Atlas

Atlas's History

Far to the west, farther than any mortal eye can perceive, stands a lonely figure. Upon his broad shoulders rests the weight of the heavens, and, some say, the totality of existence itself. His name is Atlas, and he is the celestial axis upon which all of creation revolves.

But his burden is not an honorable one, nor a symbol of triumph. Instead, it is a sentence handed down by mighty Zeus and the gods of Olympus, in retribution for Atlas taking up arms against the gods during the Titanomachy - the last great war between god and titan.

Atlas, said to be the wisest of the titans, led them into battle against Olympus at the behest of Cronus, greatest of their number. But despite Atlas' wisdom, and their strength of arms, the titans lost their war, and their freedom with it.

The surviving titans were cast down into Tartarus and bound in the darkness. All save Atlas, who was condemned to stand in the west and uphold the heavens on his back forevermore.

There was a cruel irony in this punishment. Atlas, some whisper, was the first great explorer of the heavens; a celestial cartographer second to none. It was he who gave mankind the wisdom to read the stars, and know the names of the patterns that stretched across the night sky. And now he is condemned to bear the weight of that which he once gloried in.

Or at least, he was. But now the world trembles as existence itself threatens to come undone, thanks to the foolishness of the gods. Olympus might have a new king, but their arrogance is undimmed. It is an arrogance that Atlas knows all too well. And as the gods war upon one another once more, he finds himself questioning the nature of his great burden.

What, he wonders, might happen if he were to simply...set it aside, once and for all?