Editing Genius The Transgression/Chapter Four:Special Rules and Systems (section)

==== The Martian Empire: ====
Sometimes called Cydonia or Barsoom, the Martian Empire is located, naturally, on Mars, but not the frozen, almost airless wasteland that we know. Supported by a sea of ever-shifting Mania, the Martian Empire's air is breathable, if thin, and there walk the strange beings called Martians. Divided into three known castes (the brain-on-a-stalk Overlords, the spindly Technikers, and the brutal but humanoid egg-laying Throgs), the Martians threatened to conquer Earth less than half a century ago, and they still eye our world with cold avarice.

This avarice is tempered, now, with the knowledge that Earth stomped them in the last war: even were it not for Inspired super-science, Earth science has advanced far since Percival Lowell read of Martian canali and decided that the canals channeled water from the icy poles to a dying civilization. Mars is not exactly safe, but the Martians are more interested, now, in what a genius knows and what knowledge she is willing to trade, than in destroying her as a threat to their plans.

And Mars is an extraordinary place, its dusty streets full of haggling merchants and exotic alien spices, its people enlightened masters of sciences humans have never imagined, and its libraries possessed of arcane and super-scientific wisdom. Even if the genius does not wish simply to grow rich on Martian sapphires by filling her rocketship with fresh water (worth more than gold to the dry world), a lifetime can be spent wandering the million-year-old universities and speaking with the incredible beings there.

Mad scientists who reach Mars are encouraged not to wander too far from the city, where the Mania can sustain humanoid life, and are advised to have an escape plan ready at all times in case the warlike factions of the Martian government take over and once again launch an all-out assault on the Blue Planet.