Atlantis

> *He sat for several minutes in the saddle, trying to track whether the cloud was heading in their direction. Finally he realized it wasn’t moving. The dark shape in the sky was anchored in place—and it wasn’t a cloud.* *It was a city.*
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Atlantis, also known as Atlantis-in-the-Sky or The Floating City is the capital of the Atlantis Empire and the headquarters of the Atlantis Guild. The streets of the city were not made of gold, as the legends claimed, but of silica-rich paving stones that reflected the midday sun’s glare on the passerby's. The entrance to the city is allowed through liftgates. Under the floating metropolis was the Down Town, where people often rebelled against the Empire, coveting the place of those above. Until the Guild's alliance with the Knights Immortal the city's population consisted almost exclusively of Humans of the Atlantean culture. The mile-wide city suspended in the air looked more like a gigantic fist upraised over Down Town, an omnipresent threat looming against a sullen sky.

## History

Grand-Magus Tezla founded the Atlantis Guild more than 370 years ago to unify all forms of magic - Elemental, Necromantic and Techomantic. Until Tezla’s time, Elementalism and Necromancy were opposing powers, and a mage could hope to only master one - if one were to indulge in both, he would go insane. Tezla, against all odds, mastered both schools and created Technomantic magic by harnessing the magical power of Magestone. With armies of Technomantic mages, War Golems and troops armed with magical weapons, Tezla’s Atlantean Empire quickly expanded throughout the western half of the Land. Today the Empire sprawls across thousands of miles and contains most of humanity under its rule. At the heart of the Empire lies the floating city of Atlantis, held aloft 500 feet above the ground by dozens of house-sized blocks of enchanted Magestone crystal. The floating city is the heart of the Atlantean Empire, and is the home to the most powerful human warriors and mages in the Land.

## Districts

The city is made up of multiple districts.

### Golden Mile

The Golden Mile was the best street in Atlantis, the glittering core of the Empire’s heart and where the Atlantis Arena was positioned. When Grand-Magus Tezla raised four square miles of his capital five hundred feet into the air, he’d chosen the sections with the most impressive architecture. And in the 140 years since Tezla discarnated, succeeding emperors had lavished the finest building materials in the Land upon Atlantis-in-the-Sky. The wonders of Technomancy allowed crystals, even gemstones, to be fused or fashioned into structural elements. One of the many wonders of the Golden Mile was Orien’s Fountain, which seemed to be crafted from a single, tremendous piece of lapis lazuli. Another one was the Chapel of Heroes - its visitors entered through a facade of gigantic jade panels depicting warlike deeds. Tezla’s soaring temple was fronted by ten enormous columns, rising not in barreled sections but as single alexandrite crystals, shining red or green as the light fell upon them. Spires and obelisks arose using newer Technomantic skills, cladding Magestone with veneers of other crystals to create edifices that seemed to glow from within. Unlimited tax monies, labor, and magic allowed the rulers of Atlantis to pile wonder upon wonder. Even the aristocrats of the Land’s other great cities gaped like peasants at the display. The locals, however, made their way past these titanic works like ants traversing the feet of a grand statue, eyes down, usually oblivious in the grip of their own business. It took the unveiling of some new wonder to capture their attention, unless they were passing some personal favorite.

One structure on the Golden Mile with a peculiar history was the Altered Arch - the massive stone structure isspanning the street. The Arch was risen sometime in the 170 Tz, intended as a triumphal memorial for Tezla’s attack on the Knights Immortal. That campaign failed at the Battle of South Pass, but the arch, covered with scenes of victory over the Elves, was already in place. Rather than tear the thing down, artisans had changed the carvings to show Wylden followers of renegade Elemental mages facing Imperial justice. The sculpted battle scenes still included many High Elves fighting in the ranks of the Empire’s enemies.

### Lower Forum

Dotted with heroic statues of Tezla and later emperors and lined with the offices of the Lesser Ministries, this space would have crowned many a lesser city. Compared to the splendors of the Golden Mile, the gold, silver, and marble seemed almost homely. The building facades of the various offices still gleamed in white marble, with colonnades and pediments of polished stone. Even the tiered steps leading up to each building were carved from single blocks of marble, each riser an inch higher than a comfortable step. Not only did it make a more impressive vista, it taxed that much more effort from the suppliants coming to the offices. Those who worked in the ministries entered the buildings through rear basements, making their way to their places of business on much more comfortable back stairways. Certainly there were more than enough suppliants thronging the forum, with drabber-robed government functionaries bustling among them. Then the guardsmen were beyond the open space, following the street into a residential district of island-castles. In truth, they were neither islands nor castles, but large blocks of cramped apartments stretching fortresslike from one street to the next. A narrow center court in the middle of each building was lucky to get full sunlight for half an hour each midday. The places were sweltering in summer heat and freezing in winter winds.

### Barracks

The barracks are one of the military zones surrounding the liftgates that allow entrance to the city. Each Atlantis Guild unit has its own Company Area. The military compound also housed drill fields and Technomantic workshops where magical weapons were maintained. The barracks also had a bathhouse for each company and a common legionary bank, where the soldiers could draw out some money and arrange for their pay to be added to their savings.

### Public Gardens

An island of greenery in a sea of marble grandeur. A favorite place of children that often gazed at the ten-sided, high-arched temple full of plants, seeming to mix indoors and outdoors beneath its prismatic crystal dome. To an adult, these “woods” shrank to a small plaza shaded with trees, the temple to a charming but rather small architectural folly. It also had groundsmen pushing wheeled barrels, dipping them in to water the plants.

Tezla had provided for his Floating City by turning the mighty Roa Vizorr into a reverse waterfall, the river’s waters roaring five hundred feet into the air to irrigate the city. Pumps powered by Technomancy piped the water through the four square miles of Atlantis-in-the-Sky. On the other side of town, a thundering fall of waste water cascaded to the sea. The rich and powerful had direct service and water at the turn of a tap. Humbler folk picked up their water from public fountains. And the plants in the “woods” had their drinks brought to them. Near the gardens a marketplace was also stationed.

### Liftgates

The liftgates to the city in the sky consisted of three concentric circles of dull stone that marked the actual gate. When the whole group was in place, the inner stone circle suddenly turned a brilliant emerald green. The buried Magestone was charging to send those standing in the circle upward. The brilliance shifted to the next stone ring, then the outermost ring ignited in emerald fire and then suddenly, the whole group was impelled into the air on the circle of stone. The movement wasn’t all that noticeable, except for those in their circle - their peripheral view of the ground steadily receding beyond the edge of the circle. Those on the circle then arrived at their destination, a circular opening in the immense flying shield that was Atlantis. Lambent green light flashed around them in three expanding circles. Then the fire died, to reveal pavement as solid as if it stood on the ground so far below.

### High Elven Embassy

Atlantis had an embassy for High Elves, specifically those of the Knights Immortal faction. On the day of Karrudan's death, in 419 Tz, Prince Hamund held a large banquet in here. The embassy also had a kitchen where High Elven food of the highest quality was served and a liftgate nearby.

### Throne Palace

Raised in the sky by Grand-Magus Tezla, the Throne Palace was the first piece of Atlantis to truly rise in the skies. In the place where it was levitated from the ground, in Down Town, a huge pit called Tezla's Pit now stands. Some of the buildings closer to Throne Palace had guards on their roofs. Here on the far side of the square, such security had been dispensed with. A longbow might reach Throne Palace’s portico, but the bowman would have to stand outlined against the sky to get his shot. That would make him a target for magical blasts and everyday crossbow bolts.

The front of the temple had been polished, the columns garlanded, the spaces between hung with exquisite tapestries. Some of these stitched works of art represented years of effort by Atlantean needleworkers. Others were spoils of war, seized from conquered cities. They made a brave display but merely served as background for the focal point, which the Prophet-Magi occupied.

***Atlantis Guild***

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 17
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 1
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 2
4. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 18
5. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 19