Mars

Mars is the fourth planet of the Sol system. After being terraformed into a world habitable by humans, it became the capital of the Valerian Empire.

Characteristics

Following the Singularity War, Mars' ecosystem destabilized due to the nuclear missiles that were launched at the planet's cities. The planet's rainforests turned to desert, and sand dunes swallowed up most of the planet's surviving architecture. Little more than rudimentary species of dry brush and lichens are active although hot springs exist in the caves just below the surface.

The atmosphere, although very thin, is breathable by humans. It was once considered a candidate for humanity's homeworld, given the fact that the Valerian Empire's capital was here, and that fossilized species share DNA similarities with humans. However, the fossil record similarities can be explained in several ways: the empire is known to have imported animals and terraformed the planet; and the native fossil similarities could be explained in that organic material that originated on Mars could have easily ended up on Earth via panspermia.

Points of interest

Olympus Mons Vault

The Valerian Empire had prepared for the event of their own demise. Below Mt. Olympus Mons, they created a vault of humanity's artifacts - a memento to remind the surviving humans of their past, rich culture. The entrance to this vault became lost, but the contents inside were perfectly preserved. Many forms of hardware as well as schematics to various lost technologies are said to be contained within. It is also rumored the preserved consciousness of the last emperor, Emperor Veritas, is there, having taken the role of a curator.

In addition to the various physical artifacts is a digital archive powered by quantum crystals. During the golden age, the empire made an effort to document as much of humanity as possible, including the recreation of Earth during various points of history. Among the simulations that are known to exist are a nearly perfect recreation of Ancient Egypt around 2570 BC during the construction of the Pyramids of Giza as well as the various battles of the American Civil War. There are rumors that the reason why these simulations are so accurate was that the Valerians had access to some form of rudimentary time travel into the past. And with the use of artificial intelligence, the gaps in the data could be filled in via extrapolation. Incomplete, corrupted copies of these simulations have been discovered in other parts of the galaxy though the vault itself is said to be the only location where the original source code can be found.

The Olympus Mons Vault is considered the holy grail of all virtuoarchaeology finds. The Archaeology Guild and Virtuoso are in a fierce competition to locate and secure the digsite first. Though it only contains 1% of the data once found within the megastructure Guf, it is still the second largest repository of human knowledge. It is theorized it contains more than enough information within it to effectively allow the full recreation of Earth and many interstellar colonies during humanity's prime.