"Don't go to Phobos. I promise you that regretting your decision is the best possible outcome if you do."
~Vinzin Peoler,
Technocrat of Mars
A Barren Moon
While the initial stages of terraforming have made the larger of Mars' two moons technically livable, there is little on the rock other than isopods and moss. The natives of the moon, the
Haruspices, have not developed the moon more than hollowing out pits in the ground with a central drain to prevent flooding and to collect filthy rainwater for use as drinking water.
True Phobos
The
Haruspices don't regard the barren surface as the 'real world.' They see it as a living nightmare where their power is diminished and their lives are squalid and petty. They live most of their lives in a gestalt dreamworld they refer to as
True Phobos. There, the strongest wills and talents rule supreme with godlike power. There, the Haruspices aren't horrid, twisted mutant trolls in perpetual and chronic pain. There, they're clean cut, strong and elegant, surrounded by the lobotomized thoughtforms of those weaker than them who have been overcome. They gather around themselves harems, sometimes fantasizing about having nuclear families but more often their relationships in this other dreamscape are controlling and abusive, with the abused parties unable to even perceive the horror of their own existence.
Criminals
Haruspex combine immense poverty with an unlimited sense of entitlement and privilege. When they stay on Phobos, the
Pan-Solar Consortium and the
Martian government are generally content to leave them alone. However, they regularly commit crimes escalating to outright (small scale) wars. They commit 'mental kidnappings' where the
gestalt reaches out and rips the mind away from an unsuspecting victim, sending them into a coma but trapping them helpless in their otherworld just to add something new. They 'poke' at corporations and other groups to earn a reprisal, so that they can mentally ambush the commandos sent to punish them or recover stolen goods. The one time that Mars attempted a mass attack was thwarted by the focused efforts of the gestalt. The bombing campaign was successful but the land invasion was a disaster, and became more untenable with every
Militiaman pulled into the collective mind. An uneasy peace was brokered before a decision was made to crack the moon in half, but this has only stopped conflicts at scale.
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