Atlantis
Long before recorded history, a continent roughly the size of modern Austria stood in the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and North America. This land, Atlantis, flourished nearly twenty millennia ago before vanishing beneath the sea in a cataclysm that reshaped the globe.
Founded shortly after the last Ice Age receded, Atlantis developed into one of the most sophisticated civilizations of its epoch. Though its earliest inhabitants were tribal and warlike, the culture advanced rapidly. Within centuries, it became a maritime power of explorers, mystics, artisans, and proto-scientists. Its ships traversed vast oceans, and its alchemists forged artifacts of terrifying potency — most notably the Serpent Crown, imbued with the influence of the Elder God Set.
Among the earliest figures associated with Atlantis was Kull, a barbarian who rose to rule not Atlantis itself, but Valusia, and whose era preceded the continent’s destruction by centuries. In Atlantis’s final age, power rested with King Kamuu and Queen Zartra. Civil unrest, external threats from Lemuria, and reckless use of geothermal forces beneath the capital destabilized the continent. Simultaneously, cosmic warfare between the Deviants and the Celestials triggered planetary-scale devastation. Within days, Atlantis fractured and sank beneath the Atlantic.
Known History
A handful survived. The southern city of Netheria endured within a sealed dome and later became the subterranean Netherworld. Other refugees scattered to distant lands.
Millennia later, a new aquatic branch of humanity emerged: Homo mermanus. Whether engineered by Deviants or Inhumans or transformed by divine agency, these water-breathers wandered the ocean depths until rediscovering the ruins of ancient Atlantis. Inspired by the lingering spirit of King Kamuu, they established a new undersea kingdom atop the old.
Through cycles of invasion and reconstruction, Atlantis became a permanent oceanic empire. A splinter civilization founded Lemuria in the Pacific and embraced the Serpent Crown, gradually adopting serpentine traits.
In the modern era, Atlantis relocated near Antarctica under Emperor Thakorr. There, an accidental bombardment by a human vessel changed history. Princess Fen’s union with Captain Leonard McKenzie produced Namor — the first Atlantean able to thrive in both sea and air.
Namor would become monarch, warrior, invader, ally, and exile in turn. He fought alongside the Invaders in World War II, clashed repeatedly with the surface world, and sought global recognition for his people. Atlantis itself would be destroyed and rebuilt multiple times — by psionic assault, warfare, and natural catastrophe.
Despite political upheaval and Namor’s intermittent abdications, Atlantis persists. Governed now by its ruling council and Lord Vashti, the kingdom remains a sovereign undersea power — ancient in origin, resilient in survival, and forever poised between diplomacy and war.
- None at this time.
- First appearance (Fantastic Four Annual #1, 1963)
