Atlas' rebirth

Atlas' name wasn't originally Atlas; his old one was lost to time. 

In the past, he was an aspiring inventor who was moderately successful in selling his inventions, though he usually made them for himself. He enjoyed long walks in the forest to clear his mind. He always had dreams of becoming one of the members in the council of invention, a group of great minds that would create new technology for the world. One day, after getting rejected by the council, he went for yet another hike in the forest, but this time, he strayed off of his usual path. In his silent rage he stormed through the brush and went so far that when he finally calmed down and stopped, he couldn't remember the way back. Then he spotted a strange stone door frame covered by vines.

In his curiosity, he walked through the frame and saw an ancient temple with murals on the walls depicting various runes he couldn't understand, accompanied by macabre depictions of corpses. As he progressed through the temple, the depictions of corpses were shown more and more decomposed. As he reached the end of the corridor, the skeletons in the depictions seemed to be reaching towards the door before him and the runes began to glow red. The stone door seemed to be sealed shut, but something in there was calling to him. He needed to get in. To the side of the door there were eight sockets, five more, then a space, then three more. He realised that the runes on the murals were actually removable, so he tested out a few combinations by putting random runes into random sockets to no avail. Then he noticed that the skeletons seemed to be reaching towards specific runes. He put the runes in order of the skeletons dressed in the poorest attire to the most rich and regal looking ones. They went in this order: a prism shape, a split triangle with a circle on the right, a split triangle with a circle in the middle, an hourglass with another hourglass in it, a jagged shape, one that looked like an eye, another split triangle with a circle on the right, and a square with a smaller square within it containing four more squares. 

The door opened when he finished inserting them, revealing a circular room covered in bright red runes, murals, and statues of skeletons reaching towards the centerpiece — a floating red gem that seemed to be covered in a scarlet flame. As he approached it, the flame grew in intensity and he needed to touch it. As he got closer towards the blazing light, he reached out to it and caught a glimpse of his reflection, except it wasn't him... As he made contact with the gem, he felt a jolt of pain as the flame enveloped him and burned his flesh down to his bones, which were covered in those red runes. Then he woke up at home. It must have all been a dream… but the pain felt so real.

In the coming days he started to get visions of those runes, but he had no clue what they meant. Then he would get visions of this black silhouette with red eyes, it would reveal to him knowledge and he would understand it as if he'd always known it. One day, the figure gave him knowledge to create a machine that would truly impress the council of invention: a cloning device. Over the course of a month following his schematics and building the machine, he began to notice some physical changes his body was going through. He decided not to look into any mirrors, but it would all be worth it when his invention was done. Then when he finally finished it, after some initial failed tests, he finally created a clone of himself. However, the figure told him he would need more if he wanted to truly impress the council. So he built more cloning machines, with the help of his clones — who understood and followed his every order.

by TheYEETking

Weeks more passed, and he had amassed a large force of clones. He no longer cared about the council of invention, they would just reject him as they always did — he was going to replace them. He finally embraced his new appearance, the gem from the temple had appeared as part of his crown; he could now see what the figure had been showing him. He ordered the death of everyone who opposed him, and the clones were more than happy to oblige. Once the council was dealt with and the first city was taken under his control, the current ruling order — the Obsidian Knights — tried to fight him, but his Legion at this point was becoming too powerful. Atlas declared war on them, his rapidly growing army posing a substantial threat to their very existence.