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The Ice Warriors and Ice Lords were a race of reptilian humanoids from the planet Mars. They were also known as Native Martians but at times were given the derogatory name of Greenies. (PROSE: Transit)
Biology
Adult, fully armoured Ice Warriors were large, imposing reptilian humanoids, up to seven feet tall. Unarmoured, they had flattened, scaly faces with sharp fangs and thin green tongues. (PROSE: Legacy, PROSE: The Medusa Effect) They had either five (COMIC: Ascendance) or three fingers, tipped with sharp claws. (TV: Cold War) At least some Ice Warriors had large black eyes, (COMIC: Descendance) though, Skaldak had red eyes. (TV: Cold War)
They had skeletons much like humans, though with flatter skulls and wider eye sockets. (COMIC: Ascendance) Females were built more slightly than males, and had spiny dorsal crests which were sexually attractive in a manner analogous to the breasts of a human female. (PROSE: GodEngine, Transit)
They preferred cold climates and could be killed by extreme heat, though small fires were no more dangerous to them than a human. (COMIC: Descendance) Due to differences in atmosphere and gravity, in Earth-like environments, Ice Warriors perpetually wheezed and tended to move slowly, (TV: The Seeds of Death) though they could move fast when needed. (PROSE: Legacy, TV: Cold War) They spoke in a drawn-out hiss. (TV: The Ice Warriors)
Ice Warriors lived a long time. Some Martians in 1997 had been alive when Shakespeare was writing his plays. (PROSE: The Dying Days) The typical lifespan of an Ice Warrior was three hundred Earth years. They had a complicated genetic structure and were herbivores. (PROSE: GodEngine)
Society and culture
The planetary identification glyph of the Martians was a triangle overlaid with a lightning bolt with an artificial burning sun at its centre. (PROSE: GodEngine)
Honour
Ice Warriors had a strong sense of personal honour. After the Third Doctor saved the life of the Ice Lord Izlyr, he felt obligated to help the Doctor escape. (TV: The Curse of Peladon) Ice Warriors disliked lying, though they would do so when necessary. (PROSE: Legacy) They believed that a victim of murder would not rest in peace until their killer had atoned for the crime. (PROSE: The Medusa Effect) When challenged to a ritual blood duel, an Ice Warrior would spit at an opponent's face. Terrorism was anathema. (PROSE: GodEngine) An Ice Warrior motto was "Attack one of us, attack all of us". Ice Warriors considered it incredibly dishonorable to remove their armour, and thus only removed it under the most extreme circumstances. (TV: Cold War)
The strict code of honour came from the early Martians, before they became a warrior species and their planet began dying. At that time they only hunted for food and avoided physically fighting with one another. In fact, the word "warrior" did not exist in that era. Their belief in honour was reflected in a "gift economy", a system in which people did not pay for things but instead were given freely and gave something in return. In these early years, the Martians were more involved in the arts and crafts rather than warfare. They began to change after disastrous climatic changes. They were also a proud people who refused to admit a problem existed. (AUDIO: The Key 2 Time - The Judgement of Isskar)
Religion
Many of the Ice Warrior myths and legends originated in the Primal Wars. They worshipped the Osirians Oras (PROSE: GodEngine) and Claatris (the god of war) (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus). They also worshipped Tuburr, who was thought to be the one who made the Ice Warriors into warriors. In the early years of Ice Warrior civilisation, the young would be sent to the surface as a ritual trial of endurance. If they survived, they took the oath of Tuburr and tried to pull the Sword of Tuburr from a brazier, after which they were considered adults. (PROSE: Legacy, COMIC: Descendance) Martian law forbade any forging of copies of the holy Sword. (PROSE: GodEngine)
A typical Ice Lord funerals involved cremations, but for a short time in their history they froze the bodies in coffin-sized blocks of ice - a symbol of wealth on the water-scarce planet - and sealed them in crystal spires, a practice inspired by the Osirians. Tomb raiding was punished by summary execution and territorial reparations by the raider's clan. (PROSE: The Dying Days) Martian tombs, pyramids and burial of the dead was similar to Egyptian civilisation, suggesting that both were influenced by the Osirian race. During funeral rites, the deceased wore metallic clothes known as warding shrouds to protect them before the cremation. (PROSE: GodEngine)
Society
Ice Warriors lived in clans and had a hereditary caste system. Fathers passed on land to their adult sons. (COMIC: Descendance) Advancement in the hierarchy was decided on merit and skill. (PROSE: Legacy) The skill of cooking was highly prized. (PROSE: GodEngine) This feudal way of life continued until the era of the Galactic Federation. (TV: The Curse of Peladon) At the start of Ice Warrior culture, conflicts were along clan lines, and struggles for power between different families became more common. When the Eighth Doctor and Stacy came to Mars in this time, they became involved in a fight between the Balazarus Mons and Darsus Mons families. (COMIC: Descendance, Ascendance)
Known clans include:
Marriages were short affairs, made when the participants were young and intended to preserve bloodlines of clans. (PROSE: Placebo Effect) Women and family were sacred, though women sometimes ate their young. (COMIC: Cold Blooded War!) When a marriage bond was broken, it was called Fass-jul-Aqq. (PROSE: GodEngine)
Much as in ancient Rome, it was not unusual to find graffiti scratched onto walls, often virility symbols young males used to attract females. Martian settlements were typically known as "nests", (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!) a term that was extended to military installations. At the centre of a nest was a room called the Queen's Chamber. Military nests were circular, built around a single spiral passageway referred to as Xssixss, the mouth of which was the only entrance or exit. (PROSE: Transit)
The Ice Warriors prided beauty and aesthetics above everything else except for those items related to war. The Ice Warriors were not known for their sense of humour. (PROSE: The Medusa Effect) Nevertheless, Bernice Summerfield wrote a thesis on that very subject and knew at least one "hilarious" Martian joke. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!) In fact, Martian humour was occasionally elusive to humans and most of it was lost in translation. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
Titles
- Supreme Lord - a high ranking position. (PROSE: Legacy)
- Grand Marshal - the staff of a Grand Marshal was an important relic. (PROSE: Legacy)
- War Lord - a normal Ice Warrior with more importance. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors)
- Sub-Commander - (AUDIO: Red Dawn)
- Marshal - wore decorative helmets with jewels. (TV: The Seeds of Death, PROSE: Legacy)
- Shsurr - a title that roughly translated to mean M'lady. (PROSE: Legacy)
- Scholastor - this position was one held by scholars and scientists. (PROSE: GodEngine)
- Abbot - a title held by religious figures. (PROSE: GodEngine)
Technology
Armour
Ice Warriors almost always wore some form of "bio-armour" that matched their skin. This included a half-face helmet and a red blast-screen over each eye. Ice Warrior nobility ("Ice Lords") wore light armour with sleek, bullet-shaped, metallic helmets, simple breastplate and cape. (TV: The Seeds of Death) Common warriors had much heavier and bulkier, intricately patterned. full-body armour, and stubby helmets (some designs of which also placed blast screens over the ears). (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
This armour consisted of carapaces and helmets grown in nutrient tanks and cybernetically augmented to provide the wearer with increased strength, reaction time, spectral sensitivity and biological efficiency. It also gave them a direct link to the Martian battle net. Finally, it boosted the efficiency of their waste management systems. (PROSE: GodEngine) The armour was tough enough to protect them from a swing of an axe. (PROSE: The Silent Stars Go By) This armour could also be remotely controlled with sonic technology. (TV: Cold War)
By the late 26th century, some sects of Ice Warriors had undergone extensive cybernetic alteration. An implant at the base of the brain connected their armour directly to their nervous systems, making it a part of their physical makeup. These Ice Warriors also had artificial membranes inside their throats, allowing them to filter out gases not necessary for their survival. (PROSE: The Medusa Effect)
The armor was chiefly designed to protect the wearer from extreme cold; However, a rapid drop in temperature could overwhelm its systems. (TV: Cold War)
Weapons
Though Ice Warriors had small sonic weapons in the wrist of their armour as a personal defence weapon, (TV: The Ice Warriors) they tended to use rifles and portable artillery that utilised sonic instead of kinetic or energy damage. (COMIC: 4-Dimensional Vistas) Their sonic guns could be disrupted by the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, although it used up a lot of power. To counter this problem, the Ice Warriors used swords and battle axes. (PROSE: The Silent Stars Go By).
They also used genetically-engineered weapons, such as a bacteriological weapon based on Martian sleeping fever, (PROSE: GodEngine) as well as the insidious Red Death which was programmed to target individuals with a specific DNA pattern. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
During the 22nd century Dalek invasion, the Ice Warriors had a superweapon named the GodEngine, built from technology left over by the Osirians, god-like visitors to Mars long before. The GodEngine could destroy a star by making it go supernova; its deployment was prevented by the Seventh Doctor. (PROSE: GodEngine)
Terraforming
The Ice Warriors were capable of engineering planetary ecosystems to better suit their needs; from their perspective the process was known as "aresforming". (PROSE: The Dying Days) They could deploy seeds on a planet which altered the environment and made it an icy world. (TV: The Seeds of Death) Their vessels were equipped with munitions that could knock a planet out of its orbit. (PROSE: Mission to Magnus)
Transportation
Martian rockets had remained unchanged for a hundred thousand years and followed the same technological development of tens of thousands of worlds in the galaxy. One of the reasons why the Martians had never conquered their solar system or indeed the rest of the galaxy was scarcity of resources. Their warships used a propulsion system based on electromagnetism that emitted no heat and was capable of playing havoc with primitive guidance systems. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
On their homeworld of Mars, the Ice Warriors used air cars. (COMIC: Descendance)
Other
Martians prided themselves on secrecy. They made use of Chameleon fields to hide certain locations. The Ice Warriors made use of this advanced form of solid holography to pack out their fleets.
They bio-engineered a type of fungus for use as a form of illumination.
A notable interrogation tool designed specifically for use on humans was the brain-rack. It created artificial neural pathways in the human mind which dominated the existing thought processes and ultimately ensured obedience in the subject. These machines were said to have no harmful side effects and the process wore off after a week or so when the artificial engrammes began to decay and the natural pathways reasserted themselves. Seen as a potential brainwashing tool, the brain-rack also increasing learning rates by three hundred percent. (PROSE: GodEngine)
History
Early history
The peak of Ice Warror culture was several million years BC. Millions of years BC, a group of Ice Warriors led by Lord Arakssor were convicted for warmongering. Their sentence was to be imprisoned in the ice on the primitive planet Earth in Antarctica, where they were to remain for all of time. (AUDIO: Frozen Time)
The Ice Warriors were once visited by the godlike Osirians, who cruelly and callously used them as little more than labourers on their construction projects. Millions of years BC, the Martians were a migratory species. They evolved to the point that all their waste products were recycled. (PROSE: GodEngine)
Ca. 59,000 BC, the Ice Warriors were part of the Empire of the Gubbage Cones. (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus)
At some unknown point in the past, the species that became known as the Ice Warriors built a gigantic generation ship that would later become known as Phobos and colonised Mars. Human astronomers would mistake the ship for a natural moon of Mars. (PROSE: Crimson Dawn)
The Martian Industrial Revolution took place at the same time as the Pliocene Era on Earth. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
Some exploration of other planets was attempted. Varga went to Earth, but his ship was trapped in a glacier for thousands of years. Some time after this, the Ice Warrior’s civilisation went into decline as Mars became more inhospitable. (TV: The Ice Warriors, PROSE: Legacy)
Circa 5000 BC, the Ice Warriors realised that complete devotion to the concepts of war would destroy their species in the same manner as the Osirians. Using their legends and race memories, they created a peaceful religion that taught pacifism and compassion. This became the doctrine of the Order of Oras. (PROSE: GodEngine)
Circa 3000 BC, the Ice Warriors had a mighty empire and a fleet. The fleet was led by the Nix-Thassis and commanded by Grand Marshall Skaldak. In unknown circumstances, Skaldak was trapped under the ice of the North Pole on Earth and was frozen for thousands of years. (TV: Cold War)
The fall of the Ice Warriors
Thousands of years BC, the Martian civilisation was made of peaceful people who were not warriors but artisans who hunted for food and never experienced war. In this era, their world was a thriving planet with the native sentient species thriving for twelve thousand years. Though they preferred the cold, one settlement was built in the equator but the construction of its shelled shaped buildings allowed for a cooler environment and waterways kept the populace fulfilled. Their sense of honour stretched back from this time as their civilisation was based on a gift economy in which things were given freely and receivers gave something back in return. It was a world of craftsmen, builders and farmers which built wondrous pyramids on their home planet. (AUDIO: The Key 2 Time - The Judgement of Isskar) During this Early Period, Martian cities were noted as being much like those on Earth. Food waste and plant matter was left on the streets. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
However, a visit by the Fifth Doctor and his companion Abby led to the fall of the race. The two time travellers were looking for a segment from the Key to Time, one of which was located in the equatorial settlements pyramid. Two further travellers from the Commune of the White Sky had also arrived and by tampering with the segment, led to the formation of a gravity plug which sent earthquakes and hurricanes across the planet for three decades. These devastated the Martian civilisation. Some managed to get off world but most remained on Mars where they fought amongst themselves for food and shelter. After thirty years, the energies from the segment of the Key to Time had been spent and the ground had settled. What remained of their race emerged onto their world where they planned to rebuild, even if it took them a thousand years. (AUDIO: The Judgement of Isskar)
Despite this honourable goal, the Ice Lord Izdaal had been observing the sky. His studies determined that their atmosphere was no longer capable of keeping out radiation from space. This would eventually kill them all. He told the government that their turmoil was not over and with the evidence of sickening children, he declared that their world was no longer sustainable. He was ignored by his people. Izdaal made the ultimate sacrifice. To prove himself right, he elected to step outside and face the Red Dawn, knowing he would die. His death led to his people coming to the same conclusion and they worked to survive, slowly becoming a conqueror race that took what they wanted from others. (AUDIO: Red Dawn)
Following the destruction of Mars' atmosphere, the Ice Warriors fled to Deimos, one of the planet's moons, where they constructed catacombs and placed themselves in suspended animation in the hope of one day either reclaiming Mars or conquering Earth. After Mars had been colonised by humans millennia later, large sections of the catacombs were opened to the public in the museum in the Deimos moonbase in the 23rd century. One of the exhibits in the museum featured a holographic simulation of Lord Izdaal sacrificing his life. (AUDIO: Deimos)
After the Fall
As Mars died, one million Martians remained trapped in suspended animation onboard the generation ship that had become the moon Phobos. (PROSE: Crimson Dawn) Another such cryo-tomb was on the other Martian moon of Deimos, as were similar installations in the asteroid belt in the Sol System. (AUDIO: Deimos / The Resurrection of Mars)
20th century
In 1903, after receiving a wealth of information from the future, Grigori Rasputin saw the Ice Warriors. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)
Centuries before 1997, Martian scientists concluded that the possibility of oxygen-breathing lifeforms was a complete absurdity. There were many attempts by the Martians to revitalise their world but they lacked the resources to accomplish it. They tried to grow plants in the barren soil of their planet but these were always rotten and dying. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
In 1609, the Ice Warriors participated in the Armageddon Convention, which convened in Laputa, a floating island in the sky near Venice. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
In 1983, a lone Ice Warrior by the name of Grand Marshal Skaldak, who had been frozen in ice for over 5000 years, was unwittingly defrosted by the crew of a Soviet submarine. After revealing himself, he was attacked by the crew and imprisoned. Skaldak used his armor to send a distress beacon. Managing to escape by leaving his suit, Saldak noticed that his distress call hadn't been answered. Believing his race to be dead, Skaldak attempted to use the sub's nuclear arsenal to destroy the humans Earth. The Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald attempted to talk him down. Before he could make a decision, Skaldak was rescued by his people. After being brought onto their ship, Skaldak remotely deactivated the launch procedure. (TV: Cold War)
By 1997, Mars was in its dying days and its people were racked by sterility and disease. The Argyre clan of Ice Warriors tried to invade Earth, nominally taking over the United Kingdom with human collaborators to form a mutually beneficial relationship, but actually intending a mass terraforming ("ares-forming") of the planet. This was thwarted and the clan was eradicated. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
- Xznaal, the Ice Lord in charge of the Argye clan, showed familiarity with Gallifreyans and showed respect to the Eighth Doctor suggesting that they had either encountered the Time Lords or were aware of their existence.
21st-century
In 2008, an invasion was attempted in Sydney, Australia but was thwarted by UNIT. (COMIC: The Age of Ice) Later, in the year 2012, an expedition under Lord Barset went to Antarctica to follow an earlier expedition by his grandfather in 1929. His ancestor's mission was a complete failure, with only a single survivor who informed others that the expedition had fallen prey to intelligent reptile men with superior technology. Seeking to uncover this advanced weaponry for himself, Barset accidentally freed the imprisoned Arakssor and his fellow murderers. (AUDIO: Frozen Time)
Another invasion and terraforming was attempted in the mid-21st century, when the Ice Warriors, led by Slaar, invaded the central T-Mat base on the Moon which regulated global T-Mat operations. He attempted to use a fungus, which would turn the Earth into a more hospitable planet for them. The Second Doctor and his companions stopped him. (TV: The Seeds of Death)
In 2086, invasion was attempted yet again, leading to the Thousand Day War. By 2088, the humans had won. (PROSE: GodEngine, The Dying Days) In 2097, the female Pope made a papal visit to Mars in order to anoint the first Martian bishops. This was done to improve relations between Martians and the humans. The Daleks made an assassination attempt. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
Further History
By the early 22nd century, the Interstitial Mass Transit System had been established, linking the planetary bodies of the Sol system in a way that allowed humanity to treat Mars as a colony world, marginalising the few remaining survivors of the war (PROSE: Transit, PROSE: Fear Itself) and, through the 22nd century, marginalized the Ice Warriors on their own home planet. Later, the Ice Warriors became allies of the humans. The Ice Warriors colonised a new planet and named it New Mars or Neo Ares. (PROSE: Legacy, PROSE: The Medusa Effect)
During 22nd century Ice Warriors came into conflict with the Selachian Empire when a colony refused to sell weapons to the Selachians. The Ockorans used their sun-stoker on these colonists to kill them. (PROSE: The Final Sanction)
Circa the 24th century, a group of Ice Warriors on the planet Magnus got caught up with the deals of the Mentor, Sil, who said he would lower the temperature of Magnus to make the world a more comfortable environment for Martians. The Sixth Doctor and Peri put an end to this plan. (PROSE: Mission to Magnus/AUDIO: Mission to Magnus, PROSE: Legacy)
In the 25th century, the Fourth Doctor combatted the plots of the Ares Corporation and awakened the sleeping Martians in the artificial moon of Phobos; the event became known as Resurrection Day. (PROSE: Crimson Dawn) By the 26th century, the Ice Warriors were an isolated species. They had left Mars and were isolated on New Mars. (PROSE: Legacy) During this century, an Ice Warrior, Haama, accompanied Abslom Daak and his crew in the Kill-Wagon (COMIC: Star Tigers, Nemesis of the Daleks, Emperor of the Daleks) In the late 26th century, a Martian called Hass became the gardener at the Braxiatel Collection. (PROSE: ...Be Forgot)
In the mid-31st century, the Eighth Doctor and Stacy accidentally interrupted Izaxyrl's rite of ascension. During the distraction, Izaxyrl was kidnapped by Lord Artix in order to stop the ceremony. If Izaxyrl was not an adult, he could not inherit the title of High Lord of Balazarus Mons from his father Uzoxx, which would mean Artix would take over. Though Izaxyrl was eventually rescued, the Doctor and Izaxyrl returned to the fortress of Darsus Mons to try to rescue Stacy and Ssard and were captured. Despite this, Artix was eventually defeated and Izaxyrl became an adult. (COMIC: Descendance, Ascendance)
In the 34th century, during an Ice Age on Earth, Varga and his crew were finally revived and decided to take over first Brittanicus Base and then the world. (TV: The Ice Warriors, PROSE: Legacy)
By the late 40th century, the Ice Warriors (still in the Galactic Federation) had, for the most part, renounced their war-like ways. (TV: The Curse of Peladon, The Monster of Peladon) At some point after their entry into the Federation, the Ice Warriors served as monitors and were dispatched to Draconia to oversee the crisis developing among the Draconians after the ascendance of Empress Adjit Kwan. It was led by Commander Ixzyptir, who was empowered to declare martial law in case the civil unrest became too great, and was charged with guarding the Adjudicators that were to negotiate a peaceful settlement. The Tenth Doctor arrived and was mistaken for the Adjudicator. The Ice Warriors were responsible for the protection of Donna Noble. (COMIC: Cold Blooded War!)
In 4010, a group of Martians were on board the Cressida to watch a rare chemical reaction in the atmosphere of Uranus. (PROSE: Uranus)
Undated Events
- The Tenth Doctor believed that the Ice Warriors may have frozen the water to prevent The Flood from escaping and killing all Ice Warriors on Mars. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
- This likely occurred thousands of years before 2059.
- On the planet Yama-10, the Ice Warriors were mining the hostile world of Trisilicate when their position was attacked by the Cybermen, who wanted that world as part of their empire. Taking the battle to the polar ice caps which were a more suitable condition for the Martians to fight in, the battle raged between the two sides. The ice melted and drowned the Cybermen and entombed the Ice Warriors in ice. (COMIC: Deathworld)
- A group of Ice Warriors led by Arryx sabotaged the weather controls of luxury planet A-Lux, turning it into a snowy and barren land. They were defeated by the Seventh Doctor and Frobisher. (COMIC: A Cold Day in Hell!)File:Destiny of the ice warrior.jpgAn Ice Warrior in the Doctor's TARDIS. (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)
- The Ice Warriors were part of the Supremo's alliance in the war against Morbius. (PROSE: Warmonger)
- A group of Ice Warriors were put in the Doctor's TARDIS by the Master to fight against the Graak. (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)
- Whilst at a party, the Eighth Doctor saw an Ice Lord. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
- The Ice Warriors had a presence on Coralee. (PROSE: Storm Harvest)
- At some point, an Ice Warrior named Araxus as well as another Ice Warrior were held as slaves abourd a ship circling the Frenko Bazaar. They were freed by the Second Doctor and led an uprising against their masters. The slaves abourd would go on to form a Galactic Alliance, using their new ship to search the galaxy. (COMIC: Prisoners of Time)
Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline created by the Black Guardian where the First Doctor never left Gallifrey, and became Lord President, the Ice Warriors were one of many aliens that invaded Earth, and fought over the planet with other races against the Silurians and the Sea Devils. This timeline was destroyed when the Seventh Doctor retrieved the Key to Time. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)
Behind the scenes
- Strictly speaking, according to their debut story, the Ice Warriors never had that name until Victoria Waterfield gave it to them. Subsequent stories would forget this, and have the Ice Warriors use this name to refer to themselves. However, the issue was addressed in the New Series Adventure novel The Silent Stars Go By when the Eleventh Doctor suggests they at one point forgot their species' name and simply adopted the name given by Victoria. Their debut story also implies that Mars can no longer support life. The Ice Warriors seen in that story come from the Mars of long ago. The storyline of TV: The Seeds of Death made it clear that Mars could still support life in the Doctor Who universe even up until approximately the 21st century, when that story took place.
- In a deleted scene, the Tenth Doctor theorised that the Ice Warriors found the Flood on Mars and froze it, then evacuated the planet, only for the humans to discover it later. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
- The distinctive qualities of the Ice Warriors came out of the design process. The original conception of the Ice Warriors described them as partially machine-like and from the planet Mars. Rather than try to make up a race of cyborgs which would appear too similar to the Cybermen, designs for the character emphasised the more organic, reptilian qualities of the Ice Warriors.
- According to non-narrative information in DWBIT 49, when a passing Dalek fleet attacked Mars on its way to Earth, the Ice Warriors helped Mars colonists create a virus which ate away at Dalek cable insulation and which led to the Dalek defeat.
