The first relocated people found ancient technology on Mars and in 1982, under the lead of Ray Regalia, they rebelled against Earth and then declared themselves independent in 1985. Partly to retalliate against Earth governement for their relocation to Mars, which was difficult and unsecured, and to have the Aldnoah for themselves.
Pic below: Interior of VERS Empire and a photo captured of Mars surface (10.5.2014)
VERS prompty became a closed country once declared themselves independent. However, they explained that this was due to their unsuccessful negotiations with the earth government for the legality and the equality of their newly founded country, not an one sided close down on their side.
2014, the 30th anniversary of VERS empire, the total population has yet to exceed a million. As to why Professional Ray Regalia has such charisma to lead his people to rebel and form a country and why VERS decided to go with empire structure, it probably has something to do with the Aldnoah, and will be one of they key point of the show.
The first VERS Emperor is Ray Regalia, succeeded by his son Gillsaia. Princess Asseylum is Gillsaia's posthumous child. Until the second contender to the throne is announced, Asseylum remains the sole inheritor to the throne. Ray Regalia retired in 1997, but returned as the emperor after Gillsaia's death.
The 37 Mars Knights are appointed counts, they are armed nobels with Cataphracts. Known Knights are Saazbaum (the brown haired dude, 43) and Cruhteo (the blonde dude, 37, Saline's master) In 2002, once a route between MARS and Moon was established (Hyper gate destroyed in Heaven's Fall), the Mars army was ordered to retreat back to Mars. However, the 37 families refused the order and remained.
VERS, UFE flags, and the VERS Royal Family (plus Counts)
The discovery on Moon allowed the technology on Earth to accelerate. 1975, both eastern and western countries ended their cold war in order to proceed with the development of Mars. 1985, to counter the newly formed VERS Empire, nations used the UN as base to form UFE (United Forces of Earth). UFE used to have base on the Moon in the 90s until Heaven's Fall, and finally made their own Cataphracts in 2003.
1999, both army clashed on the moon as the battlefield, resulting the Heaven's Fall. Earth suffered heavy damage, with America and Australia suffered the worst. The total world population reduced by 50%. VERS military's supply was cut off, and both sides had to ceasefire. A peace treaty was signed in the following year. The situation on Earth was chaotic until 2007. Shown below is the world population report
After the war, VERS placed undercovers on Earth for information gathering. 2014, when the Princess decided to visit Earth, they planned for her assassination to initiate the second war. One of the agent involved in the assassination, Wolf Areash left this message:
"This is my final report. If someone is reading this report, it means that I have already acted according to the plan, making an impact on this world...I will not return to this place. Glory to the VERS Empire".
The assassination plan
The school timetable. Military class is made compulsory. Students are educated in pilotting, shooting, wind reading etc.
The mecha in this anime is called Cataphract. Both sides have their own design philosphy. Cataphracts were first used by VERS in 1999. Mars' Cataphracts are huge and alien-ish designed. It is not known if they are designed by VERS themselves or are part of the ancient technology.
For UFE's Cataphracts, they were first rolled out in 2003. So far two types are known, KG6 (orange and the school training use) and KG7 (greenish and the newer model), both types are 13meter in height. Unlike the unique VERS' Cataphracts, Earth's Cataphracts are mass produced and used as main weapon and also training tools. Even VERS' undercover agents expressed their thoughts on Earth's Cataphracts as a threat in their reports.
An excerpt from the agent report dated 12th April:
"Using military vehicles as base and revolutionizing their own technology, UFE managed to build prototypes and then mass produced their own Cataphracts within a short 2 years period after the war ended. Not only they did it in such a short period, their Cataphracts were also used in riot suppression and peacekeeping, proving their capabilities. Of note is the UEF's large scale production capability, with huge supply of material and human resources. We should not let our guard down. Further investigations are necessary to assess the UFE's Cataphracts' performance in actual combat..."
UFE also have battleships that act as Cataphracts' carriers. It is not known if the UFE has space use battleships. Two earth side characters who have yet to appear are assigned to UFE Wadatsumi Base's 4th fleet.
Other info:
Slaine was born on Earth and together with his father who was a researcher, defected to VERS 5 years ago. The reason for the defection remains unknown. After his father died, Slaine worked under Cruchteo and assigned as one of Asseylum's educator.
The battle of Tanegashima, as mentioned by Marito, was wiped off in both UFE and VERS' records. The event was nonexistence in UFE's first war record, while on VERS side, only a short blurb was recorded:
"During the war, we had a chance to let Mars Knights to land on Earth. But according to investigations, there are no records of any battles fought on Earth."
Originally posted by 佐々原三月