High Martians

It is believe that the Hig Martians are the bestial rootstock, from which the Hill and Canal Martians descended, the High Martians are savage and primitive by comparison and rre the terror of Canal Martians, Hill Martians, and humans alike.

In their physical appearance as in their behavior, High Martians are quite repulsive. They are short, standing about six feet tall, compared to the other Martians, and have a stooped, apelike posture. Their coloration is much darker than the other two Martian races. Like other Martians, hands and feet both are comprised of three digits and an opposable thumb and each can be used to grasp and manipulate tools or weapons.

Several High Martian family groups form a clan, under a single sky leader. A number of clans will band togæther under a king. The monarchy is usually hereditary in the more "advanced" tribes, but the most primitive High Martians are ruled by whoever can best all comers in single combat. The advanced tribes (such as those in the Astusapes Highlands) use lowland slaves to tend their liftwood groves (which, with brigandage, are their main source of income).

Of the three types of Martian, High Martians are least affected by civilization; they live in remote kraags and mountaintops, venturing out from time to time to capture slaves or to loot passing caravans. High Martians are like intelligent apes when compared to the Canal Martians, but with a difference: they can fly. High Martians (so called for their "altitude" rather than their accomplishments) never lost their lifting gland or its abiltity to carry them through the skies of Mars. Their behavior is bestial and barbaric in the extreme.

Although they can work in wood when they need to, the High Martians prefer to buy their ships from the Canal Martians, paying in liftwood. Their ships are exclusively screw galleys, and their turncranks are exclusively slaves, captured form caravans or from nomadic Hill Martian clans. Humans are often put to the crank when they cannot be ransomed.

High Martian dress consists of a loincloth. Warriors wear a leather harness to carry their equipment and often wear items taken forcibly from their enemies as records of the combats. Bracelets, anklets, rings and necklaces of crudely beaten gold set with gemstones, silk ribbons, animal bones, teeth and hair, spent brass cartridge cases, scissors and other booty have all been seen as decoration.

High Martians have retained a special gland within their bodies that process the same anti-gravity chemicals seen in the Liftwood that grows within their domains. This gland, coupled with the skin-flaps beneath their arms, allows the High Martian the ability of unassisted flight.

Kraags

Kraag is the Koline word for the mountain fortresses of the High Martian kings. A king, his family, and one or more clans closely related to him are usually the occupants, although the older ones (such as Kraag Barrovaar) are often large enough to contain every subject of a High Martian king.

Kraags are laboriously carved out of the solid rock (by slaves, of course, no High Martian would soil his hands with tools). The entrances are high up the sides of a mountain and accessible only from the air. Inside, there are one or more large shafts running up and down in which the masters fly from level to level. Slaves use the narrow stairs that spiral up and down along the outer edges. The largest room in each kraag is the throne room of the king, which is usually hung with priceless tapestries and booty from the king's raids and littered with gnawed bones and refuse.

The greatest kraags contain living quarters for all of a king's subjects and their slaves, along with arsenals, treasure rooms filled with booty, storerooms, well shafts, dining halls, slave pens, and dozens of rooms which cannot be described.

Each kraag is also honeycombed with secret passageways known only to the slaves, and most of them have secret entrances for use by the slaves. At one time, all of these passages were known to the masters of the kraag, but over generations they have been forgotten.

In most kraags, the slaves are only loosely watched, since they cannot leave (it is believed), and they would have nowhere to run anyway (most kraags are so remote that there is no way to escape from their vicinity on foot).

All illustrations and text on this page are taken from mateengreenaway.com, which adapted them from the Space: 1889 rule book.