Mars

Mars, is the first and greatest Forge World of the Imperium of Man located in the Sol System of the Segmentum Solar, producing vast numbers of weapons, vehicles and other advanced technology for the Imperium and its war efforts throughout the galaxy. Mars is also the homeworld and headquarters of the Adeptus Mechanicus and a planet sacred to the faith of the Cult Mechanicus, which is one reason why travel to the Red Planet for Imperial personnel who are not members of the Mechanicus and share its peculiar faith is restricted.
The Red Planet is the birthplace of the Cult Mechanicus, and is considered the holiest of all celestial orbs in the galaxy to the adherents of that faith. So vaunted is Mars that across the stars a hundred worlds have been terraformed and settled in exactly the same manner.
Millennia of incessant construction have turned Mars into a smog-choked hellscape. The surface is covered with massive forge complexes, sprawling refineries, towering monuments to the glory of the machine and weapons shops that scrape the skies. The massive orbital conglomeration of thousands of drydocks and other starship manufacturing facilities in a geosynchronous orbit that turn above the Martian equator are known collectively as the Ring of Iron.
It was the shipyards of the Ring of Iron that constructed the vast exploratory and Expeditionary Fleets of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium and even today produce the majority of the Imperial Navy's capital ships. Spacecraft are constructed within the Ring's extensive orbital factories, and many of the ships of the Battlefleet Solar are based in its huge floating docks. The moon Deimos is absent from Mars' orbit, seconded to the Grey Knights of Titan in aeons long past.

Geography

The planet itself is a wilderness of polluted ochre desert broken by metropolises the size of tectonic plates. Here the rockcrete spires, marble arches and flying buttresses of a standard Imperial world are joined by corroded steel, iron ventilation chimneys and shining glass pipes. Extensive travel tubes pass above crackling tesla coils that power construction sites and ancient industrial wastes alike. Shining new buildings braced with riggings of steel contrast with shattered condensation traps and the ruins of millennial wars. The older districts are dotted with broken plasteel slabs and twisted girders, the occasional solitary tower pointing purposelessly toward the Martian sky.

Alternative Name(s)

The Red Plane

Type

Planet

Included Organizations

• Adeptus Mechanicus

Owner/Ruler

The Fabricator-General of Mars

Owning Organization

Adeptus Mechanicus