Borealis Basin

Expansive northern basin filled with fresh water teeming with bizarre marine life. Referenced during Institute testing phase.

Borealis Basin begins as a vast, pristine northern freshwater reservoir whose strange aquatic fauna are first glimpsed during the Institute’s survival trials in Red Rising. Across the saga the basin transforms from a mere testing ground into a strategic chokepoint whose control decides the fate of Mars’ northern hemisphere, its once-clear waters becoming clouded with the wreckage of successive wars. By the later volumes it is both graveyard and cradle: polluted by radiation and debris yet still harboring the genetic legacy of the original marine life that may yet seed a reborn ecosystem.