New Mars Forums

A   M Y T H O L O G Y   O F   M A R S

    The golden age of Mars took place on the order of 200 million years ago.

    Mar’s history is far more ancient than Earth’s (although Earth’s is far more ancient than current historians would have one believe).

    The start of the golden age can be pinpointed as when a God and Goddess first met and began their family.  These two gods were neither omnipotent nor omniscient.  In fact, were quite far from perfect. But they worked with a love and passion for their world.

    At one time they recorded their history and visions into a Holy Work, written as a poetry that impelled their passions and dreams into the minds of a multitude.  This marked the start of a second golden age of Mars. Alas, that work has long since been lost. For ages, ancient Martian scholars have searched in vain for a copy of the true work.  The chances are just about zero that future explorers from Earth will ever find a trace.

MARS HISTORY IN BRIEF

    In broad strokes, the history of Mars is as follows:

Before the Beginning:   Mars was a fertile planet with seas of water.  No civilizations or colonies.

The Beginning:  A god and goddess begat the first family which multiplied into tribes and nations. It was a period of magic, exquisite art and verse. (started about 200 million years ago).

The Second Golden Age:  The inhabitants of Mars had grown so many that the god and goddess lost control; evil and immorality were growing unchecked.  As a means to handle, a Holy Work was written and disseminated, imparting a vital, new ethos into the culture.

The Middle Ages:  A hundred million years is a long, long, long time, even for a god.  This period saw the gradual decline of abilities of the god and goddess until they joined the unending birth-life-death cycle of the ordinary citizen, forgetting more and more of their own pasts. Many civilizations rose and fell on Mars during the period.

The Evil Times:  At some point less than 100 million years ago, Mars and other planets in this part of the galaxy fell under the sway of a very evil ruler.  The former god betrayed his people, acting at times as a puppet of that ruler and wreaking damage to his kind.

The Black Out:   There is a period of  time, some place between 60 and 80 million years ago, of which nothing is known.  Children’s school textbooks of 40 million years ago simply refer to it as a point when all life seemed to have ended.  All knowledge of the earlier history of Mars is gone, except in legend and fantasy.

The Recent Period:  The magic is gone. The planet is wracked by cruel, savage wars (many similarities to present-day Earth).  The climate has been gradually growing cooler and the air thinner.  The population is shrinking and living in vast underground apartment complexes.

The End:  At some point before 900AD,  a battle over the control of Mars wipes out the remaining population.

A TALE OF TWO GODS

    It had long been dreamt the Holy Work would be found again and inspire a new golden age on Mars. Wars had been fought, disbelievers burnt and untold millions of words written about what was really the true word.  That dream had disappeared long before the prehistory and antiquity of Earth.

    But there is a story not contained even in the original Holy Work!  The “god” and “goddess” were not so different from you and I as the Holy Work might lead one to believe.  I mean, the interchanges such as the goddess saying unto the god what could be translated as: “Don’t be such a prude,”  were certainly not artistically consistent with the tone of the revered Holy Work.

    The following is the first chapter of the real story, never before told.

The Beginning

Two hundred million years ago he heard the call. 
He felt her presence.
He saw her face.

He was alone in a small vessel,
hurtling through space near the rim of a galaxy. 
Nimble fingers adjusted thrust vectors.
Speed dropped below that of light.
In towards a small planet he bore.

Like a beacon or a siren,
she pulled him toward her. 
The planet was fertile
but no sign of inhabitants.
Water flowed, clouds billowed,
green life basked in the radiation
of a yellow dwarf sun.

He’d been fleeing to he knew not where
– his comrades, friends, family crushed in a war just lost.
Jostled out of his grief by her call, curious he became.

By a grove, by a deep dark pool he landed his craft. 
The air he could breath. The temperature seemed right. 
Airlock opened; air rushed in, scented with life. 
He could smell the trees, the grass, the water.
Down the ladder he went. 
He turned and she was there.

Her eyes met his.
Towards her he walked. 
From his body he left
and he joined her in spirit far above the land. 
Ultimate closeness, they shared the same space.
Together they traveled around the world,
tasting the air, feeling the soil and rejoicing in its vibrant plant life.

Then he saw her vision – a family, a tribe, a nation. 
Of people who danced and sang, loved and wrought. 
Of magic and mystery, poetry and verse.
Of a jeweled Eden,
far far from the old tired civilizations of the galactic core.

By the time their bodies first met,
embraced
and kissed,
he shared her passion,
he shared her vision
for a fertile new world to create.

Released he was from those ancient chains to flesh. 
A myriad of abilities he again possessed.

Clothes shed, bodies entwined,
love they made, hours at a time. 
He could see his own eyes through hers
as she could see her own through his. 
They shared each thrust, both bodies as one. 
The first born was a son.

– bga