Mars
Contents
Mars, the Maiden of Battles
Motivation: Make sure all things come into conflict as they should.
While the Unconquered Sun is officially the chief war god of Yu-Shan, the Maiden of Battles governs strategy and war as an abstract concept. Thus, her purview includes the strife and upheaval that accompanies war—she is the Goddess of War Widows and War Orphans, for example, although such unhappy mortals rarely offer her prayer. The Chosen of Mars often claim that their patron’s battle plans defeated the Primordials and that the Unconquered Sun’s chief contribution was having the sense to accept advice from a superior strategist. Mars also holds dominion over all the accouterments of warfare, and blacksmiths who specialize in weapons and armor often keep tiny shrines to Mars hid-den in their smithies in defiance of the Immaculate Order. Even games of strategy are associated with Mars. Outside the Realm, major Gateway tournaments often begin with a prayer to the Maiden of Battles.
It has been said that the Maiden of Battles is the most terrifying of the Maidens—ruthlessly pragmatic, quick to take offense and caring little for those mortals questionably blessed by her presence. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is because the Maiden of Battles cares so much for the lives she is affecting that she is so terse. Any business not having to do with battles, contests or war distracts her from her careful planning and causes her savage irritation. In truth, the destinies she weaves depict the death of millions, and the gravity of this burden is not lost on her. Only Jupiter knows that Mars holds the lives of soldiers sacred and honors in her heart those fighters she commends to the tender mercies of Saturn.
- Mars generally manifests as an angry woman with red hair and blood-stained hands. She is always well armed and well-armored. Her glance provokes terror in mortals, and she often seems to take offence at nearly anything said to her.
- Mars favors several guises, each of them corresponding to an archetypal role she assumes. In all of them, she is a red-headed woman with blood-stained hands. Her most common role is that of the general, in which she wears lacquered red armor, carries a dire lance and has a number of head-dresses set with wigs of human hair spun from soldiers since time immemorial. She has been known to appear as a judge in scarlet robes with an iron mask to preside over honor duels, Gateway matches and other crucial contests. She also commonly appears as a sifu in a scarlet qipao, her hair worn in an extravagantly long braid and laced through with quipu, each knot binding some of her knowledge so that she does not inadvertently kill her pupils. In these forms of authority, Mars is at her most alien and frightening, but how could she not be? Hers is a cold, alien wisdom, and in these roles she must pass her knowledge down to lesser vessels who are not gifted with her understanding of samsara.
- It is in her fourth guise that Mars is at her most human (and subsequently, the guise in which Mars is least likely to be seen). It is that of the soldier, in which she wears perfunctory armor and carries a slashing sword and round shield. As a soldier, Mars is not assuming a role of authority, but rather epitomizing the Thousand Correct Actions. In this form, Mars is a comrade-in-arms, seeking to understand and reproduce the fraternity or sorority that soldiers feel when they are made kindred in battle against a common enemy.
Mars often sees her symbol painted on the shields of soldiers marching to war. But that same mark is also often painted or cast into anvils in ironworks throughout the Threshold where Fair Folk incursions are a problem.
Relationships
Mars supports the Gold Faction in her role, though she pays little attention to the faction, believing that the Gunstar will return to the Spiral and the Exalted will succeed in their original role of overthrowing the Primordials, and the infighting won't change that - especially not with the powerful warhawks she has on her side. Ha Dui Liang and Bright Sanguine Saber stand beside Mars in her beliefs, a trio of deadly women who can take most of the Exalted host on in any form of one on one. She often spars with Exalts, and not just his Chosen, though she does her best to make sure they represent her well in strength of body and mind. Ultimately, the inertia of the Solar Deliberative is on her side, though she underestimates the resisting pull coming from the mortal population.
The Crimson Panoply of Victory (The Division of Battles)
The Division of Battles regulates all conflicts among mortals, from the greatest battles down to sibling rivalry and barroom brawls. The grounds of the division consist of the Crimson Panoply of Victory, a small fortress of red brick with tall ramparts of crimson steel, all surrounded by a massive array of tents and fields. The gods and Sidereals of this division are generally considered the best combatants and strategists in Yu-Shan. Many of the fields around the administrative fort look at first glance like enormous game boards. In fact, these boards are designed to reflect the state of current battlefields in Creation, enabling the division to monitor ongoing armed struggles or to run simulations of future battles and thus calculate the most desirable outcomes.
The Division of Battles decides neither when and where a battle will take place nor which side will win. The various regional war gods in the Bureau of Heaven generally make those decisions, although those gods invariably consult with the deities of the Crimson Panoply when plotting out future conflicts. As a practical matter, however, most conflicts of any importance have divine lobbyists on both sides who cancel out each other’s impact, and most battles are not so much determined by the gods as predicted based on the Loom’s assessment of who lives and who dies. The larger, better-armed and better-led force generally defeats the smaller, poorly armed and incompetently led force, and both gods and Sidereals can only watch for anomalies such as unforeseen Essence users and mortals with potent destinies. Accordingly, the chief duties of the Division of Battles simply involve ensuring that the battle goes according to the dictates of fate.
Personnel of the Crimson Panoply of Victory
- Although she is officially only the God of Soldiers, the Lord General interprets her portfolio broadly and claims dominion over all military personnel, from the freshest grunt to the most decorated senior officers. Hu Dai Liang personally involved herself in the Usurpation more than perhaps any other god in Yu-Shan, advising the Sidereals on how best to attack the Solar Exalted. Her greatest rivals are actually not in the Bureau of Destiny at all. The five regional war gods routinely challenge her authority, especially Ahlat. Hu Dai Liang must also contend with Siakal, the Western War God, who thinks all war must be fought with no regard of strategy until the bloody end.
- Hu Dai Liang typically manifests as an attractive but severe woman clad in red lacquered armor. She bears a red jade spear with a red and black pennant. The spear can change its size at her command, from a tiny scepter to a battle pike big enough for a warstrider. Strangely, for such a martial deity, Hu Dai Liang is also notable for her enormous butterfly wings of red and black, which lend a strange delicacy to the battle-hardened warrior queen’s appearance.
- The Shieldbearers of Mars are the warriors of the Sidereal Exalted. All other factors being equal, a Shieldbearer is no match for a Dawn Caste Solar, and few Shieldbearers can match a Full Moon Lunar. Luckily, all factors are not equal. Shieldbearers not only study every form of combat, they study ways to rig a battle through astrological manipulation and arranging the battle for the time and place most propitious to themselves: in short, they cheat and bushwhack their foes.
- Often, Shieldbearers serve undercover in military forces so that they can lead a charge or strike down a particular officer at just the right moment. Shieldbearer missions most commonly involve countering the efforts of other Essence users before they can alter the destiny of an important battle. The division also regularly assigns Shieldbearers to monitor major military conflicts between units led by Essence users in order to provide accurate data about Essence deployment and thus prevent future tangles in the Loom. Finally, when the Bureau must mobilize in force against invaders from beyond fate, the Chosen of Mars take command and lead the battle.