- "The third, Atlas's mighty citadel, holds back the ocean."
- —A description from the tablet of the Altar of the Cosmos
Atlas is one of three ancient cities which are crucial components in the Trial of the Cities.
History[]
Early History[]
At an unknown time in Earth's history, when the Super-Ancient Beings began creating a series of trials for a later race of sentient people, the Secret City of Atlas - along with its counterparts Ra and Thule - was built by the to serve as a focal location in their fourth trial, the Trial of the Cities. Atlas was constructed at the bottom-most level of a five-level dam within what would later become the Mediterranean Sea, and carved into the shape of an hourglass out of a rock formation.
After the construction of Atlas was finished, a mysterious blue gem was set deep with the city's vault, which would need to be collected and added to one of the three Immortal Weapons in order to empower them for the trial's final ceremony; the matching weapon for Atlas's gem was a mace.
To make the Trial of the Cities more of a challenge, the Super-Ancients also created sets of bronze and silver guardians to act as obstacles. The Bronze Guardians were left to rest in silver coffins set along Atlas's Great Avenue while the Silver Guardians were stationed at the cupola leading to the bridge to the vault. While Atlas was established to be the third city in the trial to be activated, the Ancients also linked Thule's altar with its counterparts', so that upon activating Thule's defences, the guardians at Atlas and Ra would also activate, therefore making it so that whoever initiated the trial at Thule required companions at the other Cities.
Eventually, the Super-Ancients would pass on some of their knowledge to the group of humans that would become known as the Four Legendary Kingdoms; among the things they shared was the location of Atlas and its role in the fourth trial. The Four Kingdoms assigned three men to watch over each City, who would come to be called the Trismagi. The Trismagi of Atlas maintained their watch from the weathered watchtower feature outside of the city.
Around 10,000 BC, the two top-most dams of Atlas broke, allowing the ocean to flood into the spillways and drown the ancient city, while also flooding a part of the Great Avenue and its entryway from the watchtower. Over the millennia, even as Atlas, Thule and Ra remained hidden from the greater human population, through various myths they became infamous. Atlas was known for the Great Flood that buried it beneath the sea, which inspired a number of myths in various religions and scholars such as Plato claimed the city rose too high in greatness and arrogance, leading to its destruction. Additionally, the city became more commonly known to the world as Atlantis.
During her reign, Queen Elizabeth I assigned Sir Francis Drake the secret mission of seeking out Atlas and the other Cities. Drake succeeded in confirming the location of Atlas, and left a note containing the coordinates of the Three Cities on his person as he was buried at sea.
In the 1920's, the German engineer Herman Sörgel proposed the construction of a five-step dam in the Strait of Gibraltar, a design which he unknowingly made similar to the actual design of the Atlas dam.
At some point after the 1960's, a sunken cargo plane was carried by the currents in the Mediterranean into Atlas.
By the early 21st century, the location of Atlas was known to few other than its present Trismagi guardian, Lord Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster, and a handful of people within the Four Kingdoms. Sphinx, being a wealthy member of the Kingdom of Land and formerly in line for its throne, established a mansion on top of the entrance into Atlas's Great Avenue for him to maintain his watch over the city.
The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]
When the Great Games of the Hydra concluded with an upheaval to the Four Kingdoms as Jack West Jr prevented King Orlando Compton-Jones from receiving the Mysteries, King Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe noted that meant that all of the ancient knowledge regarding the remaining trials would have to be re-found from the vaults of Atlas and the other cities.
The Three Secret Cities[]
A few days after the conclusion of the Third Trial, the mission to begin the Trial of the Cities began as Orlando set out to obtain the Immortal Weapons. After claiming the Helmet, Orlando tasked Sunil Malik with finding the long-lost Mace that was paired with Atlas, while also being annoyed with the possibility that he would need to consult with his cousin Sphinx on getting through Atlas.
However, Jack and Lily West managed to view a full rubbing copy of the tablet of the Altar of the Cosmos, discovering that activating the defences at Thule would activate the defences of Atlas and Ra as well. As Orlando was unaware of this and in a hurry to complete the trial, Jack's team set about trying to locate all of the Cities so that they could help to ensure the Trial of the Cities wasn't failed.
Unaware of the mistake he was making, upon his arrival at Thule, Orlando prematurely initiated the trial, unwittingly calling the Bronze Guardians in Atlas's Great Avenue to emerge from their silver coffins, which even underwater began slowly marching along the main road that led to the cupola bridge.
When Jack's team retrieved the locations of the Cities from Sir Francis Drake's coffin, he and Aloysius Knight headed to Atlas to empower the Mace that they had recovered from Poseidon's tomb. However, with Sphinx threatening Lily's life, Jack reluctantly agreed to empower the Mace and return it to the Trismagi when he was done. Sphinx provided Jack and Knight with scuba equipment to make their way through the flooded Great Avenue, and once they navigated the triple archways they found themselves in the sunken city of Atlas.
As they came across the Bronze Guardians, Jack realised that the Weapons were the key to getting past the Silver Guardians, and so used the Mace to command the Guardians around them to stop. As he and Knight swam up to the hourglass-shaped city, Jack opted to confront the Silver Guardians with the Mace should the trial require them being overcome, and moved unhindered by the Guardians towards Atlas's vault. Jack proceeded on to claim the blue gem from the vault's diamond altar, however Sphinx sent a submersible drone down to collect the empowered Mace from him. After handing it over, Sphinx cut off the air in Jack and Knight's scuba tanks, and, with the trial at Atlas completed, the Trismagi took Lily and with the Weapon away.
Before the oxygen in their lungs expired, Jack and Knight were able to swim to the sunken cargo plan that had long been resting on Atlas's side, and found a source of air. Once they were breathing safely, the pair managed to head for the surface and leave Atlas behind.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
After Sphinx completed the Trial of the Cities and was awarded the Rings of Command, he transferred the "power" of the Trident into the rings, giving him command over all of the automatons. Keeping the emperor's ring for himself, Sphinx handed one of the lesser rings to Dion DeSaxe, instructing him to begin gathering the numerous bronzemen from Atlas. Once Dion successfully gained command of the battalion of bronze and silvermen from the Secret City, he had them transported away.
While this was happening, Sphinx discovered from one of his security cameras that Jack and Knight had survived and escaped from Atlas.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
After the Omega Event was averted, the world learned of the ancient trials, leading archaeologists and historians to head to the ancient sites such as the secret city of Atlas to study them. Though it became a popular tourist destination as a result, Atlas was recognised by the world being as crucial and in need of preservation so that it could be used for future runs of the trials and Omega Events.
Features[]
The Great Avenue[]
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Cupola and Bridge[]
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Vault[]
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Trivia[]
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