For as long mankind has gazed at the stars, it has ascribed significance to the distant
lights that drift across the night sky.
At first, they were the lights of heaven, poking through the veil of reality.
Then they were recognized as stars and planets, used to navigate across the seas, and then
as challenges, daring mankind to ascend and reach them.
For a brief golden age, when mankind looked towards the stars, they saw the triumphs of
their own civilization, great colonies on newly remade worlds.
All was lost with the Collapse.
Now, the brightest lights in the night sky are humanity’s failures, reminders of what
was, and what might never be again.
Mars, a planet where mankind once saw miracles, now it sees monsters.
For most of its history, Mars was a barren planet of dormant lava flows and ancient impacts.
The arrival of the Traveller changed everything.
Its origins are unknown, but as it journeyed across the Solar System, it transformed the
worlds it touched, and Mars was no exception.
It was on Mars that the first mission to reach and communicate with the Traveler was launched,
and the success of that mission ushered in an era of boundless progress.
Water and life flowed across its surface, and in time, the Traveller helped mankind
settle the planet.
Great cities were raised, bastions of civilization that rivalled and then surpassed any found
on Earth.
First among the Martian Colonies was Freehold.
Constructed in part by the Clovis Bray Exoscience Corporation, Freehold was a center of scientific
progress, a city where man competed with the gods.
Even the greatest technological advancements, however, could not protect Mars, or humanity,
from the arrival of the Darkness.
The exact nature of this ancient enemy of the Traveller has never been uncovered, but
its effects on the Solar System were profound.
Mars was left in ruins and the work of the Traveller was undone.
Red sands reclaimed all that had been built, and the glittering skyscrapers of Freehold
and the other Martian Colonies lost beneath them.
With humanity nearly extinct, Mars has become a battlefield between the myriad of forces
that would conquer the former worlds of mankind.
Among the first to arrive on the planet were the Cabal, an immense, militaristic Empire
who planned to strip the world of its resources.
On the Martian moon of Phobos they established a command center and staging ground, a site
from which they would not only overwhelm Mars, but the rest of the Solar System.
Such was their power that the orbit of Phobos itself was altered, bringing the moon closer
to the planet so that it now dominates the Martian horizon.
The Cabal were opposed here by the Vex, a race of cybernetic war machines.
Unknown to the Cabal, Mars had become a site through which entrance to the Black Garden,
a realm isolated from space and time, could be gained.
Vex machines swarmed to the planet to prevent the Cabal from discovering this, and for centuries
they warred with the Cabal across the surface of Mars.
The stalemate was finally broken by the Red Legion, an elite division of the Cabal’s
fiercest warriors.
Since their arrival, they have pushed the Vex from the ruins of Freehold and destroyed
the gates to the Black Garden.
Still greater dangers await on the planet, however, and they have now begun to reawaken.
A god known as the Will of the Thousands, a prime aspect of the Darkness said to have
been trapped on Mars, has stirred.
It is opposed by Rasputin, a vast military artificial intelligence known as a Warmind
that might be the last hope for humanity.
But whatever forces may await on the planet, they shall be confronted.
The light of the Traveller has not yet vanished, and its defenders have not forgotten that
Mars was a gift granted to them and them alone.
Guardians, the greatest enemy of the Darkness, patrol the planet too, and on Mars they fight,
die, and live again.
In Atlas, the Templin Institute investigates the most storied places from across alternate worlds.
Join other Templin Institute personnel on our Discord server
where discussions are held daily on the elements of worldbuilding, spaceship design,
the best method of cooking rice, and other critical issues affecting alternate worlds.
You’ll find a link in the description.