Lotharians

The Lotharians are a reclusive auburn haired White Martian people located in the lost city of Lothar, near the Gulf of Torquas. They are unique among the Martian races in that they possess the ability to conjure up entire armies of phantom bowmen, whom they employ in the defense of their city.

Biology and Attire

Generally the Lotharians appear human, with fair skin (noted as being lighter in tone than the Earthman John Carter) and auburn hair. It would seem that they are related to the Orovar. The Lotharians are described as wearing flowing robes, more clothes than most Barsoomians seem to wear.

An important fact of Lotharian biology is that with their abilities they have apparently transcended the need to consume physical food. The realists of their religion choose to simulate the action with their abilities however.

History

Back when the seas still covered Mars, the Lotharians possessed a strong navy, but its civilian population hated war, and so they devoted themselves to intellectual pursuits. When the oceans dried up, the Lotharians found themselves defenseless against the hordes of green martians who attacked them, and so they retreated to Lothar, the only city with sufficient defenses to protect them.

Shut off from the rest of Mars, the Lotharians developed the ability to project illusions, but at a terrible cost - they became unable to tell the illusions from reality, and soon they began questioning if anything or anyone truly existed.

Illusions

The illusions of the Lotharians are powerful; within their own minds, the city of Lothar appears the way it did thousands of years ago, and in reality they can manifest their thoughts into powerful forms capable of killing simply through the suggestion that they are real. When attacked by the hordes of Torquas, they generate an army of warriors (wielding bows and short handled axes) to fight for them, they are sent into battle alongside banths (both actual and phantom). For years the Lotharian Jeddak Tario tried to manifest his illusions into reality; unknown to him, he actually succeeded, resulting in the manifestation of the warrior Kar Komak.

Religion & Philosophy

The Lotharians are divided into two main groups, the realists and the etherealists. The realists believe that substance exists and that they exist as substance, the etherealists believe that all exists of the mind. Both groups worship their god Komal, and the etherealists believe Komal is the only thing that has actual substance and thus needs to be fed; they keep him on a steady diet of realists and the corpses of Green Martians. In actuality, Komal is nothing more than a large banth, and when the princess Thuvia discovered him, she tamed him just as easily as all the other banths she'd encountered.