It had once been an impressive and advanced port city. Sailors would stop at her docks to trade and restock when journeying to a young Greece or other ancient civilizations.
Her citizens were of a strange form; they were made in the form of their primordial deities, who were thought to predate any other pantheon.
The Atlanteans were all tall, with the men reaching seven feet tall and the women reaching a half a foot shorter. They were known to be of several classes; those with a golden tan, those with skin the color of milk, and those that were dark as night.
The golden ones were said to be children of Mrendi, and her mates, Jehea, and Kriad. Those with milky skin were borne of Aara, and her mates, Kure, and Luscios. Those with skin that reflected the night sky descended from Herdrinee, and her mates, Pariel, and Ulea.
The Atlantean deities were ruled within by Aara, Kure, and Luscios. They were a balance of power as a mated triad.
Aara was the Goddess of War, Destruction, Chaos, and The Craft.
Kure was the God of Forgiveness, Grieving, Sacrifice, and Judgement.
Luscios was the God of Order, Balance, Justice, and Wisdom.
Together they ruled the gods in times of war and in times of peace. Atlantis was powerful, and the children of the Primordials wanted that power for themselves. Not all, mind you, some were still in fact, loyal. But most... they were envious of their parents and yearned to usurp their domains from them.
The leaders of this rebellion were Arid and his wife, Genyd. Arid was the son of Aara, having been born through parthenogenesis. Genyd was the daughter of Mrendi and a mortal and as such had inherited her mother's domains over the Netherworld, destiny, eternal sleep, and savage murder.
Not all demigod children inherited all of their parents domains, but the few that did were monitored by Luscios. He insured that they would only be able to use a limited amount from each domain.
Genyd was an immortal demigod, but Arid was not. He did not bear his mother's domains, but some of his own. He held dominion over Lies and Thievery.
Aara had suspected that Arid desired her throne, but she had been blind to the full extent of his desire.
He had gained supporters over the centuries since his birth and had led an uprising against the primordials. His supporters were not only Atlantean, some were in fact, Greek. He had allied himself with the deposed titans and their godly children, among them, the Olympians.
The day of the rebellion, the young Atlantean deities struck down their predecessors in the Hall of Cresis, the Atlantean version of Olympus.
They were in no way powerful enough to kill them, but they were strong enough to bind them in chains to their thrones.
Within the time it took for the usurpers to bind them, Aara had sent the children loyal to the primordials into hiding. Her daughter, Cerrania, led them into the Herendian Catacombs and the loyalists were not seen or heard from till Atlantis rose from the sea. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The primordials were drained of their energy and locked away into their stone images that worshippers had placed outside their temples in Belenria, the capital of Atlantis.
Belenria became an underground city when the new gods sank it under the earth and into the Herendian Catacombs. It's citizens were imprisoned and most died of starvation. Their spirits became trapped within the walled city when Cybryil, the new god of the Netherworld, barred them from a restful afterlife for worshipping the primordials.
For thousands of years, Atlantis grew and most forgot it's true patrons. Those that didn't soon learned to not even think it in their minds. The new gods were of a wrathful sort.
The beginning of the end for Atlantis began when they went to war with Greece.
It was due to a fear of the other's pantheon that drove both nations to war. When Arid took in the Erididites when their creator, Eris, was angered by their actions, Arid doomed the Atlantean pantheon.
Arid's second wife, Leiane, the new goddess of chaos and daughter of Ulea, bore a son by the name of Calend and when the daughters of Kriad cursed the child, Arid grew paranoid. Paranoid that the child would usurp his throne as he did to his mother.
The cursed baby Calend bore was the mark of the void, a mark that would secure his power when he grew into adulthood. The power would make him among the most powerful in the pantheon, and Arid wanted that godling dead.
Leiane escaped Cresis and gave birth to her son within the catacombs. She placed the babe in the hands of a witch spirit, Fayis, and stole the body of a dead babe, claiming to Arid that Calend was a stillbirth.
Fayis took the babe to her mother, Cerrania, the leader of the loyalists, and Cerrania raised her nephew. She taught him the ways of the witches and magic. When he completed his studies, she blessed him in her domains of shapeshifting, knowledge, and mindful strength.
Suffice to say, he became immortal, and when he did, the mark manifested. The witches had studied the possible consequences of bearing the mark, but none could predict what was to happen.
It began to pain Calend to retain corporeal form, so he only did so when he was needed. When he did take form, he appeared to have the cosmos in his eyes and the night in his skin as Ulea and her mates had.
Calend's only friends were the spirits that roamed Belenria and of course, Cerrania. A spirit that he befriended as a child was the spirit of a soldier by the name of Alsiris. He had been injured in the fight with the Greeks, but had died in the catacombs.
"It is because of Arid that we fight this war." Alsiris had said to him once.
Calend had been young then, just a boy really. He had thought hard on those words and as he did, his hatred grew for Arid.
He had gone to Cerrania when he was older and told Cerrania of his hatred.
"He will get his comeuppance, Calend. You are not the only one who sees Arid for what he truly is." she told him with a wry smile.
"What are you thinking, Mkria?" He asked her, using the Atlantean term for mother.
Cerrania just smiled and handed him a small stone.
"This will keep your mind clear." she said and he took it from her. He kept it with him even when he had became immortal.
When Calend dreamt, he dreamt of far off lands left untainted by western hands. The lands bore young civilizations, or ones so old that the beginnings couldn't be remembered. Many peoples were nomadic, while others lived in golden cities.
In one such dream, he came across a city of gold. He wandered into a temple to a goddess and marveled at the beautiful metalworks. In the center of the room, on a dais, stood a golden statue of a woman kneeling with her hands covering her face, as if crying.
Wisps surrounded her and Calend witnessed her stand from her position within the statute.
Her skin was darker than the golden ones of Atlantis, but by no means like the nightwalkers. The goddess' features were regal, yet kind and he felt himself blush when she smiled at him.
"Who are you, stranger?" she asked him and his breath caught. Her voice was pleasant and welcoming.
"I am Calend." he told her, "Who are you? Where am I?"
"I am Dreedra, sister of Marcran, patron god of this city. You are in long abandoned El Dorado."
"What happened to the people that lived here?" he asked and she looked sad for a moment.
"Our people were cut off from their nation and languished here, separated from their families and tribes. Eventually, pestilence reared its ugly head and devoured the citizens." she said and he nodded.
They talked for a time before he felt himself being pulled back to awareness.
"Farewell, Dreedra. May we meet again."
She walked back over to the dais and her spirit melded with the statue again.
"And the same to you, Calend." her voice rang out throughout the temple and he found himself back in the catacombs.
Every night after that, Calend was dragged back to the lost city and into Dreedra's company. They discussed many things and talked of the people they loved and those that they hated.
For Calend that hate was for Arid. For Dreedra it was for Reia, the Doradian goddess of the sun, separation, and the calm before a storm.
Dreedra blamed the languishment of the Doradians on Reia and her domains. To Dreedra, Reia was the one that separated the civilization.
Calend blamed his father for the death's of Atlanteans; whether they be soldiers, or the citizens of Belenria.
When they told one another of their hate, they found a willing listener.
Time went by, and the war between Greece and Atlantis reached a fevered pitch.
The Erididites had risen to power within Atlantis' government. The Queen was one, in fact. She had heard stories of the dead godling but did not believe the child to be dead.
As a daughter of Eris, the Queen was thrilled by the idea of wreaking havoc on the Atlanteans. Oh, what a joy that would be to begin a civil war within the pantheon. The chaos that it would cause!
The Queen, whose name was Salara, began to think of ways to cause discord without drawing Arid's attention to the Erididites.
Salara picked the minds of her sisters and in the mind of Ama, the youngest, she found the perfect plan.
Ama was sent to the temple at Friera, the capital, to bring forth a witness claiming to have heard of a man who bore a strange mark.
The witness was brought before Arid and his wives, Leiane and Genyd. He claimed the mark was that of the void, which infuriated Arid.
Arid, fully believing the witness' testimony, imprisoned Leiane in chains on the roof of her temple. She desiccated atop the roof while he scoured the land for the godling he had thought dead.
Cerrania's spies had heard of the events and reported back to their leader. She took Calend and most of the Loyalists through the catacombs with the aid of her sister Jeleran (the goddess of the underground and shadows.).
Calend took a body for this when he sensed his surrogate mother's unease. They walked for miles while witches and some spirits that could follow, followed.
Jeleran led them through the underground, through twists and turns, deeper and deeper. Calend could sense the water above the ground. They walked on through the night and only stopped when they were closer to Greece than to Atlantis.
Days later, they set foot on Grecian soil. Calend could feel the warm sun on his skin. For the first time, he was truly out of the catacombs.
Cerrania led them into the mountains and into caves that shielded them from the elements. Calend told Dreedra of the move.
"Events are progressing then." she said ominously and Calend nodded.
"Do you know what Cerrania plans?" she asked him but he shook his head.
"She asks for my help occasionally, but only rarely. Her endgame seems far off into the future." Calend told her.
"What about your own endgame?"
"I've been thinking about that," he said, "I know what I want to do, and Salara will act accordingly, I am sure."
Calend went to Cerrania the next morning and she advised him on his plan. When they had thought of every possibility, she agreed to let him go off on his own.
Cerrania had a condition, though. She made Fayis take a body of a older woman to pose as Calend's Aunt.
Calend and Fayis made their way through villages and cities till they came to the adolescent city state of Sparta.
After taking the form of an adolescent, he signed on with their army and trained hard, though it paled in comparison to the witch's training.
Calend made his way through the ranks of the army till he was in a leadership role at the physical age of twenty and five years.
The Spartan King took notice of Calend, he noticed how Calend was far faster than any opponent and met with Calend one day.
The King asked Calend of his relationship to the gods, and Calend claimed to be a demigod, also claiming to not know who his father was.
The King and Calend talked for a while, and the King pointed out Calend's abnormal height. Calend laughed it off, and told the King that his Aunt's family had immigrated from Atlantis before he was born.
The King accepted this, knowing that some cities outside of Sparta were murdering Atlantean immigrants. He offered Calend and his Aunt a place to stay permanently in Sparta and they accepted.
Calend served in the spartan army, making friends in his mentors and soldiers. He even became close with one soldier in particular by the name of Demetrios.
Demetrios was the son of a shepherd, and had been raised among his family and no one else till he reached an age that Sparta called upon him. He was not suited physically for the life of a soldier, though he did have a mind for it. Demetrios eventually became a close advisor of Calend's when Sparta was at war.
The war with Atlantis drew nearer and nearer every day. The Spartans all knew that the day would soon come when they would go to war.
Calend, for his part, looked forward to it.
Two years passed and word came that Atlantis had attacked Magnetes, a city along the coast of the Aegean.
Many fled the city with their families if they could, while others simply tried to fight them off.
It did not work.
The city was overrun and many died. The Spartan King notified Calend of this and they were told to prepare for battle.
The army marched till they met other groups on their way to Atlantis. They commandeered dozens of ships and after planning their strike, landed on a private piece of land.
The land was outside an entrance to the catacombs, and Calend, along with Demetrios, stole into it during the night.
Demetrios followed Calend unknowingly into the catacombs, not fully realizing their purpose.
Calend summoned the spirits that lie prone in the forgotten city and pulled them into the sunlight above.
Demetrios was startled by this, but did not question Calend. He would save his questions for later.
The next day, the Greeks took themselves up the coast to Friera, and waited for night.
The spirits armed themselves as well, while some took themselves away to gain aid from the Greek Pantheon.
The Greek Gods rose to the occasion. In the early hours of the morning all forces attacked the city.
Spirits had taken away the children during the night and so not one of the Greeks argued when they attacked.
The city shook with the anger of the Gods, the people, and the spirits.
The land began to shake as well and Calend began to send the troops away quietly, delivering them back to the home cities.
Eventually the dead numbered more than the living and in a sense of finality, Calend sent Demetrios away, back to Sparta.
The land continued to quake and as the battle among the gods reached its peak, the city sunk into the sea.
That was not to be the end.
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