The Long Siege, or the Martian War of Independence, was a key event in Martian history, commenced by the return of Terran Empire’s attempt to reassert its authority over the Martian colonies that had declared independence and formed the Federal Union of Mars twenty years earlier. This critical juncture saw the Empire dispatching a diplomatic envoy to Mars, a refusal of the Empire’s authority by Mars, the deployment of Earth’s battle fleet, an orbital skirmish, and a prolonged 21-month stalemate, culminating in the withdrawal of the Earth’s fleet. This sequence of events dramatically shaped the interplanetary political landscape and marked the inception of the Martian Federal Union’s founding mythology. The crisis began when Earth sent a diplomatic envoy to Mars after a 20 year absence, an assertive gesture that marked the re-emergence of the terrestrial empire. The envoy held initial meetings with the Federal Union, the government of the…

The Imperial Civil War, also known as the Succession Crisis or the Succession War, was a global conflict that took place between I.E. 453 and I.E. 470. Fought primarily between several competing Imperial court factions and later by military and aristocratic alliances. The crisis was triggered by the death of Emperor Theodore-Wilhelm IV, who left no natural-born sons to inherit the throne. He had, however, designated an heir prior to his death: Crown Prince Alexander-Marinus von Veigtheim. Alexander-Marinus was not a direct descendant of Theodore-Wilhelm IV, but was related through the extended family, being the third cousin of the late Emperor. This choice of successor was controversial and the succession became a contested issue. In the immediate aftermath of Theodore-Wilhelm IV’s death, a number of potential claimants and their respective factions began to rally support for their causes. One of the most prominent contenders was the Emperor’s eldest daughter, Anneliese.

The Anarchy was a brief period tumultuous instability in the history of colonial Mars. This period was initiated by the gradual departure of the Imperial Armed Forces and the Imperial Martian Home Guard as the Empire fell into the Succession Crisis. Their departure created a power vacuum, transforming the formerly stable and prosperous colonies into a breeding ground for political chaos and criminal opportunity. In the wake of the Imperial Armed Forces’ exit, the colony’s existing governmental structures began to crumble, setting the stage for a slow but dramatic shift in power dynamics. With no centralized force to maintain peace and order beyond the meagre native police forces at the disposal of individual colonial administrations, the colony quickly descended into lawlessness. The municipal governments, had deprived of their authority by writ of the Imperial Household, found itself ill-equipped to contain the rapidly escalating chaos. The power vacuum was soon filled…

The Federal Union of Mars, sometimes called the Orbital Martian Colonies, the Technocrats, or simply the Martian Colonies, is a political and economic union consisting of thirty-two orbital habitats and three terrestrial cities on Mars. Established in the year I.E. 455 during the Interregnum, the Federal Union encompasses approximately 27,000 square kilometres of habitable space with a population of around 18 million. It is one of the one half two major powers within the vicinity of the planet of Mars, and along with the Free States of Mars, constitutes to two major powers of the Martian Confederacy. History Formation The Federal Union was first formed as a governmental body by the leaders of the, then six most populace orbital colonies of Mars, after the departure of the Imperial Home Guard during the onset of the Imperial Civil War. In the absence of Imperial authority, law and order, trade, and eventually…

Starting is always the most exhilarating part of any project. But that exhilaration quickly turns to disappointment when you finally put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard in this case) and the result doesn’t live up to what you had envisioned in your mind. It’s easy to get discouraged at this point. Hell, look at the giant gaps between posts as I delayed publishing because what I have written didn’t quite live up to my own expectations. I think the mistake here is thinking that you’re working on a book; that there’s an end state that you’re working towards. But world building isn’t linear. Neither is writing books for that matter. But even more so than ever before, the text is living, it is subject to change and evolution, and doesn’t have to be constructed to its final perfection before publishing. And it most certainly should not hold up other…

Early Colonization Efforts The earliest attempts to colonize Mars can be traced back to the pre-Imperial age. This period of exploration saw the launch of several successful small-scale satellite missions that aimed to gather data about Mars’ surface, atmospheric conditions, and suitable locations for eventual permanent settlements. These endeavours eventually paved the way for the first manned missions to the planet. Despite the groundbreaking nature of these early manned missions, they did not immediately result in the establishment of a permanent settlement on the planet. However, the experience and knowledge gained from these early ventures laid the foundations for more ambitious projects to come. It was only after several dozen missions that the first long-term colonization scheme was proposed, offering a vision of humanity’s future on the Martian surface. However, despite much enthusiasm from the various space agencies and commercial interests at the time, this inaugural attempt at long-term colonization…

In the previous post, we established the roughly defined eras of this world building project. Now, let’s take the time to take a closer look at the political landscape the era of interest (“the future”, for lack of a better term). Just as before, we will be taking a gradual approach to fleshing out the various intricacies of government, political alliances and interest, ideologies, and balance of power. Not all of which will be established in this post. However, we will be establishing the rough outlines of a political equilibrium within the solar system. Following the collapse of the era of Imperial Rule, the political situation will have devolved into four major factions. In reality, there will be more than just four. And their characters and individual constitutions, will be more akin to a web varying alliances and economic cooperation treaties superimposing themselves on top of each other to…

One of the classic conundrums in sci-fi world building is determining how far into the future you want to set your world. Although not an absolute requirement, and quite easy to dismiss if your project is set in a long time ago, in a galaxy far away—should you decide to care about such things, this decision can have a significant long reverberating impact on the rest of your project. If you set your world too close to the present day, you run the risk of creating a timeline that collides with current events. Such is the case with Star Trek. Supposedly the Eugenics Wars happened back in the mid-90’s and World War III will supposedly occur in 2026 (which at the time of writing does present itself as non-zero possibility). Star Trek is set far enough into the future (although given its technological achievements it may be too optimistic by…

Storytelling and its cousin world building has always been a passion of mine. There’s something truly satisfying about crafting a world in your mind, hewing it from an amorphous idea into specific details that brings forth, if not life, something adjacent to it. I am not alone in this passion and I don’t pretend that this project will be anything special, innovative, particularly good, or even interesting. But if we have creative energies we need to channel somewhere, a blog seems to be safe place to get it out. Now that we’ve established the purpose (or lack thereof) of this project. Let us decide on a genre. There’s two main contenders here and I don’t claim to be any kind of trailblazer. As you can imagine, someone with these proclivities might have a great love for both fantasy and science fiction. You would be right. But which one should we…