Civilopedia Civilizations Part II: Mars (Barsoom)
You can find the leaderheads for these Civs
here.
Red Martian Civs:
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 residentiala 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)
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 roofsnot 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 mena 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)
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:
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 fetethe 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 foesthe 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)
Torquas Horde
Green Martian tribe ruled by their jed, Thar Ban and Jeddak, Hortan Gur. Their capital city (also called Torquas) is located in Barsooms 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)
Warhoon Horde
An exceedingly savage tribe of 20,000 green Martians found in Barsooms 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):
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 Planets 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.
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 Barsooms 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-placeour 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 bodiesthat we are but the deathless minds of individuals long dead. (TMM IX)
Other Barsoom Civs:
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.
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 racethe race of Bantoomians. All Nature exists to serve them. You shall do your share, but not yetyou 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 eatsand does nothing else. You understand me, Ghek; nothing else!" (CM