| rdfs:comment
| - The War of Rebellions was ended with a short treaty named for the planet where the rebels ultimately surrendered. It reads as follows.
- In times long past, during the Dark Age of Technology, both Terra and Mars maintained separate interstellar empires and collaborated peacefully for the benefit of all Mankind. The onset of the Age of Strife would shatter this amity, as Terra descended into techno-barbarism. On Mars, the situation became even more dire, for the Red Planet's terraformation was still incomplete. Because of the lack of maintenance of the planet's infrastructure during the conflicts that consumed Mars during that period, its atmospheric radiation shields soon disintegrated, allowing deadly solar radiation to destroy the fragile Martian ecosystem and wiping out the sparse, genetically-engineered vegetation which had taken millennia to cultivate. Mars returned to being the red wasteland that had characterised its
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| abstract
| - The War of Rebellions was ended with a short treaty named for the planet where the rebels ultimately surrendered. It reads as follows.
- In times long past, during the Dark Age of Technology, both Terra and Mars maintained separate interstellar empires and collaborated peacefully for the benefit of all Mankind. The onset of the Age of Strife would shatter this amity, as Terra descended into techno-barbarism. On Mars, the situation became even more dire, for the Red Planet's terraformation was still incomplete. Because of the lack of maintenance of the planet's infrastructure during the conflicts that consumed Mars during that period, its atmospheric radiation shields soon disintegrated, allowing deadly solar radiation to destroy the fragile Martian ecosystem and wiping out the sparse, genetically-engineered vegetation which had taken millennia to cultivate. Mars returned to being the red wasteland that had characterised its past. Plagues caused by high radiation levels slew most of the population and many of the survivors devolved into mutants or ghoulish cannibals. Faced with total extinction, a new idea began to spread among the Martian people, a religion that made a faith out of the preservation of the technical knowledge required for survival -- the Cult Mechanicus dedicated to the Machine God. The devotees of this faith sought out needed technology scattered across the Red Planet that was needed to rebuild temporary radiation shelters. The Cult demanded absolute devotion from its followers, for only by selfless dedication and often personal sacrifices could the needed archeotech be recovered or the planet saved. Under the direction of their Tech-priest leaders, the cultists set about restoring order to their world. They built shelters to protect themselves from the radiation storms, and constructed new oxygen generators and food processing machines to enable them to live beneath the protective shielding. Yet there were few shelters even for the Tech-priests and none for unbelievers. Marauders and mutant raiders tried to force their way inside the hurriedly constructed edifices. Many of the cultists died defending their shelters and some of these early settlements were destroyed, but the survivors emerged all the stronger and more determined. The Martian people interpreted their survival in the face of tremendous odds as a vindication of their belief in the dogma of the Cult Mechanicus. Their resolve and devotion to the Cult soon became unshakable as the Age of Strife wore on. While rival warlords battled over the remnants of the once-great civilisation of Terra, the Tech-priests built Mars anew, and the first temples dedicated to the Machine God were erected amidst the crimson sands. The Tech-priests scoured the ruins of Mars for surviving advanced technology which they enshrined within the greatest of the Mechanicum's holy places, the Temple of All Knowledge. In time, the towering forge cities of the Mechanicum's Magi rose into the pink sky, as advanced technology and industry returned to Mars. Now unified under the Cult Mechanicus, the Priesthood of Mars began to dispatch Explorator Fleets across the galaxy and even plundered the surface of war-torn Terra itself when the opportunity presented itself in hopes of discovering lost technologies. Facing resistance to their quest on the Terran surface, the Mechanicum soon became bitter enemies with the techno-barbarians which plagued the devastated Earth. In the meantime, each new world discovered by the Mechanicum's Explorators was colonised and rebuilt in the image of Mars itself, transformed into a planet-wide manufactory known as a Forge World, where industry is the only true religion.
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