This may turn out to fantastically pretentious, as I will no doubt remember where the ideas for the SOS came from. As I never expect this file or any other of this campaign will be read by any other than myself, who is this for? It's for me. It may be a way of thanking those whose brains I have picked for ideas, worlds, monsters, races and inspiration.

Ha!

For my Mars planet or Seker, of course Edgar Rice Burroughs is the ultimate source. The excelent book "A Guide to Barsoom" compiled by John Flint Roywas my basic reference work. His meticulous references to the original works allowed me to provide a vivid description of the creatures and cities of Barsoom and Seker.
When the Dark Sun campaign set came out, I could see that it too was a baren, waterless, degenerating enviornment like Mars, so I modified the adventure (which I hadn't started playing yet) to include it. The Northern hemisphere of Seker is from the Mars novels and the southern hemisphere is from Dark Sun. There is a "Dead Zone" inbetween that is so deadly (no oxygen, only Nitrous Oxide) that there is no communication between them.

Greld is taken from the Star of the Unborn by Fritz Weber. The novel is of a dream that describes a far future world (earth) and is the perfect setting for the dispassionate, meddling race.