ARCHIVED: Discussion Topic - Civilizations of the World

Status
Not open for further replies.
Exactly!

and I still say that Baron Klaus Wulfenbach should be the leader of Austria
 
First time I've heard of them Blue but that was a very volatile region.

Regarding Poland this is definitely alt history/reality stuff. I had actually thought about giving Poland the Ukraine territories too - this does have an actual historical basis.

HT - I will make him a Great Leader
 
What about the Republic of Texas (or Tejas), under the leadership of Sam Houston, with the pistol-packing Ranger as one of its unique units? Also, the Aztecs were pretty thoroughly subjugated at this point, and could be replaced by Mexico under Emperor Maximilian I. Brazil could be a big player in the western hemisphere, too.
 
What about the Republic of Texas (or Tejas), under the leadership of Sam Houston, with the pistol-packing Ranger as one of its unique units? Also, the Aztecs were pretty thoroughly subjugated at this point, and could be replaced by Mexico under Emperor Maximilian I. Brazil could be a big player in the western hemisphere, too.
In the AH laid out in this thread Texas is split between the Creole States of A, Indian Country, & California. Aztecs with steam power is part of the whole point of an AH mod. & I'm pretty sure Brazil is intended to be part of Gran Colombia.
 
I say that the Western areas (NM, AZ, NV, MN, WY, ID, ND, SD & WA) should be controlled by some kind of alliance between the Dine (Navajo), Lakota (Souix), Hopi (Pueblo), Zuni (Pueblo), Apache and Cheyenne... I've had some interesting ideas for Native American Steampunk, especially considering the Dine Nation's proclivity for adopting modern tech to their purposes, and the fact that they've been pretty big players in the trucking industry for some time now....
 
I say that the Western areas (NM, AZ, NV, MN, WY, ID, ND, SD & WA) should be controlled by some kind of alliance between the Dine (Navajo), Lakota (Souix), Hopi (Pueblo), Zuni (Pueblo), Apache and Cheyenne... I've had some interesting ideas for Native American Steampunk, especially considering the Dine Nation's proclivity for adopting modern tech to their purposes, and the fact that they've been pretty big players in the trucking industry for some time now....

Hey, I :( already suggested that in back in Post 34.
 
Axolotl: there's no real room for a Texas civ -see BM's post.

BM: Brasil is still a patchwork of European colonies mainly Portugese. I may juggle it up a bit though and give some cities to unexpected civs: The Papal States for instance (I've already placed one city for them on the West African coast - perhaps they have bases there trying to administer/control/abolish the Slave Trade (delete whichever you prefer)). I guess a city or two in the north could go to Gran Colombia too.

Regarding The Indian Territory. I suppose the discussion boils down to how advanced do we make the Indians in this scenario. My initial thought was to make them a primitive power who at most would have incorporated some steampunk tech into their culture but this would be limited and only what they get from trade with their neighbours. Any ideas on this? Steampunk bows / horses perhaps :)
 
Well, as I said, the Dine and Lakota were actually pretty keen on adopting Western technology... As a matter of fact, the Lakota under Chief Crazy Horse were actually armed with more modern and advanced rifles than the US Army at the time. :lol: ...The Cavalry was still using single-shot Sharps and Trapdoor Springfields, whereas the Lakota were using winchester repeating rifles.... Ain't no wonder Custer got pwned.

As for ideas, One of mine was (again, partially in keeping with Dine trucking and transporation prowess) some kind of armored steam-lorry, but decked-out native style.
 
Perhaps the Indians could adapt some kind of steam-powered velocipede to their purposes - a vehicle that is not particularly well armored, but is fast and armed with a decent weapon. They could call it the Iron Horse.

In Gibson and Sterling's The Difference Engine the British covertly supply modern repeating rifles to the Plains Indians specifically in order to prevent the westward expansion of their former Colonies. If the Brit-allied Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy hadn't fallen apart during the American Revolution, it's likely that a similar situation would have developed in the real-life Ohio Territory. Steampunk Indians are gonna be hard to win as, but if we assume a trade dynamic like this it'll keep them competitive.
 
First time I've heard of them Blue but that was a very volatile region.

Regarding Poland this is definitely alt history/reality stuff. I had actually thought about giving Poland the Ukraine territories too - this does have an actual historical basis.

HT - I will make him a Great Leader

As a matter of fact poland in the golden age had most of Ukraine, Half the Balkans (Hungary, Northern Romania, Moldavia.) Half Germany, and the region which is now Lithuania, Lotva, Estonia, not counting the Belorusian teritories.
They were the most powerful land power in whole europe at the time, holding a regular army of 100 000 soldiers and over half a milion to be able to call to arms at any time, which in those times were an almighty army.

No wonder poland were able to stop the ottoman expansion on Europe (as a matter of fact Ottomans NEVER accepted the fact that poland was splitted between russia, austria, and prussia, all the time did they send official letters to "the polish goverment" althou there was no goverment at the time, they just couldnt believe a country as strong as poland could fell to such weaklings.) And yeah Prussia, Russia and Austria were uber weaklings at the time.

WOW! Damn i overexarated.
 
I may juggle it up a bit though and give some cities to unexpected civs: The Papal States for instance (I've already placed one city for them on the West African coast - perhaps they have bases there trying to administer/control/abolish the Slave Trade (delete whichever you prefer)).
Albino assassins & black-robed Illuminati:goodjob:. "Bring in ... The Comfy Chair!" Goa & a couple other cites in India were in a similar status to Hong Kong during the era as well.

I was thinking "Great Game" in North Am. instead of Central Asia. Euros fighting proxy wars by covertly supporting locals & inflaming their conflicts.
Well, as I said, the Dine and Lakota were actually pretty keen on adopting Western technology... As a matter of fact, the Lakota under Chief Crazy Horse were actually armed with more modern and advanced rifles than the US Army at the time.
The horse itself was a pretty rapid adoption to advanced technology. Most of the Native Americans I know who practice traditional Earth Medicine use "buffalo gas" (disposable cigarette lighters) & use crazy glue, etc. in their bead & feather work. To them it's not the technology per se, but the spirit in which it is used.
Perhaps the Indians could adapt some kind of steam-powered velocipede to their purposes - a vehicle that is not particularly well armored, but is fast and armed with a decent weapon. They could call it the Iron Horse.
Steampunk bows / horses perhaps :)
Don't call it an Iron Horse; it is an Iron Horse.

Maybe those Anasasi cliff dwellings were really a sort of steampunk DARPA/Area 51 & the Hopi kivas double as bomb shelters. Inca accounting & administration... Mayan mathematics & astronomy... Dine adaptability... Lakotah warrior code... Iroquois governance... Hopi resource management... for starters... combined: pretty formidable. Just don't let the Lenapi handle diplomacy & foreign trade.:lol:
 
Civilopedia Entries

I shall attempt here to provide descriptions of our Civilizations for the Civilopedia:

leagueofgentlementxttr9.jpg


The League of Gentlemen: The League is an organization composed of "extraordinary" individuals who have joined their talents together to oppose a new, more powerful class of criminals that developed out of the political turmoil that swept the world at the dawn of the industrial revolution. This period witnessed the rise of "master" criminals who grasped the tremendous implications of the new technologies suddenly available and quickly outstripped the abilities of governments to control them. They created, in effect, multinational high-tech corporations that profited from misery, misfortune, theft, and murder. The League was chartered to offset this lethal menace by the judicial use of ability, dedication, and scientific application. The true strength of the League does not reside in the incredible abilities of its members, notable though they may be; it is, rather, the League's dedication to investigation and innovation that makes it such an effectively powerful organization. Despite its name, the League's membership has included some certain females, who, contrary to their fair species' reputation of frailty and aversion to conflict, have participated wholly in the battle against criminals and even served in positions of leadership!


malumsoldalitaslogo.jpg
The Malum Sodalitas

Malum Sodalitas (Latin: The Evil Secret Society): was founded by Professor Moriarty, a former Oxford Professor of Mathematics, to be a secret society of master criminals under his personal direction. Because this elite group was known only to (or more accurately, suspected to exist by) certain members of Scotland Yard, its activities not been chronicled in popular literature, although Moriarty's infamous handiwork has become known by the ingenuity and intricacy of its planning and the violence of its execution and aftermath. Even less is known of the membership of the Malum Sodalitas, save for the fact that they have always recruited only from the crème de la crème of the criminal world, so that its members are invariably the most cunning, treacherous, and talented criminal minds of the day.



jack460.jpg
Britain
PF_408971_999%7EUnion-Jack-Posters.jpg


Great Britain: When the young Princess Alexandrina Victoria was told that she would one day be queen, she reportedly said, "I will be good." This statement, applied to the reign of Queen Victoria, would prove to be succinct, accurate, and predictive, for Victoria would bring the British Empire into being, preside over the industrial revolution, and popularize Christmas trees, railroads, white weddings, and marriage between first cousins. During her reign the Empire has expanded so far around the globe that they say "the sun never sets upon it", and this worldwide military success surely proves that her military was and is among the best ever fielded. Despite this, her reign is also known as one of relative peace between monarchs, bolstered no doubt by the fact that almost all of them are related to her.
On September 29th, 1829, Scotland Yard (and London's Metropolitan Police) was founded by Sir Robert Peel and the controversial French detective (and former criminal) Francois-Eugen Vidocq. Scotland Yard introduced both scientific method and bureaucracy into police work, and both continue to be central to the conduct of professional police forces to this day. Whitehall has occasionally (quietly) turned to the League of Gentlemen for assistance, although the relationship between Her Majesty's government and the League is invariably strained, at least on an official level.

blackcoatslogo.jpg
The Black Coats

The Black Coats (Les Habits Noirs) - The origins of the Black Coats go back to 1625, when a young Andrea Vitelli, aka Bel Demonio, organized a criminal gang to avenge the death of his father, the heir of Monteleone. In 1795, great-grandson, Count Mario de Monteleone, formed the Companions of Silence (aka the Iron Knights) to help the less fortunate. Unfortunately, the Count was framed and murdered in jail. The Companions swore to avenge him and turned (back) to crime as a way to do so. In 1802, the son of the Count, who called himself Fra Diavolo, took control of the Companions and rebuilt them into a greater criminal organization called the Black Coats, working from the Corsican monastery of the Freres de la Merci.

Since that time, the Black Coats leadership has been international, including, for instance, Fergus O'Brean, who established the Black Coats in England as the Gentlemen of the Night in order to avenge the murder of his family by the British.

From 1832 to 1843, the Black Coats were led by Mlle Marguerite Sadoulas, who went by the (stolen) title Countess of Claire. When she was apparently murdered by Roland de Claire (the true heir to the Claire title), Colonel Bozzo-Corona rose to head the organization, and held that position through treachery and murder for nearly twenty years, at one point faking his own death so that he could kill his competitors with a bomb he'd placed at the presumed location of Fra Diabolo's treasure. During this period, Marguerite Sadoulas returned and again turned the Black Coats to revenge against the Claire family.

In 1852, Colonel Bozzo-Corona had Mlle Sadoulas' daughter, Justine (named after her great-grandmother, whose exploits had been chronicled by M. De Sade), kidnapped and sold to Leocadie Samayoux, aka Maman Leo, a performer in a crime circus. Justine was endowed with the criminal talents (and libido) of her forebears, and rose to leadership of the Black Silk Hats, a rival of the Black Coats, under the direction of her one-time kidnapper, Saladin.

In the meantime, Henri De Belcamp, aka Jean Diablo, aka John Devil, the son of the Countess De Belcamp (another pseudonym of Mlle Sadoulas) was run out of France by his half-sister Justine, and traveled to England, where he has resurrected the Black Coats (aka Gentlemen of the Night) to be a potent criminal enterprise, surpassing the continental Black Coats in cruelty, coercion, and scope of purpose.

The Black Coats prefer to control by force, rather than reason, and often use foreign mercenaries to carry out their deadly plans.

Link: Black Coats


gothicunionlogo.jpg
The Gothic Union


The Gothic Union Heathcliff was a gypsy orphan discovered on the streets of Liverpool by the Earnshaw family of Yorkshire and brought to their estate at Wuthering Heights. Despite his Transylvanian roots, he was raised as a member of the family and became a gentleman "in dress and aspect", though a neighbor, Mrs. Linton of Thrushcross Grange stated that the urchin they first saw could be a "little Lascar or American castaway."

A silent and at first solitary child, Heathcliff was initially resented by both Catherine Earnshaw and her elder brother, Hindley; whilst Catherine later befriended and learned to love Heathcliff, Hindley continued to resent him, seeing him as an interloper who had stolen his father's affection. Upon Mr. Earnshaw's death and his inheritance of the estate, the spiteful Hindley proceeded to treat Heathcliff as little more than a servant boy and made him work the fields, which fostered Heathcliff's lifelong anger and resentment. Catherine, however, remained close to her foster brother.

As she matured into her young teens, however, Catherine grew close to Edgar Linton, a timid and well-bred young man of the neighbouring estate, Thrushcross Grange, and accepted his proposal of marriage; but she privately insisted that her true and only love was Heathcliff. She claimed that she could not marry Heathcliff, however, because it "would degrade her" and that the two would be beggars were such a union to take place. Nevertheless, she also declared her passion for him in such ways as "whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same," and the famous quote "I am Heathcliff." Aware only of Catherine's decision to marry Edgar, rather than her proclamation of true love for him, a bitter Heathcliff left Wuthering Heights upon overhearing her saying that it would degrade her to marry him, and headed for the continent.

In Paris, Heathcliff rediscovered the survival skills he'd learned as an urchin in Liverpool; and combining those with the knowledge he'd gained of the upper classes from his adoptive family; he soon became an accomplished gentleman thief. Adopting the alias Lord Ruthven, he moved easily in the upper echelon of society, picking the pockets of the rich even as he flattered them. One fateful day, however, he picked the wrong pocket and was immediately attacked turned into a vampire by his wrathful victim, a young russian named Armand (who was actually a very old vampire), who was moved to this act mostly by his flustered surprise at having been gotten the best of by a thief. Armand then ordered Heathcliff to leave Paris; "Go back to wherever you came from Thief, and when you have emptied the souls of all whom you love, remember that it all began when you emptied my purse."

So Heathcliff returned to Wuthering Heights a quite different man than the one who had left. Like many vampires, he appeared to be in the peak of health - "like a soldier", it was said. His heightened vampire senses made manipulating those around him an easy task, and he'd soon seduced and married Edgar Linton's sister, Isabelle, who he thereafter treated abominably, alternately beating her, then feeding on her while she was unconscious. When his beloved Catherine fell terminally ill after giving birth to a daughter, Heathcliff resolved to turn her into a vampire, but stopped just short of completing the process, fearing that she would resent him for it. Because of his efforts, she remained suspended between life and death; she appeared to everyone else to have died, but he knew the truth of it, and would twice later have her grave opened so that he could confirm for himself that he had actually preserved her in that state, and because of the fear that she might awaken and be unable to either escape her grave or die.

Meanwhile Isabelle escaped to London and had a son, who she named Linton Heathcliff. Heathcliff was left to focus his rage on his foster brother Hindley, who had treated him badly when he was a child. He toyed with Hindley as a cat would with a mouse, alternately befriending him with drink and card games, then feeding on him after he'd passed out. Hinton's health declined rapidly and he finally died, and Heathcliff took ownership of Wuthering Heights, and began raising Hinton's son, Hareton with as much neglect as he had suffered at Hinton's hands, but did not feed on the boy, instead quenching his unholy thirst with the blood of small animals, and masked these small deaths as acts of random cruelty.

Thirteen years later Isabella died, and Linton came to live at Wuthering Heights with his father, but Linton's resemblance to Isabella drove Heathcliff to begin abusing the boy as he had his mother. When Catherine's and Edgar's daughter Cathy later came to visit and appeared to take an interest in Linton, Heathcliff formed a plan to gain final revenge on Edgar, whom he irrationally blamed for his wretched existence. He redoubled his nocturnal feeding on Linton, and when Cathy returned to the Heights to care for Linton, Heathcliff held her hostage and forced her to to marry his son. Shortly thereafter, Heathcliff killed Edgar and then his own son Linton, finally allowing that poor soul to rest in peace.

By these deaths, Heathcliff acquired Edgar's estate, Thrushcross Grange, and his revenge was complete. But it was a dish served cold, as they say, and when Cathy eventually fell in love with Hareton (as her mother had fallen in love with him when he was in similar circumstance), Heathcliff developed a longing for Catherine that caused a psychic connection to her in the grave, though she yet slumbered in deathly mortis. He began speaking aloud to her as if she were in the room: "I will be with you soon." What his confused relatives couldn't have known was that he could sense her answer from the grave: "I am waiting, my love."

In the end, it was a simple matter for him to reach the grave. He starved himself, both his vampire and mortal selves that is, until his body stopped functioning, and Cathy and Hareton buried him, as he'd requested, in a grave adjoining Catherine, taking off the adjoining sides of their coffins so that they could be together.

After a long while, possibly decades, Heathcliff was able to move himself close enough to Catherine to comingle his blood with hers; by this they were both awakened. Though still weak, Heathcliff tore at the earth above them until he was able to finally pull himself and Catherine up onto the moonlit moors. He captured whatever small animals he could find and they fed until she was able to walk, and then took her back to Wuthering Heights, which had been closed and shuttered in the years since Heathcliff's death. They lived secretly there until all who had known them in life had died, and openly thereafter, and Heathcliff was eventually able to secure the deeds for the land in a trust so that it would be theirs in perpetuity.

Though they remained happy in each other's company, in time they yearned for the company of others like themselves, and formed the Gothic Union, inviting all supernatural beings (for there are many) to join them, and they have been so successful in this pursuit that it threatens to turn a sizeable portion of Britain into the walking dead.


But first, on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;

There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corse:
Thy victims ere they yet expire
Shall know the demon for their sire,
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem. - Lord Byron
 
Those are great! Good pedia entries always make a big difference.

A couple of carping comments, just in the spirit of making them perfect: You can't say "comprised of" - it should be either "comprising" or "composed of". You have stray apostrophes in "its symbol" and "its existence". "Crème" has a grave accent, not an acute one.

Balthasar said:
...Victoria would bring the British Empire into being, preside over the industrial revolution, and popularize Christmas trees, railroads, white weddings, and marriage between first cousins.

Genius.
 
Civilopedia Civilizations Part II: Mars (Barsoom)

DejahThoris.jpg
You can find the leaderheads for these Civs here.

Red Martian Civs:

PS_02_HeliumWeb.jpg


Helium

Not the inert gas, but he most powerful red Martian nation upon Baroom, Helium is located in the South East Hemisphere. This nation has the largest armada of any red Martian empire, consisting of some 6,000 advanced warships. The Jeddak of Helium, Tardos Mors resides in the city of greater Helium, while his son Mors Kajak, father of Dejah Thoris lives in lesser Helium.

“In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium, another distinguishing feature is the two immense towers, one of vivid scarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from the center of one of the cities, while the other, of bright yellow and of the same height, marks her sister.” (PM XXIII)

Helium is unique for its twin capital cities which are two karads (75 miles) apart; these cities lie 27 karads southwest of Zodanga. A great wind storm toppled the Scarlet Tower of lesser Helium about twenty years after the birth of Tara of Helium, daughter of John Carter and Princess Dejah Thoris. (CM V)

“As he moved with the throng in the parklike canyon of the thoroughfare the life of an awakening Martian city was in evidence about him. Houses, raised high upon their slender metal columns for the night were dropping gently toward the ground. Among the flowers upon the scarlet sward which lies about the buildings children were already playing, and comely women laughing and chatting with their neighbours as they culled gorgeous blossoms for the vases within doors.
“The pleasant ‘kaor’ of the Barsoomian greeting fell continually upon the ears of the stranger as friends and neighbors took up the duties of a new day.
“The district in which he had landed was residential—a district of merchants of the more prosperous sort. Everywhere were evidences of luxury and wealth. Slaves appeared upon every housetop with gorgeous silks and costly furs, laying them in the sun for airing. Jewel-encrusted women lolled even thus early upon the carven balconies before their sleeping apartments. Later in the day they would repair to the roofs when the slaves had arranged couches and pitched silken canopies to shade them from the sun. Strains of inspiring music broke pleasantly from open windows, for the Martians have solved the problem of attuning the nerves pleasantly to the sudden transition from sleep to waking that proves so difficult a thing for most Earth folk.
“Above him raced the long, light passenger fliers, plying, each in its proper plane, between the numerous landing-stages for internal passenger traffic. Landing-stages that tower high into the heavens are for the great international passenger liners. Freighters have other landing-stages at various lower levels, to within a couple of hundred feet of the ground; nor dare any flier rise or drop from one plane to another except in certain restricted districts where horizontal traffic is forbidden.
“Along the close-cropped sward which paves the avenue ground fliers were moving in continuous lines in opposite directions. For the greater part they skimmed along the surface of the sward, soaring gracefully into the air at times to pass over a slower-going driver ahead, or at intersections, where the north and south traffic has the right of way and the east and west must rise above it. From private hangars upon many a roof top fliers were darting into the line of traffic. Gay farewells and parting admonitions mingled with the whirring of motors and the subdued noises of the city. Yet with all the swift movement and the countless thousands rushing hither and thither, the predominant suggestion was that of luxurious ease and soft noiselessness.
“Martians dislike harsh, discordant clamour. The only loud noises they can abide are the martial sounds of war, the clash of arms, the collision of two mighty dreadnoughts of the air. To them there is no sweeter music than this.”

(TMM II)

whelcm4.jpg


Manator

Located north east of Bantoom, and 814 miles west of Gathol, this isolated red Martian nation is protected by treacherous air currents, haads of meager vegetation, ‘torn rocks and yawning chasms.’ These people are notorious for their Jetan games (Martian Chess) that are played with gladiators and slaves. About one million descendants of Gatholians serve as slaves in Manator. Three major cities; Manataj, Manatos & Manator comprise the kingdom of Manator.

“Banners and pennons broke from many a staff. People were moving about the gate before them. The high white walls were paced by sentinels at far intervals. Upon the roofs of higher buildings the women could be seen airing the sleeping silks and furs. Turan watched it all in silence for some time.

“I do not know them,’ he said at last. "I cannot guess what city this may be. But it is an ancient city. Its people have no fliers and no firearms. It must be old indeed . . .There are no landing-stages upon the roofs—not one that can be seen from here; while were we looking similarly at Helium we would see hundreds. And they have no firearms because their defenses are all built to withstand the attack of spear and arrow, with spear and arrow. They are an ancient people.

“From their vantage point they saw a body of armed warriors ride forth from the gate, and winding along a well-beaten road pass from sight about the foot of the hill from which they watched. The men were red, like themselves, and they rode the small saddle thoats of the red race. Their trappings were barbaric and magnificent, and in their head-dress were many feathers as had been the custom of ancients. They were armed with swords and long spears and they rode almost naked, their bodies being painted in ochre and blue and white. There were, perhaps, a score of them in the party and as they galloped away on their tireless mounts they presented a picture at once savage and beautiful.”
(CMM IX)

The Jeddak of Manator is O-Tar, “a large man, the perfection of whose handsome face was marred only by the hauteur of his cold eyes and the suggestion of cruelty imparted by too thin lips. It needed no second glance to assure the least observing that here indeed was a ruler of men—a fighting jeddak whose people might worship but not love, and for whose slightest favor warriors would vie with one another to go forth and die. This was O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator, and as Tara of Helium saw him for the first time she could not but acknowledge a certain admiration for this savage chieftain who so virilely personified the ancient virtues of the God of War.” (CM XI)




amm06h6.jpg
Toonolian League
A confederation of the Cities that border the Toonolian Marshes. From the summit of the landing tower I had my first view of a Martian city. Several hundred feet below me lay spread the broad, well-lighted avenues of Toonol, many of which were crowded with people. Here and there, in this central district, a building was raised high upon its supporting, cylindrical metal shaft; while further out, Where the residences predominated, the city took on the appearance of a colossal and grotesque forest. Among the larger palaces only an occasional suite of rooms was thus raised high above the level of the others, these being the sleeping apartments of the owners, their servants or their guests; but the smaller homes were raised in their entirety, a precaution necessitated by the constant activities of the followers of Gor Hajus' ancient profession that permitted no man to be free from the constant menace of assassination. Throughout the central district the sky was pierced by the lofty towers of several other landing stages; but, as I was later to learn, these were comparatively few in number. Toonol is in no sense a flying nation, supporting no such enormous fleets of merchant ships and vessels of war as, for example, the twin cities of Helium or the great capital of Ptarth.

Green Martian Civs:



PS_02_TharkCityWeb.jpg


Thark Horde:

Located about 15 karads (550 miles) southwest from the territories of Helium is the capitol city of this green Martian tribe. “a city from whose long-forgotten people this horde of green men have stolen even their name. The hordes of Thark number some thirty thousand souls, and are divided into twenty-five communities. Each community has its own jed and lesser chieftains . . . Five communities make their headquarters at the city of Thark, and the balance are scattered among other deserted cities of ancient Mars.” (PM XVI).

Green Martian hordes are distinguished by their insignia and metal ornaments. Upon the harness of a Thark warrior is “a small mirror, about the bigness of a lady's hand glass, which hung midway between his shoulders and his waist against his broad back.” (GM III)

“At length Tars Tarkas laughed softly, after the manner of his strange kind when in the presence of the horrible or terrifying. It is not an hysterical laugh, but rather the genuine expression of the pleasure they derive from the things that move Earth men to loathing or to tears. Often and again have I seen them roll upon the ground in mad fits of uncontrollable mirth when witnessing the death agonies of women and little children beneath the torture of that hellish green Martian fete—the Great Games.” (GM III)

“Sharp talons and cruel fangs had torn leg, arm, and breast literally to ribbons. So weak was he from continued exertion and loss of blood that but for the supporting wall I doubt that he even could have stood erect. But with the tenacity and indomitable courage of his kind he still faced his cruel and relentless foes—the personification of that ancient proverb of his tribe: ‘Leave to a Thark his head and one hand and he may yet conquer.’ ” (GM, IV)

Unique amongst green Martian tribes or hordes, the Tharks are particularly adept at handling their steeds or thoats; “these great brutes, by the uncertainty of their tempers, often were the means of turning victory into defeat, since, at a crucial moment, they might elect to unseat and rend their riders . . . And so I explained as carefully as I could the entire method of training I had adopted with my beasts, and later he had me repeat it before Lorquas Ptomel and the assembled warriors. That moment marked the beginning of a new existence for the poor thoats, and before I left the community of Lorquas Ptomel I had the satisfaction of observing a regiment of as tractable and docile mounts as one might care to see. The effect on the precision and celerity of the military movements was so remarkable that Lorquas Ptomel presented me with a massive anklet of gold from his own leg, as a sign of his appreciation of my service to the horde.” (PM XIII)


ty01h4.jpg


Torquas Horde


Green Martian tribe ruled by their jed, Thar Ban and Jeddak, Hortan Gur. Their capital city (also called Torquas) is located in Barsoom’s SW hemisphere about 7000 haads (2583 miles) west of Helium and 200 haads (74 miles) from Aaanthor.

“The men of Torquas had perfected huge guns with which their uncanny marksmanship had permitted them to repulse the few determined efforts that near-by red nations had made to explore their country by means of battle fleets of airships.” (TMM V)

“The temper of the thoats of Torquas appeared even shorter than their vicious cousins among the Tharks and Warhoons, and for a time it seemed unlikely that he should escape a savage charge on the part of a couple of old bulls that circled, squealing, about him; but at last he managed to get close enough to one of them to touch the beast. With the feel of his hand hand upon the sleek hide the creature quieted, and in answer to the telepathic command of the red man sank to its knees. . . Even in the hands of the giant green men bridle and reins would be hopelessly futile against the mad savagery and mastodonic strength of the thoat, and so they are guided by that strange telepathic power with which the men of Mars have learned to communicate in a crude way with the lower orders of their planet.” (TMM XI)


tarsart.jpg
Warhoon Horde
An exceedingly savage tribe of 20,000 green Martians found in Barsoom’s SW hemisphere lead by an old and insolent Jeddak, Dak Kova. They decorate their torsos with the hands and skulls of their victims. Warhoons are notable for their semi annual gladiatorial games which are held in a sunken amphitheater. “They are a smaller horde than the Tharks, but much more ferocious. Not a day passed but that some members of the various Warhoon communities met in deadly combat. I have seen as high as eight mortal duels within a single day.” (PM XVIII)

There is a somewhat larger tribe of Warhoons of the South ruled by Kab Kadja that shares an uneasy truce with their northern cousins; otherwise, “The various hordes of green men of Barsoom are eternally at deadly war with one another, and never, except on that single historic instance when the great Tars Tarkas of Thark gathered a hundred and fifty thousand green warriors from several hordes to march upon the doomed city of Zodanga to rescue Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, from the clutches of Than Kosis, had I seen green Martians of different hordes associated.” (GM II)

White Martians (Orovar):

ty93h6.jpg
Therns, Holy Therns, & Orovars

THERNS are the degenerate descendants of the ancient fair-skinned race and are integral to the pandemic Cult of Issus. “The therns for their part have temples doted along the entire civilized world. Here priests whom the people never see, communicate the doctrine of the Mysterious River Iss, the Valley Dor and the Lost Sea of Korus to persuade the poor deluded creatures to take the voluntary pilgrimage that swells the wealth of the Holy Therns and adds to their number of slaves.” (GM, XIII, p.111) The Valley Dor is not the promised land of peace and happiness, but a nightmare of cruelty and exploitation.

Therns are deceived by superstitions of their own; “As man may eat the flesh of beasts, so may gods eat the flesh of man. The Holy Therns are the Gods of Mars.” (GM, VIII, p.73) In addition to this, and other delusions, therns worship the plant men and white apes as reincarnations of fellow therns who have died before completing the 1000 year life cycle. Therns who die a dishonorable death are thought to forever inhabit the slimy body of an aquatic reptile, the silian. They are an immoral race given to conceit, debauchery, greed and idleness. Telepathic, but not oviparous, there is no marriage amongst the therns. They fear deep water and black pirates.

Therns are similar in appearance to red men except that therns have milk-white skin and are bald. To conceal this shame, both males and females wear long, yellow wigs which they revere. It is a disgrace for a thern to be seen without this wig. An impressive diadem set within a gold tiara identifies a Holy Thern; otherwise, harness and weaponry are very similar to that of the red Martians. They are known “to be the least honorable and most treacherous fighters upon Mars.” (WM, IV, p.44)

In the center of the lush Valley Dor is the Lost Sea of Korus. Upon the shores of Korus (the Red Planet’s only open body of water) is the sacred temple of Issus. The sheer perpendicular Otz Cliffs circumscribe the oval Valley Dor. Beyond the bejeweled Otz cliffs are the frozen and treacherous Otz Mountains of the south pole which are inhabited by furred beasts.

In the subterranean world under the Otz Cliffs, dwell millions of slaves and the ferocious banth. The therns are ruled by a theocracy that sometimes receives written revelation from their goddess, Issus. The thern navy consists of some 2,000 battleships, and one million warriors guard their surface temples, courts and gardens.

dm.jpg


Lotharians

An ancient city in the South East hemisphere nestled within a hidden valley adjacent to the mountains of Torquas and a small forest. Accessed upon foot by an inconspicuous tunnel next to a forest, here the 1,000 survivors of Barsoom’s ancient auburn-haired, fair-skinned race still subsist. They are rule by Tario, a cruel and tyrannical despot. The Lotharians worship an ageless, giant banth (TMM IX) and are protected by a force of illusionary bowmen.

After considerable parleying he consented to admit them to the city, and a moment later the wheel-like gate rolled back within its niche, and Thuvia and Carthoris entered the city of Lothar. All about them were evidences of fabulous wealth. The facades of the buildings fronting upon the avenue within the wall were richly carven, and about the windows and doors were ofttimes set foot-wide borders of precious stones, intricate mosaics, or tablets of beaten gold bearing bas-reliefs depicting what may have been bits of the history of this forgotten people.

"There are no women in Lothar. The last of the Lotharian females perished ages since, upon that cruel and terrible journey across the muddy plains that fringed the half-dried seas, when the green hordes scourged us across the world to this our last hiding-place—our impregnable fortress of Lothar. Scarce twenty thousand men of all the countless millions of our race lived to reach Lothar. Among us were no women and no children. All these had perished by the way.”
(TMM VI)

‘Poor Lothar,” he said. "It is indeed a city of ghosts. There are scarce a thousand of us left, who once were numbered in the millions. Our great city is peopled by the creatures of our own imaginings. For our own needs we do not take the trouble to materialize these peoples of our brain, yet they are apparent to us. . .

"There are others among us who insist that none of us is real. That we could not have existed all these ages without material food and water had we ourselves been material. Although I am a realist, I rather incline toward this belief myself. It seems well and sensibly based upon the belief that our ancient forbears developed before their extinction such wondrous mentalities that some of the stronger minds among them lived after the death of their bodies—that we are but the deathless minds of individuals long dead.”
(TMM IX)

Other Barsoom Civs:


lg2jb4.jpg
The First Born

The First Born are “men six feet and over in height. Have clear cut and handsome features; their eyes are well set and large, though a slight narrowness gives them a crafty appearance. The iris is extremely black while the eyeball itself is quite white and clear. Their skin has the appearance of polished ebony.” (TMM, glossary, p.154) The harnesses of the black pirates are lavishly adorned with gold, silver, platinum and precious gems. Although courageous and disciplined warriors, the black pirates are “far inferior to the red men in refinement and chivalry.” (GM, VIII, p.71)

“There is no peasantry amongst the First Born. Even the lowest soldier is a god, and has slaves to wait upon him. The First Born do not work. The men fight- that is a sacred privilege and duty; to fight and die for Issus. The women do nothing, slaves wash them, slaves dress them, slaves feed them.” (GM, XI, p.98) Just like the yellow Martians, the First Born are neither telepathic nor oviparous; they neither labor nor invent. They have a healthy respect for the Green Martian.

The First Born are ruled by a twisted charlatan posing as a goddess. This bloated, toothless megalomaniac has lived for millennia and has unquestioned authority. Black pirate princes or dators have the privilege of gazing upon the visage of their goddess, Issus. If captives are allowed to view Issus, their life expectancy is less than one year.

“The whole fabric of our religion is based upon superstitious belief in lies that have been foisted upon us for ages by those directly above us, to whose personal profit and aggrandizement it was to have us continue to believe as they wished us to believe. I am ready to cast off the ties that bind me, I am ready to defy Issus herself, but what will it avail us?” (GM, X, p. 93)

The lower chambers of the Temple of Issus are found in the underground caverns bordering the subterranean tributary of Korus, the Sea of Omean. There is only one aerial entry to the phosphorescently lit Sea of Omean; this is through the mouth of an extinct, but hidden volcano. The might of the First Born is their black and silver armada of 1,000 modern battleships (TL VIII) which are docked upon the windless, subterranean surface of Omean.


kaldane_2.jpg
Kaldanes

Kaldanes are small crablike creatures (a little larger than your head), who, though of great intellectual capacity (and even psychic powers), pose little physical threat to a warrior. However, they have developed a race of creatures – the rykors – which have full-sized human bodies, and serve them as mounts to do fighting and labor. Rykors have no head, and only the simplest of sensory and central nervous systems: they are all but blind and deaf, and possess no true will of their own. A kaldane can place itself on the neck of a rykor and use its peculiar appendages to take control of the rykor, serving as its head. The resulting combined creature is then able to do anything a normal human can do, and the two creatures become one for all practical purposes.

In spite of their advanced intellect and telepathic abilities, the Kaldanes have little technology; no firearms, no fliers, no telescopes and no contact with the outside world.

"None who enters Bantoom ever leaves," repeated the creature without expression. "I know nothing of the lesser creatures of Barsoom, of whom you speak. There is but one high race—the race of Bantoomians. All Nature exists to serve them. You shall do your share, but not yet—you are too skinny. We shall have to put some fat upon it, Sept. I tire of rykor. Perhaps this will have a different flavor. The banths are too rank and it is seldom that any other creature enters the valley. And you, Ghek; you shall be rewarded. I shall promote you from the fields to the burrows. Hereafter you shall remain underground as every Bantoomian longs to. No more shall you be forced to endure the hated sun, or look upon the hideous sky, or the hateful growing things that defile the surface. For the present you shall look after this thing that you have brought me, seeing that it sleeps and eats—and does nothing else. You understand me, Ghek; nothing else!" (CM
 
Superb stuff Balthasar. Those Tharks scare me ;)

- ~but their motto reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail.:D

On the other hand, you can't help but be impressed by the way Burroughs (who had done a stint with the 7th Cavalry in Arizona) makes this, on a whole other level, a tongue-in-cheek allegory of the settlement of the American West by Irish immigrants. The Orovars (redskins) are Native Americans as they were seen by the white man: cruel, exotic, and casually violent, but conversely fanatically devoted to honor and family. The Tharks, on the other hand, are the Irish (green) settlers (hordes) as seen through the eyes of the Native Americans: Large, loud, constantly fighting, and surrounded by children that don't seem to belong to anyone. At other times, it seems as though Burroughs wants us to understand that the situation could be seen as the reverse: it is the Orovars after all, who represent civilized society in this metaphor. As literature, it deserves greater respect; as social satire, it is among the best. The Tharks see themselves as having already won, describing the Orovars as a "dying" race, but Burroughs turns the tables on the Tharks and their theory of manifest destiny: in his stories, the redskins win.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom