Mars (Hektor Heresy)

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Mars
Segmentum	Segmentum Solar
Sector	Sol Sector
System	Sol System
Population	20,000,000,000
Planetary Governor	Fabricator-General Kalkas Tygian
Orbital radius	1.52AU ± 0.14AU
Gravity	0.38G

Mars was the home world of the Mechanicum. Due to its history and might, the planet also served as the machine cult's spiritual and political center. After the coming of the Emperor and the Treaty of Mars, Martian Forge-Fanes produced enormous quantities of war material for the Great Crusade. However, under the fanatical rule of Fabricator-General Kalkas Tygian, Mars squandered its strength enforcing a narrow orthodoxy on the Forge Worlds of the Galaxy. Eventually the orthodox Mechanicum outreached themselves and had to accommodate heterodox views that fell short of outright Tech Heresy, leading to the formation of the Non-Conformist League headed by Al-Sherar. Worse, corruption was gnawing at Mars itself, leading to a Chaos-led uprising and civil war as the Hektor Heresy gripped the Galaxy. Despite this devastation, Mars recovered in the period of Imperial Reformation and although Kalkas Tygian's vision of the Machine Cult in complete ritual union across the Galaxy never came to pass, the Red Planet was able to assert its political authority over the Non-Conformist League.

History

Humans first settled Mars during M3, shortly after the emergence of the species as a space-faring civilisation. The colony grew to rival the sophistication and wealth of Terra. Under the auspices of the industrial cartels that ran the Red Planet, some terraforming took place and the first Hive Cities were constructed. By the time that humans began to spread across the Galaxy Mars and Terra stood as equal partners, and their friendly co-existence did much to shape the politics of the human-settled worlds. In the Dark Age of Technology, worlds might hold respect and prominence over their peers, but humanity had no capital.

That age of wonders came to a terrible end with the Warp Storms of the end of the 25th Millenium, and humanity was plunged into the horrors of the Age of Strife. On Mars, destruction and isolation were compounded by the failure of the great atmospheric shields that had protected life from the ravages of solar radiation. The survivors retreated underground, into shelters in the depths of their hives. But unlike on other human worlds where technology was the terrible font from which the Men of Iron had sprung, on the Red Planet it was also the wellspring of life. Only the machines of the ancients, half-understood and often malfunctioning, could keep the Martians from extinction. It was this dual nature of man's relationship with his technological wonders that created the peculiar creed of the Machine Cult.

The Tech Priests slowly contained or defeated their rivals for the Red Planet and rebuilt the old Hive Cities in a new image. Where once the cities of Mars had emulated those of Terra, now they were forge temples dedicated to the mysterious Machine God. From these great industrial centers, the leading tech priests planned new expeditions across the stars. Great colony ships were built and prepared for launch into predicted quiet periods in the Warp. Some of the colonists never reached their destination, swallowed up by unforeseen turbulence in the Immateria, while others were ruined after their landfall. But others prospered and created new Forge Worlds, great bastions of technology that would play an important role in the Great Crusade and on into the Age of the Imperium.

Mars on the Eve of Unification

Late in the 30th Millennium, the great Warp Storms that had plagued the Galaxy finally began to recede. On Terra, the Emperor of Mankind began his great military campaign to put an end to the Unification Wars. Unity was approaching on Mars as well. The Machine Cult controlled the majority of their planet with barbaric tribes restricted to the barren wastes between Forge Cities. It is true that the spans of wasteland became greater the further one traveled from the cult's center around Tharsis, but nowhere on Mars was truly beyond the reach of the Machine God. Secure in their hegemony, the scheming archmagoi of the Martian Parliament launched raids on the other planets of the Solar System or vied with one another for temporal power. First in their ambitions was the office of Fabricator General, guardian of the great Temple of All Knowledge at Olympus Mons and spiritual superior of the cult. For many decades, that position had been held by Leton Tygian, a sagacious and careful Archmagos who used the honour of his position to arbitrate between the disputes of his peers. By making himself the justice of Mars, Leton garnered great renown to his person and the office of the Fabricator-General.

Following Leton's death, elections were held for a new Fabricator-General. The Emperor's successes on Terra, and especially the conquest of Luna through the defection of Pallas Eugenesis, weighed heavy on the Martian Parliament. Many felt that the foremost order of the day was teaching the Terran upstart a lesson, partitioning his realm, and restoring the old balance of the Solar System - the preferred euphemism for Martian primacy.

The Forge Temples of Mars

The Mechanicum gathered in ancient hives dedicated to industry and the praise of the Machine God. Just one of the Red Planet's great Forge Temples could out-produce any Imperial planet short of a Forge World or the most sophisticated Hive World. The most famous Forge Temples include:

• The Temple of All Knowledge, more commonly known as Olympus Mons for the volcano about which it is built. This is the center of the Machine Cult and stands close to the Tharsis region.
• Mondus Occulum, the second most powerful of all the Forges on Mars and home to the Tsiolkovsky towers that shipped manufactured material, weapons and munitions from the Martian Surface to the Iron Ring in orbit. The foremost manufacturer of Astartes Armor and weaponry on Mars, it would gain dark renown as the seat of the Autopostate Motoka Isidore and the unofficial head of the traitor Mechanicum alliance on Mars. Though there were strident calls to raze the Forge post-Rebellion, Mondus Occulum would instead be cleansed and rededicated to the Machine God, though darkness continues to linger there.
• The Fane of Urbis Tyrrhena or "Crater City", was a Forge Temple specialising in civilian goods. It was built on the crater fields of Tyrrhena Terra, but became infamous as the birthplace and power center of the Autopostate Vilyon Luthier. After the Loyalist victory, Urbis Tyrrhena was razed and never rebuilt.
• The Fane of Urbis Syrtis or "Hourglass City", was a Forge Temple built on the mineral-rich Syrtis Major Planum. Due to its heterodox beliefs (including a notion of interspecies reincarnation), Urbis Syrtis was ruthlessly conquered by Kalkas Tygian's forces shortly before the Treaty of Mars. During the Great Crusade the hive was rebuilt and its mines brought back into service to produce materials for foundries elsewhere on Mars. This luckless realm was also the first Forge Temple to fall to Vilyon Luthier's Giorea Choristers.
• "Liberty City" or Urbis Juventas once stood on the Hebes Mensa, surrounded by the natural moat of the Hebes Chasma. Their defensible position convinced the citizens of Liberty City that they could defy Kalkas Tygian, and the Fabricator General had their once-beautiful home destroyed as a lesson to the people of Mars. The ruins of Liberty City served as a foundation for a second Urbis Juventas, known as "Phoenix City" and constructed in honour of the Treaty of Mars in 805.M30.