The Former Continent of Atlantis (Currently Buried under Ice and known as "Antarctica")
For thousands of years, debate has raged as to the location, description, even the very existence of the legendary City of Atlantis. Although interest has waxed and waned over the centuries, humanity has dedicated thousands of hours, spent millions of dollars and, in some cases, risked—and lost—human lives, all in the pursuit of this mythic location that many claim never even existed. Although the search for the island-nation has occupied lifetimes of research, at no time has the investigation been more vital than the present. Erebus, the Titan responsible for the corruption and Destruction of Atlantis is currently trapped inside Mount Erebus.
History[]
Two and a half millennia years ago, Plato wrote of the “Island of Atlas”, a place his writings claimed was known to the Ancient Egyptians more than 9,000 years before that. According to Plato, this ancient civilization, located beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now the Straits of Gibraltar), had lived peacefully under the dominion of descendants of Poseidon for millennia until they suddenly were overcome with greed and corruption and were destroyed by the Gods for their weakness. Over the course of one terrible day, the entire island-nation was destroyed. Thousands of soldiers, millions of inhabitants, towers, gates, bridges and palaces all struck from the Earth and plunged into the depths of the sea never to return. This story, which Plato claims was passed down through his family for multiple generations, is the earliest written reference to the city of Atlantis known to humanity.
From the time he set it down in writing, debate about the veracity of this tale has occurred. Some claim that the lack of earlier verification of the story is proof that Plato created it from whole cloth as a parable to illustrate one of his philosophical theories on social and political structure. Others believe that he was alluding to some centuries-old event, a volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean that had, through the unreliable process of oral communication over generations, turned into a mostly fantasy legend. Earlier tales do not exist, say adherents to this theory, because Plato combined several oral traditions about unrelated events and wove them into a single, more complete and more interesting tale.
The truth, however, while less palatable to the modern mind, is very simple. At the time of Atlantis’s destruction, during the height of the Gods’ power in the World, when the Gods erased something, it stayed erased. That any mention of the lost civilization remains at all is a testimony to the astounding recordkeeping of the ancient Egyptians in general and the tenacity of one minor Goddess in specific (Seshat, the First Scribe - a minor Goddess of the Pesedjet). Without them, and the already rampant inter-pantheon squabbling and prejudices, the story of Atlantis might have been wiped as cleanly from the face of the planet as the civilization itself.
Early Atlantean Culture[]
The Seal of Atlantis
Before the last bout of continental shifting, the land that would one day become Atlantis was tucked securely in the land mass that is now Africa, India and Australia. It was populated with an aggressively intelligent people with a society-wide interest in exploration. This drive led them far from the cradle of humanity, and as the continents drifted, developed their own early culture separate from those of their former-neighbors.
As the eons passed and their culture evolved, this separation became more and more evident. Surrounded by the great southern ocean, they relied heavily upon the sea, which at that time brimmed with all manner of fish, fowl and fur-bearing mammal. While their then-tropical island was lush and expansive, the bounty of the sea provided food, furs, leather, sinew, oil, bone and feathers, leaving them little need for agriculture or animal husbandry. Instead, the vast majority of their time was dedicated to the ocean, and through it, to science. The thick forests of their island provided a bounty of wood for their ships, homes and temples, and the rich soil was full of copper and iron for their tools, nails and, eventually, their astrolabes, sextants and telescopes.
This wealth of natural resources, along with a cultural focus on intellectual expansion and exploration, vaulted the people into the forefront of World technological development. Their sea-faring vessels were greatly more advanced than those of other civilizations, which had to divide their time between herding or farming, and their understanding of weather, sea currents, blacksmithing techniques, architecture and construction were well beyond those known in other parts of the World.
Fortunately for those they visited, Atlantis was also a peaceful nation. While its people traveled farther abroad than any other culture of the time, they did so out of a love of exploration, a need to answer the question of what was beyond the known horizons, rather than out of a drive to conquer other nations. While willing to protect themselves against aggressors, for the most part, they relied on their overwhelming knowledge to maintain contact with other civilized cultures of the time and traded the technological advances they’d developed freely with other nations.
This attitude led, in no small part, to the production of architecture, sculpture and technology in many early nations that seems, to modern historians who are not aware of the Atlantean culture, dramatically incongruent with the native cultures of the time. To those who were familiar with the Atlanteans, however, it was simply one benefit of having contact with such an advanced nation.
Glory Days[]
At the height of the Atlantean nation, Atlantis was a city of more than a million people. It relied almost entirely on the sea for its bounty, as well as the abundant natural resources from the island. There was little need for agriculture, as the tropical forests and rich coastal waters provided more than enough, even as the nation’s people grew in number. Atlantean architecture was well advanced compared to that of other cultures of the time, utilizing the same mathematical principles that had been developed for nautical exploration. The then-tropical climate allowed the focus of its architecture to be on aesthetics rather than shelter and comfort; a focus that translated both to massive ziggurat pyramid structures and delicate arches and columns as suited the diversity of Atlantean tastes. Transportation was predominantly by boat rather than cart or pack animal, which led Atlantean architects to create canals and moats between different areas of the city to facilitate the moving of heavy cargo.
Later, much as in modern-day Venice, the canals were adopted by those wishing to avoid the hustle and bustle (or exertion) of foot traffi c, and elaborate ferries transported travelers from one district to another. Likewise, aqueducts transported fresh water as needed from abundant springs. City waste was swept away with every tide. Clergy were well educated, but so were laymen. Even the youngest children were given training in the basics of science and mathematics, which were more highly prized than scripture, poetry or other written forms of communication. Atlantean art was, for the most part, geometric in form, reflecting the sciences that the Atlanteans found to be the core of life in nature as well as civilized society. Aesthetic attributes were something that was built into everything the Atlanteans made, from clothing to building to ships to tools, and art was seen as a part of a well-crafted item, rather than a separate entity on its own.
The Decadence[]
For millennia, the Atlantean Gods ruled over, and were worshiped by, the people of Atlantis in relative peace. Their culture and civilization was, without exception, the most advanced and far-reaching in all the World. Had they been a conquering people, the Atlanteans could have literally ruled the Earth. But such was not their interest, so they continued to focus on exploration and the scientific advances that furthered their reaches beyond those thought possible by other nations.
Then something when wrong, the Atlanteans ceased worshiping their Gods and, as a
nation, began to venerate Titans, putting the entirety of the World in danger. For their crime, they were struck from the Earth.
The details are less clear. Perhaps it began with the Atlantean monarchs, those ten fabled sons of the Sea King who fathered and then ruled the island-nation. Perhaps they were tainted by the touch of the Titans, and used their power and wealth to blot the names of the old Gods from Atlantis, if the Titans found a way to cut off the Scions’ and priests’ contact with the Atlantean Gods, perhaps they were able to take advantage of the vacuum of worship and entrench themselves in Atlantis’s supernatural power structure in the Gods’ stead.
It is unknown whether the change came subtly or suddenly, whether it took weeks or years or decades to come about. But it came. Expeditions became war parties. Trade missions became raids. Commerce became sacking and slavery. Long-anticipated visits turned into bloodbaths, but more horrific was the change in the Atlantean people themselves. As the Titan-taint grew strong within them, their visages warped, reflecting their internal decay. Legends spread across the globe of scale-skinned raiders with eyes and souls as cold as the depths of the sea.
The Fall[]
In time, all that had once been devoted to exploring and building the greatest nation on Earth was now turned to a foul and perverse cause: the creation of a great sickness that would plunge every nation in the World into the maw of Titanic chaos. Thus, the other Gods did take action after the plague was released. In a gesture that had never happened before, and is not likely to again, the Gods of every other pantheon in the Overworld came together and unanimously decided that the island-nation of Atlantis would suffer the same fate it had almost imposed upon the entirety of Creation.
The Titans would be imprisoned forever in the Underworld, and those who had been tainted by their touch or had actively sought to bring about the end of the World would be blotted from the face of the planet. While the healers (and dealers of death) set about dealing with the effects of the plague, the rest of the Gods turned their attention to the cold-hearted and systematic annihilation of Atlantis and everything related to it.
The other pantheons would take no chances. Every vestige of the nation and its Titan-tainted people felt the wrath of the combined forces of the rest of the World’s Gods. Every corner of the globe was searched for the traveling children of Atlantis, and where they were found, the Gods focused the full brunt of their wrath upon the intruders. Atlantean ships were torn from the sea in great waterspouts and shattered with the fury of the Ocean Gods. Atlantean travelers were struck by lightning bolts, their flesh was torn from their frames by sandstorms, they were smothered in avalanches. Hungry animals fell upon them, devouring them—bones and all—until no trace remained.
The people of Atlantis perished by the millions, and their shades, obstructed from entry to the Underworld by the Gods of Death, milled in turmoil about the island. Atlantis, once a paradise, was now more hellish than the depths of the Underworld had ever been. Fearing that other nations that heard of the wholesale worship of Titans might be tempted to follow in Atlantis’s perverse footsteps, the entirety of the World’s Gods swore an oath never to speak of Atlantis or its people again.
To prevent human explorers from eventually uncovering the remnants of the Atlantean civilization, and to destroy the remaining Atlantean titanspawn, they sunk the island-nation and capped it heavily with ice so thick that no summer would ever melt it. To be certain it remained so, they exerted their collective will upon the island to accelerate its already southward drift, sending it ever deeper into the icy frozen zone of the Southern Ocean. And there it remained, millions of acres of frozen wasteland visited only by far-ranging wildlife, until the freedom of the Titans brought changes that make Atlantis—or Antarctica as it is now known—once more a threat to the entire World.
References[]
- Scion: Scion: Demigod, p. 128-141