Canal Martians
The Canal Martians are the most advanced of the three Martian races, but their culture, though responsible for Mars' highest cultural and scientific achievements, has been in decline for millennia.
The Canal Martians general appearance is similar to that of humans, but they average a foot taller and are quite slender. They have fine hair and pale ocher skin, and some humans feel their large, pointed ears give them a faint resemblance to the elves of human myth. Their hands are similar to a humans except for having only three fingers. They have three-toed feet that bear a vestigal thumb located on what would be called the heel on a human foot. The High Martians still have this thumb and grasp a weapon with their feet nearly as well as with their hands. Humans and Martians can eat the same sort of fare, although Martian cuisine is too spicy for most human palates, and Martians find most human dishes unpalatably bland. Canal Martian dress is too varied to be easily described, but it strikes many observers as reminiscent of the garb of the ancient Egyptians.
The Canal Martians have been civilized for at least 35,000 years and are still consumate farmers, accomplished builders and skilled artisans. But they are obviously a culture in decline, as demonstrated by their inability to maintain the ancient technology of their forebears such as the canal pumping stations. The culture of the Canal Martians is stagnant and unchanging, their arts have become incomprehensibly baroque and degenerate, and their science is without the innovative spark that characterizes human intellectual activity.
The details of government vary from city to city, but most are ruled by hereditary monarchs, called canal princes. Many cities have governing councils of nobles, also hereditary, in addition to the prince. Powerful mercantile families in the larger city-states are often at odds with the nobles. A complex bureaucracy handles the day to day government in the larger city-states. The civil servants are either appointed by the prince or win their positions through competitive tests, as in ancient China. In all cases, the higher levels of government are unalterably corrupt and it is nearly impossible to do anything without multiple payments to officials, inspectors, and bureaucrats.
While they are the most developed of the Martian races, they have lost so much that they are still beneath human civilization in most ways. They fancy themselves still as the Martian elite, and look at the other two races as primitive second-class citizens in a world ruled by them. Physically they stand six feet tall and possess the characteristic three fingers and toes of the Martian races. Evolution has removed the special Lifting gland that the High Martians possess and it is virtually unheard of for a Canal Martian to be born with vestigial webbing.
