Write your own A Princess of Mars story

John Carter (Captain Jack Carter of Virginia)

A former Confederate cavalry captain and soldier of fortune who does not age and has no memory of childhood. He is transported to Mars after a mysterious out-of-body experience in an Arizona cave. On Barsoom his Earth-attuned muscles grant him extraordinary strength and leaping ability in the lower gravity, making him a formidable warrior.

Tars Tarkas

A towering green Martian warrior standing fifteen feet tall, Tars Tarkas is the vice-chieftain of his community and described as a man of great ability as both a statesman and warrior. He is the first Martian to make peaceful overtures to Carter, exchanging a metal armlet as a sign of goodwill. He later becomes Carter's closest Barsoomian ally.

Dejah Thoris

A princess referenced repeatedly in chapter titles and illustrations as a central figure of the story. She is described as a fair captive from the sky and is shown drawing maps of Barsoomian territory. She is the primary romantic interest and a driving force of Carter's adventures on Mars.

Sola

A young female green Martian about eight feet tall, of light olive-green color, belonging to the retinue of Tars Tarkas. She is assigned as Carter's guide and caretaker after his capture, and later reveals her own personal history to him. She appears more compassionate than most of her kind.

Captain James K. Powell

A Confederate officer and mining engineer from Richmond, Virginia, who partners with Carter in prospecting Arizona gold. He is killed by Apache warriors before Carter's transportation to Mars, his death being a catalyst for Carter's fateful night in the cave.

Edgar Rice Burroughs (narrator frame)

The author inserts himself as Carter's nephew-figure who receives Carter's sealed manuscript and is instructed to publish it twenty-one years after Carter's apparent death. He provides the foreword framing the story as a real document entrusted to him.

Barsoom (Mars)

The Martian name for the planet Mars, a dying world whose oceans have long since dried into vast flat plains covered in yellowish moss. The poles are frozen wastes, and the remaining population is scattered among ruined cities and nomadic warrior bands. Resources are scarce, life is cheap, and civilization is in long decline.

The Arizona Cave

A large cave near the summit of an Arizona mountain range where Carter is paralyzed by a strange vapor, undergoes an out-of-body separation, and is astrally transported to Mars. The cave shows signs of ancient habitation and emits a faintly pungent, paralyzing gas.

The Thark Ruined City

An enormous ancient city on the edge of a long-dead Martian sea, built from gleaming white marble inlaid with gold and gems, now occupied by the green Martian community as a campsite. Its furniture and architecture are human-scaled, suggesting it was built by a long-extinct civilized race. A large central plaza serves as the communal gathering space.

The Martian Incubator

A low-walled enclosure with a solid glass roof several inches thick, used by green Martians to hatch their eggs communally. The eggs are about two and a half feet in diameter and uniformly white; several hundred are kept at a time. It is here that Carter first encounters both hatchling green Martians and the adult warrior party.

Zodanga

A Martian city referenced in chapter titles as the location where Carter operates as an air scout and later where Dejah Thoris is found and the city is looted. It appears to be a rival or enemy political entity central to the latter half of the story.

The River Iss

A mysterious dark river to which all Martians voluntarily travel at the end of their lives, approximately at age one thousand. No Martian has ever returned from it, and any who did would not be permitted to live. Its ultimate destination is unknown even to Martians themselves.

The Atmosphere Factory

Referenced in the chapter titles as a significant location visited by Carter. Implied to be a critical piece of infrastructure that maintains the breathable air of the dying planet Barsoom.

Radium Rifles

Martian firearms made of an aluminum-steel alloy barrel with a wooden stock of an ultra-hard Martian wood unknown on Earth. They fire small-caliber explosive radium projectiles and are equipped with wireless finders and sighters, giving them a practical effective range of over two hundred miles. They are carried by green Martian warriors and inspire great respect in Carter.

Martian Long Spear

A massive spear forty feet in length tipped with gleaming metal, carried by green Martian warriors mounted on their eight-legged thoats. It is the primary melee weapon of the green Martian cavalry and nearly kills Carter on his first moments on Mars.

Metal Armlet (Peace Token)

An enormous metal armlet offered by Tars Tarkas to Carter as a gesture of peaceful intent. Exchanging ornaments is the customary Martian greeting between strangers on peaceful missions, substituting for the exchange of names when parties are unknown to each other.

Carter's Sealed Tomb

A well-ventilated tomb in Virginia constructed to Carter's precise specifications, containing his body buried without embalming in an open coffin. Its most remarkable feature is a massive gold-plated spring lock that can only be opened from the inside, suggesting Carter anticipated the possibility of returning to his body.

Barsoomian Greeting Customs

Green Martians who know each other exchange names as a greeting. Strangers on peaceful missions silently exchange ornaments instead. Strangers with hostile intent exchange shots or fight outright. These customs govern all initial interactions and social diplomacy among the green warrior tribes.

Martian Longevity and the Pilgrimage

Green Martians mature around age forty and can live to approximately one thousand years. At that age they voluntarily embark down the River Iss on a one-way pilgrimage whose destination is unknown. Average life expectancy is about three hundred years due to violent death; disease accounts for only about one in a thousand deaths. The scarcity of resources on the dying planet has culturally normalized violence and short life expectancy.

Low Martian Gravity and Its Effects

Mars has significantly lower gravity than Earth, which causes Earth-born humans like Carter to leap extraordinary distances and possess seemingly superhuman strength and agility relative to native Martians. Native Martians are large but muscled only to overcome local gravity and would be nearly helpless on Earth. This physical advantage is a cornerstone of Carter's ability to survive and rise to power on Barsoom.

Astral Transportation to Mars

Carter is transported to Mars through an unexplained phenomenon involving paralysis by cave vapors, an out-of-body separation of his spirit from his physical form, and an intense longing directed at the red planet. He arrives naked and without possessions. The mechanism is never fully explained and is treated as a mysterious fact of Carter's unique nature.

Barsoomian Flora

The surface of Mars is covered almost entirely in a yellowish, moss-like vegetation that grows silently and softly, muffling sound. The poles are frozen and barren, and scattered cultivated districts exist elsewhere. The predominant Martian wood used in rifle stocks is an intensely hard, very light growth entirely unknown on Earth.

Green Martian Reproduction and Child-Rearing

Green Martians are egg-layers who keep their eggs in communal glass-roofed incubators in the open air. Hatchlings are nearly all head with scrawny bodies and six limbs usable as arms or legs. Children are lighter in color than adults and are raised communally rather than by parents. Vast numbers of children are killed by the great white apes, making childhood the most dangerous period of Martian life.

Carter's Immortality and Agelessness

John Carter has apparently never aged and has no memory of childhood, appearing perpetually as a man of about thirty. He has died twice and returned to life. He fears true death but cannot explain why he does not age. His body in the Arizona cave lay undiscovered for ten years while his consciousness lived on Mars, and his tomb is constructed with a lock openable only from the inside.

The Thoat (Martian Mount)

The eight-legged riding animal used by green Martians, standing ten feet at the shoulder with a broad flat tail held straight out while running and a gaping mouth splitting the head from snout to neck. It is hairless, dark slate-colored with a white belly and yellow feet, and has heavily padded nailless feet that move silently over the Martian moss. It is ridden without bridle or reins.

The Martian Watch-Beast

A creature about the size of a Shetland pony that walks on ten short legs and has a frog-like head equipped with three rows of long sharp tusks. It is used by green Martians as a guard animal or pet, capable of responding to spoken commands and assigned to watch over Carter by Sola.

Green Martians (Tharks)

A savage, warlike species standing ten to fifteen feet tall with four arms, tusks curving up from the lower jaw, and blood-red irises. They ride eight-legged mounts, hatch from eggs in communal incubators, and live up to one thousand years before taking a final pilgrimage down the River Iss. Their culture prizes violence and combat above nearly all else, and their humor is drawn from the suffering of others.

Red Martians

A more humanoid civilization on Mars implied by the human-scaled furniture found in ancient cities occupied by green Martians. Dejah Thoris is a representative of this species. They are described as the highest type on the planet and, along with one other mammal, are the only Martians to possess well-formed nails.

Great White Apes of Mars

Dangerous predators that prey heavily on young Martians, representing one of the leading causes of childhood death on Barsoom. They are referenced as a constant ecological threat on the dying planet.