Read Under the Moons of Mars Online
Authors: John Joseph Adams
Earthly astronomers call the two moons of Mars Phobos and Deimos. Barsoomians refer to them as Thuria (Phobos) and Cluros (Deimos). Thuria is the larger of the two; it is inhabited and its natives call it Ladan. Strangely, when anyone travels to Thuria from Barsoom, the traveler shrinks to a proportionate size, so that Thuria seems to be a full-sized planet. As far as is known, Barsoom’s smaller moon, Cluros, is uninhabited.
[See
Eighth and Ninth Rays
]
A military rank, equivalent to a general. [See
Military Titles
]
An American general. [See
Cochise
]
These were one of the ancient human races of Barsoom. As long as a million years ago, they were a great seafaring people, sailing the oceans of the planet and trading with many other
peoples. Over the passage of hundreds of thousands of years, as the great seas and oceans of Mars dried up, the Orovars built and rebuilt their cities to remain on the edges of these bodies of water, but eventually there was so little water left on Mars that the Orovars were faced with disaster. Their civilization in shambles, they were conquered by the six-limbed Green Martians. However, the Orovars survived to combine with other Martian races—the black and yellow humans—to create the modern White Martians, the Therns and Lotharians.
The leader of the Kalkars. [See
Moon Maid, The
]
A military rank, equivalent to lieutenant. [See
Military Titles
]
An Orovar (White Martian) and, a warrior of the City of Horz. Captured by a band of Green Martians, Pan Dan Chee is rescued by John Carter, who offers to return with him to Horz. However, the policy of this city is extremely hostile to visitors (to say the least!) and both John Carter and Pan Dan Chee are condemned to death. After much derring-do they escape, but Pan Dan Chee has by now seen a miniature carving of John Carter’s granddaughter, Llana, and fallen hopelessly in love with her. Although at first reluctant to do so, Llana eventually accepts Pan Dan Chee as a suitor.
A mercenary. [See
Military Titles
]
While not directly connected with the Barsoom stories, the Pellucidar books played an important role in the works of
Edgar Rice Burroughs. The basic idea behind these stories is that the Earth is not a solid sphere like a billiard ball, but is hollow like a tennis ball. Its interior is warmed and lighted by a miniature sun which shines in the very center of the world, creating eternal daylight for the dwellers on the inner surface of the Earth. Edgar Rice Burroughs called this inner world Pellucidar. The novels set in this world were popular. The most famous of them,
Tarzan at the Earth’s Core
, tells the story of Burroughs’s most famous adventure hero traveling to Pellucidar on a zeppelin that navigates a great opening at the North Pole. Burroughs utilized a similar theme in his novel
The Moon Maid
.
These are truly horrible beings, very likely the inspiration for some of the monsters found in the stories of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, an early admirer of Burroughs. The plant men are ten to twelve feet tall, hairless, and blue in color except for long, thick, black hair on their heads. They have no mouths but obtain nourishment through their hands. They have only one eye, a dreadful white orb. They are fierce fighters, hopping over their opponents to gain advantage in battle. They dwell in the Valley Dor near Barsoom’s South Pole.
Unlike Earth, where there is only one surviving human species, the ancient Neanderthal and other relatives having disappeared thousands of years ago, Barsoom has at least four “human” species. There are true humans of various colors—red, white (Orovars), yellow (Okarians), black (First Born)—identical to Earth humans except for the fact that they lay eggs rather bearing their children alive. There are also the great, six-limbed Green Martians (i.e., Tharks and Warhoons), the Rykors and Kaldanes, and the strange, terrifying plant men.
Because the Martian civilization is ancient, many inventions developed long ago survive into the present. These include radium rifles. These are not ray-guns of the type featured in other science fiction stories of Burroughs’s era. Rather, they fire bullets tipped with explosive radium pellets, in effect tiny atomic bombs. However, most Martians consider these unsuitable, and instead prefer to fight with swords.
A mad scientist who transfers brains into genetically engineered synthetic bodies called hormads.
The ancient “human races” of Mars were divided by skin color into white, black, and yellow. Over many millennia these races amalgamated, resulting in the dominant Barsoomian race of John Carter’s time. They are a beautiful people with smooth skin and glossy black hair. They are identical to terrestrial humans, save for laying eggs rather than bearing their young alive. Small enclaves of the white, black, and yellow Martian races do survive to modern times. There are also other non-human peoples on Mars, most notably the six-limbed Green Men and the cyclopean plant men.
This is the largest surviving body of water on Mars, which was once a warm planet with abundant water and a rich atmosphere. For many years, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s description of the ancient Mars was considered sheer imagination, but recent discoveries indicate that this description is remarkably accurate. There is overwhelming evidence that Mars once had seas and mighty rivers, the dried beds of which have been explored by orbiting satellites and robotic landers. Maybe John Carter
traveled not only through space from Jasoom to Barsoom, but through time as well, from the Earthly year 1866 to the Mars of long, long ago.
[See
Kaldanes
]
A very old Green Martian woman, member of Tars Tarkas’s tribe or horde. She was treacherous by nature and wildly jealous of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, attempting to lead them into traps and bring about their doom. When her schemes were uncovered, she sought to escape justice by embarking on the pilgrimage on the River Iss, almost certainly to meet a suitably unpleasant demise at the hands of the white apes or Holy Therns.
A hardwood found on Barsoom.
Upon his arrival on Mars, John Carter became a prisoner of the Green Men horde led by Tars Tarkas. Injured and imprisoned, John Carter might well have died, but Sola was possessed of an empathetic and caring nature, a great rarity among Green Martians. She nursed John Carter back to health and tutored him in the ways of Barsoom. Her parentage was at first unknown, but eventually it was revealed that she was the daughter of Tars Tarkas.
A unit of time. The Martian equivalent of a second.
Daughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris and sister of
Carthoris. Beautiful but vain, she is courted by Gahan of Gathol and flees Helium in her personal flier. After a series of breathtaking perils, imprisonments, and rescues, she agrees to marry Gahan and eventually becomes the mother of Llana of Gathol.
A Green Martian warrior. At first, Tars Tarkas believes that John Carter intends to destroy the eggs of the Tharks, Tars Tarkas’s tribe or “horde.” Eventually they become close friends and comrades in arms.
Tarzan, most famous of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s creations, is still one of the world’s most widely recognized fictitious figures, along with Sherlock Holmes and Superman. Burroughs liked to spin connections between his fictitious worlds, for instance sending Tarzan to Pellucidar in one novel [See
Moon Maid, The
]. Many enthusiastic readers and not a few writers have expressed the wish that Tarzan would travel to Mars and meet John Carter—a “superhero team-up” for the ages! Unless a previously lost manuscript should be discovered, however, it appears that Burroughs never wrote such a story, although several other authors have attempted it, including some in this anthology.
When John Carter first arrived on Mars, he discovered that Barsoomians were able to read one another’s minds. This would obviate the need for a spoken language, but they have one nonetheless. Perhaps the spoken language evolved before the telepathic power, and spoken Barsoomian will someday cease to be used, but for the time being the Martians can communicate in either manner, just as people on Earth can
communicate by spoken words, hand signals, computer links, or other means. At any rate, while John Carter (and later Ulysses Paxton) could read the minds of Martians, the Martians could not read the minds of their visitors from Earth, which motivated John Carter and Ulysses Paxton to learn to speak Barsoomian.
A tribe of Green Men. [See
Green Men
]
The ancient Martians were divided into races or tribes of different colors [See
Races of Barsoom
]. The Therns are the remnants of the White Martian race. They live in the Mountains of Otz and the Valley Dor. This region is reached by pilgrims traveling on the River Iss, the largest river on Mars. The Holy Therns spread the religious belief that pilgrims on the River Iss reach a land of eternal bliss, but in fact they are either enslaved or devoured by the Therns. All male Therns are bald but wear blond wigs.
Although sometimes described as the “Martian horse,” the thoat bears little resemblance to Earthly equines. Its most obvious features are its size—as tall as ten feet—and its eight legs, four on each side of its body. This would indicate that thoats are not closely related to either four-limbed or six-limbed species on Mars. They may actually have evolved from the eight-limbed cephalopods that swam in the warm, nurturing waters of Mars millions of years ago! By the time of John Carter’s arrival on Mars, the thoat has been domesticated and even bred into several subspecies. The most common are used as transportation. They are controlled by their riders through telepathic commands.
The Barsoomian name for Mars’s moon Phobos. [See
Moons of Mars
]
Having embarked on the pilgrimage down the River Iss at an age much younger than most Martians, Thuvia of Ptarth became a slave to the Holy Therns. While thus imprisoned she encountered a fellow prisoner, none other than John Carter, with whom she managed to escape from the Therns. Following a series of exciting adventures, she became the bride of Carthoris, son of John Carter and Dejah Thoris.
An agent authorized to interact with the Native American tribes on behalf of the U.S. government during the Apache wars of the nineteenth century. [See
Cochise
]
While ancient Barsoom was covered with huge seas and oceans, little surface water remains due to eons of evaporation and loss of water vapor. Several bodies of water do still survive, such as the River Iss and the Sea of Omean. The Toonolian Marshes are not so much a body of water as an area of swamps, ponds, mud, and quicksand. There are two city-states in this region, Toonol and Phundahl, hostile to each other. A third city, ancient Morbus, was restored by the scientist Ras Thavas but was destroyed again. The marshes are inhabited by dangerous reptilian and insect life, as well as primitive bands of humans.