- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
- TNP Nation
- Prydania
- Discord
- lordgigaice
The destruction of Arem at the hands of the fleet of the Imperial Kalorian Federation under the command of Star Marshal Tios Demaukes and the exodus of the humans of Arem and their colonies to both New Arem and a number of refugee communities is only the latest in a line of settlement and exodus that defines the Arem people.
How do we define the Arem people though? The settlement of the planet called Arem hardly seems sufficient. Aremites themselves recognize them and trace their origins to the Children of Cydonia. And to understand them we must understand Mars.
Mars, or Ares depending on the source, was the name of the fourth planet of the Sol system, a neighbour of Earth, the legendary home of humanity.
While legends this far back are scarce we know that Mars was the first planet humanity settled, at least one century before Aphrodite (or Venus depending on your spruce), the system's second planet.
Mars' first settlers were scientists from Earth living in closed communities before the planet was terraformed. Though transfer from Earth to Mars was regular back in those days it did lead to a small but distinct society of "native" human Martians. When the planet was terraformed it made full scale colonization possible and the first tensions arose between this small community descended from scientists and later settlers.
Though these settlers were themselves not all the same. Some tracts of Martian land were bought up by billionaires on Earth and leased to settlers. Others obtained deeds to land for themselves. Some came looking for a fresh start. Others for adventure. Some came looking to get rich. Others fled to avoid persecution on Earth as political and cultural turmoil began to engulf it.
The tensions on Mars were multifaceted. The original settlers from the scientific outpost towns tended to resent the newcomers. Among the newcomers the various ideologies and reasons for coming to Mars led to conflict. And the settlers who owned their land outright ("Freemen") clashed with the estates of the Earth economic elite, who often employed mercenaries and private armies to police their martian holdings and strongarm Freemen settlements into lopsided economic arrangements or outright purchasing their land.
Martian governance was very haphazard for the first century of its wide scale settlement. The earliest scientific settlements that cropped up were nominally under the authority of their host nations on Earth. When the planet was terraformed these settlements were used as the basis for carving Mass up into zones controlled by Earth governments and it was through these governments that settlers purchased land from.
But as communities on Mars formed along lines of common interest rather than national identity on Earth these systems began to fade. Earth governments proved incapable of mediating disputes between wealthy landowners, Freemen, and the smaller communities that grew out of scientific outposts. Earth's governments, growing increasingly frustrated with their lack of control over Mars, subjugated their individual claims on Mars to an organization called the "United Nations Martian Administration Board," effectively giving the UN de jure control over all of Mars.
Life on Mars had taken a frontier-like quality In the century and a half between settlement and the creation of this board. Local militias had sprung up, communities that traded with each other grew closer in the name of mutual self-interest. The declaration of the UN taking control of Martian sovereignty in a bit to assert control angered the smaller communities and Freemen. Meanwhile the wealthy Earth landowners celebrated the development and used their for-hire mercenary forces to press tenants into serving for their UN-aligned militias.
The details of the war that followed have been lost to time, but it was in the region of Cydonia that the Lion of St. Mark banner, an emblem from old Earth, was first raised in the name of a Martian nation.
The conflict ended with the defeat of the UN-aligned forces and the liberation of the tracts of territory owned by the Earth economic elite. The war didn't create a single united Mars but it did lead to a Mars of sovereign nations.
The Neo-Renaissance that followed on Mars saw the Martian nations develop into fully formed social, political, and economic entities. It also saw them jostle for position amongst themselves. Sometimes this saw them engage in brief wars, such as the Flight of the Dyson Conflict or the Five Years Blight, but nearly three hundred years after the Earth-Mars War the two primary power blocs on Mars were centred around the nations of Cydonia and Elysium.
Problems loomed, however, as Earth's ecosystem became increasingly unstable. Eventually an exodus from Earth saw wars across both Aphrodite and Mars as refugees, settlers, and military powers from Earth attempted to carve out territories for themselves.
Rather than being a straightforward conflict it fractured, with different Earth factions aligning with various Martian and Aphrodidic factions in a war called The War in Heaven.
Eventually Cydonia and Elysium nuked each other in a nuclear exchange, one of many calamities that occurred near the end of the war, known as the Galactic Inferno. As mankind's three homes- Aphrodite, Earth, and Mars- burned in nuclear fire or collapsed under environmental decay humanity took to the stars.
And it's here that the Children of Cydonia took shape.
Legend has it that a Cydonian military officer named Andrew Vance took control of the Mount Olympus space port and was able to martial what remained of the Cydonian stellar navy to protect a convoy of Martian civilians. Though not all Cydonian themselves this massive exodus represented most of Mars' surviving populace and their journey under the protection of the Cydonian Lion of St. Mark came to define them.
The journey itself- The Cydonian Trial- was merely one of many human exoduses into the galaxy following the destruction of Earth, Aphrodite, and Mars. Some say that Andrew Vance, who guided the Martians, was in possession of Ansief treasures from Mars helped guide his way. Others dismiss this as no Ansief records seem to indicate a settlement on Mars at any point. Regardless Vance would not see them complete the journey.
Nor would anyone alive at its start. The journey became a generational one, as the Children of Cydonia travelled through the stars. Tails tell of stops on distant, unknown planets to build shrines or churches to pray to God for guidance to a suitable home, and there exists today numerous debates about what, if any, stellar objects represent what in these stories. Some insist that the tales, compiled a century after Arem's settlement as Tales of the Cydonian Exodus, can be interpreted as a roadmap. Others insist the descriptions are just fanciful language that can't be related to any stellar objects with much accuracy.
Regardless after what is believed to be nearly a century the Children of Cyondia arrived on a planet that they found was suitable for human habitation. The planet was christened Arem, a name whose etymology is unknown. Though some believe it may be a corruption of "Ares," another name for Mars.
The settlement of Arem brought the humans into contact with three peoples. The Grohl proved stand-off-ish but trustworthy. The Kalorians proved distrustful and aggressive. And the Ansief? The Ansief had colonized the planet known as Arem in eons previously and had rediscovered the planet as they emerged from their own dark age. Despite this, the two seemed to find a mutual understanding. The Arem humans and Ansief began to trade together and the Ansief served as negotiators between them
and the Grohl.
Arem itself grew into a powerful civilization in its own right. Cities sprung up from settlements across the planet. And for nearly a thousand years Arem and its colonies represented a small but distinct and powerful human state.
The Kalorians, however, remained distrustful. And in the end it was this conflict that pitted the Arem and Kalorians against each other, and ended with Arem's destruction. Those that could escaped either to New Arem or the refugee colonies. Those that couldn't ended up as slaves in the Kalorian Imperial Federation.
It is fitting, however, that even amongst the refugee camps in cramped space stations or on the edges of Grohl and Ansief space, that Arem civilization endures. To say nothing of New Arem. A bastion deeper into the galaxy. Growing as it contemplates its future.
How do we define the Arem people though? The settlement of the planet called Arem hardly seems sufficient. Aremites themselves recognize them and trace their origins to the Children of Cydonia. And to understand them we must understand Mars.
Mars, or Ares depending on the source, was the name of the fourth planet of the Sol system, a neighbour of Earth, the legendary home of humanity.
While legends this far back are scarce we know that Mars was the first planet humanity settled, at least one century before Aphrodite (or Venus depending on your spruce), the system's second planet.
Mars' first settlers were scientists from Earth living in closed communities before the planet was terraformed. Though transfer from Earth to Mars was regular back in those days it did lead to a small but distinct society of "native" human Martians. When the planet was terraformed it made full scale colonization possible and the first tensions arose between this small community descended from scientists and later settlers.
Though these settlers were themselves not all the same. Some tracts of Martian land were bought up by billionaires on Earth and leased to settlers. Others obtained deeds to land for themselves. Some came looking for a fresh start. Others for adventure. Some came looking to get rich. Others fled to avoid persecution on Earth as political and cultural turmoil began to engulf it.
The tensions on Mars were multifaceted. The original settlers from the scientific outpost towns tended to resent the newcomers. Among the newcomers the various ideologies and reasons for coming to Mars led to conflict. And the settlers who owned their land outright ("Freemen") clashed with the estates of the Earth economic elite, who often employed mercenaries and private armies to police their martian holdings and strongarm Freemen settlements into lopsided economic arrangements or outright purchasing their land.
Martian governance was very haphazard for the first century of its wide scale settlement. The earliest scientific settlements that cropped up were nominally under the authority of their host nations on Earth. When the planet was terraformed these settlements were used as the basis for carving Mass up into zones controlled by Earth governments and it was through these governments that settlers purchased land from.
But as communities on Mars formed along lines of common interest rather than national identity on Earth these systems began to fade. Earth governments proved incapable of mediating disputes between wealthy landowners, Freemen, and the smaller communities that grew out of scientific outposts. Earth's governments, growing increasingly frustrated with their lack of control over Mars, subjugated their individual claims on Mars to an organization called the "United Nations Martian Administration Board," effectively giving the UN de jure control over all of Mars.
Life on Mars had taken a frontier-like quality In the century and a half between settlement and the creation of this board. Local militias had sprung up, communities that traded with each other grew closer in the name of mutual self-interest. The declaration of the UN taking control of Martian sovereignty in a bit to assert control angered the smaller communities and Freemen. Meanwhile the wealthy Earth landowners celebrated the development and used their for-hire mercenary forces to press tenants into serving for their UN-aligned militias.
The details of the war that followed have been lost to time, but it was in the region of Cydonia that the Lion of St. Mark banner, an emblem from old Earth, was first raised in the name of a Martian nation.
The conflict ended with the defeat of the UN-aligned forces and the liberation of the tracts of territory owned by the Earth economic elite. The war didn't create a single united Mars but it did lead to a Mars of sovereign nations.
The Neo-Renaissance that followed on Mars saw the Martian nations develop into fully formed social, political, and economic entities. It also saw them jostle for position amongst themselves. Sometimes this saw them engage in brief wars, such as the Flight of the Dyson Conflict or the Five Years Blight, but nearly three hundred years after the Earth-Mars War the two primary power blocs on Mars were centred around the nations of Cydonia and Elysium.
Problems loomed, however, as Earth's ecosystem became increasingly unstable. Eventually an exodus from Earth saw wars across both Aphrodite and Mars as refugees, settlers, and military powers from Earth attempted to carve out territories for themselves.
Rather than being a straightforward conflict it fractured, with different Earth factions aligning with various Martian and Aphrodidic factions in a war called The War in Heaven.
Eventually Cydonia and Elysium nuked each other in a nuclear exchange, one of many calamities that occurred near the end of the war, known as the Galactic Inferno. As mankind's three homes- Aphrodite, Earth, and Mars- burned in nuclear fire or collapsed under environmental decay humanity took to the stars.
And it's here that the Children of Cydonia took shape.
Legend has it that a Cydonian military officer named Andrew Vance took control of the Mount Olympus space port and was able to martial what remained of the Cydonian stellar navy to protect a convoy of Martian civilians. Though not all Cydonian themselves this massive exodus represented most of Mars' surviving populace and their journey under the protection of the Cydonian Lion of St. Mark came to define them.
The journey itself- The Cydonian Trial- was merely one of many human exoduses into the galaxy following the destruction of Earth, Aphrodite, and Mars. Some say that Andrew Vance, who guided the Martians, was in possession of Ansief treasures from Mars helped guide his way. Others dismiss this as no Ansief records seem to indicate a settlement on Mars at any point. Regardless Vance would not see them complete the journey.
Nor would anyone alive at its start. The journey became a generational one, as the Children of Cydonia travelled through the stars. Tails tell of stops on distant, unknown planets to build shrines or churches to pray to God for guidance to a suitable home, and there exists today numerous debates about what, if any, stellar objects represent what in these stories. Some insist that the tales, compiled a century after Arem's settlement as Tales of the Cydonian Exodus, can be interpreted as a roadmap. Others insist the descriptions are just fanciful language that can't be related to any stellar objects with much accuracy.
Regardless after what is believed to be nearly a century the Children of Cyondia arrived on a planet that they found was suitable for human habitation. The planet was christened Arem, a name whose etymology is unknown. Though some believe it may be a corruption of "Ares," another name for Mars.
The settlement of Arem brought the humans into contact with three peoples. The Grohl proved stand-off-ish but trustworthy. The Kalorians proved distrustful and aggressive. And the Ansief? The Ansief had colonized the planet known as Arem in eons previously and had rediscovered the planet as they emerged from their own dark age. Despite this, the two seemed to find a mutual understanding. The Arem humans and Ansief began to trade together and the Ansief served as negotiators between them
and the Grohl.
Arem itself grew into a powerful civilization in its own right. Cities sprung up from settlements across the planet. And for nearly a thousand years Arem and its colonies represented a small but distinct and powerful human state.
The Kalorians, however, remained distrustful. And in the end it was this conflict that pitted the Arem and Kalorians against each other, and ended with Arem's destruction. Those that could escaped either to New Arem or the refugee colonies. Those that couldn't ended up as slaves in the Kalorian Imperial Federation.
It is fitting, however, that even amongst the refugee camps in cramped space stations or on the edges of Grohl and Ansief space, that Arem civilization endures. To say nothing of New Arem. A bastion deeper into the galaxy. Growing as it contemplates its future.