BARSOOM

The planet of Barsoom is an envisioned ideal of Mars. It is a dying desert world when John
Carter was teleported upon it, and now he has been doing his best to keep it from fracturing
and devolving itself into a war-torn, lifeless hulk of rock. The people who live there are
generally brutal, unforgiving, and harsh in the near-extreme as all life revolves around
clinging to existence and only the toughest can survive.

== MAJOR FACTIONS ==
The different races are largely divided up by skin color and make up the civilized sub-
factions on Barsoom. There are Black, Yellow, White, and (later) Red and Green Martians.
Many are inter-bred subdivision races and referred to by the city-state they inhabit rather
than biological identity. All of them lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. They are
also all capable of some psychic skill, mostly in regards to telepathy. They are largely long-
lived people, going so far as to live over 1,000 years.

The first dominate species over the whole planet were the Okar, the Yellow Martians, who
have great similarity to humans. Alongside them were other civilizations raising cities and
trade routes. Among them were the First Born (Black Martians) and the sea-faring Lotharian
White Martians. When the planets oceans started to suddenly dry up, the more civilized
Martians began to retreat to reclusive areas and regions and the Green Martians drove most
of them out. Despite the Green Martian barbaric nature, their numbers and brutal strength gave them enough to sack most of the city-states.

Sometime later, the Red Martians appeared, an interbred mix between White, Black, and Yellow Martians, and they began to become the
predominate race of Barsoom. The Okar (Yellow Martians) were pushed up to the arctic northern regions in an area called the Carron Caves. At this
chokepoint, they slaughtered so many of the Green Martian horde that they were able to completely block the cave walls completely with bodies,
which attracted super violent Apt predators and the smell and sight discouraged attack. Eventually they largely fell away from knowledge to most of
Barsoom.

The White Martians, relying entirely on the sea, had nowhere to go and degenerated into the Orovar, and Lotharians, and possibly the Therns and
White Apes. The Lotharians are the most powerful psychics, capable of collectively creating entire armies of phantom archers from nothing to defend
their small city-state Lothar. Additionally, they can portray powerful illusions, to the point that they began to be incapable of discerning between
reality and illusion. Therefore, the Lotharians question the actual existence of everything around them.

The Orovar reside in the center of Hortz and are protected only by the illusion their city is a dead city. The Orovar are extremely hostile towards
anyone who discovers their existence, and know nothing of what goes on in greater Barsoom.



The Red Martians are now the predominate race on Barsoom though they are fairly fractured.

They have multiple small domains that most often fight with their neighbors. Phundahl and Toonol in the
Great Toonolian Marshes on the opposite end of the planets largest kingdoms. These two are constantly at
war, with the extremely religious Phundahlians actively fighting the more intelligent and larger city-state of
Toonol, and make up one of the more barbaric Red Martian peoples; they believe that all knowledge comes
from the Turgen written by Tur; any other knowledge they deny, even the existence of procreation.

Above them is the small city-state of Amhor which has been at long war with Duhor.

Gathol is one of the richest city-states that technically covers a huge area to the west of Helium. They have
the strongest army with several slaves doing a majority of the labor within the army, but are quite lazy and
admit they are also vain. They are the free city on Barsoom not being affiliated with multiple other cities.
They do have some irritable losses against their neighbors from Manator who are more barbaric and
technologically lower Red Martian city-states. They frequently raid Gathol for slave labor and take part in
dueling and sword combat.

Kaol is one of the smallest of the Red Martian city-states and has since gone from having no air fleet to
one of the most powerful. It sits in a snug position between Manator and Toonol.



City of Toonol

Dusar is another small city-state that has attempted to promote war against Helium, but also picks fights with neighboring Ptarth.

When John Carter arrived in Barsoom, he changed nearly everything. Through his quests and second return, he was able to unite the city-states of
Helium and Zodanga, two of the most widespread and powerful city-states of the Red Martians. He also helped to settle wars with those bordering
Helium, including Duhor and even the Tharks, who are the most prominent and lording of the Green Martians.

Duhor was once at war with Helium, which was also at war with Zodanga, the three considered some of the most widespread and powerful city-
states. Zodanga itself is a city constructed of a wall 50 feet in width and 75 feet high of the material carborundum. Of the three, they are the most
aggressive and warlike and have since come under the wing of Helium since John Carters arrival. Ptarth has also been in close diplomatic ties with
Helium and are assumed to be good-intentioned allies.


This rough alliance of city-states helped Tars Tarkas, leader of the Tharks, to largely overcome and conquer the Torquas and Warhoon Green
Martians. As is the way on Barsoom, the only way to ensure a peace is to outright conquer your neighbors, except in some rare cases such as with
Ptarth and Helium. Thanks to John Carter, with the title Warlord of Barsoom, this leaves a massive centralized area of rough alliances that would
generally oversee the well-being of Barsoom, though not every city-state and group is necessarily happy about it. Should an opportunity arise, they
would surely restart their petty wars.


While the various Martians, such as the Red, Yellow, and Black Martians are relatively
similar in overall biological design, the Green Martians of a different race altogether.
They are tall, around 7-feet and in height. They are strong to a human-sized individual
but a bit scrawny, crude, and primitive. They laugh at the general ill-being of others,
including violence and physical torment. Their society has no knowledge of parental love
and affection. The eggs of children are collected together by elders who examine them
and will destroy those not meeting to certain standards. Then when they hatch they are
released throughout the city for the women to pick up and become the primary
caretakers. Young who do not ferociously compete for attention will most likely die off.

With four arms they are formidable swordsmen, and the Tharks are roughly the smartest
and most technologically capable of the Green Martians. They are capable of running
with their lower arm appendages for faster speed but can also ride herds of Thoats.
Tharks have had a hard time working with their beasts of burden but since John Carters
arrival, taught them they can get much better use out of their animals with care.

Collectively, they are called the Green Horde, with each horde having taken over a dead
city and claiming it as their own, scavenging materials and crudely reconstructing old
weapon designs from the previous Martian owners.
Green Martian, of Warhoon breed

Also unlike most other Green Martians, they are capable of using (rather large) primitive firearms such as rifles and carbines. They can use these
collectively









== TECHNOLOGY ==
As a majority of the useable resources on Barsoom are quite limited and coveted, technology revolves around efficiency, reusability, and mostly
practicality. As such, the continued development of firearms is minimal with close-range swords, daggers, even spears being preferable though there
are light cannons and rifles available for use in the richest city-states or cunning scavengers. Power source on Barsoom revolves around the
manipulation of light, using the suns natural light rays in some form or another.

Using solar power, the airships on Barsoom use bisected eight light rays. It is also known as the anti-grav light ray, propelling light of the sun or
other light sources away from it towards other objects. Such a force is exerted from each planet that reflects and propels light, while also creating
gravity. When isolated harnessed properly, it can be utilized as a form of anti-gravity. Large amounts of the eighth ray are collected and stored into
buoyancy tanks, allowing the fliers their ability to move. Solar sails are used to collect sunlight for power in order to manipulate the aircraft, and
operate sluggishly at night or in low-light conditions.



Lighter one-man skiffs exist as a form of speeding airborne jetbike. The simple mechanics twist and direct the solar sails (which naturally act as a
means of collecting sunlight for power) to turn. They are able to twist and turn while still flying in one direction, but they are not armed in any way.

The largest are the battleships; the first created by Helium which was filled with too much of the eight ray, and with 500 men floated up out of the
atmosphere and now orbits Barsoom as a useless satellite. Most ships have opened decks like ships, with command decks being fully enclosed. Using
very small cannons, the ships are required to move into highly advantageous positions with regards to weapon placement and accuracy, and then
hammer the opponent at a fairly close range before trying to engage in boarding actions (or the avoidance of the action). They are capable of
extremely high degrees of mobility but are probably not the fastest aircraft around. Due to their open-frame construction, a warship can be brought
down with heavy-enough small arms fire if sitting in range.

There is also a small jet pack allowing primitive, sluggish form of flight called the equilibrimotor.


Ever wonder where the invisibility paint idea came from you see in Loony Toon cartoons? It was something invented by Phor Tak which, when
applied, will bend the light around the surface of those objects it has been applied to. Using it, he made an invisible flyer called the Jhama and later
Tan Hadron made an invisibility cloak. Some Martians are able to telepathically make themselves invisible to those around them, and there are even
pills that exist in Inavak and Onvak. Inhabitants take the pill and after about an hour, they are rendered nearly invisible.


Up in the northern regions exists (a now dormant) black obelisk called the Guardian of the North. Originally used to protect the Yellow Martians of
Okar, it was used to capture slaves from those using airships to venture out in that direction. It is a massive electromagnetic structure that will
strongly attract flyers to it all the way to the point of crashing right into it. Even larger warships are not immune to the effects once within range. It
has since been deactivated by John Carter who liberated the northern frozen wastelands of the Okar oppression.


Additionally, there is the Atmosphere Factory which help produce a form of terraforming for Barsoom. Without its continued function, most of the
life on Barsoom would not be possible. They utilize the barely-understood ninth ray which is converted into raw energy, which is then converted into
a gas. It is housed inside an impenetrable 5-foot thick glass dome erected by a 150-foot thick wall! At any one time, there are only two people that
know where the secret location is. It is run and maintained by Helium; the pair of men (one who stays inside the factory to help its function) and the
other travels with a golden collar that signifies his importance. He travels unmolested and everyone on Barsoom knows his importance and leaves
him alone, including the White Apes. Should this primary station fail though, the Okar Yellow Martians have their own back-up system within their
cave-like city-state..




















== MINOR FACTIONS AND WILDLIFE ==
Alongside the more intelligent species and major groups that exist on Barsoom, there are a number of smaller factions and wildlife existing in rough
collectives.

The most notable are the White Apes. Such creatures are very troll-like in mind, using scraps of
cloths for clothing and capable of using and roughly-shaping large branches or bits of metals for
clubs. Beyond that they are similar in body structure to Green Martians but are much larger
beasts and of an even more primitive mindset. 12-18 feet tall, they prefer to walk on two feet and
are largely hairless except for a tuft on the top of their heads. They are extremely violent and are
the biggest factor for childhood death on Barsoom. As animalistic as they appear, they are still
somewhat reasonable, retreating in the wake of airship firepower or pressing for an attack on
cornered prey.

Thoats are the primary beasts of burden, largely used by the Tharks as cavalry. They have bad
attitudes and are rough, durable creatures but with great speed running on eight legs. There are
various breeds and subspecies of Thoats, some resemble horses that are thinner and smaller (by
Red Martians) while Tharks use bigger more boar-like beasts.




Calots are the rough equivalent to a dog, the size of a small pony. They are domesticated as a rough kind of
guard dog among the Tharks but in the wild they hunt in small packs. John Carter demonstrated to the
Tharks, as he did with the Thoats, a great deal of loyalty and use can be induced among them if they are
treated with proper care and not regularly abused. Calots can run at extremely fast speeds with fast reflexes,
seemingly nearly Mach capable. When John Carter first encountered his personal Calot, he mistook its speed
for teleportation.









The Malagor are another, albeit rare, domesticated creature. They are very large birds of one kind or
another, with horns and a whip-like tail. They are artificial creations by the mad scientists Ras Thavas.
















Other creatures include the Apt, which is a six-legged beasts living in the frozen north, mixing the
body of a small-mouthed hippo and a long tiger. They can go a full month without sleep. The Yellow
Martians have domesticated several of their kind.


Banths are hairless, ten-legged lions which hunt around the hillside of the dead sea areas. Their nature prevents the Martians from venturing into the
area of the Kaldanes and their Rykors.

The Kaldanes are little more than large rounded heads with six spider-like legs. They are relatively
weak creatures but extremely intelligent. They have psychic abilities like most Martians and the most
powerful of them become their Kings over the different clans. Said kings produce the eggs of the rest
of the race and one in a thousand harbor the ability to hatch into a new king. While most of these eggs
are eventually destroyed, they are kept for awhile in case the current king dies. When that happens, the
new king hatches and takes the place of the previous, including title and identity, and life goes on as if
nothing had happened.

Due to their physical weakness, they require Rykor bodies (perahps adapted Red Martians) that are
completely headless. Without conscious thought (cannot even much very much), the Rykor are
completely dependent on the Kaldanes, who are dependent on their strong bodies for physical labor.


There are also large 3-legged rats which have a primitive society, capable of building huts and some
form of language, but are largely small in influence. They harass native bird-life.

Another group of strange creature on Barsoom are the Plant Men; blue-purplish in hue, trying to view them
with any earthly ideal fabricates a misaligned perception. They are 10-12 feet in height and possess one large
eye in the center of the face. The crater just below it is not a mouth, but the nose. Around the head are squid-
like tentacles that move about independently of each other and aid in the Plant Mans hearing. Their arms are
actually like elephant trunks, with the mouths on the end surrounded by large claws. They are powerful
jumpers and move about like large kangaroos. They are, despite humanoid appearance, possess very small
brains that can barely register and interpret their surroundings for their use.

They used work together with the Therns and White Apes in the Valley Dor that the River Iss surrounds. The
Therns, being cannibalistic, would eat other intelligent Martians but they had a bizarre religion that forbade
them from drinking blood. So after luring other Martians into the so-called paradise in their valley for those
who are over a thousand years of age (telling them they can spend the rest of their days through the gates of
heaven), the White Apes and Plant Men would kill them. Then the Plant Men as vampyric creatures would
extract the blood through the mouths in their hands. While they can live off of leaves and grasses, blood is a
notable delicacy. They can smash their prey with their flat-ended tail and tear them apart with their claws or
simply jump upon them. After drinking the blood and the White Apes had torn the prey limb-from-limb, the
Therns were free to eat.

Since John Carters arrival to Barsoom however, the Therns practice has been found out and ended.

Ras Thavas, the Master Mind of Mars, is a Red Martian mad scientist who is extremely successful (more or less) with biological adaptation and
mutation. He has no morals or care for those with which he treats but all he does is in the name of science alone. He has an estate in the swamps of
Toonol where he mismatches limbs and body parts a la Frankenstein, and has been responsible for the creation of entirely new species on Barsoom.

One such set of creatures he created are the Hormads, a race roughly larger than a Red Martian and possessing all matter of fingers, toes, eyes,
noses, and muscles in the oddest locations. They are nearly indestructible, only able to be killed by fire (as far as Barsoom is concerned) hot enough
to completely consume their body parts. Otherwise, their limbs can be easily reattached and regenerated; a severed arm can recreate itself into a new
Hormad! Any body parts too damaged or not fit for use are sent to the vats where more Hormads are rebuilt with all manner of different organs and
body parts. Through their cultural development, they all intend to conquer the world.

Kangaroo Men are exactly as they sound; the upper half formed like that of a humanoid but with kangaroo-like bodies on the lower half. They are
arrogant and cowardly, living in the small city of Gooli. Isolated from other societies and very lazy, they carry an assortment of weapons scavenged
from others. They find great value in sea shells and have consciously assigned value to them so that nobody else would plunder their land.