meridiani Planum and Deuteronilus Mensae rounded out the first decade of OF-ExCo on Mars.

In the **early** **2050s**, OF-ExCo would lay the foundations of what would later become "Curo City" and the Commandery of Bradbury. In the latter years of the **2050s**, pilot projects exploring long-term habitation in the Chryse Planitia and around the newly established Burroughs Base that would reach self-sufficiency by growing crops in the Meridiani Planum, were throughly discussed and met positive feedback back on Earth. While the first humans de-facto already lived on the Red Planet, they were mostly in small numbers and not of civilian nature. Mostly Outposts were unprofitable in nature, only making dividends by exporting mined materials like the Chinese mining operations around the Olympus Mons or creating their own supply of Water.

With the advent of the **2060s**, the attention of most Space Powers was focused on the Moon, as advancement in space technology, a massive drop in launch prices, and nearing the 100th anniversary of the first lunar landing, major powers ramped up space development. As China and Russia planned to turn the **International Lunar Research Station** into a civilian colony dubbed "*Xuesen*", OF-ExCo secretly shifted resources to their joint orbital colonies "*Kennedy's Freedom Station*" and "*Chapman Alpha Habitat*" with the Canadian Space Agency to hastily construct Civilian colonies on Luna, neglecting the martian colonies in the process, with only minimal internal expansions and limited automated mining in the Olympus Mons region being the notable events.

With the **Xuesen**'s opening to civilian life in **2069**, the first human colony on Luna is officially founded, with "*Foundation Day*" becoming an official holiday on Luna. OF-ExCo blamed suboptimal production quotas and too many toilet breaks, starting "r*e-negotiating*" work contracts with its employees in its Near Earth Orbital Facilities, with the intense work crunch suffered by its employees to make OF-ExCo lofty goals reality, causing massive strikes. OF-ExCo sees massive drops in earnings, which caused the corporations to shelf many costly expansion projects on Mars. The situation would eventually resolve itself when a "mysterious" error leads to the floating of all Striking Workers in Kennedy's Freedom Station. Following this accident, the strikes were successfully beaten down and OF-ExCo's attention once again shifted to Mars, where they would start the **New Texas Pilot Colony** to repeat once again, what had failed on Luna, to become the first entity that would place humans permanently on the red planet.

However, tragedy would strike once again in **2081** when delays due to cutbacks in construction caused **Payambar**, a colony founded by the **ISA**, to be the first outpost open to civilians on Mars, with civilians only arriving in Curo City a few months after. With several investors & companies pulling out of OF-ExCo, this would begin the end of the OF-ExCo Corporation. The true ends of the Corporation would follow in **2086** when they launched a surprise overtaking of the ISA colony of **Behzad**, due to a squabble over claimed territory and alleged riches of the local areas wich OF-ExCo wanted to exploit. Ordered to leave by the Iranian Government, OF-ExCo instead quietly smuggled weapons into the closest colony to Behzad, which was the fast-growing colony of Oglethorpe, hoping to stall the Iranians into giving it up, when however a rouge factions attacked the PRC's Station on Phobos, allied Terran Government came together to expunge the corporation and create a power vacuum, which they could exploit. OF-ExCo would use its vast network and wealth to sway Earth's nations to side with them. Creating in effect the first Intersolar conflict. A major event would occur when the citizens of **Drenjong** would refuse to attack Oglethorpe, with the Chinese having to ferry espatiers from the Moon to secure OF-ExCo colonies and protect allied citizens. With news leaking of OF-ExCo's many crimes and the murder of countless critics & striking workers, many Terran governments began to seize OF-ExCo's properties as many had shared stakes or were joint projects such as various orbital colonies. In **2089** the last pro-OF-ExCo Government -**the Greater Manhattan Commonwealth**- would rescind its support and the last CEO of OF-ExCo would commit suicide in his Kiawah Island Resort besieged by Commonwealth Law Enforcers.

With the end of the OF-ExCo, the corporation would be broken up and most of its martian assets would be restructured as **Agency for the Development of Mars** or **ADM**, which in **2095** would finally be acquired by the rising star of Exomine, which has once been a prime shareholder in the OF-ExCo corporation and had pioneered Asteroid mining technology. Most of the Civilian Outposts on Mars, which had grown into the tens of thousands would be jointly ruled by Exomine and the Canadian Government under a branch of the Canadian Space Agency. The anchoring of Exomine onto Mars would unknowingly shape Human History forever...

##### Canadian colonization of Mars

With the acquisition of the OF-ExCO colonies, Canada turned into a major Space Power. For most of the 21st century, Canada had been a "tag-along" member of the ESA and NASA contributing scientific expertise and raw materials, without large projects of their own. With the downfall of the American World Order, Canada was in total crisis as its housing crisis and the American Warlords brought its society to the brink of economic collapse. Canada however was able to recover thanks to the **Neo-Socreds** (Canadian Credit Party **CCP**) "directed economics" which were able to capitalize on the new opportunities made possible by climate change and caused massive growth in agriculture and extraction sectors. Although the Neo-Socreds would slowly turn Canada into a One-Party commandery, they were able to absorb many of the United commanderys' former scientists, catapulting the Canadian Space Agency decades forward. The Neo-Socreds primarily saw expansion into Space as means to provide new "living space" for the massive amounts of refugees and immigrants as well as Canadian citizens displaced by the housing crisis, as well as regulating the Metals Trade from the Asteroids.

The joint acquisition of the Martian Outposts with Exomine brought Canadian awareness to outside Near-Earth Space, whilst they had a dozen outposts around Earth's Orbit and on the moon, the quickly growing civilian outposts on Mars had a combined population thrice the size of CSA's **Chapman Habitat**, causing considerable stress on Canadian extraterrestrial logistics, which compelled the CSA to enlist the help of a government-affiliated company **Agrobotix**. Agrobotix had close ties with the Neo-Socreds as well as a good track record in the agricultural projects in Northern Alberta and the Yukon. In 2102 the CSA would found the colonies of **Beloit**, **Waterloo**, **Windsor** in short succession, they were intended as residential outposts as the "pushy relocation politics" of the Neo-Socreds had induced the older civilian outposts to be overcrowded. CSA policies were responsible for the militarization of Mars, as the Canadian Government allegedly send saboteurs to rival colonies in the Oxia Palus as well as provoked an International Crisis when they build Valley City on CSNA-owned land.

The Rest of the 22nd century was characterized by minmal growth of the Martian Colonies, due to the more pacifistic and earthbound policies of the Nolan J. LaBrande Neo-Socreds. The CSA helped build the **Olympus Mons Space Elevator** and send scientists to Spirit City, helping to lay the foundation of Mars' greatest university. LaBrande's Deputy Prime Minister Camille Webster became the first English-speaking government figure to visit the martian surface, touring the planet, starting from the Inauguration of Exomine's Headquarters at Aeropolis on 21st April 2111 to the opening of the Chinese **Xin Linzhi-Burroughs Transrapid**.

##### Chinese colonization of Mars

In 2081. While the Chinese planned Mission to Mars in 2033.

##### Colonization of Mars by other Powers

Many powers constructed outposts on the martian surface, but few nations contributed to the ancestral people that would later give rise to the martian civilizations. Most Western-based Economies such as the Europeans and the East Asian "Tigers", lacked the necessary excess labor and the long-term thinking that would be needed to settle Mars, partially due to their declining population and outdated economic models.
Besides the **Anglosphere** and **China**, Russia's **ROSCOSMOS**, Brazil's **AEB**  and Iran's **ISA** constituted the other major colonial powers on Mars.

As with early colonies in the New World, economics were a crucial aspect of a colony's success. The reduced gravity well of Mars and its position in the Solar System facilitated Mars–Earth trade and provided an economic rationale for the continued settlement of the planet. Investment into Mars became rationalized as a place to grow food and produce equipment to mine the asteroid belt.
Some of the early Martian colonies specialized in developing local resources for Martian consumption, such as water and ice. A source of Martian ore was iron in the form of nickel-iron meteorites. Iron in this form was more easily extractable than from the iron oxides that cover the planet. The need for fertilizers drove inter/extra-Martian trade and contributed to the Terran development of the Solar Asteroid Belt.

#### **Cytherean Revolution**

> "Terra possesses the most benighted and miserable people and political system. Old Earth will forever be the mortal enemy of the new martian society." - *Edward C. Vaughn, First Supreme-Generalissimus of Venus, Incorporation Address at Sicula Petrus*
>
>

Earth's businesses relocated their environmentally damaging industries to Outer Space, including Mars, to spare their own biosphere. The new "Stellar Empire of Venus" seemed like it was to be a libertarian paradise, but instead its morphed into a nationalist militaristic government to defend itself form Terra's overwhelming power.

#### **The Great Interregnum**

> "My tongue is sticking to my mouth ... My eyes dazzle, my lung burns, I am finished." - *Unknown, Recovered Cyperlogs found in the Eos Chasma*
>
>

The Great Collapse strongly affected Mars as well. The newfound independent nation was soon shattered into a million pieces as stations and colonies declared independence and soon fell into chaos or warlordism. Wars soon errupted across the surface and bioweapons where turned against each other, all in all 80% of the martian population perished due to stravation and thirst or war-related causes. When the Dust eventually settled, Mars was a dying world littered with abandoned or wrecked spacecraft and straving soliders trapped in its orbit or on the small martian moons...

#### **The Zhili Re-attachments**

Mars' salvation came with the Venus-based Astral League, reparing the orbital elevators, the Astral League would provide necessary supplies and population relief to Mars. This formed a lasting exchange of people and culture, forging a kinship as "mutants" in contrast with old prideful "earth". With Venusian help (and weapons) the small underground bastion of Burroughs, would conquer the entire surface and enforce a uniform martian culture, becoming the **Zhili** -this period became known as "The Zhili Re-attachments". Mars would then serve as a important link in the Venusian Sphere and prove loyal to its cause.

#### **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*
>
>

During the course of the War, Mars was left virtually untouched by the Magi, due to its minuscule 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. During the course of the war, Martian population grew slightly, as they received refugee populations from Terra. To many earthlings, Mars and its patron the Astral Leauge were seen as mythical places 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.

#### **Solar Winter**

> "Here we bloody hell are, and here we bloody hell stay."
> - *Executive-Commander Sennan Yarborough, Battle of Onogoro Insula, 2732*
>
>

With the rise of Venus 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 the Venusian Sphere as the response to the robot uprising on Terra had also destroyed the martian economy, leaving it unable to help combat the natural advantaged and increasingly unifying Earth. Exomine, was able to essentially enforce its economic control over Mars, monoplozing the trade route of Belt-Mars-Luna.

Supreme-Generalissima Elisabeth Jane Clifford, the last leader of an independent Venus and often regarded as a Manchurian candidate for Terran interests, attempted to dismantle the **United States of Venus** and let its non-venusian 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, aggravated by the attacks of the Capital Outlaws, 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, like most of the former colonies of Venus, 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 in the Astral League, 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". This perception was greatly aided by the supermacist views that Venus promoted.

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.

Despite the small population of Martians, this highly militaristic society has developed an attitude of "There might be not a whole lot of us, but each Martian counts for ten Earthers". People from Earth see the martians as less-refined and more aggressive "war dogs" of Venus.

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.

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, Due the vital parts that "Venusian Empire" 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 as part of the former Venusian Sphere, 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 1-1.5 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.
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.