LIFE ON MARS: 2600 AD
Human-kind has always been ambitious. One small step for man, Armstrong said when he walked on the Moon, but one giant leap for Mankind. A hundred years later, his words were echoed on the Red Planet in homage. Permanent bases were established by the turn of the century. The space race had reached a new dimension as the leading nations of the planet poured unquantifiable amounts of wealth and resources into the stars, the fruits of humanity's golden age blooming for all to see. By 2200, the Moon was not just being walked upon, but lived on. Gigantic biomes in which vast teams of scientists advanced the competing fields of space travel and terraforming technology. Soon one was conquering the other. If the atmosphere could be changed as one wished, what need did they have to find the vain hope of a habitable planet in the deep reaches of space? They could forge one right there on their very doorstep. By 2260, the Moon was ready for habitation, and the first colony ships carrying those hopeful of a new life. Naturally, the wealthiest had a controlling interest. It was not long before the Moon was being mined for resources, the settlement colonies established around centres of industry. On Earth, the project was deemed to be a great success, reducing the strain of overpopulation and bringing back resources on a scale previously thought impossible. Greed took root in their hearts and they desired more. And so their eyes turned to Mars.
Mars became the Moon writ large. Terraforming began at Mons Olympus, altering atmosphere and oxygen levels to those that one would experience on Earth. Water flowed from the great mountain down into the desert below, the dusty red waste becoming a sea of green. After that, it did not take long for the colony ships to come in. Humans breed like rabbits, and now even the Moon was struggling to maintain its population. As the planet's habitable areas were signed off to conglomerates and corporations for eye-watering sums, the prisons, ghettos and favelas were emptied of 'undesirables' who would become the first of the Martians. Olympia became the first of Mars' cities, a glorified penal colony that soon sprouted into an urban jungle home to millions. These patches of green amongst the Red Waste are where civilisation resides, if one could call it that. By 2460, Mars was completely dominated by a commission of several corporations who held only token obedience to the distracted governments of Earth. Most Martians lived in a state of perpetual poverty and wage slavery, kept divided by legally enforced class and cultural distinctions. Resources were hoarded by the Commission or sent back to Earth as tribute to the dying society of the mother planet. They even sought to expand their commercial empire across the stars, taking advantage of abandoned terraforming projects on the moons of Jupiter to establish further colonies there.
A hundred years later, everything had changed.
Mars was not the cure to the Earth's problems. Half terraformed, half desert, the project to turn the Red Planet into a truly worthy second home of humanity was shelved and abandoned. It had been left to the corporations as their private empire, and they had profited from it greatly at the expense of both planets. Earth was still bloated of people and starved of resources, except now the problem had compounded to the extent that the most radical scientific minds were debating whether to terraform the Earth itself. Turn the Sahara into an oasis, the urban jungles of America and Europe into an agrarian paradise. The humanitarian cost of the endeavour would be catastrophic, but was also regarded as necessary. The funds for this project would naturally come from those corporations that had profited so much from the resources beyond the stars only to give nothing back in turn. Civil War was the expected result. As the Earth began to tear itself apart, the eyes of the Commission were drawn away from Mars. Seeing their chance, numerous Martian factions began to campaign for reform. While their masters were weakened, they would take steps to hold them accountable, with basic medical care and decent living conditions becoming popular talking points. In the mean-time, Mars began experiencing a second wave of immigration. Educated and rational minds fled to the stars to escape the conflict on Earth, and found themselves in an abhorrent dystopia of their own making; they found themselves the unintentional 'upper class' as it were, for as citizens of Earth they were not bound in a lifetime contract to live and die by the hand of the Commission. The Martian people had been kept ignorant in a state of enforced luddism, but ignorant they would remain no longer, as even they became aware of the privileged status of these new immigrants, as well as the rights and liberties afforded to them which they did not even know existed. The new immigrants found ways to improve their own station (and chances of survival) by becoming teachers and scholars for their new countrymen, and soon the cultured learning of Earth found eager consumers in firebrand Martian workers. Rights and liberties that had previously been unknown to them now became the vehicle of their liberation, as a basic resentment at their condition was now put into something quantifiable and imaginable. While the hatred had been at first aimed towards the immigrants, the new citizens of Mars had deftly turned this anger towards the Commission.
It was not long before there were signs of dissent. Strikes and protests became commonplace, and the only answer the Commission had to this was violence. The shooting of a hundred people in South Olympia led to riots of catastrophic proportions. Radical preachers stoked the vitriol as resistance organisations were formed and the Martians took to the streets. In their desperation not to lose their colonies, the Commission dug their own grave. A week later, the skeleton crew guarding a weapons factory were clubbed to death and the weapons were seized. Soon they were put to use in attacking Fort Concordia, the symbol of Commission authority in Olympus, as the newly formed Militia seized control of the entire city. After a brutal assault, Fort Concordia was taken, and anyone associated with Commission be it willingly or otherwise was massacred. Victory was declared, as well as the promise of a Free Mars. With the success in Olympia, similar demonstrations and rebellions were sparked off in other Martian cities with mixed results. In Fortuna, the violence grew so out of control that warring factions now contest each other for control of the city, with at least a hundred thousand dead as a result. The city of Armstrong, however, managed to negotiate a peaceful departure of the Commission's goons after news reached them of the bloody massacres in the other Martian cities. By and large, the Commission lost control of over half of the Red Planet, with a few solitary military bases and smaller colonies still under their sway. All the urban centres are lost to them, however, and with their resources focused on Earth it will be some time before they can attempt to reclaim their property.
This is the situation Mars finds itself in in 2600, the year 461 since mankind first set foot on Mars. We, the players, take control of the Free Martians and decide what course they take. Will you unite the cities or have them go their own way? Will you come to terms with the Commission or drive them from the Red Planet for good? Mars is a worthy successor to Earth if you would make it so.
NB: This will be a collaborative effort. Players are more than welcome to suggest their own names for locations and cities as well as their own political factions, and any additions/alterations to the backstory.
Geography:
Terraforming changed Mars forever. The planet was made habitable and fertile, with sources of water established with the gigantic river Marsia and its many tributaries, running from a spring in Mons Olympus. The river flows southwards through the Red Waste into the freshwater Martian Sea, around which many smaller freeholding settlements have sprung. Over time, other rivers and bodies of water were established, namely the Quicksilver river that flows into the lake Apollo, the source of water for the city of Armstrong. However, most of the habitable land is concentrated around the 'Three Sisters' of Mars, a continent sized region known to the Martians as Providencia. Another smaller fertile
region, Elysium, exists around the Grey Sea (so named for the strange coloured water) on the other side of the planet. the vast majority of Mars remains a habitable desert, with many oasis and small bodies of water present. Wildlife roams this area in great numbers, with strange variations and mutations of creatures from Earth - as well as a few that grew exclusively on Mars - roaming the wastes. Some of these are deadly, some are not. Fauna and Flora is familiar to Earth's own, with cacti dotting the Red Waste as it would the Nevada desert.
Locations:
Olympia: Capital of Mars and home to sixty million people. Founded in the shadow of Mons Olympus, what began as the Commission mining outpost at Fort Concordia turned quickly into a vast urban jungle of industry and housing. The wealthiest people live in the city's northern district and the least wealthy live in the south, where the slum housing lies and thousands of homeless 'untouchables' dwell. The Revolution began in South Olympia and spread through the city like wildfire, and now the Revolutionaries have control of Fort Concordia and the Commission HQ there. Around Olympia sits many thousands of miles of fertile land. It is bordered by Fortuna to the west and Armstrong to the east, these have been dubbed the 'three sisters' of Mars.
Fortuna: To the west of Olympia, Fortuna is smaller and poorer than its counterpart, consisting almost entirely of industrial labourers. When violence broke out in Olympia, agitators in Fortuna took their cue to instigate a massive riot that turned into a bloodbath. Many were slain intentionally and unintentionally, but the Commission were driven out. Fortuna is surrounded by miles of fertile land that eventually meets the waste in the far west, where the tribals roam.
Armstrong: To the east of Olympia, Armstrong is smaller than both Fortuna and Olympia, but is relatively wealthy thanks to the multiple energy and water plants within the city that require the use of skilled labour. The resulting surplus of supplies and food ensured that even under the Commission the people of Armstrong were relatively prosperous. Some districts of Armstrong were so affluent that the city developed a Commission sanctioned gambling racket, with casinos used as a new way to leech at the wages of their employees. A few of the more successful people of Armstrong were able to accumulate enough funds to purchase their freedom. These wealthier citizens wield enormous influence in the city, particularly those that are associated with the casinos. The Revolution struggled to take hold here, but agitators from Olympia amongst the labourers put enough pressure on the people of Armstrong to force the Commission authorities to either disavow their employers or leave the area. Of all the cities in Mars, Armstrong is perhaps the only one that is truly self-sustaining. Like the other two, it is surrounded by fertile land, and the freshwater lake Apollo lies not far to the east.
Greystone: On the banks of the Grey Sea in Elysium lies Greystone, a small city that holds a large population of industrial workers, most of them working on the Greystone Dam. On the far side of the planet, Greystone was largely unaffected by the Revolution, and it is now the only significant Commission presence on Mars. In the wake of the revolt, the workers at Greystone were officially 'freed' from their contracts in a PR stunt, only for them to predictably volunteer to come back to work again in exchange for many restrictions being lifted. With the Commission offering amnesty and privileges for those that come to Greystone to accept re-employment, Mars stands at a crossroads.
Gagarin Station: Located near Armstrong and lake Apollo, this huge solar-power station harnesses the power of the sun to power the city of Armstrong and the surrounding area.
Martian Dam: A huge hydraulics dam that separates the River Marsia from the Martian Sea. It generates enough energy to power Olympia and Fortuna, as well as the regions around it.
Eden Base: Located on Mons Olympus itself, Eden Base was the ‘ground zero’ for humanity on Mars, being the first permanent base on the planet’s surface and the facility in which the terraforming process began. While it has been uninhabited and cordoned off by the Commission for almost half a century, many wildly speculate that vast arrays of advanced technology lies sealed away within the base.
Politics:(A few ideas of my own. Relatively bread and butter factions, players are free to create their own.)
The Fraternity: One of the first Revolutionary factions to spring up as a result of Marxist theory from Earth being disseminated throughout the population of Olympia. They harnessed the collective discontent of many industrial workers into a sense of solidarity and class consciousness, and, when their protestors were fired upon, engineered the riot that saw tensions explode and Fort Concordia captured. While they are largely run and made up of workers, the founding members were intellectual Earth Citizens and members of the Civic Class; ironically the two groups that the Fraternity has mercilessly persecuted since the revolution's onset. The goal of the leadership is to redistribute the assets of the Commission evenly and fairly to the citizenry, and to drive the Commission from Mars. They enjoy the most support in Olympia and amongst the Freeholders but have very little presence in Armstrong.
Sons of Mars: A faction that emerged during the Revolution, the Martians are aggressive nationalists and wish to unite Mars under one banner. Founded by industrial workers in Fortuna, they seized control of the city in the bloody purge that followed the taking of Fort Concordia and the fall of Olympia. Extremely militant and aggressive, they wish to remove any symbol of Earthling decadence from the planet, including immigrants fleeing from the War on Earth. They also wish to institute their own authoritarian structure, believing that Mars would collapse without some form of order to keep the peace. Their leader, X was a former civic worker turned agitator, and has taken the wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus as the symbol for the organisation. They have de facto control of Fortuna and hold some sympathy in Olympia and Armstrong.
The Citizens: A moderate faction that primarily finds traction in Armstrong, they advocate for the institution of a stable government and call for the property and money of citizens to be protected from revolutionary aggrandisement. Like the Sons of Mars, they believe that a structure is needed to keep the peace, and propose a leader elected by the landholding population, which would be everyone save the untouchables and unskilled workers. While they have no love for the Commission, they would rather see them leave peacefully or perhaps even co-exist rather than resort to needless bloodshed, as the Commission is their access to the markets of Earth. If access to the Commission is cut off, so is their access to many necessities and luxury items. They are commonly criticised as 'sell-outs' to the Commission and are representative of those who only joined the cause because it was the winning side; many of the Citizens are likewise suspicious or downright paranoid of their revolutionary comrades. They currently control the city of Armstrong and enjoy a broad amount of support among the former civic workers in Fortuna and Olympia. They also currently enjoy the financial and political support of the Viceroys, a small group of wealthy Earth Citizens that run the Armstrong casinos.
Classes:Earth Citizen: Citizens of Earth have the rights to hold property, travel where they please, remain unemployed, marry and reproduce without licence, etc. They are the representatives of the commission from Earth or part of the second wave of immigration that occurred in the wake of the War on Earth. Usually educated and wealthy, they are not under contract by the Commission and often hold private property in the form of a homestead. These homesteaders 'rent' workers off the Commission to work their fields. A worker who buys themselves out of their contract also becomes an Earth Citizen, but this requires an exorbitant sum of money. They make up roughly 1% of the Martian population. During the Revolution, many of the second-wave immigrants sympathised with the revolutionaries and were thus spared. Others were not so lucky, and those that profited from Commission labour have been ruthlessly hunted down and slaughtered. Those that survive have taken refuge at the Commission base on the far side of the planet. The one exception to this rule can be found in Armstrong, where the wealthy Freedmen and Earth Citizens associated with the casinos have de facto control over the city.
Commission workers: Soldiers and law enforcement fall under this category. They receive higher pay than most other workers and significant benefits, such as a transfer to the best available housing and the right to marry and reproduce as they please. They also receive medical care and free schooling for their children. The selection process is targeted at the most driven, authoritative and physically powerful of the youth. They served as the military arm of the Commission and were required to be efficient and brutal when necessary. During the revolution, those who served the Commission suffered the most, and even those who joined the side of the rebellion were persecuted in Olympia and Fortuna. Many of those that survived fled to Armstrong, finding new work as the hired muscle of the wealthy interest groups there.
Skilled worker: Doctors, teachers, computer scientists, and other 'skilled' workers fall under this category. They get paid the best wages but receive less privileges than the Commission workers. They receive decent medical care and free schooling, but have restricted marriage and reproductive rights. They are selected for their high intelligence at a young age and then sent to a specialist institution that can correctly hone their skills. They were largely sympathetic to the revolution but this did not prevent some being caught in the line of fire as those who had it easy under Commission rule.
Industrial Worker: Those who work in production in the factories. Bad pay and no privileges to speak of. They get the worst slum housing, no medical care, limited reproductive rights, and unless they shown signs of remarkable intelligence or physicality at a young age are kicked out of the education system. They formed the backbone of the Revolution, with multiple factions whipping them up into militancy against the Commission. Make up the majority of the Martian population.
Unskilled Worker: Farm workers, the lowest of the low. They are rented out to freeholding land barons and work for sub optimal wages and a bedroll to sleep on. During the beginning of the Revolution many remained docile, as they were located far away from the urban centres in the rural farming regions of the planet. Many still remain under the Commission's thrall on the far side of the planet, but those located near the urban centres found themselves suddenly liberated by their brethren. They are now directionless and listless, either joining the masses of workers in the city or joining the tribals in the Wastes. A few of them have banded together to form local communities on the now abandoned farmland and use it for their own benefit.
Untouchables: Those who cannot work, either through physical or mental defect. If they do not have family to care for them then they are left to live and die in the street.
Tribal Martians: The descendants of those that rejected Commission authority, the bandits, raiders, and nomads that roam the Red Waste, usually following the River Marsia and its tributaries or the herds of Dust Cattle that roam the desert. They are a fiercely independent and proud people, and the Commission has left them well enough alone so long as they remain in the wastes. What few campaigns have been undertaken to subdue them have ended in miserable failure, though this was a closely guarded secret to protect the authority of the Commission. With the Commission now broken, the tribes are gathering and considering migrating to the more fertile regions of the planet. Those who successfully flee from the Commission to live in the wastes are also referred to as 'Tribals'. A few of these tribes are little better than armed criminal gangs, but many more of them are complex clan-like cultures that hold to their own beliefs and traditions.
Culture:
Martians have little concept of race as we know of it on Earth. They are members of their city or tribe first and foremost, and though they might share a common language with other groups there remains some profound cultural differences. But at least they are fellow Martians. There is no one the groups distrust more than Earthlings, however.
Three Sisters: Those first generation immigrants who have lived in the urban centres are generally similar culturally and linguistically, though differences enough remain between the cities for them to hold their own distinct identities. The religions of Earth remain popular, or at least a bastardised form of them, as well as a number of strange cults and faiths that were tolerated by the Commission so long as it helped to keep the workers in line.
Second Generation: Those second generation immigrants who came (and are still coming) as refugees from the War on Earth are noticeably different linguistically and culturally, speaking the Martian creole with difficulty or with a noticeable accent. Whilst they are usually more educated, they are looked down upon by some of the first generation Martians for perceived snobbery and their ties with Earth. They are either atheist or agnostic, with a few holding to the old religions of Earth even as their homeworld grows less spiritual.
Freeholders: Those who live outside the cities have developed their own customs and dialect that are deemed ‘quaint’ and ‘backward’ by those in the city. They likewise view those from the Sisters as dirty, lazy, and stupid, with the cities being havens of vice and degeneracy. They tend to be suspicious and spiritual if not outright religious, mostly worshipping a vague bastardised amalgamation of the Abrahamic God.
Tribals: Perhaps nothing is more alien to the Martians than the tribals. They speak half a dozen different languages and hold religious beliefs that vary wildly between groups. Even more suspicious than the Freeholders, they are proud of their independent traditions and very much set in their ways. Some tribes are more violent than others, and they are capable of making war when needed. Most of them live on the move, but a few have been known to establish settlements deep within the wastes. They view the Commission and the Martians as one and the same, representatives of the greedy and grasping reach of the civilised world. Tribal Martians have adapted to living in the harsher environments of the Red Wastes, and as such require less moisture and food to survive than the average human. They are also less affected by the massive amounts of industrial pollution and radiation caused by the Commission. They are mostly illiterate or barely so, and have no means to acquire or use advanced technology save by scavenging.
Technology:While futuristic to us, the level of technology present is significantly less advanced than it would be on contemporary Earth. While a few robots exist, no significant strides have been made in robotics technology on Mars as humans have proven to be cheaper labour - Humans make free replacements, while Robots generally do not. Space travel operates on an relatively advanced level - one can now reach Jupiter or Earth in a reasonable time thanks to strides in space travel technology. Terraforming technology is very advanced but also very expensive and generally inaccessible. Medicinal technology is relatively advanced, there being cures to most known diseases if one can afford to pay for medical care. In terms of firearms, bullets remain the fashion, with the few weapons having been created from laser technology generally only used on a large scale, such as with space-craft. Television and radio are widely in available in cities, but there are no smart-phones and no social media. Computers only exist in a professional context, and access to the internet is limited to connecting up the various commission outposts to send and receive data. Public transport and private transport exists, with a massive underground railway linking the 'Three Sisters', though it previously could not be freely used by most of the population. Energy exists in primarily renewable sources, as no fossil fuels exist on Mars at present. In keeping with the theme of the setting, we can 'make up' the standard as we go along and as needed.
