Worldbuilding: Maggie's Colonial Mars

vtkvtk
edited 2016-12-16 11:11:39 in Roleplay & Games
Okay, so I think this seems like a good place to share some ideas for the setting of a series of stories which I'd like to exist but I'll never actually write. And I wouldn't mind hearing other people's ideas for fleshing it out, or even some specific little stories.

So anyway, it's the future. Not sure how far, but probably centuries. Earth is kind of the same as it's always been, but Mars is an optimistic place. The martian colonies were founded on "best social practices", so there's a prevalent progressive mindset. Terraforming is still in the early stages, so environmental suits are still necessary outside the domes, but a fair amount of infrastructure has been established and the colonies are beginning to really thrive. Not long ago, nudity was a status symbol, but now it's quite common as superior heating and shielding is available to most of the population. A public health intervention called Neotenin slows physical development, so puberty occurs at about 9 or 10 martian years of age, allowing emotional maturity to take hold first. Legal adulthood begins at 8 martian years of age. The problem of pedophilia has been solved, somehow (probably with some kind of prevention measures, screening, and compassionate treatment when rarely necessary). I don't see a place for native martians in this concept, unless they can be introduced without retconning present observations of Mars or interfering with the colonial development as I've described.

Comments

  • I think you mean terraforming instead of transforming

    And you could have, say, an alien species that manages to colonize Mars a little earlier than we do instead of native Martians, eventually agreeing to an alliance since the Earthicans have better supply chains while the aliens can survive on Mars without artificial protection, meaning they both have something to offer the other.
  • vtkvtk
    embrace the confusion
    Yes, I meant terraforming, but my phone had other ideas.

    That's an interesting idea with the alien(er) colonists. The timing would seem to be a huge cosmic coincidence, but I suppose it wouldn't be the least likely thing that ever happened.
  • vtkvtk
    embrace the confusion
    As part of "social best practices", gender neutral pronouns are promoted when referring to someone whose gender you don't explicitly know (and "he looks like a cis guy" isn't good enough). The academic first colonists managed to make it a habit, and settled on ey/em/eir/eirs, though "ey" is pronounced like "ee". Eventually it evolves into a formal vs casual thing, so you only use gendered pronouns in reference to family and good friends. Also, pronunciation of "they" shifts to "thee"
  • vtkvtk
    embrace the confusion
    I was just about to write about this Mars concept in my personal thread when I remembered I already made a post specifically about it. So, bump, I guess.
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