High Martians
It is believed that the High Martians are the bestial rootstock, from which the Hill and Canal Martians descended. The High Martians are savage and primitive by comparison and are the terror of Canal Martians, Hill Martians, and humans alike. In their physical appearance as in their behaviour, High Martians are quite repulsive. They are short, only standing six feet tall, and compared to the other Martians, and have a stooped, apelike posture. Their coloration is much darker than the other two Martian races. Like other Martians, hands and feet both are comprised of three digits and an opposable thumb and each can be used to grasp and manipulate tools or weapons.
Several High Martian family groups form a clan, under a single sky leader. A number of clans will band together under a king. The monarchy is usually hereditary in the more "advanced" tribes, but the most primitive High Martians are ruled by whoever can best all comers in single combat. The advanced tribes, such as those in the Astusapes Highlands, use lowland slaves to tend their liftwood groves which, with brigandage, are their main source of income.
Of the three types of Martian, High Martians are least affected by civilization; they live in remote kraags and mountaintops, venturing out from time to time to capture slaves or to loot passing caravans. High Martians are like intelligent apes when compared to the Canal Martians, but with a difference: they can fly. High Martians, named for their "altitude" rather than their accomplishments, never lost their lifting gland or its ability to carry them through the skies of Mars. Their behaviour is bestial and barbaric in the extreme.
Although they can work in wood when they need to, the High Martians prefer to buy their ships from the Canal Martians, paying in liftwood. Their ships are exclusively screw galleys, and their turncranks are exclusively slaves, captured from caravans or from nomadic Hill Martian clans. Humans are often put to the crank when they cannot be ransomed.
High Martian dress consists of a loincloth. Warriors wear a leather harness to carry their equipment and often wear items taken forcibly from their enemies as records of the combats. Bracelets, anklets, rings and necklaces of crudely beaten gold set with gemstones, silk ribbons, animal bones, teeth and hair, spent brass cartridge cases, scissors and other booty have all been seen as decoration. High Martians have retained a special gland within their bodies that process the same anti-gravity chemicals seen in the Liftwood that grows within their domains. This gland, coupled with the skin-flaps beneath their arms, allows the High Martian the ability of unassisted flight.