Atlantis, the Island Kingdom

The Flood that ended the Mythic Age also changed the face of the Earth. Numerous great cities and nations of magic found themselves washed away by the deluge, drowned beneath the endless rains. We know these nations only by legend and the odd relic now, places such as Amazonia, Aztlan, Hawaiki, Kumari Kandam and Mu. But most notable of these was Atlantis, the Island Kingdom.

The Island Kingdom was located off the east coast of North America, close to the region we now term "the Bermuda Triangle." Its inhabitants are commonly believed to have been an Algonquian or Iroquoian people, though some Basque and Celt scholars have claimed their ancestors were the founders of Atlantis. Regardless of its origins, its influence stretched from the Mississippi to the Mediterranean, bridging what we would one day consider to be the Old World and the New.

Atlantis was incredibly magically advanced, and its arcane achievements dwarf even the greatest works of the modern age. From what we can tell, Atlantis was of similar size to Greenland, and dominated by a great mountain range that rivalled the Himalayas. The Island Continent was located at a nexus of numerous ley lines, suffusing the entire land with anima, the energy of life and magic.

Originally, Atlantis was home to countless dragons, who found in the island's magical nature and rugged environs an ideal homeland. The island was deemed a neutral ground for dragons, where war and conflict were banned. Eventually, a group of humans, lead by shamans and seers, seeking refuge from monsters and dark spirits, came to the shores of the isle. The dragons were bound by their accords not to harm the humans, except in self-defence, and so instead took to training these interlopers instead, teaching them to become their ideal servants and aids. They taught the shamans the secrets of draconic magic, and as the shamans learnt to work this magic, they connected with the natural flows of this arcane energy, moving beyond their spirit-based magic into the raw manipulation of anima itself. Thus, these shamans became the first of what we today would call "mages."

Atlantis soon became a patchwork mageocracy, with its many vales and valleys dominated by a single, powerful mage-king, who was usually the favoured disciple of a dragon. For centuries, each of these little magedoms was governed independently, but as trade began to grow and knowledge began to flourish, these simple villages became some of humanity's first cities. Eventually, the various mage-kings decided to build a singular city, where knowledge could be exchanged freely, a centre of trade and commerce that was the domain of all mages, and none. This city, built over the course of a century through great feats of magic and the labour of hundreds of thousands of men, became known as Atlantis. And at its centre stood the Gold Pyramid, a temple to the Sun-King and Earth-Mother, the chief divinities of the Atlanteans.

The mage-kings together formed a senate of sorts, with each king holding one of the 300 or so seats. As these great wizards passed away, their replacements were elected by their fellow senators from those learned scholars of the arcane arts. Though called an empire, Atlantis was fundamentally a mageocracy, where skill in magic determined one's place in society. Only the most skilled of mages could sit in the senate, or become members of the priesthood, or teach at one of the island's many universities and academies. While it is common to think of magic being ubiquitous within the Island Continent, most of the citizens only knew rudimentary cantrips and talents, nothing more than utilitarian tricks such as warming a cup of mead, or cleaning mud off one's clothing.

And behind it all stood the dragons, who manipulated Atlantean civilization in countless ways. As Atlantean civilization flourished, the dragons stepped back and let their hand-picked apprentices take the lead. It was far easier, and more effective, for the dragons to merely nudge their chosen humans in the correct direction than it was to directly intervene in the rule of these proud people. Yet the workings of dragons can be seen everywhere in Atlantis, from the many statues lauding the island's draconic patrons, to the names of many Atlantean organizations, to the gods themselves--who were often depicted as vast, cosmic dragons.

As the Mythic Age progressed, Atlantis' merchants and scholars began exploring the outside world, encountering foreign lands, strange creatures, and the nascent nations of other humans. Seeing a world ripe for their Enlightenment, the Atlanteans began a massive colonization effort, establishing settlements as far east as Babylon, and as far west as Mexico.

The downfall of Atlantis started even before the Flood. In the millenia leading up to the end of the Mythic Age, the dragons and giants renewed their millenia-old conflict--and the dragons used the Atlanteans as the tip of their spear. With the might of Atlantis, the dragons nearly caused the extinction of giant-kind. However, many human nations saw the giants as their patrons and demigods, and struck back against the Atlanteans. The Atlanteans were stretched too thin, and their empire began to collapse under the strain of so many wars and conflicts. Their greatest rivals in this period were Aztlan in the west, and Amazonia and Akhet in the East, but the Atlanteans were recorded to have fought against the Kurgan hordes, the men of Midgard, the fey of Arcadia, and the jinn of Jinnistan.

Yet, Atlantis was still the most powerful nation in the world when the Flood hit. Though millions of its citizens drowned beneath the waters of the flood, some survived, and entered into the new age strangers in a strange land. After a millenia of helping survivors rebuild, the handful of surviving magisters gathered in the ruins of the Atlantean outpost of Babylon. There, they built a great tower, piercing the heavens, to be a focus for magic in this new era. Though these ancient Atlanteans eventually passed on, their heirs survive to this day as the Orders of Atlantis, the oldest surviving alliance of mages in the world, and among the most powerful secret societies in the modern age.