The Kingdom of Atlas

The Kingdom of Atlas is one of the four major states in Remnant, and the successor state of the now defunct Kingdom of Mantle.

History

Key Dates

- Founding of Fort Castle: December 7th, 272 BGW
- Capture of M'Tela: June 20th, 269 BGW
- Vytal Reforms: January 1st, 1AGW
- Creation of Atlas: February 29th, 32 AGW

Atlas is by far the youngest of the 4 Kingdoms: its predecessor, Mantle, existed for mere centuries in recognizable form, unlike the millenia of the other Kingdoms. Never the less, Atlas and Mantle before it have played a crucial role in world histroy during their short time on the stage.
The people who would become Mantlian had an older, more storied history. Solitas is by far the coldest and least hospitable continent on the planet, and its tundra has always been sparsely populated. Solitan tribes have inhabited the region continuously for thousands of years, however, and due to the high latitudes, low levels of UV exposure and extremely limited sunlight during the winter months the people of the interior are noted as being extremely fair, with pale skin, white hair, and light blue eyes being nearly ubiquotous in the far north, though costal peoples were more populous and more closely related to the peoples of Northern Saunus and Anima. Tribes like the Helea, Scythians, Fionn and Icyni maintained cultural continuity but few large settlements, often stockpiling what they could for winter during the summer months, where days are long and parts of continent are lush. The great exception was the shrine at M'Tela. Deep in the interior of the continent, M'Tela was an underground city built around a rich vein of dust. Too cold to support agriculture, M'Tela remained a refuge for nearby tribes during the worst winter storms- when all else failed all tribes could retreat into its embrace, deep underground and warmed by dust fueled fires.
Only fragments of the original tradition survive, but early dust extraction was limited, and highly ritualized. This likely had practical motivations- the dust of M'Tela was unusually potent and extremely volatile, so mishandling it could set of a chain reaction that could kill hundreds and bring down large parts of the catacombs. However, it also seems to have had religious connotations- only 'priests' could extract and handle dust, and dust either seemed to be worshipped directly as a divinity, or indirectly as the gift of a benevolent earth goddess, whose bosom was M'Tela and whose live giving milk was the stream of dust that flowed from it. These practices were cracked down on after the Ilosian Conquest, so we don't know for certain, but archeological finds suggest the excavation of M'Tela was underway as early as 1400 BGW, though the site may be far older than that.
The Ilosians would turn Mantle into the Kingdom history remembers. Ilium was a proto-Kingdom, just North of Vale. Separated by a fairly narrow channel, after Valean Unification there was talk of incorpating their neighbor into the new Kingdom, but after a brutal war of conquest from 275-272 BGW Ilium was devastated, its capital destroyed, and its surviving people reduced to a demilitarized vassal of Vale. Tens of thousands of citizens, particularly veterans and their families, fled rather than accept subordination, and made landfall in Solitas on December 7th, 272 BGW. The settlement, creatively named 'Fort Castle', was an excellent natural harbor that was a favorite resting place of Fjordsman and Solitan pirates... who were not happy with the new settlers seizing their territory. Seeking a more defensible location, the Ilosians scouted out the area, eventually learning of the settlement at M'Tela.
After learning about the tribe's customs and the site's nature, they made their move. It was decided to launch an attack on the Summer Solstice- the city was used as emergency shelter during the winter, but during the summer months the tribes were dispered gathering resources, and solstices were holy days were the priests who oversaw the city would be occupied with religious fervor. The surprise attack worked, and the defenders of M'Tela were quickly overrun by the Ilosian army. By the time the tribes rallied, M'Tela was an impregnable fortress well able to put its vast dust reserves to good use. Realizing that war would entail massive losses and the potential destruction of their holiest of holies, the tribes one by one began to surrender. Those who surrendered voluntarily were ordered to pay massive annual tributes in food and supplies to the city, which the Ilosians rechristened 'Mantle'. Those who resisted this new order were captured and enslaved, forced into backbreaking labor in the mines they had once called home.
Mantle was simultaneously a martial and a slave state. Hypothetically, all members of society were bound to all in a compact of mutual service, but some servants were more servile than others. Mantle was governed by a military junta- the early conquerers were an invading army and after the failures of Ilium were disinclind to establish any 'civilian rule'. In theory meritocratic, power and responsibility were delineated by military rank, with the 'Lord Protector' acting as the highest authority in the land. All advances in rank were conducted by a council of higher ranking members of the hierarchy- 'privates' were selected from cadets by 'sergeants', who were themselves selected for advancement by 'lieutenants' and so on, with the sole exception being the 'Lord Protector' himself, who was selected by the General Staff and Admiralty Board from among their own number, to serve for life.
Housing, income, occupation, even marital partners were all dictated by various staff committees- no individual citizen was afforded a private life or private property, though status and privileges varied greatly among ranks. Only two kinds of people were allowed a tombstone or physical memorial in Mantle: men who died in battle and women who died in childbirth, each having given their life for the preservation of the state. The number of children a couple were expected to produce varied based on conditions of the time, but reproduction was for the creation of new citizens and not personal pleasure: a couple may have been expected to produce a dozen children in an expansionary period but forbidden more than one in times of famine. Personal romantic factors were rarely considered in matches, and divorce was only granted in circumstances of infertility or personal disgrace, with the spouse in good standing reassigned to another match. Polygyny was sometimes practiced, though only in times when war had depleted the number of male citizens, as sexual resentment and deprivation among the ranks was considered an unnecessary source of tension, and adultery was considered grounds for demotion.
Proportions varied across time, but among citizens, the enlisted ranks outnumbered the officer class from between 5:1 and 10:1, but the vast majority of people within the junta were non-citizens, at any point outnumbering the Mantlian Citizen population from 3:1 to 8:1. These subjects, more or less openly reduced to the status of slaves, were used as disposable labor for vast public works projects, to be expended like so many tons of iron or carats of dust in the completion of a given task. The people of Mantle had a more sophisticated understanding of dust and dust manipulation, having benefitted from long contact with the complex civilizations of Sanus and Anima, but part of the reason they surpassed the Solitans in infrastructure and scope so quickly is they were far more willing to sacrifice untold numbers to build their public works. The subject population often failed to replace itself, and early dwindling led to a mass demand for new bodies, purchased from the existing markets, initially from Anima but predominantly from the deserts of Vacuo in the years leading up to the Great War.
The Mantlian Hierarchy was not purely racial- those born to parents of high rank could disgrace themselves and be sent into the slave population, or never allowed to advance past the enlisted ranks, and discrimination against the people in bondage was not categorical. Administrations varied in policy- unranked citizens who displayed unusual ability or leadership potential were either culled as potential nuclei of discontent, or allowed to rise and absorbed into the citizen body. While Ilosians and their descendents dominated the General Staff, officers of Solitan and Vacuan ancestry, alongside various other people groups of Remnant, could be found in increasing numbers as the centuries went on. The Faunus were the great exception to this rule- they were never promoted and were invariably at the bottom of the pecking order.
By the turn of the 2nd century BGW, the Kingdom of Mantle had emerged as a regional power, but it was unable to compete with Vale or Mistral economically or technologically. This later development was especially concerning, as Mantlian dominance of Soltias was predicated on their technological superiority over the rest of Solitas- as Vale and Mistral began expanding their overseas presence it was feared Mantle might suffer the same fate. The rigid conformity of Mantlian society and the limited contact with the outside world was not conducive to innovation, partly by design, but without some kind of reform the Mantlian order could not survive.
The solution was conceived by Lord Protector Charles Atlas, a reform minded Admiral who came to power in 181 BGW and a student of the recent Civic Charter in Vale. Atlas believed that Mantle’s regimented society could not survive as it was, and that to modernized they would need foreign ideas and free labor. “You cannot force men to think.” To revitalize the Hierarchy, Atlas extended citizenship to an unprecedented number of subjects, and began easing the burdens placed on the unranked population. He also opened up trade, opening up Fort Castle as a special economic zone, selling Mantlian dust directly to foreign merchants, and contracting out Mantlian engineers to help create new mines overseas, with a share of all profits going to Mantle.
Using this new reserve of foreign currency, Atlas offered great sums and high status to any inventor who could solve various technical problems- railroads and locomotives for faster overland trade between Mantle and Fort Castle, economically viable greenhouses in the Solitan winters, better ventilation for the mines, etc. Between 181-164 AGW, more than 3 dozen such prizes were awarded, and thousands of new citizens migrated to Mantle, turning the Kingdom into a world leader in manufacturing and engineering.
Traditionalists within the Hierarchy were concerned with this new influx of ideologically impure citizens, but were fairly impressed with the new technology such as heavy artillery and smoothbore rifles. Under pressure from these elements in the Hierarchy, the newcomers were settled above Mantle, in a permanent surface settlement their innovations made possible- a small city known as Alsius. The Mantlian Traditionalists looked down on mercantile and menial work, which was to be outsourced to the new Alsians and the non-citizens, respectively, with the Alsians occupying a tolerated mid-level in the hierarchy.
Lord Protector Atlas was assassinated in 164 BGW after tentative plan to extend citizenship to all of Mantle in a series of even more radical reforms, but his successors did not discontinue his policies, and in the coming centuries a reformed Kingdom would rename itself in his honor.
Mantle was a late entry to the period of overseas expansion, but it would establish naval bases across Remnant, as well as garrisons in Vacuo and Menagerie, and after a few intermittent wars it established itself as the undisputed master of all of Solitas. In 117 BGW Lord Protector Johan River established an alliance between Mantle and Mistral, exchanging Mantlian expertise in creating habitable structures in the harsh winter of the north of Anima in return for trade concessions and a joint presence in what would become the city of Argus. However, in 104 BGW, Mantle would be wracked by the most severe slave uprising in its history. When the dust had settled, Lord Protector Frederic Stahl had come to power, and his solution to the problem of rebellion was the complete suppression of individual expression.
Mantle banned all languages except for formal Ilosian, burned books, destroyed works of art, and even limited the kinds of clothes and colors its subjects were permitted to wear. It also demanded its allies and colonies comply. Mistral acceded to its demands, but only in the outer territories, which Mantle accepted. Mantlian troops were allowed to enter some Mistrali possessions to ‘enforce’ these new policies.
This led to tension with Vale, which was exacerbated in 24 BGW, with the death of King Domition. The Hierarchy admired Domition for his achievements in battle and were interested in his proposed ‘Triple Alliance’, and when these offers were revoked by his son and successor they suspected foul play. During the Great War, Mantle was happy to join Mistral against Vale, seizing some peripheral Valean islands and portions of Menagerie.
Mantle had an elite, well equipped army and navy, considered the finest in the War, but their comparatively small numbers limited their effectiveness in such a vast conflict, and ultimately Mantle would lose the war. Several Faunus units would distinguish themselves in the conflict, weakening existing prejudices against them to some extent.
With the abolition of the military junta, Mantle was in disarray. The city of Alsius, which had fallen into disfavor for the last hundred years, gradually resurged as the dominant economic, political and cultural force in the post war Kingdom. New innovations, such as those of famed explorer and entrepreneur, Nicholas Schnee, radically expanded the Mantlian Economy, and between 20-40 AGW the Kingdom experienced the ‘Atlesian Economic Miracle’, with massive industrialization, explosive natural population growth and extensive migration. Assembly line production, electrical equipment and appliances, the automobile, airships, the Cross Continental Communication Tower System, and countless other technologies came onto the scene in a remarkable boom, making the Kingdom the engine of the global post-war expansion. People flocked to what had once been barren wasteland: The Twin Cities became the first Gigalopolis in Human History- home to over 100 million souls. Anything seemed possible. Atlas itself was raised to the sky in a demonstration of the power of anti-gravity dust, dwarfing the natural floating islands of Lake Matsu to become a mountain in the sky, the unconquerable citadel, the highest splendor of Human achievement. It was a time of hope, optimism and prosperity.

Growth began to slow in the 50s AGW, which inflamed previously muted tensions between the new capital of Atlas and old capital of Mantle below. When times were good the gulf between high and low did not seem so insurmountable- when jobs began drying up resentment took their place. Mantle had always been densely populated, but it was small compared to the other Kingdoms. The rapid development and economic growth attracted huge numbers of migrants to the new Kingdom, some of whom rose to high levels in Atlesian society while Mantlians who had lived in the Kingdom fell behind. Many of the migrants did not rise, however, and both native and immigrant Mantlians began to feel that the other group was deliberately hampering their progress (which became self fulfilling prophecy). The close proximity of so many disparate groups and the boiling over of historical hatreds and greivances caused a great deal of turbelance- and no emnity was more severe than between the Humans and Faunus. Faunus had been kept at the lowest rung of Mantle's old hierarchy for centuries- but now a small number of them began to climb, leaving their benighted 'betters' behind. More distressingly, Faunus were disproportionately attracted to the hard labor of the growing mines and factories, undercutting Human wages and displacing Humans from certain neighborhoods. The relaxation of old taboos led to increased interracial relationships, which almost always produced Faunus children. While the paranoia was not as severe as in Mistral, fear spread that Faunus would inevitably replace Humans if allowed, and across Atlas there were increasingly discriminatory policies to prevent this. Hotels, stores, workplaces, hiring boards and entire even city wards began to prominently display the phrase 'No Faunus'. There were elements of the Atlesian political elite that resisted this trend, for philosophical and pragmatic reasons: some believed in Vytal Principles of Equality while others saw the Faunus as a cheap and valuable source of labor. But, with the labor glut caused by the general downturn, and the disruptions being caused both at home and abroad by disullusioned Faunus (strikes, protests, riots) this latter base of support gradually eroded as the fateful date approached. When Mistral order all Faunus within its borders to leave immediately, Atlas stood by its allies right to do so- setting off the powder keg that became the Faunus Rights Revolution.
In some ways Atlas faired better than its fellows- it emerged as the leader of the Coalition of Kingdoms, which was organized to put down the uprising. Atlas also drew on Mantle's old martial tradition, raising the largest army in Remnant, largely subduing its own internal unrest within the first year of the war, and supplementing the forces of the other Kingdoms with its own.
In other ways Atlas got the worst of the war. The Faunus strategy was asymmetric- Faunus were scattered throughout the Kingdoms and involved in many of their crucial economic activities. Faunus militias sabotaged infrastructure like roads, railways, dams, power generators, mines and ports. For a Kingdom situated in a very hostile environment and heavily dependent on its infrastructure, this was disastrous. Most Atlesian casualties were not the result of combat, but the result of food shortages, power outages, exposure- etc, making the exact tally of the war dead controversial. The affect of the war on international trade was especially damaging.
Atlas was not in a position to produce its own food- its greenhouses were wholly inadequate to feed its massive population. The Atlesian Economy was dependent upon the export of its Dust, minerals and technology, and the import of food and scarce raw materials. Throught the war, Faunus dockworkers and sailors seized or sabotaged several major ports, and Faunus militants regularly employed pirate style tactics, ambushing ships in various straits in order to seize their supplies. Atlesian Naval Forces were spread thin trying to protect their lifeline, when the Allied Free Faunus launched a co-ordinated assault on Fort Castle, the largest port connecting the gigacity of the interior to the outer world. Fort Castle had been contested internally by local milita for years, but it was now firmly in the hands of the Faunus. Mistral had been badly damaged by internal chaos, Vale was already floating the possibility of armistice, and the government of Vacuo was a non-entity which had only been a symbolic participant in the war effort. The smaller states were in no position to continue the war without the support of the Kingdoms. If Atlas fell, the Coalition would collapse. And if Fort Castle was held, Atlas would starve. After three years, this would be the decisive moment.
Unfortunately for the Coalition, Atlas set itself up for failure. While the martial spirit of old Mantle was alive and well, the military knowhow was not. Mantle was largely demilitarized after the Great War, and its new generation of Generals were academics and bureaucrats. While it was able to quickly raise, supply and organize a large army, Atlas could not overcome the deficits of its Officer Corps as easily. Throughout the war, Atlas had mismanaged the war effort- it had telegraphed manuvers in a way that let the Faunus predict their every move, it overcomitted to indefensible positions while shortstaffing vital ones, because there was no way those mutts could possibly take a city as important as Fort Castle. It treated a guerilla war like a conventional war, and committed atrocities like the carpet bombing of civilian population centers, out of carelessness and incompetence more than malice. The Atlesian General Staff repeatedly and consistently underestimated their opponents, and Fort Castle was the pinnacle of their ignorance.
The grand plan was to feint an attack from the sea while Atlesian Special Forces infilitrated and sabotaged the artillery batteries guarding the city, then to overwhelm the ground defenses with sheer numbers in a night ambush. What this plan missed was that many Faunus had night vision. Fighting them in the dark, on their own barricades, played right into their strengths and was a recipe for slaughter, which is exactly what happened. The Coalition Army lost 4 divisions in a single day, and most of its highest ranking officers, who were directly overseeing the attack and were either captured, fragged by their own men, caught in a mortar explosion, or trampled in the retreat, depending on which officer and whose version of the story you believe. A rearguard action by the ASF prevented an even worse rout and allowed some of the Army to escape, but the Coalition was now leaderless and demoralized, and the remainder of the war was spent in brief skirmishes between peace negotiations.
What is especially tragic about the massacre at Fort Castle is how preventable it was. Atlesian veterans were fully aware of the enhanced senses of the Faunus- Special Forces had even successfully weaponized them, employing flashbangs and ultrasonic air canons to turn this asset into a crippling liability. These tactics had proven invaluable in the various urban warfare settings earlier in the war, providing the Coalition with some of their key initial victories. But, this was improvised on the front, and the General Staff had nothing to do with it. Worse, the ASF knew the Faunus had overextended and the Coalition Navy could easily blockade them, stranding their largest single force behind enemy lines with no possibility of resupply. Surrounding Fort Castle for a month or two would have them starved out, or at least force them into abandoning their position to try and break out of the encirclement. But, the damage waiting would have done to the Atlesian Economy was considered greater than the potential risk of an attack, and the rest was history.
Two other figures of historical note were present at Fort Castle, serving as junior officers on opposite sides of the war: James Ironwood and Ghira Belladonna. Belladonna would become the Supreme Leader of the White Fang after the 2nd Treaty of Vytal, and Ironwood would become the most pivotal figure in Atlas's recent history.
2nd Lieutenant Ironwood was the CO of a platoon of ASF forces initially deployed to soften up Fort Castle, and later was at the front of the rear guard. Ironwood's delaying action saved thousands of Atlesian troops, though his unit took overwhelming casualties and he was greviously injured in the fighting, losing much of the right side of his body. Through sheer willpower or dumb luck, it didn't kill him. The lieutenant was stabilized by his soldiers and brought back to Atlas, where he recieved experimental prosthetic enhancements from an up and coming inventor. While out of action for the rest of the war, by the time Ironwood recovered he found a Kingdom with a leadership vacuum where he was a national hero. The Atlesian General Staff had either been killed, captured or discredited during the war, and many Atlesian and Mantlian families considered him personally responsible for the return of their fathers, husbands and sons. The Atlesian Special Forces, for their comparative success in the war, were granted increasing control over the military. None were promoted as rapidly as James Ironwood, who jumped from 2nd Lieutenant straight to Colonel. Within the ASF was a faction that wanted to remake the entire military apparatus of the Kingdom to ensure the disaster at Fort Castle could never happen again, and they saw the young war hero's rising political capital as a valuable asset to achieving that end.
To this new faction, the lessons of the war were family simple:
The Faunus were able fighters and strategists and a vaulable part of the economy, so screwing them over ought to be kept to a tolerable minimum.
The Faunus had successfully cut trade routes by land and sea... but not air. Atlesian Command had commissioned a half dozen expermiental 'Flying Fortresses' before the war- large, durable anti-grav airships that could act as a mobile base of operations. They had proven very successful at circumventing Faunus positions during the Revolution, but there were too few to turn the tide. Atlas now put its full industrial might into creating the most powerful airfleet in the world, with dozens of state of the art Flying Fortesses and thousands of smaller gunships and troop carriers- Atlas was a floating citadel, and so long as they maintained control of the skies they could never be touched.
The Atlesian Command had failed spectacularly because of the divorce between command and combatants, and the total inexperience of their officers. So the Officer Corp was rebuilt from the ground up- OCS was revamped and a new military academy -Atlas Academy- was created to train an elite new corps. Colonel Ironwood was one of the first instructors: by 64AGW General Ironwood was the Academy's Headmaster. While at Atlas Academy, Ironwood cultivated close relationships with his most promising students, who invariably went on to high positions themselves. This gave him increasing clout with the younger officer corps as well as the general public, transforming him from a valued member of the new ruling faction to its heir apparent. In 72 AGW Ironwood was appointed Consul, alongside his former commanding officer from the ASF, General Klaus Elfenbein.
Ironwood also proposed his own reforms to the military: his influence resulted in an increasingly mechanized armed forces, with the commission of mass produced battle droids such as the AK-130, the AK-200 and the AP-290 mech suit platform, in order to miminize the exposure of Atlesian soldiers to combat.

While popular, the reforms of the new regime were not without their downsides. The higher tax burden required to sustain such a large military force put a damper on the Kingdom's economic recovery, and the large military contracts awarded to well connected firms created an even greater disparity between the haves and the have nots, and accusations of favoritism and corruption- especially regarding major players like Braires Arms and the Schnee Dust Company. Other players on the world stage were also increasingly disturbed by the echoes of Mantle’s old militaristic tendencies.
However, by the middle of the 70s AGW the military began a second wave of expansion despite widespread sentiment that some downsizing was in order. Ironwood and his closest allies began making vague claims about a shadowy threat far greater than any other the Kingdom had ever faced, and started funneling large sums to secret projects that would combat this threat. It is not publically known what this threat was, but the evidence provided must have been compelling to the Council, because in 77 AGW not only did they approve the General's requests, they took the unprecedented set of awarding him both Consular Seats, giving him unparalleled authority to continue his program.
The situation was tense, but while the Atlesian population was strained by higher taxes and stricter discipline, there was still general faith that James Ironwood could be trusted, and on December 7th, 77 AGW he promised that Atlas would be sufficiently mobilized to announce the nature of their enemy.
On December 7th, Atlas Academy was bombed, and the Council Chambers were infiltrated by an unknown assailant. The Councilors were killed, Ironwood and most of his confidants were killed, the symbolic halls of Atlesian order and stability were shattered. Worse, no one seemed to know what threat was about to be revealed, or who was responsible for the attack. In the confusion, the Officer Corps landed on the theory that a disgruntled enlisted man had disabled the Council Security and smuggled explosives into the academy, and conducted invasive mass searches of Atlesian personnel, eventually settling on Lance Corporal Miles Leblanc and Gunnery Sergeant Shawn Kerry, who were executed without trial.
This infuriated the already stressed and demoralized enlisted body, whose pay had been cut and whose relatives were disproportionately affected by the increasingly heavy handed economic policies of the regime. Mass protests calling for new elections erupted in Mantle and Atlas as the new command oriented itself in a clumsy and distressingly authoritarian fashion. When these protests turned violent, and sometimes before, soldiers were ordered to break them up. Many refused, and joined the rebels in a mass mutiny. The most militarized society in Remnant now had its guns pointed at each other. The loyalists maintained control of Atlas and the vast majority of the fleet and mechs, but Mantle and many outlying settlements fell in the hands of the rebels, who organized themselves into a loose collection of militias known as 'the Reds'. The loyalist faction, colloquially called the Blues, began besieging strategic parts of the Kingdom in order to ensure to continued flow of vital resources to the City of Atlas- the Reds have done everything in their power to deny them these areas, and develop the means to circumvent the great defenses of Atlas. And the rest of the Kingdom is caught in the middle.

"We Create Our Future"

Founding Date

February 29th, 32 AGW

Capital

The City of Atlas

Demonym

Atlesian; Mantlian (archaic/regional)

Government System

Stratocracy

Power Structure

Unitary state

Economic System

Mixed economy

Currency

Lien (Ⱡ)

Land Area
288,000 sq. miles/ 745,916km2
Sphere of Influence
Solitas, Hercule, New Ilos, Argus (Authorized military bases to secure trade routes with Vacuo, Vale and Mistral respectively)

Demographics

Population: 164,204,391 (census data, 75 AGW ~155,000,000 (Vytal Organization estimate, 81 AGW)

Density: ~824 per sq. mile /318 per km2

Race: 95.8% Human, 4.2% Faunus