Niklas Jansson
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Warlord - Tharks
🕑 Added 2021-09-11 16:13:16 +0000 UTCHunting for that Thark face that I imagine when reading the books, but it remains fuzzy and indeterminate. I grew up reading the Warlord comics (from the late '70s) so it's maybe something along those lines. If following the description closely, they have eyes on the sides giving 360 coverage, though when Carter and Tars Tarkas are trapped in a room and enemies spring from beyond their field of vision, it appears vision isn't really 360 after all. Tube ears go on the forehead (bad directional hearing?). They have nose slits and tusks going up to where humans eyes sit. This is a bit problematic in terms of showing facial gestures. In the movie the tusks appears to be the cheek bones and they are spaced widely so the face can be read.
Unsure how muscular to make the Greens. They're probably lanky and supposedly could not handle Earth gravity, but in comics they're often beefy and shorter. Tars Tarkas (perhaps an unusual specimen) is 15ft in height, or 4.6m, a height which makes makes certain scenarios awkward, like fitting a party into corridors, rooms and ships, or showing fencing, fisticuffs and conversation with red men. For this reason, sometimes they're portrayed as being man-sized, which kind of detracts from their point. Judging by the books, Red Men don't really stand much of a chance against Green Men and they don't really socialize, but Carter does of course.
I decided to skip the Gooli (annoying kangeroo men) and perhaps add something of my own design, like a Green hybrid. I think in the books the Greens started out more human but they bred for ferocity over many millennia. In theory they're still "Men" though. Perhaps some survived which are closer to their original form, or were created later on. A higher arm placement here (slightly on the back) could make them more goddess-like. On modern Greens the lower arms can be used as legs (suggesting a regression to an ape state?) but this is ignored in most depictions.
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Martians lay eggs which are put in greenhouse incubators for about five years (in the case of Red Martians). During this time they grow, which could explain why they have belly buttons. The egg is more of an external womb which grows like a plant from a seed, using the sun and atmosphere along with included nutrients and minerals. In some of their creation myths, they are related to plants. It seems more likely that they were engineered from human stock. This could also explain why women have breasts (uh, I don't think they're somehow breastfeeding the eggs).
Education is possibly telepathic, though we know that Thark parents are not present during egg maturation. It's unclear how big a new-hatched Red Martian is, but at 10-11 years they are a functioning adult (at least in the case of Carthoris). The Green Martians are quickly educated soon after hatching (Carter has a hatchling "classmate" iirc).
The Martian population is likely limited by resources but it also needs to be constantly replenished due to war*. Still, kids might be an uncommon sight as this state is shorter than 5 years and Martians can be extremely long-lived. It's unclear if Martians can lay multiple eggs or if they instead lay eggs frequently. The Green Martians destroy "imperfect" eggs. Dejah apparently only laid one egg. Regardless, in theory they could create a lot of offspring quickly as the egg develops externally. Perhaps they were engineered for war, like Orcs? By who? Devas and Asuras come in many colours and have extra arms so something in that vein might fit.
* Red martians have a possibly natalistic "celibacy tax", but they also have a lot of peculiar and rigid marriage/courting rules so it could merely be a cultural feature.
Next up - thoughts on clothing.
